He laughed. “The point is, we'll manage. Families manage. That's what we do.”
Sarah felt tears prick at her eyes. Stupid, inconvenient tears that had nothing to do with hormones and everything to do with marrying a man who understood her so completely.
“I love you,” she said.
“I love you too. Now go call your grandmother before she drives over here and stages an intervention.”
Sarah laughed and wiped her eyes. “She would, wouldn't she?”
“Without hesitation.”
She kissed him, a quick press of lips that conveyed more than words could. Then she retreated to the kitchen, found her phone, and dialed her grandmother's number.
Grandma Sarah answered on the first ring, as if she had been waiting by the phone. Which, knowing her, she probably had.
“Sarah. Finally. I was beginning to think you'd lost my number.”
“I was considering it.”
“Very funny. Have you talked to your sister?”
“Just got off the phone with her.”
“And?”
Sarah took a deep breath. “I can’t speak for Lauren, but I'm in. Trevor's going to stay with the kids, and Devon and Eliza are going to help. I need to arrange coverage at the Outreach Center, but I can probably make it work.”
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line. When Grandma Sarah spoke again, her voice was softer than usual.
“You have no idea how happy that makes me.”
“I have some idea.”
“This matters, sweetheart. All of us being there together. I know you have your own life, your own responsibilities. But family is the thing that lasts. Houses get sold. Jobs change. Children grow up. But family remains.”
Sarah leaned against the counter, letting her grandmother's words settle over her. “I know, Grandma.”
“Good. Now, let me tell you about the route I've planned. We're going to take I-95 most of the way, but I want to stop at a few places along the coast. There's a restaurant in Savannah that makes the best shrimp and grits you've ever tasted, and I refuse to pass through Georgia without stopping.”
Sarah smiled and let her grandmother talk. The details washed over her: departure time, hotel reservations, snack preferences, which audiobooks to download for the drive. Grandma Sarah had clearly been planning this for longer than she'd let on. And if both granddaughters were on board, she was ready to execute her vision with military precision.
Through the kitchen doorway, Sarah could see Sophia leading Little Maggie in a toddling dance around the living room. Noahhad emerged from his room and was watching his sisters with the tolerant amusement of a preteen who considered himself above such things but secretly loved it.
Her children. Her family. The tower that wasn't a tower at all, but something more flexible, more resilient. Something that could bend without breaking.
“Grandma,” she said, interrupting a detailed description of rest stop rankings along the Eastern Seaboard. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For not giving up. For making this happen.”
Grandma Sarah laughed, a warm sound that traveled through the phone like a hug. “Sweetheart, I never give up. I just wait until everyone else realizes I was right all along.”
“That's a terrifying quality in a grandmother.”
“Thank you. I've cultivated it carefully.” There was a rustling on the other end of the line. “Now, I need to go tell William that he's going to be on his own for a while. He'll survive, but he'll pout about it. Men always do.”
“Give him my love.”
