Chapter 109

Aria’s POV

We drew so close that I could feel the warmth of Liam’s breath on my lips. Then, just as I felt the phantom touch of his kiss, the front door burst open.

“Mom! Dad!” Joe called.

Liam and I jumped apart. We were both a little out of breath. My cheeks were burning, and Liam seemed a bit red as well.

Joe rushed into the dining room like he knew just where to find us. “Did it work?” he asked excitedly, looking at Liam.

“Uh…” Liam rubbed a hand over the back of his neck.

I narrowed his eyes at him in suspicion. “Were you two up to something?”

Liam nervously looked at me. “Maybe?”

Joe laughed as he rushed out of the room.

“Dad! Mom!” William called from closer to the front door. “You have to come see what Isabella got us!”

“Aunt Isabella,” Joe corrected. “She’s our Aunt.”

“Oh, okay,” William replied. “Aunt Isabella!”

Liam gave me a sad little smile. “Raincheck?” he asked.

“Alright,” I said, though inside of me, I felt a bit more relief than disappointment. If I had kissed Liam… If I had fallen into him again…

And if what Sophia had said then turned out to be true, I would have never recovered.

I needed to be more careful for now. Until I knew the full truth, I couldn’t let my heart control my actions here. I had to stay in control, or I’d risk everything.

I wasn’t ready for that.

“Should we go see what the kids have conned Isabella into?” Liam asked.

That, I was very curious about. “Absolutely.”

Liam gestured for me to go first. He stayed behind a moment, to blow out the candles. Once he was done, he caught up to me at the door and we walked outside together.

There, Isabella stood beside her old gray sedan. Through the windows, I could see the entire car was jam packed with shopping bags of all sizes and varieties. How had she even fit the kids in there? They must have been holding things.

The kids danced around the car while Liam and I peered in through the windows.

“What is all this?” I asked Isabella.

“I’m so sorry, I might have gone overboard,” she said with a smile so wide, it revealed the truth: she wasn’t really sorry at all.

I opened one of the back doors and pulled out a bag filled to the brim with Christmas decorations. In the middle seat sat some kind of deer figure. For the lawn?

“Isabella,” I said, scolding slightly.

“They asked me for this and that, and I couldn’t say no,” she said. “Those kids – all of you guys – have been through so much. You deserve to have a fun and bright Christmas.”

Liam opened the door on the other side and lifted a bag filled entirely with Christmas lights. “I don’t suppose you will help put these up.”

Maybe he thought that would deter Isabella in some way. He had obviously forgotten how much this woman enjoyed Christmas. She would probably put up every single one of our decorations if we let her.

“Okay!” she said back.

Liam looked at me. I smiled back.

With a sigh, Liam came back around the car. “The kids wanted all this?”

“They picked out every single thing,” Isabella said. “There’s more in the trunk.”

Liam started to pull out his wallet.

“Don’t you dare!” Isabella said. “These are gifts.”

“There’s a lot here,” Liam said. He might have forgotten that Isabella was a Christmas lover, but he hadn’t forgotten that she often struggled with her bills. Her heart was too big. Too often she gave what little she had away.

It meant a lot to me that Liam remembered, just as it meant a lot that Isabella cared enough about us to put herself into debt to make the kids happy.

“Let me pay for half,” Liam said.

“Okay,” Isabella said.

Yet, when Liam wrote the check, he made it out for the entire amount on the receipt. Isabella tucked the check into her pocket without looking at it.

Immediately, I pulled her into a hug. “Thank you for making the kids happy.”

“What else is an Aunt supposed to do?”

It warmed me through and through how quickly Isabella took to William. She needed no time to process or consider. As soon as I told her William called me Mom, she insisted, “Can he call me Aunt, too?”

“I’ll get the tree out of the attic,” Liam said, carrying some of the load back into the house.

“Stay,” I told Isabella. “Help us decorate the tree.”

“That’s a family thing,” she said.

“You are family.”

“Stay, Aunt Isabella,” William said.

Isabella’s eyes lit up brighter than all of the Christmas ones she bought. She’d never be able to say no to that. “Okay.”

Liam pulled the tree from the attic, and after setting the fake branches how we liked them, Liam, Isabella, Joe, William, and I began decorating the tree. Liam changed the romantic piano music to the 24-hour Christmas radio station instead.

We sang and we laughed. I popped popcorn for us to string together, but we ate most of it instead.

The new ornaments weren’t quite enough to cover a tree as big as the one Liam had.

“Should we go back to the store?” Isabella asked.

“No,” I said, not wanting to risk her spending more money.

“I… might have a few other things,” Liam said, and went back upstairs.

Leaving the kids to the popcorn strings, Isabella and I headed into the kitchen to start making some eggnog. We did it every year, though the amount of alcohol within it fluctuated depending on the mood. This year, we’d make two batches: one without alcohol for the kids, and one with, for the adults.

“So,” Isabella said as we set to work. “You and Liam seem to be getting along nicely.”

“We are moving slowly,” I reminded her.

“I know, I know. Separate rooms and all that. But even so… the two of you seem to be making amends. That’s good.”

“Yeah…” I said, Sophia’s words ringing in my head.

Isabella gave me a long, sideways look. “What’s wrong? Trouble in paradise?”

“Isabella,” I said. “Do you remember when Liam and I first got together?”

I’d kept it a secret from almost everyone, at Liam’s request. But I couldn’t hide it from my best friend. Liam had told his closest friends too, so he couldn’t deny me without being a terrible hypocrite.

“Yeah, I think so. Though you guys were so secretive, I don’t remember exactly how it happened.”

Frowning slightly, I asked her, “Do you think Liam was really in love with me back then?”

Isabella’s eyes shot skyward. “Do you think he wasn’t?”

“I don’t know,” I said, looking away from her. “I really don’t know.”

“Didn’t he tell you a few days ago that he loves you?” Isabella asked.

“Yeah.”

“And you believe him, right?”

“I think so…”

“Aria. I say this as a friend.” She turns to me, leaning her hip against the counter. “Do you really believe he never loved you? Or are you trying to look for a way to ruin a good thing?”

“It might not be a good thing,” I said, unsure.

“It has been so far,” Isabella said. “Are you willing to sabotage that because you’re afraid?”

Was that what I was doing? Sabotaging a good thing?

I just didn’t know anymore.