Chapter 5
Grandpa Wes came to the hospital the following morning to meet Genevieve. His cheeks were shiny red apples as he held her and whispered sweet things. Amanda sat on the hospital bed, still feeling as though she’d been torn up and stitched back together again, but she smiled in a way that hurt her face.
“She’s perfect, Amanda,” Grandpa said as he handed her back gently. “Congratulations.”
Grandpa Wes looked hesitant. He laced his fingers together and set his hands on his stomach. Sam arched his brow as the silence filled the room.
“I have some news,” Grandpa Wes said.
Just then, the hospital door opened with more Sheridans. Christine and Lola had gone for coffee; Audrey had a big bag of bagels and another of cream cheeses. Beatrice waved from the waiting room behind them; she’d wanted to give Grandpa Wes space to meet his great-granddaughter alone. Amanda waved her in, too.
“What a crew!” Lola cried as she sat in one of the plastic chairs by the wall.
“Genevieve already knows we travel in packs,” Susan said, bringing up the rear and shutting the door behind her.
“She’s already one of us,” Lola agreed.
“Grandpa was about to tell us something,” Amanda said.
Everyone turned to look at Grandpa Wes. Susan’s eyes echoed fear. With Grandpa Wes’s dementia diagnosis, it was never far from anyone’s mind that his health could turn on a dime. Amanda had spent too much time praying and hoping that he would make it through his wedding and a few happy years of marriage before everything fell apart. She hated thinking about this. But it always crept back into her mind.
Grandpa Wes smiled and cleared his throat. “Now that I have an audience,” he began, “I can share something incredible. Something that affects all of us. Maybe you know that our genius manager Sam decided to break ground to build a basement spa for the Sunrise Cove. The construction workers started work this week. Not long after they began, one of them came upstairs to tell me they had something to show me. It was a reason they couldn’t go on.”
Sam’s face was pale. “What happened? Is there more plumbing than we thought?”
Amanda could see him making calculations, wondering if he’d just made a grave error that affected Sunrise Cove’s profit margins. He was always talking about profit margins. She loved that he cared about the Sunrise Cove Inn far more than a typical manager cared for a typical inn. He was a part of the Sheridan family now. He’d stitched himself into the history of the place.
“Not exactly,” Wes said. “It seems they think there’s a hidden room downstairs. Something very historical in any case. They plan to contact a historian on our behalf who will investigate.”
“What?” Lola cried. “A hidden room?”
“For what?” Susan demanded.
Wes raised his shoulders. “They didn’t rip down the wall, so we couldn’t see what was beyond it. But it’s certainly fascinating, isn’t it? I can’t stop thinking about it! For my entire life, secrets lurked downstairs, and I never knew. And as far as I know, my parents had no idea either.”
Everyone spoke at once with theories and questions. Because she was a newborn and exhausted with the world already, Genevieve slept through the mayhem.
Amanda waved her hand in the air. “Didn’t you always say that your grandparents built the Sunrise Cove?”
“They did,” Wes affirmed. “But the Sheridans lived on that land for generations before that. Remember that we’re islanders deep in our blood. I remember my grandmother telling me about a terrible fire that almost destroyed the house where the Sunrise Cove Inn is today. It’s possible they built over the secret room without really knowing what they were leaving behind.”
This left everyone in the room speechless. The textures of time stood between them and the truth.
“I took several classes in law school about the legalities of historical sites,” Amanda said.
Wes brightened. “We’ll need your help every step of the way.”
Amanda smiled. To most of her family, she remained a lawyer, even if she no longer had a license to practice. The memory of that thudded darkly in her stomach. But she didn’t have time to deal with that now. There were secret rooms to explore. There was a baby to take care of. There was a wound between her legs that she needed to heal.
After Wes and Beatrice went home, Sam stepped outside to call the construction firm he’d hired to get more information about what they’d discovered and the next steps. Wes had said they worked with historians frequently.
This left Amanda and Genevieve alone with the Sheridan women: Audrey, Susan, Lola, and Christine. Mia was with Zach, and Max was with Noah, and both Audrey and Christine doted on Genevieve in the style of women who ached with recent memories of their babies.
“Before you know it, she’ll be putting everything she can find in her mouth,” Audrey warned.
“Enjoy every second of baby snuggles,” Christine said.
“It’ll be gone before you know it,” Lola agreed with a brief glance at Audrey, the only baby she’d ever had.
Amanda was struck with a sudden image of herself twenty-five years from now awaiting the birth of her grandchildren, holding Genevieve’s hand. She shook it out, smiled, and took Genevieve back in her arms, suddenly frightened of how quickly time could slip away.