Brent chuckled. “How creative. Did Hope play with you?”
“No, she wasn’t into that stuff,” she said, speaking really of Jackie. “She was all about setting the scene. Always drawing stuff.”
“Any schools in the picture?”
“Ha. But, no. Although we did play school.” Hope couldn’t help smiling. “The two of us, I mean. Me and—Hope.”
“I’m guessing she was the teacher.”
“Hope. Yeah. Definitely. Yes, she was.”
“So, what did your mom say when she found her chess pieces missing?”
“Oh, she never noticed. Mom’s not much of a chess player, to tell you the truth.”
“Are you?”
“Used to be. I was on a team in school.”
“That’s pretty fascinating.”
“It was fun. Chess is so much like…” She stopped because she was about to say math.
“So much like…?” Brent asked, leading.
“Puzzles,” Hope answered. “And I love working puzzles.”
“Seriously?” He grinned. “I didn’t know that, either. I like puzzles, too. Especially those insane thousand-piece ones. You know, the sort it takes you all of Christmas vacation to work?”
“Yes,” she said, knowing just what he meant. Now she was curious. “What did you play as a kid?”
“Video games.”
Hope giggled. “Nothing else?”
“Besides thousand-piece puzzles?”
She playfully huffed.
He glanced out over the bay. “When my family came here in the summers, our parents had a strict rule about limiting technology.” He shot her a teasing stare. “Sort of like you and I are doing now. It allowed us to have more time outdoors.
“We went sailing a lot with Grandpa. One year, we got a bocce ball set and played on the back lawn. During our high school years, it was cornhole.”
“I love cornhole.”
“Do you really?” he said, sounding pleased. “So do I. We’ll have to play sometime.”
“Great.”
“Anyway,” he continued. “Other than those things, on rainy days, my brothers and sister and I played games indoors. Old board games that our parents used to play when they were little, like Clue and Monopoly.
“Grandpa Chad also taught us to play poker. Although, honestly? Grandmother was better at it.” He lowered his eyebrows. “She’s got the world’s best poker face.”
Hope laughed. “Yes, she does.”
“Give her some time. She’ll come around.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“My mom talked to her.”
Hope thought back to seeing the two women talking by the firepit and wondered if that’s what they’d been discussing. “I love your mom. She’s really great.”
“Yeah, I know. I’ll keep her. But Jackie?”
“Huh?”
“I’ll also keep the rest of them, too. Things will work out—you’ll see. I’m feeling more and more optimistic about, well, pretty much everything. Aren’t you?”
It did seem like they were making progress. Starting to engage as a couple for real.
And that seriously messed with her head.
Given that she was pretending to be her sister.
But now wasn’t the time to have doubts about her well-intentioned impersonation. She wasn’t doing this for selfish reasons, but in an effort to help Jackie. And, in a big way, she already had. She’d formed a connection with Elsa and had been accepted by Parker and Chad. She just had to break through to Grandmother Margaret, and Brent seemed sure she would.
“I’m excited about meeting your mom,” he said. “It’s great she’ll be here later today.”
Hope worried about that and keeping up the ruse but knew she’d have to deal with that situation when she came to it. “Yeah. I know she’s excited to meet you.”
“What’s she like? Your mom? You never talk much about her.”
Ooof. “That’s because she’s…different?”
“What do you mean?”
“A little eccentric.” She grimaced. “Marches to her own tune, so to speak.”
“I’m sure any tune will be fine with me.”
“Watch yourself,” she joked. “You don’t want to encourage her to sing.”
“That would be a problem, would it?”
“Oh, yeah,” she answered, grinning.
Brent grinned, too. “I’ll consider that fair warning.”
It was a beautiful day on the water with occasional sailboats passing by. One loud speedboat tore by at a clip, towing a water-skier, and Brent had to work to stabilize the canoe during the resulting onslaught of waves, which sent Hope giggling as she clutched onto her hat.
“You think this is funny, huh?” he asked. “It won’t be so cute if we capsize before lunch.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, stifling another chuckle. “I just can’t remember having so much fun.”
“That’s because you don’t make enough time for it,” he informed her sagely.
“I know you’re right.” She exhaled. “It’s good to relax.”
“Speaking of that…” Brent said, navigating the canoe into a sequestered spot in the cove beneath a canopy of trees. “Are you ready for lunch?”
Brent opened the picnic basket and pulled out a chilled bottle of pinot grigio, cranking its twist cap. “Wine?”
“I’d love some,” she said, feeling giddy in spite of herself.
He located the wineglasses in the basket and passed them to her to hold so he could pour.
He must have noticed her scanning the contents of the basket. “Everything’s low-fat but healthy,” he said. “I brought nuts, fresh fruit, veggies…”
“Is that cheese I see in there?” she said, lusting after it. “And a loaf of French bread?”
“Just a little for me. It’s okay if you don’t want any.”
“Oh no. I mean, yeah. Just a tiny taste would be good. I mean, I have to keep my strength up and everything. In light of the wine,” she added creatively.