Being here in Shelter Springs had softened something inside Ryan.
Was it possible for them to move past the wounds of the past? Did he even want to try?
“I know I haven’t said it nearly enough but I love you,” the colonel said into his continued silence. “I have been proud to be your father every single day of your life.”
How could he simply release all of that resentment and pain and move forward as if none of it mattered?
He thought of Holly at the wedding of her ex-husband’s sister. Troy had cheated on her, had walked away from her and their gift of a child and married his mistress.
Somehow, despite everything, Holly had managed to smile and chat with his family and do her best to make Kristine’s wedding joy-filled and memorable.
More than that, she had handed over her daughter to her ex-husband so that Lydia could spend Christmas with her father.
She was amazing and brave and resilient. In contrast, he felt shriveled up inside with old resentment and pain.
His father wanted to forge a new relationship. Ryan had no idea what that would look like but he suddenly realized it didn’t matter. Christmas was a time of forgiveness and healing.
What had his anger accomplished anyway?Ryanwas theone who had suffered because of it. He was the one who had deprived himself of a closer connection with his family.
His father had moved on. He had met and married Diane, had moved here and started a flight business so that he could enjoy semiretirement with the woman he loved in a small mountain town beside a lake.
Doug had done the hard work to repair his relationship with Kim, healing it enough that Ryan’s sister had moved here for a new start and to be closer to their father and stepmother.
Ryan was the one on the outside now. The one who had spent virtually every holiday of his adulthood either working or on his own.
He needed his family, with all their scars and imperfections.
These past weeks here in Shelter Springs had showed him the importance of connections. Of family. Of community.
He didn’t want to be on the outside anymore.
At his continued silence, his father finally looked away. “These steaks need another five minutes. You don’t have to stay out here in the cold.”
“I’m not cold,” he said. It was true, despite the softly falling snow and the winter wind coming off the lake. Something inside him had begun to thaw, some hard kernel of ice that had built up inside him layer by layer since his mother died.
He smiled. “How often do I get the chance to talk to my dad on a beautiful snowy Christmas Eve?”
His father gave him a long, steady look and something passed between them. Nothing more needed to be said.
Doug’s smile was warm and filled with joy. His father looked happier than Ryan had seen him in years.
As he stood beside his father in the fragile peace of a snowy Christmas Eve, Ryan felt as if he had set down a heavy weight he hadn’t realized he had been carrying for years.
Chapter Twenty-Three
THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA.
Holly actually felt happy for the first time all day as she stuffed some pajamas into her favorite tote bag.
Spending time with her family was exactly what she had needed to lift her sagging spirits, to remind her that she came from strong people who had endured things she couldn’t even imagine.
Both of her parents had come from broken, abusive homes and both had managed to stop the pattern with their own family, helping their children become decent, caring humans.
Were they perfect parents? No. But she had never for one single moment doubted that she was loved and she knew each of her siblings would say the same.
She was packing a few basic toiletries when the doorbell rang.
Who would be coming for a visit on Christmas Eve? All of her neighbors had already delivered small gifts and her close friends were enjoying Christmas with their own families.
