A/N I just wanted to drop another word of thanks to all of you reviewing this story. You have no idea how much it means to a writer to know there are people out there not only reading your work but enjoying it. You keep me motivated. Thanks.
Silent night! holy night!
All is calm all is bright
Round yon virgin mother and child
Holy infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace!
Sleep in heavenly peace
Silent night! holy night!
Son of God love's pure light
Radiant beams from thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord at thy birth
Jesus, Lord at thy birth
Silent night! holy night!
Shepherds quake at the sight
Glories stream from heaven afar
Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia
Christ the Saviour is born
Christ the Savior is born!
Christine gave a low whistle of appreciation as she watched Sharon deftly chop carrots and butternut squash with the efficiency of a Reality TV chef. "Where did you learn to chop like that?" She asked.
"Andy."
"Andy cooks?"
"Mmm…When he was growing up he had to help out in his grandparent's Italian restaurant. Since then he's loved to cook and he's been helping me with my less than impressive culinary skills."
"Italian? I thought he was Irish like us. It is Flynn, right?"
"Yes. Andrew Patrick Flynn. Irish on his father's side, Italian on his mother's."
"Ahhh…is that why we're having lasagna along with the ham as part of Christmas Eve dinner? Is it an Italian thing?"
"Actually, it's an Andy thing. The Italians have a tradition called "The Feast of Seven Fishes". They serve seven different seafood dishes on Christmas Eve. "
"And just where did you learn that?" Christine leaned in and snagged a carrot, grinning when Sharon swatted her hand away.
"Where do you think? It was part of Andy's Christmas celebration when he was a child, but without a big extended family around him in California it was just too much food, so he started making his mother's lasagna instead and it became his and Nicole's tradition. I decided to give it whirl and surprise them, hopefully make them feel more at home. I called his mother for her recipe. Usually it calls for tiny meatballs and sausage but Andy gave up red meat so this is a vegetable alternative. Sylvia swears no one will know the difference. I guess we'll see."
"Just don't tell Ed what's inside. It's like pulling teeth for me to get him to eat vegetables—and his cholesterol is through the roof." Christine continued to watch her sister stir spinach leaves into a big bowl of ricotta cheese singing, "I'll be Home for Christmas" along with Andy Williams. Shaking her head, she grabbed a bottle of chardonnay from the refrigerator and poured them each a glass, asking, "Who are you, and what have you done with my sister?"
"What do you mean?" Sharon accepted the glass of wine and took a sip.
"Come on Share. You've never exactly been Martha Stewart. You always said you hated cooking; now you've morphed into Giada De Laurentiis."
Sharon smirked. It was true. Back when Emily and Ricky were growing up, cooking meals had been just another responsibility she had to deal with on her own, right up there with laundry, grocery shopping and paying the bills. After working a full day at the PSB, sometimes longer, driving out to St. Joe's to pick the kids up at their after school programs, settling them in at home and refereeing their squabbling, she was ready to kick off her high heels and curl up to relax with a glass of wine. Instead, she had to prepare a decent healthy meal for them. She did her best to create balanced menus, but the crock-pot and the microwave had become her best friends. After supper, while the kids sat at the kitchen table doing their homework, she would help them in between washing the dishes, cleaning up and packing their lunches for the next day. Once she had them bathed and tucked in with a story or two, she would do laundry or catch up on some work before crashing in her own bed with a book. Most nights she was lucky if she made it through a whole chapter before falling asleep. By the time her alarm went off in the morning and it was time to start the process all over again, it often felt like she had just closed her eyes.
"I used to look at cooking as just another chore on an endless list of chores. But with Andy, it's fun. His love of cooking is infectious. I've started to enjoy it—at least when we're cooking together. He's taught me a lot and it's just kind of nice to have that time together to unwind at the end of the day. We have some of our best conversations while we're chopping and sautéing together."
Christine sighed. "You're lucky. The only thing Ed can cook is scrambled eggs, and he'd never think to lend me a hand."
Sharon smiled at her sister. Christine liked to gripe about her husband, but there was no doubt how much she loved the man.
"I am pretty lucky. Between Andy and Rusty's boyfriend Gus, who works as a cook, we've been eating very well lately, even without all the fat and red meat."
"Everything okay?' Andy asked later, when they were dressing for the dinner party and midnight mass.
"Yes, why do you ask?" Sharon slipped the back of her earring on then turned to face him.
