Freddy waved his hat at the group behind him. “It ain’t enough to replace everything you lost,” he said to Sam, “but hopefully it will help you get started again.”
Sam took his hand and shook it vigorously. “You’ve made it so we can open our doors tomorrow morning. During our busiest week of the year, that means everything.” She stepped aside so the procession could enter. “Jamie and Roberto will show you where to put everything.”
As the group filed past the news crews, the older men remained solemn while the younger ones hammed it up, smiling and waving and making faces for the cameras. Sam noticed that Donna Bennett had stepped off the curb, away from the action, an irritated expression on her face.
Sam refused to let Mack pass without giving him a hug. “You’re responsible for all this, I know.” She planted a wet kiss on his cheek.
Once they were gone, the focus turned again to Sam. This time her mother and sister stood beside her for support. “Do you have a statement for us, Ms. Sweeney?” one of the reporters asked Sam.
Sam paused a minute. “The last few days have been difficult for my family.” She felt for Faith’s hand beside her. “So much so, I nearly lost my faith.” She gripped her sister’s hand. “But today, I’m humbled by the generosity of these men. Today, I’m reminded of the importance of community, of family and friends supporting one another. I’m proud to be a citizen of Prospect, a South Carolinian. And as we prepare to celebrate our nation’s birthday on Saturday, I’m proud to be an American.”
Sam shepherded her family and Eli inside, then closed and locked the door behind her. Her body began to shake and she leaned back against the door for support. Unable to hold her emotions in check any longer, she burst into tears.
Jamie wheeled over and handed her the box of Kleenex they kept beneath the counter. “Are those tears of joy, or tears of despair?”
Her mouth turned up in a half-smile. “A little of both, or so it seems.”
“Better pull yourself together, Mom,” Jamie said, smiling. “Our shipment has arrived. Looks like it’s gonna be a long night.”
Thirty-Seven
Jacqueline
Jackie and Cooper arrived home from Charlotte during the early part of the afternoon on Tuesday. Jackie was sick of cafeteria food and exhausted from the round-the-clock hospital routine and constant parade of medical staff. Emotionally, however, she’d never felt better. Her son had survived a harrowing experience, and the doctors promised a full recovery. While that alone gave Jackie plenty reason to be grateful,the long hours of sitting beside Cooper’s bed had afforded her the opportunity to put her life into perspective. She’d come to realize that she was every bit as responsible for the breakup of their marriage as Bill. The choices she’d made over the years had turned her into a callous, self-centered woman, a wife who was difficult to live with, a mother who put her own selfish needs before her sons’. During the past few days, she’d pondered what it took to be a good mother, and she’d come to the conclusion that, before she could bring any joy into her boys’ lives, she needed to find a little happiness for herself. She contrived a plan that, in the short term, called for selfish measures on her part, hoping that in the long term, her strategy would reunite her family.
Bill met them in the driveway and helped her get Cooper upstairs and into bed. Aside from the intense headache that plagued him, and an enormous amount of discomfort in his arm, Cooper seemed to grow stronger every day. The old Jackie would’ve worried that so many people living in the house might hinder his recovery. The new Jackie realized that family time was just what he needed.
“What’re you looking for?” Bill asked when he found Jackie inventorying the contents of her refrigerator.
“I’m making a grocery list.” She added sour cream and cheese to her notepad and closed the door. “I want to make a nice dinner tonight, something special, for Sam and Faith. For everyone, really. They’ve been working so hard to get the market back on track, I thought they deserved a break.”
“That’s awfully thoughtful of you,” he said.
She ignored the surprise in his voice. The new Jackie understood how to hold her tongue when warranted.
“What can I do to help?” he asked.
“You can cook the tenderloin on your Egg grill thingamajig. I decided to serve beef, since I’m sure they are sick to death of seafood.”
“I’ll do better than that.” He removed the list from her hands. “I’ll go to the grocery store for you.”
“I was going to ask you to stay here with Cooper.”
He folded the list and shoved it in his back pocket. “You shouldn’t go anywhere alone until Curtis is behind bars.”
