The Beach House

by Rachel Hanna

  “Good.”

  “I’d better get going. I promised Janine I’d make the sandwiches tonight. I’ll be so glad to get my new oven!”

  “Say, why don’t you ladies come to my place tonight? Lucy is cooking shrimp and grits tonight, and of course her famous peach cobbler. There will be plenty for all of us, trust me.”

  Julie thought for a moment. “Are you sure?”

  “Absolutely! Just don’t bring any paint with you, okay?”

  “Very funny,” she said, as they started to climb down out of the tree.

  “Janine? Are you home?”

  Julie walked around the house, calling her sister’s name. She walked down the hall, but didn’t see her. Finally, she spotted her standing out back near the marsh, her cell phone to her ear.

  “Oh, hey. I didn’t realize you were home. I was talking to Mom. Be glad you didn’t get home in time to talk to her too.”

  “Yeah, I just got here. I don’t think I could take a call with Mom today. Might ruin my good mood.”

  “Well, it certainly ruined mine,” Janine said, laughing, as she walked over and grabbed a bottle of water.

  “So, Dawson has invited us to dinner at his place tonight.”

  Janine turned around and did a kissy face. “Oh, Dawson…”

  “Stop. It’s not like that. He’s my friend. Jeez, why does everyone do this? It’s so immature.”

  “Because he’s a hunk, first off. And secondly, he’s here all the time.”

  “He’s renovating my house!”

  “Whatever. What’s that?” she asked, pointing at the folder in Julie’s hand.

  “Divorce papers. Michael had me served at the bookstore today.”

  “Are you serious? That jerk. I thought he said…”

  “He did. But, as is customary with him, it was apparently a big, fat lie.”

  “What do the papers say?”

  “I haven’t even read them, honestly. We’ve already sold the house and our kids are grown, so I don’t know why he went to the trouble of hiring an attorney. There’s nothing left to negotiate since I’m not asking for alimony.”

  Janine reached her hand out for the papers. “Can I see?”

  “Are you an attorney now?” Julie asked, handing her the folder.

  “No, but I watch a lot of court TV shows now that I’m unemployed, so that basically makes me one.”

  Janine looked through the papers, and then her eyes widened.

  “What?”

  “Were you aware that Michael owns a condo in Boston?”

  Julie snatched the papers back. “What? Are you kidding me?” She searched the lines of text until she found the information. Michael had purchased the place ten months before they broke up.

  “He never told you?”

  “Of course not!”

  “You have to fight him for half of that money, Julie.”

  “I don’t want to keep dragging this out, Janine. I just want it to be done and over with,” she said, tossing the file across the kitchen counter.

  “You deserve that money. He used your marital finances to buy it. And you deserve alimony too!”

  “I don’t want alimony.”

  “Okay, fine. But you need to fight for that condo money. It’s the right thing to do.”

  “I’ll think about it.”

  “Good. I’d better go take a shower before we go to Dawson’s. I want to make a good impression on my future brother in law,” she said, as she quickly ran down the hallway.

  “Not funny!”

  As they stood on Dawson’s front porch, Julie thought about Michael’s latest lie. How could he take their marital funds and buy himself a condo so he could be close to his floozy? Yes, floozy. She still used that word even if it was old timey.

  “Good evening, ladies!” Dawson said, as he answered the door. The smell of his cologne draped over Julie like a warm blanket, mixed with the saltwater scent of the ocean behind his house. All of her favorite things rolled into one.

  “Thanks for inviting us, especially after our little paint escapade,” Janine said.

  “Let’s not talk about that,” Dawson said with a laugh as he opened the door to allow them inside.

  He introduced Lucy to Janine as they all sat down at the table. On the table was quite a spread of Lowcountry dishes including finger sandwiches with pimento cheese, pickled okra, shrimp and grits and fried oysters.

  “I hope you ladies are hungry. Lucy has cooked up quite a feast here,” Dawson said.

