“Sorry. Lucas wanted to know if I was speaking to you. He’s been going on and on about you ever since we met for lunch last month. He refers to you as the lady who calls me Bubba. Anyway, Dad can drive you to Columbia, but he insisted that I issue the invitation.”
“I’d love to come, but Cathy and I are planning a shopping trip to Columbia on Saturday. So, I don’t know…” She paused, thinking of how she might be able to make it to the party. “She might be able to visit with some friends…”
“That’s not a problem. Bring Cathy. We’d love to meet her.”
“No, that’s not fair.”
“Of course it is. We’ll eat about six, but come on over whenever you’re ready. Dad will be here around three.”
“Can I bring something? Cake maybe? It would survive a day in the car, I think.”
“That would be awesome. I fail miserably at baking. I was going to buy the cake.”
“Is there something that your father especially likes?” Amy shifted the telephone to her other ear.
“Chocolate layer cake. Mom used to make it for every birthday party. Give me your email address. I’ll send the recipe.”
Amy wiped a strand of hair from her face. “Jennifer, would that be a good idea? I mean, it’s your Dad’s first birthday without your mom. I don’t want to seem like I’m trying to…replace her.”
There was silence for a moment.
“Dad likes continuity, Amy, but maybe you’re right. Mom’s cake was actually a yellow cake with chocolate frosting, but the recipe has an option for making it chocolate. Could you do that? It will be similar, but not identical.” Again Amy heard someone in the background. “Yes, Lucas, Amy is coming to the party. She’s going to bring cake.”
Amy smiled as she heard Lucas squeal.
“Everything settled? Let me have your address.”
As Amy hung up, Cathy came back into the room. “Did you get the note I left this afternoon. A lady called while you were taking your nap.”
“I did. Anna Thomas is one of Drew’s neighbors. I first met her one evening when we were walking on the Battery. She called to ask me to join a reading group.”
“What kind of reading group?”
“There are ten members. They choose a book to read and then they meet each week to discuss their reading.”
“Sounds like fun.”
“I think so. The group meets on Tuesday night, and they are starting a new book next week. I told her that I would come. I downloaded the book a few minutes ago—oh, that was Jennifer, Drew’s daughter, on the phone just now. She invited us to his birthday party on Saturday. It’s at her house in Columbia, so we can drive over after we finish shopping. Would you be up for it?”
“Surely. I always love a party.”
***
“Thank goodness for GPS.” Cathy looked at the screen.
They had turned off the interstate and then driven several miles down an unnumbered highway. After passing through large gates and stopping at a guardhouse, they were following the road that they had been told led to Jennifer’s house.
Cathy looked at the instructions and shook her head. “She thought we would be coming from Charleston, but we’ve been in town all day.”
Reaching your destination, on the left.
Although Samantha, the GPS’s voice, said they had arrived, when Amy looked around, she saw only thick stands of trees on both sides of the road. “Where?”
Cathy picked up the paper with Jennifer’s directions. She glanced over her shoulder, then she searched up and down the road.
“There should be a—there, Mom.” Cathy pointed. “A driveway.” A hard-packed, one-lane path led from the road into the trees, turning immediately to hide any view of what lay beyond. A mailbox stood on a wooden post beside the path.
Amy peered far down the road and saw a couple of other paths marked only by the boxes. “The developer went to a lot of trouble to make it appear that we’re out in the country,” she said.
“It’s cool. I love it.”
They turned in and followed the path as it wound through the woods. A long curve took them beside a lake, and Amy spied the house, ahead in a clearing. She gasped. “It looks like a French chateau.”
The house stood beside the lake, a square central section with a Mansard roof and towers rising at each end. The towers were capped with turrets. The road on which they were driving became wider, and the car bumped as they rolled onto concrete. A stone wall surrounded the house, and Amy could see a fountain as she looked through the gate.
“How much money do these people have?” Cathy’s eyes were huge. “I mean, Dr. Nelson lives in that house below Broad, and his daughter lives,” she gestured at the house, “here.”
