The Hideaway

by Lauren K. Denton

  “Well, you don’t hear that every day,” the woman said. “What happened to them? Tell me they married and lived a happy life together.”

  “They didn’t marry,” I said, “but they should have. I’m pretty sure she loved him until she died earlier this year, and he still very much loves her.”

  “Sounds like you know this woodworker well.”

  From across the room, Crawford caught my eye and winked.

  I nodded. “I do. He’s my grandfather.”

  That night, long after the last customers found their way out of the shop, most with shopping bags rustling around their knees, Crawford and I relaxed in the rocking chairs on the back porch of The Hideaway. The Crowes were getting ready for a dinner I’d booked for them at the Grand Hotel in Point Clear, and the Melmans were at the Outrigger. Another group of guests wasn’t arriving until the next afternoon, so I had the evening off.

  I sipped my wine and settled farther into my chair. My legs rested on a blanket in Crawford’s lap and he gently squeezed my bare feet.

  A scuffle in the house behind us made us both look up to the open doorway. Bert stood with one hand on the door frame, the other caught in Dot’s firm grasp.

  “Bert, give them some privacy,” she scolded, then turned to me. “I’m sorry. I told him you two wouldn’t be interested in his silly games, but he’s being very pigheaded.”

  Bert shook his hand free from Dot’s and walked out on the porch. “I picked up this new game at Grimmerson’s today. George said it’s popular with the young people.”

  “It’s Pictionary,” Dot said, exasperated.

  Crawford grinned. “What do you say?” he whispered.

  “I can draw a mean crawfish,” I whispered back.

  “Let’s do it,” he said. “Here’s to another night in paradise.”

  46

  MAGS

  MARCH, NINE MONTHS EARLIER

  I often went back to the cove. I went on days when I couldn’t bear the loneliness of missing William—or maybe I just pined for that short, sweet time in my life when he would hold me, touch me, make me feel as alive as a power line, shooting sparks and electricity out into the universe. I’d sit along the edge of the water and imagine what it would have been like if things had turned out differently. If Robert hadn’t had that first episode and landed himself in the hospital, or if I’d never cashed that check, leading Daddy to The Hideaway, William and I might have still been together. We would have spent every evening out on our porch overlooking the water, dumbstruck at our love and how lucky we were to have found each other.

  Or maybe that’s not true at all. Maybe we would have fizzled as quickly as we began. A bright burst of fire at the beginning and another, dimmer burst at the end, like a firework that never quite made it off the ground. We could have hurt each other a thousand ways, both of us eventually needing more and offering less than we had to give. I would have always wondered if he stayed with me out of a sense of duty, because of Jenny, while he’d worry that I’d only stayed with him to defy Robert and my parents.

  I could dream all day long, but at its core, the truth of my life is that I am a lucky woman. I’ve known real love and true beauty, two things not given to every person. Without Robert, I never would have found my way to The Hideaway or William, and without William, I wouldn’t have known the delight of both Jenny and Sara.

  While I’m thankful for both of these men in my life, I’m more thankful for the woman they showed me I could be on my own. Not to mention the people they brought into my life. The Hideaway was always full of friends and lovers, mothers and daughters, secret keepers and secret spillers, straight talkers and soft shoulders. We had hurt and we had joy, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

  Things could have turned out better or worse, but I don’t dwell on any of that. I have a tarnished old house to live in, a garden to keep my hands dirty, and sunsets to watch. Sitting here on my old cedar bench, my toes dug deep in the earth, herons swooping low over the water, and the sun an orange ball of fire slipping below the horizon, I figure I’ve had it just about as good as it gets.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Thank you to my agent, Karen Solem, for your patience, kindness, and enthusiasm for this story. Thank you to everyone at HarperCollins Christian Publishing and Thomas Nelson for taking a chance on me and The Hideaway. It’s an honor to be welcomed into the family with such open arms. I especially want to thank Daisy Hutton, Karli Jackson, Becky Philpott, Kristen Golden, Amanda Bostic, Kristen Ingebretson, Jodi Hughes, and Paul Fisher. Additional heartfelt thanks to Karli, who believed in and championed this book from the very beginning. I truly believe you were just the right editor at just the right time, and I’m so thankful my manuscript landed on your desk. Thank you also to Julee Schwartzberg for her editing prowess and another huge thanks to Kristen Ingebretson for the gorgeous cover. I’ve spent way too much time just staring at it, wishing I could sit on those rocking chairs in the warm breeze.

  I’m grateful to have stumbled on Denise Trimm and her fiction workshops, first held under the Continuing Ed program at Samford University, then under her own Alabama Writers Connect. The encouragement, feedback, critiques, and laughter have been such a thrill these last several years. There have been various incarnations of the group, but the biggest thanks for help with The Hideaway goes to Denise, Barry DeLozier, Anna Gresham, Alex Johnston, and Chuck Measel. I’m also thankful for and indebted to The Cartel, of which we will not speak . . .

  Thank you to my friends and family who read various drafts of The Hideaway and gave heaps of encouragement and confirmation that the time I spent writing it hadn’t been wasted: My mom Kaye Koffler, my husband Matt Denton, friends Sara Beth Cobb, Thames Schoenvogel, Carla Jean Whitley, and Ella Joy Olsen.

  Additional thanks to Sara Beth Cobb of Nimblee Design for creating such a beautiful website and logo for me so The Hideaway would have a place to hang out online. Thank you too for being so excited about this story from the beginning and for encouraging me in myriad ways. I’m thankful for our friendship.

  Thanks to my dear friend Anna Gresham for unending support, laughter, rambling texts and e-mails about how HARD this writing thing is, and long car rides where we never run out of things to talk about. You’re a kindred spirit and I’m thankful to be “Anna’s friend Lauren.”

