Twilight at Blueberry Barrens (Sunset Cove #3)(11)
Claire took one of her hands. “That’s not what I meant at all, Kate. You are good with kids. I’ve seen the way they flock around you at church.” She squeezed Kate’s fingers. “None of us knows what the future holds. Luke and I want children, too, but there’s no guarantee we’ll have them. But I want you to know that if it’s possible, I’ll be an egg donor if you want.”
The offer lodged in Kate’s stomach, and the impact spread up to her chest as Claire’s words sank in. Egg donor. She hadn’t even dared to hope for such a thing. And it was expensive, but she knew Claire’s offer included the cost to accomplish such an unbelievable gift.
Her eyes filled with tears, and her throat tightened as she clutched her twin’s hand. “I-I don’t know what to say.” She tried to laugh but it came out like a choked sob. “It’s not like I have a husband waiting in the wings, but thank you.”
Claire gave a final squeeze to Kate’s fingers, then released her hand. “You’d do the same for me. But in the meantime, gather those kids you love close, let go of your fear, and embrace what you enjoy. The renters will be across the road, so it would be easy to care for them.”
“And I could use the money. I suspect the pay would be really good. It would be better than trying to wait tables.”
“It’s probably a better job than anything else you’d find right now.”
Sticky fingers, crafts, swimming, and rafting combined to make an enticing kaleidoscope of a summer. Kate examined her hesitation and sighed. “The kids will be leaving at the end of the summer. I’m not sure I can handle the abandonment.”
“We’re adults now. No one can ever split us up again. You can’t live your life terrified of losing someone, Kate. There’s no joy in that.”
Maybe not, but there was safety. Maybe she was ready to risk it.
SIX
The view of the hotel from the water as Drake approached Folly Shoals by ferry didn’t do it justice now that he stood in front of the huge glass doors. With its gray stone walls and mullioned windows, the Hotel Tourmaline surveyed its Downeast Maine location of wind-tossed waves and rocky crags like the masthead of a great ship.
He turned his SUV over to the valet and stepped onto the pink granite floors inside the lobby. The lavish hotel rivaled anyplace he’d stayed in London or New York. The domed ceiling soared high above his head, and skylights let in the Maine sunshine.
His aunt hailed him from the bank of comfortable sofas and chairs clustered around a fireplace that ascended to the roof. “You should have called me sooner, honey.” Dixie Carver was his mother’s only sibling, and after his parents retired to Costa Rica, he’d seen her more than he’d seen his mother. The girls shrank behind him at Dixie’s loud voice.
She threw her arms wide and clutched him to her ample chest. “You don’t have to stay here. I could squeeze you all in with me.”
He’d been to her one-bedroom house many times, and it wasn’t an option. “Thanks, Aunt Dixie, but we’ll be fine here. And I’ve rented a cottage, so you’ll see a lot of us this summer.”
A carefully penciled-in brow over her hazel eyes rose, and she adjusted her small round glasses. “What aren’t you telling me, young man? A man with your kind of busy career doesn’t bury himself in the north woods without a good reason.” Her gaze softened as she stared at her nieces. “Though the good Lord knows you’ve got your hands so full it would take two helpers to carry all the burdens.”
He rescued a glass bowl full of enamel balls on the beautiful table from Phoebe. “Phoebe, this is your great-aunt Dixie. Emma, come say hello to your aunt too.”
Emma shuffled her backpack off her shoulder. “Aren’t you too old to be wearing overalls?”
A laugh from Dixie turned into a snort. “I always say a woman should speak her mind, little girl. You’re well on your way to running your own company.” She gravely shook hands with the two girls. “I’m sorry about your mommy and daddy.”
Whoa, most people ignored the girls’ loss. Drake took note of the way both his nieces sidled closer to their great-aunt.
Emma’s eyes filled with tears. “Did you know our daddy?”
“Honey, he spent every summer with me. He and your uncle here used to go fishing off my dock every day. They’d bring home the biggest fish you ever saw. Your daddy was a good man.”
A lump formed in Drake’s throat. He remembered those summers spent at Dixie’s. She’d moved here from Georgia when he was ten, and he’d been over every inch of her barn and property. He and Heath had slept in the attic under the eaves and listened to the owls in the trees outside the window. They’d roped everything from cats to squirrels in the yard and had learned to swim in the cold water of Sunset Cove.
It wasn’t right to be here without his brother.
Phoebe slipped her hand into Dixie’s. “I miss him. And Mommy. Could you show me how to fish?”
“I’d be as tickled as a monkey with a new banana. You have your uncle Drake bring you over. I’ve still got your daddy’s fishing rod in the barn.” Her eyes were wet when she looked up at Drake. “You bring these young’uns by to see me, young man.”
“I will.” Most days he was uncertain how to cope with the girls. They cried often for their parents, and he didn’t know the words to comfort them, so he usually tried to change the subject and distract them. He saw now that they needed to be heard, to be able to talk about their parents.