by Rachel Hanna
"This is about Addison, isn't it?" he asked.
Adele didn't say anything or turn around, and he could see that she was hanging her head a little bit lower, a sure sign that he had hit the nail right on the head.
"Mom, turn around and look at me." he said. Adele slowly turned around, and he could tell that she had tears in her eyes. Adele was a woman who didn't cry a lot. She never had time to cry with all that she had to do to raise five children, so when she teared up he knew that she was really worried about his sister.
"Okay, fine. It's just that Addison doesn't sound right when I talk to her on the phone or even when she texts me. I feel like something might be wrong, but she's not telling me what it is. I just hope that she's okay. It worries me," she said in a whisper. She didn't want to worry the other kids or cause a darkness over Thanksgiving for everyone else.
"Don't worry, Mom, I will talk to Addison," Jackson said. He was always taking control of situations, and this was no exception.
"No, don't. Really, Jackson. I don't want her to feel like we're all talking about her behind her back."
"Okay, fine. How about I just make a normal phone call between brother and sister and see what I think? If it sounds like she's not herself, maybe I can do a little digging around in our conversation to see what's wrong. Addison and I were always close when she was growing up, so maybe she will tell me something that she hasn't told you." Adele nodded and swiped at her eyes, brushing away a stray hair that had fallen in her face. She reached out and hugged her son tightly as if she was so appreciative of his presence back in the house. Jackson felt a pang of guilt again that he hadn't been around enough in recent years.
It was like he'd escaped from his family in January Cove, but there was nothing there that was horrible. A lot of people ran away from their lives because they wanted to get away from toxic family or areas of the country that gave the bad memories, but that wasn't the case for Jackson. His sole reason for being away from home was simply that he was alone and a failure at love so far. Maybe he was jealous of his brothers' good fortune in the relationship department, or maybe being in January Cove just reminded him that he hadn't progressed very far in his personal life since he was thirteen years old.
He couldn't quite put his finger on why he'd run away. It was like he was trying to prove something to himself and everyone else. He wanted to prove that he was the most successful brother in the family since he was the oldest. He had to excel above everyone else or he would feel like a failure.
Jackson left his mother to finish up her work in the kitchen while he walked outside to the back deck. The solitude of January Cove provided him a welcome respite from the stresses of his real estate career. Suddenly, he was starting to feel like his life in Atlanta wasn't nearly as fulfilling as he pretended it was. There's something that always drew him back to his family, his home, the waters in the ocean. He had missed the smell of the salty sea air, the breeze that lightly touched his face, the small-town life where everyone knew everyone else. And now he felt conflicted in a way that he never had before.
***
Jackson woke up on Thanksgiving morning way earlier than he'd planned. He could already hear mixers going in the kitchen, and the loud laughter of the women as they started preparing the big Thanksgiving meal. He wondered what they were talking about that was so hysterically funny at six o'clock in the morning.
Sitting up in his bed and rubbing his eyes, he stepped out onto the hardwood floor and headed for the restroom. He put some cold water on his face, brushed his hair and threw on a T-shirt and a pair of baggy athletic shorts. Even though it was winter time, he still found January Cove to be warm enough to wear shorts in November. After all, he had been in Atlanta where it was a lot colder during this time of the year.
"Good morning, ladies," he said with his best smile. The women giggled, and his mother tried to stifle a smile. "Is something funny? Is my hair askew?" he asked pretending to fix his hair with his fingers.
"No, honey, you look lovely," his mother said ruffling his hair as Jenna and Tessa started laughing.
"Okay, ladies. I can tell that you're laughing at my expense. What's so funny?" he asked crossing his arms and shooting a sly smile their way.
"Well, your mom was just giving us the lowdown on some of your romantic adventures as a teenager," Jenna said cutting her eyes at Adele who started to laugh.
"Oh really? My dear mother is talking about my private romantic life?" Jackson said wagging his finger in his mother. "And what, pray tell, did she tell you ladies?"
"Well, there was talk about a couple of teenage girls climbing out of your window…" Tessa said wagging her finger back at him. He liked this Tessa chick. She seemed to have just enough of a rough edge to fit right in with the rest of the Parker siblings.
"Mom! I can't believe you told them that. I told you that I was just playing board games with them!" he said with his hands on his hips."
"Oh, yeah. Sure. Board games. Likely story," Jenna said rolling her eyes. "Besides, I heard one of those was a Callahan sister."
"Listen, I never had any luck with the Callahan sisters. I was too busy helping to raise my snotty little brothers and sister." His attempt at a joke seemed to fail.
A hush fell over the room for just a moment, and Jackson could tell that he had made his mother feel bad or inadequate or something. She looked at him for a brief second and then turned around and started stirring the mashed potatoes. He felt terrible. "Listen, mom, I'm going to go grab a shower and then make that phone call we talked about. Okay?"
