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The following morning, Maggie’s eyes fluttered open as the sound of laughter cascaded up the staircase. She rolled over to spot Alyssa, who was all tucked away beneath her comforter. Incredibly, it was December 20th — only six weeks since Jack Potter’s death. It seemed that with every passing day, the world around them shifted so incredibly that it was no longer recognizable.
Case in point: the mysterious and lonely woman at the Lodge had been Maxine’s mother all along.
Maggie tip-toed to the bathroom to scrub her face and don the slightest bit of mascara and lip gloss. She then charged downstairs to find Nancy, Carmella, Elsa, and Janine in the midst of a wild conversation about the previous day’s events. A big box of Frosted Delights donuts sat between them, wide open. Maggie’s stomach grumbled even as a small voice in the back of her head told her to resist. (She would ignore this voice. It was Christmas, after all.)
“I’ve been working with her for two weeks,” Janine breathed over her mug of coffee. “She never mentioned it to me once.”
“That’s insane,” Carmella returned as she lifted a big chocolate-covered donut and tore out a large bite.
“I haven’t heard a peep from her all morning,” Nancy said as she placed her hands on her hips. “I hope she knows she’s welcome here as long as she likes.”
“What about Maxine?” Elsa demanded. She’d missed the majority of the events the previous day as she’d spent the afternoon and evening with Bruce, while Carmella had been off somewhere with Cody and Gretchen.
“Maxine is overwhelmed, to say the least,” Janine affirmed. “She was all but catatonic when we got back yesterday. We drank a few glasses of wine until maybe nine or nine-thirty and then she passed out in another guest bedroom.”
“So you’re saying both mother and daughter are in this house right now?” Carmella breathed. There was a small crumb of donut on her lower lip, but nobody pointed it out.
“Poor Linda,” Maggie spoke for the first time, which forced everyone to notice her as she slipped onto a chair alongside the dining room table and assessed the many donut varieties. “She seems just about as lost as anyone I’ve ever known.”
The other women considered her words as Maggie selected a caramel-flavored donut and took a decadent bite. Janine collapsed in the chair across from her and placed her head in her hands.
“What did Maxine tell you about her mother when you two were growing up?” Elsa asked as she poured herself another cup of coffee.
Janine pursed her lips. “She didn’t speak about her often. But she did say...” She shook her head delicately. “She said that if she’d been her mother, she would have left her father, too. Maxine wasn’t exactly a fan of him. He’s been dead a long time, but even I can’t imagine being married to him.”
There was silence. Carmella’s eyes widened as Elsa flicked off the little piece of donut on Carmella’s lower lip.
“And this coming from the woman who married Jack Potter. I know what you’re all thinking,” Janine said with a heavy sigh.
“Nobody said that honey,” Nancy countered.
“Yes, but I can’t help but think about it. All the patterns of abuse. They’re generational,” Janine murmured. She then turned her eyes toward Maggie as she added, “And then there’s my beautiful daughter, who’s married a decent man.”
“Not just decent,” Maggie replied firmly.
“That’s the voice of love right there,” Elsa said warmly.
“Speak of the devil. Isn’t he supposed to be on the Vineyard today?” Nancy asked.
“That’s right. He should be here by lunchtime,” Maggie said, surprised at her level of excitement.
“I hope he brought enough gifts for everyone,” Nancy teased. “We’re a greedy bunch.”
“Tiffany necklaces for all.” Maggie laughed outright as Grandma Nancy winked.
“I realized we don’t have a single Christmas cookie in this house,” Janine said suddenly. “We’d better get to baking if we’re ever going to welcome so many people into the house for Christmas. Lemon bars, cut-outs, buckeyes... We have our work cut out for us.”
“Put me to work, captain,” Carmella teased.
Janine bustled around the kitchen to collect the measuring cups and big mixing bowls. Nancy turned on the radio to another Christmas station while Elsa began to make another of her classic lists. As Janine poured the first round of flour, Maxine appeared in the doorway in one of Janine’s nightgowns. She stretched her arms up over her head as a yawn broke between her cheeks.
“There she is,” Janine greeted warmly.