  Thank you to Angie Davis for the beautiful photos and for making me more comfortable than I expected when having someone take pictures of me!

  It’s a beautiful thing when writers help other writers. A huge thank you goes to author Patti Callahan Henry for launching me from the slush pile to the desk of Ami McConnell, then editor at Thomas Nelson. Thank you for reaching out a hand to help and for thinking enough of my story to pass it along to your friend, and thank you to Ami for handing it off to the fabulous Karli Jackson. Thank you to authors Anne Riley, Carla Jean Whitley, Ella Joy Olsen, Emily Drake Carpenter, and Karen White for being generous with encouragement, support, and advice. Author Carolyn Haines responded to an out-of-the-blue e-mail from me and, over the years, offered encouragement and support as I worked toward publication of The Hideaway. I’m a member of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association, a group of generous and talented writers who are always quick to offer advice, commiseration, encouragement, and shared excitement. Writing can be a lonely pursuit, and it helps to be able to jump online and within seconds, have friends jumping into conversation.

  People smarter than me offered tidbits of info that helped make the details in this book more authentic: Elisa Munoz for insider information on New Orleans levees. Julie Gulledge and David Wallace for help in finding information about Mobile Mardi Gras balls in decades past. Aaron Dettling for lending his legal expertise in the area of eminent domain. Any mistakes are mine alone.

  My family is my heart, my biggest and most profound blessing. Thank you to my hardworking husband, Matt, who never complains when I escape to the library to write and come home long after I say I’ll be home. Thank y
ou for believing in me and for loving me more than I deserve. I’m so glad I get to do life with you. Thank you to Kate and Sela, my lovebugs who make me want to be better every day and who had such blind faith that my book would be AWESOME! My sweet Kate was the only one with whom I was brave enough to take to the D section of the library and point to where I hoped my book would go one day. Kate was on the receiving end of many of my hopes and dreams—dreams that seemed too far-fetched and naïve to say out loud to any adult. She took those dreams at face value and never doubted that they’d come true. Thank you to all the Kofflers, Dentons, and other extended family members and friends who have shared my joy and excitement as if it were your own. I love all of you.

  Every day as I sat down to write The Hideaway, I asked God to guide my hands (and words) and to give me continued inspiration. I loved the characters and I was devoted to telling their story, but I was constantly plagued by fears that the inspiration would dry up and this would become one more unfinished story in my overloaded file of unfinished stories. By His grace and some kind of blind naivety on my part, I was able to not only finish this story, but (with much help) hone and polish it into something I am immensely proud of. So, thank You, Lord, for the inspiration, for guiding my words, for allowing me to bear Your creative image through my writing.

  DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  1.Sara fled Sweet Bay and The Hideaway as soon as she was able. Do you think that decision had more to do with her parents’ death and the pain associated with that time in her life or because of Mags’s mystery and eccentricities? A combination of the two?

  2.After leaving her parents, husband, and former life, Mags makes a new life at The Hideaway. In essence, her friends at the B and B become her new family. Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you’ve had to make a new life and family with the people around you?

  3.Mags’s parents expected her to marry a man from a respectable family who made enough money to keep her in the life she was used to. They also expected her to look the other way when Robert strayed and to wait for him to return to his senses and his marriage. How are marriages in general different today? How are they the same? Do you—or someone you know—have experience similar to Mags’s?

  4.As Sara peels back the layers and hears stories from Mags’s friends, she learns Mags had a full, rich life before becoming the unconventional grandmother Sara knew. Have you ever been surprised to learn something about a family member you thought you knew well? How did your childhood view of this person differ from your opinion once you grew into adulthood? Did the new revelations change the way you thought about the person?

  5.In a sense, Mags uses The Hideaway as a way to hide from her life and difficult situation in Mobile. In what way are other characters in the book hiding? Think of Sara in New Orleans, Allyn at Bits and Pieces, and Dot’s friends at The Hideaway. Do you have any experience with hiding in a comforting or safe place when things in your life feel out of control?

  6.Sara comes to regret that she never took the time to get to know who her grandmother really was. Do you have experience with familial regret? Has someone passed away or otherwise passed out of your life whom you wish you had taken a chance to ask key questions, whether about the past or some event that person had experience with? How do you deal with or make peace with that regret?

  7.When we first meet Sara, she is fully devoted to her work and doesn’t make much extra time for friends, family, or extra pursuits. How does Sara evolve over the course of the book? What did you think about her decision to return to New Orleans and Bits and Pieces after spending the summer at The Hideaway? Do you understand her?

  8.Sammy Grosvenor has a vision of Sweet Bay as a tourist destination. Those who live in Sweet Bay want it to remain the sleepy town it’s always been. What do you think of the tension between progress and the desire to keep things the same? Do you know of a place that has undergone a similar fight with progress?

  9.Mags left her parents and husband to escape a life that was suffocating. Would you have had the courage to make a decision so opposite your family’s expectations? Do you think Mags made the right decision to leave her home? What about her decision to stay at The Hideaway?

  10.If Sara had been able to meet Mags as a young woman, do you think they would have been friends? Would they have agreed with each other’s life choices?

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Photo by Angie Davis

  Born and raised in Mobile, Alabama, Lauren K. Denton now lives with her husband and two daughters in Homewood, just outside Birmingham. In addition to her fiction, she writes a monthly newspaper column about life, faith, and how funny (and hard) it is to be a parent. On any given day, she’d rather be at the beach with her family and a stack of books. The Hideaway is her first novel.

  Website: laurenkdenton.com

  Twitter: @LaurenKDenton