Page 8 of A Winter's Miracle

“As you can see, she’ll become a mother any day now. We’re all quite excited.”

Smith remained wordless, although his eyes flickered. Julia struggled to read him.

“And walking with her is Anna’s friend,” Julia said, stuttering with the lie.

“A friend?” Smith arched his eyebrow, sensing something wrong. Anna was only twenty-four, after all. What was she doing, being friends with a woman old enough to be her mother?

“She was engaged to her son,” Julia explained.

“Past tense,” Smith observed.

“Unfortunately, yes. There was a tragedy.”

Smith leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. A flash of humanity came into his eyes, and he remained rapt, watching Anna and Violet out the window. Violet held her hand over Anna’s stomach, and her eyes shone. This was the grandson she’d never thought she’d be allowed to have. It was a blessing.

“Your daughter is a writer?” Smith asked.

“Yes.” Julia was surprised Smith knew anything about Anna. “She writes travel articles for local newspapers and magazines.”

Smith coughed. “She’s better than the publications she writes for.”

“You’ve read her stuff?”

Smith waved his hand and returned his attention to the manuscript on the desk. “I’m going to write about the events of my fifteenth year next,” he stated, his tone cold and difficult to read.

Julia caught her breath. When Smith was fifteen, he’d been kicked out of his mother’s house after his mother’s (now ex) boyfriend admitted he “couldn’t stand the kid.” He’d threatened to leave Smith’s mother if Smith didn’t leave first. This meant Smith had spent six months mostly homeless, working odd jobs and getting by on the goodwill of others. When Smith had first shared these tidbits from his past, Julia had had to fight the urge not to throw her arms around him and take him home to be cared for properly.

Why was it that some people were born into such difficult circumstances? Why was life so often about the luck of the draw?

After Smith returned to his bedroom to get started on his new pages, Julia padded downstairs to find Anna and Violet at the kitchen table with mugs of steaming tea. Violet was in the midst of a story about Dean when he was a kid, which made Anna laugh.

“You should have seen him, Anna,” Violet said. “He was the most gorgeous little toddler, but he didn’t know how to behave! You never would have thought that, meeting him later. He was such a gentleman.”

With Julia in the kitchen, Anna perked up. “Mom! This is Violet. And Violet, this is my mother.”

“Call me Julia,” she said, reaching out to shake Violet’s hand.

But before the handshake was over, Violet was on her feet, her smile enormous, her curls bouncing. She cradled Julia in her arms the way you might a friend you hadn’t seen in a few years.

“I’m so pleased to be here!” Violet cried. “Anna has told me so much about you.”

“Welcome,” Julia said, taking a seat at the table. “How was your Christmas?”

Violet waved her hand, and Julia felt a jolt of grief. This was the first Christmas Violet had spent without her son. There were no words for how miserable it had probably been.

“Anna said you had just about every Copperfield under the sun here at the house,” Violet said. “Dean just adored the family values of this little island. I could have seen him moving someplace like this to raise his son. He was never fond of the hustle and bustle of a bigger city. Even Seattle was too much for him, sometimes.”

Violet spoke with the authority of a woman who still wanted to know her son better than anyone. She spoke as though Dean had known Anna was pregnant before his death. Anna’s eyes flashed.

Julia poured herself a mug of tea and sat down with her daughter and the woman who should have been Anna’s mother-in-law. Violet continued to smile at her. She was practically beaming. Julia guessed her cheeks were aching, that she was overdoing it, perhaps out of politeness.

“Anna was just telling me about how the pregnancy has gone,” Violet said after a pause, her smile still plastered across her face. “She says it’ll be any day now.”

“You should see the presents Violet brought me,” Anna said, puffing out her cheeks. “You went way too far!”

“It’s not every day a woman becomes a grandmother for the first time,” Violet assured her. “Your mother knows that, too.”

Something in Anna’s eyes gave Julia pause. “You’re so generous. I’d love to see what you brought,” Anna said.

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