Chapter 47 Eloise
“Gigi and my mother are throwing an engagement party, aren’t they?” Eloise asked Deirdre as they laid out place settings in
Deirdre’s nautical-themed dining room.
Deirdre had shifted this week’s euchre night and requested Eloise come early and help her get ready. Gigi had gone through
Eloise’s closet and complimented one of her more fitted floral frocks, casually mentioning it might be a nice night to wear
it. It was all very suspect.
“Don’t ask questions I can’t answer.” Deirdre poured herself a glass of white.
“I don’t like surprises,” Eloise said. “Everyone knows that.”
Not that she was actually upset. She was so over the moon that it would take more than thrusting her into the center of attention
to bring her back to earth.
“Maybe you don’t know what you like,” Deirdre said. “Take Clyde, for example. He’s been the biggest curveball of your life.”
It was true. The way he’d burst onto the scene, turning everything upside down and tipping it right side up. How he made her
feel safe and comfortable while also electrified and excited to explore the world. The way she’d answered yes with such a
sureness in her chest, the kind of thing she thought she’d never feel again.
She’d told herself that Gus was the safer choice, staying invested in the person who already held her heart.
But she saw now how expecting something old to change was actually riskier than trusting something new to grow.
Maybe Eloise should have learned this long ago.
Maybe it was all God’s plan and she was right where she was supposed to be.
“I’m out of wine,” Deirdre lamented. “Fred drinks too much, goes against his own doctor recommendations,” she said, though
she was on her second glass. “Could we swing by yours for a bottle or two? I don’t feel like trekking all the way to Doud’s.”
Eloise lifted her brows. “Very subtle.”
“Just go with it, please,” Deidre said. “Your daughter will have my head if she thinks I spilled the beans.”
Linking arms, they set out to Thistle Dew. There was just the foreshadowing of fall in the air. It usually made Eloise sad,
summer coming to a close. Now, for the first time since she’d planned on going off to college all those years ago, the end
of summer signified the start of something.
“I’m going to miss you,” Deirdre said.
“Just promise not to shut me out like you did when you got to college,” Eloise said, thinking back to that time and how Deirdre
hadn’t wanted much to do with Eloise after she’d decided to stay on the island and marry Gus. She’d only gotten a couple of
letters that whole first year Deirdre was away. “Long-distance friendship didn’t suit us.”
“No.” Deirdre frowned. “It didn’t.”
“This will be different, though,” Eloise said. “I’ll still be here April through September every year. You hardly see me in
the winter anyway. We’re always bundled up inside.”
Spending half the year in Scotland had not been on Eloise’s radar screen.
But it had scratched her old itch to get out and see the world.
Only this time she’d be doing it with her husband by her side.
And Mackinac would still very much be her home.
She would be there for her mother, and her daughters too, wherever they ended up.
“Think of it as an extended holiday,” Clyde had said, so irresistibly that Eloise had decided there wasn’t a good enough reason to veto, especially once she’d talked to the church and they’d agreed she could do her bookkeeping job remotely.
“What I mean is I’ll miss this ,” Deirdre said. “Having you all to myself.” Their footsteps synced. Eloise wasn’t sure if she’d learned to shorten her stride
to match Deirdre’s or if Deirdre had lengthened her stride to match Eloise’s. It didn’t really matter. What mattered was that
they were in step.
“I’ve had to share you with Fred for decades and we’ve done just fine,” Eloise pointed out.
Deidre’s expression knotted. “I have a confession.”
Eloise tensed, assuming the worst. Divorce, cancer, or the news that Fred was transitioning into a Democrat. “What is it?”
Deirdre looked conflicted, like she had a few things she might say.
“I’m jealous of you and Clyde,” she said. “I’m happy for you, I am, but I’m jealous. What you two have is so romantic and
fun, and sometimes I hate it, I just hate it. I’m a terrible person, a complete abomination.” She turned away from Eloise,
extricating herself.
“If you’re a terrible person, then I am too. I’ve been envious of you and Fred many times. I still am, to be honest.”
