“Want to hit something?”
Despite everything, Kate almost smiled. “Maybe.”
“Come on. I need help with some demolition upstairs.”
They spent the next hour tearing out water-damaged drywall in the third-floor rooms. Ben showed her where to hit for maximum effect, how to let the hammer's weight do the work. It was satisfying, destroying something that needed destroying, making way for something better.
“People are talking,” Kate said between swings. “About us taking Lillian's money.”
“People always talk.”
“They think we sold out. That Mom would be ashamed.”
Ben stopped working, looked at her. “What do you think?”
“I think Mom would understand. But I also think...” She hit the wall harder than necessary. “I think Lillian's trying to turn this place into something it's not.”
“Have you told her that?”
“I just did. Possibly too harshly.”
“Possibly?”
“Definitely.”
They worked without talking for a while. Ben seemed to let her burn off whatever steam had built in her body. After a while, her anger subsided. Kate found herself watching Ben when he wasn't looking, the way his shoulders moved under his work shirt, how his hands were gentle with the old building despite the demolition. He caught her looking once and smiled, making her stomach do that flutter she was trying to ignore.
“Katie!” Pop's voice from downstairs, confused and urgent.
She ran down to find him in the lobby with Amy, staring at the empty spaces.
“Where's the furniture?” he asked. “Someone's stolen the furniture!”
“It's being repaired, Pop,” Kate lied smoothly. “Remember? We talked about it.”
“We did?” He looked lost, older somehow without the familiar landmarks of his life.
“Why don't we go to the sunroom?” Amy suggested. “I made tea.”
But Pop wasn't ready to be redirected. “This is wrong. It's all wrong. Elizabeth chose those chairs. She sat right there,” he pointed to an empty corner, “when she was pregnant with Tom. Said her back hurt and that chair was the only comfortable spot in the whole inn.”
Kate's chest tightened. She hadn't known that story.
“We'll get them back, Pop.”
“You will?”
“I promise.”
After Amy got him settled, Kate called the furniture removal company. The chairs were already at the dump. Irretrievable. Like so many things lately.
She found Dani on the porch, crying.
“I'm sorry,” Dani said. “I thought I was helping. Lillian said the inn needed updating, and I wanted to contribute something, to be useful.”
“You are useful.”
“No, I'm the pretty one who left and had a glamorous life in New York City. You're the practical one who stayed.” Dani wiped her eyes. “I don't know how to be here, Katie. I don't know what my role is.”
