by Holly Jacobs
“There,” he said triumphantly.
Lily took a few steps back and admired it. “That’s great.”
“Now, can you tell me why we needed a clock here?”
They hadn’t talked about Hank since that first day, so Lily wasn’t sure how Sebastian felt about the matter now. “I’ve found that having clocks and calendars around can give confused patients a touchstone. A way to recognize when they are.”
“We’re back to that?” he muttered.
“You’ve spent time with Hank, and you’re going to tell me that you haven’t noticed any problems?”
* * *
SEBASTIAN WANTED TO TELL this woman no. No, he hadn’t noticed anything off about Hank. But that would be a lie. There were moments when Hank seemed...lost. That was the only word to describe it. Hank would be talking and suddenly drift off course, then sputter to a halt and go quiet.
When Sebastian had come out for breakfast this morning, Hank had seemed surprised to see him. And when Hank had walked into the room and found Sebastian picking up peas and dropping them into the glass bottle he kept them in, Hank had seemed surprised by the scarring on his hand, as if he had never heard about his injury and surgeries.
Yeah, he’d noticed some difficulties, but rather than admitting them, he said, “A little confusion isn’t unusual when you get older.”
Lily shot him a disappointed look. “I thought that marines were known for facing things head-on. That when a marine sees a problem, he addresses it—he doesn’t hide from it.”
“I do address it,” he defended.
She nodded. “Then let’s not stand here arguing about whether there’s a problem. Hank’s appointment is on May 18 at one. Help me get him there, please? Once Hank’s there, the doctor can answer all our questions.”
“Fine,” he agreed.
Lily sighed. “A reluctant ally is better than no ally. Thank you.”
He was about to counter that they weren’t allies, but he was saved from sounding peevish when Hank joined them, coffeepot in hand, and asked, “What are you two arguing about?”
Whenever Sebastian thought about his grandfather, this was the image he had. Hank wearing his ever-present flannel shirt and holding a pot of coffee. When he saw Hank like this, he could believe there was nothing wrong.
And though he couldn’t explain it to himself, much less explain it to Lily, he desperately needed Hank to be all right.
“We’re not fighting,” Lily assured his grandfather. “Sebastian hung the new clock up. Isn’t it great? I got it on eBay for a steal. It looks like it was made for the diner.”
“It does.” Hank studied the clock a moment. “You make sure you take the money for it out of our funds.”
“It’s a gift, Hank,” she scolded. “You don’t pay for gifts.”
He turned to Sebastian. “This girl is always like that. Doing things for everyone else and not taking anything back for herself.” Hank addressed her. “Miss Helen was here the other day and told me about how you took care of that sore on her leg and stayed to get her clothes out of the dryer. And that you made her lunch while you waited. That’s not part of your job, is it?”
“When I took care of Bridget—” her voice hitched as she said the name “—I discovered I liked that I could take care of all her needs, not only the medical ones. It’s the same thing for Miss Helen. Yes, she needs me to dress her wound. It’s taking a long time to heal and has to be seen to regularly. But she also needs someone to share a lunch with. And those stairs are hard on her.”
Sebastian could feel her pain when she mentioned Bridget. He’d wanted to come home for her funeral. He knew Finn would need all the support he could get. But he’d had the last of his surgeries the day he got the news, and he couldn’t convince the doctors to let him go.
Hank laughed. “I rest my case. Take the money for the clock, Lily. I know things have been tight for you.” The bell above the door jingled, and a man took a seat at the counter. “Seems like I’m on,” Hank said and walked over to the new customer.
Sebastian should have said something sympathetic. It was obvious that Lily had gotten close to Finn’s sister. He had no trouble imagining why. Bridget Wallace Langley had been one of those rare individuals people gravitated to. Losing her had cut at Finn and Mattie Keith, who’d always been underfoot along with Bridget. Those two were like salt and pepper shakers. Very different, but always together.
Yes, he could imagine that Lily had gotten close to Bridget and felt her loss keenly. He should have offered her his condolences, but instead he asked, “What is your angle?”
