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Christine gave birth to a healthy baby girl on Christmas Eve morning at 9:45 am. Audrey, who’d eventually had to collapse back at home with little Max, received the news via a phone call from her mother, who’d paraded on through the night, armed with “many cups of coffee and, admittedly, a few sips from Tommy’s flask.”
“How does she look?” Audrey asked, yawning as she pressed the phone against her cheek and poured herself an additional cup of coffee.
“Mom and baby look amazing,” Lola affirmed. “Christine was a real champ. Zach, of course, had a few moments of weakness, but that’s just men for you.”
Audrey laughed appreciatively. “He looked on the verge of tears all night last night.”
“He’s an emotional one. But I think we like that in the Sheridan clan, don’t we?” Lola asked with a laugh.
“Any name yet?” Audrey asked.
“Nope. I think Susan and I might head out of here soon to give Christine, Zach, and baby some space. Susan’s exhausted and keeps snapping at me that there are a million things to get done before Christmas.’ I guess the whole Montgomery-Sheridan gathering is still on for tomorrow?”
“I wouldn’t have wanted Christmas any other way,” Audrey replied.
Grandpa Wes and Kellan appeared in the mudroom, kicking their boots of mud and discussing some wilderness-themed poetry, which Wes had apparently gotten Kellan into.
“That’s the thing about Wordsworth,” Kellan said excitedly. “He’s so visceral when he talks about the way the wind moves through the trees and the water rushes across the stones.”
“That’s exactly why I like it, too,” Wes affirmed as he stepped down the hallway. “He takes you there immediately. You don’t even have to step outside, and you feel this breath of fresh air.”
Audrey lifted Max against her and greeted Wes and Kellan with a bright smile.
“Guess what! Christine had a healthy baby just about an hour ago,” she announced.
Grandpa Wes dropped his red cap to the ground in surprise. He then smacked a hand across Kellan’s shoulder and said, “How about that!”
Kellan laughed good-naturedly as he slid out from beneath Grandpa Wes’s over-powered grip.
“Boy or girl?” Wes asked.
“A girl,” Audrey replied brightly. “Gosh, I’m jealous. Christine will get to pick out all these little dresses and hats.”
Max buzzed his lips playfully as his blue eyes glowed up at her. Audrey immediately regretted her words.
“No, no, Max. I don’t mean it,” she told him. “I just wish boys had more interesting clothes, is all. I wouldn’t trade you in for the world.”
A few minutes later, Scott and Willa arrived at the Sheridan house. Willa was bundled up in a thick periwinkle winter coat and a black cap, her hands shoved in her pockets. Her eyes were tinged pink, as though she’d spent a good deal of the previous twenty-four hours crying. Scott said that he had to run some pre-Christmas errands, all from a mile-long list that Susan had written out for him, and suggested that Willa and Audrey hang for a while. Scott’s words hung in the air, a reminder that nobody wanted Willa to be alone for too long.
“Of course,” Audrey said brightly. “Come on in, Willa.”
With Scott and Kellan off to run errands and Grandpa Wes alone in his room, Audrey and Willa sat across from one another at the kitchen table wordlessly, both waiting for the other to chime in. Audrey felt strangely guilty, suddenly, for bringing to light what had happened to Willa. Perhaps it had been a blessing, for a little while, not to remember the immensity of her loss.
“I called several people from our hometown last night,” Willa said suddenly, surprising Audrey with the strength of her voice.
“Oh...” Audrey’s eyes widened.
“Yes. Some of the widows of men who’d lost their lives at the plant, along with several of my friends. People I hadn’t thought about since before all this chaos in my head started. Some of them had been very worried about me. Others had heard that I’d gone to visit family. I finally traced the root of this rumor. Apparently, after my psychosis had begun, I told a close friend, Rhonda, that I was headed to visit my sister. I suppose that’s why they didn’t send out a search party. That, and there’s something about a sad widow. Something people don’t want to get too close to, I suppose.”
“It sounds like those people love you a great deal,” Audrey countered. “I’m sure it was really good to hear from you.”
“I didn’t tell everyone what happened,” Willa offered. “But I did ask a closer one advice on what to do next. Lola has been very vocal that there’s space for me here on the island. Perhaps it’s time to return to that chapter of my life and allow it to flourish this time.”
Audrey’s throat tightened. “I can’t speak for everyone else in my family. But I can say this. We were broken for years. And now that we’re back together, we’re stronger than ever. I know what your parents did to you probably messed you up forever. Add to that Gretchen’s death from leukemia and Harvey’s death... It’s really no question why your mind went a little haywire for a while.”
Audrey reached across the table and gripped Willa’s hand. “All those memories you have with Anna. Maybe you could help us create new ones. I have my son and Christine just had a daughter. I know they’d love to have another member of the family to love. And give them Christmas and birthday gifts, of course, but mostly, the love thing.”
Willa erupted with natural yet surprised laughter. “I think you’re right about that. Perhaps it’s time to look hard at building a life here on the Vineyard. Family is the most important thing of all. That’s what I’ve heard, anyway. And it would be good not to be in that house where Harvey and I... Well. We loved one another to bits. It was never perfect. Maybe nothing ever is, but my heart knows he was my first and only true love. How grateful I am to have had him as long as I did.”
That night, Audrey, Amanda, Willa, Max, Kellan, Susan, and Scott gathered around the television at the Sheridan house and watched, It’s a Wonderful Life, which they’d heard was the film Christine and Zach had been in the midst of when Christine had decided it was time to head up to the hospital to have her baby girl.
