Take Me Home for Christmas

“I swear. He said he was going to forget I ever even made the call.”

“Wow.” He stood behind her and slid his arms around her waist in an effort to warm her. Neither of them had bothered to put on a coat. “I’m sort of bummed about that,” he said.

“Why?”

“I like you better when you’re poor. Then I know you won’t be going anywhere,” he joked.

She glanced beyond him to see Alexa watching them through the window. When Sophia caught her eye, she blushed and ducked her head, but not before the sweetest smile Sophia had ever seen appeared on her face.

“I think my daughter’s figuring out that her mother has a boyfriend.”

Ted twisted around as Alexa looked up again, and her smile stretched from ear to ear. “Good,” he said. “Because I was planning to wait a few months before asking you to marry me, but that’s beginning to feel like a really long time.”

She let him turn her in his arms so they were facing each other. “We have to wait until spring,” she said. “We can make it that long, can’t we?”

“Why?”

“Because I want to type 80 words per minute by the time I get married.”

He started to laugh. “Seriously?”

“Stop! Yes. I have goals!”

“But now that you’re rich all on your own, neither one of us will have to sign a prenup.” He bent his head and whispered in her ear, “And if we get married right away, we won’t have to keep sleeping in separate beds.”

“Ah, now I see what you’re really after.”

“What can I say?” He nuzzled her neck. “Just looking at you drives me crazy.”

It felt so good to be loved and admired the way Ted loved and admired her. It was completely different from what she’d experienced with Skip. Ted didn’t hold her down; he buoyed her up. “There’s just one problem.”

“What’s that?”

“I’m not keeping the money.”

He straightened. “What will you do with it?”

“I’m not sure.” She rose on tiptoe to rub her cold nose against his. “But I have some ideas.”

“So you’ll be broke again? I was joking when I said I’d rather you be poor.” He was joking now; he didn’t seem to care about her financial situation.

“Yes, but don’t worry, I’ll still be good in bed.”

“At least you know what’s important,” he said and drew her inside, where it was warm.

* * *

The money from the ring came in on Thursday. Even though it was Christmas Eve, Sophia spent the afternoon going down the list she’d asked Kelly to send, making out checks. After that, she was so excited it was hard to get through dinner. Since she wasn’t handing the money over to the FBI, she’d decided to tell Alexa about the situation. She thought her daughter should know why she was doing what she was doing, and she had been surprised by how well Lex had taken the news. She hadn’t complained, hadn’t asked if they could keep some or all of it; she agreed with what Sophia had planned and was eager to participate.

Fortunately, Ted was on board, as well. He’d finished his book, so he was in a great mood and ready to take some time off for the holidays.

“You all set?” he asked when he walked into the living room to see her putting on her coat. “We’ll be intruding on everyone’s holiday, so we don’t want to show up too late.”

She gestured at the Christmas cards stacked on the coffee table. “Considering what’s inside those, I think people will want to see us, no matter what time we come, but I’m ready.” She removed a scarf from her pocket, and tied it around her neck. They weren’t having a white Christmas this year—but it was cold, and she’d be getting in and out of the car for the next two hours.

Grabbing the ends of her scarf, he pulled her to him. “You’re such an inspiration. You know that?”

“It’s nice to hear I have one convert.” She smiled as she remembered him telling her how beautiful she was, and how much she’d wanted him to say something more meaningful.

“I can’t help it if I’m smarter than everyone else.”

Alexa came hurrying in. “Okay, my cookies are in the car and I told Royce we’d drop them by.”

Sophia gathered up the stack of cards. Two hundred thousand dollars wasn’t nearly enough to be able to return everyone’s money, so she’d been forced to limit her payments to investors who lived in Whiskey Creek. Even then, she’d had to lay down some rules. Those who hadn’t taken anything from the house received twenty percent of what they’d lost. That meant Kyle would get $20,000, Noah would get $10,000, and ten other investors would each get $5,000. Those who’d come to the house and removed furniture and other goods would get five or ten percent, depending on the value of what they took—Reverend Flores, Eric Groscost, and eight others. Chief Stacy wouldn’t get a dime.

At first, Sophia hadn’t wanted to give anything to his girlfriend, either. She was afraid he’d benefit. But then she realized it wasn’t fair to hold Pam Swank responsible for her partner’s actions—that was exactly what had happened to her with Skip. So Pam was getting $15,000, which was half the remaining balance. The DeBussis would get the other half. That hadn’t been an easy decision, either, but they were Alexa’s grandparents.

“We’re not driving over to Jackson to deliver Pam Swank’s, are we?” Ted asked when he saw her name on the top card.

“No, I’ll mail that one.” She knew they might run out of time and would mail quite a few others, as well. Skip had had a lot of investors, even here in Whiskey Creek. But she wanted to hand-deliver as many as possible. It would be worth the effort to see the shock and excitement on the recipients’ faces. She was pretty sure she’d never feel more like Santa Claus.

Which reminded her...

“Don’t forget that Santa hat you wanted to wear,” she told Alexa, who ran to retrieve it from the kitchen.

“Shall we start with Noah?” she asked, thumbing through the cards while they waited.

Ted nodded. “That’ll be fun,” he said, and he was right. Noah and Adelaide were so surprised and grateful. Everyone else was, too. By the end of the night, Sophia knew that no Christmas would ever be as memorable as this one.

* * *

It was noon on Christmas Day, and the next few minutes were going to be awkward. Ted wasn’t looking forward to seeing Eve. Not after having such an incredible Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with Sophia and Alexa. Sophia had given him a digital scrapbook she’d created on the computer containing all the old photographs she’d saved from when they’d dated as teenagers; he’d given her the promise ring she’d returned when she married Skip. Their gifts hadn’t been expensive, but they’d been thoughtful and sentimental. He hadn’t wanted to give her so much that she couldn’t feel proud of her own gifts and, although he’d gotten her a few other things, he felt he’d managed that. They’d both spent most of their money on Alexa, who’d had a wonderful Christmas.

Ted hated to ruin an otherwise perfect day. But taking a homemade pie to Eve was so important to Sophia that he couldn’t say no. Besides, she was right. Now was the time to reach out to Eve, before she could build up too much resentment. He’d tried to wait a respectable amount of time after breaking up with her to start a relationship with Sophia, but...the laws of attraction had been working against him.

Eve took a while to answer the door. When she did, and saw them standing on her stoop, he could tell that she wasn’t too pleased, despite their peace offering. Her eyes shifted from Sophia to him and back again. Fortunately, Alexa wasn’t with them. They’d dropped her off at the DeBussis so she could spend a few hours with her grandparents.

“I’m afraid you caught me at a bad time,” she said. “I was about to head over to my parents’.”

Sophia spoke before he could. “We won’t hold you up. We just...we wanted to bring you this. And mostly we wanted to say that...of all the people we know, you’re one of our favorites. We both feel that way.”

Eve smiled politely and took the pie. “Thank you. I hope you have a merry Christmas.”

She started to go in and shut the door, but Sophia wasn’t satisfied. “Eve?”

Eve turned, eyebrows raised. “Yes?”

“We don’t want to lose your friendship. It’s a lot to ask that you forgive and forget, but...we—