“I just wanted to wish you a pleasant holiday,” he said. “And to tell you—we’re working on an accounting of your father’s estate according to his will. It should be ready after the holidays. I don’t want you to get your hopes up but I anticipate a late Christmas present for you.”

 “Thank you, Aaron. And don’t worry about my hopes. Just seeing you again has been an enormous treat. I wish you a lovely holiday.”

 “I’ll be with my sons and grandsons. One of them is talking about making me a great-grandfather!”

 “What a fantastic Christmas present for you! Thank you, Aaron, for trying to help me. Your friendship is so valuable to me!”

 “Your father would be proud of you, Emma.”

 Proud? She wasn’t sure about that. She’d made some pretty bad choices in the last decade. But she hoped she was making better choices now.

 “I hope so,” she told Aaron.

    Chapter Fourteen

 Riley was very much out of practice with the whole dating thing, but one thing she knew she wanted to do—she wanted to introduce Logan to her daughter. Their relationship had always been honest and up-front with those few little exceptions Riley had held back, like that whole Riley/Jock/Emma thing, which was now mostly out there. So she nervously asked Maddie if she’d like to meet Logan and have dinner with him.

 “Dinner? Wow, we’re going all out, I guess. Will Gramma and Adam be coming, too?”

 “I thought we could just be the three of us. You know, we’ve got Christmas in a couple of weeks—Logan has a family, I have my family, we’ll all be busy. We might see each other but I’m not planning on merging families over an important holiday like Christmas. So I thought I’d cook something simple, invite him over, let you get to know him a little...”

 “What about Dad?” she asked.

 “No, I definitely won’t be inviting your dad,” Riley said. “Maddie, I’m dating Logan. Sort of.”

 “Sort of? You’re dating him for real, Mom. You giggle on the phone. Even I haven’t had a boyfriend like that yet!”

 “What about that Brian Breske?” she asked. “Wasn’t he a boyfriend? You invested a lot of time in him.”

 “That was seventh grade. Kid’s stuff.”

 “Oh,” Riley said. “Well, I haven’t quite elevated Logan to boyfriend status yet.”

 “So you’re not sleeping with him yet?” Maddie asked.

 “Oh, my Jesus, you did not really ask me that!”

 “Of course I did.” She grinned. “Is there anything we should talk about before you get in over your head?”

 “I thought I’d cook,” Riley said.

 “Ew, you don’t want to scare him away, do you?”

 “It’s cold. I could make chili and corn bread muffins.”

 “Are you going to actually make it?” Maddie asked.

 “Possibly.”

 Maddie laughed herself stupid.

 “Listen, I want you to be nice to Logan,” Riley said. “I’ve met men for a drink or coffee over the years but I think I’ve been out to dinner twice since you were born. Really, the men out there are dismal. Logan is kind of fun. He’s interesting—he has cop stories. His partner is a woman. He says she’s the smartest cop he’s ever known. There probably won’t be time for more than one dinner like this until after the holidays so let’s pretend we’re very excited to have him over. Very happy to meet him. Hmm?”

 “I can do that,” she said. “Will he bring his gun?”

 “Lord, I hope not!”

 “Well, what fun is that?”

 Riley was used to Maddie’s humor, her teasing. But she sincerely hoped Maddie could put a good image forth and impress Logan a little bit.

 On the day they had chosen, just over a week before Christmas, the house was decorated a little bit. No point in going crazy with decorations when they’d spend most of the holiday celebrating at June’s house where the decorations were over the top, complete with outside lighting. Riley did have a tree, however. You can’t be a single mom and ignore the tree!

 She told June what she’d be doing and June deftly pulled a big bucket of her best chili out of the freezer and handed it to Riley, telling her to just dump it in the Crock-Pot. June whipped up some corn bread muffins—it took her under thirty minutes. “Are you going to be able to throw together a green salad?” June asked Riley.

 “Of course!” she said indignantly.

 Riley stopped at the grocery store on the way home and worked her way around the salad bar in the deli section, looking over her shoulder the whole time, hoping not to get caught.

 Then she saw him. There he was, standing in the check-out line with a bunch of flowers and a bottle of wine. She just shook her head and chuckled to herself. She went and stood behind him.

 He jumped in surprise and attempted to hold the flowers behind his back. But when he saw her holding the salad, he relaxed and returned her smile with his own.

 “So this is how working people date,” she said.

 “Do you like these?” he asked, holding out the cellophane-wrapped bouquet. “If you want to pick something you like better...”

 “I like them very much,” she said. “Want to follow me home?”

 “I’ve wanted to for weeks now.”

 * * *