With arms held perpendicular to his body, Jamie walked in a straight line over to the french doors and back. He kissed his mother’s forehead. “I missed being able to look down on you like this.”
Sam swatted his chest. “Hush. You’re not that much taller than me.”
The rest of the group huddled around them, backslapping Jamie and scolding Lovie for going outside alone. When a streak of lightning crossed the sky followed by a loud clap of thunder, Bill began shepherding everyone toward the french doors.
“Come on, Mama. We need to get inside.” Faith placed a hand on the small of her mother’s back, prodding her along, but Lovie grabbed hold of the heron statue’s neck, refusing to budge.
“Not until I solve this mystery.” Lovie uncurled her fingers, revealing the rusty key nestled in her hand. “I’m close. I can feel it in my bones.”
“Mom, you’re being ridiculous,” Jackie snapped. “I’m going inside.”
Jackie started toward the house, but Lovie yelled, “No, wait! Come back.” She pointed at the base of the statue. “What’s in there?”
Jackie stopped and turned around. “What’s in where, Mom?”
“In here.” Lovie got down on her knees and rubbed the shell motif on the concrete base of the statue. “Is it hollow?”
“I guess. What difference does it make?”
“It’s in there,” Lovie insisted. “The box or whatever this key fits is in the base of this statue.” She stood up and, placing her hands around the heron’s neck, tried to slide the bird off its pedestal.
“Come on, boys,” Bill said to Jamie and Sean. “Help me lift this statue.”
It took all three to pick the heavy bird up and set it on the ground. Eight pairs of eyes peered down into the black hole of the statue’s base. Lovie stuck her hand in and felt around. “There’s something in there. I feel it.”
Sean reached in with both hands and retrieved a black plastic bag. “It’s a trash bag.”
Lovie tore at the plastic bag like a little kid ripping open a package of Oreos. Everyone watched in amazement as she lifted out a black metal box, the size of a shoe box. She handed the box to Sean, who held it for her while she inserted her key. She turned the key and lifted the lid. The box was packed with banded stacks of cash, in fifty- and hundred-dollar denominations.
“Wow.” Sean’s eyes were as wide as silver dollars. “Where did all that money come from?”
Lovie took the box and carried it to the nearest chair. She sat in stunned silence, her puzzled expression gradually giving way to a smile. “How could I have forgotten? Oscar and I earned this money. Years ago, during the height of our success, we decided to build a nest egg for the future. For our retirement, or for the girls if they should ever need it.”
Mack grinned. “Lord knows, Oscar Sweeney never believed in putting his money in the bank.”
“So you decided to put some away for a rainy day.” Jackie held her hand out as the first drops of rain began to fall. “Literally.”
“Exactly,” Lovie said. “After you and Bill moved in here, when we were still living next door … well, the heron statue seemed like a great spot to stash the money, close enough to home but difficult to get to if we ever got tempted to spend it on something frivolous.”
“The irony is, you hid if from yourself,” Sam said. “Out of sight, out of mind.”
“The mind is a tricky thing, Samantha.” Lovie wagged her finger at her daughter. “You youngsters are a long way off from understanding this, but one day you will.” She held the box out to Sam. “This money’s for you, to cover the cost of the damages to your home, and for Faith to start a new life.”
“And for Sweeney’s,” Faith added, “to get us back on solid ground.”
“And for me.” Curtis stepped out from behind a hydrangea bush and pointed a handgun at the group. “To get me out of this town and away from you blubbering fools.”
An open wound ran across Curtis’s forehead, presumably from his motorcycle accident. He reeked of alcohol and his eyes were puffy roadmaps. He was drunk and high, too messed up to notice the three policemen taking cover, bush by bush, as they progressed toward the scene.
Faith said, “Leave my family out of it, Curtis. This is between you and me.”
He waved the gun at her. “Shut up, you stupid bitch, unless you want your daughter to grow up without a mama.” He turned to Lovie, who was still holding the box. “Give me the money, old woman.”
