Lyndsay Williams pulled to the side of the driveway and stopped the car, needing a moment to gather her nerve for the ordeal ahead. She switched off the radio, which currently blasted Bing Crosby’s White Christmas, and stared at the ugly old Victorian house.

A scattering of snow lay on the ground around it, but no decorations festooned the place. None ever had—that she could recall, anyway. She tried to visualize the building with lights lining the porch and wrapping the shrubs along the front, but her imagination couldn’t overcome the weight of the past.

Drawing a deep breath, she put the car back in gear, drove up to the side of the house and found a parking space on the grass at the side, next to a large new pickup truck and an SUV. Farther back, the shabby green Chevy sedan Marnie used to drive sat rusting into oblivion. No sign of Dale’s beat-up old Ford pickup. Lyndsay wouldn’t be mourning over that.

She’d just gotten out of the car when the front door of the house opened and a group of people surged out onto the front porch. Josh Sanders led the way. For a moment, he was the only one she saw. They weren’t blood relatives, but she could never think of him as anything but the most wonderful big brother any girl ever had. He was the sole reason she’d made the trip.

He wrapped her in his arms, enveloping her once more in his warmth and strength and whispered, “Thank you for coming.”

Lyndsay stared back at him. “You asked.” She smiled at the petite brunette beside him. “Jenny, you look…” She stopped for a moment. “Fabulous. Is this what I think it is?” She nodded toward Jenny’s midsection.

“Well, I’m not a mind-reader,” Josh answered, “but if you’re thinking that we’re expecting, then you’re right.”

“Ohmigosh, that’s so exciting.” She embraced both of them. “When?”

“May.” Jenny said. “I’m just getting past the constant nausea phase.”

“You’re going to be great parents.”

Josh drew a sharp breath. “I don’t know. I hope so.”

Lyndsay looked behind him and froze. The middle-aged man was a stranger, but the tall young man with sandy blond hair was…someone she’d hoped to never see again.

She should’ve known better. Aaron Hampton had been Josh’s best friend for a long time. He’d also been her main crush for years while growing up. The last time she’d seen him was at Josh’s wedding, where, fueled by too much champagne, she’d made a complete fool of herself. Even now she felt the heat rising in her face, but she ignored it to greet him with hard-won self-possession.

“Hello, Aaron. It’s been a while.” She reached out a hand to shake his.

Maturity had only added to Aaron’s good looks, refining the lean strength of his features. The wavy light brown hair, blue-green eyes, and dimples in his cheeks hadn’t changed, but he’d added some muscle to his rangy frame.

“You’re looking good, Lyndsay,” he said. “Josh tells me you’re now a licensed architect. Congratulations.”

“Thanks.” She couldn’t think of anything more to say.

“I’d like to hear more about it,” Aaron added.

Josh saved her the need to reply when he broke in to introduce her to the older man, his father-in-law Tom Farrell, Jenny’s only surviving parent. Tom shivered as they shook hands and Josh added, “Let’s get Lyn’s bags and go inside before we all freeze.”

Josh and Aaron each took one of her suitcases, rolled them into the house and carried them up the stairs to her old room. New curtains, bedspread and rug made a brave attempt to cheer up the otherwise bare space.

Once Aaron left them, Lyndsay sank onto the bed and turned to Josh. “You know I’m thrilled to see you and Jenny again and delighted for you, but what’s this really about? Where’s Marnie? And why are we making an effort to have Christmas here? She’s never been interested in celebrating it before.”

He turned the wooden desk chair to face her and sat. “Marnie’s in bed. We’ll go see her shortly. Lyn…Marnie has cancer. Pancreas. Doc says she has a few weeks more, at most. They wanted to put her in a hospice unit at the hospital, but she refused and insisted on coming home. They’ll be sending people to treat her regularly. But I thought…” He stopped and looked around the room. “I wanted to do a real Christmas celebration this year. We’re the closest she’s ever had to family, and this is the only chance she’ll ever get.”

“She’s never wanted one before. Why do it now?” Lyndsay studied Josh’s demeanor. “She didn’t ask for this, did she? You just decided to go ahead and do it. Why?”

“Because she never really had the chance. Living with Dale…” He looked down at his well-worn Nike sneakers. “It was really Jenny’s idea and you know…”

“You’d do anything in the world for Jenny,” Lyndsay said. “I totally approve.”

A quick grin flashed on his face and disappeared. “Jenny has taught me so much about happiness and the importance of family. I wanted to share that with Marnie, and we’re the only family she has.”

“You want to show her what she’s been missing all this time?”

“All right. Yes, that’s part of it. Not the most worthy part, perhaps.”

