AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Sophie fell into the immaculate house, jumping from Oriana to Reese, to their daughter, Alexa, to Sam, to Derek. Hugs were given, and backs were clapped. Someone went to the kitchen to fetch her and Patrick glasses of sparkling water with lemon, and her father cracked a beer. Light shimmered through the floor-to-ceiling windows, which illustrated a gorgeous view of the ocean just beyond, and a massive Christmas tree towered over them, nearly scraping the top of the ceiling in the cathedral-like room. Sophie had been raised in a wealthy Nantucket family, but this was something else. This was Manhattan money.
“Aunt Sophie! Aunt Sophie!”
Sophie turned toward the sound of her name and watched as Nellie and Frankie burst from the hallway. They could have been twins, with their slender and long arms and legs and their large, animated eyes. Sophie collected them both into a single, enormous hug, remembering the first time she’d ever held them as babies. Katrina had watched her like a hawk, terrified she’d drop them.
“Hey, Patrick!” Nellie said, raising a hand to give him a high five. “What’s up?”
“How’s your first Coleman Family New Year’s?” Frankie asked jokingly.
Patrick smiled nervously and placed his hand on Sophie’s lower back. “So far so good. Should I be worried about anything coming my way later?”
Nellie and Frankie gave one another mischievous smiles.
“Uh-oh,” Patrick joked.
Just then, Derek appeared through the crowd, carrying a light beer. After greeting Sophie warmly, he clapped Patrick on the shoulder and said, “Come with me, sir. Sports. Three televisions’ worth. You won’t believe the resolution on these screens.”
Patrick laughed. “I’ll catch you later, Soph?”
In his eyes, Sophie recognized the question at hand. When would they announce the engagement? And how? There had to be at least one hundred and fifty people here.
Sophie raised her shoulders, and Patrick’s smile widened. They’d figure it out. Eventually.
Just as soon as the crowd swallowed Patrick and Derek, Sophie asked her nieces, “Where’s your mother?”
Nellie and Frankie led Sophie past the Christmas tree, through a side room in which a record player echoed John Denver songs, and through another hallway that shot them into the kitchen. There, Ida leaned against the kitchen counter, holding a glass of wine and nodding along to a story told by Meghan, Oriana’s sister. Beside Meghan was Margorie Tomlinson, the novelist, who tugged her hair nervously. It was as though she worried everyone hated her because of what she’d tried to do to Estelle.
“Oh!” Ida spotted Sophie and interrupted Meghan. “I’m sorry, Meg. I just have to hug my sister really quickly.” Ida draped her arms over Sophie, bringing with her a wave of Santal 33, the very expensive perfume Ida swore by. “I heard you were at the hospital today. How was it?”
Sophie wrinkled her nose and returned her gaze to Meghan. “What were you saying, Meghan?”
But Meghan waved her hand. “I was just telling your sister about our upcoming trip to Mexico. Hugo surprised me with it on Christmas morning!”
“Goodness,” Sophie said. “When do you go?”
“Tomorrow,” Meghan said.
“Wow! Spontaneous!” Sophie said.
“It’s been a long time since Hugo and I could call ourselves spontaneous,” Meghan offered. “But now that we’re empty nesters who work for ourselves, I see no reason we can’t be. Tomorrow, Mexico. This spring, Paris? It’s a new era!”
Meghan turned to refill a glass of wine for herself, breezily asking Margorie a question about her recent writing process. Nellie and Frankie sped off to join their second cousins elsewhere, leaving Ida and Sophie alone with one another—a rare thing, especially around the holidays, when the Colemans swarmed.
“I thought we used to be busy around the holidays,” Sophie joked now.
“Right? Now that we have another whole side of the family, things are getting out of hand,” Ida joked.
Sophie sipped her sparkling water and smiled, studying Ida’s face. At forty-three, she had very few lines, and her hair had only a few wisps of gray throughout, adding a touch of wisdom to her glowing beauty. Sophie had always felt inferior compared to Ida. Ida was brilliant. She’d been a star student, the captain of multiple academic and sporting teams, and a state finalist in track and field. As far as Sophie knew, Ida hadn’t so much as smoked a cigarette in her life. She hadn’t touched drugs. She normally stopped after two glasses of wine. She was a foreign creature to Sophie. But Sophie wasn’t sure she loved anyone in the world more.
Under her breath, Sophie admitted, “Mom’s acting weird.”
Ida’s eyes darkened. “I had no idea you would be at the hospital together all day long. I would have come up, but Nellie, Frankie, and I had plans.”
“It’s okay. I guess.” Sophie sighed. “I woke up this morning feeling over the moon, you know? I wanted to be there when Grandma Agatha woke up. I wanted to celebrate this brand-new year. But Mom took one look at me, and it was like I was seventeen years old again.”
“Mom is terrifying when she gets like that,” Ida agreed, although Sophie couldn’t imagine a time when Katrina had looked at Ida the same way. Her golden daughter.
“I just thought, you know, that Mom would finally see how much better I’ve been,” Sophie murmured. “I thought she’d finally see my recovery for what it is.”
