Mistletoe Bride. Linda Varner

on square one and a resurrection of dreams long dead.

      Was it worth it, just to have company for Christmas? Dani wondered. Nowhere near knowing the answer to that question, she peeked into the hall trying to locate Ryan and Sawyer. Since she heard their voices in the office, she felt safe to slip the tin of cookies and the remote-control car, originally purchased for Ricky, under the tree.

      Then, suddenly inspired, she headed to her bedroom at the back of the house. In the walk-in closet, a ladder led to the attic. Armed with the flashlight she always kept by her bed, Dani climbed up into the spacious storage area. There, she perused an old bookshelf loaded down with board games, books and other toys saved from childhood—further evidence of her “sentimental softie” tendencies.

      Armed with a like-new Monopoly game and a shoe box full of baseball cards—she’d been a tomboy from the get go—Dani descended the ladder again. Cleaning up the boxes took seconds, after which she wrapped them in colorful paper and added them to the stash under the tree.

      The rest of the day passed in a pleasant blur of activity. They snacked on cheese and saltines for lunch, watched Miracle on 34th Street and A Christmas Story, then drank hot chocolate while they stood on the front porch and exclaimed over the silver-dollar-size snowflakes that began to drift to the ground around 4:00 p.m.

      One eye ever on the Christmas tree and the packages that kept appearing so mysteriously under it, Sawyer fairly bounced off the walls in anticipation of the special dinner Dani had promised, not to mention the thought of opening his presents.

      At last, dinnertime rolled around. When they finally laid down their forks and moved into the living room, all three of them were stuffed with hen and dressing. Dani, by now a little tired, settled into her favorite recliner and let Ryan run the show. He did so by allowing Sawyer to play Santa Claus and pass out the presents, the total of which had somehow multiplied again, this time without her help.

      Her jaw dropped in surprise when Sawyer handed her a homemade Christmas card and something else, rather large, roundish and wrapped in newspaper.