“Josh, you know I’d do anything in the world for you, but I’m not sure I know how to do this.”

“I understand. I’m no expert either. But Jenny is, and her dad is, and they’ve promised to help us figure it out. Aaron said he’d help, too.”

Something twisted in her chest, just hearing Aaron’s name. “He’s staying here through Christmas?”

“Yup. His folks decided to treat themselves to a cruise to Jamaica and his sister said it was their year to go to the in-laws for the holiday. Do you mind?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Your wedding…I…this whole thing is kind of mind-boggling.”

Josh stood. “I know. It’s an experiment. I hope it will work out okay. Let’s go see if Marnie’s awake.”

Lyndsay drew a deep breath. “Okay.” Josh probably knew she secretly hoped their foster mother still slept, so she could put off the meeting a bit longer.

“Don’t expect that being sick has improved her disposition,” Josh warned.

“I don’t.”

When they got to the hall, Lyndsay turned toward the master bedroom in the back, but Josh nodded the other way. “We moved her to the old den downstairs.”

On the way, they passed through the living room and found Aaron standing on a ladder, hanging garland over the fireplace with Tom’s help and Jenny’s directions.

Aaron glanced their way and smiled, reserving a particularly stunning grin for Lyndsay. Her gut did a peculiar tuck and roll which apparently still happened every time he looked at her.

Her breath caught and her heartbeat sped up. What his lanky frame did for a pair of jeans and a flannel shirt ought to be illegal. She hoped he didn’t know the effect he had on her, but after the events at Josh’s wedding, he must realize. She nodded in his direction as they passed.

The back den, which had been used mostly by Marnie’s husband Dale when he was alive, now held a hospital bed with a table beside it.

Marnie had once been a large, robust woman with long, dark hair and a personality that made the unreformed Grinch sound like a sweetheart. The shrunken old woman with the grizzled, tangled hair lying in the bed clashed with Lyn’s memories…until Marnie opened her near-colorless eyes and glared.

“Didn’t expect to ever see you again.” Marnie’s voice was too cracked and creaky to intimidate Lyndsay the way it used to.

“I didn’t really expect to see you again, either.”

Josh pushed a chair toward Lyndsay.

Marnie looked at Josh. “You brought her here. You looking for some kind of tearful reunion?”

She meant to antagonize him, but Josh said evenly, “Nope. Didn’t expect anything of the sort. Just giving everyone a chance to pay their respects.”

Marnie’s eyes widened. “Respects? To me?” Her wheezy laugh turned into a cough. She reached for the glass of water on the table beside her and took a sip. “Nobody’s got any respects to pay to me. Never needed it. Don’t want it.”

Lyndsay didn’t know what made her say, “Not true. I do have some respect to pay to you. You may not have been happy about it, but you did feed me, clothe me, and put a roof over my head. So, I owe you for that.”

“Sheesh, girl. I did what I had to. They’d have had those welfare people after me for sure if I didn’t make sure you were fed and had clothes.”

The food had been cheap and often not very plentiful, but Lyndsay hadn’t gone hungry often. The clothes had been used, sometimes well used, but usually clean. She’d stayed warm enough most of the time.

One of the social workers had told Lyndsay her birth mother died of a drug overdose in her early twenties, leaving her two-year-old daughter an orphan. If Lyndsay’s mother knew who’d fathered her child, she’d never said.

Lyndsay had always understood that Marnie and Dale didn’t love them, not the way some of her friends’ parents loved their kids. Marnie and Dale had fostered children mostly for the money the state offered for their care. Other foster kids had come and gone, but Lyndsay and Josh stayed. They’d grown close, especially after Dale died.

At fifteen, Josh started working landscaping and construction jobs to earn extra money. He took his position as Lyndsay’s big brother seriously and made sure she had everything she needed, particularly for school. He celebrated it as a personal triumph when she graduated high school at the top of her class and was offered several scholarships.

When Lyndsay had left for college, she’d vowed never to return. If she’d had any doubts about the wisdom of that decision, Marnie’s behavior at Josh’s wedding had confirmed it one hundred percent. The woman was as mean as a snake. Even knowing she was dying hadn’t changed her.

“Well, anyway, we’re here.” Lyndsay made no effort to take the woman’s hand or touch her. “Josh says we’re going to have a blowout Christmas celebration. I plan to enjoy it. I hope you can, too.”

They were the right words, but Lyndsay wondered if she meant them.

“Waste of time and money,” Marnie scoffed. “Useless.”

“No, it’s not,” Josh said. “But you’ll have to see for yourself.”

Marnie waved a bony hand. “Can’t stop you.”

“Nope.” Josh stood. “We’re doing this whether you like it or not.”

