Christmas Forever

by Sophie Love

Her tears stopped flowing then. She sat up and blinked the wet from her lashes.

  “We’d better have the best Christmas ever,” she told him.

  Roy smiled and ran his hand along her cheek tenderly. “I’m absolutely certain we will.”

  *

  Chantelle woke them early the next morning, running through the house screaming, “IT’S CHRISTMAS!”

  She was so loud, Emily could hear the dogs barking in the laundry room, woken far earlier than they were used to.

  Emily rolled out of bed and was on her feet by the time her bedroom door burst open.

  There stood Chantelle, dressed in her pajamas, her hair an absolute state.

  “Which room is Papa Roy in?” she demanded.

  “Good morning to you, too,” Emily said, laughing. “He’s in the bridal suite.”

  She’d insisted on her father having the biggest, grandest, most comfortable room in the whole inn. Unlike Terry, he’d actually accepted, putting his comfort over the virtue of modesty.

  Without saying another word, Chantelle ran out of the room. Emily padded after her and called down the corridor, “Don’t forget to wake Terry as well!”

  She realized Terry and her father had not had a chance to meet yet. Terry had been staying out of their way on Christmas Eve. Despite everything, he still seemed to think he was an imposition. She hoped he wouldn’t be such a shadow today. The two of them would get on well, she was certain. Her father was amiable to everyone, after all.

  She heard the sound of shuffling bed covers and turned to see that Daniel had been woken by Chantelle’s exclamations.

  “I’ll start on the Christmas breakfast,” he said, heaving his body out of bed. “Does your dad like blueberry pancakes?”

  “I’m sure he does,” Emily told him, wondering whether her father was even able to eat at the moment. He looked so thin.

  As Daniel left the room, Emily put her slippers on and wrapped a fluffy bathrobe around her. She went to head downstairs when Chantelle came bounding down the corridor.

  “Papa Roy and Terry are already up,” she said. “Both their beds are empty.”

  Emily frowned, confused. It was so early it was still dark outside. But then again, her father was a notorious early riser, and Terry had displayed similar behavior since he’d been staying with them.

  Emily took Chantelle’s hand and they descended the staircase together. As they went, Emily was delighted to discover that all the Christmas lights had been turned on, providing them with a twinkling path to the living room. There, the first thing she noticed was that the fire was lit -- it’s comforting smoky smell permeating the room -- and there was a full breakfast buffet set up on the table by the window. Smiling at them, with mischievous grins, were both Terry and Roy.

  “What on earth is going on?” Emily asked, shocked and thrilled by the surprise. “When did you do all this? You must have been up for hours!”

  Terry blushed. “I wanted to say thank you for everything you’ve done for me, so I got up early to make breakfast. I bumped into your father in the kitchen. He’d had the same idea. But it gave me quite a fright, I must admit.”

  Roy chuckled. “Me too. Emily forgot to tell me there was a guest staying! I thought I’d interrupted Santa collecting his mince pies.”

  Chantelle laughed hysterically at this. Terry certainly had an air of Santa Claus about him.

  “I’m so sorry!” Emily exclaimed, laughing. She felt a little guilty that she’d not thought to mention Terry to her father, but in the shock of his sudden appearance that thought had slipped from her mind entirely.

  “Anyway,” Roy continued. “Once we’d gotten the introductions out of the way, we decided to get the house all ready for when you woke up. So we made breakfast and I’ve seen to the plants and chickens. Although, the greenhouse looks like it’s in a bit of a sad state.”

  Chantelle nodded. “The snow was so heavy the roof caved in.”

  “Then we’ll just have to put it all back together again,” Roy added.

  Chantelle hurried forward and hugged Roy around the middle. Emily smiled at them, touched to see the affection they had for one another, and pleased that Chantelle had her greenhouse buddy back! Then Chantelle hugged Terry.

  “Thank you so much for making breakfast,” she said.

  Terry blushed.

  “Well tuck in,” Roy said, gesturing to the table, “Before it all goes cold.”

