The Guest Cottage

by Nancy Thayer

  “You don’t have to take your group out to dinner,” Trevor began, his brain creaking along rustily. “Restaurants here are expensive.”

  “Once in a while won’t kill us,” Sophie told him. “And it will be nice for you and your friends to have the house to yourselves.”

  Leo was bouncing all around the room in excitement. Trevor could hardly hear himself think. “About sleeping arrangements—”

  “Jeanette is going to sleep in the other twin bed in Lacey’s room.”

  Trevor thought out loud. “Cassidy can sleep in the other twin bed in Leo’s room. And Candace—”

  “Hey, honey, it’s none of my business where Candace sleeps.” Sophie grinned at him, a twinkle in her eyes.

  Trevor wanted to shake her. “Candace is going to sleep on the fold-out bed in the family room. She’s a widow. Her husband was killed in Iraq.”

  Sophie looked dismayed. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize.”

  Trevor was instantly riddled with guilt for making Sophie feel foolish. With Tallulah, everything had been so clear and simple, the train going along a track. With Sophie, Trevor felt like a Labrador puppy chasing after a Thoroughbred jumper. She seemed to fly effortlessly over the fences of their relationship while he ran too fast, banging his head into the posts.

  “I think all the towels and linens are clean,” Sophie mused. “But perhaps I’d better make a run through the house, especially since Jeanette is coming.”

  “I’ll go to the grocery store and stock up on staples and necessities for all of us for this week,” offered Trevor, nearly fainting with relief because he’d come up with an intelligent idea.

  “I’m concerned about Jeanette coming,” Sophie confessed. “I’ve got to tell her—gosh, have I even told you? Zack and I are definitely getting a divorce. His mother likes me, but that doesn’t mean she won’t give me a hard time when she’s here.”

  “Tell me if there’s anything I can do to help,” Trevor offered.

  “Thanks, Trevor, I will.” She gave him a grateful smile and headed up the stairs to check the linens.

  —

  Sophie had cautioned her children not to bring up any mention of divorce, or the rift between Zack and their mother, to Grandma when she first arrived.

  “This is Grandma’s first time to Nantucket, and I’d like her to enjoy the town and see it in all its charm. After you kids go to bed tonight I’ll sit down and explain about the divorce. Tomorrow you can take all the time you want talking to her about your father or me or the future or whatever.”

  “Can we take her to the beach?” asked Lacey.

  Sophie had laughed with relief. “Of course.”

  When Jeanette arrived on the fast ferry, they spotted her at once in the crowd walking down the ramp to the dock. Jeanette looked like a very short, very round version of Zack, with beautiful blue eyes and blond hair streaked with white. She hugged her grandchildren and hugged Sophie, too, squeezing them against her ample bosom. She was their warmhearted grandmother and everyone was delighted to be immersed in her vanilla-cookie scent.

  “Oh my goodness, Jonah! You’ve gotten so tall! And look at you, Lacey. You’re so pretty. Goodness, Sophie, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen your hair so long. It quite becomes you. And you’re all so tanned.” Jeanette laughed and laughed with pleasure.

  That was the way Jeanette saw the world, Sophie remembered. It was as if she saw only the good and let the bad fade away. No comment about hoping they used sunblock or they’d get skin cancer, like Sophie’s own mother would make. No subtle, derisory remark about Sophie’s hair looking like it needed a good trim or at least a good brushing. Jeanette had looked at publicity brochures about the island on her way over but unlike Sophie’s mother, she had not made a list of must-sees but simply surrendered herself to her family’s decisions.

  “Let me have your bag, Grandma,” Jonah said.

  “Oh, dear, it’s so heavy, but then you’re such a nice big man it will probably be as light as air to you.”

  Sophie watched with concealed amusement as Jonah took the pink, kitty- and puppy-covered duffel bag from his grandmother and hung it over his shoulder.

  It was too late to go to the beach, and Sophie knew Jeanette would be enchanted by the historic town, so for an hour or so the foursome strolled around, Lacey holding Jeanette’s hand and Jonah slumping along with his hands in his pockets next to Sophie.

