Seth had noticed one dim light inside Iris’s house, but that didn’t mean she was awake. Likely she was dozing on the couch. He liked the “early to bed and early to rise” philosophy, too. But on this night he didn’t find sleep until almost midnight. He had too many thoughts spinning around in his head to fall asleep. He was remembering when Iris had learned the facts of life, when she’d learned about her father.

Iris got the biological details about where babies came from when she was around eleven or even younger, but for whatever reason she didn’t put together what that had to do with her parents. When she’d been very young and asked where her daddy was, Rose had a simple explanation. “He’s not with us anymore, angel.” Iris had taken that to mean he was dead. But puberty brought more detailed questions—what was his name, what was he like, where had he lived, who were his people?

Even though they were best friends, Seth hadn’t had any idea that Iris was burdened with such curiosities. As for the birds and the bees, Seth had been given the facts much earlier because his two older brothers, Nick and Boomer, never spared a single detail—from puberty on they were obsessed with girls and sex, not necessarily in that order.

When Iris was fourteen and constantly asking questions, Rose had to come clean, explain to Iris the truth about her father. It was a dark family secret, she said. Rose had been a young secretary when she’d fallen in desperate love with her married boss. They’d dallied. Iris’s mother never came out and called it an affair, which it was. The boss was older; his children were teenagers. When Rose got pregnant, they worried about what to do for a while because Rose’s married boyfriend was very successful in the community and respected in his church and clubs. And his wife was mighty angry.

Ultimately, Rose was settled with a generous sum of money, enough to go somewhere and start over with her child. Rose struggled for a couple of years, alone with a baby and no family support. She finally chose Thunder Point and turned an old print shop into a flower shop. That alone would explain Rose’s struggles to eke a living out of the place—she had no experience operating a small business and she wasn’t much of a flower arranger, at least in the beginning.

When Iris first learned the truth about her biological father, she’d wept. Of course, the only person she would lean on was Seth. At the time, when Norm was so proud of him, he couldn’t imagine being abandoned by a father.

But Iris, being Iris, was down about it for around three days before coming to a decision. “Screw him. Who needs him? As far as I’m concerned he’s dead, which is what I’ve believed all along anyway.”

It wasn’t until Rose fell ill that she provided Iris with the name of a businessman in Wichita, Kansas. Iris didn’t confide any of this to Seth, of course—they weren’t friends anymore. But when Seth took his mother to Rose’s funeral and spent a couple of days at his childhood home, he’d asked questions about Iris. The facts were whispered to Seth by his mother, along with the promise that she’d never told another living soul. “Did she go find him?” Seth had asked. “No. Iris told Rose it was his loss.”

Seth thought about that part of Iris’s life story. That Iris—she was so strong, so independent and fearless. It took something like being felled by the flu to make her emotional, to make her say, “I’m all alone.”

In Seth’s opinion, she’d have been wasting her time seeking out her biological father. If he hadn’t made an appearance in thirty-four years, he wasn’t likely to now, if he was even alive. There could be siblings, but were they going to bring her decongestant and Bag Balm when the flu hit her? Not bloody likely!

So it was down to him—he would be her family.

If she’d let him.

* * *

Staying at his mother’s house, right next door to Iris, was a simple matter as he had a great excuse to be there. Steve Pritkus was still under the weather, coughing up a lung. Pritkus suggested he was ready to come back to work and couldn’t still be contagious, but Seth asked him to stay home so they wouldn’t all have to endure his watering eyes, dripping nose and horrible cough. Besides, he was quite happy to use the time to keep an eye on Iris. His other deputy, Charlie Adams, was on nights and the third, Rusty Sellers, had just succumbed to something—cold, flu, whatever. It was Seth and Charlie. And a real nice, quiet town.

“You still paying rent on that place in Bandon?” Norm asked.

Seth grinned at his father. “You tired of my jokes already?”

Norm grunted in response.

When Seth asked his mother to put together a little extra dinner he could take to Iris while she was sick, Gwen clutched her chest. “Of course,” she said.

“Don’t get all excited. We’re just being neighborly,” he said.

“An excellent starting point!”

Gwen would have been delighted to have her son at the dinner table, but she was even more pleased to think of Seth sharing an intimate dinner with his childhood friend, a girl she already thought of as a daughter. Even if Iris was too sick to get cozy, they were spending time together again. Every day Seth took something to Iris and stayed to share it with her—a little pot roast, carrots, potatoes and Gwen’s favorite cucumber salad, which was basically cucumbers and onions in a vinegar dressing. Or Gwen’s spaghetti and meatballs, something Norm liked to have once a week. Or her pork chops baked in cream of celery soup with a side of mashed potatoes and peas. He also took his old Yahtzee game and Scrabble set. They played a couple of games after dinner until she started looking tired.

Seth realized he really owed his mother for this. But he was going to hold off on thanking her.

Ten

After a couple of days of steamy showers and self-medicating, Iris felt worlds better. Despite the fact that she had tons of work on her desk at school, she also had a very annoying cough that would frighten the students and her colleagues, so she stayed home all week. Day after day, she opened the door to Seth and his mother’s food. “You don’t have to do this, you know,” she said. But, secretly, she loved it. It wasn’t just the meal, which was always good in a very comforting, homey way. It was also Seth, who was taking his dinner break with her.

Seth wasn’t the only one dropping by with goodwill offerings. There were students, as well. Krista, her senior student helper, came bearing cookies her mother had baked. “I’m so glad to see you,” Iris said. “I’ve been wondering how the office is holding up and how Misty is getting on there.”

“Fine, as far as I know,” Krista said. “Are you worried about anything?”

“You mean besides the fifteen tons of paperwork on my desk?” Iris asked with a laugh that had her coughing. When she was under control again she told Krista what was happening. “I’ve been worried that Misty is feeling a little out of place, being new to us and all. In general, not just in the counselor’s office. If you get a chance to ask her how she’s doing or if she needs help, will you? I haven’t even been in the office to train her.”

“Of course, Ms. McKinley. I have my lunch hour the same time as Misty—I’ll check on her.”

“Oh, that would be so helpful. And thanks for the cookies! I’d hug you but—”