Afterward, she sat on the floor of the lobby bathroom and tried to collect herself. She was so damned sick of being sick. At times she wondered what Owen saw in her when she’d been in this condition for much of the time they’d spent together.

A light tap on the door had her standing and rinsing her mouth. She opened the door to find Sarah outside.

“Are you okay, honey?”

“I’ve been better. It’s been going on since about four o’clock this morning.”

Sarah winced and slid an arm around Laura’s shoulders. “Come with me.” She led her around the reception desk past the front door just as Abby came in.

“Morning!” Abby said.

“Morning,” Laura said.

“Ugh, not feeling good again?” Abby asked.

“Another day, another battle,” Laura said with a weak smile.

“I’m getting her away from the smell of breakfast,” Sarah said. “We’ll be in the sitting room if you need us.”

“Go ahead. I’ll keep an eye on the front desk for you.”

“Thanks, Abby.” She ran the gift shop, Abby’s Attic 2, in the lobby of the Surf, so watching the front desk certainly wasn’t her job, but like everyone else around her, Abby had stepped up to help more than once this summer.

“No problem at all. Hope you feel better.”

“So do I. Thanks again.” Laura went with Sarah to the sitting room, where they’d spent a lot of family time over the last year. During the winter, they’d passed many a cold, stormy night in front of the fire while Owen played for them and Holden slept in his mother’s arms.

“Stretch out on the sofa and get comfortable,” Sarah said, fluffing pillows and tossing a light throw over Laura.

“This is ridiculous. I’m supposed to be working and packing and getting ready to leave the hotel for a week or more, and what am I doing?”

Sarah ran a gentle hand over Laura’s hair. “You’re taking a few minutes to yourself while you can. Relax. I’ll be right back.”

Laura forced herself to follow Sarah’s orders. From her vantage point on the sofa she could see the ferries coming and going from the harbor and the sparkle of the sun on blue water as another summer day on Gansett began in earnest. Outside the front side of the hotel, voices and cars and mopeds blended into a cacophony of noise from town that had become as familiar to her as the crash of the ocean on the breakwater out back.

“Here, honey,” Sarah said when she returned with a steaming mug. “Try this.”

“What is it?”

“Mint tea. It worked for me when I was pregnant.”

“You’ve suggested that before, and I’ve been meaning to try it.”

“As I recall, you said mint flavor isn’t your favorite thing.”