A Vineyard White Christmas

by Katie Winters

  Why had she touched him like that?

  “You’re here now. That’s all that matters,” she murmured as she slowly removed her hand again.

  Andrew’s eyes remained perplexed. For a moment, Beth thought he actually planned to ask her to link her fingers with his. Keep doing that. Please. But maybe it was too much, too soon. Andrew was a bit like a frightened child who’d been through too much trauma elsewhere. She supposed she was similar.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Andrew parked in the makeshift lot behind the Oak Bluffs bar and grill, a place that certainly hadn’t changed its décor on the outside and seemed committed to boisterous holiday drinkers, fried food, and good loud music. As they walked toward the front door, Andrew’s fingers flickered against Beth’s, and her eyes sparkled. Maybe if he’d been a teenager again, he would have pressed her against the side of the brick building and kissed her right there beneath the moon and stars.

  The bar was pure chaos. Fryers sizzled in the back; women giggled; men grunted over a pool table; and gossip and chatter seemed to be the ever-present. Andrew knelt to ask Beth what kind of drink she wanted. Just before she answered, his eyes found three familiar faces toward the corner of the bar. There sat the Sheridan sisters: Christine, Susan, and Lola. Although he had only seen Christine during his brief trek back to the island, the other two were so reminiscent of his Aunt Anna, the connection was obvious.

  “Do you mind if we say hi to my cousins?” he asked Beth.

  Beth shook her head so that her hair danced beneath her hat. “Not at all.”

  Overcome with some sense of hope, Andrew strung his fingers through Beth’s as he led her to the Sheridan sisters table. When they neared them, Susan, Christine, and Lola turned to deliver their sterling smiles. Susan’s hair was still short, apparently from the chemo, but her eyes were as bright as ever.

  “Andrew Montgomery!” Susan cried. “I never thought I would see you again. And I guess I haven’t since you were, what? Seven? Eight?”

  Andrew fell into a warm hug. Part of his body tricked him into the belief that this hug was one straight from Anna Sheridan herself. As he drew back, he forced himself back to reality.

  “You were off on a great adventure if I recall correctly,” he said.

  “The adventure is over and done with, I’m afraid,” Susan said.

  “That’s not true,” Lola interjected. “We’ve all created new adventures here, remember?”

  “Maybe you’re on one of your own,” Christine said as their eyes shifted toward Beth.

  “I guess you guys probably know Beth Leopold,” Andrew said, speaking just loud enough to be heard over the speaker system.

  “Of course we do!” Susan called. “Hey, there, Beth!”

  Beth waved and said something nobody could hear. Everyone nodded and smiled as though they’d heard, which made Beth and Andrew laugh all the more. Although he loved his cousins and so wanted to catch up with them sometime, these moments were meant only for him and Beth.

  “I’ll see you ladies, at Christmas, right?” Andrew asked.

  “Actually, we wanted to talk to you about that,” Susan said. She gripped his elbow as though she knew he was on the run. “We thought we could have it at the Sunrise Cove. We could clear all the tables from the bistro and set up cozy couches. There’s also the fireplace and that whole area out by the water, where we could set up a fire pit and a BBQ.”

  “I don’t think I’m the one in charge of Christmas,” Andrew said. “Although I might be able to put in a good word.”

  “Just think about it,” Christine said. “Our family has jumped to a monstrous size these days. The Sunrise Cove is about as empty as a haunted house right now. We might as well fill it with love and both families.”

  Andrew nodded in agreement with his elder cousin, Susan. He really liked the idea of a Christmas dinner with both families. He told the girls he would let Kerry know and someone would get back to them about it.

  Andrew grabbed two pints from the bartender, and they headed to a circular table toward the opposite corner of his cousins, beneath an array of Christmas trees that had been hung the slightest bit crooked. Andrew lifted his glass of beer and said, “To you, Beth. Thank you for all you’re doing for my dad.”

  Beth clinked his glass and studied his eyes for a moment.

