Nice to Come Home To

by Liz Flaherty

  They unloaded at the apple barn and Luke tossed Seth his car keys. “I’ll take the orchard pickup home. Be careful.”

  “All right if I go out after? Just swimming over at the public beach. Playing some music.”

  “Just swimming and music,” Luke reiterated. “No booze or anything else that will get us both in trouble with either our parents or the law.”

  “Gotcha.”

  Luke was the last one to leave the orchard. That was a promise he’d made to himself and the employees when he became a hands-on boss. Most of the time it worked out well, but there were occasional middays that found him asleep on the couch in the office.

  “That’s why it’s there,” Zoey had said. “Anything happens, they’ll wake you up.”

  “Anything” usually meant something had broken down. Luke had gotten good at keeping the sorting machine and the tractor running. The cider press, an antique by any standard, presented more of a challenge. He’d taken to calling it Rachel’s Revenge because his two-years-younger sister had been threatening retribution for years for brotherly sins both real and imagined.

  “Mr. Rossiter?”

  The voice came as he was locking the door of the apple barn behind him. He turned, squinting into the setting sun. “Yes? We’re closed, but can I get you something quick?”

  “I’m Cass Gentry.”

  “Oh.” The sun moved enough that she became less of a silhouette and more of the tall, slender person he remembered from Marynell’s funeral. She wasn’t as slim now, and the cap of light brown hair was almost certainly her own, but he’d have recognized her anywhere. He extended his hand. “Nice to meet you. I expected you earlier today.”

  “My apologies. I underestimated the time it took to drive from the western edge of Missouri with an unfriendly teenager.”

  He smiled at her. “I’ve done that. Well, to Detroit, anyway. Two hundred miles of loud silence.” He was inexplicably disappointed that she had a child. Did that mean there was a husband, too? He gestured toward the door. “Would you like to look around?”

  “No, it’s all right. I’ll come back tomorrow. I didn’t even think about what time it was when I came by. I just dropped Royce off at the house we’re renting and came here. I thought a little time apart might be a good thing.”

  “Probably,” he agreed. “A little breathing space never hurts. How old is your daughter?”

  She smiled at him this time, the expression hesitant enough he thought maybe she didn’t use it much. “My sister is sixteen. Going on thirty. Your son?”

  Luke nodded in acknowledgment of her remark. “My brother is seventeen going on twelve. My father was transferred to Detroit with his job and Seth’s a senior in high school. It looks like he’s going to spend the school year with me.” He wasn’t sure what they’d do if an ideal engineering job presented itself, but he wasn’t going to worry about it—there were worse things than long commutes.

  “Ah. Royce’s mother, a couple of my dad’s wives removed from my mother, was deployed to Afghanistan. It’s probably her last deployment—she’s ready to retire—but she had to go. Royce preferred my company to our father’s. At least she did before driving across country with me. I think now her choice might be up for grabs.”

  “Have you seen Zoey yet?”

  “No.” She looked uncomfortable. “I don’t really know her very well anymore. Royce knows her even less. She met her when my mother died, but only briefly.” She hesitated, looking up at him in the darkness that followed the sun’s drop into the horizon. “You were there, weren’t you? You came all the way to California for a woman you didn’t even know.”

  “I came for Zoey, whom I know very well. She’s hale and hearty, but I didn’t like the idea of her traveling cross-country by herself when she was grieving.” He gentled his voice. Cass Gentry wasn’t as slim as she’d been, and warm color washed the cheeks that had been ashen the last time he saw her, but he sensed fragility in the woman beside him. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

  “Thank you.” She started toward her SUV, which was parked beside the pickup. “When can we talk about the business?”

  “Whenever you like. When would you like the fifty-cent tour?”

  “As soon as possible.”

  “Tomorrow? There will be a hayride through the orchard at ten. It gives you a good view of the place.”

  “A hayride? Seriously?”

