Dani shrugged. “I know. I’m sure I have something I can wear. I mean, how cold can it be?”
An hour later, Dani wrapped in so many layers she could barely move, sat on a camping chair, shaking.
Pointing to a shack on the pond, Dani asked, “I don’t understand why you don’t have one of those cute little houses. I bet they’re all warm and cozy.”
Kate tried not to laugh. “Let’s just say, I like to feel the cold.”
“You like it?”
“If you want to get to know me, what you need to understand is that when life gets to be too much for me, the cold makes me forget my troubles.”
Dani rolled her eyes. “I guess that’s one way to numb your feelings.”
“I wouldn’t call it numbing my feelings. It’s just that the problems don’t seem so big when I’m out here.”
After a few minutes of quiet, Dani had another question. “And another thing. Why don’t you have one of those electric drill things? Why did you make me turn that auger all by myself?” Pointing to the other fishermen, Dani said, “Those guys over there dug their holes really fast with their augers. Those things went down into the ice really quick. Why don’t you have one of those?”
Kate smiled. “I do.”
Dani sat up tall. “What do you mean, you do? You mean to tell me that you intentionally had me turn that thing manually for no reason?”
Kate laughed. “I had a reason. I wanted you to experience what it was like for me when Pop showed me how to fish the very first time. I thought I should do the same for you.”
Dani looked like she was ready to kill Kate.
“Thanks a lot but that was a long time ago. Clearly, they’ve come up with a better way since then.”
“Dani, so far since we’ve been out here, you’ve complained that your white parka got dirt on it. You almost threw up whenyou had to touch the bait, you complained how hard it was to dig the hole, and you’ve complained about the cold from the moment we got out of the car. What exactly where you hoping to accomplish by coming out on the ice this morning?”
Dani looked down at the ice. “I wanted to get to know my sister. I wanted to understand what peace looks like to you. Is this it?”
“This is it.”
“It's very... quiet.”
“That's the point.”
They sat in silence for a moment, then Dani asked, “Do you ever think about doing something else? Besides the inn?”
Kate shrugged. “The inn is our life. Our legacy.”
“That's not what I asked.”
Kate was quiet for a long moment. “Sometimes. But it doesn't matter. Pop needs care, the inn needs managing, you all need…”
“We need you to be happy,” Dani interrupted. “Katie, you're thirty-five years old and you've never done anything just for yourself.”
“Have you?”
Dani laughed, but it was bitter. “I've done nothing BUT things for myself and look where it got me. Failed gallery in New York, failed boutique in Boston, failed... everything. Now I'm back here, and I have no idea what’s next.”
“You're twenty-eight. You have time to figure it out.”
“Do I? Or will I wake up one day and be thirty-five, still here, still wondering what I'm supposed to be?”
Kate watched the tip-up, avoiding her sister's eyes. “There are worse things than being here.”
“Name one thing you want, Katie. Just for you. Not for the inn, not for the family. Just you.”
