Page 50 of Mack

By the time Juliana brought out the pie T.J. was waning, his head drooping at intervals, jerking back up whenever someone spoke to him, determined not to miss anything.

“He’s fighting it,” Mallory said quietly.

“He’s losing,” Mack said.

T.J. proved them both right by falling asleep against Mack’s arm before the pie was half eaten, one hand still loosely wrapped around Blue.

The table went quieter without him, a comfortable kind of quiet. Juliana refilled coffee cups as Max leaned back in his chair and looked at Mallory in the direct unhurried way Mack had inherited from him.

“Mack tells us you built your shop from the ground up,” he said.

“With some help from my father,” Mallory said. “But yes.”

“That’s something to be proud of.”

She looked at him, and Mack could see her deciding whether to believe the compliment was genuine. He watched her decide that it was.

“Thank you,” she said. “I think so too.”

“I’ll have to come into the shop,” Juliana said.

“I wish you would,” Mallory said.

“Like you need more Christmas things,” Max said, shaking his head.

“Do you love Christmas?” Mallory asked.

“I go completely overboard.” Juliana said it without apology.

“That is not an exaggeration,” Max confirmed.

“I’ve had to scale back since we moved, but at the ranch I would put a tree in every room downstairs.”

Mallory’s eyes went wide. “Every room?”

“Every one of them.”

Mallory looked at Mack. He nodded. “She did. Until the night I ran into the tree in my office, and I told her that room was off limits.”

Mallory laughed and looked at Mack.

“Then you should do the same.”

“No.” Mack shook his head. “Absolutely not.”

“I think it’s a wonderful idea,” Juliana said.

“Not happening.” He folded his arms.

His mother leaned over and said something quietly to Mallory that he couldn’t quite catch. Mallory’s eyes lit up and she laughed, then the two of them looked at him with identical expressions.

He dropped his arms. “What are you two up to?”

Both women raised their eyebrows and said nothing.

“Don’t bother,” Max said, reaching for his coffee. “Forty-five years of marriage and I still don’t get information when they make that face.”

Mack narrowed his eyes at Mallory. She laughed. He shook his head but couldn’t stop the grin.