by Becki Willis
Seeing the instant worry on Madison’s face, Charles was quick to assure her. “The bill will come to us, of course. And we’ll buy out any contract you have on their old phones.”
His words were a relief. It was a struggle to pay their current phone bill, the one she had trimmed to the bare necessities. “That’s very generous of you. Thank you.”
In truth, it was the first thing they had ever done to ease the financial burden left to her by their son. Sure, they had paid off his debt to the IRS, but that was to save his good name, not to help her in any fashion. But it was Christmas, Madison reminded herself. No time to be petty. She would be thankful for any help they threw her way.
At last, there was just one gift left unopened, a huge box wrapped in colorful angel paper and bearing Madison’s name.
“I can’t wait to see what this is,” she said. She had already opened three other presents from Brash and Megan. “As big as it is, please tell me there’s not a live animal inside.” She darted a look at her daughter and asked in mock horror, “It’s not that pony you promised Bethani, is it?”
The girls giggled at the reference, but Brash looked suddenly uncertain. He avoided looking at Annette and Charles. Because of their unexpected presence today, he stalled. “Uhm, maybe you should wait until later to open that one.”
“Are you kidding? No way! I’ve been dying of curiosity, ever since you brought this bad boy in!”
“Well… okay,” he agreed reluctantly. He pulled it easily within her reach.
“Is it heavy?” she asked, lifting the corner to test its weight. “Hmm, not so much. Does it rattle?” She jiggled it, but nothing sounded from within.
“Open it, already!” someone called with a laugh.
“Okay, here goes.” Madison pulled away the paper and pried the tape away, opening the big box. A slightly smaller box rested inside, wrapped in blue snowflakes.
“Okay, here goes, again.” She repeated the process, only to find a box bearing golden stars. She shot Brash an evil look, but he only laughed at her frustration.
“And again,” she said, finding still another box, this one swathed in a snowy Christmas scene upon a green background.
“Trick wrapping!” Cutter called.
Maddy’s eyes flew to meet Brash’s, recalling how Marilyn Bashinski had wrapped the watch for her husband. Brash waggled his brows playfully, but she saw the light in his dark eyes. Her heart kicked into overdrive.
The fifth box was quite a bit smaller, and wrapped in metallic red. The room drew oddly quiet as she tore away the wrappings, her hands just a bit unsteady. It could be a watch, she reminded herself.
But nestled inside the white tissue was a tiny velvet box, too small to hold a watch. Earrings, she cautioned her racing heart, but she raised hopeful eyes to Brash’s bright, inquisitive gaze.
Taking an unsteady breath, she reached inside and lifted out the box, drawing soft gasps from those who watched. When her hands became too unreliable to manage the lid, Brash took it from her and went down on one knee. Maddy cried out softly, tears already pricking her eyes. Her head was already doing a tiny warble. No one, not even her, was sure if it was from nerves or eagerness.
“Madison Josephine Cessna Reynolds, I love you with all my heart and soul,” Brash said in a voice strong and rich, yet at the same time soft and gentle. “I can’t imagine living my life without you by my side. I’ve talked to our children. We all agree that we’re a perfect fit. So, Megan and I have something to ask you. Will you, Madison Reynolds, marry us? Will you, and Blake and Bethani, become a part of our family, and let us be part of yours?” A devilish light slipped into his adoring gaze. “And before you answer me, remember that money-back guarantee that comes with my love. In triplicate.”
No one else understood his reference, other than Madison. But she needed no guarantee in triplicate. She saw it within his eyes.
“Yes! Yes, yes, yes, of course I’ll marry you!” she cried, grabbing his handsome face in both her hands. She peppered him all over with kisses. “We’ll marry you! Won’t we, Blake and Bethani?” She didn’t wait for their answer, just motioned them forward as she kissed him full on the mouth to seal the deal.
