“Thanks, guys.” Martin stared glumly at his shoes.
“Is the party starting?” Seb turned his attention to Oliver, because they couldn’t make this immediately better, so a distraction was as good as anything.
“Nana’s car just pulled in.”
“She’s not still driving, is she?”
“No, Gillie went to get her.”
“It’s adorable that you still call your grandmother Nana.” Martin’s smile was back.
Seb kissed him quickly for it. “What else are we supposed to call her?”
Seb was surprised how nervous he felt as they came down the hall. In all of the chaos of the past twenty-four hours, he hadn’t thought to ask Oliver for an update on their grandmother’s health. Would she be different? Frailer? Smaller? He imagined her, wheeled in by some medical attendant, a tank of oxygen at her side. She’d lift one bony hand like the queen she had been, and he’d fall to his knees and apologize for staying away so long. He was so sorry.
But then she was there, or rather, they were there: Seb, with Martin’s hand tucked securely in his. His family clustered in the front entranceway: his siblings, his parents, his nieces and nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins he barely recognized. There was a lot of cooing and hugging, and Seb hovered at the edge of it all, waiting nervously for a glimpse of her. The noise of so many people talking echoed off the high ceiling above them, and it felt like it was pressing him out of the room.
And then the sea parted. There she was, like he remembered her. She walked with a cane now, but she was impeccably dressed in a peach-colored suit and her favorite pearl necklace. Her hair was a shade whiter than the last time he’d seen her, but in his eyes, she was every inch as perfect as he remembered.
He couldn’t help the stupid smile on his face as he bent to kiss her.
“Seb.” Her grip on his shoulders was firm. “You’ve been gone too long.”
And then she was being trotted away by doting family.
Seb hadn’t expected the tightness in his throat, but he was grateful when Martin came up behind him and linked their arms together.
“That was her?” he said in Seb’s ear.
Seb sniffed and smiled. “That was my Nana.”
