Page 90 of The Summer of Christmas

“I don’t want to live in the lake house.”

“Then why did you build it!” She regretted raising her voice, but he was so stubborn. Like his father.

Nick was calm. “You don’t get it, Mom.”

“No, you don’t get it, son. You might know a lot about the winery and wines, but you don’t know crap about love. I have a lot of life left to live. I never thought I would fall in love again, but I did.” Frannie sat down across from her wedding photo with Nick’s dad. “Since your father died, it took me a while to even change the message on the answering machine. Yes, I kept the answering machine message for three years so I could hear his voice. I guess I got lucky this year.”

“How so?”

“That answering machine finally broke. I realized when I stopped hearing his voice on the machine every day that I was incredibly lonely.” Frannie took a breath, composing her emotions. She looked right at Nick. “That’s when the Christmas miracle happened.”

“What miracle?”

“Ivy and her movie came to town. And J. B. came with it. And I fell in love. And I feel good about it.”

“The movie is not a Christmas miracle, Mom. It’s not even Christmas! It’s July!”

“You call it what you want. All I know is that this movie—whatever the hell its name is—this movie coming to town, which I know is based on you and Ivy, is one of the best things that ever happened in my life, and I think maybe it could be the best thing that happened to your life too.”

Nick did not want to hear any of that. He stopped talking and headed right out that door, colliding with J. B. on the front porch, who had been listening to every word. Nick pushed through the door, knocking him against the porch railing. Nick stopped. Breathing heavily. J. B. had no idea what would happen next. Nick took two steps toward J. B., raised his arms, and hugged the Frenchman. Close to tears, he told J. B., “You’d better take good care of my mom, or I will D-Day your ass.”

J. B. nodded yes; he was well aware of the historical reference. He did not know how to respond and simply said, “My countrymen and I thank you.” Nick left. He headed back to the winery.

Nick sat at the winery. He had finished a bottle of Poison Ivy when Denise and Kenny joined him. Frannie had called Denise, worried about him. Instead of drinking alone with his thoughts, Nick was finally sharing his emotions about Ivy with the help of another bottle of Poison Ivy.

“I can’t believe what happened.”

“What happened, Nick?” Denise had to lean close to him as he spoke softly, his head down.

“You can tell us anything,” Kenny offered.

“Oh yeah, so you can put it in the local paper, Kenny. In big headlines: NICK STILL LOVES IVY.”

“I really don’t think I would print that,” Kenny said, logically.

Denise was excited. “Is that true, Nick? Do you still love Ivy?”

“Who told you that?” Nick was drunk. Denise knew there were two sides of him when he’d had a little too much. Sad Nick and sadder Nick. He was well pastsadder.

“What happened, Nick? With Ivy.”

“A Christmas miracle happened,” he said in a Frannie-like voice. “Ivy wrote this movie and brought it here to film. And now we’re all going to live in France!”

“I told you,” Denise said to Kenny. “He still loves her.”

“Why are we all moving to France?” Kenny asked.

Denise shushed him and asked Nick to keep talking.

“I can’t believe I let myself fall back in love with her.”

“You got back together?”

“For three minutes. Then she dumped me. Did you know Mom is selling the house?” Nick looked at Denise. “She’s selling your room too.”

“Yes, I know, Nick, it’s part of the house. I have my own house now with Kenny.”

“Mom said I have to go live in the lake house.”