Warm Nights in Magnolia Bay

by Babette de Jongh

  While Abby set up the crate, Reva gave instructions. “Take her to the vet ASAP; she’s wormy and needs antibiotics for this road rash. You can use one of the small travel crates for that. But other than the vet visit, keep her in here until next week, Wednesday at the earliest. Then you can move her crate to my worktable in the den. That’ll get her used to all the activity around here. When she’s had all her kitten shots, you can let her out into the general population.”

  Abby put a soothing hand on her aunt’s arm. “I’ll remember.” She knew that Reva secretly thought no one else could manage the farm adequately—with good reason. This place was a writhing octopus of responsibilities. Critters to feed, stalls to clean, and two more weeks of school field trips to host before summer break. Even in summer, there would be random birthday parties and scout groups every now and then. No wonder Reva was having a hard time letting go; hence all the detailed instructions on how to handle the newest addition to the farm’s family. “I promise I’ll take good care of everything.”

  Reva gave a yes-but nod and a thanks-for-trying smile. “I’ll text you a reminder about the kitten, just in case.”

  Of course you will. Reva had already printed a novel-length set of instructions on everything from animal-feeding to tour-hosting to house-and-barn maintenance. Smiling at Reva’s obvious difficulty in releasing the need to control everything in her universe, Abby filled a water bowl from the mop sink and placed it inside the crate next to the food dish. “All set.”

  “Call me before you make that decision.”

  “What decision?” Reva had returned to a previous train of thought that had long since left the station in Abby’s mind.

  “About when to let the kitten out. She might be more squirrelly than she looks. Let me check in with her and make sure she’s ready. Don’t want to have her hiding under the couch or escaping into the woods through the dog door.” Reva paused with a just-thought-of-something look on her face. “But I’d totally trust you to ask this kitten if she’s ready to join the herd. This summer at the farm will be a good opportunity for you to practice your animal communication skills.”

  Right, well. Abby didn’t trust herself, even though Reva had been tutoring her since Abby first started spending summers here as a child. “I’ll call first. I’d like to keep the training wheels on a little longer if you don’t mind.”

  Reva laughed. “Training wheels are not necessary. You just think you need them. You’re a natural at animal communication.”

  Abby didn’t feel like a natural at much of anything these days. The fact that Reva trusted her to run the farm all summer attested more to Reva’s high motivation to get her license to care for injured wildlife than to Abby’s competency. Three months of an internship at a wild animal refuge in south Florida would give Reva everything she needed to make that long-deferred dream a reality. Abby was determined to help out, even though the responsibility terrified her. It was the least she could do.

  Reva tipped her chin toward the open shelves above the dryer. “Put one of those folded towels on the lid of the litter box so she can sit on top of it.”

  Abby obeyed, and Georgia started barking from outside. “That’s probably your ride, Aunt Reva. I’ve got this, I promise. You don’t have to worry.” She held out her hands for the kitten.

  Reva transferred the purring kitten gently into Abby’s cupped palms. The kitten stopped purring, but settled quickly when Abby snuggled it close. “About time for you to go, right?”

  Reva gave a distracted nod. “Don’t forget to make the vet appointment today. You want to go ahead and get on their schedule for tomorrow, because they close at noon on Saturdays. But call before you go. I don’t know why, but everyone at Mack’s office has been really disorganized lately. The last time I went in, they had double-booked, and I had to wait over an hour.”

  “I will make the appointment today, and I’ll call before I go.”

  “Oh, and don’t forget to drop that check off at the water department when you’re out tomorrow. Those effers don’t give you a moment’s grace before cutting off the water.” A car horn blasted outside.

  “I won’t forget.” Abby put the kitten in the crate and shooed her aunt out the door. “I’d hug you, but I’m all muddy.”

  “I know I’m forgetting something.” Reva glanced around the room one last time. “Oh well. I’ll text you if I remember.” She leaned in and kissed Abby’s cheek. “Bless you for doing this for me.”

