Chapter 13
Thirteen
Afew days before Andi and Eric arrived for Quinn’s wedding, Jack asked the girls if he could talk to them after dinner.
“What’s up, Dad?” Jill plopped down next to him on the sofa. She looked more like a woman than a girl these days, and his heart ached at the thought that this time next year, she’d be in college. He wasn’t ready.
While he attempted to collect his thoughts, Kate and Maggie landed on the other sofa.
“You remember Andi, who was here this summer from Chicago?”
“Sure,” Kate said. “She was nice.”
“And so pretty,” Maggie added.
He smiled. “Yes, she’s nice and pretty. I’ve invited her and her son, Eric, to go to Quinn’s wedding with us.”
“Is she a friend of Quinn’s?” Jill asked. She spun her long dark hair around a finger tipped with hot pink polish.
“Not exactly.” He swallowed hard. “It’s more like she’s a friend of mine.”
Kate’s eyes widened. “Like a girlfriend?”
He had promised himself he’d be honest with them. “Yes, like a girlfriend. How do you feel about that?”
They were silent until Jill finally said, “I hadn’t thought about you having a girlfriend.”
“I hadn’t either. You know I wasn’t looking for one.”
Biting her lip, Maggie looked worried. “Are you going to marry her?”
“No, sweetie. I’m still married to Mom, and that’s not going to change. I promise you.” He reached out to bring her onto his lap and put his arms around her.
“I want you to be happy, Dad,” Kate said. “If Andi makes you happy, I’m glad she’s your girlfriend.”
“Thank you,” he said softly. She reminded him so much of Clare that it sometimes took his breath away.
“I mentioned her son Eric’s coming, too.
Remember when I went to Chicago, and Miranda taught me some sign language because I was going to meet a deaf boy when I was there?
That’s Andi’s son. You guys will love him. He’s five, and he’s so cute.”
“Not cuter than me?” Maggie asked with an arched eyebrow.
He laughed and tickled her. “No way. No one’s cuter than you, Mags.”
Jill and Kate rolled their eyes at Maggie’s baby-of-the-family act. Maggie and Kate kissed him good night and went upstairs.
He reached for Jill’s hand when she lingered a moment longer. “Are you okay with this, hon?”
“I want it to be as simple as Kate made it out to be, but it’s not, is it?”
“No, baby, it isn’t. But she makes me happy. That’s all I can say.”
“I still miss Mom.”
“I do, too, and I always will. I hope you believe me.”
She nodded and kissed him before she went upstairs.
He sat there a long time thinking about them and hoping he was doing the right thing by bringing two new people into their lives.
Jack stood in the same spot where he first met Andi the summer before to watch the stream of people coming off the Chicago flight but didn’t see her or Eric among them. He was starting to worry they’d missed the flight when he saw Eric come around the corner, dragging Andi behind him.
Jack held out his arms, and Eric ran to him. He swung the boy up and around. When Andi caught up to them, he pulled her to him with his spare arm, and the three of them held each other for a long moment.
“It’s Friday,” Andi whispered in his ear.
Jack leaned in to kiss her and had to remind himself to show some restraint in front of Eric. “Thank God. Let’s get this show on the road.”
They arrived in Newport as the girls were settling into the boat for the sail to Block Island. Since they had only about three hours of daylight left, they hurried to get under way.
The girls showed Eric where to put his things and where he would be sleeping. Kate’s friend Miranda had taught them some basic sign language, and they were like three mother hens with the little boy.
Jack kept an arm around Andi as they watched the kids together. “They’re going to smother him,” he said.
“He loves the attention. I can’t believe they learned some sign language for him. That’s so sweet.”
“They wanted to be able to talk to him and figured if they learned a few things, they could work together. If they hit a snag, they know you’re here.”
“Looks like they’re doing fine so far.”
Jack looked down at her, burning with the need to kiss and touch her. Somehow he managed to curb the urge in deference to their children.
“Stop looking at me that way,” she whispered. “This is a G-rated weekend.”
“What? No way.”
She gave him a gentle nudge. “Yes, way.”
“We’ll see about that…” He glanced into the cabin and noticed Jill watching them with a blank expression on her face. Realizing how strange it must be for her to see her father with another woman, he stepped back from Andi.
“It’ll take some time,” Andi whispered.
“I know.”
Frannie and Jamie arrived and greeted Andi with hugs.
“We’re so glad you could come this weekend,” Frannie said.
