You Did the Right Thing
Coert
Present day . . .
THE TEXT CAME IN AT nine thirty on the dot, like she was waiting, not wanting to intrude but wanting to say what needed to be said.
Merry Christmas, honey. Love you. See you guys later.
Coert felt his face get soft as he read Cady’s text and he knew that wasn’t only a feeling, but a look when he felt Kim’s hand curl around the back of his neck.
He bent back his head, her hand falling away as he did, to see her standing beside him where he was sitting on her couch, and she was staring down at him.
“Terminally in love,” she murmured.
His eyes flicked to the tree where Janie was amidst a sea of spent wrapping paper, her bottom ensconced in a flannel mermaid’s tail that was mostly aqua with a pink flipper at the end, her attention centered on taking stick-on outfits off a mermaid drawing (her Santa list that year definitely had a theme).
He turned them back to Kim in time to catch her asking in a whisper, “Is Coert in love gonna make me wanna hurl?”
“Shut up,” he whispered back, feeling his lips twitch.
Her eyes danced. “It is. It’s totally gonna make me hurl.”
“You mind if I text Cady back?” he asked dryly.
“I’d have a heart attack at the thought you’re actually asking if you can do something, but since you aren’t and you’re being sarcastic, then I’ll give you the unnecessary. An answer. That being no.”
He grinned up at her.
Then he bent to his phone and texted back, Merry Christmas, baby. Hope you’re having a good day so far. Love you back and see you soon.
“Daddy!” Janie called, and he turned his eyes to her to see she was holding up her board, the mermaid wearing a purple mermaid outfit, but Janie’s other hand was also up and she was holding a green and blue mermaid outfit. “Purple or green?”
If someone told him that in his life, one day he’d be asked to give an opinion on a mermaid outfit, he might have laughed and silently hoped to God that never happened.
And he would have been totally wrong thinking that.
“Absolutely purple,” he said firmly.
Janie looked unsure, lifted her gaze to her mother, and asked, “Mommy?”
“Purple, Janie. Always purple, sweetie. For sure,” Kim replied, and for Kim it was always purple since that was her favorite color.
Janie put the things down and declared, “I’m gonna try the green, just in case.”
Neither Coert nor Kim were surprised their daughter ignored their advice.
“More coffee?” Kim asked Coert.
“Yeah,” he mumbled, pushing out of her couch. “And I should get on breakfast.”
“Can we have butterly pie for breakfast, Daddy?” Janie asked.
To say his daughter liked Cady’s pie was an understatement.
To say when he and Kim told Janie she and Coert were going to a big family party for Christmas dinner that she was ecstatic even though she had no clue who that family was, was an understatement too.
This proved him correct again. She understood her mom having a big family with lots of people around on special occasions was good to have. And she understood that as fun as it was to go to Jake and Josie’s, with Jake’s kids around (especially Ethan, Jake’s youngest, who Janie had a crush on), or having Coert’s parents there, it wasn’t as good as what her mom had.
And she wanted her dad to have that.
So Christmas dinner with Cady and her family was all good.
If her brothers kept it good.
“Butterbeer pie, Janie,” Kim corrected. “Daddy’s friend Cady made butterbeer pie.”
And Kim was all in with this, something Coert couldn’t wrap his mind around, even if he could wrap it around his feelings of gratitude that she was.
But maybe she was just glad Coert was going to have this too.
She loved him and it was coming clear she’d never stopped, she was just working hard to adjust that into something that was right and good and healthy, not only for Janie, but for her and Coert.
Suffice it to say, Coert had had the best Christmas Eve of his life the day before.
And it wasn’t even ten in the morning and his Christmas was shaping up the same way, because he had hope, real hope this time, that it was just going to get better.
Janie scrunched her nose at her mother. “I’ve smelled Daddy’s beers and that pie doesn’t smell anything like Daddy’s beers.”
Kim chuckled.
As did Coert.
“In a few years, we’ll start reading Harry Potter, sweetie,” Kim offered.
Janie loved her books so she brightened. “You can read it to me now!”
“It can get a little scary,” Kim told her.
“That’s okay. I never get scared,” Janie returned.
That was when Coert let out a bark of laughter, because his baby girl defined scaredy-cat to the point she demanded they go trick or treating at Halloween before the sun went down because some of the other kids’ costumes made her skittish.
And that was when Janie scrunched her nose at him.
“I don’t,” she stated.
“All right, cupcake,” he muttered, grabbing his empty mug, the one from Kim’s hand, and moving toward the kitchen with both.
“I don’t!” she yelled at his back.
Coert stopped, turned and looked, stunned at his daughter’s face set cute . . . and stubborn.
He’d never seen that expression in her life.
And unless she had a genuine need to be heard or was overly excited about something, she’d never yelled in her life.
He felt the surprise coming off Kim too.
The expression melted, Janie looked upset, then a little scared before she turned her head away and whispered, “I don’t.”
“Okay, baby, you don’t. So how about when you turn six next summer, your mom can start reading that to you?” Coert suggested.
She brightened again and did a little bounce of her booty on her calves in her mermaid tail. “Okay!”
He lifted the mugs. “You want cocoa?”
Her “Okay!” that time was louder.
He glanced at Kim who was still staring at their daughter then he moved into her kitchen.
Kim followed him, having well cleared of the door before she said, “Six is too early for those books, Coert.”
“Haven’t read ’em but she’ll probably forget by then anyway,” Coert replied, replenishing both their mugs from her coffeepot.
He was shoving it back into the maker when he felt her punch his arm lightly.
He looked at her.
She was grinning hugely.
“We’re making a monster,” she said like she was delighted about this beyond reason.
He doubted that was right. Janie just didn’t have monster in her.
But it had to be said, even if it sounded crazy, that her feeling free enough to openly share she was annoyed about something was a step in the right direction.
Coert felt his lips twitch again, handed the mug to her and lifted his to his lips before he said, “We might regret this,” and took a sip.
