Her Sister's Shoes (5 page)

Jackie could tell Julia’s mother was neither expecting her nor glad to see her, but she refused to let that ruin her afternoon. Instead, she set about proving herself worthy of Julia’s friendship. Aware of Mrs. Motte’s eyes watching her every move, she made certain she used her
very best manners.

Over time, Mimi softened toward her. Julia and Jackie spent hours playing dress-up in Mimi’s closet, or decorator with her discontinued fabric and carpet samples. They seldom fought and would’ve spent every waking hour together, if Mimi hadn’t insisted Julia continue her relationships with her other friends. Whenever Julia had one or both of the Donnas over, Jackie resumed her perch in the tree and spied on them over the hedge. On the rare occasion when Julia invited her to join them, Jackie usually declined, preferring solitude to spending time with the Donnas.

Jackie had been obsessing over plans for her birthday party since before Christmas. But now, hearing voices coming down the driveway, she wanted nothing more than to put on her silk pajamas and crawl in bed with her book. She listened carefully, hoping to hear Julia’s slow Southern drawl, but all she heard was the sound of her mother’s cackling laughter.

Julia had responded a week ago to the party invitation. “I’ll try and stop by before I go to Donnas’s supper club. You know I can’t miss their supper club. It’s the biggest event of the
year.”

She was all too aware of the Donnas’s supper club, a party they held every year on the second Wednesday in June. The Donnas claimed they had a conflict with the annual wildlife benefit for the second Wednesday, but Jackie had a hunch they’d moved their supper club up a week, to the night of her birthday, to get under her skin.

Jackie and Bill had been invited to the supper club every year until now, but she wasn’t surprised when their invitation never arrived in the mail, considering the chilly way the Donnas had been acting toward her of
late.

“It’s because of Caroline,” Julia had said when Jackie confronted her about the Donnas’
s behavior a few weeks back. Caroline was Corey’s mom, the boy who was killed in the Gator accident with Jamie. “The Donnas feel it would be awkward for Caroline to be around you right now.”

“That’s funny. I’ve been to see Caroline many times. She’s the only one in this town who doesn’t blame Jamie for the
accident.”

Julia gave her hand a little squeeze. “Caroline is overcome with grief. One minute she says one thing, the next another. She just needs a little time. You understand, don’t
you?”

Jackie understood perfectly. Her friends were using Caroline as an excuse to get Jackie out of the way so they could talk openly about Bill’s affair with his dead patient’s
wife.

Two weeks ago, Jackie had spotted Bill and a woman she’d never seen huddled together in the back booth of the Inlet Coffee Shop, with two caffé lattes and a blueberry muffin on their table. Jackie assumed the woman was a pharmaceutical sales rep, until she saw her husband gently brush a blonde wisp of hair off the woman’s forehead. Jackie had started paying attention after that. She found smudged pink lipstick stains on his button-down collars, and unexplained charges from Victoria’s Secret on their American Express card.

Worse than his act of betrayal and the public humiliation was the knowledge that she had failed him as a wife. Theirs was never an overly passionate marriage. They had some spark in the beginning, a dim flame that lasted until she got pregnant with the twins. Jackie’s
waddling around with two babies in her belly, carrying an extra fifty pounds, twenty of it in her ass, wasn’t exactly a turn-on for her super fit husband.

She couldn’t deny that Bill had been a good provider. Three years after they were married, when Mimi decided to build her 6000-square-foot dream house on a peninsula of land overlooking the marsh ten miles outside of town, she came to Jackie and Bill with an offer for them to buy Moss Creek Farm. Bill accepted with very little negotiation. “Anything to make my bride happy,” he’d told Mimi.

Jackie had wanted to live at the farm all her life, but she’d learned that having your dreams come true didn’t always make you
happy.

If she had to pick a date that marked the beginning of the end of their marriage, it would be Christmas Eve of 1998. The twins were seven months old and still not sleeping through the night. Bill had come home midday from deer hunting and found her in the kitchen, Christmas wrapping paper spread across the pine table, a baby on one hip, a burned piecrust in the opposite hand, and Gerber sweet potatoes congealed in her hair.

He gave her a perfunctory kiss on the top of her head. “You look
tired.”

“What the hell do you expect?” She slammed the piecrust down on the counter. “I haven’t gotten a decent night’s sleep since the babies were born. And now, with shopping and decorating and cooking for the holidays, you’re damn right I’m
tired.”

“Have you ever thought of getting a nanny?”

