LITMIR.BIZ

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culprit.” His voice softened. Millie had stolen the hearts of everyone at the lodge, despite her rascally nature. “Who were you saving this time?”

      “The doggies,” she said in her cherubic voice. “Amory helped me.”

      Amory let out a gasp and said, “I most certainly did not.” And then made shushing gestures to Millie behind Cruz’s back. Those two were partners in crime and it warmed my heart, even though Millie often gave her so-called confidante up to save herself.

      Cruz just shook his head. “At this rate we’ll go bankrupt but the menagerie will be plump enough to live through the winter.”

      We had amassed a number of stray animals at the lodge. Dogs, and cats, and once a pony, which I had spirited away to a friend’s farm before Millie could lay claim. Amory took the dogs home at night, but during the day they roamed the gardens, or snuggled by the fire, being secretly fed by these two conspirators.

      “Amory told me no one likes ham soup,” Millie continued, getting her godmother well and truly in trouble.

      Cruz turned slowly to Amory. “Did she now?” Amory’s mouth opened and closed while Millie just grinned, like the Cheshire Cat.

      “She did.” Millie shrugged her shoulders, as if such trivial things bored her. “Can we open the presents now?”

      “Not yet.” Millie’s face fell.

      “Maybe I can sneak you one or two later,” Amory said. “How about we go grab a snack while Cruz isn’t looking? Some of those Santa-shaped gingerbread men…?”

      Millie squealed.

      “I’m right here, you know,” Cruz said, but smiled. He loved feeding people, and secretly delighted that none of his cookies ever made it through a day. There were plenty of hands snatching from the cookie jar.

      For someone who didn’t want children of her own Amory sure didn’t mind spending time with them. It was a godsend really. She was the fun aunt, the one who got up to mischief with Millie, or cuddled and crooned to baby Brooklyn when my eyes were popping out of my head from lack of sleep.

      Motherhood had been my greatest achievement to date, but I hadn’t been prepared for how much strength it sapped. Brooklyn was only three months old and had trouble settling. Then I’d have Millie up with the sparrows. Luckily I had plenty of hands at the lodge, so I could duck off for a nap when my brain turned to mush from fatigue.

      The trio left the room, hands entwined, Millie negotiating for more cookies.

      Alone, I kept up with wrapping the gifts, smiling when I came to ones I’d bought earlier in the year when I was fueled with pregnancy hormones. I really don’t know what I’d been thinking. Why would I have bought Kai a compass? The man read the stars, the moon, the sun, the wind… Still, I’d managed to get it all done and the children’s presents too, which were hidden upstairs in the attic. Millie had hunted high and low for them, but she had no idea there even was an attic. She hadn’t clued on yet the little cord dangling down was the access point.

      Kai wandered in, his cheeks red from exertion, I hastily covered his present with the bright-red foil. “Been wandering up the mountain?” I asked.

      “It was lonely without you.”

      I stood and kissed him hard on the lips, tasting the fresh mountain air and his particular Kai loveliness. My heart did somersaults and I wondered if the effect he had on me would ever fade. It was still as strong as ever, but more solid now, more real. “My mountain-climbing days are numbered,” I said. “Until I’ve slept a good eight hours in a row.” Well, that was my excuse, anyway. He still dragged me out for midnight yoga over the summertime, and I’d fallen in love with the way it made me feel. Now I did it of my own free will, but cloistered inside, where it was warm in the winter.

      I put my cheek against his chest, the thrumming of his heart almost enough to lull me to sleep. It still seemed like a dream, our fairy-tale romance, the fact we’d made a little family together, built up a thriving business and kept our love alive despite long hours and sleepless nights. Unlike my previous relationships, things just gelled with Kai. The more life got hectic, the more I felt his support. When I was stressed or overworked he sensed it and made me climb that godforsaken mountain. And when I noticed the same in him, I made him take time for himself. To wander to go be with nature, to go get lost in that way of his he so yearned for. Eventually, he’d acquiesce, and take his truck and go find some waves, somewhere where it was warmer, somewhere far from here.

      I guess we found that balance, and learned to intuit what the other needed. His parents were coming soon, to stay for the winter. I worried they’d freeze with their Australian bodies, so used to heat and sun, but they assured me they’d acclimatize quickly, climbing mountains if need be to keep warm. Not hard to see where Kai inherited his love of hiking from then… I loved Kai’s parents. They were laid-back and easy-going, and all the adoption business had been squared away. It still came up every now and then, but there was no bitterness any more, just a sense of wonder at what might have been.

      There was a knock on the door. I pulled myself away from Kai. Dazed from his proximity.

      “Sorry to disturb you two lovebirds,” Micah said with his impish grin. “But Aunt Bessie is here. Says she wants to make an early start on dinner.”

      I checked my watch. It was barely eight in the morning. “That’s Aunt Bessie. I’ll call Mom.”

      I buzzed Mom’s extension and she said she’d come right over.

      “Where’s Isla?”

      Micah shrugged. “In town, doing some last-minute Christmas shopping, I imagine. She won’t be long.”

      Isla’s parents couldn’t make it this Christmas, so she was all set to fly out to them the day after Christmas for the week.

      “As long as she’s not working.” When winter set in and snow began to fall there wasn’t much need for a landscaper, so Isla helped out with the guest activities. She relished the work, and I often had to tell her to turn in for the day, so caught up was she with sorting dance lessons, or art classes, that she lost track of time.

      “I’ve hidden her work file, so she can’t.”

      I smiled at the knowledge. Isla didn’t have an off button and it was easy to work too hard at the lodge because there was always something that needed doing. “Good, she needs a proper break.”

      He nodded. “I keep telling her.”

      “Maybe she should take a few weeks over Christmas?” I said, mentally trying to rearrange staff, and who’d step in for her. Isla needed time to recharge her batteries and she would only do that if she wasn’t here.

      “You tell her then. She won’t like it.” And she wouldn’t. That was the problem. Isla loved the lodge as much as I did.

      “Yoooo hoooo,” a voice rang out.

      “Aunt Bessie, we’re in here!”

      My aunt sauntered into the room, her bleached-blonde hair curled to perfection, her face made up. I kissed her heavily rouged cheek, her flashing candy-cane earrings making me blink. “Merry Christmas,” she said.

      “Merry Christmas, Aunt Bessie!” I darted a glance over my shoulder, hoping she couldn’t see her present. I’d found her the sweetest silver bracelet with little donut charms, perfect for the woman who’d taken the humble donut to the next level. In the years since she’d embraced Instagram she’d become something of a social media sensation, which had led to her being invited onto a plethora of mid-morning TV shows to do baking demonstrations, and now she had her very own cooking show. Filming wrapped in November so she was back at Puft, plying her wares and sharing all sorts of celebrity gossip with her goggle-eyed customers. But she was still the same old Aunt Bessie, a breath of fresh air and fun to boot.

      “Where’s Anabelle?”

      “Mom’s on her way,” I said as

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