Trusting The Christmas Spirit – Extended Epilogue

Cassidy padded down the hall, her feet making muffled sounds on the floor as she went. When she got to the parlor, she went around and opened all the curtains. On mornings like these, she enjoyed sitting in the parlor for a few moments by herself and enjoying the silence as she got ready to face the day. 

She remembered when she was a simple worker in this home. Now, it was her home as much as it was Andy’s. 

“Good morning.” 

Andy’s voice behind her made her turn. He was standing in the hallway with a slow smile on his face, one of those looks that meant today was going to be a good day. 

He crossed the space between them and pulled Cassidy close, kissing her deeply on the lips. His embrace made her shiver ever so slightly. 

“Everything all right?” he asked her. 

“Everything is fine. I was just thinking.” 

“Thinking? Is that good or is it dangerous?” 

Cassidy laughed. “Good, I hope. It’s almost Christmas, you know. We got the first snow yesterday. In less than two weeks, we’ll be celebrating again. It comes so fast, and yet takes so long to come, don’t you think?” 

She turned around in his arms and looked up at him. He was just as handsome as he was two years ago when she married him. 

“I have some news that might make this Christmas just a little bit more exciting.” Andy’s smile grew wider. 

“Really?”

“Yes, my parents are coming to visit. They should be here in around a week.” 

“What?” Cassidy was certainly taken by surprise. They had been wanting to get Andy’s parents to visit for a long time. It had taken forever to get them to agree. The news was wonderful and unexpected. 

“Yes, I explained to them that you have wanted to meet them since before we married, and they said that maybe it was time we all get together once more. It has been much too long.” 

“Is it still all right if we do Christmas with my family, too?” Cassidy didn’t want to cancel on them. 

“Of course—we’ll still have our normal Christmas gathering, just with two more to attend. Who knows? If they like it enough, maybe they’ll choose to stay. The ranch is doing well, and we could build a little cabin out back for them to live in. It could all come together perfectly, don’t you think?”

Cassidy nodded, thinking about the idea. “It could. Then, when we finally have a baby, they could be around to be his grandparents.” 

“Or hers.” Andy shrugged. “We never know.” 

She laughed. “Yes, I suppose that’s true. It’s going to be an adventure for sure. Hopefully, it will be more fun than our last adventure.” 

Andy shook his head. “It’s getting easier to talk about. I thought I would loathe those days forever, but slowly, I’ve come to accept that they are behind us.” 

Cassidy nodded. “They really are. They are far behind us, and we don’t have to worry anymore. Eliezer is in jail. I know because my father checks every single month.” 

“He doesn’t have to do that. If he were ever to get out of jail, someone would tell me.” 

She shrugged and sat down, pulling her legs up and tucking her dress around her knees and ankles. 

“He thought he’d lost one of his children. That’s never easy for anyone to grasp. He felt out of control. Knowing where Eliezer is and making sure he stays there is what he does to feel in control. It’s the way he feels he can protect us from Eliezer forever.” 

Andy nodded. Cassidy had had a hard time understanding why her father did this, but she’d slowly come to see why once she’d seen how much it had affected Andy, too. 

He always kept a lookout over his shoulder. He never rested from making sure they were safe. Cassidy hated that he worried so much about it. Eliezer was in jail and would stay there for a very long time, if not forever. 

Someone knocked on the door, making them both stand up. Cassidy laughed at the coincidence. 

“I wonder who that might be?”

“I’m not sure, but I have to go out to work. I’ll be back later.” He walked over and kissed her once on the lips. “Let’s go see who it is.” 

Cassidy stood back and allowed Andy to open the door, but when she saw who it was, she rushed forward. It was Mary. 

She hugged her friend. “Come in, come in.” 

Andy shook his head, an expression of amusement on his face. “Well, I’ll leave the two of you to it, then. I’ll be back for lunch.” 

Cassidy nodded and watched him go, then turned to Mary. “What miracle is this? It’s been so long since you visited.” 

Ever since she’d gotten married, it seemed three times as challenging to find time to visit with Mary or anyone else. She worked on Andy’s ranch doing what she had done before, only now it was for both of them, to create a home together.  

“I know, we’ve both been so busy. I… well, I had to come whether I had the time or not.” 

“Really? Why is that?” Cassidy studied her quizzically. 

“Well, Sam asked to court me, officially!”

“What?” Cassidy couldn’t hide her excitement. She and Mary had been talking for so long about this happening one day, and here it was, about to become a reality. She could hardly believe it. “He did? When are you getting married?” 