“I understand congratulations are in order for you two,” Andi said.
Jamie hooked an arm around Frannie as she showed Andi her engagement ring.
“It’s gorgeous, Frannie. I’m so happy for you.”
“If you’re done with your female bonding ritual, we ought to get going,” Jack said dryly.
“You be quiet,” Andi said.
Jack rolled his eyes at Jamie as the women continued to oooh and ahhh over Frannie’s ring.
She told Andi about wedding plans while Jack and Jamie eased the boat out of the dock and prepared the sails.
Jack motioned Eric over to him so he could outfit him with a life jacket and handed another to Maggie.
The brisk westerly wind gave them a quick, easy sail to the island.
Jamie was at the helm when they arrived in New Harbor on the island’s north end.
After securing the boat and visiting with their friends at Payne’s Dock, they piled into the old station wagon Jack kept on the island to drive to Haven Hill.
The girls brought their bags to stay at the house with Quinn, who had invited them to hang out with the bridal party the next day.
Andi let out a gasp when she saw Haven Hill for the first time. The rambling twenty-room “cottage” with the sweeping front porch stood high on a hill, its shingles weather-beaten from more than half a century of fending off the elements on the island’s south end.
The noisy group fell out of the overcrowded car and charged inside. Eric followed close on Maggie’s heels while Andi stood back to get a better look at the house that bustled with workers making final preparations for the wedding.
“It’s beautiful, Jack. I can’t wait to see inside.”
With the kids inside, he slipped an arm around her. “I love it here. This house made me want to be an architect. It’s inspired every house I’ve ever designed.”
“I can see why.” They walked along the driveway so Andi could get a better look at the widow’s walk that faced the Atlantic Ocean. “It’s amazing. How did it come to be in your family?”
“My grandfather bought it right after World War II for two hundred thousand, if you can believe that. The guy who built it died just as construction was being completed, so his estate needed to sell it. When my grandfather died, he left it to my mother. We spent summers out here when we were growing up, and Clare always brought the girls out, too.”
He walked her in to show her around, and she exclaimed over the comfortable yet elegant furnishings that gave it the atmosphere of a beach house but with classic touches like the grandfather clock that stood in the front hall next to a winding staircase.
“I love it,” she said when he led her to the large back porch outfitted with comfortable wicker furniture and a hammock that overlooked the ocean. “I can imagine whiling away an entire summer on this porch.” They watched the kids disappear down the steep stairs to the beach. “Show me the rest.”
He took her through the large open rooms downstairs that would be used for Quinn’s wedding.
“I want to show you the upstairs.” Jack steered her to the second floor.
“Which one’s yours?” she asked with a coy smile after he had shown her several rooms.
He grinned and led her into one of the house’s two master suites, where he pressed her against the wall to kiss her the way he’d longed to for hours.
Ten passionate minutes later, he groaned with frustration and tore himself away to check his watch.
“The ferry will be in soon. I need to send Jill to get Quinn and her family.” He leaned his forehead against Andi’s in an effort to cool off.
“We’ll continue this conversation later. ”
“I’ll look forward to that.”
After dinner with Quinn, her fiancé, and parents, Jack, Andi, Eric, Frannie, and Jamie headed back to the boat. Eric was out cold by the time they arrived at the marina.
“This is getting to be a habit,” Jack said as he carried her sleeping child to the boat.
“One I could get used to.”
“Oh, yeah?” He cocked an eyebrow at her as they boarded the boat. Frannie and Jamie had gone to the marina bar to have a nightcap.
After they tucked Eric into his bunk, Jack opened a bottle of wine, and they took it up on deck with a heavy blanket.
“Look at the stars!” Andi said.
The night sky over the Great Salt Pond was alive in the total darkness. The pond, which was packed with boats in the summer, had thinned to just a few hardy souls. After the long weekend, the island would all but shut down until spring.
“It’s the best stargazing in the world,” Jack said.
“I can see why you love it here.”
“I met Clare out here.” He shared the story of how they met the summer after he graduated from Harvard.
“That’s right, you went to Harvard,” she said in a mocking tone.
“Oh, God, don’t start on that. Clare never got over teasing me about it. I went there for graduate school with Jamie after Berkeley. Where’d you go?”
“Parsons. I lived in an apartment across the hall from David while he was at NYU. That’s how we met. His father founded Infinity. David went to work there right out of school and hired me. Three years ago, his dad retired, and David became the CEO.”