Page 26 of Ten Christmases Without You
“Think it’ll fit me?”
Madison shrugged. “There’s only one way to find out.”
Emmy folded it over her arm and took it into the bathroom. She closed the door and then lifted the garment to her nose hoping to smell her mother, but the scent had long disappeared. She shrugged off her T-shirt and carefully slipped her mother’s shirt over her head. The cool fabric slid down over her body as she wiggled into it.
Her reflection startled her. The color brought out her dark hair and green eyes. She squinted at the image in front of her. While her sister favored her mother more, she could almost see a resemblance.
“How does it fit?” Madison called from the hallway.
Emmy opened the door, and her sister gasped. “It’s perfect,” Emmy said.
“I can’t believe how well it fits.”
Their dad peeked his head into the bathroom and put his hand to his heart. “Wow. You sure do look like your mother in that.” He blinked. “I can’t believe it. It’s as if I’ve gone back in time.”
The doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it,” Madison said. “If it’s Charlie, we’ll keep him busy. Go finish getting ready.” She grabbed their father’s arm and led him toward the staircase.
Emmy fluffed her hair, added a bit of her new lip gloss, grabbed the envelope, and then rushed up to the loft to switch her pajama bottoms for a pair of jeans. When she was dressed and ready, she headed downstairs with her mother’s designs. She would slip them into her sketchpad that she’d left in the living room, waiting for the right moment to show her dad what she’d drawn.
Charlie, Madison, and her dad were sitting on the sofa across from a to-go cup carrier full of paper coffee cups. Charlie was mid-sentence when he trailed off, his eyes landing on Emmy.
“Hey,” he said, standing up.
Madison and their dad followed suit.
“I promised my mom coffee, so I grabbed you all some as well. It’s just regular. I wasn’t sure what to get,” Charlie said. He gestured toward the cups.
“Thank you.” She tried to play it cool while feeling like a young girl again in his presence.
It was so good to see him. His hair was a little shorter. Had he gotten it cut recently? And he looked fitter.More exercise over the last year would’ve been a good idea, she thought. She hoped her face didn’t reveal how happy she was that he’d made it to Tennessee.
“Dad and I are going to make some breakfast with Aunt Charlotte. She’s already making a potato casserole, and Aunt Elsie’s rounding up the others. Y’all want to eat?” Madison asked, picking up the coffees and pushing their dad toward the hinged doors between the living room and the kitchen.
“Are you hungry?” Emmy asked Charlie. “I am.”
“I don’t want to be any trouble,” he replied.
“It’s no trouble at all,” Madison said. “Eat.”
“Okay then.”
When Madison and her dad went into the kitchen to talk to the others, Emmy stood opposite Charlie in the quiet living room.
“What’s that?” He pointed to the envelope under her arm.
“Oh, these are my mother’s designs. We found them in some of her things.”
“May I see?” Charlie asked.
“I haven’t even seen them yet. Want to look at them together?”
“Sure.”
They sat down on the sofa. Emmy slid her finger under the envelope’s flap and pinched the pieces of paper inside. Slowly, she slid them out, and her breath caught when she saw the first sketch. She ran her hand down the line drawing of a slim, elegant silhouette of a woman in a classic, mid-century tea-length dress. It was cinched at the waist, emphasizing the hourglass figure, with a full skirt that fanned out gracefully. The soft shading and light watercolor indicated her mother’s preference for a luxurious silk or maybe taffeta.
Charlie leaned over her shoulder. “She was talented.”
