Chapter Twenty-Six #2
“I’m going to get my things out of the house and put it all in storage when I get back to Pennsylvania, and then the house is going on the market. I already spoke with a Realtor. Evan can clean out his own stuff, and whatever he leaves there can get trashed.”
Kit nodded approvingly. “Attagirl.”
“And now I’ll get to decide what I want to do and where I want to be.” Abby flipped the pancake that was starting to smoke. “You know how Evan’s always so pretentious? I can’t wait to drop the news that my aunt was going to marry Miles Easton.”
“Do you think he even knows who Miles Easton was?”
“I’m sure he does. I read online that one of the movies from his book is being remade with all A-list stars. Even if we never met him, it’s still pretty cool to have the connection. Way more than six degrees of separation.”
Kit picked up her phone and searched for the movie remake. “Oh, it’s going to be Deceptive Truths. Ha. How timely.”
Abby plated the pancakes for her mother and served them with a pitcher of syrup and a sliced strawberry on the side of the plate like the bow on a pretty package.
“Oh, look at you being so creative this morning.”
Abby smiled and turned back to the stove as Beth all but stumbled into the kitchen.
“Were the two of you out drinking all night?” Abby asked. “Because you sure look like you’re hungover. You more than Mom, but she looks a little rough, too.”
“Couldn’t sleep.” Beth yawned.
“Me either.” Kit pulled out the chair next to hers at the table and patted the seat. “Here. Sit. Abby has made coffee and pancakes.”
“Thank God one of us has it together this morning.” Beth reached up for the mug of coffee Abby passed to her. “You are the best of the best, Abigail. As of right this minute, you’re numero uno in my heart and in my will. The sole heir to all I possess.”
“Thanks, Aunt Beth. I always wanted to be an heiress.”
“Don’t know if I’ll have anything left by then.” Beth shrugged.
“It’s the thought behind the gift that counts, not the amount.” Abby patted Beth on the shoulder.
“You’ll have half of whatever we get from selling the camp,” Kit reminded Beth.
“Are we still doing that? Selling the camp?” Abby frowned. “Do we have to?”
Kit stared at her daughter. “I don’t know what else to do.”
Abby put her spatula down on the counter. “Are you kidding? Mom, this place could be a gold mine. We just need to fix up the cabins and—”
“Whoa.” Kit held out a hand as if to stop Abby’s flood of words. “Do you have any idea how much work and money would have to go into fixing up those cabins before we could in good conscience charge people to stay there?”
“Didn’t Aunt Maxine rent them out like, two years ago?”
“Three, yes,” Kit admitted. “It was closed for the two years after that.”
Abby’s hands were on her hips. “They’re not so bad as you think. Messy, yes. Rodents, sure. Maybe an opossum and a random raccoon in one or possibly more of them. But they’re structurally sound.”
“And you know this how?” Kit asked.
“Because Chief Hal and I looked them over the other day. There’s no rot, no insect damage we could see, no water coming in any of them. Oh, maybe a little roof repair on that second cabin, but other than that, they just need to be cleaned and spruced up a bit and they’ll be fine.”
Abby’s gaze went back and forth between her mother and her aunt. Finally, she said, “If you don’t want to keep it—if you insist on selling it—you are looking at your buyer.”
Another few moments of silence passed before Beth said, “I’m in, Abby. If your mother insists on giving me half of the property, I’ll buy half of hers and you can buy the other half when you sell your house.”
“So wait, we get it appraised, and you pay Mom for her half, and then I pay you for half of your half?”
“Half of your mother’s half.” Beth frowned. “I think.”
“Okay, you two. Enough. I didn’t say I was definitely going to sell.
I said I hadn’t decided. It’s not as easy for me to walk away from my life as it is for you.
Abby, you’re divorced, or will be, and you’ll have some money from the sale of your house.
Beth, you’d have to find someone to pick up the treatment you’ve started and monitor your blood and your symptoms.”
“Easy peasy. There’s a hospital in Augusta. I already checked in with my doctor and he’ll give me a referral if I want it. And I can sell my house and my business and buy you out, if you’re not willing to stay.”
“You’d sell the coffee shop?”
Beth nodded. “I would. It was great once upon a time. Now it’s a hassle.
I have to worry about my employees stealing from me.
Ned’s been a godsend, taking over as he has, so maybe he’ll want it.
I’ll sell it all to him at a fire-sale price if he does.
But I’m ready for something new. More than ready.
I am itching for some new direction for my life. ”
“Even with all the drama around the baby and Maxine and Mom—”
“Even with all that. I can’t change what went on here in the past. Whatever the truth is, let’s just dig it out and get on with our lives.
You were right last night. No matter what my DNA shows, we will always be sisters, and nothing can ever change that.
So maybe we’ll find the truth and maybe we won’t, but let’s have some fun together while we’re waiting. ”
“I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry,” Kit said.
“I admit the thought of leaving this place makes me sad. I love the house, and several times since I’ve been here, I’ve wanted to see the lake and the woods in all the different seasons.
