Mid-way through their conversation, the screen door that led out to the driveway banged shut. Claire’s voice rang out.
“Hello! Is anyone here?”
Seconds later, she appeared in the doorway to the family room, her smile big as she tugged off her gloves. “It smells great in here. Cinnamon rolls?”
“Should be done in about five minutes,” their mother said.
Claire’s brow furrowed. “You guys look very serious. Did something happen?”
Charlotte’s voice came next. “Hello?”
“In here, Char!” Claire called.
Seconds later, Charlotte and Everett appeared beside Claire. For a moment, silence hovered between all of them. There was so much to explain, and yet, it wasn’t really their story to tell.
“All right, everyone,” Kerry said with a smile. “Why don’t we gather around the table? I can feed you and we can get this day started right.”
They piled around the dining room table as Andrew helped his mother with multiple small tasks: pouring coffees and taking the cinnamon rolls out of the oven and drizzling them with the icing she’d already stirred up. As he joined the others at the table, he caught the tail-end of Charlotte’s story.
“And when Everett saw all the lights in the main square, he nearly lost his mind,” Charlotte said.
“I thought you guys went all-out for Christmas by Thanksgiving, but the decoration has doubled or even tripled around here,” Everett affirmed.
Andrew gestured around the dining room, where still more holly had been hung, where the candles were bright red with Christmas cheer, where even the family portrait had been traded out for an old one, taken around 1996, with all of them in Christmas sweaters.
“We don’t do anything half-way when it comes to Christmas,” he told Everett with a laugh.
Everett swung an arm around Charlotte and cuddled her close. “I have to admit, my old cold heart has really warmed up this holiday season. Who would have thought it would happen all the way out here on this cold little rock in the Atlantic?”
“Have you given any more thought to moving out here, Everett?” Kerry asked suddenly as she dug her fork into her cinnamon roll. She asked it as though she asked about the weather.
“Mom!” Claire cried. “You can’t just ask that—”
But Everett and Charlotte burst into laughter. The sound was like music.
“Actually, we just talked about it this morning,” Charlotte said.
“Oh?” Their mother had never looked so excited.
“I am wrapping up a few final projects out west,” Everett said. “But I think by February, or so, I’ll be back out here for good. Or for as long as Charlotte will have me.”
Charlotte rolled her eyes playfully as she lifted her lips toward his. Their kiss was delicate and so pure.
“That’s fantastic news,” Andrew heard himself say.
“Made only more fantastic when you announce your plans to stay for good, too, little brother,” Charlotte said.
“You Martha’s Vineyard people. You’re all addictive you know that? Like your personal island touch puts people in a trance and makes them instantly move to the island,” Andrew said.
“You say it like you aren’t one of us,” Claire said. “You fell right back into the fold just like that, like you’d only been gone a week.” She snapped her fingers and winked at him.
That moment, Kelli appeared in the doorway. She still wore an old sweatshirt, and her hair was piled up on top of itself. She delivered a sleepy smile and waved a little hand.
“Good morning, everyone,” she said groggily and rubbed at her eye.
“Good morning, Kelli!” everyone echoed back.
Claire’s eyes snapped toward Andrew with curiosity. It was clear to everyone that something was going on. Luckily, everyone played along. Andrew poured Kelli a cup of coffee and loaded up a plate with cinnamon rolls. She collapsed in the chair beside him and said, “Did I hear something about fantastic news?”
“Everett’s moving here!” Kerry cried.
“Oh my gosh. That’s great news,” Kelli said as she sipped her coffee. “Do you think you’ll miss LA?”
“Not that much,” Everett said. “It’s all so materialistic. Normally, I’m running around, photographing big events for celebrities, and it’s all the same. Even the conversations feel the same from place to place. Plus, I can always fly out for any worthy assignments.”
Kelli nodded contemplatively. “And you think we’ll be a little more interesting over here?”
Everett chuckled. “You’re already worlds above those people.”
