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“Not great, Gretch! I have worked all my life to be enough for something, to be more than the former mayor’s daughter, more than perfect Gretchen’s sister. To stand on my own feet, without anyone else taking credit for my accomplishments. You both have such successful lives, great relationships, perfect children. How was I supposed to live up to that? I love to plan and make lists and I loved the festival as a kid, dreamed of planning it, so that’s what I did. I planned festivals with the goal of coming back here and planning the best damn festival Holly Ridge has ever seen. And then they threw in the whole save-the-town element and I thought to myself ‘Perfect! Here’s my own personal Greene family legacy!’ But now, I haven’t saved the town, I haven’t planned the perfect festival, and once again, I’m here on Christmas Eve, alone, as the eternal seventh wheel.”
Gretchen and my dad blinked at me in shock. They were so used to me running on the positive side of the emotional spectrum that this swing to the negative and admittedly self-deprecating was out of character for me.
Gretchen again entered the fray first.
“Did you know that being a lawyer wasn’t my idea or my dream? At some point in time, people just started suggesting I would be a lawyer when I grew up. Maybe it was my grades, or the way I would argue loopholes and points, but suddenly, it was just assumed this was the path I should take. It’s worked out and I’m okay with where life took me, but I never had the guts or passion to tell life where I was going to go like you do. I see you, Blaire, at these festivals and I can tell how fulfilled you feel with where you’ve plotted out your path. I’m sorry you’ve felt compared to me your whole life. We can blame the small-town, little-sister dynamic for that. But I have never believed that you wouldn’t be something all on your own, something that you achieved through your own hard work and fortitude.”
I sat and digested that for a moment. I had never known that being a lawyer wasn’t Gretchen’s dream. In that moment, I felt lucky that no one’s expectations had shaped what I wanted. They had only made me work harder to get to where I wanted to be.
“You know, I always regretted I didn’t do more to try to bridge the gap between Holly Ridge and Winterberry Glen when I was mayor,” Dad said slowly. “A feud that started over something as silly and simple as a misdelivered Christmas tree. Half of my job as mayor was just listening to individuals complain about or disparage Winterberry Glen and the people that came from it. It’s something that really wears on you after a while.”
“Wow, Dad. Definitely sounds like you have some melancholy to work through too, but maybe we should let Blaire have this moment?” Gretchen said, taking a big gulp of her wine.
Dad laughed gently.
“It is related to the moment, I promise. I was just thinking that maybe the way to save Holly Ridge isn’t to dread a partnership with Winterberry Glen, but rather to embrace it.”
That got the wheels turning in my head.
“You might be right, Dad. Not everyone in the town would go for it right away, but if the towns were able to work together, it may mean that Holly Ridge and some of our traditions would be able to carry on, even if a merger has to happen. It may be time for a grand gesture.”
Dad nodded his approval.
“And that would be something no Greene, and no one from Holly Ridge, has ever done before.”
“Grandpa, can you come into the kitchen please?!” Hollis yelled from the next room.
Dad took the last swig of his drink and stood up. “Duty calls,” he said, walking out of the room to see what sort of Christmas emergency needed his attention now.
Gretchen remained on the couch, looking at me intently, seeming to wait until Dad was out of earshot.
“As for your seventh wheel comment, come on, spill. What happened with Cole?”
I felt the flame that had lit in my chest at the thought of another avenue to try to save Holly Ridge flicker and go out at the mention of Cole’s name.
“Cole? That was nothing. Just some moments that fizzled into absolutely nothing.”
Gretchen put on her “I’m the big sister and I know best” face, rolling her eyes and obviously not believing me.
“Maybe try again, Blaire. Susie may be a steel vault when it comes to town gossip, but even she cracks open when she’s worried about one of her own. She told me he was looking for you a few days ago, that you came back down from the apartment separately, and he looked pretty crushed. So, what happened?”
“Oh, you know, the usual. Girl meets boy, girl and boy hate each other, hate turns into heated attraction that leads to some pretty potent physical chemistry, boy doesn’t believe in girl and tries to solve girl’s problems for her, and then boy is moving away and there was never going to be any longevity there anyway. So, what does it matter? It wasn’t real.”
Gretchen smirked as she sipped her wine.
“Wow, you’ve got it bad.”
“What? No, I don’t. If anything is bad, it’s him for trying to get me a job with the state to plan festivals and—”
“Oh, he wanted to get you a job at the place he was moving to, so you would no longer be under a state contract that says you can’t be together and instead have a chance to continue what you started? Yup, that’s really horrible of him.”
“Well, what about the fact that he hates Christmas and Holly Ridge?”
“You mean he hates them so much that he willingly spent additional unnecessary time with you at a Christmas festival that takes place in the very town he claims to hate?”
Leave it to Gretchen to cut right through the clouded vision I had of Cole’s actions and shine the light on a different perspective. Damn lawyers. And damn Susie for not living up to her reputation of not gossiping around town. She must threaten to ban people from Jitters if they reveal their source.
“Sounds like maybe Winterberry Glen isn’t the only one who deserves a grand gesture.”
