Page 72 of Have a Bear-y Little Christmas

Jeannie’s voice cracked as she answered, but none of us commented on it. “For me.”

As touching as the scene was, the idea of Jeannie on the trail alone with the sun setting in the sky, made both me and my inner bearviscerallyobject. “I’m not really comfortable with you going alone,” I said. I expected a dirty look from Max, but he almost looked… triumphant?

“Like I said, I’ll take ’em all back!” Ana said. “Easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy!”

“Really?” Jeannie murmured, wiping her eyes as she straightened like nothing was wrong. God, the woman was so strong, and I found myself wishing that she didn’t have to be. “You don’t mind?”

“Not at all. Come on, Max, hop on my back!”

“Okay!”

The boy got up and walked over to my sister, hopping onto her back after she crouched down. My daughters weren’t far behind, with Ana picking up one in each arm before trotting off.

“See you guys back at the cabin! Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!”

What?

“She’s, uh, likereallystrong, isn’t she?” Jeannie mused, looking a bit shaken by how everything had turned out. I was right there with her.

“She’s a nurse,” I said like that explained everything. And strangely enough, that seemed enough for Jeannie. She nodded, then turned and started up the trail.

Looked like it was just the two of us now.

Chapter 18

Eva

Inner Monologue

I liked being carried.

I didn’t like upsetting Daddy or Miss Jeannie, but I knew it was the only way our plan would work.

Well, it was Addy and Max’s plan. They came up with everything, and Auntie Ana had helped. My only job was not to ruin things.

That was okay. I liked not ruining things.

I didn’tget why we had to do so much, but what I did understand was that there was something between Miss Jeannie and my daddy that made both of them very happy, but they were both a bit too scared to say it. I didn’t getwhy,not really, other than it being related to Mommy.

But the thing was, Mommy always told me love was expontial—no, no, it wasexponential—and that loving one person didn’t mean you had to love someone else less. That was how she could love both me and Addy the same, even though Addy wasso much smarter and betterer than me. So if Daddy and Miss Jeannie were falling in love… why was that bad again?

I didn’t know, and I assumed it was one of those complicated things that other people struggled with. I thought kinda differently than most people. If anyone asked me—and no one ever did—a lot of folks’ lives would be easier if they could see things like I did.

“You did great,guys!” Ana said once we were far enough that Daddy couldn’t hear us. Daddy had all his super senses, so we had to be mega-careful. One day, Addy and I would have them. Our brains and bodies had to be old enough to handle that kinda power. I was looking forward to it, but I could wait. Sometimes being able to hear so many people so much louder seemed like a bad thing.

“You don’t think I did too much?” Max asked, chewing his lip.

I didn’t understand why he sounded so guilty. It was just acting, right? And people acted on the TV all the time, andthatwasn’t wrong, so why was this?

“Nah, you did just enough to get them to head off on their own. If this can’t get them out of their holding pattern and realize they’ve been staring after each other like lost puppies, nothing will.”

“I liked setting out the treats. It made me feel like Santa,” I said.

“And you are a very excellent Santa,” Auntie Ana said.

I liked her. She didn’t always understand me like Mommy, Daddy, Addy, and now Max did, but she also never acted like I was really weird. I knew I was supposed to voice the thought train that went on in my head out loud, but honestly, sometimes it was way too complicated to explain. Why couldn’t I just say something and have people take me at my word?

“Thank you.” I paused for a moment, my mind going on one of those exact train o’ thoughts that peeps talked about. The train went all the way from what it would be like to only work for one day of the year, but have to visit the entire world in one night, to the fact that our plan was supposed to make it so that Max would be in our lives forever. “Do you think this is gonna work?”