Mac looked tired. ‘Grady, I don’t think I can carry on living here, not knowing if she’s going to bring my life crashing down. When Laurel came in tonight I thought she’d come to tell my family the truth. I nearly had a heart attack.’

Hearing those words, Laurel pressed still harder against Grady, aware of his heartbeat galloping while the rest of him stood perfectly still. Mac was offering to do something really difficult for Grady.

Could she do something really difficult for Grady, too?

Could she force herself to believe that the present Mac was no longer the Mac who’d done her harm?

Five seconds passed. Ten. Then she lifted her head and turned to gaze at Mac. ‘We have to find a way of turning the page.’

Grady made a small movement.

Mac’s eyes were like black marbles, fixed on her.

Laurel sniffed back a sob. ‘I know we traditionally do this at New Year’s, but I’m making a Christmas Day resolution. The past is the past. You’re Grady’s brother and if you’re OK with him then you are with me. No one but us needs to know what a stupid drunk boy did one night.’ She looked at Grady through a haze of tears. Suddenly, her heart felt like a helium balloon that someone had just set free – lighter than air, no longer weighed down by bitterness and blame. ‘Which means the village can be our future.’

Then Grady was squeezing the breath out of her and Mac was on his feet, saying in a choked, emotional voice, ‘You’re a good woman, Laurel. Good enough even for Grady.’

Chapter Twenty-Two

‘Where have you three been? Playing sardines?’ Tonya’s dad Ted roared as Grady and Laurel finally followed Mac into the sitting room. ‘Why didn’t you invite me?’

‘Because you’re slaughtered,’ Mim explained serenely.

‘I’m not,’ Ted roared, red-faced and laughing. ‘Give me some more of that Jammy-something, Mac.’

Mim wagged a finger at him. ‘You’ve had enough Jamesons. I’ll make you a cup of coffee.’

‘OK,’ he said grudgingly. ‘If I can have a mince pie, too.’

Laurel, who felt as if a tonne weight had been lifted from her heart, laughed. ‘May I have coffee and a mince pie, too?’ Then she and Grady undertook making coffee for everyone but Daisy and Niall, who wanted Monster energy drink.

As they moved into the kitchen area, Laurel caught Tonya glancing from Mac to Laurel. Mac gave his wife a blazing grin and a hearty kiss. Tonya asked no questions but sent Laurel a smile that looked like relief. Laurel guessed Mac would never tell Tonya exactly what had happened at Christmas nineteen years ago … and neither would Laurel. She wanted Christmas Now, not Christmas Then, and to look forward to Christmas Future.