A Christmas Dinner on Marshall Street (The Hills of Burlington Book 5)

by Jacie Middlemann

  “Oh, Aunt Charlie,” Fran said in an anguished voice. She couldn’t even begin to imagine what it must have been like for him. For both of them. “He doesn’t talk about it?”

  “Not yet, and at the moment they’re waiting to see if it comes up from him first. But all of them, Carrie, Court, and Nick, know that if that doesn’t happen they’re going to have to start that conversation for him. With him. If that’s what happened as they suspect, it’s not something for Rob to keep to himself. Sharing it may not help but it will ease the hurt of carrying it alone.”

  “No wonder Nick wanted his son to stay with Carrie,” Fran said understanding better now than she did before, the motivations of her cousin’s first husband. He better than many would understand the depths of Carrie’s patience and how endless her caring nature was…and more than anything her unconditional strong sense of family. All things his son would need in his life at such a difficult time.

  “I never much cared for the man when he was my son-in-law but Nick’s no fool.” Charlie looked across the table at her niece with a quick and knowing smile on her face. “Fact is, I find myself liking him quite a bit now.” She laughed and shook her head, almost as if at a private joke. One she decided to share and when she did the amusement in her voice was unmistakable. “Carrie said almost the exact same thing to me not long ago. Not only that but she said she feels she knows and understands him now far better than she ever did when they were married.”

  “They’ve become friends,” Fran said quietly. Surprised in some ways but considering their shared commitment to Nick’s teenage son, she knew she shouldn’t be.

  “They have and even more surprising to me, so have Nick and Court. I’m not certain which of the two men are more surprised by that but there you have it.”

  “Court must be a wonderful man.”

  “He is and he adores my Carrie,” Charlie said. “Has Carrie told you that Court is related to Mary through her father’s side of the family?”

  “No,” Fran said. That was another surprise she wasn’t prepared for.

  “Mary didn’t even know. Court lives next door to her and when she met him not long after she bought the house it came out during their first conversation. It seems she bears a strong resemblance to his mother. I haven’t seen the pictures myself but Mary has and said it’s almost eerie.”

  “It’s a small world,” Fran said. She’d forgotten all the intertwining twists of family that existed in Burlington.

  “It is indeed that,” Charlie said and took that as the opening she’d been waiting for. “I’ve missed seeing your wonderful family posts on your social media page,” she said quietly. “That’s a small world as well and your absence has been keenly felt.”

  Fran let out a long sigh. She knew in coming here she would be opening the door to questions. Not everyone would see it as such but if anyone would it was the woman sitting at the table with her. Charlie understood pain and recovering from it better than anyone she knew. She wondered if in some way she’d come here for that understanding. And her aunt’s firsthand insight on how to put it to the side. She’d already done just that in many ways. Just not all the way.

  “Fran,” Charlie said her niece’s name softly. Reached out to take her hand in her own. “I can tell you for myself that my sons…your cousins…the Lord knows I love them dearly but at times they cause me no little bit of grief. From the time my sons reached their twenties each decided they knew better than me in most things and I’m sorry to say that has never changed.” She squeezed the hand in hers. “Have you ever considered why I packed up and moved back here to Burlington? It wasn’t just because Mary was here and bought not just my mother’s little house but also our family home here on Marshall Street.” She smiled, pleased to see she could bring the same to her niece’s face. “And Fran,” she said then waited until she knew she had her attention. “Blair is still so young,” she began knowing as only another mother could of the pain her niece had been dealt.

  “Oh, I know that, Aunt Charlie. I’ve always understood that part of it,” Fran said quietly. The last thing she wanted was for her husband to hear the topic of their conversation. “I know better than anyone that my children, no matter how old they are, are still capable of doing stupid things. For that matter so am I.” She let out a long breath. “It’s just that it was so…unexpected.”

  “Of course it was, sweetie. He’s your son. Stupid or not, that’s what it comes down to. And I’d bet that your deleting the entire conversation had more to do with protecting him than any embarrassment to yourself.” She tilted her head slightly to get a better look at the other woman’s expression. “Just as your hesitancy to do much else in recent months has been out of concern of having to do the same again more than any worry about being made to look foolish.”

  “I’ve suffered looking foolish before, Aunt Charlie. It’s not pleasant but neither is it something one can’t recover from.”

  “Some deal with it better than others,” Charlie said slowly pleased that she had one of her answers…and that it was just as she suspected. “Were you concerned someone would post something responding to his careless response to yours?”

  Fran smiled, she simply couldn’t stop it from edging up at the corners of her mouth as it did. “I did have a few moments of worry that you’d do just that before I could figure out how to delete the whole damn thing.”

  “It was a temptation, sweetie. But I held myself back.”

  “I bet that was tough,” Fran said teasingly as the laughter burst from her unexpectedly. Even an hour ago she wouldn’t have thought it possible to do so.

  “Not really, I’ve seen a lot in my life and while it may have taken me a while I’ve come to believe saying nothing is almost always better than speaking my mind in a way that could be hurtful. But your cousin was steaming about it for days. I’m surprised she didn’t pop something out there before you deleted it. For that matter I’m surprised she didn’t post something even after you did.”