The old woman closed her eyes. Josh nodded at Lyndsay for them to leave.

One of the hospice workers came in as they went out. Josh took a moment to introduce her to the nurse and update the woman on Marnie’s condition.

They followed the sound of laughter back to the living room. Jenny, her father, and Aaron were dressed for the outdoors. The two men carried boxes and were heading for the porch.

“Let’s get our coats,” Josh suggested to Lyndsay.

“What are we doing?”

“Decorating. Aaron brought a bunch of outdoor lights. Jenny couldn’t resist a blow-up Santa.”

“Winter Wonderland, here we come,” Jenny said.

Over the next hour, they draped strings of light along the top of the porch, the front roofline and gable, and down the sides of the house. Aaron did most of the ladder-climbing to reach the high spots, with Lyndsay assisting by feeding him the hooks and the lines of lights.

Half an hour into the work, Jenny and her dad retreated inside to get dinner ready, leaving Josh, Lyndsay, and Aaron to finish the work.

Lyndsay couldn’t help watching as Aaron scaled the ladder and stretched to position the hooks. Nor could she resist returning his smiles as they worked together to wind strings of lights around the porch railing. His blue-green eyes still sparked in that devastatingly appealing way. She wondered that he didn’t seem to hold what had happened at Josh’s wedding against her.

Once the porch was draped, they set up the blow-up Santa out on the lawn in front. The the two men shooed Lyndsay inside while they tested everything. They said they didn’t want to spoil the surprise when they turned on the lights later.

She found it odd they were going to all that effort for a display few people would see, but apparently it was part of the Christmas ritual. Once she’d shed her outdoors gear, she helped set the table for dinner, which was ready shortly after the two men came in, faces reddened from the cold, but cheerfully pleased with their efforts.

The meal was simple—meatloaf with roasted potatoes and green beans—but delicious, and made more so by the company. Jenny and her dad shared stories of Christmases past, some from her childhood and some reaching back to when he was young. They laughed over pratfalls and strange presents under the tree.

After they’d cleaned up, Josh asked everyone to head outside for the lighting of the outdoor decorations. They donned coats, hats, and gloves, then Josh asked them to wait a minute.

He disappeared and returned shortly, carrying Marnie, wrapped in blankets.

Lyndsay opened the door for them, and everyone streamed outside, then turned when they were ten feet from the porch.

Aaron went to the side of the porch to plug the lights in.

Lyndsay couldn’t hold back a gasp as the front of the house lit up with the small multi-colored lights. The grim shadowy hulk morphed into a fairy castle, warm and inviting, standing out against the night sky and surrounding trees. She’d seen plenty of decorated houses before, but she’d never imagined this dreary place could be so transformed.

She squealed in delight.

Aaron stood right beside her. “It’s amazing, isn’t it?”

The lump in her throat made the word come out almost as whisper when she answered. “Magical.”

“I hoped you’d appreciate it.”

She looked at him. The lights washed over his face, accentuating the creases which bracketed his mouth when he smiled and highlighting the glints of green and silver in his eyes. She only got a moment’s look though, because he turned to watch Marnie’s reaction.

The older woman stirred in Josh’s arms and muttered, “I still say it’s a waste of electricity.”

Lyndsay thought, same old Marnie.

Then the woman spoiled her bitter reaction by adding, “It is kind of pretty, though.”

Once back inside, Josh took Marnie to her room and settled her for the evening. Jenny made hot chocolate for everyone else, and they took their steaming cups to the living room.

When Josh returned, Jenny’s dad, Tom, held up a book and said, “When Jenny was younger, one of our Christmas rituals was that on the nights before Christmas, I’d read to the family Dicken’s A Christmas Carol. Jenny asked if I’d be willing to do it again and I said I’d be delighted. But I have to be sure all of you are interested in listening, too. It’s perfectly fine if you’d prefer to do something else, though.”

“I’ve seen a couple of movie versions of it,” Lyndsay said, “but I’ve never read the original.”

“No one reads it quite like my dad.” Jenny’s pride was evident in her tone.

“I’ve never read it either.” Aaron sat at the other side of the loveseat Lyndsay occupied.

Tom settled in an armchair lit by a nearby floor lamp and opened the book. “’Marley was dead, to being with’,” he began. He read with a slight English accent and had them all chuckling at the next paragraph, when Dickens questions why a door-nail should be regarded as particularly dead. A few minutes later Lyndsay shivered in alarm with the arrival of Marley’s ghost. Tom relayed Scrooge’s dialogue in a sneering growl that captured the initial meanness of the character brilliantly.