Her eyes slid to the door of the kitchen before coming back to Coert, and she lifted her mug too, but before taking a sip she said, “Better get on that cocoa for our budding little mermaid princess.”
Coert chuckled.
Kim threw him a smile before she took a sip of her coffee.
“Mommy!” Janie yelled from the other room in a manner they were far more used to. “Can I take my ballerina box upstairs and put my jewelry in it?”
“Yeah, sweetie,” Kim yelled back.
Coert went to the fridge, doing it asking, “How much jewelry does she have?”
“One necklace and a bracelet. But she asked about getting her ears pierced. Get ready for that.”
He looked to Kim. “That’s a no.”
Kim nodded but queried, “Six?”
“Eight,” Coert returned.
She gave him a cocky smile. “Then seven it is.”
Oh yeah.
This new gig with Kim was much better.
“Deal,” Coert replied and pulled out the milk.
“Coert Yaeger’s famous cinnamon, caramel French toast?” she asked.
Coert stilled in closing the fridge door, memories gliding through him in a new way that wasn’t yet pleasant, but they didn’t burn like they used to.
He forced his body to move and looked at her.
Kim took in his face.
Then on a wry grin, she said, “Let me guess. Cady’s recipe.”
It wasn’t, exactly.
It was their recipe.
Something he made every Christmas since that first, he thought, because he was a moron and he was torturing himself. Now he knew it was to spend time with Cady even if he didn’t have her. But regardless, since Janie had been born and could chew real food, it had taken on another meaning as it was her favorite breakfast.
“Kim,” he said softly.
She shrugged. “I promise I’m not lying when I say that it’s good to have the blanks filled in. And just to say, Coert, I thought that French toast came from Darcy. You’re a man who can cook but you’re no Emeril, and you never failed to make a face when I had Food Network on. So I always figured they came from somewhere and that somewhere had girl parts.”
“Some were Darcy’s too,” he told her carefully.
She tipped her head to the side and righted it in a nonverbal, So?
He quirked his lips at her. “And now I got some of yours as well.”
“You can make my inside-out burgers for her,” Kim declared.
Coert didn’t know how to take that until she finished, her eyes lighting.
“But don’t tell her they aren’t mine like I didn’t want you to know they aren’t mine. They’re Guy Fieri’s.”
“Crushed to know that, Kim,” he teased.
Her eyes stayed lit. “Always your favorites.”
“Just to say, I didn’t make a face when ‘Diners, Drive-ins and Dives’ was on. Now I know why.”
She laughed.
“Cinnamon, caramel French toast?” he asked quietly.
“Absolutely,” she said firmly.
He studied her, totally having a lock on how he felt about how hard she was trying to put things right between them.
And she should know it.
“You can’t know how much it means to me, you being this cool,” he told her, still going quiet.
“And you can’t know how happy I am that you’re happy, Coert. You’re a tough guy but you also can’t hide you’re a sensitive guy, so I’m guessing you’re sensing that this isn’t quite easy. But that doesn’t make what I said less true.”
“You got my gratitude for it, Kim.”
“Anyway,” she turned to a cupboard to pull down a bowl, “I’ll one day find another hot guy and make him cinnamon, caramel French toast and claim it all for my own.”
Coert burst out laughing.
She shot a big smile at him over her shoulder.
“What’s funny?” Janie shouted, coming to a skidding stop on Kim’s floors, mermaid tail gone (unfortunately, his girl couldn’t swim up the stairs), now only wearing her thick purple socks and pink jammies with dancing snowmen on them.
“Your momma, cupcake,” Coert replied. “Now come over here and help me make French toast while your mom makes you cocoa.”
“’Kay!” she cried and dashed to him.
They made a mess of Kim’s kitchen.
Later, they helped her clean up.
Kath
“Jesus, is she gonna come out of her skin?”
Kath turned from the sink where she was tidying up some Christmas dinner prep utensils to her husband who’d come up at her side.
They’d done presents and breakfast all gathered around the tree in Cady’s living room at the lighthouse.
Now all the kids were scattered to the winds.
But the women and men were at the studio where they’d pulled back the furniture in the living room, put in some sawhorses and topped them with plywood Elijah had procured for them. They’d topped that with tablecloths and covered it with the stoneware and glassware from two different houses. This was so they could all have Christmas dinner together by the glow of the tree Cady and Elijah had put up before they’d arrived.
Cady’s friends Walt and Amanda had brought over folding chairs on Christmas Eve’s eve so they were all set, cooking Christmas dinner for fifteen in two different kitchens.
Since dinner wasn’t until three and it was just past one, and the birds were in the oven, the prep work was just completed, Kath looked over her shoulder and saw Cady nervously readjusting the bright Christmas crackers that were on every plate.
This was, as far as Kath could count, the fourth time she’d done that in the last fifteen minutes.
And in the mere seconds that Kath watched her, Cady’s eyes went to the window at the back of the studio twice.
The window that faced the front of the property where the gate was.
Needless to say, Coert and Janie were going to arrive imminently.
“Did I do the right thing?” Pat asked under his breath.
Kath looked from her sister to her husband.
“Yes,” she answered.
“She’s a nervous wreck,” Pat muttered.
“She’s excited,” Kath returned.
He jerked his head behind him. “That’s not excitement. She’s freaking out.”
“She’s going to meet the love of her life’s daughter in T minus about two minutes.”
Or meet her again, this time (hopefully) without bursting into tears.
Pat glanced over his shoulder, whispering, “But she’s great with kids.”
“You know this is different,” Kath told him.
He looked to her. “How?”
Men.
Clueless.
“Okay, so if things go right this time, she’s gonna help raise that child, Kathy,” Pat stated. “But she’s done the same with seven of them. And she sees what they’ve become. She has to know she’s played a part in that.”
“Nothing can go wrong with this,” Kath shared.
“It won’t go wrong. She’s Cady. That little girl is gonna fall in love with her in about T minus two minutes,” Pat returned.