  “I’m glad she didn’t,” Fran said on a quiet sigh. “I don’t know that it would have done anything to help.”

  “Have you talked to Blair about it?” Charlie asked and knew from the expression on her niece’s face what the answer to that was before she said a word.

  “No, Aunt Charlie, I haven’t. I know you don’t agree with that but I just…” she paused, searched for the words to best express her thoughts on her decision. “Cade was furious. First at Blair for what he posted then at me for not wanting to discuss it with him…really with anyone.” She let out a short burst of laughter…but it held no joy. “Then he was angry because I wouldn’t let him talk to Blair about it.”

  Charlie kept her silence. Waited for her niece to finish it in her own time…in her own way.

  “I want Blair to understand on his own why what he did wasn’t…isn’t acceptable. At least not by my standards which are the same that he was taught as a child. So much now though is done in the blink of a moment. Then without a second glance, in the next blink of that next moment, something else is the focus of attention and whatever was already done is out of sight…and out of mind. Just like that old saying and unfortunately most often the results aren’t good.” She closed her eyes on the memory that came to her no matter her effort to keep it at bay. That moment when she’d seen her youngest son’s name and the immediate joy she felt that he would even bother with her page let alone write something in response to one of her very few postings. Then in less than another moment the joy had turned to shock…then despair. Unlike all the others who’d expressed positive reactions to what she’d written his had been filled with sarcasm and worse…belittling. There were worst things in life. She knew that. But in those moments she hadn’t been able to find any such example to cling to. She looked back at her aunt.

  “I want him to learn from it. If either I or his father said anything it wouldn’t do anything but bounce right back off of him. You know as well as I do that some things have to be l
earned all on their own.”

  “You’re so much like your uncle. That sounds so much like something he’d say. Sometimes I agreed with him…and well, sometimes I didn’t.”

  “You told me once that he never rushed anywhere, more like plodded along,” Fran said quietly, smiling at the memory.

  “There’s something to be said for that, sweetie. Especially in today’s new world of social media. Your uncle would have thought twice over every single word. Maybe more than that. I take care with my words but he would no doubt have driven me nuts.”

  “A wonderful kind of nuts,” Fran said as she stood and walked around the table to wrap her arms around her aunt. “I miss Uncle Jason so much.” Her words were softly spoken as she laid her head on her aunt’s shoulder where it had always been welcome.

  “Oh, sweetie, so do I. So do I.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  “Are you sure we’re not going to be interrupting anything?” Fran asked for the third time as she and Carrie walked down the alley towards the house in the distance.

  “Please,” Carrie said with both laughter and amusement flowing through in her voice. “Does that look like a busy lady to you?” she asked nudging her cousin as she did to look towards the back door of the house in front of them where Mary was stepping out on the small stoop that led down to the ground.

  “Fran, you don’t look a day older since the last time I saw you!” Mary said as she walked forward and drew the other woman into a warm embrace.

  “Now I know for certain I’m talking to the woman who writes those awesome fiction novels. I just heard a line of fiction that’s about as good as you can get.”

  “That’s not true,” Mary said laughing. “But if it were, we are all in the same boat.”

  “I don’t know if the same can be said about Casey,” Carrie said dryly. “She looks like she’s going to give birth to a basketball any day.”

  “I haven’t heard about that!” Fran said turning back to her cousin.

  “That’s because she’s not all that far along yet but really looks it. And I can promise you that’s she’s not at all happy about it,” Mary said. “She should be here soon. She was going to pick up a coffee cake from Grace on her way.”

  “We are in for a treat, Fran. Grace makes the best coffee cakes.”

  “And they are Casey’s current craving,” Mary said. “Let’s go in. I bet you’ve been here before during all those summer visits with Aunt Charlie.”

  “I remember it,” Fran said as she stepped into the kitchen. “More than anything else I remember that this house was always filled with people,” she said quietly as she looked around. Almost feeling as if she’d stepped back in time. “It was loud but not ever in a bad way. I remember it always seemed as if it was filled with people and laughter,” she said as she walked through to the small dining room. She could see both the kitchen and front room from where she stood. Remembering. “But for as many people and all the noise it never seemed crowded,” she said softly. Looked over and knew that both her cousin and Mary understood. “That’s why you wanted it.”

  “That was part of it,” Mary said. She wasn’t surprised that Fran would understand what had been in her heart that first time when she’d come back after so many years. “When we were children, Burlington might have just been a place we visited, but it was so much more. Those visits were filled with everything you just said.” She looked around the small rooms that had seemed so much bigger when she was a child. “And all of it, the laughter, the noise, people talking over each other, rooms filled to the brim but never really crowded…it all came back to family.”

  “Yes,” Fran said softly, following Mary’s gaze as it moved around the room. Knew Carrie was watching in the same way.

