From the Heart

“Some women,” he corrected, “tend to weep when they’re particularly happy. Kasey’s one of them.”
    “Really?”
    “Really,” Kasey managed and took a deep breath. “Alison, it’s the most beautiful present I’ve ever had.” She gathered the girl into her arms and squeezed. “Thank you.”
    “She really likes it,” Alison said, grinning at Jordan over Kasey’s shoulder. “Do you think she’ll cry if you give her yours?”
    “Why don’t we find out?” Jordan reached under the tree for a small, square box. “Of course, maybe she’s not interested in any more presents.”
    “Of course I am.” Kasey drew out of Alison’s arms. “I’m very greedy on Christmas.” She took the box from him and drew a deep breath. Opening it, she felt her heart lurch for the second time that morning.
    She held the gold, finely etched drop earrings, remarkably similar to those she had seen the day she had bought hisunicorn. She looked up at him and shook her head. “Jordan, how did you remember something like this?”
    “I haven’t forgotten anything you’ve told me. I thought this went with it.” He handed her another box, this one long and flat, then smiled as she hesitated. “I thought you were greedy on Christmas.”
    Kasey opened the box and found three thin gold chains ingeniously twisted together to form one. “It’s beautiful,” she murmured.
    He took the chain from her fingers and clasped it around her neck.
    Kasey swallowed, then laid her cheek against his. “Thank you, Jordan.” She scrambled up. “I’m going to see about some coffee.”
    “She liked yours, too,” Alison told him and shifted her guitar. “She was crying again.”
    When Millicent brought coffee and croissants into the drawing room fifteen minutes later, she stood balancing the tray and stared. In all her years in the Taylor household she’d never seen anything like it. Papers and ribbons and boxes were everywhere. And Mr. Taylor was wrestling with a puppy in the middle of it all. Mr. Taylor! Miss Alison and Miss Wyatt were giggling. No, she’d never seen anything like it, not in this house.

13
    K asey intended to keep herself very busy when she left Palm Springs. First she was going home. She had made her decision; New Year’s Eve would mark her last full day with Jordan. All she had left to do was tell Jordan. After looking at it from every angle—from hers, from his, from Alison’s—Kasey had decided to wait until the first of the year. Her flight was booked. It would hurt less if the hours between weren’t heavy with the knowledge that they were the last ones. She’d cram everything she could into that final twenty-four hours.
    “I’d have had you in the third game of the second set if I hadn’t double-faulted.” She swung her racket at the air as she and Jordan walked from the tennis court. “And if you hadn’t served to my backhand in the fourth game of the second set, I would have won that one, too. You really are a vicious player, coming into the net like that.”
    He took her racket, a bit leery of the enthusiasm she showed in swinging it. “Look, there’s Alison by the pool. She appears to be dutifully doing her homework.”
    Alison glanced up as they approached, waved, then settled back with a sigh. “Uncle Jordan, I don’t know what to do about this assignment.”
    “No?” He set the rackets down on the umbrellaed table. “What is it?”
    “I have to list five items typical of the nineteen-eighties.Something I’d put into a time capsule to show future societies what our culture was like.”
    “Alison.” He grinned and ran a finger down her nose. “Why ask a writer when you have an anthropologist?”
    “Oh, I forgot.” She looked up at Kasey. “What would you put in a time capsule?”
    “Let’s see.” Kasey narrowed her eyes against the sun a moment. “A stalk of wheat, a container of petroleum, an MOS chip, a cassette of punk rock music and a pair of Gucci loafers.”
    Jordan laughed. “And that’s your encapsulization of the eighties?”
    Alison frowned as she scribbled. “What’s an MOS chip?”
    “It’s a—”
    “Oh, no.” Jordan stopped Kasey’s explanation cold. “Don’t get her started, Alison.”
    “Well,” Alison said, frowning at the list doubtfully, “I suppose I’d better think about this some more.” She gave Kasey a look that told her she’d been little help, then left to work out her problem indoors.
    “I’m not sure that Alison or her