Cookies in the Cottage

by Kathi Daley

  I had to agree with Sage that even if Denver had been a sweet kid who loved his mother, he’d grown up to be less than a responsible adult. “Did you ever figure out why Henri was so certain that the three of you were Denver’s only children? I mean, three children in one year seems like a spree. If it were me, I’d suspect others either before or after.”

  “I don’t know for sure why Henri seemed certain that Denver had three and only three children, but we did find correspondence between Henri and the private investigator who she hired to track down any offspring that Denver might have had once she found the letters between Shelby’s mother and her son. I guess the search for grandchildren was extensive, and between them, they determined there hadn’t been others.”

  “This must be such an odd situation for you to try to wrap your head around.”

  “It is. I think Sierra was a bit more accepting of things early on. Shelby and I are just now starting to catch up.”

  “Hey, guys,” Sierra said, joining Sage and me.

  “Are you ready for a break?” I asked.

  Sierra nodded as Shelby set her sled down and settled in between her sisters.

  “That last run did me in,” Shelby said, brushing the snow from her hair. “It was fun, but I’m freezing.”

  “There’s coffee and hot cocoa in the thermoses,” I offered.

  All three sisters opted for coffee.

  “This thing you’re doing with the list is such a good idea,” Shelby said. “It seems like everyone is really into it – especially the kids, but the adults as well. I was chatting with Greta Samberg before we headed out here, and she expressed her absolute delight in having so many fun activities to engage in during the week. I think she’d been feeling sad that none of her children were available for the holiday, but she shared that since she and Paul had been here, they’d had the most fabulous time.”

  “I’m so glad to hear that.” Greta and her husband Paul had four children and three grandchildren, but they’d shared that everyone had headed to their in-laws this year, leaving them alone for the first time since they’d had children. “Georgia does a wonderful job with the events held at the inn, but I have to give the credit for the list activities to Mylie. She’s really taken ownership of the idea.”

  “Mylie told me she was a guest at the inn last Christmas,” Sierra said. “She came to find her one true love, who apparently, while she didn’t know it at the time, turned out to be Jeremy.”

  I smiled. “That’s all true. Mylie initially went off on an adventure with another man she met at the inn, but she eventually decided to move to Holiday Bay and start a new life. I, for one, am thrilled to have her as a neighbor.” I looked around at the group. “I’d be thrilled to have all of you as neighbors as well should you decide to keep the house.”

  “We’re still discussing that,” Shelby said. “But I, for one, would love to spend more time here.”

  “It has been so much fun spending the holidays here in Holiday Bay,” Sierra stated. “Everything is just so magical. The decorations. The snow. The sense of community that can only be found in a small town where everyone knows who you are and really cares about your life.”

  I glanced at Sage, who’d been the sister who was dead set on selling.

  She shrugged. “I still need to think about things. At first, I was thrilled with the offer from Brighton and Baxter, but now I’m less certain.”

  “Brighton and Baxter?” I asked.

  “Brighton and Baxter is a development company that wants to buy the house,” Sage provided. “Abbot Baxter tried to buy the house from Henri before her death, and after she passed, he tried to buy it from us.”

  “He made you an offer?” I asked.

  “More than one,” Sierra confirmed. “When we first met the attorney who settled the estate, he told us that he had a buyer for the house and if we wanted to sell, he could arrange for a quick sale negating the need to clean up the place, do repairs, list it with an agent, or pay a commission.”

  “Yes, I remember,” I said. “Sage wanted to sell, Shelby wanted to keep it, and you wanted to have time to sort through the contents of the house, which a quick sale would not allow, so you decided to keep the house for the time being and discuss it further.”

  Sierra nodded. “Yes, that’s right. None of us ever asked about the person who’d been interested in buying the house since we’d decided to decline his offer, but when we were going through the paperwork in Henri’s desk, we found multiple letters from a man named Abbot Baxter to Henri. It appears that Baxter has been interested in buying the property here in Maine for years. In fact, it appears that he first became aware of the property during the brief time when Henri was considering selling. He made her a modest offer, and then she found out about us, changed her mind, and turned him down.”

