One Snowy Night

by Patience Griffin

  “Women are forgiving.” Donovan looked up as Hope came through the front door. He gave her a sad smile. “Dad, what can I do to help?” His father shouldn’t make the trip to Alaska as he was still recovering from back surgery.

  “Nothing, really, son. Just wanted to see how things were going there.”

  But Donovan knew the house must be quiet with his grandfather gone. “I don’t have a date yet, but I’ll get to Florida as soon as I can.” Donovan was conflicted, eager to be with his dad but reluctant to leave Sweet Home. Yes, it was something he’d known all along, but still . . . “I’ll get back to you. Let me see how the next several weeks go, okay?”

  “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine,” Dad said stoically. “I just wanted to let you know about Rose.”

  “I’m glad you did.” Which solidified Donovan’s plans. “I’ll talk to you soon.” He hung up.

  Donovan shoved his phone back in his pocket, feeling more torn than he had in his whole life. Dad needed him in Florida, but Ella was here in Alaska. Hope, too! He’d only just found her again and he wasn’t ready to leave her just yet. Then there was Piney, Mr. Brewster, and hell, all of Sweet Home, the people who’d stepped up to help him out.

  It was an impossible situation with no easy solution in sight.

  * * *

  • • •

  OVER THE NEXT three weeks, Ella went ice fishing with Donovan—twice. It was fun, though he’d been kind of a dork about it, acting too excited. Donovan must’ve forgotten what a blast it can be to fish in Alaska.

  Mostly Ella used her free time to work on the signs for the cabins and B-and-B rooms. Now she sat at the dining room table finishing the last one—Lone Wolf Den. She was sad her last sign would be finished soon. Although . . . Piney had said she wanted a couple of new signs for the restrooms at the Hungry Bear, and Miss Lisa wanted a Welcome sign for her front door. Maybe more people in Sweet Home would want Ella’s help, too, after she finished those requests.

  She hadn’t felt this okay in a long time. She still felt sad about Grandpa dying and wanted to drink every day. But she hadn’t had a drop since she and Donovan had been going to the new AA meetings at the Catholic church. It had been embarrassing at first but now it wasn’t so bad. More people had shown up each time, even some kids from high school.

  Mom cranked up the music in the kitchen. She was singing, actually singing. Ella had never seen her so relaxed, even happy. She wondered if it had to do with her dad being here in Sweet Home. She’d never call Donovan Dad to his face, but she’d been trying it on for size . . . just for fun. Ella guessed he wasn’t so bad and maybe she should ease up on him. Besides, he’d been pretty good to her, allowing her to use his SUV a few times to drive to Lacy’s trailer and back.

  Ella glanced at the text that had just come in. “Mom? Can Lacy, Uki, Annette, and Ruthie come over and sew?” It was cool that her friends had agreed to try quilting. Donovan had told her that her great-grandmother Elsie said her female friendships were the most important thing in her life. He was always saying corny stuff like that, but Ella didn’t mind. She loved hearing about her family.

  A moment later, Mom appeared with a spoon in her hand. “Do you really have to yell? I’m just in the kitchen.”

  “Can my friends come over?” They’d been calling themselves the Chicas of the Quilt, as they were all in Spanish III together and not a bunch of old ladies like her mom.

  “Sure. As long as you clean up after your friends. To be clear, this time you’ll be the one to collect the dishes around the house.”

  “I promise,” Ella said, putting the final touches on the wolf of Lone Wolf Den.

  But last time, she’d seen how her dad and mom had laughed together while picking up after the Chicas, like they were having the time of their life. It was weird. But just remembering made Ella smile.

  * * *

  • • •

  FOR THE FIRST time in Hope’s adult life, she had leisure time, or maybe it was spending long hours with the Sisterhood of the Quilt, sewing in Elsie’s studio, that made work feel like play. And decorating the lodge wasn’t really a job but a fun pastime. Everything felt so right these days. Sweet Home had pulled together, as if the Sweet Home of her past had returned. Or maybe it was just having Donovan home.