  He wasn’t quite sure if she’d meant to sound derisive or if that was just how it came out, so he pushed back impatience. “Yes. We have them for groups by appointment or spur of the moment if someone wants to go and there’s an available driver. In October, we have evening ones.”

  “All right, Mr. Rossiter. I’ll see you at ten.”

  “It’s just Luke. Mr. Rossiter’s my dad, who would tell you, no, Mr. Rossiter’s my grandpa.”

  She nodded, looking uncertain. “Can you tell me where the nearest supermarket is?”

  “Sawyer.” He pointed. “Three miles that way.”

  “I remember.” She sighed. “I think that can wait until tomorrow. I’m sure Royce won’t mind going out for dinner. What’s available at the lake?”

  “Anything Goes Grill and Silver Moon Café. There’s also a pizza place that does carryout. The bulk foods store is great for groceries and has an excellent deli section. Are you staying at the lake?” Why would she do that with Zoey rattling around alone in that twelve-room farmhouse behind the hill of the orchard?

  “Yes. For two weeks. That’s how long I’m giving myself to decide what to do.”

  “What to do?”

  “Yes.” She turned in a tight circle on the gravel drive, lifting her chin and gazing outward.

  He followed her gaze with his own, wondering what she saw. The apple barn was there, its retail store convenient for customers. The cold storage barn, newer and bigger, had been built farther up the rise. The replica round barn, smaller than an original but true in shape and scale to the ones built in the area during the early twentieth century, held pride of place across the parking lot from the apple barn. The grapevines were behind it. The pumpkin patch filled the area between the driveway and the apple barn.

  Trees were everywhere. Close to a hundred varieties of apples grew in neatly rowed sections all the way back to where Cottonwood Creek created the farm’s boundary. The way the orchard’s land rolled made keeping up with everything a challenge sometimes, but it was always rewarding.

  The drives and parking lot were still gravel. Something always needed fixing. There was evidence of too many ideas conceived of but never hatched—the round barn being the greatest of those, the grapevines behind it another. Luke thought it was the most beautiful place in the world.

  He wondered what she saw. With more urgency than he liked, he also wondered what she thought.

  CHAPTER TWO

  “WHEN ARE WE going to go see your aunt?” Royce stood at the bar that separated the lake cottage’s minute kitchen from its living area.

  Cass slid the take-and-bake pizza out of the oven. “Come and get it. Ouch!” She licked the thumb she’d accidentally dipped into pizza sauce. “I don’t know. It’s complicated with Aunt Zoey. You know that.”

  “Not to be rude—” which meant that was probably exactly what the teenager was going to be “—but everything in your family is complicated. Once we move back to the real world and I go back to school, I’m going to write a paper on it. You and your aunt and your past and present stepparents and Dad can be my expert witnesses. Do you want some milk?”

  Cass shuddered. “No, thank you. And don’t forget, you’re related to some of that family, too.”

  Royce bit into her pizza, chewed and swallowed before saying, “Just you and Dad. Mom’s not weird like you guys.”

  “No, she’s not.” Cass poured coffee, glad whoever had been in the cottage last had left an opened bag of breakfast blend in the pantry. “Your mother has been a port of calm for me ever since I met her.” She eyed her sister’s
plate when Royce took two more slices of pizza. “At least until now. Can you really eat that much pizza?”

  “In a heartbeat.”

  A half hour and an entertaining conversation later, Cass was surprised to realize that she, too, could eat four pieces of pizza without so much as blinking an eye. “What do you say?” She got up from the table with a groan and put their plates into the dishwasher. “Want to take a walk along the lake? As I remember it, there’s a nice path. Or we can walk on the road.”

  Royce looked scandalized. “I don’t know if you’ve realized it, Sister Authority Figure, but it’s dark out there.”

  “I know.” Cass put on one of the hooded sweatshirts they’d hung inside the entry closet and tossed the other one to Royce—the evening air was cool. “That’s why I’m taking you along. I might need protection.”

