Sand Castle Bay

by Sherryl Woods

  “Yes, and we’re all going out to celebrate,” Boone reminded him. “Keep your costume on. We’re going to take lots and lots of pictures.”

  He hadn’t told him or anyone else about Emily joining them. Maybe that was a mistake, but he figured a surprise was the only way he was going to pull this off without a major upheaval. He was praying that B.J.’s presence would keep Jodie from doing or saying anything crazy.

  Back in the auditorium, he spotted Cora Jane and Emily saving them seats on the aisle. “There are three seats over there,” he told Jodie, steering them across the room.

  When Jodie spotted Cora Jane, she obviously guessed the identity of the woman beside her. She froze in place.

  “Absolutely not,” she said, scowling at Boone. “How could you ruin this night for me?”

  “Tonight isn’t about you,” Boone reminded her. “It’s about B.J., and he wanted Emily and Cora Jane to be here. He wants you and Frank here, too. Can we all manage to get along for his sake for just this one night?”

  “Of course we can,” Frank said, casting a warning look at his wife. “I, for one, do not intend to miss my grandson’s play for any reason. Jodie?”

  She sucked in a deep breath and followed him into the row of seats, placing herself as far from Emily as possible. Boone sat between Frank and Emily. His father-in-law leaned forward.

  “Nice to see you, Cora Jane,” he said. “It’s been a long time.”

  “It has been,” she replied. “Jodie, you’re looking good.”

  Jodie remained stonily silent.

  “I don’t think you’ve met my granddaughter, Emily,” Cora Jane continued as if nothing was amiss.

  Frank nodded an acknowledgment of the introduction. Jodie stared straight ahead.

  Boone glanced at Emily. “You okay?”

  “Sure, but that deep freeze at Castle’s is sounding better and better. It has to be warmer than here.”

  “It’s going to get better,” Boone said with a confidence he was far from feeling. “Whatever her feelings about you and me, Jodie won’t spoil this for B.J. I’m counting on that.”

  “I’ll do my part,” she promised.

  The lights went down then and the play began. Despite the scary, taped music, there were more laughs than terror generated by the performances. B.J. played the best ghost ever, in Boone’s opinion. Pictures were snapped every few seconds with cell phones around the auditorium. Even Jodie got into the spirit of things and took a few when B.J. was onstage.

  The audience applauded loudly at the end, giving the kids a standing ovation, despite the chuckles none of them could hide.

  “I don’t suppose it was meant to be a comedy,” Frank said, unable to hide the mirth in his eyes.

  “Frank, stop that,” Jodie chided. “They’re just children. I thought they were wonderful. I can’t wait to post some of these adorable pictures online so our friends in Florida can see them.”

  “I agree with you about them being wonderful,” Emily said. “And B.J. looked fantastic. Mrs. Farmer, I understand you made his costume.”

  Jodie looked nonplussed at being addressed directly, but she managed to utter a tight, “I did. Thank you.”

  “Well, let’s get our budding star and head over to the restaurant,” Boone said, being determinedly jovial. “I’ve reserved one of the private rooms for our party.”

  Jodie immediately shook her head, but Frank said, “We’re not going to miss this, Jodie. We can’t disappoint B.J. And you know you’re going to want our pictures taken with him wearing his costume.”

  She looked as if she might argue, then backed down. “No, you’re right.”

  Frank gave her an approving look. “We’ll meet you there,” he told Boone.

  Emily gave Boone’s hand a squeeze. “I’ll ride over with Grandmother.”

  Boone was tempted to tell her to come with him, but it made sense for her to accompany Cora Jane. “See you there, then.”

  So far, the evening had gone according to plan. There had been no bloodshed. The combatants had been civil. It gave him hope that the party would go off just as well, especially if everybody there focused on B.J. and making it the perfect night for him.

  And there, he thought dryly, was some of that optimism Emily seemed to think was going to be his downfall.

