“No one calls you that.” Allie scoffed before propping her hands on her hips and glancing at the headstone. “Seriously, Katherine. No one calls him that.”
“We’ve got time to beat him at it,” Katie said, smiling innocently at Jacob as he pretended to gape at her. “What? It’s true. Give us a few more years of practice, and we’ll be the best there ever was.”
He covered his face with his hands. “How are you already ganging up against me?”
“You better get used to it.” Allie laughed, glancing back at me and threading her fingers through mine. “You have three women in your life now, and us girls? We stick together.”
“Where do you learn all that stuff?” he asked, but he couldn’t really hide his amusement about it. “If it’s at school, I think it’s time to change to a different school. Is there a ‘my dad rocks and is the best at everything’ school around here somewhere, Kat?”
Their banter continued and everyone spoke to Katherine as if she were right there with us. I truly believed she was. I’d always been able to feel my sister’s spirit there. That was why it’d been my place of comfort since her passing.
To share a special place like that with two new people in my life who were making a home in my heart brought a smile to my lips and peace to my soul. I could see from Katie’s expression that she felt the same.
She met my gaze while Allie and Jacob were telling Katherine about all the Christmas decorations we’d helped them put up. The smile she wore lit her up from the inside out, and my heart soared to see it there.
With each passing day, she was starting to look more and more like the happy little girl I remembered her being before. We’d weathered many storms together these last couple of years, but it seemed like both of us were finally starting to see the sunrise at the end of the dark stormy night it’d felt like we’d been stuck in.
We sat down on the blanket and drank the hot chocolate until eventually I realized Allie’s hands were shaking. It was a clear day out but a very chilly one.
“All right, guys. I think that’s enough for today. Let’s get inside. There’s a puzzle waiting on my dining-room table with our names on it. I’ve made us some lunch too.”
The girls nodded and jumped to their feet, but Jacob remained seated and brought his eyes to mine. “Want me to take them back to the car? It’ll give you some privacy with her.”
“Thanks. I’ll just be a minute.” I folded the blanket once we were off it, and Jacob took it and the empty flask from me.
Katie said her goodbyes to her mom, and I saw Allie wrapping an arm around her as they walked away. Once I was alone with my sister, I rested my hand on the cool granite of her headstone.
“You don’t need to worry about us anymore, big sister. We’re going to be okay.” I smiled. “I know it must’ve looked rough from up there for the last couple of years, but we’re not even only going to be okay now. We’re going to be more than okay. I promise.”
Epilogue
Jacob
Allie leaped into my bed on Christmas morning, her tiny hands wrapping around my shoulders as she shook me awake while yelling at what definitely sounded like the top of her lungs.
“Santa Claus came last night, Daddy! Wake up! Wake up!”
As I had gotten into the habit of doing every Christmas morning, I wrenched my eyes open as wide as they could go and shot out of bed. “What? Where? What did he bring?”
“I don’t know,” she replied, her voice still raised with excitement as she jumped off the bed and grabbed my hand. “Let’s go see! Quickly!”
I laughed but followed her out of the room anyway. “There’s no rush, honey. If Santa’s already been here, he’s not going to come back to take the presents he’s already left.”
She didn’t let my statement slow her down in the slightest. We rushed downstairs to find the tree packed underneath with presents.
The stockings I’d hung in front of the fireplace—all four of them, including two new ones with Katie and Laurie’s names on them—were bulging. I knew, obviously not from personal experience, that there wasn’t space left to fit even a ballpoint pen in them.
“Look, Santa ate his milk and cookies,” Allie yelled and I winced. Her volume control went out the window completely on Christmas morning. “The reindeer nibbled on their carrots!”
“I’m sure they were very happy to get something to eat,” I said. “They have to make such a long journey each year. Santa gets left lots of snacks, but too many people forget about the reindeer.”
Her chest puffed out. “I didn’t forget about them.”
“No, you didn’t.” I pulled her into a hug and kissed the top of her head. “Merry Christmas, my little one. How about we go make some hot chocolate for you and coffee for me?”
“Can we open presents first? Please?” She brought her palms together with her fingers facing up once she’d stepped out of my arms. “Please. Please. Please.”
“We have to wait until Laurie and Katie get here, sweetheart. We promised.”
“When are they coming?” She followed me to the kitchen and hopped onto the counter while I fixed our drinks. “Will they be here soon? We can just open one now and leave the rest for later.”
“We’re already opening only a few after they get here, remember?” I stirred some extra sugar into her hot chocolate because it was Christmas and she deserved whatever she wanted—even sugar in an already sweet, sugary drink.
“We’re really waiting until Granny and Grandpa get here before we open the rest?” She sighed. “I thought you were joking.”
“I wasn’t. Katie’s granny and grandpa are coming too. It’s the first time we’re meeting them and the first time the grandparents are meeting. It’ll be fun to open all their presents with them.”
Plus, hopefully, it would also serve as an ice-breaker in case the conversation was stilted and awkward. I was surprisingly nervous about the big meeting, but I was also really looking forward to having a big Christmas dinner as a family. So was Allie, despite the angles she was trying now in order to open her presents sooner.
In the last few weeks, we’d all gotten closer than ever before. If there had been any doubt before about wanting to make them part of our family officially as soon as humanly possible, which I didn’t remember there being, it was long gone.
I’d genuinely considered proposing to Laurie today, but eventually, I’d decided against it. She’d come one hell of a long way since we’d met, but I didn’t want to force yet another big change on her quite that fast.
There had been enough of those for a while. I already had a ring tucked away in my safe, and I was planning on asking her as soon as the dust settled a little. They wouldn’t have to move in with us or anything. In fact, I kind of liked the idea of us moving into their house. There was more than enough space, it was closer to the school, and I was starting to realize that maybe Allie and I weren’t a city family after all. In the meantime, there was also the present I was giving her later today, which should help make my intentions perfectly clear.