She turned around and nodded. "Sure, honey, that would be great. Lunch is at noon, so just make sure that you are back down here by then."
He gave her a quick kiss on top of the head and then trotted back upstairs. He wasn't sure why what he said caused her to pull back so. Maybe she felt guilty that he'd had to step up after his father died. He'd always been her right hand, but he didn't know how his mother really felt about that.
Jackson got a shower, made himself a cup of coffee in his little coffeemaker upstairs and sat out on the deck for a little while. He watched traffic go by and for some reason his eyes kept getting drawn to the new coffee shop. Jolt. Even though he had an altercation with the sexy new owner, he didn't have any plans to go back to that place. Her son had a major attitude problem, and she obviously wasn't going to do anything about it. What kind of mother allowed her son to talk to people like that? She obviously wasn't a very good disciplinarian, and he could probably teach her a thing or two about that. If one of his brothers had ever talked to anyone the way that kid had talked to him, he would've smacked the snot out of them. But, this woman apparently didn't have much of a backbone.
He finished up his coffee and dug his cell phone out of his pocket. It was time to call his sister and try to figure out exactly what was going on. He had a feeling his mother was right. Addison had never pulled this far away from the family, and she rarely missed a holiday. Although she and her husband did travel quite a bit, Addison always stayed in close contact with the family. Lately, things hadn't been the same, and he could feel it himself.
"Hello?" Addison answered. Her voice sounded softer than normal, and for a moment he wondered if he'd woke her up. It was already after 9 AM, and she was usually a pretty early riser. Of course, he had no idea where she was in the world right now.
"Hey, sis. It's Jackson. Are you okay? You sound tired," he said.
"Oh, hey, Jackson. Yeah, I'm fine. Just had a late night out. You know how we like to have a good time. Slept in for a while this morning. How is everyone?"
He could tell that she was brushing his concerns off, and that just made him even more worried about her. "We're all fine. Missing you for Thanksgiving, though."
"Yeah, I really wish we could've been there. I hate missing a holiday with my Parker brothers. But, I'm going to try my best to get there for Christmas."
"I thought you guys were in Greece or some other exotic locale?" Jackson said. The
re was a silence on the other end of the phone for a moment as if she was trying to think of something to say.
"Um, yeah, at the last minute Jim had a change at work…" She was stuttering and stammering, and Jackson knew he had to act fast.
"Come on, Addison. You and I both know that something is going on. You would never miss a Thanksgiving with the family if you were stateside. I'm your big brother. I can help you. Please just tell me what's wrong."
Addison didn't say anything for a moment and then he heard what he thought was a sniffle on the other end. "Jackson, I'm fine," she said through what sounded like tears.
"Why won't you let us help you?" he asked. He was aware that his tone sounded like he was begging, and he really was. He wanted to help his sister. All the brothers felt that way about her being the only girl.
"There's nothing to help me with. Really. Everything is fine. I've got things under control."
"Are you okay? Are you safe? Has someone hurt you?" Jackson started rattling off questions to her.
"I'm safe. No one is hurting me, I promise. I just need to be away right now. Please don't say anything to Mom. I don't want her worried about me."
"Too late. She's very worried about you, Addison. And now that I've talked to you, I'm worried too. If something is going on with your husband, you need to let me know about it. I can help you fix this."
"Jackson," she snapped. For the first time in their phone conversation, he heard his sister getting aggravated. She was usually a pretty feisty one anyway, so he was kind of glad to hear her backbone finally. "I'm not going to say it again. Everything is fine. Nothing to worry about. I've got things handled." There was a silence between brother and sister for a few moments before Jackson finally got the message that his sister wasn't ready to talk about whatever was going on with her.
"Okay. Just know that you can call me anytime, day or night. I will be there to help you. I promise."
"I know you will. You always have been. And I thank you for that. But I really need to take care of myself right now. I hope you can understand that. And please make up something to tell mother so that she's not worried about me. I can't take the guilt of her having another stroke just because she's worried about me."
"Alright. I hate lying to Mom, but I know it's for the best in this case. I'll tell her that something came up with Jim's job, and that finances are a little tight right now. I'll just tell her that you guys are too proud to ask for money to travel, so you're staying closer to home."
"Sounds like a good cover story. That will work. Thanks, Jackson."
"And, Addison, just know that I love you," Jackson said.
"I know. And I love you too. I'll be home soon. See you at Christmas," she said with her voice cracking before she hung up. Jackson sat there for a moment wondering if there was anything else that he could do, but Addison was a grown married woman who had made her requests clear. And he understood that himself because he didn't like people interfering in his life either. But as her older brother and stand-in father for most of her life, he was used to taking care of things for his little sister. Feeling like his hands were tied, he set his cell phone down on the dresser and started to get ready for the Thanksgiving festivities.
