The next morning Alexis opened her eyes and stared at the blank ceiling. Christmas Day. She rolled onto her side and squeezed her eyes shut again, tightening her fingers on the sheet. For a brief moment, she experienced her knee-jerk reaction of misery, until she remembered the night before. Tyler. She relaxed her grip on the sheets and played the evening over in her mind. Even though he'd slowed things down in the school gym after a hot and heavy petting session, she knew it was for her benefit and not because he wanted to. Tyler Barnes was a gentleman, no one could argue with that. And his gift. She glanced to the dresser where the bottle of champagne sat, patiently waiting. Like Tyler. Although she wasn't ready to pop the cork just yet, she appreciated the sentiment. Hope in a bottle. Thanks to Tyler, life was becoming not simply bearable, but enjoyable. She threw back the covers, rejecting her instinct to hide under them.

Last Christmas was horrible. Donald and Moira had invited her to stay with them, but the atmosphere had been grim. Every time she looked at Donald, she saw the man that Mark would never become and, reflected in Moira's eyes, she saw only a mother's grief. Alexis ended up leaving on Boxing Day with a container full of leftover turkey she knew she would never eat.

It had been Moira, however, who planted the seed about a return to Mangrove Island during that Christmas meal. Alexis's heart had been too hard at the time to fully listen, but the suggestion had taken root, and when the firm finally asked her to take a leave of absence, or a sanity break as tactful Hal had called it, she knew where she intended to go. She had loose ends to tidy up between selling the flat and passing on her caseload to eager associates, so it had taken months before she could actually book a flight and commit to the idea. Even though she could have alerted her parents or Betsy to her impending arrival, the truth was that she feared their rejection. In her experience, it was harder to reject someone standing in front of you, so she'd decided to forgo the phone call and email and simply turn up unannounced. The strategy seemed to have paid off, or there was that small possibility that perhaps she'd underestimated her parents' love for her. That they never would have told her not to bother showing up. Feeling heartened, Alexis got out of bed and into the shower.

Once clean and presentable, Alexis made her way downstairs and peeked into the family room. Presents in varied cheerful wrapping paper sat beneath the tree. Her father watched Fox News while slurping a cup of coffee.




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