Chapter Thirty-Five When the Storm Breaks
Evie
Christmas morning dawned with rain as a storm system moved through the northeast with unseasonably warm temperatures for the city.
Evie was woken early by the sound of rain and wind lashing against the windowpane, and dragged herself out of bed slowly.
Sister Mary Francis had texted that the nurse had arrived at eight thirty and gotten her mother ready and into bed for the night.
She was sleeping soundly, and to take their time, she was enjoying watching old Christmas movies on Tommy’s big screen, which gave Tommy, Nissa, and Thorn a good chuckle when Evie shared it with them.
After the concert, they had driven around for a little while, looking at the Christmas lights and decorations people had put up around Brooklyn.
Tommy even had the exterior lights on the towers set to green and red, and he’d arranged the windows to spell out HAPPY HOLIDAYS.
When they got home, Thorn drove Sister Mary Francis back to her apartment in Morningside, and Evie poked her head into her mother’s room before heading down to her apartment for the night.
Changing into a pair of yoga leggings and a t-shirt, she headed up to Tommy’s penthouse to make breakfast and get the turkey in the oven. She was just putting the quiche in the oven when Tommy came down the stairs and kissed her cheek.
“The nurse is downstairs waiting to come up.” He told her as he walked quickly to the elevator.
“I feel like I should ask her what drugs they give her to help her sleep, because she never made a peep the whole night.” He ran his hand through his hair as the doors opened.
“Meanwhile, I was up a dozen times to check on her.”
Evie shook her head as he got on the elevator and shut the oven door.
The nurse told them that between the fatigue her mother felt because of the cancer and the drugs they had her on to keep her comfortable, she spent most of her time napping, something she hadn’t done much of the previous day, so Della sleeping soundly through the night wasn’t that surprising to her.
She had the runny oatmeal the hospice suggested for her mother’s breakfast ready and on the table when the nurse wheeled Della out of the bedroom. After they had her set up and eating with Tommy and Nissa, Evie walked the nurse out.
“She’s pretty tired today,” the nurse said with a smile. “So, I wouldn’t expect too much from her.”
“Do you think we overdid it?” Evie asked, anxiety creeping in. She didn’t want to push her mother too hard or make her feel worse.
“Not at all.” The nurse shook her head as she fastened her coat. “She told me all about watching your recital and The Nutcracker, and how nice it was to spend the evening with Sister Mary Francis. I just wanted to prepare you in case she naps off and on.”
After breakfast, Thorn joined them to open gifts, stepping off the elevator with a large pot of the Bela ?orba he’d promised cradled in his arms.
Della had asked them to donate to the Calvary instead of giving her presents, and since the hospice had done everything possible to make her last months comfortable and dignified, they were more than happy to do so.
Evie had also made a substantial donation to the Church of Notre Dame in her mother’s name, since Father Garrick and Sister Mary Francis had done so much for both of them over the last few years.
When Evie gave her the thank-you letter, Della had cried quietly, overwhelmed.
She sat back in a chair now with a cup of tea and a blanket over her lap, watching them open presents. Every so often, she reached out and ran her fingers through Evie’s hair as Evie sat on the floor at her feet.
Tommy was notoriously difficult to buy for.
He always reminded them he didn’t expect gifts, because if he wanted something, he usually just bought it.
So Evie and Thorn had gone in together, surprising him and Nissa with a safari trip to the Okavango Delta and Chobe National Park in Botswana.
Evie was rewarded with a bear hug from both Tommy and Nissa that lifted her off her feet, and Thorn received a handshake and shoulder slap from Tommy and kisses on both cheeks from Nissa, which made the big blonde blush faintly.
Nissa gave Tommy a mezuzah, a brushed-silver bar with a bronze shin symbolizing protection. She explained he didn’t have to put it up yet, but she wanted him to have it. Tommy immediately stood up, found his drill, and hung it next to the elevator.
Tommy and Nissa bought Thorn a new home theatre system, and Evie got him all his favourite movies.
She still wasn’t entirely sure why he gravitated so strongly toward animated films with adult humour like Megamind, Kung Fu Panda, and How to Train Your Dragon, or toward action movies with a comedic edge, but she suspected it had something to do with the parts of adolescence he never truly got to experience.
Della knitted them all sweaters for Christmas, surprising Evie, who hadn’t known her mother could knit.
“Oh, I used to knit all the time,” Della said when Evie asked.
She chuckled softly, her voice a little thin.
“Whenever you had ballet practice or your riding lessons, I’d knit while I waited for you.
You wouldn’t remember. I stopped after you quit ballet.
I picked it up again at the Calvary. I don’t have the energy to do much else. ”
Thorn paid for her yoga studio membership for another year, added several new yoga outfits, and finished her gifts with a giant teddy bear that was almost as big as she was.
“For when I am away and you miss me,” he said with a proud grin.
Tommy and Nissa gave Evie a new Volvo XC60, telling her it would be ready for pickup in the new year. When she protested that her car was only five years old and still worked perfectly fine, Tommy waved her off.
“I already traded it in and paid for the Volvo. No use arguing with me about it.”
Shaking her head, she kissed his cheek, hugged Nissa, and reached for the last gift under the tree, the one from Alex.
Throughout all of this, Alex had kept to his promise and checked in weekly.
Some weeks, Evie appreciated it. Others, not so much.
If she was having a good week and in a better mood, he would bring up getting back together.
He never pushed when she shut it down and never tried to guilt her, but he always circled back eventually, the same way he had in their sex life.
