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When Ava appeared in the living room, she saw Olivia and Aleksander were outside on the elevated outdoor patio, which felt more like an extension of the living room into the forest.

She stepped outside, into the brisk late fall air. Although the sun was out and shining, propane heaters on the deck were already turned on to keep all cold away from the little girl. She was lying on a wicker chaise, wrapped in a huge caramel animal fur blanket, propped up by dozens of pillows.

“We need a new tree,” she was telling her father, scribbling furiously into her journal. “And we need to pull out the lights and decorations.”

“Matthias and Kira will take everything out of storage,” Aleksander agreed, looking up from his notebook on his lap to his daughter, and added, “and we’ll go tree hunting.”

“That’ll be perfect.” Olivia nodded seriously and wrote some more.

“Good morn—er…”—Ava glanced at her watch and instantly amended— “afternoon.”

Olivia looked up and smiled at Ava. “Hi.”

She bent and kissed Olivia’s cheek.

“Good morn-er-afternoon, to you, too,” Aleksander said with a smirk. He pointed at Olivia’s journal. “As you can tell, we’re making plans for world domination.”

“And of course, for the decorating party, we’ll need a lot of hot cocoa. Ava loves hot chocolate. Did you know, Daddy?” And without waiting for him to answer, Olivia continued, “And candy canes. And popcorn to eat and cranberries candles to lit, like the old days.”

Aleksander went right on nodding and nodding along with every idea, yet making a note to himself that Ava was a hot cocoa woman, which, in hindsight, was much more in agreement with her personality than a meek tea.

Ava laughed at the two of them. Olivia probably could’ve said she wanted the entire state of New York to come for the party and he’d have nodded the same.

“So where are we going to get this tree?” the little girl asked, chewing on the cap of her pen. “Can’t be a place where the trees are pre-cut. I know! Let’s go out to the woods and chop one down!”

To Ava, that sounded too exhausting for the little girl: traipsing out through knee-high snow to find a tree in the middle of the forest.

Before she could voice her protest, Aleksander spoke, “I know a place; .at the bottom of the hill. We don’t have to drive too far.”

“Ava can go with us,” said Olivia to her father.

He drew in a breath, and looked at her, really looked at her, for the first time that day, those smoldering blue-green eyes making his insides turn to molten lava—again, and despite the hour he had spent on the treadmill at full speed. “If she wishes, of course.”

“Well, fine,” she said, shaking loose from his gaze and smiling. “I love Christmas tree shopping. And popcorn.” Not that this was true. Christmas, as any other significant date, had a bitter-sweet taste to her. But she would not spoil the little girl’s fun.

Olivia grinned from ear to ear and before she left the room to get her coat and hat, she turned and said, “I like Ava. She’s so nice. Don’t you think so, Daddy?

Ava felt a blush climbing over her cheeks. Before Aleksander could think of an answer, she blurted, “I very much like Olivia. She is such a sweet girl.”

Aleksander gazed at her. It wasn’t even about lust—or sex. He simply wanted to be with her. To watch the expressions flit across those extraordinary eyes. To listen to her voice.

I am pitiful. He looked down at this laptop. “That’s nice of you, but you don’t have to feel obliged to go with us.”

“I said I would.” Ava had decided early on in her career to open her heart and shower the afflicted children with the same warmth she’d have given to her own daughter—no matter what emotional toll it might take on her—because that’s what they needed. “I keep my word, Alek.”

“No, that’s not—”

She cut him off when she closed her fingers around his wrist.

His whole body stilled at the zing of heat which coursed through his spine and he had to look at her then. It was impossible not to.

“It’s a pleasure.” But it was really more than that for her; it was a blessing to her heart and a balm to her soul to help such a lovely child have all the happy moments she could. “Besides, I’d love to look around a little.”

“All right.” He paused long enough to gather his mind back into the moment. Lusting like an idiot after her now would do neither one of them any good, especially if he let her know how he felt. He had two, three more months—hopefully, more—of keeping his hands off her. “You’re being a great sport about all of this, Ava, going out of your way to help me grant all of Olivia’s wishes. I do appreciate it.”

They climbed into the late-model silver Mercedes pickup truck and sped off toward the tree farm. As Aleksander had promised, it wasn’t a trek into the snowy woods but more of a garden of trees; rows and rows of the cutest little pine trees stood in line, right in a lot at the side of the road, though with plenty of snowy ground to make it feel like a true tree hunting.

Slogging up and down the rows of Christmas trees while the attendant walked behind them with a chainsaw at the ready, Ava actually felt festive.

The piney smell was pungent, the air crisp, the sky painfully blue, and families everywhere were milling about, happily singing carols and enjoying the hunt for the perfect tree.

Olivia, dressed in a pink puffer coat and pink wool crocheted cap, took the lead. With her hat on, she looked like any normal child, bouncing around, excited for the holidays. She pointed out which trees looked nice, which ones were too thin, too small, too stout and, Ava noticed, not one of them was too big for the girl.

Olivia’s pink Uggs skidded to a stop in the slushy snow at an impossibly giant blue spruce. She turned to her father and announced, “This. Is. It.”

Ava expected Aleksander to rein her in a little, to say, as most normal parents would, that the tree was far too big. But as he tapped his chin, she remembered just why she was there, and she knew his answer.

“Perfect,” Aleksander said. “What do you think, Ava?”

Ava looked at him in bewilderment. “What about it?”

Aleksander gave her a wry glance. “Do you like it?”

Ava couldn’t think why it mattered whether she liked the tree or not, but she nodded. “It’s beautiful.” Not wanting to be a spoil sport, she whispered, “It may be bigger than the one in Rockefeller Center, though. Do they have a truck for it?”

