Page 53 of Merrily Ever After
“Boring?” he asks with a grin.
“No,” I sigh. “You’re like Dad.Reasonable.”
“I don’t know, Dad can be pretty romantic. He can,” he adds at my scoff. “Just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not there. You know he’s a big softie on the inside.”
I do know that. But I can’t exactly imagine him sprinkling rose petals around the house. He’d just spend the whole time thinking how he was going to have to clean them up.
“Besides,” Liam says. “Mairead would have hated anything like that. You know she’s shy. We’re romantic in our own ways.”
“In what ways?”
He shakes his head.
“Tell me.” I pout. “You can’t say that and not tell me.”
“We just try and make each other happy.” But he knows that’s not good enough for me. “There was one moment that sticks out,” he says. “From her. It was the first time we decided to spend Christmas morning together and not with our families. We didn’t think it would be a big thing, but it’s a weird kind of step you take as a couple. And she knew what it was like in our house. I told her about how there would be no presents under the tree until the morning. How we’d wake up and the place would be magically full. The footsteps by the fireplace. A bite out of a carrot. I told her that I wanted to do that with our kids one day.” His eyes go to Elsie, who’s still fast asleep. “Anyway, on Christmas morning, I wake up and the bed is empty, which is unusual because she normally doesn’t get up until a few hoursafter me. I hear noises downstairs, so I sneak down and it turns out she’s already lit a fire and got the house warmed up. And not only that, but the reason she’d gotten up early was to put my present under the tree.”
“Okay, that’s pretty cute,” I admit.
“It was. And on top of that, she’s still in her pajamas and wearing my work boots. They’ve got to be two sizes too big for her at least, and I was confused before I realized she’d dipped them in the fireplace ashes from the night before.”
“Stop it.”
“Yeah.”
“She was making Santa’s footsteps?”
“She was. I’d never seen such a look of concentration on her face. She wanted me to have a good Christmas.”
“What did you say?”
“Nothing. I went back to bed. Pretended to be asleep so she could surprise me. She was so happy. And she wanted more than anything formeto be happy. I never forgot it. And the next year, we had Padraig and I got to help her do it myself.” He smiles. “You don’t have to give Daniela the moon, Hannah. Not if she’s the one. But I think it’s nice that you want to try. And I think she’ll appreciate it no matter what you do.” He nods toward the window. “Your chariot is clean, by the way. Needs your touch, but it will work. We can do the rest in the morning.”
“Thank you,” I say. “Really.”
“Thankyou,” he says, looking at his daughter. “You okay here?”
I nod.
“I’ll leave the light on in the loo in case you need it. Make sure the fire’s out.”
“I will,” I whisper, sitting up gently as he gets to his feet, but Elsie doesn’t stir as Liam lifts her up into his arms and carries her out. I wait until his footsteps fade before snuggling backdown and pulling the blanket over me. I fall asleep, gazing at the tree in the corner and thinking of all the Christmases to come.
Chapter Four
The next day, I pull up to the house and beep the horn.
I spent all morning doing the van up. Liam did a brilliant job of getting it clean, to the point where I just did all the fun stuff. I had plenty of help, too. Elsie took it upon herself to be in charge of building a blanket fort in the back and Mairead let me borrow some decorations to give the space a festive touch. The end result is charmingly ramshackle, but undeniably perfect. I haven’t stopped smiling since I saw it.
Another beep, and Andrew trundles out, whistling when he sees me. “Cool,” he says. “Where’s Scooby-Doo?”
“Shut up.”
“It looks great,” he says, and I shrug, pleased, as Molly and Mam rush out.
“Everyone helped,” I say graciously as Molly peeks inside.
“Hannah, this isamazing.” She opens the side door and steps into the main area. It’s not big by any means. Two seats up front. A small double bed in the back. The toilet works, and so does the refrigerator, but we didn’t have any gas for the cooker and let’s just say I won’t have any problem sticking to the speed limit. I strung battery-operated lights and holly along the cab section and hung glittering snowflakes from the ceiling. The bed is made up with a large red and white quilt with cushions to match and, most importantly, it no longer smells of sheep.
