Mark stopped and watched the approaching car. He waved shyly at the young couple as they passed. He saw the baby in the back. He would tell Gran that the new renters had arrived. She had baked a pie. Mrs. Mavis, the owner, asked Gran to welcome them. She had to take her hound to the vet and was worried she would miss their arrival. Mark ran down the lane and towards his grandparents’ cottage.
He burst through the door. “Gran, they’re here!” he called.
“My, I haven’t ever seen you so excited for the arrival of new renters,” she teased.
“I can’t explain it either, but I looked at that car and could have sworn that I felt a hug as it passed.”
“You and that fanciful imagination of yours. Then again, you could have a bit of the gift. You know, my mother had a way of telling a stranger’s worth without even talking to them,” she recalled “Would you like to come along?” she asked.
“Yes, ma’am,” Mark said. “I can’t have you carrying that heavy basket up that hill. Grandpa would be sore with me.”
Edie lifted up the basket and smiled. “I guess the extra jars of jam made it a bit heavy.”
“I thought you were only going to bake a pie,” Mark teased his grandmother. He took hold of the basket and waited until Edie put on her sunhat. He thought that his grandmother was the most beautiful woman in the world. She had an old world grace to her, like Katherine Hepburn did in the old movies Grandpa Sam insisted he watch.
Mia walked through the cottage carefully. She insisted that Ted let her go in first to make sure there wasn’t any ghost lurking before they brought Brian inside. She smiled and said a thank you prayer before sticking her head out the door. “All’s clear.”
Ted ducked under the door and was pleased to see the high ceilings. He looked around at the warm décor. The landlord had put fresh flowers in the vase in the middle of a sturdy round table. “It’s so happy in here,” he said.
“Yes, almost as happy as I am to be spending time alone with my two men,” Mia said as she stared out onto the lake.
“We should have done this long ago,” Ted said.
“We were too busy saving the world. There is a crib in the small bedroom as promised.”
“Good, I didn’t want to share a room with Mr. Stinky Pants.”
“Again?” Mia asked.
“Food in, food out,” Ted commented.
Mia grabbed her son from Ted’s outreached arms. “Come on, Brian, let’s get you cleaned up while Daddy cleans out the car.”
“No fair, Mia.”
“Ahem, at least this time I was around for the cleanup,” Mia said.
Ted ducked under the doorway and down the steps. He gathered an armload of luggage and returned to the house. He heard Mia singing, in her out of tune way, some song he didn’t know. Brian was giggling. He deposited the bags in the middle of the great room and went back for the rest. He almost forgot to duck and scolded himself.
He pulled out the big cooler Cid had filled with easy to prepare meals, not trusting Mia to satisfy the culinary needs of living entities. He set it on the deck and pulled out the canvas totes of groceries that they had stocked up on at the last town they drove through. He carried them into the house and set them on the counter. Mia showed up with Brian on her hip. She grabbed the milk out of a bag and opened the refrigerator to find a bottle of white wine inside.
“Oh, how nice,” she said. She lifted it up for Ted to see.
“Yup, it’s wine.”
Mia shook her head. She found the coffee pot and proceeded to brew a strong pot of coffee while Ted went out for the cooler.
“Minnie Mouse, we have company,” he called through the screen door.
Mia carried Brian to the door that Ted held open. She moved shyly into the protective circle of his arm.
An older woman and a boy were walking down the short drive from the road.
“Hello!” Edie called. “Welcome to Wolf’s Head Lake.”
Ted left Mia’s side to walk over and introduce himself. “Ted Martin, and this is my wife Mia and our son Brian. And you are?”
“Edie White, and this is my grandson Mark Leighton. Ted, please accept our tokens of welcome. Mary Mavis was sorry she couldn’t be here to welcome you in person. She had to take Rufus to the vet. He’s having some digestive problems.”
“Gran, too much information,” Mark said, making a face. He looked up and saw the second most beautiful woman in the world standing there, smiling down at him. He would tell his mother later that she looked like an angel, but he wouldn’t mention the wings that he could see behind her.
Mia pushed herself to walk down the steps. She smiled and greeted the friendly woman and the boy. Ted took Brian from her arms, and she reached out and, forgetting she wasn’t gloved, took hold of Mark’s hand.
The image of a man lying comatose in a hospital bed and the boy angry with him filled her mind. “Where are you? I need you, Daddy. Talk to me, please.”
She gently let go of Mark’s hand and breathed slowly. She opened her eyes and said softly, “Mark, we’ll find a way to talk to him.”
He looked at her oddly.
“Oh, did I just say that aloud?” she whispered.
“Yes, but I won’t tell,” he promised.
Ted who had escorted Edie up the steps, waited for her and Mark. “Coming? Oh, I should warn you, Mark, that Mia is taken.”
Mark punched Ted in the arm on the way in.
“Ouch,” Ted complained.
“It serves you right,” Mia said, still a bit rattled by the encounter. “Would you like a cup of coffee or is it too hot for that?” she asked their guests.
“Nonsense, a
