The Forever Gift

by Simone Evans

  It wasn’t until I rushed to the door that Eli started struggling to get out of his bed. “Clara… Wait!”

  I didn’t wait. Fear was controlling me. Everyone I’d ever cared about had left me and I wasn’t going to do that again. A plan began to form in my mind as I rushed down the stairs. It wasn’t until I reached the bottom that I noticed the large group of people sitting at a dining room table in a room which was open on the side facing the stairs. They all stared… some in shock and others with knowing smirks.

  “Clara!” Eli shouted from the floor above as he skidded to a halt while doing up his jeans. He quickly joined me on the stairs and turned his head toward the room full of people.

  A grin spread over his face as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “Merry Christmas. Family” — Eli motioned to the beautifully decorated table full of food surrounded by his family — “this is my girl, Clara Wood. Sunshine, this is my family.”

  “Oh…” A woman dropped a plate to the table and rushed to the foot of the stairway. “You must join us, sweetheart. We are so happy to have you.”

  “Clara, this is my beautiful mother. She’s the one who taught me manners,” he joked as he pressed a kiss to her temple. “She’s also an amazing cook.”

  Mrs. Angelo reached up and grabbed my hand so she could pull down the remaining stairs and into a huge hug. “Welcome to the family, sweetheart,” the older woman whispered as if she was choked up.

  “Eli, you going to bring Clara to the New Year’s party?” a pretty girl who resembled Eli yelled from the table. “If you do, you better warn her abou—” An older woman smacked the back of the girl's head as she walked past her.

  “Nonna, this is Clara, she’s someone special,” I looked up into Eli’s dark gaze and found emotions I wasn’t prepared to see. We’d barely known each other for a few days. He couldn’t be looking at me like he was in lo— lo— love.

  Tugging free from Eli’s arms, I turned to the older women and was faced with all of the expectant faces of Eli’s family.

  “I have to go… my grandmother is waiting for me,” I gasp out and turn for the front door to the house.

  I didn’t stop until I reached the street in front of the house — “Fuck!” — I shoved my hands into my hair and looked up and down the deserted country road.

  “I’m sorry, Sunshine. They can be a bit much… especially with a hangover.” Eli laughed as he wrapped his arms around me from behind.

  I looked down to find his arms bare and turned to look him over. “Eli, you’re practically naked!”

  “I couldn’t let you get away,” he replied simply before lowering his mouth to take mine in a slow, passionate kiss.

  I’m a damn fool. That’s the only explanation there was for me to allow him to kiss me senseless. I knew what would happen… Eli would realize I was broken and too much work. He’d realize it was simply a lot of pent up hormones from denying himself sex his entire adult life that had made him think he cared for me. He would leave me.

  That thought doused me in ice colder than the winter wonderland surrounding us. I pushed at Eli’s chest and forced him to take a step back.

  “I need to go to my grandmother's. My reason for being in town was to visit her before heading south.” My voice was quiet and devoid of emotion as I stated the blunt facts.

  “Of course,” Eli responded as he looked at me strangely. A smile spread across his face as something occurred to him. “We’ll go pick up Ms. Amelia and have her join us all here. Franny is probably with her and she is welcome to join in the Angelo family festivities as well. Those two shouldn’t be alone for the holidays.” He nodded as if things were settled and a burning began in the center of my chest.

  “They won’t be alone. I’ll be with them,” I replied coldly.

  “We should go inside, I can have my cousin swing by and pick them up while we take a shower. I’m sure my sister has something you could slip on whi—”

  “Eli, stop. Just stop. I’m leaving and since I don’t have a car… I’d appreciate a ride. But… I will not be coming back here.”

  “Clara? What’s wrong?” Eli took a step forward and I sidestepped his advance to head back toward the house.

  “I’ll just pop back inside and see who wouldn’t mind driving me. Or, maybe they’ll call me an Uber.”

  “Damn it, Clara! Stop.” Eli grabbed my arm and spun me to face him. “Why are you acting like this?”