"I noticed a moment between you and your sister earlier today when she was hugging Ricky."
"Mm…The perils of being engaged to a detective. Nothing gets by you."
Andy's eyes lit and he took her hand, a swell of love and pride filling his chest at his ring back on her finger, hopefully for good this time. "I like hearing you say that…engaged. But, you're right, it didn't get past me. I know it's been a long time but your mom and I were just talking about that this morning. You never get over losing a child and with Ricky being the same age as her son would be?" He shook his head sadly. "I can't even imagine."
Quick tears burned in Sharon's eyes at just the thought of losing her son. "I don't even want to imagine."
Back when they were in the "getting to know you" phase of their relationship, Sharon had opened up to him about the death of her nephew. Like Sharon, Christine had married right out of college, but unlike Sharon, her marriage to Brian O'Connor had seemed perfect. Their first daughter Jillian was a honeymoon baby, born a year before Sharon had Emily. Then a year after Emily, Bridget had come along. Despite living on different coasts, the three girl cousins bonded easily during Sharon's vacations home.
Christine got pregnant a third time and after two girls, she and Brian longed to round their family out with a boy. Sharon had just given birth to Ricky when Christine found out that the baby she was carrying was also a boy. The sisters were thrilled and hoped their two sons would be just as close as Emily, Jillian and Bridget were. But, Joshua Michael O'Connor was born only 25 weeks into Christine's pregnancy. He weighed barely over a pound-and died almost three weeks later. It had been devastating for the whole family. Family leave did not exist at the time and Brian had to keep working. Chris was recovering from her c-section and wanted to spend every second at the hospital but Colleen had recently broken her leg hiking in the White Mountains leaving her unable to take care of Jill and Bridget. Brian's parents were divorced and he did not have a good relationship with his mother, so, still on maternity leave, Sharon had flown back east with three year old Emily and baby Ricky to help. Figuring it would be hard for Christine to see healthy, thriving Ricky while her own tiny baby was fighting for its life, she had taken all four kids out to her grandparent's house on Nantucket, while Colleen and William were there to support Brian and Christine.
Sharon remembered that time as more like a blur rather than a vivid memory. It had only been six weeks since she had given birth. She was nursing Ricky who was proving to be a much more demanding baby than Emily had been and was still not sleeping through the night. On top of that, she had to chase, entertain and take care of three little girls between two and four. It was exhausting. Her postpartum hormones were already wreaking havoc with her emotions and the added grief of seeing her little nephew covered in wires and tubes, along with trying to comfort her sister, was almost more than she could bear. But she did. Bear it. Because even though her heart was breaking. Even though she'd flown back to the east coast knowing that her marriage, barely five years in, was already in serious, serious trouble, she simply didn't have the luxury of falling apart. Her family needed her and that was that. Somehow, she was able to dig in and find a way to summon reserves she didn't even know she had.
Ironically, Christine's marriage died first. Not slowly and painfully the way Sharon's had, but sharp and quick. Chris and Brian simply never recovered from their child's death. Brian wanted to try again right away for another son, while Christine was afraid to take a chance and go through that grief again. She was happy with just having her little girls. For Brian, it was a deal breaker. Before the ink was even dry on the divorce papers, he had remarried and quickly had two more children with his new wife. Both were girls.
A few years later Chris hired a landscaping company to do some work on her yard and met the owner, Edward Simmons. It was a perfect fit. Ed was 10 years older than Chris, divorced with two teens about to head off to college and was perfectly happy to help raise Christine's daughters without wanting any more children of his own. Chris went back to school, got her masters in music history and was now the head of the music department at a private school in the Massachusetts Berkshires.
"She adores Ricky," Sharon said. "But it's not surprising that there are times it's still hard for her. I suppose if we lived closer and she saw him all the time it would be different. Each time she sees Ricky she wonders what Josh would look like since they would be the same age. Would he be as tall as Ricky is? Would his voice also be changing? You know those kinds of things. "
"It's good that you two can talk about it."
"Mmm.. I worried about that in the beginning. I was afraid it might come between us. But Chrissie isn't like that. She can love Ricky without resenting him or me for being lucky enough to have him. Can you help me with my necklace please?" She lifted her hair and presented her back to him so he could fix the clasp on the delicate white-gold chain with its tiny pearls and Celtic cross. When he'd finished she turned around leaving her hair up.
