“It probably did me good. I needed to think about someone other than myself.” And he realized he needed to do that now. “If you love this place, then that’s all I need to hear. Tell me how I can help.”

“I have one remaining box of Rachel’s old books and toys you can take over to Emily.”

He knew he wouldn’t be welcome. “Just leave a message on Emily’s phone. She can pick them up when she’s next in town.”

“She may not be in town for a while. She’ll want to keep Lizzy at home until she’s back on her feet. I’d like you to take it over for me. I remember when Rachel was sick, she loved having something new to play with and read.”

“I can’t do that.” He paced to the window, staring out over the ocean as he replayed the conversation. “She’s shut me out. I was going to offer to take Lizzy on the boat again. She’s showing all the signs of being a natural sailor. I enjoyed teaching her.”

“Help out at Camp Puffin if you want to do those things with children.”

“I don’t.” He wanted to do them with Lizzy. He remembered the look of concentration on her face when she’d mastered her first knot, the excited gasp the first time the wind had snapped the sails tight. Most of all, he remembered her look of happiness when he’d walked into the room at the hospital.

“I don’t understand why this bothers you. You love your freedom, Ryan. I would have thought you’d be feeling relieved not to be towing a little girl out to see puffins and digging in the sand.”

He realized that those moments had been the happiest he’d had in a long time. Those moments, and the ones he’d spent with Emily.

“Has it occurred to you that this isn’t all about me? Emily is in this relationship, too. And it’s a casual relationship. She doesn’t want it to be more than that. She isn’t interested.”

His grandmother looked at him for a long moment. “You’re many things, but I never thought you were a fool, Ryan. Can you lend me your phone? I want to call Murph and tell him I’ll pick up the keys tomorrow.”

“You can’t pick up the keys until you own the place.”

“I do own the place.”

Ryan stared at her. “It only came on the market recently. You only just saw it.”

“Murph called me the instant it happened, and he drove me over to take a look.”

Ryan digested that. “And you didn’t tell me?”

“You had a lot on your mind.” She patted him on the arm. “Now, take me home and help me pack up some boxes.”

* * *