“It’s for you.” The phone in his pocket vibrated but for once he ignored it. Whoever it was could wait. This conversation was more important than any phone call. “It’s a gift, Gramps. So you don’t spend your time and energy hefting an ax.”
“Are you saying I’m not capable of hefting an ax? Do you think I’m a wimp?”
“No.” Sean frowned. “I think you just need to be careful, that’s all.”
“I’ll decide what I do and what I don’t do.” Walter prowled around it suspiciously. “How much did this thing cost you?”
“It’s a gift so the cost is irrelevant. And this thing can split logs like they’re nothing.”
“So can I.” His grandfather’s gaze was fierce. “I’ve been doing it since before you were born.”
“So maybe it’s time to take it easy.”
“I don’t want to take it easy. I don’t need to take it easy, so you can just send it back where it came from and get your money back.”
Sean stood in silence, absorbing the blow. Not for a moment had it occurred to him that the gift might not be welcome.
He could send it back, of course. He could arrange for the damn thing to be transported right back where it came from and let his stubborn, muleheaded grandfather carry on swinging his ax until it finally killed him.
All it would take was one phone call.
He’d done his best. He’d tried. If his grandfather didn’t want it, then there was nothing else he could do.
He closed his fingers around his phone, and then had an image of Walter lying still and pale in the hospital, with Alice at his side, refusing to leave. He thought of his mother, of Jackson and most of all he thought of Élise.
Élise, who had been with his grandfather when he’d collapsed.
Élise, who treated his family like her own.
I love you, Walter.
Unable to get her voice
out of his head, he pulled his hand out of his pocket and squared his shoulders.
“I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to send it back.”
“Then it can sit there and rust because there is no damn way I’ll use it. I’ll be using my ax, same as I always have.”
“You haven’t even tried it.”
“I don’t need to try something I know I don’t have a use for.”
Sean stood still for a moment, searching for a persuasive argument and coming up blank. “Please, Gramps—” he struggled to keep the emotion under control “—just use it. Just for once, please do this.”
“Give me one good reason why I should.”
“Because you frightened the shit out of us!” It wasn’t what he’d intended to say, but he’d said it, anyway. Anger and frustration, held back for too long, rose to the surface. “Hell, Gramps, the whole of last winter I was nagging you to get yourself checked out, and did you do it? No. You’re so damn stubborn, so—” He pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose, forcing himself to breathe, trying to calm himself sufficiently to articulate his feelings. “Do you know how I felt when I got that phone call from Jackson telling me you’d collapsed? It was like getting that phone call about Dad all over again. I don’t remember a single thing about the drive from Boston to the hospital. All I remember is that my legs were like jelly and I kept thinking that if you died, if you died, then I’d—” His voice cracked and he broke off, his hands curled into fists and his feelings right there for the whole world to see.
His grandfather stared at him in silence. Then he cleared his throat. “You shouldn’t have driven in that sort of state in a car like yours. You could have had an accident.”
Sean gave a disbelieving laugh. “Is that why you told me to get back to Boston?”
“No. I said that because I thought you didn’t want to be here.” Walter stared at the ground and let out a long breath. “I know you haven’t exactly liked coming home since your father’s accident and I didn’t want to put that pressure on you. And I didn’t want to pull you away from your work when it’s so important to you.”
“Well, of course my work is important, but not more important than being with my family when they’re in trouble. Did you think I’d carry on working while you were in the hospital? You frightened us all half to death. That’s why I bought you the log splitter, in the hope you’d take better care of yourself. And I’m not going to send it back. You’re going to use it if I have to chain you to the damn thing.”
He was braced for a long drawn-out battle. An argument that would no doubt put a few more dents in their already bruised relationship.