Page 57 of Wild Heart
I received a round of similar sentiments from just about everyone else in the room, tossing out replies as haphazardly as they came in while making my way toward Evelyn.
“Oh, these flowers are gorgeous.”
“Do you like them? I wish I could say I have a knack for putting together bouquets like this, but I don’t. I did add the ribbon to make them a bit more festive, though.”
Evelyn took the flowers and insisted, “They’re stunning. Thank you for bringing them.”
“You can have the flowers,” Ivy declared. “I’ll take the cheesecakes and get them put out on a serving dish.”
I’d purposely chosen the cheesecakes because I knew how much my best friend loved them. Even though I’d gotten her a real gift that I’d give to her tomorrow, since I hadn’t selected her for the Secret Santa exchange, I wanted to find a way to give her something special today. I figured the cheesecakes would do it.
“Do not overindulge on cheesecakes before we have dinner,” Evelyn warned her.
Ivy took the desserts from me and rolled her eyes. “I won’t, Mom.”
Liam, Malcolm, Jules, and Wyatt all entered the kitchen next, and after Liam received a round of greetings from those who had been in the kitchen, Malcolm announced, “Okay, it looks like everyone’s here, so dinner first, then gifts followed by dessert.”
“Uh, Dad. Not everyone is here yet,” Jules pointed out.
“What?”
“Marco. Aren’t we waiting for him?”
A somber look washed over him. It was enough to have me bracing myself for bad news. Marco was Cooper’s best friend, much like I was Ivy’s. I’d always felt a level of solidarity with him, considering we’d been welcomed into this family as outsiders and never been made to feel like we were any different than the rest of them.
Had something happened to him?
“Marco’s not coming today.”
Jules asked the question that immediately sprang into my mind. “Why not?”
Cooper stood from the stool at the island, turned to face his sister, and explained, “He’s sticking close to his family for the next couple of days.”
That was the one thing that was different between Marco and me. While we both felt like honorary members of the Westwood family, Marco and I came from very different upbringings. Where I was an only child with parents who did just enough to keep me alive, Marco came from a loud, loving family with multiple siblings and parents who adored him, his siblings, and each other. And every time I was around Marco, it was clear to me he not only appreciated having everyone in his life that he did, but he also recognized just how lucky he was to have so many good people in his life.
“Did something happen?” Jules pressed.
“Multiple things, actually. His sister was leaving the mall two days ago after doing some last-minute Christmas shopping when she was approached by two men who stole her keys, her car, and all the gifts she’d purchased. She was shaken up pretty bad, but he got even worse news yesterday morning when he learned that his great uncle had been in an accident while traveling to Landing to be with the family for the holiday. He died at the scene, so the family’s just not up for celebrating right now. Skye and I went over to visit with him yesterday. The whole family is pretty torn up about it.”
“That’s awful,” Liam said. “If that doesn’t tell you that life’s too short.”
I could have taken Liam’s words in one of two ways—don’t waste time holding grudges against people, because you never know when it’ll be your last day, or don’t waste time hoping to have something that you’re never meant to have, because you’ll waste your life away, and it can be gone in an instant.
At this point, I could confidently say that at least I’d returned to Landing and was with the people who mattered most. The situation with Tate was going to take more time.
“They expect to have the funeral in a couple of days, so we should all try to go,” Malcolm suggested.
Not a single person in the room held back their agreement. We were all going to be there for Marco, the same as he would have been there for any one of us.
Silence had settled over the room briefly, everyone likely unable to ignore how something so tragic like this could put things into perspective. But eventually, Evelyn’s voice broke into everyone’s thoughts as she urged us all to grab a serving dish, wine bottle, or breadbasket before directing us into the dining room.
Once we were all seated—I’d grabbed a chair at the opposite end of the table from Tate again—and everyone was busy filling up their plates and digging into the delicious meal, Ivy asked, “So, did they find the guys who stole Marco’s sister’s car?”
From there, the conversation flowed seamlessly throughout the remainder of dinner. Although I wasn’t exactly feeling completely comfortable, I was in a much better place than I’d been the night of Tate’s birthday.
Maybe it was because I’d made it clear to him three days ago where I stood. Maybe I believed that he understood this was the way it needed to be and was going to respect that. It had to be what it was, because with the exception of when I first walked into the kitchen, I hadn’t caught Tate looking at me again.
We finished dinner, helped with the clean-up, and were ushered into the room with the tree and the gifts. The tradition had always been that Malcolm and Evelyn remained each other’s Secret Santa, and the gift exchange started with Evelyn giving Malcolm his gift. Then, everyone else would exchange gifts before Malcolm would give his wife her present. And every year, although everyone else stuck to the budget, Malcolm refused. It had become a tradition, and it was one that put a smile on the faces of everyone in the family.