Sweet Carolina Morning (20 page)

“Sounds like a bit of a disconnect between what you're telling me and what Ms. Marbury heard from Neal.” Ms. Courtland gazed coolly at Vera and then at Chaz. “I'd like to suggest that I spend the rest of this session with the two of you clarifying exactly what Neal is seeing that he's interpreting as conflict.”

Vera crossed her arms and shot Ms. Courtland a mutinous look.

“Thank you, Ms. Courtland.” Jack said, and nodded in the general direction of Vera and Chaz, as he and Linny rose and slipped out of the classroom.

As they strode down the hallway, Linny hugged herself, feeling vindicated. Their marrying wasn't the main reason for Neal's school problems. Neal liked her, and Vera and Chaz weren't the perfect couple. Ha! Trying to sound casual, she asked, “What are those two fighting about?”

He shrugged. “Who knows? Vera's a handful and Chaz is a take-charge guy.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked thoughtful. “My parents went out to dinner with the Suttons and those two last night, and Mama said she sensed tension between Vera and Chaz.”

Linny's fizzy ebullience vanished. Jack's parents ate supper with Vera and Chaz?

Seemingly oblivious to her shift in mood, Jack sounded boyishly enthusiastic as he went on. “Those father-son outings Ms. Courtland suggested were great ideas. I know we had plans this weekend, but I'd like to take Neal to the Raptor Rescue Center, and maybe to the climbing wall over at the recreation center.” He rubbed his hands together, his eyes sparkling. “This summer, he and I can go hiking in the mountains, find waterfalls, fish for trout . . .”

Linny's shoulders sagged, but then a slow, hot burn of anger made her scalp prickle. She tugged Jack around to face her. In a voice hoarse with emotion, Linny asked, “Where do I fit in?”

His eyes lit with worry, Jack searched her face. “What you mean, Lin?”

How could he not get it? “Your parents are too mixed up with Vera. They're eating out with your ex-wife and her new husband. You keep canceling on me. You focus on Neal and forget me.” Jack started to respond, but she held up a hand. “You don't tell Vera to stop talking trash about me to Neal. You almost caved in to her and blew money on snowboarding equipment.” She held out her hands, palms up. “Where do I fit in, Jack?”

Jack studied her, looking baffled. “You're the center of everything, Lin. Don't you know that?”

She shook her head. “It doesn't feel that way.” In a quavering voice, she said, “I love you, and I want us to be happy, but maybe we're rushing things. Maybe you need more time.”

“More time?” Jack's eyes searched hers, and after a moment his face closed. “Are you putting off the marriage or breaking up with me?”

Tears welled up in her eyes. “I don't know, Jack. I don't know if you're ready to let me into your life.”

Jack's eyes were like flint. “I'm not sure you're ready to let me into yours.”

Linny shook her head in disbelief, her face suffusing with heat as she felt her outrage. “I've been the one bending over backward to accommodate all your baggage and . . . complications. I'm not the one with the manipulative ex-wife and the come-here-go-way son.”

Jack cocked his head and gave her a knowing glance. “If you're so ready to marry me, how come you can't even come up with a wedding date, or a ring, or a dress?”

Stung, Linny opened her mouth to respond and closed it again. Why bother? She knew she was still damaged from her marriage to Buck, but couldn't he see that his complications were enough to scare off almost any woman? She began to walk faster, anxious to get distance from Jack.

They were silent as they walked out the heavy exit door. In the parking lot Jack raised a hand in a silent good-bye wave and strode toward his truck. Her heart thudding so hard she could feel it through her sweater, Linny unlocked the Volvo and opened the door. She lowered her head to the steering wheel, her mind reeling. She was right to have concerns about what she was walking into with Jack, but was being right worth blowing everything up? Why was she pushing away such a kind, good, wonderful man? Throwing open the car door, she hurried over to Jack's truck. He rolled down the window and looked at her coolly.

Her words rushed out. “I don't want to leave it this way, Jack. What are we doing now? Where does this leave us?”

“I don't know.” He rubbed his eyes with his fingers. “I'm tired of talking, Linny. We need some time.” With that, he raised the window, turned on the ignition, and slowly pulled away.

