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“Mia?” Carla sounded as if she’d spoken more than once. “Are you listening?”
She blinked and focused on her sister-in-law. “Oh, sorry. I guess I let my mind wander. What were you saying?”
“I asked how things are going at school.”
“Oh. Fine. Busy.”
“Have you thought about when you’re going to start grad school? You’re still planning to earn your doctorate, aren’t you?”
“Yes, of course. Why would I have changed my mind about that?”
Carla shrugged and busied herself making the tea. “No reason.”
Realizing she might have sounded a bit defensive, Mia forced a smile. “I still fully intend to pursue that degree. But for now I’m enjoying my job and taking care of Alexis. She really is a joy to be around.”
“I can tell. She’s crazy about you, you know.”
“The feeling is mutual.”
She changed the subject. “How’s the florist business lately? I suppose you’re already getting busy with Christmas orders?”
Carla began to chat about the decorating jobs already lined up for her florist business. She had several customers who hired her to come into their homes and businesses and handle all the decorations, inside and out, from centerpieces to entryways to mantels and banisters and coordinated Christmas trees. It would be a busy but profitable month for her, she said in satisfaction. Which led to talk about Christmas shopping and how much fun it would be for Mia to share the holidays with Alexis, who was already eagerly anticipating Christmas activities.
One hurdle at a time, Mia counseled herself as she and Carla went outside to join her mom and the children. Christmas. The end of the school year for all three of them. Summer. New plans and arrangements for all of them. Somehow it would all work out. Maybe she’d gotten into this situation on impulse, but painstaking planning and implementation would get them successfully through the challenges that lay ahead. It was all a matter of keeping her head about her, of balancing Alexis’s best interests with her own, of being very careful not to forget what she was doing and why.
She could feel the bonds of responsibility closing around her. That evening, alone in her room in Connor’s house, she sat awake for several hours, worrying about the future and whether she had signed her own away when she’d moved in here. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time. But that had been before she’d met Alexis and completely lost her heart to the child. Before she and Connor had shared kisses that had rocked her to her very soul.
She had been living contentedly on her own before these changes had taken place in her life. Would she be able to go back to that existence when she was no longer needed here? And how would she know when that time had come?
“Can I get anyone something else to drink? Need more coffee, Ron?”
Connor was aware that hosting didn’t come as naturally to him as it did to James, but he tried to remember to make the effort occasionally when the study group met at his place as they were on this second Thursday evening in December. They’d had to meet here tonight because Mia was out for a holiday party with friends from work and wouldn’t be home until late. Connor couldn’t leave Alexis alone, but the group had wanted to go over lecture notes, so he’d invited them here.
Alexis hadn’t been a problem. She’d played quietly in her room until bedtime and she’d been sound asleep when he’d checked on her half an hour after tucking her in. That had been twenty minutes ago, and he hadn’t heard a peep from her room.
“I’d take some more coffee,” Ron agreed, pushing away from the table and stretching. “I’ll bring the carafe if anyone else wants a refill.”
“Your house looks nice,” Haley commented, looking beyond him to the living room. The tree Mia and Alexis had decorated sat in the front window, its multicolored lights glowing cheerily. “Very festive.”
The mantel was decorated with a nativity set nestled into a bed of evergreen boughs and three stockings hung from brass hangers. His was green quilted satin, Mia’s white and Alexis’s red. The stockings had been a gift from Mia’s mother, who’d made them herself and embroidered their names across the top. It still startled Connor occasionally to see them hanging so familiarly together on his fireplace.
Beautifully wrapped gifts were already arranged beneath the tree, although Connor had yet to find time to do any shopping of his own. He supposed most of these were for Mia’s family members. She’d agreed to do his shopping for Alexis whenever she could snatch a couple of free hours; Alexis had made it quite clear that she expected Santa to visit on Christmas Eve. Whether the child still actually believed in Santa, he couldn’t say, but she was still playing into the holiday traditions with an enthusiasm that was hard to resist.
His house smelled of greenery and cinnamon and peppermint, all thanks to Mia and Alexis. He couldn’t help remembering last Christmas, when he hadn’t even bothered to put up a tree. He wouldn’t have had one this year either, if it hadn’t been for the girls, he admitted to himself. Although he wished he had a little more time to enjoy their efforts, he found himself appreciating the holiday cheer when he dragged in after a long day in the classroom, the lab, the library or the ICM exam rooms. Or all of the above.
“Thanks,” he said to Haley. “I can’t take credit for any of it, of course.”
“Tell me about it,” she said wearily. “I haven’t had time to buy the first gift. Heaven knows when I’m going to get to my shopping.”
“I haven’t put up a tree either,” Anne admitted, rejoining them at the table. “I thought about it, but it just didn’t seem worth the effort.”
“Me either.” Ron looked across the table with a grin. “Bet you’ve got one, don’t you, James?”
James shrugged negligently. “My housekeeper put one up in the living room,” he admitted. “Just a small one.”
Connor was no more surprised than the others appeared to be. James always seemed to have time to observe society’s formalities. Although Connor knew little about his classmate’s background, he suspected that James came from money and the upper social echelons. Not that he was snooty or anything; just the opposite, in fact. He was gracious, generous and pleasant to everyone. But there was always a part of himself held in reserve, a part Connor suspected few people were privileged to see.