  “I’m glad we can help each other. Don’t worry about a thing.” As if Reva wasn’t the one doing Abby a big favor by giving her a place to stay when even her own parents refused, for Abby’s own good. They were completely right when they pointed out that by the age of thirty-three, she should have gotten her shit together. After all, they’d had good jobs, a solid (if unhappy) marriage, a kid, and a mortgage by that time of their lives.

  It wouldn’t have helped to argue that up until the moment she didn’t, she’d also had a good job (dental office manager), an unhappy relationship (with the philandering dentist), and a kid (the dentist’s five-year-old daughter). Okay, so she didn’t have a mortgage. Points to mom and dad for being bigger adults at thirty-three. Whoopee. It was a different economy back then.

  After Reva left, Abby showered and dressed to meet her first big challenge as the sole custodian of Bayside Barn—ushering in three school buses that pulled through the gates just after 9:00 a.m.

  When the deep throb of the buses’ motors vibrated the soles of her barn boots, Abby tamped down the familiar flood of anxiety that rose up her gut like heartburn. The feeling of impending disaster arose often, sometimes appearing out of nowhere for no particular reason. Only one of the reasons she’d come to stay at Aunt Reva’s for a while. This time, though, she had reason to feel anxious. These three buses held a total of ninety boisterous kindergartners, enough to strike fear into the stoutest of hearts.

  Abby hadn’t forgotten Reva’s warning about the timing of her tenure as acting director of Bayside Barn. Two weeks remained of the school year, and those last two weeks were always the worst; not only did schools schedule more trips then, but the kids would be more excitable and the teachers’ tempers would be more frayed.

  Abby hurried to get Freddy, the scarlet macaw, from his aviary enclosure. “You can do this,” she muttered to herself, remembering the Bayside Barn mission statement that Reva made all the volunteers memorize: Bayside Barn will save the world, one happy ending at a time, by giving a home to abandoned animals whose unconditional love and understanding will teach people to value all creatures and the planet we share.

  If that wasn’t a reason to get over herself and get on with it, nothing was.

  Chapter 2

  Abby stroked Freddy’s feathers on the way back to the parking lot, soothing herself as much as him. She could do this. She had helped Aunt Reva host school field trips several times. And five seasoned helpers were here, women who knew the drill from years of experience. The choking sense of anxiety drifted down and hung like a fog, somewhere around the region of her kneecaps.

  With the huge parrot perched on her shoulder, Abby joined her helpers—two retirees and three student-teachers from the local college. Each wore jeans and rubber-soled barn boots; each wore a different-colored T-shirt with the Bayside Barn Buddies logo on the front.

  The ladies had already directed the bus drivers to park in the gravel lot between the light-blue farmhouse and the bright-red barn. Ninety boisterous kindergartners spilled out of the buses, and the donkeys brayed a friendly greeting over the barn fence. Freddy clung to Abby’s shoulder with his talons and hollered in her ear, “Welcome, Buddies!”

  The teachers and parent chaperones in the first bus corralled their kindergartners into small groups. The hellions that had spewed from the other two buses yelled and chased each other around the roped-off gravel parking area. Feeling more relaxed now that the fie
ld trip experience was underway, Abby gave the kids a minute to get their wiggles out, then removed a gym whistle from her jeans pocket and blew three short, sharp blasts. Everybody froze.

  “Listen up.” She tried to channel Aunt Reva’s stern school-teacher voice. “Before we can begin, I need each of the teachers and parent chaperones to gather the kids in your group.”

  After a bit of shuffling, the crowd coalesced into small clusters of five-or-so kids surrounding each of the adults. A small swarm of kids milled around looking worried. Abby held up a hand. “Kids who aren’t sure which group you belong to, please line up right here in front of me.”

  Within five minutes, every child had found the right group, and Abby’s helpers handed out color-coded stickers, badges shaped like a sheriff’s star surrounded by the words, I’m a Bayside Barn Buddy.

  Abby blasted the whistle again. “Welcome to Bayside Barn. In a moment, you’ll follow me to the pavilion where we’ll watch a short video about the animals you will meet here today. Then, each group will go with the guide whose shirt matches your star. Together, you will learn and explore for the rest of the morning. We’ll meet back at the pavilion at noon for lunch, and then you’ll have another two hours of fun before you head back to school. Sound good?”

