Chapter 68

By the time Rachel fell and started crying, Gaby was awake. She stood and clapped.

“Break, break,” she said. “Let’s get something to eat.”

Despite his earlier complaining, Devin ate a helping of the delicious breakfast. Dom helped himself to seconds, keeping an eye on Kiko, but he ate. Not as much as Dom thought he should, but then, Kiko always skipped breakfast, so perhaps he wasn’t very hungry.

After they returned to the tree, Nathan began to dig out more of the adult presents. Dom felt awkward when the kid found the envelope Kiko had watched him wrap and passed it to Gaby.

“Santa sure left you a weird one,” he said, and she laughed. When she opened it and saw what was inside, though, she looked up at Dom with wide eyes.

“This is too much,” said Gaby, but Dom shook his head, and beside him Kiko mouthed, “later.” Behind them Devin was eating yet another cookie, munching it loudly.

“Who’s this?” asked Nathan as he waved a small rectangular box. Gaby caught it and read the name.