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“Daddy?”
“Yeah?”
“Aren’t you going to get changed?”
He glanced down at himself. He was wearing his Christmas pajamas. They matched in with hers. The bottoms were loose with red and green stripes. The front of the top had an image of Santa’s smiling face.
“Why would I need to change? These are my Christmas PJs, right?”
“Yeah.” She gave him a shy look. “I just didn’t know if you wanted the others to see them.”
Oh, she had a surprise coming.
* * *
Keira pattedherself on the back for her patience.
She couldn’t believe Zander had made her wait until he’d put on coffee before letting her go into the living room. She came to a stop when she saw the piles of presents under the tree.
“Daddy! Santa’s been here! We must have been good!”
She blushed as she saw the others coming into the room. But her blush soon turned to a grin, then tears.
They were all wearing Christmas pajamas. Honey’s had a reindeer on the front. Miles actually wore a onesie with reindeer antlers on the hood. Webb had a Christmas tree on the front of his top and the baubles lit up. She guessed he hadn’t slept in that. Eli’s pajamas were covered in candy canes. And Ammo, well, he had an image of Santa and Mrs. Claus kissing under mistletoe.
Now, she might have thought this was usual for them, but Miles had told her they never wore Christmas pajamas when she was ordering some for her and Zander.
“You guys, you look amazing,” she told them in a husky voice.
Don’t cry. Don’t cry.
“Merry Christmas.” Miles hugged her. When he let her go, Webb wrapped her up in his arms and spun her. Followed by Eli. To her shock, Ammo gave her a short hug. Then she looked to Honey.
“It’s okay, you don’t have to,” she told Honey.
Honey nodded. “I figure maybe one day, we’ll get there. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry for my attitude. I didn’t trust you and I was worried about Zander. That he’d get taken in by you and that you’d hurt him. But after he was shot, well, I saw how scared you were and I realized that you really did love him. I was also blinded by Charlene.”
“It’s all right. I get it. I’m not everyone’s cup of tea.”
“Yeah? Seems you’ve won over some tough characters.” Honey grinned. “Never imagined I’d see Ammo in Christmas pajamas. Remind me to take a photo. It would make a great Christmas card.”
Ammo threw a cushion at Honey, which she dodged with a laugh.
The next few hours, Keira laughed so much that her cheeks ached. She ripped her way through her gifts, paper going everywhere. There were fuzzy socks, a new hat with mouse ears, even somePinky and the Braintoys. She had no idea how Zander found those. Video games, board games, ear muffs, decorating tools for icing cookies and cupcakes and a few more pairs of all-in-one pajamas.
She’d bought everyone gifts that they seemed to like. But she watched anxiously as Zander picked up his.
It was something she’d created when he was busy working.
He looked it over, read through the pages, then looked to her. She swore she saw tears in his eyes. “You made this, baby girl?”
“I drew all the pictures, and I wrote out all the words.” That was the hard part, but she’d done it. She’d created him his own book.
The story of Daddy and his Little Thief.
He drew her onto his lap, and he hugged her tight. “This is so special, I can’t believe you did this for me.”
It hadn’t been easy, there had been times she’d wanted to stop and give up. But it had also been therapeutic. Her writing wasn’t perfect. But it didn’t need to be.