When he stopped and put a bookmark in the pages right after Fezziwig’s party in the middle of Scrooge’s adventures with the first ghost, most of his audience sighed.

Lyndsay let out a small protest but Tom just smiled. “We have two more nights before Christmas, and this is about a third of the way through.”

They all retired after that, but once Lyndsay put out the light, she had trouble falling asleep. As she rolled around, her thoughts turned to Aaron, and then, inevitably, to Josh’s wedding.

She’d just finished her exams at the end of her second year of grad school when she flew back to Massachusetts for the ceremony. It had started so well. She loved Jenny, both for herself and for the way she made Josh so happy. Lyndsay had been thrilled to be a bridesmaid for them, and the service itself, held in the yard of Jenny’s home, was beautiful.

The reception was an event from a fairy tale. Lyndsay felt like a princess in the amazing dress Jenny had chosen. Even Marnie had glammed up for her role as Mother of the Groom. The weather was marvelous, the food wonderful and the champagne cold and bubbly.

As Josh’s best man, Aaron looked handsome in a tux which showed how his lean frame had filled out. They danced a couple of times with each other, then Lyndsay danced with Josh and two of the groomsmen before Aaron sought her out again. And again.

They matched well on the fast numbers, but when the music switched to a slower ballad, he pulled her against him. Being close to him, moving in rhythm, enveloped in his warm strength, listening to his low voice whisper in her ear how beautiful she looked made Lyndsay wonder if she’d died and gone to heaven. Her blood fizzed with joy. Several glasses of champagne added to the feeling of floating in a magical world.

Champagne had some part in what happened next, too. After several vigorous dances, Aaron led her to the refreshments stand to collect fresh glasses and a few canapes, before they retreated to a secluded corner. They talked and laughed and held hands.

Then he kissed her.

Her heart jumped and her pulse raced. The world faded, lost in the haze of delight that flowed between them.

Lyndsay wasn’t aware of squirming onto Aaron’s lap, or when his hand pushed up her dress to brush her thigh, as they continued to kiss.

A cold, cutting voice, far too close, snapped them out of it. “You slut!” Marnie hissed at Lyndsay. “Just like your mother. I thought I raised you better than this. Should’ve known, though. Blood will tell.”

A group of onlookers had gathered behind Marnie.

Lyndsay jumped to her feet. The blood drained from her face and brain, leaving her swaying before Marnie’s tirade. More people approached. Lyndsay thought she might faint. Aaron put a hand on her arm to support her, but she shook it off and ran from the garden, all the way back to her hotel room.

She cried for most of that night, from the humiliation of being discovered and then upbraided in front of Aaron and all her relatives, but maybe even more from the fear that Marnie was right about her bad blood. The next morning she stole out early to get a car to the airport.

She was still so devastated, that she ignored Aaron’s calls and messages, and when Josh called from Hawaii, where he and Jenny were spending their honeymoon, she couldn’t talk to him about it.

Lyndsay woke the next morning to the aroma of coffee filling the house. Once she’d washed and dressed, she followed it as she would a lifeline down to the kitchen. Only Jenny was there.

“You up for a trip to town today?” her sister-in-law asked. “I need to finish Christmas shopping and I’d love some non-male company.”

“I need to do some shopping, too,” Lyndsay said.

Aaron wandered in and headed straight for the coffee pot. Josh followed behind.

Once they’d finished breakfast and cleaned up, the two women drove into Framingham. Lyndsay had bought a few gifts before she came, but she hadn’t known that Aaron or Tom would be there. They spent the morning moving through stores and departments, consulting each other on what people wanted or would enjoy. Lyndsay debated about getting something for Marnie. At Jenny’s urging she bought Marnie a picture frame. Jenny promised she’d take a photo of Lyndsay and Josh and get it printed right away.

They stopped at an upscale candy and baked goods store, where Jenny bought many boxes of assorted small treats. “Stockings,” she said, when Lyndsay asked about it. “Stockings need treats.”

They had lunch together at a small café before they made their last purchases, then headed back to the house in the mid-afternoon. On the way home, Lyndsay asked, “Why did you want me to get something for Marnie so badly? I know Josh has told you about our childhood. You know what she is, what she’s like. For that matter, why are we doing this whole thing?”

Jenny drew in a deep breath. “I’ve heard Josh’s stories and seen Marnie in action. But she only has a few more weeks left, maybe only a few days, while you have your futures ahead of you. I don’t want Josh, or you either, left with any regrets. It isn’t really about her. It’s about him and you. Your future. You can move ahead, knowing you did everything you could to make peace with her.” Her voice softened. “You know my mother died in a car accident when I was fourteen.” Jenny stopped and swallowed hard. “What you don’t know is that I had an argument with her, right before she left to go shopping. We had a real screaming match. About something really stupid. If I’d known then she’d go off the road and hit a tree, I… Anyway, every day I wish I could’ve told her I was sorry, that I didn’t really mean all the ugly things I said. Maybe this is my way of atoning for that.”

