The printing press was whirring away, creating an invitation for a Christmas Eve party next month. This client visited them for all of her parties, so Declan had painstakingly made sure that every letter was just as it should be in the template. He'd even painstakingly carved a mistletoe illustration into blocks for each corner of the invitation, spending time making sure that they all matched while Fabian scoffed at him. Finally it was set, and into the press, which was now happily whirring away via magic to make all five hundred invitations while Declan read his book and waited for clients to come and pick up their orders. He was sure that when he showed Tess his work on this one, she at least would be proud of him.

The book was sentimental, a romance. When he'd first started to work at Whitby & Co. Declan was embarrassed to get caught reading romance novels, but now he didn't mind — if Fabian wanted to poke fun at Deck for reading Lamplighter then he was welcome to. He thought that Kenna might like this one, if he gave the worn copy to her when he was done — the lead was a woman, and from all indications, Declan suspected that she was going to get her happy ending.

He looked up at the sound of the bell over the door, hoping for one of the clients he was waiting on, or for Tess so that he could show her his hard work on the invitation. His brow creased at the image he saw instead — it was not at all surprising to see Sage, and normally he would have shown her the invitation instead. But he couldn't get his words out, because there was a young child weeping on her shoulder, with bouncing curls that screamed Whitby girl to Declan.

"Sage?" he said, dog-earing his book and closing it. He stood up from the stool and stepped out from behind the counter, concern wrought through the lines on his face — he wasn't sure what was going on here, but it was strange, and he couldn't possibly go back to working normally when Sage's eyes looked wet like they did now.