“Hi, Mom,” she said. It wasn’t loud, but the glass offered little protection from the noise.
Though this place was quaint, which was the best word he could come up with, it was lacking in certain things he’d taken for granted. Like quality windows to keep the noise out when they’d heard the rain lightly falling last night.
He was reading the emails in front of him but not really paying attention.
What he heard was that Nora was in Plymouth with him, then he noticed her turning her head out of the corner of his eye again, but he was good at pretending he wasn’t around.
He did it enough when he was a kid and was spying on his brothers.
He overheard the words, ‘confused’, ‘moving fast’, and ‘concerned’. Yikes. Maybe eavesdropping wasn’t the best.
Was he confused? Yeah. Kind of. Things were definitely moving fast, but he wasn’t concerned.
Now he was though!
He let her talk another ten minutes, finished up what he could with the little he was concentrating on, then turned when the glass doors opened.
“I thought I’d put some lunch together,” she said. “Are you getting hungry?”
“I am. I’m done for now.”
“Anything I need to know about or can do to help?”
“No,” he said. “You’re not here to work. Neither am I, but some things need more attention than others.”
“I understand that, but if you’re going to give it to me on Monday, might as well let me get some of it done now.”
“Nothing for you to do, I promise.”
He shut his laptop and moved to the kitchen with her. She had the sandwich rolls out and grabbed the turkey, ham and cheese they’d picked up on the way yesterday. He’d made a sandwich last night too, as he hadn’t eaten dinner like she had.
She put two plates on the counter, they made their lunch side by side, then both dropped some chips next to it.
They returned to the deck to eat. “It’s so pretty out here. The weather is great. Not hot enough to make me sweat, but I don’t feel as if I’m burning.”
“Your nose is getting a little red. Should probably put some sunscreen on it.”
“I will after. Did you want to do anything this afternoon?”
“There are canoes here. I thought we could go out.”
“I’d love it,” she said around a mouthful.
“Hopefully, I don’t dump us. Have you ever done it before?”
“I have. Haveyou?”
“A few times,” he said. “I’m better on a jet ski.”
Her elbow shoved at his lightly. “I bet you are.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Always.”
“What are you concerned about?”
She stopped chewing, her mouth open, then held his stare, chewed quickly and swallowed. “You heard me talking to my mother?”