  19

  B.J. was wired up on too much excitement, probably combined with too much soda, Emily concluded as he tore around the private dining room at Boone’s Harbor with a couple of his cast mates who’d been invited to join the party. She had a hunch the outsiders were part of Boone’s plan to keep Jodie in line. His mother-in-law would never misbehave and air personal family feuds around strangers.

  “At least she’s being civil,” Cora Jane acknowledged from her seat beside Emily. “I was ready to pop her one if she tried to take you on.”

  Emily smiled at her grandmother’s feisty comment. “I really don’t think popping her one would help my case,” she said. “Civility is the goal for now.”

  “Maybe I should spend a little time chatting with Frank,” Cora Jane suggested. “He’s a reasonable man.”

  Emily shook her head. “Stay out of it, Grandmother. Boone needs to handle this. One wrong word and things could go terribly wrong. Who knows what might trigger an overreaction from Jodie? The last thing we want is to put B.J. through some ugly custody battle.”

  Cora Jane sighed and sat back. “You’re right, of course.”

  Just then B.J. came bouncing up to them. “Ms. Cora Jane, did you like the play?”

  “I thought the play was excellent,” she told him. “And you didn’t miss a single line. I was very proud of you.”

  B.J. grinned broadly. “Did you like it, Emily?” he asked, leaning into her side.

  Instinctively, Emily put her arm around him to give him a squeeze. “You bet I did. I’m so glad I was able to come back to see it.”

  “And, guess what?” B.J. said excitedly. “I’m going to be in the Christmas pageant, too.” He looked at her worriedly. “You won’t miss that, will you?”

  “Absolutely not,” Emily assured him, though even as the words came out of her mouth, she wondered if she shouldn’t have been more cautious. She had a lot of small jobs lined up with regular clients to help them ready their homes for the holidays. That work often took her right up to Christmas Eve. Still, B.J. was clearly satisfied with her answer, so why spoil tonight by casting doubt on her own promise?

  “See you later,” B.J. said. He started to run off, then came back and gave Emily a fierce hug.

  After he’d gone, she noticed that Jodie had her gaze peeled on B.J., which meant that more than likely she’d witnessed the entire scene. From the tight expression on her face, she clearly disapproved. She headed in Emily’s direction.

  “Uh-oh,” Cora Jane murmured. “Red alert!”

  Emily chuckled, despite the impending confrontation. “Leave her to me, okay? Why don’t you check the desserts on the buffet table? Bring us back the most decadent things they have over there, preferably with chocolate. Something tells me we’re going to need it.”

  Cora Jane looked uneasy. “And leave you alone with Jodie?” she asked worriedly. “Is that a good idea? I could keep my mouth shut. At least you’d have a witness, if she gets out of line.”

  “It’ll be okay,” Emily assured her. “Please, Grandmother. She and I need to settle things.”

  When Jodie reached her, Emily gestured to a chair, determined to be on her best behavior. Killing the woman with kindness was her mantra for the night. “Have a seat,” she said graciously. “I’m so anxious to get to know you better. I know how happy it’s made B.J. having you back home again.”

  “Why do you care?” Jodie said, ignoring the olive branch. “You won’t be around long.”

&nb
sp; Emily frowned at the confidence in her voice. “Why is that?”

  “Because if you persist in this effort to get your clutches into my grandson, I will go to court,” she said as mildly as if she were talking about the weather. The threat was all the more potent because of her complete calm and her unwavering spite and determination.

  Even though Emily didn’t have a doubt in her mind that no court would take B.J. from Boone, she didn’t want them to have to face the ordeal of a custody battle.

  “Why would you do that, Mrs. Farmer? Do you really hate Boone that much? Or is all your anger directed at me? Or is it B.J.’s life you’re hoping to ruin? I’m just trying to understand your motivation here.”

  “Oh, please. I wouldn’t waste my energy on you or Boone. I’m trying to protect my grandson,” Jodie responded with a huff of indignation. “Everything I do is for that boy.”

