“Let’s all go inside and have a good cry.” Barney went up the steps slowly and held the door for Des and Cara.
Cara’d told Joe she thought things wouldn’t be too bad until Allie returned from the airport, but she had no idea just how bad it would get.
Allie got back around two and went straight up to her room. Des, Cara, and Barney decided to give her space. After all, Nikki was her only child, and she wouldn’t see her for at least three months, maybe more, depending on what Allie could work out with Clint.
No one was too concerned when Allie didn’t show for dinner, but by the next morning, Cara was concerned enough to knock on her door.
“Allie?” she said softly. “Allie? Are you awake?”
When there was no answer, Cara pushed open the door and peeked inside the room. It wasn’t quite dawn, and the room lay in shadows, but even in the dark, Cara sensed that something wasn’t right. She stepped into the room and approached the bed.
Allie was on her back, her head turned to one side. Cara’s breath caught in her throat and for a moment, she thought Allie wasn’t breathing. She felt for a pulse and exhaled when she found one. But then Cara saw the bottle on the floor. The empty bottle. Allie had apparently drunk however much had been in the bottle during the night.
Cara tried to wake her, but Allie was dead to the world. Cara thought about going back to her room, but she was afraid to leave Allie alone. What if she choked or needed help? Cara sat in the chair by the window and watched the sun come up over the woods. After a while, she went into her room, picked up her mat, brought it back to Allie’s, and unrolled it. She did twenty minutes of yoga with one eye always on the figure on the bed. Allie never even made a sound.
Cara heard Des talking to Buttons in the hall as they went down the stairs for the dog’s early walk, and she heard the steps creak as Barney made her way downstairs. Cara kept checking Allie’s pulse, but finally wondered if she shouldn’t call in Des and Barney. Maybe the thing to do would be to tell them, then call 911. She’d promised to keep Allie’s secret, but was she bound to that if she thought Allie’s life was in danger?
No, she decided. Life trumped everything.
Allie groaned and rolled over. A minute later, her eyes opened. She looked around the room as if trying to focus. A few minutes more, another groan or three, and Allie’s gaze finally fell on Cara.
“What’re you doing here?” Allie grumbled.
“Trying to make sure you don’t die from alcohol poisoning or, God forbid, that you don’t choke on your own vomit and die like a rock star.”
“What difference would it make to you?” Allie half sat up. “You don’t really like me. And that wouldn’t be such a bad way to go. Messy and unglamorous, but out with a bang.”
“You’re right. I don’t like you, especially right now.” Cara picked up the empty bottle and held it in Allie’s face.
“I don’t like you right now because Nikki deserves better than this.” Cara felt her anger rise in her chest. She tossed the bottle into the trash can next to the bed and pointed to it. “I don’t like you right now because you owe Nikki better than to lose yourself in that. You’re lucky to be the mother of absolutely the greatest kid on the planet, and yet you do this.”
Allie opened her mouth to speak, but Cara cut her off. “Don’t say anything, all right? I get it. You love your child with all your heart, more than anything in this world, and it killed you to put her on that plane yesterday and you can’t stand missing her. It hurts like hell. I get that. But I don’t get the part where you drink yourself into such a stupor that I almost called nine-one-one. There is no reason, no excuse good enough to do this to yourself. At least we don’t have to call that child today and tell her you drank yourself to death last night.”
Cara picked up her mat and left the room, her anger at Allie still hot. She put on her walking shoes and went downstairs, debating whether she should tell Des and Barney. But Barney was off on her morning walk, and Des was deep into the morning news, which she watched every day. There’d be time enough to decide the best way to deal with Allie and her problem.
“Okay if I take Buttons out for a walk?” she asked Des.
“Sure. She’s been out, but she’d love a good walk with her aunt Cara.”
She snapped the leash onto the dog’s collar and slipped her phone into her pocket, but not before reading the last text she’d gotten from Joe the night before.
Thinking of you. Wish you were here.
She’d fallen asleep with a smile on her face. That he thought about her made her happy. She’d still been feeling lucky when she woke a little while ago. At least she had been, until she checked on Allie.
Cara slipped out the back door and paused in front of the carriage house. It might have been unoccupied for years, but her father had clearly spent time there. The first floor could be a perfect place for a studio—it was certainly big enough. She was still thinking about that possibility. It was something she’d discuss with Barney, when the time was right. She just had to decide if she wanted to put that much of herself into Hidden Falls. What would be the point, if she were to leave in a year? On the other hand, it would be a year of doing something she loved and could share with others.
On a whim, she ducked back into the house and grabbed the key from the rack.
“Come on, Buttons. I just want to take another look around.” Cara unlocked the side door of the carriage house, and she and the dog went inside.
The morning was bright and cheery, despite the gloom inside the Hudson house. Everyone was still feeling the absence of Nikki and the energy she’d brought with her. While only she had been a witness to Allie’s drama, the tension still hung over Cara like a storm cloud. Had she done the right thing by not calling an ambulance? Allie appeared to be fine, if hungover, and had been coherent once she’d awakened. But the question of telling or not telling weighed on Cara. She’d promised Allie that she wouldn’t tell Des, but that had been before Cara understood just how serious the problem was. Was she her sister’s keeper?
