“What did she think of Ricky’s Charisse? That was about the prettiest woman I’ve seen in a long time. Didn’t just being with her make Ricky look older, too?”
“Going away to college does that to kids. I remember how old Will looked first time he came home. They change.”
“So glad I’ll have my new little one by time the girls go off to school next year. He’ll be a year old by then.”
“He? Did you say ‘he’?”
“Shoot! Yeah. Don’t tell anyone. Gender reveal party is Friday, and then everyone can know. The girls don’t even know yet. Shaw either.”
I give my friend a questioning stare. “I thought you didn’t know.”
“Right, like I’m not going to know something that important. Although I said I didn’t find out so folks wouldn’t keep asking me.” She grins. “A boy! I’m so excited. Shaw’s going to die.”
A quick little breeze blows over us. Conversation stalls as we both lift our heads to feel it. Laney finishes her tea and fluffs her caftan to stir the air around her legs as she stands up. “Well, I’m going to take the laptop home and get things sorted out there where it’s cool. I don’t even have to ask if you’ve kept up with everything.”
“Well, not as good as you do it. My system is more, um, more relaxed.” I stand up and stretch. “Since it looks like the air’s not going to be fixed today, guess I have to do some of the stuff I’ve been putting off. Like cleaning.”
“How are things at the bookstore?” she asks as we walk inside.
“Good, I guess. Kind of waiting for Gertie to go home before I get too involved again at the bookstore. Patty and Andy leave this weekend for their honeymoon. Figure Gertie will go home then, but still not sure what she’s doing with the store or when she’s going home.”
Laney speaks up from the office where she’s gathering stuff to take to her house. “You know, you could just ask her. She is staying in your B&B.”
“I guess. But then what if she says she’s not leaving?” Gertie Samson is a force of nature all her own, and the sooner she leaves Chancey the better for everyone. Me, her daughter, Patty, and her new husband. Did I mention me? Especially me.
Laney comes back into the kitchen with a big red leather satchel slung over her shoulder. “Carolina, you beat all I’ve ever seen for not wanting to actually know what’s going on around you.”
Shrugging, I pick up her purse before she can and follow her out the front door. At her big black SUV, always new since her husband owns a dealership, we put everything in the back seat. Before she puts the car in reverse, she rolls down the window and lowers her sunglasses to cover her eyes. “And in case you think I didn’t notice, you are also intentionally trying to ignore what’s going on with both Savannah and Anna. Good job changing the conversation, but just because you ain’t talking about them doesn’t mean everyone else isn’t.” She rolls up the window and backs away.
Shoot.
Chapter 2
“You’ve got a problem with your air? Shaw asked me to stop by. I’m Terry Minns.”
“Sure.” I push open the screen door for the young man. “I’m Carolina. It just stopped working. It’s old, and when we bought this place last summer we knew it was on its last leg. Do you do whole replacements of systems?” I leave the wooden door open as the morning air outside is cooler than the air inside the house.
He grins. “Now, no need to get ahead of ourselves. Let me take a look.” He nods up the stairs. “Thermostat there, right?”
I nod and he walks up the steps.
“Saw your sign out front. So this is a B&B? I’ve never stayed at one. Folks say they’re really fun.”
“Yeah, people seem to enjoy them.” I wait at the bottom of the stairs, and he joins me back there in a minute.
“I’m going to go out and take a look at the outside unit, then I’ll give Shaw a call. Let him know what I find.”
“I’m, well, my husband and I, are the owners. Shouldn’t you let me, us, know?”
“Yes, ma’am. If you want. When does your husband get home?”
“He’s not today. He’s out of town.”
“Oh.” He steps to the front door. “You want me to give him a call?” Turning around he pulls out his phone, then waits for me to give him my husband’s phone number. He finally looks up at me when I don’t say anything.
“I’m the one who’s going to write the check. You might not want to dismiss me so quickly.”
“Sorry, ma’am. Wasn’t thinking.” He tucks his phone back in his pocket. “I’ll let you know what I find.” He lets go of the screen door and turns around.