“Rumor has it you had quite the weekend,” Carmella affirmed.
Maxine stepped into the kitchen, grabbed one of the bottles of Bailey’s, and poured herself a stiff coffee drink. She puffed out her cheeks as she sipped the first of what would probably be many sips that morning, her eyes cast out toward the blustery ocean.
“My mother is here. In this house,” she murmured with disbelief.
“We can’t believe it,” Nancy shook her head.
Maxine turned her eyes toward Nancy. “You were my stand-in mother in Brooklyn. All those years.”
Nancy scoffed with embarrassment. “I wasn’t much of anything.”
“But you were there,” Maxine affirmed.
They’d entered strange territory. Janine poured the rest of the dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl and began to stir furiously. Nobody knew what to say.
But finally, Maxine found the words.
“I’ve been so awful in my life,” she murmured. “So, so awful, in ways I’ll never be able to completely forgive myself. I can see that in my mother’s eyes, too.”
“Oh, honey. You shouldn’t—” Nancy began.
“No. I have to,” Maxine countered. “I’ve already counted my blessings ten-fold to be allowed to live alongside all of you here on the Vineyard after what I did. I’ve been given so much and now a second chance. Now, I have to pass along that giving to none other than Linda— my mother. I never imagined in a million years...”
She sipped the Bailey’s once more, her eyes shadowed with disbelief.
“What do you plan to do?” Carmella asked.
Maxine heaved a sigh. “I’ve just signed the contract to buy that large house on the edge of the beach. It had too much space for me. But maybe... Maybe it has just enough space for me and the mother I never knew. We have a whole lot of metaphorical baggage to move in there with us.”
Maggie’s lips parted with surprise.
Linda. Lonely, terrified Linda, who hadn’t had a day of happiness in forty years.
Linda would have a place to go home to.
An hour or so later, Rex arrived, just as Alyssa finally got out of bed and faced the world. Maggie leaped into Rex’s arms and he swung her around and around the living room, so much so that Elsa scolded them. “You’re going to hit the Christmas tree, and then where will we be?”
Carmella laughed outright at that. “Elsa. Lighten up! The kids are happy to see each other.”
“Kids? How old are they again?” Alyssa scoffed. “I can see your crow’s feet from here,” she teased Maggie.
“Get out of here,” Maggie returned to Alyssa as she grinned up at Rex, her heart swelling with adoration. “You’re finally here!” she whispered to Rex.
“Just in time for cookies,” Alyssa countered. “That’s so typical, Rex.”
“Glad to see you haven’t changed at all, Alyssa,” Rex returned.
“There’s no changing perfection,” Alyssa offered with the flip of her hair.
“Guys! The first batch of cookies are ready to frost!” Janine hollered from the kitchen. “I need all hands on deck.”
Alyssa yawned and headed off to the kitchen as Maggie, Rex, and Carmella followed in after her. Carmella poured them all glasses of wine as Maxine hovered over the architectural plans for the house she’d just purchased.
“I think I’ll take this bedroom and give Linda this one,” she said to Janine, pointing them out. “And this room could be the library? I’ll, of course, need your help with interior decorating.”
“Just like old times,” Janine said with a laugh. “Remember that fight we got into about the redesign of my kitchen? I swear, I couldn’t understand what you meant when you said that wallpaper wouldn’t work. And then we got it up...”
“It looked like a nightmare room,” Alyssa confirmed as she slid the first of the frosting over a reindeer-shaped cookie. “I remember that.”
Maxine tossed her head back with laughter. “Yes, that was a misfire. But almost every other room we’ve designed together was a huge hit.”
“I can remember when the two of you would decorate Janine’s bedroom during sleepovers,” Nancy said. “Those big fairy tents and all those light-up stars...”
“We were obsessed with making every space a kind of fantasy,” Janine murmured thoughtfully.
“And I suppose that’s what I want this place to be for Linda,” Maxine said as her brow furrowed. “I want it to be a fantasy, in a way. But I also want it to feel like home.”
“She’ll be with you, honey,” Grandma Nancy affirmed. “You’re her home.”