‘‘She’s a good girl,’’ he said, still looking down at his hands. ‘‘Happy. You . . . you’re a fine mother, Grace. You’re doing a better job than most under hardcircumstance. You’ve made a good life for both of you, and done it on your own.’’

Her heart trembled and ached. ‘‘Thank you. Thank you for that.’’

‘‘Ah . . . your mother would like it if you’d stay for dinner.’’ Finally he looked up, and the eyes that met hers weren’t cool, weren’t distant. In them was both plea and apology. ‘‘I’d like it, too.’’

‘‘So would I.’’ Then she simply walked over, climbed into his lap and buried her face in his shoulder. ‘‘Oh, Daddy. I missed you.’’

‘‘I missed you, Gracie.’’ He began to rock and to weep. ‘‘I missed you, too.’’

ETHAN SAT ON THE TOP step of Grace’s front porch and put her purse down beside him. He had to admit he’d been tempted several times to open it and poke inside to see just what a woman carted around with her that was so damned heavy and so indispensable.

But so far he’d managed to resist.

Now he wondered where she could be. He’d driven by her house nearly two hours earlier before going to the boatyard. Since her car wasn’t in the drive, he didn’t stop. Odds were, her door was unlocked and he could have set her purse inside the living room. But that wouldn’t have accomplished anything.

He’d done some hard thinking while he worked. Some of that thinking centered on how long it was going to take her to cool off from snarling mad to mildly irritated.

He figured he could deal with mildly irritated.

He decided it was probably best that she wasn’t home quite yet. It gave them both more time to settle down.

‘‘Got it all figured out yet?’’

Ethan sighed. He’d smelled his father before he heard him, before he saw him sitting comfortably on the steps, feet crossed at the ankles. It was the salted peanuts in the bag Ray had in his lap. He had always had a fondness for salted peanuts.

‘‘Not exactly. I can’t seem to think it through so it gets clear.’’

‘‘Sometimes you have to go with the gut instead of the head. You’ve got good instincts, Ethan.’’

‘‘Following instinct’s what got me into this. If I hadn’t touched her in the first place . . .’’

‘‘If you hadn’t touched her in the first place, you’d have denied both of you something a lot of people look for all their lives and never find.’’ Ray rattled into the bag and pulled out a handful of nuts. ‘‘Why regret something that rare and that precious?’’

‘‘I hurt her. I knew I would.’’