“Only if you call me Gibbes.”
Loralee beamed, feeling like she’d made a new friend. “I just brewed a fresh pot of coffee if you’d like a cup.”
Before Gibbes could respond, Merritt said, “I’m sorry to interrupt your social hour, Doctor, but I’ve got a lot to do, so maybe you can schedule your coffee klatch for after we’re done.”
“Absolutely, Mrs. Heyward. And you can call me Gibbes. We’re family, after all, and it feels strange calling you by my grandmother’s name.” He paused as if expecting Merritt to ask him to use her first name. When she didn’t, he took another cookie from the plate and smiled at Loralee. “I guess I’ll take a rain check on that coffee, but thanks for the cookies.” He ruffled Owen’s hair. “Save at least one for me, okay?”
“Mama always hides some in the freezer just in case, but I’m not supposed to know that.”
Loralee looked up at the ceiling and smiled. “I guess we’re going to have to find you a sport soon, so you can burn off all those calories. Or I could just stop baking.”
Owen turned to her, unsure whether she was joking or not. “Mama!”
“Do you like to fish?” Gibbes asked.
Owen shook his head. “I’ve never tried it, sir. But I think it sounds fun.”
The doctor nodded his head slowly. “I think so. Maybe next time I take out my boat, if you and your mother”—he paused and lifted his gaze to Merritt—“and your sister would like to go, I could bring you with me. I usually spend most of my time off work on the water when the weather’s good, but we’re temporarily shorthanded right now, so I haven’t had too much boat time.”
“Oh, Mama, could we?” Owen was nearly jumping up and down with excitement.
Loralee had to smile really hard so the tears that threatened wouldn’t spill over. It had been so long since she’d seen him so excited about anything that she’d almost begun to believe his grieving had become as much a part of him as the color of his eyes or the way he pulled at his lower lip when he was deep in thought. “That would be lovely. Thank you.”
She felt Merritt’s gaze and turned to find her stepdaughter staring at her with thinned lips. “I have a lot to do in the house, and I’m sure Loralee will be busy checking out the area to see if this is a place she wants to consider living. Maybe even going to the library to check out atlases of other states.”
Owen’s shoulders slumped and Loralee wanted to reach over and shake Merritt until her hard shell cracked wide-open so everybody could see the hurt child inside. But she didn’t. Robert had told her how Merritt’s mother had died, and she knew Merritt carried the wound inside her heart, picking at it so it wouldn’t heal. Instead Loralee reached her arm around Owen’s shoulders. “I think we can do both, don’t you?”
Gibbes nodded. “Absolutely. I’ll work around your schedule. I’ll give you my phone numbers before I leave.” Turning toward Merritt, he said, “So disappointed you won’t be able to join us.”
As if realizing she’d thrown cold water over Owen’s excitement, she ignored the doctor’s comment and instead gave Owen a small smile. “As long as Owen gets to go and has a good time, that’s all that matters.” Turning toward Gibbes, she gave him a hard stare. “Let’s get this over with, shall we? The sooner we start, the sooner we’ll be done.”
“I was assuming you’d need an appraiser to come in first before you’d allow me to take anything. I don’t want you to think I’m cheating you out of your inheritance.”
Merritt lifted her chin. “Despite what you might think, I married Cal because I loved him. I didn’t know about this house or his grandmother or that he would die at age thirty-nine. So whatever you want is yours, because none of it was ever meant to be mine. I’m here because I wanted to leave my old life and all of its bad memories behind me, and this was the opportunity I needed. I just want to get all this business taken care of and to be left alone.”
Loralee glanced at Owen to see whether he’d heard what Merritt had said about being left alone, but he was busy stuffing cookies into his pockets. She felt her own heart burn a little, and before she did something stupid like cry, she placed a cookie on a plate and practically shoved it into Merritt’s hand.
“I’m sure you don’t mean that, Merritt. We’re just so happy to finally get to know you. Owen’s talked of nothing else since I mentioned moving away from Georgia. Isn’t that right, Owen?”
He heard his name and glanced over at her with a worried look, nodding his head while crumbs dropped from his full mouth. Merritt just stared at her cookie as if Loralee had handed her a dead fish.