Reese relished the return of that hand. It was like a micro-massage, how Sydney’s strong fingers pressed but didn’t poke as she ran her fingertips along her spine.
Margie clapped her hands together. “Then we must play sometime. Stan and I are at the summerhouse through September.” Margie put her hand on Stan’s arm. “Honey, it would be lovely to have the whole Devereux family down.”
“Incredible idea,” Stan said, wrapping his large arm aroundher shoulder and pulling her close. “We take summer seriously, so feel free to let us know what works with your schedule. We can make ourselves available. Nothing like a morning match followed by lunch.”
Tripp was practically salivating. It seemed like he hadn’t been invited to ye old Fitzpatrick summer compound until now. “Why wait? How’s next weekend for everyone?”
Reese considered stepping back so her shoes weren’t splashed by his drool.
“I’ll have to check my schedule,” Sydney cut in before Reese had to come up with an excuse. Neither of them wanted to leave Hallie in a lurch. “We haven’t been back in Stoneport long, and it’s been a while since we’ve both been back. The dance card’s become a little unwieldy already.”
Stan looked positively euphoric in the glow of a possible weekend together. “Well, let us know. Margie manages our schedule, and I don’t know what I’d do without her.”
He kissed the top of his wife’s head, beaming, as she pulled business cards out of her clutch before handing one to Reese and one to Sharon.
The conversation veered to Tripp asking questions about the club in Bingham where the Fitzpatricks were members, about thirty minutes south of Boston.
Reese didn’t care about whatever her father was saying, except that it gave her time to absorb her surroundings.
The juxtaposition between the Fitzpatricks and the Devereuxs, standing across the circle from one another, was obvious. Stan and Margie were a fluid pair, holding a conversation together, true partners, it seemed, in whatever endeavor they took on.
Her own parents couldn’t have looked more different when held up in comparison, her father like a chameleon, adopting whatever temperament was needed to fit the group he found himself in.
Right now, he was playing the doting, interested family man,who wanted to shepherd the unification of two families as their children planned to be wed.
Reese found the whole act to be rather embarrassing; it was certainly a role she’d never thought of him inhabiting before.
But she’d need to unpack that another time.
Because it was her mom, for the first time, who’d really captured her attention.
Given that Grant was getting married, Reese had expected a little more excitement from her mother, regardless of her own personal feelings on the matter.
But besides her mom coming to find them, she’d stood quietly by Tripp’s side once they’d joined the group, then watched the scene play out around her.
Reese made a mental note to check in on her mom more often, especially now that she was back in town.
Growing up, Reese had always felt that she had far more in common with her father than her mother. She’d wanted to follow him everywhere. Her days off school were spent sitting on the floor of his office when he’d been home, absorbing the conversations he had on the phone or just listening to the clack of his computer keys at all hours of the day.
Some kids got up to watch Saturday morning cartoons, but Reese got up with the sole purpose of wandering down to her father’s office to see if he was there, already working.
Many mornings he wasn’t, having stayed over in Boston the night before or already at the golf club to hit a few balls.
She wondered now if she should have spent more time with her mom. Some of the fundraisers and groups her mother chaired were no more than vanity projects in Reese’s mind, but she’d gotten postcards over the years of events that her mother had worked on, inviting her to attend.
Some of them, as Reese thought back, were for projects that she also very much believed in.
Coastal conservation. Fundraisers for children in impoverished areas to access summer camps and enrichmentprograms. Book drives to support literacy among both the youth and adult populations.
Reese hadn’t attended any of the events when she’d lived in California, though she’d always sent a check to support whatever was deemed the cause of the month.
Something that felt a lot like guilt churned uncomfortably in her gut, but she pushed the thought away.
“You doing okay?” Sydney murmured beside her, fingers still tracing that soft, soothing pattern along her back. “You look like you’re about to chew off your lip.”
It wasn’t until she let it go with a gentle ‘pop’ that she realized Sydney was right. The edge of her mouth stung.
Not knowing what to say, she felt a wave of relief when Margie’s voice cut through the moment.
