“I don't know how to do this,” Kate said quietly.
“Do what?”
“Trust. Hope. Believe that something good might actually stay good.”
“You don't have to know how. You just have to try.”
Rosa appeared in the doorway. “Miss Kate? There's a problem with one of the guest rooms. The ceiling is leaking.”
Kate sighed. “The storm damage. I thought we'd patched everything.”
She followed Rosa inside, Ben coming with them. The leak in Room 5 was significant, water dripping steadily onto the bed, the ceiling stained and buckling.
“That's not storm damage,” Ben said, examining it. “That's a pipe. Probably burst during the freeze-thaw cycle after the storm.”
“How much?” Kate asked, already dreading the answer.
“To fix properly? Couple thousand, minimum. Need to open up the ceiling, replace the pipe, repair the damage.”
Kate wanted to scream. Every time they got ahead, something else broke. Even with Lillian's money handling the mortgage and major repairs, these constant small disasters were drowning them.
“I can do the work,” Ben offered. “Cost price on materials.”
“No.”
“Kate...”
“No. I can't keep taking from you. Your time, your labor, your materials. I can't owe you any more than I already do.”
“You don't owe me anything.”
“I owe you everything!” The words exploded out of her. “The roof, the tree, the chairs, now this. Every time I turn around,you're saving something, fixing something, giving something. I can't... I can't be that person.”
“What person?”
“The one who needs saving.”
Ben stepped closer, and Kate could see frustration in his eyes for the first time. “You think accepting help makes you weak? You think your mother was weak for accepting your father's love? For letting him provide for her?”
“That's different.”
“How?”
“They were married. They were partners.”
“And we can't be?”
The question hung between them, loaded with possibility and terror. Kate couldn't answer, couldn't move, couldn't breathe properly.
“Katie?” James appeared in the doorway. “We've got another problem. Pop's missing.”
Everything else forgotten, Kate ran downstairs. Amy was in the lobby, clearly upset.
“I turned my back for two minutes,” Amy said. “He was in the sunroom, then he was gone.”
They scattered to search. Kate checked the garden, Tom the basement, Dani the guest rooms. James ran to check the parking lot. But it was Ben who found him, standing at the end of the dock at the harbor, still in his slippers, staring out at the water.
“He’s here!” Ben yelled out.
