Epilogue
EPILOGUE
CHRISTMAS DAY – THE DRUMMOND RESIDENCE, WESTCHESTER
Hayley slapped Angel’s hand as she reached across the table. ‘Oh no you don’t. Those popovers are for everyone.’
Angel pulled a face, slipping her tongue in front of her bottom row of teeth and pushing it forward.
Hayley put a hand to her throat. ‘Swearing! At the Christmas dinner table!’
‘Angel, darling, you have as many as you like,’ Cynthia said. ‘I can always make some more.’
Cynthia was smitten with Angel. She was like the daughter Cynthia never had and Angel truly had the woman wrapped around her little finger.
Hayley looked around at the grotto of a dining room. Outside, the snow was two feet deep and set to increase overnight; inside, they were all surrounded by garlands of bells, wreaths of holly, pine cones and red bows, a Christmas tree that almost reached the ceiling and Michael Bublé’s Christmas album coming out of the sound system. How different a home it was from the empty, soulless space she’d entered as Agatha. Her, Angel, Dean, Vernon, Oliver and Cynthia – with Randy howling for attention in the hall .
She looked at Oliver opposite her, wearing the Superman T-shirt she’d bought him, sipping at the cheap fizzy wine she’d grabbed at a bodega on the way over. She loved him. She knew that now without a shadow of a doubt. She’d agreed to stay longer but in a week, two, however long it was, she was going to have to leave him. She swallowed, popping a forkful of turkey in her mouth.
‘I’d like to give thanks and propose a few toasts,’ Oliver stated, raising his glass.
‘I think that’s a wonderful idea but I’d like to start,’ Cynthia said.
‘And then me, because it’s women and children first,’ Angel interrupted.
Everyone laughed.
‘Right, well, I would like to give thanks to everyone around this table. Dean and Vernon, it was so wonderful to meet you at the Christmas party last week and I’m so glad you could come today,’ Cynthia began.
‘Thank you for inviting us, Cynthia,’ Vernon said, raising his glass.
‘Oliver, I know how hard things have been for you these past few years and I know we’ve talked it out a number of times but I just want to say… your father would be so proud of the man you’ve become.’
Hayley watched Oliver swallow and shift his eyes to his plate of food.
‘And last but not least,’ Cynthia said, looking to Hayley and Angel. ‘I would like to propose a toast to Agatha and Charlotte. Who came into my house and reminded me it was a home.’ Cynthia raised her glass. ‘To Agatha and Charlotte.’
‘Agatha and Charlotte,’ everyone chorused.
Her cheeks flushed as Oliver caught her eye and mouthed the words ‘Agatha and Charlotte?’, not understanding at all. She shrugged and mimed glugging from a bottle, nodding her head towards Cynthia.
‘My turn!’ Angel announced, munching up half a popover like a hungry guinea pig.
‘Be respectful and don’t mention George Washington,’ Hayley suggested.
Angel cleared her throat. ‘Did you know that the tradition of Christmas lunch in America came from our traditions in the United Kingdom? And in medieval times, a pheasant or boar were served up instead of a turkey.’
‘I didn’t know that and my life was a lot poorer for it,’ Hayley said, nodding.
‘I’d like to give thanks for my mum,’ Angel continued. ‘Because she helped me find my dad, even though she really didn’t want to see him again, because she didn’t really remember much about him, but she did it anyway and now I’m getting to know him and he’s getting to know me.’ Angel blushed as she finished the sentence. ‘And he’s cooking me a second Christmas dinner tonight and I can’t wait to stay over and thank you, Mum, for letting me. And Oliver, you can take my place in Mum’s Christmas night tradition.’ Angel turned her gaze to Hayley. ‘Share nicer than you do with me.’
‘Is this a good tradition? I’m a little scared right now,’ Oliver said, looking to Angel.
‘We’re talking sausage rolls,’ Hayley said. ‘You’ll be fine.’
‘We’re all really pleased you found your dad, Angel,’ Dean said, smiling at his niece.
Oliver raised his glass. ‘I’d like to give thanks to your mom too.’
‘Oh stop, you’ll make me redder than the cranberry sauce,’ Hayley said, picking up her napkin.
‘I had no idea that a chance meeting around the fire exit at a Chinese restaurant was going to turn my life upside down.’ He smiled. ‘But I do know that trying to escape that night was the best move I ever made.’
‘Slushier than a Slush Puppy,’ Angel remarked, rolling her eyes but smiling at the same time.
‘And I want to make a toast to Angel.’ Oliver looked at her. ‘For letting me see the logo before the fundraiser so I could get my speech just right.’
‘You!’ Hayley exclaimed.
‘What can I say? He needed direction,’ Angel responded.
‘To Angel. Who might need some help putting together a model replica of the White House later on,’ Oliver toasted.
Hayley watched Angel’s eyes poke out of her head. ‘I’ve got one?!’
‘To Angel,’ everyone chorused.
Hayley began to cough loudly, clearing her throat and banging her hand on the table. ‘I thought it was women and children first and you jumped the queue, Clark.’ She smiled at her companions. ‘Now it’s my turn.’ She took a breath. ‘I want to say thank you to my brother and Vernon for putting up with all the high drama I seem to have brought to New York with me. I’m just hoping spending time with Angel has made up for it.’
‘It’s all been a pleasure, darling,’ Vernon stated.
‘I love a bit of high drama,’ Dean said.
