“Fine.”
She didn’t dare ask if he’d heard from his father.
Shame on you, Cash Law,she thought to herself as she drove them home in silence.How dare you ghost your boy like this?
But that was normal for him, wasn’t it?
They drove home in silence, and when she parked the car and checked her phone, she finally had a text from Cash asking if she would please have Cody get in touch with him.
She sighed with relief, glad that the manwasn’t going to chicken out of talking with his son altogether. She wasn’t really sure why he was messaging her and not Cody, but she sent him a quick reply letting him know she would pass along the message.
“Cody,” she told him. “Cash just texted me. He wants you to call or text.”
“Okay,” Cody said flatly.
He’s a teenager,she reminded herself.Like Cash said, teen boys don’t like to show emotion.
They headed up to the apartment, and she busied herself getting ready for bed, not wanting to invade the boy’s privacy if he was going to be talking to his dad.
But when he turned off his lights without telling her anything, it was hard not to feel a little hurt.
It’s his business,she reminded herself.He and his father have plenty to work out, and the last thing he needs is me sticking my nose into every single aspect. We’ll talk tomorrow.
23
BELLA
Bella awoke early on Christmas Eve morning, and for a moment, she couldn’t remember why she felt so sad.
But by the time she stretched and sat up, it all came back to her. Cash was leaving, and Cody was taking it hard.
I’ll let him sleep in today,she decided.That will cheer him up. And I’ll bake something nice. That will cheer us both up.
She’d had all kinds of Christmas baking plans, but everything had been upended with Cash’s arrival. This morning, she could take advantage of the quiet time to catch up with some of what she’d been dreaming of doing.
We can bring pinwheel cookies with us when we visit the Lawrences tomorrow,she told herself.That will make Cody happy.
She took a shower and got dressed in a pair of funny Christmas pajamas that were adorned with a thousandtiny blue Santas in a Nordic pattern against a red backdrop.
Once she was in the kitchen, she put on an apron, started an Elvis Christmas album on her phone, and got down to work.
By the time the dough was ready for the pinwheel cookies, Cody was still sleeping. She thought he would enjoy rolling it out and slicing the cookies, so she put it in the fridge while she started on the ginger snaps.
The morning went by in a blur of mixing, chilling, baking, and music. Around noon, she took the last tray of ginger snaps out of the oven and decided to take a break.
Normally on the weekends, she woke Cody by nine or ten so he wouldn’t fall off his school schedule too much. She had wanted to let him sleep extra today, but sleeping past noon didn’t really feel like a good idea. They had been invited to spend Christmas morning at the Lawrence place tomorrow, and if he slept too late today it might be hard to get any sleep tonight.
She approached his door and tapped lightly, but there was no answer.
“Cody,”she said softly. “It’s time to get up.”
She had expected to at least hear the bed creak a little. With the hollow doors in this place, you couldn’t so much as sigh without someone hearing you in the hallway.
“Cody?” she said in her full voice, knocking again.
Still there was no response, and suddenly panic filled her like ice water in her chest.
“I’m going to come in,” she said, knocking one more time.
