Blue Hollow Falls

by Donna Kauffman

  “Know what?” Sunny asked.

  Sawyer sighed.

  “This greenhouse is part of your inheritance, too,” Bailey and Sawyer said at the same time.

  “It’s on mill property,” Sawyer said. “I think that’s the share Bailey was trying to give you, with or without the mill part tacked on.”

  Bailey nodded. “You could have both, if it helped.”

  Sawyer wasn’t sure if it was that bit of news, or if Sunny’s legs finally gave out, but her eyes went wide, and so did her balance, sending her sprawling backward on her butt into the muck and dirt.

  Sawyer’s and Bailey’s eyes caught, their mouths curved in almost exactly the same dry smile. Sawyer thought he might have snorted first, but maybe it was Bailey. In the end, all three of them erupted into gales of laughter.

  “So,” Bailey wanted to know, when they finally regained their wits, and both of them helped to pull Sunny up to her feet. “Is that a yes?”

  Chapter Nine

  “Well, who did you think it’d belong to,” Addie asked Sunny, as she used a pair of tongs to lift the fried chicken from the draining rack onto a big hammered pewter platter. Addie carried the platter over and set it on the heavy cedar plank table where meals were served in the great room of the small log cabin she, and now Bailey, called home.

  Sunny carried over a pitcher of freshly brewed iced tea and a stack of hand-thrown glazed dinner plates, which Sawyer took and set on the woven mats that had already been laid out on the table. There was a long, hand-hewn bench seat on one side of the table, and a set of two mismatched bentwood chairs facing it from the other side. Tall backed armchairs, one upholstered with old gold brocade fabric and the other with an equally aged leaf and floral print fabric, both sporting colorfully quilted thick pads that plumped the seats up to table height, bookended the head and foot of the table. Addie took a seat in one, Sawyer the other. Both Sunny and Bailey took bench seats, as it afforded them the spectacular view through the big bay window that filled most of the one wall of the cabin.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bay window in a log cabin,” Sunny said, then laughed. “Of course, I can probably count on one hand the number of log cabins I’ve seen, but it’s a perfect showcase for that view.” Addie’s cabin was up on Hawk’s Nest Ridge, affording her a view of the Hollow from the deep porch that ran along the front of the house, and a view out along the ridge and down the Blue Ridge chain from the side bay window. The colors were spectacular, and as Sunny looked, she could count at least four hawks making lazy swoops in the wind currents. “I can see where the ridge got its name.”

  Addie nodded. “Some great trails out there that take you right out along the ridge. The hawks nest in the tops of the trees, many of which top out at eye level with the rocky ridge, so you have a true bird’s-eye view of them.”

  “Sounds amazing.” Sunny smiled. She’d had no idea what to expect when Addie had invited her up for Sunday supper, as she called it, after they’d trekked back out of the woods and met up with her by the mill. But this homey log cabin, with its green tin panel roof, two dormer windows, deep porch, and the stone chimney framing it on the other side, was far more charming and beautiful than she could have imagined. “And this chicken smells unbelievable.”

  “Raise ’em myself,” Addie said, beaming proudly.

  Sunny might have faltered just a moment before she passed the blue-striped earthenware bowl of mashed potatoes to Bailey and accepted a smaller thrown pot full of corn from Sawyer. She really didn’t want to think about where their dinner had come from, but she supposed that was part of mountain and farm living. Just not a part she wanted to be directly involved with, if she could help it. “And to answer your question,” she said, “I guess I assumed that Doyle or his ancestors had sold that land or given it away a long time ago. It seemed like we’d been walking a lot farther than we had, I guess. I felt like it was at a much greater distance from the mill than it turned out to be when we hiked back out.”

  “Quite the property in its day,” Addie told her. “Cyrus has a whole stack of photos down at the library if you want to take a look. Some newspaper articles, too.”

  “I would,” Sunny said. “Thanks.” Her mind had been spinning since Bailey and Sawyer had blurted out that she was now part owner of a century-plus Victorian-style greenhouse. It was, in so many ways, a lot more to take in than the fact that she owned part of a now-defunct silk mill. Of course, it wasn’t any more valuable to her, in fact it was the opposite, since Sawyer was renovating the mill. The greenhouse was probably beyond hope. She ignored that probably part and focused on the meal. Just when you thought you had a handle on this whole inheritance thing, boom.