  “Really?” Emily asked skeptically. “What exactly is the threat you think I pose? You don’t know me, though you do know my grandmother. I doubt there’s a soul in this community who could find fault with her or her influence on B.J.”

  “Cora Jane’s an upstanding woman,” Jodie agreed grudgingly. “That has nothing to do with you. Because of you, my daughter was locked into a loveless marriage.”

  Though the accusation didn’t come as a complete shock, Emily was surprised to hear it spoken aloud. “Loveless? I don’t think so. Boone would never have married Jenny if he hadn’t loved her. As you know perfectly well, they didn’t have to get married. There was no unplanned pregnancy pushing them into making the decision to walk down the aisle. Clearly, getting married was something they both wanted.”

  “Maybe so,” Jodie conceded, though she didn’t look happy about it. “But his heart always belonged to you. Everyone around here knew that, including Jenny.”

  “And yet she loved him, anyway,” Emily said.

  Jodie waved off the reminder as if her daughter’s feelings were of no consequence. “She was a foolish girl. She thought she could eventually make him love her. That’s a terrible basis for marriage.”

  “I don’t entirely disagree,” Emily admitted, drawing a shocked look. “But it wasn’t your decision to make, and I wasn’t even in the picture. Until recently, Boone and I hadn’t been in touch for ten years. Jenny and Boone were adults who made a decision that worked for them. And just so you know, I’ve never heard Boone express a single regret about having made it. If he has any regrets at all, it’s because he lost Jenny too soon.”

  Jodie looked taken aback by her candor. “You actually believe he loved her?”

  “I do,” Emily said simply. She looked Jodie in the eyes, determined to find some way to give her a different perspective on the past, if not to reconcile her to Emily’s inevitable future with Boone and her grandson. “May I ask you a question?”

  Jodie shrugged.

  “Did Jenny strike you as miserable after she and Boone married? Did she ever express any regrets?”

  “She’d hardly say anything to me,” Jodie said defensively. “She knew I was against the marriage.”

  “How about her father? Did she ever suggest such a thing to him?”

  “Not that I know of,” Jodie admitted with obvious reluctance.

  “So, she never said anything to suggest she wasn’t happy?” Emily pressed. “Not to you, not to Mr. Farmer, not to anyone you know?”

  “No.”

  “Interesting,” Emily said, hoping that if she gave her a minute Jodie would grasp her point. When she eventually did speak, she said, “My grandmother told me that Jenny positively glowed, especially after B.J. was born.”

  “That child was a blessing, no question about it,” Jodie admitted. “I figured she got pregnant to keep Boone from leaving her.”

  Emily was startled that Jodie could think so little of her own daughter’s intelligence or of her appeal to the man she’d married. “Do you honestly believe that the woman you’d raised would need to resort to that kind of trickery to keep her husband? The Jenny I knew was smart, kind and generous. She was worthy of Boone’s love, and I doubt she’d have stayed with him if he hadn’t made her happy.”

  Again, Jodie looked shaken by the straight talk that suggested she was blind to her own daughter’s attributes. “No, she’d never have tried to trap Boone into staying, but...” Her voice trailed off.

  “But what?”

  “I guess I never looked at it quite like that.”

  “Because you were so locked into your own perceptions of what their marriage was like,” Emily suggested. “Maybe you couldn’t be objective about how real their feelings were. Outsiders seldom truly know what’s going on inside a marriage.”

  “I can’t believe you’d sit here and try to convince me that Boone loved my daughter so much,” Jodie said, looking bemused.

  “Why? It doesn’t lessen his feelings for me now. When I left, I was totally unfair to him. I’m glad he found a woman like Jenny. He deserved to be happy. As for B.J., he’s an incredible gift from your daughter. Maybe you should think of him that way, too, rather than looking at him as a pawn in your battle with Boone or with me.”

  Jodie gave her a long, hard look, then stood up and walked away without another word. After a moment with Frank, the two of them spoke to Boone and B.J., then left.

