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Megan Stevenson clicked off the call and turned to Brian. They were eating dinner together, as had become a new, odd tradition, especially with Sarah spending her summer in Birch Harbor with Clara. It was late June, and though the divorce paperwork still existed, it was firmly on hold.
They were trying to make things work. In the weeks since their initial reunion, as Kate’s first official guests at the Heirloom Inn, Hannigan history had finally settled into place.
The letter from Liesel confirmed Amelia’s suspicions to the T. In the summer of 1992—the summer they’d spent in Arizona—Liesel had turned twenty-seven. She was on the brink of a personal crisis, coming to terms with learning that she was adopted through her loudmouth younger brother. In an effort to know everything she could, she tracked down contact information for her birth mother. The only trouble was that a firm no-contact order still stood in place, despite Liesel’s age. Her mother, a woman named Nora Hannigan, had signed paperwork preventing Liesel from ever reaching out. Still determined, Liesel went against her nature and the order and called Nora’s home phone number. It had gone to voicemail. Afraid to leave a message regarding such a big thing, Liesel instead wrote down the name from the machine’s greeting. Hi! You’ve reached Nora and Wendell. We’re out right now. Leave a message, and we’ll call you back!
Wendell Hannigan. On a whim, Liesel had called for information about a Wendell Hannigan who lived in the area code of the phone number. Luck struck, and she spoke with someone, a local fisherman who knew a Wendell, but his name was Wendell Acton. This, somehow, made even more sense to Liesel. Surely if she was given up by these people, they might have a rocky history. Or perhaps she wasn’t even his child, but he could at least point her to Nora.
By the time she had tracked down Wendell Acton’s parents—who could have been her grandparents, he was gone. Off the map.
But by then, Liesel learned that Wendell Acton’s parents worked the lighthouse north of Birch Harbor, Michigan. All it took was a phone call, one rainy Saturday. They answered and when Liesel so much as suggested that she may have been Wendell Acton’s long-lost daughter, they believed her without question. It confirmed for Liesel all she had hoped for. However, the Actons warned Liesel away from Nora, claiming she had moved on and wasn’t worth the emotional energy.
Still, Liesel and her paternal grandparents stayed in close touch. And when they passed, they requested the deed to the lighthouse be transferred to one Liesel Hart of Hickory Grove, Indiana.
She had no idea that she had younger sisters. She had no idea that Nora’s heart was shattered at losing her.
And she had no idea what she was going to do with the lighthouse on the lake because she had just recently inherited her own piece of family history, two properties in her hometown.
When Liesel, on the phone with Amelia and Megan and Kate and Clara, had used that phrase, they knew that things would fall into place. That they could accept that Liesel, though their sister in blood, had her own life. That she was doing as well as they were. And, in fact, Liesel offered to transfer the deed to the Hannigans. But that wasn’t all. Included in her envelope was the key to the lighthouse. It was a gesture of sisterhood and of family and one of a promise that one day, they would have a great big Hannigan reunion in the lighthouse on the lake.
Now, as Megan scraped the last of the ice cream from her bowl, her phone flashed alive. A text from Sarah with an image.
Megan flipped it over and studied it. There her sister stood, in the doorway of the attached home on the lighthouse, a broad paint brush in one hand and a sloppy paint bucket dangling from the other. Michael was in the picture, too, staring down at Amelia with a look of love that Megan admired so. They were a great couple, and she would know. He wielded a hammer, and around his waist was a leather apron with other tools sticking out at odd angles.
Behind the camera was Megan and Brian’s daughter, happy to be part of a great, big, messy family for a summer on the shore. Megan smiled and read Sarah’s message.
Just you wait! Birch Harbor is getting a museum! Aunt Amelia said I can work here until it’s time to go back to school!
Brian interrupted her with a loud gulp of water. In the past, the habit was a pet peeve of hers. Now, she tried to embrace it as one of the sounds of her life, of her marriage. “Have you heard back about that job yet?” His voice was gentle, but the words cut through her heart.
“Yes.” Megan had applied for a position in Detroit at Make Me a Match, a service for senior citizens who were looking for love in their golden years. Well, technically, she emailed them and suggested they develop a new position.
“And?” he pressed, biting his lower lip.
“They aren’t interested in a social media manager after all. I guess their demographic is looking for something else.” She sighed and rubbed the back of her neck.
A sly smile spread across his face. “Have you ever thought of starting your own company?”
***
I hope you enjoyed Lighthouse on the Lake. The next story in this saga is Fireflies in the Field, available widely.