SUNRISE, GRAND HOTEL
Elizabeth woke up, expecting Jack to be next to her, but he wasn't. "Honey?"
"Over here, babe." He was standing in his robe and boxers, looking out the window at the water.
She slowly got up and walked over to him. "You're up early." She kissed him and smiled.
"Yeah, I guess. Just thinking."
"About what?"
"Our life. Everything that's happened in the last twenty years. How insanely beautiful you look right now, keeping our child safe. How much I love you."
She teared up and hugged him tightly. "Thank you for being my husband, Jack. I don't know what I would do without you."
He hugged her back, tipping her chin up so their lips could meet. "Are you hungry, love?" he whispered.
"Yes. I'm always hungry."
"Breakfast should be here soon."
"You ordered it?"
"Its complimentary. Should be here by seven."
"So we have forty five minutes." She grabbed his hand and pulled him to the bathroom for a date with the Jacuzzi.
Back in Dillon….
Syd rocked Noah as he dozed, satisfied with a full tummy. Of course as soon as she put him down, her phone rang, making him cry.
"Shoot," she muttered, picking him up again and then answering her phone.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Syd. It's Katie."
"Hi!"
"I'm sorry, does Noah need you? I can call back."
"It's okay. Give me one second." Syd put the phone down and popped a pacifier into his mouth and rocked as she picked her phone back up. "Okay. It's so nice to talk to you, Kate."
"It is. I just…I just saw something online…I wondered if you had heard."
"What's that?"
"Paul Porter…isn't he Gavin's dad?"
"Yes. That's him. What did you read?"
"He passed away. It says he had cancer."
"Oh that's sad. I knew he was ill but I didn't know how bad."
"Yeah."
"Well, poor Laura. She lost Gavin and now Paul. She must be lost."
"I know how it feels." Katie's dad passed the year before in the fire and she was just getting back to normal, able to concentrate on her part time job at the bakery and then heading to school in the fall.
"How are you doing, Kate? Really?"
"I'm okay. The bakery is fun."
"Maybe you and I should hang out soon. Go to a movie?"
"With Noah?"
"No. I can ask my parents to watch him for a couple hours. Just you and me."
"That would be great. I'd really like that."
Sydney hung up the phone and wandered out of the nursery into the living room when Liam, his puppy and a girl walked in, laughing about
something.
"Hey, sis," he said, barely acknowledging her. He was watching the girl he was with play with Fred.
"I'm Syd. Liam's sister."
"Oh, the one with the baby, right?"
"Yeah, that's me. What's your name?"
"Shelly Flynn."
"Nice to meet you."
"You too."
"You can head into my room, Shell, if you want. I'll grab us a snack."
Sydney followed her brother into the kitchen. "Um, Liam?"
"Um, Syd…."
"You brought a girl home."
"Very good."
"You don't bring girls home."
He shrugged, grabbed two bottles of water and some chips and walked away.
"Wait, Liam…"
"Before you say anything, Syd, I'm not you, she's not my girlfriend and I won't even kiss her. Chill."
The "I'm not you" statement hurt a bit but she was happy to know that he had learned from her and the choices she had made.
It wasn't that he didn't want to kiss Shelly, because he absolutely did. He was just not making that choice right now. He was fifteen. That's all. He didn't want to screw up and instantly have to grow up like Syd.
He wanted to get his driver's license, graduate high school, get into culinary school and then think about a wife and kids. He wanted to do things in order and make his parents proud of him the conventional way.
"Liam," Shelly said, nudging his foot with hers as they studied on opposite ends of the bed.
"Yeah."
"You've been reading that page for the last ten minutes."
"Yeah. Sorry."
"Wanna talk about it?"
He closed his history book and looked at her. She was really pretty. Thin. Long dark hair that was always up in a messy knot on top of her head. Long legs.
"What do you want to do after high school, Shell?"
"I want to be a nurse. So I'm going to college to get my degree in nursing."
He nodded.
"What about you? College and culinary school, right?"
"Culinary school instead of college. I hope to go to Paris and study."
"Wow! Paris! That would be so awesome."
"I know. I'm going to have to save up a bunch of money to pay for it though so I'm going to see if I can get a job this summer and next summer and the following."
"Your parents can't help?"
"They will help but not all of it. Culinary school is expensive. Especially abroad."
Syd heard them talking because he had left the bedroom door open just enough. She was in the living room so it wasn't as if she was lurking outside his room.
She felt so proud of her brother. It was the first she'd heard of him going to Paris to study cooking and the fact that he was going to take on the responsibility of paying for part of his schooling was amazing.
She felt like a failure sometimes. Getting pregnant at seventeen was not her brightest moment. However, she loved being Noah's mom and she loved the courses she was taking.
