“I really look forward to our dinner tomorrow.” Adrienne finished, simply, knowing at least that truth could come out of her mouth, since she had no words yet to formulate and phrase what had really happened.
The hurt, the confusion, in his eyes softened and he gave a small nod. “I look forward to it as well.”
Adrienne started to back out of the room. “And I’ll tell you about those Christmas lights at home too.”
“Please do.”
She reached the door and gave him a small smile as she turned around and left, trying not to look like she was fleeing.
But shewasfleeing. And when she returned to her cabin, door closed firmly behind her, mind roiling with feelings and self-deprecation she didn’t know how to handle, she realized she’d left her sandwich somewhere.
Adrienne hadn’t slept much,but she was nothing if not determined. She’d promised Ethan she’d write, and she was not going to show up to dinner proverbially empty handed.
Especially not now. He’d already opened up to her more than she suspected he’d opened up before, and she wasn’t about to show up shrugging that she hadn’t even tried.
That and Herman, (seriously, she needed to rethink that name) was in the process of enjoying Christmas. Wearing a jacket and wrapped in a blanket to shield against the colder weather that was coming in, Adrienne tapped away at her keyboard as Herman bought a tree and hung all of the decorations full of memories on it. No reader would ever want to read the backstory to each ornament as she described them, she knew, but this story wasn’t about the readers, was it?
Herman remembered the ornament making kits they had gotten when he was ten, and how his cousin had pinned sequins to a gold boot, how his mother had wrapped a gorgeous red velvet ribbon around her bulb. His own ornament was simpler, with odd decorations in each quadrant, decidedly not pretty, nor following any structure. He didn’t remember what he was thinking as he’d pressed the pins into the bulb as a child, but it tracked, he thought. Unlike their sleek ornaments, that looked so complete and full of finesse, his had a lot of white space, like a canvas full of random things that never quite equated to a complete piece. It was like how he felt about himself: a man who didn’t quite fit in with the others, but who had potential to grow in ways that even his family members would never quite achieve.
“Ms. Croft!” She looked up with a smile, to see Ava, wrapped up in puffy winter gear, leading a couple towards her cabin. Lani’s parents, Adrienne presumed, as she closed her laptop and stood to greet them.
“Good morning, Miss Ava!” She wrapped the little girl into a hug and the girl looked up at her with woeful eyes.
“I have to leave a day early,” Ava looked mournful.
Adrienne looked over the girl's head and the woman smiled at her, holding out her hand. “Hi, I’m Helen, Ava’s grandmother. We decided that due to the impending storm, we’d just leave today, rather than stay overnight and leave tomorrow.”
“I’m Adrienne,” She shook the woman’s hand and greeted the elderly man next to her (Henry, as he was introduced to her), before turning back to Ava. “It’s ok. You’re going to have a great time with your grandparents aren’t you?”
“Well, yeah, but now we won’t get to finish decorating andI’llnevergettoseeyouagain!” Ava threw her arms back around Adrienne and her heart sank as she realized she hadn’t quite worked this reality out in her head either. It had been such a fun past few days, decorating with the young girl, feeling that Christmas spirit again, that she hadn’t put together that when Ava left, it would all be over.
Frankly, she hadn’t even quite faced the reality of leaving Ava at all, though she intuitively knew she’d be flying out in two days, not to mention the mental breakdown she’d had the night earlier over all things Ethan.
“It’s ok, Ava. We had so much fun putting up what we did, right? And the place already looks so good, I don’t even know what we could improve on.”
The little girl’s lip wobbled. “I drew up plans for the dining room…but I guess that can wait for next year.”
Adrienne gave a smile bigger than her heart felt at the moment. “Exactly. And you’ll have almost a whole year to tweak them and make them just so.”
“But you won’t be here.”
Adrienne looked up at Ava’s grandparents, who were watching her with a mixture of interest and concern. “Well, you’re probably right about that. I will likely be at home, decorating my own house, but that’s a whole year away. A lot can change.”
Ava’s eyes snapped to hers. “Do you mean that maybe you might consider coming back?”
“I would consider it.” Adrienne smiled. “I’m not promising I will, but I have to say, this has been a really nice place to visit. So it’s a solid maybe.”
Ava wiped away a tear and grinned. “A maybe is better than a no, that’s what Gramma always says.”
“I do say that,” Helen smiled at her granddaughter fondly.
“I promise that I will leave my phone number and email with your father, ok? And if he says it’s fine, then you can always contact me whenever you want to. Does that sound good?”
“Pinky promise?”
“Pinky promise.” They solemnly linked pinkies and then embraced again. Adrienne noted the look of shock on Helen and Henry’s faces, but she couldn’t bring herself to ask why. She was determined to enjoy the moment of having this little girl in her arms, knowing full well that she may never see her again.
CHAPTER 3