  “The first time I walked in here,” Mary said gently and glanced over with a quick smile at Carrie before looking back to Fran again. “I was with my real estate agent who is now Casey’s husband,” she said, explaining with amusement that could easily be heard in her voice. The memories of that first visit could still bring a little bit of an ache but the new ones she was making in her home made it easier to let them slide below the surface. She looked around, much as she did that first time upon her return to Burlington.

  “It must have been hard,” Fran said, thinking of how it would feel. How she knew she felt now, looking around and remembering.

  “For a few moments, as I stood in the quiet, I could hear all their voices, their laughter as it filled the room with their simple joy in each other’s company.” Mary let out a long quiet sigh…easily remembering that night. “I wanted that for myself.”

  “And she got it and more,” Carrie said as she walked over and looped her arm through her Mary’s. “First Casey arrived, then Mom and my niece Mallie. And just as Mom planned, something I have little doubt about, I arrived next.”

  “Jake wasn’t far behind,” Mary said easily as she thought of the short and curt phone messages she’d received from Casey’s brother. She looked over at Fran. “Jake and his daughter live in Carrie’s old house. The one she grew up in and I would guess the one you remember best. We’ll have to take you down there sometime.”

  “I’d love that,” Fran said, realizing just how much she would.

  “Let’s sit down in the kitchen,” Mary said as she turned back in that direction. “I’ll make us a pot of coffee to go with the cake Casey is bringing,” she said with a smile. In that moment there was a quick knock on the front door just before it swung open.

  “Fran!” Casey Kyle Modig bounded into the room with her hands full and a broad smile on her face. “What’s taken you so long to get up here?” she asked even as she pulled the other woman into a tight hug.

  “I don’t know,” Fran said, for the first time wondering the same. When the two women stepped apart and just looked at each other she shook her head and smiled as she patted the slightly more than small bulge that was an obvious sign of the other woman’s condition. “You look beautiful.”

  “I really appreciate that,” Casey said, thinking that the same could be said for her childhood friend if it weren’t for the sadness you couldn’t miss in her eyes. “Where’s your handsome husband?”

  “He’s with Mom,” Carrie said, the laughter in her voice spilling over as she thought about what Cade was likely dealing with. “When we left she was taking him to the Carriage House to show him all she’s been working on.” She shared a knowing look with Casey and Mary. “Odds are that right about know she’s working on getting him to sit for her.”

  “That should prove interesting,” Fran said. But she knew if anyone could do it, her aunt could. Cade might not be thrilled by it but would be hard pressed to say no to Charlie.

  “If she’s successful,” Casey began as she considered the finished product and how it would fly out of their online store as quickly as she listed it. “I’d love to put it in the online store or at least prints of it if you want to keep the original.”

  “Always the businesswoman,” Carrie said, shaking her head as she did. “Nothing stops her, not morning sickness, not sick kids at home, absolutely nothing.”

  “Some things don’t change,” Fran said thinking of the shenanigans they’d gotten into together as children. Somehow Casey had always been at the fore of their many plots and plans. She looked around the kitchen where they’d wandered into for the coffee and cake Mary had spoken of. It looked so much like it had all those years ago when they’d run through the house freely as children do. Mary had put her own mark on it but so much of it still reminded her of the comforting simplicity of another time when their greatest worries were the latest bedtime they could negotiate for going to sleep in the midst of their summer adventures. She accepted the hot cup of coffee from Mary. Smiled as Casey slid a huge slice of coffee cake on the plate in front of her. Spoke what was in her heart.

  “I’m so glad we came here for Christmas. Just being here with all of you, in this house, brings back so many wonderful memories. I onl
y wish we’d come sooner.”

  “You’re here now,” Carrie said as she reached over and took her cousin’s slim hand in her own. Wished she had the words to ease her hurt. But knew deep down her mother was the best of all of them to deal with that.

  “Carrie’s right, you’re here now and that’s all that matters,” Mary said as she lifted her own cup in a silent salute.

  “Here, here,” Casey said as she lifted her cup of the tea she’d desperately trade for the rich coffee the other three were drinking. “And to the painting dear Aunt Charlie is even now negotiating,” she added with a knowing smile.

  “She never changes,” Carrie said, her laughing eyes on Fran’s.

  “Thank God,” Fran said. In that moment she was in the one place that felt so much like home…other than her own.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Blair Wrightmire stood up and walked towards the door of his apartment when he heard the quick and sharp series of knocks against it. He couldn’t think of anyone who would come by at this time of night but even more so at this time of night and unannounced. For that reason alone he did what he rarely bothered with and took a quick look out the otherwise unused peephole. With a sigh he opened the door even as he wondered what he was in for. When he saw the wrapped presents in his brother’s arms he could only hope that was the only reason for his visit.

  “Come on in,” he said and stood to the side to allow his older brother enough room to walk past him and into the small room he used as both a living room and office. “Can I get you something to drink?”

  “I’m okay,” Morgan Wrightmire said as he set down his armload of gifts on one of the empty chairs in the room. He stood, faced his brother. “I’m on my way to Burlington but wanted to drop this off to you before I get on the road.”

  “You going with Mom and Dad?” Blair asked, his voice casual but his thoughts were anything but.