“True,” I say.“Now all that work the girls did will earn us all more moolah.”
“Speaking of...I do have one small request.”Trisha looks nervous.
“What?”I ask.
“Anything,” Trace says.“As long as you keep matching up the socks.That’s the worst thing about doing the laundry.”
“Stop,” I say.“She’s not an indentured servant.”Though, if I’m being honest, I’m really grateful she does that, too.Ihatematching socks.
“Jeremy was going to stay at a hotel, but since I had my own place, I told him he could probably cancel it.”She cringes a little.“But now...”She wrings her hands.“Could he maybe stay in the cottage for free for a bit?”
I suppress my groan, because that’s not very nice.She’s his mother, after all.It’s normal she would want to see him, and having him close is better for her.
“He was alone for Thanksgiving,” Trish says.“It was pretty hard on him.He’s really sorry for being such a pest.”
A pest.
Like proclaiming his love for me and stealing half of my company was anuisance.
Still, none of that is her fault, and of course she loves her son.
“Yes,” I say.“I’m sure he can.”I grit my teeth, and I force the words out.“He can even come over for the Christmas stuff.”Because cottages don’t just clean up themselves.They need help from other people.Sometimes, even when we don’t want to scrub something or change out tile, we have to put in the work, and give the cottage a chance to shine again.
“Are you sure that’s alright?”she says.“I can just go down to the cottage on Christmas to spend some time with him.I’m not saying he has to come here.”
“As long as he knows I have a boyfriend, and he promises not to talk about the past stuff with the company and whatnot,” I say.
“Of course.”She nods her head.“Yes, I can promise that much.”
It’s not going to be fun at first, but that’s sort of what Christmas is all about—forgiveness and family.Right?I’ll have to dig really deep, but maybe I can find some of that in my heart.It’s what Jason would want, too, especially if Jeremy really has repented of his idiotic behavior.
When I text Jack about it, he says, “If he’s coming over, I’ll be there.It would be my pleasure to punch that guy again.”
Maybe some of us will need a little more time to forgive.We have time, though.And that’s a blessing of its own.
24
Vanessa
Ever since Trace started Kindergarten, we’ve made and painted sugar cookies on the very last day of school before Christmas.I always do the same thing.While the kids are at school, I mix up the dough, which is especially delicious, because I use powdered sugar instead of granulated for the recipe.The UK sells this awesome kind of sugar called superfine, which is in between our American powdered sugar and regular granulated sugar, and when I try making the dough with that, it’s the best I’ve ever made.
I know, because I tasted it.I’m a bit of a cookie dough fiend.
Then I stick it in the fridge while I prep the ‘paint.’The paint’s something my mom always did, and although it doesn’t taste the best—it’s not bad, just not amazing—it lookssopretty.I crack a dozen eggs, carefully separating the yolks from the whites.I put the whites in a separate container to use for making coconut macaroons.Sometimes we add chocolate-covered pretzel sticks to them for antlers and stick a candied cherry in the center and call them Rudolph cookies.
Then I put the yolks evenly in eight different bowls, and I mix in the different colors.Some I leave golden, some I add red dye to, some orange.Some of the yolks I make blue, some green, and some purple.Making brown and black are the worst, but there’s a surprising amount of brown and black detail on Christmas cookies.I do twice as much of red, gold, and green, because of the season.Then I put them all in the fridge as well.
“You finished that early.”Trish glances at the fridge.“The kids won’t be home for an hour yet, right?”
“It needed time to chill,” I say, but really, I’m just nervous.I’ve been doing this for years, but this year, Jack’s bringing his kids.And more importantly his father, sister...and his mother.
When I suggested his whole family come, Jack lit up, so even though I realized it was stupid after I suggested they come, I couldn’t take it back.
“What’s wrong?”Trish narrows her eyes.“Do we not like Quinn?”
“Oh, his sister’s great.You’ll love her.”
“It’s the mother, then.”Her lips compress and her eyes darken.“What was her name?Naomi?”