Amid laughter and hugs and congratulations all around, Madison and Brash gathered with their three children and made promises for a future together. Almost as an afterthought, Brash slipped the ring onto her finger. It was a perfect fit, just as he knew it would be.
“There’s actually a funny story behind this ring,” he told her, “but I’ll save that for later. Right this moment, I’d like to kiss my fiancé, if you don’t mind.”
“Actually,” she murmured, “I’d mind if you didn’t.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Late in the afternoon, Madison stepped into a busy kitchen, alive with delicious aromas, buoyant chatter, and hearty laughter. Blake was at the center of it all, telling some animated tale that had the entire room entertained.
“Ah, and here she is now, back from her famous ring tour!” he announced dramatically, catching sight of his mother in the doorway.
The teen had given the silly name to their frenzy of mid-day activity. Some of the stops had been pre-arranged—Shannon and Matt’s, for one—but some had been spontaneous, in part to announce their good news to people like Brash’s parents and his sister. After rounds of best wishes for the holidays and blessings for their future, they were finally back at the Big House, where preparations were well underway for the last of the day’s activities. Dinner here was scheduled for seven thirty.
“Very cute,” she told her son. She eyed a half-eaten slice of pie on the plate he held. “And please don’t tell me you are seriously eating again, when we’ve spent the day gorging ourselves and have another meal in two hours!”
“Had to replenish my energy sources after that crazy tour around the countryside. If this is what it feels like to be a movie star, I may reconsider my career choices.” He popped the rest of the pie into his mouth in one large bite.
“Movie star? I thought you were teetering between playing professional baseball and tournament fishing.”
“Hey, a guy’s gotta keep his options open. My drama teacher says I have a gift. She says I’m full of potential.”
“You’re full of something, all right,” his sister retorted. She and Megan were busy chopping vegetables at Genny’s directive, right alongside Happy and, to Madison’s utter surprise, Annette.
Not only had she not seen Annette set foot in a kitchen in years, but their mothers had never gotten along well, hers and Gray’s. Yet here both women were, offering their limited skills of cooking while actually being civil to one another. A Christmas Day miracle, Madison mused.
“Sorry it took me so long to get in here,” Madison apologized, primarily to Genny. In deference to her expertise, everyone looked to the blonde as the main chef, a fact Madison felt guilty about. This was her kitchen, after all. “And you didn’t have to do all this yet. You could have waited on me to do my part.”
“Honestly, it wasn’t a big deal,” her best friend assured her. “I wanted to do a little prepping now, so that later all we have to do is put it all together. Cutter and I are going to slip out to the house for a minute so he can show me something.” He was remodeling his grandparent’s old farmhouse, where they would live after the wedding.
Right on cue, the fireman popped into the room. He made a shh-ing motion with his hand and slipped up behind her where she stood at the stove, stirring a pot of beans that would soon be mashed and turned into refried beans. Slipping his arms around her waist, he dropped a kiss onto the back of her neck.
“Hey, gorgeous, what’s cooking?”
Jumping slightly in surprise, she took his playful banter in stride and dryly warned, “Your goose, if you sneak up on me like that again.”
“Hey, Maddy, mind if I steal the love of my life away for a minute? I have one last Christmas surprise for her. I promise we won’t be too long.”
“N
ot at all. Genny, tell me what to do and we’ll take it from here.”
Genny glanced around at what was already done. “Why don’t we let the kids finish prepping these vegetables, and you ladies set the table in the dining room? I don’t know what dishes you want to use. After that, take a load off and enjoy a few minutes of downtime. We’ll get down to some serious cooking when I get back.” She untied her apron and revealed a frilly red dress, perfect for the holiday.
“No rush,” Maddy told her. “We’ve got this.”
“Don’t let my beans scorch,” Genny warned on her way out the door.
“Blake, keep an eye on the beans,” his mother directed. “Stir them every so often. I’ll get the plates.”
