Surfside Sisters(97)



“I’m sure it’s not where Dad thought he’d be at this age, too,” Isabelle added delicately.

“Please,” Donna said softly, “could you all give me a break?”

Sebastian leaned over to put his hand on his mother’s. “We’ll do anything you want, Mom. Just ask.”

Donna’s face flushed. “I don’t know what I should ask for, not now.”

“A cruise,” Keely said. “You want to go on a cruise.”

“But I can’t. Not with Al so incapacitated.”

“Mom, we can take care of Dad,” Isabelle assured her.

Donna nodded. “I’ll think about it.” She sniffed, and surprised them all with a smile. “Actually, I can’t stop thinking about it.”

    The silver bell tinkled and a man entered with a portfolio under his arm. “I’m sorry. Are you closed?”

“No, no.” Sebastian stood up. “We’re just finishing a business meeting. How may I help you?”

Keely, Isabelle, and Donna rose, too. Waving goodbye to one another, they went out to their cars. Donna drove away, but Isabelle came to talk with Keely.

“Are you okay with this?” Isabelle asked.

“I think so. It’s overwhelming, what we all talked about. You know how I’ve always admired your house and your family. I grew up wanting a house and a family like yours—actually no, I wanted your house. And now…”

“Now,” Isabelle said, “like it or not, you’ve got us all.”





Together, Keely and Isabelle took Donna Maxwell’s immaculately white tablecloth from the cupboard and flew it up between them and brought it down on the dining room table, which had extra leaves put into it because so many people would be sitting at it for this Thanksgiving dinner. They smoothed it out with their hands, tugging it this way and that so the cloth would hang equally on each side of the table.

Isabelle set a long, low, lush arrangement of orange lilies and dark green moss and ferns in the center of the table. Keely set the Maxwells’ heirloom Haviland china in place.

“Let’s see,” she said, counting on her fingers. “We’ve got your father at the head of the table in his wheelchair. You and Tommy are next to him on either side. Brittany sits next to Tommy and your mother sits across from her. My mother sits next to your mother, I sit next to Brittany, and Sebastian sits at the other head of the table.”

“Often called the foot of the table,” Isabelle chided playfully.

“Oh, I think Sebastian has earned his place at the head of the table.” She took a handful of sterling silver flatware from the felt-lined mahogany box and began to lay it out. “After all, he’s the oldest child. And he’s about to be married.”

“Sebastian is hardly the king of the United States.”

    “But he’s kind of the king of the family,” Keely said, looking at Isabelle with an arched eyebrow.

“All right. Point made.”

Keely grinned. She knew Isabelle had to back down now and then because the doctors had said that Al Maxwell would do best if he remained in his own house while he fully recovered his health and faculties. No one could predict how long that would take, but Donna, Keely, and Sebastian would be the ones to check on Al in the night.

Donna had announced that after Thanksgiving, she was taking a cruise with her friend Joann. It was a “Winter Wonderland” cruise, going down the Danube, stopping to visit all the cities and towns lit up like fairy tales for the Christmas season. Donna would buy them all Christmas presents from the winter markets. Sebastian and Keely would take over the Maxwell house, and part of their responsibility was to tend to Al, who was speaking more clearly now and attempting to walk, wobbly, just a few steps, helped by a cane.

Eloise would come over every day to help Sebastian with physical and speech therapy.

Brittany would start to toddle. She’d scream with glee when she saw her grandfather tottering into the room, as if recognizing someone from her very own tribe.

Tommy would shop for a larger fishing boat and begin the paperwork and website for the deep-sea fishing business that he would commence next May.

Keely had turned in her third novel, and Juan had loved it. Soon she’d start another book in her contract.

Donna spent hours sorting through the trunks and boxes and bags in the attic. Sebastian and Keely took the discards to the dump.

Donna had invited Eloise to come on the cruise with her, but Eloise declined. She was much happier on the island, helping with Al. She had also taken on a few private nursing assignments, which added money to her wallet and a spring to her step.

    Keely had privately debated whether or not to take Sebastian’s last name. Should she remain Keely Green? That was her professional name. But she liked the idea of being a Maxwell. Legal arrangements had already been made to put ownership of the wonderful old house in Keely’s and Sebastian’s names. It was, in a way, a protective measure, in case something happened to Donna on her travels or Al never quite recovered all his faculties. Already Keely had made changes to the house. She’d redone Donna and Al’s master bedroom first thing—it would be bizarre to make love with Sebastian in his parents’ bed. She rented a humidity-and temperature-controlled storage locker and filled it with much of Donna and Al’s furniture to go into their new home when they’d found it. She’d bought new, sleeker furniture to replace the dark Empire furniture that Donna and Al had favored.

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