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“You have two minutes. It’s almost midnight.”
“Okay… okay. My word is…”Old.Decrepit.Over-the-hill. Not verbs.Fade.Shrivel. No, Helen would slap her upside the head if she rolled that out.
Genevieve would have to pick something halfway positive, or her sister and daughter would bug her the entire year.
“Ticktock, ticktock, ticktock.”
Genevieve shot her sister a look. “Murder.”
“Har har.”
“Okay.” Genevieve went with the next verb that popped into her head. “Breathe.”
“Breathe?” Helen pursed her lips and considered it, then nodded. “That’s acceptable. A bit zen-ish for you. More like something I’d choose.”
“I’m so glad you approve,” Genevieve deadpanned as the minute hand reached its zenith.
The cuckoo clocks began to chime. One after the other, not in rhythm. Not in unison. Eight of them. An entire flock of cuckoo clocks ushering in the New Year.
“Happy New Year!” Helen crowed.
Genevieve covered her ears with her hands. “I’m changing my guide word.”
“Too late,” Helen declared.
“No, it’s not too late. The birds are still screeching.”
Willow laughed. “She has a point, Auntie. What’s your word, Mom?”
Genevieve needed peace and quiet. She needed her aching, aging joints to stop screaming at her. She needed the freight train speeding toward her that was her upcoming birthday to stop blowing its whistle so loud!
She wanted the damned birds marking the time to shut the hell up.
“Muffle!” she exclaimed. “My guiding word for the next year ismuffle!”
Into the silence that marked the New Year, her sister said, “Seriously, Genevieve? And here we’ve all believed that I was the one who’s gone cuckoo.”
Willow awoke on New Year’s Day to the sound of Drew picking on his sister.Oh, joy.
No surprise, really. He’d be grumpy in the aftermath of the nightmare. The best thing Willow could do for everyone was to find a distraction fast.
Quickly and quietly so as to avoid waking her mother and aunt, Willow bundled the children up and headed out. Their destination was Raindrop Lodge and Cabins Resort, the lakeside property purchased and renovated by her mother and aunt over the past year. Since Genevieve’s three-bedroom home couldn’t comfortably sleep everyone, Raindrop had served as overflow lodging space for Willow’s siblings during their holiday visit. Maybe one of them would be up early, too, and provide Drew with a distraction from his mood. If not, well, she and the kids could take a hike through the woods until the family began to gather. Today, the Prentices planned to assemble at Raindrop for a traditional New Year’s Day dinner and a football-watching party. Everyone would go their separate ways tomorrow.
Willow had mixed feelings about the ending of the holidays. She’d survived Christmas again, not an easy feat considering all the bad-marriage baggage the season ushered in with its red-and-green cheer. But once she’d soldiered through December 25, and excepting Drew’s nightmare last night, she and the kids had a fabulous time.
Honestly, Willow dreaded going home. She was happy here. The kids were happy here. On Christmas morning, Drew had said Nana’s house was the best place on earth, and he wanted to stay forever. Emma had enthusiastically agreed.
“So why are we leaving?” Willow wondered aloud as they arrived at the Raindrop property. Maybe the time had come to put Nashville in their rearview mirror.
She turned her rental car off the main road leading to the lodge and headed for the dozen or so small log cabins snuggled in the woods where her sibs were staying. Neither Jake’s nor Lucas’s place showed signs of life, but a golden glow in the window of Cabin 8 suggested that her sister was awake. Upon noting the footsteps in the fresh snow, Willow concluded that Brooke had gone on her customary morning run.
After making the loop past the cabins, Willow continued on to the lodge and pulled to a stop in the parking lot beside it. The kids bailed out and ran over to a snowdrift, where they began making ammunition for the snowball fight their uncles had promised. It was a beautiful morning, cold but clear and almost windless, with only a handful of puffy white clouds floating against a bright blue sky. Willow watched her children with joy in her heart and, for the first time, seriously considered the idea of relocating her family to Lake in the Clouds.
It was time to make a move. She was ready. The kids were ready. But where should they settle? What would be best for the children? Heading home to Texas was an option. It would do Drew and Emma good to be around their aunt and uncles. Also, their father’s parents lived in Texas. Willow had a decent enough relationship with Maggie and TomEldridge, though it had been difficult since Andy’s death, given they’d never revealed knowledge of their son’s sins, and Willow had no intention of cluing them in. Honestly, she liked having a few state borders between her and her children’s paternal grandparents.
Willow was distracted from her musings by the arrival of her siblings and her brother Jake’s fiancée, Tess, and the snowball fight that ensued. It wasn’t until midafternoon with the family congregated in the lodge’s second-floor media room to watch the grudge-match game between Texas A&M and the University of Texas that she had another moment to herself to think.
Halfway through the first quarter, Drew looked at his mother with puppy-dog eyes. “Will you make the cheese dip now, Mom? I’m hungry.”