They continued to eat and to laugh. Andrew noticed that Kelli remained bright and focused. If her mind was busy in the background with fears surrounding Mike and what she would do next, she hardly showed it.
“What’s up with the flower shop today?” Kelli asked Claire as they finished up.
Claire shrugged. “I put my assistant in charge today. It seemed like a good day to stop by here, spend more time with Andy.”
“Don’t blame me for wanting to take a day off,” Andrew teased.
“I should be thanking you! I’m still so wiped out from that wedding. I can’t even imagine how you feel, Charlotte,” Claire said.
“It really was destructive,” Charlotte said. “Although I’ve agreed to help with the bits and pieces of Amanda’s wedding. It’s coming up, you know. January is coming so fast.”
“That’s right,” Kelli said. “Susan seems thrilled. I know she really likes the guy.”
“Chris, right? I think I met him briefly at Thanksgiving,” Claire said. “He’s handsome and accomplished. All the things we should want for Amanda. She’s the spitting image of Anna at that age, you know. So is the other one—the pregnant one. Audrey.”
“Audrey is a spitfire,” Charlotte said with a laugh. “She’s due pretty soon, I think maybe March or April?”
“I think that’s probably why we haven’t seen much of her lately,” Claire said. “She’s reached the really difficult pregnancy months, although nothing was more difficult when I had twins. Remember what I looked like? I was a beached whale. And I didn’t give birth till July. That was my own version of hell.”
Everyone chuckled with the memory, except Andrew, of course.
When they had finished breakfast, they piled the plates in the dishwasher and then joined together in the family room. Trevor flicked through the stations while Andrew sat between Claire and Kelli on the cozy couch. Kelli seemed to fall into her own thoughts while Andrew stewed in his. After a long moment, he turned toward Claire and said, “Do you have any photos of it?”
Claire arched her brow, confused. “Of what?”
“Of when the girls were firstborn. I know I’ve missed so much of your life. I’d just like some kind of image...”
Claire’s face burst into a wide grin. “Of course! This is what any mother wants—to show off pictures of her babies. You’d be surprised, I guess, how little something like that comes up.” She grabbed her phone and flicked through to a folder she had created of these long-ago days. “2005 was just a few years before I got a Facebook account, so the girls were spared of me posting too much about them on the internet,” she said with a laugh. “They thank their lucky stars for that.”
Andrew peered at the photos. There she was, Claire, around age twenty-four: beautiful, bright-eyed, with two identical and tiny babies in her arms.
“You can imagine how tired I was in this one,” she said of a photo still at the hospital. “I think I was delirious. You could have told me my name was Beyonce and I would have believed you.”
Andrew laughed appreciatively as he flicked through to the next photo, which was of Charlotte, holding one of the girls, with Claire beside her with the other.
“Charlotte had only just found out she was pregnant with Rachel, right?” Claire said toward Charlotte, who sat holding Everett’s hand on the other side of the room.
“That’s right,
” Charlotte affirmed. “She was born the following March. I knew when I met your girls that my girl would be their best friend.”
“And you were right about that,” Claire said. “The girls are inseparable, even at school. Gail and Abby even sometimes call Rachel their triplet.”
It was strange, yet beautiful, for Andrew to be updated in this way. He knew that if he stuck around Martha’s Vineyard, he had a great deal more to learn. He wanted to know everything about his sisters’ and brother’s life, about his nieces and nephews. He wanted to know about the sad days as well as the beautiful ones.
THE DAY WAS ONE OF the coziest Andrew had ever spent. There was something about it that reminded him of long-ago days when his mother had allowed him to stay home from school for a sick day, if only so they could spend time together, cooking and laughing and watching television.
Steve came around the house for lunch. He smelled just the faintest bit like the auto shop, and he brought with him freshly-baked scones, purchased from the bakery at the Sunrise Cove Inn.
“I didn’t let Christine give me them for free,” he announced. “We’ve taken too much from her already.”
