He was infuriating. And wonderful. Murphy bent closer.
“I already knew your secret. Now can you blow out this candle before it slides off this cupcake and you don’t have a candle to blow out?”
Murphy stopped breathing. He already knew? “H-how?”
He held the cupcake two inches from her face, eyebrows raised.
Murphy rolled her eyes and blew the candle out. The crowd behind Hank cheered. She rolled her eyes. “What do you mean you already knew my secret? How could you have known?”
Hank passed the cupcake back to Eloise. “I overheard you talking to Tripp, back when we brought him home. You weren’t very quiet about it,” he chuckled.
Murphy thought back. Tried to remember exactly which day it was that they had brought Tripp home, when she had poured her heart out to him. It had to have been the day she took Fiona for an early morning visit.
“All this time!” She punched Hank’s arm. At least he had the decency to pretend that it hurt. “You knew all this time and you didn’t say anything. Why didn’t you say anything?”
Murphy wanted to kiss the smug smile off Hank’s face. She also wanted to smack him.
“I figured you’d tell us when you needed to. Didn’t seem like my place to out you. And besides you brought life back to the family. Mother and Grandpa Jack are actually talking again. And other than being completely scared by Claire, she seems to be changing. For the better.”
“Claire scares everyone.” Her comment was met by “hear-hear” from the twins.
“And, me, Cain. You changed me.” Hank groaned and stepped forward, grabbing up both of her hands in his. He leaned forward and put his forehead to hers. “I never would have had the courage to talk to my dad about my music if you hadn’t pushed me.”
Murphy was shaking her head, woozy at the closeness of him. He was intoxicating. “That was all you.”
“Don’t,” he said. “You helped more than you give yourself credit for.”
“I love you.” The admission slipped out before Murphy had a chance to think about what she was saying.
“Grandpa Jack is going to be so disappointed.”
Murphy laughed.
“I love you too, Murphy Cain.”
He closed the gap his lips landing on hers. The world melted away. She wasn’t worried about what was coming next. This. Right here in this moment. She knew everything was going to work out. That she’d be ok. She pushed on her toes, deepening the kiss. Being this close to Hank reminded her of being wrapped in a warm blanket on a cold day with her favorite cup of cider.
She wrapped her arms around his middle and pulled him closer. Her toes tingled, and she loved it.
Slowly she remembered that they had an audience who was currently cheering and clapping bringing in the attention of others that were loitering the halls of Iverson.
She broke away breathless.
“Wow,” Hank mumbled.
“Yeah,” Murphy agreed.
“What is all this ruckus out here?” Headmistress Kingfisher’s presence caused the Iverson students to scramble. Murphy took a step back from Hank.
He immediately pulled her back to his side.
“Miss Cain, it’s almost noon. I do expect you off the premises.” She stopped when she realized there were outsiders standing in the hallway.
The older lady stepped forward.
“G-Gemma DuPonts.”
Murphy looked back and forth between Headmistress Kingfisher and the older lady. Gemma DuPonts? Hearing that last name, it clicked. Her mother had been a DuPonts. There had been an old faded picture in her mother’s things of two girls in party dresses and a tall boy behind them. The lady that stood before her was a little older and a little grayer, but this was definitely her mother’s sister.
“Yes, Sonora.” Gemma practically glided over the floors Murphy and Mrs. Potts had polished the week before. “I find it strange that I was never contacted about my niece after my mother’s passing.”
The Headmistress put a hand to her chest. Stammering through an explanation. “But I figured the courts would have. I never dreamed that you wanted this child—”
“This child,” Gemma pointed to Murphy. Her features softening. “This child was my sister’s daughter. My mother only lived two weeks after finding out about Murphy, and both my brother and I had been out of the country.” She stepped over and grasped Murphy’s hand. “She said she had an important matter to discuss with us once we were back stateside, but she passed before getting a chance to explain.”
