60 pages • 2 hours read
Carley FortuneMeet Me at the Lake
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 19-23Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 19 Summary: “Now”
In the present, Will brings groceries to Fern the morning after they don’t spend the night together. They have sex, and Will makes breakfast for Fern. That evening, they have cocktails with the Roses. The following week is difficult for Fern. The staff is uncertain about Fern’s ability to run the resort, and the AC failed in the cabins. Additionally, a hip new resort is opening, creating steep competition for Brookbanks. Fern’s reservations manager resigns to go work at the new resort.
Will goes over business strategies with Fern in the daytime. In the evenings, they spend time together off the clock. Despite their closeness, Will still takes calls from Annabel privately. Fern tries not to be suspicious.
Peter pulls Fern away from reviewing job applications to come taste bread in the pastry kitchen. He feels Fern should choose the bread served in the dining room. Sourdough was Maggie’s choice. Peter vows he’ll make sourdough any time Fern wants it, but they agree that a new bread is due. Fern feels emotional about doing away with the sourdough.
Peter and Fern try several different breads that Peter has whipped up. Fern thinks of her mother while trying the bread. She cries a little. She tells Peter about reading her mother’s diaries again. They discuss Eric, and Fern reassures Peter she’s not going to look him up again. They discuss Maggie, her love for them and their love for her.
Fern asks Peter if he and her mother ever got romantically involved. Peter explains that he always loved Maggie, but when he confessed his feelings, Fern had just been born. Maggie didn’t want to subject Peter to a relationship while she raised a baby. Once Fern was 10, Peter began dating Maggie, but they kept it from Fern because Maggie liked privacy. They were thinking about marriage when Fern was a teenager, but when Fern started acting destructively, Maggie felt like a failure of a mother. She didn’t believe she could be a good wife.
Peter and Maggie continued to see one another until Maggie died. Peter explains that their relationship was not ordinary—sometimes they were just friends, and sometimes they were more. Maggie could never give Peter enough of herself. Peter accepted what she gave him, but he always wanted more. Peter hasn’t played music in the kitchen since Maggie died. He is waiting for a day when he doesn’t still expect Maggie to walk in and tell him to lower the volume.
That evening, over dinner, Will tells Fern how his last relationship ended because he didn’t have enough time outside of his family responsibilities and work. Will’s ex wanted more than he could give her. Fern thinks about what Peter said. Fern doesn’t want to be like Peter, in a relationship where she isn’t getting all she needs. At the same time, she loves Will.
Chapter 20 Summary: “June 15, Ten Years Ago”
In the past, Fern tells Will about her teenage rebellion. For the longest time, she believed Peter was somehow secretly her father. Peter filled the role of father for Fern whenever he was needed. When Fern read her mother’s diaries, she discovered the entries about Eric. Fern became enraged. She made her mother reach out to Eric, but he had a new family and didn’t want to speak to Fern.
Eric’s rejection impacted Fern, who began drinking and rebelling. She missed school, got kicked off the soccer team, and got arrested for stealing a tractor on a drunken dare. One night, Fern passed out inebriated in the bathroom while the sunroom caught fire. Fern woke up in the hospital and learned that her mom saved her life. When her mother suggested she apply to business school, Fern didn’t argue. She feels she owes her life to her mother.
Will holds Fern and reassures her that it’s still her life. He encourages her to pursue what she wants. Fern is lost without the plan to return to the resort, and Will helps her make a one-year plan, claiming that 10-year plans are not realistic. Will writes down two things for Fern: One is that she will not be working at Brookbanks Resort, and the other is that Fern will not be living in Muskoka, where the resort is located.
Fern does the same for Will. Will’s one-year plan is to not be working in an office or wearing a tie, to be somewhat broke, and to not allow art to become a hobby. Fern adds one more thing to her own list: She wants to live in Toronto. The two decide to adjust their plans in one year as necessary.
Exhausted, Fern and Will share Fern’s bed. Fern says that she wishes she loved something the way Will loves art. Will encourages her to take time to find that something.
