Another Christmas Excerpt from Ten Years and Then…

Early in Ten Years and Then… Daniel and Nora are home from college for Christmas break. Daniel goes home to his family, and Nora does, too. Daniel’s parents are together, and his home life is pretty stable. Nora’s parents are divorced, and she immediately learns that both her parents are dating someone new. She can’t handle it, and leaves for her aunt’s apartment in Manhattan, to spend Christmas alone (her aunt is stuck travelling for work). But luckily for her, Daniel lives in the Bronx, only a short train ride away. Of course he invites her for Christmas day, and then…

“Anyway. I do want to share. I just … I’m not real happy with how … with the way I ended up at Rachel’s.” She took his hands in hers, squeezed them, and he squeezed back. That helped. It gave her the strength to tell it all.

How ugly her parents’ divorce was. How she’d started acting out—sneaking off to parties, drinking, meeting boys, all of it—just so she could have something to feel besides how much she hurt when her parents kept hurting each other. How she’d learned about both Joelle and Jean-Paul within a couple of hours of getting home from school. How she came down to Rachel’s apartment even though Rachel wasn’t there. How lonely her apartment was at night.

Daniel listened to all of it, never looking away, never letting go of her. When she was finished, he hugged her, tighter than he ever had, and then he got up and went to his closet. She heard him grunt as he got on tippy-toes and searched around for something on the top shelf. He came back with an old, ratty teddy bear. She guessed its fur had been a rich brown once upon a time, but it was a sad beige now. Daniel had to have had the bear from kindergarten. Or maybe even before that. She wondered when he’d stopped sleeping with it and exiled it to the closet.

If she asked, he’d tell her. But she was never going to.

“I can’t do anything about your parents, or all the awful stuff you had to go through. But, here.” He handed the bear to her. “That’s Mr. Fuzzles. I want you to have him. Take him back with you to your Aunt’s place, and maybe you’ll feel a little less lonely.”

Before she could answer—and thank God, because the only answer she could think of was kissing him like she’d never kissed him before—there was a knock on the door, even though it was already open. Mrs. Keller was there.

“Nora, you shouldn’t be sleeping all alone in a strange apartment on Christmas night. You’ll stay here tonight. You can have Lisa’s room, she won’t mind.” She laughed. “Well, we won’t tell her, anyway. Once everyone goes home, I’ll put clean sheets down for you. And Daniel is right. When you go back tomorrow, please take Mr. Fuzzles with you. It’s kind of nice to know he’s needed again.”

Nora had no words; she just jumped up, tears streaming down her face, and hugged Daniel’s mother for dear life.

(and then a few hours later…)

Much later, after dinner and dessert and coffee and goodbyes to all the visitors, Nora sat on Lisa’s bed, clutching Daniel’s—her—teddy bear to her chest.

Mrs. Keller knocked at the door and let herself in. “I saw the light was still on.” She put a stack of towels on the dresser, and handed Nora a bathrobe. “I don’t know if you like to shower at night or in the morning. Either way, here are some clean towels. And, well, you and my daughter aren’t exactly built the same. I think you’ll do better with one of my bathrobes.”

She wanted to cry again, but she’d embarrassed herself in front of Daniel’s mother quite enough already. “Thank you, Mrs. Keller.”

“I’ve told you a dozen times tonight, Nora. Call me Marie. Please.”

“Okay. Marie. I’ll try to remember.” She looked over at the phone. It seemed like a big imposition, when she already owed Daniel’s parents so much. But she asked anyway. “And—uh—you’ve already done so much for me today, but—would it be alright if I made a long-distance call?”

She patted Nora on the head. “Of course! Your mother or your father?”

It was obvious, wasn’t it? “Both. But I guess Dad first. He probably feels worse about how I ran out on him.”

Marie shook her head. “He’ll just be happy to hear from you, Nora. I’ll leave you to it. You have a good night, honey.” And then Marie kissed her forehead before leaving and closing the door behind her.

She did owe it to him. Maybe her father wasn’t perfect, or even in the same zip code as perfect, but he loved her. And despite everything she felt about him—all the different emotions she couldn’t even name—she loved him too.

Ten Years and Then… is on sale this week for just $1.99, so there’s never been a better time to pick it up!  It’s also on Audible and Audiobooks.com and my narrator, Amy Adair, did an amazing job!

Powered by Linky Tools

Click here to enter your link and view this Linky Tools list…