Kelli bit into the corner of one and closed her eyes with pleasure. “Wow. The woman knows how to bake. It’s almost sinful.”
Claire and Charlotte busied themselves in making everyone grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, which everyone deemed the perfect meal for such a chilly day. Kerry forced them into yet another Christmas movie while they ate together on TV trays, the same ones they’d used as kids. Despite the film going on in the background, the siblings kept up their teasing and conversation. Everett, especially, got the brunt of the conversation, as everyone was so terribly curious about him. All they’d ever known for Charlotte was Jason Hamner; was it possible that this separate being from the west coast was good enough for Charlotte?
In time, Andrew felt that although Everett was different than Jason, his goofiness and the lightness of his personality shone through. He clearly adored Charlotte and made her laugh. He planned to change his entire life for her. That was enough for Andrew.
“How was it with Beth last night, Andy?” Steve interjected suddenly.
Everyone’s eyes turned toward Andrew. Claire wolf-whistled playfully.
“I guess Christine told on me?” Andrew said.
“She might have mentioned she caught you out on a date,” Steven said.
“That girl is one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met,” Trevor said.
“Well, Dad said it, so it’s the law,” Charlotte affirmed.
“Look at him! Our baby brother’s blushing!” Claire said.
Andrew rolled his eyes. “Come on, you guys.”
Everyone imitated him after that. “Come on, you guys!” over and over until Andrew burst into laughter.
“To answer your question,” he said as he wiped the corners of his eyes, “Beth and I are just friends.”
“Yeah. Right,” Steven said, teasing him. “Kelli, what do you think of that?”
Kelli gave perhaps her second smile of the day. Her eyes were filled with meaning and memory. “All I want in this world is for Andy to be happy. If Beth Leopold makes him happy, then I’m all in.”
Everyone nodded in unison and started various discussions once again, filling the rooms with their voices and laughter.
It wasn’t until around two-thirty in the afternoon that Kelli found a slot in the conversation. Her announcement, “I wondered if you guys would head over to my place and pack up a few bags for me,” led to another few seconds of confused silence.
Andrew grabbed her hand in the stunned quiet. “You know we’ll do anything for you, Kelli.”
“I just don’t want to go over there right now,” Kelli said. “I’m going to call Lexi later to explain everything. She’s busy with school stuff right now, but it’s her last day for the semester, so I know it’s time to make her understand.”
In the wake of this simple conversation, Andrew, Claire, Charlotte, and Steven stood out by Claire’s car and had another brief discussion. Andrew updated them on what had happened the evening before.
“I knew they were going through a rough patch, but this makes me want to...” Steven trailed off as his hands formed fists.
“I know. But we have to respect Kelli’s wishes,” Andrew stated. “She just wants out. She doesn’t want to mess anything up for Lexi or Josh or Sam. They love their father, and they should be allowed to love their father. Even if we hate him.”
With that, everyone agreed this was the only way.
Chapter Twenty
As they drove over to Kelli’s place in Claire’s car, Andrew studied the list that Kelli had written up for them about what to pack for her. According to her, Mike probably wouldn’t be home yet, although his schedule was constantly changing lately.
Their plan of attack was simple: they would grab the suitcase out of the hallway closet, fill it with the items Kelli had requested, then return. They’d all decided to go together for a one-person job because they hadn’t managed to agree on who could perform the task best. Plus, they just needed to be there for their sister, as much as they could be.
Andrew hadn’t been to Kelli’s house in seventeen years. As he slid her key into the lock, flashes of how it had been came into contrast with its current state: a brand-new set of countertops in the kitchen, photographs of Lexi, Josh and Sam at various ages that Andrew had missed and an enormous television in the family room, which was just off from the kitchen.
The siblings stepped up the staircase without speaking. Andrew wasn’t sure why his heart rattled so violently in his chest. He was frightened, the way he’d been as a kid watching a horror movie.
