Everyone exhaled.
“The bad news,” she continued, “is that it knocked down several power lines across the main road. So, you’re all kind of stuck here for the foreseeable future. There are downed wires everywhere; they all just blew down about twenty minutes ago.”
“What about Tyler and Emma?” Zoe asked.
“Back home safe and sound. He texted me about ten minutes ago,” Zach confirmed.
Liam’s dad chimed in from the doorway. “The power company says they should have everything cleared soon, but you’ve got to give them a few hours. The wind’s not expected to die down until after eight, so they won’t even begin working on it until then.”
“The good news,” Beth said cheerfully, wiping her hands on her festive snowflake-print apron, “is that lunch is already underway. Kit, would you mind giving me a hand finishing things up?”
“On it, boss!” Kit hopped up and saluted Beth.
“Perfect. Liam and Cassidy, I’m sending you two to fetch the board games. I think they’re in your old bedroom.”
“Alright then…” Liam’s voice was quiet.
Cassidy couldn’t read the look behind his eyes, but she was dying to know what he was thinking.
“Madison and Zach? You get to pick out the movies.”
“Perfect,” Madison said, clapping her hands. “Let’s go.” She stood up and pulled Zach by the hand, disappearing into the living room.
Liam nodded for Cassidy to follow him.
Beth’s love for Christmas décor continued in the living room. Cassidy was liking her more and more by the second. The room was adorned with evergreen, there was red ribbon along the mantel, and checkered flannel throw pillows sat on the brown leather sofas with Christmas quilts draped over the backs. A large spruce dominated the corner of the room, drawing her eye.
“Careful there, don’t get too close,” Liam warned.
“Ha, don’t worry, I won’t touch the tree. It’s just… look at these ornaments, they’re so beautiful.” She reached out to touch one of the glass-blown bulbs. It was a dark metallic blue. Liam’s name was scripted on the front of it, hand-painted white along with a snowflake.
“Those are a family tradition. My parents started it when they got married.” He pointed to the top of the tree, where she could see a green bulb with the name “Tom” painted on it. Next to it was a red bulb with “Beth” scrawled across it.
“Then came Jackson and me.” Liam pointed to his blue bulb and Jackson’s gold one. “And then Lily.” He pointed to a purple bulb at the bottom.
“You didn’t tell me you had a sister.”
Liam smirked. “Well, I just met you, so there’s a lot of stuff I haven’t told you.”
Cassidy supposed that was true. Still, she loved looking at the bulbs and learning the tradition behind them. She missed this, this sense of family, of having traditions that you passed down from year to year.
Grand-maman had always tried to make Christmas special. Even after everything changed, after the hospital, the quieter holidays over the next few years, the casseroles brought over byneighbors with sad eyes, who knew what this time of year meant for them. She still lit the Advent candles and played old French carols, made hot cocoa from scratch and insisted on reading’Twas the Night Before Christmas.
But it hadn’t been the same.
Cassidy had missed her parents every single day for the past eighteen years, but especially at Christmas. The memories were so distant, but she remembered her mother’s laughter as she burned the sugar cookiesagain, the way her dad would lift her up to put the star on the tree. She remembered the way they’d all pile into the car to look at Christmas lights, her dad humming along to the radio while she and her brother voted for which house they loved best. These were her fondest family memories. The ones she missed the most.
She missed how safe it had felt, how warm, howwhole.
And once Grand-maman had passed, Cassidy had been left with a strange silence where tradition used to be. Many of the old ones had gone with her, and there hadn’t been anyone left to carry them on.
So, Cassidy made new ones. Small ones. Like her Christmas movie checklist, and her rotating lineup of hot cocoa flavors.
“Don’t ask what happened to Hunter…” Liam added.
Cassidy’s eyes got wide. “What? What happened to Hunter?”
“Lily called off the wedding. Smashed his bulb into a million pieces. The look on my mother’s face.” Liam shook his head. “It was priceless.”