Jackie had never considered hiring someone to look after her children, but she realized that might be the solution to restoring some sense of normalcy. Two weeks later, she hired Carlotta, the sister of a mate on Captain Mack’s fishing boat. By the end of January, the twins were sleeping through the night, the house was organized in a way it had never been, and Bill was getting hot meals for dinner. Having Carlotta in charge of all the domestic affairs left little for Jackie to do. Within the month, she’d returned to work and begun once again to focus on her social life. She often felt like a stranger in her own home, but Jackie didn’t mind. She considered the quiet woman who worked behind-the-scene miracles a godsend.

Jackie and Bill nurtured their boys over the years, but they failed to nurture their marriage. Lately, she sensed Bill gathering courage to ask for a divorce. He’d even started the conversation a couple of times—
“Jack, we need to talk”—only to be interrupted by one of the boys, or the ringing or text dinging of his cell phone. She would give him his divorce, but not before she made him grovel. Jackie was prepared to fight for the house, the kids, and full control of their brokerage
account.

Bill snuck up behind her and gave her a little peck on the cheek. “Happy Birthday, Jack.”

When was the last time he’d given her a real
kiss?

“Speak of the devil, I was just thinking of you.”

“All good thoughts I hope.” He flashed a smile, but she didn’t smile back. “Your guests are beginning to arrive.”

She leaned over the balcony railing, hoping to catch a glimpse of Julia’s blonde curls. But the only people in the driveway were Sam, Faith, and the kids.

“Sam and Faith aren’t guests. They’re family. You can count on us having plenty to eat and drink, because I doubt anyone else will show
up.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I saw your guest list on the counter in the kitchen. Plenty of people have responded that they’re coming. It’s still
early.”

“Julia promised to stop by on her way to supper club with the Donnas.”

Bill leaned back against the railing. “So this is about Julia, is it?”

Jackie bit back tears. Although Julia was part of it, Jackie’s fragile emotional state was about so much more than her best friend acting cold toward her. She hated her husband for cheating on her, but she couldn’t bring herself to kick him out. Letting him go meant a lifestyle change she wasn’t ready to
face.

He turned her chin toward him. “Let me offer you a little advice. Turning fifty is a big deal, Jack. Look at it as an opportunity to make a major change in your life if so
warranted.”

“And what do you suggest I change?” Her heart pounded. Surely he wasn’t about to ask her for a divorce before the start of the most monumental birthday party of her life.

“You need to stop settling for mediocre. You deserve to have better friends than these selfish women who don’t feel the same about you as you feel about them. It’s time to clean house, rid your life of everything that causes you heartache. Take a chance on something new, maybe a new career, or even the same career but with a boss who appreciates
you.”

Jackie glared at him. “And what big change did you make last year on your fiftieth birthday?”

His face softened in sorrow and regret. “Jack, I—”

She held her hand up to stop him. She’d opened the door for him to confess his infidelity, then realized she wasn’t ready for the truth. “You know what, save it. I don’t want to hear it. Not tonight. Not on my
birthday.”

The band picked up their tempo from the soft, background music they’d been playing, and Sam waved from the terrace below.

“They’re playing Van Morrison for you, Jackie
,” Sam called. “Come join the crowd. ‘It’s a marvelous night for a moondance.’”

Jackie closed her eyes and tried to clear her mind of unpleasant thoughts. As the music took over her body, her feet began to move. She vowed not to let anyone ruin her party—not her husband or her backstabbing friends. Tonight she would dance with someone young and handsome, and first thing tomorrow morning, she would start cleaning her house by taking out the trash. Tomorrow morning she would kick her philandering husband out on the street.

Five

Samantha

S
am and Faith
had parked at the end of the driveway, blocking others from pulling up close to the house. The vacant field across the street provided sufficient parking for guests.

Jamie refused Sam’s offer of help and struggled to maneuver his chair over the bumpy cobblestoned driveway. Bitsy skipped alongside him, babbling on about balloons and birthday cake, while Faith and Lovie followed close behind. When they reached the end of the tunnel of live oak trees, Jackie’s majestic old plantation home stood before them, decked out for the party in all her glory. Not a blade of grass was out of place on the manicured lawn. Pink roses and white hydrangeas bloomed in the flowerbeds adorning the terrace. The shutters sported a fresh coat of black paint, and the original blown-glass windows gleamed against the late-afternoon sun.

Linen-draped tables surrounded the parquet dance floor under an enormous circus tent. With a generous variety of liquor and wine at hand, three bartenders stood ready to fulfill any
request.
Waiters, dressed in black and white, presented champagne in glass flutes to guests as they arrived. The scene was classic, a party that could have taken place during the sixties, the seventies, or even the roaring twenties. The funk band wore traditional attire—no-frills tuxedos for the men and a black sequined dress for the female lead singer.

The twins came out to the driveway offering hugs for their grandmother and aunts, high-fives for Jamie, and whistles for Bitsy when she twirled her dress for their approval. With their good looks and easygoing personalities, Cooper and Sean were teenage heartthrobs in the making. For now, though, hunting and fishing and football occupied their attention.

