“He’s been coming home more often.” Elizabeth heaped mint into her basket. “Walter is pleased and it’s been a real help to Jackson. Thank you.”
“Why are you thanking me? I am not the reason he is here.”
Elizabeth looked at her. “After Michael died he stopped coming home. I know he was hurting badly, we all were, but of course, Sean wouldn’t talk about it. He has never been one to show his feelings easily. He doesn’t talk about personal things.”
He’d talked to her.
And she’d talked to him. About everything. It was the first time she’d ever done that.
“Losing someone you love is always hard.”
“Yes.” Elizabeth pushed a leaf aside and found another cluster of tomatoes, shining like rubies in the sunlight. “I don’t know how we ever got through those days. It was like walking through a dark fog. We were all stumbling around, trying to find our way, holding onto each other.”
“Yes.” The lump wedged in her throat. “I love that you do that. Being able to hold together is what makes you a family. If you fall there is someone to catch you.” Until she’d arrived at Snow Crystal, she hadn’t had that.
“Last Christmas everything changed. Kayla came and I started working with you in the kitchen.” Elizabeth picked the tomatoes carefully. “I honestly think that was what saved me. You saved me.”
A sting of tears added to the lump in her throat. “It was Kayla’s idea.”
“But you took me into the kitchen and made me one of the team.”
“And that was lucky for me. You are very talented. Because of that I am now able to take time off!”
“What you’ve done for Snow Crystal—first the Inn and now the Boathouse—it’s fantastic. It’s because of you the Inn has been named best restaurant again. For a while I really did think we might lose the business. But between Jackson, Tyler, Kayla and you, you’ve dragged it back from the edge.”
Élise didn’t point out that it was still a bit too close to the edge for any of them to sleep properly at night. “It is certainly better. Much will depend on the winter, I think. We need a good season.”
“It isn’t just the business you’ve helped. You’ve brought the whole family together. Helping you on the deck has forced Sean to spend more time here. It’s been good for everyone. I feel as if the whole family is finally healing. I saw his car parked outside Alice and Walter’s this morning and I know he’s arranged a gift for his grandfather so hopefully that will be well received.”
“A gift?”
“Something to help Walter. I know Sean worries about him, although he doesn’t show it. He was always the same. Tyler would explode with whatever was bothering him, Jackson would think about it and then talk about whatever it was, but Sean—he always kept it to himself. He was always the brooding type. I’m glad he stayed the night. I worry about him driving back to Boston when he’s tired.” Elizabeth hesitated and cast her a look. “Élise, this may not be my business—”
“You can say anything to me!”
“I love my sons very much, but that doesn’t stop me seeing who they really are. Sean has always been single-minded when it comes to his job. He only ever wanted to be a doctor. I saw it in him when he was young. And I’m proud of him but yes, sometimes I worry because I’d like to see him with more in his life than just a career to be proud of. A life needs balance. He doesn’t have it. I’m not sure he ever will.”
“And you’re telling me this because...?”
“Because over the past two years you have become as much a daughter to me as he is a son and I don’t want to see you hurt.”
Her breath caught. Tears clung to her lashes. “Elizabeth—”
“Maybe I’m wrong and there’s nothing going on, but if there is something going on then—well, I don’t want him to hurt you.”
“Oh, bah, now you will make me cry.” Élise put her basket down and hugged her tightly, squeezing her eyes to kill the tears that threatened to fall. “I love you very much, too. And Alice and Walter and dear Jackson, Kayla, Brenna and even Tyler although I wish sometimes he would open his eyes. I am the one who is lucky, living and working here. And I will not be hurt.” That wasn’t possible. She protected herself too carefully. “Sean and I, we laugh together, we talk and yes perhaps some other things I will not discuss with his mother, but you do not need to be worried. However, I am touched that you care. And I am glad Sean is coming home more, too. It is right that he should. He has a very special family.”
And she was part of that family. No one could take that away.
She wondered if Sean was talking to Walter. If he was finally mending the rift that had kept him away from the place for the past couple of years.
She truly hoped so. And if he’d taken a gift, maybe that would be the beginning of a whole new phase in their relationship.
“WHAT THE HELL is that?” Walter stared at the machine in the middle of the yard.
“It’s a log splitter.” Sean studied it, pleased with his choice. It had taken him ages to think of exactly the right thing to buy, and hours of research to finally come up with this particular model. “I arranged to have it delivered here.”
“Why? Who is it for?”