An Invincible Summer (Wyndham Beach #1)(64)

“Well, as long as you’re happy, I’m happy.” Natalie raised her coffee mug in a toast. “Here’s to your new life, Mom. May it shine.”

“I’m with Nat.” Grace joined the toast, then rinsed her empty mug out under the faucet and set it aside. “So let’s put that pack of sticky notes to work. Can we start in the dining room? There are a few things I’d love to have if you’re not taking them with you.”

“Me too. I’ve had my eye on that soup tureen you and Dad bought in Italy that time.” Natalie led the way.

“Wait, you mean the white one with the painted flowers?” Grace followed, her voice trailing behind. “I wanted that . . .”

Maggie smiled. She’d planned on taking the tureen with her. There would no doubt be negotiations ongoing all day—and hopefully no arguments—but in the end, it would all work out just fine.





Chapter Thirteen


GRACE

“Will you be living in Wyndham Beach?” the Realtor asked Grace after they’d completed the closing on the house on Cottage Street.

“I told my mother I’d stay and help her get settled, but I have a home in Pennsylvania,” Grace replied. A home she’d put on the market and was hoping to sell sooner rather than later, but no need to get into all that. And there was still that question of a job. Thank God for the rainy-day fund her father had left her.

“Well, it was good of you to stand in for her today. How lucky is she to have an attorney in the family.” Barbara closed her briefcase with a snap.

“I’m not here as her lawyer, just her proxy,” Grace explained. “Mom’s gotten several offers on her Bryn Mawr house, and she’s trying to decide among them. As soon as that house is under contract, she’ll be here. Most of her furniture will be arriving today, so I’ll have my hands full.” She glanced at her phone for the time. “Actually, I should be getting back to the house. The movers are due in about an hour, so I need to be there.”

“I will let you go then. Here are the keys.” Barbara handed Grace an envelope. “And a list of contractors who worked on the house, as your mother requested, so she’ll know who to call if she has any questions about any of the systems or whatever.”

Grace picked up the folder of documents that she’d signed in her mother’s stead. Once the FOR SALE sign on the Bryn Mawr house had been placed on the lawn, the phone had begun to ring nonstop. With the closing of the Wyndham Beach house imminent, Maggie had signed a power of attorney in order that Grace might take her place at the closing table in Massachusetts. She’d also asked Grace to oversee the arrival of the moving van. There’d be furniture to place and a number of boxes to be emptied. Since leaving her law office behind, Grace hadn’t had much to do other than help her mother pack up a lifetime of possessions. It had taken several weeks, but much had been donated, much had been sold, and much had found its way to the rented storage unit Grace and Natalie were sharing. Maggie’s house in Bryn Mawr was now empty—even the stager’s furniture had been removed. Maggie was staying with Natalie until the house was sold and she could leave Bryn Mawr behind.

Sometimes Grace secretly thought it was just a little strange that her mother could turn her back on thirtysome years of her life and move on—or move back, depending on how you looked at Maggie’s return to Wyndham Beach. She’d admitted as much to Liddy, with whom she was staying until the house was ready for her mother’s arrival.

“I can’t help it. I just think it’s out of character for Mom to just decide on the spur of the moment to leave Bryn Mawr behind and move here,” Grace had said over breakfast at Beach Fries, the new beachside café Liddy had taken her to the morning after the settlement.

“Your mother’s family has very deep roots here, as you know. She grew up in that house and has a strong connection to it,” Liddy reminded her. “Just as you’ll always feel a pull toward the house you grew up in. Who’s to say that someday you might see that house for sale and want to buy it?”

“I get that part. It just seemed so sudden. I’m a little concerned that maybe she didn’t think it through all the way. Like it was just something that occurred to her, and she thought it sounded like a good idea.”

Liddy laughed. “You know your mother better than that. She doesn’t act on a whim when something important is at stake. I think she’s missed Wyndham Beach for a long time. I’m pretty sure she’s wanted to come back more often than she had over the years.”

“She could have. I don’t know what stopped her.”

“When you and your sister were still in school, and your grandmother was still alive, the trips back here made a lot of sense. You spent most of those summers here. Once you were in college and doing summers abroad, your parents were free to travel to other places. I don’t think you or Natalie have been here since your grandmother passed.”

Grace frowned, trying to remember. “We haven’t. At least, I haven’t. But you know, we always traveled as a family,” Grace reminded her. “The four of us took lots of trips together when we were kids.”

“Yes, but once you two were out of the house, your mom and dad no longer had to plan their trips around school vacations. They could go anywhere, anytime they wanted.”