Mia tore her gaze away from him and climbedout of bed to retrieve her clothes. “There’s somewhere I’d like togo tomorrow,” she said as she slid her bra on.
“Where?” David asked.
Mia stared at the slats of the wooden floorbefore lifting her head to look at him. “You’ll see.”
David frowned, but he didn’t push her on it.She would let him know when she was ready. “Then we will go.”
CHAPTER 16
Mia took the mugs of steaming hot chocolatefrom Sera and set them on the tray next to other mugs Sera hadmade.
“This is a habit left over from my humandays,” Sera said to her. “It never seems like Christmas until I’vehad some hot cocoa. David and I may be the only ones who stilldrink it, but I always make enough for everyone.”
Sera’s eyes twinkled as she handed Miaanother mug. “I don’t suppose you’ve ever tried it?”
“I haven’t,” Mia admitted. “But it doessmell better than a lot of other human foods I’ve encountered.”
“That’s the chocolate, and the marshmallows.You should try a sip. If you’ve never had chocolate, you’re missingout.”
Mia stared at the mug in her hand andsniffed cautiously at the thick brown liquid inside. Sera wouldn’tsteer her wrong, but she’d never eaten human food before. Thoughshe supposed technically it was a liquid, and she’d tried alcoholbefore. The alcohol hadn’t been too bad, but this brown stuff withthe white puffs floating in it made her a little uncertain.
She glanced up as Sera turned away andremoved a tray of cookies from the oven. The cookies smelled good,but Mia wanted nothing to do with the Santa shapes on the cookiesheet. The smoky scent of the crackling fire drifted into thekitchen to mingle with the aromas of the sugar cookies andchocolate.
“Does anyone eat those?” she inquired.
“No,” Sera sighed. “Not even me anymore, butit wouldn’t be Christmas without the smell of them. I startedbaking them with oats a while ago. The kids throw them outside forthe deer at the end of the day.”
Sera closed the oven and wiped her hands onher apron. Mia was closer in age to Sera’s children, and all thekids were friendly and welcoming, but the siblings’ bonds with eachother were extremely tight. Sera was their mother, and though shelooked the same age as her children, and they were closer than mostfamilies Mia had encountered over the years, Sera maintained thatmotherly role.
Sera had friends there, with the Stooges,but Mia sensed that Sera had also been missing out on having afriend of her own. One who was separate from her husband’schildhood friends, and her children’s mates.
Mia had never really had a friend, but she’dstarted to consider Sera one. She welcomed Sera’s warmth andopenness in her life. She hadn’t realized she’d been craving afriend to talk and laugh with over the years until now.
Mia blew on the steam wafting up from themug and took a cautious sip of the liquid. Her lips pursed when itfilled her mouth. She tried to swallow it down, but her throatclosed against it. Leaning over the mug, she discreetly spit itback in.
She lifted her head to find Sera watchingher with her lips compressed, her face turning red as she tried notto laugh. “Just like my kids. No taste.” Sera chuckled and took themug from her to pour it down the sink “Apparently purebred vampireshave no appreciation for sweet things.”
“Is that what you consider sweet?”
“Yeah,” Sera said as she lifted another mug,blew on it, and took a sip. “At one time, it was definitelysweet.”
“And now?”
“Now I’m not sure,” Sera admitted with asigh.
“I’ll take the tray into the other room foryou, if you’d like?” Mia offered.
“No, even David didn’t take more than a sipof it last year.” Sera placed her mug on the counter as a burst oflaughter erupted from the living room. “But they’ll all still drinkthe eggnog, if I pour enough rum into it.”
“Rum would make the hot chocolate go downbetter too.”
“Maybe one day I’ll let the last of thesehuman things go.”
“Don’t,” Mia said. “Traditions aregood.”
“They are,” Sera agreed. “And you’ll be apart of them from now on.”
“At least next year, I’ll know not to trythe hot chocolate.”
