Again, Alabama

by Susan Sands

  Stretching luxuriously, and surprised she wasn’t terribly sore from her recent activities and sleeping on the floor, Maureen cuddled against Howard, content to lie here. The doctor had said, the firmer the surface, the better. He’d also winked and given her the go-ahead to carefully resume sexual activity—nothing too vigorous, he said. She’d assumed he knew her sexual activity was nonexistent. But now she was glad to know it was alright.

  More relaxed than she could remember, she almost didn’t hear the noise at the front door. It wasn’t a knock, it was a key slipping into the lock and the knob turning. Dear God, she was cold busted.

  “Surprise, Mom!” the chorus of her children’s voices died out the moment they spotted her hiding behind Howard, who had come awake the instant the door swung open. Being ex-military, his reflexes were excellent, and he had no care for modesty, none at all.

  So the scene her children witnessed must have resembled something between a horror movie and a dark comedy. But no one laughed.

  She’d have to err on the side of horror. “Oh, my dears, this is a surprise.” On the one hand she wished she’d had a still shot of her kids’ expressions at that moment. But mortification got the better of her.

  Howard, realizing his state of undress, grabbed the sheet she offered and covered himself immediately. “Hello, everyone, I’m Howard Jessup. Your mother and I go way back.” He smiled at them. “Sorry to meet you all under such—uncomfortable circumstances.”

  “Mom?” Maeve was eyeballing Howard as if he was a ghost. Damn, she’d seen his eyes—her eyes.

  They’d all made silly comments to her over the years about where her eyes had come from. She also had the same very specific chin dimple. Right now, staring at one another, their resemblance was nearly unmistakable. When she’d spoken, she’d caught Howard’s attention, which gave him the opportunity to make direct eye contact with her. Even naked, wrapped in a sheet, he took a step closer, peering into an identical gaze.

  “Maureen? Is there something I should know?”

  “Mom? Who is he? What is going on?” Ben piped up.

  Maureen’s courage nearly fled. She hadn’t gotten this far to allow everything to come crashing down around them all. None of this was anyone’s fault. She just hadn’t informed them, that was all.

  “How long have you all known me?” Silent shocked stares. “Yes, your whole lives. It gives me the right to insist you wait a minute while I get dressed so we can all sit down and discuss this like the adults we are.” She breezed out of the room, hoping not to lose her cool before clearing the door.

  Howard must have followed, because she felt him nearby. “Maureen, am I correct to assume that beautiful girl out there is my daughter?”

  “Yes. Howard, I was only a couple of weeks pregnant when you left. I didn’t even know about the baby yet.” Her lip quivered, but she couldn’t look him in the eye.

  “You never told me. How could you keep her from me?”

  “You left me at the altar. I was pregnant and jilted. Should I have hunted you down? That’s why I married Justin so quickly. He’d been my steady boyfriend before I met you and he agreed to marry me and raise Maeve as his own. He’d loved me since we were kids. I was so lucky.”

  “I was a fool,” he said, simply.

  “You were a fool,” she agreed.

  “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me I had a daughter. There’s no statute of limitations on letting someone know they have a child.”

  “Yes, but when that child was parented and loved by a man who was a model father, why would I chance the damage to her? She loved Justin with all her heart. Now she sees me as a liar. Her own mother, a liar,” Maureen cried.

  “Do I have grandchildren?” He was incredulous at the idea of having a family.

  The cat was out of the bag and, despite everything, she couldn’t deny him this, “Yes, her name is Lucy, and she’s almost ten.”

  His eyes teared up almost immediately. “I have a granddaughter.”

  She wasn’t certain how he felt about her now, so she said, “Howard, I was young and terrified. Justin offered security after you’d left. I didn’t even know where to find you. Please understand why I didn’t try to hunt you down to tell you.”

  His expression was one of complete awe. “I can’t believe I have a family. I’ve had no one in my life to love for so many years. I thought it my penance for leaving you behind. Can’t you see, Maureen? It’s not too late.”

