“Do you know who they are?” I rose to my feet.
“No, I just told them I would go find you.”
While Luke stayed behind, I made my way to the front desk with Charlie in tow. Why he followed, I didn’t know, but there was an odd sense of comfort listening to his footsteps behind mine.
As I turned the corner from the dining room into the foyer, I stopped, sucking in a breath.
“Hello, Rachel,” the woman said.
“Grandma. Grandpa. What are you two doing here?”
Just as tall as I remembered, my grandma faced me while my grandpa leaned on the desk, panting. From the look of the several suitcases at his feet, I could tell why. She’d made him carry the bags in from the car.
“What are we doing here?” She brushed her hand against her chest and the huge diamond rings she had on two of her fingers glistened underneath the lights. “Is that any way to greet your grandparents, young lady? Or your guests?”
“Guests?”
“This is a hotel, isn’t it?” She glanced around, turning her nose up slightly. “Or I suppose it’s an inn. That’s what your mother always called it at least.”
“Well, yes, it’s an inn and we have rooms. But we haven’t officially opened yet.”
“Well do you have at least one room ready?”
“Yes.”
“Then we will take that one. Just give me the key. Your grandpa will take the bags up to the room.”
He glanced at her, rolling his eyes as he inhaled another deep breath.
“That’s okay. I’ll get them.” I moved around the desk, fetching one of the keys off the rack before handing it to her and bending down to grab a few of the bags.
“And who are you?” Grandma said.
I closed my eyes for a moment, knowing who she was talking to, but also hoping it wasn’t who I thought.
I glanced up, meeting Charlie’s wide, blinking eyes.
“Are you the maintenance man?” Before he could answer, she turned toward me. “And who is that other man? Rachel, who are all these men here? What kind of a place is this?”
“What is that supposed to mean?” I dropped the bags and straightened upright.
“Well, it’s just kind of odd you have all these men around here.”
I shook my head as though to shake off her assumptions and blew out a breath. “Luke, who you asked to come find me is the man who is doing the renovations on the inn. He’s Pastor Dawson’s son.”
“The pastor’s son you dated in high school and broke up with after he proposed?”
“I . . . actually didn’t know you knew that,” I muttered under my breath, raising my voice back to normal. “Yes, that’s him.”
“So are you two . . .” She lifted her hand and moved in circle.
“Um, you know I’m not really sure what’s going on right now, so probably not really the best time to have this conversation.”
She folded her arms across her chest. “All right. But that doesn’t explain who this is.”
As I glanced at Charlie it dawned on me. She should know him. Had he changed that much?
“Grandma, this is Charlie.”
“Who?”
“Charlie Wilson. My dad. My real dad. Don’t you recognize him?”
She stepped backward, laying her hand on her collarbone while she sucked in a breath. Grandpa dropped the bag he’d picked up, and they both just stared at Charlie, their eyes blinking.
“And how do you know for sure?” she asked. “How do you know he isn’t some guy just pretending to be your father for money?”
I opened my mouth but shut it. The thought of some sick scam hadn’t crossed my mind and for a moment, my heart pounded with the notion I’d been duped. No. I couldn’t have been. Could I?
Charlie dug into his back pocket and yanked out his wallet. “Here, Rachel.” He slipped a few pieces of paper from the billfold, handing them to me. While one was an old identification card for the army, the other was a picture of him and my mom. Although life had aged him, I could see the older man in front of me in the younger man in the picture. The same eyes. The same smile. The same oval face.
It was also my oval face, my eyes, and my smile.
“I look like you,” I whispered.
“I’ve wanted to tell you that since the day I walked in here and saw you.”
I glanced at him and then at my grandparents. “Recognize him now?”
They both shook their heads.
“I don’t understand. How can you not?” I dug my hands in my hips.
“Rachel, I . . .” Charlie shook his head. “I never met them.”
“You never met them?”
These family lies just keep getting better and better.
I let out a deep groan, throwing my hands in the air. “What in the world is wrong with this family?” I marched back over to my grandparent’s bags, grabbing as many as I could. “I’ll take you to your room.” As they began to follow me up the stairs, I couldn’t help but continue my rant. “All these years and I thought I had the most normal, boring family, but no, I don’t. I have drama and secret dads and a mother I knew nothing about and grandparents that never even met my real dad and there’s even more secrets I don’t know, but I did find out some through my mother’s journals because heaven forbid she actually was the one to tell me anything about herself.”
Finally reaching the room, I stopped and took a deep breath as I faced them.
“Are you guys hungry?”
“No, dear, we ate before we arrived.”
I lifted my hand, scratching my forehead. “How about breakfast tomorrow morning?”
“That sounds lovely dear.”
Before I could say another word, she moved around me and after Grandpa carried in all the bags, she shut the door, only giving me a slight wave goodbye.
I blew out another breath as I trotted down the stairs. With the weight of the day on my shoulders, my eyes misted with tears. I didn’t know how much more I could take without breaking.
