It was typical of Harriet to want to lap up every morsel of family time and store it, like a squirrel, for the winter when they were back in New York.
Fliss had preferred to spend her time outdoors. For her, the beach had felt like freedom.
But by doing that, she’d missed out on spending time with her grandmother.
She studied her, noticing how blue her eyes were and how her hair, now white, fell in pretty waves around her face.
She’d seen enough photos of her grandmother as a young girl to know she’d been a knockout.
“Is it my imagination or is the bruising a little better?”
“It’s better.” Her grandmother finished her coffee. “If you like the jam you can take a couple of jars back to the city with you when you go. And you can take one over to Matilda. Tell me more about what happened.”
Fliss swallowed the last of her toast and gave her grandmother a vastly edited version of the previous night’s events. Which meant she included most of the facts, and left out all the emotions.
“You delivered the baby?”
“No. It delivered itself, and I caught it.” And she could still feel it in her hands. Warm flesh, vulnerability. So tiny. She pushed away the memory and shrugged. “Finally putting all that softball I played in college to good use.”
“And Chase wasn’t there?”
“No. Missed the whole thing. Isn’t that exactly like a man?”
“So did the midwife come to her?”
“Midwife and an ambulance, but Seth arrived first.” She said it casually, as if it was no big deal, and her grandmother looked at her keenly.
“Seth? But Seth still thinks you’re Harriet?”
“Not anymore. Matilda named the baby Rose Felicity.” She slid another slice of bread into the toaster and turned the dial down a notch. “Even I found it hard to talk my way out of that one. And it turns out he knew all along.” She hovered by the toaster, watching it. What sort of a person couldn’t cook toast? “Probably shouldn’t have rented a car in a shade of fierce red. Harriet would have gone for soft blue.”
“So what happens now?”
Fliss chose to deliberately misunderstand the question. “I need to make a trip to the store to buy a baby gift for Matilda. Which means I could do with some help, because buying baby gifts isn’t on my list of skills.” Sadly her attempt to take evasive action didn’t work with her grandmother.
“I meant, what happens with Seth?”
It was a question that had been playing on her mind since she woke up.
She’d come here to escape emotion and encountered more than she would in Manhattan.
Fliss ejected the toast. “I expect he’ll buy her a gift, too.” She caught her grandmother’s eye and sighed. “What do you want me to say? Nothing happens with Seth. It’s all in the past. Over. Done. History.”
“Honey, if it was all in the past you wouldn’t have run here from Manhattan and you wouldn’t have pretended to be your sister. Maybe you should stop running and talk to him.”
“Now you’re starting to sound like him.” Fliss poked the spoon into the jam. “He wanted me to go over to his place tonight for dinner.”
“And you’re going.”
“I haven’t decided.”
“Why wouldn’t you go?”
“Because I’m here to look after you.”
“I promise not to dance around the garden naked or get into trouble in any way. Don’t use me as an excuse.”
Fliss paused, the toast halfway to her mouth. “You danced naked in the garden? That actually happened?”