Chapter 30
Three Things
Ivy
I must’ve set tables for hundreds of events at the inn. Wedding receptions. Anniversary dinners. Holiday parties where families who actually like each other gather to celebrate.
This is nothing like any of those.
“Are you sure about this?” Noelle asks, smoothing the tablecloth for the third time.
“No,” I admit, arranging silverware with trembling hands. “But I can’t think of another way.”
The dining room looks beautiful, at least. All the food is laid out on platters in the middle of the table.
Family-style, the way we do Sunday dinners.
Roast chicken, roasted vegetables, and fresh bread, still warm, courtesy of Merry.
It’s all comfort food, because something tells me we’re going to need comfort tonight.
I count the place settings to make sure there are nine: Dash, me, Rachel, Daniel, Dad, Noelle, Merry, Holly, Jack.
“What if this blows up in my face?” I adjust a water glass that doesn’t need adjusting.
“Then it blows up,” Noelle says. “But at least you’ll know you tried.”
Dad appears in the doorway. “Ivy, are you sure you don’t want to let Dash know Daniel’s coming, and who he is?”
“Even if I wanted to, it’s too late now.” My stomach twists.
“This seems risky,” Dad said carefully.
“I know.” I set down the glass before I break it. “But he’s been with his mom all day. If I told him, he’d confront her. I think that would go sideways and they wouldn’t show up at all. This way, all three of them are here. There’s at least a chance that they’ll face things head on.”
“I hope you know what you’re doing, sweetpea.”
“Me, too, Dad.” I straighten a napkin. “But Daniel deserves to meet his son. Dash deserves to know his father. And Rachel”—I pause—“deserves a chance to stop running.”
The kitchen door opens. My heart stops.
“That’s Daniel,” I say quietly. “I’ll get him.”
I walk into the kitchen. Daniel hovers in the doorway.
“Griselda told me to come in this way. I hope that’s okay.” His voice is strained. He’s nervous, too.
“This is the family entrance,” I confirm. “Come on in.”
He steps further into the kitchen. “Are they here?”
“My sister is at the cottage now, getting them. They don’t know you’re coming,” I confess. “Neither of them. I’m sorry to spring you om them like this, but it’s the only way.”
Daniel’s face pales, then he exhales. “I sure hope you know what you’re doing, kid.”
That makes two of us. Three, actually, because my dad just said the exact same thing.
“The family room is down that hall.” I gesture toward it. “Make yourself comfortable. They’ll be here soon.”
My dad comes around the corner and greets Daniel Lovelace in that warm, friendly innkeeper way of his.
As they walk together toward the family room, I look out the window over the sink.
Merry is leading Dash and Rachel down the path from the cottage.
The fairy lights strung in the trees light their way.
A moment later, headlights shine in the dark as Holly turns into the driveway and parks.
Jack pops out of the passenger seat to open her door for her.
They intercept Merry and the Pines, and they all walk the rest of the way together.
The gang’s all here.
I remind myself to breathe.
Dash
Mom and Holly are keeping up a steady stream of chatter.
I’m barely paying attention. Ivy’s been avoiding me ever since she bailed on me at the children’s hospital.
She didn’t even show up at The Nutcracker.
She sent Griselda in her place. Then, out of nowhere, she invites me and Mom to dinner with the entire Jolly family.
I can’t figure out what she’s up to. And I’m not sure I should care. She wants me to leave town after tomorrow, after all. She’s done with us.
Ivy greets us and sends everyone into the dining room. But she catches my hand as I try to walk by with the others. Her skin is like ice.
“Hey,” she whispers, her voice shaking. “Before you go in there, I just want to say—I didn’t know how else to do this.”
“Do what?” I whisper back, but she’s already moving toward the dining room.
What did she do?
I follow her through the pocket doors in time to see Mom take in the table, the place settings, and the family-style spread. Then she stops so abruptly I almost walk into her.
A man’s entering the room from the Jolly’s living room, flanked by Nick and Noelle. Is that … Daniel Lovelace?
“Rachel.” His famous rasp is barely a whisper.
Mom stares at him, her face draining of color. “Danny?” her voice breaks.
“It’s been a long time.” Then he looks at me. “Hi, son.”
I look at him, really look at him, and I see my eyes, my cheekbones, my long tapered fingers.
I jerk my head toward Ivy, the question all over my face. She nods, her green eyes bright with unshed tears.
Daniel Lovelace is my father.
The silence stretches. Mom gapes at Daniel from just inside the doorway. Daniel—my father—hasn’t moved. The Jollys are shuffling around uncomfortably.
