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“Oh, I did, thank you very much. The mattress was very comfortable. I may have to change my mattress one of these days.”

“Well, if you love it, you can have this one. We can always get another.”

“Oh my gosh, no, of course not. I hope you don’t think I said that so I could get the mattress.” She laughs. “I’d never do such a thing.”

“It’s okay if you want it. There’s plenty more where that came from, and that way, you don’t have to wait. They were handmade actually, and⁠—”

“No, no, no, Theodore. Oh my gosh, I was just trying to say it was comfortable.”

“Granddad, don’t put Rosie on the spot. She’s not going to take your mattress.”

“If she thought it was comfortable, then she should have it.”

“Granddad, she was just being polite.”

“Ah, one thing to know about me, Rosie: If you’re going to be polite, you’ll have to expect that I’ll be polite back.”

“I see,” she says. “So, maybe I’ll just say the mattress was okay. Not the best I’ve ever been on, but not the worst.”

“Now, now. Are you saying my mattress isn’t good enough?”

He wags his finger at her, and she starts laughing.

“Oh, Theodore, you’re trying to get me into trouble, aren’t you?”

“Never,” he says. “So, we have boiled eggs, bacon, toast. Would you like Seth to make you some pancakes?”

“Oh, no, this is fine, thank you. This is amazing actually. I could get used to this.” She looks over at me. “Why don’t you make me breakfast every morning, darling?”

“Maybe because you tell me not to.” I wink at her, and she blushes a delicious shade of red.

“Don’t get your girlfriend all flustered,” Granddad chides me. “So, Rosie, you have to tell me, what is it about my grandson that you love so much? I’m curious.”

I don’t look over at her, but I can tell she has a self-satisfied look on her face. She predicted a question like this might come up, and now I’m glad we went over what we were going to say.

“Oh, I think it’s the way he protects me and the way he’s so sweet to me. He makes me feel seen. He makes me feel cared for. He makes me feel protected.” She reaches over and squeezes my hand. “I know I don’t tell you this a lot, Brett, but it means so much to me that you always care about me and my life.” She makes me feel special with her words and I realize that I want to be the man that always makes her happy.

“And I love that he’s never thrown his money at me. I didn’t even know he had money.”

“That’s one thing about Brett,” my grandfather says seriously. “He’s always looked at our wealth as more of a curse than a blessing.”

“That’s not true, Grandfather. I understand that it’s given me and Clara and Blair opportunities so many other people haven’t been offered, and I don’t want to take that for granted for one moment.”

“Unlike your mother and father, you mean,” he says with a chuckle.

“Well, I wouldn’t say that.”

“Good morning, everyone.” My mother takes that moment to walk in. “Theodore,” she says, and then she looks over at Rosie. “Oh, Rosemary. You’re up.”

“It’s Rosie, Mom.”

Rosie gives her a warm smile. “Yes, I am. Thank you.”

“Thank you for what?” Celia says, and Rosie looks at me. I just shake my head. I know my mother well enough to know it’s better to just ignore her.

“So, what time do you want to play tennis, Mom?” I ask, and she lets out a long-suffering sigh. Like that’s the last thing she wants to do. Like she doesn’t always beg me to play tennis with her.

“Well, Veronica’s going to be at the club …”