Day one, Christmas Eve, and Ava had tricked Trig into having a work day. Muahahaha. She had worked for a few hours, caught up on what she could, and now she was in Colton’s cabin, ignoring his half-rabid wishing squirrel, Genie, who still seemed to hate her. Genie was currently sitting in her cage with her hands wrapped around the bars, glaring at Ava. She hadn’t seen the angry critter blink in a very long time.

Slightly disturbed, Ava forced her gaze away from the poofy-tailed rodent and went back to mashing the clay into the shapes she wanted. She’d really thought this would be easier because she’d taken a sculpting class in college, but making a motorcycle ornament out of clay was quite possibly the hardest thing she’d ever done in her life. There were so many tiny pieces. She looked at the picture of the Road Glide she’d taken again. It was Trig’s newest motorcycle, sitting in the storage shed, waiting on warm weather so Trig could hit the open road again. Riding was his freedom. And he’d also said his tradition with his dad had been to make each other a present each year, so here she sat, trying to replicate an ornament of his favorite motorcycle out of children’s clay.

Another wave of nerves took her. She hadn’t done Christmas presents in a long time, and what if he didn’t like this or thought it was lame?

Another half an hour, and she finally scratched onto the back the year and Our First Christmas - T & A. She giggled when she realized their initials could be mistaken for the acronym for titties and ass. Perfect. The ornament needed to be cooked in the oven to set and dry, so she did that. She ignored the fact that her ornament could look like either a motorcycle with handlebars or a dog with its head sticking out the car window with his ears flying back. Surely, Trigger would guess it was a motorcycle. Hopefully.

The door blew open, and in with Colton drifted snow flurries. “Holy hell, it’s cold as balls out there.” Once again, her brother wasn’t wearing a jacket, just a blue jean button-down, a cowboy hat, and a pair of threadbare jeans that were ripped at the knees. His arms were loaded with grocery bags.

“What’s that for?” she asked, pointing to the shopping spree he’d just done.

“My Christmas present to the Clan. I blew all my savings on this, but whatever. I’m cooking for everyone on Christmas day. Trigger told me once that he and his dad used to cook all day and watch football reruns and eat until they almost puked and that sounds a lot like Heaven to me, so…we’re doing this.”

“Aww!”

Colt made a clicking sound behind his teeth as he passed on his way to the kitchen. “Don’t aww me. I’m doing this for selfish reasons. I like to eat.”

“But you picked Trigger’s tradition with his dad to make it special for him. I know you did. Act tough all you want, Colton Nathanial Dorset, but you take care of your people, and Trig is your people.”

“Don’t make it sound weird. You just girled all over something I wanted to do. I got four pounds of bacon, Ava! Don’t tempt me to return this stuff. My damn mouth was watering the whole time I was shopping. Leave your mushy girl shit in your head. It weirds me out.”

She hid her emotional smile by giving him her back and making her way to the oven to removed her little motorcycle ornament. Her brother was tough and funny, but he could also be thoughtful and sweet, and she liked that side of him.

“Hey, Colt?”

“What?” he asked in a grumpy tone as he put entire bags of groceries into the fridge like the total bachelor that he was.

Before Ava could change her mind, she strode right up to him and hugged him up tight. She had to stand on her tiptoes to squeeze his neck. “I’m really glad I get to spend Christmas with you.”

Colt had frozen the instant she’d hugged him, but a few moments later, he sighed, expelling the tension, his shoulders relaxing, and he hugged her back. “I’m really glad, too, Sis. I didn’t ever think we would get a second shot at this. We’ll make it good, okay? We’ll take it back.”

“What do you mean, take it back?”

“I mean we gave Dad power for way too long. We let the things he did and the decisions he made affect how we lived our lives. And he don’t care, Ava. He’s not sitting around pining for us, or worrying over what he did. He moved on the second he pulled away from our house. Now it’s our turn to move on. You did really good despite what he did.” He patted her back and lowered his voice, which had gone thick with emotion. “I’m so damn proud of you.”

Tears spilled onto Ava’s cheeks as her face crumpled. God, it felt so good to hear those words from him. She hugged his neck tighter and made water spots on his denim shirt with her crying, but it couldn’t be helped. She wasn’t a crier, but he’d opened the flood gates. It was crazy how kind words could change the path of a life. How having someone who was uplifting in your corner could mean the difference in success or failure.

She had succeeded in school back when she was a kid because Colton had sacrificed more than she would ever be able to understand, just so she could stay steady and make the grades. And now she was succeeding as an adult because her brother supported her in improving the quality of her life. And maybe Colt was right. Maybe it was high time she forgave Dad and took that power back. Not for Dad. Fuck him. The forgiveness was for her. It was an I love you to herself. It was the belief that she deserved better than wrestling with her past for the rest of her life. She did deserve better, and so did Trig, and so did Colt.

So okay.

Forgiveness granted.

As she stared up at the rafters, hugging her brother, tears staining her cheeks, she let the hurt go. Oh, it would come back in bursts for a while as she was daily reminded of her past. But this was her time to accept she was going to work on her and move forward to a damn good future, not look backward to the past.

She didn’t know what Christmas would bring, but she was now certain of one thing.

Between her brother, Kurt, Gunner, and especially, especially Trigger…

This was going to be the best Christmas ever.