  “Your home is amazing,” she told Addie, who beamed.

  “My granddaddy built the place.” She hooted a laugh. “Didn’t know the first thing about construction, neither. Thankfully, he had some friends who did, or this place would have likely come straight down on his head, first winter out.”

  “It looks beautifully made,” Sunny told her, glancing around the great room once again.

  “Oh, it’s had its fair share of work over the years, but it’s held up pretty good, all in all.”

  Sunny looked at Bailey. “Your bedroom is up there?” She pointed to the stairs that went up to a loft above the exposed beams that formed the structure of the interior. It was at least half the size of the main floor, tucked under slanted eaves and dormer windows, with a railing at the open edge.

  Bailey nodded.

  “I would have loved something like that as a kid,” she said, quite sincerely, then winked at Bailey. “Would have been like living in my own fairy garden.”

  Bailey merely nodded, and dug into her mashed potatoes. She’d been even quieter than usual since Sunny had had to regretfully tell her that while the offer Bailey had made was wonderfully generous, the greenhouse wasn’t likely a good salvage effort. As much as she’d hated to disappoint her newfound sibling, she knew in the long run it was better not to let Bailey build up any real hope on the matter.

  Sunny sent a quick glance toward Sawyer and Addie, but they were eating as well, apparently not worried about Bailey’s quietness. Perhaps she shouldn’t either. It was just she couldn’t get the peals of laughter they’d shared out in that greenhouse out of her head. Bailey’s giggles had been so endearing and delightful, and when Bailey grinned? You just wanted to squeeze her. Sunny swallowed a small smile of her own and cracked open a warm biscuit before reaching for the apple butter Addie said she’d made herself from her own apple trees out back. Sunny was certain Bailey Dani wouldn’t appreciate hearing how adorable and cute she was when she smiled and laughed. Before she had to head home, Sunny hoped the two of them could get back on the good footing they’d begun establishing on their hike out to the greenhouse.

  They ate in companionable silence as Sunny continued to take in all the details of Addie’s place. And there was a lot to take in. On the gorgeous stone fireplace was a mantel sporting a number of handmade items, the most fascinating of which, to Sunny’s mind, was the beautiful mandolin and the handmade wooden stand it rested on. Sawyer hadn’t been kidding about Addie not tooting her own horn when it came to her own work. She’d merely nodded and continued making supper when Sunny had oohed and aahed over the woven rugs that covered a good part of the hardwood floors, and some of the walls as well. Even the place mats they were eating off were a stunning rainbow of hand dyed hues, done in a variety of different fibers and textures. Every piece, from the rugs to the place mats, was a work of art, Sunny thought. She was especially fascinated by the plant-based dyes Addie said she’d used on some of her spun fibers.

  Then there was the antique spinning wheel in the corner, which Addie said had belonged to her grandmother, who had taught her how to spin wool as a child, leading Addie to her life’s calling, much as Sunny’s early garden efforts had led to hers.

  “I have a pie out on the porch sill,” she told them as they finished u
p their last bites. “Has all the kinds of berries we got up here. Most grow wild on my property, the others I grew special, just for jamming and summer pies. You’ll think you’ve died and gone to heaven, I guarantee it. Needs to cool a bit more.”

  As if on cue, Bailey sprang up and started clearing dishes. Addie smiled approvingly, but Sunny wasn’t sure if it was Addie’s rules, or something Bailey had simply done on her own. There was pride in Addie’s gaze, too, along with sincere affection, and Sunny thought whatever the situation, Bailey was going to be better off having someone in her world who looked at her the way Addie did.

  “Why don’t we take a stroll,” Addie said, pushing her chair back. “We can get the business chatter out of the way, and work up an appetite for that pie.”

