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Everyone found somewhere to sit, squeezing onto the sofas, finding a space on the floor. The children sat by the tree, close together.
Sisters.
Suzanne watched as Beth sent Jason a curious glance and unwrapped her present. It was a laptop bag in soft leather.
“If you’re going back to work, then you need to look the part,” he said, and Suzanne saw Beth’s eyes grow shiny.
“I told Corinna I didn’t want the job.”
Posy rocked back on her heels. “Well, hallelujah.”
“I’m glad,” Jason said. “That was a good decision. But there will be other jobs.”
“There will definitely be other jobs. Hopefully ones that don’t require you to work for a psycho nutcase.” Hannah moved closer to Adam. “We’ll help you. As soon as we’re back in Manhattan, we’ll come over to the apartment and make a plan.”
Melly scrambled to her feet with another gift. “This one is for Adam, from Hannah.”
Adam raised his eyebrows. “You got me a gift, even though you didn’t know I was going to be here?” He opened the small box and grinned. “Is this what I think it is?”
“It’s the key to my apartment.” Hannah went from confident to unsure, and even a little shy. “I thought, maybe, you could move in. Because my place is a little bigger than yours, but—”
“No buts. I’m moving in.” Adam caught her face in his hands and kissed her.
Suzanne held her breath. She could feel the emotion flowing between them. No movie or book she’d ever read had affected her the way watching the two of them did. It wasn’t just the fact that Adam was kissing Hannah, it was the way he was kissing her, and the way she was kissing him back. In that moment, she’d lost her reserve.
This was what she’d wanted for Hannah. Love. A love she could trust. A love she believed in and felt she deserved.
She turned her head and looked at Stewart and he gave her a brief smile, reading her mind.
Melly put her hands over Ruby’s eyes.
“I’m okay with kissing,” Ruby said. “I don’t mind kissing. Kissing is a happy thing. Is it my turn to open a present now?”
“I think it is.” Hannah extracted herself from Adam so that she could search under the tree. “Here’s one with your name on it. It says it’s from Santa.”
“But I already opened my presents from Santa.”
“Maybe he dropped this one on his way to fill your stockings. Or maybe he forgot and came back a second time.”
“It’s wrapped differently from the others,” Ruby said. “Different paper.”
Smart girl, Suzanne thought, but Hannah was one step ahead of her niece.
“Maybe a different elf wrapped it.”
Beth and Posy exchanged glances. Suzanne could see them wondering what had happened to their sister, but she knew that the only thing that had happened to Hannah was that some of her confidence had returned.
Hopefully over time, she’d find more of it.
Ruby tugged at the ribbon and tore at the paper. “It’s a box.”
Hannah sat on the floor next to her. “The gift is probably inside the box. You need to open it.”
Bonnie loped over to her to nose at the gift and Posy half rose to pull the dog back, but Hannah slid her arm round her and stroked her absently, watching as Ruby pulled the lid off the box.
The little girl gasped. “Oh!” And then she burst into tears.
Beth looked alarmed and Melly leaned closer, investigating the source of all that emotion. “It’s Bugsy!”
