“If he’s your happiness.”
Isabelle stared at the package for long moments after her mother had left the room. Part of her wanted to put the gift back under the tree. Another part wanted to just toss it out and never know what was inside. But a bigger part knew that if she did, she’d always wonder.
“I have to open it, don’t I?” she asked the cat perched on a chair arm. At her question, Bobbin yawned, gave her a slightly annoyed look, then hopped onto the floor to inspect what she held with great curiosity.
“Sorry,” she told him, giving the box a gentle shake. “This isn’t for you.”
Isabelle guessed what was inside, then had to know and, with shaking hands, tore off the paper. Sure enough, inside the shiny packaging, he’d wrapped the snowman placemats they’d made at his unnecessary sewing lessons. There was also a card and a smaller package with a tag that read,Bobbin. As if he could read the tag, Bobbin gave her a so-there look.
“Okay, so perhaps it was partially for you,” she relented. “I guess you want to know what’s inside yours, too.”
The cat might not speak human, but his expressions conveyed his thoughts quite well.
Isabelle lifted the lid from the smaller box and stared at the contents. “Does he really think you’re going to wear this one? He should have learned his lesson with the last gift he bought you. You don’t do cute outfits.” Not that she thought the kitty soldier uniform had been cute, much, but this one… well, it kind of was.
Pulling the outfit from the box, Isabelle held it up.
“Meow.” Bobbin brushed his head against the material.
Isabelle eyed the cat. “Seriously?”
“Meow.”
Shaking her head, Isabelle slipped Bobbin’s legs through the openings, then fastened the Velcro sides together under the cat’s belly. “A perfect fit.”
If not for the card calling to her, Isabelle would have laughed at the sight the cat made. As it was, her smile was short-lived as her gaze returned to the red envelope with her name written on it in Zach’s bold handwriting.
Rather than seal the envelope, he’d tucked the flap inside. Heart pounding and breathing shallow, Isabelle undid it and slid the card out, wondering at the thickness inside.
A jolly snowman wished her a Merry Christmas.
She opened the card. Music began playing, and a white gold chain and pendant almost fell to the floor before she could catch it.
Merry Christmas, Blondie. I’ll never see a snowman that I won’t think of you and Pine Hill. Thank you for teaching me what it means to be a part of a family. Love, Zach.
The pendant and chain tightly clasped in her palm, Isabelle reread the note over and over, trying to decipher any hidden meaning, then deciding there was none, despite how her gaze kept zeroing in on hisLove, Zach. He’d just been being his abominable self.
“He doesn’t love me,” she told Bobbin. “He couldn’t.”
“Meow.”
“Don’t give me that,” she ordered the cat, who was looking at her, smugly proud in his fuzzy snowman costume. “But he must have cared at least a little.”
Otherwise, why would he have bothered with the gifts? Then again, hadn’t he bought the quilt kits for Sarah? Maybe he’d just done what he considered polite. Maybe.
Her fingers shook so that she struggled with the clasp, but finally got the chain undone and around her neck. Re-hooking the clasp took even longer, but she managed, tugging the chain around to where the snowman pendant fell at her throat.
As she walked to the mirror, the snowman tugged at the hole in her heart.
“He doesn’t love me,” she repeated to her image. “And he’s ruined snowmen for me forever.” Not that he hadn’t already. Cradling the pendant, she sighed. “And what does it mean that I may never take this off?”
Bobbin’s only answer was another “Meow.”
*
Glowing with happinessand laden with presents, Sophie barely made it inside the house on Christmas morning when she froze. “Is Bobbin wearing a snowman costume? And how in this world did you get him to let you put it on him?”
Excited at seeing her sister, Isabelle enveloped her in a hug. “Would you believe he’s worn it all night and won’t let me take it off him?”