***
Rebecca wasn't sure that she had ever been more nervous in her life. It was silly really, after all that she and Leo had been through in their lives, but going to a Thanksgiving festivity with such a well-known family was making her a little more than jittery. Of course, being a coffee shop owner, she'd had more than her share of espresso this morning. That probably wasn't the best idea given the fact that she was already anxious.
"I don't get it. Why can't we just have sandwiches on the beach like we said we would?" Leo whined. Sometimes she wondered if he was two years old or fourteen years old.
"Because I'm trying to make a name for myself in this town, and my best customer invited us. So you will act right and be kind to these people. You will say thank you and you will be polite. You hear me?" She said putting her hands on his shoulders. She really hated this part of being a parent. Sometimes she was kind and meek like her mother was, and other times she had to be rough and tough like her father was. It was a very hard balancing act. She was never really sure that she was doing it right. It was times like this that she really missed having her husband there.
"Fine. Is it time to leave yet?" he asked looking down his cell phone.
"Actually, yes it is. We're going to walk there because it's just a couple of blocks over."
"Walk? Why can't we drive a car like normal people?" he said throwing his hands up in the air.
"Because it's one of the perks of small-town life, Leo. Get over it." She was tired of being so rough on him this morning, but he had started with his whining first thing in the morning. She just didn't understand him anymore. He had gone from being a sweet young boy to a hormonal teenage mass. She sure couldn't remember acting that way to her parents, although her father never would've allowed it. Again, she felt a momentary sense of loss when she thought about her husband. How he could've changed Leo's life. Would Leo be a better kid right now if his father was still alive? Was it even his fault that he was so angry right now?
She had tried a couple of times to talk to him about his anger issues lately, but he just went inward and started playing video games or texting on his phone. Maybe every parent of a teenager went through this at some point, but she was quite sure that she had seen parents out in public with their teenagers having a good time and interacting. That had stopped with Leo over the last year or so. She missed their close relationship, but she had absolutely no idea how to get it back.
Rebecca packed up the muffins that she had made to take to the Parker's and they headed downstairs and out the door. Their walk was quiet, with Leo texting on his phone as usual. Honestly, sometimes she thought about grabbing it out of his hands and flinging it out into traffic. Only there was no traffic in January Cove, so it wouldn't do much good. It would likely lay out in the street untouched for hours. It was a ghost town on Thanksgiving, and it wasn't busier on most days anyway.
"Leo, can you please stop texting? If you don't, I'm going to take that phone and put it in my purse for the rest of the day," she said raising an eyebrow to him as they walked. He rolled his eyes, sighed and shoved it in his pocket. The last thing he wanted to do was lose that phone, and she knew it.
"Why do you care so much what these people think anyway? They don't even know us. They don't even know our story," he said. She was shocked by him saying this, specifically the mention of "their story". What exactly did he think their story was?
"Because it's good to make new friends, Leo. This is our new beginning. I did this for you just as much as I did it for me."
"Yeah, right," he said.
"So you think I did this whole move for me? Trust me, Leo, it's very hard for someone my age to just pick up and leave everything they've known their whole life. I did this because I felt like we needed a fresh beginning somewhere without all the memories of what happened. Don't you like it here?" she asked exasperated.
"It's alright. Of course, I don't really care where we live. It's always the same."
"What do you mean?" she asked, finally excited that he seemed to be opening up. Instead, he shrugged his shoulders, grunted and stopped talking. She'd come so close to getting him to say something, anything. But he didn't. And they walked the rest of the way to the Parker's in silence.
When they arrived at the house, Rebecca felt her nerves cropping up all over again. Her palms were sweaty, and her heart was racing. What was it about hanging out with these people on such an innocuous holiday that was making her anxious? Maybe it was because she hadn't really been to any big family functions in years. She didn't really have any family, and she didn't like to impose on friends back in New York.
But this was different. They needed support, some kind of anchor in January Cove. She just needed something new, something to take her mind off her growi
ng problems with her son and her floundering business.
"Remember, be nice," she said reminding her son by wagging her finger in his face. They walked up the steps and rang the bell, ready to have a big family Thanksgiving with a family they didn't know.
The door flung open, and a small petite blonde woman was standing there. She assumed that this was Adele Parker, the renowned real estate broker and perfect mother to the Parker kids.
"Welcome!" she said throwing her arms out and bringing Rebecca into a big hug. It took her aback because she hadn't felt the love of a mother in so many years, but Adele Parker wasn't her mother. It was a strange sensation that she couldn't place.
"Thank you for having us. I'm Rebecca Evans, and this is my son Leo." Rebecca pulled back from the hug and put her arm around her son's shoulders. Of course, Leo wiggled out from under her grasp and crossed his arms. For a moment, there was a spark of silence as Adele looked into Rebecca's eyes and then over at Leo. Rebecca was so embarrassed, but she tried to play it off and just smiled.