by Jenny Plumb
“You kids still have to wait for Santa tomorrow, so you better go play and forget about all the adult stuff. It’s too late in the year to be getting on the naughty list.” She smiled when Lydia’s eyes widened. This little girl always had plenty to say, but it looked like she’d found the chink to her armour. She and the rest of the kids ran off to the child-sized fort to play and hopefully forget about whatever adult drama had found its way to the big house.
Chapter 5
“So this isn’t good is it?” Rowan asked. “Could he be coming in a different car?”
“I hope so. I can’t imagine what would have happened to make my sister leave her children the day before Christmas Eve.”
“Best we go inside and find out then, I suppose.”
“Yes, I guess so.” Part of her was worried about her sister and her family and the other part wanted to stay outside and preserve a little of the happiness she’d just discovered with Rowan. She knew it was selfish. Candy knew that this could all go away when they returned to the city, and for now she wanted to absorb every minute. Maybe that’s why it was so important to her to hang on to what they had right now. “Kiss me?”
“You want your family to see?” Rowan asked.
“Honestly, I just want a kiss, if you don’t mind.” She really hoped that didn’t come across as needy as it seemed from inside her head. She wasn’t a needy person generally, but at that moment she did feel that she needed him very much.
“Mind? Giving you a kiss? You’re daft. I’ll even throw in a hug for good measure.” He pulled her into his arms and kissed her firmly on the lips before squeezing her into a tight hug.
“Thank you,” she said.
His next move meant more than the hug and kiss combined. He kissed the top of her head. It was gentle and caring and more intimate than anything they’d done in the last hour and a half.
The house was decidedly quiet. With the kids all outside, it was a sombre room they walked into. It was difficult for Rowan; he was a visitor to this house and one who had landed by accident. Here was a room full of people whose Christmas had just come to a screaming halt. Thank feck it wasn’t them, he and Candy, who had caused the problem.
“You must be Rowan,” Rachel said. Her eyes were rimmed red and she’d obviously been crying.
“Pleased to meet you,” he said. He put his hand out to shake hers and ended up giving her a weird half hug. He looked to Candy, but she’d already flown across the room and into her sister’s arms.
“What’s happened?” she asked. “I don’t believe for a minute that whatever’s caused this can’t be put back together.”
“I’ve left Charlie,” Rachel said. “For good, we won’t be getting back together.”
“O… kay,” Candy said. “Why didn’t you bring the girls?”
“I don’t want judgement here. I didn’t leave the girls in an empty house; I left them with their father. He loves them, he’ll take care of them.”
Rowan had nothing to say. If it were his sister, he would have plenty to say, but she wasn’t and he didn’t, He just watched this nice, nutty family sit and stare in utter disbelief at what had happened to their Christmas. Drama, he thought and no one had even had a drink yet. In his house, back in Ireland, the Christmas arguments didn’t usually start until after about the fourth pint of the black.
“Would you like me to go and play a game with the children or something?” he asked. It wasn’t much, but it might be a help and it would definitely get him out of this uncomfortable situation, if only for a while.
“Thanks anyway,” Caroline said. “I think we should all have our dinner and relax a little.”
Candy ignored them all. “I don’t believe you two don’t love each other any more. I don’t believe that you would just walk out on your children, Rachel. You adore those girls.”
“Yes I do, so you should just trust what I say. I know what’s best for my own family.”
“Leave it now, Candy,” Andy said.
Amongst all this angst and drama, Rowan started to laugh. There couldn’t be a worst time.
Candy glared at him. “What could possibly be funny about all this?” she hissed.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said biting back a titter.
“Just say it,” she said.
“I never realized until now, you and your sister are Candy and Andy, it rhymes.” It came out as sounding ridiculous and it was, but he looked the fool. There was dead silence in the room. He and Candy and their real, not real, possibly real relationship could be dead in the water because he had just managed to insult her family who were in the middle of a crisis. He had to apologize. “I’m sorry.”
“That is pretty funny,” Jack said, chuckling at first and then laughing loudly.
They didn’t all see the humour, but thankfully Jack did. He laughed loudly and with a twinkle in his eye. He must know something the rest of them didn’t, because he was not fazed at all by Rachel’s marital woes. “Sorry Rachel,” he said. “I didn’t mean to make light of your, uh, situation.”
“It’s fine,” she said.
“Would you mind spending a little time with my dad and the other guys? I think the girls and Mum and I are going to open a couple bottles of wine and see what we can find out about Rachel’s problems.”
“No, of course not. You go ahead. Don’t get stuttered, mind,” he whispered into her ear. “I may have plans for you later on.”
“I’ll do my best.” Her face went bright red at his thinly veiled proposal.
Rowan had no idea what the hell was wrong with him. Not eight hours ago he would have laughed in the face of anyone who even suggested that he would be spending Christmas with the brat from the call centre and her family. But here he was, watching her go off outside with her mammy and her sisters and all he could think was ripping her clothes off and burying himself inside that sweet, sweet body. “Do that, I’ll be waiting.”