  Boone immediately headed in Emily’s direction, his expression filled with worry. He pulled a chair close and circled an arm around her shoulders. “I started to come over sooner, but it looked as if you had things under control. Everything okay?”

  Emily leaned against him for a minute. “I hope so, but I don’t know. She wasn’t yelling when she left or making any more threats.”

  Boone frowned. “She started out with threats?”

  “Nothing you haven’t heard before, just the custody issue. I think she was hoping to scare me off. For all I know she’ll consider my refusal to be scared as a surefire sign that I don’t care about B.J.’s well-being.”

  “That’s twisted,” Boone said, then sighed. “And just like Jodie.”

  “I tried to put in a lot of good words for you,” Emily told him. “I just about went hoarse from singing your praises and trying to get her to see your marriage to Jenny through her daughter’s eyes, rather than her own.”

  Boone shook his head. “I’m sorry you got caught up in this. It’s not up to you to heal my relationship with Jenny’s parents.”

  “But it is up to me not to make it any worse.” She looked into his eyes. “I hope I did okay. I don’t want this to turn into all-out warfare or something. If it does, I’ll step away, Boone. You won’t lose your son because of me.”

  “I won’t lose my son, period,” he said firmly, then cupped her face in his hands and held her gaze. “And you’re not going anywhere. Not ever again.”

  * * *

  For several days after the Halloween play, Boone waited for any fallout from Emily’s conversation with Jodie. Instead, he thought he detected the faintest thaw in his relationship with his mother-in-law. Frank certainly was no barometer because he continued to spend time with B.J. without a word of criticism for Boone or for his ties to Emily.

  It was two weeks later, when he was trying to get by on a few late-night calls from the West Coast to keep his spirits up, that Jodie’s new strategy surfaced.

  Boone was driving B.J. over to visit with Cora Jane, when his son regarded him sorrowfully. “Grandma Jodie says I probably shouldn’t count on Emily being around too much anymore,” B.J. said. “She says Emily’s so busy she’ll probably forget all about me.”

  Boone had to take a deep breath to keep a check on his anger. “When did Grandma Jodie say that?”

  “Yesterday,” B.J. admitted.

  So that explained B.J.’s dark mood the night before when he’d gone to bed early and told Boone he
didn’t want to hear a story or read from one of his favorite books.

  “Is that the only time she’s mentioned something like that?” Boone asked.

  B.J. shook his head. “I didn’t believe her at first, but Emily hasn’t called me for a while now, so I figured Grandma Jodie must be right.”

  “You know Emily is really, really busy trying to get this house ready. She told you about that, right?”

  “It’s for some moms and little kids who need to be in a safe place,” B.J. said. “She said it’s really, really important.”

  “It is. Just think about how it would feel not to be in a safe place for Thanksgiving or any other day.”

  B.J. nodded his understanding. “It would be bad,” he said.

  “So if Emily hasn’t called you as much, it’s more than likely because she’s working really hard to finish this work so these families will have a happy Thanksgiving. Can you understand that?”

  B.J. nodded.

  Boone made a decision. “Why don’t we call her as soon as we get to Castle’s? We can say hello and see how the house is coming along, okay?”

  His son beamed at him. “Awesome.”

  “And would you like me to write down Emily’s number, so you can call her anytime you’re missing her?”

  “Sure,” B.J. said enthusiastically. “And I won’t be a pest, I promise.”

  Boone grinned. “I’m counting on that.” He cursed himself for not thinking of any of this sooner. He’d known how distracted Emily had been the past couple of weeks. He’d felt neglected himself, so it was understandable that B.J. would feel that way. It simply hadn’t occurred to him that Jodie would be feeding into B.J.’s insecurities.

  That was a problem he’d have to resolve at the very first opportunity.

  * * *

  Inside Castle’s Boone sent B.J. in search of Cora Jane while he placed the call to Emily. Though she sounded harried when she answered, her mood brightened at the sound of his voice.

  “Busy?” he asked.