  He hadn’t tried to kiss her since the alarming episode at the Hungry Bear, and Hope hated to admit that she was disappointed. It was like being told she couldn’t have her favorite ice cream anymore. Or that she couldn’t breathe air again.

  But at least the awkwardness between them was gone. Something was up with Donovan, though. He seemed sad, and when she asked him what was wrong, he gave a noncommittal grunt.

  She finished the last stitch on the binding of the new Sisterhood of the Quilt wall hanging, left Ella and her friends, and went in search of Donovan for quilt show-and-tell. As she walked toward his office, she overheard Rick.

  “You told me to keep you updated on the finances and it’s not looking good. You’ve sunk a lot more money into the lodge and hardware store, nearly double what we expected.”

  “What’s the plan, then?” Donovan said.

  “Stop spending money.”

  “But the job isn’t done yet.”

  “You need to raise more capital,” Rick said. “Do you want me to sell some stocks? You’ll pay more in taxes due to short-term capital gains.”

  “No. Sell my condo in San Jose instead,” Donovan answered.

  Hope’s foolish heart soared and sang out, Donovan’s staying in Sweet Home!

  “There’s no problem with selling your condo and making a profit. Does that mean that you’re going to stay here as I suggested on our first day? And that’s even before I knew you had family here . . . and Hope . . . ?”

  “No. The plan’s the same. I’m moving to Florida, near Dad. He needs me.”

  Hope squeezed the quilt tight to her chest. But Ella needs you. And I need you, too. She couldn’t draw enough breath to walk away and regroup. As if regrouping was really going to fix her breaking heart.

  Donovan cleared his throat. “Just tell me that the proceeds from the lodge and hardware store will be enough.” His words sounded like they were strangling him.

  “Sure, it’ll be enough.” Rick paused. “But is that what you really want to do?”

  “Just sell the condo.” There was a scraping noise.

  Hope didn’t realize until too late that it was Donovan pushing back his chair. He bumped into her outside the office and had to grab her arms to steady her.

  He looked more upset than she’d seen him since returning. “What is it that you want?”

  She might have answered with her immediate desire: for him to admire the quilt in her arms—but all she could think in that moment was her secret desire: a happily-ever-after . . . with him. And that she could never say.

  She shook her head and walked away, willing her wobbly legs to get her to the kitchen, and hoping he couldn’t tell from her gait that she was dying inside.

  Donovan is leaving. True, he’d never told her different, but she’d started to hope he’d change his mind. Now she was devastated. Hope’s heart was breaking all over again, for herself and this time for her daughter, too.

  Ella needed to know, to be prepared. And Hope had to tell her.

  She’d raised Ella to live in the real world, with all its hardships, disappointments, and heartaches. This would truly test her daughter’s abilities. Hope knew . . . because it was testing her own.

  * * *

  • • •

  DONOVAN WATCHED HOPE walk away. For the life of him, he couldn’t remember where he’d been going when he bumped into her. He went back into the office, trying to stop his pounding heart. But it was impossible. Hope made him weak. He couldn’t wait to get out of Sweet Home.

  “Did you forget something?” Rick asked.


  Yeah. My good sense. But he didn’t say so. “No.”

  “Listen,” Rick said, “I want to talk more about this, but I told Sparkle I’d run into town and get her so she can sew with the Sisterhood of the Quilt tonight.”

  “Okay.” But it wasn’t okay. Donovan was between a rock and a hard place. What was he going to do about his dad? What was he going to do about Ella? And what the hell was he going to do about his pounding heart?

  Donovan waited until Rick vacated his office before he slumped into his chair. He pulled open his grandfather’s desk drawer and took out the envelope with For Donovan written in Grandpa’s handwriting. Donovan had only opened it once and had ignored it since. He pulled it out now and looked at his grandmother’s engagement ring and wedding band. What the hell was he supposed to do with those? He shoved the envelope back in the drawer and shut it.