“Feel like talking yet?” Candy asked Rachel, topping up all the girls’ glasses for the third time.
“It’s probably nothing you would understand,” Rachel said. “I found myself married to a man that I felt I didn’t know anymore.”
Caroline pushed her glass towards Candy for another refill. “At some point very recently, there must have been a defining moment. An argument, a difference of opinion, you must remember something that happened that triggered you into running away and leaving your children behind.”
“You think it’s my fault, Mum.”
“No, I didn’t say that, but every marriage has its ups and downs. You just have to stick at it until the ups outweigh the downs. Rachel, you know I’m a positive person, but there isn’t anything positive about leaving your husband and children a couple of days before Christmas. You should be ashamed of yourself.”
“We still don’t know exactly what happened,” Candy said. She had almost whispered. Like everyone else in the room, she was still shocked at her mum’s less than positive outburst. It was a side of her mother that she hadn’t seen since she was a kid. It was kind of comforting to know it was still there.
“I do,” a masculine voice from the doorway said.
They all turned, although one person faster than the rest. Rachel’s eyes widened. “Charlie,” she said.
“Yes, Rachel it’s me, and the girls, of course,” he said.
“Can I see them, talk to them?”
“Not yet, they’re outside with the other kids. We need to talk first.” He took Rachel’s hand. “Let’s go and sit in the car for a while.”
Talk here, talk here, Candy wanted to scream. It was like a TV show that the recording was about to stop right at the end of the program. “We could just walk over there a bit and let you stay here.” They were sitting under the entertaining area near the pool.
“Come on girls, we’ll go and sit on the veranda.” Caroline had spoken and, as crazy as she could be sometimes, she was their mother, so the girls all picked up and followed her, taking the glasse
s and their wine with them.
“Why did you do that, Ma?” Candy asked. “We might never know what the story was.”
“I already know the story,” Caroline whispered. “Dad and I knew since this morning. We also knew that Charlie was going to follow her.”
“What happened, Ma?” Jamie asked.
“It was nothing really. It’s a money thing. Apparently they have gotten in a bit of mess with credit cards and, well, money in general. Charlie cut up the cards and told Rachel that the girls would have to change schools.”
“She hit the roof I take it?” Becca asked.
“She told him that she would leave and that would be one less mouth to feed. All he had to do was keep the kids at their current school.”
“I told her that school would end up breaking them. It was insanely expensive. We went to normal public school,” Jamie said. “My kids go to public school. They’re normal, aren’t they?”
“Of course they are, sweetheart,” Caroline said.
“The problem is that Rachel doesn’t want her kids to be normal. She wants them to be special,” Jamie said.
“That’s why her kids are always able to be dolled up to the nines. That’s how they take dance class, acting lessons, violin lessons and every other extra curricular thing they do,” Becca said. “We do swimming lessons and it nearly cripples us.”
“And she’s paid for it with money they didn’t have,” Andy said.
Candy blinked. How had she not noticed any of these things? All the time she was worried about not being one of the couples, she actually had a simpler life? This shit was crazy. She thought that her eldest sister was a bit bossy, but it never occurred to her that Rachel putting the gemstones on a pedestal would put her marriage in jeopardy. That was nuts – over clothes and expensive lessons. The other five kids in clothes from Kmart or Target or wherever had been having a ball all afternoon while still missing their cousins. Kids don’t judge. Why do adults teach them to judge? “Then if all of that’s true, Charlie was right to cut up her cards and the girls should go to a normal school and do dancing at the local scout hall like all the other kids and they’d still be happy.”
“But will Rachel be happy?”
“Of course she will, when she gets used to the idea,” Caroline said. “I think she knew Charlie would come after her.”
“Or hoped he would,” Andy said.
“I bet it has something to do with Christmas presents too, though.” Becca said. “You know she had to always give Crystal and Topaz the most expensive gifts out of everyone. It never occurred to her that our kids might wonder why Santa was nicer to her kids.”
“No, it didn’t,” Rachel said as she walked up the stairs to the veranda. “I swear, I didn’t think. Apparently I didn’t think about a lot of things. I’m sorry.”
“So what’s happening?” Caroline asked. “Is Charlie staying?”
“Yes he is,” Rachel said. “I was being silly. I can’t live without my girls and I can’t live without my husband. If there are changes to be made, we’ll make them. The girls and I will survive.”
“Oh, thank God,” Caroline said. “I thought we were about to face a miserable Christmas. Now everything is back on track. Time to start cooking tomorrow, girls.”
“I have to do some Christmas shopping tomorrow, Ma,” Candy said. “So I think Rowan and I are going to go to town for a bit.”
“That’s fine, baby,” Caroline said. “There are plenty of us here.”
“Just because she’s the baby, she always gets out of the work,” Rachel said with a grin. “You go, have fun before your life gets complicated.”
“I don’t know if I ever want to get married after all the stuff that’s happened to you lot. Sleep deprivation, depression, going broke and arguments. Who wants all that stuff to deal with on a daily basis?”
“I have news,” Andy said. “I’ve been waiting to get a word in edgewise. We’re pregnant!”
