“He’s getting Daddy,” she said just as Adam and David surfaced at the other end of the hallway. Olivia had been so excited, she’d pulled Carrie into the hallway without letting her get ready for the day. She’d barely brushed her teeth. Carrie hadn’t fixed her hair yet, and she still had on her moon and stars flannel pajamas. Adam grinned at her, and she knew that it didn’t matter. Adam himself had on a T-shirt and plaid pajama bottoms, his feet bare. He looked so handsome—just like that—his hair pointing in different directions, David holding his hand. Of course that night at Ashford, when they’d been all dressed up, he’d looked fantastic in his tuxedo, but she liked him better just like this.
The four of them walked together downstairs to the Christmas tree. She’d stayed up with all the men as they’d worked tirelessly to build and install the tube slide jungle gym that Adam and Carrie had bought. There was something so perfect about holding Olivia’s hand, David and Adam beside her, that she couldn’t image being anywhere else on Christmas. She’d only been with the Fletcher family a short time, but they’d impacted her life in a big way. As they walked together, she realized how they’d taught her as much as she’d taught them. They’d taught her how to live life in a way, and she knew they could teach her so much more, if she just had the time. But mostly, they were open now to learn from each other. Carrie didn’t know what she was going to do come New Year’s. She’d been hoping for a chance to make conversation with Adam last night, but he’d been so busy building the play set that she’d never had a chance to talk to him.
They entered the living room, and David and Olivia ran full speed past the half-eaten cookies they’d left for Santa, toward the stockings they’d painted with Carrie. They’d not had a chance to fill them at the candy store, so Santa had done it, and wow, had he delivered! Small toys, candy, peppermints—they filled the stockings like Christmas confetti, the fabric bulging under the weight of it all. Carrie looked over at Adam when she saw what was in them, and he smiled. When had he thought to buy candy? She helped the children get the stockings down off the mantle, and then she sat on the sofa next to Adam.
The tree was the only light in the room apart from the gray of morning coming through the windows. When she’d first gotten there, Adam hadn’t even planned on that tree, he’d barely been with them when they’d bought it, and he hadn’t even taken part in decorating it. But now, it stood as if it were looking over them as Olivia ran over to her daddy to show him a pack of crayons she’d gotten in her stocking. Olivia ran back to David to inspect his stocking. As she watched them, Carrie realized that she, too, needed change in her life. She finally realized that she wanted a life even more than she wanted to work. She wanted this for herself.
“Thank you,” Adam said quietly, looking at the children, but she knew he’d meant it for her. He turned and looked right at her. They were so close that normally she’d have worried about their proximity, but this morning, it all seemed so right.
“Thank you for what?” she asked.
“Thank you for showing me what I was missing.”
There was a creak on the stairs, and then the sound of footsteps. Joyce came into the room in her bathrobe and slippers. “Good morning,” she greeted Adam and Carrie. Olivia ran to show her the items in her stocking. “Oh, that’s lovely, Olivia.” After offering Olivia and David attention and seeing all the things they had in their stockings, she said, “I’m going to make a pot of coffee. The others are on their way down.”
Only a few minutes after, as the coffee was percolating in the kitchen, the aroma of it seeping into the living room, the others came downstairs. Sharon sat down on the floor with the kids as everyone else made themselves comfortable on the love seat and chairs around the room. Walter was the last to come in, pushing his way across the floor with his walker. He sat down next to Carrie.
“This is an ungodly hour. You know that, right?” he said with a smirk. He looked at the kids and shook his head. “I don’t really mind, though. You think the magic of Christmas morning is over once your own kids grow up, but then you get to have it again with your grandkids, and, if you’re lucky, your great-grandkids. I guess that makes me one of the lucky ones.”
What Walter had said stayed with Carrie. She realized as she watched David and Olivia, Walter, and even Sharon, that everything she’d experienced up until this point in her life was just preparation for the life that was to come. She knew what she wanted, and how easily it could come if she found the right person. She had no idea if Adam would be the one for her. All she knew was that loving him was as easy as breathing, and she couldn’t stand to be away from him. Sitting next to him now, she wanted to curl up against his chest and relieve her eyes of the sleep-deprived ache that was there from staying up so late. Perhaps another Christmas, she thought.