An Invincible Summer (Wyndham Beach), Mariah Stewart [best classic novels TXT] 📗

“Wow, I’ll bet.” Grace filled the coffee maker and turned it on. “Are they still alive?”

“The last I heard they were living in an old villa in France and making goat cheese, but that was years ago.”

Natalie and Daisy ambled into the room. Like her sister, Natalie wore shorts and a tee she’d slept in. Daisy wore a rainbow-striped bathing suit with a glittery unicorn on the front and pink cowgirl boots and carried a fairy wand.

“If I’d known we had company, I’d have gotten dressed.” Natalie paused. “Nah, probably not. You show up before nine a.m., you take what you get.”

Natalie hugged Liddy and Emma. “Daisy, can you say good morning to Miss Liddy and Miss Emma?”

“Good morning.” Daisy waved.

Emma patted her lap. “Come sit with me for a minute, sugar. I haven’t seen you since you were a baby. And I love your boots.”

“I’m not a baby now.” Daisy readily climbed into Emma’s lap, then held up both legs to show off her boots.

“Liddy is buying the bookstore,” Grace told Natalie. “How cool is that?”

“Really? That’s wonderful.” Natalie opened first one cupboard, then the next. “Mom, where’s the cereal?”

“Two doors over.”

“Got it. Yay, Daisy’s favorite O’s.” Natalie found a bowl and poured in the cereal, then placed it in front of her daughter. “So are you going to have story hours for the kiddos? And maybe a book club for the big kiddos? Is there a café there? I haven’t been there in years, but I seem to remember some cozy chairs.”

“I’d love to do all that in time, but it’s going to take me a while to learn how to do all the things there. If I think too much about it, I get queasy,” Liddy admitted. “But we are quickly moving into summer, and I guess at the very least we should be thinking of story hours for the kids.”

“What do you mean ‘we’?” Emma teased. “We are not buying the store. You are.”

“All for one, one for all?” Liddy said hopefully.

“Of course, we’ll all help where we can,” Maggie assured her.

“I can do your website,” Grace offered.

“And I can help set up a story hour. I’d be taking Daisy anyway if you had one. Then when I go back home, it will be up and running.” Natalie smiled. “I’d love to do that. I can sit in one of those chairs . . .”

“If you’re thinking of those big soft chairs Fred had near the back window, they’ll be the first thing I toss. They’re old and smell musty. Sort of like Fred, now that I think about it. And no, there’s no café there, but maybe there could be. Come in sometime next week and take a look, all of you, and we’ll see what we can do with the place.”

“There’s that ‘we’ again,” Emma pointed out.

“Oh, I have a couple of wingback chairs in the attic,” Maggie said. “I brought them with me from Bryn Mawr, but I have no place for them. You can have them for the shop.”

“Thank you. I’m not too proud to beg these days. Now, we all know none of you would pass up an opportunity to put in your two cents. This time I’m asking you to. Take a tour of the place next week, and let me know what you think about the possibilities. I have some ideas, but I’d love to have yours.” Liddy got up and went to the sink, rinsed her mug, and set it on the counter. “I have to get back home. I need to talk to the bank and call my insurance agent and my accountant and my lawyer.”

“And I need to get to the art center.” Emma, too, rose, and eased Daisy onto the floor. “Natalie, you should sign up Daisy for the children’s classes. We’ll be starting in another two weeks.”

“If we’re still here, I’ll definitely do that,” Natalie assured her.

Maggie walked her friends to the front door to see them off. They’d arrived together in Emma’s car, but Liddy chose to walk. She wants to go past the bookstore, Maggie thought. It’s too early for it to be open, but she just wants to see it and know it will soon be hers.

She closed the door behind her and went back into the kitchen, where Grace and Natalie were discussing their plans for the day.

“I think I’m going to play with a potential website for Liddy’s bookstore,” Grace was saying. “It might take a while to get the look right, but I can at least set up the platform.”

“I didn’t know you knew how to do that,” Natalie said.

“Oh, sure. I took a class in college, and at the firm we had a really good IT guy. He showed me how to do all sorts of different things.” Grace rolled her eyes. “And we all know what I did with that information.”

“Ah, yes. My sister the blog star.”

“I can almost laugh at that now. Almost,” Grace said.

“Whatever happened to your blog anyway?” Natalie asked.

“The FBI took it as evidence against Amber.”

“Do you miss it?”

Grace shrugged. “Sometimes I wonder how some of the women are doing, but all in all, not so much. I don’t really need it anymore.”

Maggie listened to the exchange as she cleared away the abandoned coffee mugs. Good for you, Grace.

“Mom. I owe you an apology.” Grace touched Maggie’s arm. “I am very, very sorry. The only thing I can say in my own defense—not that there is a defense for the way I spoke to you last night—is just that I was so shocked. I’m still sort of in shock, actually, and to be honest, I still don’t know how I feel. I’m still trying to work my way through the fact you didn’t tell us until you had to. I mean, if Joe hadn’t contacted Natalie, would you have ever told us?”

Maggie answered as best as she could. “I don’t know.”

“Well, regardless of how I