Sam stepped forward, positioning herself between her mother and the gun. “We’ll give you the money, Curtis. But only in exchange for the gun. That pistol belongs to Jamie. My father gave it to him.”
Curtis aimed his weapon at Mack. “Fine, but first tell Captain Crunch to put away his shotgun.”
Mack walked across the terrace and leaned his gun against the house.
Sam took the box out of Lovie’s hands. “Slide me the gun, then you can have the money.”
“I ain’t stupid, Sexy Sammie. We’ll make the trade on a count of three.”
Sam knelt slowly to the ground, holding the box on either side with her hands. “One. Two. Three.” Curtis slid the gun across the terrace, but Sam faked him out by thrusting her arms forward while keeping a tight grip on the box..
“Freeze!” The three officers pounced on Curtis, surrounding him and aiming their weapons at his head. Swanson wrestled him to the ground and pinned his arms behind his back.
“Get off of me, bitch,” Curtis said, struggling beneath him.
Swanson slapped handcuffs on his wrists, and yanked Curtis to his feet. “Your party is over, buddy,” he said, manhandling the prisoner to the nearest squad car.
Eli approached the family. He removed his hat and mopped the sweat from his brow with a red bandana. “Wow. I’m glad that’s over. Now you nice people can go back to your lives. Rest assured Curtis will not see the light of day for many years.”
“Praise the Lord,” Lovie said.
Eli turned to Sam. “That was a brave thing you did.”
“Brave, but dangerous.” Wrapping his arms around his mother, Jamie lifted her off the ground, but set her right back down when his legs began to give. “You could’ve been killed. What were you thinking?”
“I could tell Curtis was too drunk to know what was going on, and salivating over the idea of all that money. Plus, I saw the policemen approaching. I didn’t think.” Sam’s eyes flooded with tears. “I just reacted.”
“We could’ve had a very different outcome,” Eli said. “But that’s a conversation for another day. For now, you have plenty to celebrate.” Eli play-punched Jamie in the arm. “Look at you, stud man, walking. Count on me being front and center to see you score your first home run.”
Thirty-Nine
Samantha
When the reality of what had transpired in the last thirty minutes hit her—Jamie had taken his first steps, Lovie had solved all their financial crises, and Curtis had been arrested—Sam became an emotional wreck. One minute she burst into big gulping sobs, and the next into fits of laughter.
And all the while, Jamie refused to leave her side. She knew his legs were weak, but he stood next to her while Eli questioned her at length.
When he finished with Sam, Eli insisted on interviewing each of them individually.
“But our stories are all the same,” Sam said.
“Even so, we have to do this by the book. We can’t take any chances of Curtis getting off on a technicality.”
“I guess you’re right,” she said, and waited outside with him while he filled out the paperwork and conducted his interviews.
The storm had passed to the west of them, leaving in its wake a clear sky for a beautiful sunset. Faith allowed Bitsy to run around the backyard while her cousins huddled together on the terrace, reliving the events of the evening over and over.
“Can you stay for dinner?” Sam asked Eli when he was finally wrapping things up.
He glanced at his watch. “I don’t get
off for another hour.”
“I don’t imagine we’ll be eating anytime soon. We’re all too keyed up to think about food.” When he hesitated, she said, “Please. I’d really like for you to be here.”
“Okay, then.” He leaned in and planted a kiss on her lips. “I’ll see what I can do about getting off a few minutes early.”
Not caring that everyone was watching them, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back, a longer lingering kiss, a promise of much more to come.
Eli had been gone only a few minutes when Moses’s red sports car came to a screeching halt in the driveway. After struggling to get his long limbs free, he rushed over to Jamie and attacked him with a bear hug. “I knew you had it in you, little bro.” He pulled away from him, then gave him another quick hug for good measure.
Jamie grinned. “Now you have to make good on our deal.”
“What deal?” Sam asked.
“A friend of mine is the batting coach for the Red Sox,” Moses said. “I told Jamie that as soon as he was on his feet again, we’d fly to Boston for box seats at a big game.”