  “Since then, he’s sent Henri’s attorney a new offer, a better offer, about every six months. All were turned down by Henri,” Shelby added.

  “And then she died, and he made another offer to us if we sold right away,” Sierra explained.

  “But we turned him down,” Shelby said.

  “After we turned him down, he made each of us another offer – an even better offer,” Sierra added. “We’d decided to wait until after the holidays to make a decision, so I just put the offer in a drawer.”

  “Me too,” Shelby seconded.

  “To be honest, I did a bit of follow up on the offer that I might not have mentioned to the two of you,” Sage said.

  Shelby and Sierra both frowned at their sister.

  “I didn’t promise the guy anything,” she defended herself. “I guess I just wanted to get some more information. I figured we could discuss it while we were all here over the holidays.”

  I thought about Fran’s comment that someone had been out at the house taking measurements. Someone apparently interested in buying the house. I also remembered that Fran had seen this same man in town with William. The fact that Abbot Baxter of Brighton and Baxter had been so insistent about buying the house gave me cause to wonder if perhaps someone from their office hadn’t been behind the plan to scare Henri and her granddaughters into selling. It didn’t really make sense that one of the partners would be the one to set up and execute the haunting, but perhaps someone from Brighton and Baxter had hired William to take care of the specifics. Of course, that didn’t explain who killed William, but in my mind, it did open a new line of inquiry that I felt deserved additional thought.

  Chapter 7

  By the time we returned to the inn, it was time for everyone to get ready for the cocktail reception Georgia planned in the main living area on the first floor. The sisters decided to go home, and Jeremy, Mylie, and Annabelle planned to host movies and pizza in the third-floor parlor, which just left the eight adults staying at the inn, along with Georgia and me, in attendance at the cocktail hour. I was freezing cold from our day in the snow, so I decided to take a hot shower and change into something suitable for the evening ahead. When I entered the cottage, both dogs greeted me. After giving them hello hugs, I headed toward the small kitchen area, where I found a package sitting on the counter. There was a tag on the package with my first name on it, but nothing more. I opened the box to find a gorgeous hand-painted ornament that depicted the property and the exterior of the inn if looking toward the structure from the front drive.

  “Who dropped this off?” I asked the dogs.

  Of course, neither dog answered. Not only was the ornament beautiful and personal, but it had been painted recently since the yard in front of the inn featured the snowmen the guests had just built the day before. I knew that there were only a handful of people who’d be able to get past the dogs to deliver the gift. Georgia could, of course, and maybe Mylie. They were both crafty. Of course, Mylie had been with me all day. Perhaps Lacy? I’d never found out who’d delivered the cookies, but now that I’d had two deliveries, I was really interested in finding out who’d been leaving the gifts.

 
“I found a beautiful hand-painted ornament on the kitchen counter in the cottage,” I said to Georgia once I’d showered and dressed in a red cashmere sweater dress and arrived back at the inn. “I don’t suppose the gift is from you.”

  “No. Not from me. Did you ask Mylie? She’s really good at that sort of thing.”

  “I haven’t asked her yet. The ornament had to be left in the cottage while we were gone today, and both Jeremy and Mylie were at the sledding party.”

  “Maybe Nikki? She’s got the art gene.”

  “Yeah,” I realized that Nikki, as the artist, made sense. “I’ll ask her. Is she still here?”

  “No, she went home to change. Are you heading into the other room?”

  “I am.”

  “Can you take this tray of appetizers and set them with the other items on the buffet table?”

  “I can.” I picked up the tray and headed toward the living room. After I dropped off the tray, I wandered over to where Poppy was sitting alone on the sofa. She’d been talking to Paul and Greta Samberg until they’d both gotten up to check out the jigsaw puzzles in the parlor. “So, how are you enjoying your stay?”

