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He didn’t want the quilt presented to him officially? Fine. That didn’t mean she couldn’t give it to him as a Christmas present. What he did with it after that was up to him.

“Sorry I’m about to disturb your nap,” she told the cat as she stood from the bed. To her surprise, the cat stood also, leisurely stretched, then jumped off the bed to the floor and rubbed against her legs as if it were the most natural thing in the world for him to do so.

She paused long enough to give him some loving, then went to get a box and wrapping supplies.

The cat helped—sort of—as Sophie folded the quilt, placed it in the box.

Just as she was preparing to tape the box, she paused.

There was one more gift she needed to give to Cole.

Chapter Eighteen

“Dude, I’m going to start charging you delivery fees,” Andrew warned as he came out into the break room of the fire hall. Confused, Cole glanced up from his crossword puzzle. “Or at least expect a tip.”

“I’ve got a tip for you,” Cole said wryly. “Quit accepting gifts from strangers.”

“Hey, that last gift saved the day for the toy drive,” Andrew reminded him. “Unfortunately, this feels too heavy to be a cashier’s check, but maybe you’ll get lucky and there’s one tucked inside.”

“You just want another excuse to go buy toys,” Ben teased his friend.

“Who needs an excuse?” Andrew grinned, gently shaking the package and listening to see if he could figure out the contents.

Cole watched him come to a conclusion, then grin as if he knew something they didn’t.

“Where did that come from?”

“No ‘from’ name,” Andrew said, holding out the beautifully wrapped package.

“A present showed up at the door, and you just happened to be the one to find it?” Cole eyed the box with the same trepidation he’d eye a booby trap. He suspected this might be one.

An emotional booby trap.

“Something like that.”

Cole rolled his eyes. “Yeah, right.”

His buddy knew more than he was admitting to.

“Here.”

Cole reluctantly took the present, glanced down at the flowy, curvy way his name was written in handwriting he recognized instantly. Fighting to keep his breathing even, he sat the present on the table beside him.

“Open it,” Andrew said. Cole shook his head. “Dude, that’s not funny.”

“Yeah, we want to know what Santa brought you,” Ben chimed in.

“If he thought it was from Santa, he’d open it,” Andrew pointed out with a chuckle.

“True.” Ben poked Cole. “We want to know what Sophie got you. Open it. Come on, before our holiday shift ends.”

Cole glanced at his watch. Rather than work a full twenty-four hours, they’d be swapping out with another crew a

t four. Which was only about twenty minutes away.

His gaze shifted to the present. From the size of the box and its weight, Cole didn’t have to open the package to know what was inside. He knew.

Despite his friends’ complaints, Cole didn’t unwrap the present at the station. When his shift ended, he placed it in his SUV passenger seat and still didn’t want to open it. He sat there for a while, considering whether to drop it off on Sophie’s front porch before driving back to the farmhouse. The package remained unopened as he placed it on his coffee table and sat staring at the shiny gold ribbon that made him think of the streaks in her hair, the sunshine of her soul.