“Nothing can go wrong with this,” Kath repeated. “Because everything that was important went wrong before in a huge way so now they need everything, absolutely everything, Pat, but especially the important things, and this is the most important of all . . . they need them to go right.”
That got in there, Kath knew, because she saw the light dawn in her husband’s eyes.
Because he was clueless, but cute, and cuter since he was worried about Cady, she leaned up on her toes and touched her mouth to his.
As Pat was wont to do, the second she did, his arm curled around her to pull her closer.
Before she could return the favor, they both heard a strange noise come from the living room.
They looked there to see Cady running toward the front door, Shannon and Daly, in that room with her staring after her.
Kath and Pat moved to the opening to the living room to see Cady at the door, yanking on her coat, her dog dancing around her legs.
They felt Pam, who’d been working at the opposite counter, come up beside them just as Cady looked their way.
“He’s here,” she whispered, her face lit with a happiness so extreme, Kath actually had to blink against its brightness.
Then Cady was out the door, having closed it behind her, keeping Midnight in.
“Let out the dog, Pat,” Kath ordered.
“What?” Pat asked.
“We gotta let out Midnight,” Pam murmured, moving herself to do it and moving quickly.
Midnight danced around her, sensing she was going to get what she wanted, and when she got what she wanted, she raced out behind her momma.
Mike came in right after her, returning from taking out the trash, his face a scowl.
He knew Cady’s man was there.
Kath didn’t give that a second thought as they all moved to the window to see a big, silver Chevy Silverado parked at the edge of the garage beside one of their snow dusted Denalis, the tall, handsome Coert Yeager walking around the side toward the studio.
He was holding the hand of an adorable little girl trussed up in pink and purple winter gear, his knowledge of where to find Cady explained because Riley was also with them, pointing toward the studio, Corbin, who was with his cousin, trailing up the rear, his eyes on Coert’s back.
The little girl was walking forward with her daddy but looking behind her at Corbin.
Until Midnight bounced through the snow excitedly, pausing only momentarily to sniff an approaching Cady as she passed her, and the little girl looked around.
And it was love at first sight.
Love at first sight for a little girl and a German shepherd who would be her dog and only hers for the rest of that dog’s life.
Kath knew this because Midnight knocked Coert’s little girl into the snow, and although Coert moved to separate them at first, they could hear her peals of laughter as Midnight danced around her, snuffling and giving her doggie kisses everywhere and Janie tried all she could to get her arms around the excited pup. Snow churned all around them and Corbin, Riley, Cady and Coert stood around watching dog and child disappear in clouds of white.
“Good call on Midnight,” Pat mumbled.
Kath chuckled.
“Christ, that dog’s gonna bury the kid,” Mike, joining them from behind, muttered.
Kath glanced up at her brother-in-law to see his eyes trained out the window.
His jaw was set hard and Kath glanced back to see Coert’s face had disappeared in Cady’s hair.
He was either talking in her ear or kissing her neck, Kath couldn’t tell.
But she could see Cady leaned against him, her arm around his waist, his around her shoulders, her head turned toward him, chin dipped down, but that was all she could see.
It didn’t matter. The way they were standing so naturally together in their casual embrace, that focus they had on each other, it spoke volumes.
“You’re not gonna be a dick.”
Kath turned from her awesome view when she heard her husband order this firmly in the big brother voice he had not broken himself from using even if he was fifty-three and his brothers were closing in on that number right behind him.
“Pat,” Kath warned.
“I’m not gonna be a dick,” Mike spat.
“Mike,” Pam warned.
“Oh my God! Do you see the cuteness outside?” Shannon cried from her place probably at the window in the living room.
She dashed into the kitchen to join them.
Daly followed his wife more sedately.
All eyes went back to the window to see Coert was now hunkered low, righting a snow-covered, still clearly giggling Janie while Cady was squatted down too, trying to hold back a still licking and snuffling, snow covered Midnight.
“Okay, goin’ on record that that dude has got it going on,” Daly noted. “Dogs, baby daughters, and all that’s happening, and in about thirty second he’s got time to make Cady’s face look like that? Shit. Boys, we may need lessons.”
“You do all right,” Shannon told him.
“Thanks, darlin’,” Daly replied. “But ‘all right’ isn’t exactly a crowning achievement.”
Shannon giggled.
With Shannon and Daly joining them, they crowded closer together around the window and watched as Coert dusted the snow off his daughter and Midnight started licking Cady, with Janie smiling at Cady before Midnight’s excitement got the better of Cady and she landed on her ass in the snow with Midnight snuffling her.
Riley and Corbin waded in, as did Coert, the boys holding Midnight back and Coert pulling Cady out of the snow.
At this point, both Cady and Janie were giggling at each other.
“Christ, it’s like a Hallmark movie,” Mike muttered.
“Shut up, Mike,” Daly muttered back.
Kath felt Pam lean into her.
“I think it just got super dusty in here,” Pam whispered.
Kath felt her pain. What she was witnessing outside was suddenly wobbling.
Coert said something that made Corbin and Riley laugh, and Coert grinned at them and clapped Riley on the back.
Riley, head tilted back staring up at the handsome sheriff, slid visibly right into hero worship.
Cady reached out her hand to Janie, and Janie hesitated not one second to take it.
Shannon sniffled.
Kath felt her husband’s arm slide around her waist and then she felt her side pulled tight into his front.
“You women better get your shit together. That little girl walks in and you’re all bawling, this good start is gonna go up in smoke,” Mike warned.
“Shut up, Mike,” Daly repeated.
Kath stopped watching Cady and Janie, hand in hand, Janie’s head tipped way back, her mouth not stopping moving, Cady’s chin dipped down, her eyes locked to the girl, a smile radiant on her face, walk toward the studio with the males following them, and she looked at her husband.
“You did the right thing,” she whispered.
That time, it was Pat that bent to touch his mouth to his wife’s.
When her husband pulled away, his eyes slid to his brother. “And you’re not gonna be a dick,” he repeated his warning.
