“What?”
“A gift. Can you just accept a gift?”
Before she could answer, Lillian arrived. She entered through the front door, using her walking stick, and stopped short when she saw the chairs.
“Those are Elizabeth's chairs,” she said, her voice strange.
“Ben restored them,” Dani explained. “Aren't they beautiful?”
Lillian approached slowly, ran her hand along the wood. “She picked these out when she was pregnant with Thomas. She sent photographs in a letter.” She looked up at Kate. “I wanted to convince her to buy something more expensive, more elegant. But, I never answered her letter. She said these were perfect because they were comfortable and beautiful. Function and form, she said.”
It was another shared memory of her mother that was tinged with regret.
“Sit,” Kate said impulsively. “Try it.”
Lillian sat carefully, settling into the chair with obvious relief. Her walking stick rested against the arm, and for a moment she closed her eyes.
“I imagine her sitting here,” Lillian said quietly. “During my last visit, before... before everything went wrong. She was nursing Dani, telling me about her plans for the inn. She was so happy.”
“You visited after Dani was born?” Kate asked, surprised.
“Once. I showed up out of the blue. I’d never answered her letters, so of course, she was surprised to see me. We fought about money, about the inn's mortgage, about Daniel working himself to death on the boat.” Lillian opened her eyes. “I said things. She said things. I left and never returned. I had a lot of guilt about what I’d done. It was difficult to explain… still is.”
They all stood in awkward silence, the weight of lost years heavy in the air. Then Pop wandered in, Amy trailing behind him, and his face lit up when he saw the chairs.
“Elizabeth's chairs! They're back!” He moved to the empty one, sitting with obvious pleasure. “She'll be so pleased.”
“Yes,” Lillian said softly, looking at her former son-in-law. “She will be.”
Ben had disappeared during this family moment, but Kate found him on the porch, leaning against the railing, giving them space.
“You didn't have to leave,” she said.
“Seemed like a family thing.”
“You're...”
“What?”
She didn't know how to finish.You're practically family? You're important? You're scaring me with how much you care?
“You're always doing that,” she said instead. “Showing up, fixing things, then disappearing before anyone can properly thank you.”
“I don't need thanks.”
“What do you need?”
He turned to look at her fully. “You really want to know?”
Kate's heart pounded in her chest, but she nodded.
“I need you to stop looking at me like I'm going to leave. I need you to stop waiting for the other shoe to drop. I need you to consider, just for a minute, that maybe I'm exactly what I appear to be: a man who cares about you and isn't going anywhere.”
“People always go somewhere.”
“Your mom didn't. She died, Kate, but she didn't leave. There's a difference.”
The truth of it hit her hard. Her mother hadn't chosen to leave. Neither had Pop, not really, even as his mind wanderedfurther from them each day. The only people who'd chosen to leave were the ones who'd come back: Tom, James, Dani. Even Lillian, in her way.
