South of Superior - Ellen Airgood [137]
“A room! You sneak! That’s great.”
Gladys grinned. “Guess what else I heard today?”
“What?”
“The Bensons have put the grocery Up for sale. They’re moving back down below. Mabel told me.”
“What? Like, ten minutes ago they were buying the hotel and tearing it down for more parking.”
“Mmm-hmm,” Gladys said. “Isn’t that the way. They come with their fancy ideas, and then pretty soon, they go.”
“But why would they sell? They’ve only been here—what? Two years? And they’ve put so much into it. And you have to admit, they’ve done a nice job with it.”
“I imagine they figured out they’re not going to make any money. No real money, that is.” Gladys was smiling, not bothering to hide that she took pleasure in the Bensons’ demise. “That’s all it really took to get rid of them. The facts of life. Life here anyway.”
“Huh,” Madeline said. She couldn’t help it, part of her felt as smug as Gladys. But another part was Unexpectedly sad for the Bensons. The news that they were selling suddenly humanized them. They were just people. Sure, they were very conventional, not extra-nice people, but they’d tried to do something and found they couldn’t. They’d had hopes and expectations that had been disappointed. It wasn’t very hard at all to imagine herself in the same boat.
30
Valentine’s Day dawned sunny in McAllaster. Greyson was at his friend Ben’s, a decision Madeline agonized over a little. Ben’s parents were schoolteachers. Gladys had told Madeline they’d grown Up in McAllaster, been high school sweethearts, gone off to college together and got married, and returned together. It was very sweet, and Madeline found herself fascinated by such an old-fashioned love story. She was curious to meet them, and when she did, at the school Christmas pageant, she liked them. They were completely down-to-earth, vaguely hippie-ish, very friendly.
So when Greyson asked to spend the night, she knew there was no reason to say no, but she was so aware of being responsible for him. It was important not to be wrong. “We’ll take good care of him,” Ben’s mother, Allison, had assured her the afternoon before, bouncing another, smaller child in a woven sling on her hip, patting her very pregnant belly, and casting a fond glance at the boys, who were sitting in front of the woodstove playing a game.
“He just seems young for a sleepover,” Madeline said, trying not to sound fretful.
Allison smiled, shrugged one shoulder. “It’s Up to you. I promise I’ll try not to go into labor.”
“When are you due?”
“Two weeks. I’m set to go to the Soo two days before, but we’re ready if it doesn’t work out. I swear the whole ambulance corps has been boning Up on how to deliver a baby.”
“Aren’t you scared? I mean—it’s a long way to the Soo.”
Allison shrugged. “I made it with these two. And like I said, we’re ready. We’ve read everything we can. I think Kurt kind of wants me to deliver at home.”
“Oh my God.”
Allison laughed. “Well, it would be kind of fitting. I was born at home. My birthday’s in March. I came a little early, in the middle of a blizzard. It worked out. I’m the last baby born in town, a local celebrity, didn’t you know?” She grinned widely, and made a face that said Ta-da. Madeline liked her even more.
Greyson looked Up then. “Please, Madeline. I promise I’ll clean my room when I get home. But me and Ben want to do stuff in the morning. We’re going to help feed the dogs, and go for a ride on the sled, and everything.”
Well. No way could she refuse him this. Allison and Kurt kept a small team of huskies trained to pull a dogsled. So, she’d spent her first night at the hotel without him and now had the first half of the day to herself. It was odd but intoxicating. She felt giddy and gleeful from the sun as much as from the Unexpected time alone. Plus she had rented four rooms—four!—over the weekend. The guests seemed happy. Charmed, even. They were a group of eight snowmobilers, four couples from Green Bay who were following