She brushed away the tears that streamed down her face. Back in her car, Linny stared out the window unseeingly and began to shiver. What had she just done?

S
haking, Linny drove home white-knuckled and so slowly that cars honked at her even though she was in the slow lane. Fumbling with her keys, she dropped them twice before she fit the one to the mobile home in the lock and opened the door. Dropping her coat and purse on the counter, she let Roy out of his crate and held the sleepy dog in her arms, trying to find comfort in his furry warmth. After a moment her breathing slowed and her heart stopped its panicky pounding. She let Roy outside and then Linny fell onto her bed and rubbed her eyes with her fingers. Kate. She needed to talk to Kate. She grabbed her phone and called.

Her hello must have sounded tense because Kate didn't bother with a greeting. “What's wrong?”

“I just had a big fight with Jack,” Linny said. “I don't know if I've just called him on a problem that's real important for us to fix or just done something very, very stupid.” She told Kate what had happened and, when she finished, asked in plaintive tone, “Is he breaking up with me?”

“Sounds like he thought you were breaking up with him,” Kate said gently.

“I know, but I wasn't.” Linny stared at the ceiling and thought about it. “He said, ‘We need some time.' How much time do you think he's talking about?”

“I don't know, honey,” Kate said.

Linny rubbed a spot on her temple that was starting to throb. “I know I just need to give him time and let him call me when he's ready, but I'll jump out of my skin if I just sit here and wait. I won't be able to concentrate.”

“This must be the day of the tricky men,” Kate said wearily. “I just got off the phone with Jerry. He's going to be a day late coming home because the couple he's working with hired a helicopter to fly the three of them over the building site to give Jerry ‘a sense of scale and perspective with the mountain.' He actually used that phrase. Jerry doesn't talk like that,” Kate said. “I told him he was slipping back into his old workaholic ways—letting work come before family and risking his health. He said I was exaggerating. I got so upset, I hung up the phone while he was still talking.” Her voice sounded wondering.

“Whoa,” Linny said. Kate never hung up on anyone, not even the pushiest phone solicitors.

“If I wait here at the house like a good wife, I'll stare at my phone, stewing and trying to will him to call. I need not to be so available.” With a determined edge to her voice, Kate said, “Right before you called, I was online, about ready to book a luxury room at the Marriott downtown for a few nights.”

“Ah. The old stay-at-the-Marriot-and-let-him-twist-in-the-wind strategy,” Linny said, remembering Jerry's shock at coming home to an empty house and his mad scramble to resolve problems with Kate.

“Last time it worked nicely,” Kate said primly. “Do you want to come along?”

Linny thought about it. They both could use a getaway. Glancing around, her eyes rested on a consignment store treasure she'd hung over the couch: an amateur oil painting of a charming lakeside cottage. Recalling Diamond's offer, she broke into a smile. “How about a real change of scenery? How'd you like to spend a few days on a houseboat on a lake?”

* * *

After she ended the call, Linny felt a frisson of excitement about their lake trip and sat on the couch with a notepad to make a list of what she needed to do before leaving town. She thought of Jack, ricocheting wildly between being terrified they were breaking up to being furious that he was so clueless. Clueless had the lead. While she was gone, he and his parents could have a cozy evening with Vera and her parents, just for old time's sake. Vera would steal a few private moments with Jack to pour out her heart about how difficult Chaz was. She'd tear up prettily and he'd pat her arm and pull her toward him . . . She gave herself a mental shake and made herself write her list. She needed to get out of town and not dwell on Jack. Roy nimbly leaped up onto the couch, and curled up in a ball beside her hip and began to snore quietly. He was such a comfort. Linny stroked his silky ears and picked up the phone to call her mother.

When Dottie picked up Linny gathered her courage and said, “Mama, Kate and I are going on a short girls' trip up to Lake Constance. Would you mind dog sitting Roy, Duke, and Delilah for a few days?”

“I'd be tickled to death,” Dottie said. “Curtis has been missing Roy, and those four dogs can all pal around. It'll be just like a big, happy dog slumber party.”