She started to resist, then stopped herself. The old Jackie would’ve resented the house arrest, but the new Jackie considered it a chance to reconnect with her family. “In that case, I’ll take you up on your offer. It’ll give me a chance to unpack and get some laundry started.”
“Your sisters are not the only ones who have been through a lot in the past few days. The chores can wait, Jack. Why don’t you take a bath and relax for a while.”
Jackie thought the idea of a hot bath sounded heavenly. “Maybe I’ll just do that.”
He headed for the stairs. “I’ll let myself out, and set the alarm behind me.”
After checking in on Cooper, making sure he was asleep, Jackie readied her spa tub for her bath. She slipped out of her clothes and eased into the hot water. She leaned her head back against the marble and let the lilac-scented water soothe her stiff muscles.
She found comfort in the neutral territory she’d discovered with Bill. For the past two nights, they’d talked on the cell phone until the wee hours of the morning. He congratulated her when Finley Hall called on Monday morning and officially offered her the job as interim dance instructor. And he agreed to move back in the house with the boys so she could spend her weeknights in Charleston once school started. Not only did he support her plan, he helped her devise it. He would stay in the guest room, letting her keep the master bedroom for the weekends. She would come home after her last class on Fridays, so as not to miss Sean’s football games on Friday nights. Cooper’s skull fracture had ended his career as a linebacker, although he didn’t seem too upset about the prospect of having more time to fish and hunt in the fall.
On the way home from Charlotte, she completed the first item on her checklist by calling Clara Graves, who sounded thrilled at the prospect of having Jackie rent her cottage. As soon as the Curtis crisis ended, she would focus on her second agenda item, which was finding a new housekeeper to help with the cooking and cleaning during the week.
Working part-time in Charleston would give her a chance to ease her way back into society, to reestablish contact with old acquaintances and make new friends. After her temporary dance job ended in December, she would move ahead with plans to start her own design firm if she felt the opportunity existed.
Somehow, someway, she would make it work.
She had yet to discuss the last item on her checklist with Bill. She would wait and see how the next few days went before she called Barbara the Barracuda to put the divorce proceedings on hold.
She had drifted off to sleep when the sound of the alarm chimes woke her up. She threw on a clean pair of shorts and a fresh T-shirt and went to help Bill with the groceries.
“Why’d you buy two tenderloins?” she asked, not in the old-Jackie accusatory tone but in the new Jackie genuinely curious tone.
“One isn’t enough, when you consider three teenage boys, plus Mack.”
“Mack? You mean Captain Mack?”
“He’s the one. He’s been sleeping on the sofa in the guest cottage.”
“Goodness. We really are feeding a crowd. I guess we’d better get busy.”
Bill went outside to light the charcoal in his Green Egg while Jackie set things in motion inside. She put the potatoes in the oven for baking, and set the dining room table with her white china, royal blue p
lacemats, and red-checkered napkins. She sprinkled red-white-and-blue star graffiti down the center of the table and placed her flag-motif candles in her wooden pillar holders. She took her clippers outside and made Bill hold her bucket while she clipped red roses, white hydrangeas, and sprigs of lavender from her garden.
Jackie spent the rest of the afternoon in preparation for her dinner party. She was putting the finishing touches on her cheese platter when the others got home from work about six-thirty.
Sean came flying up the stairs ahead of everyone else. “Where’s Cooper?” he asked, kissing his mother when she pointed to her cheek.
“He’s been asleep all afternoon,” she said. “Why don’t you go wake him up?”
Lovie came around the kitchen island to give Jackie a hug. “I can’t remember when I last saw you smile like this.” Her mother whispered in her ear. “It’s a good look for you. I hope you’ll keep it.”
“What’s all this?” Sam asked, peeking into the dining room. “Are you having a party?”
Faith nudged Sam with her elbow. “A homecoming party for Cooper.”
“And an overdue celebration of the reopening of Sweeney’s, which I should have thrown for you back in June.”