  “I’m starving, but Lucy, I hope you’ll join us too?” Julie asked.

  “Oh, sugar, I already ate my fair share while I was cooking. Besides, my grandson has a band concert on the mainland tonight, so I’m going to say my goodbyes now.”

  “Goodnight, Lucy. Have fun at the concert!” Julie said.

  After Lucy left, Dawson surveyed the table. “Dang. Lucy forgot to bring out the Hoppin’ John.”

  “Hoppin’ John? What is that?” Janine asked.

  “It’s a staple in these parts. Basically, it’s a dish with peas and rice, of course we season it up. We eat it on New Year’s Day, but we try to have it a few times during the year too. Let me go grab that from the kitchen.”

  Dawson got up and walked back to the kitchen. “I feel like I stepped into some kind of Southern novel,” Janine said.

  “I feel right at home,” Julie said.

  “I can see that,” Janine replied, a sly smile on her face.

  “Okay, here we go. Hoppin’ John is on the table. We’re now ready to dig in.”

  “I can’t wait!” Janine said, leaning over to scoop food onto her plate.

  “Who’d like to say grace?” Dawson asked. Janine slowly dropped the serving spoon and sat upright.

  “Sorry.”

  “No problem. Around here, we like to thank God for our blessings. I know it’s old fashioned for some, but it has served me well.”

  Julie smiled. “Why don’t you do the honor?”

  Dawson nodded and closed his eyes. Janine and Julie followed suit.

  “Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this food and these friends who will share it with me. I’m so grateful for the blessings in my life, including these new friends and this beautiful island I call home. Bless this food for the nourishment of our bodies. Amen.”

  “That was lovely, Dawson,” Julie said.

  “So, how’s the job going at the bookstore? Do you like working with Dixie?”

  “Yes, I love it. She’s such a character. Reminds me a little bit of this one right here,” Julie said, cutting her eyes at her sister.

  “Oh really? And you love her?”

  “Very funny.”

  “How does she remind you of me?”

  Julie took a bite of the Hoppin’ John and fell immediately in love with it. That was something she’d definitely be making when her kitchen was ready.

  “Well, she’s eccentric, for one thing. Marches to the beat of her own drummer.”

  “And you like those qualities in her, but you don’t like them in me?”

  “Janine, let’s not go down this rabbit hole. We’re trying to have a nice dinner here.”

  “I think she has a valid question,” Dawson said, trying to contain his smile as he looked down at his food.

  “Oh really?” she said, struggling not to kick him under the table. They didn’t know each other quite well enough for that yet.

  “Thank you, Dawson. So? How do you love those qualities in her and not me, sis?”

  “It’s not that I don’t love your eccentricities and quirks, Janine. It’s that you tried to pass them along to my completely normal daughters.”

  Janine stopped eating and looked at her. “So I’m not normal?”

  “Do you think you are?”

  The two women stared at each other for a moment. “I don’t want to be normal. I want to be me and have my own family love me for who I am and not try to change me. That’s what I want.”

  Things were
getting awfully heavy for dinner at a friend’s house. “We do love you, Janine. We just don’t always understand you.”

  “Well, I don’t understand why you married a jerk and stayed with him for twenty years, but I don’t harp on it all the time.”

  “I’m wondering why I did that myself.”

  Dawson chuckled. “Sorry. I didn’t know I was opening a can of worms. Let’s try a more neutral topic. How did you like your tree climb today?”

  “You climbed a tree?” Janine said, looking at Julie with her eyes wide.

  “Is that so surprising?”

  “Well, given that you hate heights and bugs, I would say that, yes, it’s surprising.”

  “I sort of tricked her into it.”

  “You goaded me into it.”

  “And why were you climbing trees?”

  “I wanted to show her the island in a way other people don’t get to see it. I’d be glad to take you up too.”

