Family Reunion, Nancy Thayer [the kiss of deception read online .txt] 📗

walk from her house to the bank, so Eleanor allowed herself to finish reading the chapter in her delicious novel, and then had to hurry around to get ready. She had her agenda printed out. She’d emailed it to the others, even to Martha, who had finally agreed to join the technological world. Eleanor quickly showered, dressed in a plain but expensive gray dress, and put on her pearls. She thought the president of the board should wear pearls. If she were female, of course.

All right, she was slightly nervous. She’d never chaired a meeting before. The idea of using a gavel sent her into hysterics of laughter, so she still wasn’t certain how she’d rein someone in if arguments took place. They needed to appoint officers today, and because Muffy spent the winters in Florida, Eleanor thought Muffy should be president and Eleanor vice president, so that Eleanor could do all the work, which was what she wanted to do. But of course, she’d have to see what the others thought.

Eleanor scrutinized her appearance in the mirror. No lettuce in her teeth. Lipstick on straight. Her thick hair was behaving nicely now that the humidity of summer had left. On the whole, she thought she looked just fine.

Alicia had thought Eleanor was too old to start an organization, but Ari thought Eleanor was awesome, and as she slipped into her coat, pulled on her gloves, and picked up her folders, Eleanor admitted to herself that she agreed. She did think she was awesome.

Epilogue

“I feel very strange about this,” Eleanor confessed when she was finally buckled into the car with Silas.

It was Easter and they were on their way out to Tom Nevers Head, where Cliff and Judith and their son, Hastings, were hosting a family get-together.

When Eleanor’s grandson was born, she had been thrilled to meet the infant, but when she was alone with Silas, she’d said, “Hastings! What kind of a name is Hastings! Hastings Sunderland! That poor child.”

Silas had laughed. “Come on, don’t be so critical. After all, my name is Silas Stover and I turned out fine.”

“But really, what are they going to call him? Hasty? Haze?”

“Whatever they call him, he is a beautiful baby boy, with all his fingers and all his toes,” Silas said. He was in the driver’s seat, fastening his seatbelt.

Eleanor leaned over and kissed his cheek.

“What’s that for?” Silas asked. “Not that I’m complaining.”

“That’s for being such a sweetheart,” Eleanor told him. “You’re right, he really is a darling little baby.”

Now here she was again, on Easter Sunday, relying on Silas to keep her cheerful.

“Silas, do you think I’m becoming grumpy?”

“Eleanor, do you think I’m going to answer that question?”

“Silas, you are a wise man.” Eleanor lay back against the car seat and watched the trees flow past.

The last few months had been too chaotic with the birth of two new babies and everyone moving houses for the family to gather all together.

Alicia and Phillip had sold their beautiful mansion in Wellesley and moved into one of the handsome brick condominiums on Boston Harbor, so close to the cruise ship piers they didn’t need to take a taxi.

Ari and Beck had bought a charming house only three streets away from Cliff and Judith because they thought it would be so much fun for the cousins to be able to play together.

When Eleanor heard this, she felt oddly wounded, disconcerted. Lucky for her, Silas was her Rock of Gibraltar. They’d talked and talked about how hard it was to be getting old, to turn from welcoming host to dependent guest. Eleanor might never again hold a family reunion in her own home because, first of all, she simply didn’t have the space. But thankfully, Cliff and Judith had bought a summer home in Tom Nevers Head, a beautiful development far from the center of town, near the Atlantic Ocean, an enormous modern house with a yard large enough for them to set up a badminton court. Judith had turned out to be a jewel, keeping Cliff on his toes, working part-time in the law office, and now on maternity leave, and the whole time having what she called simple little family get-togethers with clever finger food and lots of interesting cocktails. Eleanor admired her immensely.

Alicia didn’t seem to mind or notice her sister-in-law’s competency, probably because she and Phillip had gone on a Christmas cruise in the Caribbean and were planning a cruise on the Baltic in the spring. She did save the month of February to be around when Ari had her baby. All had gone well for Ari, who had the baby at Mass General just as Phillip had insisted. Afterward, Beck, Ari, and little Maisie Eleanor Bertha Hathaway went home, to their cozy house on Lincoln Street. Alicia and Phillip had moved in with them for three weeks. Eleanor was delighted to learn that Alicia had discovered new heights of happiness when she met her granddaughter. Alicia had spent her free time buying little Maisie a complete wardrobe and a room full of stuffed animals and toys that the infant was too young to appreciate.

And then there was Beck’s family, such a big family. Beck’s younger sister Hen was baby crazy and when Ari’s mother and father left after three weeks of helping out, Hen and her older sister, Michelle, moved in to help cook and do laundry for three weeks.

The very surprising thing was that when Eleanor and Silas finally were asked to move into the Hathaways’ guest bedroom to help with the baby girl, Eleanor discovered she didn’t have the same energy she’d had when she was a grandmother to Ari. She loved the baby, but it exhausted her to carry all the laundry down to the basement and back up again. Also, Ari and Beck were trying to become vegetarians and would eat only fish and cheesy things, which Eleanor cooked even though she thought if ever there were