Epilogue

“U n ,” Granger pronounced carefully.

“ Un .”

“ Deux ,” he continued, “ trois , quatre , cinq .”

Our son patted his check, smiling. “ Bravo, bien joué, papa ! Un , deux , trois , quatre , cinq . You can count to five!” He popped up and ran outside, his little sandals slapping on the tiles of the courtyard. He was a child after my own heart, so he had been keeping busy with the plants there, watering the hibiscus and bougainvillea with a can of rain water.

Granger started to laugh. “I guess we’re past counting,” he called to me.

Lucas was also his father’s son. “He was translating for me in market this morning,” I agreed. I, personally, struggled with the language, but everyone on this island was very nice as I stumbled through my meager repertoire of French words. Soon enough, we’d be flying back to Detroit, and I was very sure that I could communicate there. We’d traveled a lot and I’d picked up bits of many different languages, but it just wasn’t the same as being at home.

“Addie.” He handed me a tissue. “You ok?”

“You know how I get,” I told him, and he knew very well. He’d seen it three times already.

“ Maman , où est mon collier de coquillages ?” our daughter Elisa called from upstairs.

“If you mean the necklace that belongs to your sister, she’s wearing it,” I answered. “It belongs to Nina until she gives you permission to borrow it, just like you can share your bracelet with her.”

Our oldest child jumped down from her chair and smiled as she looked at the strand of shells that draped over her collarbones. “Elisa can borrow it if she wants,” she told me. “ C’est bien pour moi . I’ll give it to her.” She scampered off to play with her little sister, who was also her best friend.

“I’m so glad that they get along like that.”

“Me too,” Granger said, and gave me another tissue. “They’re just like you and your…oh, damn. I didn’t mean to make you cry harder.”

“I miss them,” I said, and he hugged me, leaning carefully to make room for my rounded stomach. That feature of my figure wasn’t due to the delicious food we’d been eating, but because we had another baby on the way. We hadn’t been planning for this one, but we hadn’t not been planning, and we’d taken a very, very romantic, parents-only trip to Savannah. One thing had led to another, which had led to baby number four. But then we were done, we’d decided. Probably.

“Hello,” a voice called, and Mina entered the courtyard. Lucas ran to her, his second grandma, and she hugged him. “There’s my favorite guy,” she said, and then looked at me, concerned. “Oh, Addie, are you crying? Well, the moon is in Scorpio.”

“And our baby is in my tummy, which isn’t helping with my emotional regulation,” I agreed. “I’m ok. We were just thinking about dinner.”

“It’s my turn,” Granger volunteered. In the years since he’d sold Amunì, he’d learned to enjoy cooking again. Both our daughters loved to make things with him and the kitchen here in Mina’s guest cottage was amazing. Her estate on this beautiful island was one of our favorite places to visit and hang out together. We always looked forward to this trip.

But I would be happy to return to our own home, the one we still had in Detroit with the door that we painted with a new coat of green every few years and with the sweet cat who was waiting with Brenna.

“Honey,” Granger said, and hugged me again.

“I’m sorry. I’m not crying because I’m unhappy,” I tried to explain.

“You need to go home. You have things to do in Michigan,” Mina commiserated. “You have your businesses to run and your family to visit.” She would be coming back herself soon enough to meet our new baby and also to catch up with the guy she’d been seeing. He was still working security and refused to take off as much time as she would have liked.

“Sugar,” I swore, and pulled myself together. “Ok, I’m all right.”

“Maybe you’re extra emotional because you’re hungry,” my husband suggested.

“No, I’m still full from lunch. Je suis …” I searched for the word. “ Je suis plein .”

“That’s definitely true. Mina, could you keep an eye on the kids?” Granger asked, and she said of course, and it was her pleasure. It really was, because she loved them as if they were her own.

“Come here,” he told me, and we walked through the house to the back patio which overlooked the ocean below. “Here,” he said, and further directed me to sit between his legs and lean against him on the outdoor couch. “Is this better?”

He was rubbing my shoulders, which was wonderful. “Yes,” I agreed, and rested my head against him. It was much better. “You know that I’m not really crying.”

“And you don’t need a popsicle.”

“Well, I wouldn’t mind that,” I said, and felt him laugh.

“I know you’re ok,” he told me, but I also knew that he worried, so I decided to knock off the excess emotionality. I would definitely keep myself under control from here on out. “I don’t know how you do all this,” he continued.

“Vacation on beautiful islands? It’s not actually a hardship,” I answered.

“I don’t know how you hold us all together,” Granger said. “You love all of us so much.”

I shifted so that I could look up into his face. “You love us like that, too.”

“I do. Sometimes I think about where I would be if you hadn’t walked into my restaurant and then tried to protect me with a bouquet of flowers. I didn’t understand how lonely I was or how good life could be. I had no idea.”

Never mind my vow about excess emotionality. “That’s how I feel, too,” I said when I was able to speak again.

“So we’ll go home, see everybody, and get back to our lives there,” he said.

“Back to normal,” I agreed. “School will start soon for Nina and Elisa. Lucas will be going, too, in not very long. We’ll have a new baby.”

“That’s a lot of changes.” He put his cheek to my forehead.

“We just have to roll with it,” I told him. “I like the roll.”

“That’s how we ended up with a fourth child.”

“Granger! I mean that I like how we go along together,” I explained.

“Me too. If I’m with you, I’m happy. You’re the heart of it all, Addie. You’re the heart of our family. You’re my heart.”

He kissed me and we watched the waves roll in, different all the time, but beautiful in the changes.