Page 58 of The Sea-Mist Cottage Inn
I put my fingers to my lips as a wave to Roman; his hands full of raw meat, he returned a wink.
Tiny intimacies.
OUTSIDE THE SHOP, ABOUTto open the door of my Golf, I happened to look over the roof. I’d parked around the corner and was looking directly into the alley.
I was looking at Ned O’Grady, Erin’s father, strolling unsteadily toward me down the middle of the alley. Barefootand wearing nothing but a pair of striped pajama bottoms and a saggy undershirt.
Jessie had told me that Daddy Ned had Alzheimer’s. It was why Erin had given up her career as a music teacher in SoCal and come back to Bluster. I hadn’t thought about it earlier, but now I wondered how Erin had been able to get away for our lunch. Or how she was able to get away for any reason ever. She must have help of some kind.
That help had apparently let her, and her father, down.
I hurried to the alley. “Daddy Ned?”
His head jerked to me, and he squinted, looking confused and suspicious at once. Then his expression cleared, and he grinned. Apparently he wore dentures now. Or he was supposed to, at least. He was not wearing them at this particular moment.
“Leonora?”
Surprised he recognized me after so much time, I grinned. “Yep, it’s me.”
I went up to him and hooked my arm around his waist. I remembered Daddy Ned being a big, strong Irishman, with thick auburn hair and a barrel chest. This version of him had a head of messy white wisps and a chest that curved in on itself. Alzheimer’s is a bitch of a disease.
“Hello, lass. You should be in school. Marilyn won’t be happy if she finds you playing hooky.”
Ah. He didn’t recognize me. Herememberedme—as I was when he’d known me. That added an extra dollop of both bitter and sweet to our reunion here.
Figuring it wouldn’t help him to try to correct him right now, I went with it. “I’m on my way back to school right now. Can I offer you a ride to your house before I do?”
This was an alley behind a full block of businesses. Dumpsters lined the pavement on both sides. He was barefoot,and broken glass, in grains and shards and chunks, glittered on the cracked concrete.
He looked around, confused again. “I ... I had an errand, but I can’t remember what it was.” I could see fear begin to catch in his eyes.
“Come on, my car’s just there.” Holding him close, ready to hold tight if he resisted, I started walking toward the street, trying to pick a path around those nasty bits of biting glitter. He didn’t resist at all.
Meek as a lamb, he let me help him into the passenger seat and buckle him in. O’Grady’s was only a couple of blocks away, but I felt much better driving him that distance.
“You’re a good girl, Leonora,” Daddy Ned said as I stopped at the intersection that would put me on Marina Street. “I’m sorry your mother doesn’t see that.”
Every organ in my body seemed to flash freeze at that softly uttered sentiment.
Here was Erin’s father, who maybe knew as much as I’d let anyone know about the life I’d had with my mother, thinking he was talking to Leonora, the girl who’d lived that life, and telling me something he’d never said to me in those days: that he understood—at least enough to know that my mother had believed I was no good.
I did not know what to do with that bizarre combination of sudden truths, but they made me feel frozen solid.
But then I saw Erin on the sidewalk up ahead, clearly looking for her father. I gave a couple of quick toots of the horn to get her attention and pulled over to park at the nearest spot.
She saw her father in the car and came running. I got out of the car.
“Daddy!” Erin cried, ignoring me as she hurried to the passenger side. “Daddy, where did you go?” She ripped the dooropen and dived in to check him over. “Are you okay? Are you hurt? Where did you go?”
Now Ned was fighting. He didn’t like Erin fussing over him, and he showed it by slapping and pushing and wriggling, like a toddler fighting a car seat. I ran around to help, and we got him out of the car.
A hefty woman in a set of scrubs with colorful balloons scattered over the top came trotting up. “Mr. Ned! We were so worried!”
Erin shot the nurse a positivelylethallook and otherwise ignored her. I knew better to get in the middle of that in any way, so I simply asked Erin, “Do you need any help?”
For a second, she glared at me, and I expected her to tell me to fuck off out of her business. But then she blinked, and the steely set of her jaw gave way. As briefly as that blink, her mouth quivered. Then she sucked in a breath and steadied her composure.
“Will you help me get him back upstairs?” she asked. I saw fear, weariness, and naked need rioting in her eyes.
