While Carter, Luke, her mom, and her dad played cards in the dining room, Molly and Emma sat in the kitchen together.

“A trip to Vegas, Molly. Aren’t you excited?”

“Sure. Yes, definitely. I’ve never been there.”

“One of the few places you haven’t lived, right?”

She laughed. “This is true.” She took a sip of rum-spiced eggnog.

“I like you and Carter together. He’s good for you.”

Molly’s gaze drifted into the dining room, where Carter looked perfectly comfortable with her parents and her brother-in-law. “Yeah. He’s a good guy.”

“Even with everything that happened in the past, it looks like you and Carter have reconnected. You seem happy.”

She shifted her gaze back to Emma. “Do I?”

“Yes. Happier than I’ve seen you in a long time, Moll.”

She hadn’t taken the time to think about it, hadn’t allowed herself to dwell on how she felt about Carter—or about being back in Hope again. “Things have been going well, and mainly I’m just so relieved about Mom.”

Emma’s gaze turned to their mother. “Yes. I’m very happy Mom has recovered so well. But I don’t think Mom is the sole reason for your happiness, is she?”

Molly shrugged. “I don’t know. I haven’t given it a lot of thought.”

Emma slid her hand across the table and took Molly’s. “Maybe it’s time you started thinking about it. About you and Carter. Make some decisions about your future.”

She gently pulled her hand away. “I don’t know, Em. I’m pretty much a live-in-the-moment kind of woman.”

Emma frowned. “You’re not thinking of leaving, are you?”

“Today? Of course not.”

“You know what I mean, Molly. You’re happy here. And Carter? It’s obvious how he feels about you.”

Was it? She didn’t know. They’d been having fun together, but they shared a past that had been fraught with difficulties and hurts that Molly couldn’t forget about.

She had no crystal ball that could see into the future and guarantee she’d never be hurt again, that Carter would always be there for her.

For right now, everything was fine.

As far as tomorrow? Who knew? She certainly didn’t. She’d lived through enough pain and had no desire to go through it ever again. It was much easier to play it safe.

After Emma and Luke took off to spend the rest of the day with Martha and Ben, Molly went upstairs to change clothes, then followed Carter over to his house.

They were barely inside the door when he pulled her against him and gave her a body-warming kiss that sizzled away the cold from outside. Even her toes tingled.

“I’ve wanted to do that all day,” he said.

She couldn’t deny the warmth of his kiss, the tender emotion it evoked. “Well. Merry Christmas to you, too.”.

He fixed them drinks, then they settled into the living room. Carter had turned on his Christmas tree lights. It looked good. He wasn’t going to buy one since he said it was just him, but she’d insisted. Even she owned a tiny Christmas tree that she put up in her apartment. It just wasn’t Christmas without one. He’d relented, so then they had to go get decorations. His mother had given him a few of his childhood ornaments as well. Now it sparkled in his front window. Perfect.

“I forgot to ask you how it went at your parents’ this morning?” she asked.

“Good. I got socks,” he said with a grin.

She rolled her eyes.

“And a new socket wrench set, which I needed.”

“Glad to hear that you got guy things.”

She pulled the gift she’d gotten for him out of her purse. “I have something for you.”

His brows rose as he took the gift from her, then looked over at her. “Is it more socks?”

“You have a thing for socks. I can tell.”

“It means doing less laundry.”

She laughed. “No. It’s not socks. Sorry.”

“This is great, Molly. Thank you.”

“You haven’t opened it yet.”

He looked down at the package. “Oh, right. The wrapping is nice.”

“God, Carter, there’s not a gold bar in there. Just open it already.”

He shot her a grin. “Come on, Moll. Where’s your sense of anticipation?”

“And why aren’t you immediately tearing into the package? Clearly you do it all wrong.”

“I like that we’re different in so many ways.”

She shook her head. “That’s great. Now open your present.”

“Okay.” He slit open the wrapping at one end—carefully, too.

It was all coming back to her now, all the holidays and birthdays where she had to bite her tongue and wait patiently for him to open a present. But he finally got through the wrapping to the box, and opened it, then stared at the framed photograph inside.

He lifted it out and laid it in his lap. “Molly. Where did you find this?”

“I was moving some old photo albums at my parents’, and sat down to go through them. One of the albums was mine. I remembered that I took that photo of you.”

Carter stared down at the picture of him leaning against his first car, an ’87 Honda Civic. The photo was taken of him at the auto shop in Hope, when he’d first started working there when he was sixteen. Back when Mo Bennett still owned the place.