He’s not even off the front porch headed around the side of the house before I have Laney’s phone ringing. To her hello, I say, “Terry’s here. He’s a bit of chauvinist. Wants to talk to my husband.”
“Oh, ignore that. He’s young. Isn’t he cute?”
“Not that cute.”
“Get over yourself. You know you’re going to want him to talk to Jackson, right?”
“Of course, but he was rude about it.”
“You’re just lucky Shaw let him off work early to come check things out. Supposed to get even hotter this weekend, and I see we have guests.”
“I know. Well, if he gets this fixed, he can be a raving sexist. He works at the dealership? Thought he was an air conditioner repairman.”
“Not sure what he does. His father is Shaw’s best salesman. Will knows him. Mike Minns. Glad he got there so early. Don’t mess with that Earl anymore, and ignore FM if he complains. I’ve got to get dressed. We’re going shopping for nursery furniture. It’s so much more fun to have a baby when you have money.”
We hang up, and I watch Terry come from around the side of the house and walk to his truck. He is cute, in a country kind of way. His hair is a little shaggy, but it’s mostly curls. He looks strong, and I guess he’s around twenty-five? He sets something on the seat of his truck, closes the door, and turns toward the house. Of course, catching me watching him. Like he needs help thinking he’s God’s gift to women. He heads up the sidewalk, and I step out onto the porch.
“Hey, Miss Carolina, I’ve got what I need. Should have you fixed up in no time at all.”
“So what’s the problem?”
And he goes into some description of something that I immediately block out, but I had to ask, right? “Okay, thanks. Um, you said you’ll let Shaw know, too?”
“Yes, ma’am. If that’s okay?”
“Sure. His wife is my business partner.”
Plus, that means I can have Jackson just call Shaw for the details, since I didn’t really listen.
He yells over his shoulder as he reaches his truck again. “Hey, so Will Jessup is your son? Works at the dealership?”
“Yes. Laney says you work there, too.”
“Yep, me and my old man. So Savannah is your daughter?”
“You know Savannah?”
“She came over to see Will. She sure is pretty. Tell her Terry said ‘hi.’” He waves as he climbs into his truck. He is grinning entirely too big.
Wonder what Savannah was doing at the dealership? Back inside, I close the wood door to block out the growing sunlight and the heat it brings. All day the past couple days, I just go back and forth between opening up the windows and doors to let in cooler air, or closing them to keep out warmer air. I think it’s just six one way and a half-dozen the other.
So, now we have two guys working on the air, and I have absolutely no faith in either of them.
Walking back towards the kitchen, a reflection flashes across the living room and I turn to look out the front window. Susan’s car door is just swinging open, and she makes for the back yard without even looking at the house. Guess she’s looking for a bit of garden therapy (and not a minute too soon, my garden is looking bad.)
“Hey there,” I say from the back deck. She’s pulling on gardening gloves and just throws up a hand in the air at me without lifting her head. She looks tense.
“Want some coffee?”
She says “no,” but still doesn’t turn around. Cradling my own cup, I walk out to the edge of the plowed section. In the spring, when I stupidly thought I was bored one week, I got Susan’s husband Griffin to plow me a big garden area. Big. Then I dumped a bunch of plants from Walmart’s clearance rack into a couple rows and decided I would never be so bored that I would like gardening. Luckily for me, Susan was just at that same time moving away from her massive garden, and she said she’d take care of mine. (This coincided with pretty much the same time I started going back to church. Coincidence? Don’t think so.)
Barefoot in the cool grass, I watch her pull weeds for a minute. She appears to be working off anger or frustration, so I give her some time. If I didn’t know how hot it was going to be in my house in a couple hours, I could enjoy this beautiful morning. The sky is clear, trees completely leafed out, bugs and birds singing their gentle summer songs. Wait. That’s not a bird or the bugs. Susan is crying.
I sit my cup in the grass and pick my way through the rocky dirt to where she’s kneeling beside my sprawling tomato plants. “Susan, what’s wrong?”
