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“Hear, hear!” they cried out, Oliver pulling her over in a bear hug.

“I guess my father took it seriously when I told him you agreed to marry me,” he said, grinning down at her.

“How does he even know?”

“I told Clare, and she must have called him right after we left.”

Charlie and Lila sat down at the end of the table, smiling at Wendy, whose head spun. For being a coolheaded trauma nurse, nothing could have prepared her for dinner with the Saints.

Late that night in a call, she confided in a work friend from Michigan, a nurse named Linda, who was up early, opening gifts with her kids.

“So how was it?”

“I’m afraid most of them are maniacs. The men arm wrestle every chance they get. The table is cleared; the arms come out. They wrestle on the floor, too. The kids—I lost track of the kids there are so many—get involved, and it seemed like there are arms and legs flailing all over the place.

“And the food! After the shrimp cocktail that they had in honor of me because someone heard it was a favorite of mine, they served clams casino, then a fried-fish dinner that was unbelievable.

“There isn’t a fat person in the group but Big Mike. Roberta is as thin as a rail, you know the type, you can never be too rich or too thin, and the alcohol is freely flowing the entire time. I never saw Roberta with a drink, and then Candy, who I guess must be the town crier, whispered that Roberta is a lifetime member of AA.”

Lying on her back, she looked up at the ceiling. It was three in the morning and they’d just gotten home a half hour earlier.

“We went to midnight mass after dinner, and when we got back to the house, all the food came out again. In the meantime, Big Mike and one of the sisters-in-law prepped the turkey for Christmas dinner. I thought I’d barf.”

“Was it all bad?” Linda said.

“No, it really wasn’t. They did a toast to me, calling me the newest member of the Saint family. I swear, it was in passing, Oliver asked me if I’d marry him, and I said of course. I wasn’t even sure he was serious. But evidently he told his mother I said yes, and she called the father, and the father with his big mouth told the rest of the never-ending family.”

Linda laughed, commiserating with her friend, who she knew as being an intensely private person. “I guess you didn’t tell Oliver yet that you are private.”

“No, I failed that one miserably. It’s probably too late. His feelings will be hurt if I mention it now.”

“You can’t blame him, then. Wait until he doesn’t associate it with something he’s done.”

“Okay, good advice, Linda, thank you. I guess I’d better let you take care of your family, and I’ll get some sleep. We don’t have to be back there until four this afternoon. They invited us for breakfast, but Oliver said no, thank god.”

She fell asleep around four and at nine woke up to rain hitting the window. It was quiet in the house, Sadie snoring at the foot of the bed. Lying there, she knew five hours wasn’t enough sleep, but history told her she wouldn’t be able to fall back to sleep. Carefully swinging her legs out of the bed, she tiptoed to the bathroom, trying not to wake Sadie up, who would refuse to go out to pee unless someone covered her with an umbrella.

After brushing her teeth and hair, outlining her lips with a rose pencil, she slipped on clothes and opened the door. Sniffing the air, she smelled coffee. The dog still hadn’t budged, so she went out into the hall, remembering the way to the kitchen.

Oliver was at the counter with his phone, drinking coffee, and Charlie was at the stove, frying bacon.

“Did the smell of bacon wake you up?” they chorused.

“Ha! No, I don’t think so. I can’t sleep in anymore, no matter how late I was up the night before. When I’m on call, I can work all night, and then when I try to take a nap, I can never sleep longer than an hour.”

“It must be a girl thing, because I never have any trouble sleeping.”

“Why are you up, then?” she asked.

The men looked at each other and laughed.

“I’m not sure. I guess because who can sleep on Christmas?” Oliver replied. “I’m still a kid at heart.”

“Are you opening gifts? Because I didn’t think to get either of you anything. I’m so sorry.”

“It’s no problem. You didn’t know that my heart will be crushed until next year,” Charlie said, teasing. “Anyway, we open gifts at my brother Mike’s now. As you can see, I didn’t even bother with a tree this year.”

“I don’t have one,” Wendy said.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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