Chapter 1
The pageant had gone perfectly. Hudson had positively dripped with gold, Genny had sparkled as an angel, and Spencer the page boy had resisted biting the frankincense king.
At home, Flynn worked on downloading the whole thirty-five-minute video Hadley had taken (she knew it was too much, but she just couldn’t stop herself) while she got the dinner out of the oven.
Everyone dug in, groaning and praising the food, and Granddad didn’t even complain about the green beans not being covered with artery-clogging cream sauce.
She had let the kids decide if they wanted to open all their presents or maybe just one, and they’d voted for everything under the tree.
Now, sitting among the detritus of wrapping paper and gift bags, she felt …
She thought about it for a moment. Flynn and Hudson were in the family room, connecting a new game console to the TV.
Genny was curled up in one chair, lost in a book about a princess who tamed dragons, and across from her, Granddad was nodding off over a half-finished piece of chocolate pie. Store-bought. She wasn’t a masochist.
She felt happy, she decided. Just, simply, unusually, happy.
“We got it all set up, Mom.” Hudson came back into the living room to rummage around for the game cartridge. “You wanna play, Kevin?”
“Naw, I’m going to sit with your mom a bit. I’m old, and this all is tiring me out.” He flopped next to her on the couch.
“I think it’s great.” Genny looked up from her novel. “Like Christmas in reverse; first the food, then the presents.”
“Yeah, but tomorrow…” Hudson’s face flickered.
“Tomorrow you’ll have all your new stuff to play with while I’m working.” Hadley kept her voice upbeat, but firm. They’d been cop’s kids for long enough to know this was how it went sometimes.
“Or…” Flynn looked at her.
“Or what?”
“Or the two of you could come to my parents’ house tomorrow. Everybody will be there, so there’ll be plenty of kids for you to hang out with.”
Hudson and Genny immediately shifted into pleading orphan children mode.
Hadley made a doubtful sound. “That’s a lot to spring on your parents with no notice.”
“There are fifteen of us, and that’s just the immediate family. Believe me, they won’t even notice two more.”
Her children were writhing in silence.
“I’m on at six A.M. There’s no way I can drop them off.”
“Kevin can spend the night here! On the couch!” Genny looked very pleased at her clever solution. Flynn covered his mouth.
“No.” She shot him a quelling glance.
He shifted his laughter suppression into rubbing his face as if he’d left pie crumbs there. “I can come by and pick them up, if they can be ready around ten.”
“Ready? They’ll be bouncing around down here by six.” She sighed. “Okay.” She leaned forward, catching their eyes. “But I expect to hear you were using your good manners.”
“Yes, Mom!”
“Yes, Mom!”
She waved her hands toward them. “Fine. Go play the new game together. Or run away from home. Either is fine.”
Shrieking, they pelted into the family room.
Granddad collapsed a little farther into the chair and began snoring.
“Should I grab the plate?” Kevin gestured toward the remains of the pie.
“It never falls. It’s a Christmas miracle.” She snorted, and then he snorted, and then they were both giggling like little kids. Eventually, they subsided, relaxed on the couch, shoulder to shoulder. Quiet, except for the Christmas music playing softly from the radio.
“I think…” He paused. “I think I’m going to leave law enforcement.”
She rolled her head to look at him. “I can see that.”
“You can?”
She hitched herself up and draped her arm over the back of the couch.
“You wanted to be a cop when you were a kid. You got into it when you were just twenty-one.” She brushed a lock of his overly long hair away from his forehead.
“You’re a grown man now. It’s not surprising you want something different. ”
He smiled slowly. “Say that again.”
She grinned. “You’re a grown-ass man, Kevin Flynn. You’re not a kid anymore.” She didn’t kiss him, but she did tilt her head toward him. “What do you think you might do? Join your dad’s business?” His oldest brother was already working for Flynn Construction.
“You’ll laugh.”
“No, I won’t.”
“I was thinking I might become a lawyer.”
She lifted her eyebrows. “Oh, so you can hang around some more with Yíxīn Zhào?”
His lips quirked. “Are you jealous?”
“What, because she’s perfect? Of course not.”
“She’s not perfect. She’s way too young for me. I like a grown-ass woman.” He leered, then spoiled the effect by laughing again.
“I think it would suit you.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. You’re smart, and you love to read, and, and … you want to make things better. I know there are lots of reasons people become attorneys, but that strikes me as a really good one.”
“It takes a while. Three years. And I really would have to move in with my parents. Or take out loans. Probably both.” The lights from the Christmas tree blinked red and yellow and blue, catching different angles of his face.
She took his hand. “We’ll figure it out.”
He looked down and closed his fingers around hers. “I guess we will.”