“It’s magnificent, isn’t it?”
“Mom, all of this money doesn’t intimidate you just a little?” Cathy continued to stare at the house.
“Behave yourself. You knew that Drew has money.”
“I’m just saying…”
“Neither Drew nor Jennifer act any differently than you do. They’re both very nice people. Don’t embarrass me today.”
“But, Mom, we don’t live like this. Our house would fit inside this one—at least twice. Do they have servants?”
Amy shook her head. “I don’t know and it doesn’t matter.” As she paused at the gate, Amy saw two figures approaching from the lake. “There are Drew and Lucas.” She pulled through the gate and stopped near the fountain. As Drew and Lucas rounded the corner, she opened her door, got out, and waved.
Drew bent down to say something to Lucas. He pointed, and Lucas began to run toward the car.
“Hey, Bubba,” Amy called. She bent down to hug him. “Lucas, this is Cathy. She’s my little girl.”
“Hi, Lucas.”
“Hi.” Lucas turned his head away and looked up at Cathy out of the corner of his eye. He turned back to Amy. “Did you bring the cake,” he whispered.
“Yes, it’s on the floor in the back.”
“It’s supposed to be a surprise,” Lucas said. “You get his attention and I’ll take it to Mom.”
“How will I get his attention?”
“Oh, kiss him or something. That’s what grown-ups do.”
Amy glanced at Cathy who was stifling a laugh. “I’ll take care of it. Come with me, Cathy.”
They met Drew halfway across the yard. Amy turned toward the house as she kissed him on the cheek so that his back was toward Lucas. When Amy glanced over Drew’s shoulder, Lucas had disappeared.
“No problem finding the house?” Drew’s face appeared to be completely innocent.
“No problem? Let me tell you—”
“Ow!” They heard Lucas scream. They ran toward the house and found him lying on the ground, crying, his nose scraped on the concrete drive. The cake carrier was in his outstretched hands.
“I tripped,” he wailed. “I almost dropped the cake.”
Amy helped him up, gave him a hug. “Are you all right?”
“My nose hurts. I almost dropped the cake.”
“Just a little scrape. The cake is fine, Bubba.”
“My nose hurts.”
“You really bumped it.” Drew held a handkerchief on the scrape to stop the bleeding. “Might be broken.”
Lucas sniffed and his eyes got big.
“If it’s broken,” Drew continued, “the doctor will have to put a cast on it. It will stick out to here.” He held his hand about a foot in front of Lucas’s face. “It will make it difficult to eat.”
“Grandfather, you’re teasing me.” A smile began to appear on Lucas’s face.
“Is it broken?” Amy asked.
“I doubt it.” Drew scooped him up. “Just scraped. We’ll take him in, put him to bed and—”
“No. I want to go to the party.”
“I don’t know now.” Amy heard Drew pretend to be concerned.
“I’m fine, Grandfather,” Lucas said firmly.
“Okay.” Drew kissed
him on the forehead and put his feet on the ground. He pointed at the cake. “Take whatever that is inside before I see it and take a bite.”
The other three laughed as Lucas struggled out of Drew’s arms, hid the cake behind his body, and scurried into the house.
“Mama, Amy is here.”
Amy’s mouth dropped open as they stepped into the entrance hall. The room was open to the second floor, the floor was covered in marble, and tapestries of unicorns hung on the walls.
“It’s bigger than our living room,” Cathy whispered to her.
“It’s huge.”
“Amy, I’m glad you could come.” Jennifer hugged Amy, then turned to Cathy. “Cathy, it’s good to meet you.”
“Thank you for the invitation.” Amy tried not to stare as she looked around the room.
“Would you like to see the house? We only moved in this past spring, so it feels new to me, still.” Jennifer led the way into a large room with a wall of french doors that opened onto the lake. “This is the Grand Salon.” She paused, then laughed. “That was what the plans called it. We call it our family room.”
They followed Jennifer through a dining room to the kitchen. The breakfast area was in behind.
