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“I bet you are.”

“Don’t be like that. No matter what’s going on, nobody needs to be alone on Christmas.”

Narrowing his eyes, Dallas glanced at his sister curiously.

“What do you know?”

“Know about what?” Demi’s eyelashes fluttered innocently.

Before he could respond, Isis catapulted herself into his lap and spent the better part of the next twenty minutes revealing each of her toys. By the time she finished and Dallas had a moment to get back to interrogating his sister, he was once again interrupted. This time by his mother.

“I haven’t gotten started on breakfast yet,” Meredith announced. “I wanted to wait to see how many people would be–”

His family exchanged glances as there was a knock on the door, interrupting his mother’s sentence.

Dallas frowned, looking around the living room at his very complete family. They never had extra visitors on Christmas. At least not unannounced.

“We missing somebody?”

“Answer it, Uncle Dallas. It’s for–”

Clamping a hand over her daughter’s mouth, Demi’s eyes darted to her brother.

“Aight,” Dallas glared at his family. “What’s going on?”

“Just go answer the door, baby,” his mother encouraged gently.

Frowning, Dallas pushed himself to his feet, wondering what they could have possibly been up to. He looked at his father.

“Pop?”

“I think you might want to get the door, son.”

He glanced at each of them individually, trying to figure out what was happening. Realizing that no one was going to answer his question, he pulled himself up and trekked to the door.

* * *

Exhaling slowly,Sevyn closed her eyes, gathering every bit of courage that she could. Raising a fist, she knocked softly against the door. Her soft taps turned thunderous with each passing minute.

The air was extremely frigid, and she was close to freezing already.

“Come on,” she murmured, shifting from left to right. “Open the door.”

Things seemed to go in her favor as just a few seconds later, Dallas swung open the door.

His lips parted, and Sevyn jumped at the chance to say something first.

“Just hear me out, please.”

“Sevyn, what are you doing here? Now is not the time or the place. And why the hell do you have mistletoe strapped to your damn forehead?”

It was a bit theatrical, but Sevyn thought it was a nice ode to when they’d come to his mom’s house together the first time and noticed the mistletoe hanging in the foyer.

“It’s part of the presentation. And your family already knows what happened. I explained everything when I called Demi yesterday and asked her to make sure that you were here this morning.”

His eyes went wide. “Y-you did what? Why would you–”

“I know I’m probably the last person that you want to see right now,” she interrupted. “But I couldn’t leave things where they were. I messed up, Dal. I was so wrapped up in myself and my feelings that I never added yours into the equation. You have every right to be upset with me, but please don’t walk away. Give me a chance to fix it.”