  “It’s been very nice. I’m glad there are a lot of activities for the kids to participate in. I’d hoped to be able to really take some time off from work while we were here, but it isn’t turning out that way.” She took a sip of her drink and sighed.

  “What do you do exactly?” I remembered her saying that she worked in some sort of sales or marketing related field.

  “I work for the US branch of an advertising firm based in Paris. The US branch is based in Manhattan, and I love it, but my real goal is the Paris office, so I’ve spent the past ten years of my life steadily working my way up the ladder.”

  “Sounds exciting.”

  She smiled. “It is. Or at least it was until my sister and her husband were killed in an auto accident five months ago.”

  “I heard about that. I’m so sorry.”

  She bowed her head. “Yeah, me too. Prentice and I weren’t that close. She was all about home, family, and community, while I had my sights set on the world. She was a stay at home mom, and I worked eighteen-hour days right up until Avalon and Alex came to live with me. We lived worlds apart, but I loved her, and I want to do right by her and the kids.”

  “Did you know that she’d named you as guardian for the children?” I had to wonder why she’d agreed to take on such a role, given her lifestyle.

  “I wasn’t supposed to be their guardian. Peter has a sister. Connie. Connie is married with three children of her own. When Avalon and Alex were babies, Peter and Prentice talked to Connie and Craig about being the legal guardians for each other’s children should the situation arise. I knew of the arrangement, and given my lifestyle, fully supported it. That’s why I was so surprised when the attorney who is handling Prentice and Peter’s estate informed me that Connie and Craig had discussed it and had decided that they couldn’t take on two additional children after all.”

  “Why not?” I frowned.

  “According to the attorney, Connie and Craig have been having some marital problems. They felt that taking on two additional children might be the straw that broke the camel’s back. When the attorney asked me if I’d step in, I told him that I couldn’t possibly take care of two children. He informed me that if I wouldn’t take them in, they’d likely go to short-term foster care until a more permanent solution was worked out. In the end, I agreed to take them in temporarily. In the beginning, my boss was very understanding. When I needed to take time off to see to things, he basically turned a blind eye despite the unspoken code that exists between those of us in upper management, which basically demands that we put the agency first and everything else in our lives, including our families, second.”

  “It seems unrealistic for your bosses to expect so much.”

  “Not really. The company is very upfront with any potential employee. They talk to you about the long hours and complete dedication needed to excel with their company and suggest that anyone who isn’t willing to ‘marry’ the company should look elsewhere. Those who are hired are compensated very nicely, so they have no trouble getting people who will agree to their terms. For me, I knew from the beginning that my goal was the Paris office and that if I wanted to reach that goal, I had to commit fully. I knew that luxuries such as a husband and children were off the table, and I was fine with that. I rarely date, and most of my friends are associates and clients.”

  “So I guess the current situation puts you in a tough spot,” I said.

  “Yes. It puts me in a very tough situation. I love Avalon and Alex. I really do. But I have been working for Paris my entire adult life, and I’m so close. So very, very close.”

  “So, is there a job to be had?”

  She nodded. “My boss pulled me into his office before I left for Christmas break and informed me that I was one of two top runners for the job in Paris. He said he really liked the job I’d done for them to that point, and he’d been strongly pulling for me, but then he reminded me that while he had always admired my work ethic, he needed someone in that position who could give two hundred percent. I assured him I was up for up it and would figure the rest out, but he seemed less than certain. He suggested that I use my time away to really consider the commitment required from every angle.”

  “Have you?”

  “I don’t know. I guess maybe not to the degree that I really should. I’d like to think I can do it all; be a guardian to Avalon and Alex and do the job in Paris. But I know that a job like the one I dream of requires a fast-paced lifestyle. It requires a person who can attend all the hottest parties and still be at work at the crack of dawn the next day. It requires someone who can pack a bag and fly to wherever they’re needed with only a few hours’ notice. Before Avalon and Alex came to live with me, I was that person. I didn’t even have a houseplant to worry about. But now…”

  “Now, you have two children to care for.”