She rubbed the windowpanes with a tissue she had in her pocket in an effort to remove enough of the dross to permit a little more light, but it was hopeless. She stuffed the tissue back into her pocket. She brushed leaves and debris from the bottom step of the staircase that led to the second floor, and sat, dropping the leash so that Buttons could explore on her own.
It really was a great space, and with proper lighting, a wood floor, heat in the winter, and air-conditioning in the summer, it could be a charming studio. The Hudson property sat well off the street and was surrounded by tall trees. Already the songbirds were gathering in the morning. A studio here could offer a naturally serene setting.
Definitely something to think about, if they could figure out how long the theater renovations would take. Of course, if she opened a studio here, how would her students feel—how would she feel?—once the work on the theater was completed and she was free to close up shop and return to Devlin’s Light? And how would Barney feel about such a venture?
Why, she sighed, did life have to be so complicated?
She watched Buttons pounce on a leaf and toss it into the air, leaping on it again when it hit the floor.
“There’s nothing complicated about your life, is there, pup? Sleep, eat, play. Love your humans. Be loved in return. A couple of treats, a squeaky toy, and all is good, right?” At the sound of Cara’s voice, Buttons trotted over and curled up at her feet. Cara leaned over to scratch behind the dog’s ears. “I guess we’re both in places we never thought we’d be,” she said softly. “Where did you come from, pup? Who were your people? Is someone looking for you?”
Selfishly, Cara hoped no one was. The dog had fit into the Hudson family as if she’d been made for them, and they all loved her. Even Barney had been overheard on the phone telling a friend she’d never seen herself as a dog owner, but now that Buttons was there, she couldn’t imagine their home without her.
How much
more would Barney miss her nieces when the time came? Cara tucked away the thought. On the heels of Nikki’s departure, there’d been enough goodbyes for one day.
She wished there was someone she could talk to about Allie. She wished she’d never made that damned promise. There was no question that Allie would have to get her drinking under control, but the only one who could do that was Allie. No amount of shaming would make it happen if she didn’t want it for herself and for her daughter.
And then there was that promise Cara’d recently made to her father, out loud, in the apartment overhead. There had to have been a reason why Fritz had hidden those letters between himself and the mysterious J., and the clippings about Gil Wheeler’s death. Would showing Barney the clippings just make the tragedy new for her once again? Cara wasn’t sure.
Was that to be her role—the keeper of secrets? Cara’s natural inclination to tell the truth rebelled against the thought.
Allie was more of an immediate problem, but the longer Cara sat on the step, the more her anger toward Allie dissipated and she began to feel sorry for her sister.
Her sister.
She had a sister. Two sisters.
After a lifetime of being an only child, the fact that she had sisters still stunned her. She’d always wanted a sibling, but had long ago accepted the fact that it wasn’t to be. And then there they were, the two strangers in Pete Wheeler’s office, learning the truth about their father, and each other.
Her once familiar life in Devlin’s Light seemed far away now. Who would have suspected how quickly things could change, how unpredictable life could be? There’d been so many changes in so short a time, and she was still sorting it all out.
She’d come to Hidden Falls to find something of her father that might explain why he’d led the life he had, why he’d left one family in favor of another, why he’d hidden so much that mattered deeply to him from the people he’d loved most. Pete Wheeler had called Fritz a coward. Was that all there was to it? Cara wondered. So far, she’d found no answers.
Then again, wasn’t it unrealistic to think you could find, overnight, what had been hidden for a lifetime?
But then she considered all she had found, things she hadn’t even known she’d needed.
Her sisters. She might not always like them, but she was starting to love them. Even Allie.
Her niece had turned out to be an incredible bonus, a smart kid who saw only good and whose heart was an open book.
And Barney—Cara wished she’d known her aunt sooner, wished with all her heart that Susa and Barney had met. They were so different, yet so alike in the ways that mattered. They both loved freely, opened their hearts and treated everyone with kindness and compassion. They would’ve been friends, Cara thought. They would have loved each other.
She thought about the legacy in Hidden Falls that belonged to her, to Allie and Des and to Nikki. There were generations of people who’d made a difference in the lives of those around them, and it was humbling to know what her ancestors had accomplished. If not for the terms of Fritz’s will, she’d never have discovered any of it.
Fritz had been wrong not to tell them the truth sooner, but he was right, in the end, to make sure it happened. In that alone, she realized, she’d learned something about him after all: While he hadn’t been able to bring himself to risk alienating his daughters in life, in death, he’d loved them enough to take that chance. There were still so many questions, but there’d be time to seek the answers.
Cara would stay in Hidden Falls until her father’s wishes had been fulfilled. Who knew what she’d find between now and then? She already knew she was a better person for having come here, a happier person who’d been gifted with so much more than she could ever have imagined.
And oddly, she found herself more at peace about her father’s double life, because while she hadn’t found answers to the questions that had brought her here, her sisters were becoming more important to her with each passing day. They were pieces of Fritz, just as she was.