Lily visibly bristled. Her laugh lines around her blue eyes were all but hidden now. “Making sure Hank keeps the appointment, Sebastian. That’s my angle. Hank says I help people, and I do, I guess. But he’s spent his life helping the community. I’ve seen it time after time. Sure, people come here for a meal, but it’s more than that. They come here for Hank. More than one person has mentioned his occasional confusion. He needs to be checked out. It could be something addressed with a simple fix.”
“And it could be nothing,” he felt a perverse need to point out.
“It could,” she allowed, though her expression said she didn’t believe it.
This woman wore her feelings right there on her face for everyone to see. Happiness, annoyance, pain.
Sebastian purposely masked his feeling of terror that she could be right. “I’ll see to it that he goes.”
“Thank you.” Before he could respond, she said, “I hate that we got off on the wrong foot. I know you’re not happy I bought a share of the diner. When Hank and I put together the deal, we left provisions for him to buy me out at any point. You’re welcome to go over the books. We’re doing better. Bills are being paid on time. If you want to use your own personal money, or if you want to wait until Hank can afford to buy me out, I’m willing...either way. But if that is what you want, you’ll have to start overseeing the finances.”
“I’m not staying.”
“Then Hank will need to hire someone to take care of the bills because if I hadn’t stepped in, this place would have gone under.”
She didn’t say anything about the fact he was planning to leave town as soon as Colton’s wedding was over. She could have laid on quite the guilt-trip.
“He never was very good at keeping the books,” Sebastian admitted as he scrutinized Lily. Tonight, she had on a pair of jeans and a loose top, with bangles on both wrists. Her dark hair was down again, and the rich color highlighted her blue eyes. As he looked in them, he saw no scheming. He saw concern for his grandfather. A very real concern.
“I’m an ass,” he said more to himself than to her.
Lily grinned, those laugh lines coming back out and enjoying where they belonged. “I didn’t say it, but since I’m offering a truce, I won’t agree too vehemently.”
Despite himself, Sebastian chuckled. Even to his ears, it was a rusty sound, but she still stood there grinning, and he couldn’t help it. “Then we’re agreed that I’m an ass, and we have a truce.”
“We are agreed on both issues,” she said. “And since we’ve got a truce, do you mind if I come over for breakfast in the morning? Hank and I had a routine, but I...” She left the sentence hanging.
“But you didn’t want to intrude while I was home,” he supplied.
She nodded.
“I’ll see you at...?”
“Six. And I didn’t mean you had to get up to have breakfast with us. I know that sometimes Hank forgets to eat before work. But I wasn’t saying you’re not invited.” She spoke hastily, as if she was worried he’d be insulted.
“I’ll be up.”
“I’ll see you then.” She folded up the step stool and made her way toward the kitchen.
Every fiber of Sebastian’s being wanted to offer to help her, but he’d already proven how useless his hand was with that whole hammer-and-nail incident. He didn’t want a repeat.
He went back to the coun
ter and took up his seat. A very young girl in blue jeans, a T-shirt and a baseball cap that proclaimed VR Diner came in. “I’m here, Hank.”
“Megan,” Hank greeted. “This is my grandson, Sebastian. Seb, this is Megan, our new waitress.”
“Not all that new, Hank.” She smiled warmly at Sebastian. “I’ve been working here since my sophomore year. But when you’re as old as Hank, a year and a half is short, I guess.” She laughed, obviously friends enough with Hank to be comfortable teasing him. But Sebastian saw the momentary confusion in his grandfather’s eyes. It was soon gone, replaced by Hank’s laughter. The moment was so quick that if Sebastian hadn’t been watching his grandfather closely, he might have missed it. But he was watching Hank and it had been there.
Sebastian clenched his mangled left hand, which immediately obliged him by cramping. He needed Hank to be okay. And he had a sinking feeling that Lily was right that his grandfather was anything but okay.
CHAPTER THREE
SEBASTIAN WOKE UP to the sound of...singing. Not good singing by any means, but singing nonetheless. He crawled out of bed and reached for his sweats with his left hand and swore as he grasped them.