With their auburn hair, freckled faces, and ocean-blue eyes, the two brothers reminded Sam so much of her father that she often choked up when she saw them. Much to Oscar’s delight, Jackie had named the twins after his older brothers, Cooper and Sean Sweeney, who had been killed in the same boating accident when they were in their early twenties.

“Where’s the birthday girl?” Lovie asked her grandsons.

“She hasn’t come down yet.” Older than his twin by ten minutes, Cooper was quicker to respond to a question, the first to do many things, actually. He thrived on being in control, while Sean seemed content to let his brother take the lead.

Sam leaned over and whispered in her mom’s ear. “The princess would never miss an opportunity to make a grand entrance.”

“Oh hush you, Sammie.” Lovie swatted her daughter with her handbag.

Sam reached over and removed two plastic curlers dangling from Lovie’s hair just above her collar. She’d never known her mother to let her hair grow so long.

Two Labrador retrievers, one yellow and one black, Oscar and Felix, bounded over for attention, tongues licking and tails wagging. Cooper turned to his brother. “Help me lock these beasts in their kennel before they slobber all over everyone’s clothes.”

The twins dragged the dogs off, and returned a minute later.

“We caught a mess of flounder for you today, Aunt Sam,” Cooper said.

Sam winked. “Big ones, I hope?”

“Yep.” Sean spread his arms wide. “Over the legal limit by a mile. They’re cleaned and waiting in the downstairs refrigerator. We’ll bring them to you tomorrow if you want.”

“We should be ready for them by tomorrow afternoon. We’ll take whatever you catch, ” Sam said. “You can count on the going rate, same as always. I’ll pay a premium if you can bring me a bushel of those jumbo Jimmys like you caught last summer.”

Locking eyes, the twins said in unison, “Our secret hole.”

“We can set our traps first thing in the morning,” Cooper said. With any luck, we’ll have a mess of crabs by late afternoon. We’re saving our money to buy a car.”

“We’ve got our eye on an old Land Cruiser like the one Pops used to drive,” Sean added with a grin that revealed perfectly straight, post-braces teeth.

Cooper puffed up. “Early ’90s model, fully restored. Old Oscar would be proud.”

“That sounds cool,” Jamie said. “I might even consider riding with y’all … but only if Cooper drives.” Everyone laughed.

They heard the voices of other guests arriving down the driveway. Cooper held out his hand to Bitsy. “Carlotta is waiting for you in the kitchen with a big plate of chicken nuggets and a stack of Disney movies.”

Bitsy looked at her mother uncertainly. “But I don’t want to miss the cake.”

“You won’t,” Cooper said. “Carlotta is in charge of the cake. You can help her light the candles.”

Faith kissed her daughter’s head. “You’d be bored down here with all the grown-ups, anyway.”

Sean turned to Jamie. “What say we go inside and play a little Xbox? Cooper just bought the new edition of MLB.”

“That’s the only kind of baseball I can play anymore,” Jamie mumbled.

Cooper and Bitsy entered the house through the side door of the garage while Sean wheeled Jamie to the terrace. Sam pretended not to notice when Sean stopped at the bar and discreetly removed two icy Bud Lights from the cooler. He dumped the cans into Jamie’s lap, spun the wheelchair around, and disappeared through the french doors to the game room.

Sam didn’t approve of underage drinking, anymore than she approved of the twenty-one-year-old drinking age. In her view, if our government trusted a young man to vote, be responsible for his own health care, and defend our country at war, why shouldn’t we trust him enough to drink a beer? If all went as planned, Jamie would be off to college soon, where he’d undoubtedly be exposed to plenty of alcohol. Who better for him to experiment with than the cousins he loved and trusted?

Sam and Faith guided their mother toward the bar. While standing in line for a drink, Sam noticed her mother’s blouse was inside out and drew Faith’s attention to it.

Faith’s eyes narrowed as she zeroed in on the tag. “That’s nothing. You should’ve seen the first outfit she was wearing when I went to pick her up.” She held her finger to her lips, and they stepped back so Lovie couldn’t hear them. “I’m really worried about Mama. Her house is a disaster, with dirty plates in the sink and clothes thrown all over the place. She has three alarm clocks on her bedside table with little reminder notes stuck to them.”

Sam sighed. “I guess Jackie was right. Something weird is going on with her. I’ve been too wrapped up in Jamie’s recovery and the renovations at the market …”

“At least you have a legitimate excuse. I realize now that I’ve been neglecting her.”

“Not on purpose,” Sam said. “We are used to seeing her every day at work. Once the renovations started, we failed to reach out to her because it wasn’t our habit.”

“However lame that excuse is, it’s the truth,” Faith said.

