Chapter 17
An interview with Grant and Stephanie…
Here we are, fourteen years after Tropical Storm Hailey changed everything. How are you guys?
Grant: We’re great. Couldn’t be better.
Stephanie: Fourteen years. That’s how long Charlie was in prison.
Meeting Grant changed my life—and Charlie’s—in every possible way.
As soon as he heard our story, he wanted to help.
I was already halfway in love with him before that, but when he stepped up for us the way he did, that was it for me.
Grant: How could I not step up for you?
Stephanie: I couldn’t believe you knew Dan Torrington, and now he’s one of my best friends. Life is funny.
It is indeed. How’s it going with Stephanie’s Bistro?
Stephanie: Fantastic. We’re open from May to October, and then we shut down for a long winter’s nap.
Do you still go to LA in the winter?
Grant: Sadly, no. We now have children we’re required to educate, and they’ve ruined everything.
Stephanie: Hahahaha, he doesn’t mean that.
Grant: (laughing): Of course I don’t, but I miss warm winters in Southern California. Stephanie tells me we can go back to that when we’re empty nesters in two hundred years.
Stephanie: It’ll be here before we know it.
Grant: I don’t even want to think about them growing up and leaving us.
Tell us about them. Last we knew, you had a son named Oren Charles.
Stephanie: He goes by Charlie because his favorite person in the whole world is his Grandpa Charlie.
Aw, that’s so sweet!
Stephanie: One of the great joys of my life is seeing my beloved Charlie as a doting, indulgent grandfather.
Grant: I’m not sure who spoils them more—her dad or mine.
Stephanie: It’s a close competition. Our Charlie is about to be nine, and our daughter, Avery, is six. They’re best friends with all their cousins. Avery’s favorite thing is sleepovers with her cousins Emma and Evie.
I love to hear that the kids are so close.
Grant: How could they not be when their parents are best friends?
True! How’s the writing going?
Grant: It’s been great. I added another Oscar to the shelf for best original screenplay with Indefatigable, Stephanie and Charlie’s story. That was such a thrill.
I’m sure it was. How do you juggle life on Gansett with a career in LA?
Grant: As a writer and producer, I help put all the pieces together and then step back to let the experts see it through to completion. I get out there a couple of times a year for in-person meetings, but most of it can be done by Zoom these days.
Stephanie: Thank goodness for Zoom, because we need Daddy with us.
Grant: There’s nowhere in the world he wants to be more than with you and our kids.
Tell me you still bicker the way you did at the beginning.
Stephanie: That’s all we do! It’s our love language.
Grant: What she said. Bickering with her is my favorite hobby.