Summer Street Secrets (The Hills of Burlington Book 3)

by Jacie Middlemann

  "I..." Mary tried again only to have her cousin continue on over her.

  "You helped me to see that Mark was trying to help me make my break with WNO clean and not emotional. You made sure Pete and I didn't dance around and waste time. I've never been happier. And while I might have gotten around to all of it eventually you stepped in, always careful, but always making sure we understood what we had to lose and what we stood to gain. You made us see who we were, are, and if we so chose who we could be." She took a deep breath, "You are the best of us, Mary. And nothing in this world will ever convince me otherwise." She felt her own eyes tear, her throat close tightly with emotion. "I know I push too hard sometimes. It's just that I don't want us to ever take for granted the wonderful life you've opened up for us here. We are able to support ourselves doing what we enjoy most. So whenever I think of a way to continue that forward I push. But it's not for myself. It's for all of us."

  

  CHAPTER SIX

  Dave hung up the phone thoughtfully. It wasn't unusual for him to make a quick call to his brother-in-law on a legal issue. He couldn't think of anyone whose mind worked as quickly as his did other than his own brothers though he was far, far less likely to call them on any issue including legal ones. But it wasn't unusual for he and Daniel to discuss the law as well as other things. They might not be bosom buddies but they were friends. And as Daniel's friend and Mary's brother he knew first hand that the two of them spoke regularly on the phone. And while he'd had some worries initially about their marriage after Mary's unexpected move to Burlington he knew from his frequent conversations with Daniel that the man had every intent of joining his wife here in Burlington once he was able to tie up the myriad of professional loose ends that seemed to drag on interminably. Like him he was ready for a simpler life, a slower pace, and the ability to practice law as it was meant to be. Even now Mary was slowly fixing up the office Daniel would practice out of when the time came. So those initial concerns had faded with the understanding their separation was a matter of logistics and little else.

  But he had caught on to something just now that if it weren’t for the fact he knew Mary and Daniel spoke frequently wouldn't have meant anything. But he did know and now that he'd heard the question numerous times it had him wondering if it was significant or a habitual conversational gambit. Not willing to gamble on the possibility of the first he slowly cleared his desk, shoving anything important into his top drawer before locking it up. He started toward the door intent on satisfying his curiosity that was quickly bleeding into concern as soon as he could. At the doorway leading into the hallway he heard voices from the first floor and decided on the spur of the moment to instead take the back way out. That's what it was there for. Even as he headed down the outer stairway he pulled his cell out of his pocket.

  "I'm heading out for a little, reschedule the afternoon and apologize to anyone that it upsets." He listened to the voice on the other end with a smile on his face. "However you want to handle it." Before he hung the phone up he was already half way to his sister's house. One of the many things he enjoyed about Burlington was being able to get around on his own two feet if he so chose. It wasn't what most would consider a short jaunt to her place but he enjoyed the walk and the time to think that bouncing in and out of a car rarely afforded. As he got to within a couple of blocks of her house on Cedar Street it occurred to him he might be making a mountain out of a mole hill. No matter, he decided. If he didn't find out one way or another he'd end up worrying it to death.

  On a hunch he took his cell out again and punched in a different number, listened to it ring a few times before a gruff voice practically spit into it before responding. "Good to hear you so cheerful and friendly too, Jake."

  "Dave. What's up?" Jake allowed.

  "Have you heard anything from Daniel lately?"

  "Couple of days ago. Why?" Jake knew his cousin well. This was no idle question.

  "Just looking to see if there are any pieces to put together in the puzzle I'm working on." He paused and decided since he was almost at his sister’s house anyway there wasn't any sense in beating around the bush. "Did he by chance ask how my sister was doing...looking...anything along those lines?"

  Jake rubbed the bridge of his nose roughly. This wasn't sounding good. Not good in the least. "Actually, thinking back, he did. I didn't think anything of it."

  "No reason to that I know of."

  "Then why are you asking me about it?" Jake practically barked out because he knew better and didn't want to dance at this particular moment.

  "Because I'm on my way to talk to her now and just wanted to make sure I wasn't imagining things." Because he heard the concern and worry along with the irritation he continued. "It still may be nothing. Either way I'll let you know once I do."

  "I'll be waiting." Jake shut the phone and made a mental note to give his cousin until late afternoon to get back with him otherwise he was going to pay him a visit of his own.

  Dave mulled over the possibilities as he got closer to his destination. As he turned the corner of her block he could see his sister almost immediately. She was in the front yard of the house doing something in the garden that she was forever pampering. The entire area backing up to the front porch was awash in flowers of every type and all the colors one could imagine. He knew from her own admission that she’d been surprised to find how much she enjoyed gardening. She hadn't in the past but knowing her she would have had so many things going on he couldn't see how she'd have time for gardening let alone time to enjoy it.

  She must have heard his approach because even before he turned up her sidewalk his sister was getting to her feet and peeling off the dirt covered gloves she habitually wore when working in her yard. "What are you doing out and about this early?" Her first thought had been worry that something was wrong. Someone was hurt or worst. But as he drew closer and she could read the expression on his face she saw nothing that warranted panic.

