Sunrise Point

be presents.”
    “I thought of that. I left everything in bags. You can put them away in a closet and when the girls are asleep, take them out and look at them, give them things when I’m not here so they don’t think, you know…”
    “Think what?”
    “That I’m Santa Claus or something. But it was such an experience, like I’ve never had before. When Susan’s grandchildren came, I went shopping with her and she was a crazy fool—throwing things in carts, literally losing her mind! I thought she’d gone mad.” He shrugged. “Then I suddenly had grandchildren and… Lord, I couldn’t stop myself. Don’t think she didn’t get the biggest kick out of it.”
    “Susan?” she asked.
    “Haven’t I mentioned her before today? She’s a professor, but I met her fifteen years ago when she was a student. Not my student, but an older woman, finishing her degree once her children were nearly raised. Younger than I.”
    “And she’s your girlfriend?”
    He gave a nod and another slight blush. “I guess you could say. A few years after my divorce, ten years after hers, we began seeing each other. She’s more a close friend than anything. We don’t live together, we’re not engaged. I’d like you to meet her. She’s nice.” Jed pulled a large, glossy book out of his bag and held it up so that Berry could see. “Princess stories,” he said. “Susan’s granddaughters love them. They’re princesses every Halloween.”
    Berry came slowly forward, chewing on a finger. The brightly colored princesses on the cover got her. He let her take the book out of his hand and she immediately backed toward Nora. Leaning against her mother’s legs, she opened the beautiful book.
    And Nora’s eyes clouded with tears. She sniffed.
    Jed looked at her. “Are you crying?” he asked.
    She shook her head, but she pursed her lips together tightly, not trusting herself to speak.
    “What’s the matter, honey?” he asked.
    That brought the tears, calling her honey. “I don’t know,” she said. “Grateful, maybe. Embarrassed that I didn’t amount to more. That I couldn’t give my kids more. I don’t know what you must think of me.”
    He was still on the floor, but he sat up a bit taller. “I couldn’t be more proud of you,” he said. “When I think about…” He just shook his head.
    She wiped away tears with her fingers and pulled Berry onto her lap. “When you think about what?” she asked.
    He had trouble meeting her eyes. He took a deep breath. “If I had approached you at fifteen or sixteen, told you where I was and that I’d do whatever I could to help if you needed me, if I’d done that, things would have been so different. But I didn’t.”
    “Why?” she said in a breath.
    He shook his head again. “I thought it was for you. But maybe it was for me. Maybe it was easier to avoid the possibility of any conflict—I’m guilty of that. I learned that about myself, that I’m too passive. If I had known she would do what she—that she would throw you out… My God. Please, you must not blame yourself.”
    Nora looked at his sad eyes and thought, I’m not sure. He could be lying to me and I wouldn’t know the difference. “We have a long way to go, you and I.”
    “A long way, yes, you’re right about that. And part of that has to involve coming to terms with how your mother was. Nora, we can spend a lot of time talking about how much pain she caused us. We could work that like a hangnail for a lot of years, you and I. But at some point we have to let some things go. For my part, I broke her heart. I hurt her. She obviously felt abandoned, robbed, cheated. Abused. I spent years feeling the hurt she caused me by keeping you from me, but certainly she must have felt deep hurt, as well.” He shook his head. “Who knows what that can do to a person?”
    “Well, I’ll tell you what it does,” Nora said. “It makes them angry and unforgiving and unreachable.”
    “She made mistakes, Nora. So did I. We don’t have to keep reliving them. We can make a decision not to repeat them. To do better.” He gave her a smile. “You’re obviously doing exactly that. Your children love and trust you. And after hardly any time at all I can tell, you’ll always be there for them.”
    * * *
    Jed’s trunk was full of stuff for his granddaughters—mostly clothes for the girls, which they needed. There was a jumper with a butterfly appliqué on it, the gauzy wings standing out and a few sequins sewn