They stared at each other for another long moment before laughingly forcing themselves to look away. Christina walked Andy to the door, and stood watching him as he got into his car and drove off, the taillights of his car blinking like stars.

Chapter 6

A lull often fell in the second week of December, as shoppers recovered from the excitement and extravaganza shopping of Stroll Weekend. Not many customers that Friday—bad. Lots of energy for her cookie party tonight—good!

On her way home from work, Christina stopped at the grocery store to buy every kind of decoration imaginable. Sprinkles, silver balls, confectioner’s sugar, food coloring, and icing bags. At home, she changed into yoga pants and an old flannel shirt of her father’s. She put on some lighthearted Christmas music about chipmunks wanting their two front teeth. She rolled out the refrigerated cookie dough and mixed up another batch.

She was finishing the first bowl of icing when Louise and Dora arrived. And then her childhood best island friend Allen and his son, Chad, who was eight and had a mild form of autism, came in. Chad would probably stand in the corner of the kitchen staring down at the floor, but at least he would be out of the house and among friends doing fun things.

Andy arrived with Wink.

Wink’s eyes widened when she saw the other girl. She reached for her uncle’s hand. Andy frowned, curious.

“Hi, guys!” Christina swept over to Wink, knelt in front of her, and kissed her cheek. “I decided it would be more fun if we had a little party. Can you stay, Andy? Wink, come and meet Dora.” Christina knew not to gawk at the two girls, watching to see if they liked each other. “And this is Allen, and that’s his son, Chad, over in the corner,” which she knew from experience was the only way Chad was comfortable meeting new people.

“And I’m Louise, Dora’s mom,” Louise said to Andy, cocking her head and looking him up and down with a smile on her face.

“Nice to meet you.” Andy shook her hand.

“Much nicer to meet you,” Louise joked.

“Pay no attention to her,” Christina said. “She’s shameless. Right. I’ve made eggnog for the adults,” she told them, “with a slight bit of rum, the way my parents made it. It’s in the refrigerator. Help yourself. I’ve got to take a sheet of cookies out of the oven. For the kids, just water. I have a feeling they’ll be enjoying enough sweet stuff.”