“Okay. I’ll tell Mom. We made lasagna and meatballs.” His niece loved to help in the kitchen, and it didn’t matter who was doing the cooking or what they were making.
Even after three years of owning the home, sometimes when he drove up, he thought of it as his parents’ house—the place where he and his sisters had grown up rather than a place that belonged to him. Especially when he’d been away for any length of time. His dad had never mentioned it, but Aaron wondered if he’d felt the same way after inheriting the house, the land, and everything on it.
No lights appeared in the windows of the apartment over the campground office. More than likely, it meant Mom was joining them for dinner—something she often did. He still had mixed feelings about her living there. The house was big enough for her to live with him. And when his dad died and Aaron purchased the home, he’d insisted she stay. But she’d been adamant about him having his own place and had the space over the campground office converted into a one-bedroom apartment.
It wasn’t the only thing she’d been adamant about. When he’d first mentioned he planned to move back to Avon so he’d be close by in case she needed him, she’d insisted it wasn’t necessary, that she didn’t want him disrupting his life because of her. He’d ignored her because the idea of her being alone with so many strangers coming and going from the property bothered him. Once he’d convinced her nothing she said would change his mind, he’d started looking for something in town. She’d balked at the idea and proposed he simply move back in and stay with her as long as he wanted. As much as he appreciated the offer, he was far too
old to be living in his mother’s house. That eventually led to her suggestion that he buy the house he’d grown up in. She argued it was more house than she needed anyway, and it would be the perfect size for when he got married and started a family—something she’d been after him to do on and off for a little while now.
Garlic, oregano, and cheese greeted him when he stepped into the kitchen, and he realized just how starving he was. He’d grabbed a burger and fries while waiting around the airport in Nashville but hadn’t eaten anything since.
“You’ve got perfect timing,” his sister said as she closed the refrigerator door, two bottles of salad dressing in her hand. “As soon as Tiegan’s done with the salad, we can eat.”
His niece stood at the counter cutting up mushrooms, and he paused to ruffle her hair. Not surprisingly, his dog, Clifford, sat right by her feet hoping she’d drop some food. The dog ate everything from potato peels and mushrooms to hot dogs and steak. “I’m going to drop my bag off upstairs, and I’ll be right back. Is Mom joining us?”
Candace set the lasagna pan on the table and snagged a mushroom off the cutting board when she returned to the counter for the bowl of meatballs. “She’s in the basement looking for an old photo album. I have no idea why.”
Since his mom had limited space in her apartment, she’d left a lot of sentimental stuff behind in the basement. Considering the amount of stuff she had down there, she might be searching for a long time.
When he’d first moved in, he’d considered using the bedroom he’d grown up in rather than the master bedroom. After all, for as long as he could remember, the room had been his parents’. In the end, he’d decided to make it his own, because it was not only the largest room in the house, but it also had its own bathroom. For the first month or so, he’d slept in his old room while he remodeled the other bedroom and bath. The first thing to go had been the wall-to-wall carpeting, followed by the pea-green paint on the walls. His mom had a thing for the color green. It didn’t matter the shade. The master bedroom wasn’t the only room painted green; however, the shade in there had been by far the worst. Once done in there, he’d systematically gone through the rest of the house, making changes in every room. Now the place reflected his tastes throughout.
Light spilled out of his niece’s bedroom and into the well-lit hallway upstairs. The girl conveniently forgot to switch off lights whenever she left an area. Sometimes during the day, if it was overcast outside, she turned on the lights. When Candace and Tiegan moved in, he’d thought she was just lazy about it, and he’d reminded her every time she did it. Finally, after about two weeks of living with him, she admitted she was afraid of the dark. Now he kept his mouth shut, and unless Tiegan was out of the house, he didn’t touch whatever she left on.
The hallway light provided enough illumination for him to leave his suitcase and computer bag just inside his bedroom. Later he’d need to log in to his email and see if he had any issues to tackle, but it could wait until after dinner.
“You’re home.” His mom closed the basement door behind her as she reentered the kitchen. “How was your flight?”
