“Baby, this is why you think things through and make a plan before you do them.”
She had always chastised him for being too impulsive and it had gotten him in trouble his entire life. But now…
Now, he’d really messed things up. And he had no idea how to fix them.
When he got back to the house, Patty was fast asleep in the chair and more than a little annoyed that he’d woken her up. He knew he was going to owe her a hell of a gift card to one of the shops in town or he’d never hear the end of it.
Once Patty was on her way back up the snowy street, James carried Daisy up to her bedroom and tucked her in, making sure all of her animals were within grabbing distance and her nightlight was on in case she happened to wake up.
As soon as Daisy was settled, James climbed the circular staircase up to the attic and found the box marked “JE – HIGH SCHOOL,” which was jammed in the back behind Daisy’s old crib. He hadn’t looked through these things since he’d packed them up and wasn’t even sure what he would find in there. But right on top was what he’d hope would be there: an album that Belle had made him on their one-year anniversary. Each page was hand-painted and filled with pictures of them, along with tickets from his sporting events, movie theater stubs, and dried flowers from times they’d gone to the park. There was even a napkin from the time they’d gotten stuck on the side of the road on the way to ski trip.
Every page was a memory from their relationship and every memory was a wonderful one. It was only at the end, when they realized that their lives were changing so drastically, that things got complicated. James knew that they couldn’t go back in time and recreate every memory, but maybe they could make new ones.
Maybe they could find a way to merge their two lives together, especially now that they were adults who understood that relationships were about compromise. Those were things I should have told her, he thought with frustration as he flipped through the pages. He should have found that old album and talked to her about finding a way to make it work.
Marisa was right. Marisa was always right. He needed to think before he acted. If he had thought…
He might not have lost Belle forever.
15
Belle
After a night of virtually no sleep, Belle couldn’t seem to drag herself out of bed, even thought it was after eight. All night long, she replayed what had happened with James: not just what had happened on the porch, but their entire relationship. She just stared at the twinkling Christmas lights in her window and remembered every holiday with him, and without him, and how hard it had been to leave him behind.
It had to be possible to have regrets while still knowing you made the right decision, because that was how Belle felt. She knew in her heart that she had never stopped loving James, but the idea of walking away from everything she had built in New York was terrifying.
She tossed and turned for another hour before finally crawling out of bed, her eyes heavy with exhaustion, and ambling downstairs in her pajamas. She knew she needed coffee, so she headed straight for the kitchen, and as soon as she walked around the corner, her heart stopped. Meg was sitting on the floor, the kitchen phone in her hand, with her wheelchair nowhere in sight.
“Gran! What are you doing?” Belle yelled as she ran to grandmother’s side. Meg looked disoriented and pale, yet her cheeks were bright red. Belle lifted her hand to Meg’s forehead and then snatched it away. She was burning with fever.
“I just… I fell… couldn’t reach the wheelchair… forgot you were here… phone…” She wasn’t making any sense and Belle was terrified. She grabbed the phone from her grandmother’s hand and dialed 911. By her estimation, it took far too long for someone to answer on the other end. When someone finally responded, Belle was talking before the emergency operator even finished.
“9-1-1, what’s your…”
“My grandmother fell, she’s disoriented, she has a fever. She broke her leg a few weeks ago and was casted and I don’t know what’s gone wrong. Please, send an ambulance!”
“I have your location, miss, and the ambulance has been dispatched, but because of the snow, they may take a little longer. Please do not attempt to move your grandmother and do your best to keep her still. I’m going to stay on the line with you until the paramedics arrive.”
The whole time she spoke to the emergency operator, Meg mumbled things that didn’t make any sense and kept trying to crawl to her feet, so Belle had to keep calming her down and try to keep her on the floor.
By the time the paramedics showed up at the door, Belle was exhausted from fighting her grandmother, whose normal level of surprising strength coupled with her confusion had proven to be a powerful combination. The pair of EMTs immediately loaded Meg onto a stretcher, set her up with an IV, and called in a series of words Belle didn’t understand through a headset one of them was wearing.
“Gallagher from Bus Four to Wintervale Memorial. We have a seventy-year-old female with 104 fever, possible septicemia caused by closed fracture, disoriented, in and out of consciousness. ETA 8:39.”
The paramedic who had been talking turned to Belle with a reassuring smile. “You can ride with us if you want. Or if you follow, we’re going to go straight to the emergency room. It’s your call.”
Belle shook her head. “No, I’m coming with you.”
She followed behind as the paramedics took the stretcher out of the house, expertly carrying it across the ice and snow and loaded Meg into the idling ambulance.
Belle was in such a panic that she slipped several times while following them and just managed to crawl in behind the paramedic. She dragged herself up on to the bench that sat just far enough away from where they would be treating Meg until they got to the ER. The drive to the hospital felt like an eternity since every bump in the road made her grandmother groan in pain. When they finally got to the entrance to the emergency room, there was already a doctor and a few nurses waiting for them, which made Belle even more nervous.
“Is this really bad?” she asked as she jumped down, letting the paramedics quickly remove the stretcher behind her.
