Chapter Twenty #3
“It’s huge. It’s at our vineyard. Two hundred and seventy guests—not including a wedding party of twelve, add bride and groom.”
She stepped back to admire their work. “Fist bump, partner. We’re good.” Then she turned to call out to Arden. “Food! We must have food. Then naps.” She gestured to each girl. “While naps are happening, we’ll do the inside.”
By midafternoon her new tree stood framed in the living room window. Jamie, with his artist’s eye, took over the mantel, draping it in greenery, red berries, glittery gold ribbon.
He arranged candlesticks with gold tapers.
“Perfection,” he declared. “We just need your stockings to complete, then I’ll do the library. Where are they?”
“I don’t have stockings. Aunt Jen has mine. I mean the one she always hung.”
“Which she’s bringing, along with hers and Dad’s, Travis’s, April’s, their kids’ when they come, since Boone and I are doing Christmas Eve.”
One hand fisted on a narrow hip, Jamie waved a finger in the air.
“This mantel isn’t complete without stockings for Arden and Gideon.”
“Oh, I don’t think Gideon expects—”
“Eh!” The single sound cut her off. “Mandatory. We’ll take care of it. And although I still say you need a tree in your office, I am well pleased.”
“Everything looks wonderful. You guys are the best. To reward you, I’m making a festive holiday mocktail—I tried it out, it’s good. For those of us without precious cargo, I say Bellini.”
They had drinks, and she made snacks for the girls when they woke from their nap.
“I’ve got to get these kids home. Thursday night, Arden. I’ll let you know when Mom and Dad get there. And I’ll see you and Nick here, Jamie, for Christmas dinner.”
“We wouldn’t miss. We’re so touched you’d include us.”
“Face it, handsome. You’re family now.”
Zoey gave him a kiss on the cheek, hugged Arden.
“I just love that girl,” Jamie said after Zoey bundled all her precious cargo into the car.
“Me, too. And she’s right. You’re family now.”
“You’re going to water me up, girl. I need to leave soon myself. I promised Nick a quiet dinner and a lazy evening after the day I know he’s putting in. But I wouldn’t mind a send-off Bellini.”
“Have a seat by the fire, enjoy your excellent work, and I’ll make us both one.”
Family, she thought as she mixed the drinks.
She brought in the drinks, clinked glasses.
A kind man, a sweet one, and one who’d already enriched her life.
“You and Nick have made my moving here, living here, being here so much more than it might’ve been.”
“Are you trying to water me up again?”
“I’m afraid I might, but I want to tell you something because good friends and family don’t, or shouldn’t, hold things back. It’s something that happened to me, it’ll be five years ago this spring. But like Gideon said when I finally told him, five years, five minutes, it still happened.”
“Something bad.” Eyes drenched, not in tears but sympathy, Jamie curled his fingers around hers.
“Something bad.”
She told him, in broad strokes rather than details. He held her hand throughout.
“My darling girl.” Eyes wet with those tears now, he put his arms around her, held fast. “I’m sorry, so sorry. I know how terrified you must’ve been, and how hard it is to put it behind you. Violence. I’ll never understand why some get off causing someone pain. I’m glad you told me.”
“I never talked about it except with my therapist. I thought that was the way to put it behind me. But it’s always there. When I told Gideon … I don’t know. It helped.”
“You haven’t talked about it with someone who’d been assaulted, someone who knows what it’s like?”
“No. Dr. Wren suggested groups, but I just didn’t want to go there.”
“Now you have me.”
“Oh, Jamie. You were attacked?”
“Years ago. First, let me say I was lucky. I didn’t formally come out to my family because, well, they always knew, and they accepted, loved me. Which was different for Nick—but that’s another story. I was in my last year of art school, and on spring break I went down to Fort Lauderdale.”
He patted her hand, then picked up his drink. “I admit, without shame, I was a bit of a slut in those days. I was in a bar—a gay bar, obviously—and nicely buzzed, left with someone. We walked awhile, the surf, the breeze, the starlight. And then? He beat the living shit out of me.”
“God, Jamie.”
“I tried to fight back, tried to run, but neither worked. I realized afterward he’d targeted me for just this, to pound me with his fists and ugly slurs. I think he meant to kill me, to prove he wasn’t gay—which, trust me, he was.
“The pain, the fear—you know.”
“Yes.”
“A group of girls saw it. They’d been partying, but they saw it, and they ran—not away, but toward us—screaming.
I swear to you, I can still hear them, and it’s like music.
They called the police, and they ran him off and, I have no doubt in my mind, saved my life.
Shelley, Becca, Soledad, and Hannah. Bastard fractured my cheekbone, detached my left retina, broke four ribs, bruised my balls, baby, but I didn’t die. ”
“Did they catch him? The police?”
He shook his head, and she knew he’d relived it again. As she did.
“No, they never did, and for a long time I had nightmares he’d come after me again. Therapy helped, my family helped, my art helped. But something stayed broken inside me. The rest healed, but he’d broken something inside me, and I lived with that.”
He simply looked at her a moment until she nodded. “Yes, you live with the break.”
“I lived, I painted. I laughed and I ate and did all the things, but I lived with that. Until I met Nick.”
He let out a sigh, and smiled again.
“I don’t care how schmaltzy it sounds because it’s truth. Love healed me. It happened, and nothing changes that. But I survived it, then I healed. So I know, and anytime you need to talk to someone who does, I’m here.”
“You keep in touch with them, don’t you? The girls who stopped to help you.”
“Damn right. I went to Hannah’s wedding—she has an adorable set of twin boys now.
And when the great goddess gave me Nick, we went to Soledad’s wedding together.
All four came to ours. As fate would have it, Becca met my beloved brother Matthew at our wedding.
After some fits and starts, they moved in together a couple years ago.
They’re taking the plunge into matrimony in June. ”
“You’re kidding! That’s amazing.”
His dimples sparkled. “The great goddess works in strange and wonderful ways.”
She tipped her head to his shoulder. “I’m so glad she gave you to me.”
“Ditto.”