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“I’ll be available, as well,” Ben affirmed.
“It’s not like you won’t be cooking up a storm, anyway,” Lily teased. “Why not show off your skills to the people of Nantucket? Let them know what they’ve been missing since you went away.”
Rebecca’s heart lifted. She slung her arm over Lily’s shoulders and shivered with excitement. “We’ll have to talk to Shelby and Chad about it,” she said.
“How could they say no?” Lily asked. “All we want is for our mother to be happy again. We want to hear you singing in the kitchen like you always did before.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chad and Shelby arrived at the Boston airport three days later. After the short drive from Hyannis Port, Rebecca and Lily waited for them, waving wildly as they walked out of arrivals. They were both suntanned and toned and clearly overwhelmed, their backs heavy with backpacks and their eyes alight. As a family of four, they held each other in a big group hug as the rest of the airport guests milled around them. Although Chad tried to pretend he wasn’t crying, there wasn’t a dry eye in the group. It had been a terrible decision to break their family up over the summer. Rebecca was so glad they’d rectified that.
Back at the old Victorian home, Esme had baked enough cookies for thirty-five grandchildren rather than just three, and she hugged Chad and Shelby as though it was more of a reunion than a first meeting. She already loved them to bits. Victor soon retreated from the study to greet them. The divorced grandparents and grandchildren sat around the kitchen table together, ate cookies, drank milk, and talked about the first few weeks of their summer vacations. Nothing had gone as planned. Shelby said there had been an outbreak of bedbugs at the camp in the Acadia Mountains, and she’d spent more time cleaning bed sheets than hiking. Chad had twisted his ankle during day three of basketball camp but hadn’t wanted to worry Rebecca, so he kept the news to himself. Rebecca hated this. She wanted her children to feel they could tell her anything.
Still, she understood wanting to protect your parents. Esme and Victor were damaged people, and she wanted to help them in any way she could.
Since Lily had arrived in Nantucket, Esme had become a full-time grandmother. She’d spent hours with her at the kitchen table as they’d spoken about Lily’s time in New York City, her hopes for her future, and how much she missed her father. Rebecca sometimes participated in these conversations; other times, she was upstairs, fine-tuning the menu she wanted to feature for the first night of The Sutton Book Restaurant.
Esme, Victor, and Rebecca had decided upon a soft opening for the restaurant the night of June twenty-third, which was only a few days away. Already, Lily, Rebecca, and Ben had walked all over town, hanging signs to advertise the event. Because the Sutton Book Club only had two very long tables, they’d purchased ten smaller tables to place around the old colonial home, along with fake candles to give more ambience to the atmosphere. When Lily had suggested they use real candles, Rebecca and Esme had cried at once, “No! The books!” Lily had made fun of them ever since, repeating that phrase with more and more emotion. “No! Not the books! Save the books!” she’d cried, like a soap opera victim.
Unfortunately, Bethany was back in Savannah, and Valerie had returned to San Francisco. After Chad and Shelby arrived, Rebecca introduced her children over video chat. They sat and ate cookies in the kitchen with their grandmother and waved at Valerie and Bethany with confusion marring their faces. Who were these aunts they’d never known? Both Bethany and Valerie promised they’d come out to Nantucket soon to meet them. Rebecca’s heart ached for her sisters, just as it always had since she’d left Nantucket. How she loved them! How she wanted to know them her entire life.
The day before the soft opening of The Sutton Book Restaurant, Victor was in the kitchen bright and early. There was confidence in his smile, and he spoke to everyone in the house with ease. Esme sat at the kitchen table with a newspaper in front of her, and she smiled as Rebecca entered.
“Victor? I need seven for a French castle.” Esme tapped her pen to the right of the crossword and eyed her ex-husband.
“Château,” Victor said without a moment of thought.
Esme smiled in a way that hinted she’d known the answer already; she’d just wanted Victor to be involved. “Thank you,” she said as she wrote the letters in the little boxes. “How did you sleep, Rebecca?”
“My daughters were giggling in the room next door,” Rebecca said as she poured herself a mug of coffee. “I think they’re happy to be back together again.”
“I’ll say. Isn’t it marvelous that they’re such good friends, despite being four years apart?” Esme said. “Shelby looks at Lily the way Bethany and Valerie used to look at you, you know. Like you were a goddess or a queen.”
Rebecca felt a pang of sorrow for her childhood. She sat across from her mother as Victor poured himself a bowl of cereal and a touch of milk. She was so lost in thought that she hardly heard him when he spoke.
“I’m sorry? What was that?” Rebecca asked.
“I was hoping you and the kids would come with me this afternoon,” Victor explained again. “I have a surprise.”
Rebecca cocked her head. “Do you know about this?” she asked her mother.
Esme shook her head. “I don’t know anything. But I’m unfortunately busy today with Book Club obligations.”
“I’ve told her I’ll surprise her separately,” Victor explained. “As long as you and the kids keep it a secret.” There was a childlike and mischievous look in his eyes. Rebecca had absolutely no idea what he had up his sleeve.
That afternoon, Rebecca, Lily, Shelby, and Chad piled into Victor’s car, which he’d brought back from Providence. The kids were stuffed in the back seat, just as they’d been in the golden days when Rebecca had to take them to basketball, ballet, piano lessons, and art classes. Eventually, she’d wised up and gotten the SUV.
It was a beautiful day on Nantucket. The storms of the previous few weeks were now nothing but a memory. Victor drove them through downtown streets, laughing at the tourists as they crossed at-will, regardless if vehicles were there or not. “I think when people go on vacations, they lose their minds,” he said.
“Is this a vacation for us?” Chad asked from the back seat. “Or is this more of a lifestyle change?”
As Victor turned the car onto the road nearest the harbor, Shelby and Chad peered out the window at the enormous field of tilting sailboats.
“I hope it’s a lifestyle change,” Shelby joked, then quickly adjusted. “Not that I don’t love Bar Harbor. I do!”
“We all love Bar Harbor,” Lily affirmed. “But you have to admit something’s special about Nantucket.”
“That there is,” Victor said wistfully. “And your grandmother’s and my families have been on Nantucket for generations. Your blood is here.”
