“You give the best hugs of any four-year-old boy I know, sir,” Kenzie said. “Let me take your coats, and then you can go find Rika and Hondo. They’re hanging out with the kids back in the den.”
“Yay! Hondo looks scary, but he’s not at all.”
“You’ve got his number, don’t you? That guy is nothing but a big old softy.”
Until that summer, Will had been terrified of big dogs after he’d been bitten by one in the neighborhood. Thanks to Wynona and her gentle dog, Young Pete, Will had been able to lose his fear and now he embraced all things canine—especially the little Havachon they had rescued from the shelter before Thanksgiving.
“Just head down that hall and you’ll find dogs and kids and toys. Maddie Hayward is here and so are Ty and Jazmyn Barrett. I do believe there might be a movie playing, if you want to watch it.”
“Can we, Mama?” Chloe asked. Though she wasn’t typically nervous around Kenzie, large groups could bring out her anxiety—at least until she found her friends and settled in.
“Sure. You guys have fun. I’ll be right here.”
Will raced down the hall and Chloe followed at a more subdued pace. She watched them, her heart pinching with worry for her sweet little girl.
“Don’t worry. You know Jenna, the high school girl who works for me at the shop after school? I asked her to come out and keep an eye on the kids so the moms can enjoy the party in exchange for my help decorating for her birthday party in January.”
McKenzie thought of everything. It was what made her a good businesswoman and a dedicated mayor of Haven Point. “Thank you. I’ll still worry, but probably a little less, knowing that. Call me when the birthday party comes around and I’ll help you decorate.”
“I just might take you up on that.”
“Not that you need my help.” She looked around at the entryway, decorated in glittering white, blue and silver. She particularly admired a trio of thick candles spearing up from an elaborate arrangement of twigs, berry picks and pinecones, all spray-painted to match the color theme. “Your house looks beautiful. It should be in a home decor magazine.”
“Ben calls it Christmas on crack,” she said with a smile.
“Hey. I only said that once.”
Both she and Kenzie looked up when Ben Kilpatrick spoke from the doorway. He wore a leather jacket and had car keys in his hand.
“You did,” Kenzie said. “But it was memorable.”
“I love our house. It’s my favorite place in the world,” he said. “Hi, Andrea.”
He leaned in to give her a quick kiss on the cheek, then stepped quickly away, making her face heat. Ben was always so careful with her, treating her like those delicate ornaments hanging in the front window. It was clear he didn’t want to crowd her or make her feel threatened—or maybe he was that way with everyone and she was looking for layered subtext where none existed.
She would have greatly preferred that no one in Haven Point had ever found out what happened to her, but Rob Warren had made that impossible.
“You look lovely tonight, as always,” he told her.
“Thank you. I hope we’re not chasing you away.”
“Not really—though I’d like to think I’m smart enough to duck and run when the Helping Hands are around.”
McKenzie gave him a mock scowl. “You love the Helping Hands.”
“I do. Everyone knows the Helping Hands are really the heart of Haven Point. Without you, this town would be a cold, sad, cheerless place.”
“Don’t you forget it.”
“You would never let me, darling,” he said with a laugh, then kissed her forehead.
“I’m actually heading over to Snow Angel Cove,” he told Andie, then pitched his voice lower and looked around as if checking for eavesdroppers. “I’m helping Aidan with a Christmas present. I’d be grateful if you didn’t mention anything to Eliza or Maddie. They think I’m heading over to watch a basketball game.”
She twisted her fingers as if locking her lips and tossed the pretend key over her shoulder, which earned her one of Ben’s rare but devastating smiles.
“Good luck to both of you, then,” she said.
“Thanks.” He waved at her, then leaned in once more to kiss his wife of only a few months. When he walked out the door, McKenzie’s lipstick was smeared and her hair a little rumpled, but that rather dazed smile indicated she didn’t really mind.
For one small, selfish moment, envy poked at Andie with sharp, merciless claws, leaving behind a trailing sadness. Oh, she missed that. Jason had been gone for two years and there were times she ached most of all at the loss of those casual little touches. His fingers brushing the back of her neck as he passed by, his arm draped across her while he slept, his hand on her knee as they sat together on the sofa watching a favorite television show.
All those small, tender physical reminders that oiled the sometimes creaky and contrary machinery of a marriage.
Her children gave her hugs and kisses all day, which she adored. She tried to tell herself it was enough. Deep in her heart, on those nights she couldn’t sleep because the bed felt too big, she knew it was a lie.
On those nights, she would wrap herself in a blanket, curl up in the window seat and read long into the night to push the loneliness away.
But this was a party and she wasn’t going to waste time feeling sorry for herself. “Is the guest of honor here yet?” she asked.
“Yes. Hazel and Eppie were the first ones here. You know how Ronald Brewer is. If they show up ten minutes early, he considers them all late. Everyone’s back in the family room.”
Andrea continued to look at the various unique holiday decorations throughout the house as McKenzie led the way, until they reached a sprawling room off the kitchen dominated by glass windows that overlooked the lake.
The room was filled with most of her favorite people in the world. Andie smiled and greeted friends as she headed straight for Hazel Brewer.
Hazel—still trim and fit and always fashionably dressed—beamed a welcome smile at her, which widened when Andie showed her the gift she and the children had made.
“For me? Oh, honey. You shouldn’t have. I don’t know what it is about all of you who can’t read your invitations. It clearly said to make a donation to the library instead of bringing a gift.”
Andie added the wrapped present to a small but growing pile on the table next to her. “I know. And I did that. But this is something the children and I made for you. They wanted to do it and I couldn’t tell them no, could I? Happy birthday, my dear.”
Andie leaned in to kiss Hazel’s wrinkled cheek.
“Thank you. Whoever would have thought a grumpy old cuss like me would live to such a ripe old age?”
“I can only say I hope the next eighty are just as amazing.”
Hazel made a face. “I’m not sure I have the energy for eight more decades. Maybe just four or five.”
“If that’s your plan, you better work on finding yourself another husband,” her sister Eppie said. “I don’t know if Ronald will be willing to drive you around for another fifty years.”
Andie laughed and hugged Eppie, as well. Eppie and Hazel were sisters fourteen months apart who had ended up marrying twin brothers. Andie had learned at her first Helping Hands meeting in McKenzie’s storeroom that Hazel’s husband had died of cancer two decades earlier. Since then, Eppie’s patient and long-suffering husband, Ronald, had taken his wife and her sister everywhere they