  Sunny was definitely on board with that. Somehow she’d managed to spend the whole day in the Hollow. The sun was already heading toward the horizon line, which meant she’d be driving down out of the mountains after dark, but she really didn’t care. Seeing that greenhouse—just seeing it— was worth a long day and a longer drive. Spending time with Bailey, starting a communication with her, had been worth it, too. “That’s a great idea. Though I have no idea where I’m going to put a slice of anything at the moment. That dinner was delicious.” She got up and helped Bailey by putting away the condiments and taking the place mats out for a good shake over the porch railing. “If you ever get tired of weaving,” she said as she came back inside, “you could open a restaurant.”

  Addie and Sawyer had had their heads bent together, talking quietly about something, as she walked in. They glanced up, with Addie smiling casually at her while Sawyer got up and went over to position himself in front of the sink. “I wash, you dry?” he asked Bailey.

  She nodded and took the dish towel from him.

  Sunny watched the easy byplay among the three of them and felt her heart lurch a little. Bailey seemed to be fitting in as if she’d been in the Hollow forever. They made a nice little family, Sunny thought, and missed her mother more in that moment than she had since Daisy Rose had squeezed her hand, smiled, then let the last breath ease from her tired body.

  Of course, Sunny knew it wasn’t as simple as that. Bailey had to be going through a lot more than she was showing. She might have become an expert in rolling with the punches, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t still affected by them. Sunny worried about that, and found herself hoping Bailey would take her up on her offer to visit. The one-on-one time would give Sunny a chance to get to know her sister better, and also dig a little deeper, maybe, get a feel for what was going on behind that always-calm, but sharp and alert exterior.

  More immediately pressing, Sunny also got the feeling that Sawyer and Addie were cooking up something that had to do with her. She wondered if that would be part of the business conversation on their little walk.

  As it happened, she didn’t have to wait that long to find out.

  Addie had switched her regular walking stick for a heavier, taller one, prompting a little concern from Sunny regarding just what kind of walk they were taking, and if Sherpas would be required. She glanced at her footwear, which had been pretty much done in by the muck in the greenhouse. So she wasn’t worried about that so much as she was at adding blisters to the ones already started on the back of one heel and the balls of both feet. Feet she had to stand on all day as part of her job.

  Maybe Addie saw her wince, or maybe it had been the plan all along, but she paused, and leaned the cane back against the wall by the kitchen door. “You know,” she said, all smiles, “why don’t I take over dish duty and let Sawyer show you a bit of the area? You can discuss with him whatever is in those papers you brought, and when you get back, we’ll all have ourselves some pie.” She wiggled her iron gray eyebrows at Bailey. “Maybe with a scoop of that ice cream we churned earlier this week.”

  Sunny looked at Bailey. “Really? Like in an old hand-cranked churn?”

  Bailey nodded and finished drying her plate and set it on the stack she was building on the island work station. “Hanford showed me how. He makes them out of old barrels and machine parts.”

  Hanford, Sunny thought as she nodded and smiled. Yet another name to add to the ever-growing list of craftsmen and women that Addie had mentioned just during this one shared meal. Everything from the hand-thrown stoneware pots Addie had cooked and baked dinner in, to the table they’d eaten it on, the bentwood chairs, and the bench she and Bailey had sat on, along with the plates they’d used, all had been made by this Hollow resident or that. “That’s pretty cool. My mom had one that belonged to my grandfather, but it was electric and never did work right. The ice cream always came out like soup. Maybe you could show me the churn later. I’ve never actually seen a hand-cranked one.”

  Bailey nodded, then turned back to take another freshly rinsed plate from Sawyer. Addie bumped the side of Sawyer’s leg with her hip to nudge him aside. “We’ve got this. You should drive her down around town a bit.” She glanced over her shoulder at Sunny. “Those boots of yours look a bit worse for wear. You’ll be wanting to get a sturdier pair for up here, especially with winter coming.”

  Sunny looked down at her boots, but before she could tell Addie that she already had a pair of nice snow boots, the old woman was talking to Sawyer again.

  “Sunny said she hadn’t found the town proper on her way in. You should show her how the roads all connect out here.” She turned to Sunny. “With the sun setting, it will be pretty as a postcard. You’ll see.”

  Sunny glanced up and caught Sawyer’s gaze. He had a half smile on his face and a slight shoulder shrug that just said You might as well go with it.