  They went over to look at all the foodstuffs. There were all different types of eggs, and melon slices, and smoked salmon with cream cheese, and Terry’s oatmeal breakfast bars, and small cubes of fried potato, and freshly squeezed orange juice. It reminded Emily of the excessive buffets they’d shared together in Greece. A wonderful sensation of nostalgia overcame her.

  Chantelle quickly started piling up her plate.

  Just then, the door opened and in walked Daniel. He was holding a tray with a stack of blueberry pancakes on it. He froze at the threshold, looking completely shocked by the room filled with people and food.

  “Wait,” he said, blinking. “What’s going on here?”

  Everyone started to laugh. Daniel must have been so tired this morning, he hadn’t even noticed the glow of fire light or the fact that all the lights were on!

  “Papa Roy and Terry made us breakfast!” Chantelle cried, her mouth full of toast.

  “In that case, I guess I’ll just add these to the buffet,” Daniel shrugged. He came over to the table and squeezed the plate of blueberry pancakes between all the other delights on the table.

  Everyone ate, in high spirits and filled with Christmas cheer.

  “Did we tell you about the silver, Papa Roy?” Chantelle asked over her second plate of food.

  Roy looked intrigued. “No, what silver?”

  “Trevor had it all in his secret cellar,” she explained. “Terry helped us find it so we’re going to share the money from selling it.”

  Terry shook his head. “I keep trying to tell them no. I couldn’t accept a gift of that magnitude.”

  Roy turned his attention to Emily. “How much silver are we talking, darling?”

  Emily didn’t want to discuss money at the table, especially when she hadn’t yet told Terry how much his share would come to. “Let’s just say it’s a complete collection of William Gamble kitchenware.”

  She knew her father, as a keen antiquarian, would understand what that really meant. By the way his eyes widened, she knew he had worked it out.

  “That’s… quite the find,” he replied. “Did Trevor tell you it was there? I knew he loved collecting old pieces like that but I had no idea it was to such an extent!”

  “He never said a word,” Emily replied. “The closest he came was alluding to it in his will, which stated that his home and any items found on the grounds of his property was to go to us. I thought he was just being specific in case some distant relative appeared and tried to find a loophole in order to claim things off him.” She sipped her decaf coffee. “But I expect it was a little hint.”

  Roy started to chuckle then. “It looks like your old man must have worn off on him over the years after all! I used to tell Trevor about my secret hiding places, about how I’d built a new secret tunnel or staircase, about the hollowed out bricks I’d filled with treasure. He always used to scoff at me, saying I was ridiculous. I don’t even think he believed me half the time. But looks like he took a leaf out of my book after all!”

  “Are there any more secret places in this house?” Chantelle asked Roy.

  Roy just tapped his nose. “This house has more secrets than even I know,” was all he would tell her.

  They finished eating their food and cleared up the mess together, making the chores more enjoyable with a backing track of festive music blaring through the inn’s speakers. Once everything was tidy, Chantelle declared that it was time for presents. They all went to leave the kitchen, and Emily noticed Terry holding back.

  “I ought to give you a bit of family t
ime,” he said to Emily.

  Chantelle must have overheard, because she turned around and grasped Terry by the elbow of his sweater.

  “Come on, Terry!” she exclaimed. “You’re family too, now. Don’t you get it?”

  Emily saw the way he fought back his tears of gratitude as he allowed Chantelle to lead him through the corridor into the living room, before depositing him on the couch.

  “We have presents for you too,” she explained.

  Chantelle went to the tree and found all of the parcels that had sweaters in them from the tree lighting festival. She handed them around to everyone.

  They all opened their gifts at the same time. Roy and Terry -- the only people there who didn’t know what was inside -- unfolded their sweaters and laughed wholeheartedly as they held them up to inspect them.

  “Oh my!” Roy cried, looking at the sparkly reindeer face. He put it on straight away. Though it swamped his tiny frame, he looked very pleased with himself.

  “Come on Terry!” Chantelle coaxed, after she had put her own sweater on. “Everyone has to wear one!”

