in my class, Pop, and the only one holding down a full-time job while maintaining the grades. Are you proud of me? Do you think my mother would be proud? I'm standing right here in front of you. Why don't you look at me? You're sober now. Why can't you hear me?
"Your father does the best he can with what he's got," Gramma Del said last night, "and if it's not enough for you, there's nothing anybody can do about it." Gramma Del still clung to life with a stubbornness and determination that defined courage.
"Sometimes he acts like he doesn't even know me," Gracie said, trying to make her grandmother understand what she was feeling. "I went to hug him and he took a step back."
"Don't be looking to change the man," she cautioned. "You can't make things perfect, no matter how hard you try."
But Gracie was obsessed with the changes in her father. Maybe if he'd been falling-down-drunk, she wouldn't have felt this way but to see him sober and responsible made her yearn for everything she'd missed over the years.
"If he would just sit down and talk with me," she said to Noah one night in mid-August. "There are so many questions I want to ask him about my mother and—"
Noah kissed her quiet. "Maybe he doesn't want to answer those questions, Gracie. It's taken him a long time to get over your mom's death."
"That's right," she said, "and I'll never get over it if I can't even talk about her with him."
"Leave him alone. He's doing great for the first time in years. Don't mess with it."
She glared at him. "You sound like Gramma Del."
"Thanks," he said. "She's one of my favorite people."
Gracie pushed him away and sat up with her back against an outcropping of rocks near the base of the lighthouse. It was one of those dark and hazy late summer nights that reminded you of why lighthouses were still so important. There was something comforting about the sweeping circle of light. "I wish—" She stopped herself.
"You wish what?"
She shook her head. "Just another ridiculous thought."
"Tell me."
"No," she said firmly. "It's impossible."
"Is it about your Gramma Del?"
He knew her so well. He had this way of shining light into the darkest, most secret corners of her heart.
"I want her to know about us," she blurted out. "She's going to die, Noah, and I don't want her to go before telling her about us. I can't keep this from her any longer." Lying didn't come easily to her. She had done it, and done it well, the last few years but she owed her grandmother the truth.
"That's not a good idea, Gracie. You know how she feels about my family."
"But she always loved you, Noah, I know she did, and she respected your mother. I want her to know how I feel about you. I want her to meet you the way you are now, see how wonderful you are—" She blinked away tears. "If she sees your face it will all come back to her, all of those good feelings. I know she'll be happy for us, Noah. I'm sure of it."
"Gracie, I—"
She reached for his hand. "I want her blessing, Noah."
#
The only thing Noah was sure of was that they were making a mistake but in the end he gave in because he loved Gracie and he respected her grandmother. He didn't want to be the one who stood between the two women and closure as the clock ticked down. He stood up, knocked sand from the backs of his jeans, then said, "C'mon."
Gracie looked up at him. "Now?"
"No time better." Or worse, for that matter. He reached for her hand and helped her to her feet. "We'll take your car. No point letting the whole town in on it."
Gracie threw her arms around his neck and showered him with kisses. "You won't regret this," she said as they walked toward her beat-up Mustang. "We'll get her blessing, Noah. We'll finally have family in our corner."
He hadn't realized that meant so much to her. He didn't need his parents' approval to love Gracie. Their approval didn't change a thing. He had managed to scrape by without it since he was five years old. Sure, life would be a hell of a lot easier if he'd fallen in love with someone from the list of rich girls from the right side of the tracks, but he didn't need easy. He needed Gracie and suddenly he