Page 50 of Summer Rush

“I never really knew who I was or what I wanted,” Alyssa said softly. “And Teresa’s will showed me.”

“And it brought you to Nico.”

“Can you believe that?” Alyssa shook her head.

“I always knew that amazing things would happen in yours and Maggie’s lives,” Janine admitted. “But everything that did is beyond my wildest dreams.”

* * *

Maggie’s healthy baby girl was born at seven that morning as the first light of the December morning seeped through the dying grass along the sands of the island. When David erupted from the hospital room to announce the baby and mother’s health, he wept into his hands and hugged his mother, Heidi. For years, Heidi had been all by herself in that bookstore, battling a debilitating mental disease. And now, here she was at the hospital, welcoming her first grandchild, tears in her eyes as she asked everyone if they wanted a coffee from the machine. If she should order donuts. If anyone had extra makeup in their purse, as she wanted to look okay during the photographs with the baby.

Not long after the baby’s birth, Alyssa and Janine were allowed in the room to meet the darling girl. Because Alyssa and Maggie had named Leo together, Maggie insisted that Alyssa help her with the baby girl’s name— and Alyssa threw ridiculous names at her, ones that made a very tired Maggie bubble with laughter.

“You’ll never take anything seriously, will you?” she demanded.

“Gosh, I hope not,” Alyssa said, gazing down at the beautiful baby in her arms.

* * *

Three days after the baby’s birth and four before Christmas, the Remington House was full yet again to welcome baby Lorelei to the world. Nobody could get enough of her, of her tiny toes and her little fingers and her ringlet curls, and Christmas music hummed from speakers across the ground floor as another snowfall floated down outside.

Janine was lucky enough to hold both of her grandchildren every single day of that holiday season— alternating between Leo and his bright blue eyes and Lorelei and her dark brown ones, carefully changing diapers and cradling them as they slept. Both Maggie and Alyssa thanked her over and over again for her help, but Janine wasn’t sure where in the world she’d rather be.

But that afternoon, as the Remington family stood around the house, eating Christmas cookies and doting on Leo and Lorelei, Maggie broke the big news.

“David and I want to find a place to live. Somewhere outside the Remington House.”

Janine, Nancy, and Alyssa were the only ones within earshot, scattered across the Remington House kitchen. It struck Janine, at this moment, that she’d been living at the Remington House for two and a half years at this point, that life had whipped past her like a runaway train. It was time for Maggie to move on.

“No,” Nancy said then, her jaw set.

“But Grandma, it’s time,” Maggie said, her eyes soft and apologetic.

“That’s not what I mean,” Nancy said, drying her hands on a towel. “I don’t want to live here anymore. I think it’s time you, Alyssa, and the babies took over.”

Maggie’s jaw dropped. Even Janine looked at her mother, flabbergasted. For many years, this had been Nancy’s home, her refuge after a terrifically difficult childhood, teenage era, and adulthood. But she’d dragged her way out of the mess and wound up here. It was truly remarkable. Why would she give it up?

“Don’t look at me like that,” Nancy said. “I love this house. I love the memories I’ve made in it. But it’s too big for just me.”

“But where will you go, Grandma?” Alyssa asked.

Nancy’s eyes sparkled. “You should really see Stan’s place. He’s made it into something really special. A home. It’s small, yes— more like a cottage by the sea. But after where I came from in Brooklyn, it’s a palace. And it’s all I need, honestly.” She paused for a moment before adding, “And it’s not too much to clean, thank goodness.”

“When are you going to move in with Stan?” Maggie asked.

“Maybe soon,” Nancy said with a shrug. “I love helping out around here, and I want to come as much as I’m needed. But I know I’m mostly in the way right now, what with all the babies and everything. Besides, I know you want to raise the babies side-by-side. This house is big enough for an arrangement like that. It’s a mini-mansion, for goodness’ sake. Fill it with children!”

Unsure what to say, Maggie cleared the distance between them, wrapped her arms around her grandmother, and waved for Alyssa to join them. She did, calling for Janine. Together, the three generations of Grimson-Potter gals group-hugged in the kitchen of Neal Remington’s house so many years after he’d first purchased it. And, Janine knew, the familiar heartbeat of the house would go forth, becoming stronger as Maggie and Alyssa took hold of it and made it their own.

ChapterTwenty-Two

On Christmas Eve morning, Nancy brought three suitcases to Stan Ellis’ cottage with the plan to never leave him. “Three suitcases?” had been the way Alyssa, Maggie, and Janine had exclaimed it, as though Nancy had lost her dang mind— but Nancy had been adamant. For all those years living with Neal, she’d accrued far too much stuff, and she, a woman who’d come from nothing, was ready to return to nothing. It was nice.

Stan, being Stan, helped Nancy hang up her dresses, put away her jeans, and put her socks and underwear in the top drawer on the other side of his. As Nancy watched her things fill out the rest of his space, her heart filled up with love, and she collapsed on the mattress (which she’d purchased for Stan’s place, as her back wasn’t what it once was) and cuddled Stan close. At some point that morning, he convinced her to come to the kitchen, where he surprised her with a fresh batch of blueberry pancakes and coffee, and they watched the snow fall down over the ocean. This deep in her sixties, Nancy hadn’t envisioned such happiness for herself. Yet here it was.

“Would you like another pancake?” Stan asked.

“I have no space left in my stomach, but I can’t say no.”

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