by Jenny Hale
Ben grinned.
Uncle Hank’s attention moved to the empty chair where Aunt Clara used to sit and have her coffee every morning, and all the noise fell silent for a moment.
“Robby, what would you like to do today other than swinging?” Mama asked, forcing a smile. “We could go into town and get some ice cream.” She tousled his hair.
By the look on Robby’s face, he could sense something was amiss with the situation, his eyes now unsure. His gaze moved around the table as he shifted up onto his knees. “Maybe we could take Uncle Hank with us to get ice cream.”
Uncle Hank tore his eyes away from Aunt Clara’s chair.
“What kind of ice cream do you like, Uncle Hank?” Robby asked.
“Oh, I don’t know, son. I like a lot of flavors. I suppose if I had to choose, though, it would be chocolate.”
“Everywhere has chocolate, so you should come with us.”
Ben piped up, “We should all go. Robby, you and I can hang the swing and then maybe go fishing. By then, you’ll be ready for some ice cream.”
“Fishing?” Robby’s face lit up.
“Yeah. The ladies can do lady-stuff and you, Uncle Hank, and I can fish.”
Hallie thought it might be a good time to mention the lure Gavin had gotten for Uncle Hank, which might lift his spirits a bit, but before she could, he cut in.
“All that sounds exhausting,” Uncle Hank said, his focus returning to the chair. He filled his fork with eggs and took a bite. When he’d finished he said, “Jacqueline is taking me to see the doctor, and after that, I think I’ll just stay in my room.”
“I got him an appointment at one,” Mama said. She turned to Uncle Hank. “But we’ll be right back after, and the fresh air will do you some good. Why don’t you help Ben?”
“No,” Uncle Hank snapped.
Ben looked thoughtful. “I’ll at least bring Beau over to get his bacon,” he said. “He’d be happy to see you. And he needs a good walk anyway.”
Uncle Hank didn’t argue.
* * *
“Mama told me that the police department is going to patrol the main road leading to the house,” Sydney said to Hallie as the two of them sat side by side in rocking chairs on the expansive porch that stretched along the back of Starlight Cottage, overlooking the gulf. The unceasing coastal breeze sent the paddles of the porch fans above them in soft circles.
With Uncle Hank retreating to his room after breakfast, Ben decided to give him some time before they hung the swing, and he’d enticed Robby to go fishing first. Robby seemed happy to do anything with Ben, and they’d been out there on the shore together the rest of the morning.
“I don’t know how policing the road will help,” Sydney added, “if the guy’s on foot.”
“From what Uncle Hank told Mama,” Hallie said, “it’s always a silhouette of a man, and he walks with a leisurely pace until he’s seen. But he doesn’t run. He just hides. That’s creepy.” Hallie looked down the beach at the empty shoreline. “We haven’t had any evidence of an intruder since we’ve been here. Do you think he’s real? Or is Uncle Hank imagining things?”
Sydney shrugged, clearly worried. “The officer who spoke with Mama did say it’s possible that someone could be parking on the main road and walking in. They found some footprints near the property line, but that could be anyone. I’m not so sure. People would notice his car.”
“If he is real, what do you think he wants?”
Sydney pressed her toes against the floorboards of the porch to rock backwards. “I have no idea. Everything of any value is in the safe, and only Uncle Hank knows the combination.”
Hallie wondered if the prowler was someone wanting to get a look at the property. At least she hoped that was what it was. Because any other reason would make her freeze with fear. “I’m so glad Ben’s here,” she said. She felt protected when he was around.
Sydney didn’t say anything, the silence between them palpable suddenly. It was enough to make Hallie pull her eyes from Ben and Robby to look at her sister.
“What will we do, Hallie?” Sydney asked, her question not clearing things up very much.
Hallie waited for Sydney to help her understand.
“Ben.” Sydney nodded toward the water, where Ben and Robby stood together with their fishing poles, Ben patiently showing him how to cast his rod.