“I hope we’re not having seafood,” Sam said, with the hint of a smile on her lips.
“Far from it. We’re having beef tenderloin, garlic bread, a green salad, and potatoes.” Jackie waved her cheese knife at the pan of twice-baked potatoes on the counter.
“If that’s the case, I’m going to take a shower and put on a dress. I’m sick to death of these clothes,” Sam said, and disappeared down the stairs.
“What can I do to help?” Faith asked.
Jackie glanced around the kitchen. “Everything’s about ready. Why don’t you get changed so we can catch up. A lot has happened around here since I’ve been gone.”
Thirty-Eight
Faith
“She’s been at it all week,” Faith said under her breath, gesturing at Lovie who was trying to cram her key in the lock of an antique pine hutch in the breakfast room. “You have a lot of things with keyholes, and Mom’s tried every one of them. She’s gonna drive us all nuts if we don’t get to the bottom of this thing.”
Jackie took a sip of her wine and nibbled on a piece of cheese. “I’m pretty sure your key doesn’t fit my hutch, Mom.”
“I know it.” Lovie spun around to face them. “I just can’t shake the feeling that this key belongs to something on this property. I’ve tried everything in this house at least once.” She wandered over to the window and stared out. “Maybe it fits something outside.”
Sean came barreling up the stairs, followed by Sam and Mack. Sean slammed a tumbler down on the kitchen counter in front of his mother. “Dad needs a refill. He said to tell you we’re thirty minutes out on the meat.”
Jackie went to their liquor cabinet and poured two fingers of bourbon in the glass, filling it the rest of the way with water. “Why are you so out of breath, son?”
“Dad made me go tie everything down on the dock and bring in the cushions from the boat. He thinks we might get a storm later. I’m tired of having to do everything by myself. When is Cooper gonna get better?”
“Aww, poor baby,” Sam said, running her hand across her nephew’s crew cut. “Are you worn out from so much hard work?”
“Where is Cooper?” Jackie asked.
“In the game room, playing one-handed Xbox with Bitsy and Jamie,” Sean said before darting back downstairs with his father’s drink.
“I think Bitsy and Jamie are afraid to let Cooper out of their sight for fear he might get hurt again,” Mack said.
“They make for an interesting threesome, don’t they?” Sam said. “One in a wheelchair. One with his arm bandaged like a mummy. And one so traumatized she can’t stop sucking her thumb.”
“The walking wounded,” Faith blurted. “Oh … I’m so sorry, Sammie. I didn’t mean …”
Her sister dismissed Faith with a wave of her hand. “You can’t offend me. Jamie’s on the mend. I feel it in my heart. His mood has improved dramatically over the past week, even considering everything we’ve been through. Maybe it’s because of everything we’ve been through.”
Hearing the reassurance in her sister’s voice gave Faith hope that something good may actually come from the pain and suffering Curtis had brought on her family. She held up her wine glass. “Here’s to hoping he takes those first steps soon.” Three pairs of eyes stared at her. “Oh, dang. I did it again.”
This time Sam burst out laughing. She grabbed the sparkling water she’d been nursing and held it up for a toast. The four of them clinked glasses. “I don’t need alcohol to make a toast to that.”
“The meat will be ready soon. We should think about getting everything else on the table.” Jackie set her wine glass on the counter. “Sam, if you and Mack will fill the glasses with iced tea, I’ll get Faith to check on the potatoes while I toss the salad.”
Bill came up a little while later, carrying a steaming pan of tenderloin beef. “This should sit a minute before I slice it. In the meantime, I’ll go gather some flashlights. Looks like a storm’s coming our way.”
Faith was counting heads, to make sure she had enough potatoes on the platter, when she realized someone was missing. “Where’s Mama?”
Everyone stopped what they were doing.
“She was here a minute ago,” Sam said.
“Kids!” Jackie called down the stairs to the game room. “Is Lovie down there with y’all?”
The pitter-patter of little feet sounded below them, and then Bitsy shouted up the stairs, “She’s not down here.”