She rocks back and then stands up. “Those idiots that bought our house have completely stripped the backyard. Everything is gone. All the flower gardens, even the pond. It’s a bare wasteland, and they are having sod laid down. A big old lawn of grass. It’s awful.”
“No! Oh my goodness. Your yard was amazing. Flowers all the time, and the benches, and the pond. What did they do with all the plants and stuff?”
She wipes her forearm across her face. “I heard they had a back hoe over there, so I went there this morning to see if I could get some of the plants if they didn’t want them, and it’s all gone. The workers didn’t speak much English, but they said it was gone, and when I looked around the place, they’re right. Nothing left. Nothing.” She walks out of the garden, and I pick my way out following her to the steps of the deck, where we both sit down.
“Were the new people there yet?”
“No. We just met the husband at closing, and he was in a big hurry. I offered to show him, or his wife, around the property sometime, and he said they would call. The sale went through so fast, we didn’t have time to meet them. Just wanted them to know what all would be blooming and how to take care of it all. Guess they decided that was too much work, just strip it all out and plant grass. No explanations needed then.”
“Well, you have your new yard to work with.”
“Not really. The developer landscapes all the yards in our part of Laurel Cove, and then you just pay to maintain it. I’m not sure we belong up there.” She reaches out and squeezes my hand. “I miss being able to pop over and see y’all. Shoot, our new driveway is longer than the road to your house was from our old house.”
I nod, but don’t say anything. She’s not invited me over to even see the new house. She and Griffin are running in different circles all of a sudden. His new job has him working long hours, when before he only seemingly worked part-time from his one-man office. Plus, he and Grant have taken up golf, so we’re not even seeing as much of Grant around here. They only moved a few miles away, but it feels farther. I’m sure once they get settled . . . okay, I hope once they get settled, it’ll get better.
She jumps up, “Look at me! I have to get home and shower. Wednesdays we have lunch at the clubhouse.” Then she holds out her hand midair. “I know! Come with me. Come to lunch today at the club. I’m trying to get friendly with the ladies there not only since they’re our new neighbors, but many of them are supportive of the events at the Lake Park.”
This perks me up. “I have wanted to see the Laurel Cove clubhouse. Are you sure it’s open to anyone?”
“Yes, when you’re with a member. And I’m a member. Come, it’s beautiful, and besides, Laney said your air is out? I promise the club will be nice and cool.” She begins walking toward the side of the house. “I’ll meet you there a bit before noon.”
Still sitting on the steps to our deck, my mind wanders over how strange this whole exchange has been. Susan wasn’t here more than fifteen minutes. She’s always been high energy, but this was almost manic. I stand up. Well, she does have a lot going on right now. I dump the bit of cold coffee left in the bottom of my cup over the deck railing, and as I lay my hand on the door going inside, I freeze.
What in the world will I wear?
Chapter 3
Nothing worse than trying to get dressed nice when you are sweating buckets. When I got into the shower, the house was still comfortable. Now, between the steam from the shower and running the hair dryer, the bathroom is like a sauna. And the bedroom is no better since the open windows are welcoming the morning sunshine along with the growing heat.
My hair is short so it doesn’t usually take long to dry, but I can’t seem to get it dry today. It is either damp from the shower or full of sweat. I’m no longer sure. I’m trying to grow it out, and, well, it looks like I’m trying to grow it out. Like an experiment or something. Of course, I’ll get in the air-conditioned room, and it will dry then. Nice and bushy. Or I could gel it all down, and pretend I wanted it to look like this. Only problem with that is I don’t have the cheekbones, expressive eyes, or little waist that works with that hairstyle. I’d just look like, well, like a drowned rat.
With bright red lips.
I bought this lipstick because it said it would last all day. Now I know why, it dyes your lips. Even stung a bit when I put it on, and now it won’t come off. And I’ve rubbed it so much, the area around my lips are now red. Plus, I got some of it on the white skirt I was going to wear, so now I’m back to pulling things out of the closet.
