“If she’ll let down her walls,” Kate said. “She doesn’t know anyone except Grandma Jo Ellen and her Aunt Tessa, who’s a little busy at the moment.”
“She’ll sink into the Summer House,” Vivien assured her.
Kate hoped so. Since they’d arrived last night, Emma had spoken maybe fifteen words. She’d gone straight upstairs to the room they were sharing and put in her earbuds and turned her face to the wall.
“Have you talked to Eli about this?” Kate asked.
“No,” Kate said. “She’s dealt with her dad’s fury. I don’t know what another man’s opinion will accomplish.”
“Eli isn’t just ‘another man,’” Vivien reminded her. “He doesn’t know the meaning of fury. He’s steady, and he’snother father, which right now is actually an advantage. He’ll listen to her without losing his temper and without making it about himself.”
“Viv, Eli and I have our own issues to deal with. I’m not going to dump my daughter’s crisis on him.”
“You’re not dumping. You’re letting someone who cares about you help. And I’m telling you—not that you don’t know this—Eli is the kind of man who shows up when things are hard. That’s who he is. It’s the best part of who he is.”
Kate considered that, thinking about Eli in the kitchen last night, the careful way he’d carried Emma’s bag upstairs withoutbeing asked, along with a quick stolen kiss for Kate and a quiet, “Glad you’re here.”
He hadn’t pushed or tried to corner her into a conversation. He’d just been there, solid and warm, like a lighthouse you could see from a distance even when you weren’t sure you wanted to come ashore.
Oh, for God’s sake, Kate.A light house?You have completely lost the plot.
“Maybe I’ll talk to him,” she conceded. “Let me think about it.”
“Of course,” Vivien said with a little wry doubt in her voice.
“What?” Kate asked.
“Just remember that sometimes thinking is your way of avoiding feeling.”
Kate opened her mouth to argue and closed it again, because Vivien was right and they both knew it. She’d spent her whole adult lifethinkingher way out of feeling.
“Maybe you’re right,” she said, picking up her glasses to slide them back into place. “Maybe I’ll talk to him.”
Vivien nodded, satisfied, and leaned back in her chair. “I still can’t believe our Tessa is married and nary a white rose or lantern in sight.”
Kate laughed at the reference to the diary. “Well, she got what she needed,” she said. “The legal piece, for Olive. But she should have the real wedding, too.”
“I have an idea,” Vivien said with a shot of excitement in her voice. “Let’s throw her a wedding! Maybe not the extravaganza from my diary, but…something beautiful. On the beach, with the family, with?—”
“Yes!” Kate instantly loved the idea. “We can do that before the summer ends. A ceremony at sunset, the whole family, all of it. Dusty has a lot of friends in Destin, and she deserves a real wedding. One that she doesn’t insist on planning herself.”
“Well, she is an event planner, but with Lacey gone, I think she’ll let us take over,” Vivien said. “Could we? Would you?”
“Without a second’s hesitation.”
“What about work? Are you going back soon?”
Kate gave her a look as they hit the last big snag in her life. “My grant got killed,” she said, referring to the government review that had been the reason she’d gone back to Ithaca a month ago. “The lab is closed—temporarily, I hope. But for now, I have no real work.”
“Really? How can they just close your lab?”
“Welcome to academia,” Kate said dryly. “Budget cuts are the official line, but really, I think the new review committee just didn’t prioritize our research. Guess what? Experiments on lithium-sulfur battery capacitor for electric cars aren’t the priority they used to be.” She rolled her eyes, thinking of the precious tests that used to keep her in the lab until midnight. “The whole program is essentially on hold. There’s nothing for me to do there right now.”
“No teaching?”
“I have some graduate students I work with who can do everything online. I don’t need to be back at Cornell for a while.”
Maybe ever, but she didn’t add that or Vivien would be planningherwedding.