Page 109 of The Shell Collector
“I remember how much you love them.”
“Did you know, Hailey, that when I married your daddy, he bought me this beautiful bouquet of white roses to carry but left them at his house? So I picked dandelions, five yellow ones and five fluffy seeded ones and made my own bouquet. I made Ginny drive slow to be sure I didn’t lose any of the white fluffs on our ride to the beach that morning.” She lifted the yellow dandelion and tucked it behind her ear.
“You look beautiful, Mommy.” Jesse blew her a kiss.
“I couldn’t have said it better.” Paul moved around the table, still wearing her pink apron. “And after your mom and dad got married, we each blew one of those white fluffy dandelions and made wishes.”
“That’s right. We did.”
“We do that all the time, don’t we?” Hailey said.
“We sure do.”
“We call them summer snowflakes,” Hailey said to Paul. “And you can make horns out of them to make music, and Mom is an expert at daisy-chaining them into necklaces.”
“And I bet you are too.”
Hailey’s long dark lashes fluttered. “Of course. She’s my mom. She teaches me everything.”
Paul bit down on his lip to not laugh out loud. That little Hailey was a firecracker.
“I can do the horn,” Jesse said.
They told stories about dandelions and making wishes as they ate breakfast. By the time Paul and Amanda started clearing the dishes, Hailey and Jesse were anxious to get out in the yard to collect dandelions to show off their talents.
Amanda washed the dishes and he dried, making quick work of cleaning up the mess he’d made putting together breakfast.
He could see the burden she carried in her heart this morning. He could feel it too. It was nothing compared to losing Jack. She barely knew Maeve, but they had formed a tight bond.At least I’m here this time to sail her through the loss.
He put the last dish in the cabinet and shut it.
Amanda stood there with her back to him, wiped her hands on the dishcloth, and hung it over the front of the sink to dry.
What are you thinking?But he didn’t press. He waited.
“She wants me to move into her house.” Excitement tinged her words. “I mean, not just me. To raise the children there.”
“It’s an awesome location.”
“She wants to let me live there. I’d have to pay the taxes and insurance. That’s it.”
“Wow!”
“It was so out of the blue.” She turned around, leaning against the counter. “People will think she was crazy to let me live there.”
“There’s nothing crazy about Maeve. She’s got her wits about her.”
“Definitely. Oh, and she suggested I rent out this house or use it for my business. Someday I could hand this beach house down to them. Wouldn’t that be amazing? To use the rental money to keep it up and improve it. Get some real air-conditioning.”
“I could put central air in for you right now if you’d let me. You know I’d do that for you.”
“Stop. No. You’re missing the point. I could leave the house to them to vacation in and bring their kids here.”
“That would be incredible.”
“Do you think I should consider it? Moving to Maeve’s?”
“If she wants you to live there, I think it’s very nice. She doesn’t have any other family except her sister, and apparently her sister has no desire to live on Whelk’s Island.”