Lyndsay was silent for a few minutes, thinking. “I’m sure your mother knows.”

“Maybe. I hope so. But I still have to live with it.” She shook her head and shrugged. “Anyway, it’s good for my dad, too, to have a Christmas with more people.” Then she changed the subject to her dad’s retirement and kept the conversation there until they got home.

When they walked into the house, Aaron and Jenny’s dad were maneuvering a large fir tree into a stand that didn’t look big enough to support it.

Lyndsay and Jenny shed their gear and stowed packages. When Lyndsay returned to the living room, the men were adjusting the tree’s position to get it to stay upright. The tree sat in the bay window looking out over the front of the house.

Jenny said, “It’s not quite straight, but if we give it a quarter turn you won’t be able to tell.”

“It smells wonderful,” Lyndsay said, as the fresh, piney fragrance engulfed her. “I’ve never seen a real tree in a house before.”

Jenny and Aaron both looked surprised. Aaron said, “Never?”

Lyndsay shrugged sheepishly. “I spent a couple of Christmases with college roommates and their families, but they always had artificial trees.”

Aaron shook his head. “Those are okay if you have to have them, but there’s nothing like a real tree to make you think of Christmas. You up for helping to decorate it?”

“I guess so. You’ll have to tell me what to do.”

“It’s not hard,” Aaron answered. “After we get the lights on, it’s mostly just hanging things on the tree.”

Jenny nodded to a box nearby. “Help me check the lights.” She picked up a string of small bulbs, plugged it in to check that it lit up, then handed it to Aaron. Lyndsay pulled another string out of the box, untangled it, and did the same.

Aaron and Tom wound the cords around the tree, working from the bottom to the top.

Josh brought in several plastic containers and a few cartons of ornaments.

Aaron dragged the ladder over to the tree to finish the topmost rounds of lights. Lyndsay tried not to be obvious about watching him, while drinking in the way he moved so gracefully up and down the rungs. His relaxed expression and easy smiles said he was enjoying the decorating.

When the lights reached the top of the tree, a debate ensued about whether the star topper should be put in place then, or as the very last thing. Aaron’s argument that it would be easier to do right then, rather than when all the hanging ornaments made it more treacherous, seemed logical to Lyndsay, but was trumped by Jenny’s insistence that the topper should be the finishing piece. Since both Josh and Jenny’s father supported her case, Jenny’s wish carried.

Lyndsay remembered Aaron being super-competitive in high school, yet he took his defeat in stride, acceding with a shrug and a laugh. He had matured and mellowed.

He still looked incredibly good to Lyndsay. Smile lines around his eyes and mouth only increased his appeal. The sandy blond hair had darkened and was cut shorter to tame its tendency to curl, but he still ran his hands through it when thinking.

Aaron turned to her as he climbed off the ladder, catching her staring.

Lyndsay felt the heat rise in her face, but said, “Can we turn on the lights, yet?”

“Not yet.”

“Lots more decorations to put on.” Jenny pointed to the boxes.

They festooned the tree with glass balls, figurines, crystal icicles, bows and ribbons. Aaron handled the higher branches, while the rest of them worked on the lower ones.

Once again, Jenny and her dad disappeared into the kitchen to fix dinner, while Josh excused himself to take a business call. It left just Lyndsay and Aaron to finish the tree.

They worked in silence for a few minutes. Then Aaron dismounted the ladder and waited for her to bring another ornament to him. He moved in front of her and spoke softly. “Lyn, can we talk about it?” His expression was serious, almost grim.

“Talk about what?”

His lips quirked in a brief, wry smile. “The elephant in the room. I never got a chance to apologize for what happened at Josh’s wedding. I have no real excuse except that I’ve wanted you for such a long time. Add in all that champagne, and well…. I know I took advantage of you. And you took the brunt of the humiliation from it. I’ve felt awful about it ever since. I tried to call to apologize a couple of times, but I can’t blame you for not wanting to talk to me.”

“You—” She had trouble forming words. She’d never considered that he might feel responsible. “I…. You have nothing to apologize for. It was me. I wasn’t myself. I guess the champagne and the excitement made me light-headed.”

“That’s generous of you, but I have plenty to apologize for. I took advantage of you. You were so sweet. I should’ve known you were inebriated. Heck, I was, too. In any case, I’m very sorry for what happened. I hope you can find it in you to forgive me.”

