Chapter Twenty-Nine
Lynette made several key decisions during the drive home from Whispering Pines.
First, she would never drink again, period. No more treating herself to a cocktail here and there. If her own will wasn’t strong enough, she would get back into a program. She knew she’d come too close to hurting herself with that crazy stunt she’d pulled on the lake. Even worse than her own safety, she had put others’ lives at risk in the process. Her anger had opened the door for the alcohol to sneak back in and overcome her defenses after she’d worked hard for years to loosen its grip.
Second, she would let her anger at Donna go. While she’d certainly overheard some disturbing revelations while her mother visited with her new friends around the fire, Lynette shouldn’t have been listening in the first place. She would feel a tremendous sense of betrayal if Donna ever eavesdropped on her private conversations with her girlfriends. What if her mother had heard the things she’d told Annie and the others out on the dock that morning?
She’d been wrong to listen, but that didn’t mean she could forget what she’d heard.
Having Donna in her life was as much of a gift as her other lifelong friendships. Not all daughters considered their mothers to be friends, too. Lynette didn’t want to taint their relationship with anger or resentment. Instead of confronting Donna about the truth behind her estrangement from her parents, as well as her discontent in Ruby Shores, she’d allow those conversations to occur organically, in their own time.
Annie pulled into the driveway. “Are you ready to show me the progress you’ve made on your shed?”
Lynette looked between the commercial vehicle already parked in the drive and her old friend. “Would you mind if we waited until I make some genuine progress? My contractor is here. That’s his truck, and I should probably get inside and talk to him. I’m not excited to see the shape of that basement wall, but ignoring it won’t make it go away.”
Annie snapped off her seatbelt. “I understand. Let me help you with your bags. I know your ankle is still sore, and these last couple of hours in the car were probably enough time for it to stiffen up again.”
Lynette appreciated the help. Ten minutes later, she thanked Annie for both her understanding around her need to head home two days early and the ride.
“Donna?” she called out in the empty kitchen. “Ebony?”
Where was everyone?
A banging sound from the basement caught her attention. Ebony was likely hiding in the house somewhere, avoiding the commotion, and Donna might be downstairs with the contractor.
Bracing herself for the mess she’d undoubtedly find, she headed for the basement stairs, grateful for the support of the thick wooden handrail on the way down.
“Hey, guys,” she said, taking in the piles of rubble and what looked like some type of wooden frame set at an angle against the failing wall. “This looks scary.”
The man who’d competently directed earlier renovations and repairs on her house glanced her way. “Hi, Lynette. Sorry to interrupt your vacation. You maybe didn’t need to rush home. I think this temporary structure will hold things until we can get some heavy equipment in to do the excavation in a week or two.”
Lynette stepped off the lowest step, teetering slightly on her ankle.
“Don’t tell me you hurt that ankle of yours again, Lynette,” Donna said.
Lynette smiled at her mother. A smudge of something marred her left cheek. “It’ll be fine. You have a little something here, Mom,” she said, brushing away the dirt when Donna reached her side.
“This could have been much worse, if you didn’t get us in here right away to shore this baby up,” the contractor said. “Good thing your mother called me right away.”
Lynette took a deep breath of relief, then coughed when she inhaled some of the dust in the air.
“Relic caught this, actually,” Donna interjected. “I should have thought to check the basement when I got home from Whispering Pines after the water that seeped in earlier.”
Looking around, Lynette realized Relic’s dedication to monitoring her house was yet another gift related to her lifelong friendship with the Kaleidoscope Girls. Relic had to miss out on the guys’ fishing trip because he’d stuck with the commitment he’d made to Lynette. She’d have to remember to flip him some extra cash. The mess in front of her would be expensive to correct, but it would be nothing compared to the cost if half the house had collapsed.
“You ladies should probably go up. My guys need to jackhammer now, so the dust is going to get lots worse. Be sure to close the door at the top of the stairs, too, so we can contain the mess.”
