Clare stole a quick glance around the 1930s-era house. She’d been inside it once before, the last time it was on the market when the listing agent held an open house for other Realtors. At that time, it had been empty and devoid of life, but now the home pulsed with the warmth and energy brought by a family.

She looked up at the elaborate crystal chandelier that hung from the second floor over the black-and-white tiled foyer. A staircase ascended from right to left, framed by a mahogany banister. To the right, Clare remembered a great room that stretched the width of the house. A formal dining room was to the left, and the kitchen was at the end of a hallway under the stairs.

Jack came through the hallway as Kate took their coats. He wore a black cashmere sweater with jeans, and as usual he managed to look casual and elegant at the same time.

He hugged and kissed them both. “Come on in,” he said, ushering them into the great room where a fire burned in the fireplace. The room’s fifteen-foot ceilings were edged with elaborate mahogany crown molding. Smaller moldings framed the butter-colored walls. The far end of the room was an expanse of glass, and Clare recalled an exquisite ocean view during the day.

Furniture was artfully arranged into two sitting areas by the fire. Tables were laden with food, and a bar had been set up in the far corner. Clare knew Andi had been a decorator at the Infinity Group’s corporate headquarters in Chicago before she moved to Rhode Island to live with Jack and manage Infinity’s Newport hotel. Clearly, she hadn’t lost her flare for her previous profession. The room was warm and inviting.

“Your home is lovely, Jack,” Anna said. “You’ve been busy.”

“We had the party as an incentive to get settled quickly. Upstairs is still a disaster area. Boxes everywhere.”

Kate handed her mother a beer and her grandmother a glass of wine and went to answer the door again. She returned a few minutes later with Jack’s sister Frannie, her husband Jamie, and their twins Owen and Olivia.

Clare was weak with relief to see Frannie and walked over with Jack to greet them. Jack scooped up the twins, who greeted “Unca Jack” with wet, sloppy kisses.

“You remember Aunt Clare, right?” Frannie said to the fifteen-month-old toddlers. They had visited Clare’s house two weeks earlier.

Owen reached out to pat Clare’s face. “Clare,” he said.

Clare kissed the baby’s pudgy hand. Owen and Olivia had their father’s bright blue eyes and strawberry-blond hair that was an adorable mix of Frannie’s auburn and Jamie’s blond.

Jamie hugged Clare and kissed her cheek. “So good to see you,” he whispered as he held her close.