Black. Black is always good. Plain black dress. Plain black sandals. I just need to get to the car, turn on the air conditioner and drive around for an hour until it’s time to meet Susan. Plus, I need to get out of here before FM and Earl show up. Let them figure out whatever part it was Terry put into his truck and took with him.
In the car, I turn the air on full blast and settle in to send some texts before I drive off. Bryan is at the lake taking swim lessons. He can already swim, but as he wants to be a lifeguard, he needs some additional training. He rides his bike there, and then he and his friends stay most of the day. Susan has a fully running snack shack opened there, and she let us open accounts so the kids don’t have to take money. It’s awesome. I text him where I am going, knowing he won’t see his phone until lessons are over. Susan also put in lockers so things can be left secure. She’s done a lot in the short amount of time she’s been managing the Lake Park.
Savannah texted me that she’s helping Peter at the bistro today. MoonShots kind of evolved with Jordan moving back to New York and Peter taking over the space with his bistro idea. He’s supposed to open soon. Savannah stayed at Laney’s house last night and says she’ll be home later to see if the air is working. I text her back where I’m going. No, scratch that. She knows more people up in Laurel Cove than I do, and she may forbid me going to the club for lunch. Just a smiley face to her.
Ignore FM’s text. Ignore Shaw’s text. Tell Jackson he needs to talk to Shaw. During all this, Patty texts me to come to the bookstore sometime soon. I answer her “okay.” There’s air conditioning there, and I do want to see how it’s looking.
Use to be my cell phone felt like a leash, and I resented it. Now that I’m good with texting, it feels so freeing. And yes, I’m now on Facebook. But we’ll talk about that later.
By the time I get downtown, I’m feeling much cooler. There’s a spot around the corner coming into town, so I slide in there. Getting out of the car, I feel dressed up and think I might like this slicked-back hair idea. Better than being bushy, right? Around the corner, I look in the windows of Peter’s newest endeavor, not sure he has a name yet. Maybe Chancey Bistro? But then I’m not that creative. Heck, we had to have a contest to name the B&B Crossings. Peter’s trying to soften the modern lines of the MoonShots, which are known for being
clean and straightforward, with hard lines and cool colors. He’s added all kinds of shelves, I see. Just watching through the windows is good enough for me. Peter and I have a natural attraction, and well, I am looking good today. No need to get anything started.
Savannah sees me and comes outside. “What did you do?” She walks right up and puts her hand on my head. “Is that gel? Gross, mom.”
Andy is walking up the sidewalk from the direction of Ruby’s. The big goofy grin he always wears is bigger and goofier. “Hey, Mrs. J. Love the look. Like that old video of that guy singing that song “Addicted to Love” with the chicks all in black, slicked back hair, and really red lips.” He gives me a thumbs up as he opens the door to the bookstore/flower shop.
I jerk away from Savannah’s outstretched hand. “I’m going out to lunch. Don’t touch me.”
“Is the air fixed?”
“Not yet.”
She crosses her arms and leans against the building. “Why can’t you call someone? It’s just air conditioning. I can’t believe I’m basically kicked out of my own house. It’s summer. I’m supposed to be able to relax and sleep in. This is the stupidest summer ever.”
When her voice chokes up a bit, I look closer. Her eyes are shiny. “Are you okay?”
She bounces off the brick wall and throws her arms up. “I’m fine. Just fine. Go to your lunch.” Slinging open the big wood and glass door, she goes inside, and I feel the blast of cool air. Peter waves from behind the counter and then turns to opens some boxes behind him. If I chase Savannah in there, she won’t tell me anything and will most likely make another mean comment about my hair. Sugary, false compliments roll off a Southern girl’s tongue like the icing fountain covering Krispy Kreme doughnuts. But with her mother? No such luck.
I’ll go somewhere someone might lie to me and tell me I look good. “Hey Patty. Hey Shannon,” I call as I open the next door.
Kids are Chancey Page 2