Let It Be (Butler, Vermont #6) - Marie Force Page 0,66
talk about that. I didn’t want you to know I was estranged from my family when I was raising you to be all about your family. I didn’t want to set that example for you.”
“It wasn’t your fault you were estranged from them,” Wade said.
“Still… I didn’t want you to know something like that could happen, so we agreed to keep the first wedding between us and your grandparents. Megan overheard Elmer and me talking about it at the diner the other day, and she told me I needed to tell the rest of you about our first wedding so you’d know just how amazing your mother truly is.”
“We already knew that,” Hannah said. “But way to go, Mom.” She led a rousing round of applause for Molly.
“Stand up and take a bow, love,” Linc said.
Molly stood and bowed dramatically.
“And now you know all our secrets,” Linc said.
“Not all of them,” Molly reminded him. “There was that time—”
“No,” their children shouted.
Lincoln returned to his seat next to Molly.
“Thank you for the shout-out.”
“My pleasure. Still ranks as one of your finest moments.”
“I remember everything about that day so vividly. I was running on pure emotion and a ferocious need to do something to make things right for you. Not that I ever really could.”
He leaned his head against hers. “You did, though. You fixed almost everything with that one gesture.”
The family was in high spirits as they made their way north with Christmas music playing on the sound system. They even sang along, loudly and off-key, and the baby slept through the chaos.
“That makes her an official Abbott,” Molly declared. “The ability to sleep through madness.”
Lincoln had never seen Ella glow the way she did when she looked at her newborn daughter, and Gavin… He was an emotional disaster on his first day as a dad. The poor guy had been through so much since losing his beloved brother. To see him starting his own family with Ella was deeply satisfying to everyone who loved him.
“Your folks must be on pins and needles,” Linc said to Gavin.
“They can’t wait to meet her,” Gav said, his gaze fixed on his fiancée and daughter. “They’re so excited.”
Bob and Amelia Guthrie had been part of the Abbott family for a long time, since Hannah married Caleb and made them family.
With rest stops and food breaks figured in, it took seven hours to reach the Vermont border, and a cheer went up inside the bus when they crossed the state line as a light snow fell.
“Ugh,” Molly said. “I hope the snow doesn’t slow us down.”
“It might,” Linc replied, leaning around her to see the snow coming down at a good clip. It was apt to be more significant in the mountains.
Sure enough, the closer they got to home, the slower they had to go to navigate snowy, icy roads.
“Should we stop somewhere?” Molly asked Linc in a soft tone that ensured they wouldn’t be overheard.
“The kids would probably walk to get home if they had to, and knowing our kids, they’d do it.”
“They get that from your people.”
“No way,” Linc said, smiling. “My people are refined city folk who know enough to stay inside when it’s cold. Yours are the mountain people who think it’s fun to go looking for people in a blizzard.”
“For the record,” she said, “that was never me. My father and his brothers and cousins, my brothers, yes. But never me.”
“It’s in your bloodline.”
The friendly bickering helped to keep their minds off the increasingly hazardous weather conditions.
Caden was crying to be let out of his car seat, but Max told him he had to stay put for a little while longer.
Right before they would’ve lost reception in the mountains, Max’s cell phone rang. “It’s Cam. Hey, what’s up?” After listening for a minute, he said, “Sure, I’ll tell them. See you soon.” After he ended the call, Max said, “Cameron and the others are at the barn waiting for us. She said they’ve set up beds for everyone, including you, Gramps, and have Christmas ready to go. They even have a bassinette for baby Sarah. They thought we’d want to be together this year.”
“That’s so wonderful,” Molly said.
“They’ve been busy while we were gone,” Linc said, touched by the efforts the others had gone to in their absence.
“They were busy making sure you’re going to wake up to Christmas morning with your entire family,” Molly said. “How amazing is that?”
“I can’t imagine anything better.”
What should’ve been a twenty-minute ride took