Page 44 of Ten Christmases Without You
“Well, the sluggish response has given me time to organize everything. I was thinking, since you girls are here, maybe it would be a good idea if, instead of packing up your mom’s box of things, you all would like to go through them and take whatever you want.” He nodded toward the box Emmy had dug through last year.
“That’s a good suggestion,” Emmy said, walking over to it.
She pulled back the flaps and peered down at the contents, still folded the way they were this time last year. The shirt had worked out well for her. Her mind went back to the drive with Charlie, and her heart skipped a beat. Maybe she’d see him at Adrienne’s wedding.
Emmy retrieved a pair of trousers and held them up.
“Oh, those are nice,” Madison said. “If you don’t take them, maybe I will.” Her sister squinted at them. “Although, they look more your size than mine.”
Emmy checked the tag. “They’re exactly my size.”
Madison snapped her fingers. “Darn it.”
Emmy eyed her sister, and unspoken words passed between them. They were both keeping things light for their dad, but the gravity of digging through the last of their mother’s things was heavy.
After the funeral, their dad had put on a brave face too, but they’d both heard him at night, sobbing himself to sleep. A couple of times, his grief was so loud that the two of them had climbed into bed with him.
But today, he looked on with nostalgia in his eyes.
Emmy pulled out a skirt. “What about this, Madison? This looks like you.”
“I remember one of the times she wore that,” their father said. “She and I went out for ice cream one sunny Sunday. I can’t remember what I said, but I can still hear her laugh. I thought she was going to drop her ice cream.” He gazed at the garment.
Emmy handed it to her sister. Madison held it up to her waist and shimmied it back and forth. “I love it.”
Emmy wasn’t sure if her sister had meant she loved the skirt or the story.
They kept going through their mother’s things, some of them familiar, some not. Emmy ended up with three more blouses, in addition to the trousers, and Madison had a skirt, two sweaters, and a handful of scarves.
Then, something glittery caught Emmy’s eye. “What’s this?”
She pulled out a dark green beaded clutch that went perfectly with the Garnet & Petticoat dress she was going to wear to the wedding.
Her dad frowned. “I’ve never seen that before. But she was known to buy the odd thing and then never wear it.” He smiled fondly at the handbag. “It was the designer in her. She fell in love with the lines of things or the blend of colors. Sometimes, she bought articles of clothing just because they were too lovely to pass up.”
Emmy claimed it. “I’ll carry it at Adrienne’s wedding. Knowing Mom, she probably would’ve liked someone to get use out of it.”
Emmy was glad she’d be able to take the clutch out on the town for her mother. It seemed awfully glamorous for her mom’s life in Tennessee, and once the cancer had set in, she didn’t get dressed up anymore. Taking the clutch out would be an honor.
Maybe Charlie was right about ten years being a beginning of better times. It was as if her mother was talking to her. The tenth Christmas without her, Emmy had gotten her mother’s dressfrom France. The next Christmas, she wore one of her shirts, and now, Emmy was given her handbag.
What are you trying to tell me, Mom?she wondered. Hopefully, it was her mom letting her know she was there. Maybe she’d give Emmy a little of her confidence.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
TWO DAYS LATER
Emmy set the wedding gift basket down, then hoisted her suitcase onto the hotel bed, unzipped it, pulled the garment bag with the Garnet & Petticoat dress off the top of the pile, and hung it in the closet.
“Leave it to Adrienne to have an enormous wedding,” Madison said as she pushed her suitcase against the wall and opened it. “The whole hotel seems to be here for it. Did you see the huge tables full of gift baskets? I’ll bet there are five hundred people here for the wedding. That’s why there were no luggage carts.”
Emmy put her hands on her hips and took a moment to collect herself. They’d dragged their bags all the way from the car and down the snaking hallways to their third-floor room. “I’m glad she decided to have the wedding in Nashville, though. It’s nice.”
Madison crouched down and lined her shoes against the wall: two pairs of boots, a pair of sneakers, and a pair of high heels. “We were so busy at Dad’s that we haven’t even had time to chat. Have you spoken to Charlie? Is he coming?”
Emmy shook her head. “I haven’t called him in about seven months or so.”
Her sister looked up. “Why?”