  Sunny nodded, knowing he was right, and thought So much for my luck holding out. Frankly, she couldn’t believe she’d been fortunate enough to make it through an entire day with either Bailey, Addie, or both, providing a nice, safe human screen between her and Sawyer. Already her body was clamoring at the thought of the two of them spending any extended alone time together. She supposed it had been bound to happen at some point. She just wished that point had come a good bit later on. When she felt more confident about holding firm to her plan to pretend what he’d said by that food truck a week ago had never happened.

  Instead of gaining confidence, however, the more time she spent with him, no matter how many people she kept between him and herself, the more jangled she felt. He hadn’t done a single thing to so much as hint that he planned to push forward on that provocative little moment they’d shared. Quite the opposite, actually. From their time in the greenhouse, to their walk back to the mill, and all through getting dinner ready and eating it, he’d kept things easy, polite, and congenial. Not a flash of a knowing smile or even a tiny wink in her direction.

  See, she’d told herself, he’s come to the same rational conclusion you have. She was relieved that the only person she’d be struggling with was herself.

  Liar.

  Okay, okay, so she wanted to be relieved. Acknowledging the problem was half the battle, wasn’t it?

  Sawyer rinsed off his hands, then snagged the dish towel from Bailey like a magician snapping the cover off his latest trick, making her snort before she could stop herself. He dried his hands, handed it back to her with a flourish, then said to Addie, “Just leave the rest of these. I’ll get them along with the dessert dishes later.” He talked over her reply. “You went to enough trouble making yet another wonderful meal. We’ll handle the clean-up.”

  Bailey nodded in agreement.

  “I’ll be happy to chip in, too,” Sunny said. Not because some part of herself ached to be part of their little family tableau. That wasn’t it at all. It was just the polite thing to do.

  Still lying.

  She went to get her jacket. So what if she felt a little pang? She missed her mother. Except you never had family moments like that with your mama. No one helped you with dinner or with the dishes afterward. This isn’t missing your mama. This is yearning, plain and simple, for what yo
u never had. She shut that mental track down and decided she was ignoring her little voice for the remainder of the evening. She was free. Gloriously unfettered and positively, deliriously, thrillingly independent. That’s all that mattered. “Is there anything we can get for you while we’re in town?” she asked Addie. Then she smiled. “Assuming the town has things to be gotten?”

  Addie let out a short cackle at that. “Oh, it won’t be nothing like you’re used to, I’m sure. Not one of those box stores or chain restaurants to be found. But we’ve got what we need to get by. And thanks for asking, but I think I’m all set.”

  Sunny had it on the tip of her tongue to ask if Bailey wanted to go with them, but she got the distinct impression that Addie wanted Sawyer to have some time alone with her. She could only hope Addie wasn’t matchmaking, but Sunny doubted that. Addie was about as subtle as a Mack truck. If she’d had even the teeniest inkling of what had been discussed outside the Botanic Garden that day, Sunny was quite sure Addie would not have been shy about sharing her thoughts on the matter, pro or con.

  Sunny was pretty sure it had more to do with Addie Pearl’s Master Family Plan, as Sunny had come to think of it. That was something Sunny could handle. She wasn’t opposed to Addie wanting to create some stability for Bailey. And as far as that went, Sunny was very open to finding ways to be part of that foundation, at least in a way that let her do so while living three hours away.

  Sunny stepped outside when Sawyer held the door open for her. With the sun now edging the tops of the trees, the air had become downright brisk. She gave a little sigh. “This is the one part of the fall season I don’t look forward to.”

  “Cold weather?” Sawyer asked as they walked over to his pickup.

  She shook her head. “I don’t mind the cold weather. That’s my vacation time. Less outdoor gardening and yard work.”

  He nodded, smiled. “True. I hadn’t thought of it that way.”

  “No, what I will miss is having the longer daylight hours. I like that it’s still light outside when I leave work. Makes me feel there’s part of the day left to explore. When I head to my car and it’s already dark, all I’m thinking about is a hot shower and bed.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she gave herself a mental head smack. It’s bad enough you can’t keep your mind out of the gutter; no need to invite him to join you there.