“I’m certain you had your reasons, but I wish you’d done it before I was forced to fly to Texas. You know how I detest that state.”

“Only because you couldn’t carry it. The election was almost thirty years ago. Maybe you should get over it?”

He harrumphed around, then said, “How long do you intend for this vacation of yours to last?”

“I don’t know. A week? Maybe more.”

“And I’m sure you won’t tell me where you are.”

“If I told you, you might be forced to lie about it. Not that you aren’t really good at it, but why put an old man in that position?”

“You are the most disrespectful child.”

She smiled. “I know. I love you, too, Gramps.” He hated it when she called him Gramps, but it was payback for that “Lucille.” “I’m staying at a friend’s house on an island in the Great Lakes,” she said. “But then you probably already know that.” If he didn’t, he would soon, since she’d paid for that rental car with her credit card, and her loving parents were almost certainly keeping track.

“Exactly what is the purpose of this call?”

“To tell you I’m … I’m sorry I disappointed you. And to ask you to be nice to Mom. This is hard on her.”

“I do not need reminders from my granddaughter about how to behave with my daughter.”

“Not exactly true.”

That precipitated a bristling lecture about respect, integrity, and the responsibility of those to whom much is given. Instead of listening, she found herself replaying a conversation she’d had with her mother a few months ago.

“You know I’m jealous of your relationship with him,” Nealy had said.

Lucy had looked up from the wedge of coconut custard pie they’d been sharing at their favorite Georgetown restaurant. “He was an awful father to you.”

“And he’s hardly the world’s best grandfather. Except to you.”

It was true. Lucy’s sibs avoided him at all costs, but he and Lucy had hit it off from the beginning, even though she’d been mouthy and rude when they’d first met. Maybe because of it. “He loves me,” she’d said. “And he loves you, too.”

“I know he does,” Nealy replied. “But I will never, ever have as comfortable a relationship with him as you do.”

“Do you really mind so much?”

She remembered Nealy’s smile. “No. I don’t mind at all. The old curmudgeon needs you as much as you need him.”

Lucy still wasn’t quite sure what she’d meant by that.

When her grandfather finally concluded his lecture, she told him she loved him, reminded him to eat right, and asked him not to growl so much at Tracy.

He told her to tend to her own business.