“Are you okay?” Charlie asked. He cocked his head to the side and ducking his chin, he looked up, his eyebrows curving with concern.
“I think I just need some rest.”
“Ready to go?” Luke rounded the corner as he popped a bite of food in his mouth.
“Eating again?” I laughed.
“It was just a snack. So you ready to go?”
I smiled, melting into his light-heartedness. “Ya know, I think we should just stay here. What do you think?”
THIRTY-FOUR
I flipped over the last of the pancakes before I stepped back and surveyed the countertop filled with trays of scrambled eggs, toast, hash browns, sausage and bacon, and several stacks of perfectly round and golden brown pancakes.
“How many people are you planning on feeding?” Luke chuckled as he shut the door to the kitchen and made his way past me over to the sink to wash his hands.
“That’s what I asked her,” Charlie said, pouring himself a cup of coffee.
“Too much?”
“Only if you wanted to feed ten . . . maybe fifteen people.”
I bit my lip. “I could invite Nancy and Evan over.”
“Do you really want to with your grandparents here?” Luke asked.
“You’re probably right. The less people at the table the better.” I moved the last of the pancakes to the tray and shut the range burner off. “At least I know what I’m making you two for lunch.”
“And dinner,” Charlie muttered.
While I set the food all around the table, the men set up the dishes. With plates, silverware, and two glasses—one with water and one with orange juice—at each place setting, they made sure each piece rested perfectly and we had a table fit for the arrival of the queen.
“Doesn’t this look nice?” my grandma said as she sat down at the table.
And speaking of the queen.
“I was just about to come up to see when you two would be ready,” I said, faking a
smile.
“Ya certainly didn’t have to go to all this trouble for just us.”
“Oh, it was no trouble.”
We all sat down, scooting in the chairs. The only sound between the five of us was the wooden legs scratching across the wooden floors. I grabbed my plate and went for the eggs first, while Charlie went for the sausage, Luke went for the bacon, and Grandpa went for the pancakes.
“Everything looks good. I just don’t know where to begin.” Grandma’s eyes moved around the table, pausing on each tray. She didn’t help herself to any of them though, instead her smile faded. “Maybe I should start with coffee?”
Charlie passed her the carafe and she barely acknowledged him.
Grandpa on the other hand, hadn’t stopped at the pancakes, instead he dug into all the trays loading his plate until I couldn’t see even an inch of china under the food.
“Don’t make yourself sick, dear,” she said to him, noticing his plate too.
He ignored her.
“Can I get you something else?” I asked, nodding toward her still empty plate. “Some fruit maybe?”
“Oh, no, you don’t have to do that. I guess I’m just not much of a breakfast person.”
I took a sip of my orange juice, clearing my throat as I set the glass down. “Well, I’m glad you two came for a visit. I hope you enjoyed your room last night.”
“Yes, it was quite comfortable. You’ve done a good job, decoratin’ them, I mean. I suppose ya have the mind for this business after all.”
“Mind for this business?”
“No offense, dear, it’s just this was always your mother’s choice. I thought ya wanted to live in New York and work in publishing.”
“I guess I did. But things change.”
“Rachel isn’t really leaving all the publishing behind, though,” Luke said, scooping a spoonful of eggs onto his own plate.
“How so?”
“She’s going to write her own books.”
“That’s not really fully decided,” I chuckled.
“I think you should do it,” he said.
“I don’t know if I will have the time, really, when the inn opens up. I had thought of it though. Maybe one day.”
“Well, I hope ya can, if you decide ya want to.” She turned toward Luke. “So Luke, what is it ya do for a livin’?”
“Right now I’m working on the inn.”
“And then what?”
“I have a few jobs lined up around town, fixing and repairing buildings and houses for people. Thankfully, the weather around here can stress structures, causing the need for maintenance.”
“And what did you do before this . . . construction adventure?” She sipped her coffee, making a slight face before she set the cup down and added another sugar cube.
“I’m retired Navy, ma’am.”
“Navy? I don’t know what it is with my daughter and her daughter and military men.” She rolled her eyes, picking up the cup for another sip. This one must have been more to her liking.
“What’s wrong with military men?” I asked, setting my fork in my eggs.
“Oh, nothing, dear. Don’t misunderstand.”
“If it’s nothing then why make the comment?”
“Because your grandparents didn’t like the fact that I went into the military.” Charlie gave me a wink.
“Did you always want to go into the army?” I asked him, picking up my fork as I ignored the scowl on my grandma’s face.
Charlie shook his head. “I thought about it a time or two but didn’t really want to.”
“Then why did you?”
“Because I had a wife and a baby on the way to take care of. We had just gotten married and we had no money, no health insurance, and we were living in my parents’ basement.” He snorted. “I remember we were having dinner one night and Maggie was in tears. She’d spent all day alone with her own thoughts, just working herself into that southern lather she could get herself into while I worked my shift at the docks. After dinner we were watching the news, and a story about the man who set himself on fire in front of the Pentagon, in protest to the war, came on. They said that just before he lit himself, he gave his infant daughter to onlookers, sparing her life.”
