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Elise and Penny locked eyes across the aisle. Penny mouthed,“What’s up with her?”which made Elise burst into laughter, nearly spilling her glass of champagne. The moment the champagne flutes were filled, the stewardess sat the still-partially-full champagne bottle atop Bradley’s tray table and clacked away in her heels.
“Let’s make a toast,” Penny said. “To Elise Darby, my extraordinary mother, the woman to whom I look up to every single day of my life. I don’t know what kind of person I would be without you, and beyond that, I don’t know what kind of person any of us would have been without Grandma. To you, to your success, and to the memory of Grandma. Here’s to a wild few days on Mackinac Island, also—a tiny rock in the middle of nowhere, with a name that really shouldn’t be pronounced that way.”
“Hey! It’s French,” Wayne interjected with a wild smile.
Penny rolled her eyes. “Whatever, Wayne. Oh, that reminds me.” She cleared her throat and then added, “I suppose some of this toast should be reserved for Wayne, who seems every bit the kind of man my mother deserves—that is if he’s up to the challenge.”
“I hope I am,” Wayne affirmed.
“That was the longest toast I’ve ever heard in my life,” Brad teased.
“I don’t hear you coming up with anything, Bradly,” Penny said.
“I’m not the thespian here. You took the stage from all of us, and you held it well. I can’t fight that,” he said.
They settled back in their seats for the remainder of the flight: sipping champagne, chatting, laughing. Occasionally, Elise was overwhelmed with the events of the previous two months—especially when she was reminded, with a strange jolt in her stomach, that her mother was really gone.
But look at all I have.
Mom would have wanted us to be happy.
She would have wanted us to be together.
When they arrived back in Traverse City, a dramatic sheet of freezing rain slapped itself through the air. Elise, Penny, Brad, and Wayne watched it from the other side of the glass as stark, chilly air swirled around them, cast in from the doors that opened and closed with each newcomer.
“Shoot,” Penny breathed.
“I have never seen weather like that,” Brad said.
“It’s Halloween!” Penny cried. “It should be illegal for the weather to be this bad on Halloween.”
“It’s haunted weather, isn’t it?” Wayne said as he slipped his arms through his winter coat and zipped it to his chin. “The kind of weather ghosts and ghouls and werewolves thrive on.”
“I can’t believe I made fun of your winter coat when you got to LA,” Brad said with a heavy sigh. “I see the error of my ways. All I have is this light jacket.”
It was decided that they rent a car and head to a local retailer to buy winter coats for Penny and Brad. Inside the store, the kids had a kind of field day, trying on winter hats and gloves and mittens, whipping scarves around their necks. Elise could see it: they were acting out old fantasies of Christmas movies they had seen since they’d never been allowed that kind of winter wonderland life.
By the time they had finished, they were able to put their new winter garb to good use, as the full sheet of frozen rain had given way to the snow. They stepped out into the parking lot with their faces lifted toward the grey sky, completely mesmerized as the snow billowed across their cheeks and melted across their skin.
“This is absolutely marvelous,” Penny breathed beside Elise. She closed her eyes so that her blue eyeshadow caught the grey light beautifully.
She looks like a movie star.
“All right, guys. If we don’t get back in the car now, we’ll never make it up to Mack,” Elise said finally, again falling back into her role as “mother,” “the one in charge.”
The kids grumbled and jumped into the back seat, which left Elise and Wayne side-by-side in the snow. His cheeks were bright pink and his grin was infectious.
“What are you thinking?” Elise asked, suddenly breathless.
“Nothing. Just how happy I am that you came back, I guess,” he said.
“Wasn’t that all a part of the plan?”
Wayne shrugged. “I had my doubts I could really drag you from your California home.”
Elise bridged the gap between them and lifted her chin. “You could never drag me anywhere. You know that? I came here because I’m falling hard for you and I don’t want to do any of this without you.”
Wayne’s blush crimsoned. As he opened his lips to respond, Penny rolled down her window and called, “We’re freezing in here! My phone says it’s twenty-two degrees! What kind of witchcraft is that?”
