the girls who came in here to help out.”
Emily let the subject drop as she picked up her broom and went back to work. Gabi pushed her own pile of debris over to merge with Emily’s.
“You don’t really think there’s something going on between Jerry and Grandmother, do you?” Gabi asked. “You were just trying to rattle her, the way she said.”
Emily shrugged. “I saw something. Maybe it was nothing more than two old friends exchanging a fond look, but it seemed like more to me.”
“Would that be so bad?” Gabi asked, her expression thoughtful. “She must get lonely. Grandfather’s been gone a long time now.”
“I guess I never thought about that,” Emily admitted. “I don’t think kids ever give much thought to their parents being lonely, much less their grandparents.”
“We’re adults, not kids,” Gabi said. “We should be more sensitive.”
“Boone said something very much like that earlier,” Emily admitted.
Gabi grinned. “You’re quoting Boone now. That’s quite a turnabout.”
“Don’t make too much of it,” Emily said. “He just mentioned that, even though Cora Jane let us all go, it doesn’t mean she doesn’t want or need us around from time to time.”
“He’s right about that,” Gabi admitted. “Not even I get over here half as much as I should, and I live closest. Forget about Dad. Until the other day when he drove over to pick her up, I can’t recall the last time he set foot in Sand Castle Bay. He doesn’t even drive crosstown in Raleigh to see me unless I force the issue.”
“Did you honestly expect otherwise?” Emily asked her.
Gabi looked momentarily disconcerted by the question, then laughed self-consciously. “I suppose I did. Crazy, huh? Mom couldn’t even get him to come home for dinner most nights. I guess a part of me was thinking that with Mom gone, he might need company from time to time, maybe even a home-cooked meal.”
Emily regarded her with sympathy. “I’m sorry, Gabi.”
“Don’t be sorry for me. He’s disappointed all of us, Mom included.”
“But I think it affected you the most,” Emily said. “Mom accepted the way things were. Samantha went her own way. So did I. We gave up expecting anything, but you’re the one who’s settled right there in Raleigh, followed in his footsteps, tried to become a part of his world. Now don’t go and take offense at this, but we all know you did that hoping to finally get his attention.”
Gabi didn’t even bother trying to deny it. “I may be in the same field, but I don’t sit over a microscope the way he did,” she said candidly. “I write press releases about other people’s discoveries.”
Emily chuckled. “Worse, you do it for a competitor, who’s wildly successful, in part thanks to your PR work,” she said. “That must give Dad heartburn.”
Gabi grinned. “It isn’t nice to gloat,” she chided.
“Well, it makes me smile. It’s what Dad deserves for not hiring you himself. I know that’s what you really wanted.”
Gabi sighed. “It would have been a disaster. I can see that now. He was right to say no.”
“I’ll give you that,” Emily said. “I’m glad you can finally see it, too. You’d have been miserable having a boss who withholds praise or is too distracted to even notice you’re alive until you make a mistake.”
Gabi frowned. For a minute Emily thought she might jump in and try to defend their father, but instead she let it go. That alone hinted at her disillusioned acceptance of their father’s flaws.
“How’d you and Samantha get along on the ride over?” Gabi asked, deliberately changing the subject.
“Fine,” Emily insisted, a defensive note immediately creeping into her voice. “Why?”
“Because she always seems to get on your last nerve without even trying.”
“Not this time,” Emily swore, “though she does seem to have some crazy idea about me and Boone.”
Gabi laughed. “Sweetie, we all have crazy ideas about you and Boone, even you if you’re being honest with yourself. Tell me you did not just about swoon when you laid eyes on him for the first time today?”
Though she’d have denied it had Samantha asked, with Gabi she admitted the truth. “Maybe just a little swoon,” she said. “I told him there couldn’t be any craziness between us, though.”
“Did you now?” Gabi said, clearly amused. “And why did you find it necessary to say such a thing?”
“Because there was a moment out there on the deck, just a moment, when there seemed to be something sizzling between us the way it used to.”
“And you’re