Mary shook her head, her cheeks flushing a deep red. “I don’t know if we are getting married. I mean, we haven’t been seeing each other for long. I do hope we will, though. You have no idea how much I want what you already have: someone to share my life with and start a family with.” 

“Well, we haven’t started a family yet.” Cassidy shrugged. “But maybe one day. If we wait long enough, it should happen in God’s time.” 

“My mother says that about me and Sam, or about finding a husband in general. I keep wondering when that time will be.” 

Cassidy reached over and took her friend’s hand in hers. “It will be soon. I told my mother I would visit her today. Do you care to join me? It’s a long walk, and I have to say, even though it’s been two years, walking or even taking the wagon alone makes me nervous.” 

“Of course, I’d love to go.” Mary stood and led the way outside. “I brought my own family’s wagon because they won’t have me going anywhere alone, especially after what happened to you. They allow me to go with the wagon alone because I suppose they figure I would have a chance at escape.” 

“They might not be wrong.” Cassidy climbed up into the wagon beside Mary. Her family would bring her back. She’d discussed with Andy the day before that she would be visiting her mother today. She liked to drop in and see her sisters and her parents whenever she could. 

Her sisters were growing older every single day. They were no longer just little girls. Soon, Eleanor would be at the age where she would be looking for a husband of her own. 

As they rode along, Cassidy and Mary spoke of everything under the sun. So much had been happening in town lately. There was plenty to catch up on. When they arrived at the house, Mary pulled the wagon to a halt, and the two of them headed into the house. 

“Mama thought you weren’t coming today anymore.” Cassidy’s now seven-year-old little sister looked up at her with wide eyes. 

“Of course I came. I said I would.” Cassidy leaned down and scooped Victoria up. She missed carrying her sisters. 

She took Victoria into the kitchen, where her mother was making something on the stove. Her mother’s face broke into a smile when she spotted Cassidy. 

“There you are. I was hoping you’d be by like you said, and you came too, Mary. Wonderful.” Cassidy’s mother came over and gave her a hug. It seemed now that Cassidy was out of the house, her mother missed her more than before. Cassidy seemed to miss her more than before, too. 

“Why does everyone seem to be so surprised to see me? Where are Pa and Sam?”

“Your father is out in the field, and Sam went out on some errands. He should be back soon enough.” Her mother cast a knowing look in Mary’s direction. “This family is growing bigger by the second.” 

Cassidy nodded. It really was. She hoped that soon they would be given the chance to grow it even more. 

—*—

Andy grinned as he found Eddie in his normal position at the sheriff’s office. It seemed some things would never change. Eddie knocked his newspaper to the floor as he sat up to greet Andy. 

“Andy! There you are. I was expecting you one of these days. It’s been a while.” Eddie grinned. It didn’t matter if they hadn’t seen each other for three days or three months, Eddie was always glad to see him. 

In this case, the latter was true. It had been around three and a half months since they’d gone out of their way to visit one or the other, but it didn’t matter. They were friends no matter what, after what they had been through,. 

“I had to come by and invite you to Christmas dinner. Of course, your whole family is welcome. It’s become a bit of a tradition, so you probably already planned to come, but I figured I would make sure.” 

Eddie chuckled. “Of course I’m coming. Your family knows how to make a delicious Christmas dinner. I did mean to stop by and ask, do you think Laila could come?”

“Laila?” This was the first Andy was hearing of Laila. In fact, in the past two years, Eddie hadn’t mentioned any woman, especially not Laila. 

“She’s someone I met around three months ago, shortly after the last time we visited. She’s new in town.” Eddie’s eyes sparkled in a way Andy hadn’t seen before. 

“So… she’s something different? Something special?”

“That she is.” Eddie sounded proud. “I was beginning to think all hope was lost for me until I ran across her, and there she was. She was lost, and I gave her directions. It sort of started from there and, well, we’ve been courting for a while now. So, would it be all right to come with one extra person?” 

“Not a problem at all. We’ll be expecting you.” 

Andy sat down across from Eddie’s desk, and they went on to talk about everything that had been going on with them for the past several months. Time flew by when they were talking together about their lives. It was as if they didn’t even feel the minutes ticking by. 

Andy couldn’t wait for Christmas. For the first time in a long time, he was actually looking forward to the holiday coming around.

“How are your parents? Have you spoken to them much?” Eddie asked. 

“I have. They’re actually coming to visit on Christmas, so you’ll get to meet them at long last.” 

“Really? I am excited. So all of your differences, they have been put aside?” 