Audrey placed her head on her grandfather’s shoulder as Max slept in the corner in his little carrier, his blue eyes moving slightly behind his thin eyelids, searching for something in his dreams. On the screen, Jimmy Stewart sang, “Buffalo gals, won’t you come out tonight?” to a beautiful young woman and skipped down a black-and-white sidewalk in an impossibly different era. One day soon, Jimmy would make this woman his wife.
“I just can’t believe it,” Grandpa Wes said, heaving a sigh.
“What’s that?” Audrey whispered as she reached into the bowl of pretzels and popcorn on the couch-side table.
“I can’t believe I have a brand-new granddaughter,” Wes replied. “I don’t know what I did to deserve all this goodness at once.”
Audrey’s grin widened. She nibbled at the edge of a popcorn kernel as Susan pressed her finger to her lips to shush Wes, as she wanted to focus on the film she’d probably seen at least fifteen times, maybe more. Audrey and Grandpa Wes exchanged silly glances, both wanting to burst into childish giggles about Susan’s reaction. Susan wouldn’t have been able to handle that.
After the movie, Susan said, “Good night,” to everyone and announced that Christmas celebrations began at the Sunrise Cove Inn at ten-thirty a.m. sharp. “We’ll have a little breakfast buffet set up followed by a full-scale Christmas dinner around four-thirty,” she said.
“With plenty of cookies to sustain us between breakfast and dinner, I guess?” Audrey teased.
“The number of cookies that have been baked...” Kellan said as he shook his head with disbelief.
“Let’s just say we haven’t been able to use our kitchen for a while,” Scott stated, jabbing Susan gently with his elbow.
After that, Willa, Susan, Kellan, and Scott embarked through the frozen edge between the Sheridan house and the Frampton house, leaving Audrey, Amanda, Max, and Grandpa Wes alone.
“I’ll see you girls in the morning,” Grandpa Wes said as he snuck his arms over his head and erupted with a yawn.
“Love you, Grandpa!” both Amanda and Audrey called as he escaped into his bedroom.
Amanda then collapsed on the couch and wrapped her hair into a tight ponytail, her face pinched.
“What’s wrong, honey?” Audrey asked her, using a Susan tone.
Amanda seemed not to notice the fake-Susan-mode. “Sam asked me to be his girlfriend. Like, officially.”
“And?”
Amanda’s eyes were dark, fearful. “I mean, I don’t know.”
“What do you mean, you don’t know? Sam’s your world. Not to say that you can’t have your own opinion. You very clearly can. I just think... why not Sam?” Audrey asked tenderly.
Amanda buzzed her lips distractedly. “I know. And honestly, Audrey, I love him. I realized it even in the silence after he asked me. But I get so worried. Chris really messed me up. I thought for sure that would be my reality. My future...”
Audrey dropped her chin to her chest. “I suppose all we know for sure is that nothing is for sure. And we have to go with our gut, sometimes. As we’ve seen with Willa, and with our grandmother, and with our mothers themselves... things change, fast as lightning. The moment is here-and-now. That’s what’s most important.”
“The here-and-now,” Amanda whispered. “How about that?”
“How about it,” Audrey countered playfully.
Just then, as though God himself had a hand in how the night would play out, Audrey received a text message.
“Are you going to get that?” Amanda asked after the buzz.
Audrey lifted her phone, read the word “NOAH,” and immediately flung the phone to the other end of the couch. Her heart beat as quickly as a rabbit’s.
“What the heck was that?” Amanda asked.
Audrey’s eyes widened. “I don’t know.”
“You mean that you’re not following the here-and-now, knocking on your door demanding that you pay attention to the advice you just gave me,” Amanda teased.
Audrey heaved a sigh, lurched up, and grabbed her phone. She knew that if she didn’t read it for many hours, she would toss and turn with fear and resentment. It was better to face it head-on.
NOAH: Hi. Merry Christmas Eve. Through the grapevine, I learned that Christine had a healthy baby girl. Congratulations to all of you.
NOAH: I’m sorry things were so strange when we saw each other on the street. I didn’t even know you were back. I’m sorry if I didn’t respond correctly. I’m sorry I didn’t handle it well... I’m just sorry, all around.
NOAH: I would really like to talk to you before you head back to Penn State. Maybe we could grab a coffee.
“Oh my gosh. Why won’t you tell me what’s up!” Amanda flailed a pillow against Audrey’s thigh as silence swelled between them.
Audrey lifted her chin to blink at Amanda, gobsmacked. “It’s Noah,” she finally said.
“You’re kidding.”
“I’m not.”
“He’s so sad right now! It’s Christmas Eve, and he misses his Audrey!” Amanda cried.
“Oh, stop it,” Audrey insisted.
“I will not stop it.”
“He wants to see me,” Audrey said.
“And...? Will you see him?”
Audrey squeezed her eyes closed. A million little memories rushed through her mind— the first meeting at the vending machine at the NICU, the movie dates and the beach outings, the time he’d held her tightly as they’d careened through the waves on a dramatic sailing expedition— it had all mattered to her. And it had brewed up something within her that very much seemed like love.
“I think I have to,” Audrey breathed.
She finally lifted her phone once more and typed back.
AUDREY: Merry Christmas Eve to you, too.
AUDREY: I’m not going back to Penn State. It’s a long story.
AUDREY: But... Noah. I’m so glad to hear from you.
AUDREY: And I’d like to see you soon, too.