Chapter 24
Chapter
Twenty-Four
EVIE
“We have a surprise for you,” Evie’s mother murmured after everyone had gone and Ollie had been tucked up in bed.
“You shouldn’t have,” she admonished. They’d already spoiled her, and tomorrow was Christmas Day, so there would be even more gifts.
But if there was one thing her parents had always strived to do, it was to demarcate her birthday and Christmas as two distinct celebrations.
Evie had appreciated it as a child. It was too easy to buy a single present and call it a gift for both days.
Now she was older, it didn’t bother her at all, but she guessed it was ingrained in her Mom and Dad after thirty years.
“Well, this is actually a gift from your Nana Rose,” her father clarified, and Evie frowned; her father’s mother had passed away almost five years ago, when Ollie had just been a baby.
Leaning towards the side table, he picked up an envelope and handed it to her.
Evie stared at her grandmother’s elegant, looping handwriting, uncertain how she felt about receiving what almost amounted to communication from a ghost.
“Open it,” her mother encouraged with a soft smile.
Evie’s fingers shook slightly as she peeled open the heavy vellum envelope, and Evie could swear a waft of Nana Rose’s signature rosewater perfume drifted into the air, like the woman’s presence was in the room with them.
The paper quivered as she drew it out, and Evie had to blink twice before she made sense of it.
Once, because she was overcome with emotion, and again because she couldn’t quite believe what she was reading.
“This can’t be right,” she breathed, her voice barely above a whisper. “I don’t understand.”
“Your grandmother bequeathed this house to you in her will,” her father explained what Evie’s eyes couldn’t comprehend. “But I’m afraid she was no big fan of Adrian’s. She was suspicious of him, so she insisted the property and the money be held in trust until you turned thirty.”
“M-money?” Evie repeated, her head spinning.
Her mother gently pulled another sheet of paper from the envelope that Evie had missed, and her eyes widened when she saw the number of noughts.
Words failed her. This was life changing.
“Rose was a wealthy woman, but we strove to bring you up as normally as we could, with a healthy appreciation for the simpler things in life. Exactly the way she brought me up,” her father continued.
“Though you have no idea how much we wanted to tell you about her bequest this past year, when everything was so hard for you,” her mother added.
“I never wanted for anything,” Evie whispered. “Yes, I felt like a bit of a failure having to move back home, but I always knew I was welcome. Always knew it was an option.”
She cocked her head on one side, thinking back. The thoughts were uncomfortable. “Adrian always thought Nana Rose had money. He used to wonder how she came to own such a big house, and how she could afford to keep it.”
Was that why he’d dated her? She’d told him stories of the big house she grew up in, while they were at university, and how much she missed it. Was it her imagination, or had his interest grown after she’d shown him photos of the grand country house?
Evie shook herself. No, it couldn’t be.
Edward exchanged glances with Sally and sighed.
“I don’t know quite why my mother was so adamant about it, but she wrapped her will up tight.
There were several clauses. If you turned thirty and you and Adrian were still married, then everything stayed in trust until you were thirty-five, without you being any the wiser.
She’d have tied it up for longer but finally conceded that if Adrian stuck around that long, then perhaps she was wrong about him.
But she didn’t think he’d last the distance, so if you were divorced beforehand, you would receive your trust at thirty. ”
And she’d been right. What had her grandmother seen that Evie hadn’t?
Another thought occurred to her. “I always wondered why you never sold the place when you complained it was too big for you.”
Her mother laughed. “Now that’s your problem. Your father and I plan to move out in the new year.”
“What!?” Evie asked in shock. “But this is your home.”
“No, this is your home,” her mother corrected. “Yours and Ollie’s.”
Evie shook her head. “You can’t leave. You’ve lived here most of your lives. It’s just not right!”
“But this is what we want, sweetie,” her father said, leaning over to squeeze her hand. “You said it yourself. This place is too big for us. We’ve wanted something smaller for a while, but the house wasn’t ours to sell.”
