catch a fast ferry to the Cape to rent a car and drive to the airport.”
“We won’t take a ferry,” her father said. “We’ll fly.”
“Wow,” Ari exclaimed.
“We’ll get a taxi to the harbor, surprise your mother, and we can all go home. I mean to our Wellesley house.”
“But what about Gram?” Ari asked.
“I don’t think she needs to come with us,” her father said.
“I don’t want her feelings to be hurt,” Ari told him.
“Nor do I. But Eleanor and I had a good talk. I think she’ll be happy just knowing we’re going to try to work things out with your mother. With my wife.”
“Okay…How soon should we go?”
“As soon as possible, I think, don’t you?”
“Right.” Ari stood up. “I’ll go tell Gram, and get my phone, and, well, we have everything at our Wellesley house.”
Her father smiled.
* * *
—
Eleanor sat in her second-floor bedroom with the windows open to the fresh salt air. She didn’t intend to spy on her granddaughter and her son-in-law, but the breeze carried their words up from the deck.
When she heard Phillip say that they didn’t need to take Eleanor to meet Alicia, a strange pain stabbed Eleanor right in her heart. She was dismissed. A moment later, the pain disappeared, replaced by a lovely sense of release.
The truth was she needn’t go with them. Really, it was between Alicia and Phillip, and Ari, too. Eleanor wasn’t necessary, which meant she was free, as free as any mother who worries is, and was there any mother on earth who didn’t worry?
Maybe she would be able to spend more time with Silas. Or more time talking to Jeff Townsend, the realtor, about houses in town.
Ari burst into Eleanor’s bedroom.
“Gram, I’ve been talking with Dad and he says Mom’s boat docks this evening, so we’re flying up there so we can meet her!” After a moment, Ari said, “You’ll be okay here, won’t you?”
“Of course,” Eleanor said. “I think your plan is wonderful. I have commitments tomorrow, so don’t worry about hurrying back. Enjoy yourself. I hope it all goes well.”
“Oh, Gram!” Ari seemed too excited to say more. She flew across the room, kissed Eleanor’s cheek, and hurried out of the bedroom.
Eleanor overheard them talking, and the sound of the back door shutting. Two car doors slammed. She leaned back in her chair, listened to the car pull away, took a deep breath, and relaxed.
Twenty-Four
Ari’s breath was ragged as she sat in her father’s rental car, driving to the small Nantucket airport. She had seldom spent time alone with her father in the past few years, and especially after her confrontation at Moors End farm stand, her emotions were all over the place. Plus, she was pregnant and hadn’t really organized her life to deal with that. How could she, without knowing about Beck’s feelings? They needed more than three months to really know each other.
It was a relief when they arrived at the airport. She stood next to her father while he returned the rental car and bought tickets for the next flight to Boston. At this time of year, planes flew often between the island and the mainland. They were lucky. They had to wait only fifteen minutes before boarding a JetBlue. During the flight, Ari simply leaned back and closed her eyes for the forty-five-minute trip. The rumbling of the plane was familiar, even comforting, and she didn’t have to make conversation with her father.
After they landed, they caught a taxi to the Cruise Atlantic pier on Boston Harbor. The ship was small compared to the towering luxury fleets at the far end of the harbor. Ari and her father got to the boat just as it was anchoring in its slip. Passengers waved from the upper decks to the small crowd waiting near the dock.
“I’m excited,” Ari told her father. “It sort of feels like Christmas.”
“We’ll see,” her father said, adding wryly, “It might be more like Halloween.”
After that, they waited silently as dozens of passengers disembarked. Ari didn’t see her mother, and as more and more people came down the ramp and greeted one another, hugging and laughing, Ari worried. For all they knew, her mother had stayed in Canada, traveling through all the enormous provinces with her new lover.
Suddenly, there she was. Alicia wore a blue summer dress and a wide straw hat with a blue ribbon. She looked rested and happy. Cliff was at her side, talking to her.
Behind her mother came a rather professorial sort,