She turned to Murphy. Hank stepped to the side letting Murphy and Gemma have a moment to themselves. “Please, please, forgive me. We had no idea Corine had a daughter. I could hardly believe it myself when Hank phoned. I thought it was all just a joke. But this one,” she motioned with her chin to Hank. “He can be quite persuasive. Can you ever forgive me?”
Headmistress Kingfisher let out a snort. “This is so rich.”
Gemma turned on one high heel, and the fact that she didn’t even teeter made Murphy like her already. She slowly walked until she stood in front of Sonora. “Excuse me?”
“I—”
“No,” Gemma cut her off. The twins started laughing at the Headmistress’ squirming, but Gemma stopped them with a look. “You don’t get to make any excuses. I knew you didn’t like me when we went to school, and you made it pretty clear you weren’t a fan of our family. I never understood it, tried to be nice to you. But you’ve taken it too far. To treat one of your students—my niece or not—like a servant? And to not even reach out to family when you knew you had connection? That is taking it too far.”
“The courts put her under my care. I was to raise her as I saw fit.” Sonora spluttered another excuse, clasping her hands in front of her, as if shielding her from Gemma’s onslaught.
Gemma’s eyes narrowed. “The courts will be hearing of what you see as ‘fit.’ I don’t believe servitude is what they had in mind.”
Cheers erupted from the twins and they high fived each other as Gemma returned to Murphy’s side. The Headmistress slammed her foot down like a spoiled child and stomped off to her office, slamming the door behind her.
Gemma was doing her best to keep a straight face, but Murphy could see a smile playing at her aunt’s mouth. Murphy didn’t know what she was feeling. She was floored. This woman, her aunt, just stormed in here and put Headmistress Kingfisher in her place and barely batted an eyelash. She felt such pride.
The Grandfather clock in the hall chimed the hour at the same time a chime went off on someone’s phone.
Lloyd cleared his throat. “Um, Murph? Your taxi’s here.”
“I wished our first meeting wasn’t so rushed,” Gemma said. She put her hands on Murphy’s shoulders, her kind, gray eyes looking directly into hers. “Murphy, I want you to come live with me. If you want. I want to learn everything there is about you. Hank has filled me in on a little, but I want to know more. Would you like that?”
Murphy looked over to Floyd, Lloyd, and Eloise all looking as if they were barely able to keep their excitement contained. Hank stood with his hands in his pockets and a grin tugging at the corners of his mouth. Her problems—where to live, what to do, how she was going to make it—were all unfolding, fixing themselves in one big swoop. She already loved Gemma, her powerful strong, beautiful aunt. Aunt! Family. She had real family! She couldn’t stop thinking it. Her face hurt from smiling so big.
Murphy felt herself nodding. She wanted nothing more to get to know her mother’s family. “Yes.”
Gemma clapped her hands together. “Lloyd was it? Or are you Floyd?” Both twins snapped to attention. “You can cancel that Uber. Let’s get Marvin to get my nieces things in the car. We’re getting out of this wretched school.” She headed with the twins and Eloise to the front door, mumbling something about never really liking Iverson anyway.
Murphy turned to Hank. “So. You did all this?”
He shrugged, cheeks reddening. “Yeah, I gues
s so.”
“How in the world?”
Hank settled his arm around her waist. “I googled you.”
“You what?” Murphy lightly pushed away from Hank; eyebrow cocked.
“There was a little more to that,” Hank admitted. “But you can really learn stuff about someone when you Google them. Anyways you said your dad was a professional piano player, and I was a little curious about how you ended up here. Did you know there had been a small write up in the newspaper about your dad’s death, and it mentioned the court and your grandmother. At first, I just wanted to find her to figure out why she just left you in this place, and through digging I found out that she had actually passed not shortly after placing you here. One thing led to another, I found your aunt and here we are.”
“You’re amazing, Hank Harrington.” Murphy reached up on her tippy toes give him a kiss. Kissing Hank was quickly becoming her favorite.
Fiona growled angrily.
“Were you stealing my brother’s cat?” Hank picked up the hissing cat carrier, holding it away slightly away.