“Dasher, how could you?” Mom’s voice is pure betrayal.
“Not me,” I say quickly. “I didn’t know he’d be here. I didn’t even know who he was—is.”
She spins to face Ivy. “You did this.”
“Yes,” Ivy says. “I did.”
“You have no right—”
And my frozen astonishment melts as hot anger bubbles up. “She has no right? You had no right. You told me you didn’t know who my father was. My entire life, I’ve wondered. And you’ve known this whole time.”
“You don’t understand—” she begins.
“I didn’t know.” Daniel steps forward. “Rachel, I didn’t know you were pregnant. You left without telling me.”
“You wouldn’t have cared,” Her voice cracks. “You were about to go on tour, it was your big break. We were so young, and you weren’t ready.”
“You didn’t give me a chance to decide!” Daniel’s composure breaks. “I loved you. I would’ve—”
“You would’ve what? Given up your dreams? Your career?” She’s crying now. “I wasn’t going to let you make that mistake.”
“It wasn’t your choice to make,” I choke out. “You decided for all three of us.”
Ivy
Dash and his mom face each other, a lifetime of secrets cracking open between them. Daniel steps forward, then back. He’s not sure whether or how to intervene. I know the feeling.
“Dasher, you know that my parents disowned me when they found out I was pregnant.” Rachel’s voice is raw.
“But what you didn’t know is that before I told them, I went to your father’s house.
To talk to him and figure out how to make this—us—work.
And his mother took one look at me, at my baby bump, and begged me not to ruin his life.
She said he had a future ahead of him and if I truly loved him, I wouldn’t tie him down. ”
That sounds familiar.
Daniel’s jaw tightens. “My mother knew? And she said that to you?”
“She loved you,” Rachel whispers. “She didn’t want you to give up your music.”
“So the two of you made the choice for me.” His face is stricken.
“I was nineteen, pregnant, and terrified,” Rachel says. “I thought I was doing the right thing.“ Her voice rises, desperate. “Actually, I’m sure I did the right thing because now that history’s repeating itself, I truly understand what your mom meant.”
Dash shakes his head. “How is history repeating itself?”
Rachel gives me a look, then turns to her son. “Ivy’s pregnant.”
I stare at her, genuinely confused. “What?” I manage.
“You’re pregnant?” Merry squeals.
“I’m not pregnant!” I eye Rachel cautiously. This is even weirder than the toast thing. “What are you talking about?”
“You were drinking herbal tea during karaoke,” Rachel says, frantic. “And I saw the prenatal vitamins. In your bathroom.”
“I ordered that tea for Holly,” I say slowly, trying to figure out what she’s talking about. “What vitamins?”
“I saw them with my own eyes, Ivy. In your loft on the bathroom vanity.”
“Holly’s loft,” I correct her. “I don’t live there. Merry and I live in Noelle’s old place.”
“Those are my vitamins,” Holly says, her face bright red. “I thought I put them back in the cabinet.”
“You’re pregnant?” I ask my sister.
“Holly?” Merry’s eyes are huge.
“No! I mean, not yet. Jack and I are trying to have a baby, though. We’re going to be doing the long-distance thing for who knows how long. And, you know, logistically it’ll be complicated … so we’re going for it now.”
“That’s why you haven’t been drinking,” I say.
“Right.”
“You had a beer after the tree lighting, though,” Merry says.
“It was nonalcoholic,” Jack explains. “We weren’t ready to tell anyone yet. Guess that ship’s sailed.” He laughs.
“You’re trying to get pregnant?” Noelle sounds delighted. Dad grins like a fool.
“We just started. Let’s all keep our expectations in check,” Holly says. But a glimmer of a smile slips through her lawyer mask.
“So you’re not pregnant?” Rachel ask me.
“I’ve known your son for six days,” I tell her. I know my face is flaming because my skin is on fire. “We haven’t even ... you know. Yet.”
During the absolutely mortifying silence that follows, I pray for a hole to open up in the floor and swallow me.
No such luck.
Dad breaks the silence, clearly trying not to laugh. “So to be clear, nobody’s pregnant. Except possibly future Holly.”
“Nobody’s pregnant,” I confirm, still blushing furiously.
Rachel sinks into the nearest chair. “I thought—”
“You thought history was repeating itself,” Dash says. “But it’s not. Because I’m not you, and Ivy’s not Dad, and this isn’t twenty-eight ago.”
I catch him glancing at Daniel when he says “Dad.”
