given time to consider how they could help Ari, and their grandchild. Eleanor could understand Ari’s reluctance to talk to them. But Eleanor had no such reluctance.
“Gram? You have such a strange look on your face. What are you thinking?” Ari asked.
Eleanor rolled her eyes. “So sorry. I think it’s just getting a bit late for me.” It was only a quarter past ten, but she’d found she could play the old-age card whenever she wanted.
Cal called for the check. They walked out to the parking lot, where their two cars awaited. Ari had insisted that she drive Eleanor to and from her house. Cal helped Eleanor into the passenger seat of Ari’s Subaru and walked around to the driver’s side. Ari had already settled herself and was fastening her seatbelt.
“Thanks again, Cal, we had a wonderful time,” she said, waving.
Ari steered the car carefully from the parking lot and turned onto South Washington Street.
“Did you have a good time?” Ari asked her grandmother.
“I did. I like Cal a lot.” Eleanor saw her granddaughter’s face caught in a flash of lights. Ari looked pensive, even sad.
Eleanor asked, “Have you heard from Beck?”
“Yes. He’s texted several times. He’s busy at the clinic. He asks how I am. But he’s not coming down this weekend.”
“Ah.” Eleanor sat quietly for the rest of the ride, her mind churning with thoughts and possibilities. As Ari slowed the car to the twenty miles per hour required by ’Sconset, Eleanor asked, “Have you considered where you want to live once you have your baby? For that matter, where do you want to have your baby?”
“I think about it all the time,” Ari said.
“I think your parents should know,” Eleanor said slowly. “You’re three months along now. True, you’re not showing yet—”
“I’m looking a little chubby,” Ari said.
“Well, you’re going to look chubbier. You’ll be showing soon. Some of the summer people leave in a week to return home to get their children ready for school. Have you asked Cal how long camp lasts in the summer?”
“No. I haven’t even thought of that. I don’t know why, Gram, but I seem to be in a stupor. I haven’t even told my best friend. You’re the only one who knows. Well, you, Peter, and Beck.”
Eleanor said, very carefully, “You know you’re welcome to stay here as long as you want. But you need to discuss this with your parents. And you need to remember how different the island is in the winter. Have you decided whether you’ll take the courses you signed up for in childhood education? Because that means you’ll need a home base in Boston. And childcare in the spring semester.”
“Oh, Gram,” Ari cried. Tears ran down her cheeks. “I’m a mess!”
“You’re not a mess,” Eleanor said. “But you are in a mess, for sure. I’ll help you. I’m not saying don’t worry, because you should worry, or at least make a plan, but I’ll help you. I’m going to invite your parents and your uncle here for a meeting.”
“But you don’t know where Mother is!”
“No. But I can text her. Or email her. I’ll work it out.”
Ari turned into the drive and cut the engine. Her shoulders shook as she sobbed. “I’m so scared,” she whispered.
“Yes, I know,” Eleanor told her. She patted Ari’s back gently. “You’ll be fine. Right now you need to get some sleep.”
* * *
—
Monday, after Ari had left for camp, Silas knocked on Eleanor’s kitchen door. She knew he was coming. He’d promised to bring pastries from the Sconset Market. She’d promised to make fresh coffee.
“Good God, but this is an old white elephant, isn’t it?” Silas remarked as they settled on the deck.
“It was in my grandmother’s family,” Eleanor said.
“And you live here year-round? How do you stay warm in the winter?”
“Oh, I manage. I keep space heaters in my bedroom and bathroom. Often, I make a fire in the living room, but I’ll confess lugging in the wood and kneeling down to put it on the grate is becoming a bit of a trial.”
“I’m sure. I had one of those gas-fired fake wood things installed in my fireplace. Works like a dream. And I don’t have to clean out the ashes.”
Eleanor was silent, thinking. “Did my children put you up to this?”
Silas looked puzzled. “Up to what?”
“Oh, Silas, they want me to sell this house.”
“And you don’t want to because…”
Eleanor made a little humph noise. “Because they’re pretending I’m too old to keep it up, too