Nantucket Neighbors
Page 16
“Can you take a little break and come into the living room for a minute?” He asked.
“Sure.” She quickly washed her hands and went into the living room where Rhett was standing by the fireplace. He’d started a fire and it was glowing merrily. He took her hands and pulled her towards him and gave her a quick kiss. “Happy Thanksgiving.” He had never struck her as overly sentimental before, but she went with it.
“Happy Thanksgiving. I’m glad you’re here. And Michelle too.”
“Before everyone gets here, I wanted a moment alone with you. To tell you that what I’m most grateful for this year….is you. Meeting you, and loving you was unexpected and I can’t imagine not having you in my life.”
His words were unexpected and Lisa felt a sudden rush of emotion followed by the arrival of happy tears that threatened to spill over.
“I feel the same way. Totally unexpected. I didn’t think I’d find love again, it wasn’t even on my radar. And then you showed up.”
“And then I showed up.” He reached into his pocket and then looked her in the eye. “I know we haven’t really talked about this, other than that I’d like to stick around through the winter, but I’d actually like to stay a lot longer.”
The tears spilled over as Rhett slowly got down on one knee and held a small, black velvet box in one hand. He opened it and the most lovely, perfect diamond ring sat there in a delicate, vintage setting.
“If you’ll have me, that is. I love you, Lisa Hodges. What do you think about getting married?” And then he added, “to me.” And she laughed.
“Honestly, I haven’t thought about it. I’ve just been enjoying our time together, taking each day as it comes. But, yes, of course I’ll marry you.”
“It’s a good deal for you. If I move into the main house, you’ll have an extra room to rent,” he said, with a twinkle in his eye as he slid the ring onto her finger, then stood and kissed her.
“Well, then. I guess we really have something to celebrate today. And to be grateful for.” A thought occurred to her. “Does Michelle know? Do you think she’ll be okay with this?” Lisa didn’t know Rhett’s daughter well. She was the same age as Abby, and Lisa hoped that it wouldn’t make her more uncomfortable to learn her father just got engaged.
Rhett grinned, which immediately relaxed her. “I cleared it with her first. She actually helped me pick out the ring yesterday. Well, I had this picked out, but wanted to make sure I hadn’t screwed it up. So, they held it for me, and I brought her to look at it and she gave an enthusiastic approval. Do you think your children will be okay with it?”
“We’ll find out soon enough.”
A few hours later, everyone began to arrive. Abby made a beeline for the coffee cake and started cutting slices for everyone. Lisa was ready for a slice too. She took a quick bite, savoring the flavor of the toasted walnuts and cinnamon sugar before handing out mimosas to everyone. She handed one to Tyler that was minus the champagne, just all fresh-squeezed orange goodness. She handed Kate her drink last because she knew she was the observant one and wouldn’t miss the glittering ring on her finger. No one else had noticed yet. She laughed when Kate’s jaw dropped and before she could say a word, Rhett commanded everyone’s attention and held up his glass.
“I have an announcement. Or rather, we do.” He glanced at Lisa and she nodded for him to continue. “As most of you have noticed, Lisa and I have grown close since I moved in here. We both feel lucky to have found each other and well, this morning, I asked her to marry me, and she said yes. We hope that you’ll all be happy for us.”
Lisa looked around at all the stunned faces. “We have a lot to be grateful for and we’re glad to share this day with all of you.”
Michelle was the only one who didn’t look surprised, since she was in on it, and she made the first move to give Lisa a hug. “Welcome to the family. My dad is crazy about you.”
“Thank you. That means a lot.” Lisa felt her eyes getting wet again as there was a sudden rush of noise and hugs and laughter as all of her children rushed forward to hug and congratulate both Lisa and Rhett.
The rest of the day was a happy blur. Later that afternoon, after they finished eating, the girls helped Lisa finish cleaning up in the kitchen. All day, they took turns admiring her ring.
“He really has good taste. That setting is so pretty. I love the vintage filigree,” Beth said.
“Chase, are you paying attention?” Rhett said.
“What was that? I must have missed it.” Chase grinned and pulled Beth in for a quick kiss.
Lisa was glad to see her son so happy, finally. All of her children seemed settled now, although Kristen and Tyler were still a new couple. She liked Tyler and she was optimistic about him for Kristen. She hoped that their relationship would grow stronger and that the niggling concern she felt was just a mother being silly and worrying about nothing.
“Did you hear that Olivia Stark died this morning?” Kate said. Olivia was an elderly woman that lived right up the road. She’d been one of their neighbors for as long as Lisa could remember. She knew that Olivia had been sick for some time though and hadn’t lived at home now for a few months. The house was starting to show the neglect. A recent storm had whipped off some of the shingles.
“I saw that on Facebook this morning,” Chase said. “She was a nice old lady. She must have been close to ninety?”
“Closer to ninety-five, I think,” Lisa said. “She was a good neighbor. I always felt bad for her all alone there with no family that I ever knew of.”
“I wonder what will happen to her house now?” Kristen said.
“I’m sure she has a will. If there’s no family, she probably left it to charity or something,” Lisa guessed.
“Whoever buys it will need to do some work to it. With all those missing shingles, I wouldn’t be surprised at a minimum if it needs a new roof,” Chase said.
“Well, she won’t have to worry about that now.” Lisa said a silent prayer for the woman, hoping that she was at peace.
“Oh my goodness!” Abby sounded breathless and a bit alarmed. Lisa glanced over and saw why. Abby was leaning against the kitchen counter staring down at the floor and a puddle of water beneath her.
Jeff ran over and took her arm. “What’s wrong, are you okay?”
Lisa took charge. “Jeff get her out to the car. Her water just broke.”
“But it’s too early,” he said.
“I told you she was impatient,” Abby said. But then she grabbed onto her mother’s arm and in a panicky voice asked, “It’s not too early is it? Should I be worried?”
“No, it’s not too early. Babies come early all the time. I had a feeling this one might be in a hurry.” Lisa smiled and gave her daughter’s hand a reassuring squeeze. “I was a month early with you too, so this doesn’t surprise me at all. Let’s get you to the hospital.”
Later that evening, well after midnight as she drifted off to sleep with Rhett’s arm around her, Lisa thought about what a wonderful and eventful day it had been. And how when one door closed another one opened. Ninety-something Olivia Stark slipped away in the early morning and Natalie Ellis arrived in the late evening, and all was as it should be.
Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed Nantucket Neighbors. If you’d like to receive an email about new releases, please join my mailing list. Visit my website, www.pamelakelley.com
My next book, Nantucket White Christmas is available for preorder.
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