  She nodded. “My boss told me that he planned to make an announcement relating to the Paris promotion after we came back from the holiday break. He also told me that unless something changes with respect to my new mommy role, he plans to recommend my number one rival for the job. He made it clear that he really prefers to recommend me and that if I could find another relative to take over as the children’s guardian, he’d reconsider his recommendation, but the thing is that there really isn’t anyone. Peter has a brother, but he’s in a band and travels even more than I do. He’s a pretty big mess and would be a terrible guardian anyway. My parents are dead, and Peter’s parents both have medical issues. They love their grandchildren but don’t feel they have the energy it takes to survive the teenage years again. I have a cousin who considered doing it, but her husband eventually said no. She suggested I look into either a full-time nanny or boarding school. I thought about the nanny thing, but it would need to be someone who lived in and was very flexible since my job requires a lot of late nights and a lot of traveling.” She let out a long breath. “I really don’t feel equipped to be a parent, but I can’t let some stranger raise my niece and nephew either. I’ve really tried juggling my responsibilities and doing both since the kids have been with me, but the kids think I work too much, and my boss thinks I’m not working enough. In the end, I’m just letting everyone down.” She paused and looked up. “The reality is that if I can’t figure out my life, I’m pretty sure I’m not only risking the Paris position but the job I have now as well.”

  I laid my hand on Poppy’s arm. “I’m sorry. It sounds like you’re really in a tough spot.”

  She nodded. “Thank you for listening to me and at least trying to understand. Most people don’t get it. My friends from work argue that raising my niece and nephew isn’t something I ever agreed to do, and therefore doing so is not my responsibility. They think I should just tell the attorney who was hired to see to things that I’m not in a position to take on that responsibility and get o
n with my life. Then there are friends and family from my private life who don’t really get how important my job is to me. They think that quitting my job and raising the kids should be the obvious choice and don’t understand why I’m struggling.” She looked toward the bar where the single dad, Blaine Beckett, was talking to the newlyweds, Warren and Whitney. “You know, Blaine was in a similar situation, although the children in question are his, so the decision of whether or not to take on custody wasn’t an issue so much as how to make his work life mesh with being a full-time parent.”

  “I’d heard that he was a single father, but I’m afraid I don’t have all the details.”

  “Blaine was divorced. He owned one-third of an international software company based in Italy, and like me, he traveled a lot. His life seemed to work okay until his ex-wife passed away. She’d been the custodial parent, so she was the one who held down the fort at home while he spent time with the boys when his job allowed. Then sixteen months ago, his ex-wife suffered an aneurism and died immediately. Her death left him with the kids to raise alone. He told me that in the beginning, he tried to do both – raise the kids and take care of things at work. He hired a live-in nanny and tried to juggle all the demands in his life. Eventually, he realized that doing both wasn’t working, so he sold his share of the business to his partners.”

  “Does he seem to think he made the right choice?”

  She shrugged. “I think so. Blaine told me that the kids are a lot more settled now that he’s no longer running off to meetings all over the world. Seven months ago, he took the money he received from the buyout and started a firm that deals with educational software specifically designed for homeschooling and distance learning. I had the feeling when we spoke that there were things about his old life he missed, but I also think he knew that his kids had to come first.”

  “I guess the loss of the mother must have been hard on everyone.”

  She nodded. “Blaine said the boys understandably took the loss of their mother really hard. She was the stable parent in their life while he was more of a fun uncle who spent time with them, but he wasn’t there nearly as often as he should have been. In the beginning, the boys weren’t used to Blaine being a parent. But according to Blaine, since he sold the company, the boys have settled into a structured routine, and he thinks things are getting better. He was honest with me and admitted that stepping away from the company he helped build from the ground up was not an easy thing to do, but he also said that he felt he’d made the right choice.”