  "Just wanted a break and found myself heading in your direction." As he walked up the front steps and into the house behind her he wondered whether to take the direct approach or work around to it in a more subtle way. With a sigh he knew subtle wouldn't work for long. He couldn't remember a time when his sister didn't know what he was thinking before he did. "I just got off the phone a little bit ago with your husband." He saw the curiosity...then the worry in her arched eyebrows. "I had a legal matter I wanted to talk over with him." He offered by way of explanation, if there was any chance his suspicions were correct the last thing he wanted to do was cause her worry.

  "The two of you are very much alike in how you view the law." Mary put voice to the thoughts that she had long kept to herself. Dave wasn't the only lawyer in the family. But he was the only one who saw and understood the law in the same way her husband did. As she did.

  "Yes. And I can't remember a time when I didn't value his insight and advice." Dave couldn't think of another person other than Daniel that he would willingly go into a partnership with, not after the disaster he'd just so recently extricated himself from.

  Mary finished putting the pot of coffee together and flipped the button to brew. With a quiet sigh she sat down at the table with her brother. And waited. He'd come for a reason and she knew from a life time of experience that with Dave all she had to do was wait.

  "It's funny," Dave idly tapped the table top with his fingers to a beat playing only in his head. "I didn't pick up on it at first but then hey, I may be close but no one's perfect."

  "Please," Mary said dryly.

  "Yes. Well perfection is an acquired place in life and you can't ever stop working on it."

  "You keep saying that and eventually you'll believe it."

  "I love you too, Mary." And though it was in response to her teasing he said it as seriously as he felt it. He nodded when she looked up at him, caught off guard by his change in tone. And he knew his eyes would convey the same and kept them on hers. "At the end of every conversation with D
aniel lately he casually asks how you are, how you're looking. Oh, it's very laid-back, he just wants to make sure his Mary isn't withering away without him or some such very male and egotistical comment."

  "And I'm sure that's exactly where it stems from and Lord only knows you should understand completely since you're made from practically the same cloth." But she busied her hands with the handle of her coffee cup though she never got around to lifting it to her lips.

  "And if I hadn't talked with Jake and learned he hears the same I would let it go at that. But since I have and I can't why don't you just tell me what it is that Daniel's worried about and doesn't know if you're being completely forthright about with him." He leaned back in his chair, comfortable that he was on the right track from the telltale look on her face. "I'd bet my extra office that it explains why he was so willing for you to head on up here without him. Daniel's not the type to let his wife go traipsing about anywhere without him especially for any significant length of time. He simply isn't the type. Too old fashioned if you want to put a word to it. Not to mention the man can't cook worth a damn and has a real sincere love of a good meal." He settled back as he studied the thoughtful look on his sister's face. She was quietly calculating what and how much she wanted to tell him. Considering she didn't want to tell him anything he knew he was going to have to up the ante a bit more. "I figure I can let you tell me or I can call Daniel back and mention that I've been a bit worried about how much you're doing, that you've been looking a bit pale, more so than I care to see…etc...etc...and so forth."

  "You wouldn't," she challenged him, but only half heartedly because she knew if push came to shove he would. Without blinking an eye.

  "I said it before," he leaned forward, "and I'll say it again. I love you Mary. I wouldn't want to put your husband in the middle especially since I have high hopes of our upcoming partnership but I will. I might regret it. But I'd still do it." He paused for a moment. Pressed the zinger home hard. "You'd do the exact same if the situation was reversed."

  She would. She knew that as well as he. Sighing she rose to go to the refrigerator. Confessions weren't always good for the soul despite the numerous sayings painting it as so. She pulled the store bought cheesecake out of the freezer. She kept it for late nights when she simply couldn't get to sleep or situations like this. Few that they were thank goodness. She sent her brother a questioning look then cut him a slice as well. Once she'd situated herself back down at the table with her sugar filled comfort food in front of her she began the explanation she had hoped to avoid.

  "High blood pressure." When Dave would have pulled her plate holding her cheesecake out from under her fork she simply stabbed the fork into it. "Next time it will be your hand." She said quietly.

  "Talk. And start with why you're here and Daniel's not and why I shouldn't dump that into the trash," he nodded toward the fairly large slice of cheesecake on her plate. "Christ, for that matter I can't believe you're drinking that coffee. I don't know much about high blood pressure but I can't believe caffeine of any kind does anything but send it farther up."