  “I’d like to get myself a Nantucket T-shirt before I leave,” Jeanette said.

  “How long can you stay?” Sophie asked, hoping she didn’t sound as if she were really inquiring, how soon do you leave?

  “Not long, I’m afraid. Hubcorp is undergoing yet again another merger, and that means I have employees to shuffle around. Let’s talk about something else!”

  They ended up at the Brotherhood of Thieves, a well-known restaurant in a historic building. Tonight, instead of sitting inside the cozy brick dining room, they chose to sit out on the patio at the back. Sophie had suspected that conversation might be difficult as they all tried to avoid the tattletale remark Jonah had made about Sophie kissing a strange man, but Jeanette chattered away happily, seeming as fond of her daughter-in-law as she always was.

  After dinner they walked toward Children’s Beach, where Sophie had managed to find a parking place. It was still light out, so they all went down to Brant Point to show Jeanette the lighthouse and the Coast Guard station. When they finally climbed into the car and began the drive to the house, the kids and Jeanette, too, were yawning from all the fresh air.

  Back at the guest cottage, they piled out of the car and into the house, Lacey tugging on her grandmother’s hand. “You’re going to sleep in my bedroom, Grandma. I’ve got two twin beds. This house is awesome. Wait till you see my shell collection.”

  Sophie had tried to time their arrival back at the house before Leo went to bed so that everyone could meet everyone else and no one would be surprised in the morning to see a strange face. As Jonah and Lacey ushered their grandmother upstairs, Sophie followed the sounds out to the patio.

  In the illumination from the patio lights, she saw Leo and a pretty little girl constructing a castle out of Legos. At the round wooden table, Trevor sat with a beer in his hand. Across from him, in what had always been Sophie’s chair, sat Kate Middleton. Of course it wasn’t really Kate Middleton, but it might as well have been: a beautiful young woman with long brown hair wearing khaki shorts and a pink collared T-shirt.

  It took Sophie a moment to catch her breath. She wasn’t expecting the sudden rush of emotion—dear Lord in heaven, could it actually be jealousy?—that paralyzed her when she saw the brunette and Trevor sitting there as if they were a couple. She couldn’t speak.

  “Hey,” said Trevor. “There you are. Did the kids’ grandmother get in okay?”

  “Uh-huh,” Sophie choked out. She cleared her throat. “They’re showing Grandma the house. Jeanette will be down soon.”

  “Great. Sophie, this is Candace. And that’s Cassidy, over there creating Camelot with Leo.”

  Sophie took a few steps and extended her hand to the lovely brunette. “Hi.”

  “Hello, Sophie.” Candace’s voice oozed with ownership. “Why don’t you sit down and join us for a while?”

  Why don’t I pick up a chair and bash you over the head for a while? thought Sophie, both horrified at her thoughts and insulted to be invited to sit at what was, at least for two months, her own table.

  “Thanks,” she forced herself to say politely. “I’ve got to have a serious talk with the children’s grandmother, so I think we’ll go seclude ourselves in the library—if that’s all right with you, Trevor.”

  When Jeanette came back down the stairs, Jonah and Lacey took her out onto the patio to meet the others and for a while everyone chatted pleasantly. Then Sophie decided she had delayed long enough.

  “Jonah, Lacey, I need to talk to your grandmother privately. We’re going into the library. If you want to watch TV or
go on to bed, that’s fine. You can have all day tomorrow with your grandma.”

  “It sounds like I’d better have a drink with me,” Jeanette told Sophie.

  “Coffee? Tea?”

  Jeanette leveled a gaze at Sophie. “I’m thinking it had better be wine.”

  Armed with glasses and a newly opened bottle of cold Chardonnay, Sophie led Jeanette into the library and shut the door. They sat facing each other in deep leather chairs on the opposite side of a cold fireplace. Sophie poured them each a drink.

  “Okay, here we go,” Sophie began. “I know Jonah phoned you to tell you I’d been kissing a strange man and living with another, and I want to address that rather confusing remark. I mean, you probably have guessed by now that Trevor is only a friend. I mean, he wasn’t a friend until I met him when we both ended up accidentally renting this house from a pair of daffy cousins. And the strange man I kissed is also merely a friend who I met on the island. But the entire reason I’m on this island with the kids is that Zack told me in the spring that he’s in love with his partner, Lila. Yesterday he told me that for sure he wants a divorce.” She collapsed against the back of the chair, breathless.

