“Is Daisy special, too?” JoJo looked up into Grace’s eyes.
“Sure she is. She’s my niece. Her mother is my sister.”
Grace thought she could see wheels starting to turn.
“Like I’m Uncle Linc’s niece because my mama is his sister?”
“Yes. Exactly like that. How clever of you to figure that out.”
“Did your sister ’bandon Daisy so she had to come live with you?”
Grace wanted to put her head down on the tabletop and weep.
“No, sweetie. Daisy doesn’t live with me. She lives far away, in Pennsylvania.”
“Will she come back here?”
“I hope so but probably not for a while. I want her to because I want her to meet you. Then she’ll have a friend here in Wyndham Beach, and she’ll have someone to play with when she visits.”
“It’s sad when you feel like you don’t have any friends,” JoJo told Grace, whose heart cracked just a little more.
“It’s very sad, Jo. You’re right.”
Linc returned to the table, his eyes first on his niece, then on Grace.
“Everything all right here?” he asked.
“I think so.” Grace gently ran a hand over JoJo’s hair. “Are we all right, JoJo?”
The little girl nodded and told Linc, “Grace has a niece, like I’m your niece, but she doesn’t live here. When she comes to visit, we’re going to be friends and play together.”
“I think that would be great, Jo.” Linc winked at Grace, and mouthed the words thank you. She winked back.
Linc’s name was called, and he rose to get their orders. Chocolate for him, strawberry for Grace, mint chocolate chip with gummy bears for JoJo, who was chatting normally by the time they finished their ice cream.
Linc asked if Natalie was still there.
“No, they left this morning.” She was dying to ask about that phone call from Chris, but she bit her tongue.
They were just about to get up to leave when an older woman walking past stopped and smiled at them. For a moment, Grace thought it might be someone Linc knew, but apparently not, because the woman said, “How nice to see such a beautiful family out together. My husband and I used to bring our daughter here. She’s grown and moved away, and my husband’s gone now, but thank you so much for the memory.” She smiled at Linc, then at Grace, who’d opened her mouth to correct the woman, but before she could speak, Linc said, “Thank you for sharing that with us.”
“God bless,” the woman said before she walked away.
Grace looked at him as if to ask why he hadn’t told the woman they weren’t a family. He apparently read the question in her eyes. “It gave her a happy memory to see us the way she saw herself.”
Grace nodded, wondering why she hadn’t seen what he’d immediately recognized.
They walked out into the fading light, and Linc offered to drop her off on Cottage Street.
“It’s a beautiful night, so I’ll walk, but thank you.”
“Thank you.” He leaned over and placed a very soft, very tentative kiss, on her lips. “For Jo,” he whispered.
“Glad I could help.” Grace smiled. For Jo? Right.
Grace was at the shop two days later when her phone rang.
“Grace, it’s Linc. I have your estimate here—I should have given it to you the other night when we were at Jackson’s, but it slipped my mind. Do you have time to go over some numbers after work? Like around four thirty, maybe a little later?”
“I’m working until four thirty, but give me an extra fifteen minutes, and I’ll meet you at the house.”
“See you there.”
She’d been working online for Liddy most of the day, filling orders that came in through the website and answering emails, so she’d worn dark-green cargo pants and a tan sweater with an old but very comfy pair of running shoes. At 4:36, she went into the powder room and brushed out her hair. She dabbed on a hint of lipstick and swiped mascara over her lashes.
“Well, where are we off to?” Liddy said when Grace passed the counter.
“I’m meeting Linc at the house, and he’s going to give me the estimate for all the work I want done.”
“Good luck. You might want to take a good stiff drink beforehand. You’re going to need it,” Liddy told her.
“Yeah, I know it’s going to be a big number, but I’m prepared for it. I hope.”
On Sunday afternoon, Grace and Natalie had taken Maggie’s old patio set over to the little house and put it out back. The sisters had gotten to talk for a few minutes over a glass of wine, while Chris had taken Daisy to the pond to look for frogs and salamanders, but they’d left the small glass-topped table and the chairs on the patio.
While she waited for Linc, Grace put her laptop on the table, then opened it. She pulled up the photos of bathroom tiles she’d saved, still debating between the dark-blue and the dark-gray accent tiles, when she heard Linc’s truck. She walked around the house to greet him, waiting while he got out of the truck’s cab, a file in his hand.
“Hey.” She watched him cross the ground between them. She liked the way he walked, tall and straight, a no-nonsense kind of walk, as if he always knew where he was going and what he was going to do once he got there. She liked a man with purpose.
He held up the file. “Ready for some pain?”
Grace laughed. “Come on back to the patio. I’ve been looking at some accent tiles for the bathroom and can’t decide which would look best.”
They rounded the back of the house, and she gestured to the chairs. “We have seating. And a little table. Would you like a glass of wine before you deliver the news?”
“You have wine? Here?”
“My sister and I have been known to share a bottle or two. The glasses are even clean.”
“I’ll pass, but you go ahead. You’re the one who’s going to need something to help soften the blow.”
“Ouch.”
Linc sat in one of the chairs and leaned over to look at the laptop’s screen. “These are the tiles you’re looking at?”
Grace nodded.
“Those are some pricey tiles.”
“A girl can dream.” She sat in the chair closest to him. “So give me the good news.”
“Sorry, but I’m not here to give you good news,” he quipped. “I’m about to give you a number that might break your heart.”
“Hand it over.” She held out a hand and he gave her the file. She opened it and skimmed the itemized numbers. She liked that he’d listed every single thing they’d talked about, how much each would cost, the charge for labor, and an estimate of how long each phase should take.
“I tried to trim it where I could, but honestly, it’s a lot of work. And keep in mind that’s an estimate. There’s no telling what we might find once we get started.”
“You did add the screened porch we talked about with the energy-efficient windows.” She didn’t like the additional cost, but she knew she’d be sorry if she didn’t do it.
“Anything you want to take out? Any questions about anything?” he asked.
Grace shook her head. “No. It’s about what I figured. We’re going with it. I’m assuming you want a deposit.”