Chapter 6
It was nearly a week after the reopening of the White Oak Lodge. To Lorelei’s surprise, the reopening party and the subsequent opening days had gone smoothly, with nary a hiccup. Maybe the old hotel wasn’t cursed after all.
As it turned out, the Whitmores had marketed the reopening perfectly, and wealthy East and West Coasters plus a variety of Midwesterners had come to check out the suites and celebrate into the summer months.
Some of the families and couples had even arranged to stay at the White Oak Lodge for multiple weeks, which reminded Lorelei of the old days of the Lodge, back when people used to stay for months.
In fact, that was how Francesca had first met Benjamin.
Right here, when she’d spent summers at the White Oak Lodge, together with her father, the famous director, the man everyone had wanted to know.
A young couple appeared at the front desk, smiling brightly.
They had the air of honeymooners. The woman wore a white halter-top dress, and the man wore a linen button-down and a pair of slacks, often looking down at his wife to make sure she was all right.
It was almost as though he expected her to disappear.
“Welcome to the White Oak Lodge,” Lorelei said. “Are you checking in?”
“We are,” the husband said. “Reginald and Stacy Hopkins.”
Lorelei checked the computer to see that, yes, the newly-married couple were staying in the honeymoon suite, just down the hall from where she and Roberto were staying—and hardly speaking to one another.
“We’re so pleased to have you here,” Lorelei said.
“I read about it,” the woman named Stacy said breathily. “I can’t believe it has all this history! And the buried treasure beneath the hotel itself! It thrills me.”
“She’s an adventure-seeker,” her husband said, grinning.
Lorelei knew they were still in that newlywed phase when everything the other did was endlessly fascinating.
She still remembered those first few years with Roberto, when it had seemed as though he was the cleverest, the most talented, the most charming, and the handsomest. She’d felt so lucky to be chosen by him.
She couldn’t believe he’d wanted to marry her.
Lorelei managed to keep it together throughout check-in.
She handed the couple their keys, then asked one of the bellhops to take them up to their honeymoon suite.
After that, she kept a stiff smile on her face, performing a few more logistical tasks, before Allegra appeared beside her at the desk.
The sight of her sister and best friend, there at the same mahogany desk where they’d worked countless hours as teenagers, was too much for Lorelei.
“How are things going?” Allegra asked brightly. “It’s so lovely here, isn’t it? I can’t believe I’m heading back to Rome so soon.”
“Yeah,” Lorelei breathed. “It’s hard to wrap my mind around it.” Her thoughts raced, and suddenly, she burst into tears and put her forehead on Allegra’s shoulder.
“Oh, honey!” Allegra said, drawing her arms around her.
By this point in their relationship, Allegra could practically read Lorelei’s mind. She could probably sense this wasn’t a run-of-the-mill breakdown. Allegra waved down one of the other bellhops, setting him up at the counter. “You remember how everything works, don’t you?” He said he did.
Allegra led Lorelei down the long hallway to the dining room, which was empty save for one of the cleaning staff, who was shining the silverware and listening to something through her big earphones.
Lorelei dropped into a chair by the window and pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled to her sister. “I don’t know what came over me. ”
“You don’t need to apologize to me, honey,” Allegra assured her. She disappeared and returned with two mugs of green tea. Allegra sat across from Lorelei and reached for her hand. “What’s all this about?”
Lorelei took a sip of the hot tea and closed her eyes. “I don’t know how to talk about it.”
“Just try,” Allegra whispered. “It’s a safe space.”
Lorelei wanted to remind Allegra that the White Oak Lodge was, in fact, not a safe space. Once upon a time, it had been the site of their uncle’s criminal activity. It had hidden buried treasure. It had once burned down.
“I think Roberto might be having an affair,” Lorelei said, then snapped both of her hands over her mouth. She couldn’t believe she’d said it aloud.
“That’s impossible,” Allegra said. “He loves you more than anything, Lorelei. We all know that to be true.”
Lorelei shook her head sadly. Once upon a time, she knew, Roberto had adored Lorelei more than any other human.
He’d only had eyes for her. But for months and months, Lorelei had been here in Nantucket, helping her mother through chemotherapy and, admittedly, hiding from her husband.
Why had she done that? The answer was simple. She thought their love was drying up.
“Marriage is never that easy, I guess,” Lorelei whispered. “But last year, I felt like he was drifting. The stress of all these restaurants can be too much on his shoulders, and he often didn’t come home.”
Allegra rubbed her temples. “And you thought it would be nice to come here for a while, I guess.”
“Yes,” Lorelei said. “I thought it would be easier. I thought maybe we would miss each other and find a way back to one another. But now, I wonder if I just gave him an opening to have an affair.”
Allegra was quiet and contemplative. It made Lorelei all the more anxious.
“And you know Italian men cheat,” Lorelei breathed. “Even when they love their wives, they feel like they’re owed more romance, more spectacle. It’s practically written into the Italian constitution.”
Allegra snorted. “It is not.”
But Lorelei could see the truth of it in Allegra’s eyes.
Allegra knew, just as well as Lorelei did, that Italian men often cheated.
Why would Roberto—a handsome man who owned numerous restaurants and had once been lauded as a singular talent in the chef world—be any different?
Especially when his wife was spending so much time in America.
Especially when their daughter Aurora was so difficult to manage, casting a shadow over their family life.
“And look at Mama and Dad,” Lorelei added.
Allegra crossed her arms over her chest. “They’re a different breed.”
“They cheated on each other,” Lorelei asserted.
