Page 12 of The Healing of Christmas

Louise peered at Peter with distrust in her eyes. It was a classic story of a small-town woman versus a big-city guy. “Who are you?”

“Mom, this is Peter,” Charlotte interrupted. “He’s my fiancé.”

Peter raised his lips into a smile. Charlotte tried to detect any sense of fear or lack of confidence in his face, but there was nothing. “Pleasure to meet you, Ms. Summers,” he said, extending his hand to shake. “This is a beautiful inn. Charlotte has told me so much about it.”

Louise’s cheeks were pink. Nobody was immune to Peter O’Shean’s charms.

“Please,” she said. “Come in.”

Peter stepped into the foyer of the inn, where Charlotte wrapped her arms around him and burrowed her face in his chest. He smelled like the crisp snow and wintry air. Only a whiff of the city and its gas fumes and garbage remained. Not for the first time, Charlotte imagined convincing Peter to move out to White Plains after they got married. Although he dressed like a businessman, he was more-or-less between jobs at the moment. Perhaps he could help Grandma and Grandpa out at the inn for a while. Perhaps he could use that shatteringly special intellect and boost the inn’s revenue into the stratosphere.

If Charlotte was honest with herself, she’d run off to the city for reasons that were no longer clear to her. She’d longed for a big, wild, impossible life. But before she’d met Peter, she’d felt aimless and very lonely. She’d eaten a diet of bad pasta and street pizza, and she’d felt her dreams slipping through her fingers.

“Who is this, then?” Grandpa Hank smiled at Peter as he strode through the living room.

“Apparently, this is Charlotte’s fiancé,” Louise said, crossing her arms over her chest. She watched Peter’s every move as though she suspected he was about to take a log from the fireplace and set the rest of the inn ablaze.

“Goodness!” Grandpa Hank enveloped Peter in a hug as Grandma Dee jumped up and down, showing more energy than most women her age. “Isn’t that something to celebrate?”

After that, there was chaos for a few minutes. Cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents rushed around the room, hugging Charlotte and Peter and congratulating them on this “enormous and beautiful step.” Charlotte heard Peter’s voice over everyone else’s, thanking them with that firm and stoic tone she loved so much. That voice had nourished her in the lonely city; it had been something to hang onto in the storm.

As the congratulations died down, Grandpa Hank placed his hands on his hips and heaved a very happy sigh. Across the table, Charlotte wrapped her arm around Peter’s waist and matched her grandfather’s grin. She felt, in bringing Peter home as a surprise, she’d accomplished something. She’d proven herself worthy.

“Your fiancé was just showing us her gorgeous illustrations,” Grandpa Hank said, gesturing toward the paintings between them on the table. “She’s so talented, isn’t she?”

“She is,” Peter said. “I’ve watched her spend many nights working. Sometimes, she abandons her schoolwork and just paints and paints.” He laughed.

“It’s true,” Charlotte said. “And then, I have to scramble to catch back up.”

“It won’t matter next year,” Grandpa Hank went on. “After this book comes out, you’ll be a world-famous children’s writer. You can quit school and travel the world.”

“Don’t tell her to quit school,” Grandma Dee teased. “Education is important.”

Charlotte laughed. “I haven’t decided what I’ll do if the book gets successful. I’m just going to enjoy the ride.”

“Good plan,” Grandma Dee said.

“That’s right,” Peter continued. “It’s just a children’s book, you know?”

Peter’s comment hung heavy in the air for a moment.

“What do you mean?” Rudy asked finally, his smile still plastered on his face.

“I mean,” Peter continued, “if it was a big literary accomplishment, maybe Charlotte would consider dropping out of school. But it’s just a bunch of paintings for kids, you know? It's probably better to set her sights higher. Right, Charlotte?”

Charlotte felt as though she’d been smacked. Similar to Rudy, she kept her smile firm. “That’s probably right,” she said. “Just a children’s book. It’s not going to break any intellectual records. It definitely won’t win a Nobel Prize!” Charlotte laughed extra-hard, wanting to let her family know she was in on the joke. That she agreed with Peter.

“Well,” Grandma Dee said, then cleared her throat. “Why don’t we sit down in the dining room? I have some snacks prepared.”

Quietly, Rudy, Bethany, a few aunts and uncles turned on their heels and headed for the dining room. Charlotte laced her fingers through Peter’s and smiled up at him. “Isn’t this place just magical?”

“Charlotte?” Louise interjected. “Could you help me in the kitchen for a second?”

Charlotte locked eyes with her mother. Her mother’s expression was hard as stone. “I’ll be right back,” she told Peter. “Wait for me in the dining room, okay?”

Charlotte followed her mother into her grandparents’ apartment, which was attached to the inn. Her mother and her mother’s siblings had been raised in the apartment, which had allowed Grandpa and Grandma to breeze in and out of their home and work life as they pleased. There had been no such thing as work-life balance.

In the kitchen of the apartment, Louise pulled an apple pie from the oven.

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