  Abby allowed the chorus of excited talking to continue another minute. “Okay, everyone. Follow me to the pavilion.”

  She led the way with Freddy on her shoulder and Georgia walking alongside. A small hand crept into hers. A tiny, pigtailed girl with brown eyes as big as buckeyes skipped beside her. Abby swung the little girl’s hand. “Hello there. What’s your name?”

  “Angelina. I like your bird. I ain’t never seen a bird that big. Can I hold him on my shoulder like you’re doin’?”

  “I’m sorry, Angelina, but that wouldn’t be safe. Freddy’s a good bird, but if something startled him, he might bite.”

  “Where’d you get him?”

  “All the animals at Bayside Barn came here because their families couldn’t keep them.”

  Angelina stopped skipping and tugged Abby’s hand. “My family couldn’t keep me, either. Can I come live here, too?”

  Abby’s heart squeezed with the familiar breathlessness of regret. Regret for promises she’d made to a child she had loved completely and yet failed to save.

  A frazzled-looking woman grabbed Angelina’s arm, mumbled an apology, and towed the child back to her group.

  Abby kept her eyes on the pavilion and kept walking. The fresh scratches the kitten had made on her hands and belly stung with every movement. But her small pains were worth it, since the kitten was safe and secure in the darkened laundry room with a clean litter box, a soft blanket, and plenty of food and water.

  Abandoned kittens could be saved.

  Abandoned children, not so easy.

  * * *

  Quinn backed out from under the kitchen cupboard and shut off the shop vac. He sat back on his heels and listened. What the hell…?

  He opened the sliding doors and looked across the pea-green pool water to the house next door. Over the tall hedges, he saw the tops of three school buses.

  School buses, parked next door?

  “Shit.” That would account for the high-pitched screams and squeals. What kind of place had he moved next to?

  Quinn clenched his jaw and pressed a thumb against his temple that throbbed as if someone had jabbed an ice pick into his head. His decision to sink every penny of his equity money into this place might have been a Very Bad Mistake.

  After a lifetime of following his gut and making snap decisions that often had negative (okay, disastrous) consequences, Quinn had recently promised himself that from here on out, he’d write out the pros and cons of any major decision before making it. He’d done that before buying this estate.

  Maybe the problem wasn’t with his decision-making process. Maybe he was just good at finding gold and spinning it into straw.

  He walked down the long gravel drive to the paved road and looked across the blacktop where a sea of yellow-flowering vines stretched to the distant horizon. It had seemed like such a grand idea to buy the crumbling estate across from all this wild extravagance. The invasive cat’s-claw vine smothered trees and pulled down structures, creating a thriving and beautiful wasteland, the first of four selling points for the property he planned to flip:

  1. Acres of yellow flowers across the street.

  2. Bayside view at the back—with the potential for waterfront access.

  3. Lonely country road on one side.

  4. Only one neighboring property, well hidden behind an evergreen hedge.

  He walked past that tall hedge to get a better look at the property next door. A double-panel iron gate stood open, flanking the entrance. A thick stone pillar surrounded an oversize mailbox. Under the mailbox, a brass plaque read:

  BAYSIDE BARN

  8305 WINDING WATER WAY

  The ice pick jabbed into Quinn’s skull again.

  He remembered hearing about this place when Sean’s class went here on a field trip in the third grade. Sean had come home sunburned, exhausted, and overexcited from a day at the barn and the hour-long bus ride to and from his elementary school in New Orleans. Sean had talked nonstop about the experience for the rest of the evening, then fallen asleep at the dinner table. For the rest of the month, he had galloped around the house every afternoon after school, waving a souvenir cowboy hat and yelling, “Go, Bayside Buddies, go!”

  The place next door was a damn zoo.