  She gestured to Emily and Daniel who, having already unwrapped their sweaters, were pulling them on over their heads.

  “See,” Chantelle said. “You have to put it on so we’re all matching!”

  Finally, Terry got into the spirit of things, and put his garish outfit on, much to Chantelle’s delight.

  “I wonder if Stu, Clyde and Evan have opened theirs yet?” Daniel laughed as he slid his own on.

  Emily remembered the elf ones they’d bought for them.

  “I doubt they’re awake yet,” Emily said with a chuckle. “No one without children wakes up this early on Christmas. They’ll all still be in their beds sleeping soundly.”

  “I wish they’d stayed here,” Chantelle said.

  “They wanted to be with their own families on Christmas,” Emily explained.

  “Nana Patty isn’t with her family,” Chantelle refuted.

  Emily couldn’t argue with that. Though she hadn’t expected Patricia to come for Christmas, a little part of her had hoped that she might.

  “Neither is Cassie,” Chantelle continued, referring to Daniel’s mom.

  Daniel looked a little glum at the mention of his estranged family.

  “Let’s open the rest of the gifts,” Emily said suddenly, wanting to cheer everyone up.

  “Good idea,” Daniel said, clearly grateful to have a distraction.

  He went and sat beside the tree, handing gift after gift out to Chantelle. She read each of the tags aloud and, unsurprisingly, the vast majority of them were for her. She opened up all of her beautifully wrapped gifts, exclaiming in delight at a silky party dress, a tin of coloring pencils, a box set of books.

  “Did Santa bring anything for us?” Daniel joked as the presents piled up around her.

  “Of course he did!” Chantelle exclaimed.

  She crawled under the tree and emerged with two crazily-wrapped gifts. They had all the hallmarks of Chantelle’s own hand; mismatched neon paper, ribbons, glitter, stickers. Emily took hers, feeling extremely grateful that she had such a sweet daughter who would think to get her a present.

  She peeled the paper off carefully, and saw that Chantelle had made her a picture frame. It had space for five photographs and in each of the gaps Chantelle had written a name: Daddy, Chantelle, Charlotte, Papa Roy, Nana Patty. On the top it said FAMILY and there were found objects stuck all around the edges; acorns, pebbles from the beach, a piece of driftwood from the island.

  Emily clutched it to her chest. “Oh Chantelle, I love it,” she exclaimed.

  It truly was a touching gift, and Emily felt so blessed to have such a wonderful family around her.

  After all the gifts were opened, the family decided to go on a gentle stroll, taking the dogs with them. Emily directed them through the forests outside the back of the house in order to show them all the house that Amy was in the process of purchasing. Then they headed down to the ocean front, walking around the side of the harbor to the woodshop that Daniel was buying. Finally, they headed home via the main street where the Christmas tree was, so that Roy could see it.

  The walk ended up taking much longer than Emily had anticipated. By the time they got home it was already well past midday.

  “We’d better get cooking,” she exclaimed. “All hands on deck!”

  Everyone helped out in the kitchen, cooking all the different dishes for their Christmas dinner. Terry knew some interesting recipes for the vegetables, showing Chantelle how to make braised spiced cabbage with apple pieces. Daniel took charge of the turkey, whilst Roy mulled the wine, and Emily focused on the roast potatoes. Somehow between them all, they managed to create a Christmas meal without any disasters!

  They all sat down in the dining room to eat, laughing and joking their way through the meal. Emily realized as she looked around that it had indeed been the best Christmas ever.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  “What do you think about my new clock?” Chantelle asked Roy over breakfast the next morning.

  Emily watched as her father examined Chantelle’s most recent project.

  “It looks marvellous,” he said, finally. “I’m very impressed. You’ve chosen quite an ambitious design.”

  “I wanted to try something a bit tricker,” Chantelle told him. “Now that I know how to make a standard clock, I wanted to see if I could do one more like you would, with carved parts that show the inner workings.”

  Roy looked thoroughly impressed. “Well, you’re certainly doing that.”