“One day, Ben’s going to have his own family and we’re going to have to let him go.”
Sydney’s comment stung Hallie. She sat there for a second, trying to imagine life without her best friend. Fear slithered through her and she struggled to maintain her composure—just the thought made her want to cry, given her state. An indescribable feeling came over her, but she couldn’t figure out what it was. Incomprehension? “What do you mean?”
“I worry about you.”
Hallie stared at her sister, unable to say anything.
“You lean on him a lot. I think it could be unhealthy for you, that’s all.”
If Sydney only knew that Ben was the healthiest thing for Hallie’s mental state. He was the only one who could reach her, the only one who could make all the pain leave her mind. And she couldn’t believe she’d wasted so much time away from him when she was with Jeff. “It’s unhealthy to have a best friend?”
“What if he were to choose to spend time with Ashley when you needed him? Could you handle that?” Sydney ran her fingers along the armrests of the rocker as if she needed something to do with her hands, and it occurred to Hallie that she may have been thinking this for some time. She hadn’t relied on Ben through the worst of the last few months, and look at where that got her. But the minute they were together again, they were nearly inseparable.
Ben had always been such a constant in Hallie’s life that it hadn’t really occurred to her that she might be monopolizing his time. At some point, Ashley may have a problem with it, and one day he might stop coming around. Then she considered how Ben had become mysteriously absent during her engagement to Jeff. Had he been giving her space?
Sydney watched Ben and Robby for quite a while and then said, “I fear Robby will be just as heartbroken when Ben leaves us. He’s the only solid male influence in Robby’s life. How will we cope without him when he starts his own family?”
Every time Sydney said the word “family,” it sliced Hallie like a knife. The day would certainly come when Ben would have a wife and children of his own, and Hallie didn’t even want to think about that for fear that it might rip her heart out. “You’re getting ahead of yourself.” Hallie stopped rocking and turned toward her sister. “You act like he’s walking down the aisle.”
“Mama said when she was at the jewelry shop getting her watch fixed a few weeks ago, she ran into Ashley. She found her at the ring counter… What if it’s closer than you think?”
Apart from the last four months, Ben had always been there for her. And now, as she pondered the idea of Ben entering into a committed relationship, an unexpected feeling of insecurity and unease slinked through her. “You’re just speculating.”
“I am. But he’s a handsome, caring, thoughtful man. You said yourself that Ashley was a great person. You really liked her.” Sydney took a band from her wrist and pulled her hair into a ponytail to allow the breeze to cool her neck. “I guess, on the heels of our last talk about choices, I just want to make sure that you have a clear distinction of what the two of you are. It’s important. While you’re comfortable spending all kinds of time together and being affectionate toward one another like you’ve always been, the people you both date might not be.”
“We have a family-like affection for one another,” she said, feeling defensive, put off by the whole conversation. “Being loving toward him wouldn’t be weird if he were my brother.” She scrambled for some sort of rationalization for all this.
“But he’s not,” Sydney said gently.
Hallie didn’t like what she was hearing at all. It made her anxious. “You’re acting really weird.
What’s bringing this on?”
Sydney’s emerald eyes landed on Hallie with purpose. “He is like family. To all of us. I want him to be in Robby’s life. If Ashley or anyone else he dates doesn’t feel comfortable with the way you two are, then I’m worried he’ll stay away… Like what happened with Jeff.”
That last remark floated in the space between them, stopping Hallie in her tracks.
“What?”
Sydney’s brow furrowed. “I wondered if Ben would tell you.”
“Tell me what?”
Sydney chewed the inside of her lip, as if she were deciding at that very moment whether to divulge more than she had. Finally, she relented. “Jeff asked him to back off.”
Hallie’s mouth flew open, her eyes nearly bulging from their sockets. “What?” she said mid-gasp. A firestorm of irritation shot through her veins. All that time she’d needed Ben, at her very lowest, when she didn’t know how she’d go on, and he’d stayed away—that was Jeff’s doing? “Why would Jeff do that?”
