Page 158 of The Twelve Months of Christmas
Not to mention a mother-in-law, who was determined to take control of the situation. “Help her up!” Jeanette commanded.
Both Harry and Sunny’s dad rushed to help. Her father caught his foot on a wrapped box and fell into the pile of presents. Harry tripped over him.
Travis turned into a soccer player, kicking gift bags out of the way. “Don’t panic. We gotcha.”
“Let’s just give this a moment,” Alden said, but Molly knew that wouldn’t be happening.
“I can’t have the baby here in the middle of the presents,” Sunny protested.
“Gross,” said Dylan, making a face.
Suny grabbed her belly. “Aaaah.”
“Breathe, babe,” Travis said, and demonstrated what they’d learned in their childbirth class. “Where are my car keys?”
“They’re in your pocket,” Sunny told him. “Will you get me out of here?”
“We’re going. Right now,” he said, and took her arm and escorted her through the crowd.
Ten minutes later a parade of cars was racing to the hospital.
An hour later the same cars were sedately making their way back to Molly’s house. False alarm.
But two days later it was the real thing, and after ten hours of labor, Sunny and Travis welcomed baby Linette into the world.
“They named her after me,” Jeanette told Molly as they stood in front of the nursery window.
Linette... Jeanette. Right. Molly nodded politely.
Of course, Linette was the most beautiful baby ever, and Bella was busy taking babysitting classes at the Y so she could be ready the second she was needed.
Come April, baby Linette had enough Easter dresses—gifts from family members as well as friends who all had been dubbed honorary aunties—to keep her fashionable the entire week before Easter Sunday. Santa Bunny made another appearance for the Christmas-in-Easter celebration, which delighted Paisley and Sophie. Sunny was delighted to see her stepdaughter actually posing for a picture this time around. Looking disgusted and embarrassed but at least she posed, and that was good enough for Sunny.
Arianna watched it all, smiled and wished her mother were present. “Resurrection,” she repeated often to herself. New life. And once in a while she could almost hear her mother whispering, “I’ll see you in Heaven.”
Mother’s Day was hard, but Arianna forced herself to concentrate on the fact that she had a wonderful future mother-in-law in her life. Alden’s family pulled her into their circle, and on Mother’s Day she and Sophie were at Red Robin with the rest of the crowd, whooping it up.
“How am I doing, Mom?” she whispered that night before going to sleep.
She got no answer. Mom was probably happily busy, enjoying good health in her new and better life.
Arianna didn’t really need an answer, anyway. She knew she was doing pretty darn good. She still had her teary times, and knew she would for a long while to come, but she also had happy memories to comfort her, and plenty to keep her busy as her online business continued to grow.
There was no Christmas-in-June party because it was time for the next big event—Molly and Reggie’s wedding. He walked slower than he once had, but he was more than able to walk down the aisle with his bride after they said, “I do.”
The guests were made up of Molly’s family and all her friends, but Reggie did have one person present—the cousin he hadn’t seen in years.
“We need to stay in touch,” Lionel told him. “We’re all we got.”
“We got a lot more than just us now,” Reggie told him as he stood with his good arm around Molly, Paisley hanging on to his other arm.
It was going to be a family-style honeymoon, with everyone off to Reggie’s place in Mexico to enjoy the beaches and maybe even some fishing.
“I’m so happy,” Molly told Arianna. “It’s true what they say. Love does make the world go ’round.”
Molly made sure that Arianna caught the bouquet. “Set the date already,” she said, and hugged her before they left.
Yes, set the date. Arianna had sorted through the last of the details of death. Alden was getting ready to sell his house...to his sister. Perfect. What were they waiting for?