Lynette didn’t have to be told twice. The mess made her anxious, and she could only imagine what the cleanup would cost her.
Once they reached the kitchen, she caught Donna up in a hug. When she loosened her arms, her mother pulled back, looking at her with surprise.
“You’ve never been much of a hugger. What was that for?”
“Thank you for calling me about the basement this morning. I know you felt guilty reporting yet another house emergency, but I suppose that’s what we get for buying an old money pit like this. You took care of the water problem on your own, but this is a bigger deal.”
Donna pulled out a chair and sat. “I had some help with the water, too.”
Lynette thought of Storm. “Tell me more about how you got that cleaned up.”
Donna ran a finger across the kitchen tabletop. “I did the same thing as I did this morning. I asked for help.”
“Nothing wrong with that,” Lynette said. “Sometimes it takes many hands. You mentioned Owen came over and helped Annie’s husband and son. Someone was with Owen, too, right?”
Donna nodded. “Big guy. He drove an even bigger truck. We got lucky because he had an industrial-sized Shop-Vac in the back end of his pickup, bigger than the one we borrowed from Owen before. I could tell he and Owen were close, the way they joked around with each other. Now that you mention it, the man had actually been in this house before. When he was a kid. He said he knew Sybil. I suppose that’s what happens in a small town. Everybody knows everyone. I’m still not used to that.”
Lynette found it interesting that Donna hadn’t recognized Storm. Sure, he looked different from the twenty-year-old boy who’d dated her daughter, but it hadn’t taken Lynette long to recognize him. “Did he look at all familiar to you?”
Donna tilted her head, as if trying to picture him again. “Owen’s friend? I don’t know. It was hot that day, and I’d bribed them with beer, so we all sat around the table up here for a few minutes. I wondered if maybe Owen and the guy with him were related. Maybe brothers? But Owen said no, they’d just worked together through the years.”
At the mention of beer, Lynette pulled a waste basket out from under the sink, remembering her earlier decision about alcohol. The first step in total abstinence had to be getting all booze out of the house.
“Was there any beer left after that?”
“Maybe one, in the fridge,” Donna said, watching her. “Thirsty?”
Lynette sighed. She didn’t plan to tell Donna the truth about getting drunk and going out in the canoe, but her mother knew of her lifelong struggles with alcohol. She never really approved of Lynette having an occasional cocktail here and there. “No, I don’t want to drink it. I want to get rid of it. All of it.”
Donna’s eyes widened, then she nodded. “Good idea. There are a couple of bottles up in that cupboard, too.”
Lynette could feel Donna’s gaze on her as she cleared out the fridge and cupboards. Glass bottles clinked together in the garbage.
“Why all these questions about the guy with Owen? He had a strange name. It started with a T, I think . . .”
“Do you remember the boy I went to prom with?”
Donna harrumphed. “He was hardly a boy. He was a young man, and he was way too much for you to handle in a first boyfriend.”
At seventeen, Lynette would have vehemently argued over that. At fifty-one, she could concede that Donna made a valid point.
“He had a weird name, too,” Donna continued. “Storm, right?”
Then her mother sat up straighter in her chair, as if she’d just made the connection.
“Wait. Weren’t Owen and your date friends back then?”
“More like coworkers, but yeah, Owen and Storm got along. They fished together sometimes, outside of work. Owen and Renee even rode with us on prom night. That wasn’t the original plan, but something was wrong with Owen’s vehicle.”
Ebony finally appeared. Perhaps their voices had drawn her out. She brushed against Lynette’s legs, then headed for Donna. Much to Lynette’s amazement, Donna scooped the cat up and settled her in her lap.
“What? We bonded while you were away,” Donna said. “Are you trying to tell me that was Storm here with Owen that day? The main thing I remember about your date was his long dark hair and tattoos. And he always seemed to wear all black. I worried you’d end up with tattoos, too, if you stayed with him, or something worse.”
