The Asheville Christmas Tradition (Carolina Christmas #4)

22. Noelle

“Sorry I’m late!” Angie called as she blew in with the blustery wind to Noelle’s house on Christmas Eve afternoon. “But I brought wine! Really, really good wine!”

She came into the kitchen where Noelle and Eve were just setting up the afternoon snacks for the sisters’ newest tradition—Birthday Triplet Lunch.

Noelle had made it up a few days earlier, and was so happy her sisters agreed to add one more thing to their busy December calendars. But their December 25 th birthdays would get lost in the huge family Christmas gathering. So, now that they all lived in the same town for the first time in many, many years, Noelle wanted one afternoon just for the Chambers triplets to toast another trip around the sun.

Plus, since she was born right before midnight, it was technically Eve’s birthday, and she acknowledged that by wearing the plastic tiara Cassie had lent her before she and Jace headed out for a few hours.

“Ooh, that is good,” Eve said, giving Angie an air kiss that nearly knocked off her crown as she checked out the wine label. “How’d you score this?”

“Brace yourselves,” she said, rounding the counter to kiss Noelle. “I mean really brace yourselves.”

“You stole it?” Noelle guessed.

“You won it in a company raffle?” Eve suggested.

“Oh, I know.” Noelle snapped her fingers. “You got it as a bonus for having the most successful outside art exhibit in the history of the Biltmore. I’ll take that,” she joked, grabbing the bottle.

Angie settled on a barstool and popped an olive from Noelle’s charcuterie. “Not in a million years will you guess how I got that bottle.”

“Tell!” Eve demanded.

“You, my sisters, are looking at the Biltmore Estate’s newest Staff Curator, which is a promotion from my former position of Associate Staff Curator.”

Eve gasped. “Angie! That’s fantastic.”

“I know. It pays to kiss the boss,” she joked.

“That is not why you got that promotion,” Noelle said, knowing her sister’s strong capabilities on the job.

“In a sense it is, but I’m okay with that,” Angie explained. “Elliott went into corporate and fought for me to not only get the promotion but to be given my own little newly created department—the Heritage and Legacy Archives Division.”

“Ooh, fancy,” Eve laughed.

“And important,” Noelle said.

“It’s both,” Angie told them. “And it means that nothing—not a candlestick, armoire, or dining room chair—in the ‘home’ of the Vanderbilts or their staff can be touched, changed, featured, or placed anywhere without my approval and my staff of one. An intern, but still.”

Noelle and Eve both reached out to high-five her, shouting their congrats and hugging her.

“And it is due to Starry, Starry Night ,” she added, looking warmly at Noelle. “The exhibit is such a hit that all my department has done is field inquiries from other outside companies and top-level museums. It’s elevated us and I’m so grateful.”

Noelle waved off the gratitude. “Happy to help. Should I open this baby?” She lifted the bottle and looked at Angie.

“Bring it tomorrow for family Christmas,” Angie said. “I’m too old to day drink.”

Eve gave a thumbs-up. “Happy to hear. It’s water for me, since we have to stay up until midnight putting the last of the gifts out and David has to set up the ping-pong table we’ve got hidden in a neighbor’s garage. I’ll drink tomorrow.”

Noelle happily agreed and reached for a chilled bottle of Pellegrino. “Sounds good. But let’s move into the den. Jace made us a fire and the tree is all lit.”

A minute later, they were settled together, happily snacking and toasting their bubbly water in wine glasses.

“But I have more news,” Angie said, her smile as bright as the tree behind her. “Elliott is moving to a new job.”

“What? No!” Noelle nearly choked. “How? Why?”

Angie held up her hand. “It’s all good. He’s going to corporate to head a museum division, which means he’s ten minutes from the estate.”

“And no longer your boss,” Eve said. “Which I guess is good and bad.”

“Good because now we don’t have the uncomfortable situation of working together and being involved. Better because this is what he wanted in the first place and he’s thrilled with this job. But best of all?” She gave in to a huge smile and a shiver of delight. “Marjorie wants to come back!”

“Really?” they asked in unison.

“She hates working at the Getty and her son and his family have decided to relocate to North Carolina! So I get my favorite boss back and do not have to keep my romance a secret.”

“Romance, huh?” Noelle asked, sharing a look with Eve. “We knew it.”

Angie laughed. “I’m so happy, you guys. Best birthday ever.”

