The Parsonses #2
Daniel stepped forward. Tall, lean, with long black hair and flashing black eyes, he looked like Daniel Day-Lewis, but more handsome. He wore jeans and a black linen shirt.
When he spoke, his voice rolled out like a distant rumble of thunder. His perfect teeth were so white that his smile was a flash.
And Brick Three called me melodramatic, Jane thought.
But as he complimented the island, the house, and the Parsons family, Jane couldn’t help but be pleased. Even Beatrice seemed conquered by his charms. She sat gaping at Daniel, looking thoroughly astonished.
Daniel paused. Then he said, “It means so much to be here with Florie’s family tonight. Florie, would you please join me for a moment?”
Florie blushed and glanced at her older sister for emotional support.
“When do we eat?” Brick Jr. asked.
Jane patted his hand. “Soon,” she whispered.
Florie looked like a Christmas mermaid in her long green dress with her hair flowing down her back. Bashfully, she rose from the sofa and walked the few feet of carpet to stand by her poet. She smiled sweetly, expecting that Daniel would recite a poem about Christmas or about Florie’s beauty.
She gasped when Daniel knelt before her.
Daniel reached into his pocket and brought out a small velvet box. He held it up to her and opened the box to reveal a sparkling diamond ring. “Florie Parsons, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
Florie burst into tears. “Oh, Daniel, yes!”
Reaching down, she kissed him. The two continued kissing as Daniel wrapped his arms around her and rose to his full height so that Florie ended up standing on tiptoe.
Jane and Lydia burst into tears.
For different reasons.
Jane hugged Florie and then Daniel and then both of them together. Brick Three rose and shook Daniel’s hand. Beatrice beamed. Brick Jr. tossed back his rum-laden eggnog. Lucas slapped Daniel on the back. Jari shook Daniel’s hand.
Lydia left the room. She hurried into the guest bathroom, shut and locked the door, and collapsed on the toilet, fighting to get her emotions in control.
Since her phone call about Tucson and her attempt to elicit some kind of commitment from Jari, her handsome boyfriend had remained his silent, enigmatic self.
Maybe this was a sign that she and Jari weren’t right for each other.
She’d talked this over—endlessly—with her best friends.
They’d decided that Lydia was bothered by Jari’s silence because Lydia’s father was so loud, bossy, and opinionated.
Even so, they couldn’t come up with a plan for making Jari talk.
Lydia splashed cold water on her face, redid her lipstick, smoothed her sleek, Christmas red dress, and practiced smiling in the mirror.
She tossed her head. She could take the job in Tucson.
She would take it! She’d never been in the Southwest. Maybe she’d meet a new man.
But she didn’t want to meet a new man! Rolling her eyes at herself, she left the bathroom, silently deciding that she would never get married.
Brick Three rose quietly and left the living room.
In the kitchen he found the gift bottle he meant for his father, but right now Brick Three needed bourbon, maybe the entire bottle.
He poured himself a big drink. Everyone was so excited about Florie and Daniel, they wouldn’t notice if he drank something other than the rich eggnog with its small, useless shot of rum. He needed alcohol. He needed—
Brick Jr. entered the room, leaning on his cane.
“I’ll have some of that.”
“Of course, but first let’s get settled in the living room with the others,” Brick Three said, taking his father’s arm and steering him back into the room with the family, who would help absorb his father’s opinions, because opinions were bound to erupt.
Brick Jr. hunkered down in the armchair. Brick Three brought a glass and the bottle over and poured his father a good three ounces of bourbon. He sat facing his father. Beatrice gawked at Daniel as if he were the television screen. The rest of the family chattered like a flock of geese.
Brick Three knocked back his drink before leaning close to his father. “I know what you’re going to say. Yes, it’s too bad that Florie’s moving all the way to Wisconsin. But Lucas—you’ve heard about Lucas?”
“What about him? Am I going to need more bourbon?”
“You’re going to need a full bottle.” Brick Three sighed. “Lucas is not going to take over the company. Lucas is going to be a nurse.”
Brick Jr. laughed. “Tell me another.”
“Dad, it’s not a joke. Lucas is going into nursing school.”
Brick Jr. frowned. “Then who will take over the business?” His face went red and his hands shook as he tried to extricate himself from the soft chair. “Let me have a word with him!”
Half the people in the room rose to help him.
Jane hurried toward him, forgetting that she was holding a mug of eggnog in her hand.
Beatrice stood up and reached for Brick Jr.
Jari rose to take Beatrice’s arm in support.
Startled by the unexpected touch, Beatrice froze, bumping into Jari, who was right behind her. Jari lurched backward. He stepped on Jane’s foot.
Jane cried out, staggered, and knocked into Brick Three, inadvertently spilling her eggnog all over herself, the floor, and her husband.
Brick Three fell sideways into the Christmas tree.
Lydia and Florie, wide-eyed, exchanged furtive glances and clamped their hands over their mouths to hide their laughter, but when Jari and Daniel pulled Brick Three off the Christmas tree, everyone burst out laughing.
Brick Three had tinsel clinging to his wet, splotch-covered jacket and a small gold angel deeply embedded in his hair.
Brick Three laughed, too, at this unexpected banana-peel situation.
Still laughing, Jane hurried over to her husband to dab at the wet spots on his shirt as he settled into a chair.
“You have an angel in your hair,” she said, gently lifting the ornament out.
Brick Three asked, “How’s my father?”
Jane looked over. Brick Jr. had succumbed to gravity and fallen back into the armchair. Beatrice was patting his hand.
Jane took a few deep breaths and turned to look at the tree. Daniel and Jari were working together to reposition it in its tree stand. The pretty embroidered tree skirt was littered with green needles, quite a few ornaments, and a few puddles of eggnog.
Jari asked, “What’s that smell?”
They all stood still, concentrating on identifying the aroma.
“My beef Wellington!” Jane cried and rushed from the room.