  Royce was right about it being dark, but it seemed to be social hour on the lake’s narrow graveled roads. Not only were people walking and running, the bicycle and golf cart traffic rivaled that of the retirement community where Marynell had lived.

  Cass had thought she might recognize people and had dreaded it. She’d also looked forward to it. She’d love to explain to them why she’d left without saying goodbye. Why letters forwarded by her grandmother had gone unanswered. Why, when people had looked for her, she hadn’t responded. Why, in an electronic world that fascinated her, she remained anonymous.

  But she couldn’t even explain it to herself.

  “Where was the house where you lived with your grandparents that year you were here?” Royce interrupted her admittedly maudlin thoughts.

  “On the other side where the condos are. They sold it to a development company within a few years after I left. The lake has gotten a little more upscale than it was when I was in high school. We’ll drive around there tomorrow and see.” She pointed toward a large Craftsman house. “That’s Christensen’s Cove. Two of my friends lived there. Arlie’s dad, Dave, and Holly’s mom, Gianna, were married. They were some of the best people I’ve ever known.”

  When they reached the south end of the lake, Royce stared at the two estates that took up most of the frontage. “They look really out of place here,” she said finally. “It’s like a what’s-wrong-with-this-picture thing.”

  “It is. The one over there is where the Grangers lived. Chris and Gavin were always away at school, although they were here in the summer. I think their family owns the winery we drove past. What was it called?”

  “Sycamore Hill. We liked its sign, remember?”

  “That’s right. The other house is Llewellyn Hall. Everyone just called it the Hall or the Albatross. Jack Llewellyn was a senior when I lived here. He dated Arlie. His brother Tucker was in my class and he dated everyone, but he was such a nice guy you didn’t even mind it. Libby Worth—” she turned in a thoughtful half circle trying to get her bearings “—she was in my class, too. Her brother, Jesse, was a senior. They lived on the farm out by the winery. As a matter of fact, I think the winery used to be part of that farm.” She turned the rest of the way, heading back toward their cottage.

  Royce stayed in step with her. “Who else do you remember?”

  “Sam. We dated for a while.” The prom had been the last time they’d gone out. “His dad worked at Llewellyn Lures and his grandfather owned the hardware store. It was called Come On In. Sam had a bass voice you could lose yourself in. Gianna used to say he was Sam Elliott in training.”

  “The hardware store’s still there,” said Royce. “I saw it when we drove through tonight. It was just down the street from the bulk food store where we got the pie from the Amish bakery.”

  “We should probably get another one of those, since all that’s left of that is the pan,” said Cass drily. “Between that and the pizza, I’m still feeling fairly miserable, and we’ve been walking for at least a half hour.”

  “I’m walking. You keep starting and stopping. There’s a difference.” Royce gave her a sisterly elbow that felt better than Cass could have begun to explain. “Come on. Who else?”

  “Let me think. Nate Benteen. He was one of the best high school golfers in the country. He was so much fun! He and Holly kept us laughing all the time.”

  “Which one was your BFF, the one you’d have stayed in contact with forever and ever if you had any normal social skills?”

  “That was cold. And we didn’t say ‘BFF’ then,” Cass retorted. She walked a little farther, separating herself a few steps from Royce. Maybe her sister wouldn’t notice that her breathing had somehow gone awry or that the color had left her face—she’d felt the blood drain from her cheeks as soon as Royce asked the question.

  She would say she didn’t remember if her sister pushed her for an answer. Chemo brain hadn’t entirely left her, after all. Getting lost in the middle of a conversation was nothing new. Rather, it was exhaustingly old. So was being pale and washed-out and a mere tracing of who she’d once thought she was.

  “Cass, wait up.”

  She realized her pace had taken her away from Royce as if her intent was to leave her behind. “Hey.” She stopped. “Can’t keep up with the old lady?”

  “Y’know what?” Her sister caught up with her and tilted her head, waiting. Cass couldn’t look away from the blue-green eyes she knew were replicas of her own, a gift from their father.

  “No,” she said lightly. “What?”