“I’m about to be a dick by punching you in the sternum,” Mike retorted.
“Oh, great, you two in a fistfight when Cady’s hot guy and his daughter walk through the door,” Pam said sarcastically. “Perfect.”
Mike turned to his wife. “That guy’s not hot. He looks like every cop out there.”
“If that’s true, then I should have married into law enforcement, not heating and air conditioning,” Pam shot back.
Mike scowled.
“You’re not helping,” Shannon told Pam.
The door opened, they heard a dog woof and Melanie’s excited voice, “Santa came here for you too!”
“Really?” a child’s voice came at them, sounding excited and amazed.
“Yeah! The presents are under that tree,” Melanie replied as the men and women moved as one from window to the large opening to the living room.
Cady’s eyes were riveted to Janie.
Coert’s eyes immediately turned to the adults.
Janie’s eyes went to her dad.
“Can I open them, Daddy?”
Coert looked to his girl. “In a minute, cupcake. How ’bout we meet the rest of Cady’s family first, yeah?” he asked.
Oh man.
He called his cupcake-loving daughter “cupcake.”
How cute was that!
“Yeah!” Janie cried then rounded a mittened hand to the room at large. “Hi! I’m Janie!”
Kath moved forward. “Hey, Janie. I’m Kathy.”
“Aunt Kathy, Janie,” Coert murmured.
His daughter’s eyes got huge. “Aunt Kathy?”
“This is Cady’s sister,” Coert explained.
“Oh,” Janie breathed, almost preternaturally adorable with her eyes that wide.
“And I’m Uncle Pat, I guess,” Pat said, coming to stand by Kath’s side. “And that’s Uncle Mike, Aunt Pam, Aunt Shannon and Uncle Daly,” he introduced, indicating each in turn.
Janie looked through them all and then tipped her head way back to look up at Cady. “You have a super big family. Like my mommy.”
“Yes I do, sweetheart,” Cady murmured.
“Let’s get your coat off, baby,” Coert said, hunkering down next to his daughter to help her off with her coat.
After Coert extricated his girl from her gear, more introductions ensued for Janie with Cady introducing the kids, who’d all crowded in, and Coert coming forward to shake hands with the adults.
Mike wasn’t a dick.
But he wasn’t overtly welcoming.
Pat made up for it. “We’re real pleased you guys could come.”
“Thanks,” Coert replied. “We’re real pleased to be invited.”
The men locked eyes.
Something passed between them that, having a vagina, Kath would never understand, and age and the wisdom you got from it taught her years ago not to even try.
But it was Christmas. There were still gifts to be unwrapped, then cleanup to happen, food to prepare, more cleanup to endure and breakdown of the table before they could all pass out from their food comas scattered between two homes and the RV parked behind the garage that Mike and Pam had rented so they’d have more room to hang or sleep and they could all be together doing it.
So Kath announced, “Right. Santa did show here last night for one Janie Yeager and he told us we were to be sure you didn’t miss a present. So Melanie, how about you find the presents for Janie and Coert under the tree and we’ll get that sorted before we dive into cooking.”
“Daddy got presents from Santa too?” Janie breathed.
“Santa knows everybody’s a kid at heart, Janie,” Cady told her, and Janie’s dazed eyes drifted to Cady. “He always leaves something special under our tree for everyone.”
Janie looked back at her dad. “Can we have presents here every year?”
Cady’s eyes flew to Coert.
With his attention on his daughter, Coert’s handsome face went so soft, for the first time (except when she met George Clooney watching the premiere of ER), Kath questioned her commitment to Pat.
“Do not even go there,” Pat’s lips said at her ear.
She turned and grinned at him.
He rolled his eyes to the ceiling.
“How about we let Cady get her coat off and you settle in with everyone and Midnight for a few minutes? I gotta talk real quick to Cady’s brothers,” Coert told her.
“Oh shit,” Daly muttered from behind Kath.
Coert looked their way. “Can I have a minute, men?”
“Sure,” Pat said immediately, moving toward the hall tree where there were stacks of jackets, mittens, hats, gloves and a tangle of boots around the floor.
“Of course,” Daly said.
Mike said nothing, just headed to his coat.
Cady looked searchingly at Coert.
“It’s cool,” he murmured, touching her hip with a gloved hand before turning toward the door.
The men went through it.
Kath saw Janie watching her father leaving.
She started to open her mouth, but Cady got there before her.
“Okay, you tussled in the snow with Midnight, let’s get you warmed up. You want some hot cider? Or cocoa? Or are you hungry? A little snack before dinner?”
“Do you have butterly pie?” Janie asked.
Cady stared down at her.
Shannon bumped Kath with her shoulder.
The dust was again rising.
“I . . . no, honey. I don’t have any of that,” Cady answered.
“You made us butterly pie and it was yummy. Mommy and I loved it. Mommy said to be sure to say thanks, so thanks!”
Well thank God.
The ex said to say thanks.
It just kept getting better and better.
“You’re welcome, Janie. I’m glad you enjoyed it,” Cady replied softly. “Your mom too.”
Janie gave a short nod and continued, “But we had cinnamon, caramel French toast for breakfast so I didn’t get any today,” Janie told her.
Cady went visibly still.
“Oh shit,” Shannon whispered.
“You did? We had tha—!” Melanie started to shout.
“Right!” Pam said loudly, clapping. “Let’s get on cocoa and you can give Midnight a dog biscuit, Janie. How’s that sound?” Pam asked, reaching a hand out to Janie.
“We don’t have a dog,” Janie told her, walking toward her and taking her hand.
“Well, then, live it up,” Shannon put in, moving with them toward the kitchen.
“Hey, Mom, can we have cocoa too?” Ellie asked.
“Sure ’nuff, cute stuff,” Pam replied.
One faction broke off to move into the kitchen. Another broke off to throw themselves on the couches and chairs shoved to the walls. Melanie was still arranging the presents under the tree for Janie and Coert.
Kath went to Cady.
