A Hickory Ridge Christmas by Dana Corbit Page B

Christmas morning.
    Lowering his daughter to the floor, Todd hung his coat on the coat tree in the entry and waited. He expected to see some of that exhaustion on Hannah’s face as she entered the room, but she looked serene in an elegant black dress that smoothed over her trim figure and fell nearly to her ankles. She’d worn her hair long today, the tresses turned softly toward her face, and around her neck she’d draped a strand of shimmering pearls.
    Time paused for a few seconds as Todd forgot to breathe. Hannah was so beautiful. Her hair, that skin, those lips—he’d tried so hard these last four weeksnot to see, not to remember. But here she stood about eight feet from him, giving him one of those smiles that used to take him down like a bat to the back of the knees. Clearly, it still could. All those feelings he’d worked so hard to bury came flooding back.
    He needed to look away from her, but he couldn’t help watching for a few seconds longer. Hannah continued to watch him, too, though she blushed prettily just as she had so long ago. Maybe he hadn’t imagined the connection he’d thought they’d made the other night at Hannah’s apartment. Maybe…no he had no business going there. It was reckless to hope.
    â€œCan we open presents now, Mommy? Please.”
    Startled, Todd and Hannah glanced down at the child now standing in the space between them, looking back and forth and wearing a confused expression.
    Hannah was first to recover. “I did tell her she could open her gifts as soon as you got here.”
    â€œIt’s Jesus’s birthday, but we get presents, too,” Rebecca told him.
    â€œOh, really. Why do you think that is?”
    Rebecca pursed her lips and squinted her eyes in concentration before answering. “Because God wants us all to have fun.”
    â€œIt’s really more than that,” Hannah began, but then she stopped. “Maybe I should wait for a more teachable moment on that one.”
    â€œWhy? Does someone want to open gifts right away?”
    â€œI do! I do!” Rebecca chimed.
    â€œAre you sure you don’t want to wait until afterbreakfast, Becca? Maybe some pancakes or eggs and bacon?”
    The child’s sunny expression fell. “No, thank you.”
    â€œWell, since you said it so politely…” Todd looked to Hannah for confirmation.
    Instead of answering, Hannah lowered her gaze to the shopping bag by the door. “More presents?”
    â€œI held back last night.”
    â€œNot enough when you were shopping, apparently.”
    â€œGuilty.” Todd raised his hands, palms up, but he refused to be sorry. “I couldn’t help myself.”
    â€œOh, well.” Hannah frowned. “Rebecca, do you want to hand out the presents?”
    Their daughter didn’t waste any time rushing into the living room and digging several packages from under the tree. The collection wasn’t large, but Hannah had made each package special by adding curly ribbons, bows and candy canes to the bright holiday wrapping paper.
    Hannah crossed the room and sat on the sofa next to her camera bag. Todd sat in the recliner opposite her.
    â€œThis is mine.” Rebecca set a small package in the center of the floor before retrieving another from the tree. She went back to the tree several times and returned to add packages to her little pile.
    â€œShe’s reading already?” Todd asked, his chest puffing up with fatherly pride.
    â€œA little. They learn to recognize their names from their badges at preschool.”
    Glancing back from the tree, Rebecca grinned and held out a small package wrapped in homemadepaper that was covered with Christmas stamps. “This one says ‘Mommy.’”
    â€œShe made that at preschool, too.”
    Rebecca scrambled over to hand the present to her mother and then rushed back to the tree. The next package she lifted was identical to the