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She smiled. “Are you a light sleeper?”
“I can be.” He shrugged. “Last night I think I slept a lot better than you.”
Anita was battling another yawn. “How can you tell?”
Wyatt smirked, then squeezed her hand and moved around to the other side of the car.
“Here we go,” Sam announced to the car at large. “We’re about to meet my first love.” He cleared his throat. “Be it known to everyone that I loved my wife Norma more than life itself.”
“Thanks, Gramps,” Wyatt said.
“I was wondering about that,” Carly said brightly. “Can you love two women in a lifetime?”
“I think so, but for me, it was two different loves,” Sam said. “With Susan, I loved her and our hope for the future. With Norma, I loved her and our life together—which was my present, then became my future. When you live and work and sacrifice with another person, your love deepens to a level that’s hard to explain. I think with Susan, my affection for her was more in what-ifs.”
“That’s really deep, Sam,” Carly said.
He grinned, and Wyatt laughed. “It is really deep, but probably accurate.”
“Wyatt, here, loved a woman,” Sam said, patting his shoulder. “The love wasn’t deep enough to last, though.”
Wyatt glanced at Anita. “Uh, thanks, Gramps. That’s true too.”
She only smiled, then she took his hand.
“Is that how it was with Dad?” Carly asked her.
“Oh.” A spark of panic rushed through her. “I think your dad and I had different opinions of what marriage meant. We definitely loved each other, but we were interested in different futures.”
“I guess love and relationships are a lot more than just feelings? They’re actions too,” Carly said.
“I think you’re the smartest teenager I know,” Sam said.
“And maybe the only one you know?” She laughed.
Wyatt slowed the car and stopped at the curb of a small house with white shutters and planters filled with flowers on the front porch. “This must be it.”
“It’s cute,” Carly said.
He turned off the engine and looked back at his grandpa, who was staring out the car window.
After a long moment of silence, Sam said, “I’m ready.”
Wyatt climbed out of the car and opened his door to help him out. Anita grabbed the folded-up walker and handed it over.
With a trembling hand, Sam grasped the handles. He didn’t protest when Wyatt held on to his other arm as they walked toward the house. Carly and Anita followed, and she had to tell herself to breathe.
Once they were all on the porch, Wyatt rang the doorbell, and then they waited.
Any moment now...The door finally creaked open, and there stood a woman who had to be Susan’s daughter. Anita guessed the blonde woman to be around fifty years old, with some silver threaded through her short hairstyle.
“Lila?” Wyatt asked. “I’m Wyatt Davis, and this is my grandfather Sam.”
Lila’s mouth was set in a firm line, but her light blue eyes were plenty curious. Her gaze took in the four visitors, then she opened the door wider.
“I’m Anita,” Anita offered, “and this is my daughter Carly.”
Lila nodded. “Wyatt said you’d all be coming.” She stepped back. “Well, come on in. My mother’s been talking nonstop about Sam, so we might as well get this meeting started.”