"What do you think?"
Her dress was strapless in a deep shade of emerald that matched her eyes. A sheer illusion scalloped lace overlay with elbow length sleeves covered her from her shoulders to her nipped in waist. The sheath style hugged her gentle curves in all the right places and she'd finished off the look with a pair of knee high black suede boots he'd always found incredibly sexy. That combination of classy with sexy was something Andy had never found in another woman. "You look stunning…as always."
Sharon smiled, warmed by the way he always made her feel so beautiful. "Thank you, honey, but I meant my hair. Do you think I should wear it up or down?"
"You'll look gorgeous either way, but…" He threw his tie around his neck and took a step toward her pulling at the hand that held her hair up to allow it to fall in auburn waves to her shoulders. Reverently he thread his fingers through the silky mass. "You know how much I like you to wear it down. I love your hair."
"The feeling's mutual." No middle aged balding or comb-overs for her man. Andy's full head of thick dark silver tipped hair contrasted beautifully with his tanned skin. Her silver fox was sexy as hell. She felt herself flushing at the memory of the previous night, his head between her thighs, her fingers digging into his hair, clutching and tugging at the short strands insistently while he pleasured her in that way they both enjoyed.
As if he knew what she was thinking Andy's eyes met hers, mutual appreciation and desire starting to flame. His lips brushed over hers in a kiss that started out tender, but quickly blazed, tongues tangling before he broke away to trail his mouth along her jaw. His words were muffled against her skin. "Is it wrong that I want to fuck you right before we go to church?"
"Andy-"Sharon's breath caught in her chest, a wave a lust running through her veins. From the very beginning, Andy had proven to have an uncanny ability to throw her off balance in a way that was completely new to her.
He grinned, that lazy sexy half grin that did nothing to dampen her libido.
"It's not wrong," she said reaching out to grab the two ends of his tie. "But we can't. We're already dressed and we have to be down to dinner in a few minutes."
Her hands were trembling as she began knotting his tie. Andy still wondered over the fact that he could have this kind of effect on her. Sharon presented such a self-contained reserve to the outside world, but on the inside, she was a warm, passionate, responsive woman, at least with him.
"There," she said when she finished. She took a step back and admired her work. Suspenders in a cranberry and emerald paisley pattern held up Andy's dark dress slacks and his green tie matched her dress. She'd watched him choose the green one over the cranberry one after seeing which dress she was wearing. Taking a step toward him, she couldn't resist running the back of her fingertips over his cheek. "So handsome. You look like you stepped out of the pages of GQ."
"Spoken like a true woman in love." His smile widened until it brought out his dimples. Oh damn, the man was killing her.
"Spoken like a woman who tells the truth."
Andy lifted her hand, toying with her engagement ring. He wondered if he would ever get used to seeing it there, or if it would ever stop giving him a thrill. Somehow, he doubted it. Other than his sobriety, he'd never worked as hard for anything in his life as he had to win Sharon Raydor's heart. And he'd never wanted anything more than to spend the rest of his life with her. That ring was the proof that somehow he'd been able to do both.
Colleen paused for a moment and stood back to take in the elegance of her fully set dining room table, extended by three leafs to accommodate the large family gathering. Everything was perfect, from the Irish linen and crystal to her best English lace fine china and silver. Red and white poinsettias surrounded by wreaths of holly created festive centerpieces and long flickering candle tapers added a touch of warmth .It had been a long time since she'd had her entire family home for Christmas and she was enjoying every minute of it.
"Okay everyone," she called out. "Dinner's ready."
As the family made their way into the dining room, everyone was too focused on the food to notice that Andy and Sharon were slightly anxious and a bit fidgety. A large ham caramelized by brown sugar and dotted with cloves sat in the center surrounded by bowls of fluffy white mashed potatoes, steaming fresh green beans and almonds, gooey sweet potatoes, corn swimming in butter and a large casserole dish filled with the cheesy lasagna, it's top browned nicely.
"Okay," William said, once everyone had found seating. "Who would like to say grace before I start carving this ham?"
Andy cleared his throat nervously. Sharon gave him an encouraging look and they both stood. "Before we say grace," Andy began. "There's uh, something Sharon and I would like to share with you." He waited until everyone stopped chattering and turned to look at them expectantly before continuing. "Earlier this week, I asked this beautiful lady right here to marry me."