“He got nervous something might be developing between you two.”
Four whole months… “How do you know all this?”
“Ben told me.” Sydney looked back out at Robby. He cast the line into the water and then said something to Ben that made him chuckle. “After Jeff had told him to stay away, Robby barely saw Ben. I know it’s not Ben’s job to be with my kid, but Robby adores him. Ben’s been there his whole life…”
Hallie had to work to focus on her sister, her mind going a hundred miles an hour. She still didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t believe it.
“I just wonder if you should be more careful around him. Out of consideration for Ashley and, indirectly, Robby.”
The last thing Hallie wanted was to ruin Robby’s only chance right now to have a positive male influence. He needed that. “I guess you’re right.” The idea of being anything other than the way she’d always been with Ben seemed foreign to her. Just when her world had been totally shaken, she now had yet another blow. Life as she knew it was changing…
EIGHT
“Let me help you,” Ben said, taking Uncle Hank by the arm and gently guiding him to the lawn chair that had been set up for him. Ben made sure to hang the swing before the doctor’s appointment so that Uncle Hank could be a part of things.
Flashes of Uncle Hank teaching a young Ben how to bait a fishing hook filtered into Hallie’s mind, and she couldn’t help but acknowledge that the roles were reversed. Uncle Hank now required caring for when he’d always been the person who cared for everyone else. Ben helped him get settled, and then popped the top off a bottle of beer from the cooler beside Uncle Hank and handed it to him. It was a good thing Mama was out running errands or she would’ve snatched it right back out of Uncle Hank’s hands, claiming he didn’t need alcohol in his system.
Hallie made out the hint of a smile at Ben’s gesture. Uncle Hank hadn’t been thrilled about going outside after his last attempt at the gazebo, but Ben and Robby had convinced him. He’d grumbled all the way out there and hadn’t stopped.
“You’re perfectly capable of doing this on your own,” he said to Ben.
“If I tie the wrong kind of knot,” Ben said, opening the cooler again to get himself a bottle of water, “Robby’s safety could be at stake. I need you to show me how to do it.”
But Uncle Hank continued his pouting. “I don’t buy that for a minute.” He tipped his beer up and took a drink. “I know you too well, Ben Murray. You’d never do anything to put that boy in harm’s way. And you can just as easily search for the answer on that phone of yours. I know you’ve got it on ya because it keeps ringing off the hook.”
Ben didn’t offer an explanation, leaving Hallie to wonder who’d been calling. He was terribly busy at work. So many bands came in and out of the studio that he should have installed a revolving door. Hallie wasn’t certain at all how they were managing without him. Ben acted as the creative director for many of the artists. He was the magic-maker.
The old tire swing sat in a lump on the front lawn. One solid oak tree, with a trunk bigger than Hallie could wrap her arms around, stood in the middle of the yard, a ladder perched under its lowest branch. She’d sat under that tree to read books as a girl, and she and Ben had hidden behind it when they played Hide and Seek. A storm had knocked the original branch that held the swing down, and no one had ever replaced the swing after. Not until now.
Hallie took a seat on the cool grass next to Sydney.
“What do I need to do?” Robby asked, the width of the heavy rope barely allowing him to grasp it in his little hand. He lifted it, throwing a section of it over his shoulder, the task making him winded.
“Hold that end just like you are, and I’ll reach down for it,” Ben said, stepping his way up the ladder. “Okay, hand it to me,” he said once he was up a few rungs.
Robby dutifully gave the end of the rope to Ben, looking on as he threw the rope over the branch and climbed the extra rung to reach the other side.
“How are those muscles, Robby? Think you can hold that tire?” he called down.
Robby worked to lift the tire, his face serious as he tried his best to help Ben, his thin frame working overtime. He dropped it with a thud and picked it back up, then rolled it over to the ladder and put his hand on it to keep it from falling onto the grass. At last Ben took it from his hands and threaded the rope through it.