  “What?” Andrew asked, wearing a sheepish grin on his face.

  “It’s only that; I think you’ve done a lot more for your dad’s health than I ever could have,” Beth admitted.

  Andrew sipped the top foam of his beer. “I have to admit. The man seems to have lost all his hard edges over the years.”

  “That tends to happen to people, don’t you think? You have to learn empathy sometime, even if it happens a little late in life,” Beth said.

  “All those years I spent overseas and in those tiny apartments in Boston, I never thought the man had it in him,” Andrew said. “I guess it’s just another example of me being wrong.”

  Beth swept her hand across his wrist and held it tenderly. “No. It’s not you. It just gives you two a chance to really come together and make that true father and son connection that you both lost over the last seventeen years.”

  Andrew studied her beautiful face, the way the twinkling Christmas lights reflected across her high cheekbones and highlighted the darkness of her hair. He wanted to tell her that he really hadn’t wanted to leave her; he just hadn’t known what to do next, and Boston had seemed like the best possible option.

  “I was so young and stupid when you first knew me,” he tried.

  “Weren’t we all?” Beth returned.

  Andrew shrugged. “You probably remember it, right? That first crummy apartment that Kurt and I had.”

  Beth scrunched her nose as she chuckled. “It was a hole in the wall, that’s for sure.”

  “We loved it, though. We thought it was the solution to all of our problems,” Andrew continued. “But when I watched you walk out the door and head back to Martha’s Vineyard, I had this funny urge to run after you. I wanted to throw my arms around you and tell you not to go without us. You were headed back to the life that we were running from, and we completely cut ourselves off from anything associated with this island.”

  The conversation held onto Kurt for another full beer. Andrew hadn’t really talked about his best friend since right after his death, and it was cathartic and soothing, discussing old memories with Beth, even hearing the little ways that her laugh resembled Kurt’s. After a while, it was almost like Kurt sat at the bar table with them, sharing in the beers and the banter. Only almost, though.

  Beth explained a bit more about Will: about the stranger she’d had an affair with, about the pregnancy she only found out about after the stranger had left the island for good. Obviously, because Beth was Beth, she hadn’t thought about anything but raising the baby herself.

  “The diagnosis was, of course, hard on me,” she said. “I worried that he would never be able to live his life like the other kids. But you know what? He has a heart of pure gold. I think, in some ways, his life is even more of a blessing than it might have been otherwise. Not that I could ever know.”

  “Did you ever try to have a—” Andrew faltered. He recognized that his question was a little forward, and he didn’t want to make Beth uncomfortable.

  “A relationship? Like a father figure for Will?” Beth asked.

  “You’re too good. You knew where I was headed.”

  Beth chuckled good-naturedly. “Honestly, it’s mostly been me and Will, Will and me. It’s been enough for a long time.”

  Andrew couldn’t tell if this was some kind of hint that she wanted more of him or proof that he needed to back off. Still, he was captivated by her, with her laugh and her smile. As they continued their light banter of various topics, Andrew found himself leaning forward into the conversation toward her face, almost mesmerized by her smile and the way her lips moved when she spoke. He wanted more of her. They needed to
make up for lost time.

  What seemed like a blink later, the bartender announced that he would be closing up in ten.

  “What?” Andrew and Beth said in near-unison.

  “It feels like we’ve only been here like forty minutes or something,” Andrew said. He grabbed his phone to check. It revealed 11:50.

  “Oh, my gosh,” Beth cried. “Ellen is going to kill me.” She grabbed her own phone to check for missed messages. “Huh. Nothing.”

  “Maybe she fell asleep at your place,” Andrew suggested.

  “Maybe.” Beth sounded doubtful. “Can you drop me off at my house? I can have Ellen pick me up for work tomorrow.”

  As Andrew stood and grabbed his coat, his tongue felt like a weighted blanket across the bottom of his mouth. He needed to say something—something that translated exactly what he felt about her. Something that told her how much she’d mattered to him through the previous years.