  * * *

  Reva stepped onto the horrifyingly long escalator to the ground transportation level, steadied herself as the step unfolded beneath her, then wrestled her too-big suitcase onto the step behind her as it, too, unfolded. She gripped the shuddering plastic handrail and held on, closing her eyes for a blessed moment.

  God, she missed her husband.

  Grayson had always taken charge of, well, everything. When they traveled, he was the one who made the arrangements, knew where to go and when to be there, and wrangled their luggage along the way.

  What the hell was she doing here, so far out of her comfort zone that her heart hadn’t stopped pounding since she left the house this morning? Did she even want to do this anymore? Without Grayson by her side, she felt untethered. Her parents were gone. Grayson’s brother, Winston, and his wife—Abby’s parents—had never warmed up to her. She and Grayson had made the decision not to have children, but to devote their lives to something larger, a mission to help animals. They’d built Bayside Barn together on the homestead he’d inherited from his grandparents.

  This had been their dream. But was it still hers, if it meant doing it all without him? Grayson had been a force of nature, something between an exhilarating whirlwind and an unavoidable undertow. When the neighbors next door had moved into an assisted-living facility, Grayson convinced the city council to buy the land for an animal shelter, which she and Grayson would run. But then Grayson died, and the penny-pinching mayor vetoed the plan. He didn’t see the upside of building an official animal shelter when the unofficial one at Bayside Barn worked well enough.

  Without a doubt, Grayson’s passion and vision would’ve convinced the mayor to go along. With his whiskey-colored eyes and lopsided grin, he could melt the hardest heart. God, she had loved that man. Still did, always would. He’d been gone almost two years, and Reva was still a little bit pissed off at the universe for letting Grayson’s unwavering commitment to physical fitness lead to his own untimely death.

  He had always teased her about her lack of interest in physical exercise and healthy eating. He’d poke her soft belly and claim that he would still love her when she got fat from lounging in the pool with a glass of wine while he swam laps. She slept in and rested her other side while he put on his running shoes and logged his five miles each day.

  And then came the
knock on the door that woke her from a sound sleep the morning that an inattentive driver—

  “Hey!” A big hand gripped her arm and steadied her when the escalator steps leveled out and she stumbled over the ledge that devoured each step. Her eyes flew open and she grabbed onto a man’s hard shoulder as he dragged her and her suitcase away from the steps that were being swallowed by the floor. “Lady, are you okay?”

  She looked into the concerned green eyes of a very tall, very young black man. He still held onto her, and she still held onto him. In fact, she was afraid that if she let go, she might crumple down to the floor. Her ankles felt boneless; her knees felt like Jell-O. “I’m so sorry. I swear I only closed my eyes for a second. I didn’t know it would move so fast.”

  “No worries, lady.” His strong, reassuring grip didn’t lessen. “You look a little shaky. You okay?”

  She held onto his arm and took stock of herself. Steadier, she let go and stepped back. “I’m okay. Thanks for keeping me from falling on my face—or my backside.”

  “Lucky thing I was standing down here watching you.” He smiled. “Not being a creep or anything; I’m waiting for my girlfriend to come down on her way to baggage claim. I noticed you because your face looked so…peaceful, I guess…like you were thinking of something beautiful.”

  She felt an answering smile bloom, first in her heart, and then on her lips. “You’re right. I was.”

  The young man moved off to embrace his girlfriend, and Reva headed for the ground transportation exit. For the first time since she’d left the house this morning, she felt like she was doing the right thing, and that Grayson’s spirit would support her in fulfilling the dream they had shared. It was only right that Abby should come to Bayside Barn for healing and, in turn, give Reva the space she needed to find a way to move forward in her own life.

  In a way, Abby was the child Grayson and Reva never had. Ever since Abby had been old enough to spend the night away from home, she had spent her summers at Bayside Barn. That old homestead was in her bones, and the animals that lived there were her childhood friends. Reva knew that Abby would take care of the farm and the animals as well as Reva could. And maybe the experience would deepen Abby’s connection to the animals and allow her to practice her ability to communicate with them telepathically. Reva had shown her how, and though Abby’s parents did their best to undo that teaching, Reva knew that Abby possessed the ability.