Luke raised his finger, pointing at Charlie. “I remember studying about that in school. What was his name . . . Norman Morrison?”
“Norman Morrison.” Charlie nodded as he repeated the name. “It was then, I told her I was going to join the army. We fought over it for a bit, but I told her it was the only way for me to take care of our growing family. We couldn’t stay in my parents’ place forever. We needed an apartment of our own. Plus, I hated that Maggie had to drop out of school. I wanted to make enough that she could go back.”
“Why did she drop out? I mean, pregnant women go to college all the time.”
“Not back then, dear,” Grandma said.
“But she was married. It’s not a scandal if the woman is married.”
“It was still an embarrassment.” Grandma raised her voice as she arched her neck. “I tried to hide it for as long as I could, but it didn’t work. All my friends found out, Sherry’s mom made sure of that. Victoria and John’s girl gets pregnant out of wedlock then marries the poor boy in a courthouse weddin’ and drops out of school. Maggie could have had any man she wanted in South Carolina, including a wealthy boy named Thomas who would have provided everythin’ she ever wanted.”
“I provided that.” Charlie pointed toward himself as he tried not to shout. “And we weren’t a scandal. Do you think she is an embarrassment?” He pointed toward me then back to her. “I supposed I shouldn’t be surprised though. You just deemed Maggie as such when you told her you wouldn’t pay for her school. Since it was an expense—and a rather expensive one—we couldn’t afford it. She had to drop out.”
“Well, then, I guess you didn’t provide her with everythin’, did you?”
Charlie’s face turned red as he held his breath for a moment. He calmed himself down, keeping his tone light, but firm. “Don’t think I wasn’t there listening that day to the phone call she made to you, telling you what had happened, telling you that we were getting married because she was going to have a baby—your grandchild. And don’t think I didn’t hear you say on the other end that she was to never call you again for what she did.”
“Why did you do that?” I asked, glancing between my grandparents. While Grandpa shrugged and shoveled another bite of food in his mouth, Grandma sat up straighter in her chair.
“Because she disobeyed us. She went out in the world to get her degree, not get pregnant and married at eighteen.”
“So, you cut her off?” I asked, chuckling under my breath and continued before she could say a word. “All this time I always wondered why she never wanted to see you or talk to you. I thought it was her just being stubborn, perhaps a bit foolish, like she was holding on to a grudge unnecessarily. But it sounds like she was more than justified. You cut her off and cut her out of your life.”
“She could have always called us if she needed the help. Isn’t that right, John?” Grandma turned her attention toward my grandpa who nodded and took yet another bite. She rolled her eyes. “It wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Maggie’s school was in San Francisco, not Oregon, or wherever you were stationed. She would have had to drop out no matter what we did.”
“Washington,” I corrected my grandma. “They were stationed in Washington. You should know, since you visited her.”
“How do you know that?”
“I read it in her journals. Right before Christmas, my first Christmas, you went to visit her.”
Grandma brushed her forehead. “Oh, I nearly forgot about that trip. It was horrible from the start.”
“What do you mean?”
“Our flight was delayed and so was our layover, and then the rental car,” she set down her cup with a force that clanked the cup and saucer together, “everything was just a nightmare.”
“S
o, your daughter learns her husband died and you’re complaining about your flight and rental car?”
“What is it you want me to say, Rachel? We didn’t have a good relationship with your mother. Surely, you, of all people can relate to that?”
“And whose fault is that?” I asked, once again throwing down my fork onto my plate.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Don’t you get it? The way you treated her directly affected her state of mind, which in turn affected how she treated me.”
“How dare you blame us. Your mother made her own choices. Don’t think I didn’t offer to give her back her freedom after he died.” She motioned toward Charlie.
“Wait. What?” I shook my head, holding my hand in the air. “What did you just say?”
“Don’t think I didn’t offer to give her back her freedom. She could have come home and gone back to school. She could have gotten a degree, maybe married a nice man.”
“She did marry a nice man.”
“But she could have had a good life, a rich life.”
“She did have those, too, with James. And what do you mean offer to give back her freedom?”
“A child needs a mother and a father. It’s how I was raised and how I raised Maggie. But when . . .” she motioned toward Charlie, “well, with you dead in her mind, she was alone and saddled with a baby. She was young and had her whole life ahead of her. I just wanted to give her a chance.”
I sucked in a breath and slapped my hand against my collarbone. “You wanted her to give me up for adoption, didn’t you?”
“She called us crying from some dirty little motel where she’d gotten herself lost. She didn’t know what to do or where to go, so I told her to come home and we would find you a nice, loving family where you would be raised with a mother and father.”
“What do you mean some dirty little motel?”
“She was somewhere in Kentucky, said she’d just left San Francisco and wanted to come home.”
Charlie leaned back in his chair. “That must have been after she left my parents.”
“What do you mean?”
“Apparently, after my funeral, she went down to San Francisco to stay with my parents. She was only there a few days, though.”
Another Yesterday Page 35