“They’ll tell you everything once they get her examined. Good luck to both of you,” the paramedic said. He gave her arm a reassuring squeeze and disappeared around the side of the ambulance. Belle didn’t even have time to thank them as the doctor took over, practically pushing her out of the way so he could get a look at Meg.
“Miss, we’re going to need you to wait in the family room while we examine your grandmother. It may be a while, but someone will come out and let you know something as soon as we do.”
She wasn’t given an opportunity to object. The nurses and doctor disappeared down a long hallway with her grandmother’s stretcher, leaving her standing there, completely terrified and alone with no idea what to do or who to call.
She considered texting James, but after their talk the night before, she wasn’t sure that he would even answer. With no friends close by to call and none of the numbers of her grandmother’s friends, all Belle could do was sit in the hard-plastic chairs and listen to the humming of the TV with other terrified loved ones who still didn’t know anything about their own family members.
Hours ticked by, each one feeling longer and more painful than the last until Belle thought she was going to go absolutely crazy. Then, suddenly, she heard a familiar voice shouting from the front desk right in front of the sliding doors.
“Where is my friend? I know she’s here! I demand to see my Meg!”
Belle jumped up and ran out into the lobby, where Gladys was pacing back and forth in a panic. They locked eyes and her gran’s friend stopped accosting the desk clerk and charged over, pulling her into a tight hug.
“Gladys, how did you know we were here?” Belle asked, barely able to form words through the grip the woman had on her.
“I came by the house to see if you two needed anything. The door was unlocked, Meg’s wheelchair was dumped over in the living room, and the car
was still in the driveway. I knew something was wrong, so I just came straight to the hospital hoping to find you. What in the Sam Hill is going on, Annabelle?”
Belle sank against the desk in frustration until the clerk smacked her with an empty folder to shoo them away. The duo walked into the waiting room and sat down, each nervously bouncing their legs.
“I don’t know what’s going on. I’ve been here since this morning and no one is telling me anything. I’ve asked every thirty minutes since they dumped me here but it’s like she just disappeared back there.” She went on to fill Gladys in on everything that had happened that morning and her grandmother’s friend just shook her head sadly.
“I talked to her yesterday afternoon and I thought something was wrong, but she swore it was just because she hadn’t been out in a few days. She was acting funny and I didn’t do anything. I should have done something...”
Belle reached out and patted Gladys on the hand. “If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s mine. Her nurse told me something was going on and I just let gran convince me that everything was fine.”
Gladys got up and got them two cups full of stale coffee, which they drank gratefully. Belle hadn’t realized how hungry she was until the coffee hit her stomach, enough to stop the knots from tying and untying themselves in her gut; it at least took away the shake her hands.
“Belle,” Gladys said suddenly, “the truth is, this has been coming on for a long time. Your grandmother is a wonderful woman. She volunteers at the food bank, she runs her store all by herself with virtually no help, and out of all the Green Mountain Grannies, she is the one still out there every week, hiking or skiing. She just doesn’t stop, and I’ve been worried that it would catch up with her. We aren’t kids anymore, you know?”
“Gladys, you know as well as I do that there is no way to stop gran from doing what she wants to do.”
“But maybe if she had someone around to convince her to slow down... Someone to help her more, or at least keep an eye on her? Maybe then she’d actually listen. Lord knows she doesn’t listen to any of us.”
Belle sunk down into the chair and sighed. Gladys couldn’t have been any more obvious if she’d just come out and told her to move back to Wintervale. The reality was; she’d never once considered Meg as a reason to return to Vermont.
Her grandmother had always been so active and vital that it was impossible to think of her as someone who needed help from anyone. But now, Belle was staring reality in the face.
Meg had overestimated what she was capable of handling and fallen off the roof because of it. She had broken her leg because of it. She was back in the hospital because of it. Annabelle couldn’t handle the thought of losing her only family in the world. She had to figure out a way to make things right. For everyone.
Belle and Gladys talked for a while longer, mostly telling stories about Meg, about the store, and all of the crazy things the Green Mountain Grannies were still doing, until the doctor she had seen earlier appeared in the doorway.
“Annabelle Harrison?”
Belle rolled her eyes. Does he seriously not remember me? I just saw him…
“Yes?” she said as she stood up with Gladys on her heels.
“I’m Dr. Benjamin, I’ve been treating your grandmother. I’m afraid that right now, I don’t have any answers for you. Our lab is backed up because of a storm in Burlington and while I have my suspicions about the cause of her illness, I don’t want to make any guesses until we’re close to a definitive answer. In the meantime, we’ve removed her cast and put her into a temporary air splint. She’s on IV fluids, and we’re going to be keeping her sedating until we’re sure how to treat her. You are welcome to stay here until we know more, or you can go home, and we can call you. It’s up to you.”
Gladys snorted. “I’m not going anywhere. I know what’ll happen. We leave, and you people will lose her somewhere.”
