| |
Melody and Donnie arrived back to Bar Harbor the following afternoon at two, an event that found Casey hard at work in the kitchen of the Keating House, baking croissants and Christmas cookies and brewing up hot mulled wine. She wasn’t needed at the Keating Inn, not today, nor any other day in the near future (thankfully). After Casey’s incident with the ritzy towel woman, Nicole had requested that she “keep a wide berth” of the Keating Inn, at least until after her “situation” was under control. Nicole, Heather, and Abby hired a spontaneous stand-in front-desk employee to take over Casey’s shifts, and Casey had burrowed herself into her sizzling emotions and enough cookie dough to feed a small village. By the time her children arrived at the Keating House, she was half-drunk and over-sugared. She flung her arms around them as she shrieked with more joy than she’d experienced in years.
Her entire family was in Bar Harbor. Every person she’d ever really loved could be found within the city limits. Beyond that, she was on the verge of breaking ground on the first building she’d designed in many years. After everything that had just happened, this was some kind of Christmas miracle.
“Mom...” Donnie hugged his mother extra long before she pulled back. His eyes were wounded.
“I just told Donnie everything in the car ride on the way here...” Melody offered finally. “I figured it was easier to just get it out of the way. I hope that’s okay.”
Donnie grabbed three Christmas cookies and collapsed at the kitchen table. Little shadows appeared beneath his eyes as he contemplated his father’s affair and his parent's divorce. Casey sucked another sip of mulled wine down her throat as she considered how to tell them the newest plot points in what seemed to be this winter’s wildest story.
“I just can’t believe he was out in Montana with this whole other family,” Donnie muttered in disbelief between big bites of his cookie.
“Obviously, neither of us have been in contact with him,” Melody blared now as she flipped her hair. “He’s probably been up in Montana just living out his days with his newfound family.” Her voice was taut with anger.
Casey recognized her temper within Melody’s. How she prayed that her children wouldn’t have to live with the sort of anger that brewed within Casey. It was a curse.
“Kids... I have something to tell you,” Casey announced suddenly, surprising herself with the gentleness of her tone.
Melody arched an eyebrow in surprise. She took the chair beside Donnie, wordless, as Casey wrapped her hands around her warm mug of hot mulled wine and tilted her head.
“Your father isn’t in Montana. He’s right here in Bar Harbor,” she said.
Melody’s jaw dropped open. Donnie chewed contemplatively on his Christmas cookie.
“What are you talking about? Does he really think he can just stomp back into your life after all he did?” Melody demanded.
“It’s a bit more complicated than that,” Casey tried.
“How, exactly?” Melody asked. She crossed and uncrossed her arms and blinked at her mother in disbelief.
“Well...” Casey blinked wildly as tears formed in her eyes. Donnie stood back up on instinct, as though he could protect his mother from her own emotions. It was no use. The tears came, hot and fast and in perfect succession. “It turns out your father never had an affair.”
“But the bank account? The secretary?” Melody demanded.
Casey shook her head ever-so-slightly. “Your father worked tirelessly to cover up for his brother’s mistakes.”
“Uncle Quintin?” Donnie demanded, shock washing over his face.
“He lost everything since Frankie died,” Casey explained. “Your father couldn’t bear to see him collapse like that. He gave all he could. And in the process, he lost the world he loved the most. Ours.”
Melody leaped up to join her brother and mother as her own eyes filled with tears. She fell against her mother and erupted with sobs of her own. Her anger had only been a facade, protection from her deep-rooted, swirling sorrows.
“I just didn’t want to believe it,” Melody whispered into her mother’s shoulder. “I never wanted to think my dad was a bad guy.”
Casey rubbed her daughter’s shoulder as Donnie rubbed his eyes till they turned bright pink at the edges.
“Your dad gave his all to be your dad,” she whispered now. “While I ran all over, building my career, your dad was there for every moment of your early days, no matter how small or how big. He’s always been an amazing man, an amazing father and I should have never doubted him. He loves you both more than life itself and although sometimes I feel I don’t deserve his love, he still gives it to me— all these years later.”
**
THERE WAS A GREAT DEAL more to explain. Casey herself wasn’t entirely sure where to start. Throughout the rest of the afternoon, she and her children sat in earnest at the kitchen table as she walked them through what she now understood about their Uncle Quintin and his new family with Alyssa Limperis and their three children, Melody and Donnie’s adorable cousins. She also talked in greater detail about her and Grant’s lack of communication over the years, along with Grant’s desire to make something of himself after all his years as a “stay-at-home” dad. It was a complicated story with many moving parts. The best of it was, the story wasn’t over yet.
Grant agreed to meet Casey at the Italian restaurant, “Calvino’s,” that evening at seven-thirty. Casey, Melody, and Donnie arrived fifteen minutes later to ensure the surprise. When Grant walked in with a bouquet of red roses, his smile broke open at the sight of his children. Melody rushed toward him and flung her arms around him as she cried, “Daddy!” Donnie fell into a big, burly hug immediately afterward. By the time Grant reached Casey, his one and only love, his eyes were heavy with tears.
“You brought my kids back to me,” he whispered.
“They didn’t want to be anywhere else but right here,” she told him.
They kissed so deeply that Casey’s knees almost gave out beneath her. When her eyes closed, she felt she’d dropped back in time to those early days when they were so deep in love, only to lurch back to 2021 when her eyes flipped back open.
The following hours were mesmerizing in their warmth. Grant, Casey, Melody, and Donnie hadn’t sat together at a table as a family in more than a year. This newfound belief in their nuclear family resulted in non-stop conversation, wild banter and laughs from all corners— all with Casey and Grant holding hands across the table. At various times, Donnie and Melody gave one another knowing looks. It seemed they were convinced of their parents’ newfound love.
Back outside the Italian restaurant, the snow swirled around them with expectant Christmas magic. Donnie told Grant excitedly about Thanksgiving and the multiple rounds of karaoke and charades Grant had to look forward to. Grant guffawed and then promised to sing ABBA’s “Super Trooper.” Donnie said he’d sing back-ups.
After a strange, hesitant pause, Casey shifted her head back toward the Keating Property. “Why don’t you come up to the house for the night? We’ve got more Christmas cookies than we know what to do with.”
Grant’s face cracked into a huge smile. She could see a look of happiness wash over him at that moment and it warmed her heart.
“Let me just grab some stuff at the hotel,” he replied, his eyes glittering as though this was all too good to be true. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”