Archie began jigging up and down nervously, impatiently, needing to be gone, but apparently not wanting to be rude. “She’s cool. She’s got me. That’s what matters to her.”

Knowing that to be true, Dan got up and walked around the desk to try and look more closely into the lad’s evasive eyes. It was only possible for fleeting moments, not enough to reach him that way in an effort to make him open up further. He sighed inwardly, disappointed and frustrated. He could never be the father Archie needed, any more than Archie could be the son he desired, but there was a connection between them, a bond that was both important and meaningful. He knew Archie felt it too, that strange pull of emotion amid all the other conflicting feelings that came with the relationship they had.

Archie suddenly thrust out a hand to shake. “I could say it’s been a blast,” he said gruffly.

Dan continued to look at him, seeing only a shadow of the boy he’d first met so many months ago. Now, in spite of his restless, uneasy demeanor, he was a young man with a greater understanding of himself and the world around him, and a clear determination to do what he felt to be right. Though Dan might not agree with him over this, he decided not to argue. He simply drew him into an embrace, slapped his back a couple of times, and stood aside, freeing him to leave.

Archie’s head dropped for a moment, then delivering a self-conscious fist bump, his kind of thank-you, he went.

Dan waited for the sound of footsteps to recede before taking out his phone to message Claudia, saying only that he was running late. Once it was sent he slipped the package into the inside pocket of his overcoat and followed Archie out into the night.

“SORRY WE’RE EARLY,” Andee called out as she and Graeme came into the coach house kitchen carrying gift bags of wine and a flamboyant poinsettia, “but I have some news you’ll want to hear before the others arrive.”

Claudia and Marcy paused in the arrangement of canapés on festive platters, while Henry glanced up from tipping nuts and olives into bowls.

“Who else is here?” Andee asked, glancing out of the French doors to where much setting up of lights and sounds seemed to be underway.

“Jasmine, Abby, and Richie,” Claudia replied, trying to gauge whether this was going to be good or bad news, and struggling not to come down on the wrong side. A quick glance at her mother told her that Marcy was also bracing herself, presumably with no idea of why either, while Henry seemed oblivious to the tension as he filled two tumblers with a highly aromatic glühwein, ready to pass to Andee and Graeme as soon as their coats were hung.