Chapter 34
CHAPTER 34
Considering how last minute the event was, and that it’s on Christmas Eve, Lizzie is surprised at how many people are at the bookstore. The three of them find some seats near the back.
“I’ll be right back,” Lizzie says, going to say hi to Anika and Jay. “Hey, it’s so nice to see you again, what a fun way to spend Christmas Eve!”
“We thought, why not, a few people had asked so we decided to do it. We’ll keep it short,” says Anika. “Make sure to help yourself to coffee, cocoa, tea, Leah brought over a bunch of things from Sea Coast.”
“Thank you, I’ll see if my parents want anything. Merry Christmas, by the way!”
“And congratulations to you on partnering with your dad, we’re really excited to have you here,” says Jay.
“Thank you, I will be in touch after the holidays, I have some ideas I’d like to run by you and both,” she says, and they nod.
When she returns to her parents, she finds that Jack has joined them, and she sees Alexis, Sean and Ben in the back. They all wave. “Do you mind if I sit with you?” he asks. “My parents were knee-deep in Christmas prep and couldn’t come.”
“Of course, the more the merrier,” Lizzie says. “There’s hot drinks, cookies? Does anyone want anything? I’m happy to get it.”
Peter looks at Gabby, “Two cocoas?” Gabby nods.
“Jack?”
“Let me come help you,” he gets up. “So are you going to tell a story?”
“Me? No, I shamed myself enough at karaoke last night, I am here as an observer only.” She pours three cocoas. “You?”
“I’m going to get some coffee,” he says. “Oh! You mean telling a story. I’m not sure. I might.”
They are each carrying two drinks, and manage to avoid any more cookies. Lizzie vowed to herself to join the other young women in town at the yoga studio after the holidays, this endless drinking of cocoa and eating cookies had to come to an end.
Jay gets up and tells everyone about the theme of the afternoon, Holiday Hopes - Realized or Dashed, and asks if anyone wants to start them off. Lizzie was not surprised, from everything she’s heard, when her dad puts his hand up.
“Peter Martin, come on down!” Jay says as everyone applauds.
“Thank you, it’s so nice to see so many of you here. I am especially glad to have our daughter here, this has been a wonderful Christmas season. So as most of you know, I started the Cranberry Harbor Gazette over thirty years ago. I was just a kid, had no clue as to what I was doing, but I had a journalism degree and a dream.”
Peter proceeded to tell an elaborate tale of the first Christmas he was running the paper, it was printed in town back then, and when a storm hit no one could get to the print shop to get the paper out. He’d only been in business for a month, and he didn’t want his first Christmas issue, one he had painstakingly worked on, to not get out, so he did everything. He had written all the copy, printed hundreds of copies, and set out to deliver them all in his dilapidated old truck. He stayed out all night, got back to the office, fell asleep at his desk, and was awakened by the phone ringing. It was a subscriber complaining that he didn’t get his paper but his neighbor had. It was then he said he realized two things, “No good deed goes unpunished, and I had created something that people really wanted. Thank you.”
“Peter, as usual you are the best. Thank you. Anyone else feeling brave?”
Jack’s hand goes up and Lizzie is surprised. Jay calls him up. “Jack Cahoon, welcome, this is your first time up here, but from rumors swirling around here, it sounds like you may be here for a while.”
Jack nods, “Yeah, I’m very excited to be back. I’ve missed this town, this community so much.”
“Well, I will let you get to it,” Jay steps aside, and Jack sits down on the tall stool.
“I know lots of you here, but there are also new faces. I am an actual native Cape Codder, as most of you know, even if you moved here as a baby, unless you were born here you will always be a washashore. The Cranberry Harbor school system was not regionalized when I was growing up, and was quite small, so you always knew everyone. Well, I sort of knew everyone. In tenth grade I got partnered with Lizzie Martin on a project for English class. We had to write an article for the school paper. It had to have certain elements, interviews, facts and be newsworthy. I figured I had it made - Lizzie’s dad ran a newspaper, she wrote for it sometimes, I thought this would be a super easy A.” The crowd laughs, and Lizzie smiles, remembering the incident. “What I didn’t bargain for was how she was not going to let me off that easily. She was going to make me work. Which I thought was incredibly unfair. She loved this stuff! I was a math and tech guy, I wasn’t a writer.”
He pauses. “So we decided to do a story we could both get into, a new tech lab at the school. I could write the technical part, and she could finesse the prose, weave in the quotes, and it would be great. Except I was just not good at it. I was great at explaining to other computer people how something worked, but not at breaking down how this would be beneficial to everyone. I kept wanting her to take it over and just write it, but she wouldn’t. She kept telling me I could do it, and that she wasn’t going to do my part for me. I felt so frustrated, but then, all the things she had told me about writing suddenly made sense, and I got it. She thought I could do it, and made me feel like I could too.”
He takes a deep breath. “I know this isn’t a Christmas story, but in some ways it is. Four years ago on Christmas Eve I asked her to marry me, she said yes, and then I blew it a year later on Christmas Eve. So no, I am not going to stand here and propose to her on Christmas Eve out of an abundance of caution, and I wouldn’t do that to her.” Everyone laughs. “But what I am going to do, in keeping with the theme of Christmas hopes realized and dashed, is to tell her that I love her, and that I promise I’m not going anywhere this time, because I think together we can accomplish anything. And I’m here for the good, the bad, and everything in between. I want to be a team player.”
By now Lizzie is crying in her seat, the audience is applauding, some of them are also crying, and there’s nothing else for Jack to do but go to her, which he does. He takes her hand, grabs their coats and leads her outside.
She’s still crying as he wraps her coat around her shoulders. “Well I pity the poor person going up next, that is a hard act to follow,” she says, wiping the tears away with her hands. “That was amazing. And, in case you didn’t know, I love you too.”
“I was hoping you were going to say that, or else this would have been a really, really embarrassing thing to have done.”
She laughs, and takes a deep sigh, pulling her coat tightly around her as it starts to snow. Cranberry Harbor is really pulling out all the stops.“So we’re starting over, huh?”
“Yes, if you are willing to take me on. I know I’m not always easy,” Lizzie interrupts him.
“And neither am I. But I think we’re better together than we are apart.”
“I do too,” he says, kissing her.
Lizzie didn’t know just how much she’d missed him, how much she missed this, kissing him felt so perfectly right. She smiles and pulls back, “But don’t think this means I’m not going to be all over you on all these big projects, I’m a professional,” she teases.
“I’d expect nothing less. And I know because of that, it will make everything worthy of that A we never got.”
“I know! That was so ridiculous, how could she not see what we’d done!” Lizzie starts in, getting riled up.
Jack pulls her in close, “Just kiss me, we’ll make everything perfect later, I promise.”
The End