She swallowed hard. “I’m just hoping that after you hear what I have to say, you won’t think of me as another disappointment.”
He turned to her with puzzled eyes that studied her face for a very long moment.
“What’s this all about, Sophie? Have you changed your mind about working with Jess?”
“No, no. Well, not completely.” She took a deep breath. “Okay, here it is: I bought a piece of property here in St. Dennis. The old Walsh restaurant out on River Road.”
He nodded. “I know the place, of course. Used to be one of the only places in town to get a decent crab cake. Your grandmother loved them. Nice investment, Sophie. You’ll turn a pretty profit on that land in another year or so when you sell it. I approve.”
“I don’t think you’ll approve of the rest,” she said. “I’m not buying it as an investment, and I’m not planning on selling it. I’m planning on fixing it up and reopening it as a restaurant.”
Silence followed. Lots and lots of silence. Finally, Curtis said, “Run that past me again. I couldn’t have heard you correctly.”
“You heard right, Pop. I want to reopen the restaurant.”
“What about your law career?” The frown deepened his brow. “What about the firm? Where did all this crazy nonsense come from, anyway?”
“I’ve wanted my own restaurant since I worked at one back when I was in school. Every summer for years. I really loved it.” She forced her voice to remain calm. “And as far as the firm is concerned, I’ll still be working with Jesse, but only in the afternoons.”
“How can you possibly give your all to both?” He pushed away from the table. “How can you expect to run a restaurant and give your clients the time and attention they deserve?”
“I’ll work it out, Pop, even if I have to work until midnight every night. Mostly, I’ll be doing legwork, research, and writing briefs for Jesse’s cases. Those are things that I do very well and that he—well, he’s terrific in court, in front of a jury, but he hates the detail work, hates the research. He’ll still be the trial guy and I’ll do much of the work behind the scenes.”
“This is just crazy, Sophie.” Curtis stood unsteadily, one hand resting on the table.
“Pop, sit back down and let me talk to you.” When he didn’t move, she tugged at his hand. “Please. Let me tell you what I want to do there. Please hear me out.”
He sat back down, his face unreadable, then nodded to her to begin. She did.
Over the next hour, Sophie told him everything, about how she liked being a prosecutor but didn’t feel complete. How she’d dreamed of having her own restaurant since she first put on the apron at Shelby’s when she was sixteen. How when her mother went back to law school, she took over the cooking duties. How nothing had ever seemed as creative or as interesting or as much fun as cooking.
“Fun?” he said flatly. “It’s hard work.”
“Yes, it is. But so is law if you don’t love it. I like being a lawyer, Pop, but I don’t love it.” Before he could comment, she told him about her plans for the new restaurant, how she wanted it to reflect the best of St. Dennis, past and present. How she wanted to honor her grandmother and her friends and others who had come before her in the community. “I want it to be a special place, a place that people will talk about when they visit the town, a place that the locals will embrace because it reflects so much of who they are.”
She told him everything she’d dreamed of doing there.
“Ellie told me that Gramma Rose was known for her pound cake,” she added. “She said her great-aunt wrote about it in a journal.”
He nodded slowly. “Pound cake with berries in early summer, with peaches in August. Some sweet apple and caramel sauce in the fall. Chocolate with cherries in the winter.” Unexpectedly, he smiled at the memory. “And sour cherry cobbler. We used to have sour cherry trees out back. They died out around the same time she left us.” He fell silent for a moment before adding, “Rose was quite the baker, back in the day. Yessir, she surely was.”
“I hope I do her memory justice, Pop.”
“No doubt you will,” he said softly. “When is all this going to happen?”
“I settle on the property on Tuesday.”
“And I’m just finding out about this now?” His eyes narrowed as his anger flashed.
“I was afraid to tell you.” Even to herself, she sounded weak.
“Does Jesse know?”
“Yes, but …”
“But you weren’t afraid to tell him?” His voice rose.
“I had to tell him; he was counting on me.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she winced.
“What I mean is …”
“I was counting on you.” Her grandfather pushed away from the table again, preparing to stand.
“I know that, but I couldn’t think of the right way to tell you. I’d just gotten to know you again after so many years of being separated from you.” Tears filled Sophie’s eyes. “I knew you’d be disappointed with what I was doing, and I didn’t want you to be angry with me for letting you down. I didn’t want you to think I was just like my …” The words stuck in her throat.
“Like your father?” Curtis asked softly.
She nodded.
“Dear girl, you are nothing like your father.” He sighed deeply. “And you could never disappoint me the way he did, Sophie. Craig let us down in a hundred ways. It wasn’t just his not joining the firm. Frankly, by the time he’d gotten through law school and by some miracle managed to pass the bar, I’d already given up any thoughts of him working with me and his brother. It would have been a disaster.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Oh, my dear, I’m the one who’s sorry.” He shook his head. “Your grandmother and I spent many, many hours wondering what we had done to have made our son turn out the way he did, but we never did figure it out.” He took one of her hands. “Somehow all the good of this family skipped right past him and went straight to his children. You and Jesse are a blessing to me.”
“You’re not angry?”
