I hope it’s as good to you as it was to us.”
“Nnnnnnoooo!” The voice seemed to come out of nowhere, grabbing everybody’s instant attention. Every conversation in the room came to a dead stop, all eyes turning to find the source of the shrill cry.
Max and Lauren turned to see his grandmother sitting in her chair. Her eyes, normally fixed facing forward, were shifting from Max to Lauren and to his father.
Eaton seemed stunned beyond disbelief. He took a step toward her. “Mother?”
The room was completely quiet in anticipation, all eyes fixed on the Hunter family. She was more lucid than Max had seen her in years and struggling against the stroke’s paralysis more than he’d ever seen. She grunted a bit, her body twisting in the chair.
“Don’t.” Ethel pushed out, her voice raspy and growly, her eyes fixed on her son’s. “Don’t do it.”
The room hummed with astonishment. Shocked glances passed from person to person.
“Don’t do it,” she echoed clearly and forcefully. “The lodge is hers.” His grandmother struggled to form words. “Do. The. Right. Thing.”
Max had no doubt about what his grandmother was saying to his father, and nobody else seemed to have any question either. Lauren held on to Max’s arm, her excitement causing her hands to shake.
His father looked around him, taking in the scrutiny of those watching. He was being measured and judged. A frail old woman who was his mother, his elder, the matriarch, and someone he could not betray had overtaken his power.
It was a cardinal rule, and everybody heard him say it, but he seemed struck by more than shame. His mother had spoken for the first time in years. She was thinking and acting in a way that had to give him new hope for her future.
He sat down by his mother’s side, took her hand in his, and looked deep into her gray eyes. “Mother?”
A tear crawled down her withered cheek, and she repeated, “Don’t do it.”
His father, the most powerful man in Moss Creek, could hardly speak. His own tears trickled down his cheek to match his mother’s—a generation thought lost to each other was reunited by sheer force of will.
He finally said, “All right, Mother, all right.” He brought her hand to his lips for a kiss, his tears coming more freely. “She can keep it. Anything you want, I’ll give you.”
Jane looked on with a loving smile, one hand on Ethel’s shoulder, and one on his father’s. She seemed to be just where she belonged, and Max was glad for her, for all of them.
His father had succumbed to the pressures of his own mistakes, but he’d also risen to admit them. Giving the lodge back would allow for his redemption and be the start of a journey to make them a family again.
Max extended his hand to his father and offered him a smile. “Thank you, Pop.”
His father sat in teary shame, looking at his mother, her nurse, at Lauren, and finally at Max and his extended hand. He rose slowly, and the two men shook hands and shared a quiet moment before Max pulled him in for a hug. The strength of one man fortified the other; blood on blood—a family reunited.
Max couldn’t fight the tears, and he didn’t want to. They came fast and hard, shaking his body and pulling raspy sobs from his throat.
He was holding his father and his grandmother again, they’d been blessed with another chance, and that was more than he could have asked for, but it was just what he had hoped for.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Lauren
The lodge’s Yule Village opened up to usher in the Christmas week. The whole community gathered around. The story of the reunion of the Hunter family and the end of the feud between the Matthews and the Hunters had captured the attention of and ignited fresh hope in everyone.
The modern-day Romeo and Juliet tale with a far happier ending had brought fascinated visitors to Moss Creek.
When the Yule Village opened, the local news was only one of many crews to cover the event. Attendance far surpassed expectations, and nobody doubted that they’d find some way to market the lodge. Even though it was not destined to be a National Heritage Site - that no longer mattered.
In the spirit of the holiday season, they put their differences behind them. Max and Lauren were together, the Hunters were a family again, and the lodge would not change hands. They had survived with hope, faith, and a lot of