Have you read the Rawley Family Romances? Here’s a sweet Holiday “Deleted Scene” to whet your appetite…

Jeremy found Meg in their room, putting the finishing touches on a few gifts. She was nothing if not overzealous about gift wrapping. The three boxes were rectangular, and he imagined they must contain clothing of some sort. The paper was whimsical of the kind he knew his wife would choose for children, and there was a ribbon crisscrossed on each one with a bow in the center.

“I thought you were finished with the gifts,” he murmured, sneaking in behind her and pecking one of her rosy cheeks.

“Oh, Jeremy! You surprised me. Well, these are the Christmas Eve gifts for the boys, and at the last minute I decided to extend the tradition for Nichole… er, Michelle.”

He rubbed his hands on her arms as if warming her up, though he couldn’t imagine she would be cold in the room which had a roaring fire. His touches were ones of affection, and his wife sighed in contentment, offering him a smile across her shoulder.

“I didn’t remember you wrapping the Christmas Eve ones before.”

She bit her lip, then giggled nervously. “Well, I don’t, but… well, the truth is I just love watching little ones unwrap presents, and so I decided to wrap the baby’s, and if I wrapped hers, I should do the boys, too.” She paused and furrowed her brow. “Don’t you think?”

Jeremy didn’t dare laugh. His wonderful wife’s feelings were tender enough as it was, so he nodded seriously and gave her a little squeeze. “Yes, indeed.” She didn’t like all of the conflict going on in the house after the blow up between his sister Kay and his cousin Brennan.

Jeremy had been just as shocked as his sister when he was told the truth about Hope kidnapping baby Michelle. But for all of his shock, Kay had been furious, and the resulting argument was explosive to say the least.

For now, there was a silent truce between all concerned, but the tension was still heavy in the air, and that weighed on Meg. Her natural reaction was to do something to bring happiness and joy back into their midst.

“Oh, good. I was hoping this would be all right. We’ll let the children open them tonight after dinner then, okay?”

Meg didn’t wait for him to agree this time, just bundled up her boxes and hurried out of the room, humming some Christmas carol as she went.

He knew what the boxes would contain. Meg’s mother hadn’t been an attentive parent, but she had started a tradition that his wife decided to carry on with their children. There would be matching holiday pajamas for the boys and probably a holiday nightgown for Michelle. The little ones would go to sleep in their Christmas outfits, visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads. He could just about imagine them all the next morning, waking up with funny little bed heads and in green and red PJs.

His heart warmed, and a grin spread across his face. Even with the cloud of unsettled emotions going on in Arrington Manor, his wife found a way to shine through it all. Jeremy thought he would never stop marveling at the way his Meg could do tiny little things each day to make him fall in love with her all over again.

I hope you enjoyed that little “Return to Arrington Manor” Christmas scene.

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