Page 95 of Look on the Bright Side

“Elsbeth! How wonderful to see you!” He was nattily dressed, as always—linen trousers, a crisp white shirt, a vest. He opened his arms for a hug, and she gave him one. Robert was everything her own father was not—kindhearted, well read, thoughtful, sociable. Only Gerald had an edge where his father was concerned.

“Can I make you something to eat?” she asked.

“I just came from the Ice House,” he said, “where I had the biggest salad of my life, Ellie! There were hard-boiled eggs in it, and bacon, and cheese, and it was wonderful. But I could use something cold to drink, if it’s not too much trouble.”

“No trouble at all,” she said. She opened the fridge, then glanced at her watch. Four thirty. “Want a gin and tonic?”

“Oh! How deliciously indulgent! Yes, please. I feel like a naughty schoolboy, having a cocktail with a pretty lady, and before five at that.” She smiled and poured them both a healthy slosh of gin, added ice and poured the tonic on top.

“I don’t see any limes, I’m afraid.”

“We will have to soldier on without them, in that case. Thank you, my dear. Is my son around?”

“He’s taking a shift at the urgent care center in Orleans,” she said. “He’ll be back about seven thirty. Is everything okay?” She sat across from him at the table.

“That’s what I was going to ask him, as a matter of fact,” he said. “But I think I’m quite lucky to find you here instead, because you are the one I’m worried about, dear Ellie.”

“Oh.” She took a sip of the drink—the tonic was flat. “Um, thanks.”

“You’re still not living here?”

“No. I’m staying with Joy.”

“A lovely woman! So interesting and colorful, and those eyelashes! She’s like an exotic bird, don’t you think?”

Ellie laughed. “That’s a good description.”

Robert sipped his drink, his gentle blue eyes kind. “Ellie, if it’s none of my business, please say so, but do I need to have a strongly worded conversation with my boy?”

There were those tears again. “He’s a senior citizen, Robert. I’m afraid he’s past the age of parental lectures.”

“Nonsense. If one’s parents are alive, a lecture is always an option.” He looked at the table and traced a knot in the wood. “I’m under the impression he’s been careless with you, Ellie. Am I wrong?”

Should she be talking to her father-in-law about this? Why not? It wasn’t like her own parents would offer anything valuable. Robert had been a rock for two-thirds of Ellie’s life. She should be allowed to talk to him. “No, you’re not wrong. And ‘careless’ is the perfect word.”

“Irredeemably careless?” he asked, wrinkles deepening as he frowned.

“I don’t know.” A tear slipped out, and she dashed it away. “Robert, how did you and Louisa do it? Sixty-seven years of happiness seems impossible.”

“Well, my dear, of course we had our difficult times. I worked in Boston five days a week, don’t forget. She was essentially a single mother.”

Yes, it was Gerald’s chief complaint about his father. Robert had only become a devoted family man after Harlow was born, a far better grandfather than he’d been as a dad. “I remember,” she said.

“And this was in the day when infidelity and flirtations were very much part of the landscape.”

She blinked. “Did you…never mind. I withdraw the question.”

“No, I never did,” Robert said. “But there were many times when she and I were unhappy with each other. I wanted to raise Gerald in the city, and she insisted on staying here, and so we were a family divided. I called every night and came home every Friday afternoon, but it was challenging. There were months at a time when things were strained. We always found our way back to each other, though.”

Ellie nodded.

“No marriage is perfect,” he said. “But you and Gerald have made yours close to that. Until now, it seems?”

She swallowed. “Let’s just say his attention…wandered. Nothing actually happened. Just a lot of secret conversations and a lunch or two. Then he ended it.”

“What an idiot,” Robert said. “What do they call that these days? An emotional dalliance?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

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