  “You don’t have to answer me. I get that you’re the grown-up and I’m the kid. But don’t make things up or fluff things like those ‘alternative facts’ they talk about on television. If you don’t want to talk to me, just say so. I’ve been on my own most of my life, just like you. I can deal with it fine. I’ll see you back at the house.”

  Royce took off at a run Cass couldn’t have kept up with on her best day, so she didn’t try. She went down to the path that followed the curves of the lake and sat on a park bench. She thought of those friends she’d told Royce about. They’d been closer than anyone she’d met in all the years both before and since. Although there’d been much to grieve for in that time, she mourned nothing more than the empty space she’d created in herself when she left the lake without looking back.

  Cass closed her eyes, leaning her head back because suddenly it felt too heavy to hold up. With the scent and sound of the lake filling her senses, she remembered that year and gave herself permission to wallow in it.

  Her father had been in Iraq, her mother in a new state, job and marriage that didn’t allot room for a recalcitrant daughter. Her grandparents had been willing to keep her for the school year, but not one minute longer. She was sixteen when she arrived at the lake, five feet eight inches of long brown hair and attitude. Especially attitude.

  By the time she’d been there a week, improved posture had given her an additional inch and her hair had been streaked by the sun in a way she’d maintained until chemotherapy robbed her of it fifteen or so years later. She’d made more friends than she’d ever had at one time. She’d even been recruited for the high school volleyball team. “We suck,” Arlie had said complacently, “but we have so much fun.”

  And they had. She’d spent as many nights at her friends’ houses as she had in her grandparents’ cramped cottage. She’d never missed attending a football or basketball game and the volleyball team had managed—for the first time in a history the length of which they exaggerated when they talked about it—to garner a winning season. She’d asked Mr. Harrison, the high school principal, if there was a writers’ club in the school, expecting to be either ignored or forgotten. Instead, he’d said there wasn’t such an organization at the present time and suggested she form one.

  She wondered if the Write Now group still existed. Holly had thrown in with her to start monthly meetings. It had been a thrill, but not really a surprise, ten years before when she’d been in an airport bookstore and found a Holly Gallagher romance on the shelves. Cass had bought that book and at least one copy of the dozen the author had released since th
en. Sometimes in reading them, she thought Holly had written subliminal messages directly to her; however, life had taught her not to be fanciful, so she always set the notion aside. Mostly.

  Sometimes, hidden in the chapters of her own Mysteries on the Wabash stories, Cass left messages to the friends she’d left behind. Of course, those friends didn’t know who Cassandra G. Porter was—they’d never understand the messages.

  The sound of footsteps on the paved lake path brought her out of the pleasant reverie of memory, and she straightened in her seat on the bench.

  “Hello.” The voice was cheerful, welcoming. A blast from the past that made Cass’s heart feel as if it blossomed in her chest, one whose name had been in her mind only seconds before. “Beautiful night, isn’t it?”

  “Yes.” She cleared her throat to make her voice audible, but her breath still hitched and hesitated on its way in and out. “It is.”

  Not only did she know the musical voice of Holly Gallagher, she recognized the tall profile of the man who walked beside her. Jesse Worth. Always quiet, always a loner, and one of the good guys she’d known in her life. He’d been a gifted artist, but he had gone into the navy after high school and eventually become a veterinarian, opening his practice on the farm where he’d grown up.

  Panic rose in her throat.

  Cass hadn’t thought it through long enough before she came back. She hadn’t considered that she’d come face-to-face with the one person who would never want to see her under any circumstances. The one who’d loved Linda Saylors—the BFF Royce had wondered about—as much as Cass had. The one who would remember more than anyone else that Cass should have been sitting in the van seat Linda had occupied. The one who would know that on that prom night so long ago, it should have been Cass who died, not Linda.

  *

  LUKE STOPPED BY Zoey’s the next morning as he often did. It gave him a chance to keep her up on business concerns and to see if she needed anything done. She would never ask, but he was nosy enough that he could usually find out on his own.