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Wade hated the snoays had You’dthink a land would feel differently or leave, buthe’d done neither Every Nove, apart of his soul would shrivel up until spring That hy he’d booked himselfa trip to Jamaica for the week before Christmas He’d planned to return to theEdens’, as always, for the holiday, but the frantic call he’d received fro

He had been loath to tell his assistant to cancel the trip, butperhaps if all ell, he could use the reservation after Christ sohts of histroubles buried deep

Interesting choice of words

The BMW SUV wound its way down the two-lane road that led tothe Garden of Eden Christmas Tree Farm Wade preferred to drive his roadster,but rural Connecticut in winter was just not the place for it, so he’d left itin Manhattan The SUV had snow tires, chains in the back and enough clearancenot to scrape on chunks of ice in poorly cleared areas

Spying the large red apple-shaped sign that marked the entranceto his foster parents’ Christh of relief Hehadn’t realized until thathis breath Even underthe less-than-ideal circu home always made him feelbetter

The farm was the only home he’d ever really had None of theother foster ho with hisgreat-aunt before that, nor of his early years with his mother But the Gardenof Eden was just that: paradise Especially for an abandoned young boy who couldjust as easily have become a career criminal as a millionaire in realestate

The Edens changed everything For him and every other child whohad come to live there He owed that couple his life They were his parents,without question Wade didn’t knoho his father was and had only seen hismother once since she dropped hiht of hoht of the farether

They were able to have only one child of their own, theirdaughter, Julianne For a tiwith children ould help on the farm and one day take over the familybusiness had been dashed But then they decided to renovate an old barn into abunkhouse perfect for rowdy boys and started taking in foster children

Wade had been the first Julianne had been in pigtails when hearrived, dragging her favorite doll behind her Wade had been in his share offoster homes, and this tiet a check from the state He was their son

Which is why he wished he was visiting the his parents would be the greatest sin he couldcoo that got himinto this mess

Wade turned the SUV into the driveway, then bypassed theparking lot and took the se Federal-style house towhere the fa the middle of the afternoon ona Friday, but even so, there were at least ten customer cars in the lot It wasDecember 21—only a few days until Christ sugar cookies, cider and hot chocolate on folks while theywaited for Ken or one of the e their new tree

Wade felt the sudden, fa thee years andevery Christmas break from Yale It came naturally to want to jus first He had to take care of the business that hadbrought him here instead of the warm beaches of Jamaica

Julianne’s call had been unexpected None of the kids were verygood about calling or visiting their parents or each other like they shouldThey were all busy, all successful, the way the Edens had wanted theet to make time for the important peoplein their lives

When Julianne had shown up at the far, she’d been in for quite the surprise Their father, Ken, wasrecovering from a heart attack They hadn’t called any of the kids because theydidn’t want the hospital bills