Winter Solstice (Winter #4)(74)

The inn is quiet when Ava gets home, and all of the lights are out except for the lights on the tree, the mantel, and the wreath. It’s pretty in the living room and it smells good. There’s the usual glass canister filled with ribbon candy, that old deceiver—looks so alluring, tastes so terrible.

Ava longs to sit down at the piano and play some carols, something soothing—“O Little Town of Bethlehem” or “Away in a Manger”—but she doesn’t want to wake Kelley or disturb the peace of the house. She’ll see everyone in the morning.

She tries calling Potter one more time before she goes to bed, but she gets no answer.


Paddy arrives at eleven the next day with Jennifer and the boys, and Margaret and Drake come at noon. Kevin goes to Sophie T’s for pizzas, and Jennifer sets up Monopoly in the kitchen. Bart, Allegra, and the three boys play, and Drake agrees to serve as banker. Ava knows the game is meant as a distraction. They’re having a vigil. They’re waiting for Kelley to die.

Patrick and Kevin are talking about how George is buying the inn. The terms are incredibly favorable—Mitzi can stay for as long as she wants. And George plans to keep everything the same, so for as long as George and Mary Rose have tenure, the Winter Street Inn will live on.

“It sounds like a gesture on his part,” Kevin says. “An atonement, maybe, for getting involved with Mitzi.”

Ava can’t get wrapped up with the fate of the inn. She’s still waiting to hear from Potter. She eats a piece of sausage and mushroom pizza; she watches her nephew Pierce put up hotels on St. James Place and Tennessee Avenue. Ava’s favorite property was always Marvin Gardens; she wonders why that was.

Finally her phone pings. Ava checks the screen. The text is from Scott Skyler. It says: Nathaniel just told me about your dad. I’m on my way over right now.

“No,” Ava says.

Everyone at the table looks up at her. She fakes a smile. “I’m going to my room to take a nap. I don’t want to be disturbed for any reason. Except if Dad wakes up. That’s the only reason. Is everyone clear on that?”

“Clear,” Drake says. “Allegra, it’s your turn.”

Allegra rolls the dice.


Ava must fall asleep, because the next thing she knows, someone is tapping on her door. She sits up. It’s getting dark outside, but that doesn’t mean it’s late; today is the shortest day of the year.

“Come in?” Ava says.

Margaret pokes her head in. “Ava, sweetie?”

Ava starts to cry. Kelley must be awake, and they’ve agreed they will go see him in reverse order of birth. Bart first, then Ava, then Kevin, then Patrick. See him, however, is merely a euphemism for say good-bye, and Ava can’t say good-bye to her father.

She just can’t.

“Mommy?” Ava says. Margaret is a competent, strong woman; she is a fixer. She needs to fix this. Let’s go back, Ava thinks. Back to Ava’s first memory of Kelley, of her parents together. She was three or four years old. Kelley came home from work and Margaret embraced him. They were kissing, and Ava made a tunnel of their legs and crawled through.

“There’s someone here for you,” Margaret says. “Can you come out, please?”

Someone here for her? Scott! Ugh! Margaret wasn’t in the kitchen when Ava said she didn’t want to be disturbed, and for whatever reason, Margaret has always been a fan of Scott.

“I don’t want to,” Ava grumbles.

“Oh, I think you do,” Margaret says.

Dutifully, Ava gets to her feet and follows Margaret down the hall.

The living room is empty. Everyone is in the kitchen; from the sound of things, Ava’s nephew Barrett is going bankrupt.

And then Ava sees Potter, standing over by the Christmas tree. He gets down on one knee and holds out a velvet box, in which is nestled a diamond ring.

“Ava Quinn,” he says. “Will you marry me?”


When the time comes, an hour later, for Ava to go in and see her father, she does so alone, with the ring on her left hand.

She sits in the chair next to Kelley’s bed. Kelley’s eyes are open, but Ava knows he can’t see anymore. Mitzi is on the other side of the bed, holding Kelley’s hand.

“It’s Ava, honey,” Mitzi says. “Ava is here. She has something to tell you.”

“I’m getting married, Daddy,” Ava says. “Potter asked me to marry him, and I said yes.” Ava holds Kelley’s other hand and tries not to think about walking down the aisle without this man at her side. She gets to have this moment with him; she gets to tell him the news. She is grateful for this, so grateful.

Kelley makes a sound. Maybe it’s a breath or a sigh, Ava thinks, but maybe he’s trying to speak.

I’m so happy for you, Ava. My little girl.

“I love you, Daddy,” Ava says.

She squeezes his hand, and a trace of a smile crosses Kelley’s lips.





MARGARET


Time remains a mystery to Margaret. A game of Monopoly can consume an afternoon, and an hour on the treadmill seems like forever. But a lifetime passes in an instant.

On Thursday evening Lara, the hospice nurse, comes into the kitchen.

“It won’t be long now,” she says.

Margaret stands in the hallway outside of Kelley’s room as first Bart, then Ava, then Kevin, and finally Patrick go in to say good-bye to their father. Margaret has witnessed all kinds of difficult things in her life, but nothing quite as difficult as seeing her grown children crying when they emerge from the room.