  “Acting like what? I’m just trying to escape an embarrassing situation. I’ve never taken a walk of shame before but I’m sure this is one for the books,” I chuckled without humor.

  “Clara” — Eli whispered as he reached out to run his fingers along my jaw — “I love you. There is no shame in the night we had.”

  I jerked back in surprise. He didn’t just say those three words.

  “Yes, Clara, I love you” — Eli knelt in the several inches of snow which had accumulated overnight — “I love you and I want you to marry me. Will you be my wife?”

  From his pocket, Eli pulled out a black velvet box and with an awkward movement, he flipped it open and offered it to me.

  Speechless. I stared at him while my mouth hung open, and then everything went fuzzy.

  I couldn’t have said what happened but when the fuzz cleared I was walking down a deserted, ice and snow-covered Ohio country road. The sound of a car approaching slowly had me stopping and turning to see who it was.

  The black Lexus slid a few inches when it stopped in front of me. The window rolled down and a familiar older gentleman looked across the seat from the driver’s side.

  “It’s too cold and too far for you to walk, tesoro. Get in and I will drive you to Ms. Amelia’s house.” A faint tinge of red cover the bridge of his nose as he said my grandmother’s name. “I’m Eli’s uncle Nikko,” he offered when I didn’t move toward the car.

  With a sigh, I stepped forward and opened the passenger door. “I’d very much appreciate a ride if it’s not a problem.”

  “No trouble at all, bella.”

  I settled into the car and immediately realized how cold I’d been. The leather seats had seat warmers and it quickly began to thaw me.

  “Would you like me to turn up the heat?” Nikko Angelo reached for the dash but dropped his hand when I shook my head. “Alright, then. It’ll take a little bit since I have to go slow on these back roads. It’ll be a while before they get them cleared.”

  Eli’s uncle Nikko continued to ramble on about the weather and the state of the roads as he drove down roads I didn’t know. I couldn’t help but wonder if I should go back to Vegas. At least there I know where I was and how to handle things.

  When we pulled up in front of my grandmother’s house, Nikko shifted the car into park and turned toward me in his seat.

  “Tesoro, can I be blunt for a moment?” he asked.

  My mother and I had lived in a rough town. A place of fantasies and broken promises. But, my mother had always taught me to respect my elders. It was the one thing which had always struck me as being odd. For someone who didn’t have family and was raising her daughter on her own, my mother was full of a lot of old-timey family values.

  “Of course, Mr. Angelo,” I replied.

  He smiled softly at me and reached out to pat my knee.

  “Just some advice from an old fool…” he began with a smile and his cheeks blushed. “Don’t let fear keep you from happiness. Sometimes life… sometimes God sends us what we need and we need to just accept his gifts.”

  Nikko glanced past me with an even softer smile than before. His eyes filled with a familiar emotion. An emotion I’d see in Eli’s gaze just that morning. Turning to open the door, I searched my grandmother’s front porch for what could have given him that look and found my grandmother standing there with a crocheted blanket pulled tight over her shoulders.

  “La vita è fugace, trova sempre il tempo per l'amore.” Nikko’s voice was full of remorse but he seemed to shake off the past as he
turned to me. “Vivi la vita al massimo, tesoro. You only live once.”

  Chapter Eight

  Nikko’s lilting Italian replayed in my head as I walked to my grandmother’s door. I couldn’t translate a word of it… except for something about love and life. But, he was very clear with his parting words and I couldn’t get them out of my head as I stepped into the house my mother had grown up in.

  “What is wrong, Clara?” My grandmother asked as I passed her.

  “Nothing…” My grandmother’s arm around my waist and the look of concern on her best friend’s face as they stood silently in the foyer of the home broke me. I sobbed.

  “There, there. It will be alright,” Franny had stepped forward and gripped my hands in her own.

  When the tears slowed enough for me to see, I realized I was being led to the sitting room.

  “Sit, I’ll make tea… or hot chocolate,” Franny offered as she headed out of the room.