She hit the submit button on the flower order she was making and having sent to Laura. Poor woman. She would call her in a few days once things settled down for her.
Grace showed up the next morning, suitcase in hand.
"Grams? Hi," Syd said, opening the door wider and then hugging her.
"Hi, sweetie. I've come to help."
"Oh yeah? Alright. You can bunk in the nursery with me, I guess."
"Thank you. I'll go put my bag in there."
"Grams? You don't have to feel obligated to stay overnight. We are fine here."
"I would rather be here."
"Rather than home?"
"Something like that, sweetie."
Grace picked up her great-grandson who was starting to stir in his crib and hugged him softly. "Hi, sweet boy. Grams loves you so much."
"I love you, Grams," Syd said, kissing her grandmother's head.
"I love you back, Sydney Grace."
Gramps called a few hours later. "Is Grams there, Syd?"
"Yes. She's bunking in the nursery with me. What's going on, Gramps?"
"I wish I knew, honey bun. I'll bring over dinner. Italian sound good?"
"Perfect. Not too much sauce but I'd like ravioli."
"Alright, sweetie."
William came over as promised with lots of Italian takeout.
"Yum! Thanks, Gramps," Liam said, hugging him. "This smells great."
"Extra breadsticks in the bag there."
"Thanks!"
Liam took his meal into his room and shut the door, since Shelly had gone home a few minutes before. Noah started crying before Syd could get her own food. She walked in to get him but Grace was already changing his diaper.
"Gramps is here, Grams. He brought our dinner."
"No thank you, dear. I'm going to take a shower and go to bed."
"Are you feeling okay?"
"Right as rain."
"He wants to talk to you, Grams. I know you two have something going on but he brought dinner over so he could talk to you."
"Thank you, dear."
Grace handed Noah to Sydney, grabbed her night clothes and walked into the bathroom.
William knocked on the bathroom door but she just said, "Occupied," and turned on the shower water.
"Gracie, it's me. May I come in?"
"I'll be out in a while."
When she came out, William sat at the table waiting for her. She wandered in, looking beautiful in her flowing thin robe over her silky top and pants.
"I love you, Gracie."
"Do you?"
"Of course I do."
"You love me but you don't discuss taking yourself out of retirement with me? You retired so we could be here close to family, so we could travel together. Take a second honeymoon. Go on a cruise! But then you go back to work. How does that make any sense?"
"Gracie…"
"No, William. Don't Gracie me. Just tell me. Why did you make this decision without discussing it with me? I have been your wife for so many years and….I just…."
William stood up and touched her arms, pulling her into his space. "I'm bored. Plain and simple. We sold our Boston house. We sold our house in Oahu. We moved here. But we haven't done anything else. I just sit around the house and read the paper in my robe. I don't want that. I need to do something or I will go crazy."
"So why not discuss it with me?"
"That was a mistake, yes. I am so very sorry for that. I don't have an excuse except I didn't want to upset you."
"And yet, here we are."
He lowered his head and brushed her warm, soft lips with his. "Forgive me, Gracie. Please come home."
"What about the kids?" she whispered, wanting to go home with him right then.
"The kids are fine. We are two roads away."
"We'll be fine," Syd said from the doorway with a smile on her face. "Take your Italian and go home, Grams. Oh, and I love you both so take what I said with a whole lot of love, not sassiness..."
Jack and Elizabeth came home a few days later, looking very relaxed and very happy. Jack walked over and took Noah from her, giving Syd a kiss. "Hi, sweetie. How are you?"
"Good, Dad." She hugged him. "I missed you."
Elizabeth headed straight to the bathroom and then came back out to say hi to the kids.
Jack was on the couch holding Noah so Elizabeth and Syd went to lay down in the Master.
"How was your trip, Mom?"
"It was so nice, Syd. How was everything here?"
"Just fine. This weekend, would you mind watching Noah so I can go out to a movie and dinner with Katie?"
"Saturday? Sure. We can do that. You work hard, sweetie. You deserve some fun."
"Thanks, Mom. I appreciate that so much."
"Now, I'm going to just shut my eyes for an hour."
Syd got up and kissed her mom's forehead. "Love you, Mom."
"Love you too, sweetheart."
Just as Elizabeth dozed off, she heard the doorbell, Fred bark, Noah cry and then the bedroom door opened.
"Elizabeth?" Jack whispered.
"I'm sleeping," she groaned.
"I know…but Julie and Tom are here and your parents and Quinn. Apparently they have a big announcement."
She groaned again. "Can you please help me up, Jack?"
He wrapped his arm around her back and helped her stand. "I'm so sorry, Elizabeth. I let them know you were exhausted. Julie said it won't take long."
"Thank you, sweetheart."
Once they were all seated in the living room, Julie smiled at everyone. "Tom and I are pregnant!"