Once the bartender served them their drinks—a glass of Pinot Grigio for the sisters and tonic water straight up with a lime for Mom—Sam and Faith took Lovie inside to straighten out her blouse.

When Faith went upstairs to check on Bitsy and Sam was waiting for Lovie to finish in the powder room, Bill appeared.

“Are you stalking me?” Sam asked.

He chuckled. “I guess I am, if you want to put it that way. I was hoping for the opportunity to tell you how sorry I am about today.”

Sam nearly choked on her wine. “Cheaters are never sorry for their actions. They’re only sorry they got caught.”

“Ouch. That hurt. But I guess I deserve it. I promise I’ll tell her tonight after the party.”

Sam struggled to keep her voice down. “In case you haven’t noticed, Jackie has worked damn hard on planning this party. Her memories from tonight should not include her husband asking her for a divorce.”

He hesitated, then said, “I guess it won’t hurt to wait until the morning.”

Sam and Faith stationed themselves with their mother along the edge of the dance floor. When the boys made their obligatory appearance, undoubtedly prompted by Bill, Sam took the opportunity to dance with each of the twins while Jamie gobbled down a loaded plate of food, the most appetite she had seen from him in months. Afterward, the three boys greeted several adults before snatching another beer from the cooler and disappearing back inside their man cave.

The band had left the stage for their first break when Curtis stumbled into the party. Sam caught up with him at the food table. “Faith volunteered your services at the market tomorrow. I hope that works for you?”

He stuffed a whole ham biscuit into his mouth at once. “Volunteer, hell. I expect to get paid,” he said with a mouthful of food.

“Maybe ‘volunteer’ was the wrong choice of words. Of course I’m going to pay you, Curtis. But only what you’re worth.”

He stopped chewing. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means you better take it easy on the booze tonight. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done. I’m not going to pay you if you’re hungover.”

“Don’t worry, Sexy Samm
ie. You can always count on me. Call me anytime, day or night.” He pinched her cheek, his fingers lingering long enough to make her uncomfortable.

She smacked his hand away. “Just don’t be late.” Sam turned her back on him, anxious to escape.

She headed across the dance floor toward Jackie, who was surrounded by a group of younger women Sam had never seen. She waited off to the side while the group chatted about summer vacation plans. When the band returned to the stage and launched into a repertoire of Motown from the early seventies, Sam grabbed the birthday girl by the hand and led her out to the middle of the dance floor, where they carried on like they were little girls again, bouncing on beds and singing into hairbrushes.

It was close to ten o’clock by the time Carlotta, Bitsy, and the boys wheeled a gigantic round cake onto the dance floor. After the crowd finished singing “Happy Birthday,” it took Jackie several tries to blow out the blaze of candles.

Sam was helping cut the cake when Carlotta leaned over and whispered, “I have some bad news I need to tell Miss Jacqueline, but I’m not sure how to do it.”

Sam set down the knife. “What sort of bad news, Carlotta?”

“I’m handing in my notice.”

Dread settled over Sam like humidity on a sweltering summer day. “My sister will be lost without you. I’m sure if it’s more money you need or less hours …”

Carlotta’s dark eyes opened wide. “Oh no, Miss Sam. It’s nothing like that. My sister has breast cancer, a bad case of it according to the doctors. I’m moving to Florida to help out with her children while she goes through her treatments.”

“Oh, Carlotta, I’m so sorry to hear that. Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Pray?” she said.

“That goes without saying,” Sam replied.

Sam would also be praying for Jackie tomorrow when both her husband and her right-hand woman dropped atomic bombs on her at once. Jackie would survive the divorce, but no way could she keep her life together without Carlotta.

Sam handed Carlotta a piece of cake. “You know my sister better than anyone. The most important thing in delivering bad news is picking the right time. Who knows, she might surprise you.”

“I hope so. Miss Jacqueline always frets over the small stuff, but never breaks a sweat over the things that really matter.”

Sam tried to suppress her surprise. All these years, her sister had fooled Carlotta. Jackie never broke a sweat over the big things because she held her emotions in until she exploded.

Fifteen minutes later, Sam was dancing up front with the band when Faith approached, flustered and out of breath. “I can’t find Mama anywhere.”

“What do you mean you can’t find her?”

“After she finished eating her cake, she went inside to use the powder room but she never came back. I’ve searched the house. She’s nowhere to be found.”

Sam climbed onto a nearby chair and scanned the crowd. “I don’t see her anywhere.” She hopped down. “Round up the kids and get them to help you look out here, down the driveway and on the dock, while I go search the house again.”

“Jackie’s gonna freak out.”

“That’s why we’re not going to tell her. Don’t worry. I’m sure Mom just crawled into an empty bed and is taking a nap,” Sam called over her shoulder as she headed inside.