“I resemble that remark,” her mother joked, an old Rosenstein pun for when someone saw too much of themselves in a criticism to argue with it. “I was, in fact, planning to come say goodbye. I know you don’t particularly care if I’m here or not, and rightly so, as you’re busy building a social circle and a business and a new relationship.”

Miriam started to interrupt her, but Ziva waved her off. “Still, it’s been so important to me to be here. To watch you stand up to your father and see you as the adult you’ve become. I don’t have any right to be proud of you, but I am, very much.”

Miriam rubbed her hand over her face and tried to be kind. Her mom’s tendency to make everything as melodramatic as possible pushed all her buttons, but she was obviously trying to have a genuine, emotional mothering moment, only she was not very practiced at it.

Miriam knew she wasn’t obligated to push their past under a rug out of any sense of family unity or to make her mother feel less guilty or uncomfortable. But she was starting to think that if they both looked the past unflinchingly in the eye, they might be able to cobble together some kind of relationship in the future. She wasn’t sure she wanted that yet, but she wasn’t sure she didn’t.

“Are you coming back?” she asked, finally, and then added, in case it wasn’t clear, “I’d like you to.”

“I’ll be back for the Fourth of July carnival,” her mother said. “I promise, I won’t miss it.”

“You never do miss a chance for fireworks.” Miriam smiled.

“Well,” Cole said after hauling Ziva’s various bags to the front door, “I think the party is officially over. I should probably also be going.” He materialized a rolling suitcase from seemingly nowhere. Ziva looked both annoyed that he was stealing her dramatic exit and impressed by his flair.

Then Ziva and Cole were gone. Cole rode the train back to Manhattan with her, a trip Miriam wished she had hidden camera footage of. Cole swore they talked about Middlemarch the whole way.

Their guests were gone next, leaving them with an empty inn. It was eerily quiet after all the nonstop commotion of the past few weeks, a calm before the storm of upcoming Carrigan’s All Year events. Miriam found herself wandering the hallways, feeling far too alone with her thoughts.