Page 7 of A Bright Winter Season

“Hey, Mom!” Julia and Hazel stepped inside the house first, followed shortly by Alexis and Grayson. “How are you?”

“Oh, I’m fine.” Vivian did her best to smile as if nothing was wrong, and she hurried to hug her daughters so that she could hide her face for a moment. “How are you all doing? It’s cold out there.”

“We’re good.” Hazel smiled warmly at her mother, and Vivian noticed that she seemed even happier than usual. “We’re excited to be here.”

“Where’s Dean?” Julia asked, peering out the front window. “He’s coming, right?”

“He’d better be,” said Alexis. “I need to ask him all about how his relationship is going.”

Everyone laughed. Dean had recently started dating Noelle Calhoun, one of Rosewood Beach’s physical therapists. The two seemed to be an excellent match, both of them optimistic and sweet-tempered. Before Dean had started going out with Noelle, Alexis had been trying hard to get him to start dating, and she frequently asked him for updates about how the romance in his life was going.

“I’m pretty sure it’s going great.” Grayson grinned. “I saw the two of them ice skating yesterday. They were holding hands and looked totally smitten with each other.”

“Aww! I love that he’s dating the woman who used to be his physical therapist,” Alexis said. “Even though Chip is his PTnow, Noelle knows what kind of things will be good for Dean and help with his osteoarthritis symptoms. That’s amazing that he has the energy to go ice skating.”

The family shared a smile. When they’d first learned about Dean’s tragic diagnosis of early onset osteoarthritis, they’d been heartbroken. Soon, however, they’d learned that physical therapy might be able to work wonders for Dean’s symptoms of pain and fatigue, and that had turned out to be the case—and physical therapy had also led him to his wonderful new girlfriend.

“Pretty soon he’s going to start bringing Noelle to these dinners,” Hazel said cheerfully. “I adore her. She’s such a sweetheart.”

“I like her too.” Vivian smiled, glad to have something else to think about. She still felt ruffled after reading the article. “I think she would fit in very well with our family.”

“Here he is.” Alexis peered out the window as another car drove up and parked on the street. “Let’s all tease him about being late.”

“He’s two minutes late,” Grayson pointed out, laughing.

Dean stepped through the front door a moment later, and Alexis shook her head at him in pretend disapproval.

“Dean, Dean,” she said. “We almost had to eat dinner without you. You’re so late.”

Dean ignored his sister’s comment and just gave her a big bear hug. “Wow, it smells incredible in here.” He hugged his mother next, and Vivian smiled, always happy to get one of Dean’s famously good hugs. “What’s for dinner?”

“Chicken pot pie, butternut squash, and chopped blue cheese salad.”

“Oh, man, I can’t wait.” Dean grinned, looking happy and full of energy. It warmed Vivian’s heart to see him looking so healthy again. “What are we waiting for?”

“You,” Hazel said, punching her twin in the arm.

Laughing and bantering, the family made their way into the dining room, where they soon started to admire the table setting, which was much fancier than usual.

“Wow, Mom, what’s the occasion?” Dean asked, gesturing to the carefully-folded napkins. “These look so ornate.”

Vivian smiled. “Oh, I just felt like being festive for the Christmas season.” She didn’t want to confess the other reason why she’d done it—that she had wanted to distract herself from feeling flustered about Judd McCormick’s words in the magazine article.

“Let us help you bring the food into the dining room,” Julia said. “How many dishes are there?”

“Four,” Vivian said. “Two pies, a salad bowl, and a dish for the squash.”

Grayson, Dean, Hazel, and Julia stepped inside the kitchen, and Alexis helped Vivian pour water into all of the glasses on the table.

“I don’t know why I didn’t already bring the salad out,” Vivian said, shaking her head. “It was silly of me.”

Alexis looked at her mother in confusion. It wasn’t like Vivian to be self-critical, and Alexis seemed to realize that something was bothering her mother. Before she could ask Vivian about it, however, the rest of the siblings returned to the dining room, bearing the steaming dishes of food.

They sat down together and began to eat the delicious meal. Vivian listened to her children bantering playfully, trying to take in the scene in front of her and forget about her tense emotions. She felt incredibly blessed to have all of her children there together with her, and it was such a joy to see Dean doing so well. Earlier in the year, he’d looked pale and fatigued, but now there was a sparkle in his eyes and he looked every bit as energetic as his siblings.

Vivian did her best to stay involved in the conversation, and she congratulated herself on holding in her feelings so well. None of her children seemed to be picking up on the fact that underneath her smiles, her emotions were still a tangle of hurt and frustration.

“I had an idea the other day,” Alexis said, her smile wide. “I was thinking that we should redecorate the dining room at the pub.”

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