My Way Home (St.Gabriel Series Book 1) (St. Gabriel Series) (38 page)

Early every morning that first two weeks,
I spent time in the garden where it was quiet, peaceful and quiet. Loretta got up early one day and sat in the garden on one of the Birchwood benches Race had made.

“Good morning,” I said when I realized she was sitting there.

Loretta gave me a half-hearted smile.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“How long do you think Marni is planning on staying here?”

“I don’t know. Why don’t you ask her?”

“I did. She said she didn’t know.”

“Well, there’s your answer then.”

“You’re going to let her stay, indefinitely?”

“She’s happy, and she’s a big help. Loretta, what’s this about?”

“I don’t think she should be driving horses around an island and risk losing a good producing job.”

“She’s taking a leave of absence. If she’s happy, what does it matter what she’s doing or where?”

Loretta didn’t answer and just shook her head.

“She’s too good to be here, is that it? But it’s fine for me to live here and run the lodge?”

“Cammy, I didn’t say that.”

“No, but that’s what you’re thinking. I’m blessed to be here. So is Marni. I’m sorry you can’t see that, Loretta.”

That conversation put some tension between Loretta and me, but the lodge was so full of activity no one noticed, other than Race, who notices everything, even if he doesn’t let on.

Paul and Janie visited with their grandparents and with their aunts and uncles who all tried to keep up with them. As we were all sitting around the fireplace in the lobby one night, I looked at Paul and Frank. They were going at it like old pals, and for the first time, I saw Frank as a young man in my son’s face. They were both free spirits, cut-ups, and never were without a date.

My brother Frank had never been married. Unlike me, who always knew I wanted a family someday, it was never part of Frank’s plans. I think he didn’t want to end up like our father. Because of how we were raised, Frank and I both believed marriage was supposed to be forever, which is why he had never entered into the state of holy matrimony. “Forever’s a long time,” he would say.

So Frank, who’d had a career in the Air Force, then lived in Alaska where he flew planes for a small airline, played the field. And day one of his visit to St. Gabe, he played in the field with Dawn Dawson. Which I couldn’t come to grips with. Frank flew all over Alaska and the Pacific Northwest for his job, but he was a pretty down to earth guy. He lived in a cabin on a river in the woods, fished and hunted, and didn’t own a television.

“I don’t understand what you see in her,” I said to him one night when he was helping me clean up the kitchen.

Frank lowered his chin and raised his eyebrows.

“Besides that.” I shook my head.

“She’s fun.”

“I bet.”

“Look, Cam, we’re just hanging out.”

“You’re forty-one years old, Frank, a little too old to be hanging out, don’t you think?”

“No, I don’t,” he said and snapped me with a wet towel.

While Frank and Dawn were sneaking off, Race and I noticed Janie was disappearing from time to time. Back in the kitchen again, Janie was helping me with breakfast and I asked her, “Is Jeremy working at The Willows Inn this summer?”

“Yes.”

“Have you been keeping in touch?”

“Yes. It’s not serious or anything. We’re just friends.”

“That sounds nice.”

Janie took my face in her hands and I thought,
Uh oh, what now?

“I need to tell you something,” she said.

“Okay, tell me.”

She went back to chopping pecans and didn’t look at me when she let the cat out of the bag. “I’ve been seeing David.”

Oh, boy.

“He got a job in New York.” She stopped chopping and looked at me. “Aren’t you going to say anything?”

“Like what?”

“Like how could I get back with someone who cheated on me?”

“You’re back together or just dating?”

“Just dating.” She put down the knife and leaned against the counter. “Mom, please tell me what you’re thinking.”

“I’m thinking I hope he doesn’t hurt you again.”

“He’s apologized. You forgave Daddy. Doesn’t David deserve a second chance too?”

I pulled out one of the chairs at the big kitchen table. “Okay, Janie Marie, sit down.” And I turned another chair to face her and sat down, knee to knee. I took both of her hands and told her, “Your dad and I had been married for twenty-five years when he left. He had been a good husband and a good father until that happened. When he wanted to make things right, I did give him a second chance because I felt the years we had been together earned him that. But Janie, if a man can’t get out of the gate without wandering, the chances that he’ll get through the rough times in a long term relationship are not very good.”

“But, Mom, I still love him.”

“Love isn’t enough, baby.

Later that night I told Race about my conversation with Janie, and we both began to root for Jeremy.

A Good Pair

Robert Browning said, “Youth is good, that middle age is better, and that old age is best.” I think Mr. Browning was a very smart man. Race and I walked into the lodge dining room and heard a chorus of “Surprise!”

The room was filled with not only our family and friends who were visiting but our new family and friends from the island. Joel Morrison was there with his wife Julie and their three girls, as were Lisle and Kurt and Larry Meaks Jr. and his parents, and the whole Cummings clan. In the corner George was standing just feet away from Celia Alexander, who was standing next to her son James, who was next to Marni. Standing next to Janie was Jeremy from The Willows Inn.

Hmm.

They were all there to celebrate my fiftieth birthday a few weeks early. And at the front of the crowd, my best present of the evening, Sara Strauss. Standing in the dining room of our haunted lodge was my German soul sister.

“When did you get back?”

“Two days ago. Celia’s been hiding me at her place, Happy Birthday!” She gave me one of her swaying Sara hugs and then asked, “So when do I start work?”

“Seriously?”

“Completely.”

I was overjoyed to have Sara back but when I saw Frank giving her more than polite attention, I was wishing she had come home a week later or that Dawn hadn’t had to leave the day before for a last-minute audition. Where was Dawn when you needed her?