“Long.”
While he disliked air travel because of the inconveniences associated with it, his mom was deathly afraid of it.
“Did you find what you were looking for down there?” Candace asked. Already seated at the kitchen table, she added a slice of lasagna to her plate before reaching for his.
Nodding, Mom held up a photo album with the words The Elementary Years printed across the front along with a school picture, possibly kindergarten or first grade, of Elise. He knew somewhere downstairs his mom had similar albums for him and Candace. “Mason needs a picture of Elise when she was in fifth grade for a school project.” Mom set the photo album down on the counter by the side door before joining them. “I’m going to scan one and email it to Elise tonight so he can get started, and on Monday, I will mail the whole album out to her. It’s hers. She might as well have it.”
“I talked to Mason a little while ago. He showed me the picture he’s using of Uncle Nick when he was in fifth grade,” Tiegan said before stuffing a forkful of food in her mouth.
Born three months apart, his niece and nephew were as close as siblings. And when Elise and her family had lived in New Hampshire, they’d spent as much time together as possible. When his brother-in-law took a position in South Carolina four and a half years ago, it’d been hard on both of them. Thanks to modern technology, they stayed in regular contact with each other, but Aaron knew it wasn’t the same.
“Uncle Nick is wearing a tie in the picture,” she added once she swallowed the food in her mouth. Like everyone, his niece had plenty of bad habits, but she had excellent table manners.
Shaking her head, Candace added a generous amount of ranch dressing to her salad. “Why doesn’t that surprise me?”
He’d had the same thought. His brother-in-law was a great guy, and he’d known him since high school. Nick had moved to Avon right before his freshman year and started dating Elise not long after. But in a lot of ways, Nick had been born in the wrong decade. He was perhaps the only person Aaron knew who’d never shown up at school in jeans.
His niece took control of the conversation for the next several minutes. First, she filled him in on what she’d been up to at school. Oddly enough, Tiegan had the same fifth grade teacher he’d had at Avon Elementary, and she loved her. For the most part, Tiegan loved school, and she got upset whenever she didn’t get a perfect grade on an assignment. Although she and her cousin had a lot in common, when it came to school, they were at opposite ends of the spectrum. His nephew did what he needed for school and then dismissed it from his mind. In fact, not once while he’d been at Elise’s house had Mason mentioned school to him. Instead, many of their conversations had been about either sports—Mason played on a sports team in every season—or his favorite new video game. Once Tiegan exhausted the topic of school, she gave him the 411 on the birthday party she’d gone to the previous weekend.
“Wow. An indoor skydiving place.” When he’d been a kid, his birthday parties had been either at the house or Skate Kingdom, a roller-skating rink that was no longer in business. His sisters’ parties had been similar. “Where is it?” He knew every business in town, and an indoor skydiving place was not among them. Not to mention, such a place probably wouldn’t survive in Avon.
“North Conway. It opened about three months ago. They offer indoor surfing too. It’s part of a chain. There is one in Nashua and a few in Massachusetts, as well as one in Connecticut. The owners are probably hoping it’ll be a big draw for the tourists,” his sister answered.
If it was going to succeed this far north, then the North Conway area made the most sense. In the winter, skiers flocked to the area, and in the summer and fall, vacationers descended on the vicinity.
Candace’s mention of tourists brought to mind the one who’d rented all five cottages the previous weekend. “Any issues with your guest, Mom?”
Countless times over the years, wealthy individuals from places like Weston or Boston came to the lake to “rough it,” as if staying in a cottage with running water and electricity was somehow roughing it. Often, but not always, these guests made the worst customers. And a person didn’t get much wealthier than Juliette Belmont.
To say it had shocked him when his mom shared their guest's identity would be perhaps the greatest understatement of the century. When he’d received the text message, he’d read it twice before replying and asking if she was possibly talking about someone else who happened to share the same name. He’d had a classmate named Selena Cruise in college, and she hadn’t been the well-known actress. In her reply, his mom confirmed she’d shown the billionaire cover model to cottage number ten.