for the summer? Eleanor wondered. She knew Alicia complained constantly about the sky-high tuition for boarding school and college, plus all the extras, clothing, textbooks, trips with friends. In fact, now that Eleanor thought about it, she remembered the atmosphere of tension and anger lying just below the surface of her family when they were on the island for Christmas.
Alicia had wakened Eleanor the morning after Christmas Day. She’d tapped on Eleanor’s door, which made Shadow swiftly disappear under the bed, and slid into the room carrying a tray with two cups of coffee. Alicia had bumped the door shut with her hip.
“Good morning, Mommy,” Alicia had said sweetly.
Dear God in Heaven, Eleanor had thought, was her daughter not aware that calling her “Mommy” was a dead giveaway that Alicia was going to ask her for money?
Eleanor had been awake, reading, trying to put off the moment of rising and facing her family. She slipped her book beneath her covers and sat up, shoving pillows behind her back. “Good morning, darling.” She did love her daughter, and wished she knew what in the world would ever make her happy.
“It’s a cold day,” Alicia said. She set the tray on Eleanor’s bedside table. “Phillip is building a fire in the living room. I brought you coffee to warm you up before you come down.”
“Thanks.” Eleanor took a sip. “Mmm. Nice and hot.”
Alicia settled on the bed near Eleanor. “This has been such a wonderful Christmas, Mommy. Phillip loves his Fitbit. And your check was so generous.”
“Well, I know it wasn’t as generous as you’d hoped for,” Eleanor said bluntly.
A stab of guilt pierced her heart as she spoke. Why could she never be tender with her grown daughter?
“I’m sorry if I offended you,” Alicia said, pouting, shrugging into herself. “It’s just that these past four years, Phillip and I have been stretched financially. Ari’s tuition is around sixty thousand dollars a year. Imagine! And now—I don’t know if she spoke with you about it—now she wants to get a master’s in early childhood education.”
“Phillip’s a surgeon,” Eleanor reminded her daughter. “He must make a substantial salary.”
“Oh, you would think so, wouldn’t you, but recently the insurance companies have absolutely strangled all the doctors and hospitals. I can’t even talk about it, I get so upset.” Tears welled up in Alicia’s gemlike blue-green eyes.
“I’m sorry, Alicia, but I can’t help with the tuition. I’ve given you all I can afford to give.”
Alicia wiped the tears from her eyes, rose from the bed, and stalked to the window overlooking the Atlantic. Today the ocean was a surly gray.
Without looking at Eleanor, Alicia said, “You could if you would sell this house.”
It wasn’t the first time Alicia had raised this possibility, and Eleanor kept her anger in check. She said what she’d always said before: “I am not selling this house. It was my mother’s house, and now my house, and I intend to live in it until I die, which I hope will not be soon.”
Alicia was not defeated. “Maybe you could get a reverse mortgage? Have you heard of that?” She beamed at her mother as she walked back to the bed.
“I’ve heard of it, and I would be insane to do it,” Eleanor said.
“Then I don’t know what we’ll do,” Alicia said sadly, sinking back down on the quilt. “Even if we resign from our Boston club—which is so important for both Phillip and me—” Alicia paused, waiting for her mother to speak.
“You could get a job,” Eleanor suggested.
“A job?” Alicia looked horrified, as if her mother had told her to drink poison.
“It’s not a stain on your character to work,” Eleanor said gently.
“Really? Like you would know? Because you never worked in your life!” Alicia’s lovely face crumpled. Tears spilled from her eyes. She strode from the bedroom, slamming the door behind her. She had forgotten to take the cups and tray.
Ah, Eleanor had so many memories like that one, when Alicia lost all her charm when charm didn’t get her what she wanted.
But Alicia had given Eleanor one miraculous gift: Ari, her granddaughter.
Eleanor and Ari had been like human magnets from the moment Ari was born. As an infant, when Ari wailed inconsolably, Alicia would either wring her hands or rock the baby so quickly she only cried louder. Eleanor would pick her up, hold her to her shoulder, and whisper sweet nothings into her ear. Ari would relax, sagging against her grandmother, sobbing a little