Page 79 of The Summer Swap

“Ah. Lily.” He poured wine into the glasses. “I’m glad you mentioned her, because I have some news on that front. Good news for your protégé.”

She took the glass from him. “She isn’t exactly my protégé. I’ve not been involved in any of her work.”

“Your mysterious lodger, then.” He handed her a glass of wine. “I showed a couple of her paintings to a friend of mine.”

“A friend?”

“Like you, I still have connections in the art world.”

She did, but it had been a long time since she’d leveraged any of those connections. “And?”

“He’s interested. He thinks her work is fresh and original. He would like to see more. But so would I.” He touched his glass to hers. “When are you going to introduce me? Are you going to invite me to the cottage?”

“I’m not sure.” She could imagine the looks she’d receive from Lily and Todd. “It might have been less complicated if you hadn’t sent that extravagant bunch of flowers.”

“You love flowers.”

“That’s true. But now my grandson is asking questions about the man sending me flowers. I think he might have got the wrong idea.”

Seth leaned back against the sofa and stretched out his legs. “Is it the wrong idea, Ceci?”

The question flustered her. “I don’t know.”

“I don’t know, either.” His gaze was fixed on her face. “But I’d like to find out. How about you?”

How about her?

She took a sip of wine. “I only planned to be here for a short time. A few days at most, but I’m still here.”

“Is it wrong of me to hope I’m at least part of the reason you’re still here?”

“No. You are part of the reason.” But not the whole reason. “I have decisions to make. I have to decide which parts of my life to let go, and which to keep.”

He nodded. “Sometimes the only way to move forward is to let go of what went before. You’re thinking about the cottage?”

“Actually, right now I’m thinking about Lapthorne Manor and whether I should sell it.” She put her glass down on the table, her hand a little shaky. “Just saying it makes my head implode. It has been my home forever. I’ve poured so much time and energy into the garden it feels like part of me. It would feel like selling a precious work of art. And as for the house itself—I don’t know. It contains a lifetime of possessions. I wouldn’t know where to start.”

“The same way you tackle any big project. You don’t think about the task as a whole, just the bit you’re focused on today. You start by deciding what you will not, under any circumstances, part with. Then you ask your children and grandchildren to do the same. After that—” he shrugged “—you clear it piece by piece. It’s a challenge of course, but it can also be cathartic. You take it day by day.”

Take it day by day.

She thought about the words in Todd’s note. She thought about the planner. And now she had an idea of how she might use it.

“Did you find it hard?”

“To sell the house? Yes and no.” He thought about it. “The task of clearing the house was emotional, but the girls helped and it brought us closer together. The decision to move—that was harder. I felt guilty. It felt like a betrayal of Sonya, as if I was turning my back on the life we built together, even though I knew that wasn’t what I was doing. I was also worried that I was making a mistake. I was afraid I might hand over the keys to the front door and immediately want to snatch them back. After she died, everyone told me not to make any big changes and I can understand why, but I think people have to do what feels right for them.”

“So how did you decide that moving was right for you?” She was looking to him for answers even though she knew that in the end she would have to find those answers herself.

“I used a simple formula. I looked at my life and tried to analyze which parts made me happy and which parts didn’t. I worked out that I was at my most unhappy when I was trying to live the life I’d lived with Sonya. Doing the things I’d done with her. Walking into rooms in the house that we’d inhabited together. I ‘survived’ those times, of course, but happy? No. But there were times when I was happy—or certainly content—so I sat down one evening and thought hard about it. When did I feel good? What made me excited about the future?”

“And that’s how you ended up here.”

“Yes. I always wanted to be closer to the water. Sonya hated sailing, so I started doing more of that. I’d always wanted to renovate a house, but Sonya hated mess and disruption and we were always too busy anyway. When I saw this place, I knew it offered a chance to do something I’d always wanted to do. How about the cottage? Will you sell that, too?”

She helped herself to cold cuts and salad.

“When I arrived, I was determined to do exactly that. But now I’m not sure. Talking to you has helped me remember the good times as well as the bad. And Lily and Todd are determined to make me fall in love with the place again. Maybe they’re even succeeding.”

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