“Just hold it steady now,” he told Robby. Robby wobbled the tire again and batted Sydney away when she tried to help him stabilize it.
“I’ve got it, Mama,” he said with pride.
“Uncle Hank, this is where I need you,” Ben called down, his voice slightly strained from holding the massive ropes in place.
“Make yourself a double loop first,” he called up to Ben. “Remember how we did it on that climb in the mountains when you were younger? Do it like that.”
“Oh yeah,” he said, making two loops and threading the working piece through them.
“That’s right. Yep. Wrap it around. Now, tuck it in the hole you’ve made,” Uncle Hank said.
“Right here?” Ben held the wad of rope with one hand and pointed to a small opening in the folds of cord.
“You’ve got it.” Uncle Hank took another sip of his beer.
With the knot secure, Ben came down the ladder. “You can let go now,” he told Robby. He put his foot in the tire and stood up on it, testing the safety of the knot under his weight.
“Put your legs through it and I’ll push you,” he said to Robby.
“Will you push me really high?” Robby asked, threading his legs inside the hole and hanging on to the tire like he was giving it a big bear hug. “Like I said at breakfast. Super high!”
“Want me to?”
Robby nodded excitedly.
“Okay, get ready!” Ben grabbed on to the tire and pulled it back toward him. Then he ran, thrusting the swing forward with all his might.
With a squeal of laughter, Robby sailed through the air, his feet dangling above the grass. “Uncle Hank! Look at meeee!” he cried, before bursting into a fit of giggles as the tire twirled while swinging like an enormous pendulum.
Then the most wonderful thing happened. Uncle Hank laughed—really laughed; a loud guffaw, his earlier scowl softening. Hallie wished Mama had been there to see it, but she’d been out all morning, probably getting the groceries they’d need for the week. She’d been gone since just after breakfast.
“Push me again!” Robby said as the swing slowed.
Sydney got up to play with Robby, allowing Ben to come over to Hallie and Uncle Hank. He plopped down beside Hallie and draped an arm around her shoulders. The gesture felt strange now, after the talk she’d had with Sydney. His phone rang again. He pulled away from Hallie and reached into his pocket to silence it, without even checking to see who it was.
“Who keeps calling you?”
“No one important,” he said. “Uncle Hank, you got Hallie worried with your com
ment. My phone’s only rung twice.”
Uncle Hank set his empty beer on the cooler beside him. “Three times if you count just now. That’s more than I get all week.”
“Is it work?” she asked.
Ben gave her a content look. “Work is fine.” Then he got up and helped Sydney push Robby on the swing.
As Hallie watched them, it occurred to her that she’d missed out on a lot of family time when she was with Jeff. It hadn’t been intentional, but they’d just done things together rather than with everyone. Watching Sydney and Ben playing with Robby, spinning him on the tire swing, Hallie had an overwhelming feeling that it had been a close call with Jeff. She’d gotten so wrapped up in her life and everything she’d gone through that she’d forgotten what it was like to be a Flynn.
She wondered if Uncle Hank had forgotten too. He was smiling, with a tiny glint in his eyes that showed her the old Uncle Hank was still in there. If they could just have more moments like these… She looked at the house. It had seen its share of tragedy when it was taken over as a hospital by Northern troops during the Civil War; it had weathered countless storms, but it stood proudly and firmly in its spot, despite it all. The Flynns were like that too. They could get battered, feel empty, but they were strong. It was how they were built.
“I’ll be right back,” Hallie said, and without any further explanation, she ran to the guesthouse.
She pushed open the screen door, the familiar scent of gardenia from the nearby bushes wafting toward her with the movement. She progressed quickly down the hallway to the bedroom and opened her suitcase, squatting down next to it. Carefully, she moved her clothes until she got to the box she’d packed, not understanding why she’d packed it until now. She opened it up and retrieved her camera. It wasn’t anything fancy—an old Canon that she’d had for years—but it took beautiful photos and she did have her list to consider…