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“It’s okay to talk about your parents, Megan,” Lily said. “When you’re ready.”
The girl looked back down at her bowl and stirred its contents halfheartedly.
“I understand how hard it is,” Lily said. “My parents are with the angels, too.”
All three girls looked up at Lily.
“So you’re just like us?” said Bridget. “Maybe that’s why I like you so much.”
Hannah got down off her stool again and came over and hugged Lily. “I like you, too,” the little girl said, looking up at her with heartbreaking blue eyes.
Emotion caught in Lily’s throat and she had to swallow hard to contain it. She smoothed a wayward dark curl off Hannah’s forehead.
“We need to stick together, don’t we?” Lily said.
Bridget and Hannah nodded. Megan stared at her, but now there was something softer in her expression. Lily knew not to push it, but all the signs were an indication that the girl would come around soon enough.
“Megan, do you know how to knead bread?” Lily asked.
The girl shook her head.
“That’s what you have to do to bread dough to make it good,” Lily said. “Would you like to learn? I’ll bet you’d be a good baker.”
The girl’s slight smile warmed Lily’s heart. After she got Bridget and Hannah set up to roll out the sugar cookies, she helped Megan mix the ingredients for the stollen.
“Don’t you think we need to have a Christmas tree if we’re going to have a Stollenfest?” Megan asked. “Do you think Uncle Cullen will get one?”
“I don’t know,” Lily said. “I can’t imagine why he wouldn’t, but we can ask him.”
After the words escaped, she wanted to take them back. Cullen wasn’t a traditional man. He could very well have no plans to get a tree. Sure, it was early in the month, but there was no evidence that he even intended to put up any Christmas decorations.
Decorating for the holidays had been a beloved tradition in Lily’s family. They’d always gotten their tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving and had it brimming with tinsel, ornaments and garland before they ushered in the month of December. Now here they were, well into the first week of the month, and they had some work to do if they were going to get this house in Christmas shape.
George sauntered into the room. Lily was happy when he seemed to take an interest in the dough that she and the girls were shaping into oblong loaves. When he started to poke at the dough, she had him wash his hands, which he did without any back talk.
He was coming around easier than Lily had expected. Her heart warmed and she thought it must be because of the basketball camp.
Score one for me. But George would be the real winner in the end, and that was all that mattered.
After he dried his hands, he went back to his place beside his older sister, where Lily had set out some bread dough for him.
“Lily, will you come over here and sit next to me and show me how to do this?” he asked.
“Of course, George. I’d love to.”
He really could be a sweet boy. She couldn’t believe that she had gotten through to him so easily. Then again, kids were resilient. Probably more so than adults.
As she pulled out the bar stool to sit down, Megan shrieked.
“Don’t sit there!”
Lily flinched, taken aback by the girl’s abrupt demand. She took in a deep breath and mentally counted to ten to steady herself. They would have to set some guidelines on what was appropriate and what wasn’t, but she didn’t want to overreact. Maybe she’d talk to Cullen and get him to help her out so the kids understood that she and Cullen were united when it came to expectations.
The image of Cullen with a bare muscled chest and strong arms that closed around her scurried to the forefront of her mind before she could preempt it. She blinked the image away.
“George, do not prank Lily,” Megan demanded. “He wanted you to sit on the whoopee cushion and then he was going to make fun of you for…” Megan made a face. “You know….” She reached over and put her hand down hard on the whoopee cushion so that it made its characteristic sound.
The little girls shot scathing looks at George.
