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Chapter Seven
After Holly'stour around the inn and its grounds, they had a small early dinner in the same spot they'd had lunch. Nelly rambled on almost nonstop the entire time. And, surprisingly, Holly found she didn't mind her mother's constant chatter. It had been so long since she had been to the island; it was actually kind of nice to hear all the local gossip about the things she had missed.
And just like old times, Nelly knew everything that went on in the town. She may have been drowning under the weight of running the Archer Inn by herself, but that didn't mean she didn't always have her ears open for gossip.
Not far from the inn itself was the Archer House Holly had grown up in. When she caught sight of it, her breath caught in her throat. How many times had she made the journey between their family home and the inn over the years? More times than she could count, no doubt.
She forced herself to keep walking by Nelly's side, though she desperately wanted to stop and stare at the place. It was all so much to take in at once, and Holly had a sudden wave of doubt. What was she doing back here, walking toward a place she'd long ago walked away from? What right did she have to come swooping back in to save the day?
What would her siblings say if they saw her now? But despite that doubt, there was one question she knew the answer to that trumped everything else. What would they say if they saw the current state of the Archer House and the inn? They had cut their ties with the place just as much as she had, but deep down, Holly knew they would have had the same reaction she'd had.
This place had been their home. It held their childhood memories and all the love of the Archer family. It had been their father's legacy. They couldn't expect her to sit back and do nothing, to go back to Miami and pretend everything was fine. She couldn't or wouldn't leave her mother like this.
Walking into the house was worse than seeing it from the outside. The interior had changed very little in the last couple of decades. Even though it had gone from being the home for six people to being only Nelly's, it still looked as she'd remembered it. Some photos on the walls and mantle had changed, been updated to more recent snapshots. But otherwise, it was like going back in time thirty years.
Breathe in, breathe out, Holly repeated to herself. It had become her mantra lately, and it was about the only thing that kept her from having an anxiety attack right there in the living room. Two years since she had been to the house, and then she had only been in town for a couple of days, staying at the inn itself, rather than the main house. She'd had Will and the kids with her back then, and it hadn't made sense for all of them to try to cram into the house when the inn had plenty of open rooms available.
Now, she was planning on staying at the house for at least a couple of weeks. How was she going to manage that? She wondered briefly. There was so much history in this house, more so than the inn. She'd had so many milestones and life events in this place, and all of them threatened to come rushing back at a moment's notice.
When Nelly excused herself to head to bed for the night, leaving Holly alone, the younger woman found herself questioning her choice to remain on the island. She left her suitcase in the living room, not wanting to venture up to her bedroom just yet. Just being in the house was almost more than she could handle. Any more than that would take time.
Instead, she headed for the kitchen and found a bottle of wine, pouring herself a glass. She bit back a bark of laughter as she swirled the liquid around in her glass. Maybe Randy wasn't the only one in the family who had a drinking problem, she thought as she took her first sip. And if he was, if Holly wasn't careful, she would be right behind him before long.
Not that the thought stopped her from drinking the glass, then pouring herself another. She'd taken a sip of it when her phone rang, making her jump and almost topple out of the old wooden chair. Closing her eyes and forcing herself to take deep breaths again, she fished her phone out of her too-tight pockets.
When she saw Gabby's name on the screen, she frowned and her heart rate sped right back up. "Hello?" Holly said as she answered the phone.
"Mom!" Even with the slight distortion from the phone, Holly could hear the panic and apprehension in her daughter's voice. "Where are you? Are you okay?"
Holly blinked in confusion for a moment, wondering why Gabby was so panicked. "I'm fine, dear. I'm at the inn down in the Keys. Why?"
"Why?" Gabby's voice rose an octave. God, she was so much like her mother, Holly mused. She recognized that tone from many of her own conversations with various people, and that thought brought a smirk to her face. "Sean's here. You were supposed to be at his place today and neither of us have heard a peep from you! Jesus, Mom. You gave us all heart attacks!"
Silently, Holly cursed. With everything going on and Roger's sudden call yesterday, Holly had forgotten to tell her kids she'd be down in the Keys checking things out. Rubbing her aching temples, Holly let out a sigh and apologized to her daughter. Then, she did it again when Gabby put the phone on speaker so Sean could be included in the conversation as well.
"Is Grandma okay?" Sean asked. It was as though his anger and annoyance and worry about his mother had faded away in an instance. But that was always how Sean was. He cared more for others than himself. His feelings didn't matter much if someone else was hurting.
"I think she will be," Holly said honestly. "She's stressed and overwhelmed with everything. The inn is too much for her to handle on her own without Grandpa. I'm hoping to find a way to take some of the burden off her shoulders, so she can take a step or two back and breathe. Let some other people handle stuff, you know?"
"What about you? How are you holding up?" he asked next. There was apprehension in his voice as he asked like he was afraid Holly might have a breakdown at any slight mention of the turmoil her life had turned into.
"I'm doing okay. As good as can be expected, you know? I'm gonna miss the house and the office and everything, but you know the old saying. When one door closes, another opens. I gotta stay positive."
She wanted to believe those words, but it was hard to find the positives in everything going on. If they really were there, they were buried deep beneath all the negatives that kept piling up all around her. But she wasn't going to say that to her kids. They may have been all grown up now, but they were still her babies. They expected certain things from their mother; being strong and steadfast was one of those things.
"You'll get through it," Sean promised, making Holly smile. Three years of being a father had really changed him. No, not changed him since he had always been kind and caring. Being a father just reinforced those parts of him, and he was always there, ready to pick you up when you fell. "We all had some good times in that house, but we'll always have those memories, you know? I bet you missed the Archer House when you moved out, but that didn't stop you from making memories in the new house, did it?"
"No, that's very true," Holly said. Sean worked as a contractor, but Holly had always thought he should've become a doctor or a psychologist. He certainly had the compassion and a knack for knowing what to say. She made a mental note to talk to him once she had a better understanding of everything that was falling apart around the inn. Either she could steer some business in his direction, or at the very least, he might be able to come out for a couple of days if she had to meet with local contractors, just to make sure they didn't try to cheat her.
Gabby's laughter cut through those thoughts. That cackling of hers came through clear as day, even over the phone. "You mean like that time you got your head stuck between the bars of the banister on the stairs?" Holly didn't need to be there to know her daughter was grinning madly at Sean.
"You're the one who dared me to stick my head between there! I was seven! How was I supposed to know that? Just because I could get my head in there didn't mean it would come back out!" Sean shot back.
Holly put a hand over her mouth to help stifle her laughter as the two of them started bickering back and forth over whose fault it was. It had been terrifying back then, when Gabby had come running to find Holly and Will, giving them the grave news. But now, eighteen years later, Holly was able to look back on the incident and laugh.
God, the kids had certainly gotten up to plenty of antics living in that house. But Sean was right. She'd had the same kinds of memories here in this house and down at the inn. If they had asked her back then if she had missed the place, she would have told them absolutely not. But now, with the wisdom that came with age, she knew she had missed this place like crazy. But that hadn't stopped her from building a life in Miami and creating new memories.
And if she could do it once, what was stopping her from doing it again?
