Page 109 of Daddy's Little Christmas

It just kept going.

And so did I.

Chapter 21

Graeme

The house felt wrong without him.

I made coffee out of habit, but it tasted like nothing. The mug was warm in my hands, but my fingers felt numb. Snow drifted outside in soft, lazy spirals—the kind Rudy loved to watch. The kind he tilted his face up to catch on his eyelashes.

I sat at the table where he’d left the note, fingers brushing the faint dents his pen had made in the paper.

I’d read it four times already.

Each time it knocked something loose in me I wasn’t sure I could put back where it belonged.

He hadn’t said goodbye.

Not really.

Not in the way that ended things.

But he’d left.

And my chest hurt like I’d aged ten years overnight.

A knock startled me hard enough that my mug sloshed.

I wasn’t expecting anyone. I peeped out the window—

And sighed.

When your best friend is a sheriff, you learn that “not expecting anyone” doesn’t carry much weight.

I opened the door.

Tom stood there in his thick winter coat, snow dusting his shoulders, expression tight enough for me to know he was here for a reason.

“Been calling.”

I frowned. “I didn’t hear it,” I said, already stepping aside to let him in. “What’s going on?”

Tom stepped in, shaking off snow. He tugged his gloves free, then reached into his coat and pulled out a neatly folded scarf—bright red, with a row of little reindeer worked into both ends.

“Cynthia found this on the arm of the couch,” he said, setting it on the table. “She remembered Rudy had it wrapped around his neck when you all came by.”

I glanced down. Recognized it immediately. It was Rudy’s.

I kept my face neutral, even as something in me shifted out of place.

“Yeah,” I said. “That’s his.”

Tom nodded. Then, like it was an afterthought, he added, “Cyn and I were talking this morning. She said Rudy fit in like he’s lived here for years.” He gave me a small smile. “You should’ve seen her face. Woman was glowing like we’d just adopted him.”

My throat tightened. “Yeah. He fit.”

Tom’s eyes flicked to mine. “Past tense?”