The Night Before Christmas
Hailey shifted beside me, then, without hesitation, leaned across and rested her head against Desmond’s thigh, her small arms wrapping loosely around his leg as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
I stilled.
My gaze fixed on her.
And slowly, painfully, I began to see what I had never allowed myself to see before.
Her eyes were blue.
Neither Mark nor I had blue eyes. I had thought she had picked that from my father. But I see it now.
Desmond’s.
The memory unfolded without permission, the way she frowned when she was upset, the subtle tightening of her brows, the quiet firmness in the way she spoke when she wanted something.
It had always been there.