“It really has been a good holiday,” Eve said, leaning back. “I feel like we’re really honoring so many of the Asheville traditions that were important to Mom and Dad, and still making new ones, like this.”

“It has been a season of traditions,” Noelle said. “I was darn near suffocated by them at the tree lighting, but it all turned out so well. And Hannah still isn’t down from Cloud Nine. She’s spending Christmas Eve with Brandon’s family and he’s coming to the cabin tomorrow for our family celebration.”

“Love is in the air!” Eve exclaimed with a happy clap.

They chatted for a while about that new romance, reliving the drama of the tree lighting, and toasting to Jackie taking her first steps the day before.

Finally, Angie turned to Noelle and narrowed her eyes, leaving no doubt what question she was about to ask.

“Yes,” Noelle preempted her. “I have made a decision. And I’m telling Jace tonight.”

“Which means you won’t tell us first?” Eve asked.

She looked from one to the other, considering if she should. She’d told these two women of every major decision in her life first before anyone. But now she was married and Jace deserved to know before anyone else.

“I can’t,” she said. “I simply have to tell Jace and hope he’s happy with my decision.”

“Are you happy with it?” Angie asked.

“Very much so,” Noelle said.

“Whatever you decide,” Eve said, “we are here one hundred percent, through thick and thin, no matter what.”

Angie leaned closer. “Can I ask when you decided?”

“At the tree lighting, actually,” she said. “I wished for clarity, and in an instant, I got it.” She lifted her glass and held it up to her sisters. “To the year ahead, Chambers triplets. To clarity, love, family, and each other.”

They clinked and laughed and celebrated forty-one years of their sisterhood and lives.

Noelle sat back, covered in peace and anticipation of the life ahead.

It was officially Christmas and past midnight when Jace finally finished assembly on the purple light-up electric scooter that would be waiting for Cassie when she woke up tomorrow morning.

“It’s a beauty,” Noelle said as she placed the last of the gifts under the tree. “Just a bow and we can call it.”

“That was a bear,” he said, leaning back to look at his handiwork.

“David’s doing a ping-pong table singlehandedly,” she reminded him.

“Oh, the boys are going to love that.”

“We all are,” she said, patting the sofa next to her. “Pour the sherry and stoke that fire, my dear husband. It’s our time. And it’s officially my birthday.”

“Happy Birthday, Noelle.” He smiled at her. “You get more beautiful every year and I can say that as a man who knew you at twelve.”

“We do go way back, buddy, don’t we?”

“Way.” He went to the fire to add a log and bring it to life.

While she waited, she took a minute to drink in the gifts, all wrapped in ribbons and bows, plus the tree, the fire, and the man she loved.

“This is why I didn’t day drink with my sisters,” she said, accepting the glass he offered when he poured them both a sherry. “I knew I wanted this with you.”

He tapped her crystal with his. “To our first married Christmas, Noelle. May we have many more just as happy, but with less scooters to assemble.”

She smiled and took a sip.

“Unless there are,” he said quickly. “Which is fine, too.”

She slid him a look, silent for a beat.

Without drinking, he set the glass down, his gaze on her. “You decided.”

“How is it you can read my mind?”

“Because I know you and love you.” He studied her for a long moment, waiting. “Well?”

“When I was at the tree lighting,” she said slowly, “I was battling with all that new tradition-old tradition stuff. It dawned on me that what was weighing on my heart was just another battle with tradition.”

“How so?”

“The expectation of having my own baby in order to feel…complete. And that’s just…crazy.” She took a breath and looked at him. “Because this family is as complete as it could be and if I did anything to risk what we have, it wouldn’t be right.”

He inched back, his gaze on her, his expression unreadable. “You’re not having the surgery.”

Without saying a word, she took his hand in both of hers and held it tight, her heart kicking up for some reason.

“I’m not,” she said. “And that means I’m not having a baby.”

Looking up at him, she expected a flash of disappointment, but he just stared at her and let her continue.

“I don’t need to mess with God’s plans or tempt fate or…or take a risk just to appease an arbitrary goal,” she said, meaning every word. “I’m already a mother to the most amazing child I could dream of. And, I hope you’ll agree, but I’d like to just keep the status quo.”

“Oh, honey!” His voice cracked as he put his arms around her. “You have no idea how much I wanted to hear you say that.”

“You did? Why didn’t you tell me you felt that way?”