  “My. That’s a lot for my tired old brain to absorb.” Jeanette leaned forward and put her hand on Sophie’s knee. “Are you okay, honey?”

  The question was so unexpected it sparked tears in Sophie’s eyes. “I really don’t know. I haven’t had a chance to think about it. I’m more worried about the children. I told them about it all last night.”

  “How did they take it?”

  “Surprisingly well. Or maybe they’re completely pretending in order to protect me. Jonah is working very hard not to be a child these days. Maybe they’ll open up to you more if you talk to them tomorrow.”

  Jeanette nodded, settling back in her chair. She took a moment to sip her wine. She wore a sundress with a sunflower print. The shape was loose, even baggy, but it still indented below her large mono-bosom and again below her round belly. To Sophie, Jeanette looked like one of those jolly, friendly Buddhas, or perhaps some kind of primitive goddess. She had the urge to fall on her knees, bury her face against her mother-in-law’s comforting body, and let Jeanette stroke her hair, whispering, “There, there.”

  Jeanette took her time thinking. At last she spoke. “I won’t say this is an enormous shock. I suppose I’ve been waiting for this announcement for years.”

  Sophie blanched. “Zack’s been having an affair for years?”

  “No, no, I don’t mean that. I guess what I mean is that I never thought the two of you were truly happy with each other.”

  Sophie’s hands flew to her heart. “Wait, what? I had no idea! I thought—” Suddenly she was overcome with tears. “I thought we were an extremely happy family.”

  “A happy family, yes. But not such a happy couple, maybe. There is a difference, you know.” Jeanette sipped more wine. “Do you need to get a tissue?”

  “I guess I do. I’ll be right back.” Sophie put her glass on the coffee table and hurried into the downstairs bathroom to snatch up some tissues and blow her dripping nose. When she returned, she entreated, “Jeanette, you have always been such a friend to me. Tell me what I’ve done wrong.”

  “It’s not a matter of what anyone has done wrong.” Jeanette chewed on her lip a moment as she gathered her words. “You know, one generation can only judge the next generation by what we know. In my parents’ family, my father worked and my mother kept house and raised the children and there never was much money for us to do family things together. I never really got to know my father. I guess I saw that same dynamic taking place among you and Zack and the kids.”

  “But we did do family things together,” Sophie protested. “At least when the kids were in grade school.”

  “I know, I know that. And I don’t mean I’ve been spying on you or watching you with a critical eye. I don’t want you to think that at all. If anything, I’m afraid this divorce reflects back on me and the way I raised Zack.” She held up her hand to prevent Sophie’s outburst. “Remember, Zack came along after his two sisters. He was the baby prince, adored and pampered by three women. Even when he was in college, he brought his laundry home for me to do. And I know that when he was getting his master’s in architecture, his older sisters used to send him spending money so that he wouldn’t feel that trapped feeling that being poor gives you. Not to put too fine a point on it, Zack is spoiled. When you two first married and I saw the way you kowtowed to him, totally becoming his servant like some kind of geisha, I thought it was a good thing. I thought he would go from a home where he was the prince to a home where he was the king. And that really happened, didn’t it?”

  Nodding slowly, Sophie agreed. “I did adore Zack. But I was happy, too. You know I’d played piano, and done pretty well, until I failed in a competition. But when I met Zack, oh, the world opened up for me. Suddenly I had this handsome husband and a goal to work for with him, and then our children. My mother was never much of a cook so it was a whole new world for me, learning about cooking. I really love to cook.”

  Jeanette smiled. “I know you do, Sophie. I’ve been the lucky guest at many of your meals.”

  “Jeanette, you are being so very kind to me about all of this. I don’t understand.”