  He wrapped his arms around her, his entire body racked with sobs. She forgot everything and gave over to his raw emotion, weeping with him, for him. She’d given him family, and he’d saved her from being alone the rest of her life.

  After they’d spent some time drying each other’s tears, Maureen took a quick shower while Howard dressed. Good thing he’d thought to grab his clothing on the way in to her room.

  Now she had to go and approach the very delicate task of explaining all of this to her children, Maeve especially.

  *

  They’d been stunned into several minutes of speechlessness. Catching their mother in her birthday suit with a strange man in the living room was the very last scenario any of them would’ve imagined bursting into. But recognizing the man was, without a doubt Maeve’s biological father was beyond anything they could have dreamed up. Poor Maeve was sitting, staring sightlessly, and likely trying to process what had just occurred.

  “Wow. Just wow,” Ben said.

  “I really don’t have any words for this, either,” agreed Jo.

  “Shit fire, and burn my hair, I’ll go to my grave with that image in my mind.” Emma had a few more words than the other two, apparently.

  Maeve continued to stare silently into space, so Cammie eased over beside her and simply took her hand, stroking it, “This is going to be alright, Maeve. I know it’s crazy and a huge shock, but something really big must have happened a long time ago with Mom that we didn’t know about.”

  “Ya think?” snorted Emma.

  “He has my eyes—I mean, I have his eyes. I always wondered where my eyes came from.” She still had that blank, shocky look, but at least she was processing thoughts and words again.

  “It’s really almost funny that mom would have had a mystery man before Dad. You’d never have thought she would have something this big in her boring old history.” Cammie said, but was thinking about her own not-so-boring history.

  “Must not have been so boring if I have a different father—Oh, God, he’s my father! That means my daddy isn’t my daddy. That your daddy isn’t my daddy. That we’re—” She looked around at her siblings in panic. “Only half siblings”

  Ben came over to the other side of Maeve, placing his arm around her shoulders, “Hold it, sister. This doesn’t change anything, you hear? You couldn’t ever be any less our sister. And Dad will always be your dad. He loved you and raised you your whole life. Nothing will change with any of us.”

  “He looked pretty stunned when he saw you. Mom must not have told him he had a daughter,” Jo Jo said, “So, you might go easy on the poor man. He’s in just as much shock as you are.”

  “I can’t believe Mom has lied to us all our whole lives,” Emma snapped, obviously very angry and upset at being kept in the dark about something this important.

  Cammie didn’t blame her, she was miffed that Maeve had been blindsided like this too, but she hadn’t wanted to add fuel to the fire that would most certainly erupt before things died down. This whole situation smelled like a big long-term mess in the making. How they reacted here today would no doubt set the tone for keeping their family together or splintering them into factions and taking sides.

  “Hey, guys, no matter how upset and angry we are at how this all went down today, we have to remember that we barged in on Mom without a warning. She’s a grown woman with a right to privacy—” She saw Emma ready to breathe fire at her and held up a hand. “Please let me finish. Whatever this man is—besides Maeve’s father—to Mom, we have to rem
ember that Dad wouldn’t have wanted her to live the rest of her life alone. Now that we’re all grown, we can’t want that for her either. She’s not so old that it’s unthinkable for her to want to share the rest of her life with someone.”

  “She’s happy. She’s always been happy. I’ll bet he’s a fortune hunter after her money,” Emma said.

  “I believe everyone should get a fair trial,” said Ben.

  “I just wish she would come back in here so we can get this over with,” Maeve sniffed.

  Just then, Mom and the man, Howard, reentered the room. Mom appeared a bit haggard, but freshly showered and dressed. “Let’s go into the dining room, shall we?” Mom suggested, and motioned toward the next room.

