She gave a self-derisive laugh, then met his gaze. “I was grieving for Aunt Jean, poured my heart into making the quilt because I knew that’s what she did with Roy. Only with my quilt, I dreamed of you, my very own soldier, with every stitch I sewed. I didn’t know you and yet,” her shoulders moved in a slight shrug, “I did.”

She crossed the room, took the quilt from him, and tossed it back onto the rocker. “There’s my Christmas confession. Now, tell me why you’re here.”

“To tell you Merry Christmas.”

“You could have just called.” Her chin lifted a notch. “Or texted.”

Knowing he had zero experience with romance and would probably completely botch this, Bodie reached into his jacket pocket and wrapped his fingers around what he’d put in there hours before.

“I could have, but then, I couldn’t have done this.”

He pulled out the sprig of green he’d borrowed from Kelly and Lukas and held it out to a stunned Sarah.

Was Sarah still asleep and dreaming? She decided she had to be. No way was Bodie in Hamilton House holding out a piece of mistletoe.

“I—I don’t understand.”

“No, I don’t suppose you do.” He placed the mistletoe in her hand, closing her fingers around the greenery. “I got ahead of myself.”

Sarah opened her palm, looked down at the mistletoe, then back up at Bodie.

“When I left here, I believed I needed my job with iSecure in order to feel whole again, to fill the missing pieces while I put myself back together. To find purpose by serving and protecting others.”

Although he was saying things she already knew, Sarah listened closely, trying to decipher what had brought him back to Hamilton House, afraid to let her mind wander as to why he was here, why he’d given her mistletoe.

“Lukas had planned to start me on easy assignments and let me work my way back up to high stakes again, but Kelly went into labor a month early, less than a day before Lukas was supposed to be on a plane for a major operation overseas. He was left with the choices of going himself, canceling the mission, letting the rest of the team handle it alone, or sending me in his place on the team.”

“He sent you.”

Bodie nodded. “When I got his call saying he needed me, I checked out of the hotel and drove straight to the hospital to meet him. I got my assignment, left Harry with him, and flew out that day. I got back to the States last night.”

Sarah was glad she hadn’t known where he was, what he was doing. Just thinking that he’d left had worried her enough. Had she known he was on some high-stakes mission out of the country, she’d have been a nervous wreck.