Evie had sent his Christmas gift to the office with Thorn on the twenty-second, since she’d requested no contact at all between the twenty-third and New Year’s Eve.
She needed a break from anything that added extra stress.
Thorn had brought Alex’s gift back that evening, and she placed it under the tree with the others.
When she opened it, she found a lingerie set and a note saying he hoped to tie her up while she wore it soon. It was so wildly inappropriate that Nissa had to catch her by the arm and stop her from storming down to his apartment.
“He probably bought it before you two broke up,” Nissa said gently, rubbing Evie’s upper arms. “You bought his in November.”
“I bought him the hiking backpack he wanted,” Evie hissed, mortified that she had opened something so intimate in front of her mother, Tommy, and Thorn. “Don’t tell me this isn’t piss-poor taste, Nissa.”
“No, it is,” Nissa agreed quickly. “But you told him you’d be open to getting back together once things settled. He probably didn’t think you’d open it on Christmas morning in front of everyone.”
Grumbling, Evie admitted she was probably right and decided to let it go.
Still too embarrassed to go back to the living room, she headed into the kitchen to check on the turkey and start the sides.
Thorn joined her a few minutes later, pulling the bag of potatoes toward him and reaching for a peeler.
“Should we talk about -”
“No.” Evie cut him off immediately. “Not now, not ever. As far as you, Tommy, and my mother are concerned, that didn’t happen.”
**********
The rest of Christmas passed quietly. Della went back to the hospice the next day.
Her energy dropped sharply over the following days, and on New Year’s Day, she went to sleep at her usual bedtime and didn’t wake again.
She passed in the early morning hours of January third with Evie and Tommy sitting at her bedside.
Della had already arranged her memorial and cremation with the staff at Calvary and with Fred Hurst, so all Evie had to do was call the funeral home to arrange the pickup and pack the few belongings her mother had in her room.
She had made Evie the executor of her estate, but there was very little to manage. Della had already given everything she wanted Evie and her brothers to have and had donated or gifted the rest. The money in her accounts was split evenly between Evie, the Church of Notre Dame, and the Calvary.
The only thing Evie didn’t know what to do with was the ashes. She brought them home after the memorial and placed them on her fireplace mantle, but admitted to Tommy that, as irrational as it sounded, having them in her apartment made her uncomfortable.
The next morning, while she was eating breakfast, Tommy showed up at her door and told her to get ready because he had a solution. When she came back out, he was standing beside her door with the urn in his hands.
“Where are we going?” Evie grabbed her last piece of toast and followed him to the elevator.
“The cemetery,” he said with a small smile. “I figured Della would be happier next to Mom than in your apartment.”
Evie stared at him for a moment, the toast falling from her hand, then threw her arms around his neck and burst into tears. Tommy wrapped an arm around her waist and held her close as the elevator descended, letting her sob against his shoulder.
She tried to stop, but it was like the last two months of stress and grief finally broke loose and refused to settle.
When the doors opened, she was vaguely aware of Tommy guiding her toward the Escalade he used when Thorn drove him.
He helped her into the backseat and climbed in behind her.
She didn’t know how he managed it, but within fifteen minutes, Thorn was behind the wheel, taking them to the cemetery while Evie cried harder than she had since her mother first got sick.
She wasn’t even sure why Tommy’s gesture had hit her so hard. She had barely cried when Della died and barely cried at the memorial, staying composed as she greeted her mother’s surviving brothers and their wives, most of whom she hadn’t seen since her grandfather’s funeral when she was fifteen.
She was still crying when they reached the vault.
Tommy gently eased himself out of her hold, and Thorn slid into his place, lifting her onto his lap and holding her against his chest while he rubbed her back in slow circles.
Tommy met with the attendants and placed Della’s ashes in the vault, then returned and drove them back to the tower.
Evie must have fallen asleep, because the next thing she knew, Nissa was helping her into her nightdress, settling her in bed, and stroking her hair until she drifted off again.
**********
Tommy
Tommy and Thorn both looked up when Nissa came out of Evie’s bedroom, closing the door softly behind her.
“She’s asleep,” Nissa whispered. “Poor thing’s absolutely exhausted.
She barely woke up enough to change.” She glanced back toward the room, concern pulling her brows together.
“I told you she was avoiding her emotions by focusing on making Christmas perfect instead of facing that her mother was dying.”
“She buries herself in the details and hides behind logic,” Tommy said with a tired sigh, scrubbing a hand over his face as he stood.
“I’ve never seen her break down like that before.
When Mom died, Della drowned her emotions in alcohol, and unless it was anger, Oscar was emotionally constipated.
I don’t think I ever heard him tell either of them he loved them.
It’s no wonder she struggles to express anything real. ”
He looked at Thorn, who was settling himself on the couch and tucking a pillow behind his head.
“I take it you’re staying here?”
“Yes,” Thorn said, reaching for the TV remote. “In case she is still upset when she wakes.”
“Good idea.” Tommy nodded. “If she’s not awake by mid-afternoon, text me. I’ll switch out with you.”
Thorn turned on the TV and settled back. “We should likely make her take some time off work. She insisted she would return on Monday, but she needs to work through all of this, not avoid it.”
Nissa nodded. “I’ll make sure the contractors send all design requests to Tommy until she’s ready to come back.”
“And I’ll talk to her,” Tommy said, glancing down the hall toward Evie’s door. “She needs the time, and she needs to get back in with her old therapist as soon as possible.”