AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’d better go.” Louise spun on her heel and turned the doorknob, whipping herself back into the frigid air.
Charlotte leaped toward the window to watch her mother trace the path around the back of the inn, headed toward Main Street and back to Jeez, Louise, the diner she’d opened and run mostly by herself since the age of twenty-five. Her face looked frantic, and she walked gingerly as though she’d recently hurt her foot.
“What was that about?” Van asked.
Charlotte clucked her tongue. “I wish I understood.”
Van leaned against the counter. “Did she say something about your money and fame?”
“She did. Have you seen my money and fame anywhere? I seem to have lost them.”
Van’s laughter was sorrowful. In her arms, Ethan had fallen back to sleep, and she placed the bottle back on the counter and adjusted him in her arms. “Why does Grandma treat you like that??”
Charlotte couldn’t catch her breath.
“I mean, she treats you like you did something really horrible to her,” Van went on. “And I’ve never been able to figure that out.”
It was true that Charlotte had never explained to Van the dynamics of her and Louise’s relationship. But to drudge up the past in explanation meant translating how much Van’s birth had affected the way Louise had treated her— which was cruel. It was better for Van to think that Charlotte and Louise had never seen eye to eye.
“She never liked me,” Charlotte offered with a shrug. “I’ve spent my life wondering why.”
Grandpa Hank’s bedroom door creaked open, and Grandpa Hank wandered out of his bedroom sleepily, rubbing his eyes. He wore a pair of soft blue pajamas, and his gray hair was like a cirrus cloud. Charlotte felt a surge of love for him.
“Did you have a good nap?” she asked, hurrying to get him a glass of water and his pills, which he usually took after his late-morning nap.
“I did,” Grandpa Hank said. “Until I thought I heard my youngest daughter out here, yapping away. Was it a nightmare?”
“It wasn’t,” Charlotte said, pressing the water glass into his hands. “Mom just wanted to stop in and say hi.”
Grandpa Hank shook his head sadly. “My Louise has always been a drama queen. I adore her to pieces, but I’ll never understand her. Perhaps understanding our children is too much to ask for.”
“I definitely don’t always understand this little guy,” Van joked, nodding toward Ethan. “If only he could tell me what was wrong!”
“Language has nothing to do with it,” Grandpa Hank said.
Charlotte sighed. “Mom was accusing me of all sorts of stuff. She said I didn’t respect the inn. And that all my money and fame had changed me?”
Grandpa Hank chuckled gently and placed a medicine tablet on his tongue. “Why didn’t you bring any of that money to White Plains with you?”
“I would have if I had it, Grandpa,” Charlotte assured him. She didn’t want to get into it too much: the endless parade of bills she still needed to pay, which awaited her on her desk in Manhattan; the ever-rising prices of everything in the city, from groceries to utilities to meals out at restaurants. Manhattan had been her world since she’d turned eighteen, a time of exhilaration and hope. But the city had slowly been rejecting her for many years at this point. She was like a splinter in Manhattan’s big toe, being pushed out.
Grandpa Hank was quiet for a moment, his eyes gray and distant. Outside, snow fluttered and blew in circles; the wind rushed against the house, and the walls creaked.
“Louise has been alone for a long time,” Grandpa Hank said finally. “She’s got a lot of different ideas about the world, and it’s difficult to convince her otherwise.”
“Stubbornness runs in the Summers’ women,” Van offered kindly. “I think it’s served me well over the years.”
Grandpa Hank smiled. “Louise has always taken that stubbornness a bridge too far. Your mother knows that better than anyone.” He nodded toward Charlotte and took another swig of water. “But I’ve never been able to reason with her. I have never been able to tell her just how big a mistake it was to push you away. I imagine she knows somewhere in that broken heart of hers. The question is, will she ever let herself forgive you and herself and move on?”
Van peered at Charlotte curiously, sensing the tremendous story beneath Grandpa Hank’s words.
“It looks like she’s just finding new reasons to get angry at me,” Charlotte whispered with a playful shrug.
“Never a dull day in White Plains,” Grandpa Hank said finally, trudging back toward his La-Z-Boy and dropping himself onto the cushion. “You ladies thought you’d get some peace and quiet away from the city. Buckle up! Who knows what will happen next?”
With Grandpa Hank distracted with the television, rocking gently in his chair, Van waved to get Charlotte’s attention and beckoned for her to follow her into her bedroom. Long ago, this bedroom had been Charlotte’s Aunt Tina’s, Louise’s older sister, and there were still relics of that time: Aunt Tina’s posters of Elvis and the Beatles and her old-fashioned sewing machine, with which she’d sewed both her and Louise’s prom dresses. They’d set up a diaper changing area for Ethan near the window, and they’d purchased a crib from the superstore near the highway, where Van now placed Ethan.
“What is Great-Grandpa talking about?” Van rasped.
