Page 57 of Against the Current

Trisha sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. “I keep thinking about your grandmother. She loved you so much.”

“She did. I loved her, too,” Ryan said.

“How do we love the problematic people in our lives?” she asked.

“We can always run away again,” Ryan said, mostly in jest.

But Trisha shook her head. “No. We’re back. We have to stay. I can feel my roots here. I can feel the love Jackie has for the kids. I can feel how stable Willa feels here.”

Silence fell. Ryan’s head spun with questions.

He asked, “What’s the right answer?”

Trisha sighed. “I think we have to make it all up as we go along.”

“But we have to do it together,” Ryan told her.

“Communication,” Trisha said. “They say it’s key.”

Ryan let a small smile creep over his face. Suddenly, he remembered them as two kids who’d hatched a plan to escape, only to be pushed back into their original prison.

“If you want your mother to be in our kids’ lives, we can try it out,” he said. “My mother has made plenty of mistakes, after all.”

“We have to set a good example,” Trisha said. “I want to forgive. I want to move forward.”

“Let’s do it.”

Outside, a violent wind rushed against the mansion and shook the windows in their panes.

It reminded Ryan of something.

“We’re getting out of the real estate business,” he said.

Trisha’s eyes widened. “I’m sorry?”

“We have a better idea,” he explained.

Trisha leaned over the table and smiled. “I’m all ears.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Three months was all Josh, Jackie, Ryan, and Trisha needed to get the Sutton Bed-and-Breakfast into shipshape for the first guests. Three months meant a soft opening on June 23rd. But those months weren’t without their difficulties. Because they needed capital to buy antiques and redecorate the rooms and upgrade the kitchen, Jackie and Josh got a loan from the bank—a loan that required a cosign by Victor Sutton and reminded Ryan and Trisha of that horrible day back in Chicago when they hadn’t had more than a few pennies to rub together. When the bank loan came through, the four of them cooked a feast in the Sutton Estate kitchen and made list after list of what needed to be bought and repaired and painted. Trisha poured glass of wine after glass of wine, and Ryan sat back, overjoyed to see Trisha and Jackie laughing together for the first time.

Ryan kept selling houses, praying for the day they could close up the real estate practice and throw all their time and energy into the Sutton Bed-and-Breakfast. Because his mother was now out of real estate completely, whatever mole had passed along Sutton Real Estate information to Sarah Strong no longer had anything to go on.

The line was cut. Sarah Strong would be fine on her own. Revenge was no longer on the table.

According to Trisha, Sarah Strong was no longer welcome at Reed family dinners. “Mom told her to stop,” Trisha explained. “She told her to stop for the sake of Willa, Rudy, and Gavin. But she doesn’t want to. She wants to get back at anyone who hurt our family. I don’t understand it. I don’t understand why she won’t let go.”

“Not everyone can,” Ryan admitted, thinking of his grandmother.

Gavin, Rudy, and Willa were overwhelmed with excitement about the refurbishment of the Sutton Bed-and-Breakfast. The plan was for the five of them to move into the back of the mansion and keep the front for guests. Rudy, who was fast becoming the most social of all their children, couldn’t wait to meet people from all over the world. He suggested buying a bunch of games to put in the living room so that guests could interact with each other. Ryan decided to put a bar in the living room so guests could buy hot cocoa or soft drinks or wine while they relaxed and socialized.

Of course, Ryan and Trisha were nervous about how Willa would handle so many intruders. But in April, Willa’s new doctor prescribed a medication that seemed to calm her considerably. She stopped having to leave school as often. She made another friend.

One evening, Willa asked to call her friend back in Chicago, her only autistic friend and the daughter of Ryan’s friend Scott. From the next room, Ryan and Trisha listened for a few minutes, their hearts bursting as Willa told her friend about how much she liked her new school and new friends. “You will have to come visit,” she said.

After their conversation, Willa passed the phone to Ryan because Scott wanted to talk. It was the man Ryan had beenforced to fire back in January. The man who’d shown Ryan just how desperately he’d wanted to get out of that job in advertising.

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