Six Rooms at the Lake, But None for My Parents novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: Eighteen at the Lake
Jenna arrives at the six-bedroom lake house with her parents to find eighteen of her husband's relatives in the yard and her parents' room given to his sister; she takes it back in front of everyone, and the property manager arrives to say Colin called him Tuesday and was told no twice.
Eighteen people were in the yard of the house I had rented for six.
I stood at the gate and counted them while my parents waited behind me with their suitcases.
It was ten past four on the Thursday of the long July weekend.
I had booked this house three months ago for four nights.
The plan was six people: me, my husband Colin, my parents, and his.
Six bedrooms had seemed like too many, and Colin had laughed and said we might as well give everyone some space.
Now there were three cars I didn't know in the driveway and an open trunk full of bikes and inflatable floats.
Colin's sister stood at the grill in an apron, telling her husband to film her flipping wings for her followers.
Colin's brother sat beside her with a beer.
Two of Colin's aunts were on the patio with iced tea, and their husbands and kids sat with them.
Three children were crouched at the fence, pulling up the blue hydrangeas the owner's nephew had promised me he would not trim.
On the patio table sat the fruit, cookies and finger sandwiches I had ordered two weeks ago, for six.
"Is somebody else staying here?" my father asked quietly.
"That can't be right," I said.
Colin's mother, Gail, saw me first and stood up with her arms spread wide.
"Jenna! You finally made it!"
She had on her white visor and her coral lipstick, and she smiled as if I had walked into her own house.
"We've been here since noon, honey. Isn't it wonderful? It's all family."
The confirmation email said check-in was at four.
Colin had driven up alone that morning to set up, and he had never told me who was setting up with him.
His older aunt caught my hand as I came up the patio steps.
"You just rest this weekend, hon," she said. "We're all pulling for you."
I thought she meant the two-hour drive with my parents, so I thanked her.
Then Colin came out of the kitchen carrying a bag of ice, and he stopped when he saw me.
"Hey, babe."
"What is all this?"
"What do you mean, all this?"
I turned and looked at the yard.
"These people."
He rubbed the side of his nose.
"Mom invited a few relatives at the last minute. I was going to tell you, but work got busy and I forgot."
He had been saying that work got busy since November.
Five years of marriage had taught me that he touched his nose whenever he lied.
I did not press him, not with eighteen people watching and my mother already lifting her suitcase out of the trunk.
She was wearing a new blue dress.
She had asked me twice in the car whether the color was too bright, and she had bought it only for this trip.
I took the suitcase out of her hand.
"Let's go inside first."
The east bedroom on the ground floor was the biggest, with a window right onto the lake, and I had set it aside for my parents the day I booked.
I pushed the door open and stopped.
Two children's jackets lay on the bed, and an open suitcase spilled across the floor.
Half-eaten chips and an empty juice box sat on the nightstand.
Brooke's younger daughter was lying on the bed, staring at a tablet.
"Hi, Aunt Jenna," she said.
Colin's sister, Brooke, came in behind me with her phone still in her hand.
"Oh, you found our room."
"This is the room I set aside for my parents," I said.
Gail appeared in the doorway before Brooke could answer.
"Honey, all the bedrooms are pretty much the same. Brooke has two girls, so the big room makes sense."
She tipped her head toward my parents.
"Your parents are just two people. What does it matter which room they get?"
My mother tugged at my sleeve.
"It's fine, Jenna. We can take another room."
I led them upstairs.
The second bedroom was occupied and the third was full of luggage.
I stopped in the hallway and counted what I already knew.
One room for Colin and me, one for his parents, and one each for Jason and the two aunts.
The sixth was the east room, my parents' room, and Brooke's family had taken it.
Every room was taken, and nobody had even asked.
Colin stood at the top of the stairs, and his face said he had done the same math.
"Which room are my parents staying in?" I asked him.
He glanced at them and then back at me.
"There are only two of them. I can book them a motel in town, and you can bring them back for dinner."
My mother bent at once to pick up her suitcase.
"That's all right," she said. "Please don't fight because of us."
Something in me went flat and quiet.
"No," I said.
I took my mother's suitcase and carried it back down to the east bedroom, and my father followed me.
I set it on the bed, and then I lifted Brooke's open suitcase off the floor and put it out in the hall.
"Excuse me?" Brooke said, raising her phone. "I'm filming this."
"Good," I said. "Get my parents' door."
Gravel crunched in the driveway.
A dented white pickup pulled in behind the three strange cars, and a man in a faded green work shirt got out and looked at the yard, then at the hydrangeas.
"I'm Nate Eklund. I manage the house." He looked up at the porch, where everyone had gone silent. "Which one of you is Mr. Rask?"
Colin lifted a hand halfway.
"You called me Tuesday and asked if I could make eighteen people work," Nate said. "I told you no. Twice."
Every head on the patio turned to my husband, and his hand went to his nose.
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