“Mom, that table could seat ten people,” Cathy leaned in and whispered. “And I think it’s mahogany.”
“Tea?” Jennifer asked.
They both nodded.
As she poured the tea, Jennifer explained the layout of the house. “You’re actually standing in one of the towers now.”
“You’re joking.” Amy looked around for any sign of a curve in the walls.
“They hid it well, didn’t they? The other tower is actually the guest suite. Dad stays there whenever we can persuade him to spend the night. We have four bedrooms and baths upstairs. There is a small office between the guest suite and the salon.”
“It’s fabulous, Jennifer. I love it.” Amy sipped her tea. She looked around the kitchen—stainless appliances, two full ovens, granite counters, bamboo floor. Incredible.
They walked across the family room and stepped through the doors onto the terrace in back. “Polarized glass?” Amy asked.
Jennifer nodded. “The sunlight would bleach everything white in a year if it weren’t.”
“The view is incredible, Jennifer. Do you have neighbors?”
“Oh yes. The lots are two acres. The developer was able to screen the houses from each other. Our nearest neighbor is around a small bend in the shoreline. Last winter, when we were building, if you looked carefully, you could see their dock once the leaves had fallen. I frequently see boats, people fishing or skiing.”
“It’s so nice today,” Amy said. “Could we sit out here?”
“Good idea. It’s probably one of the last chances we’ll have to use the patio until spring.”
Amy settled into a rocking chair. “Did you design the house yourself, or just stumble on the plan while looking for a new place to live?”
“We chose the design and tweaked it. I studied in France for a year while I was in college and I fell in love with the architecture.”
“A year in France?” Cathy’s mouth dropped open. “Wow. I would love to do something like that.”
“I was never sure how much studying actually occurred…” Drew leaned back as if he were going to begin to lecture.
“I studied all of the time.” Jennifer shook her head. “Honestly. I don’t know where he gets these ideas,” she said to Amy.
“Studied all of the time? That would account for the postcards from the Riviera and Monaco.” Drew appeared to be struggling to suppress a smile.
“I didn’t say I stayed cooped up in my dormitory,” Jennifer sniffed.
“I always wondered what bathing suit you wore on the Riviera.”
Amy saw Drew’s eyes sparkle and knew that he was still teasing his daughter.
“Ben once asked me that.” Jennifer shrugged, wearing a wicked grin. “Don’t ask, don’t tell.”
“Her mother was terrified the entire time she was gone. French men, she would say, they are dangerous, not to be trusted.”
Jennifer laughed. “Mom wanted me to study in Greece, of course. If I had to go to Europe, she said, I ought to make the year worthwhile.” She looked down at the pavement. “I did spend a month in Greece at the end of the year. I brought her an icon, the one of the death of Mary. I found it at the gift shop at one of the monasteries. They wouldn’t let me in the monastery itself, just the church—and the gift shop, of course.” She chuckled. “Mom really seemed to like the icon. It was beautiful, hand-painted.”
“She liked it very much,” Drew said quietly as he looked away.
“Amy.” Lucas ran onto the terrace. “Come and see my room. I want to show you my toys.”
While Amy and Lucas went upstairs, Cathy went to help Jennifer in the kitchen. When Amy returned, her offer to help was refused, and she took her new glass of tea back to the terrace, where Drew and Jennifer’s husband were talking.
A few minutes later, Cathy appeared. “Jennifer wants to know how many candles to put on the cake.”
“Must we have candles?” Drew frowned. “If you put one for each year, we might burn the house down.”
Cathy put a hand on her hip. “How many?”
“It depends.”
She sighed. “Sounds like a researcher.” She turned to Amy and Ben. “That’s the answer they give me at work when I ask a question. I once asked whether mental illness is inherited.” She bobbed her head toward Amy. “I wanted to gauge my chances.” She looked quite serious, but then smiled, and everyone laughed. “Anyway, I asked, then Dr. Nelson and Dr. Watson looked at each other, turned back to me and said, in unison, it depends. How was that helpful?”
