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Miracolo di Natale. A real Christmas miracle.
Sly leaned around Maria, taking the cookies from Tess. “I’ll leave you two to your girl talk. You,” he said, already popping the lid off the tupperware, “can, uh, just tell me when supper’s done. I’ll wait in here.”
“Don’t spoil your appetite,” Maria said teasingly.
As if he could. When it came to eating, Sly could give her brother a run for his money.
“He knew.”
“You say something, sweetie?”
“You don’t have to look so worried, Maria. We didn’t come here to ruin your Christmas or anything. Luc… he already knew about you and the sheriff. He thinks Sylvester Collins is good for you.”
Maria was so startled by Tess’s admission, she nearly dropped the eggs she pulled out of the carton. To think she was surprised at Lucas’s reaction to Sly’s reveal of their coupledom. That was nothing compared to what Tess just said to her.
He knew.
Well, that explained it. All this time, Maria thought she was doing an excellent job of hiding her relationship from everyone in Hamlet—and mainly Lucas—and it turned out that she hadn’t fooled anyone.
“I’m glad,” she said weakly, placing the eggs down on the counter before reaching for a bowl. The water for the pasta was already on the stove, the bacon working in a pan. She had just started gathering the ingredients for the sauce when Tess dropped her bombshell. Taking a moment to compose herself, she said, “And Lucas? My brother, he’s good for you, too?”
Tess’s lovely face came to life at the mention of Lucas. She might’ve gaped in awe at all of the decorations, but now her expression was flushed with love. “He is, Maria. He really, really is.”
“Bene.”
4
With that tidbit in mind, Maria approached dinner a lot more cheerily than she thought she would have when she first discovered Lucas and Tessa on Ophelia’s porch. Lucas approved of Sylvester, even if he didn’t actually like the other man, and whatever happened after Lucas left Hamlet—and she would be finding it all out eventually—Lucas was much happier with Tess than he had ever been with his first wife.
Ah, Caitlin. She missed her ex sister-in-law, and hoped the poor woman was resting in peace. Even so, Maria knew it wouldn’t truly be Christmas without Caitlin’s failed attempts at creating an innovative fruitcake.
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And Lucas thought she couldn’t bake.
With all of the cooking she had planned for Christmas Eve, then Christmas Day, Maria had decided on a simple pasta with carbonara sauce for supper that night. The silky and rich sauce with the hints of salty, smoky bacon goodness would warm Sly up after his long day at work; a comfort dish like that was good for the belly and good for the soul.
She was careful to triple the recipe, knowing how much Lucas could put away—and aware that he hadn’t had any of her cooking in months. Throwing together a salad and toasting some of the bread she made last night, dinner was served.
As Sly and Lucas dug into the meal, Maria kept up a pleasant stream of conversation. In between bites off her own plate, Tess joined in, and Maria was grateful. She was glad to see that her boyfriend and her brother were getting on as well as could be expected.
What was she so worried about? She should’ve stopped keeping them apart ages ago!
From time to time, Sly added something to whatever Maria was talking about, and at one point Lucas even agreed. Considering how she expected Lucas to grill Sly mercilessly about every detail of their relationship when he found out about it, this cozy meal went way past her wildest expectations.
Because Maria secretly recognized her shortcomings when it came to dessert, she ordered three separate pies in advance for Christmas from Adrianna down at the coffeehouse: chocolate cream pie, cranberry crumble, and a pumpkin chiffon. And because she remembered how fond Tess was of chocolate—a woman after her own heart—Maria went and retrieved the chocolate cream pie from the refrigerator.
She was just serving each of them a large slice with a healthy dollop of whipped cream when a deep, raspy voice could be heard coming from somewhere underneath the kitchen table.
“Sly? Come in, Sly.”
There were only a handful of people in Hamlet who had the direct line to the sheriff’s communicator. Maria, of course, and Willie Parker, the administrator for the Hamlet Sheriff Department and Sly’s assistant.
But that was a man’s voice so it could only be one person: Ricky Hart, Sly’s Marine buddy and the newest member of the HSD. One of Sly’s two deputies, Ricky was the only one who knew the sheriff personally enough to not only page him directly, but to call him by his nickname instead of his title.
A Hamlet local—and the man who brought Sly to Hamlet when their tour of duty for the Marines ended—Ricky Hart was about five years older than Maria, and an old friend of Lucas and Caitlin’s. He was also one of the only locals who got out of Hamlet. Though, after being gone for more than eight years, Ricky eventually moved back.
No one ever really escaped Hamlet, she knew, even if Lucas was the latest to give it a try.