  “Clara, I know we don’t know each other but you’re my granddaughter and I love you.” Ms. Amelia sighed. “I’ve probably handled all of this badly, but I love you and I want you in my life, child.”

  “I—”

  “Not yet,” my grandmother interrupted my denial. “All I mean by that is that I’m here for you. I don’t expect anything in return. Do you want to talk about what has you upset?”

  I shook my head as I sniffled. Franny had returned and handed me a box of tissues before disappearing again.

  “Is it about Eli?”

  I nodded and closed my eyes as my head filled with memories. It had been the best night of my life. Magical even. Eli was so easy to be with. The man had a way of breaking down my barriers and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it.

  “He’s a good boy, really” — Ms. Amelia patted my knee as her eyes hardened — “but if he did something stupid and hurt you… I’ll… I’ll…”

  “We’ll deliver him one of my special pies,” Franny chimed in as she set a tray with three mugs and a small ball of mini marshmallows on the coffee table in front of where we sat.

  “Special pies?” I hiccupped and sniffled some more.

  “Franny makes a mean cream pie and sometimes when someone needs it… well, we help them meet the porcelain god. Everyone can use a good come to Tidy Bowl moment once in a while,” my grandmother chuckled.

  “Oh. My. God.” I burst out in a half-laugh half-sob as I stared at the older women in both horror and respect. “You two are evil.”

  Franny shrugged as she snuggled deeper into her chair with her mug of cocoa.

  “Here, drink this. Chocolate always helps,” Ms. Amelia insisted as she handed me a mug. “Did your mom ever tell you about your grandpa and me?”

  Her question startled me and I turned to look at her. “No. But, you said you met in grade school.”

  “We did… but… it wasn’t until he was leaving for the war that he got off his ass and told me how he felt.” My grandmother chuckled as her eyes turned liquid with unshed tears. “He was always so handsome but for some reason, the boy would never ask me out. We hung out together with friends and the like, but not once did we go on an actual date. It wasn’t until Nikko Angelo asked me to the Snow Ball the week before Freddy was to leave on deployment that he came to my house with flowers.”

  “Fred was an idiot,” Franny complained.

  Ms. Amelia laughed and slapped her hand in her friend’s direction. “Well, you grew up in the same house, practically siblings, so I’m not surprised to hear you say that.”

  “Siblings?” I asked in shock. Was Franny my aunt?

  “We were cousins on his and my mother’s sides” — Franny waved her hand in the air — “it gets complicated around here.” She and my grandmother both laughed.

  “It’s true, everyone knows everyone in this county... and they’re pretty much related somehow at some point on their family trees, too,” Grandma confirmed.

  “So what did Mr. Wood do when he showed up with flowers?” I asked — still uncomfortable thinking of him or the woman next to me as family.

  “Well, Freddy asked to speak with my father,” Ms. Amelia chuckled and her eyes twinkled with long-forgotten moments. “Then, after they spoke, my father stepped from his office and told me to hear the boy out. He’d sure made an impression on my pa and to this day, I still don't know what he said to him.”

  “He was good with words,” Franny admitted. “But, still an idiot.”

  I grinned as my soul seemed to lighten and my chest loosened at the easy relationship the two older women had and the fact they pretty much seemed to know everything about one another.

  With a small smile, Ms. Amelia took up her story again, “I walked him into our parlor and we sat quietly in two of the chairs in silence. Neither of us spoke. Then all quiet-like he moved in front of my chair and went down on his knees. He offered me the flowers and after I’d taken them he’d pulled a ring from his coat pocket. Freddy just kneeled there and held that ring out without saying a word.”

  A tear slid down her cheek as my grandmother took a breath and stared at her wedding picture on the mantel.

  “He did finally explain things to me and we were married the next day by the justice of the peace. He wanted me to have his benefits if he died in the war you see. Then he went off to boot camp and the war and didn’t return for three long years. We had a proper wedding a month after his return and had your mom eight months later.” A blush colored my grandmother’s cheeks as she lifted her mug of cocoa and took a deep drink.

  “Oh… wow,” I chuckled as the dates sunk in.

