Chapter 28
Summer
I wake up to Mia jumping on our bed.
“It’s Christmas! It’s Christmas, Mommy! Let’s see what Santa brought me!” Her tiny hands grab my arms, shaking me awake with enough energy to power the entire ranch for a week.
Ethan is laughing beside me, hair mussed, voice rough with sleep but clearly delighted. I squint at my phone and groan. Eight a.m. Already. Considering we went to bed well after midnight, it feels like two seconds later.
“Efan! Did you hear Santa last night?” Mia asks, eyes wide with pure wonder.
Ethan nods seriously, brushing a strand of hair away from his face. “I did. I think I even heard him land on the roof.”
Mia gasps, lips forming a perfect little “O.”
Suddenly, a chipmunk-style version of a Christmas song blares over the speakers, and five inflatable cartoon characters burst into the room, dancing, wobbling, and tossing candy all over the bed.
“Ho ho ho, meeeeerry Christmas!” Dex’s unmistakable voice hollers from behind one of the inflatables.
Mia squeals and starts bouncing, clapping her hands so fast she’s a blur. Ethan laughs, scooping her close and tickling under her arms while I watch, utterly helpless against their joy.
The song finally ends, and the inflatable dancers bob out of the room like they’re floating off to their next performance.
“They wanted to wake you both with a dance-off of their own,” Ethan whispers, breath warm against my ear.
I turn toward him, smiling so wide it almost hurts. “You can stop now, you know?”
His brows lift, playful and suspicious. “Stop what?”
“Being so perfect. You can stop. I already gave you my heart and soul a while ago.”
Ethan smiles that slow, devilish grin that never fails to steal the oxygen from my lungs. “I ain’t perfect. But I’ll never stop wanting to make you happy.”
“Mommy! Mommy! Let’s see what Santa brought!” Mia interrupts, flinging herself onto me like a reindeer-powered missile.
Ethan bursts out laughing, lifting her into his arms for another tickle attack. Mia shrieks like a tiny banshee, wriggling with unfiltered delight. I laugh so hard I nearly roll right off the bed.
Finally, still breathless, we head downstairs.
The living room is almost unrecognizable under the avalanche of gifts.
The tree glows in a cascade of lights, ornaments glittering like they’re alive.
So many presents crowd the floor that half the tree looks buried.
I crouch and place the gifts we brought around the pile, making sure every tag is visible and nothing gets lost in the chaos.
“Merry Christmas!” Ethan, Mia, and I shout together, our voices overlapping as we fall into a group hug, warm, messy, perfect.
“All right,” Ethan says, clapping his hands once, “Hawthorne tradition says we open our gifts first and then have the best breakfast ever!” Jace announces, picking up Mia like she weighs nothing.
“So…” Cas starts, looking around the room with exaggerated seriousness. “Who will open her gifts first?”
Mia wiggles out of Jace’s arms and launches herself straight into Cas’s lap. “Me! Me! Me!”
We all burst out laughing, the sound echoing through the warm, glittering room.
“All right, Princess Mia it is!” Lily declares.
We sit in a circle on the rug around the mountain of presents. Mia’s eyes are huge, darting everywhere, trying to absorb every sparkle, ribbon, and shiny bow at once.
“Which ones are mine?” she asks, practically vibrating.
Grace hops up and hands her the first gift. “Here, princess, start with this one!”
Mia tears into the wrapping paper like it personally offended her, the crinkle of paper filling the room. She gasps, holding up a sparkly dress.
“It’s beautiful!” she breathes, hugging it to her chest. Her eyes shine brighter than the lights on the tree. Grace snaps a picture, laughing at the dramatic pose.
Another gift from Grace, a glittery craft kit, results in pompoms and stickers raining across the rug. Ethan sighs as he plucks a stray pom-pom from behind his boot, but I can’t stop laughing.
Everyone joins in.
But then Jude clears his throat.
The room instantly stills.
He steps behind the couch and drags forward a massive object draped in a blanket.
My breath snags in my chest.
“Jude… what is that?” Lily asks quietly.
He doesn’t answer.
He just nods at Mia.
“For you,” he mutters.
Mia’s eyes go wide. She runs over and yanks the blanket off…and the world seems to pause.
A dollhouse.
No, a castle.
Crafted from polished wood.
Turrets. Tiny windows with tiny curtains.
A real working drawbridge.
And inside: miniature hand-carved furniture.
A little canopy bed. A stone-look fireplace. Rugs the size of my palm. A kitchen table smaller than my thumb.
I stand, moving toward it in disbelief.
“You made this?” I whisper.
Jude shrugs, jaw clenched. “It’s nothing.”
“Jude,” I breathe. “This is… art.”
His ears go faintly pink. “She likes castles.”
Mia doesn’t just like it, she wraps her arms around his waist and squeezes with all the strength her little body has.