“You made him your French toast, I take it?” she said under her breath to Cady.
Cady turned her gaze to Kath. “We came up with the recipe together.”
Hmm.
Good?
Not good?
“And we came up with it on Christmas,” Cady finished.
Oh boy.
This was foreign territory.
So Kath treaded lightly.
“It’s fantastic French toast, Cady.” Kath brushed the back of her sister’s hand with the back of her own. “It’s good he gives it to his daughter.”
“I’ve been with him,” Cady stated.
Kath didn’t get it.
“Sorry?”
“This whole time, I’ve been with him. He’s kept me with him. And me him. Me giving that time he and I had to you guys making that for you this morning. Him giving that time we had to Janie and Kim. I mean, we both made that French toast for our families, Kath. Because that’s the way it’s supposed to be.”
So it was good.
Or at least Cady was making it that way.
Kath got closer. “That’s a good way to look at it.”
Cady looked confused. “What other way would I look at it?”
Kath wasn’t going to touch that one.
“Get your jacket off, babe,” she ordered instead. “There’s present unwrapping to be done.”
Cady spoke while shrugging off her coat, saying words she’d already said when she’d found out they’d done it.
“It really was great of you guys to go out and get some things for Coert and Janie yesterday.”
“Can’t welcome them into the family without at least spoiling a little princess rotten. Patrick would turn in his grave.”
Cady shot her a smile as she hung her coat over Bea’s, and since Bea’s was over Shannon’s which was over Dexter’s, it fell right off and landed on the floor.
Cady bent to pick it up and tossed it on the seat of the hall tree and a pile of more coats.
Then she looked to the door.
With this at least, since she’d been married to a member of the male species for twenty-two years, she could advise.
“He needs to get the lay of the land,” Kath told her. “It’ll be fine.”
Cady’s head turned her way. “Mike—”
Kath grabbed her hand. “It’ll be fine.”
Cady looked again to the door then she turned her attention to the kitchen and finally back to Kath. “She loves Midnight.”
Kath gave her a big grin. “Yeah.” She tugged her hand. “Let’s go make cocoa. Verity’s still pouting in the observation deck. I need to text her and get her over here so she can meet Janie and the family can be together for presents.”
They moved to the kitchen, Cady took over with Janie and cocoa and Kath texted her daughter.
The whoosh on her phone barely sounded before the men could be heard coming in.
Cady’s eyes went right to Kath.
So Kath walked right to Pat.
Pat and Coert were jacketless inside the door, and Coert was looking around when Kath made it to them.
Coert asked, “Where are my girls?”
His girls.
Plural.
God, she was thinking she totally loved this guy.
“Kitchen. Cocoa,” she answered.
He smiled.
Yep.
She was totally loving this guy.
“Thanks,” he murmured, dipped his chin to Pat, to her, and he moved toward the kitchen.
Kath bellied up to her husband.
Close up to her husband.
“Jesus, sweetheart,” he muttered as she crowded him, but he did it not moving from his spot and smiling down at her.
“That go okay?” she asked, shifting her eyes to the door and back to him to explain what he didn’t need explained. That she was talking about what happened outside.
“Uh, yeah,” Pat answered.
But he said no more.
“Can you elaborate?” she pushed.
Pat pulled her slightly to the side, turned a shoulder to the room and bent into his wife.
“Well, clearly he’s a take charge guy because he took charge. Said straight up he gets we won’t trust him with Cady and he gets why. He told us he knew he’d have to work for it and he was all in to do that. He told us he loves her. She loves him. They were going to make it work and he’s going to make her happy. And he thanked us for buying his daughter Christmas presents.”
After that, Pat stopped talking.
“That’s it?” Kath asked.
Pat shrugged. “Pretty much.”
“You were out there longer than that,” she pointed out then narrowed her eyes. “What did Mike do?”
“Mike glared at him silently. Yeager was game and ignored it so I think Cady warned him about Mike. And Daly cracked about fifty stupid jokes about how it was good we didn’t have to use any of the research we’d done on how to make a body disappear that Yeager laughed at. Then, when it came clear he was restless to get back inside to his girl and Cady, we came back inside.”
Kath held her husband’s eyes.
Then she declared, “I love you.”
He smiled and moved farther into her. “Love you more.”
“Impossible,” she whispered.
He took her into his arms just as Janie cried out while dancing out of the kitchen, “Daddy says we can open presents!”
It was Christmas, so presents it was.
Verity showed, they all settled in, and for the next half an hour they discovered Janie wasn’t discerning when it came to presents. She loved everything.
But the purple Easy-Bake Ultimate Oven with its purple, cream and blue circles and swirls on the door still was hands down the winner.
And Mike didn’t miss it.
“Cady told Santa specifically you’d like that,” Mike announced.
From her place sitting on the floor, Janie turned huge eyes to Cady, who was also curled on the floor close to Janie.
And, of course, Coert, who wasn’t quite touching her, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t wrapped his long body around her to watch his daughter open presents over his woman’s shoulder.
“You did?” she asked.
Cady didn’t.
She’d told Kath, Pam and Shannon that Janie liked making cupcakes. Cady was so involved with going to see Coert, she’d only thought about pie, not presents.
So her family did.
But when Cady opened her mouth to answer, Mike got there first.
“She did. Sent a letter straight to the North Pole direct,” he shared.
“Wow,” Janie breathed. “You have Santa’s address too?”
Cady gave her a smile and a murmured, “I never forgot it from when I was a little girl like you.”
“Awesome!” Janie replied.
Cady kept smiling at her before she turned it to Mike.
Coert was gracious about his two new sweaters and lined leather gloves, regardless of how uninspired they were. But they’d learned, in Maine, you couldn’t have enough sweaters or gloves and they figured Coert very well knew that.
When Kath was about to announce it was time to peel potatoes, Janie proclaimed, “Now, Daddy. Santa’s presents are done. So you gotta do it now.”
“Maybe later, cupcake,” Coert murmured.