She stepped into the butler’s pantry and studied her choices. As a promotional tool, sponsors had filled the glass-fronted cabinets with dishes in an array of colors and patterns, most of which she would never use. After careful thought, she selected six place settings of solid red, and six from her own china pattern of white-on-white.
The china was from her wedding registry. Madison had always thought it a silly tradition, asking friends to spend a ridiculous amount of money to buy fancy dishes used only on rare occasions. She had never been a china and stemware kind of girl—her own mother relied on paper plates and Tupperware tumblers, while Granny Bert used a mish-mash of stoneware and melamine—but Annette insisted it was tradition to choose a china pattern, so choose a pattern she did. Her soon-to-be mother-in-law encouraged her to select something neutral, to better stand the test of time. It was one of the few pieces of good advice Annette had ever offered.
Madison gathered the dishes, along with her good silverware, another frivolous item from her gift registry. The remainder of the dishes would come from the china cabinet in the formal dining room.
It was difficult to decorate a room dominated by the masterpiece upon its wall. Even Kinky Paretta knew to keep it simple, relying on polished antique furnishings and burnished pewter to complement the artist’s work.
For a touch of Christmas cheer in the impressive room, Madison used evergreen garlands strung from the chandeliers, red candles and coordinating ribbons in all the appropriate places, and her prized Christmas china. That, she always believed, had not been a frivolous purchase.
A bittersweet smile touched her face as she pulled the needed place settings from her collection. Gray had given her a starter set of the dishes on their first Christmas together, then added a few pieces every year after that for a handful of years. She remembered her delight when she opened that first box and found the pattern she had coveted for so long.
As a little girl, she thought of Christmas dishes as the ultimate symbol of stability. They moved often when she was a child, following Charlie’s whims as he went from one career to the next. She loved her father dearly, but a stable family man he was not. In her mind, to live in the same house year after year and to celebrate the holidays with a set of Christmas dishes was the sign of a normal life. Young Madison craved normal.
Marriage to Grayson Reynolds promised a life of normalcy, or so she hoped. The dishes were proof. But somewhere along the way—perhaps around the time he stopped adding to her collection—their lives became more complicated. Their priorities shifted. Schedules turned chaotic. Greed and ambition reared their ugly heads. Simple things like Christmas dishes no longer seemed so important, not in the overall scheme of things. Even before Gwendolyn came into their lives, Madison had bought the final few pieces of the collection herself, determined to complete her set.
She didn’t notice when her mother-in-law stepped into the room, until she heard her voice. “You always did like those dishes.”
Madison touched a plate with reverence. “I think it was possibly the best gift Gray ever gave me,” she said.
Annette’s voice sounded somewhat strangled. “Did you ever really love my son?”
Madison’s stricken gaze flew to hers. “How can you even ask that? Of course, I loved Gray! Don’t you remember how happy we were when we first married? When the twins were born? I worshiped the ground he walked on, and vice versa!”
“Then what happened?” Annette demanded.
Instead of immediately answering, Madison walked slowly around the table, setting a Christmas plate down at every other spot. The places in between would be set with alternating solid red or white plates, topped with bowls or salad plates in the Christmas pattern. It was an informal, mismatched way of sharing her beloved dishes with each person present. No doubt, Annette would disapprove of her table setting. After all, it was an unconventional means of compromise, and completely untraditional. That was one of the reasons Madison loved the idea the moment it occurred to her.
About the second plate, Madison began her slow and painful reply. “Don’t you think I’ve asked myself that question a thousand times? I don’t know what happened, Annette, other than to say that life happened. We both became so busy. Gray with work, first at the bank, then with our own agency, trying to snag and keep clients. I was busy trying to be the perfect wife and mother, trying to do it all—running a household, being a taxi service for the twins, a secretary for Gray, a hostess for our social life. We let things come between us. Things that weren’t nearly as important as one another. And we didn’t even realize it, until it was too late. And by then…” Her voice trailed off in sadness.