And then there was Joe.
Just thinking about Joe brought a smile to her face.
Susa would’ve liked this place. She would have liked the town and she would’ve been totally in love with the theater and the plans to renovate it. She would have seen and embraced the magic in the old building.
Wherever Susa was at that moment, Cara was certain she was happy her daughter had found so much even after all she’d lost. She’d tell Cara there would still be love and happiness and joy to be found. That it might not look like the love and joy she used to know, but it would still be love and joy, all the same. She’d tell Cara to trust in the magic and to open her heart, to greet each new day as an opportunity to bring fresh joy into her life. And knowing Susa, she’d tell Cara to look beyond today and to trust the universe to bring her what she needed.
“I trust, Mom,” she said aloud.
Cara got up from the step and brushed off her pants. She grabbed the dog’s leash, and together she and Buttons left the carriage house. She locked the door and set off on their walk.
Hidden Falls at eight in the morning was a peaceful place. Most of the residents who commuted to work left around seven, and those who did rarely came down Hudson Street. It was so quiet, Cara could almost believe she had the town to herself. She walked past the park and stopped to read the plaque at the entrance: REYNOLDS E. HUDSON PARK, DEDICATED 1972.
Her great-grandfather, the one who’d built the theater. The same Reynolds Hudson who’d built a hospital, given land for a school, started a college, and avoided strikes in his coal mines by paying his workers well and treating them fairly. That was quite a legacy, she thought as they passed the children’s playground.
Buttons spotted a squirrel and pleaded to be taken off her leash, but Cara held firm and the squirrel retreated to the safety of a nearby tree. She and Buttons made their way around the block and ended up on Main Street.
Up ahead she could see the theater, the big old boarded-up edifice they’d be sinking so much time and money into. It was a magnificent building, and it deserved to be restored to its former glory. Her father had been right about wanting to bring it back to life.
She was grateful the task had been left to them, despite the cockamamie means their father had used to make it happen. She, Des, and Allie would see the renovations through to the end. Together, just like Fritz had wanted, however long it took.
GALLERY READERS GROUP GUIDE
This reading group guide for The Last Chance Matinee includes an introduction, discussion questions, ideas for enhancing your book club, and a Q&A with author Mariah Stewart. The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book.
INTRODUCTION
When celebrated and respected agent Fritz Hudson passes away, he leaves a trail of Hollywood glory in his wake—and two separate families who never knew the other existed. There’s Allie and Des Hudson—sisters who are products of Fritz’s first marriage to Honora, a beautiful but troubled starlet. Then there’s Cara, Fritz’s daughter with New Age hippie Susa. While Fritz loved Susa and Cara, he never quite managed to tell them about his West Coast family.
Now Fritz is gone, and the three sisters meet all together for the first time. As if that shock isn’t enough, there are the strange stipulations surrounding their inheritance. Each sister stands to gain a large share—but only if they work together to restore a decrepit theater that was Fritz’s obsession growing up in his small hometown of Hidden Falls.
As the sisters reluctantly set out to fulfill their father’s dying wish, they find not only themselves but the father they only thought they knew.
TOPICS & QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. Discuss the book’s title. Why do you think Mariah Stewart chose it? Whose last chance is it? Explain your answer.
2. When Darla asks Cara what she ho
pes to find by going to Hidden Falls, Cara answers, “My dad. I want to find out who my father really was, because he obviously wasn’t the man I thought I knew.” What does Cara learn about her father? Does Cara have other motivations for complying with her father’s will and visiting Hidden Falls? If so, what are they? Discuss her motivations along with those of Allie and Des.
3. Allie calls Hidden Falls “strictly Small Town USA.” Describe Hidden Falls. Do you agree with Allie or do you, like Cara, find Hidden Falls charming? Could you make a place like Hidden Falls your home? What did you like about it?
4. What was your initial impression of Barney? She is beloved by the residents of Hidden Falls—why do they hold her in such high esteem? Do you think their admiration is warranted?
5. When Nikki asks if the family’s theater will be used once the restoration is complete, Allie tells her “[Y]our grandfather’s will only called for us to renovate it. Nothing else. Nobody’s talking about using it for anything.” Why is Allie reluctant to commit to using the restored theater in any way? Compare her attitude about the theater with that of the rest of her family. What would you do if you were in Allie’s position?
6. Do you think Honora was a good mother to Allie and Des? Explain your answer. Compare Honora’s parenting style with Susa’s.
7. Why is Allie nervous about Nikki’s visit? Given Allie’s fears, did Nikki behave as you expected? What do you think of her? Were you surprised by Nikki’s enthusiasm for the restoration project? Why, or why not?
8. Of the theater restoration, Nikki says, “This is so seriously cool. I can’t believe I have the chance to do something important like this.” Do you agree with Nikki that restoring the Sugarhouse is important? What role has the theater played in the community? Are there any historic buildings in your hometown that have similar importance?
9. Early on in the novel, the reader learns that Cara’s husband, Drew, has left Cara for her best friend. Given what you learn about Drew, were you surprised by his actions? Why, or why not? How would you describe his character?
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