Winter Solstice (Winter #4)(58)

Jennifer hears Mitzi say, “Only five hours until midnight. I’m going to get the nutcrackers out of storage. Allegra, why don’t you come with me?”

Ava passes by the dining room on her way down the hall. She has her phone in her hand. She sees Jennifer and says, “I can’t hear myself think with all these people. I’m going to my room.”

Jennifer closes the swinging door between the kitchen and the dining room and secures it with a latch that nobody ever uses. Then she approaches Isabelle at the dishwasher.

“I know you’re angry with me,” she says. “And I want to explain.”

“No need to explain,” Isabelle says. Her English is surprisingly fluent, confirming Jennifer’s suspicions that Isabelle pretends there’s a language barrier only when it’s convenient for her. “Norah Vale is like poison. She was poison to Kevin and she was poison to you. She sold you the pills. Kevin tells me this.”

“Right, I know,” Jennifer says. “But see, the thing is, Norah has changed. She’s going to business school, she has cleaned up her act, she dresses nicely now—”

“How you dress does not change who you are,” Isabelle says.

“No, I realize this, but—”

“When I saw you, you were buying drugs from her, yes?”

“I was not buying drugs from her,” Jennifer says firmly.

“Buying drugs from whom?” Patrick says.

Jennifer whips around. Paddy is looking at her and Isabelle curiously—but not accusingly, she tells herself. He holds up a butter knife. “I flipped the latch. Sorry about that. I just wanted to see if you needed any help.”

“I did not buy drugs from Norah Vale,” Jennifer says. She knows she has some explaining to do. “A few weeks ago when we were here for Bart’s party, I bumped into Norah… do you remember when I went to the sewing center to get that fabric?”

Patrick nods, but Jennifer knows he doesn’t remember.

“Well, I bumped into Norah and her brother Danko on Main Street, and we ended up getting coffee at the Hub.”

“You didn’t tell me you saw Norah,” Patrick says.

“I must have forgotten to tell you that part,” Jennifer says. What this means is that she left out Norah’s involvement on purpose because Patrick had already digested so much and Jennifer didn’t want him to short-circuit. And does it really matter who the producer of the show is? “Norah and Danko are the ones who approached me about doing the show.”

“What?” Patrick says.

“Danko is the producer,” Jennifer says. She can suddenly see that the real problem with the show isn’t going to be that she’s announcing she’s a recovering addict, but rather that Norah Vale is tangentially involved. She appeals to Patrick. “You remember Danko? He pulled us out of the sand up at Great Point that one time…”

“Yes, yes,” Patrick says. “The tattoo artist.”

“He’s a television producer now and has been for years. Norah has nothing to do with it. She was simply making the introduction.”

“You are now involved with some other… project with Norah?” Isabelle asks. “You are keeping her in our lives, when all I wish is for her to be gone?”

“Norah isn’t a threat to you,” Jennifer says. “Kevin loves you. You have a family and a business and a future.”

“She hurt Kevin very badly,” Isabelle says. “I’m sure he will agree it’s better if she has nothing more to do with anyone in this family.”

“I’m sure he will agree with that,” Patrick echoes. He looks at Jennifer. “Sometimes I just don’t understand what you’re thinking.”

Jennifer stares at Patrick, dumbfounded. She would like to point out the following:


1. This show has nothing to do with Norah Vale. Danko is the producer.

2. Sometimes Jennifer doesn’t understand what Patrick is thinking. Such as when he decided it would be a good idea to take the privileged information that Bucky Larimer gave him at his Colgate reunion and use it to illegally make twenty-five million dollars. He broke the law, he lost his job, and he went to jail. As a direct result of this, Jennifer got hooked on pills, and now they find themselves in a precarious financial situation. Needless to say, they wouldn’t be having this conversation if not for the poor choices that Patrick himself made.



Possibly, he gets to point two on his own, because his expression and his voice soften.

To Isabelle he says, “Jennifer is going to be working with Norah’s brother on a TV show. It’s a very big, very exciting opportunity for her, and I support her. I’m sorry this has any tie to Norah Vale. But Norah isn’t directly involved.”

“And even if she were, she has changed,” Jennifer says. “She’s nice. I like her. I like her far more now than I ever did when I was related to her. And she is no threat to you or Kevin.”

Isabelle shakes her head. “Please leave the kitchen,” she says. “I will finish this myself.”

“So you’re still mad?” Jennifer says. “You’re going to stay mad unless I renounce any association with Norah? I think you need to grow up, Isabelle.”

“Get out,” Isabelle says.