Chapter Nine
Emma
Sitting around the pool didn’t have quite the same effect when it was an inflatable pool filled with a few inches of water. But the little kids were happily splashing in it and the women were relaxing in chairs set in a circle. The older kids were inside the fence, in the big pool. The men had all gone out on one of their guys-only rides, which meant they’d come home filthy and starving and hopefully nottoobattered, so they were enjoying the peace and quiet while it lasted.
“Seeing the kids all together like this sure does the heart good,” Mary said. “The little kidsandthe big kids.”
“I haven’t seen Sean this happy in a long time,” Emma said. “He loves it here.”
Rosie smiled at her. “I can’t even tell you how happy that makes me. I wasn’t sure he’d ever come back, to be honest. He never liked it growing up, but I hoped when he left the army, he’d come back to Whitford. To the lodge. But he said he was going to spend some time in New Hampshire first, and then he met you, Emma. It was for the best, of course, because I can’t imagine him without you, but seeing him here makes me feel whole again somehow.”
Emma knew that Sean had visited New Hampshire after his discharge because he didn’t know what he wanted to do and he was afraid if he went back to the lodge, he’d get sucked into the family business. He’d never been comfortable growing up in a house he shared with strangers and he wanted no part of running it.
When push came to shove, though, he’d joined with his brothers to keep from losing it. And, whether it was simply letting go of his childhood or the fact it had brought the Kowalski kids back together again, Sean had even come to love the place.
“What’s wrong, Emma?” Rosie asked, her voice low with concern.
“Nothing.” She forced herself to smile. “I think I mentally wandered off for a minute, that’s all.”
“I hope I didn’t make it sound like I’d rather Sean had come home instead of going to New Hampshire before. I wouldn’t change anything, you know, because I love you and Johnny.”
I’d rather Sean had come home...Because Whitford—or the Northern Star Lodge, to be precise—would always be Sean’s home in everybody’s mind. Maybe even Sean’s. “I know that. That wasn’t it, I promise.”
“Are you feeling okay?” Mary asked.
“Yes. Tired, I guess. Getting Johnny to settle in the camper is a little challenging. Bedtime isn’t too bad, because he’s wiped out by then, but he’s been waking up earlier than usual and I’m thinking about leaving the two of them in the RV and moving myself into the lodge.”
“I’ll drink to that,” Beth said from the other side of the chain link fence. Because Brianna and Lily wanted to swim in the big pool, some of the women were inside the fence and some were outside, with the kiddie pool. “I’ll drink alotto that. Lily isn’t bad, but Gabe doesn’t handle us all being in the same room very well. He has his own little air mattress with a sleeping bag he got to pick out, but likes to roam around. He’ll crawl in with Lily, but that wakes her up and she’s cranky, so then he gets in with us. And as soon as it’s light enough for him to see, he’s ready to go again.”
“That sounds like Johnny,” Emma said.
“I asked Andy if he could paint windows black, and he laughed,” Beth continued. “I guess he thought I was joking.”
“We hung a princess curtain around the bottom bunk in our cabin,” Keri said. She was inside the fence, with Beth. “That way, she has her own private room and she pretends it’s a fancy bed like princesses have. But mostly it keeps the sun from waking her up in the morning.”
“I’d steal it, but Lily could sleep through the zombie apocalypse. Gabe’s the problem, and I don’t think he even has to see the sun. He justknows.”
Emma watched Johnny trying to show Gabe how to put his face in the water and blow bubbles, which led to Gabe sputtering, coughing and then laughing every time. Then Jackson, who was just sitting in the pool, slapping the surface of the water with his hands, would laugh. It was soothing, she thought, watching babies enjoy the smallest things in life.
“What do you think, Emma?”
“Huh?” She looked at Liz, who’d spoken to her. “I’m sorry. I was watching my son teach his cousin how to inhale pool water.”
Beth snorted. “He’s kind of hopeless in the water. He’ll probably still be in the kiddie pool when the others go off to college.”
“He’ll get it,” Mary said. “I haven’t met a Kowalski yet who can’t swim.”
“Well, he’s got my DNA, too, and I know a few Hansens who sink like rocks.”
“What do I think about what?” Emma asked before the conversation derailed to the point nobody remembered what the original question had been.
“Oh, Laney,” Liz said. “Laney and Ben.”
“What about them?”
“Do you think they’re a thing?”
Emma was surprised by the question, and she wasn’t really sure what she should say. Sean had told her he thought Ben had a thing for Laney, but that as far as he knew, nothing had happened between them. But talk between two old friends that was shared with a wife in private didn’t make it family gossip. And she didn’t think Rosie had some kind of rule governing fraternization between Laney and guests, and technically hewasn’ta guest. But he was the guest of a guest...and an old friend of the family.
