Light spilled out of his niece’s bedroom and into the well-lit hallway upstairs. The girl conveniently forgot to switch off lights whenever she left an area. Sometimes during the day, if it was overcast outside, she turned on the lights. When Candace and Tiegan moved in, he’d thought she was just lazy about it, and he’d reminded her every time she did it. Finally, after about two weeks of living with him, she admitted she was afraid of the dark. Now he kept his mouth shut, and unless Tiegan was out of the house, he didn’t touch whatever she left on.
The hallway light provided enough illumination for him to leave his suitcase and computer bag just inside his bedroom. Later he’d need to log in to his email and see if he had any issues to tackle, but it could wait until after dinner.
“You’re home.” His mom closed the basement door behind her as she reentered the kitchen. “How was your flight?”
“Long.”
While he disliked air travel because of the inconveniences associated with it, his mom was deathly afraid of it.
“Did you find what you were looking for down there?” Candace asked. Already seated at the kitchen table, she added a slice of lasagna to her plate before reaching for his.
Nodding, Mom held up a photo album with the words The Elementary Years printed across the front along with a school picture, possibly kindergarten or first grade, of Elise. He knew somewhere downstairs his mom had similar albums for him and Candace. “Mason needs a picture of Elise when she was in fifth grade for a school project.” Mom set the photo album down on the counter by the side door before joining them. “I’m going to scan one and email it to Elise tonight so he can get started, and on Monday, I will mail the whole album out to her. It’s hers. She might as well have it.”
“I talked to Mason a little while ago. He showed me the picture he’s using of Uncle Nick when he was in fifth grade,” Tiegan said before stuffing a forkful of food in her mouth.
Born three months apart, his niece and nephew were as close as siblings. And when Elise and her family had lived in New Hampshire, they’d spent as much time together as possible. When his brother-in-law took a position in South Carolina four and a half years ago, it’d been hard on both of them. Thanks to modern technology, they stayed in regular contact with each other, but Aaron knew it wasn’t the same.
“Uncle Nick is wearing a tie in the picture,” she added once she swallowed the food in her mouth. Like everyone, his niece had plenty of bad habits, but she had excellent table manners.
Shaking her head, Candace added a generous amount of ranch dressing to her salad. “Why doesn’t that surprise me?”
He’d had the same thought. His brother-in-law was a great guy, and he’d known him since high school. Nick had moved to Avon right before his freshman year and started dating Elise not long after. But in a lot of ways, Nick had been born in the wrong decade. He was perhaps the only person Aaron knew who’d never shown up at school in jeans.
His niece took control of the conversation for the next several minutes. First, she filled him in on what she’d been up to at school. Oddly enough, Tiegan had the same fifth grade teacher he’d had at Avon Elementary, and she loved her. For the most part, Tiegan loved school, and she got upset whenever she didn’t get a perfect grade on an assignment. Although she and her cousin had a lot in common, when it came to school, they were at opposite ends of the spectrum. His nephew did what he needed for school and then dismissed it from his mind. In fact, not once while he’d been at Elise’s house had Mason mentioned school to him. Instead, many of their conversations had been about either sports—Mason played on a sports team in every season—or his favorite new video game. Once Tiegan exhausted the topic of school, she gave him the 411 on the birthday party she’d gone to the previous weekend.
“Wow. An indoor skydiving place.” When he’d been a kid, his birthday parties had been either at the house or Skate Kingdom, a roller-skating rink that was no longer in business. His sisters’ parties had been similar. “Where is it?” He knew every business in town, and an indoor skydiving place was not among them. Not to mention, such a place probably wouldn’t survive in Avon.
“North Conway. It opened about three months ago. They offer indoor surfing too. It’s part of a chain. There is one in Nashua and a few in Massachusetts, as well as one in Connecticut. The owners are probably hoping it’ll be a big draw for the tourists,” his sister answered.
If it was going to succeed this far north, then the North Conway area made the most sense. In the winter, skiers flocked to the area, and in the summer and fall, vacationers descended on the vicinity.
Candace’s mention of tourists brought to mind the one who’d rented all five cottages the previous weekend. “Any issues with your guest, Mom?”
Countless times over the years, wealthy individuals from places like Weston or Boston came to the lake to “rough it,” as if staying in a cottage with running water and electricity was somehow roughing it. Often, but not always, these guests made the worst customers. And a person didn’t get much wealthier than Juliette Belmont.
To say it had shocked him when his mom shared their guest's identity would be perhaps the greatest understatement of the century. When he’d received the text message, he’d read it twice before replying and asking if she was possibly talking about someone else who happened to share the same name. He’d had a classmate named Selena Cruise in college, and she hadn’t been the well-known actress. In her reply, his mom confirmed she’d shown the billionaire cover model to cottage number ten.
“Nope. She’s been a great guest so far.”
He hoped it stayed that way. “Any idea why she picked here?”
The woman’s family owned a hotel chain, not to mention she had enough money to travel anywhere in the world she wanted. As much as he loved his little corner of the globe, it didn’t compare to the places someone like Juliette Belmont could and probably did visit on a regular basis.
“Do you remember Holly Lambert?”
Even if Holly wasn’t the most famous person to ever come out of Avon, he’d remember her. The schools in town consisted of slightly more students now thanks to a recent increase in population, but when he’d been a student, each grade had consisted of about a hundred kids. Holly had been two grades below him all the way through school, and she’d been friends with Candace.
“Yeah, of course.”
“She and Holly are good friends. Holly recommended she stay with us. And the day Juliette checked in, Holly was with her.”
Well, that answered one question. “But why did she come here?”
“I didn’t ask her, and she didn’t share. But she doesn’t want a lot of people to know she’s here.”
Across the table, his sister cut another piece of lasagna and added it to her plate before looking at him. “Do you want more?”
Rather than answer, he handed over his plate.
“Tiegan and I ran into her on Thursday when we were out walking. We saw her again this morning. I like her. She reminds me a little of Holly.” His sister handed him back his plate before picking up her daughter’s and giving her a second helping of lasagna as well.
If any other almost eleven-year-old knew someone like Juliette was staying in town, he’d worry that everyone in Avon would soon know too. But when it came to keeping secrets, Tiegan was a vault. Last year they’d planned a large surprise birthday party for his mom. Even though Tiegan had been seeing her grandmother several times a week at the time, she never said a word. And at Christmastime she’d kept her lips sealed even though she’d known Elise, Nick, and Mason were coming for the holiday so her grandmother would be surprised when she came over on Christmas morning and found everyone gathered together. If word got out that Juliette was staying at one of their cottages, it wouldn’t be because Tiegan told someone.