Page 114 of The Holiday Heartbreaker

She handed him the smallest present. He unwrapped the end of it. “Bullets,” he said.

“A very nice woman in camo assured me that you cannot have too many of these.”

“She’s not wrong. Hey,” he said, grabbing the next box, which was identical. He shook it. “I’m going to go out on a limb and guess these are more bullets.”

“Correct.”

He opened six ammunition boxes in all.

“Can you use them?” she asked.

“I can. Thank you.”

There was another box, and she handed it to him.

He opened it up. She couldn’t wait for him to figure out what it was. “It’s a knife. But has, like, different kinds of blades you can put on it. Like a saw, and that hook thingy. It’s really cool. And utilitarian. It’s like a really big-boy Swiss Army knife.”

He laughed. “Okay. This is really cool. I love it. And...” Suddenly his smile faded. “I...”

“What?”

“I cannot remember the last time anybody got me a present.”

Except she could tell from something in his eyes that he did remember the last time someone had gotten him a present. And it wasn’t a good memory.

“It’s a good thing, right?”

“It’s a good thing,” he said. “Thank you. Thank you for this. I haven’t... Done Christmas morning. And you know what... I know it’s not going to be a tradition every year. But this is always going to be Christmas to me. This is what it will mean. This is how I’ll remember it.”

She blushed. “Good. I’m...” She leaned in and kissed him. Just kissed him. Not in a way that it was leading up to anything, not overly sexual, just to let him know that she was there.

He texted his family while she cooked breakfast, and her heart felt tender.

Then, after she got the turkey in the oven, they went to her room, and finally made use of the bathtub.

Which was sexier than any fantasy she’d ever had before.

But she had to cut it short, because she had more food to make.

At two o’clock, Lachlan, Charity and Charity’s father, Albert, arrived. Charity was holding a large Tupperware container filled with cookies.

“I don’t know if you have dessert, but I wanted to make sure I brought something,” she said.

“Perfect,” Elizabeth said. “We cannot have too much in the way of treats.”

Charity was such a sweet-looking woman, with long blond hair and floral dresses. She looked like she was part of another era, or maybe just a storybook. Elizabeth set the cozy table, and placed the turkey and all the sides out. She didn’t know these people very well. Well. Except for Brody. Who she knew better than she knew just about anybody. And it was a different kind of Christmas. But there was something sort of wonderful about it.

She wondered how Benny was doing. She wanted to call him, but she also didn’t want to disrupt the day. And in that way, it was good that she had distractions.

“Very kind of you to have us over,” Albert said.

He had a gentle, slightly distracted manner about him. There was something sort of fragile about the way his hands moved. He had on an old-fashioned newsboy cap and a tweed jacket, and Elizabeth thought then if she could have chosen a father, it might have been him.

“It’s my pleasure,” she said. “My son is away for Christmas.”

“That must be difficult,” he said.

He reached across the table and patted Charity’s hand. “I’ve never had to share her. She’s the best veterinary assistant I could have asked for.”

---