  "Dave," Mary reached out to take his hand, clenched into a tight fist that it was on the table next to his own plate of the yet untouched dessert. She knew it was worry that drove him and because of that was willing to tell him more than she cared to. "Will you let me explain it all to you then you can talk?" At his curt nod, knowing it was the best she was going to get for the moment, she began. "First of all, Daniel never would have let me come up here alone if it were something like cancer. As it was he wouldn't even consider it until we got it under control and had it there for a while." She held her hand up asking him to wait as she saw the questions in his eyes. "I was under a lot of stress." She sliced off a small piece of the cake and chewed slowly, thoughtfully. "Looking back I think it had been brewing for a while but I didn't realize what it was. I'd been having headaches, some that were absolutely debilitating. I thought it was because I was under a deadline and I always got stressed when I was dealing with those. But even after it had come and gone and I was done with the book I still kept getting the headaches. I kept putting off going to the doctor until Daniel basically put his foot down. He even went with me like I was a child or something." She stared her brother down, daring him to speak when he'd agreed to listen first. "Anyway to make a fairly long story short I had all the tests under heaven and earth once they realized my blood pressure was up. Everything came back okay except my blood pressure was still up and that on its own can cause a bevy of problems in the long term. They gave me medicine and quite frankly I simply couldn't tolerate it." And that was an understatement if there ever was one, she thought to herself. But that was the part she wasn't going to go into with him. Never ever if she could help it. "We both did a lot of research. The doctor kept throwing pills my way and I kept flushing them down the toilet. Daniel saw what they did to me and I have to give him credit, he followed the same diet I did which was pretty tasteless there for a while. I gave up caffeine completely, drank water until I thought I was going to float away, and walked my neighborhood a couple of times a day." She sighed remembering those awful weeks but they had been worth it in the end. "It came down slowly. But it came did come down. And I know what I need to do and not do to keep it down and I do."

  Dave saw she had finished and was waiting for his comments or questions. He simply motioned towards her empty plate and coffee cup with a nod.

  "Coffee never caused my problems but once I had the problem it definitely wasn't helping. But now that it's down drinking coffee just isn't an issue. And I'm careful with sugar and salt. If I have something loaded with either during the day I'm careful the rest of the day." She shrugged, "It's really just a matter of paying attention to what you eat. Besides I really don't think any of that caused it to go up but once it was all of that, the coffee, sugar and salt, they just made it worse and kept me from being able to get it under control."

  "So what do you think caused it? Your writing and the stress involved with that?" He was thinking about what she'd said about deadlines.

  "I really don't think so. But like the rest I think once it was up, the blood pressure," she clarified, "the stress over deadlines didn't help it any."

  "So what do you think sent it up?" He struggled to keep the frustration out of his voice.

  Mary paused, her hesitancy was obvious.

  "Come on, Sis, spill it."

  "Part of it has to do with what I'll be talking about in my segment for the website." She explained to him about finding the negative reviews about her books. After listening to his drawn out personal opinions about online anything she went on to tell him how Addie had explained to her about trolls and trolling. And she realized that each time she spoke of it the weight of what she’d carried for so long seemed to lighten.

  "Okay, I can understand that." Dave didn't like it one bit but he could understand it. "So what was the other thing that you think led to this situation. You said you thought it was a couple of things."

  And count on her little brother not to miss a thing, Mary thought regretfully. "I think I let things bother me that I shouldn't have. And instead of dealing with it I ignored it. Or thought I was ignoring it."

  "And it just got worse," he finished for her. He'd done the same without success. "What was it you were letting bother you?" he probed further. He knew at some point he was going to run into a block named Mary but until then he was going to keep pushing.

  Mary picked up their plates and carried them over to the sink. She needed those few moments to decide how she wanted to handle this. She knew without her brother ever saying a word the difficulties he’d had with their father and older brothers. Each of them believed the world began and ended with them. And there was no two ways about it. She wondered if he could begin to comprehend how much harder it would be if you could sense their thoughts even as they said what they expected you wanted to hear. Regardless of what they really believed, what they honestly thought. How the years of t
hat had piled up until she simply couldn't deal with it any longer. Sighing she sat back down. And the best she could she explained completely expecting him to suggest she see a shrink. When she finished she sat back waiting to hear just that.

  Dave leaned back in his chair. It was the last thing he expected. He wasn't surprised, not really, but it wasn't what he had expected to hear when he started this conversation. He steepled his fingers in front of him working out in his mind where and how he wanted to go from here.

  "Dave?" Mary pressed, getting slightly nervous by his silence.

  "Did you know Jake has a tendency towards "knowing" things?" he asked deciding to work around to it.

  "Yes. We've talked about it. Kind of."

  "Carrie too, and Casey."

  Mary nodded, she knew this. No one ever really talked about it but they all knew the other simply "knew" things.

  "If you talk with Aunt Charlie she'll tell you it's intuition and that she and both her sisters, Mom and Aunt Leslie, were the same." He watched his sister nod slowly. He could see she was wondering where he was going with it. "I did some research a couple of years ago. It was after the divorce and I'd get caught up in various things, digging around the net. It was after a short visit with Jake that I took up on looking into this "knowing" or whatever you want to call it."

  "Anything interesting?"

  "Oh, there's lot of interesting speculation out there. But I did clue into one thing after a while. And because I suspected who in the family experienced these intuitive events I checked further and it turned out to be pretty fascinating in the end."

  Despite herself, Mary was drawn in by what she was hearing. "Go on!"

  "Don't think I'm going to get off track from the conversation I mean for us to finish."

  "I wouldn't think of it." Mary knew better than to hope her brother could be diverted if he chose not to be.