“Yeah,” he agreed with a sigh. “I’m trying not to be too annoyed with Dad, or at least to be honest with him about what I’m feeling, but it’s not always easy.”
Eleanor nibbled at her lip. She wanted to be fair to her son’s feelings, but she didn’t want to do anything that would contribute to putting a wedge between father and son.
“Your dad can sometimes take things like other people’s annoyance a bit personally,” she said diplomatically. “I know you know this, but I’m still going to say it anyway: that doesn’t mean he doesn’t love you. He’s just not always super in touch with his feelings.”
“I know,” Jeremy said. “That’s what’s annoying.”
He said it in such a matter-of-fact way that it made Eleanor laugh. Soon, Jeremy was laughing too.
“It’s all good, Mom,” he reassured her. “I know you, so I know you’re probably worrying.” This was one hundred percent accurate, but she was a mom, so it was allowed. “So let me assure you, I’m sad, but I’m okay. I’m even more okay now that I know you like your new town. I’ll beeven moreokay than that when Dad decodes his feelings in like four to six months and is able to talk about them.”
This startled another laugh out of Eleanor. “How did you get to be so wise?” she demanded.
“I have a great mom,” he said, which made her eyes prick with tears a little bit. “By the way, I’m inviting myself to your new town for a visit this summer, after school lets out. So whatever quaint ice cream parlors, or saltwater taffy stands, or crab cake restaurants you see, write ‘em down, because I want to check ‘em out.”
“Did you google ‘New England stuff’?”
“Absolutely, I did,” he replied without missing a beat. “Since you already made friends on, like, day one, I assume by summeryou’ll be super popular. I plan to be a local legend: Eleanor Ridley’s son, come for a visit.”
“I’ll throw a parade in your honor,” she teased.
“Perfect. Okay, I have a study session, so I’m going to run. But I love you, and I’m really happy for you, Mom.”
“I love you too, kiddo. Chat soon.”
Eleanor lowered the phone to the floor beside her, taking in a deep breath. She’d wanted to play up the positives with her son, not wanting him to worry about her.
But Eleanor? She was, she had to admit, a bit worried.
The house was alotbigger than it had looked in the pictures.
It was a lot more run-down too. She knew there were no structural issues, since it had passed inspection just before she’d purchased it. This was an enormous relief, because some of the cosmetic elements were…
Well, “iffy” was a charitable way of putting it.
The first thing she’d noticed when she’d pulled up the day prior was the lawn, which was wildly overgrown. Even though she logically knew that this was a minor issue, as it was just grass, it had given her a long moment of pause. Brian had been the one to handle lawnmowing. Eleanor assumed that the process was pretty straightforward, but she’d never actually mowed a lawn by herself.
She’d tried to put that from her mind. Lawnmowing services were a thing, after all, and wasn’t that the kind of job that local kids would do to earn an extra couple of bucks? Mow your lawn every once in a while? She felt certain she could figure it out.
Then she’d noticed that the wood of the porch had been replaced in various places, which meant that the entire thing was sturdy… but it wasn’t uniformly colored. The previous owners had done everything necessary to get the house up to code, but not everything to make it beautiful.
When she’d gotten herself inside, she had refused to acknowledge anything but the size of the house, because that on its own was overwhelming. The rooms were all bigger than she’d expected, and there weremoreof them than had been listed on the online real estate profile. She would have thought that impossible, would have assumed that, if anything, a house would end up being smaller than advertised, but nope!
Eleanor had forced herself to take a deep breath and haul all her boxes inside. And then, once her belongings were secure, she’d called Jeremy to further distract herself. Now there was nothing between her and her thoughts.
Well, she amended, nothing except for a bar of dark chocolate and a glass of red wine, which she’d snagged from the grocery store before heading over to get the keys after she’d left Juniper Café the day prior. It was pretty much all she had in terms of groceries, since she still didn’t have pots and pans unpacked. She’d skipped out to the café to buy lunch that day and had a loaf of bread and some peanut butter to tide her over until she could find her kitchen stuff amidst her boxes.
No mere sandwich was going to get her through the next hour, though. She needed to breathe, needed to think about all the space in this house in a clear, rational way. Okay, so she didn’t have enough stuff to fill the place. That was fine, she told herself as she headed out to the front porch, which had a charming bench swing… one that, like the porch itself, needed to be uniformly stained. She could get stuff. Once the Indianapolis house sold, she’d get some money coming in. She could use that to furnish this place.
She took a long sip of her pinot noir, gazing out over the quiet street. Hers was a corner lot, and she could see the cheerful lights of houses going in several directions from where she sat.
Somehow, the size of the house had caused the magnitude of her undertaking to well and truly strike her.
How was she going to structure her time in this new place, in this new life?
What, she wondered with a flutter of anxiety, had she gotten herself into?
CHAPTER SEVEN
