Faster than he would have thought possible, Evan adapted to the routines of Gwen’s household. He didn’t have much choice from his central sleeping location on the living room sofa. At the very least, doing everything he could to keep up with two whirlwind toddlers left him tired enough to sleep.
And busy enough to keep his mind off how badly his holiday, and his plans, had gone wrong.
The wakeup giggles had drifted back to quarter to seven that morning, as if the boys were gearing up for their pre-dawn raid on Christmas presents the next day. Evan sat cross-legged on the dark blue hearth rug so he could feed the fireplace, while his nephews created a noisy toy car war with rules only they could understand.
Gwen had the good grace and humor to bring him a huge mug of coffee before she re