“I didn’t say that.” He hesitated. “I’m not going to lie, Sophie. I’m not happy about this. I don’t see how you’ll be able to do justice to both the firm and your restaurant. I think you’re overestimating yourself.”
“I’ll manage.”
“We’ll see.” He cleared his throat. “So who else knows about this? Besides Jesse.”
“Cam and Ellie.” When his eyebrows rose, she hastened to add, “Cam went through the building to make sure it wasn’t about to fall down. I need to know what it’s going to take to renovate it. And Ellie was there with Cam. She gave me some photos of Lilly and Violet and Gramma Rose. I’m going to enlarge them and frame them, hang them on the walls. I was hoping you’d have some photos I could use as well.”
“How are you paying for this venture of yours?”
“I sold my condo, and I have some savings.”
“And that’s going to be enough to do everything you need to do? Have you had to take out a loan?”
She nodded. The less said about that, the better.
“It wasn’t a loan from the bank here in St. Dennis. I’m on the board, and I see how much is loaned out and to whom.”
“I have a private loan.”
“Mind telling me who?”
“I’d rather not say.” She squirmed under his scrutiny.
“And why is that?”
“My investor prefers to remain anonymous.”
“I see.”
He probably does, Sophie thought.
“What will you do if we find that you’re not carrying your weight at the office, or if you realize that your business needs you one hundred percent of the time?”
“I’ll deal with that if it happens, but I believe in myself, Pop. I wish you could, too.”
“I wish you success, Sophie,” he said stiffly. “On both fronts. But now, I’d like to watch my news program, if you don’t mind.”
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“Oh. Of course.” She stood at the same time he rose from his chair. Before he could protest, she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “I love you, Pop. I don’t want to do anything that would hurt you or upset you. But I have to do this for myself. If I’m wrong and I bungle it, I’ll have to live with that. But I have to try.” One last deep breath. “I’m proud to be an Enright, and I’m proud that you think I’m worthy to work in the family firm. I did a lot of good work back in Ohio, and I’m proud of that, too. But if I don’t do this now, I probably never will, and I know I’ll regret it. Please try to understand.”
He nodded and walked her to the door, then opened it and stepped aside for her to leave.
“ ’Night, Pop.”
“I love you, too, child,” he whispered as he closed the door behind her. He stood and watched until her car pulled away from the curb and disappeared down the street.
He walked slowly into his study and turned on the light, then plunked down in one of two rocking chairs and reached for the remote. Before he could turn on the TV, the scent began to surround him, and he sighed.
“I know you’re there, Rose, and I know you have something to say.
“I do want her to be happy. And I understand this is her dream. But I have a dream, too. I dreamed my family’s firm would outlast me by at least another generation.”
He tried to ignore the voice that whispered in his head, the voice that only he could hear.
“And don’t think I can’t figure out who loaned Sophie the money. An anonymous source, indeed. Oh, don’t worry, I won’t … of course I won’t yell at her. I am not yelling now.”
He lowered his voice an octave or two anyway.
“I don’t want Sophie to be disappointed, either. I don’t think she realizes how hard it’s going to be to make a success of this project of hers. Only open for breakfast and lunch! Hmmmph. Who ever heard of such a thing? How does she expect to make any real money if she doesn’t open for dinner?”
The other chair began to rock slowly. Curtis knew Rose meant business when the chair rocked.
“She was afraid she was disappointing me the way Craig did, Rose. Can you imagine?” His voice softened. “I told her she isn’t anything like her father. Yes, of course I think about him.” He paused. “Too late for that, my love … I don’t see a reconciliation in this lifetime. It’s been too many years. I don’t know him anymore. I suspect Craig most likely feels the same way about me.”
He rocked slowly.
“His girl is a lot like you, yes. Yes, she is. And I do respect her for wanting to do her own thing. I just wish her doing her thing didn’t interfere with her doing my thing,” he grumbled.
A few more minutes of rocking. “Why does everyone think they have to keep things from me? I wish Sophie had told me sooner. I wish she’d come to me instead of Violet. And I wish that Violet hadn’t gone behind my back. And yes, I wish Jesse had told me when he found out. Seems like everyone I love best is hiding things from me, like they don’t trust me.”
The rocker stopped abruptly.
“Interfere? Why would they think I’d interfere?” He snorted. “When did I ever interfere in someone else’s business? Rose?”
As the scent began to fade from the room, Curtis muttered, “Ah, nuts,” turned up the volume on the TV, and tried to lose himself in the day’s affairs.
Chapter 18
SOME people turned to alcohol in times of stress. Sophie, however, required fat and sugar to bring her back down from the high level of anxiety she’d achieved.
“Ice cream.” She drove past her house and made a right at Cherry Street. “A double.”
She’d had no way to anticipate her grandfather’s reaction to her news, never having tangled with him before. He obviously had been displeased, but he hadn’t yelled or lectured, and he hadn’t disowned her, so as far as Sophie was concerned, it was all good. Still, the anxiety demanded to be assuaged.
She parked in the municipal lot across from the police station, waved to Beck, the chief of police, who was backing out of his reserved spot in front of the building, and walked to One Scoop or Two.