Lynette had always wondered if Donna ever noticed her small tattoo. It was in a private spot on her body, but Donna was her mother, and she’d taken care of Lynette through the years. It was possible. But based on her comment about Storm’s tattoos, it didn’t sound like she’d ever noticed it.
Lynette set the full garbage can by the backdoor, then took a seat across from Donna again. “Believe it or not, that was Storm. I guess his real name is Taran. Taran Gage. But I only ever knew him as Storm Gage. I doubt I’ll ever think of him as a Taran.”
Donna nodded. “Yes, Taran, that was the name Owen used when he made introductions.”
“Mom, does the last name Gage mean anything to you?”
“No. Should it?”
Lynette shrugged. “Maybe. Do you remember what Raven’s maiden name was?”
Donna drummed her fingers on the table. “I guess I only knew her after she was married. She’s always been Raven Black to me. Which seemed poetic.”
Lynette smiled as her mother petted the ink-black cat she’d gifted to her daughter. “Sybil would have approved of a black cat living in her house.”
“Probably.” Donna sighed and set Ebony down on the floor. “Why are you curious whether your old boyfriend’s last name meant anything to me?”
The cat walked out of the room with her head held high.
“Looks like I need to make it up to her for being gone,” Lynette said, watching her new pet snub her. It gave her a minute to consider how best to explain about Storm and Sybil to Donna. “Mom, do you remember how Raven’s mom drowned? Her last name was Gage.”
Based on the confused look on Donna’s face, this was news to her.
“But how would you know that? When we found the wedding pictures in the box, we were still trying to figure out who was who.”
Lynette shifted in her chair and grimaced when she bumped her ankle against the chair leg. “Not that I’ll be heading out on my morning walks again right away, now that I’m back, but do you remember that morning when I walked all the way to the cemetery on the edge of town? After we saw the names on the backs of those pictures?”
“I do. It was hot, and you were gone a long time.”
Lynette laughed. “You can stop worrying about me now, Mom. I’m all grown up.”
“It’s a mother’s job to worry about her daughter. Not the other way around. Remember that.”
Lynette suppressed a sigh. Conversations with Donna often got derailed.
“Do you want to hear this about Storm or not?”
“Honestly, I’m not sure. That boy was always trouble. Though I admit I admired the way he stood up for you when we had that unfortunate incident with the man I was seeing.”
Heavy footsteps on the basement stairs cut into their conversation. The contractor stuck his head in to say that he and his team were going to call it a day, but they’d be back in the morning. It surprised Lynette that it was already five.
Once the house was quiet, Donna met Lynette’s gaze again. “I still feel guilty that I brought an awful man like that into our lives.”
Donna had apologized many times over the years for her poor judgment, and Lynette had forgiven her long ago. “I know, Mom. But can you focus for a minute? I thought it would fascinate you to learn that Storm is actually Sybil’s great-grandson.”
Her mother’s shocked expression was exactly what Lynette had expected.
“You’re probably wondering how I found that out,” she continued. “Apparently, Storm and Owen and Henry started talking about taking a fishing trip when they were here cleaning up the water in the basement.”
Donna nodded. “There was talk of fishing.”
“Someone remembered Matt talking about the good fishing near Whispering Pines,” Lynette continued. “So, long story short, the guys lined up a fishing trip out there. They’d promised Renee and Annie to steer clear of the resort, since we’d already had one group of family members crash our girls’ trip.”
The wink she gave Donna might have softened the point she was making, but her mother still had the grace to blush.
“But then something came up at the resort that required Matt’s attention,” Lynette said, glossing over the messier details. “The guys swung by, and I had a few minutes to catch up with Storm. He admitted to being over here, in our house, but he knew you didn’t recognize him.”
Donna raised both palms, halting Lynette’s monologue. “Wait. Back up. Storm claims to be Sybil’s great-grandson? But that isn’t possible. Raven had no kids. And Eleanor was an only child.”
“But Raven wasn’t,” Lynette said, leaning toward her mother. “Remember? She was a twin. She had a brother named Gideon. He died young, too. But not before he got a woman named Delaney pregnant and married her.”
