Page 29 of A Winter's Miracle

Smith’s face drooped, and he got to his feet, stretching out his arm to fetch his empty beer. “That’s a story for another time,” he said softly. He then pressed the screen door open and gazed back at her. Because of the moonlight, his skin looked silver. “Maybe we can do this again?”

Anna nodded. “I’d like that.”

And with that, Smith was gone.

Chapter Thirteen

Ella and Will’s band was featured at an iconic music venue in the Lower East Side in mid-February. Most of the Copperfield clan planned a spontaneous trip to the city to see them perform, packing up their suitcases, making dinner reservations, and speaking in circles about what touristy things to do. Because Adam was less than a full month old, Anna told Julia that she knew she was out. Julia’s heart felt bruised. She promised her daughter she would remain behind, too. But Anna begged her to go. “You’ve been working so hard,” she said. “Take Charlie and go to the city. You deserve it.”

A few days before the big trip to Manhattan, Julia met with Smith in her office to review another selection of pages. Like usual, Luka slept at Smith’s feet as Smith discussed his reasoning for specific scenes—why he showed his mother as “kind” in one scene, only to have her kindness drop out in the next. Julia had come to learn that Smith had upward of ten official and unofficial stepfathers, most of whom had been tremendously cruel. Smith also waffled with how to portray his half brother and explained that he wanted to protect his brother’s identity at all costs.

When they finished the meeting, Julia asked Smith why he wasn’t going to Manhattan with the rest of the Copperfields and the other artists. “You lived in the city for years before you came to The Copperfield House,” she said. “Don’t you miss it?”

“I don’t miss it at all,” Smith confessed with a wry laugh. “I know that sounds strange. But so many things changed in my childhood all the time. I could never count on anything to stay the same. I think I untrained the muscle in your brain that allows you to miss something.”

Julia burned to ask him if Smith would miss Anna after he left The Copperfield House. Everyone knew they were thick as thieves. Yet every time Julia brought this up with Anna, Anna maintained they were “just friends.”

It was difficult to read Violet’s take on the matter. That afternoon, Julia met Violet in the kitchen to go over Violet’s recent work on the wedding and catch up. Now that Anna’s breast milk had come in and she was nursing full-time, Violet had backed off on giving unsolicited parenting advice. This was a relief for everyone. Plus, she was too distracted with Julia’s wedding to notice fully when Anna did something that wasn’t completely “Violet-approved.” This was yet another blessing.

Somehow, they’d fallen into a rhythm with one another. Yet Julia was always watching, waiting for it to fall apart again. The foundation was rocky.

Alana entered the kitchen to grab a diet soda. “More wedding planning?” she asked as she popped open the can.

“It’s never complete till the day after,” Violet assured her.

“You might have to plan mine!” Alana said. “Jeremy has all these dreams for it. But my first wedding was so iconic. It’s difficult for me not to compare.” She sighed and gazed through space thoughtfully, remembering her long-lost time of grandeur. Although Julia knew she was very happy with Jeremy, Alana always found reasons to bring up her past.

“I think we can make it just as iconic,” Violet said, scribbling something down on her notepad. Julia had long since given up on reading her handwriting.

“There they are again,” Alana said, bowing her head toward the window. “I swear, they’re always going up and down, up and down.”

Out along the sand were Anna, Smith, and Luka. Anna had baby Adam wrapped across her chest, bundled tightly against the wind. Her face was open with laughter as Smith told a story, articulating everything with his hands. It was impossible to guess what Smith spoke of. It certainly had nothing to do with what he’d written so far in his memoir.

Violet raised her head and clicked her pen. She looked captivated by them, her eyes glossy. For a moment, Julia was terrified she would burst into tears. In another reality, the man walking across the sand with Adam and Anna was Dean rather than Smith.

After a dramatic pause, Violet said, “You know, when Dean was a toddler, he couldn’t get enough carrots? He was obsessed with them. And, silly parents that we were, we handed them over. They were vitamins, right? Well. It didn’t take long till he turned orange!”

As Violet told this story, her eyes traced Smith and Anna, almost as though she was thinking Smith was Dean. But that was impossible, Julia told herself. Violet was a bit strange, but she wasn’t crazy.

Julia swallowed the lump in her throat. “Hey, Violet?”

Violet slowly dragged her gaze back toward Julia and blinked at her.

“Come to New York with us,” Julia offered.

“Oh my! Yes,” Alana cried. “You totally have to.” There was a false ring to her voice that only Julia, being her sister, could hear.

Violet furrowed her brow. “I don’t know. I have all this work to do for the wedding. And Anna needs me to help with Adam.”

“Anna is doing just fine,” Julia said. “My mother doesn’t want to go into the city either, so she’ll be here to help.”

Violet rubbed the back of her neck. “I’ve never been to the city.”

Alana clapped her hands. “This is your chance, Violet. It’s the closest you’ll ever get! When you go back to Ohio, you’ll regret not going.”

Three days later, Julia, Violet, Alana, Jeremy, Charlie, and Bernard piled into Julia’s SUV, armed with a picnic basket ladened with Greta’s sandwiches, salads, and chocolate chip cookies with sea salt. As Julia backed out of the driveway, Greta and Anna waved from the front porch, wishing them well. Julia braced herself for Violet to back out, insisting on staying behind to care for Adam. But Violet remained quiet. When Julia glanced at her reflection in the rearview mirror, she saw a woman with the expectant and hopeful eyes of a young girl.

Of course, if Violet knew what Anna and Julia had discussed that morning, she wouldn’t have been happy. As Anna had wrapped Adam to her chest, securing his sleeping body, Julia had said, “I think it’s time to contact Larry Carpenter and see what’s up.”

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