"Thanks for making all the cookies and entertaining Brett so I could get a tree," Hannah said.
"No problem. I'll check in with you tomorrow." Katherine paused. "You'll let me know if you hear from Kelly?"
"Absolutely."
"Thank you." She turned to him. "Good night, Jake."
He stood up. "I'll see you to your car."
Both Katherine and Hannah looked surprised by his words, but neither one argued, so he followed Katherine down the hall and out of the house. He walked her all the way to her vehicle.
She opened the door and then looked at him. "Why?" she asked.
"Why did I walk you to the car?"
"Why did you hurt Hannah? I thought you were in love with her."
His gut twisted at the question. "It wasn't intentional. I was going through a bad time, and I made a lot of mistakes in one night."
"I know about mistakes, and I'm sure you find it ironic that I would have the nerve to judge you when I've probably done worse things."
"I understand that you want to protect your daughter. I actually respect that."
"I didn't always protect her. I didn't take care of her the way I should have. But I'm trying to be a better person now." She took a breath. "I guess it annoys me that she's willing to give you a second chance but not me."
"Isn't she giving you a second chance?" he countered. "We just had dinner together. It seems like you and Hannah are getting along."
"Because of Brett."
"Whatever the reason, it's a start."
"I hope so. You don't just want to be Hannah's friend, do you?"
"No, I want to be more," he admitted.
"You're going to have to earn it. My daughter doesn't forgive easily."
"I know that. I'm willing to do whatever it takes."
"I used to think you were good for Hannah—until you weren't."
"I used to think the same thing about you," he returned.
Katherine drew in a quick breath as his comment hit home, and he kicked himself for probably going too far, but then she surprised him.
"Fair point," she said. "Let's both try to do better where Hannah is concerned."
"Sounds good to me."
"Good night, Jake." Katherine slid into her car and closed the door.
He stepped back as she drove away, relieved to have the conversation end on a positive note. He didn’t want to be another obstacle between mother and daughter. Hopefully, Katherine wouldn't put him in that position.
When he returned to the house, he went into the kitchen and saw the door leading to the garage open. As he entered the garage, he saw Hannah wrestling to get a big box off a shelf while Brett was already looking through another box on the ground.
He was almost to Hannah when he saw the box about to tumble down on top of her head. He grabbed it in the split second before it took her down.
"Thanks," she said with a breathless smile. "I thought I could manage it myself."
"You always think that," he said with a grin. "You hate asking for help."
"I do. But you keep showing up in the nick of time."
They were so close, he could feel her breath on his face, and he wanted to do nothing more than to steal a kiss from her sweet lips, but there was a little boy now edging between them, eager to see what was in the box they'd just taken down.
Hannah shrugged, amusement in her eyes. "I have a little chaperone."
"He has to go to bed sometime."
She flushed at that comment. "Let's just concentrate on decorating the tree. And since you want me to ask for help, why don’t you bring this box into the living room, and I'll bring the smaller one?"
"Done."
When they got back to the living room, Hannah put on Christmas music while he untangled the lights and Brett started pulling things out of the boxes, exclaiming with giddy delight at every new ornament that he unwrapped. And there were a lot of them. Hannah's father had been a very talented craftsman and the ornaments were beautifully carved. Hannah got emotional as she went through the ornaments, too, but she managed to keep it together. He knew she was doing that for Brett. She didn't want to mar his happiness with sadness from the past.
Once he had the lights organized, he wound them around the tree, thinking that he couldn't remember when he'd last decorated a Christmas tree. He didn't think he'd done it since he was in high school, and that was a very long time ago. "Is that enough?" he asked Hannah.
"I think so."
"Well, you can decide after I turn them on."
"Actually," she said, putting up a hand as he reached for the switch. "We can't turn on the lights until we decorate the tree."
"Is that a rule?"
"Yes."
"Okay, you're in charge. What's next?"
"Brett can start putting ornaments on the tree. We might need you for the upper part of the tree. Unless you'd like to be done?"
"No, I want to see this thing through to the end."
He stepped to the side as Brett started putting up decorations. "Those are very cool ornaments. Your dad made most of them, didn't he?"
"Yes. He loved his woodshop. He was extremely talented." She took a carved train out of a box. "This one was for me. I loved trains when I was little. When I was nine, my dad took me on a train trip from Colorado to Pennsylvania to visit my grandparents. I was in heaven. We even got to sleep on the train. I thought it was the most exciting trip I'd ever taken. The next Christmas, he made me this ornament."
She ran her fingers around the edge and then she looked up at him. "He's been gone forever," she continued. "But there are days when I still miss him so much. It feels like it was yesterday that he was here, that he was decorating the tree with us. My mom never did it. She