Murphy paused. “Well, I . . . I guess I was.” She shrugged. “Headmistress was never going to let her stay, so really I rescued her.”
Hank looked into the front of carrier. Fiona hissed and lunged at the door. “Eesh. She is not happy about being in this carrier. We may have to let her out in the car.”
“We? Are you coming with me?” Murphy grabbed the handle of her suitcase and rolled it behind her.
“Of course I’m coming with you, Cain.” He bopped her nose as he headed out the door to the waiting car.
“Sounds good to me.” Murphy stopped at the door, turning to look back at the now empty halls of Iverson. The students having lost interest once Headmistress Kingfisher disappeared in her office.
She smiled. This hadn’t had been the best of places for the last seven years, but being at Iverson had lead her to Hank and the Harringtons and her Aunt Gemma—her family. It made her realize she wouldn’t have traded this time for anything.
In the years to come, when asked what her favorite memory was, she would always begin her story with it happened at Christmas.
Acknowledgments
If you’ve made it this far it means you’ve finished (or if you’re like me, it’s the first thing you’re reading, so hello!!).
To Andy. You’re my best friend. My rock. My real-life hero. I love you so much. Thank you for supporting all my crazy ideas and dreams and doing this thing called life with me. You’re the best. Forever.
To Elsie, Drew, and Oliver. You guys are my favorite humans ever! Thank you for getting excited about mommy’s book (and not being angry that we had cereal again for dinner). You three are my everyday inspiration.
Emilie Haney. Girl. Seriously. Thank you for putting up with me and my thousand questions, millions of edits, and gazillion texts (seriously, there were a lot). Thank you for, hands-down, the best cover I could ask for (and thank you for sticking with me for my thousand and two little tweaks). All your help on the inside and outside of the book helped me make Murphy shine just a little brighter, and I will be forever grateful.
Nesya Walker. Thank you for going on this journey with me. For being my sounding board. Helping me un-stick myself. And for writing Hank’s Song. It’s beautiful. You’re amazing. (Now finish writing your dang book!)
Natalie Walters, thank you for helping me craft this story into existence. From jabbering about a little flash fiction story to a full-fledged novel (whoops). Also, thank you for Iverson Prep. I seriously suck and naming things and could never have come up with that one without you.
Linsay Adair, thank you for falling in love with Hank and Murphy and telling me to keep going when I wanted to trash it. For your eyes when I wasn’t sure where to put commas and when I spelled words wrong, thank you for fixing them. You’re the best.
Joelle Hirst and Gabrial Jones — my first readers. I love you both, and I’m so glad you loved this story, even though you were fairly certain I was going to kill everyone at the end.
Laurie Tomlinson, Grant Gardner, Kelsey Hendrix thanks for our water cooler chats and for all the encouragement. You keep me (mostly) sane. Also, there’s a cameo of our favorite character in here — did you see him?
Mom and Dad, thank you for putting the love of books and words into me. I’m still trying to figure out what you did so I can pass it along to my kids. I love you always.
Anette, you are seriously the best mother-in-law a girl could ever ask for. I thank Jesus for you every single day. Thank you for taking the kids for weekends at a time so I would have long writing sessions.
Adam, Brandon, and Brittney —Y’all the best siblings ever. I’m glad I’m stuck with you. I love you forever and always.
Kacee Brown thank you for being my right-hand woman and second mama to my kiddos. For doing school pick up (and feeding them) when I was so far in edits I couldn’t dig myself out.
(Also, Noah Brown — Happy stinkin’ birthday, kid!)
And finally, to you, my readers (My readers! I’m still so tickled I get to say that!!). I’m so honored that you picked up my little book! Thank you for taking a chance on me and this little book. I will forever be grateful.
About the Author
Photo by Brittney Melton
Christen Krumm lives with her real-life superhero husband and three barefoot wildings in small-town Arkansas. Coffee is the lifeblood, books are her drugs, and creating stories is her favorite. Find her online at christenkrumm.com
It Happened at Christmas Page 19