  “I know you all have so many questions, and truth be known, I’m glad this has finally all come to light. It’s been a strain keeping this secret all these years. Your father and I discussed many times sharing this with you, but never decided on a good time.”

  “Dad knew?” Ben asked, clearly shocked that his father was in the secret as well.

  “Of course he knew, dear. I married him when I was three months along with your sister. He and I were high school sweethearts.”

  “Why didn’t the two of you get married? Did you love each other?” Maeve addressed both Howard and Mom.

  “Because I was a coward,” Howard answered with feeling.

  “You knew she was pregnant and refused to marry her?” Ben demanded.

  “No, son, if I had known about Maeve, nothing in the world would have kept me from marrying your mother and raising my daughter.” He stared into Maeve’s eyes as he said the words.

  *

  After the day they’d had, Grey’s letter had slipped Cammie’s mind. She’d planned to ask her mother about it when the opportunity presented. Funny how things changed from most important to least important in the blink of an eye, depending on perspective.

  Today’d really rocked all their worlds and the ride home was unusually silent, each of them working out this new information on their own. To say finding out about Howard’s relationship with their mother was a confusing turn of events was an understatement. Mom had always been unerringly solid—emotionally, in business decisions, and during crises throughout their lives. She wasn’t a flaky, hippy who slept with men naked on the floor in front of a fireplace.

  Maybe he was her Grey, her first true love she’d never really forgotten, even after all these years. The thought both soothed and terrified Cammie.

  This was comforting because it meant her mother hadn’t lost her mind. But on the other hand, when thinking in terms of her own life, could there be no peace for Cammie beyond Grey if a second chance wasn’t in the cards; throughout a lifetime married to someone else, children, and grandchildren? Would she never be truly fulfilled and content with another?

  Now, with this new offer from the studio on the table, Cammie felt more confused than ever about what her next step should be. She’d called Bruce early this morning before they’d left for the lake and agreed to fly to New York for a day to discuss the offer. She’d be a fool to shut the door on this kind of opportunity after she’d believed her career over.

  “Cammie, you awake?” Maeve asked, jabbing Cammie in the ribs, assuring the correct answer.

  She turned toward her eldest sister, noting Maeve’s red, swollen eyes. “Yes, I’m awake.”

  “I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel about all of this,” Maeve sniffed.

  Cammie leaned in toward Maeve and laid her head on her big sister’s shoulder. “There’s no right way to feel. You know Mom never meant to hurt you. She loves you and understands how close you were with Dad. I guess she never saw a reason to upset your life by making a big confession if she didn’t have to.” Cammie said in a low voice, attempting to keep their conversation private.

  “I just can’t believe there was someone before Dad—I mean, right before Dad. Does that mean she didn’t love Dad as much as Howard? Did she ever really love Dad?” Maeve asked.

  “We grew up in their household. I’ve never seen anyone more devoted to each other than Mom and Dad. Honestly, Maeve, have you?” She hoped the imprint of their parents’ ease and closeness was as well defined for Maeve as it was for Cammie.

  “No, I haven’t. I have a husband and a child and I understand what it means to live with a man day after day. They couldn’t have created such a happy and loving home for us unless they loved each other.”

  “They did love each other. It was so obvious,” Cammie said.

  “Thanks for reminding me. You’re pretty smart for a little kid, you know that?” Maeve ruffled her hair like she’d done as kids. Maybe her big sis would be okay, after all.

  “What about Howard? He seemed pretty excited to meet an unexpected daughter.” Cammie realized this was pushing things, but life was short and took extreme turns.

  “How will you all feel now that I have a father again, even though he’s not Dad?” They were still keeping their voices low, trying to whisper below the hearing of the others.

  “From the looks of the two of them, we may all end up with a new father.” She’d said that a little too loud. Crap.

  “You’re so bad,” Maeve laughed. Good, at least she’d found a bit of humor in the situation.

  “I heard that and I object to it,” Emma snapped. She was evidently handling this in her usual fashion.