I can imagine how beautiful it is. I want to be here, I do.
But there’s the matter of your father. And I don’t know where we stand with each other.
” She took a deep breath. “I don’t know what I want.
Well, maybe if he’d come and see how beautiful it is here, how fresh the air is, how nice the people are—maybe . . .”
“Maybe what, Mom? Maybe he’d give up his pretty house in Bryn Mawr and move here?
I doubt it. Dad likes living on Philadelphia’s Main Line.
He likes playing golf at the country club and he likes his Main Line friends.
He’s not going to give up what he’s worked for to come live in the woods.
I know my father,” Abby said adamantly. “He’ll never do it.
He’s my dad, and I love him, but he’s a snob. ”
“Maybe I should ask him. Abby, thanks for breakfast. I’m going to take a shower.”
It was early, but Kit called Banks’s office and left a voicemail for him to call her. Then she did the same for Russ. Strange he wasn’t home at seven thirty in the morning now that he was retired, but maybe he was outside with Wally.
Thinking about Wally made her sad. She missed her furry friend.
She’d bought him as a gift to herself seven birthdays ago.
A friend’s basset hound had a litter, and they were selling the pups.
The puppies had been in a high-sided enclosure, and when she had knelt to look at the squirming mass of puppy-ness, Wally had climbed over the others and over the side to land at her feet.
She’d picked him up, cuddled him, then put him back into the enclosure.
She’d reached for one of his littermates, but Wally had pushed that puppy aside as if to say, No, no, don’t even look at my littermates. I’m your dog. And so he was.
She wondered what Wally would think of the camp.
He’d probably love sniffing around the yard, and all the unfamiliar scents would put him in drop-and-roll heaven.
Unless of course it was a moose or bear or wildcat whose scent he was on.
That might not end well. She hadn’t seen any bears nor any sign of them, but it must be time for them to crawl out of their caves.
Hibernation time must be over by now. She made a mental note to get more bear spray.
Back downstairs after her shower, Abby called her into the dining room, where she and Beth had been looking at photographs.
“Look here, Mom. This is one of the cabins in”—Abby turned the photo over—“1948. Look how great.”
Kit did her best not to sigh. Her daughter was not going to back down. “I admit it’s nice.”
“It’s more than nice. It’s rustic and chic and I would stay there,” Beth told her.
“I do like that blanket over the back of the sofa. I wonder whatever happened to it.”
“Maybe it was in that blanket chest,” Abby suggested.
Kit shook her head. “I’m pretty sure there were only quilts in there. Maybe in the attic, if they aren’t still in the cabins.”
“Ugh. If they’re still in the cabins, God only knows what’s been sleeping on them. Nesting. Peeing . . .”
“Thank you, Aunt Beth. That’s a lovely thought.
” Abby turned to her mother. “This camp has been part of the family since 1895. Did you know that? Over a hundred years ago, the land was given to our great-great-great-grandparents by our three-time-great-grandmother’s father.
He owned the lumber camp that once operated up on the hill. ”
“I remember hearing that story from Banks. He figured out there was more money in milling, so he built one about a mile from here.”
“Right. They built the house and let rooms to the men who worked at the mill. I read about it online, on the town’s history page,” Abby said. “This house was a boardinghouse back then.”
“Hmmm. It didn’t occur to me to search online. Good thinking, Abs. I’ll want to read that.”
“You should. You both should. It was fascinating. It really blew me away, reading it. To know that people I’m descended from did all this, built all this.
Gave so much to the community, in terms of land and resources.
When the camp was in its heyday, every business in Tolerance benefited, did you know that?
People who thought they’d come up here and be able to get a cabin without making a reservation ended up staying at Elly’s aunt’s inn when the camp was full.
The general store actually had to double in size fifteen years ago because of all the people from camp who came in to buy mosquito repellent and life jackets and swimsuits and snacks and—you get the idea. ”
Kit nodded slowly. When had she seen Abby this animated about—well, anything other than Benny’s latest feat?
“It makes me proud, Mom, that our family did so much. Do you want to be the generation that turns its back, that lets the Meadows legacy disappear, that—”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Abby. Enough!” Kit laughed. “I get it. You want to keep the camp. No additional drama needed.”
“Thank you. Another minute or so and I’d have been embarrassing myself.”
“There’s still a lot to consider but I see your point, and I agree, it would be a shame to sell it to someone outside the family who’d do who knows what with the property.” She thought again of the Realtors whose clients were purportedly eager to build their mansions in the woods.
“Walk down to the cabins with me, Mom. Let me show you what I was thinking.” When Kit hesitated, Abby added, “Just hear me out.”
“Of course.”
Kit reached for her heavy coat and pulled on her tall rubber boots, then followed Abby, Benny, and Beth out the back door.
The day was warmer than it had been, and she realized that the snow that had packed the backyard, the path, the parking lot, and the lake had all but disappeared.
For the first time since she’d arrived in Maine, Kit felt overdressed.