Not that they were willing to let me go, but I had refused to talk to them after finding out what they’d done. I shut them out. I walled myself away. If they hadn’t been so stubborn in not letting me close that door—
“The point is, we made it. We survived a lot. And I want to honor the fact that we chose each other. I want you there, and I want Kelly and the kids. I want the whole family. Even if it’s enormous now.” I made a face, and he slowed as we turned onto the last street leading to Patience and Eugene’s home. The house where my mother grew up. “I want you to join us, but I don’t want to be given away.”
“The father-daughter dance?”
I laughed. “All yours, I promise.”
“Yes.” He made a little fist pump, then pulled to a stop at the entryway to their drive. “I never want to give you away either,” he said. “I do want to be there. I want to be in your life. Although I also kind of want to threaten them, but they outnumber me.”
I giggled.
“So, let’s do this—you give yourself to whoever you want to, and you guys choose each other. They know that I’m always in your corner. Even if the unthinkable were to happen and you were wrong.”
“Oh, come on…” I gave him a playful shove.
“True. You would never be wrong.” Then he winked.
That went so much better than I’d worried it would. Of course it did. Hank was a great guy. Then we both sort of sobered and stared at the house as we followed the drive to the circle in front of the huge stone mansion. To be honest, Archie’s place was big. The house in the Hamptons was big.
Hell, the brownstone was big. None of them intimidated me the way this place did. It was just—sad.
“She grew up here, huh?” He pulled up to park next to the still broken fountain. I frowned at it. There were weeds creeping up along the cracks. The hedges had gotten thicker than the last time I was here, and they didn’t look shaped or lush, just overgrown. No, not overgrown. That wasn’t the right word. They looked neglected.
“Yeah,” I said as I unbuckled my seatbelt. “Looks fun, doesn’t it?”
“Looks a lot like something out of a murder mystery,” he admitted and then grimaced. “Sorry.”
“No, nothing to be sorry about. It definitely looks like that.” I shook my head. It looked less somehow than my first visit. Maybe because the people it housed weren’t such mysteries anymore, or perhaps it was just that my feelings regarding them were so incredibly complicated.
The air was chilly, not quite a frost to it but definitely cooler than we’d had in the city or even at the train station. I folded my arms, kind of wishing I’d brought a heavier jacket as I stared at the front door. Eugene knew I was coming. I hadn’t mentioned Patience. Hadn’t asked if she’d be here.
There was a real possibility I would run into her. While I’d barely had two words to rub together for her since Maddy’s funeral, I wrestled with the unease from potentially seeing her.
Glancing across the car, I met Hank’s gaze, where he waited for me. No judgment reflected in his eyes, just a reserved kind of patience. Squaring my shoulders, I unfolded my arms. “Shall we?”
He grinned. “Absolutely.”
At the front door, I rang the bell. We didn’t have to wait long before an older Asian woman wearing scrubs answered the door. My heart immediately plummeted. A nurse? But her smile appeared almost instantly.
“You must be Francesca.”
God help me. “Frankie,” I said in the same breath with Hank and I threw him a grateful grin.
“Sorry, your grandfather calls you both. Come in, come in. He’s been excited since he got the call. He even wanted to put on a new sweater.”
Inside, the house seemed dark, despite the curtains being thrown open on many of the windows. There was a faint—musty odor—like no one lived here, and that tugged at my heart too.
“Thank you,” I said. “This is my dad, Hank.”
“Jackson,” he added as he held out his hand. “Hank Jackson.”
She gripped it easily, and I automatically held out my own because he was right, that was the polite thing to do. “I’m sorry, I don’t know your name.”
“Well, now why would you?” She gave me what I would call a maternal look along with a warm smile. “I’m Leslie Chao. I’m your grandfather’s day nurse and physical therapist. He’s in a feisty mood today.”
Why did he have a physical therapist? A dozen questions hovered on my tongue as I followed Leslie to the sun porch where we’d met Patience and him before—well, when it had been Archie and me. I pulled off my jacket as we stepped out.
“Was that her—oh!” He rose from the chair where he’d been working on what looked like a crossword puzzle. “There you are! You’re here. Now, didn’t I tell you I had the prettiest granddaughter?”
He gave Leslie a look like she’d been arguing with him. I hesitated a moment when Leslie motioned for me to stay still, but Eugene was already making his way over to me, moving with far more spryness than he’d had the last time I saw him.
With a grin that could only be described as playful, he clapped his hands as he walked toward us. “Shocked?”
I didn’t want to be rude. Then he was clasping my hands in his weathered ones and squeezing them gently.
“You can be honest, I looked like hell the last time we saw each other. But I’m getting in my steps every day, and Leslie here kicks me solidly in the tuckus when I get lazy. I’m practically twenty years younger.”
I had no idea what I’d been expecting, really, but this was not it at all.
“Can an old man possibly get a hug, or are we not there yet?”
An echo of the words I’d thrown at Patience that last time and sadness gripped me. It didn’t seem like it had been long ago, yet he’d changed so much. I hated to say for the better, but there was color in his cheeks and a glint of mischief in his eyes. The man he’d been before had been broken and so damaged.
“You may absolutely have a hug,” I told him, and relief softened his expression as I gripped him gently for fear of hurting him. But his embrace was fierce, and he patted my back before releasing me.
“Mr. Jackson,” he said, holding out a hand to Hank.
“Hank, please, Mr. Grayson—”
“Then you must call me Eugene,” he said as they shook hands. “No formalities here, right, Leslie?”
“Absolutely,” she said with an amused smile and a shake of her head. “I’m just going to let Carol know your guests are here and she can bring out lunch when you’re ready.”
“Excellent. You should pull up a chair and join us. I’m sure my Frankie would love to hear all your horror stories about what a tyrant I am.”
“I’m pretty certain your granddaughter did not come all this way to talk to me. Now, behave.” She made a shooing motion, then cast a quick smile at us. “See? Feisty.”
I laughed, and when Eugene offered his arm, I took it. Hank took my jacket and then we moved back over to the table where Eugene was set up.
“I’ve got iced tea out here. Perfectly terrible stuff, but if you mix it with lemonade, it’s like a legal cocktail that the doctor doesn’t yell at you about.” He poured drinks for us both, and then as soon as we were settled, he said, “Before we get too deep into the weeds, because I am so glad you’re here, I wanted you to know that Patience is upstairs. I asked her to give us at least an hour to visit before joining us. Then I also informed her that if you did not want to see her, we would not force the issue.”