  That moment, however, had other plans for him.

  His phone buzzed. In the days since his arrival, he had gotten all his siblings’ numbers. The caller ID said: Kelli. His stomach soured as he lifted it to his ear. He felt sure that something was wrong.

  “Kelli?”

  “Andy, hey.” Sure enough, her voice was strained. She sounded like she was trying to hide and not breathe or speak too loudly. “Andy, can you come pick me up? He—he hid my keys. I can’t find my keys.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Andrew and Beth crunched through the snow frantically, tracing the path back toward the car. Once there, Andy’s hand shook so hard that he dropped the keys into the white froth near the tire. He cursed to himself as he lifted them out and shook his frigid-red hand around. “That hurts,” he winced.

  Beth’s house was only a few streets from Kelli and Mike’s. He dropped Beth at the corner and apologized profusely. “I’ll explain better when I see you next.” Just before she drew herself completely out, he reached over and gripped her hand. “Thank you for a beautiful night, Beth. Sleep well.”

  “It was one of the more beautiful nights I’ve had in years,” she told him softly as she turned back toward her house, which was dark save for the light from the television in what looked like the back room.

  The moment Beth was safely latched behind her door, Andrew throttled his car as quickly as he could toward Kelli’s. His lights shone across the driveway, and on cue, the side door erupted open to reveal a bundled-up Kelli. She dove into the passenger seat and snapped the door closed.

  “Drive, Andy,” she told him. “Just get me out of here.”

  That moment, Mike appeared at the side door. He remained in a t-shirt and a pair of jeans; he looked like he hadn’t even put on his shoes. He waved an angry hand but made no run toward them.

  Andrew was panicked and enraged. He’d never seen his sister run away from a situation like that. He placed his hand on her shoulder and said, “Kelli, I need you to answer me very carefully. Did he hurt you?”

  Kelli shook her head violently as her teeth bit into her lower lip. “No.” Her voice cracked. “But for the first time in a long time, I really thought he was going to, Andy. I really thought he could have done it. He was so angry.”

  Andy threw himself against the side of the car. His blood boiled as he reached for the car handle. He would do it all over again. He would punch his abusive brother in law in the face without even batting an eyelash. He didn’t care what happened to him next.

  But Kelli grabbed his arm with such strength that Andrew paused. He looked into her eyes as she shook with sadness.

  “Don’t go after him. Don’t. Lexi’s in there. I don’t want her to know anything about this. If we divorce, we divorce. People do that all the time. But whatever it is you want to do to him? That will scar her worse than anything else. Please. For Lexi. For me.”

  Andrew couldn’t speak. He ran a hand through his hair as his sister's words sunk in and started to make sense. She was right. Now was not the time to deal with this, so he quickly slid into his seat and pressed his foot on the gas to get them out of there. They drove back down the icy driveway, nearly losing control, then high-tailed it toward the house in which both of them had grown up in.

  Neither of them spoke throughout the drive. Several times, Kelli let out a hiccup that turned into a kind of wail. Andrew wanted so badly to ask her what had happened, what the fight had been about, but he could hardly get through his own anger enough to articulate his thoughts.

  He pulled up in the driveway and turned the engine off. The lights dimmed around them, just as more snow began to fall.

  “Seems like it’s always picture perfect around here,” Andrew said.

  Kelli snorted at that. “Yeah. Exactly picture perfect. You’re so right.”

  Andrew allowed his shoulders to sag. He suddenly felt overwhelmingly exhausted. “Let’s go in, okay? I’ll cook you up something to eat. We don’t have to talk. We can just be.”

  Kelli nodded somberly.

  KELLI SAT AT THE KITCHEN table in a heavy old sweatshirt they had found in Andrew’s old bedroom. Andrew hovered over the stovetop as the tea-kettle heated. He rubbed his hands together and then searched through the refrigerator for something to warm up. All the while, Kelli stared straight ahead. She looked like she was somewhere else entirely.