“So, it depends.” She turned back to Drew. “Depends on what? How old are you? It’s a simple question. How many years—twelve-month years, using the Gregorian calendar—have passed since your birth?”
“When Jennifer was thirteen, she and her friends voted on the ages of their parents. I was said to be twenty-eight. That would make me forty-three this year.”
“I should never have told him about that vote.” Jennifer walked out onto the terrace. “I was wondering how it could be so difficult to answer a simple question.”
“Now, my brother-in-law decided that when he reached fifty, he was going to live backward, so he would become a year younger every twelve months. That would make me forty-four. So, as we tell Cathy at school, it all depends on your definition.”
“Fifty-six?” Jennifer asked.
“You don’t know? You’d be upset if I didn’t know your age.”
“Fifty-seven?”
Drew sighed. “Fifty-seven.”
“Fifty-seven is old, Dad.”
“Thanks a lot. We once thought thirty was old. Don’t trust anyone over thirty, we said.”
***
When everyone had finished dinner, Jennifer carried the cake to the table. “Happy birthday, Dad. Chocolate cake. Chocolate icing. Amy baked it.” She smiled. “But, of course, you saw it arrive.”
“There are one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight candles.” Lucas counted slowly. “Are you that many years old, Grandfather?”
Drew laughed. “Much older, Lucas.”
“The tall gold candle stands for fifty,” Jennifer explained. “Each of the others stands for one year. Fifty-seven. Make a wish, Dad, and blow them out.”
It was eight thirty before the party ended. Lucas had been yawning and rubbing his eyes for almost an hour, but he had refused suggestions that he get ready for bed. Finally, Jennifer picked him up and sat him in her lap.
“Grandfather, Amy, and Cathy are going to have to go. It’s getting late and Charleston is a long way. If you put on your pajamas, Grandfather might be persuaded to read a book before he leaves.”
Lucas dashed out of the room and returned a few minutes later, holding a book. “I want Amy to read to me.” He grabbed her hand and began pullin
g her toward the stairs.
“Lucas, your grandfather…” Amy looked back at Drew.
“Go ahead.” Drew waved her concern away. “Beware, though. One book becomes two, two become three…”
“Come on, Amy.” Lucas tugged on her hand again, and she followed him. As Lucas led her up the stairs, Amy heard Jennifer and Drew talking.
“You’ve lost your job, Dad. No longer reader-in-chief.”
“No, I was chief lieutenant, perhaps. Your mother always was reader-in-chief.”
***
Cathy had arranged to spend the night with a friend, and Amy was returning to Charleston with Drew. He waved at the guard as they passed the entrance to the neighborhood, and he turned left, toward the interstate.
“I’m glad Cathy had her GPS this afternoon,” Amy said. “We had Jennifer’s directions, and your directions, and we still had difficulty. How did they ever locate the development in the beginning?”
Drew shook his head. “I’ve no idea. I drove around for an hour the first time I came out. My GPS didn’t have the address, so it only helped me reach the gates.”
“We were driving along and Samantha—we call our GPS Samantha—said we had arrived. We looked around,” Amy threw her hands up, “couldn’t find a house anywhere.”
“They are well hidden. The developer did an excellent job.”
“My mouth dropped when we came around the last curve. Jennifer’s house is spectacular.”
“It is that,” Drew agreed.
Amy stared out of the window, watching the interchange fly past. “Please tell me to mind my own business, Drew.” She took a deep breath. “How much money do you have?”
“What?”
Amy could see him frown.
“Oh, you mean because of the house?” He raised one hand in a gesture of innocence. “That’s not my money. No, Jennifer has an inheritance from her grandmother. Ben inherited money too, and he does very well.” Drew passed a car with a single headlight that was going forty-five. “He shouldn’t be on the road,” he mumbled, then glanced back at Amy. “They built the house, not me.”
“You have a wonderful house too.”
“Thank you. I like it.”
To Fall in Love Again Page 12