“I didn’t want to be pushy about being with your family. And to be honest, I’d love to be with my kids. I was grateful to be asked.”
“Is there some deeper meaning here?” she asked, suspicious. Maybe Eileen was trying to win him back and using the nostalgia of the holiday and their children.
“None whatsoever. She even said so in the email, ‘no romantic implications,’ just a family holiday. Who knows, it might be the last Christmas I spend with them, after a divorce, so I’d like to do it.”
She sat up in bed then and was wide awake. “Actually, I’d rather you didn’t. I’d much prefer that you join me and my family.”
“I can’t now,” he said gently. “I don’t want to disappoint my kids.”
“Or your wife?”
“She can take another disappointment. I don’t want the kids to.”
“Have you called your lawyer yet?” she asked him pointedly. “How’s the divorce going?”
“I haven’t. The separation has only been two months. I was planning to do it after the holidays. I don’t need to serve her with divorce papers over Christmas. It can wait a few more weeks.” Olivia didn’t comment, but she didn’t look pleased.
She brought up Christmas Eve dinner two more times in the next few days, but Paul was adamant. He wanted to spend it with his children. He didn’t say it, but Olivia should have thought of it sooner. He very much wanted to meet her mother and grandmother, but he hadn’t been invited to so far, and now it would have to wait until after Christmas. Olivia had doled out privileges slowly, and he knew that was a big one to her, and indicative of a serious commitment, so it meant a lot that she had asked him, but his children were the priority. He couldn’t combine them, for now anyway. He had learned that lesson the hard way.
Olivia made several acerbic comments about his plans in the week before Christmas. She made it clear that she was unhappy he wasn’t joining her, but his spending Christmas with Eileen and the kids in Greenwich was written in stone now. He gave Olivia a beautiful sapphire tennis bracelet, with small diamonds between the sapphires, and she loved it, but she was sad not to be spending Christmas with him. They were going to have dinner together on Christmas night. And she gave him an Hermès black leather jacket he loved. It fit him perfectly. They had been generous with each other.
He had a leisurely breakfast with Olivia the morning of Christmas Eve. He left at noon and took the train to Greenwich. There was a light dusting of snow on the ground when he got there, and his house looked like the image on a Christmas card. Eileen had hired someone to put up the lights on the house and in the trees around it, as they always did, and she had added new ones and a funny Santa Claus, a snowman, and a Rudolph on the front lawn, all lit up. It was corny but the kids loved it, and so did he. When he rang the doorbell and she let him in, he saw the tree decorated in the living room. It almost brought tears to his eyes to be home with them for the holiday. It was the best gift Eileen could have given him, Christmas with his children.
“Thank you for letting me come,” he said to Eileen in a voice husky with emotion.
“It wouldn’t be Christmas without you,” she said warmly, and directed him to leave his things in his old office. It had a bathroom, so he knew he’d be fine there.
The boys jumped on him the minute they saw him. Pennie looked pleased too. Their relationship had been strained ever since she’d met Olivia, but she was warmer for the holiday, and she had bought him a black Ralph Lauren sweater with her own money. She looked happy to have him home. They all were.
He took the boys out to do a last minute errand for their mother. There was a scarf and some gloves they wanted to buy her and didn’t have the money. Pennie hadn’t had time to take them.
They drove off to town, and Eileen put their Christmas music on. If you didn’t know they were separated and he was in love with another woman, you would have thought that all was right in their world. In some ways, it was. And outwardly, it all looked the same.
* * *
—
Olivia was sad that night as she dressed for dinner at her mother’s. She really wanted Paul to be there, and to spend Christmas Eve with them, but she had asked him too late. She hadn’t decided until the last minute, and now he was in Greenwich with his kids and his wife. She didn’t like his being there and for the first time she felt jealous of them. They were a closed circle, a unity, which didn’t include her and she knew she couldn’t compete with. His children were all-important to him, and he wouldn’t let anything come between him and them. It was an admirable quality but she felt left out. He had finally left Eileen, and now he was back there again for Christmas, as though nothing had happened. She didn’t like the fact that he hadn’t filed for divorce yet. What if he didn’t? But he had promised he would after Christmas.
He had texted her when he arrived in Greenwich that afternoon, and she hadn’t heard from him since.
She wore a black velvet dress to dinner at her mother’s that night, and Gwen saw immediately that she looked upset. Gwen was wearing a long dark green velvet skirt with a white satin blouse with full sleeves, and she looked regal as she greeted her daughter and hugged her. Her own mother and Federico hadn’t arrived yet.
“Merry Christmas, darling. Is something wrong?”
“Not really. I’m just annoyed that Paul didn’t come with me. I wanted you to meet him.”
“Where is he? Why didn’t you bring him?”
“I asked him too late. He already had plans.”
“And he didn’t cancel them for you?” Gwen looked surprised.
“He went to Greenwich to be with his wife and kids.”
“Oh.” Gwen understood the problem then and why Olivia looked unhappy. “I see. That’s hard to compete with. Why didn’t they come to him, the kids I mean?”
“He’s not set up for it, and they wanted to be at home with their mother. So he went to them. He said it doesn’t mean anything, but it bothers me anyway. He shouldn’t be there.”
“We’ll see to it that we invite him early enough next year.” Gwen smiled at her daughter as Olivia sat down on her elegant couch. A minute later, the doorbell rang and the butler opened it. Gabrielle and Federico walked in. He was wearing a black velvet dinner jacket, and she was wearing a long, dark red lace dress, which suited her. They looked adorable together, as they came down the stairs to the living room. Federico took the stairs more carefully, and Gabrielle with ease. She hugged her daughter and granddaughter, and Federico joined her seconds later. He had a mane of snow-white hair, and half of his face was still strikingly handsome and perfectly sculpted with his Roman profile, but the other half was badly scarred, which Gabrielle never noticed, and the others had gotten used to.