“This makes me so very, very happy,” Elmer said. “The only thing I’ve ever wanted for you kids is what I had with your grandmother. I’m kind of bummed that Linc and I might not get to nudge you in the right direction the way we have some of your cousins. You always were one to get things done on your own, although I suppose you didn’t have much choice in that.”

“Speaking of my father…”

Elmer’s amiable expression hardened. “What about him?”

“Noah heard from him. It seems he has leukemia and needs a bone marrow transplant. None of his siblings were a match, so…”

“You gotta be freaking kidding me. He’s got some kind of nerve thinking he can ask such a thing of the children he abandoned.”

“It may be nervy, but he’s asking just the same.”

“You’re under no obligation. None of you are.”

“I know.”

“You’re going to do it anyway, aren’t you?”

Grayson shrugged. “I can get tested and donate without ever having to see him. Why would I want to have to live with knowing I could’ve saved someone’s life and didn’t do it? Doesn’t matter whose life it is.”

“Doesn’t it? Doesn’t it matter tremendously?” After a pause, Elmer said, “You’re a far better man than he is. You always have been.”

“Thanks.” Grayson smiled at him. “With you and Uncle Linc around, we never felt the void.”

“Sure you did, but we filled in where we could.”

“You were—and are—the most important man in my life. Don’t discount your contributions, Gramps. They meant—and continue to mean—everything to us.”

“Awww, for crap’s sake. You’re gonna make me cry.”

“Don’t do that.”

Butch delivered their pancakes, and they passed the jug of maple syrup that came from the family’s sugaring facility back and forth, liberally coating the pancakes and sausage.

“So good,” Grayson said around a mouthful.

“There’s no place like home.”

“I would’ve totally agreed with you until a few days ago. Now, I’m not sure where home is.”

“It’s wherever she is. Figure it out, Grayson.”

“I promised you guys I’d still handle the company account.”

“You did that from Boston. You could also do it from New York.”

“It’d be easier here, especially with the changes Uncle Linc is making in January with the catalog set to go into production, the website due to go live, the distribution center opening…”

“You can handle the legal end of it from anywhere. And by the way, why’re you waiting for next weekend? What’s stopping you from going home with her today?”

Grayson was struck dumb by the question. “Ahh, well… I don’t know. Exactly.”

Elmer cracked up laughing. “You suck at this.”

“Thanks a lot,” Grayson said dryly, amused as always by his irrepressible grandfather.