Deirdre blinked. “Me and Fred? You’re jealous of us ?”
“Absolutely,” Eloise said. “You’re each other’s best friends. You’re there through thick and thin. You don’t have to stress
about what you wear to date night or worry about going through a sickness alone. You two have commitment, the real thing.
I think that might have been part of the reason I was hanging on to Gus for so long. I wanted what you two had and I just
couldn’t accept that I wouldn’t get that. My forever person, the one I could look back with at the end and reflect on sixty
years of marriage with.”
Deirdre took Eloise’s arm again. “Fred is there for me, I suppose. Even when I diagnose myself with new illnesses three times a day and complain about how we never make love while also shutting down any attempt he makes to initiate it. He’s a marvel, really.
I’ll bake him a chocolate cake tomorrow, diabetes be darned. ”
Clyde approached them on the path. He’d been invited over for euchre tonight at Deirdre’s so he could take notes for his novel.
He was wearing the same pinstripe suit from their first date but a new fedora. Eloise greeted him with a kiss.
Deirdre asked if he might help them carry wine back from Eloise’s. He readily agreed, winking at Eloise. They’d discussed
their suspicions of a party. Alice had played pickleball with Clyde yesterday and hinted that a man should always have a freshly
shaven face, that you never knew who you might run into.
“I only have two bottles of pinot,” Eloise said. “We hardly need an army to transport them.”
“Jesus will help us multiply it. Now, just remember, she was mine first,” Deidre said, ceremoniously passing Eloise off from
her arm to Clyde’s.
“Wouldn’t dare forget it,” Clyde said. “I’ve already named the best friend character in my next book after you.”
Deirdre clapped at the news and kicked her shoes together like Dorothy in her ruby slippers. “I’m going to be immortalized,”
she proclaimed. And then, “Make her thin. A size two.”
“I do love you islanders,” Clyde said to Eloise as Deirdre bustled on ahead. “Such complex characters and sweeter than fudge.”
Eloise relished the solidness of him, right here, right beside her, no expiration date. “ We islanders certainly are. And you’re one of us now.”
When they reached Thistle Dew, shapes were shuffling on the front porch from behind the Adirondack chairs.
“Don’t forget to act surprised,” Clyde whispered.
“I don’t have to pretend,” Eloise replied. “I’m genuinely astounded by the way this summer has unfolded.”
“Good astounded?”
“Better than good,” Eloise said. “So much better.”
***
It was Georgiana who jumped out first, a second or two before everyone else. “Surprise!” she yelled. It was just like her
to steal the show at someone else’s surprise party. Eloise wouldn’t have had it any other way. She dropped Clyde’s hand and
wrapped her daughter in a hug.
“Thank you for this,” Eloise said in Georgiana’s ear.
“It was all Nonni. I just bossed everyone around. It’s good practice for mayor. You’ll mail in your vote from Scotland, won’t
you?”
“That’s all your dear old mother is to you?” Eloise said. “A vote?”
“Don’t take it personally.”
“Of course not. And I wouldn’t miss voting for you for the world. It’s not every day that your daughter who’s denounced her
hometown decides she wants to move back and govern the entire island.”
“I’m prone to extremes,” Georgiana said. “What can I say?”
“Say you’ll be my co–maid of honor. Along with Rebecca.”
That was when Rebecca popped out. She’d been hiding inside for one more surprise. Eloise embraced both daughters at once.
Nothing felt lacking today. They were a small family, but a whole one. Not broken, but balanced.
“Rebecca is married, so she’ll be matron of honor,” Georgiana said. “I’ll be your only maid of honor.”
“Fair enough,” Rebecca said with a grin. “Gigi, you know James keeps staring at you, right?”
Eloise glanced over her shoulder. Sure enough, Dr. Kentwood did seem to be looking Georgiana’s way.
Eloise sensed something between them. He had shown up at the door the other day looking like a man on a mission.
When Eloise had asked Georgiana about it that evening, she’d divulged more than expected.