  He sat beside her and they began sifting through cogs and bolts, searching for the best ones. It filled Emily’s heart with love to see them working together.

  “Are we going to do more work on the greenhouse today?” Chantelle asked after a little while.

  “Try not to tire Papa Roy too much,” Emily told her.

  “I don’t mind at all,” Roy replied. “I’d like to see the greenhouse back to its former glory before I leave.”

  At the mention of leaving, Emily felt a swirl of nausea in her belly. In all the excitement of Roy’s visit and Christmas, she’d not even thought to ask how long he’d been planning on staying with them. “When are you leaving?” she asked.

  “My flight home is on New Year’s Day. I wanted to stay long enough to spend a bit of time with Charlotte.” He squeezed Chantelle’s shoulders then. “And this one, of course.”

  Emily felt a little relieved to know they still had some days to enjoy one another’s company, but she knew that when the time came for her father to leave it would break her heart.

  “Will you come back again another time?” Chantelle asked.

  Roy fell silent then. When he spoke, it was slowly and carefully, as though he were taking pains to chose the most diplomatic words possible. “Darling, there won’t be another time. There won’t be another chance.” He tapped the clock on the table. “I’m like a broken old clock that can’t be wound. There’s not much tick left in me.”

  “Can’t we fix you?” Chantelle asked, tears welling in his eyes.

  Roy shook his head, sadly. “Not this time. And that’s okay. It’s my time to pass.”

  “Will you go to the warm, happy place where auntie Charlotte went?” Chantelle asked.

  Roy smiled then and ruffled her hair. “I will. Like Charlotte, I’ll be watching you. I’ll be there as you grow up. I’ll see all your school plays. I’ll be there when you graduate. There when you get married. When you win the Nobel Prize.”

  Chantelle started to laugh then, amused by his imagined future for her. She was clearly comforted by his words, even if she was still filled with sorrow about this being his last visit to Sunset Harbor. Emily was too. She didn’t want this to be the last time she saw her beloved father.

  Daniel and Terry entered the kitchen then, back from walking the dogs.

  “Who’s ready to work on the greenhouse?” he asked.

  Chantelle leap
t up, her arm straight in the air. “ME!”

  Roy stood too. “And me.”

  They all looked at Emily, still seated at the kitchen table.

  “I hope you all don’t mind, but I have a few things to sort out today. Business things. And I’m so tired, I think I need a nap.”

  Daniel came over and kissed her head. “Do whatever you need to, darling.”

  It felt so good to have him back to his caring self. Christmas had brought them all closer together.

  Emily watched her family bundle out of the back door before heading upstairs and getting into bed.

  She started by looking over Bryony’s winter marketing plans, the ones she’d drawn up whilst Emily was stuck in hospital. In typical Bryony fashion her proposals were all incredibly creative, well thought through, and extensively researched. But amongst the myriad of ideas, one thing stood out to Emily most of all. A winter-themed New Year’s Eve ball.

  They’d thrown parties at the inn before, but the idea of a ball really struck Emily. They’d not done anything like that before! In the whole time she’d lived in Sunset Harbor she’d not known of anything like it. It seemed like a fun and unique way to bring in a bit of winter income, not to mention a wonderful send off for her father.

  She left her room, searching for Daniel. She found him, Roy, Chantelle and Terry in the greenhouse, working hard to fix it.

  “How do you guys feel about holding a winter ball?” she asked.

  Chantelle seemed thrilled. “When?”

  “New Year’s Eve.”

  “That doesn’t leave much time to plan,” Daniel said.

  “I know, but we can do it,” Emily said.

  “What about the baby?” Daniel said. “She’ll be born by then. How will you organize a party whilst caring for a newborn?”

  Emily shrugged. “It won’t change a thing. I’ll just organize everything from my bed between breast feeds!”

  “I think it’s a great idea,” Roy said supportively. “There’s nothing too ambitious for my daughter. Think big, darling. Reach for the stars.”

  “We can all chip in to help,” Terry added. “If you need a rest, you’ve got all of us around you to take some of the slack.”