“Yes, but…” Allegra stopped abruptly, then fixed her face into a smile. “Oh hi, Mama!”
Lorelei turned to watch as first Francesca, then Benjamin came into the dining room. They were holding hands loosely, as though they couldn’t stop touching each other.
“What are you two doing in here?” their father asked.
“We’re just taking a break,” Allegra said. “Lorelei’s been at the front desk all day.”
“Thank you again, Lorelei,” their father said, beaming. “It’s just like old times, isn’t it? I love walking by that big bay window and seeing you at the front desk.”
“Yes. It’s like time travel,” Lorelei offered meekly.
Francesca and Benjamin remained standing over their table, smiling down at them. Lorelei felt on the spot, as though she were meant to perform.
“Why don’t we take a break for the day?” Francesca suggested. “Your father and I wanted to try out that new wine bar by Madaket Beach. Alexander and Jack can’t come, but Charlotte and Nina are on their way over there. Please, join us!”
Twenty minutes later, Lorelei found herself seated on a beachside table overlooking the shining Nantucket Sound.
Charlotte and Nina chatted happily about the menu, while Francesca and Benjamin spoke in low tones, holding hands under the table.
Lorelei looked at Allegra, wondering how Mama and Dad were more in love than ever.
How was it possible? Allegra shrugged, as though she understood exactly what Lorelei meant.
She and her sister had been as thick as thieves for years. Maybe they could read each other’s minds.
They ordered two bottles of wine, one natural orange and another classic Austrian white. When their glasses were filled, Benjamin suggested a toast and beamed out at all of them.
“I can’t believe I’m here with all four of our daughters,” he said. “I’m the luckiest man in the world.”
For a little while, Lorelei was quiet, sipping her wine and analyzing her parents.
It was fascinating how eager they were to laugh at one another’s jokes and finish one another’s sentences.
It reminded Lorelei of that first night she’d spent with Roberto in Rome and how they’d wanted to swallow each other up.
From the looks of things, Charlotte, Nina, and Allegra were just as captivated with their parents as she was. Where had all this love come from?
Were they performing, just as she felt she had to perform? Or was this love a pure, beautiful, natural thing?
When a platter of cheese, meats, pickled vegetables, and fruits came out with a bowl of sourdough bread, and when Benjamin stood to refill everyone’s glasses, Lorelei couldn’t help herself. Rather than allow herself to go completely insane, she had to ask.
“Mama? Dad?”
Francesca stopped laughing abruptly and turned her attention to Lorelei. “What is it, sweetheart?”
Lorelei felt her sisters’ and her father’s eyes upon her, as well, waiting.
In the intense silence, Lorelei realized that she couldn’t ask what she really wanted to ask, that she was too frightened. So she asked, “How are you feeling?”
Francesca’s smile widened. “I feel better than I have in ages. I’m still waiting for my hair to grow back, of course.
But in the meantime, these wigs are really something, aren’t they?
And it’s nice not to have to deal with dyeing my hair over and over again.
Maybe I’m a wig convert for life. And I’m happy!
Goodness, I’m happy. I never imagined that having the answers to all our family’s questions would clear up so much space in my heart.
But now, all our cards are on the table. All the secrets are out.”
Charlotte and Nina shifted in their chairs, as though heavy with questions of their own.
Without meaning to, Lorelei considered Tio Angelo, sitting in a prison cell somewhere.
What a strange family this was, she thought.
Yet for the thousandth time since returning, she felt the urgent desire to stay here in Nantucket, not to abandon them again.
If she left, what would she miss?
“I think your mother is more beautiful than the day I met her,” Benjamin said, breaking the silence.
Francesca swatted him on the shoulder. “He’s saying his pretty lines again. Oh, but even if they’re lies, how can I resist them?” She put her head on Benjamin’s shoulder.
Just then, Lorelei’s phone buzzed in her pocket. It was a call from Roberto, one that she knew better than to ignore. Ignoring his calls usually made him more irate and difficult to deal with later on.
“I have to take this,” she said, standing up and hurrying down the beach, away from the tables of white cloth and glinting wineglasses. “Ciao?” she answered the phone, sounding breathless.
“You won’t believe this,” Roberto started in without saying hello. “Apparently our daughter wants to stay in Nantucket all summer long.”
Lorelei grimaced. She knew he was talking about Aurora again. They never spoke about their daughter Nadia in these terms.
“We can’t let her stay here, Lorelei,” Roberto said. “She’s so close to graduating from business school. She’s so close to being on the right track.”
Lorelei closed her eyes, thinking back to that day three years ago when they’d discovered that their daughter’s life was different from their other children’s. Roberto and Lorelei had promised one another to do everything in their power to “save her.” But what did saving Aurora even mean?
“We need to take her with us to the airport next week and physically put her on the plane,” Roberto continued. “It’s the only way.”
“I don’t want to force my twenty-two-year-old daughter to get on a plane,” Lorelei said.
At this, Roberto scoffed. “Do you hear yourself?”
Lorelei watched as, out across the water, seagulls drifted forward and scooped through the air. “Roberto, Aurora is old enough to make her own decisions. We can’t always step in.”
“She’s obviously not old enough to make her own decisions,” Roberto shot back. “If you were paying attention at all, you’d see that our daughter is fumbling. She’s a lost lamb.”
Before Lorelei could answer, Roberto hung up the phone, leaving her alone on the beach. She turned back to watch as her parents cackled together while Charlotte, Nina, and Allegra smiled nervously in the early evening light.