Jude freezes.
Then… slowly… awkwardly… he pats her head.
Everyone stares like they’ve just witnessed a once-in-a-lifetime cosmic event.
My chest aches.
This family keeps undoing me.
Ethan catches my eye and gives me that soft, private smile only I ever get.
Then he nudges Mia. “You’ve got one more.”
She spins and gasps at the giant present behind him. When the paper shreds away, a bright pink princess bike gleams under the Christmas lights. Glitter handlebars. A basket with a bow. Tassels streaming like fireworks.
“My princess deserves a princess bike,” Ethan tells her.
Mia shrieks and hugs him so hard he nearly falls back laughing.
My heart feels too big for my ribs.
My turn. I kneel beside her, brushing a strand of hair from her forehead. “For my ballerina,” I murmur, handing her a soft pink tutu with Princess stitched across the front. Her whole face lights up.
“And one more,” I whisper, sliding a tiny box into her hands.
She opens it slowly. Inside is a delicate necklace and a heart-shaped pendant. Our picture inside. And on the back: Never doubt that you are loved unconditionally. —Mommy.
Mia gasps. “I’ll wear it forever, Mommy!”
I brush a tear away as she climbs into my arms. Ethan wraps us both in a warm, anchoring hold. When I look up, I catch him watching Mia with a silent vow in his eyes. I can feel it. He’ll do whatever it takes to keep us safe, to make this Christmas, this life, ours.
Then it’s my turn.
Ethan hands me a small velvet box first.
Inside:
A delicate gold necklace.
A tiny wildflower pendant, simple, timeless, beautiful.
“For my wildflower,” he murmurs.
My throat closes as he fastens it around my neck.
Then he gives me something else, a leather-bound book, worn soft with age.
I open it.
Handwritten recipes. Margins filled with notes. Pages yellowed by years and use.
“This was my great-grandmother’s,” Ethan says, rubbing the back of his neck. “Every woman in my family passed it down to the person she trusted most to keep the tradition alive.” He hesitates, voice low. “I guess I’m breaking the rule. But I want you to have it. I want our family to have it.”
My eyes sting.
I trace the ink with trembling fingers.
“Ethan…” My voice cracks. “This is… priceless.”
“You are,” he says simply.
I kiss him, soft, slow, before the others groan and shower us with tinsel.
“Okay,” I laugh. “My turn to give you yours.”
My hands shake as I pick up his gifts.
The first is a small black box.
He opens it and stills completely.
Inside is the star certificate and the silver pendant engraved with its coordinates.
“You… named a star after me?” His voice breaks halfway through.
“I wanted you to know,” I whisper, “that even when everything felt dark… you were the light I looked for.”
Ethan blinks hard, fighting the emotion rising in his eyes.
But the next gift, the diary, undoes him entirely.
He opens it carefully, thumb dragging along the soft leather cover.
“Summer?”
“It’s personal,” I murmur, “but you’re the only person I trust with it.”
He opens to the first page.
Reads.
His breath stutters.
He flips to another entry.
Then another.
Until he reaches the one from days before Christmas.
I love him.
And I think I’ve loved him longer than I realized.
He looks up at me like the ground just shifted beneath him.
“Summer…” he breathes.
He pulls me into his arms, holding me like a promise, like something unshakeable.
Around us, the family pretends not to stare. Badly.
Jace clears his throat dramatically. “Well damn. Anyone else suddenly feel single?”
Grace wipes her eyes behind her camera.
Lily sniffles.
Cas shakes his head at Ethan. “Overachiever.”
But Ethan only cups my face in both hands.
The room buzzes with laughter, more gifts being exchanged, rustling paper, excited chatter. I squeeze Mia closer, her small body warm against mine, and in that moment I know:No matter what comes, we have each other.
By noon, the house smells like rosemary roast and cinnamon glaze, and every single one of us looks ridiculous.
Even Ethan.
Especially Ethan.
His Christmas sweater is bright green and fuzzy, with a giant felt moose head sticking out of the chest. Its googly eyes jiggle every time he moves. I can’t look at him without dissolving into laughter.
Mine lights up. Literally. Tiny LED snowflakes flash with every step.
Mia’s sweater sings Jingle Bells every time she jumps so, naturally, she hasn’t stopped jumping since she put it on.
We are chaos.
Pure Christmas chaos.
The doorbell rings and Grace shrieks, “CALEB!” before sprinting down the hall. She nearly slips on a rogue piece of tinsel.
We all follow.
Caleb steps inside with a shy smile and a red gift bag. The golden-boy football star looks almost nervous as he hands it to Grace.
She opens it and shows us a tennis bracelet with charms.
“Merry Christmas,” he says quietly.
Grace beams and thrusts her own gift into his hands, a signed football from his favorite NFL player. His jaw drops.