“You never stopped believing in him.” Sam stood on her tiptoes and kissed Moses’s cheek. “Stay for dinner. It’s the least we can do to pay you back for all you’ve done for my son.”
“I’d like that. I’m looking forward to getting to know the real Jamie, the wonder boy I’ve heard so much about.”
A forest-green 4Runner pulled up behind Moses’s car. Sam almost didn’t recognize Mike Neilson, dressed in khaki shorts and a red polo shirt. It was the first time she had seen him wear anything other than scrubs.
“I hope you don’t mind that I invited him,” Faith whispered to Sam. “He helped me so much. I wanted him to be a part of the celebration.”
Sam winked. “On a night like tonight, the more the merrier.”
When the kids complained of hunger, they all moved inside for dinner.
“Let’s clear the table for a buffet dinner since our party has grown,” Jackie said. “I have some paper plates in here somewhere.” She rummaged through a cabinet and emerged with a stack of patriotic designer plates.
“Looks like love is in the air.” Faith gestured at Mack and Lovie who were watching the sunset from the balcony, his hand placed loosely around her shoulders.
“Even though Mom solved the mystery behind the rusty key, I’m convinced there’s something going on in her brain,” Jackie said.
“I agree,” Sam said. “After everything settles down a little, we can talk to her about going to Charleston for testing.”
Sam saw the doctor smile at Faith from across the room where he was comparing golf handicaps with Bill. “Looks like Mack and Lovie aren’t the only ones bitten by the love bug.”
Faith’s face flushed bright red. “You’re one to talk, Sammie. That was quite a kiss you gave Eli earlier.”
Jackie loaded up their arms with paper plates and plastic utensils. “Let’s go reset the table. I have something I need to talk to both of you about.”
Sam and Faith followed their older sister into the dining room. “Have you and Bill made amends?” Sam asked Jackie. “Is that your big news?”
“Bill and I are friends again. We agree that’s the best thing for the boys. I need to figure out me before I figure out us. Which is what I wanted to talk to you about. I’ve taken a job in Charleston.”
A light bulb flashed on in Sam’s brain. “So that’s what you were doing in front of Finley Hall that day. Are you redesigning their cafeteria or something?”
Jackie shook her head. “I’ve agreed to be their interim dance instructor. But you’re not far off base. My ultimate goal is to open my own design studio. Taking this temporary job at Finley Hall will give me a chance to explore my options.” Jackie turned to Faith. “Which is where you come in.”
“Me?” Faith placed her hand on her chest. “What do I have to do with you working in Charleston?”
“Everything, actually. There’s no way I can commute every day, so I’ve signed a six-month lease on a carriage house in Charleston. Bill has agreed to move back in here with the boys. It’s not what you think,” Jackie said in response to Sam’s raised eyebrows. “He will sleep in the guest room.”
“I predict the two of you will be back together by Christmas,” Sam said.
“I doubt it’ll take that long,” Faith added.
“Will the two of you let me finish, please?” Jackie said, in an exasperated tone.
Sam pretended to zip her lips.
“Faith, I would very much like for you and Bitsy to move into the guest cottage. I know you are busy at the market, and if you don’t like this idea, I totally understand. But I thought it would be good for the boys to have you here. I need someone to help with their laundry, get them off to school in the mornings, and cook them dinner a couple of nights a week. I will pay you, of course, and I don’t expect you to do the heavy cleaning. I’ve hired a maid service for that.”
Sam could tell by the twinkle in Faith’s eyes that this was an answer to her prayers. Even if the judge sentenced Curtis to twenty years in prison, she had too many bad memories from her trailer to continue to live there.
“That would solve a lot of my problems,” Faith said.
“And a lot of mine as well,” Jackie said.
“I don’t know what to say, other than thank you.” Faith gave Jackie a hug, then turned toward the stairs. “I can’t wait to tell Bitsy. She’ll be thrilled.”
