“Forget it,” Charley said. “Andrea always wanted to know her biological parents but was never unhappy with her adoptive parents.”

“That’s good.”

“How are we to make up?” Charley asked. “We’ve been completely cold to each other since I was sixteen. Totally irritated and angry with each other. How do we change that?”

“I have no idea,” Louise said, sounding a little tired. “I told Jo this wouldn’t work.”

“It hasn’t failed yet,” Charley said. “Want to try to contribute something here? A suggestion? An idea?”

“Here’s an idea,” Louise said. “You could forgive me. We could start there.”

“You know, I hated you,” Charley said. “I hated you so much. There were about a hundred times over the last twenty-seven years I needed you to be tender toward me. Loving. Like when Eric was born. Or when I got my show. Or when I lost my show. When I found my daughter! Mother!”

“Every one of those events I heard about from Meg,” she said, her voice uncharacteristically soft. “Every one. It appears we had the same expectations of each other. You were angry that it seemed I didn’t care—didn’t care that you’d found yourself a nice man in Michael, that you’d had a son, that you were successful, that you found your lost daughter. I was angry that you never called to share those things with me. How much more anger do you suppose we can find to throw on this teeter-totter? I give up, Charlene. When Bunny drowned I realized I was not the strong one in the family. I never was. I was the hardy one. I could run and swim. Emotionally, my best was never good enough. I lost my temper. I hurt easily. I’ll do whatever you want, Charlene. Charley. Whatever helps us put this hatred to rest and try to mend what’s left of our family.”

“Hatred,” Charley said. “Mother, I don’t really hate you. If I hated you, you wouldn’t have mattered a damn. I loved you. I just wanted you to love me back.”

“I always loved you,” she said. “I just couldn’t find a way to say it to your angry, disappointed face. But believe me when I tell you—I’ll do whatever you want. I’m old now. I want to live to be much older. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life without you in it.”

I’ll do whatever you want.

“I said something like that to Michael,” Charley said softly. “A surrender.”

“Exactly,” Louise said. “We can make a list if you like—you can list all my transgressions and I’ll apologize for each one.”

“See how sarcastic... Ach! Stop. We’re going to have to put up with each other, that’s all.”

“Sounds pleasant,” Louise said. “Why did you say that to Michael?”

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Charley said.

“I hope it’s nothing. You’ve been very happy with Michael.”

“He’s a wonderful man,” Charley said, feeling the cloud of tears invade.

“Charlene, I’d like us to do a little better than put up with each other,” Lou said. “I know I’m not an easy person. I’ll try if you will.”

“Aunt Jo said you were saving all that junk from Grandma Berkey’s house to help her with her retirement.”

“It’s not junk,” Louise said. “There’s some very valuable stuff. Art. Jewelry. Antiques from Grandma’s grandmother. Not to mention a trust. Grandma Berkey was an only child and her father was wealthy.”

“But I thought you made Aunt Jo sign all that away,” Charley said.

“Who told you that?” Louise asked.

“I think Jo told Krista, who told us.”

“Hmph. That was a different time. Roy was so damned irresponsible but your father was bound to help him, anyway. And Jo’s pride was hurt every time they had to ask for help, yet she wouldn’t give up on him. We had to do something to try to stop him from wringing us dry. It wasn’t legal. It couldn’t supersede a will.”

“You said there wasn’t that much,” Charley reminded her.

“I lied,” Lou said. “There’s plenty.”

“Jesus, don’t tell Hope,” Charley said. “She’s been planning on an inheritance for a long time. And on top of that, she’s nuts!”

Louise burst out laughing. “Don’t worry, by the time it gets down to Hope, she’ll be old like we are. Besides, we might do a couple of things. I’ve always wanted to go on a cruise. I could talk Jo into that. We could spend it all.”

Charley found herself smiling. “Are you a little relieved that Jo made you come? That we’re trying to mend things in the family?”

“I suppose I am,” Lou said.

“Well, for God’s sake, don’t let it show!”

“I’m never going to meet your expectations as a perfect mother, Charley. Another twenty years and I’ll be as cranky and obnoxious as Grandma Berkey. So just worry about what kind of mother you’re going to be.”