  “Yep. You see… those in the Wood family… they love deeply and never quite how you expect it. I had forty-seven wonderful years with your grandfather before he passed. I am grateful for each and every one of them. But, it would have been easy to have told him no. I mean, my pride had been hurt when he never asked me out.”

  “Mom didn’t know my father,” I blurted. “At least that’s what she told me. But… who knows, I mean, she had me thinking you and Mr. Wood were dead.”

  “Sweetheart, couldn’t you at least call him your grandpa? I mean, he’s not here to earn the title, but he loved your mother and always regretted chasing her away.”

  “Alright,” I nodded. She was right, the man was my grandfather and through the stories and pictures Ms. Amelia had shared with me, I knew my mother had been loved. Mom was the one who chose to leave and never return.

  “She could have always come home,” my grandmother whispered.

  “I believe you, grandma.” Her eyes snapped up to mine and as tears slipped more freely from them.

  “Thank you, Clara. Thank you.” Grandma pulled me into her arms and hugged me tightly to her chest.

  After we all cried — even Franny shed some tears — we went into the dining room and ate way too much food before starting a fire and sitting down to exchange gifts. I hadn’t had any money to buy my grandma or Franny anything but a few days earlier I had dug through my car and found something I thought they would enjoy. I’d used Grandma’s wrapping paper and placed them under her tree.

  Now, as I waited for the two older women to pull out the brightly wrapped packages all three of us had stowed there, my mind wandered. I was filled with confusion. My chest hurt at the thought of leaving but what did I have in Holiday City?

  “I hate to eat and run…” My words sounded hollow as I looked into the fire. “But money is tight and I really need to get settled in my new place and find a job as soon as possible.”

  I calculated the change in my cup holder and the cash I still had tucked into my purse — nineteen dollars and eighty-two cents — the cash probably wouldn’t even be enough to buy the gas it would take me to get all the way to Florida.

  “Clara?” When I turned to look at my grandmother, she continued. “Do you really need to go to Florida? I mean… you could stay here.”

  “Where would I live?”

  “Here of course!”

  “I guess ther
e are all of those hotels… they’d have to have some sort of job I could get, right?”

  “There is also the gift I promised you if you came to visit,” my grandma reached into the branches of the Christmas tree and pulled out a large red foil envelope.

  “Was this?” I asked after accepting it.

  “Open it,” Franny ordered.

  “Yes,” Grandma agreed. “Opening it is the only way to find out.”

  My fingers trembled as I carefully unstuck the flap and flipped it open to look inside of the envelope. A heavy piece of parchment type paper was inside and I pulled it out and unfolded it. It was covered in fancy script and large embossed seals.

  “What is this?” My voice quivered as I looked at the top line of the document. “Property Deed…” Silently I read the address and saw my name printed on a line at the bottom. “Grandma?”

  “You’re a Wood, Clara, and the farm is yours.” Grandma smiled at me and waited for my response.

  “I can’t accept this!” I snapped out in shock.

  “This farm has been in the Wood family — your grandfather’s family — for over a hundred years. You’re the only Wood left, so it’s yours.” Grandma stated firmly. “Clara, I want you to have it.”

  “But this is your home!”

  “And, now it’s yours. I hope you’ll allow me to live here with you,” she blushed brightly and looked around the room. “I’ll accept whatever changes you want to make in order for you to feel at home.”

  “I already feel at home,” I whispered as my throat tightened with emotion.

  “I love you, Clara, and I want us to have all of the time we have left to get to know each other. To be a family. It’s been a while since either of us has had that.”

  “I’d like that as well,” I replied and lunged for the older woman. I pulled her into a tight hug and for the first time since my mother’s death, I felt… not alone.

  Then, thoughts of Eli filled my head. No, that was a lie. I had felt less alone from the moment I’d watched a pizza man toss pizzas while singing Christmas carols. Even less alone when I opened my pizza to find it smiling up at me. The moments since then had only solidified what I had known in that first glimpse — I loved him and he was made for me.