  Julie felt a sudden sense of jealousy she wasn’t expecting, like tree climbing was what she and Dawson did together and no one else could do it. She shook her head a bit, trying to get the feeling out, but it wasn’t in her head. It was in the pit of her stomach.

  “I might take you up on that. I love climbing trees. I did some conservation work in California a few years ago and got to do a climb into a redwood tree.”

  “Wow! Those things can be massive. I’d love to see one up close one day.”

  The conversation went on for ten minutes, and Julie felt like a third wheel. Of course, Dawson would find Janine interesting because she was. As much as she hated to admit it to herself, being around Janine had always made her feel boring and inferior. Janine was girl-next-door beautiful with her perfect complexion and bouncy curls that hung to her shoulders. The longer she lived with her, the more she was starting to look like her old self again.

  Julie was happy to see her depression lifting and her eating habits returning to normal after a few weeks of therapy sessions. But, she was also starting to feel those old jealous feelings again, and that just made her feel bad about herself.

  When dinner was over, they thanked Dawson and got back into the car for the very short drive home.

  “He’s a nice guy. I see why you like him,” Janine said as they drove.

  “I don’t like him like that.”

  Janine just chuckled and looked out the window.

  Chapter 12

  Julie wiped down the bistro table and picked up two books someone had left. One was a book about South Carolina history, and the other was a women’s fiction book about a dysfunctional family in the lowcountry. She read the back cover and smiled, remembering her childhood dreams of becoming a famous author. She rarely thought about that anymore, figuring she was too old to pursue silly dreams like that.

  “Good afternoon, kid,” Dixie said as she walked through the front door. “Whatcha got there?”

  “Oh, just cleaning up some books a lady left on the table.”

  Dixie reached out and took the fiction book from her. “This one is written by Sadie Clark. She was a firecracker.”

  “Was?”

  “She passed last year at the ripe old age of one hundred.” Dixie handed the book back to Julie and then walked behind the counter and opened the cash register to check the change.

  “Wow. When did she start writing books?”

  “She was almost seventy when she wrote her first one. Had so many best sellers I can’t even count.”

  “Seventy?”

  Dixie smiled. “Sugar, you’re never too old to follow your dreams. Seventy may seem old now, but it sure ain’t when you’re closing in on it like I am!”

  "Oh, I didn't mean any disrespect. It's just that I've had this lifelong dream of becoming an author myself. Hearing about Sadie makes me wonder if I could do it."

  "Well, of course you could do it! Listen, if there's one thing I've learned in all my years on this planet, it's that you need to pursue your dreams while you can. My late husband, Johnny, always had this dream of having a farm. He wanted to raise horses and cows and chickens. We had the money, but he just kept putting it off until we found out about his cancer. And then we couldn't do it. I could see the sadness in his eyes when he talked about how he had been too scared to follow his dreams and now it was too late." Dixie's eyes misted as she told the story.

  "You've given me something to think about. This is a new beginning, after all. Maybe I should try my hand at writing my first book."

  "Well, you surely have lots of inspiration around here!" Dixie said with a laugh.

  "That is very true. Well, if you've got everything handled, I think I'm going to head home. I am very tired, and I think they finished up my kitchen today so I'm super excited to see it."

  "You go on home. I've got it from here. See you tomorrow!" Dixie said as she walked away to welcome a new customer into the store.

  Julie drove up to her house with excitement. She couldn't wait to see how the kitchen had turned out. Dawson was supposed to have workers there all day doing the countertops and new cabinets. She couldn't wait to cook her first meal in her brand new kitchen.

  As she walked in the door, she was surprised to see her mother standing there talking to Dawson and Janine in the living room.

  “Mom?”

  “Hey, honey!” her mother said, as if it was the most natural thing in the world that she was standing there.

  “I didn’t know you were coming,” she said as she hesitantly hugged her. “Did you know?” she mouthed to Janine from over her mother’s shoulder. Janine shook her head and shrugged her shoulders.