Sometimes he forgot. The pain was especially bad first thing in the morning because in his dreams, his hand was fine. His best dreams were set here in Valley Ridge when he was a kid, running around with Finn and Colton. His worst dreams...
No, he wouldn’t start his day thinking about that. Sebastian forced his left hand to join his right and grip the waistband of his pants. He pulled them in place, then tossed a T-shirt on and went out to investigate this pseudo-singing.
Hank was standing at the top of the stairs, smiling. “She’s back for breakfast, so that means you two settled whatever was bothering you?”
“We didn’t—” Sebastian started to deny there was anything to settle, but Hank’s expression stopped him dead in his tracks. “Yeah, we’re fine.”
“I’m glad. She’s a good girl. She’s got a heart of gold. But the more pure gold is, the easier it’s damaged, Seb.”
He wanted to correct his grandfather but resisted. Hank could call him whatever he wanted. To be honest, Hank calling him anything other than Seb would feel wrong.
“Tread lightly with her,” his grandfather admonished.
Miss Wrinkly Blue Eyes seemed fine as far as he could see.
“What is that she’s singing?” he asked. “If you can call that singing.”
“Oh, it’s singing. ’Course, she couldn’t hit a note to save her life, but if she’s singing, she’s back to herself. She hasn’t been since you got home.” It was a statement without any blame, but still, Sebastian recognized the truth of it. He’d seen Lily Paul’s true nature in those laugh-lined eyes, and he knew he was the one who’d caused her to be less than herself.
“Let’s go find out what the song is.” Hank started down the stairs and Sebastian followed.
“Good morning, Hank,” Lily called out when she saw Hank. As Sebastian stepped into the room, her happy smile became a bit more guarded. “Sebastian.”
“What’s for breakfast?” Hank asked. To Sebastian he observed, “She worries I don’t eat right. I tell her I work around food all day. I always eat.”
“But there’s eating, then there’s eating right,” Lily said in such a way that Sebastian knew this was a topic the two of them had hashed out before. “You don’t want me to get Mattie over here to lecture you on nutrition, do you?”
“No, not Mattie.” Hank whispered to Sebastian, “She’s even worse about healthy food than our Lily.”
Hank almost argued that Lily wasn’t his, but thought better of it. As if she’d read his mind, she gave him a questioning look, and when he didn’t voice the thought, she nodded and said to Hank, “To answer your question, today’s breakfast is Irish oatmeal and fresh blueberries. Rumor has it that it’s Sebastian’s favorite.”
Sebastian didn’t like being reminded that Lily knew so many things about him. If Hank had gone to the trouble of sharing he liked oatmeal, what else had he told Lily?
“That boy.” Hank chuckled. “He wouldn’t touch regular oatmeal. I bought instant oats once and you’d have thought I tried to feed him poison.”
“So I’ve heard,” Lily set a bowl down in front of Hank. “Well, he might have bed head, but he’s got good taste in oatmeal. Sit down.” Lily went back to the stove, and Sebastian ran a hand over his hair, trying to smooth it out. He hadn’t gotten it cut since he’d been back stateside.
Lily turned and caught him midsmooth and laughed. Sebastian couldn’t help but laugh, as well.
“Vain much?” she asked.
“I’m not used to having to worry about my hair first thing in the morning.” Okay, that sounded defensive.
Lily didn’t seem to mind. “Me, either,” she said and shook her head, making her heavy ponytail bob one way and then the other.
“Your hair always looks good,” Sebastian said.
“Yes, it does,” Hank agreed. “And so does breakfast.”
Lily served Sebastian oatmeal, got her own bowl, then set the coffee carafe on the table. She picked up the newspaper. She handed Hank the sports section, took the entertainment section for herself and handed the rest of it to Sebastian. “Hank and I called our sections. You can have the national news, or local news.”