She was still too startled to know what to say.

He bent and kissed her forehead, then picked up another ornament to put on the tree. “Think about it, will you? It’s been weighing on me. Now, let’s get the tree finished. Just a few more things to hang.”

He’d given her a lot to consider, but moments later Jenny called that dinner was ready and they hurried to add the last couple of decorations to the tree.

Dinner was a cheerful affair and afterward, they held the ceremonial tree lighting, which was similar to last night’s outdoor event. Again, Josh carried Marnie in to watch.

Aaron inserted the plug and the tree lit up.

Lyndsay exclaimed in delight. It wasn’t the same shock seeing the outdoor lights had given her, but she hadn’t anticipated how much warmth it would add to the room, and how very cheerful it was.

Marnie didn’t say anything, but she stared at the tree steadily for several minutes, until she sighed and nodded for Josh to take her back.

Lyndsay wondered what emotions moved beneath Marnie’s stolid, stoic expression.

Jenny insisted on taking pictures of everyone posed against the tree, in a group, in couples and individually. She took several of Josh and Lyndsay together.

Then the two women sorted through the pictures, choosing the best ones, before Jenny went to the computer to arrange for printing them.

When she was done, Jenny offered hot toddies as an alternative to hot chocolate.

Aaron brought Lyndsay one and sat beside her on the couch—a little closer, tonight. They sipped the warm, fragrant drinks as Tom read the next section of A Christmas Carol.

Lyndsay quickly got lost in the magical story of mean old Scrooge and the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. She cringed when Scrooge heard himself described by others, especially his nephew’s wife. Once again, she sighed when Tom closed the book just as the third ghost was due to appear.

Lyndsay had a lot to mull over as she lay in bed with the lights out, especially her talk with Aaron. She’d never considered the events of Josh’s wedding from his point of view. It hadn’t occurred to her that he would feel guilty about it. Now she had a new source of chagrin, as she realized that by fleeing from the scene, she’d left Aaron to deal with the embarrassment and the questions from the onlookers.

Really, she owed him an apology. She fell asleep on that thought.

Christmas Eve began with Jenny announcing she planned to bake cookies that morning. She asked Lyndsay to help her. The guys, Jenny said, could use the time to wrap gifts. She’d left the wrapping supplies in the bedroom she and Josh were using.

Lyndsay admitted she’d never made cookies before and had no idea what to do. Jenny guided her through the mixing, stirring, rolling, patting, and baking processes with patience and a large helping of holiday cheerfulness.

The aroma coming from the oven as the first batch browned provided reward enough for the effort, even before Lynsday sampled the first. Biting into a chocolate chip cookie still warm from the oven had her almost swooning. No store-bought version had ever tasted that good.

After lunch, the men settled down to watch a football game while Jenny and Lyndsay wrapped the presents they’d bought.

Once again, Lyndsay relied on Jenny to show her how to do it. “It seems like you’re having to teach me everything about celebrating Christmas,” Lyndsay commented.

“Not a problem. I had to teach Josh, too. You guys never had anyone to show you.”

“True.”

Once the gifts were done, Lyndsay looked in on Marnie. A nurse was with her, but she retreated to the kitchen to sample cookies, and to give Lyndsay some privacy.

Marnie’s eyes were shut but they snapped open when Lyndsay took her hand. Marnie grimaced.

“Are you in pain?” Lyndsay asked. “Do you need something?”

“Need to say something.” Her voice rasped but it held something of her old spirit. “I did you wrong, girl. At the wedding. Yelling at you like that. Shouldn’t have.”

Her words left Lyndsay stunned, but thinking about what Jenny had said yesterday, she answered, “If any forgiveness is needed, you have it.”

“Plenty needed.” Marnie’s words came out rough and hoarse. “Not the best mother.”

“No,” Lyndsay agreed. “But I’m sure not the worst either.”

The woman gasped for air and Lyndsay didn’t want to tire her any further. She tucked her hand back under the sheet. “Rest now. All is okay.”

Marnie’s eyes slid shut.

Lyndsay watched her for a few moments longer while she processed the unexpected apology. Marnie had been wrong about some things, but Lyndsay herself had been, too. They’d both made mistakes.

As she stood, Lyndsay let out a long breath, and some weight of anger, shame, and guilt left her along with the air.

When Lyndsay got back to the living room, the football game had ended, and Aaron was hanging stocking hooks on the old mantel shelf. Jenny and her dad were working on dinner in the kitchen and Josh had been sent to town to pick up the printed pictures from yesterday’s photo session in front of the tree.

“Tell me about becoming an architect,” Aaron asked Lyndsay..

