Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Late Sunday afternoon, Mabel finished her tea in the little nook in the kitchen, marking her place in the book she’d been reading before heading upstairs to help Vanessa finish getting ready for her date.
Vanessa had asked for help with her hair, and Mabel had been more than happy to say yes.
A little emotional, even, because it had been years since she’d gotten to do something as familiar as help her granddaughter do her hair.
It felt like she was getting something back that she’d been missing, a bit of attachment that she’d lost. And she knew that it was a step forward for Vanessa too, to ask her at all.
That, and the fact that she was getting ready over at Mabel’s.
Mabel had already heard about the date, of course, in between customers while she and Vanessa worked together at the shop.
Vanessa had admitted that she’d opened up to Jackson a little about her past, about her parents’ death and how she’d walled herself off afterward, and it had been clear that she was nervous about having said so much.
She’d been worried that it had been overwhelming, that she’d dumped too much on someone she barely knew, but Mabel had firmly told her that she was proud of her.
And she was. She knew how hard it was for Vanessa to open up like that, and she was immensely proud of her granddaughter for it.
The fact that Vanessa had said she’d bring her things over and get ready at Mabel’s cottage after lunch told Mabel that Vanessa was more than a little nervous about the date.
Which made sense, of course. As did the conversation they’d carried on as Mabel had made maple-mustard chicken sandwiches and a green salad with dried oranges and poppy-seed dressing for them, insisting that her wrist was fine and the chicken was already cooked anyway, so all she really had to do was assemble things.
Vanessa had talked at length about what she’d need to do and catch up on when she returned to San Francisco, the most she’d talked about it in days, and Mabel had a feeling it was her way of reminding herself that she was, in fact, going back.
That even if this date with Jackson went wonderfully, there was no point in getting too invested, because she was leaving.
Personally, Mabel wished that Vanessa would let herself be a little more open to the possibility of change, to the potential of her future going differently than she’d imagined it.
But she knew it was a lot, to wish that her granddaughter would uproot her life and start over somewhere not completely new, but far enough removed from her life now that it would just about feel that way.
She pushed the wish away, as she reached the top of the stairs, and knocked at the door of the bathroom.
“I’m just about ready,” Vanessa said, opening the door to let her grandmother in.
She was wearing dark jeans and a soft angora sweater in a dusty rose color, her makeup soft and light.
“Jackson texted me earlier and told me to dress warmly, and to wear pants.” She shrugged.
“I have no idea what he has planned, but I’m glad I brought two outfits over, because I was going to wear a sweater dress.
” She gestured at the camel-colored, cable knit dress that was now hanging from the back of the door.
“I think you look lovely,” Mabel said firmly. “Do you have a warm enough coat?”
Vanessa nodded. “And gloves. I bought some the other day. And boots that are better for the snow, so I think I’ll be fine.”
“Good.” Mabel nodded approvingly. “What do you want to do with your hair?”
Vanessa ran her fingers through the long auburn strands. “I’m not sure. I was thinking a French braid. That’s why I asked for help—I’ve never been able to do that myself. But then I realized, with your wrist, maybe it wouldn’t be a good idea—”
“Nonsense. I can manage a braid.” Mabel pulled out a chair from the vanity on the other side of the large bathroom and moved it so that Vanessa could sit down in front of her.
“I’ll have it done in no time, and tight enough that it won’t get messed up under a hat either.
You need to keep your ears warm out there,” she admonished, and Vanessa laughed nervously.
She thought that her granddaughter looked beautiful, if a little too done up, probably, for whatever Jackson had planned.
Vanessa was wearing rose gold eyeshadow, thin black liner done in a soft cat eye, and mascara, with a rosy lip.
She looked ready to go out for drinks in the big city, not go tromping around in the snow, which was what Mabel suspected Jackson had planned in some form or another.
But maybe that was part of the attraction, Mabel thought. Vanessa was different from anyone Jackson would meet in Fir Tree Grove. She was from the small town, but also had been shaped by somewhere else, familiar and not, all at the same time.
“I’m really nervous,” Vanessa blurted out, as if she’d heard Mabel’s train of thought all this time. “I kind of wonder why I agreed to the date.”
