I touched a finger to her nose. “Do you want Daddy to play with you?”
“Yes! Yes! Yes!” She bounced on my knee and then hopped off. “Come chase me.”
“How about I give you a head start?” I stood and rubbed my hands together for exaggerated effect, and then she took off into Patty’s hands, who caught her mid-flight.
“Nana!”
“One second while I talk to your dad.”
“No!” Mary complained.
Patty put her hands on her hips and gave Mary her no-nonsense look. “Mary Katherine Brisken.”
Those three words had my baby cowering and pushing out her lip.
I couldn’t blame her. I wouldn’t want to be in trouble with Patty either.
“One second, okay?” Patty tipped Mary’s chin with her forefinger and kissed her head. “And you play nice with your sister.”
“Okay, Nana,” Mary replied begrudgingly.
When Mary stalked toward Sarah’s sand castle, Patty approached and sat down in the beach chair next to mine.
“Charles, how’s it going so far? How’s the search?” Concern was heavy in her eyes.
I exhaled deeply and rolled the beer bottle back and forth between my fingertips. “It could be going better. I’m sure this search has given Mason a few premature grays.”
She laughed.
“How’s your mother doing anyway?” I asked.
I knew how stressed out Patty was with her mother’s health, and my brothers and I tried everything we could to make sure she took the time she needed to go home to Florida and be with her mother by adjusting my brothers’ and my schedules.
“Well, I’m surprised she’s lasted this long, but being ninety and still kicking is a pretty good sign. She’s doing better since her stroke, but she’s aging.” The light in Patty’s eyes dimmed.
“Patty, I’m sorry.”
“She doesn’t have that much time left, Charles.” Her voice was soft, fragile even.
“I know.”
I’d lost both parents, so I knew the feeling. I’d mastered losing people. What I hadn’t mastered was the pain. I was so used to losing people that I couldn’t afford to lose any more. It had taken me years to stop putting Mary and Sarah in my own little self-made bubble, to stop going to every single playdate, to stop watching them fall asleep.
I took another long pull of my beer and focused on the waves rushing to the shore. That was much better than looking into Patty’s sorrowful eyes, which mirrored my heartache.
“I’m going to take care of her,” Patty said with a nod and a little more sadness since I knew she was going to miss the girls.
I nodded. “I just wish you weren’t leaving.”
Day by day, the hope that we would find someone as capable as Patty was dwindling and turning into desperation. In the moment of silence that spanned between us, I relived the nightmare of interviews that we’d already gone through—the hippie chick who had shown us all her herbs to treat the kids’ ailments and the drill sergeant who had told us her ways of disciplining the children, which I was pretty sure were all illegal.
Damn it. A worry threatened to choke me, and panic filled my insides. We were never going to find someone capable.
I cleared my throat. “What if we moved her here? Your mom.”
I’d suggested this earlier to Patty, but she’d shut me down.
“It’s not possible. I have to go back.” Her voice was resolute, her words final.
My breathing sped up as though I’d been knocked in the face with the bottle, but really, it was her words. “It is possible though. I have the means to make it happen.”
If tears could compel this woman to stay, I would force tears down my face like a little baby, but I had no idea how to even cry. My body had been built to keep myself intact, my emotions in check.
“I have no idea how to raise these girls alone.” My body shot up from the seat, and I paced the short distance in front of my chair. “I can’t do this without you. What does she need? Let us set Eleanor up here. I’ll pay for all medical expenses, living expenses. All of it.”
“Charles Emmanuel Brisken.” She used the exact tone she’d used on Mary only moments ago. She patted the seat that I had evacuated. “Sit down.”
My breathing quickened, as though I’d run a race, though I was standing perfectly still. “Patty, you can’t leave us.” I blew out a breath.
I had my brothers, but it was different. I didn’t trust many people with my girls, but I trusted Patty. My brothers and