He stopped in the doorway and stilled.
The big sectional took up most of the far end of the room. A movie was playing low on the television across from it, the volume just above a whisper, the colors throwing soft, shifting light across the rug. The lamp on the end table was on at its lowest setting. Everything in the room was bathed in the warm, half-dark glow of a house at the end of a long day.
His heart stopped for a second before jolting, then hammered erratically in his chest as his eyes landed on Maggie.
She was tucked into the curve of the sofa with a soft cream blanket pulled up to her waist. Her shoes had been kicked off, her feet tucked under her. There were four sleeping children draped around her, as if she were the sun and they were small planets that had finally come to rest under her gravity.
Sophia was curled against Maggie's left side with her head on Maggie's shoulder. Lily had fallen sideways against Sophia, her braid sliding off the cushion. Emma was tucked into Maggie's right side with a smaller blanket of her own. Toby was stretched along the bottom of the sectional with his head pillowed on a large throw pillow, and Jake was lying flat on his back on the rug beside Toby with Buddy's head on his chest.
The dog's head moved to look at him, and his tail thumped gently in acknowledgment of his presence. Michael stood in the doorway with his hand on the doorframe. The scene made something crack open inside his chest. Something he'd been guarding so carefully for so long that he'd stopped noticing it was there.
He had loved his wife and the life they had together. They had built a beautiful home in Miami with their son. Each building their careers while still keeping their family close. Michael would always love Evelyn; she'd been one of his big true loves. He never thought he'd find love again, and even thinking about it brought guilt slicing through him. But as he stood in the doorway watching Maggie asleep on the sofa with four children draped around her, the shell around his heart had shattered.
Buddy whined, clearly torn between staying with Jake or bounding to greet Michael. He decided not to be rude and togo greet Michael. As the dog stood and turned, his tail knocked the mug on the table. Maggie's eyes shot open, and she looked around to see where Buddy was going, and they met Michael's eyes. They stared at each other for a few seconds before Buddy demanded Michael's attention, and he broke eye contact to pat the dog.
"Oh, hi," Maggie whispered. "You're back. How was it?"
"Hi," Michael whispered back. "It was hard work." He straightened, and Buddy sat beside him, leaning into his leg. "But it was so nice to spend time with Tom." He smiled. "I'm glad he's found someone, and Lila is really nice."
"Yes, she's an absolute sweetie," Maggie agreed.
Michael came closer. He stopped a few feet from the sectional and looked at the small sleeping pile of children with a soft smile. He could remember coming home late on many occasions to find Evelyn and his son, Ryan, asleep on the sofa. His heart pulled as he watched Maggie gently uncurl so as not to wake the girls using her as a pillow.
"Let me take this lot to bed," Michael said, crouching down to gently lift Jake, who rolled into his chest then settled in without so much as stirring. "Oh, how I wish I could sleep as deeply and contentedly as this."
"I know, right?" Maggie said with a soft, envious sigh, glancing at her grandson.
"I'll come back for Toby if you can wake the girls and then guide them to bed," Michael said.
"I will," Maggie said, waking the girls. "Come on, sleepy heads, let's get you to bed."
The girls groaned, stretched, and allowed Maggie to help them up, then followed Michael upstairs, along with Toby who had woken up.
"Is Gran back yet?" Sophia asked, masking another yawn.
"No, sweetie," Maggie answered her. "I'm sure she will be soon."
"And Uncle Michael?" Sophia asked, not having seen her uncle, as she was in a sleep daze.
"I'm right here, honey," Michael told her.
She looked up as Michael cleared the top stair, and she smiled. "Oh, I didn't even see you."
"That's because of invisibility," Michael teased.
Sophia laughed.
"Gramps!" Lily mumbled. "You don't go invisible." She yawned and rolled her eyes, shaking her head. "He thinks just because he can sneak up on you because he walks so quietly that he's invisible." She explained to a disheveled Emma, who was half asleep and looked like she was moving in zombie mode.
Emma gave a soft laugh. "Well, I've seen him turn invisible." She stuck up for Michael and grinned. "Remember the other day. One minute he was standing on the deck and then poof, gone."
"He walked into the house," Lily declared.
"The glass door was closed the entire time," Emma stuck to her story.
"Uncle Michael likes to do that on the deck," Sophia cleared up the illusion. "He disappears into the thorn bushes. There is a hole there. He is very good at creating an illusion." She glancedat Emma. "Uncle Michael gives us a Christmas Magic show each year. He's pretty good with it."
"That's why Gramps does his Christmas Magic show out on the deck when we're here," Lily explained to Emma with a pained sigh. "He wanted to be a magician when he was Jake and Toby's age."
