The Hideaway

“Come on back to the cabin,” he said. “I have grilled shrimp and West Indies salad waiting on the deck.”

He turned to Jenny and said something we couldn’t hear, then the two of them took off, running back the other way. My sweet girl ran as fast as her legs would carry her, beating Bert to the cabin by a nose. She gave him a high five and climbed the steps to the cabin.

Lord, I love that girl. I tightened my grip on the letter in my hands, the letter that would one day tell Jenny everything she needed to know about her father—nothing more and nothing less.

36

SARA

JULY

I didn’t roll over until ten the next morning. As soon as I did, the pounding started, reminding me why I always stopped with one drink. With the shop to run and clients to please, I didn’t have time to sleep in and nurse hangovers.

My phone was on top of the blanket next to me. I took a deep breath and called Crawford.

“Are you okay?” he asked in place of a greeting.

“I’m fine. I’m sorry for not calling earlier. Allyn came to town, and . . .” It was a limp excuse, but it was all I had. I hadn’t deciphered anything else going on in my head yet.

“I’m glad you got to see him. I’ll back off now that I know you’re okay. I was just worried.”

“Thanks. What do you mean ‘back off’?”

“Look, I know you’ve got a lot going on and you have decisions to make. I want to help you with this, but I understand if you need to do it alone.”

Whether I did it alone or had help, deciding what to do would not be easy. The situation had already tied my stomach in knots.

“And this should go without saying,” he continued, “but if you have second thoughts about us—about me—just be honest.”

“No, I’m not . . .” But was I? Thoughts swirled through my head like a tornado, but I couldn’t put my finger on which ones were about the house and which were about Crawford.

“Come on, Sara. It’s the first time you haven’t taken my calls. This big thing happens—Sammy and his news about the house—and all of a sudden you pull away.”

He’d been nothing but caring and concerned about me, and here I was trying to avoid the hard part, just like Allyn said. What kind of person did that?

“I’m sorry. I’m not having second thoughts about you, or about us. I just feel like the rug was pulled out from under me. Before, everything felt so . . . possible. Now, I don’t know. If I’m not here in Sweet Bay, how would we . . . ?”

He exhaled. “We’ll figure it out, just like we said. Sammy may have pulled the rug out from under you, but I’m still here and I’m not going anywhere. And that will stay the same whether or not Sammy goes through with his plan. Okay?”

I couldn’t speak over the lump in my throat, so I just nodded, even though he couldn’t see me.

“Can I come see you?” he asked.

“Yes, please. I don’t want to do this alone.”

After we hung up I turned over to find a glass of water and two Tylenol on the nightstand. As I swallowed them down, the sound of laughter found its way up the stairs and into my room.

Downstairs, Allyn was holding court in the kitchen while Dot, Bert, Major, and Glory all drowned in laughter. Major laughed so hard he spilled his coffee. Allyn grabbed a dish towel and helped him clean up. Bert clapped him on the back. Not the sight I expected to see.

“Good morning,” Dot said to me quietly when I entered. She put her arm around me and I patted her hand.

“Your friend fits right in. Mags would have loved him.”

“You’re right. She never would have let him leave. Can I talk to you for a minute?” I gestured into the adjacent dining room.

“Sure, hon.”

We sat down at the table. In the middle was an arrangement of small vases. I reached over and ran my finger across the thin porcelain lip of a vase with tiny painted flowers.

“Mags loved having fresh flowers in the house.” Dot picked up one of the vases and turned it over in her hand. “I found a box full of these in the mudroom the other day. I was going to add them to our Goodwill pile, but I thought better of it. These happy things deserve to be displayed.” She wiped the dust off the vase with the hem of her shirt. “You wanted to talk to me about something?”

“Yes.” I took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “I have some bad news.”

She waited, all the lightheartedness from the kitchen gone from her face.

“Sammy Grosvenor visited me a couple of days ago.”

“Good grief, what does he want now?”

I didn’t want to overwhelm her with details, so I just gave her a brief rundown of Sammy’s plan.

“But I don’t understand,” she said. “He can’t just swoop in and take the house, can he?”

I shrugged. “I’ve already talked to Mr. Bains, and it sounds like my options are slim.”

Dot stared absently out the bay window, her chin propped in her hand. Her bottom lip trembled and I had to look away. Finally, she reached over and took my hand. “What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. I’m not sure there’s much I can do. I keep asking myself what Mags would do if she were here. How would she deal with Sammy?”

Dot smiled. “Mags always knew just what to do in difficult situations. When it seemed there was no way out, she’d always find one little sliver of daylight and scratch herself out. But I’m not sure even Mags could get out of this one.”

“All this work,” I said, looking around. The room smelled like fresh paint and wood polish, and through the hall I could see a worker in the parlor coiling an extension cord around his arm. The renovations were turning The Hideaway into a pearl instead of a crusty shell.

“Well,” Dot said. “If nothing can be done, this may force Bert and me to grow up after all.” She chuckled. “It’s probably time, anyway. We’ve been talking for ages about needing to make the move down to Florida where his kids are. I know Major and Glory have family back in Georgia. Maybe it’s time for us all to move on.” Her words were confident, but her eyes were sad. She patted my hand again, then rose and walked back to the kitchen. I followed her.

From the doorway, we watched the scene before us. Bert mimed Major struggling to reel in a fish, while Glory narrated for Allyn an episode that included Major falling in the water only to discover it was an alligator on the end of the line. No one had ever seen him swim so fast.

“Y’all go on and laugh,” he said. “But let’s see how fast you swim when a six-footer is snapping at your legs. Ah, there’s Sara, thank the Lord. A diversion.”

“Feeling okay?” Allyn asked with a grin.

“Fine. Thanks for the Tylenol.”

“I’m glad you two had a chance to catch up last night,” Glory said. “You must have missed him. He’s a hoot.”

“Come on.” Allyn linked his arm through mine. “Help me pack up. I need to get back to New Orleans and run your shop.”

I trudged back up the front porch steps after seeing Allyn off, but the approach of another vehicle stopped me before I made it to the top. I turned as Crawford’s truck rumbled down the driveway toward me. Tension slipped off my shoulders like silk. He parked, crossed the gravel to the steps, and folded me into his arms. I pressed my cheek into the soft space under his ear and tightened my arms around him. When we pulled away, he smiled. “Better?”