“I’m sorry, Ivy.” Rachel’s voice is small. “When I noticed you weren’t drinking and then saw the vitamins, I panicked. I thought you brought me here to tell me you and Dash were going to make a huge mistake.”
“Loving someone isn’t a mistake,” I say quietly. “Running away from love is.”
She flinches like I hit her.
“Why don’t we sit?” Dad suggests gently. “The food’s getting cold.”
Dash
And just like that, we sit down to eat. It seems absurd. After all this trauma and revelation, we’re just eating dinner. But maybe that’s what families do. They sit together even when everything’s broken, because sitting together is how things start to heal.
Daniel—I can’t think of him as Dad, not yet—sits across from me. He keeps glancing at me like he’s afraid I’ll disappear. Mom won’t look at anyone. Ivy is next to me, and her hand finds mine under the table.
We eat in silence at first.
“I have an idea,” Noelle says suddenly. “Our family has a tradition. Every night at dinner, we share three things. Something we’re grateful for. Something we regret. Something we’re going to do make tomorrow better.”
“Noelle—” Nick starts.
She looks around the table. “I think it’s what we need right now. To say what we’re really feeling. Out loud.”
Her suggestion is met with more thick, heavy silence.
Then Nick clears his throat. “I’ll go first.”
He looks at each of us in turn. “I’m grateful we’re all here. That nobody walked away, even though it would’ve been easier.”
Mom’s shoulders shake.
“I regret that some of you are in pain, now,” he continues. “That I can’t take that away for you.” He looks at Ivy for a long beat.
“Tomorrow,” he finishes, “I’m going to keep showing up. For all of you.” Then he adds, “And I’m going to finish that elfing manger if it’s the last thing I do.”
When the laughter dies down, Noelle speaks. “I’m grateful for truth. Even when it hurts. Especially when it hurts, because that means someone was brave enough to have a tough conversation.”
Ivy squeezes my hand.
“I regret every time I ever chose fear over honesty.”
Nick reaches for her hand.
“Tomorrow, I’m going to take Holly to the library and check out every book about motherhood we have on the shelves.”
More laughter. Holly laughs the loudest.
It’s Ivy’s turn, and my heart is pounding.
“I’m grateful I asked Dash to help me with that heavy planter.”
“Asked? More like directed,” I tease.
She smiles, then grows serious. “I regret that I thought I could decide what was right for both of us. That was wrong.”
“Tomorrow,” she continues, “I’m going to wake up in bed next to Dash. I hope.”
Her face is beet red again, but she holds her head up. Progress.
It’s my turn.
“I’m grateful I finally know the truth about my father.” Daniel’s eyes meet mine, bright and damp.
“I regret the time we lost. All of us.” I look at Mom, then back at Daniel. “Time we can’t get back.”
Mom makes a small sound.
“But tomorrow”—my voice catches—“after I wake up in bed with Ivy, I’m going to build the life I want. Not the life someone else chose for me.”
Mom’s face crumples, but she doesn’t interrupt.
Daniel goes next. He’s been quiet through most of dinner. Now he clears his throat.
“I’m grateful to Ivy,” he says. “She’s given me a chance to meet my son and to see Rachel again.”
Mom’s head lifts slightly.
“I regret not coming to find you sooner.” His voice breaks. “The first time I saw that Vlad show and I wondered, I should’ve—”
“You didn’t know,” I say.
“I should’ve found out,” he insists.
He takes a shaky breath. “Tomorrow, I’m to figure out how to be part of your lives. Yours, Dash. And your mom’s. If she’ll have me.”
Holly, Merry, and Jack go next—their three things are simpler, about family and support and being there for each other.
Then, at last, it’s Mom’s turn.
She takes a sip of water before speaking.
“I’m grateful for Ivy. For being brave about so many things that I’ve never been able to be brave about. For leaning into love instead of running away from it.”
“I regret”—Mom stops and composes herself—“so much. Not having more faith in Danny. Trying to control Dash’s life because I was scared he’d get hurt. And letting that fear hurt Ivy.”
She’s crying openly now. Holly passes her a napkin.
She looks at me and then at Daniel. “Tomorrow, I’m going to start trying to fix the things I broke.”
The silence that follows is different from the earlier ones. Softer. Less jagged.
“Well,” Nick says finally. “We should finish eating before the food gets any colder.”
“And I made an amazing dessert,” Merry announces. “If I do say so myself.”
“You do,” Holly and Ivy tell her in unison.
Scattered laughter breaks the tension. Jack passes the bread. Careful conversations start up.
Nothing’s fixed, not even close.
But it’s a first step.