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“Maybe,” Felix said. “Goodnight, guys.”

Then it was just Tommy, Sarah, and Henry. They went last because Tommy had cargo.

“I’m taking my chairs,” he said, already stacking them. The mismatched trio had sat at the foot of the table all day. We had eleven people here, at a table built for eight.

“Thanks for bringing them, but I hope you’ll understand that I don’t want to see them back here,” Nico said.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “We’ll build a couple more chairs so we’ll have spares.”

“It was a wonderful day,” Sarah said. “You two are probably the best referral I’ve ever made. From a name on a napkin to this in a year. I’m so happy for you two.”

She kissed our cheeks while Tommy just grinned and threw a wink my direction. His way of wishing me luck for what was still to come tonight.

“Goodbye, Mr. Nico.” Henry hugged Nico’s legs. “I want you to make me cocoa again sometime. It was the best!”

“Any time.” Nico ruffled Henry’s hair.

“Bye, Mr. Jake. You’re lucky you get to live here with him so you can have cocoa any time.”

“Yes, I am. Merry Christmas, Henry.”

They headed out, and we watched them load up and drive away.

Nico leaned into me on the porch, which was lit up with Christmas lights. “That was good.”

“The best.”

Back inside, we headed directly for the kitchen to start in on the cleanup.

I came up beside him at the sink, taking the place I always did. We’d done this at least a hundred times in the past year. He rinsed, while I loaded the dishwasher.

“The kitchen was incredible,” he said. “Worth all the work.”

“Was there a doubt?”

“In July there was a great deal of doubt.” We’d gutted the kitchen over the summer. It had nearly ended us twice. Once over the island configuration. Once over the design of the cabinet doors. “Eleven people, and nobody ate standing up. There was enough space in the kitchen for everyone before and after dinner. It was all worth it.”

He washed the largest of our cherry trays by hand, slow, the way he handled the things we’d made. We’d built the serving pieces in September. Three trays, a cutting board, the bread bowl. The kitchen was done by then, the shop clear of other work. Today was the first time all of them had been put to use.

“Sarah tried to buy the bread bowl off me,” he said. “In my own kitchen.”

“What’d you tell her?”

“That it wasn’t for sale and she should be ashamed.” He chuckled and shook his head. “She offered more. I told her we’d make them a set, custom for them.”

I nodded. “I’d love to make something for our friends with you.”

We finished wiping down the counters. I hung the towel and checked the clock. Late, but not too late. There was one thing we hadn’t gotten to all day.

“We never did twenty-five,” I said, and started for the advent calendar at the end of the wall. That was something else we’d built when I’d found out that he’d never had one. We’d traded filling the drawers. Today’s was something from Nico.

“Not yet.”

It came out faster than Nico said most things. I turned around. He had the look he gets when he’s decided something and is braced for me to argue.

“It’s the last drawer. We have to do it today.”

“We will.” He lined up the drinking cups we kept by the sink. “At five-thirty this morning, in the middle of my baking, you told me to stay out of the shop today. You don’t get to hide something out there and then put me off with a drawer.” He jerked his head toward the backdoor.