Donna sat back in her chair with her mouth open. “Neither Sybil nor Raven ever mentioned any other family, aside from a comment or two about Raven’s twin.”
“They were estranged,” Lynette said. “According to Storm, his mother’s family never accepted Gideon or any of his relatives. There was an unplanned pregnancy and shotgun wedding. Plus, Delaney’s parents raised her in a strict Catholic family. Her father in particular hated the things Sybil loved to study and teach. I guess Raven and Delaney, even though they were sisters-in-law, hated each other.”
Donna nodded. “I’ve met Storm’s mother. She is not a pleasant person.”
“So you believe me?”
“I suppose it’s possible, but I want to confirm it with Raven.”
Lynette hadn’t thought of that. It was a good idea. “When you called her about the box, she’d said she would come by sometime for it, right? I showed Storm the pictures I’d taken of the things we found in the box. He claims to be the little boy in the pictures.”
Ebony came back into the kitchen and meowed beside her empty food bowl. Lynette pushed back from the table, but Donna stood.
“Stay off that ankle. I’ll feed her.”
Lynette watched Donna pull a can of cat food from a lower cupboard. Her mother seemed to enjoy having a pet around.
As Donna scraped the food into Ebony’s bowl, she said, “Maybe it’s him in the pictures. Maybe it’s not. But I want to talk to Raven.”
“Fair enough.” Lynette wasn’t sure whether it mattered in the end, but she was curious, too. “Say, speaking of Raven, there’s something else I wanted to ask you about. I know you’d said that years ago, when we left Ruby Shores, Raven promised you that if she ever sold this house, she’d call you first. But why? Did you dream of moving back here someday? I know this old house is beautiful, and you loved Sybil, but I’ve never really understood that part.”
Donna took the empty cat food can over to the door and untied the garbage bag to add it to the trash. “Lynette, I always felt bad for how often we moved around, especially in those years before we moved here, to Ruby Shores.”
“Mom, I was only in third grade when we came here.”
“I know, honey, but those first eight to ten years of a child’s life are important. I wish I could have given you a better sense of stability when you were young. Then, when I started coming here with Sybil and Raven, you came along a time or two. I could see how much you loved it. When we left Ruby Shores like we did, and you were so upset to leave, I thought maybe I could make it up to you someday. Raven and I were friends. It was hard for me to leave, too, but she was always quick to remind me that no matter where you and I lived, as long as we had each other, that was most important. I think losing her own mother left her with some deep scars. I doubt she believed that I’d ever want to come back here, but she kept her promise and called me when they were preparing to list the house. With the pandemic sweeping through New York, and your recent sale of the company, it seemed like the perfect solution.”
Donna’s explanation wasn’t new. She’d said all this before, but given recent developments, Lynette was understanding her mother in a new light. Based on what she’d overheard Donna tell her friends’ mothers, the older woman wanted more than a quiet life in Ruby Shores.
Maybe Lynette did, too.
“Mom, if I tell you something, do you promise you won’t be mad or disappointed in me?”
Instead of taking her seat again, Donna crossed over to stand behind Lynette. She dropped a kiss on the top of her head. “Honey, you could never disappoint me.”
Lynette knew that wasn’t true, but she let it go. It was something family often said to each other. “I’m not sure moving here was the right move. And I feel terrible admitting that, because you gave up everything to come here with me.”
Donna snorted. “Oh, Lynette. Sometimes I think you and I are too much alike. I could say the same thing to you. After all, I came to you with Raven’s message about the house.”
“But you aren’t happy here, are you, Mom?”
Donna wrapped her arms around Lynette’s neck from behind and rested her chin on the top of her head. “I’m not unhappy, dear. Don’t worry. We’ll figure things out just like we always do. We just need to stick together.”
Lynette patted her mother’s arms. Donna was correct that they always seemed to make their way through things together. But maybe the time had finally come that they’d each be happier if they stopped compromising, thinking they were making the other happy, and found their own paths for once.