He waved her words of caution away. Anything for Olivia. Anything to make this the most special Christmas ever.

Ava was sure that even if he had to rent a U-Haul, he’d get that tree home.

“We’ll take this one,” Aleksander told the attendant.

They stood back while two men in the plaid woolen coats and blue overalls felled the tree.

By the time the tree had been paid for and The Cottage address was entered in the invoice, Ava was famished.

Aleksander favored her with a sidelong grin as he started the engine. “Hungry?”

“How did you know?” Ava inquired, half surprised and half exasperated. A person can’t have a private thought around this man.

“He’s psychiatric,” Olivia said seriously.

“Psychic,” he corrected gently and added, “of course, the fact that her stomach is rumbling helped me come to the conclusion.”

Ava wanted to vanish in a poof, especially because there was a twinkle of amusement in his grayish-green eyes.

“Daddy, can we go to my favorite place?” Olivia interrupted their silent connection.

“Sure.”

“Yay! This is a great day, Daddy. Thank you. And you too, Ava”

Aleksander smiled as he stepped on the accelerator and made his way onto the road. And he couldn’t have stopped the happy tear that ran down his face, even if he’d tried.

Being a tourist town with plenty of snow sports in the winter, Lake Tahoe was flooded with upwards of a million people. Even before the Christmas holidays had begun, the streets already showed a few tourists with skis on their shoulders heading to the ski lifts, or just wandering around. The streetlights were bedecked with wreaths and garland, and the quaint store windows were ablaze with colorful lights. Ava smiled, watching Olivia rub her hands together with excitement as she pressed her nose against the window.

“Look! Snowman!” Olivia called.

The turn signal clicked a steady beat and Aleksander turned right.

“Where?” Ava craned her neck, looking all around.

“Look up.” The little girl giggled with delight.

Sure enough, a fake snowman glowed from a condo balcony a couple stories up, a smile frozen on its face, a red mitten lifted in a friendly greeting.

“Oh, cute,” Ava answered.

They found a parking spot in a lot and piled out of the car.

The little girl released her father’s hand and skipped ahead, passing Ava in the process, who stood taking in all the cheerful holiday lights of the restaurant. The entire house was outlined in tiny white lights. Strings of vibrant red lights spiraled down the full length of the white porch columns, turning them into fat candy canes. Electronic icicles dripped from the eaves and the motion of the lights made them look as if they were actually melting. The evergreen wreath secured to the front door was huge and welcoming.

Ava hugged herself and shimmied her shoulders. “Brr…it’s cold.”

As if it were the most natural thing in the world, he wrapped an arm around her. “We’ll buy you a better coat.”

“I brought another one.” She smiled at him. “It’s just that I didn’t think it would be that cold. Besides, I’m a tough girl.”

Aleksander stared at her for a moment. “I’m sure you are.”

“Daddy! Daddy!” Olivia shouted.

“We’re coming as fast as we can,” he called back as they hastened their pace.

Olivia was gazing up at the brightly lit house.

“It’s beautiful!” Ava said. “It looks like a huge dollhouse.”

“Yeah,” Olivia said. “It’s my favorite place in Tahoe.”

“You like it even more than the Heavenly Gondola?” Aleksander asked.

“It’s my fave place to eat pancakes and ice-cream, Daddy,” Olivia quickly explained.

“Ah.” Ava nodded. “But first you are eating some lunch, missy.”

Olivia’s favorite place turned out to be a small, homey restaurant that served American food and had checked tablecloths on all the tables displayed on elevated floors so all of them had a perfect view of the lake.

As Aleksander gave his name to the restaurant’s PR, Ava checked her phone. There was one message, from the hospital, asking for her to report back.

Ava chided herself as she excused herself to a quiet hallway. She was supposed to check in at the hospital at least twice a day, even if nothing happened. And yet, already on her second day, she’d been having so much fun with her charge—and the father of her charge, to be true—that she’d completely forgotten. She took a deep breath and speed-dialed the number.

She groaned inwardly when she recognized the voice. Dr. Stupid Brat. “Hello, Brian.”

“Oh, look, the prodigal daughter,” he snapped. “How nice of you to grace us with a phone call.”

She rolled her eyes. “Could you please tell Dr. Follett that I’ll be submitting my full report tonight? Everything is under control, though. Olivia is well taken care of.”

He snickered. “I’m sure Aleksander is being well taken care of, too.”

She grimaced, pressing herself against a wall to avoid the tourists bustling by in ski clothes. From where she stood, she could see Aleksander and Olivia at their table, his hand in hers, looking so happy together.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” She decided to change the subject. “How are things there? Busy?”

“It’s a fucking swamp here,” Brian muttered. “So you got the nice cushy job taking care of Mr. Rich Guy and his spoiled daughter and I get the dregs. Nice. That’s the way it always works, right? If I had tits and ass, maybe your man would’ve chosen me.”

“You could have volunteered,” she said through clenched teeth, wondering if Brian could be trusted to relay her message to the doctors.

“Yeah, I could’ve. And you could’ve kept that big mouth of yours shut. Dr. Wang almost skinned me alive.”

“Next time, don’t use the ladies’ restroom for your…private meetings.” She sighed. “Can you put me through to Whitney?”

“Yeah,” he said in a mocking tone. “Please hold.”

She did. And about a minute later, the line went dead.

Stupid, spoiled brat.

Maybe I should have not picked a fight with him. Ava closed her eyes and counted to ten before dialing Whitney’s private cell number and leaving a message. Maybe I should have not accepted this job.

But she had done both things.

And now she would bear the consequences, come what may.