They sat in amicable silence, eating their breakfasts and reading the paper together. As if they’d done it so many times it had become a comfortable routine. And even though Sebastian ate his oatmeal and read the national news, he didn’t really feel part of the routine.
It’s Sebastian’s favorite.
Who was this woman who knew so much about him? She was his grandfather’s business partner and obviously at home in his kitchen.
He stole surreptitious looks at her as he ate.
His grandfather finished his section first; a few moments later, Lily finished hers, and without asking, they exchanged sections. “Doesn’t anyone read the actual news?”
They both started laughing. “Lily says that the news is almost always doom and gloom and no one should start their day with that.”
“And yet, those were my options,” Sebastian groused.
“You don’t read about sports. You play them,” Lily said. “Professional sports don’t interest you. You’re the kind of man who wants to be in on the action, not watching it. And even though I have a wonderful imagination, I can’t make it stretch far enough to picture you reading an advice column.”
Hank chuckled. “She’s got you pegged, boy.”
Sebastian now asked the question that had been on his mind since he’d first meet Lily on the banks of Lake Erie. “Hank, how much did you tell Lily about me?”
“Just enough to scare her,” his grandfather teased.
“I’m not scared of anything,” she countered. And though she smiled as she said it, as if she were simply joining in Hank’s teasing, those laugh lines at the corners of her eyes didn’t fall into their default pattern. They were strained, as if she were forcing the smile. And Sebastian thought her expression was telling, though he wasn’t sure exactly what it was telling him.
He surprised himself by saying, “You owe me something.”
“Something?” she asked.
“You know so much about me—tell me something about you to even things up.”
“I wouldn’t know where to begin.”
Again, her smile wasn’t quite right, as if she didn’t want to share anything about herself. Sebastian wanted to push. He wanted to understand this strange woman his grandfather thought so highly of. But that something in her eyes told him to leave it, and so he asked, “What was that song you were...singing this morning?”
And just like that, the something in her eyes disappeared and her natural laugh lines reappeared. “Oh, I know, I slaughtered it. Miss Helen has been teaching me folk songs.”
“You’re taking singing lessons?” Sebastian asked. If that was her voice after lessons, h
e hated to think what she’d sounded like before.
“No, Helen’s one of Lily’s patients.” Hank ignored the look she sent him and continued, “Lil, you didn’t say anything, so you can’t get in trouble.” He turned to Sebastian. “Helen gets all these sores. Lily goes to see her a lot.”
“Ah, so it’s not formal lessons.”
“No. Changing her dressings can be painful. Before she retired, she taught music at the grade school for years, and sharing songs she loves with me distracts her. That was ‘The Parting Glass.’ It’s an old Irish pub song.”
“Well, next time you’re in a pub, you’ll be set,” he teased.
“Yeah, I figure that in a pub surrounded by people who are drinking, my singing might sound okay.”
Sebastian took a sip of coffee in order to give a quiet pause before he said, “I don’t know if I’d go that far.”
She looked at him as if she wasn’t sure if he was teasing, so he smiled to let her know he was. He could read that she was surprised that he’d teased her, and Sebastian felt surprised as well, but they both laughed, and Hank joined in, and for a moment, for a simple moment, Sebastian felt...good.
The rest of the meal was amicable. Lily took off for a home visit, and Sebastian strolled over to the diner with his grandfather. He couldn’t help but think about what his grandfather had said. Lily did seem to have a heart of gold. She’d come to Valley Ridge to care for Finn’s sister, Bridget.
Lily had stepped in to get his grandfather out of a jam, and despite Sebastian’s early suspicions, he couldn’t find anything questionable in her cooking breakfast, or even putting her own money into the business. His friends thought highly of her—she was a bridesmaid in Colton and Sophie’s wedding party. And she let retired teachers impart their knowledge in order to feel useful and distract them from painful procedures.
He also remembered his grandfather’s warning. The finer the gold, the more easily it was damaged. Maybe, but though she might have a heart of gold, Lily Paul seemed strong enough to him.
* * *
WEDNESDAY SPED BY for Lily, and Thursday was just as crazy.
