Jo Ellen’s grandchildren certainly brought a new, youthful energy to the place. Matt was tall, all gangly limbs and shaggy hair, quiet like Kate. Emma, on the other hand, had the confident posture of a girl wise beyond her years, her dark eyes taking in the room with intelligent curiosity.
But the real change in the air came directly from Eli and Kate. Her son had a palpable connection with the woman that didn’t seem to have been dimmed by their distance this past month.
Based on the looks they exchanged, the casual way they touched each other, and a few very obvious inside jokes they shared, they’d shortened the distance with plenty of time on the phone.
Maggie still wasn’t sure how she felt about that.
Jo Ellen, on the other hand, seemed pleased as punch with this union, practically giggling at everything Eli said as if he washerson.
Good heavens, Maggie had broken every promise she’d made to Roger, and now the next generation was hard at work trying to make it worse.
“You okay, Mom?” Eli stepped out to the deck where Maggie sat in her usual seat once the greetings had been exchanged and the interminable discussion of who would sleep in what room was finally complete.
“I’m fine,” she said, looking up at him. “You seem happy.”
He gave a soft laugh. “Well, yeah. Happy to be back in Destin, happy that you’re here, and really happy to see Kate.”
She flicked her brow, silent.
“I’m not going to respond to that look,” he said with a tease in his voice. “But I have something for you. That case of Dad’s you wanted from Crista’s garage. Where should I put it?”
“Up in my room, please.” She let out a shuddering sigh. “I am both dreading and anticipating looking through it.”
“Kate told me the latest.” He dropped onto the edge of a chair across from her. “The FBI? How could we not have known this was a federal case?”
And Kate didn’t knowallof the “latest”—Artie’s involvement. “Because your father kept a secret better than I do,” she said dryly.
“And that’s saying something,” Eli cracked.
She shuttered her eyes. “Anyway, thank you. God willing there are some answers in that box.”
“God is always willing to give answers,” he said, reminding Maggie of his deep faith. Would that change with Kate, who Jo Ellen said believed only in science? “Whatever is in that box, Mom, I hope it means we can let bygones be bygones, allow these families to heal, and look forward instead of backward.”
“I made a promise.” She ground out the last word.
“I’d like to make one, too,” he said. “To Kate.”
She gasped and blinked at him.
“Not that promise,” he replied, laughing. “I promised I’d spend the summer here if she does. Her kids don’t want to stay because of other commitments, and she’s on the fence. But I think she’s leaning toward spending most of the summer here.”
He didn’t ask for her opinion on that, she noticed.
“It’s going to get very crowded here,” she said, looking past him.
“Well, we have a two-bedroom apartment above the garage,” he reminded her. “Two empty bedrooms downstairs. There’s plenty of room.”
“I thought you were going to sell this property for a huge profit.”
“We still might,” he countered. “We can’t until November. Why not have one last summer of Wylies and Lawsons in Destin?”
Why not, indeed. Because Roger Lawson was probably scowling from his final resting place. Didn’t that matter to anyone but her?
Didit even matter to her?
“I’ll go put that case in your room,” he said, obviously not waiting for her response to what she assumed was a rhetorical question.
As he stepped back inside, the rest of the new arrivals started to spill out to the deck, dressed in various stages of beachwear. Kate and Tessa and Vivien linked arms, sunhats on, like the unstoppable trio they’d been thirty years ago.
