Page 60 of Key West Homecoming

Now Emma understood how much they left out.

She had never once asked Gloria whether she was lonely. It hadn’t occurred to her because Gloria was the person who took care of everyone else. She was strong, capable and rarely complained. Emma had always thought of her grandmother as someone who had everything she needed because Gloria had never suggested otherwise.

Someone had been taking care of her too, for eight and a half years.

Emma looked down at Edmund’s letter.

She felt a small ache at the thought of everything she hadn’t known, but she didn’t want to turn it into guilt. She had loved her grandmother, and Gloria had known that. Edmund’s letter told her as much.

What unsettled Emma was realizing that she had known Gloria almost entirely as her grandmother.

Edmund had known her as a woman.

He knew the person Gloria had been after Emma went back to Chicago at the end of every summer. He knew what she talked about over dinner and what made her laugh when Emma wasn’t there. He knew the years when Gloria’s health began to change, and he had apparently stayed close enough that she trusted him with something meant for Emma.

That thought made tomorrow feel more important than it had at lunch. Emma reached for her phone and called Priya.

Priya answered on the third ring. Emma heard a car horn and the rattle of stroller wheels over pavement.

“Emma. Give me a second. We’re walking home from the park.”

“I’ll wait.”

The wind noise faded.

“Okay. I’m here. Where are you?”

“On the patio at Winslow’s.”

“What’s the latest?”

“I got a letter today.”

“From Arthur?”

“No. His name is Edmund Fairbanks. He was close to my grandmother for the last eight and a half years of her life. I think they were together.”

Priya was quiet.

“He’s a retired Classics professor from Brown. He’s staying in Key West with his daughter while he recovers from an illness, and he wants to meet me tomorrow morning.”

“Did your grandmother ever mention him?”

“Not once.”

“And you’re sure it’s him? The man Connie remembered?”

“Yes.”

Emma looked at the letter.

“He says he has something Gloria asked him to give me if we ever met.”

Priya was quiet again.

“Wow, that’s exciting.”

“I know.”