“No!” she cried, turning from her rump to her knees and bouncing up and down. “It’s present time! So it has to be now.”
Coert studied his little girl with an intensity that was a little bizarre.
Then he said, “Okay, Janie, baby. Go get it out of Daddy’s jacket.”
Janie was a streak of cream top with pink and green polka-dotted Christmas tree and red pants with pink and green polka-dotted hem, as she raced to her father’s jacket and came back with a small box wrapped in elegant green foil paper with a white velvet ribbon wrapped around it.
Store wrapped, but who cared?
The little present was gorgeous.
She dropped to her knees in front of Cady and held it out, stating, “That’s from Daddy and me. I don’t know what it is.” She glanced around before she looked back to Cady and went on, “We didn’t bring everyone prezzies but Daddy said it’d be okay, once everyone saw that.”
Cady took the box and sat in the curve of Coert’s body, Coert positioned in a way she could have leaned back against the leg he had bent up with wrist resting on it.
And this, Kath hoped, was what she would do during Christmas a year from now, then many more to come.
What she didn’t do was unwrap her present.
“Open it!” Janie nearly shrieked. “I can’t believe there’s a present that little that will make everyone happy and I can’t wait to see!”
“Oh, Christ, he’s not gonna give her a ring in front of his daughter, do you think?” Pat murmured.
Men.
“That’s not a ring box,” Kath shared in a whisper. “Maybe necklace. Maybe bracelet.”
“Right,” Pat muttered.
Cady twisted her neck to look at Coert.
“When did you have ti—?” she started.
“Just open it, honey, or Janie’ll burst,” he interrupted on a grin.
It was no ring.
But it was going to be something.
She kept her eyes on him then she looked to Janie, gave her a sweet smile and bent her head to unwrap the gift.
Kath looked at Pam.
Pam looked at Kath then looked at Shannon.
Shannon looked at both of them.
“Oh my goodness,” Cady breathed.
They looked at Cady.
“It’s a necklace,” Janie stated reverently, leaning forward on a hand to peer around Cady’s hands to the box. “A sparkly one!”
“It is,” Cady whispered, staring at it.
“I like sparkly things,” Janie informed her.
“I do too, honey,” Cady replied then looked back to the necklace. “Put it on,” she said, her voice sounding funny.
“Cady, you can—” Coert began.
She twisted to him. “Please. Will you put it on?”
They’d had a Christmas together.
One of them.
Kath didn’t know much about it just that one hadn’t been enough.
But she could guess it was nothing like this.
Cady pulled what looked like a delicate gold chain out of the box and handed the dangling thing to Coert.
She then put the box on the floor, lifted her hair and Coert’s hands came around in front of her, disappearing at the back of her neck.
And it was then Kath saw the simple solitaire diamond that hung from the chain. It fit snug in the indent of Cady’s throat.
It was perfect.
“Someone needs to clean this place,” Pam mumbled, and Kath tore her gaze from Cady to look at Pam to see her swiping under her eye. “Dust everywhere.”
“I hear that,” Shannon mumbled.
“It seems clean to me,” Riley noted.
Shannon sent her nephew a watery smile and tugged him into a hug.
“Gross! Aunt cooties!” Riley shouted.
“You’ve got a big mouth, Riley,” Melanie told him.
“You’ve got a big face,” Riley shot back.
“That’ll do it,” Mike growled.
The kids shut up.
Kath looked back to Cady and Coert just in time to see Cady leaning toward Janie.
“What do you think? Does it look okay?” Cady asked.
Janie reached out a finger and said, “It’s real pretty.” She dropped her hand and her attention shifted to Cady’s face. “But maybe if we come for Christmas with your family next year we can get you one that’s bigger.”
Pat and Daly roared with laughter.
The startling sound made Midnight woof and for some reason shuffle toward Janie, who she was lying beside. She then got up on all fours and rained dog kisses on the little girl’s neck.
Janie giggled.
Cady turned to Coert and whispered something Kath couldn’t hear.
They needed a moment.
It was time to peel the potatoes.
So Kath pushed out of her place in the couch and shared that.
“Right, potato duty. Who bought it?” she asked.
“Me!” Riley cried, got up from his place and raced into the kitchen, this happening because Riley had always been a big fan of getting stuff done he hated so he could concentrate more time on doing stuff he liked.
“And me,” Corbin groused, pushing up from sitting on the arm of the chair his mother sat in and slunk into the kitchen, this happening because Corbin was a master procrastinator.
Verity just slunk into the kitchen.
Elijah heading to Bangor last night to be with his family and doing it after he had a conversation, just him and Verity, after they’d come back from getting coffees that had caused her to have a lot of alone time in the observation deck (and managing this by shouting at anyone who came up, “Can’t I just get a moment’s peace?”) meant a mother-daughter chat was imminent.
But not on Christmas.
Christmas was for family however that came, however it morphed and changed.
And this year, apparently, diamonds.
Kath smiled.
“You’re lucky. I got an Easy-Bake Oven when I was six, and the box says eight and up so Mom wouldn’t let me bake my own cakes without her around. Santa must like Auntie Cady a whole lot that you got one when you’re five,” Melanie declared.
“Maybe Daddy told her I’m real good at making cupcakes so Santa knows I’ll be good at baking real cakes in my own oven,” Janie suggested enthusiastically.
“Well, it’s something,” Melanie told her authoritatively. “Mom says Santa’s real stuck on giving toys at the right ages so she had to promise him she’d watch over me when I used mine.”
Janie turned to Cady and Coert. “Daddy, are you gonna hafta watch over me?”
Coert’s deep voice rumbled. “Absolutely.”
Janie made a face.
Then she made a face to Melanie.
Melanie giggled.
Janie’s face melted and she giggled too.
Pat’s lips came again to Kath’s ear.
“How ’bout you give Janie and Melanie something to do so Cady can suck face with her man after he gave her that bling?”
He pulled away and she turned her head to catch his gaze.
“Excellent thinking, Mr. Moreland.”
