Chapter Twenty-Six
Kent
The city streets were muffled in snow on Christmas morning. Lights twinkled merrily; cars slowed to a crawl as they pulled up and disgorged family members with armfuls of presents, faces of joy and the sounds of laughter. And inside the bay window lit up with the golden glow, in the townhouse on the Upper West Side, the house that looked no different from the outside, it was a new beginning for a family brought together in the most difficult circumstances.
‘Great job wrapping those pigs in blankets, Jack.’ Kent patted his son on the shoulder as he passed by and turned up the volume on the iPod. Bing Crosby’s ‘White Christmas’ filled the kitchen as Jack wrapped the last strip of bacon around a sausage.
‘Thanks, Dad.’
‘Do you think it’s too early?’ Kent held a bottle of champagne aloft.
‘It’s Christmas,’ Jack smiled. ‘Of course it’s not. Take it easy though,’ he warned.
Kent rolled his eyes. ‘As you say, it’s Christmas. But yes, I’ll take it easy.’ He lined up two glasses next to the poinsettia he’d bought on December 8th even though he’d never known the significance before then. The night he’d spent at Nicole’s apartment after Jack had taken Evie home to recover from the shock of the police, the violence that could have been, Nicole had told him more about Noah, and instead of seeing him as the boy who’d killed his wife, Kent had seen him as the son Nicole had lost. He’d wiped away her tears, shared her pain.
‘Every year,’ Nicole had told him, ‘on my birthday, December eighth, Noah bought me a poinsettia plant. It started when he was seven years old, the first time he’d saved up his allowance and chosen something for me himself. He said it was the most beautiful, cheerful plant and it reminded him of me. And he also said it was the start of the Santa season when a poinsettia was in the house,’ she’d smiled.
She’d bought two every year since he’d died—one for her home and one for the Churchills. ‘It felt like Noah was with me every day,’ she’d said.
Now, in the townhouse, Kent poured the champagne and took the glasses through to the living room on a tray. Evie and Nicole were chatting animatedly in front of the fire, their smiles as bright as the flames, as rich in their content. Since the night they’d feared for their lives at the hands of Evie’s uncle, all four of them had bonded in a way Kent never would have foreseen. He’d learned about Evie’s life, what she’d been through, what had driven her to run from home. Evie had learned about Noah, his link to Cynthia, the hurt Jack had felt losing a parent and having the other immerse himself so much in work he forgot what it meant to be a father. It wasn’t about the fancy things, the designer clothes he could buy, the holidays he could pay for or the booming company. It was about the little things, and nothing could be truer today.
‘Oh, tell me we’re not,’ Kent laughed, handing out the champagne when he spied the Twister game box on Nicole’s lap.
‘Oh yes, we are!’ Evie put her champagne glass on the side table and excitedly took the lid from the game, pulled out the mat and the spinner, and with Kent’s help moved the coffee table and the rug. She lay the mat down in the space created just as Jack came back into the room.
‘Pigs in blankets are in the ov … What on earth is going on here?’
‘Just in time.’ Evie dragged him over to the mat. ‘We’ll let Nicole be spinner, seeing as she only has one functioning arm, and the three of us will play.’
Kent tipped his head back and laughed, and as he put a foot on one colour, his left hand on another, he relished the sounds of female giggling that hadn’t been heard in these walls for so long, the sound of his son, happy. And most of all, as Jack fell against Evie and Kent toppled into them both, he relished the simplicity of a family life he had so missed and was looking forward to resurrecting once again.
The family lunch was everything Kent had hoped for: crazy, disorganised, and a whole lot of fun. Nicole had agreed, right there in her apartment that day, she’d actually said ‘yes!’ to being his wife, something he never thought would happen in his wildest dreams. And in a few months, she would move in with him to start their new life together.
Kent unveiled the plum pudding he’d made from scratch this year. Plum pudding for dessert became a tradition the first year Nicole had worked for him, and it had lasted until the first Christmas without her. After that, Kent had barely been able to look at a plum pudding let alone eat it. But this year, it was back, and he was glad he’d made the extra effort.
‘Dad, I’m impressed. No, I’m floored!’
‘Jack,’ Evie admonished.
‘It’s all right, Evie. I’m not exactly domesticated, and I did have a little help.’ He winked at Nicole and picked up the bottle of brandy. He drizzled alcohol across the top of the pudding and let it run down the sides. Then he picked up a box of matches as Nicole closed the drapes and turned off the lights for the full Christmas magic.
The pudding lit up the faces of people brought together this year in circumstances nobody could’ve predicted and a cheer went up around the room.
‘You’ll be cooking at the shelter next,’ Jack laughed as he helped Nicole pass out the plates of plum pudding. ‘How’s it going down there?’
‘It’s going well. I’m on the top of the leader board in darts now.’
‘He’s quite the competitive player,’ Nicole confirmed.
Kent had been helping out for the last few days and had to admit rolling his sleeves up and getting involved was nothing like he’d ever suspected. The regulars were friendly; they all wanted to talk to this new recruit. Some kept their heads down, ate and left. Others thanked him for taking over the lease of the building; some sang Nicole’s praises, much to her embarrassment.
‘Will we be seeing you two there tomorrow night?’ he asked Evie and Jack.
‘You will.’ Jack passed a bowl of dessert to Evie.
Father and son had different lives now. They had two women who completed their world, and instead of working night and day to make more and more money, they had realised the importance, the significance and the pleasure of helping other people, sometimes in the simplest of ways.
As they sat enjoying their dessert, one by one groaning at how much they’d eaten and how full they were, Kent knew he was in a place where he was content. He couldn’t change the past, but he could look to the future, and with Nicole by his side, that was more than he could ever want.