“Not that much interesting to tell. Got an undergrad degree in engineering, a Masters in Architecture, and had to do a year’s internship. I just got my official license a few weeks ago.”

“Congratulations. You worked hard for it.”

“I did. Now I have to find a job where I can use it. But what are you doing these days?”

“I’m a licensed general contractor. Mostly doing commercial construction.”

They talked about jobs his company had done, including a warehouse for a major distribution firm and a new section of an upscale shopping center, until Josh returned and Jenny announced that dinner was ready. After dinner, they sat in the living room to listen to the final segment of A Christmas Carol.

“What a wonderful story,” Lyndsay said, when Tom had read the last line, Tiny Tim’s immortal words, “God bless us, every one.” She looked at the others. “I love how transformative it was for him to see himself as others saw him and realize it wasn’t what he wanted to be.”

Then they hung the stockings Jenny had decorated with each person’s name from the hooks on the mantel shelf, before heading for bed.

Heeding Jenny’s advice, Lyndsay waited for an hour, while she checked email and texts, before creeping out to the living room with her gifts.

She scoped out the room, but seeing no one else, she tucked a few small things into stockings and put the rest of her presents under the tree. She wasn’t the first, and probably wouldn’t be the last to visit the living room that night. She tiptoed back to bed oddly satisfied and happy over her first-ever Santa run.

They all woke earlier than normal and gathered in the kitchen for coffee and warm cinnamon rolls. There, they discovered that an inch of snow had fallen overnight, covering everything with a fresh, white blanket.

As she ate her roll, Lyndsay wondered if the others were as eager and excited to dig into the pile of presents under the tree as she was. She had a moment of sadness when she realized how childishly enthusiastic she felt and the many years of it she’d missed while growing up. The only saving grace was she hadn’t known she was missing it. The school parties had been fun, and she’d mostly assumed the other children’s excitement was for the break from the classroom.

Before they exchanged gifts, Josh brought Marnie downstairs. He set her gently in the largest armchair, still wrapped in a blanket.

Marnie’s strength wouldn’t last long, so they pulled out her gifts first.

Her hands shook so badly, Josh had to help her unwrap most things—the warm socks from Tom, the pretty embroidered handkerchief from Aaron, a large, soft, fuzzy blanket from Jenny. Josh didn’t assist Marnie in opening the present from Lyndsay and himself.

It took a while for Marnie’s weak, unsteady fingers to tear away the paper and open the box. She stared into it for a long moment—such a long time, that Lyndsay wondered if she was appalled by the picture of her and Josh inserted in a frame that said, simply, “Mother”.

Marnie trembled. Her fingers tightened around the frame, and a tear ran down her sunken cheek. Her lips attempted a smile before she leaned back and closed her eyes.

“Do you want to go back to bed?” Josh asked.

Marnie shook her head in a bare negative.

Tom distributed the stockings and the rest of the presents. Lyndsay emptied her stocking, delighted by small boxes of tiny pastries, candy, fruit, and nuts. She also unwrapped pretty hair pins, scented soap, and hand cream. The others had similar things, with a more masculine slant for the men.

Lyndsay took her time unwrapping her gifts, while she watched the others with interest. She couldn’t help staring at Aaron as he picked up a package.

He pulled out a book from Tom, a murder mystery he said he’d been wanting to read. Then he lifted Lyn’s gift. She smiled as he opened the box with the plaid flannel shirt.

He looked pleased. “You must’ve had help from Josh, picking this out.”

She nodded.

He pointed to a small box on her stack. “Now you have to open my gift.”

She did and found a lovely silver bracelet with an engraved plate showing a building plan and draftsmen’s tools. She gasped. “It’s beautiful. But you didn’t just walk into a store and pick this out.”

“I had a co-conspirator,” he admitted, nodding toward Josh.

With Aaron’s help Lyndsay put the bracelet on.

Josh and Jenny gave her a beautiful cashmere sweater, and Tom had contributed a coffee table book of architectural drawings of famous buildings.

“These are amazing! Thank you so much, everyone,” Lyndsay said.

Marnie was fast asleep in the chair, still clutching the picture. She didn’t rouse when Josh picked her up to take her back to bed.

They all pitched in to produce a lavish, early dinner of roast turkey, stuffing, mashed white potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, and dinner rolls, with an apple pie for dessert.

They lingered over the meal, eating until they were stuffed almost to bursting, then everyone pitched in to clean up. When they were done, the refrigerator held enough leftovers to feed them all for several more days.

Josh looked in on Marnie afterward. He emerged a moment later and asked Lyndsay to come with him.

They both stopped in the doorway. Marnie was asleep, the picture they’d given her resting on her chest with her hand still clenched around it.