“We’ve bought a lovely little cottage on the other side of town. The old Morrison place.”
Evie knew it. She’d admired it and often thought what a lovely home it would make. It was the type of place she’d aspired to.
“But we’ll be available for as long as you need help with Ollie… but I think those three young men of yours maybe want the job.”
Tears pricked the back of her eyes, and Evie had to swallow around the lump in her throat. “You're - you're really okay with that?” she asked, pushing the rest aside for a moment.
“We just want you to be happy, Evie. That’s all we’ve ever wanted,” her mother declared.
With a sob, Evie threw herself into her parents’ arms, hugging them both tight as tears coursed down her cheeks, and allowed herself to be comforted in the way only a parent could.
It was a Christmas she’d never forget. She didn’t know what it said about the past decade, but Evie couldn’t ever remember being this full of hope for the future. Not since she was a starry-eyed teen and thought every weed was a wild rose waiting to come into its own.
Gabe had invited her entire family to the restaurant at the Evergreen, so they didn’t need to cook, which was a godsend, since Evie had been too busy to prepare much.
Her parents had been away, and Ollie wasn’t expected to be home, so all they’d planned was to have a small roast chicken dinner.
It was true that children completely changed the aura of Christmas.
They added a vibrancy and excitement that was difficult to recreate any other way.
Shepherd and Asher were also there, as were Posy, Marigold and Iris. It meant all her favorite people were in one place.
The only sour spot was Victoria, silently glowering at them from her single table over in the corner.
“Don’t look now, but the green-eyed grinch is glaring at you with enough venom to put you six feet under, if looks could kill,” Posy muttered under her breath.
Evie chuckled. “Oh, believe me, I’m aware.”
Evie, with her soft heart, would have felt sorry for anyone else and invited them to join.
Posy narrowed her eyes. “I know that expression, you’re feeling sorry for her.
You know Victoria wants Gabe back, and the only reason she booked a single table here today was to guilt him into spending time with her because she’s all alone.
” Posy punctuated those last two words with an artificially high voice and puppy-dog eyes, causing Evie to laugh out loud.
She wasn’t a mean person, but Evie wasn’t stupid, either.
Victoria had family; she could have brought her mother, who was probably sitting at home, all alone, since Victoria was here.
Plus, the dirty looks the woman fired her way, and the nasty things she’d had to say recently, effectively nullified any charitable thoughts Evie might have in that direction.
And Victoria’s plan had backfired, since Gabe’s attention hadn’t wandered even once. But Evie knew it meant she’d be on the receiving end of Victoria’s fury and didn’t doubt she’d pay for it later with a lashing from the obnoxious woman’s sharp tongue.
And when all three of her men - because yes, they were her men, she accepted that now - gave her a gift and a kiss that left little to the imagination, Evie honestly thought she saw steam coming out of Victoria’s ears.
Did she care? Not one little bit.
“Merry Christmas to the most beautiful woman in the room,” Gabe announced, raising his glass and causing Evie to blush all the way to her toes.
“Hear, hear,” Asher and Shepherd chorused in agreement, their own glasses raised.
They each passed her a gift in identically colored jewelry boxes, and Evie sucked in her breath when she opened a gold chain with an everlasting knot charm dangling from it, along with a matching bracelet and earrings.
She couldn’t miss the symbolism of it. They were making a statement; and a pretty public one, at that.
“Very soon, we hope you’ll allow us to add an engagement ring to this set.”
The women in the room oohed and aahed. Evie’s mother dabbed at the corner of her eyes, but it was Ollie who really set the cat among the pigeons in his childish, high-pitched, very loud voice. “Does this mean you’re getting married, Mom? And if you do, I get a new daddy, right? I’d like that.”
There was a moment of stunned silence, during which Victoria threw down her cutlery, scraped her chair back, and made a dramatic exit. Or she would have done, if their table hadn’t been suddenly inundated with well-wishers wanting to know when the big day was.
Looked like the majority of the Frostvale community was genuinely behind their unorthodox relationship.