“Oh my God!” Candy squealed. “Can I be Godmother?”
“Who else would I choose?” Andy said.
It occurred to Candy, after all of the crap that went on with her sister and Charlie, that maybe she herself had been a bit selfish. Things with Rowan had turned out better than she’d dreamed, for now at least. But while it was good for her, it hadn’t occurred to her what it must be like for Rowan being away from his home at Christmas. She would really like to do something nice for him. “Rowan, what was Christmas like for you in Ireland? What was a typical Christmas Eve and Day?”
Rowan pulled her into his arms and she snuggled into him. “It was grand,” he said.
She could see by the look on his face that he was back there remembering what it was like to spend the special time with his family. “Tell me, what you did, what you ate.”
“Well, for me, Christmas began on Christmas Eve, but thinking back, Mammy probably was preparing for days and days; making the pudding and the shortbread biscuits,” he explained. “Christmas Eve, though, was midnight mass. Not like here where it starts at midnight, it starts earlier in Ireland but goes until after midnight. The priest has an extra large captive audience at Christmas and he makes use of his time. Everyone you’ve ever known is there. Well, that’s what it feels like anyway. Then, after mass we go back home where the adults have a glass of the black.”
“That’s stout?”
“Yes, glass of the black means stout. We have mince pies too, with the best homemade pastry you ever tasted and the kids get to open one present from under the tree. Although Father Christmas doesn’t come until everyone is asleep. Of course, it was nothing to wake up to a bike with only one wheel. The stout drinkers weren’t too flash at putting together bikes and such.”
“What about Christmas Day?”
“We woke up early, and always went through our stockings before we opened the main presents.”
“What did you eat on Christmas Day?”
“It was always a roast turkey and all the trimmings. Depending how many reels were there we sometimes had a goose too. Lots of veg and baked spuds, but it was cold there. I can understand why so many people here have cold Christmas dinners now. Christmas night we would always have cold turkey sandwiches and watch a television movie. It was great fun.”
“It doesn’t sound that different to here really.”
“Except for the fact it’s like forty degrees here while over in Ireland we lived in hope for snow. Doesn’t always happen, but when it does, it’s magic.”
“What about your stocking, what would be in it?”
“All kinds of things; some would be delicious edible things, some would be useful and some just amusing. An orange, chocolate coins, a pair of socks or undies that are particularly Christmassy. Novelty items that you never even think about after Christmas.”
“It sounds lovely.”
“Did you want to go to confession tomorrow?”
“I do as it happens.”
“You could do some shopping while I wait, if you like. Then I could meet up with you after.”
“Sounds good. You know what? Why don’t we get some stockings and make them up for all the kids?”
“Oh, that would truly be grand and I could tell Mam when I phone her. If she knew I was having Christmas with a family with children it would make her cry.”
The shops were busy and the stock was low, but Candy still managed to get the things she needed. Quicker than she thought it would be actually, so she found her way back to the church, after she’d stored all her goodies in the van.
She crept in and sat at the back. She almost wished she had been brought up in a religion like this. It was peaceful and yet busy. All these people, waiting for their chance to chat to the priest and be absolved of their sins. In the rational part of her mind, she discounted it all as some kind of hooey. To think you could do what you wanted all week, or year in some circumstances, and come in here and be absolved of all sins seemed a little convenient. Yet if you looked at it another way, all
these people were just waiting to be blessed with God’s grace so that they would be worthy to enjoy Christmas, and none of them would be here if they weren’t at least trying to be better people. There was part of her that would love to be a part of the club, to feel like she was part of it all. Judging by the peaceful looks on their faces, these people had found a certain something here that was difficult to explain.
“Hi,” Rowan whispered.
“Hi, all done?”
“I’m all done.” He placed a finger to his lips.
Candy had a quip on the tip of her tongue, so she ignored his subtle warning to be quiet. “Is your soul saved?” She was grinning but he obviously didn’t see the humour.
Before he spoke, he put a finger to his lips again to quiet her, and then he took her hand. “Let’s go.”
His words were clipped and she worried that she’d ruined their day. She could have just said sorry or explained that she didn’t mean anything, but instead defensiveness kicked in and she frowned, ready to make it all Rowan’s fault. “What’s wrong with you?” she asked, not even waiting until they were away from where people could hear, until they were outside.
This time the finger on his lips was accompanied by a “Shush.” He took her hand and marched down the aisle.
It was a different feeling than it was normally for the bride walking with her groom, she supposed. She imagined that on a wedding day, both the bride and the groom were exploding with happiness and enjoying the first few minutes of the married life. Showing off even in front of their friends and family. This man was pissed off and he wasn’t looking forward to anything but getting her out of earshot of the other people so he could tear a strip off her. She could feel it in the squeeze of his fingers and the stride of his step. Candy immediately wished her tone had been softer or at the very least she’d shut her mouth completely until they were outside. As soon as she felt the sun on her face, though, she tried to clear the air. “I didn’t mean anything, I swear. I guess it was just an awkward attempt at humour.”