While dancing with Race, I was watching Janie and Jeremy who were sitting at a table with Race’s parents. And I had my eye on my charming brother Frank who was twirling my adorable friend Sara across the center of the dining room.

Race whispered in my ear, “I feel your body in my arms but your mind is someplace else.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Let it go, mama bear.”

“What?”

“Frank and Sara, they’re just dancing.”

“For now.”

Sara is an eye gal and a bicep gal. Frank has big dark blue eyes and works out. Frank has a foot fetish. Although Sara’s toenails are sometimes wildly painted, she has very pretty feet. Fortunately, she wasn’t wearing sandals. But Frank is also an eye man, and Sara’s light-blue eyes are bewitching.

This could be bad.

I nodded toward our daughter and her friend Jeremy and asked Race, “That was your idea, wasn’t it?”

“I told her she could invite him if she wanted to.”

Jeremy fit right in. But I could tell he was more taken with Janie than she was with him and hoped that we weren’t setting him up for a fall. Later in the evening, Frank got to talking with James about flying and that kept him pretty occupied. A good ol’ pilot yabberbash, with two pilots in the room it was bound to happen.

The next day we moved another bed and Sara into Rhubarb Cottage with Marni. Sara stepped right up to the plate and baked up a storm to the delight of our guests.

“Oh my gosh! Sara, what is this?” asked Janie at breakfast.

And I said to Janie, “Hey, what am I here, chopped liver? I’ve been slaving for over a week for this rabble and I haven’t heard one, ‘Oh my gosh!’ ”

Sara looked across the table at me and grinned. “Sorry, friend, it’s a gift.”

I thought we were going to finish out the week without any more Frank-and-Sara concerns. Then I walked out to the front porch of the lodge one night and saw the two of them walking up from the beach and over to Rhubarb Cottage. Sara was carrying her shoes and walking barefoot.

Oh, no.

I ran to the back of the lodge and to the kitchen window in time to see Frank say goodnight to her before Sara went inside. When Frank came up the stairs to go to his room, I was sitting in a chair on the landing, waiting for him.

“What are you doing?” I asked him.

“What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean, Frank. What do you think you’re doing with Sara? And don’t tell me,
hanging out.
”

“She’s a big girl, Cammy. I think she’s old enough to decide who she wants to spend time with.”

“Frank, I love you. And in every way I think you’re a great guy, except when it comes to women. Please, don’t get involved with Sara.”

“Cammy, I know you’re probably not going to believe me, but I really do like her.”

“And this is something new? You like Dawn too, right?”

“It’s not the same. I told you we were—”

“I know, don’t say it, just
hanging out
. Does Dawn know that, Frank?”

“Of course she does. It’s Dawn.”

“I’m asking you, as a favor to me, don’t okay? Promise me.”

“I can’t do that, Cam.”

Our first guests checked out
of The Lake Lodge and we loaded their luggage in the dray. Marni was waiting down at the front gate with the surrey. Frank was leaving and I was relieved, which made me feel guilty and sad. I hated saying goodbye to Paul and Janie, and Race’s mom was crying. Sara Strauss has it right, never say goodbye.

As Loretta was about to step up into the surrey, she turned around and pulled me aside. “Cammy, I’m sorry for what I said to you, and you were right about what I was thinking, and I’m sorry about that too. It’s amazing what you’ve done here. I respect you as much as anyone I know. I think I get so wrapped up in what measures success in my life, I forget what’s really important. I’ve never seen Marni so happy or you. Will you forgive me?”

“I already had.” I gave her a hug. “I love you, Loretta Lee Scott.”

“I love you, Camellia Lee Coleman.”

That lifted some of the weight that was bringing me down. And then, as they pulled away, they all sang “Happy Trails” at the top of their lungs. Those people make me smile.

It hadn’t even been twenty-four hours when Sara got a phone call from Frank, and I decided it may be time to do some more meddling. I found Sara standing in the middle of the cellar.

“What are you doing?” I asked her.

“I came down to get some flour.”

“Sara, I need to talk to you.”

“Okay, shoot.”

“I love my brother, but he’s not someone you want to get involved with.”

She just stared at me.

“He’s not a commitment kind of guy.”

“You think I’m a commitment kind of girl?”

“Sara, I don’t want him to hurt you. If you take whatever’s going on between you seriously, he probably will.”

“How ‘bout I promise not to take it seriously. And you quit worrying.”

“Fat chance.”

“I know. But let’s just pretend you’re not going to, okay?”

“Okay.”

I followed Sara back upstairs to the kitchen and I saw a new bag of flour on the counter.

“You said you were in the cellar to get flour. What are you making a house of sponge cake?”

She didn’t answer.

“Sara, what were you doing down there?”

“Listening.”

“For the ghosts?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Cammy, you’re going to think I’m nuts, more nuts.”

“Just tell me.”

“My dad wrote me a letter before he died, but I didn’t read it until after he was gone. I hadn’t spoken to him for ten years. You and Race both heard something, if there’s any kind of…”

“Sara, are you trying to talk to your father? Is that why you’re here? Why you’re living and working here?”

“I know it sounds crazy. And I’m not saying I think I’m actually going to talk to him. But after he died… I’ve never lost anybody, Cammy. I was angry at my dad for a long time, but I loved him and I waited too long to tell him. Death feels so much more personal now and it doesn’t scare me anymore. Being here doesn’t scare me. When I was flying home, I was thinking about the Haustermans selling the bakery and then my dad dying. Maybe I was meant to be here. Do you think I’m nuts?”