“I’m not just a pretty face, Mrs. Moreland.”
She grinned.
Then she pushed out of the couch. “Right, kids. How about we do real baking and get on Jesus’s birthday cake? Who’s with me?”
“Me!” Janie cried, jumping up, making Midnight dance and follow her as she raced toward Kath.
“Me too!” Melanie yelled.
“Me three!” Ellie shouted.
“Okay, you’re my cake troop. Let’s move out. Destination,” she pointed in that direction, “kitchen.”
The girls rushed to the kitchen.
Kath followed them but looked over her shoulder.
The table was in the way and Coert and Cady were still on the floor.
So the girls in the kitchen couldn’t see.
But Kath could.
And Coert knew his daughter couldn’t.
So they sucked face.
Of a sort.
It was short. It was soft. It was still wet.
And it was sweet.
Kath moved into the kitchen and she did it grinning.
“Time for assignments,” she proclaimed. “We need someone in charge of batter patrol. Someone in charge of icing patrol. And someone in charge of decorating patrol. We all help but you always gotta have the one in charge. Now, who’s batter?”
Three hands went up.
Kath’s lips again tipped up.
And they made a hella mess of the kitchen.
But they also made a delicious cake for Jesus.
The food was on the table. They were getting ready to pray.
And that was when Pat stood up, grabbing his glass of wine as he went.
Kath looked up at her husband, who was at her left side, then her eyes darted to Cady, who was staring up at Pat with eyes slightly wide, apprehension on her face.
“Something needs to be said,” Pat announced.
Kath could feel mixed emotions spring up around a table that had just been mayhem of laying food, filling glasses, finding seats, and the anticipation of feasting.
She looked to Coert, who sat to Cady’s left, and then Janie, who sat on a bunch of toss pillows to Coert’s left.
Janie was staring at the gravy.
Coert was looking benignly at Pat.
Pat cleared his throat and it wasn’t just because he was about to make a speech.
When he first spoke, Kath knew that throat clearing was about something else.
“Dad’s not here.”
Kath immediately looked down to her plate as the dust again flew.
Pat continued, “And every year we’re gonna feel it, Dad not being here, Gramps not being here.”
Her husband’s voice was getting thick so Kath reached out a hand and rested it on his waist.
She heard him draw in breath so she tipped her head back to gaze up at him again.
“The years will pass but it’ll never be the same, not just Christmas, every day. But especially days like today,” Pat carried on. “I know this as much as I know Dad would hate that. He’d want us to celebrate with no sadness. But I say he earned that sadness by being the best dad there is, the best grandfather, the best father-in-law, so he earned us missing him now that he’s gone.”
“Hear, hear,” Shannon whispered and the way she did, Kath knew the dust was flying for her too.
She also knew it was flying for Bea when she heard her niece try to swallow a whimper.
“So every year,” Pat went on, “before we tuck into Christmas dinner, I say we build a new tradition, raise a glass and take a moment to remember the finest man who ever walked this earth. Patrick Moreland.”
He raised his glass.
Everyone reached out, grabbed their glass and followed suit.
All except Janie, who whispered loudly to her father, “Where is he?”
“I’ll explain in a bit, honey,” Coert murmured, his own glass up.
Coert Yeager sitting with Patrick Moreland’s family, lifting his glass in memory of the man.
And, Kath thought, this proved, no matter how old you got, you could bear witness to Christmas miracles.
There was silence and everyone took their own time thinking about Patrick before they brought their glasses to their lips and took a sip.
Pat waited until they were all done but he didn’t sit down.
He continued.
“In life, you sometimes lose. If you’re lucky, more often you win. And even as you note the losses and try to move on, you should make sure to celebrate the wins. So this, our first Christmas without Dad, I’m pleased just because I’m pleased, but I’m more pleased because I know Dad would be pleased that we had to lay two more place settings. We’re down one but up two. It isn’t the same. It’s different. But it works great. So I’ll make my welcome formal, Coert . . . Janie. Thank you for joining our family.”
“Hear, hear!” Kath exclaimed, breaking out into a teary-eyed smile and lifting her glass Coert and Janie’s way.
“I second that emotion!” Verity chimed in.
“Yay for Janie and Mr. Coert!” Ellie yelled.
Looking confused, Janie turned to her father. “Are we being adopted?”
Coert chuckled and bent to her, saying, “In a way, cupcake. I’ll explain that later too.”
“Is Mommy gonna be adopted too?” Janie asked.
Coert’s good humor took a hit but Cady leaned forward and said, “Maybe next year.”
Janie sat back in her seat, crying, “Neat! Mommy loves family!”
God, Kath hoped so.
Pat smoothed over that by finishing.
“Now let’s raise our glasses to Coert, Janie, family and another very merry Christmas!”
Glasses were raised. Sips were taken.
Pat sat down and ordered, “Now for the prayer.”
Everyone bowed their heads.
And more dust flew, because in years past, all of them when this family was this family, except the last one when he’d been too ill, Patrick said the prayer.
So this year, Pat made quick work of it before there was a round of murmured amens, Pat lifted his head and encouraged, “Tuck in.”
Food was passed, forks were raised and the Moreland family . . .
No, the Moreland/Yeager family . . .
Tucked in.
Coert
“So I bought it because of this,” Cady whispered.
Coert took his eyes from the view where he and Cady were finally alone, cuddled together in the observation room in her lighthouse, and looked down at her head resting on his shoulder.
He had one boot to the floor, one leg up on the built-in seat, Cady snuggled between them, half twisted, resting on his chest, her eyes aimed to the glass surrounding them.
She had one arm wrapped around him.
However, the other hand was up and fiddling with the diamond at her neck.
“I can see that,” he replied.
And he could. The minute she’d taken him and Janie on a tour after the cake was in the oven but before the dinner preparations heated up, and they’d climbed up to this room, he’d thought, if he’d had that kind of money, that was what would have done it for him too.
And as unbelievably amazing as the lighthouse was, he was getting a sinking feeling about it.