  Jeanette laughed her warm, gentle laugh. “Look at it this way: you are the mother of my grandchildren. I’ve got a pretty good guess that when you get divorced you will get full custody of them. I can’t imagine Zack will fight for half custody. If I want to stay in my grandchildren’s lives, I’ve got to make nice with you.” Shifting in her chair, she took a sip of wine, then spoke more seriously. “I don’t consider myself an old woman yet, but I have lived a long life and I’ve seen a lot of friends get divorced. For some of them, it’s a good thing, a door opening to freedom. For others, it’s heartbreaking. But the worst divorces happen when people fight and snarl and involve everyone in the extended family in some kind of hideous feud. I don’t want to see that happen to my grandchildren or to my son or to you. And why should it? You know I’ve always liked you, Sophie. I think you’ve always liked me. I love spending time with my grandchildren and I’ve been thinking about this on the way down here. Over the past couple of years, the only time I’ve spent with you and the kids when Zack was there was Thanksgiving and Christmas. I had the kids over for sleepovers. I’ve taken them to a couple of events, the state fair and a ballet, and when I picked them up, Zack was never there. He was never there at their recitals or ball games. I’m not blind. I’m not stupid. I love my son. I love him, faults and all. Exactly like you love your children.”

  “Jeanette, you are wonderful. I’m speechless with admiration.”

  “Well, honey, after this heart-to-heart, and traveling all day, I’m completely speechless myself. What do you say about going to bed now?”

  “I say it’s an excellent idea.”

  The women rose, carried their glasses into the kitchen, and went upstairs. Jonah and Lacey were already in bed.

  “Good night, Jeanette,” Sophie said. “I’m glad you’re here.”

  “Good night, sweetheart,” Jeanette replied softly. Reaching out, she drew Sophie into a warm hug. “Sleep well.”

  I will sleep well, Sophie thought as she went into her bedroom, and she admitted to herself that the reason was not simply that Jeanette had taken the news of the divorce so well, but because on their way to the kitchen, Sophie had seen Candace preparing for bed on the fold-out sofa. Alone.

  Trevor came home from the beach sunburnt and fog-brained. Candace, Cassidy, Leo, and Trevor had spent practically the entire day near the water, swimming, wading, building sand castles, and drowsing on beach towels. While the children played, he and Candace had been able to talk about their lives, their losses, and their children. During their conversations, Trevor had been slightly alarmed by the way Candace displayed her pretty body as they spoke, and by the way she continually touched him on the shoulder or arm or neck. It
seemed she had moved on from mourning to the desire for physical consolation. He didn’t know what to do about that. Leo was so happy to have his friend Cassidy here. Cassidy was a huge source of comfort and stability in Leo’s life. Trevor didn’t want to do anything that would endanger that, but he didn’t want to build on that, either.

  “I thought I’d take you and the kids out to dinner tonight,” Trevor said when they arrived back at the guest cottage. “Sophie and I sort of take turns being in charge of dinner and tonight I think she wants to cook for her mother-in-law.”

  Candace was engrossed in unbuckling Cassidy from her car seat. Over her shoulder, she said, “Nonsense. Restaurants are so expensive. And I love to cook. I’ll shower and run into town and buy a few things.”

  “Oh, uh, let’s see what Sophie’s plans are. I’d hate for you to have to make a trip into town.” He lifted Leo out of his own car seat. “Outdoor shower for both of you,” he ordered. “And leave your bathing suits on. You can go play in the backyard for a while.”

  “I love buying fresh vegetables in August,” Candace persisted. “And the farms here are famous. In fact, if you’ll give me your car keys, I’ll just pull on a shirt and make a quick trip right now.”

  “Okay,” Trevor said reluctantly. After sharing an apartment with Tallulah, who didn’t care what they ate or even if they ate, being around so many women who loved to cook was disconcerting. He handed Candace the car keys and went into the house.

  The delicious aroma of roast lamb assailed him immediately. He stood in the front hall for a moment, breathing it in and practically drooling. He found Sophie in the kitchen, tearing up lettuces.

  “My God, that smells good,” said Trevor.

  Sophie smiled. “Glad to hear it. If you and Candace want to stay here for dinner, I’ve got more than enough.”

  “I can’t tell you how glad I am to hear that.”