Chapter 14
A shley and Oona spent Thanksgiving with Simon and Alana.
Oona had cooked her annual meal.
She had bought a tablecloth for his table, which he didn’t have, with embroidered napkins.
She had set a pretty table and made a perfect meal.
Will and Heather were in Salt Lake City with her family, and Meghan had helped cook the meal for her coworkers at the camp.
She was going back to the States in a month, and hoped to come back to Kenya in February if they reassigned her, but she would have two months at home first, in San Francisco with her brother, with her mother in L.A., and in New York to see her father and her friends.
Charles was spending Thanksgiving with friends.
He and Oona had come to an agreement.
He was buying the house in East Hampton from her, and was planning to live there for the remainder of the pandemic.
He would decide where he wanted to be after that.
But East Hampton was a safe refuge for him now.
They were selling the apartment in the city.
The rest was easier to sort out after that.
Their divorce would be final in a little less than a year, since they had come to an agreement amicably.
And when it was final, they would both be free. They already were. He had freed them both when he left for Buenos Aires, although it didn’t seem that way then.
Thanksgiving was very different for Oona than it had been the year before.
There was no tension in the air, no shattering announcement three days later.
Oona mentioned Claire when she said grace.
She and Ashley and the children played games afterward, and watched a movie.
It was the happiest Thanksgiving she’d had since her own children were small.
And both of them called her.
Will was feeling well again, and Meghan was excited about coming home.
Oona couldn’t wait to see her.
She was coming to L.A. to visit after she saw her brother and Heather.
It was a perfect day, and Ash’s series had just been green-lighted for a second season.
They had much to be thankful for.
Ashley and Oona had been spotted having dinner together at a restaurant a few days before, and a photo appeared in the tabloids.
They weren’t a secret anymore.
They were ready.
Ashley waved at the paparazzi as they left the restaurant, and told her to smile, and he put an arm around her.
She did as he told her, and the picture was cute when it showed up in the tabloids.
Alana cut it out and put it on her bulletin board.
Simon high-fived them when he saw it, and Oona and Ashley laughed.
For Christmas, Ashley had a surprise for them all.
He had chartered a huge boat for two weeks, to float around the Caribbean.
They met the yacht in Antigua, and he’d chartered a plane to get them there safely from L.A.
He was on hiatus until February.
It was a spectacular yacht, and they would be stopping in Tobago.
Simon and Alana were excited to see their cousins, and were exploring the boat and making friends with the crew, when a van pulled up on the dock and three people emerged.
Ashley smiled broadly when he saw them and waved, just as Oona came back on deck after checking out their cabin.
The three people from the van were wearing masks as they came up the passerelle and Oona stared at them, and then at Ashley.
“Oh my God...”
she said as she watched them, and there were tears in her eyes when she was sure.
It was Heather, Will, and Meghan.
They were his surprise for Oona.
There were screams and hugs and laughter as they all hugged, and he hugged them too, and Alana and Simon joined them, and Florence barked and ran around them on the deck.
“How did you do that?”
she asked Ashley, breathless.
The plan to surprise her had gone seamlessly.
They had all cooperated, and no one had slipped in the weeks before.
“You’re not the only efficient one around here,”
he said, and kissed her.
They were standing on deck together as the boat motored out of the port a few minutes later.
They’d been waiting for the new arrivals and Oona hadn’t known it.
She’d thought they were just getting organized at the dock.
They were ready for their big adventure.
They were his Christmas gift to her.
Ashley and Oona stood on deck watching the port shrink away, his arm around her, as they headed out to sea, on their way to Tobago.
It was a new life in a brave world.
She had a whole new family to meet, and all their children on board with them.
The pieces of their life fit together perfectly.
Ashley held her tightly next to him and smiled down at her.
“I’ve been working on our summer plans,”
he said, as the warm wind brushed their faces, and she looked up at him.
“Isn’t it a little early to do that now?”
She had only recently begun to realize how organized he was and how efficient at making plans, as he had just done, getting her children to the boat to surprise her.
She loved that about him—they were partners and equals, each with their strengths and talents that complemented each other.
“I’ve rented a house in France for us, for next summer.
I think you’ll like it.
Great location—it has a pool, lovely gardens, and comes with a housekeeper,” he said.
“In the south of France?”
“No, actually, in the Essonne region, an hour or so from Paris.”
He couldn’t repress a smile as he said it, and she looked stunned as she guessed.
“La Belle Florence?”
He broke into a broad smile when he answered.
“I think that she would want us to have it.
And your landlords have been very amenable.
I rented it from June until the end of December next year, for my summer hiatus.
Covid should be history by then, so we can go whenever we have a break.
I think Florence de Montmarrin would be pleased.”
Oona put her arms around him and kissed him.
She was beaming.
There were only good surprises with Ashley.
And he added yet another one.
“There’s an option to buy in our lease.
And I think I can convince them, if you want to buy it.”
He had just been handsomely paid for the second season, and the Hong Kong owners were interested in the deal.
Ashley was fairly sure he could close it if Oona wanted the house as much as he did.
It had deep sentimental significance for them.
“I think Florence would approve.” He held Oona in his arms and smiled at her.
“I’m a lucky man,” he said, and kissed her.
“You’ve changed my life, Oona,” he said softly.
And he had changed hers.
Life with him was full of blessings and surprises, acts of kindness, and tender moments.
He wanted to give her the house as a wedding present when her divorce came through, but that was a surprise for another day, maybe next Christmas.
In the meantime he wanted to show her the Tobago of his childhood, share his family with her, and enjoy their children on the boat and at La Belle Florence next summer. They had so much to look forward to.