“I found Andrea’s father,” she said suddenly. “Or maybe I didn’t find him exactly. Krista has been working as a waitress at the lodge and the hotel manager—he’s the guy. We had a little summer fling and... Well, it was quite a surprise because Krista is actually dating him and she brought him to the house to introduce him to us and voilà! We recognized each other.”

Louise gasped and covered her open mouth.

“See, Mother? You miss a lot by not hanging out with us.”

“Did you tell her?”

“Right away. I gather they’ve talked. When I told him, he was so shocked I thought he was going to faint.”

“Did you want to just kill him?”

Charley laughed. “He’s very nice. We were stupid kids, that’s all.”

“Have you told Michael you reconnected with him?”

Charley was shocked. Louise might not even realize it but this was a whole new behavior. She didn’t often ask many questions. She usually acted like she couldn’t care less. “I haven’t talked to Michael just lately.”

“Why?”

Charley didn’t answer. “You have to come in the house now, Mother. You have to see Meg and Krista. There’s not that much lake time left. This is what Meg wants—family. You’re going to have to hang out awhile. John will be here tomorrow night for the weekend. You have to stay. Meg and Krista have questions about the family history and the family trouble. I don’t actually give a shit, but if there are answers, I’d like to hear them, too.”

“How much of this family trouble am I going to have to swallow?” Lou asked.

“Probably about four cups or so. Don’t worry, I have liquor.”

“You are a good child,” she said.

And she actually smiled.

* * *

Meg was the only one to cry sentimental tears when Lou came inside. This was what she had wanted—that her mother and her aunt Jo would reconcile and be each other’s strength again, like they were when the girls were young. They spent hours telling stories about the early days at the lake house, stretching all the way back to when Jo and Lou were girls and they snuck out for little flings with boys from the lodge.

“I should’ve known,” Charley said. “The apple never falls far from the tree.”

They spent only that one night at Lake Waseka, then promised to be back in a few days. They had things to do in the cities, not to mention Jo’s need to check in on Hope and make sure she was doing all right.

When Krista got home from work the next day, Jo and Lou had gone. John was due to arrive in late afternoon or early evening and so for a brief space of time it was just the three of them again. Meg was dozing in the bedroom.

“Was having your mother here upsetting to you?” Krista asked softly.

“No. I might still be in shock but Meg was right. Part of putting this family back together is putting them back together.” Charley looked at her phone. “My mother is so much easier to take when Aunt Jo is around.”

“And my mother is so much happier. So what is it?”

“What do you mean?” Charley asked.

“You’ve grown moodier every day and you’ve checked your phone about a hundred times.”

“It’s nothing, really...”

“Oh, it’s something. Wanna talk about it?”

Charley sighed. “It’s probably going to sound completely stupid. I’m not even sure how it happened. It’s Michael. Michael and me, probably mostly me. I lost my job. When you lose a job in television the defeat is so public. And there was no warning. I never even sensed it was coming and I was so wounded. I was shattered. I felt like I had a rock in my gut and sandpaper in my throat. I wanted to scream and cry and I couldn’t. At the very same time Meg was getting ready for her cell transplant, one last-ditch effort at getting her beyond metastasized cancer. Her odds of surviving were not great. And Michael’s reaction? He decided it was a good time to get married!”

Krista’s eyebrows shot up.

“After twenty-two years and what anyone would call a successful relationship, he thought he could cure my joblessness and my sister’s disease by marrying me.” She shrugged. “So we fought. And fought. Men—they’re fixers, you know. He wasn’t listening to me. He wasn’t thinking about what was happening to me. He said he was fifty-four and he didn’t want to die and leave behind a girlfriend. It made no sense and his timing couldn’t have been worse.”

“When was this?” Krista asked.

“My show was canceled in March. Megan was having her bone marrow transplant at about the same time. I was so brokenhearted and angry, I said I’d go to Minnesota to stay with Meg, that maybe we needed some time apart. And he said, ‘Maybe we do.’”

“But you’ve talked to him, haven’t you?”

“Sure. And to Eric. But so often when I talked to Michael we’d argue. No, it was worse than arguing. He kept asking if I’d reconsidered. Or maybe he wouldn’t and so I’d say, ‘At least you didn’t ask if I’d reconsidered,’ and he would say, ‘Why bother? You’ve made yourself clear.’ And it would crash from there.”