Sharon wrapped her arm around Andy's waist, almost melting into him.
"What did she say?" Ricky called out amongst the excited squeals.
With a smile that lit up her whole face, Sharon lifted her hand, finally showing off her beautiful diamond engagement ring.
Andy was beaming with pride. "Thank God, she said yes."
With that affirmation, everyone jumped to their feet and surrounded them with laughter, hugs and kisses and plenty of admiration of Sharon's ring.
"I can't believe you kept this a secret all this time." Emily admonished her mother as she examined the glittering diamonds.
"It's only been a few days," Sharon said. "And we thought it would be more special to do it tonight with everyone here."
Christine pushed forward, arms crossed under her breasts. "Okay sis, now we want all the romantic details."
"Sorry, I'm afraid that's confidential."
"Oh come on, Auntie Sharon," Bridget wheedled.
"Yeah, come on Auntie Sharon," Chris grinned. "At least tell us where he proposed."
"Well…I suppose I can tell you that much." In a touching gesture, Sharon rested her head lightly on Andy's shoulder. "We had a lovely dinner sitting by the fireplace at the Inn and then he took me on a moonlit horse drawn sleigh ride up through the woods to this gorgeous gazebo. It was all lit up with white twinkling Christmas lights. That's where he asked me."
"Did you get down on one knee, Dad?" Nicole wanted to know.
"Of course I did. Gotta do things by the book with this lady."
Sharon smiled tenderly at Andy. "It was all very romantic. The most romantic night of my life." That drew a chorus of "Awwwsss…."
"Congratulations, son." William put a hand out to take Andy's in a firm handshake. "You be good to my girl."
"Yes sir. Always."
Colleen's gaze moved from Andy back to Sharon. It was no wonder her daughter seemed to radiate love and happiness when she'd spoken of Andy and of their relationship, and that she'd finally seemed at peace. Stepping forward she cupped Sharon's lovely face in her palms. "Honey, I couldn't be more pleased for you." She kissed her child's cheek and then turned to Andy opening her arms to him. "Welcome to the family, Andy" she said. And with that, she enveloped him in a warm embrace of acceptance.
"Sharon this is delicious." Andy took another helping of lasagna. "I can't believe you made my mother's lasagna."
"Are you sure it's good?"
"Just as good as Nonna Sylvia's, even without the meatballs and sausage," Nicole assured her.
"It's delicious," Ed said, shoveling in a mouthful, oblivious to the soft giggles as Christine's eyes met Sharon's across the table.
"So." Ricky stabbed his fork into another slice of ham. "When's the wedding?"
"Well." Sharon grew uncharacteristically flustered as all eyes turned back to her and Andy. "We haven't gotten that far yet. We've just become engaged. There are a few…things we need to work through."
The table went silent, the joy of just a few moments ago dampened.
"What do you have to work through?" Ricky pushed. "I thought you said yes."
"I did say yes. But, we need to decide where we can have the wedding."
"What do you mean?" Emily was thoroughly confused. "Won't you do it at St. Josephs?"
Colleen's eyes met Sharon's, devout Catholic to Catholic.
"Well, there's a problem with that. Andy and I are both divorced Catholics. We can't get married in the Catholic Church and if we get married outside the church we could be denied the sacraments."
"Oh my God, when is the Church going to join the 21st century?"
"Ricky." Sharon's tone was one of warning, but it was Andy setting his hand over the frustrated young man's and giving him a slight negative shake of the head that caused Ricky to step back from his argument.
"You know there's a way around that," Colleen said. "You could get an annulment."
"We've discussed that," Andy said. "But there are problems with that too."
"I don't think mom will have an issue with it," Nicole said. "She's been remarried a long time."
"I don't think she will either, but…"
"But Jack probably will." Sharon finished for him. Before everyone could jump in with their opinions, especially her two biological children who were looking pretty outraged, Sharon cut them off. "Look, we're happy, we're engaged, and we'll figure this out. Let's just enjoy this moment."
"Sharon's right," William said. "This is a happy day." He lifted his glass in a toast. "To Andy and Sharon, the future Mr. and Mrs. Flynn."
"Well…" Sharon hemmed, lifting her glass with everyone. "That's still up for debate."
With everyone clinking glasses and questioning Sharon on whether or not she would keep her last name no one noticed the pointed looks shared between Ricky, Emily and Nicole.
TBC