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Following a moment of shock, Genevieve and Helen both burst into laughter. Genevieve filled her snifter. Willow wrinkled her nose at her mother and aunt. “All right. Maybe I deserve that.”
Helen clapped a hand to her breast. “Maybe? You think? Willow, my love, you have been butting heads with your mother for a decade. She says black. You say white. She says night. You say day.”
“Well, things are changing. I’m changing. My guiding word for the year islisten.”
“A guiding word, hmm?” Helen considered the idea a moment, then nodded. “I like that. Having a guiding word for the year makes more sense than making a resolution you never keep.”
“I keep my resolutions,” Genevieve protested.
“That’s because you only resolve easy things. So whatisyour New Year’s resolution this year, Gen?”
“To exercise every day.”
Helen met Willow’s gaze. “She proves my point.”
“Exercising every day isn’t easy.”
“But you already do it daily. Ergo, it’s an easy resolution.”
Genevieve made an exaggerated roll of her eyes and addressed her daughter. “Have you ever met another person who actually uses the wordergo?”
“One of my professors in college used it.” Willow toasted her aunt. “Here’s to the vocabulary queen. You’ve always inspired me.”
“Thank you.” Helen added an aristocratic nod to her acknowledgment of the compliment. “Maybe I’ll makeergomy word of the year. I’ll use it once a day.”
“I thinkargueis more appropriate,” Genevieve observed.
“I won’t argue that,” Willow quipped.
“Traitor.” Helen exaggerated a scowl toward her niece.
“Not because you’re argumentative, Auntie—”
“Which she is,” Genevieve teased.
“—but because guiding words work better if you can act on them. Ergo”—Willow shot her aunt a grin—“choose a verb.”
“I concede the point.” Helen tapped her index finger against her lips. “Hmm. All right. I think I’ll go withclimb.”
Genevieve and Willow both took a moment to consider it. “Interesting choice,” Genevieve said.
“It suits. It’s uplifting. A friend of mine likes to say that we all can use a little more skyward in our lives. I think she’s right. So this year, I’m going to concentrate on climbing to put a little more sky in my life.”
“And you said you won’t make resolutions.”
Helen gave a nonchalant shrug. “Your turn, Genevieve. Share with the class.”
Genevieve sipped her drink and considered. “I don’t know. I’ll have to think about it. Is there a rule that your guiding word must be chosen by New Year’s?”
Willow shrugged. “There are no guiding-word police.”
“I volunteer for that job,” Helen said, raising her hand. “My first policing act is to declare that yes, you must choose before the little birds coo.”
Genevieve glanced at the clock and winced. She should run upstairs in the next three minutes and grab her earplugs from her nightstand drawer.
“Ticktock, sister.”
“Oh, give me a minute.” Ticktock. That should be Genevieve’s guiding word. However, she knew if she proposed that, Helen would give her grief. She’d already picked up on Genevieve’s birthday bum-out.
