him I think, so the last thing he needs is his sister fighting him.”
Gaye thought about the man who had picked them up from the airport. Practical. Dependable.
“You must be proud of him. And of Kirstie. She’s here by your side, helping you, even though she’d rather be out there with the reindeer.”
“Yes.” Mary finished her coffee. “I did wonder if it would be easier for everyone if we sold the place and I moved to an apartment in the city. I wouldn’t need to worry about a leaking roof and frozen pipes. But I don’t think I’d survive. We go for the day sometimes, and I can’t breathe with so many buildings crowding in on me. I’m staying here until we’ve tried everything. And that means Kirstie adapting, too. So that makes me feel selfish. But it also means I don’t have the privacy for those quiet, difficult moments when grief swamps you.”
“Does it matter if they witness that? Your children must know you’re upset. It’s natural to grieve.”
“I want to protect them from that. Even when your children are grown, you still want to protect them, don’t you?”
Yes, Gayle thought. You did. Even when they didn’t thank you for it.
“Maybe we protect them too much. I don’t know.” She took a mouthful of hot coffee. “I’m not the right person to pass an opinion on that. I’m not a very good mother.” She felt her voice falter and then felt Mary’s hand on hers.
“That’s nonsense. You’re an excellent mother.”
“I’m really not. And lately I’ve been questioning some of the parenting decisions I’ve made.” Had she really just said that aloud? And to a relative stranger? “Ignore me, I’m—”
“You do that, too? It’s a relief to know it’s not just me.”
“You question your parenting decisions?”
“Of course. You do what you think is best at the time, based on the information you have available, and it’s only later when you look back that you wonder if you made the wrong choices.” Mary leaned forward. “What we have to remember is that looking back doesn’t give you the same picture you were looking at when you made those decisions. All we can do is our best, based on the information and circumstances of the time, and I’m sure you did that.”
It was reassuring that Mary, who seemed to have a close loving relationship with her family, sometimes felt the way she did.
“You feel doubt, too?”
“Constantly. Welcome to parenting. The hardest thing you’ll ever do in your life. And the thing they don’t tell you in any of the books is that it gets harder, not easier. At least when they were toddlers you could control their world to an extent. It was tiring of course, relentless on occasions, but it was also fairly predictable. You were in charge.” Mary shook her head. “Then they become adults and you realize that the stress of parenting doesn’t ease. If anything, it gets worse.”
“It does.” She hadn’t thought about it before, but Mary was right. The child side of things had certainly been simpler in many ways.
“My two don’t seem to think I can possibly understand anything about their lives.”
“Tell me about it.”
Mary sat up a little straighter. “Could you eat a Scottish breakfast, Gayle?”
“The porridge will keep me going for hours, but thank you. My son-in-law—” she stumbled over the still-unfamiliar words “—Michael, told us how delicious it was. I’m sorry we didn’t all sit down together this morning. We’ve made work for you. You must have been in the kitchen for hours.”
“And I’m loving every minute. I’m so happy you’re here.” Mary topped up Gayle’s coffee. “I was dreading Christmas. It was always my favorite time of year, because no matter what was going on in people’s lives, they always came home for the festive season. But the house has felt so quiet and empty without Cameron. I even started to think that maybe I should sell it, but it isn’t just the house you sell, is it? You sell all the memories that go with it. You can’t put a price on those.”
There were memories that Gayle would happily have sold. “I hope you won’t have to sell.”
“I’m scared that if I sell, I’ll regret it. There’s nothing worse than regret.”
As someone who had plenty of regrets of her own, Gayle wasn’t about to argue with that. “I understand.”
“What do you usually do at Christmas?”
“I don’t do anything.” Gayle put her cup down. “When the children were young, it was just