When Linny ended the call she shook her head, still amazed at Mama's metamorphosis to good-natured and flexible. This from a woman who'd never let her or Kate
have
or
go
to slumber parties, claiming,
Too much rambunctiousness will ruin your sleep, and then there goes your health.

* * *

Later that afternoon Linny helped Kate load a large rolling suitcase, a wicker picnic basket, and several coolers into the back of her Volvo. As she shut the packed trunk, Linny grumbled, “We're going for a few nights, not a week.”

Kate dusted off her hands. “You'll thank me when we get there. There can't be many Food Lions out in the sticks.”

An hour later Ms. Waze told them to turn off main Highway 708. “Diamond said this is where the navigation stops,” Linny said as her Volvo jounced down the deeply rutted dirt road. Wincing, she glanced over to make sure Kate was okay, but her pregnant sister looked serene.

Kate caught her worried glance. “My blue gel doughnut is a miracle.” Grinning, she patted the side of the pillow she sat on. Her sister gazed out the window at the tree-lined road and marveled, “I can't believe we're only a little over an hour from home. From the glimpses I'm getting of the lake, it's a beauty.”

Linny craned her neck to take in a tidy log cabin with a green metal roof. “These houses are darling but most look empty. Diamond said a lot of people who own here are summer people and they don't come up until after Memorial Day.”

“Imagine having a sweet little getaway and only using it a quarter of the year,” Kate mused and drew in her breath as she admired a rough cedar plank-sided house perched on a precipice, framed by the sparkling blue water behind it. “How perfect.” She sighed happily and clapped her hands together. “And a houseboat? I love the idea of a houseboat.”

“Diamond said it's nothing fancy, but it's got big water views—whatever that means—and it's quiet.” Linny tried to steer around a deep pothole and winced as the car's undercarriage scraped on dirt. “This driveway is rough. Diamond said her daddy just bought the place and it needs work. I wouldn't want to be out here in snow.”

Kate nodded her agreement and glanced at the directions Diamond had emailed Linny. “The houseboat is at a dock after one of these next sharp cutbacks.”

A few moments later Linny slowly nosed the car down into a clearing and stopped. Eyeing the steep downward slope of the gravel driveway, she turned off the car, pulling hard on the parking brake. Pushing her sunglasses back on her head, she took in the glittering sapphire blue of Lake Constance and grinned at Kate.

“Wow.” Watching the shimmering waves, Kate put her hands to her cheeks and shook her head. “It's dazzling.”

The dock and houseboat were doglegged off to the right side of the driveway clearing. The two stepped out of the car and walked toward the houseboat, gaping at the views. Linny put a hand to her forehead to shield her eyes from the sun. “This is what Diamond meant by big water views. I'll bet it's more than a mile across to the other side of the lake.”

Despite her volley ball sized baby bump, Kate lithely walked down the slope to peer at the houseboat bobbing gently alongside the dock. “It's so cute! Just a little floating house,” she called back over her shoulder.

The boat looked to be as long as her mobile home, Linny decided. From her purse she pulled the keys Diamond had dropped off for her. She unlocked the door and stepped inside, Kate bumping along close behind her.

As Diamond had warned, the houseboat was basic, with two small bedrooms, a living area, a tiny bath, and a galley kitchen. A threadbare braided rag rug lay on the scarred linoleum floor and the furniture was sparse: two corduroy recliners, a sagging plaid sofa with end tables, a Formica kitchen table, and four rickety-looking chairs. There was no television. The houseboat was clean, though, and when Linny looked out any window, she felt bubbling elation. All she saw was water.

After making short work of unpacking, Linny reread Diamond's instructions about how to fire up the hot water heater and peered doubtfully into a dimly lit closet as Kate bustled around the kitchen putting up groceries. “You still have that flashlight app on your phone?” she called to her sister.

“I do.” Kate rummaged in her jacket pocket and handed her phone to Linny.

With the bright illumination of the app, Linny found the breaker and flipped it on. “Ta-da!” she called, and Kate smiled. But Linny paused, puzzled as she gazed at her sister's phone. “No bars. You don't have any bars, but Diamond told me the cell service was fine up here.”