In a diary entry, Maggie details reconciling with Peter after Eric has abandoned her. She could tell Peter was about to confess his feelings, so she stopped him and told him about the pregnancy. She didn’t want him to feel tied to her with a baby. Peter was tender with Maggie and stayed silent, understanding why she told him.
Chapter 21 Summary: “Now”
In the present, Fern and Jamie have been working long hours to prepare the resort for the dance and for the future. Will retrieves Fern from her office an hour late for dinner with Whitney and Cam, who are staying the night at the resort. Whitney and Cam are already a few drinks in.
When Fern gets back to Cabin 20, she is surprised by decorations and a fancy dinner organized by Will and Whitney to celebrate Fern’s decision to stay. Will and Whitney discussed the menu all week in secret. Will expresses how special it is to make a life-changing decision like Fern has. Fern feels Will’s adoration.
Over dinner, a drunken Whitney grills Will over when he’s leaving and what happens once he’s gone. Fern feels embarrassed by Whitney’s behavior, and Will says he and Fern will discuss things privately. Whitney threatens Will with harm if he screws Fern over again. Will calmly accepts her threat.
Several days later, the day before the dance, Whitney calls to apologize for how she acted around Will. Whitney and Fern reminisce about what Fern’s mother used to wear to resort events. Whitney asks for information about Fern and Will’s plans after he leaves. Fern hasn’t been able to tell Will what she wants and how she feels. She loves him, but she hasn’t said it yet. Whitney encourages Fern to talk to Will.
Chapter 22 Summary: “June 15, Ten Years Ago”
In the past, Will is up when Fern wakes the next morning. Fern offers to make coffee, but Will has to leave soon to meet up with his sister for breakfast before he flies out. Fern is disappointed, but she understands. Will wants to meet up with Fern in a year to check on their plans. He’s written: “JUNE 14, BROOKBANKS RESORT, 3 P.M.” on both of their one-year plans (245). He says Fern can teach him how to paddle a canoe. They agree to meet on the dock by the beach.
Fern wants to keep in touch with Will for the year, but Will refuses. He thinks it’s better if they don’t keep talking because Fern is in a relationship with Jamie. He asks why she didn’t bring up Jamie earlier. Fern explains that after a while, she wanted to pretend the world didn’t exist outside of her and Will. She wouldn’t have cheated, but she didn’t want to worry about Jamie all day. Will understands. As Will leaves, Fern says she’ll miss him. Will smiles and tells her not to let him down in a year.
In a diary entry, Maggie writes about how Peter has researched pregnancy for her. He’s certain Maggie can still take her trip to Europe before the baby arrives. He encourages her not to give up on her plans and reassures her that when the baby arrives, Maggie will have the support of her parents, Peter, and the rest of the resort.
Chapter 23 Summary: “Now”
In the present, Fern searches her mother’s closet for a dress to wear to the dance the following day. She plans to tell Will how she feels. She wants him to know that she’s willing to be part of his life—his real life. Whatever happens after, they can make a plan. Fern finds an orange dress that flatters her body and decides it’s the perfect dress to confess her love in. She’ll do so while she and Will dance together. Fern thanks her mother for the dress. Fern has one diary entry left to read, but she’s been saving it.
Will comes over later, and they have sex. Will laments not having 10 years to learn what Fern likes. Fern jokes that he’ll be quizzed later but then realizes that their future is uncertain. Fern struggles to sleep next to Will, and retrieves her mother’s diary.
In the diary entry, Maggie details her excitement about her new plan to travel for six weeks before returning home to begin life as a mother. She’s happy to have the support of Peter, her parents, the Roses, and the rest of the resort staff. She is confident and full of love for her baby, whom Maggie is sure is a girl.
Fern’s sobbing wakes Will. Will comforts her. Fern worries that her mother never knew how much Fern loved her back. Will confesses that he spoke to Maggie shortly before the accident, and he mentioned that he met Fern. He told Maggie that he was enamored by the resort because Fern loved it so much. It made Maggie happy to hear that. Will’s words reassure Fern. She wants to tell him she loves him but decides to wait until the dance. Yet when Fern wakes in the morning, Will is gone.