Belle laughed awkwardly. “She’s kidding. But I think we’ll stay. Please let us know as soon as you’ve heard something, Dr. Benjamin.” He squinted at Gladys to make his displeasure with her as obvious as possible, then turned on his heel and disappeared through the door once more.
Gladys picked up an ancient magazine from the table next to them and Belle rested her head against the wall. She was so exhausted. Her panic over Meg, the stress from her argument with James... it all swirled in her head in confusing waves. She still didn’t know what to do, or how to make anything right. All she wanted to do was talk to James, to tell him what was going on, to ask him his advice, but she couldn’t be sure what he would say after their argument.
Would he even want her to come back to Wintervale now? Belle wouldn’t blame him for saying no after all of the things they had said to each other. All she could do was sit there with her eyes closed in that cold hospital waiting room and hope that an answer would suddenly present itself.
She just hoped that it would happen soon, because right now… she felt totally alone.
16
James
James lay in his bed and stared at the ceiling. It was the first day of Daisy’s Christmas break, and he hoped that she would sleep in for a change. His mind had been so full of stress, and he kept replaying the mistake’s he’d made. Not just last night, but in general, and he hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep.
He had done everything he could to try and make a good life for Daisy, to try and make her happy in the absence of her mother. But maybe in his worry for Daisy, he’d forgotten about himself. For a brief moment, he thought that perhaps there was a chance to find that happiness again with Belle, but then he had to go and mess it up, just like he always did…
Just like he always had.
James grabbed a pillow from the other side of the bed and pulled it over his head to muffle his groan of frustration. He couldn’t understand why things had to be so complicated, or why he had to make them so complicated. He should have just gone over to Meg’s house, told Belle that he wanted to see where things could go with them and offered to figure out a way to make it work. Instead, he’d acted like a jerk. Why do I always act like such a jerk? Why do I…
“Daddy!”
The sound of Daisy barreling into the bedroom from the hallway startled him from his self-deprecating thoughts; James knew what was coming and braced himself before she had a chance to dive bomb him. A second later, he heard a banshee shriek as Daisy jumped into the bed, landing squarely on his stomach. He barely held back a curse of pain when her elbow made contact with his ribs; instead, he rolled her off into the pile of pillows next to him and tickled her until the yelled at him for mercy.
“Okay! Okay! I give up!”
James flopped back onto his pillow. “Good! And don’t you forget it. What are you doing awake anyway? Shouldn’t you be sleeping late or watching cartoons or making me breakfast?”
“Oh, daddy,” Daisy said, rolling her eyes. “Why would I sleep in when it’s my first day of Christmas break? We have to go shopping, and we have to plan your entry for the baking competition, and we have to…”
“Daisy,” James groaned. “Can I just have my coffee before we put on our jingle bells and Santa hats and hit the town?”
Daisy’s eyes went wide. “CAN WE?” she shrieked excitedly.
Oh, no. What have I gotten myself into?
James shooed Daisy out of his bed and down to the kitchen, so he could at least get his robe on and try to get his head around plans for the day. He stuck his head out the window and took a deep breath. The bright winter sun blasted down from the sky, but it was even colder than the day before. That meant there would be a thin layer of ice on top of the snow, making travel more hazardous, so they would have to be careful while they were running errands. For a moment, he considered texting Belle to tell her, but then he remembered they probably weren’t talking, so he tucked his phone into the pocket of his robe and went downstairs to meet Daisy.
When he got into the kitchen, his daughter was already sitting at the table, drink
ing a glass of milk and watching cartoons on her tablet. That was his cue that she was ready for breakfast, but the first day of Christmas break meant they should be having cinnamon pumpkin waffles with homemade spicy whipped cream. It had been their tradition since she started school. As he started mixing the waffle batter, James tried to focus on anything but Belle, because he knew that was the best way to avoid making things any worse.
“Are you going to call Belle today? She should go shopping with us!” Daisy shouted from the table through slurps of milk.
Come on, he thought with frustration as he started whipping the cream. “I don’t know, muffin. Belle might be really busy with her own holiday plans today or helping Meg at her shop. But maybe we can give her a call later and see what they’re doing, okay?”
Daisy seemed pacified enough for them to go about their morning rituals, and after breakfast, they both prepared for a day of running around Wintervale to get ready for Christmas. But just before they were about to walk out the door, Daisy grabbed James’ sleeve and stopped him from stepping outside.
“Daddy… call Belle. Just to see. Maybe she and Meg can have lunch with us or something?”
James knew he wasn’t going to get out of making the call, but maybe Daisy’s interest in Belle wasn’t the worst thing in the world. It would force him to apologize for what he’d said, and it would be a lot easier on the phone when he didn’t have to see Belle’s face. If there were any chance of her forgiving him, it would probably happen over the phone when he had the opportunity to choose his words carefully and not have his brain scrambled by looking into her eyes.
“Alright, kiddo, I’ll call. But why don’t you go outside or into the living room for a minute while I do? I’ll come get you when I’m done.”
A Sugar Cookie Christmas: A Sweet Holiday Romance (Wintervale Promises Book 1) Page 11
