Page 26 of Against the Current

“We know who you are.” The brother came forward and wiped his hands on his jeans. “Mom? We got visitors.”

Try as Jackie might, she’d never been able to figure out where the Reeds had gotten their accent from. Trisha sounded like an East Coaster, but the brother, Rhonda, Tommy, and a few of the others sounded straight from Appalachia. To Jackie, the accent was endearing but confusing. Sometimes she wondered if they played it up.

Rhonda burst from the front door. She wore an apron covered in dried sauce, and she looked frantic and free in a way Jackie was sure Jackie herself never had. Suddenly, Rhonda’s arms were around Jackie, and she was jumping up and down.

“I can’t believe it! Can you?” she cried. “I just can’t believe it!”

Jackie’s heart felt crooked. She tried to get Josh’s attention, but he was walking over to the grandfather to shake his hand. Itwas easy for Josh to accept everyone. It was easy for him to move through the world with forgiveness and love.

“When she told me, I started jumping for joy,” Rhonda said. “And I haven’t been able to stop!”

Finally, Jackie sputtered, “What do you mean? What did she tell you?”

Rhonda stopped jumping but continued to grin madly at Jackie. Jackie had a prickly sensation on the back of her neck. She felt like someone was watching her.

“I thought that’s why you came over here!” Rhonda cried. “To celebrate.”

“I can’t find them,” Jackie said, feeling flustered.

Rhonda twisted around and jogged over to Josh to hug him, too.

Jackie repeated herself. “I really don’t know where they’ve gone.”

But Rhonda was already back inside, rustling around. Josh was conversing with the grandfather, but Jackie couldn’t understand anything he said. Rhonda reappeared with glasses and a bottle of what looked to be homemade wine. Jackie winced and wondered how she could get out of drinking it.

“That’s the thing about being grandparents together,” Rhonda said, pressing a glass into Jackie’s hand. “We have to learn to celebrate together. We have to learn to find the beauty in every little thing! That’s part of what it means to be a grandparent. Don’t you think?”

Jackie gaped at Rhonda as the truth unfolded over her. In her stomach, dread and joy mixed into a boiling soup.

Josh was the first to speak. “Wait a minute!” His eyes were enormous. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

Rhonda was euphoric. “The kids are pregnant!” After that, she filled her own glass to the brim and tossed it back.

It took a little while to get all the information out of Rhonda—at least, everything that Rhonda knew for sure. Trisha had learned she was pregnant almost immediately after the wedding. She’d told Ryan about the pregnancy on the day of his grandfather’s funeral. After that, Ryan had told Trisha to quit her job, and he’d taken her on a little road trip along the coast.

“It’s really romantic, isn’t it?” Rhonda suggested with stars in her eyes.

Jackie’s heart thudded. Although she was overjoyed for Trisha and Ryan, she’d suddenly faced the horrible consequences of the Sutton family’s actions.

Ryan and Trisha were more than happy to turn their backs on them.

Jackie had to find a way to repair what had broken. She couldn’t live her life without her grandbaby. She had too much love to give.

Chapter Ten

February 2025 - Nantucket Island

For days, Jackie had been jittery and unable to sleep. She sat at the kitchen table with a mug of tea she forgot to drink before it went cold, watching her phone, waiting to hear from Ryan about where he, Trisha, and the kids had ended up as they trekked from Chicago back to Nantucket. Jackie was following along on the map, and it seemed an awful long way. Why had he moved so far? Sometimes Jackie woke up thinking they weren’t going to make it. Sometimes she woke up thinking she’d made the story all up in her head. Maybe she’d dreamed it. But she had only to read back over the messages she and Ryan had exchanged, ones in which they’d made new promises and new arrangements—ones, she hoped, would benefit both of them—to reckon with her new truth.

She was going to know her grandchildren.

She was going to welcome Trisha with open arms.

On that fateful day, when Jackie had finally called him back, Ryan answered on the third ring. He sounded so low, so sad, sobroken that tears had rushed down Jackie’s cheeks. As a mother, she was willing to do anything to help Ryan out of his current predicament. To lend insight. To give him hope. And as a real estate agent and person on the brink of her own misery, she needed his help, too.

She hadn’t fully pitched it like that, though. She didn’t want him to know just how desperate things had gotten for her, too. Instead, she’d said, “Ryan, the Sutton Estate is empty and waiting for you and your family whenever you want it.”

Ryan had been at a loss. “Are you sure?”

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