Elin Hilderbrand - Winter Street

“Do they?” Margaret says. “Would that be a bad life for them?”

“I can’t let you buy the inn, Maggie,” Kelley says. “You’ve already done too much as it is.”

“What have I done?” Margaret asks. “I showed up, is all. And I was long overdue for that.”

Ava strolls into the kitchen. “Hello, parents,” she says. “So, are you two getting back together, or what?”

They both laugh. Ava gets two dishes of plum pudding and douses them with her mother’s luscious hard sauce. She asks Kelley to make two Irish coffees.

“This may come as a shock,” Ava says, “but since we’re all being honest, I’m entertaining a guest in my room.”

“Scott is lovely,” Margaret says.

“We just want you to be happy, sweetheart,” Kelley says.

Ava takes dessert back to her room on a tray, thinking, Sell the inn? Well, it’s time, probably, that she found her own place to live.

But still… sell the inn?

She and Scott gobble down dessert, and then they turn on the TV to watch It’s a Wonderful Life while drinking their Irish coffee.

Then they must have both fallen asleep, because Ava wakes up to someone knocking on her bedroom door.

“Ava!” It’s her mother. “Ava, are you in there?”

Ava stands up, collects herself, and opens the door. “Hi, what is it?”

Her mother mouths something, but Ava is too bleary-eyed to make out what it is.

“What?”

Margaret leans in and whispers, “Nathaniel is here.”

Ava blinks. “Here?”

Her mother nods vigorously.

Nathaniel is here.

Ava turns to look at Scott. He is passed out cold in her bed. Ava tiptoes out into the hallway, closing the door gently behind her.

Nathaniel is in the living room, chitchatting with Kevin, listening to Kevin and Isabelle’s big news, admiring Isabelle’s diamond ring.

“Wow, that’s great!” Nathaniel says. “I’m really psyched for you guys.”

“Thanks,” Kevin says.

Nathaniel sees Ava and breaks into that heart-stopping grin of his, the same one he gave her the day he met her.

“Hey, baby,” he says.

She will not succumb.

She says, “Let’s go to the kitchen.”

“Or your room?” he says.

“No.”

“Wow,” he says. “You really are mad.”

She strides into the kitchen but finds Kelley in there, cleaning up dessert and making fresh muffins for the morning.

“Hey, Ava,” he says. Funny look. “Hey, Nathaniel.”

“Mr. Quinn,” Nathaniel says. “Merry Christmas.”

“And to you,” Kelley says.

Ava can’t believe it is still Christmas. This is the Christmas that never ends.

She says, “Well, we can’t talk in the kitchen, so we’ll have to talk in the dining room.”

“Or your room,” he says.

“No,” Ava says.

“Or we can go to my place,” Nathaniel says.

“Negative,” Ava says.

“Wow,” Nathaniel says. “Where did you get that necklace? Did Scott give you that necklace?”

“None of your business,” Ava says.

“Did Scott give you the necklace, Ava? If he did, then this makes sense. I mean, one guy gives you rain boots, one guy gives you a diamond necklace…”

Ava sighs. “It’s from my mother.”

“Oh,” Nathaniel says.

“Let me be clear,” Ava says. “I’m not mad . I’m just finished.”

“You don’t love me?” he says.

“Whether or not I love you doesn’t matter,” Ava says. “It’s over. I’m tired of waiting around for you to treat me the way I want to be treated. Love me the way I want to be loved.”

“You want what, exactly?” Nathaniel says. “You want me to get down on one knee and propose? Fine, I will.” He sinks to the ground. “Ava Quinn, will you marry me?”

“You don’t mean it,” Ava says.

“I do so,” he says. “I love you. I am probably guilty of taking you for granted, but the flip side is that loving you is so easy. Being with you is comfortable. You’re normal and cool, there isn’t any drama, you don’t ask me for things, you let me be me. When I went to Seattle this fall, you didn’t bat an eye, you didn’t complain or call me selfish-and I was being selfish, and I was a jackass for not inviting you along, but I needed to get away, alone, and you got it. You get me . I love you, Ava. Now, will you marry me?”

Ava feels like she’s breaking in half. Nathaniel is saying all the right things, and it is true that she loves him. But something isn’t right. She doesn’t want to be comfortable, like a sweater or a dish of vanilla pudding. She wants something better than that.

“Ava,” Nathaniel says. “Please. I want you to be my wife.”

Ava teeters. She wobbles. This is her heart’s one desire for Christmas coming true. Coming true after all.

Suddenly, Scott appears in the doorway of the dining room. His hair is mussed, and his tie hangs loose. Ava thinks of how he came rushing out of the parking lot without a winter coat just to check on her. How he stopped by the Bar to take her home. How he looks at her and she feels like she is the most beautiful, desirable woman in the universe.

“No,” she says to Nathaniel.

“Oh, baby, come on!” Nathaniel says.

“No,” she says. “Now get up, please.”

“Ava,” he says, “I know you want this.”

“I don’t,” she says. “Please stand up.”

“Nathaniel,” Scott says, suddenly sounding like Assistant Principal Skyler, “stand up.”

Nathaniel’s head swivels around. He sees Scott, and recognition comes into his eyes. He gets to his feet.

“I’ll walk you to the door,” Scott says.

Kevin and Isabelle go to bed first. Isabelle looks utterly exhausted, the kind of exhausted only known to pregnant women in their first trimester. She kisses Margaret on both cheeks and thanks her for the wonderful dinner. It’s the first meal she’s managed to keep down in weeks, she says.

“I’ll take that as a sign that my future grandchild likes my cooking,” Margaret says.

Jennifer takes the kids upstairs to one of the rooms at the inn and puts them to bed. Patrick follows behind her, but first he stops to give Margaret a long hug.

“I’ll give you Hollis Chambers’s number in the morning,” Margaret says. “I’ve always got your back.”

“I know you do, Mom,” he says.

“You’re my golden boy,” she says.

“But not anymore,” he says.

“Oh, honey,” she says. “Yes, you are. Forever you are.”

Nathaniel leaves, and then a little while later, Scott bids everyone good-bye.

Margaret says to Ava, “Are you okay, honey?”

Ava sits down at the piano and starts to play “While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night,” very softly. The fire crackles, the tree shimmers. Kelley is laid out lengthwise on the sofa, his feet in Margaret’s lap. She thinks she sees snowflakes out the window. It would be a nice way to end Christmas, with a light, pretty snowfall. Maybe Margaret can take the kids sledding tomorrow.

She stands up and goes over to the window to check.

Yes, snow!

Ava says, “This one is for you, Daddy.” She starts to play “Silent Night.”

Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright

Margaret sings into the cold window; her breath fogs up the pane.

Round yon virgin mother and child, holy infant so tender and mild

Kelley says to Margaret, “So, Maggie, how long do you think you’ll stay?”

Margaret pulls the paper angel out of her pocket and presses it to her chest. This time with Kelley has been magical. She has spent the last twenty-four hours in a state of delirious happiness, and they brought closure to certain issues-they are the best of friends, and they will always love each other. Who knows, they may even decide to be buried together. But when Margaret replays Ava’s question, So, are you two getting back together, or what?- Margaret thinks, No. It will never work out. The same thing will happen. Margaret will become absorbed in her work, and Kelley will resent it.