“Well, you can see the result of that when it comes to Liam. He’s nothing like his father. He doesn’t have any sense of responsibility. You don’t even have to be an amateur psychiatrist to see that he’s acting out because of all his pent-up anger. Julia’s completely different. You will have trouble believing they had the same mother.”
“Children are most often different in the same families,” I said. She didn’t realize it, of course, but I was saying it more like a prayer than a fact. If there was anything I wanted to be true right then, that was it.
She looked at me oddly, obviously not expecting me to be so calm and sound so wise. “You haven’t been to college?”
“Not yet,” I said. “I might start in a year or so.”
“You seem a lot older than you claim to be. At some point, that’s true for every woman, but it looks true for you already.”
“It’s not time that matters; it’s what experiences you have within that time. My father always said that,” I added, smiling to myself.
“Well, he’s obviously a very wise man.”
“Men are men,” I said, quickly remembering the story I was giving about my family.
“What’s that mean?”
“They might come up with some wisdom from time to time, but they don’t always think first and then act. They’re led about on a leash of testosterone most of the time, especially my father.”
She laughed. “Well, Liam won’t disappoint you there. He has quite the reputation.” She looked at Mr. Dolan’s closed door and leaned toward me. “The inside joke here is that he would go home with the right pipe fitting if he couldn’t get a date.”
“If he’s depending on a date with me, he’ll empty out the warehouse,” I said.
She laughed so hard she had to hold her stomach. “You’ll have me give birth right here.”
“Oh, don’t do that. Go home.”
“I almost wish I could be a fly on the wall these next few weeks.”
“It’s not worth your curiosity, Michele. Believe me,” I said.
She nodded, obviously impressed with me but still a little skeptical. “We’ll see. I’ll see you in the morning and spend more time with you. I’ve lived here most of my life, so if you have any questions about anything in Quincy . . .”
“Thank you. Have you and your husband chosen a name for your soon-to-be-born son?”
She started to speak and then stopped. “I didn’t tell you I was having a boy. I haven’t told anyone here that, not even Mr. Dolan. We didn’t want anyone to know we had broken down and given in to find out. We haven’t even told our family. My mother would carry on about ruining the surprise. I know my grandmother would. She says all this technology takes the romance out of our lives.”
I shrugged. “I thought you did say boy. Sorry.”
“No. I mean, we are having a boy, but how . . .”
“Not much of a magic trick on my part,” I said. “There were only two choices, Michele. I just hit the right one. Maybe I’ll go find a roulette wheel.”
She laughed, but I held a steady serious look. I didn’t want her even to suspect that I had any special powers. I couldn’t explain the sharp insight that all my sisters and I possessed. Daddy had told me it was part of what helped us survive the ages. He had told me there were all sorts of vision, and many times, it was wiser to see through your feelings rather than through your eyes. At least, that was true for us.
“We’re thinking of naming him Nathaniel,” Michele said after a moment of deciding whether to share something so personal with someone she had just met. “That was my paternal grandfather’s name.”
“That’s nice. I prefer older names and not the flavor of the month.”
“Now you’re sounding more like my grandmother. How old are you, really?”
“Ages and ages,” I said. “I drank from the Fountain of Youth.”
She nodded. “I bet you did. See you in the morning.”
I watched her leave, and then the phone rang again. I could see it was an internal call. I didn’t have to wait to hear his voice to know who it was. “Mr. Dolan’s office,” I said dryly.
“I heard you’ve only been in Quincy one day and you’re staying at my great-aunt’s place,” Liam said. “How about I show you the town tonight? It looks like you’re practically a member of the family already.”