Chapter 23: Christmas on Lake Road

Christmas morning began with a cat in the Christmas tree.

"She likes it," Tamara said from the sofa, with a mug of coffee. "Look at her. She's decided it's hers."

"It's a fake tree," Hamish said. "I bought it Tuesday."

"Then it's a very attractive fake place to be."

The cat was named Dolores and weighed fourteen pounds, and she looked down at us from the third branch.

I was sitting on the floor of the blue house with Theo asleep in my lap.

It was seven in the morning, and the radiator under the window ticked.

Snow was falling on the Harmons' empty lawn across the street.

The lake road house had a For Sale sign on its lawn again.

The buyer had backed out the week after the movers left.

Nobody on the street seemed surprised.

"Presents," Tamara said. "Now. I didn't bring a cat across town for nothing."

"You brought the cat because you couldn't leave her alone," I said.

"She has anxiety."

"She has a tree."

Hamish handed me the first box.

It was small and wrapped in brown paper, with a ribbon he had clearly tied three times.

Inside was a pair of thick wool socks, gray, with a pattern of tiny blue moons.

"Because of the foot thing," he said, not looking at me.

"I will wear them every day."

"Please don't."

"Every single day, Hamish."

Tamara squealed into her coffee.

I gave him a watch box.

He opened it and found his own watch, the one he had lent me.

Under it was a key on a loop of ribbon.

"It's to my sister's back door," I said. "The new stairs. Tamara says anyone who builds a staircase gets a key."