  The music in the car went away suddenly and the fray began in earnest. “Lord, what have I started?” Cammie whispered to Maeve, who only rolled her eyes in the dimly lit car.

  *

  Cammie had returned with her siblings around nine p.m. from the cabin, and decided it was too late to do anything to prepare for their events. Fortunately, she and Jo Jo could handle things at the crack of dawn. An early night and a really early start made the most sense after their day. Today had been a whopper.

  She noticed that Grey had tried to call several times. She really wanted to talk to him, but hesitated. After the emotional and confusing fiasco with her mother, her vulnerability might lead her right back into his arms. And she hadn’t shared the news about the fantastic offer from the studio with anyone yet. That omission pricked her conscience. What did it mean?

  If she called Grey, he’d want to come over. She might let him; and then where would she be? Even more confused. Maybe less frustrated, but more confused emotionally, and it wasn’t fair to him. He clearly wanted to take up where they’d left off, like ten years hadn’t happened, and it scared her how easy that seemed at the moment. But what would she want a month from now. A year?

  Somehow, the situation with Mom seemed tied to her own history with Grey, like a reconnection with the past and a move backwards. Now, with this new career opportunity, Cammie could move ahead. Grey wasn’t a fit with this plan. He couldn’t be, could he? She didn’t envision him in New York City any more than she could imagine herself giving up this kind of offer and remaining here in small town Alabama, abandoning her childhood dreams of escape. She might resent him for the rest of her life.

  She’d lived for too long with might-have-beens where he was concerned to take such a risk. Plus, his daughter still held some serious resentment toward her. That wasn’t something that would be resolved anytime soon. Still the pull to him was strong. Cammie shook her head as if she could get rid of him that way. What she needed, she decided, was to travel to New York for a couple days, and hopefully determine the course of her immediate future with a clear head.

  She had a couple of events scheduled later this week, but she could make this flight to New York work if she got cracking with some serious cooking tomorrow morning first thing. Her sisters would cover the phones while she was gone forty-eight hours, as long as they believed she’d been called away to handle something besides a permanent move to NYC.

  The key would be to keep the job offer on the down low. If her family caught wind of her plans, they might thwart her at every turn, for her own good. Ben wouldn’t stand in her way
, so she would reach out to him for help in escaping Alabama for a few days. She needed a smoke screen.

  Maybe what she required was a stop along the way to legitimize this trip. It was something that must be done, no matter how much she dreaded facing it.

  *

  Coming to work gave Grey a natural excuse to see Cammie without seeming over-eager by continuing to blow up her phone with unreturned calls.

  He forced himself to wait until a decent hour before heading over. He knocked on the door around eight o’clock, just as soon as Samantha was safely headed to school on the bus.

  He grinned at her, beautiful as always. “Good morning,” He said. Cammie had already begun her day in the kitchen, as evidenced by the ingredients smeared on her apron.

  “Hi.” She smiled, but it didn’t sparkle as it had the other night. Something definitely was off.

  “Is everything alright?” He searched her face, trying to get a read on what had happened.

  “Uh, yeah. Just trying to get a jump on the week. Come on in.” She moved aside, allowing him to enter with his tools and the few items he’d brought for today’s project.

  He brushed past her and heard her quick intake of breath. Shutting the door behind him, she said, “I’ll be in the kitchen if you need anything.”

  She hadn’t asked about their dinner with Trudy or mentioned her trip to the lake to visit her mother. How very odd.

  “How’s your mom?” He would make her talk to him.

  “She seems fine.” Her words were quick and tight.

  “Did something happen at the cabin?” He asked.

  Cammie’s eyes welled, and she burst out, “We-caught-her-naked-with-a-man-named-Howard-who-has-the-same-dark-blue-eyes-as-Maeve-and-he’s-her-dad-and-now-Maeve’s only-our-half-sister-and-Howard’s-Lucy’s-grandfather—”