“What?” I said. “Really?” I couldn’t lie, I was a little sad to hear it, for theirsakes.
“Really,” Myrna said. She hesitated, then shrugged. “No sense trying to keep a secret in this town. I found out last week I have cancer. Nothing too serious, hopefully. I’ll be around to keep this one on his toes for a good while longer.” She winked at Frank. “But it was enough of a scare for us to realize what’simportant.”
“Family,” Frank said, his white curls bobbing. “Friends. Eachother.”
Myrna nodded. “Enjoying the land, whoever owns it. And the time we havetogether.”
“But no! No, that was Molly’s place,” Shane said. His face crumpled. “Up by the falls. I go up there to think about it.” He looked to Jamie like he needed assistance. “Molly would be so upset if she knew they were gonna tear down all thosetrees!”
“I know, Shane. I know. She loved it up there.” Jamie stood and braced a hand on his shoulder. “They’re not destroying anything. It’s just changing hands, isall.”
Frank and Myrna exchanged a look. “It’ll be alright, Shane. Nothing’s going to happen until next spring. There’ll be time to get accustomed to theidea.”
“Silas,” Shane said. “Silas, your brother liked it up there almost as much as Molly. You remember? They were out there all the damn time. All the time, even when they were supposed to be studying. Sometimes even when she was supposed to be with me. Youremember?”
Si’s face was locked in grief and sympathy. "Yeah, Shane. I remember. But…” He broke offhelplessly.
I stretched my hand across the table and laid my hand over Silas’s, much the way Frank had with Myrna’s, and gave it a comforting squeeze. Si shot me a grateful look. He twisted his hand beneath mine and laced our fingerstogether.
“Wait.” Shane’s eyes widened in surprise. He straightened and sniffed, like he’d been shocked out of his distress. “Are you two…together?”
I took a deep breath. “Yeah,” I said softly.Mostly. Sort of.My stomach churned, but Silas’s smile made it allworthwhile.
“But I thought you were married, Ev,” Shane said, frowning inconfusion.
The simple words were like the lash of a whip across my sensitive heart and I flinched mentally and physically. I detangled my fingers from Si’s and folded my hands beneath thetable.
“Widowered,” I said softly. “Hedied.”
“Oh.” Shane shrugged. “Isn’t that the samething?”
“No,” Grandpa Hen said sharply. “No, young man, it’s damn well not. And you knowbetter.”
“Sorry, Henry,” Shane said. “I don’t mean to offend you. It’s just… Molly and I never got the chance to get married, but I can’t imagine loving anyone but her for the rest of my life.” He sounded proud and so unbearably young, even though he had to be a few years older than me. “If it’s real love, it lasts forever, and you never give up on it.Right?”
“You don’t have to give up on it to love someone else, Shane.” Hen’s jaw set. “Some folks have the capacity to love more than one person in their lifetime. Some folks think loving someone else is the best way to honor the ones we’ve lost. Infact…”
He leaned on his cane and stood up from the table, his eyes fixed on Diane, who was across the room refilling coffee from acarafe.
“Diane?” Grandpa Hencalled.
Diane spun and frowned. “Yes?”
“I’ve been too proud to ask you what I should have asked you a long time ago,” Hen said. “Can I take you out to dinnertonight?”
Diane’s jaw dropped and her face turned as red as her hair. “Well, I… I mean…” She swallowed. “Yes, Henry. I think I’d like that verymuch.”
Grandpa beamed and glanced down at me, as if to say,And that is how it’s done,Ev.