Their future was together.
And their future included Janie.
Further, he hoped their future included their own child, something at their ages they were going to have to discuss a lot sooner than would be normal in their circumstances.
And if they both agreed, they’d have to see to that a lot sooner too.
But more, he had Janie, they had Janie, but they had her in a way where they’d also have time to just have each other.
Coert always wanted his daughter with him but that wasn’t the reality. And as much as it wasn’t the best situation, with Cady back in his life it worked in its way so they could have that time to relearn each other, share about what had happened in the time in between, build their life as a couple.
In a perfect world, he’d take time to have that alone with Cady.
In their world, which had never been perfect, they didn’t have that much time.
That lighthouse, no matter how cool it was, it was not a place to raise a family. There not only wasn’t enough room, there would be no privacy, not for Janie, not for Coert and Cady.
The studio might work, at a pinch, but it wouldn’t be optimal either.
His house was not large but it did have three bedrooms. He’d renovated the whole thing himself over the ten years he’d had it. He was only five years from paying it off. He had a good deal of equity in it.
It’d cut Cady to move from this place.
But for the readymade family he had to offer her, they’d need Cady to move from this place.
He felt her head leave his shoulder as she pulled slightly away from him and also pulled him away from his thoughts.
“You don’t look happy,” she observed.
Her hand was still at her pendant so he didn’t share his thoughts, not then, that was for later.
Instead, he asked, “You like your diamond?”
“Of course I like my diamond,” she answered.
It was one carat.
Moreland could probably have afforded to give her one that was four.
But it was becoming apparent that that wasn’t what Moreland had been about.
Coert was beginning to realize the man lived in a big house because he had a big family that just got bigger.
From their clothes and their manner, the Moreland family wasn’t about four-carat diamonds.
They were about love and family and humor and togetherness and baking cakes.
“Why would you ask that?” she queried quietly, and she did that studying him closely.
“I wanted to give you something like that the Christmas we had together. I didn’t want to give you perfume. I wanted to give you something like that,” he shared.
He saw her face grow gentle and she melted back into him. “Well then, now it’s even more special and it was already amazing.”
“What I didn’t want to do was give you something, if you hated me after, that you’d hate and get rid of because it brought back ugly memories.”
The gentleness went out of her face and sadness washed in.
“Coert,” she whispered.
“It totally sucks, how awesome this is, at the same time it’s a reminder we gotta run so hard to catch up.”
She lifted her hand to rest it at the base of his throat. “That’s because it’s fresh. We’ll settle in and that will fade away.”
He hoped so.
“I’m sorry I didn’t get you a present,” she said, and he knew she was changing the subject. “And it wasn’t me who bought those things for Janie. The girls went shopping while I was at your place Christmas Eve. All I could think about was the pie,” she admitted.
When she admitted that, suddenly Coert felt like laughing.
“You do know that for birthdays, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, whatever, all you ever gotta do is make me a pie,” he shared.
She grinned at him, noticeably pleased she’d taken him out of his mood. “I probably should have gotten that message when I gave you the last one and you dragged me up the stairs and ravaged me.”
He grinned back, bent his neck and touched his mouth to hers before pulling away and agreeing, “Yeah. And Janie thinks Santa rained that goodness on her. So it’s all cool.”
“’Kay,” she said softly.
He drew her deeper into him, murmuring, “Your family’s been great, honey.”
“As ever,” she replied, her eyes bright. “You’ll see.”
He might see more but he’d already seen. Janie especially had been folded into the clan with no hesitation. And, except for Mike, who was being unapproachable, they’d done the same with Coert.
“We need to think about me . . . meeting Kim,” Cady noted hesitantly.
“Yeah,” he said. “That’ll be good, but for Kim, she’s hanging in there, she’s adjusting, she’s supportive, but we gotta give her time. This all went fast. Now we gotta slow it down, only for her, but that has to happen.”
She nodded.
“And it’s late,” he told her. “So my girl needs to be closer to her bed. So I need to find a way to extricate her from your family, most notably your dog, and get her home.”
She nodded again, but even with his tease about Midnight, she looked a lot less happy about that.
Coert understood that feeling.
He pulled her up and more fully around before he continued, “I gotta work tomorrow and tonight’s mine with Janie, but she goes back to her mom and regularly scheduled programming tomorrow. You need to be with your family. But wanna meet me in town for a drink after dinner or something?”
Another nod, this one a lot more enthusiastic.
He smiled.
Then he dipped in and kissed her.
Cady kissed him back.
They necked for a while with the sea and the lights and forest of Magdalene all around.
When Coert ended it, he lifted his head and said quietly, “Best Christmas of my life.”
Her eyes, those green eyes warm from his kiss, got wet as she breathed, “Coert.”
“Best Christmas Eve too, and it only had a little bit to do with the fact I didn’t have to wrap all Janie’s presents,” he teased.
She got hold of the wet in her eyes in order to smile at him.
He kissed her again.
Yeah.
Best Christmas in his life.
Then, unfortunately, Coert had to guide Cady down the stairs through her bedroom to the family room and hang with his daughter while she and her “new cousins” finished watching The Muppet Christmas Carol.
This had benefits, since Janie fell asleep before the end.
So it was gently that he carried his daughter downstairs and pulled her jacket, hat and mittens on with Cady helping. And it was quietly he carried her falling-back-to-sleep body to his truck with Cady and half her family following, saying goodnight and their last Merry Christmases. The women (with Cady being the last) laid kisses on Janie’s cheek then stretched up to do the same with Coert (this allowing Cady to do it too, after a day where they’d been careful with displays of affection in front of his daughter), before he strapped her in his truck.
But the others drifted away and it was only Cady standing outside in her jacket, her gloves on, a long scarf wrapped round and round her neck, waving as he drove to the gate Daly had opened for them.
Leaving Cady behind.
On Christmas.
Next Christmas, he’d wake up beside her.
And as soon as Coert could manage it, that would happen every day.