Upstairs, Claire collected the suitcase from the hall closet and led the charge toward the bedroom. There, she splayed the suitcase open while Charlotte opened the bedroom closet and began to collect jeans, t-shirts, sweaters, blouses, dresses, and shoes. Apparently, the list wasn’t necessary, as Kelli’s sisters, Claire and Charlotte, knew precisely what she wanted.
Steven and Andrew waited near the bedroom door. Steve palmed the back of his neck as he whispered, “I should have paid better attention to all of this. I feel like I failed her as her older brother. I hate it.”
“She wouldn’t want you to feel that way,” Andrew returned. “Maybe she wasn’t ready till now.”
“It just breaks my heart to know she’s been in all this pain,” Steven said. “Nobody should go through that.”
Just as Claire began to zip up the suitcase, there was the sound downstairs of the garage door opening. It made the house vibrate around them. Steven and Andrew locked eyes.
“He’s back,” Steve murmured.
“And there’s no way he hasn’t seen my car,” Claire said.
Claire dragged the suitcase off the bed, placed the wheels on the ground, and followed after Andrew, Steven, and Charlotte. They gathered at the top of the staircase as the door between the garage and the kitchen opened. Two sets of footsteps tapped across the hardwood.
“Hello? Mom? Aunt Claire?” It was Lexi’s voice.
“Shoot,” Claire muttered.
None of them knew what to do. They understood that the worst part of all of this was Lexi; Kelli had wanted to remain with Mike until her graduation in the springtime, if only to cushion the blow. It just wasn’t possible to hold on any longer.
“Kelli?” This was Mike’s voice. Maybe he had picked Lexi up from school that day.
“It’s now or never,” Steven muttered. He took the first step down the staircase, which creaked under his weight.
Andrew, Charlotte, and Claire followed after. Andrew turned swiftly to grab the suitcase from Claire’s hands; it was too heavy for Claire. As he did, his right leg screamed with pain. Just in the nick of time, he steadied himself on the railing.
“You okay?” Claire breathed.
“Yeah. Just go ahead of me. I’ll be slow, but I’ll make it,” Andrew told her.
“Steven,” Mike’s voice rang out ominously. “What’s going on?”
“Hey, Uncle Steve,” Lexi said brightly. “Are Mom and Aunt Claire with you?”
Steven palmed the back of his neck once more. “Actually, I have quite a few family members with me.”
One by one, Charlotte, Claire, and Andrew added themselves behind him. When Andrew reached the bottom, his eyes connected with the violent ones of Mike. He’d never hated anyone more in his life.
Lexi spotted the suitcase in Andrew’s hands. “What’s going on?” she asked. Her voice darkened. Nervous, she grabbed her ponytail and removed the holder. Her hair spilled out across her shoulders. “Where’s Mom?”
It was clear that Mike wasn’t the kind of guy to try to upset his daughter; Andrew did have to hand him that.
After a long silence, Claire said, “Your mom’s at Grandma and Grandpa’s.”
Lexi furrowed her brow. “Why?”
Claire and Charlotte exchanged glances.
Finally, Steven said, “She needs to help Grandpa out with a few things right now. We’re all pitching in after the accident.”
Lexi’s brow settled for a moment. This seemed almost good enough for her.
“Why didn’t she come to get her own stuff?” she asked.
“It was her job to take Grandpa to his therapy today,” Claire said hurriedly.
This had actually happened. At least it wasn’t a full-on lie.
Mike scoffed the slightest bit as Lexi said, “Can I come back with you guys? I wanted to tell Mom what happened with my English paper. She stayed up late giving me some pointers the other day, and I got my best grade yet.”
“That’s fantastic,” Steven said, as Claire and Charlotte both cried, “Bravo!”
Only Mike and Andrew were silent. Mike seemed helpless; clearly, he wanted to keep control over Lexi in some way, but he was outnumbered, one against four.
A Vineyard White Christmas (The Vineyard Sunset Series Book 5) Page 13
