Chapter 15
Cecilia finally met the children at the lake house.
Not during a family event.
Just lunch.
Milo stared at her.
“You’re Dad’s sister?”
“Yes.”
“Where you been?”
I nearly choked.
Cecilia smiled.
“Far away.”
“Why?”
She looked at me.
I nodded.
Her choice.
“Some adults made bad decisions when I was young, and I stayed away afterward.”
Milo accepted that far faster than any elder ever had.
“Okay.”
Then he showed her a toy car.
Nora liked Grace immediately.
Tess called Cecilia “Grandma” by mistake.
Cecilia looked horrified.
I laughed until she threatened to leave.
Healthy sibling relationship restored.
After lunch, I brought out the wooden sailboat.
The one Cecilia gave me.
Milo recognized the style.
“Like presents.”
Yes.
The three wrapped model sailboats I dropped in the service hall had survived.
Rafe found them crushed but repairable.
One for each child.
I had bought them because the party celebrated the reopening of our lakeside ballroom.
Now the boats carried another meaning I had not planned.
Cecilia hated symbolism.
“Don’t do a speech.”
“I wasn’t.”
“You were thinking one.”
Probably.
The kids placed the models on the dock.
Tess tried to float hers.
It sank immediately.
She cried.
Then laughed.
Excellent craftsmanship.
Cecilia watched.
“You okay?”
I asked.
She nodded.
“No.”
I smiled.
“Same.”
We stood together while our children and niece made terrible use of decorative objects.
No Vincent.
No elders.
No demand that her return become family reconciliation.
May you like
She was there because she chose lunch.
That was enough.