“Huh,” Kate said absentmindedly as she examined the label of a tub of hummus. Placing it in the fridge, she called to Linny, “I need to pee again.” She headed toward the tiny bathroom.

But Linny felt a buzz of nervousness as she thought about no cell service. They might be only fifty miles from home, but they were out in the woods, and she hadn't seen one neighbor since they saw the fellow splitting wood way back at the main road. A cold knot formed in her stomach. What if something happened to Kate? What if she started throwing up all day again, or what if the baby came early? Linny could boil water and tear her T-shirt into strips of rags like they did in the movies, but she'd have no idea what to do after that. Her mind raced around. What about wild animal attacks? She'd read a story last week about a couple who drove up to their weekend cabin in Boone, North Carolina and found that a whole family of bears had moved right in, raided the fridge, and slept in their beds. Maybe her phone would work. Linny rummaged in her purse for her phone and looked at the screen. No bars. No freaking bars. She didn't know which cell company Diamond used, but it wasn't hers or Kate's. Her mind raced.

Maybe she needed to find the right spots for reception. Holding her phone in one hand and Kate's in the other, she trotted to one side of the houseboat and held them up, then trotted to the other side. No luck. She stood by a window with both phones raised and finally scrambled outside onto the deck. Standing on the bow like the
Titantic
lady got her nothing. The stern was also a strikeout. Finally, she snaked her arms and shoulders as far out over the side as she could, vaguely in the direction she thought might be Raleigh.

Kate's phone got nothing, but suddenly Linny's displayed four, big, burly bars. She breathed out a sigh of relief and kissed her phone. Back inside, she found an outlet and plugged both cells in to charge. She gave hers a little pat before she went to help Kate finish unpacking groceries.

* * *

As the afternoon sun faded, the two sisters found webbed chaise lawn chairs that had seen better days and dragged them onto the upper stern deck. The wind had kicked up and the air was chilly. Wrapped in wool blankets and wearing the windproof parkas Diamond had suggested they pack, they sprawled on the chairs and gazed out at the water, munching the picnic Kate had packed for supper.

Savoring the creamy pimiento cheese sandwich Kate always made with wafer-thin cucumber slices, Linny chewed as she listened to the waves gently slap the bottom of the houseboat. “Do you know, the water's twenty-two feet under us? Starts off shallow at the bank and drops off like a shot. That's what Diamond said anyway.”

“Hmm,” Kate said thoughtfully as she forked in a bite of cole slaw. Reaching in the big pockets of her coat, she handed Linny a minibottle of Chardonnay and pulled out a bottle of water for herself. She turned to Linny and raised a brow. “So about the fight with Jack . . .”

Linny scowled, and picked up the tiny bottle and, with a pinky raised, took a long swallow of wine. “I told you what happened on the drive up.”

“Those were the highlights,” Kate said drily. She ticked points off on her fingers. “You said Jack's parents are still lovey-dovey with Vera. Jack's still too controlled by Vera and tries to avoid conflicts with her. He keeps canceling dates with you. He feels guilty about how remarrying will affect Neal. Did I get all that?” Kate glanced over at her expectantly.

Linny shifted in her lawn chair. “That's it. Jack's scared. That's what the fight was about.”

Kate sipped her water and persisted. “But what scares you?”

Linny felt a flare of irritation. Had she asked to be psychoanalyzed?

Kate went on. “Marriage is scary. I'm scared Jerry will die young from not taking care of himself and leave me alone to raise this baby. I want him to be right beside me every step of the way.” She paused and looked out at the water. “I'm also scared our marriage will turn into Mama and Daddy's. Do you remember Mama, checking and rechecking that skinny Timex she wore, staring out that window and waiting for Daddy to come home from the river?”

“I do.” Linny nodded slowly as she gazed up at the clouds racing across the sky. “So what scares me about marrying Jack?”

“Yup,” Kate said softly.

“Everything,” she admitted. “I'm afraid of turning out like Mama and Daddy, too.” Linny picked at the label on the baby wine bottle and thought about it. “Those two husbands of mine make me scared, too, for different reasons. Buck . . .” she began.