A Family Under the Christmas Tree by Terri Reed

on and figured you were still up,” she said with clattering teeth.
    He needed to get her inside and out of the cold fast. “Come in before you freeze.” He stepped back and she entered. If everything was okay, why was she here?
    She shivered as he helped her out of the wet rain slicker. Beneath the slicker she had a silver laptop pressed to her chest. “I was hoping you’d be able to help me. I was uploading my photos from Gran Canaria and my computer wigged out.”
    He led her to the dining room table and took the laptop from her shaking hands. “Here, let me get you a cup of hot coffee or tea. Or hot cocoa. Troy loves hot cocoa.”
    â€œDo you have any herbal tea?” She followed him into the kitchen. “I don’twant the caffeine this late in the night.” She eyed the half-full pot of coffee in the coffeemaker. “Apparently you do.”
    â€œHey, if I’m going to get any work done while the little man sleeps, I need the jolt of energy.” He set a tea kettle to boil and pulled out a tin of gourmet teas. “I think there’s something herbal here. Daniel and Beth sent it to me in one of those gift baskets for Christmas a few years ago.”
    â€œIt’s a nice gift.” She sorted through the teas until she found one she liked.
    â€œI didn’t appreciate Daniel and Beth the way I should have.” He handed her a mug.
    â€œI’m sure they knew you loved them.”
    He’d liked to think so, but he hadn’t expressed the way he’d felt very often. He was determined not to make that mistake with Troy.
    He hopped up at the first hint of whistle from the tea kettle, and he grabbed it and poured hot water over the tea bag. He got his coffee. As they went back to the dining room, he asked, “So what wigged out?”
    â€œThe screen. It did this funny squiggly thing, then died. It turned right back on but now I’m scared.”
    â€œDo you have everything backed up?”
    â€œYes. To the cloud, to a thumb drive, and to an external hard drive.”
    He laughed. “Okay. That’s a bit of overkill but at least you don’t have to worry about losing anything.”
    â€œI can’t afford to lose anything.”
    Spoken like a person who’d had her value questioned. He certainly could appreciate the feeling. He opened the laptop andran a diagnostic on the software. “This will tell us if it’s a software problem, but it sounds more like a hard drive issue. Maybe a connection came loose in your travels.”
    When the diagnostic finished, he nodded at the results. “Yeah, you’ll need to take this to the computer store. They’ll open it up and check it out.”
    â€œI can’t use it until then?”
    â€œYou can. As long as it continues to back up, you’ll be fine.”
    â€œOkay. Thanks. I was freaking out and thought you’d know what to do.” She closed the laptop lid.
    â€œCan I see your pictures?”
    She paused. “Sure. Do you want to see my official portfolio?” She reopened the laptop. Her fingers flew over the keyboard.
    â€œLet’s start with that. But I’d also like to see the ones that you hadn’t planned to show the public.”
    She stared at him for a moment. “I don’t usually show those to anyone but my agent.”
    She had the prettiest blue eyes. Sparkly, like gemstones. “There’s a first time for everything.”
    â€œAs long as you know that it takes a lot of shots to get a great one.”
    â€œI will find them all fascinating, I’m sure.” He pulled two dining room chairs together and sat down.
    She was slower to sit. He could see there was some sort of turmoil going on inside her. Her gaze was troubled. She bit her lip.
    â€œRelax,” he said. “I’m really interested.” And he was. She saw things in such a unique way. Surely that extended to her photography. He wanted