“Nothing is wrong. I just can’t understand why you want to live here, that’s all.” He strode back through to the airy living room and tried to forget about the confrontation with Emily. The whole “cottage” would have fit into half the downstairs space at Harbor House. “Where are you going to store everything?”

“I don’t intend to store anything. I intend to declutter my life. Does the thought of that make you angry?”

He looked at her blankly. “What?”

“You’re angry.”

“No. Yes.” He thumped his fist against the wall. “She’s cut me out. She doesn’t want to see me again.”

Agnes eyed the wall and then her grandson. “I assume we’re talking about Emily.”

“She says it’s confusing for Lizzy. That she’s getting too attached.”

“I see.”

“Do you? Because I don’t.” It had been stewing inside him since the conversation a few days earlier. “Can you believe she didn’t call me when she was in the hospital?”

“I expect she didn’t want to bother you. You’re a busy man. A busy, single man.”

“You could have said that without the emphasis and the look.”

“Everyone has the right to make their own choices in life. You’ve made yours. You need to allow Emily to make hers. She’s a smart woman.”

Smart and sexy. “Damn it, she was on her own there. It must have half killed her to have Lizzy in the hospital and she didn’t call me.”

“Perhaps she didn’t feel that was the nature of your relationship.”

He eyed his grandmother, wondering exactly how much she knew about their relationship. “Lizzy was asking for me.”

“Was she?” His grandmother looked thoughtful. “That explains a great deal.”

“Does it?”

“She’s afraid the child will look forward to seeing you, and the next step on from that is expecting to see you, and you don’t want that, do you? It’s one thing to take a little girl on a boat trip when it fits into your day, but you don’t want to feel pressure to do it. Same goes for swimming, sailing, walking Cocoa and all those other things.” Agnes opened one of the windows to let air into the room. “Better not to do them at all. That way you can be sure of protecting your personal space and making sure you live life alone, the way you prefer it. No one is ever going to want anything, expect anything or demand anything of you. You’re free to go wherever the wind blows you.”

Ryan looked at his grandmother in exasperation. “You’re a conniving, manipulative—”

“I’m describing your life, Ryan. That’s all. The life you chose. The life you want. I don’t see how that makes me conniving or manipulative.”

“You’re trying to make me question my choices.”