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Exactly like before.

Only this time, they weren’t pretending.

They were exactly where they wanted to be.

“Goodnight, Noah. Happy Thanksgiving.”

She could hear the smile in his voice. “Happy Thanksgiving, Claire.”

CHAPTER 33

Traditions

The next morning, Claire woke up before Noah. She quietly got out of bed, got dressed, and went into the kitchen.

Coffee was brewing. Christmas music was already playing. Michael Bublé.

Maggie was already there.

“Morning,” Claire greeted her.

“Morning,” she replied. “Once everyone is up, we’re going to make pancakes for breakfast. Then we’ll go to the Christmas tree farm and after that we’ll decorate the house. It’s another family tradition.”

Maggie glanced toward the coffee pot and let out a laugh. “But we won’t wait to have coffee.”

The coffee finished brewing and Maggie reached for two mugs to pour them coffee. Claire opened the fridge to pull out the creamer.

She immediately noticed the carton of oat milk and smiled. “You remembered.”

“I did.” Maggie grinned, a twinkle in her eye. “Noah barely let me live it down last time. I wasn’t going to forget.”

“Thank you,” she said softly.

“Of course.” Maggie passed her a mug. They sat down at the table with their coffees.

A moment later, footsteps echoed down the hall. Noah wandered into the kitchen. He looked at Claire drinking coffee with his mom and smiled. He went over and kissed the top of her head. “Good morning, princess.”

She smiled into her coffee. “Good morning.”

He made his own cup of coffee and sat down next to Claire, Maggie across from them. “If Emily and Ainsley don’t get in here, I’m going to wake them up. I want pancakes.”

“Noah, it’s not even eight o’clock yet. Have some patience, son.” Will appeared with his newspaper. He also made himself a cup of coffee and then sat down by Maggie.

Everyone laughed.

“Yeah, Noah, have some patience,” Claire teased.

“Pancake day!” Ainsley ran into the house. Emily followed behind, heading straight for the coffee pot before acknowledging anyone. Ainsley jumped straight into Noah’s lap.

Will folded up his newspaper and looked around. “Who’s making pancakes?” Everyone immediately pointed at him. “I walked right into that.”

“Dad, you always make the pancakes,” Noah told him.

“I know. Just had to give everyone a hard time first.”

Within minutes, everyone was busy in the kitchen. Maggie mixed the batter while Will stood at the stove flipping pancakes. Claire and Noah gathered chocolate chips and berries for toppings, Ainsley tried to put entirely too much whipped cream on everything, and Emily followed behind trying to stop her.

Biscuit was given approximately four illegal pancake bites.