  “I decided to surprise you girls. So, how are things going with you two?” SuAnn looked at them expectantly, like leaving them alone for a few weeks was going to solve all of their problems.

  The truth was, things were better than Julie had feared at the beginning. Not perfect, but better. They were getting along for the most part, but there were still moments that Julie was reminded of why she had broken ties in the first place.

  “They’re good, Mom,” Janine said, obviously trying to ease her mother’s mind.

  “Well, I have to say your fella here has done a marvelous job with the cottage so far.”

  Dawson’s eyes widened. “Mom. Dawson is my contractor, not my ‘fella’.” She mouthed sorry to Dawson. He smiled.

  “Well, whatever the case. Anyway, it looks adorable.” She continued looking around. “Will you be getting furniture, dear?”

  Julie sighed. “Of course, Mother. Why would I live without furniture?”

  “Well, it has been a few weeks. Do you have a bed to sleep on?”

  “We sleep on air mattresses,” Janine said. Julie could’ve strangled her.

  “Air mattresses? Like blow up beds? Oh, no. That simply won’t do. Let me take you shopping for some new furniture. My treat!”

  The last thing Julie wanted to do was shop with her mother. Some of the worst experiences of her life involved shopping with her mother. Not only did she rush from store to store, making it hard for anyone to keep up with her little legs, but she was highly critical of everything Julie picked out. Plus, she liked to “people watch” as she called it, but it mostly consisted of SuAnn criticizing the way other people looked.

  “She shouldn’t be wearing those pants. Looks like they’re five sizes too small.”

  “Good Lord, did you see her hair? The seventies called and want their hairstyle back.”

  It was all too much for Julie to take. Still, she did need furniture, and her mother had a good bit of money. If she was offering, it was hard to say no. Her budget, even with her part-time job at the bookstore, was running thin.

  “Sure. We can drive over to Charleston and do some shopping if you’d like?” Julie said. Janine looked shocked. “Do you want to come too, Janine?”

  “Um…”

  “Of course, she does! She would never bow out of a shopping trip when her mother drove hours to see her. Right, Janine?”
r />   Boy, her mother was a master manipulator.

  “Right. Let me just freshen up a bit.” Janine excused herself.

  “I’m going to wait in the car. It’s a bit warm in here, even for late September.” She fanned herself as she walked outside, looking around like something might attack her between the house and the car.

  “Sorry. She’s just… well, there are no words.”

  “No apologies necessary. I see where Janine gets her eccentricity from.”

  Julie laughed. “I’ve never thought about it that way, but you’re probably right.”

  “Did you see the kitchen?”

  “Oh, wow, I totally forgot!” Julie walked around the corner and saw the most beautiful kitchen she’d ever seen. With sparkling beige marble countertops and rich wood cabinets, it was the perfect complement to her marsh land property.

  “Dawson, it’s gorgeous! And look at these tile floors, and the oven is amazing! You’ve done such an awesome job. It’s really coming together!” Without thinking, Julie turned and hugged him tightly. He slipped his arms around her, pulling her close.

  For a moment, time seemed to stand still. His hug felt like a warm blanket wrapped around her, and she felt truly safe for the first time in a long time. She didn’t want to let go, but thankfully Dawson did.

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to…”

  “Julie, we’re Southerners. We hug around here. It’s okay.” He smiled that lazy smile, and she honestly thought about asking for another hug. Thankfully, Janine re-appeared.

  “Let’s go get this over with. Does anyone have Xanax?”

  “Not funny,” Julie said as they walked toward the door.

  “Who said I was joking?”

  As predicted, shopping with her mother had been challenging. Everything she liked, SuAnn said was “dreadful” or “white trash”. Finally, the three women decided to head back to town and see what they could find locally.

  As they passed Down Yonder, SuAnn laughed. “Good Lord, who names their bookstore something trite like that? It’s embarrassing that other people around the country think Southerners are a bunch of buffoons saying ‘yonder’.”