“Because it was your decision, not mine, Noelle. Your body, your dream, your decision. But I’m really, really happy with the three of us.” He kissed her lightly. “I have never been happier.”

She slumped against him, shocked at how relieved and satisfied she was with her decision. “I love you,” she whispered.

“And I love you.” He added a kiss on her hair. “And if you?—”

“Shh.” She sat up.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Did you hear that?”

They sat still for a second. “I don’t?—”

Noelle shot to her feet. “Cassie’s crying.”

“What? I don’t hear a thing.”

But she was out of the room and down the hall in a flash, drawn to the soft sniffles that meant her little girl wasn’t happy. On Christmas Eve? What could be the matter with her?

“Cassie?” She stepped into the dark room. “You okay, baby?”

She sniffed.

“What’s wrong, Cass?”

“Nothing,” she said, her voice thick.

But Noelle knew better. She walked to the bed and sat on the edge, using the soft light from the hall to find her way. There, she brushed back some of Cassie’s pale waves, and felt tears on her cheeks.

“Honey, why are you crying?”

“I didn’t get my wish.”

“You don’t know that.” She reached down and wrapped her hands under Cassie’s arms and eased her up so her nose didn’t get stuffy. “But you will tomorrow morning. You’re just excited because it’s the night before Christmas.”

“I didn’t put this on my list but I wished for it when I threw my glow stick at the tree lighting.”

Guess it had been a big night for both of them. But then she remembered something Cassie wanted very much…and wasn’t going to get. “Honey, I know you want a baby brother or sister, but Daddy and I love our family just as it is. You’re going to be our only child and we are so happy about that.”

She looked up. “That’s not what I wished for.”

“Then…what?”

She let out a shuddering sigh. “I wished my mommy would?—”

Noelle’s heart stopped.

“—send me a secret message. Ever since you told me about that man flashing the lights, I was hoping for something like that.”

“And I also took you under the tree to show you how to do it,” she said softly. “There was no secret message.” She stroked her hair and rooted around for the right words. “Your mommy is always watching over you. You don’t need to get signs from above.”

“But I need her to tell me it’s okay.”

“What’s okay?”

She blinked at tears and wiped her little cheek. “To call you my mommy now.”

Is that what was stopping her? Poor baby, suffering so.

“Honey, I am your mommy now. And she will be your mommy forever. You have two of us now.”

“But I want to call you…that.”

Noelle felt her own tears well. “It doesn’t matter what you call me, Cass. I’m here to dry these tears, to listen to you sing, to help you learn how to do life, whatever you need from a mommy. You can call me anything you want.”

She looked up, a sad desperation in her eyes. “I want to call you Mommy.”

Noelle swallowed against a lump in her throat. “I want that, too, angel.” She pulled her closer for a hug, kissing her hair. “But if you can’t or it feels funny, I understand. I love you very, very much.”

Cassie squeezed her. “I just wanted her to, you know, flash a light or leave a feather or give me something I would know was from her. I needed her to tell me that it was okay.”

“Oh, darling. Sometimes you have to make these hard decisions by yourself,” she said, all too familiar with the process. “Sometimes you have to weigh all the feelings, what feels right and what feels wrong, and think about the people you love who are involved, and then…give it to God. He’ll guide you. Close your eyes and say a prayer and God will tell you exactly what to do and when to do it.”

He certainly had worked that way for her this past week.

Sighing sleepily, Cassie slid back down to her pillow. “’Kay.”

“And when you’re ready, Cass, you can call me anything at all. Except Sprinkles. That’s taken.”

That made her giggle as she snuggled down, satisfied.

“You ready for sleep?” she asked, stroking her hair.

Cassie nodded and turned on her side, her favorite sleeping position.

Noelle leaned over and placed a soft kiss on her cheek. “Good night, my darling daughter. You say that prayer now.”

“I will,” she answered on a shuddering sigh of exhaustion.

Noelle stood, smiled down at her, and walked slowly to the door. Jace was in the hall, listening.

“I love you, Cass,” she called.

“I love you, too…Mommy.”

Her little voice floated from the bed, making Noelle freeze at the word. She pressed her hands to her lips, tears springing.

Trying not to sob, she stepped outside and slid into Jace’s waiting arms.

“Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday,” he whispered in her ear.

Oh, yes, it was certainly merry and happy. And, like the future, so very bright.