“Wait,” Jackie called after her. “Before you go. We need to take a family photo.”
The three sisters gathered together, and Jackie snapped a selfie.
“What are you planning to do with that?” Sam asked.
“I’m texting it to Donna Bennett.” Jackie read the message aloud as she texted. “Headline for your morning paper. The Amazing Sweeney Sisters Survive Ordeal and Live to Tell About It.”
After Faith disappeared downstairs, Sam helped Jackie stack the china plates on the sideboard and prepare the table for the buffet.
“You’re doing a good thing for Faith,” Sam said.
Jackie looked up in surprise. “One good deed can’t compare to all you’ve done for her. You had your house destroyed, a bucket of paint thrown in your face, and thousands of dollars worth of seafood ruined. And you never even complained.”
“I internalized my problems, Jackie. I certainly didn’t handle it with grace.”
Jackie held Sam’s shoulders in her hands. “After our argument in the parking deck at the hospital, you got me thinking about who I really am, and I realized one of the important qualities missing from my life is empathy. I’m a selfish woman, Sammie, but I’m doing my best to change. I took your advice. I put myself in your shoes, and I realized how much you’d sacrificed to help Faith. Then I put myself in Faith’s shoes and I asked myself what I could do to make her life easier.”
Sam glanced down at her sister’s feet. She hadn’t noticed earlier that Jackie was wearing Sam’s favorite pair of worn-out espadrilles, her bright-red toenail poking through the hole at the tip of her big toe. She looked back up at Jackie and smiled. “They’re comfortable, aren’t they?”
“And to think I’ve been cramming my feet into those bone-crusher heels all these years.” Jackie drew Sam in for a hug, the only one Sam ever remembered receiving from her older sister. “I hope you don’t mind if I keep them. For some strange reason, like magic, they give me confidence. I believe in myself when I’m wearing them. Just as you have always believed in me.”
Author’s Note:
I spent the summers of my youth on Murrells Inlet, in the upper part of the Lowcountry of South Carolina, at the tip of Garden City Beach where the mouth of the inlet meets the ocean. We dug for clams in the gooey black mud and caught crabs using hand lines—a piece of string attached to a chicken neck. Mostly, my friends and I raced our johnboats up and down the waterways—skiing and hydrosliding—annoying the weekly renters with our rambunctious behavior
. Remember those days, Eve?
When the ocean was calm and the fishing reports promising, my father took us deep-sea fishing. We left the dock in the wee hours of the morning in order to make it to the Gulf Stream by sunrise. My favorite part of the trip was hearing the diesel engines rumble to life and vibrate beneath me as I slumbered away in the cabin below. Some days we never got a bite. Other days we returned with a cockpit full of tuna, wahoo, and dolphin.
I wrote this novel in memory of my father, Elbert, who shared his love of the water and taught me how to cook everything we caught.
For my mother, Joanne, and my brother, Miles, who share these sacred memories. And for my children, Cameron and Ned, and my husband, Ted, who have helped me make new ones at our river house near the Chesapeake Bay.
I am blessed with five amazing sisters-in-law who more than make up for the sister I never had. XOXO to Dina, Jody, Mamie, Katherine, and Tammy. Thank you for all your love and support and wonderful times.
I am thankful for my wonderful editor, Patricia Peters at awordaffair.com who took Her Sister’s Shoes to a new level with her amazing attention to detail and dedication to proper grammar.
Lastly, I’m indebted to my friends at the Yellow Umbrella in Richmond who provided inspiration for Captain Sweeney’s Seafood with their sleek market, fresh-from-the-water seafood, and expert cooking tips.
If you enjoyed the book and have a moment to spare, please consider posting a short review on Amazon to share your thoughts with others …
Please visit my website for more information about my novels www.ashleyfarley.net
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Copyright © 2015 Ashley Farley
Cover design: damonza.com
Formatting: damonza.com
Editor: Patricia Peters at A Word Affair LLC
Her Sister's Shoes Page 30