Chapters 19-23 Analysis
Fern’s teenage rebellion is thoroughly hinted at throughout the novel. Chapter 20 is one of the most significant chapters: It finally reveals the details of Fern’s rebellion as well as Fern and Will’s one-year plans.
In Chapter 20, 22-year-old Fern tells Will exactly what happened during her adolescence and why it affected her so badly. Her experience explores the theme of second chances. Her biological father, Eric, was the first character to receive a second chance when Fern attempted to reach out and allow him a second chance to meet her. Eric rejected this opportunity, sending Fern into a self-destructive spiral that resulted in her hospitalization. Fern explains how her mother gave her a second chance at life, and Fern feels she owes Maggie her life because of this: “My mom saved my life—I owe her everything” (232). However, Will tells Fern that her life is still her own. He encourages Fern to make a plan for herself, suggesting that second chances allow one the opportunity to pursue what one wants.
Chapter 20 finally reveals the plans that changed Fern’s life, as foreshadowed throughout the novel. Will declares: “Ten-year plans are bullshit” (233), so he and Fern develop one-year plans. This scene is ironic, as upon their reunion 10 years later, both Will and Fern are doing the opposite of what they’d intended. Fern is living in Muskoka, running the resort. Will is working a full-time job, wearing ties. He is well-off financially and no longer creating art. The versions of each other that Will and Fern encounter 10 years after making their one-year plans suggest The Gap Between Plans and Reality: Plans can change over time, depending on how reality unfolds.
Peter and Maggie also suggest the importance of second chances. In Chapter 19, Peter reveals to Fern that he and Maggie carried on a private relationship that fluctuated between friendship and romance. He explains that when he first confessed his feelings to Maggie, “she wouldn’t let me take her on a date until you got older” (225). Peter waited 10 years to reconnect with Maggie romantically, which parallels the 10-year gap that Fern and Will experienced. Once Peter got a second chance with Maggie, he cherished every moment.
Peter also helps Maggie recognize and make the most of her own second chance, as detailed in Maggie’s diaries. After learning Maggie is pregnant, Peter “see[s] his doctor about traveling during pregnancy” (247). He explains to Maggie that she can still vacation to Europe while pregnant and encourages her to not give up. Peter’s encouragement ultimately results in Maggie both traveling Europe and having Fern. Peter helps Maggie realize that she has a second chance to make her dreams come true, with her pregnancy, resulting in her making the most of them.
Like Fern and Will, Peter and Maggie also have plans that fall through. Peter explains that he and Maggie considered marriage until Fern “hit a rough patch as a teenager, and [Maggie] blamed herself” (226). Maggie’s feelings of failure cause her to change her plans with Peter, showing how reality can be unpredictable and difficult to plan for.
These chapters also indicate parallels between Peter and Fern: Peter wanted more of Maggie than she could give and Fern wants more of Will than he is capable of giving. This explores the concept of giving oneself partially and whether that can be enough. Fern ponders this, propelling her to tell Will her feelings: “I want to be part of his life—his real one—even if I don’t know how that works” (251).
Chapter 19 explores music as an expression of love and affection. Peter expresses grief when Fern questions why he no longer plays music in the kitchen. He explains he’ll play music again “[o]nce I’m ready for a day when your mother doesn’t walk through” (227). Peter’s music reminds him of his love for Maggie and his life alongside her. In his grief, it’s too difficult for him to fully embrace his feelings and reclaim the music he also loves.
Both storylines in these chapters end on Will’s departure. In the past, Will must leave quickly because he needs to meet his sister before his flight. Fern offers to make coffee, but there is no time. The absence of coffee underscores Will’s impending absence. Fern believes bad coffee is better than no coffee. The lack of coffee stresses how hard it is for Fern to say goodbye to Will for the first time. In the present tense, Chapter 23 ends with Will’s sudden absence the morning of the dance, leaving off on the question of where he could have gone.
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