Page 96 of Mistletoe and Mischief

Rosie started into the dining room and paused in the doorway—underneath the mistletoe. Zach couldn’t have planned this better had he tried. He’d hung it there earlier and now, taking advantage of the opportunity, he slipped out of his chair and hurried toward his wife.

Rosie gave him an odd look as if she didn’t understand what he was doing.

“You’re standing under the mistletoe,” he told her.

Surprised, Rosie immediately looked up.

Taking her in his arms, he kissed her deeply, and with an exaggerated flourish bent her backward over his arm. He might be middle-aged, but he wasn’t dead yet and he loved his wife.

Anson and Allison hooted and cheered, but he didn’t need any encouragement.

“Zach.” Rosie was breathless by the time he released her.

So was he.

She planted her hand over her heart as though to slow its beat.

Zach winked at his son, who’d just joined them.

“I remember when we never used to see you and Mom kiss,” Eddie reminded them.

Disbelief on his face, Anson looked from Allison to Eddie.

“My parents were divorced for a while,” Allison explained. “I’m sure I told you.”

“You did, but...it’s hard to believe, seeing them now.”

Eddie pulled out a stool on Anson’s other side and propped his elbows on the counter. “It wasn’t a good year for our family, but it all turned out okay in the end.”

Anson shook his head incredulously.

“It was a long time ago,” Eddie said.

“Notthatlong,” Rosie countered.

“What happened?” Anson asked. “I mean, if you don’t mind talking about it.”

“Basically the divorce just didn’t work out for us,” Zach teased, his eyes meeting Rosie’s. That had been a difficult period in their marriage, but, as Eddie had said, it’d all turned out in the end, due in large part to...

“The judge... Well, she...” Rosie looked at her husband. “You tell them.”

“It was Judge Lockhart. That was her name back then. She’s Judge Griffin now. I think she could see that the divorce was a mistake for us, but she didn’t have any grounds for denying it the way she did with another couple we heard about.”

“Actually, I don’t think either of us would have accepted a denial. At the time, we were pretty much at loggerheads.”

That was putting it mildly, Zach thought, but kept quiet. No point in mentioning it.

“Mom and Dad wanted joint custody of Allison and me,” Eddie said. “If Judge Olivia okayed their parenting plan, it meant Allison and I would’ve had to change houses every few days. Three days with Dad, four days with Mom—that sort of thing.”

“They would’ve stayed in the same school district,” Rosie added. She closed the refrigerator and leaned against the kitchen counter, facing the three of them, all sitting at the breakfast bar. “Zach got an apartment a few miles from the house.”

“Judge Olivia told Mom and Dad they weren’t the ones who needed a stable life,” Allison went on to tell him. “Eddie and I were. The judge didn’t want us changing residences every few days, so she gave us the family home. Mom and Dad had to move in and out.”

“In other words,” Eddie said, “when Dad was with us, Mom stayed at his apartment, and vice versa.”

“Zach and I weren’t too keen on this plan,” Rosie inserted.

Anson grinned. “But apparently it worked.”

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