The story started with Lillian and ended with how Georgiana had gone swimming with James but told him she didn’t want something short term.
Eloise was proud of her daughter for knowing her worth.
She was proud of herself too. She must have started doing some things better to make Georgiana want to open up to her like that.
“We’re just friends,” Georgiana said now. But her face glimmered.
“I’ve heard that one before.” Rebecca nodded toward Eloise, who laughed at herself.
“We Jenkins ladies are rather irresistible this summer, aren’t we?” Eloise said. In the background, she overheard Clyde telling
the neighbors about their first date and how he fell “socks first” for her when he saw her in the Grand Hotel lobby. “And
Wood ladies,” she added quickly.
“I’m still Jenkins by blood,” Rebecca said.
Eloise felt how much she’d been craving this reassurance. That even as her girls went off and had their own lives, their own
families, their bond would be unbreakable.
“We’ve always been irresistible,” Georgiana said. “This is just the summer the world woke up to it.”
“Maybe it’s the summer we woke up to it ourselves,” Eloise said.
“That too,” Georgiana said. “So will you finally admit I’m a good matchmaker?”
“I’ve never said you weren’t. I’ll be thanking you forever for this.”
“You can thank me via campaign donation. I’m fundraising.”
Georgiana kissed Eloise’s cheek, then Rebecca’s, and dashed off into the crowd to deliver her mayoral pitch to anyone who
would listen, and especially those who wouldn’t.
“That’s my girl,” Eloise said, watching her go.
“ Our girl,” Rebecca amended.
“Yes.” Eloise’s island bones felt Mackinac herself joining in, also wanting to claim Georgiana as her own, not to cage her,
but to care for her. “Our girl.”
***
“We’re doing this,” Clyde said to Eloise as the guests occupied themselves with cornhole, bratwursts, and speculation about the wedding.
There was much debate over whether the governor would attend and use the event to position Mackinac as a leader in foreign relations, what with the groom’s international status.
Clyde didn’t wrap his arm around Eloise’s waist the way Gus used to. He stroked her back instead, gentle calligraphy motions
like he was writing her a note.
“You bet we are.” She kissed him on the lips.
Clyde beamed. “I thought you didn’t like PDA.”
“I didn’t think I did either,” Eloise said. “But turns out there’s a lot I never knew about myself. In meeting you, I’ve met
me too.”
“You can’t say poetic phrases like that and not agree to cowrite a book with me,” Clyde said.
Eloise felt the pride of it, being tapped for something so grand. All the potential she’d never reached, now back on the table.
“Maybe someday. I’d say we have enough to focus on right now.” Eloise looked around at the party, all her family and neighbors
celebrating them. She still couldn’t believe it.
She noted how Liam Townsend had his gaze on her mother, though Alice had her back turned away from him. Eloise wondered if
there might be a speck of truth in what Georgiana had said, that perhaps Liam might want more. Was it possible Alice did too?
Everything felt on the table after the summer Eloise had just had. She would broach the topic with her mother soon.
Notably absent was Camille Welsh, who had been invited but declined due to “mayoral duties.” Eloise guessed it was code for
scrambling and stressing now that Georgiana had officially announced her entrance into the race earlier today. It would take
more than some photoshopped flyers for Camille to compete with Eloise’s force-of-nature daughter.
Eloise was a proud mother. And she was more than that. She was an ex-wife, a title that had come with more peace than pain.
And she was now a fiancée, as absurd as that was. She loved how elegant it sounded, how optimistic it felt.
“I came to Mackinac Island for a book,” Clyde said. “And I’m returning with a bride.”
“A very productive business trip, I’d say.”
Eloise still had no idea how she was going to leave her beloved island behind for half the year. She loved how cozy Mackinac
was in winter, all draped in snow. And be away from her mother and friends for so long, and Georgiana too, now that she was
staying. It was a thought she stowed away, something to revisit later once the celebrations quieted down.
For now, she let herself get swept up in it—the mystery, the mastery, the mythical. She kissed him once more, longer this
time. The crowd roared.