“If you had tried harder—”
“No, Annette.” Madison broke in before she could say more, her gentle voice allowing no argument. “I did try. It just wasn’t working anymore. Our marriage was broken.” She picked up a stack of red plates and retraced her steps around the extended table. She drew a resolute breath into her lungs. “But that is in the past, and it can never be undone. I’m moving forward now, with Brash.”
“It’s just so soon. It’s only been a year,” Gray’s mother sobbed softly, dabbing at her eyes.
“I know today has been awkward for you. And I know it must hurt, seeing a new man in our lives. I’m sorry for that, I truly am, but I hope you can find it in your heart to be happy for us.”
To her surprise, Annette turned a hand in setting the table. She followed behind her with a stack of white plates, filling in the missing spaces.
Annette’s extraordinary effort to bend demanded that she reciprocate. “It was nice of you and Charles to come,” Madison said. “I know it meant a lot to Blake and Bethani, having their grandparents here for Christmas.”
“Bethani invited us, you know.” A bit of defensiveness slipped back into her voice.
“Yes, I know. And it’s fine. Really.” Madison made a third pass around the table, alternating salad plates and bowls. The menu didn’t include soup, but the bowls could hold chips and salsa. “What you did for Megan today was very kind and generous. Thank you for that.”
“She appears to be a good girl. Polite and respectful.”
“She was raised by a good man.”
Unwilling to bend too far, Annette only allowed, “For the children’s sake, I certainly hope so.”
“You and Charles are welcome to spend the night. Blake and Bethani would love to have you.”
“We might consider it.”
“Please do. Genny might even let you help make her baked French toast again for breakfast.” She added the last bit, knowing it would be hard to resist. Oddly enough, she truly wanted them to stay over and spend time with their grandchildren.
Annette gave a slight nod as she picked up the silverware and the napkins. “I’ll speak with Charles.”
They gathered round the table for their Christmas evening meal, a new tradition among this hodgepodge of kinfolk, blended families, and dear friends.
Brash insisted that Madison take the head of the table. Next year, he told her with a sexy wink, he might not be so generous. Seating himself beside her, he suggested that Blake take the other end. The show of respect earned Brash high points with the flattered teenager, his starry-eyed mother, and even a begrudging Annette.
/>
Stretched between mother and son were all the people that mattered most in their lives. Bethani and Brash, of course, and Megan, Genny, and Granny Bert. Cutter was there with his grandfather Sticker, and Shannon and Matt with their young son. Madison purposely seated Derron beside Annette, knowing her friendly and entertaining employee never met a stranger. If anyone could charm the woman into the Christmas spirit, it was Derron. Charles sat next to Charlie, and Happy sat between him and Sherika Green. Jamil, his parents, and his three siblings couldn’t be excluded from the new tradition, any more than Andy and Lydia deCordova could.
It was a noisy, cheerful meal, served with laughter and spiced with love.
Before they had dessert—a sinful array of candies, pies, cakes, and puddings, and topped off by Genny’s special chocolate-drizzled tres leches cake—Madison stood to make a toast. She asked her children to stand with her.
“I want to thank each one of you for being here and sharing this night with us, and for helping our family as we begin a new tradition, one for our new life here in The Sisters. This year has been… difficult for us, to say the least,” her eyes trailed briefly to her former in-laws, “filled with heartache and challenges. At times, it has tested our strength and our faith and yes, our very sanity.” As her admission drew a laugh from the table, she sucked in a shaky breath and forged onward.
“But it has also been filled with so many wonderful and unexpected rewards. The most precious of those rewards sit with us here tonight. Moving back here to Juliet to live with my dear grandmother has proved to be the wisest decision I have ever made as a mother. I have watched my children grow and flourish amid this closely knit community. They’ve made new friends, discovered new talents, stretched their wings, and become the amazing young adults their father and I always knew they could be. If you’ll just allow me this one weepy moment… Blake, Bethani, your father would be so proud of you if he could see you now. Don’t ever forget how much he loved and adored both of you.”