“And why is that?” Mabel asked, expertly crisscrossing pieces of Vanessa’s hair. “You like spending time with him, right? I’ve seen the two of you together. You seem to get along great.”
“That’s part of the problem.” Vanessa bit her lip, and Mabel could see the reflection of it in the mirror.
“I do like him. He’s different from anyone I’d meet in San Francisco, but I haven’t really met anyone there.
He’s calm and relaxing to be around and feels safe.
But the fact that I like him is a problem in and of itself.
I have my life back there, in San Fran.” She started to shake her head, then froze so she didn’t mess up the braid.
“I shouldn’t get attached to anyone. That’s only going to feel bad for us both when I leave. ”
“You’re thinking too far ahead,” Mabel said firmly.
“You should just enjoy tonight, Vanessa. Enjoy the date. A nice, handsome man wants to spend some time with you, and you want to spend some time with him. That’s all this needs to be.
If you’re leaving, that’s fine too. You can just enjoy yourself.
Not everything needs to be planned out and accounted for. You can just let go a little.”
She put one hand on Vanessa’s shoulder as she said it, holding the braid with the other, and Vanessa reached up and covered Mabel’s hand with hers.
Mabel felt her chest warm, a sense of comfort washing over her at the moment of closeness with the granddaughter who had been gone from her life for so long.
“You’re right,” Vanessa said after a moment.
“I should try to relax. It’s just… I haven’t relaxed since before college.
” She laughed self-consciously. “I feel like I need to relearn how… and then I feel like a crazy person, for not just being able to let go and let things happen like everyone else.”
“We all struggle with it,” Mabel assured her. “It’s just that some people are better at pretending that they don’t than others. But we all have things we cling onto and that we have a hard time letting go of.” She finished off the braid, wrapping a small elastic around it. “There you go. All done.”
Vanessa smiled, standing up, and she turned abruptly to hug her grandmother. “Thank you,” she said. “For the help with my hair and the advice.”
Mabel blinked back happy tears, gently hugging her granddaughter back in return. “You’re more than welcome,” she said gently. “And that braid should hold up, it’s a little bit windy out there.”
Vanessa smiled as she stepped back. “How’s your wrist?” she asked, clearly a bit concerned. “Doing the braid didn’t hurt it, right?”
Mabel chuckled. “Not at all,” she assured her.
Vanessa turned back to the counter, swiping on a bit more lipstick before glancing at her grandmother in the mirror.
“Are you ever going to tell me how you really hurt it? Your story about it keeps changing,” she added, an amused look on her face.
“I know there’s something else to the story, for sure. ”
Mabel rolled her eyes playfully, letting out a sigh. “I suppose,” she relented. “By now he’s figured it out anyway, so I might as well ‘fess up.”
Vanessa looked confused. “Who found out what?”
“I hurt it playing a prank on George,” Mabel admitted. “He’s been growing a tree since last year for Cindy and Neil—the couple that owns Holly and Ivy Market—and I snuck out to the farm.”
“To do what?” Vanessa turned to face her grandmother, clearly both fascinated and horrified by the story. “You’re—you snuck onto the Christmas tree farm and did what to the tree? And hurt your wrist somehow…” She shook her head, plainly more confused than ever.
“I got some garlands of fake elves online,” Mabel said, chuckling. “These really ugly, garish things. I went out and decorated the tree with them, so that when George took Cindy and Neil out to see their tree, he’d see them.”
“But why?” Vanessa was still incredibly confused.
“Because it’s funny. George loves Christmas, as much as anyone else here in town, but he hates elves,” Mabel explained. “It’s never made any sense. He doesn’t even have a reason for it, he just says they creep him out. Like they’re always watching.”
Vanessa laughed at that. “Does he hate dolls too? Because I agree, they’re creepy. That shelf of them at the toy store always freaks me out every time I see it.”
Mabel shook her head. “I have no idea, honestly. But I knew it would drive him nuts, and be hilariously funny. So I snuck out there to do it, and managed to hurt my wrist in the process.”
“How on earth—”
“I slipped on the ladder coming down from the top part of the tree. So the story was kind of true,” Mabel insisted. “I did slip and hurt it. Just not putting things on a shelf or taking them off or whatever story it was that I gave you.”