A Warm Heart in Winter (Black Dagger Brotherhood 18.50)

“Really? You’ll, like, really take me? Even though it’s almost dinnertime.”

“Dad’s out tonight, remember.”

“Oh. Another work event?”

“Yeah,” Elle muttered. “Work again. Always with that work of his.”

Up on the second landing, at their mother’s door, Elle went to knock—

The panel opened, and Elle jumped back in surprise—although not because someone other than their mother was standing there. It was because of the smell. Which was…

“Are you making dinner?” Elle blurted.

Their mom nodded. “

I thought you girls might be hungry. It’s almost six, and I know you like lasagna.”

“Is this our lasagna?” Elle demanded. “I mean—wait. What is that?”

She barged in and stared across the shallow living room at the Christmas tree that had been put up in the corner. The thing was four feet high, and had a coordinated decorating scheme of blue and white lights and bulbs.

No garland. But their mother had never liked garland.

“It’s not a live one,” their mom said. “Without your father to help—well, this was what I could handle. But I think it’s pretty, non?”

Terrie raced over and skidded on her knees on the carpet. “There are presents! This one is for me!”

Elle narrowed her eyes on their mother as the door to the apartment shut by itself. “What’s going on?”

Before their mom could answer, the timer in the kitchen went off. “Excuse me.”

Elle looked around again, and wondered if the Upside Down hadn’t showed up in Caldwell… especially as, through the open door to the bedroom, she saw a freshly vacuumed carpet, and a bed that was made, and a sprig of holly in a little vase on the bedside table.

“Girls, wash your hands, please.”

Elle snapped to it without any argument—Terrie, too—because that tone of voice was one she’d spent her childhood respecting. And as she traded off the bar of soap at the kitchen sink with her sister, she tried to remember the last time she’d heard that kind of command.

And look, the table was set for three.

The next thing Elle knew, they were seated together and holding hands, the prayer done in French. And then their mother was serving them from the glass pan in the center of the little table.

“I love this lasagna!” Terrie exclaimed as she accepted her plate.

“Two or one piece?” their mom asked Elle.

Elle looked down at the melted cheese and the perfect layers. “Two. Please.”

Their mother even put a piece on her own plate.

As Elle took a test taste, she closed her eyes because they had started to water. It was exactly right, the sauce, the cheese, the noodles. And this… was exactly right, too, the three of them together, just like old times.

“So I’m going back to school,” their mom announced.

“You are?” Elle said as she flipped her lids back up.

“If I work hard, I should finish my psychology degree two summers from now. And then I want to get a master’s in social work.”

“I think that would be amazing, Mom,” Terrie said. “I want to be a therapist, too.”