  Luckily, there was a bit of clam chowder left over. Christine had brought over another batch of freshly-baked bread, which Andrew sliced up and placed in the toaster oven. In minutes, the smells of the savory soup and toasted baguette filled the room. Their hearts calmed down and they found space to breathe again.

  Just as Andrew placed a cup of hot cocoa and Baileys in front of Kelli, a light snapped on in the hallway. There was the creak of their father’s wheelchair just before he appeared in the doorway. He blinked sleepy eyes before he fully recognized them and offered a smile.

  “Hey there,” he said. “What are you two doing up?”

  “Just having a nightcap,” Andrew said. After a pause, he added, “Do you want to join us?”

  Trevor did. He wheeled toward the table and stationed himself beside Kelli, while Andrew hurriedly filled another two cups, portioned out the toasted baguette on a platter, and filled a small bowl of heated clam chowder for Kelli. His father’s eyes flickered toward Kelli for a moment with curiosity. The old man was clever enough to understand that this wasn’t something you asked about. This was just something you helped carry along with you so that Kelli didn’t have to bear it alone.

  And assuredly, the entire Montgomery family knew the depths of Mike’s horror by now.

  Andrew turned on the radio. As it played softly in the corner, he joined his father and sister at the kitchen table. They clinked glasses and held the silence for a long time, as they each nibbled from the clam chowder and the baguettes and sipped their hot cocoa spiked with Baileys. Each of them had something different to stew about.

  The radio played an old version of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.” The old recording crackled with nostalgia. Andrew couldn’t help himself. He turned his eyes toward his father and said, “I really am so glad to be home for Christmas.”

  His father nodded. He reached across the table and gripped his son’s hand. Kelli’s eyes filled with tears again, too. Her hand joined theirs, and they held them there for a long time. They’d lost so much time, but here they were together.

  “I don’t know what we did for so long without you,” Kelli told him. “We love you to pieces.”

  His father nodded. After a long pause, he said, “I just want to say one thing.”

  It was impossible to know what would be said, but either way, Andrew’s heart hammered away in his chest.

  “For as long as I have a roof here above us,” Trevor Montgomery began, “You kids can stay under it. I don’t want either of you to be around any kind of violence. Not again. Not anymore. You are both a Montgomery through and through. You hear me?”

  They both nodded in agreement. A few minutes later, they
finished up their drinks and placed everything in the sink. It was time they all headed for bed and got some sleep.

  After Trevor returned to bed, Andrew made up the bed in what had once been Kelli’s old bedroom. “No way you’re sleeping on the couch,” he told her, trying to make his voice light.

  “Thank you, Andy,” she said from the doorway. She leaned her head to the side. She looked more exhausted than he had ever seen her. Over the previous seventeen years, she’d probably grappled with countless fights with Mike, raised three children, and handled the dealings of her own boutique. It stood to reason that she finally, finally needed someone else to take care of her.

  “Let me know if you need anything at all tonight,” Andrew told her. “I’ll sleep with one eye open, just in case.”

  “Don’t worry about me,” she told him as she crawled into bed and collapsed beneath the sheets. “I think I might sleep for the next week.”

  “You can’t,” he told her simply.

  “And why not?”

  “You’ll miss Christmas,” he said, grinning in the dark. “And you know how the Montgomery family feels about Christmas. It’s the most important day of the year.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  The next morning, Kelli remained in her bedroom for a long time. Andrew, his mother and his father, joined together in the family room to discuss what to do next.

  “I don’t think she should go back to that house,” Andrew said firmly. “She looked so scared last night.”

  “I agree with you,” his father said. “But I don’t think we should do anything until we ask Kelli what she wants. She’s a grown woman, and we have to respect her wishes.”

  Kerry placed a hand over Trevor’s and nodded somberly. “As much as it pains me to say this, I agree. When she wakes up, we’ll ask her what she wants us to do. Whether that means, go pack up some bags so she can stay here for a while, or allow her to return...”