“And you can come crawl into bed with me if you do. I’m right across the hall,” Tara said. “But after the day you’ve had I’m sure visions of puppies and Christmas trees will be dancing in your little head.”
“And sugar plums!”
“What is a sugar plum anyway?” Jace wondered. “It always sounded like a fruit snack.”
“Maybe we’ll look it up on Google and see if we can make some, while you’re here,” Linda said.
They all cleared the table.
“How about you two come with me and run off some energy before bed,” Evan suggested.
“Oh, I don’t want to put you out,” Tara said. “I’m sure you have something you’d rather be doing.”
“Not a thing. C’mon kids!”
Linda laid a hand on her shoulder. “They’re a real pleasure to have around. If it’s okay with you, I’d really love to adopt Ginny and Austin as my grands for the holiday since my two haven’t seen fit to grace me with any yet.”
“Still finishing school,” Jace protested.
“Still single,” Livia answered.
“Yeah, yeah. I know. But I’m not getting any younger!”
“I—well that’s lovely, thank you, Mrs. Applewhite.”
“Please, call me Linda.”
After finishing up the dishes, Jace wandered outside in search of Tara.
She stood at the porch rail, watching them running and shrieking with laughter in the lights from the barn. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard them this happy.”
Jace propped himself on a column beside her, wishing she looked happy. “It’s a simple enough thing.”
She turned to him. “But it’s not. I don’t know how to thank you for this. I mean, you don’t even know us and you’ve brought all of us out here, more or less into your home, for a holiday that’s meant for family.” Her posture was stiff as her voice, and flags of color burned in her cheeks.
“That was an easy thing, too. We have plenty of room.”
“And that’s it? You have room, you saw a need, so boom, you just finagle complete strangers into coming to your home?”
Her look of total consternation made him smile. “You’re still mad I wrangled you into this.”
“Oh, we’re going to put that out in the open? Fine. Yes, I am. I don’t like being maneuvered. I especially don’t like my siblings being used for manipulation. But you set it up in such a way that I couldn’t say no without destroying Christmas for them.”
That wiped the smile off his face. “That wasn’t my intention. Truly, it wasn’t.”
“Then what was your intention, Jace? Why are you doing this? What do you hope to get out of it?”
He thought of the sadness that lurked in her eyes and that need he had to do something about it for her as he hadn’t been able to for someone else. “A smile.”
Tara shook her head. “What?”
“If all goes according to plan, I hope to get a smile out of it.”
“A smile?” At another hoot of laugher, she shot a glance into the yard, making sure the kids were okay. “From the kids?”
“From you. I’m betting yours is killer.”
Tara obviously had no idea what to say to that.