“For now. I mean, I wouldn’t say they have been forgotten, but we have been working through them. There has been work put into it on both sides, and we have been writing to each other a lot. The whole experience with Eliezer made me realize there was a lot more to life, and a lot more that I took for granted and didn’t understand. My parents were one of those things. They did their best for me and Avery, and when they lost her, it was devastating—just like it was for me.”

“I’m glad to hear that you have been improving that relationship. You deserve to have a happy relationship with your parents. As I’ve grown older, I’ve come to see that disagreements with them aren’t really worth it, especially when we might not understand the argument fully.” 

Andy nodded. “You’re right. I regret several things I said to my parents that they didn’t deserve to hear.” He sighed. “The funny thing is, parents forgive. That’s what they do because they love us.” 

He didn’t know how any parents did it. His own parents had forgiven him despite things he’d said, despite him running off, and had given him a second chance. If he ever was a father, he wanted to be like them. His adoptive father was the perfect example of the type of man a true father was. 

—*—

Andy stared out the window at the snow. In two days, it would be Christmas. For the past several days, Cassidy and her sisters had been cleaning and decorating the house, wrapping presents, and talking about the meal they would have on Christmas Day. 

He was excited about all of it. He enjoyed Christmas again, but he still remembered the person who used to enjoy it just as much, if not more. 

“Andy?” Cassidy’s soft voice behind him made him turn away from the window. She was holding a candle and a small burning stick. 

“It’s time?” he asked, looking at the candle. 

“It’s as good a time as any.” Cassidy put the new candle in a candle holder and carried it to the window. Every year, a couple of days before Christmas, they would light a candle to remember Avery by. It was a small gesture, but it meant the world to Andy. 

It was beautiful and touching to have something to bring back his memories of his sister, to remind him of all the good times they shared. Cassidy handed him the stick. 

“Here, you do the honors.” 

He held the stick to the candle and watched as the little flame caught and danced against the window pane. 

“You know, her favorite part of the evening on Christmas wasn’t the meal, or the singing, or anything else.” 

“What was it?” Cassidy asked, her eye strained on him, waiting for more details. 

“It was the gifts. It was never because she cared about what she received, but because she couldn’t wait to see what everyone thought of their gifts. Even though we had money and our parents gave us a good deal to spend on whatever we wanted to buy for one another, she always made the gifts she gave. She would spend hours making little things that she thought we would enjoy. She would then wrap them and put them by the mantle, and she would watch as we opened our gifts and ask us what we thought. She often forgot to open hers until we insisted.” Andy chuckled. 

“That’s so sweet.” 

“I used to think she was just saving her money instead of buying gifts because she wanted to buy something even bigger for herself, but we could go out and buy whatever we wanted because of our parents’ wealth, so gifts meant very little. If it was something she made, then it was priceless.”

Cassidy shook her head as her eyes stayed on the candle. “Your sister was a very special person, Andy. Even though she isn’t here now, we will always carry her in our hearts, and one day, we’ll tell our children about her. Her memory will not die.” 

Andy nodded, then pulled Cassidy close. Those words meant so much to him. The two of them stood there, looking out the window at the horizon of the snowy field. Right this minute, there were so many other families preparing for Christmas, to spend the holidays together, to receive friends and family. 

It seemed as if they were all alone out on this ranch, but that was not true. They were nowhere near alone. There was a whole community of people coming together to celebrate the birth of a baby so many years ago. They were coming to share joy, to share giving, to share their love. It was a beautiful season that had a way of healing people, even when they thought they were too broken to be fixed. 

“Andy?” Cassidy asked. 

“Yes?” he whispered. 

“I’m so lucky to have you. I wonder sometimes if things would have happened differently if we changed a single thing. If my father hadn’t broken his leg, or maybe if I had found a job that day I went searching, or if Sam and I hadn’t been good friends as well as brother and sister and he hadn’t recommended me. So many things could have changed the course of everything.” 

“I know.” Andy had thought about it, too. 

“It makes me realize that when people say God has a plan, he really does—for each and every one of us.” 

Andy smiled. God’s plan for him was perfect, and he had a feeling that his plan for Cassidy had been perfect, too. Sometimes, they had to face hardships and struggles, but that didn’t mean that God wasn’t still watching over them, making sure they could always get back up after a stumble. 

And he’d brought good things to them. His gift to the world had brought all of them together. Christmas was a reminder of the gift God gave them, and also how God was always there, leading them, and guiding them. He would never forget that, or allow his children or family to forget it. 

THE END

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