Hayley looked at Cynthia. ‘Thank you to Cynthia for giving me a wonderful opportunity to use my creativity and also for having faith that I could pull it off. I wasn’t sure myself until the foil butterflies fell from the ceiling and we recaptured the magician’s rabbit, but we did it and it raised loads of money and the press raved about it.’
Everyone clapped their hands together and Hayley did a half bow before sitting still, looking to Angel .
‘What can I say about my girl here? She’s everything to me, my daughter, my best friend and sometimes the biggest pain in the?—’
‘Do you know there are at least eleven different words for bottom,’ Angel stated.
‘I was going to say neck,’ Hayley filled in, smiling. ‘She has been the best thing in my life for nine and a half years and I don’t know where I’d be without her.’ She sniffed. ‘And I’m so glad you got your wish. Michel, like me, is so lucky to have a wonderful daughter like you.’
Hayley waved her hand in front of her face as the tears began to fall.
‘To Angel,’ Oliver offered, lifting his glass.
‘No! Hang on! I haven’t finished yet.’ She composed herself. ‘I want to give thanks for you, Oliver.’ She swallowed. ‘I’ve never met anyone like you. You’re warm and you’re funny and equally complex and completely irritating but you get me and I get you. And when I talk about random things, you just instinctively know what to say. I’ve never had that before and I know how challenging I am and… I just want to say…’ She swallowed again, struggling to get the words out. ‘To Oliver.’
‘To Oliver,’ everyone repeated.
‘Do you wanna build a snowman?’ Oliver asked later that afternoon.
‘Oh my, Frozen humour? I think that’s been slightly overdone,’ Hayley responded, yawning from her seat on the couch.
‘We can’t move right now. The White House is at a critical stage and it’s only an hour until my dad comes to pick me up,’ Angel exclaimed, her eyes on the building she, Dean and Vernon were constructing .
‘Come on, Hayley, forget Frozen ; humour me . You’ve got new gloves, remember?’ Oliver encouraged. ‘Mom?’ He looked to Cynthia.
‘I’m good here, watching Angel create this masterpiece. I might move in when it’s finished,’ she responded.
‘Come on, up, off the sofa,’ Oliver said, grabbing Hayley’s hand and wrestling her off the couch.
‘This is bullying. We haven’t even opened the chocolates yet,’ Hayley moaned, following him out of the room.
He encouraged her along the corridor towards the back of the house.
‘You do know it’s minus five outside? It’s more likely we’re going to be making an ice man, not a snowman.’
‘We’re not going outside,’ Oliver said, pausing by the door to the sun room.
‘We’re not?’
‘No.’ He pushed open the door and let Hayley be the first to look into the room. He watched her clap her hands to her mouth as she saw the decorations all around. Everything she had used to adorn the ballroom of the Crystalline Hotel was here in Cynthia’s garden room. The turquoise drapes at the windows, the balloons, butterfly-shaped candles flickering on every surface, sparkly foil butterflies on the tiled floor. She stepped into the room, a glowing haven from the flakes of snow flurrying down around the house through the dark of the night.
Oliver pressed a button on the sound system and the sound of Maroon 5 filtered out of the speakers.
Hayley nodded. ‘You got me Adam Levine. Finally, you got me Adam Levine.’
‘That’s not all I got you,’ he said.
He stood in front of her, his eyes matching hers, as he reached into the pocket of his trousers and pulled out a turquoise blue box .
Hayley gasped. ‘That box is too small for a necklace.’
He nodded.
‘And it’s way too tiny for a bracelet, even.’
Oliver opened it up, his eyes on her as he revealed the butterfly-shaped diamond ring. He heard her intake of breath and he moved then, slipping the ring from the box and holding it, his hand shaking.
‘I know you might think this is too soon but I’m still making every moment count.’ He paused. ‘But for all the right reasons this time.’
‘I don’t know what to say,’ she whispered.
‘Say you’ll stay. We’ll work everything out. Angel’s schooling, you becoming an event planner, a designer, whatever you want. I just can’t have you going back to England, not even for a minute. I love you, Hayley.’ He dropped down to his knee, the ring between his fingers. ‘Will you marry me?’
The question hung in the air and he waited, watching every nuance of her breathing, looking for an answer of any form.
‘I have a condition before I answer,’ she finally said.
‘Anything. Anything at all.’
‘No more wishes. Only honest promises and taking each day as it comes.’
‘Absolutely. Hand on my heart,’ Oliver said, putting his left hand to his chest.
Hayley smiled. ‘Then the answer is yes!’
‘Yes!’ he exclaimed. ‘Yes!’
‘Give me the ring then,’ Hayley encouraged, shooting her left hand forward.
Oliver carefully slid the ring into place and admired the stones dazzling against her skin as he got to his feet.
‘I love you, Lois,’ he said, drawing her into his embrace.
‘I love you too, Superman.’ She sighed. ‘So, where are we going to live? Because Angel isn’t going to like cosying up in the one-bedroom penthouse. And if my mother is going to come and visit, you know, after she’s scolded me about my diary, which she will do even though we had a heart to heart, she’s definitely going to want an en suite.’ She drew her head away from him and gasped. ‘We could get a Red Room.’
He grinned. ‘I don’t know about that, but wherever it is, I’m going to make damn sure it has an elevator.’
‘Mr Drummond!’
He let her have the last word and then, as the snowflakes began to settle on the windows, he pressed his mouth to hers.