Shaking his head, Graham looked down at his cup. “I was thinking about staying at my dad’s house for a short while, maybe fix some things before I put it on the market.” He looked sad.
“Is something wrong?”
Graham started to speak then took a drink of coffee instead.
“Is it about the house?”
“Yeah,” Graham sighed. “Kind of.”
“What about it?”
Graham sniffed and swallowed thickly. “I don’t know,” he whispered. “Dad told me that during the holidays he would sit home alone imagining that we were all there with him, filling his home with laughter and maybe even grandchildren. That’s the only way he could cope with the holidays, especially Christmas…byimaginingus there.” He licked his lips slowly and looked at Micah with glossy eyes. “Until last year…when you invited him to spend Christmas day with you and your friends.”
Micah smiled as fresh tears formed. “It was a pleasure having him with us. Little Eli took to him right away, even started calling him Papa Sal.” He pursed his lips, his heart aching. “It made Sal really happy.”
“He talked about Eli,” Graham whispered. “And your friends. He said he wished he could have met the new little angel who would be part of the family by this Christmas.”
His throat working, Micah nodded. “Mary. She is truly an angel.”
Graham looked at him, his heart emanating through his beautiful emerald eyes. “You don’t know what that meant to him. For so long, he was alone and isolated…and you took him in and made him a part of a family again. I promise you, that was a gratitude he carried with him into the next life.” Graham blinked and gingerly wiped his eyes. “When he said you were an angel—a Christmasmiracle—it wasn’t simply a figure of speech, not for him. You stepped into his dark and lonely world and filled it with the light of hope and love and faith…and that light reached into our world as well, brightening it in a way we would have never believed possible.”
Micah gazed at the man. “I don’t know if I deserve that much credit,” he said softly. “I helped him write a letter, and I invited him to spend Christmas with us. I don’t know that that qualifies me as an angel or a miracle.”
Graham tentatively reached over and covered his hand. “It wasallabout you,” he said with a tremor. “That single act of kindness when you approached him and offered a helping hand…it set everything else in motion. If you had turned away without befriending him…he would have died alone without a soul in the world to care or even notice that he was gone. And the last words he would have ever heard from me would have beenI hate you.”He gently squeezed Micah’s hand. “I would have lived out the rest of my life with my heart filled with hurt and anger, and never trusting the love of another man, always feeling unworthy of that love. Me, Seth, and Gloria would have never gotten to know thegoodman our father became.”
Tremors ran through Micah. He hadn’t fully comprehended the impact of that one moment when he’d looked across the diner at the sad old man and made a choice that, at the time, seemed so insignificant.Thatwas the miracle—that such a small act of kindness could ripple out and touch so many people…heal their hearts…and change their world for the better.
“Youwere the miracle that changed everything,” Graham whispered. “Because of the kindness in your heart and your care for others. The world isn’t changed for the better by money or power or fame.” He held onto Micah. “It’s changed by the little acts of random kindness that most don’t notice or acknowledge. ButGodsees…and he rewards.”
Warmth rushed into Micah’s heart and he grasped Graham’s hand.
Yes…he does.
∞∞∞
The elation building in Graham’s heart as he and Micah held onto one another—was threatened when he abruptly recalled a little detail that he’d managed to previously shove to the back of his mind.
The other man.
The one who had been with Micah that morning in the airport terminal. The man whom Micah had clung to.
Just a…friend?
Their hug had been intimate. Graham’s immediate impression had been “boyfriend.”
Yet, here Micah sat—holding his hand—and looking at Graham like he was the only man in the world. Despite how it appeared, there could be no going forward until Graham knew for sure.
“The man that was with you at the airport…” Graham started then stopped, afraid of all this going away in the blink of an eye…the beat of a broken heart.
“Mark,” Micah said. “A friend from the city. Holidays with his family are rather unpleasant for him, so I invited him to spend Christmas out here with me and myadoptedfamily.”
“So, he’s a…friend.”
“Just a friend,” Micah confirmed with a warm smile and a gentle squeeze of his hand.
Relief shuddered through Graham. “Good to know.”
Micah squinted and picked up his cup. “That’s what your brother said when he made the same inquiry.” His smile stretched as he sipped his coffee.