Ice cream and maybe some gossip, she was thinking as she walked past the open window. There appeared to be quite a crowd inside, not surprising as the temperatures had been steadily climbing over the past few days. The bell chimed when Sophie opened the door, and Steffie, the owner and ice-cream maker, glanced up from behind the counter where she was filling an order.
“Hey, Sophie.” Steffie gave a wave with the hand that held the scoop right before dipping it into the case and coming out with a perfectly round ball of something darkly chocolate. “Great wedding last weekend. What do you hear from Jesse and Brooke?”
“Nothing,” Sophie called back and got in line behind a woman who had a toddler in each hand. “Which is as it should be, since they’re on their honeymoon. They’ll be back soon enough.”
“True.” Steffie handed over the cone she’d been building and directed the customer to the cash register, where a girl with long, light-pink braids rang up the sale.
Sophie studied that day’s selections, which were written on a chalkboard hanging behind the cash register. So many flavors, so little time …
“What can I get you, Sophie?” Steffie asked.
“I don’t know what I want. Everything sounds fabulous.”
“Of course everything is fabulous.” Steffie grinned. “But you want the coconut pineapple mango medley.”
“I do?”
“You do. Just made it this morning and there’s only a little bit left. It’s divine, if I do say so myself.”
“Sold. Two scoops on a sugar cone, please.”
“Might only be enough for one generous scoop,” Steffie told her. “Does it have to be two?”
Sophie nodded. “It’s been that kind of day.”
“Well, in that case, we’ll put a scoop of chocolate ecstasy on the bottom—it has little bits of bitter chocolate and fresh coconut in an extra-dark chocolate base. We’ll put the fruity flavor on top.”
“Great. Thanks.”
When she’d finished scooping and declared the cone a masterpiece, Steffie handed it over.
“This looks like sin on a sugar cone.” Sophie sampled as she proceeded to the cash register.
“Only if your idea of sin is eating an entire day’s worth of calories at dessert.” Steffie turned to the girl at the cash register. “Paige, this is my friend Sophie. She’s Jesse’s sister.” To Sophie, she said, “Paige is my niece, my brother Grant’s daughter. I make her work for me after school to keep her out of trouble.”
The girl with the pink braids crossed her eyes and made a face at Steffie.
“Darling girl.” Steffie smiled sweetly. “Dallas is her stepmama. She keeps threatening to put Paige in one of her movies. Of course, it would have to be a horror film …”
Paige stuck her tongue out behind Steffie’s back, and Steffie laughed as if she’d known it was coming.
Sophie paid for her ice cream, said goodbye to Steffie and her niece, and walked out into the warmth of an early evening in late spring. She strolled along the boardwalk that led to the marina. The long dock jutted into the Bay and boats bobbed up and down on the gentle waves. It was peaceful and helped restore her after the tension leading up to the conversation with her grandfather. All in all, that had not gone badly, and while she was grateful, she was still drained by the self-inflicted drama that preceded the conversation.
There were benches every ten feet or so along the Bay, most of them empty at this time of day. She selected one near the end of the dock, sat, and nibbled at her ice cream. Seabirds landed and took off, some on the water, some on the wooden pilings. It was like a scene from a magazine, with the sun setting across the Bay and the birds swooping around, and she was happy to be part of it. Two young men in their early twenties hopped from the deck of a boat to the dock, carrying a large cooler between them. From the way they were struggling, she surmised
that they must have made one heck of a catch. Crabs or fish, she wondered, and was about to ask when she heard someone calling her name.
“I thought that was you.” Jason sauntered along the pier, a ball cap backward on his head, his dark glasses dangling from the neck of his shirt, and that bit of facial scruff she’d decided was adorable.
“Where were you?” She scooted over on the bench to make room for him.
“On my way to Walt’s for dinner. I’d ask you to join me, but it appears you’ve already moved on to dessert.”
“It’s Dessert First Wednesday,” she told him. When he raised an eyebrow, she added, “I’ve had A Day, but it’s all good now.”
“Anything you want to talk about?”
She thought it over: did she want to share all that drama with Jason? Maybe.
“I had to tell my grandfather something I knew he wasn’t going to like. I was a bundle of nerves going in, but it worked out okay.” She shifted on the bench so that she could face him. “I wasn’t sure how he’d react. I’ve never been in a situation with him where I knew I was going to incur his disapproval, and I didn’t know what he’d do.”
“I’ve always found your grandfather to be a pretty reasonable guy.”
“Your relationship with him is different.”
“I’m sure it is.” Jason settled against the back of the bench, one arm draped casually behind Sophie. “But I know him pretty well, and I know how much he cares about you, so I can’t imagine him being anything but supportive of you.”
“I’m sure he loved my dad once, too, but look what happened there.” Sophie explained, “They haven’t spoken in years. For most of our lives—Jesse’s and mine—we never saw our grandparents. It’s just been the past couple of years that we’ve reconnected.”
“What brought you back together with him?”
“Jesse decided it was time. We knew that there was a family law firm in St. Dennis, and one day, Jesse just decided he wanted to be part of it. So he came here and made an appointment with Pop …”
At the River’s Edge Page 22