“Where did you find these pictures?” Angie said.
“They’re copies. The originals are still in the box.”
The room seemed to go silent by degrees. One conversation stopped, then another and another. Lauren felt everyone looking at her.
Maria was the first to rise and cross the room. She knelt in front of Angie, took the picture into her own lap, and stared down at it. When she looked up, there were tears in her eyes. “This is our trip to Yellowstone … and our twenty-fifth anniversary party. Where did you find these?”
“They were in a box under my bed. At the cottage. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”
Maria pulled Lauren into a tight hug. “Thank you.” When she drew back, she was smiling brightly, even as tears streamed down her face. “This brings my Tony back to me for Christmas. It is the best gift. You will bring the photographs to me tomorrow, yes?”
“Of course.” Lauren’s smile seemed to be taking over her face. She couldn’t rein it in. She was still grinning when Maria left and Angie squeezed her hand, saying, “This is beautiful. Thank you.”
Christmas dinner at the DeSaria house was slightly quieter than a Mariners home game, but not much. There were three tables set up. Two in the living room with four chairs each and the one in the dining room that held sixteen people jammed together. One table was for the little kids and one was for the teenagers, whose job it was to look after the little kids. This was a job that was handled poorly most of the time. You couldn’t take more than a few bites before someone big came in tattling on someone small, or vice versa. Of course, no one paid much attention to either and by the time the third bottle of wine had been finished, the children knew it was pointless to come into the dining room. The grown-ups were simply having too much fun.
It was not what Angie had expected for this first Christmas without Papa. All of them had expected quiet voices and sad eyes to be the order of the day.
Lauren’s gift had changed all that. Those old photos, unseen for decades, had brought Papa back to them. Now, instead of talking around old memories, they were sharing them. Right now Mama was telling them all about the trip they’d taken to Yellowstone, and how they’d accidentally left Livvy at the diner. “Three little girls and a dog is a lot to keep track of.” She laughed.
The only one who didn’t laugh was Livvy. In fact, she’d been quiet all day. Angie frowned, wondering if her sister’s marriage was already in trouble. She smiled across the table; Livvy looked away.
Angie made a mental note to talk to Livvy after dinner, then she glanced to her right. Lauren was engaged in an animated conversation with Mira.
When she turned to her left, she found Conlan staring at her.
“She’s really something,” he said.
“She got to you, too, huh?”
“It’s dangerous, Ange. When she leaves …”
“I know.” She leaned toward him. “You know what, Con? My heart is big enough to lose a piece now and then.”
Slowly, he smiled. “I’m glad to hear that.” He was about to say something else but the ping-ping-ping of a fork hitting glass stopped him.
Angie looked up.
Livvy and Sal stood up. Sal was tapping his fork against his wineglass. When silence fell around the table, he put an arm around Livvy. “We wanted to let you all know that there will be a new baby in the family for next Christmas.”
No one said a word.
Livvy’s eyes filled slowly with tears as she looked at Angie.
She waited for the pain to hit, stiffened in preparation. Conlan squeezed her thigh. Steady now, that touch said.
But she was steady. The realization made Angie smile. She got to her feet and came around the table, hugging her sister tightly. “I’m happy for you.”
Livvy drew back. “You mean it? I was so scared to tell you.”
Angie smiled. The pain was there, of course it was, lodged in her heart like a piece of glass. And the envy. But it didn’t hurt as much as before. Or maybe she’d finally learned to handle the pain. All she really knew was that she felt no urge to run to a quiet room and cry and her smile didn’t have to be forced. “I mean it.”
At that, conversations burst to life again.
Angie returned to her seat just as Mama began the prayer. When it was over and they’d listed and prayed for all their loved ones who’d been lost, including Papa and Sophia, Conlan leaned close to her.
“Are you really okay?”
“It’s a shock, isn’t it?”
He stared at her a long time, then very softly he said, “I love you, Angela Malone.”
“What time is it?” Lauren asked, looking up from her magazine.