  What he had to do was stay busy. He scooted his chair up to his laptop to do the final upload of Home Sweet Home Lodge’s website. He needed reservations—lots of them—to make the books look good before he put the lodge up for sale. And to make all of this worth it.

  Rick was right; the lodge could once again be profitable, and the hardware store, too. The sad truth was that the new owner would reap all the benefits of the hard work that Donovan and the town had put into the establishments.

  On the computer, Donovan finished his last round of tests and then published the site to the web.

  He wished real life were more like programming. Coding was straightforward—either right or wrong, it worked or it didn’t—whereas life was just messy and complicated. He had no idea how he was going to continue his relationship with Ella and still keep his commitment to his dad. Maybe fly back once a month to see Ella? But he knew enough now about teenage girls to realize that even if he did come back, Ella might be too busy with her friends to spend time with him. He was in a no-win situation. And that wasn’t even putting Hope into the equation, or the rest of the people of Sweet Home. He’d loved working alongside the people he’d known when he was a kid, his old friends . . . with the exception of Jesse Montana, who was way too friendly with Hope for Donovan’s liking. He wondered if Jesse and Hope would hook up after he left. Which would really piss him off.

  Trying to calm down, Donovan opened his email to read the latest from his dad. Though he didn’t come out and say it, Donovan knew he wanted him to come to Florida now. Donovan hit reply and started typing, assuring his dad that he’d be home by Christmas Day. But the word home didn’t feel right so he backspaced through it and typed in Florida. Home had once again become Sweet Home. And the thought made Donovan miserable.

  He left the email unfinished, scratched a message on a Post-it, and grabbed his car keys. On his way out, he slapped the note on the microwave, glad he didn’t see Hope on his way out.

  Chapter 20

  WITH HER ARMS full, Ella piled all the empty soda cans into the kitchen sink for rinsing. Her mom stood next to the refrigerator, watching, as if making sure she was following through now that her friends had left. “Geesh, Mom. I told you I’d clean up after them. I just needed a few minutes to finish the block I was working on.”

  “That’s not it,” her mom said. “I need to talk to you. Just leave those for now.”

  Her mom’s tone was scaring Ella. She left the cans and tried to prepare herself for bad news. It felt just like when her mom told her that Grandpa had died.

  “I’ll make us some hot tea, okay?” her mom said.

  “Just tell me.”

  “All right.” Her mom sat at the kitchen table. “Come sit with me.”

  Ella took her normal spot, across from where her dad sat. “Where’s my—um, Donovan?” Shouldn’t he be here with them for this? Her mom looked so serious.

  “He went for a drive.” She pointed to the microwave, which had a Post-it with his handwriting on it.

  “Then what’s going on?” Ella held her breath.

  “I’m worried. I’m afraid you’re getting too attached to him,” her mom said.

  “What?” Ella had to calm her heart down. “What are you talking about? I thought you wanted me to get to know him. I thought that was the reason you made sure that we had breakfast every day, just the two of us.”

  “I do want you to know him. I just want you to be prepared,” her mom said.

  “Prepared for what?”

  Her mom reached out and took her hand. “He’s not staying in Alaska, sweetie.”

  Ella jerked away. “He is, too. You’re just saying that because you’re jealous.”

  “What? I’m not—”

  But Ella cut her off. “You are! You’re no longer the only parent. There’s someone else to boss me around and you don’t like it.” Except Donovan never bossed her around. He just liked spending time with her. Ella glared at her mother.

  Her mom stared back for a long moment. “Okay. Maybe you’re right that I don’t completely like sharing you. But you have to know that I’m thrilled that you and Donovan are getting along so well.”

  “Then you just need to stay out of it, okay?” Ella jumped up from the table, wishing her dad were home so he could tell her that it wasn’t so . . . that her mom had it all wrong!

