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He finished loosening the connector. “Maybe that’s stupidly sexist because it was a woman folding laundry. But it wasn’t about the laundry. It was this incredible, domestic sort of vision that made me think of home and comfort, and I knew she was going to be at the center of it. And she always has been.”
Folding his arms across the top of the water heater, he fixed me with a look. “You having one of those moments?”
I thought of how Caroline had looked the day we’d gone sailing. Not straddling me in the cabin—though that would always rate among my top favorite memories ever—but before, when we’d been cutting through the water. She’d tipped her face up to the sky, eyes closed as the wind whipped her hair and she’d looked so… free of all the burdens of her everyday life. It had struck me right down to the marrow that I’d done that for her. That I wanted to keep doing that for her for always.
“Yeah.”
Dad nodded. “Thought you might. You’ve got the look.”
“The look?”
“Like you’ve been whacked over the head with the love stick.”
I snorted. “The love stick?”
“Stupid term for a serious condition. You in love with Caroline?”
I didn’t have to think about it.
“I am. I know it’s fast, but that’s where my head is. I’m good at looking into the future. That’s why I bought this house. I can see what it will be when I’m done. Now, when I look out into that future—five years, ten years, twenty—I see her. Is that crazy?”
Dad smiled. “No. I’d say that’s just love. You told her yet?”
“No. I don’t want to freak her out. Our whole relationship has been, in some ways, faster than I think she’s entirely comfortable with, so I’m gonna sit back and let things take their course. Wait until I don’t think the idea of it will scare her to death.”
“Sensible. For what it’s worth, your mom thinks Caroline looks like she’s been hit by the love stick, too. And she’s usually a pretty good judge of these things.”
That gave me a jolt. “What does she think about it?”
“That you’ll give her beautiful grandbabies if she keeps her nose out and doesn’t say things like how you’ll give her beautiful grandbabies.”
I laughed outright. “Okay, yeah. Good call on her part. That would definitely send Caroline running. She’s spent her whole life taking care of her siblings. I don’t know how she feels about the idea of a family of her own someday. I don’t even know how she feels about the idea of marriage. For her, I think that’s all way on out there in a hazy future. And that’s okay. We’ve got plenty of time.”
“But you’re gonna fix up this house with that in mind?” Dad prompted.
“Damned straight.”
“Solid plan. Let’s swap out these water heaters.”
18
Caroline
“I swear, we’re trapped in some kind of time warp.” Willa laid her head on the bar top I’d just wiped clean.
I glanced at the clock. “Only another forty-five minutes ’til closing.”
“Can’t come soon enough.”
Gently, I tipped her chin up so I could look at her face. Her skin was pale beneath the tan she’d acquired since coming back to Hatterwick, and her eyes were hugely dilated. “Girl, you look awful. What’s going on?”
“Been fighting a migraine for the last hour or so.”
“Shit, Willa. Why didn’t you say something? You should’ve gone home.”
“I didn’t want to leave you handling everything by yourself, since Ed didn’t make it back from the mainland.”
Our boss had gone over for his second doctor’s appointment in as many months to get the results of some kind of tests. I didn’t know for what, but given he’d been over there hours longer than expected and had missed the last ferry back, I was starting to worry it was something serious.