Tom was snoozing on the couch when they returned to the living room and Jenny had also disappeared.

Aaron asked if Lyndsay would like to take a walk outside.

They put on coats, hats and snow boots which Aaron unearthed from somewhere then headed out. Cold air smacked Lyndsay in the face, but the chill braced her, as well as making her shiver.

Aaron held her hand to help her down the steps and didn’t drop it once they reached the ground. They turned to the driveway and walked down its length to the lightly traveled side road and continued along it.

The sun shone brightly now out of a clear blue sky, and a few birds twittered in the trees. The blanket of pure white snow made everything look fresh and clean and new. Her stomach fluttered with nerves and excitement.

Lyndsay said, “I talked to Marnie yesterday. I think she was actually trying to apologize.”

“For the wedding?”

“And a lot of other things.” She watched a squirrel scamper across the fresh snow.

“How did you respond?”

“I told her I forgave her. Jenny urged me to do it. I was reluctant at first, but I have to say, it was remarkably freeing. And now I have to apologize to you as well.”

His sandy brows rose to almost meet the bottom of the stocking cap he wore. “For what?”

“For running away at the wedding and leaving you to handle all the explanations and all the anger. Leaving you with the embarrassment. I was so wrapped up in my own humiliation, it never occurred to me what I was doing to you. And for refusing to take your calls afterward.”

“I didn’t blame you for it.”

“You should have,” she said. “I was thoughtless.”

He smiled at her, showing gorgeous dimples in each cheek. “We were both beyond rational thought. All that champagne. Can we agree to forgive each other for whatever we think happened there?”

“That’s generous of you, and I’m okay with it.”

“Good.” He squeezed the hand he held. “You know, I felt even more guilty because I’d wanted to kiss you for so long and couldn’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because you were Josh’s little sister and—best friend or not—he’d’ve beaten me to a pulp if I even looked at you sideways.”

“And all those years I had a crush on you but thought you just saw me as your best friend’s pesky sister.”

He chuckled. “Sometimes you were that, too. But I remember the day it all changed. It was at our high school graduation, Josh’s and mine. You were probably fifteen at the time, all dressed up and looking very grown up, and it hit me like a ton of bricks how beautiful you were. You smiled at me, and I was a goner.” He sighed. “But I’d already enrolled in the army, so off I went, and then on to college. Josh and I kept in touch and saw each other around here occasionally, but you were off at the university by then, and I didn’t see you again until his wedding. One look at you, and I realized it was all still there. All the feelings. That’s really my only excuse for how I acted. That and the champagne.”

“The champagne has a lot to answer for.” She had a lot to answer for, too. Her own doubts and fear and humiliation had kept her from listening to him for far too long. Time to put that all behind her. “What would Josh think about us, now?”

“He knows how I feel about you, and he’s okay with it. I suspect he thinks you have feelings for me, too.”

“Josh has always known me pretty well.”

“I may be jumping the gun here, but how hard would it be to get your architect’s license in Massachusetts?”

“Probably not too hard.” Her hand shook as she held her hat against a gust of wind. She dared to envision a better future, one that would include Aaron and all the excitement he roused in her heart. Maybe a thrilling partnership like Josh and Jenny had?

“Would you consider it?”

She looked at him, meeting his steady, intent gaze. “Yes. I don’t know if I’m totally ready to make that leap yet, but I think I will be.”

“We need time to get to know each other better. To date. To connect. We can arrange that. I feel pretty sure of my feelings, though.”

He drew her into his arms. He kissed her until she was all but melting, right there in the middle of the road, with her feet getting cold in the boots but the rest of her body heating up with his warmth and the fire rousing inside.

After a while they drew apart and headed back to the house. “I wonder…” Lyndsay mused as they walked.

“What?”

“I know Jenny organized this whole weekend. Do you suppose she had this in mind? Bringing us back together?”

“Probably,” he said. “Along with several other purposes. I think she first intended it primarily for Josh to reconcile with Marnie, then along the way, she realized you needed it, too, and it ballooned from there.”

“Gave her father a place to come and be part of a family again,” Lyndsay suggested. “You, too. Brought us together again. Helped Josh and I find peace with Marnie. Yeah, I think she saw this as a way to perform a lot of miracles in one beautiful holiday gathering.”

Aaron’s eyes shone with warmth and joy. “I’m glad to be part of the miracles. Christmas will always be a time of wonder for me now.”

Lyndsay returned his smile. “I’ve never understood what Christmas spirit meant. It always seemed like just another day to sleep in late and maybe get some extra study in. It’s all different now. It’s in my heart. Just like you are.”