  Ella went down to his office to wait for him. She sat in his chair and spun around until she got bored. She decided to check her email on his laptop, since she’d left her phone in the studio.

  She shook the mouse and his laptop woke up, displaying the Home Sweet Home Lodge website. She clicked through all the links and looked at all the photos. When she was done, she looked at the other opened windows. She shouldn’t have been snooping, but it was all boring business stuff: a spreadsheet of items stocked in the remodeled hardware store, accounting software, and his email app. For no reason at all, she clicked on the app and read the email in progress.

  Subject: Moving to Florida

  Dad,

  Just wanted to let you know that I’m wrapping things up here in Alaska. I’ll be in Florida by Christmas Day and ready to look at houses. You can count on

  The note stopped there, but to her he’d said it all. She reread it to make sure it was true. Her mom was right. Donovan was leaving and Ella couldn’t understand what all this had been about. He’d worked so hard to make her love him and now he was ditching her to move as far away as possible!

  “What are you doing at my desk?” Her dad’s booming voice made her jump.

  “I-I . . .” She tried to pull it together. Then she glared at him. “I was finding out the truth.”

  “Were you going through my desk drawer?” He seemed super mad but she didn’t care.

  “You know, it’s going to crush Mom that you’re not sticking around!” She wouldn’t admit it was going to crush her, too.

  “What’s going to crush Mom?” Her mom appeared behind Donovan. “And why are you yelling at Ella?”

  “Because she should know better than to snoop through my desk.”

  “I wasn’t—”

  But he cut her off. “I am really disappointed in you, Ella! My gosh, you’re nearly an adult.”

  Ella’s cheeks were burning up and tears started running down her face, which was really pissing her off. She had to get out of there.

  Her mom started yelling at Donovan, and Donovan yelled back . . . and Ella was to blame. She fled the office and ran down the hall, stopping in the dining room where she’d left her backpack earlier. Several bottles of wine sat there, ready for the upcoming wine tasting. She grabbed one and shoved it into her backpack. Then she pulled on her boots and coat and ran out the door.

  She sobbed into the night, not caring that it was snowing hard. I’ve been so stupid! The three of us aren’t a family! Four of them, if she counted Boomer. For a second, she thought about turning around to get the dog, but she couldn’t go back. Ever. She ran for the path in the woods that w
as a shortcut into town. Maybe she could hitchhike from there to make her way to Anchorage.

  She could hear her mom and Donovan calling out to her but she kept running, which wasn’t all that easy in the snow.

  Maybe a few minutes ago she was nearly an adult, but by walking out, she’d crossed over and was a full-fledged grown-up now. She would get a job in the city. No more painting signs for fun! That thought made her cry harder. From now on she had to make her own way in the world. Fine. It was what her mom had been preparing her for, her whole life. And it wouldn’t be in Sweet Home. She had to escape to anywhere but here.

  She wound her way farther into the woods. This path would take her back out to the road about a half mile from town, the perfect place to hitch a ride. But the reality was that Sweet Home was off the beaten path. Not many cars driving by this time of night. Maybe a snowplow, but that wouldn’t get her to Anchorage. At least she had her backpack, which was full of essentials like extra gloves.

  She ran faster and cried harder until she could no longer hear her parents hollering. She slowed her pace then and searched in her backpack for tissues. She pulled her hood over her head and started walking again, trying to figure out what she was going to do.

  One thing was for sure . . . she wasn’t going to be a stupid kid anymore and believe in happy endings ever again.

  * * *

  • • •

  “WHERE CAN SHE be?” Donovan stood next to Hope in front of Wandering Moose. He shouldn’t have yelled at Ella. It wasn’t until she ran off that he realized what Ella had been doing—reading his email, not looking at the engagement ring hidden in his desk drawer. He’d been rash, panicked. He should’ve been calm and talked to her, instead of . . .