Carolyn watched Tobias for another little while, letting the hot images from last night chase away her Christmas blues.

Then she sighed and walked back into the kitchen.

There she found Ben in a tense-looking conversation with Suzanne. His wide shoulders were hunched, his usually lighthearted expression replaced by a scowl. He was shaking his head at whatever Suzanne was saying. All Carolyn caught was the phrase, "her side of the story," before Suzanne caught sight of her and stopped talking.

"Hi Carolyn," she said, awkwardly. "Sorry, we were catching up on old times. I'd better go check on Faith."

"Faith is fine, Josh has her helping set up for croquet."

Suzanne looked alarmed. "He isn't letting her use a mallet, is he?"

"Of course not, they're taller than she is."

"Yeah, but that man would let her drive the car if she just batted her eyelashes at him enough. She loves fire trucks, did you know that? He took her on a tour of the Jupiter Point department and the firemen made such a fuss over her, she had a tantrum when they left. Now Josh is looking online for child-size firefighting tools for her. She barely just learned how to walk!"

Ben, who still looked preoccupied by whatever Suzanne had been telling him, gave a halfhearted smile. "I'll go check on them."

"Thanks, Ben," said Suzanne gratefully. She waved one flour-covered hand as he left, then went back to cutting strips of pie crust dough.

"I'm sorry I interrupted your conversation." Carolyn grabbed the potato peeler and got back to work on the carrots. The oven was already producing the tantalizing scent of roast turkey and sage-apple dressing.

"No no, it's fine. Poor Ben. His ex-girlfriend is back in town and he can't handle it."

"Really? Ben must have a hundred of those. Tobias says he's the king of easy-come, easy-go. Never takes anything too seriously."

"That's now. Back then it was a different story. He and Julie were the ultimate happy couple. Like, blissfully happy. I assumed they'd get married as soon as it was legal. Then she just up and disappeared, right before their dad was murdered. It was the worst timing ever. Ben was so crushed, and then he joined the Air Force, and when he came back, he was a different person. He's still a great guy, of course. Super-cute, obviously. Lots of fun. But you should have known him before. He was such a love. He wore his heart on his sleeve, it was completely adorable."

Carolyn dropped a carrot into the bowl of water keeping them fresh. "Like Aiden?"

"I guess so. Yeah, he was the most like Aiden. They both take after their mother, except she was…kind of a mess. An emotional mess. You know she left too, right? She had a breakdown after the murder. So poor Ben lost his dad, his mom, his sister and his girlfriend in the span of a month. Poor guy."

"I didn't know any of this. Not that I would, I mean, I only just met them. Well, recently. There's no reason they'd be sharing all their family secrets."

Suzanne shot her a sardonic look. "I get the feeling that you've been sharing a lot more than family secrets with a certain Knight brother."

"Well…"

"That's great. Just…be careful."

Carolyn looked up sharply. This was the first time she'd heard Suzanne be anything but positive about the Knight brothers. "What do you mean?"

"I’m only telling you this because you’re a friend, and please take it with a grain of salt because people do change. A friend of mine was dating Tobias when Robert Knight was killed. She told me he was destroyed, that it was like a piece of him died. He broke up with her right after that. He said he had nothing to give and never would. She was crushed. Granted, he was only twenty, so like I said, grain of salt.”

Suzanne's warning hit her right in the solar plexus, because it fit with a few things she herself had observed about Tobias. He'd said the same thing—that he was still haunted by his father's murder.

On the other hand, he didn’t act as if he were dead inside, or as if he had nothing to give. Maybe he had changed since the trauma of the murder.

Still, being careful was never a bad idea. If her father had been more careful when he met Lilith, maybe they’d never have gotten sucked into the Light Keepers. She should take Suzanne’s advice seriously.

Carolyn gave her friend a curious sideways glance. "You sound like you know a lot about the Knight brothers."

"Julie, Ben's girlfriend, was one of my best friends. I used to hang out with her and Ben and whoever I was dating. I always envied them because they were so in love with each other. I couldn't really imagine feeling that way about someone."

"And now you do."

"And now I do," she said softly, her eyes lighting up. "And it's the best feeling in the world, right up there with having Faith. But Ben and Julie, I don't know, it was something really special. Having that close a connection when you're so young and everything's so intense…their relationship was truly epic."

Really, the whole family was epic, if you asked Carolyn. Maybe it was the aura of tragedy that clung to them, but they all seemed bigger than life, somehow. Or maybe that was her Tobias crush talking.

"It's funny, I still don't know why she left. She's back, but we haven't talked much. I considered asking her here for Christmas, but I'm glad I didn't, judging by Ben's reaction."

Just then a horde of teenagers came trooping in. "Croquet's starting! Ben sent us in to get you." They spread throughout the kitchen to steal tastes of apple filling, spinach dip, cranberry dressing. The sudden blast of young exuberance felt like a wind sweeping through the kitchen.

Carolyn and Suzanne exchanged a glance. A pile of carrots and beets still remained to be peeled. A mound of pie crust hadn't been rolled out yet.

"I don't know, we're supposed to be the adults," Suzanne said dubiously. "We should probably stay here and keep working on this meal."

"Why should the kids get all the fun?" Carolyn winked at the teenagers. "You'll help us finish this up, right?"

"Of course!" the teens chorused.

"Okay then!" Suzanne whipped off her apron and tossed it aside. "Bring on the mallets!"

The kids cheered. One of them grabbed Carolyn's arm and she found herself being swept out of the kitchen. She caught Suzanne's glance again and laughed, feeling light and carefree in a way she never did.

Outside, the winter sun sparkled through the birch trees, and the sounds of kids laughing mingled with the deeper voices of the adults discussing the rules of the tournament. Brianna was running around making sure that none of her favorite plantings were in the line of fire from a croquet ball. Lisa knelt on the grass next to a girl who must have hurt her ankle; Lisa was gingerly rotating it to assess the injury.

And Tobias? He now carried Faith, who was using his ears like a joystick and shrieking with delight as he zigzagged across the lawn.

Josh came over and swept Suzanne into his arms. "Look, I found us a babysitter. Want to sneak off somewhere with your lawfully wedded husband? Faith just told me she wants a brother for Christmas. We'd better get on that."

Suzanne gave him a little shove. "Keep dreaming, hotshot. How would you manage to keep spoiling her rotten if there was another baby around?"

"See? Another great argument for number two."

Suzanne rolled her eyes at Carolyn. "Easy for him to say, right? As soon as they invent a way for the man to spend nine months puking their guts out, we can talk again."

Josh snorted. "For the record," he told Carolyn, "she's just as baby crazy as I am. She just hides it a lot better."

"It's true," Suzanne admitted cheerfully. "But I do enjoy torturing him. Now hand me a mallet so I can kick your ass at croquet."

They went off arm in arm to join their team. Carolyn took a deep breath, soaking in the joy all around her, and the crisp December sunshine. This would go down in her personal history as one of the best Christmases ever.

As for Suzanne's warning? Be careful. She could do that. Absolutely. She was going into this with her eyes wide open, with no illusions about forever. She’d lost those long ago anyway.

But that didn’t mean she couldn’t enjoy the hot sex.