Despite the break-in at the market, Bitsy had relaxed considerably since they’d all been staying together at the farm. Much to Faith’s delight, her daughter seemed downright giddy to have Cooper home.
Sam ordered Faith and Mack to check upstairs while everyone else searched the main floor. They looked in bathrooms and closets and under beds. With no sign of Lovie anywhere, they reconvened in the breakfast room ten minutes later.
“Let’s approach this methodically. When’s the last time you saw your mom?” Bill asked Jackie.
She thought for a moment. “Right before Sean came up to refill your drink. We were right here, in the breakfast room. Mom was trying to make her key fit the lock in the pine hutch.”
Walking from the hutch to the window, Faith retraced her mother’s steps. “She came over here to the window, then said something about her key fitting a lock outside.”
All eyes darted to the windows. The sky had darkened and the wind was whipping around in the trees. They heard the dogs howling to come in, terrified of thunder and lightning.
“Do you really think she’d go outside alone?” Mack asked. “We’ve told her a thousand times in the past few days not to leave the house unchaperoned.”
“You know Lovie,” Sam said. “She has a mind of her own.”
Bill removed his iPhone from his back pocket and checked the radar. “Looks like the storm is still a ways away. Let’s divide up and search the yard.”
They flew down the stairs, one after another, to the game room.
“Cooper, you stay here with Bitsy. Jamie, Sean, let’s go,” Sam said. “We need to find Lovie before the storm comes.”
Once outside, Mack and Sam headed toward the guest house, Bill and Sean to the garage, Jamie to the side yard, and Jackie around behind the house to her gardening shed.
Seeing the terrified look on her daughter’s face, Faith had let the others go ahead of her. “Don’t you worry, honey,” she said, reassuring her child. “Lovie is here somewhere.”
Cooper pulled his cousin close to him. “We’ll be fine here, won’t we Bits?”
Her eyes wide, she sucked even harder on her thumb.
Cooper winked at his aunt, his signal for her to leave.
Hunched over, Faith joined the search, fighting against the wind as she raced down the hill toward the
water. From the dock, she had a clear view of the creek in both directions. She spotted Jamie and Lovie on the dock next door. Jamie’s wheelchair had gotten stuck in the sand at the foot of the dock where the earth ended and the boardwalk began. Faith watched in amazement as he gradually stood, using the railings for support. He placed one step in front of the other, then another and another, making a slow and apparently painful approach toward his grandmother who stood on the edge of the dock, facing the water, as if contemplating a jump.
Faith sprinted back up the hill, then along the sidewalk to the neighbor’s yard.
“Jamie!” Faith called, but the wind blew her words back in her face. She made her way toward them. So as not to startle her mother, she crept up behind Jamie and placed a hand on his shoulder.
“I think she’s in some kind of trance,” Jamie shouted above the roar of the wind.
Faith cupped her hand over her mouth and yelled in his ear, “See if you can get her attention. If she tries to jump, I’ll grab her.” She ducked under his arm and positioned herself close behind her mother.
“Lovie,” he called. “It’s me. Jamie. Dinner’s almost ready. Are you hungry?”
Lovie swayed a little before slowly turning around. She saw Jamie and smiled. “Look at you! You’re walking.”
Jamie glanced down at his feet. He grinned up at her, with his eyes opened wide. “I guess Mom was right. These legs still work after all.”
Faith reached for her mother, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her away from the edge of the dock. “The storm’s getting closer, Mama. Let’s go back up to the house.” She wrapped one arm around Jamie’s waist and the other around her mother’s, and together, they limped up the boardwalk.
“Are you okay to walk?” she yelled to Jamie when they reached his wheelchair.
His eyes traveled the path of the sidewalk from the wheelchair to the terrace.
“I don’t know,” he shouted. “All of a sudden, it seems like a long way.”
The others greeted them on the terrace. With tears streaming down her face, Sam pulled Jamie out of the chair to his feet. “I knew you could do it.” She gave him a gentle push toward the house. “Go on, let me see you walk.”
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