“It’s a rough life she leads,” Marcy said, following my gaze.
“I’m amazed she can sleep with all the noise.”
Faylene took the blanket Gideon brought out of his arms. She flipped it open, spread it between her quilt and a magnolia tree, and then bent down to pull the blanket’s edges taut. “Haven’t seen this place this crowded in decades. It’s all them birdwatchers. I suppose they don’t have anything better to do until midnight.”
Marcy grinned and said to me, “Lindy-Lou’s real used to blocking out loud noises.”
Faylene’s eyes narrowed in confusion, then she let out a laugh. She swatted playfully at her daughter. “You hush now.”
“Me, hush?” Marcy said with faux outrage, and Faylene laughed again.
It was clear the two adored each other, and their good humor set me immediately at ease.
“Y’all, sit, sit,” Faylene said.
“You’ve picked a prime spot up here,” I said, kneeling down. The sweet scent of magnolia blossoms hovered in the air, holding strong against the popcorn smell coming from the snack stand.
Faylene eyed the basket Gideon carried. “What have you there?”
Gideon lifted the basket flaps and said, “I promised Anna Kate a picnic dinner, and I think I delivered pretty well. Crispy buttermilk fried chicken, flaky hand pies, pasta salad, and shortbread cookies for dessert.”
“Wooing Anna Kate right, I see.” Faylene laughed. “Seems like you already know the way to that girl’s heart and you haven’t even known her a full two weeks yet.”
Gideon flushed three shades of red as he pulled plates out of the basket. I’d known Faylene wouldn’t give up so easily. He could have saved himself a lot of teasing if he’d simply told her we weren’t here on a date, but oddly, he kept quiet.
“He’s wooing me right,” Marcy said, craning her neck for a look in the basket.
“Me, too,” Cam said. “Did you say fried chicken?”
Gideon handed over a plate. “I brought plenty.”
“Good gosh, Gideon. If I wasn’t married,” Marcy said, picking up a thigh.
Faylene chose a breast. “I’m not going to tell Josh you said that.”
“Have you tasted the chicken yet? You can tell him,” she said. “He’d probably throw me over for Gideon’s cooking in a heartbeat, given that I can’t cook a can of beans without burning them.”
Cam was in mid-reach for a leg when he froze, his gaze caught on something over my shoulder. I turned to see Natalie threading through the crowd, a stuffed diaper bag draped over her shoulder and Ollie, dressed in a yellow Belle costume, in her arms. I looked back at Cam. He saw me watching him and quickly looked away, completely forgetting the chicken as he suddenly fussed with his camera settings.
“Oh, lookie there!” Faylene said, waving a chicken breast in the air. “It’s Natalie! Yoo-hoo! Over here!”
Natalie blinked and then smiled as she veered in our direction. She blew a loose strand of hair off her face. “Can you get claustrophobic outside?”
“I think you can in this crowd,” Marcy said. “Do you know Cam, Natalie?”
He looked up from his camera, smiled. “We go way back. Hi, Natalie.”
“Hey, Cam.” She glanced around. “Where’s River?”
“Pouting at home. No pets allowed to this shindig,” he said.
“That’s too bad.” Natalie shifted Ollie from one hip to another. “Does anyone mind if we sit a second?”
“Come on down, sugar. There’s plenty of room next to Cam,” Faylene said, eyeing the two of them.
There was plenty of room next to Marcy, me, and Gideon as well. Faylene was a matchmaker at heart—I could tell.
Cam shifted, looping his camera strap around his neck, and he smiled as Natalie set Ollie down on his blanket.
“Hihi!” Ollie flapped an arm at him. She had a green toy tractor clutched in her hand.
“Hey, Ollie.” Cam waved back. “What’re you holding there?”
“Tactor!” she said, proudly showing it to him.
“I couldn’t get her to leave it at home.” Natalie sat down, taking care to tuck her dress around her legs. “It’s clear who makes the decisions in our house.”
Cam held out his hand to Ollie. “Can I drive it?”
She stared up at him, her brown eyes big and round. And then, as if finally deciding he was trustworthy, she handed it over.
He took the toy and drove it up her leg and arm with exaggerated machinery sounds. Her joyous giggles echoed, and I watched Natalie’s face as she watched her daughter. The naked emotion made me want to walk over and give her a hug. Arm’s length was getting more and more difficult where she was concerned. And little Ollie had won my heart the first time I met her.
On the days Natalie worked, Faylene dropped Ollie off at the café at closing time, and I’d found myself looking forward to her arrival. I’d missed her yesterday, when Natalie had an appointment down in Fort Payne and shared that it was with a grief counselor. It had been such a busy day, there hadn’t been a chance to ask her how it had gone.
Faylene said, “If you’re hungry, Natalie, Gideon brought loads of food, on account of him trying to woo Anna Kate.”
Natalie’s gaze flew to mine, and I gave a small shake of my head. She smiled. “Is that homemade fried chicken? Must be he’s in love already.”
Faylene nodded. “This is what I’m sayin’. It’s plain as day to anyone with eyes.”
Gideon looked pointedly at Natalie. “Just when I was going to tell you that it’s nice to have you back in town. Now I’m not so sure.”
It struck me as odd that Gideon hadn’t caught up with Natalie before now, but then again, she tended to keep to herself even more than I did, and with his early morning visits to the café, he was long gone well before she started her shifts.
She laughed. “I do like your honesty, Gideon. It’s an important quality in a mate, Anna Kate. Top of the list.”
Gideon hung his head and groaned.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said, picking at the edge of the blanket.
“Hihi!” Ollie ran forward and flung herself at me.
I was caught off guard, and she nearly knocked me over. “Hi, Ollie.” I laughed as she settled herself in my lap, snuggling in close. I set her princess dress to rights and tried to soak in as much of her joy before she flung herself at someone else.
“I’m glad I ran into you, Faylene,” Natalie said, unzipping the diaper bag. “I was hoping I would. I finally have those headbands you ordered for Lindy-Lou. Sorry it took me longer than I thought.”
Faylene wiped her greasy hands with a wet nap and said, “I wasn’t expecting them for another week or two, honey, so don’t you worry none.” Faylene made quick work of opening the tissue-wrapped package. She gasped. “Oh, Natalie! These are precious. Absolutely precious.”
They were. There were three headbands in varying thicknesses, covered in colorful patterned fabric and decorated with large flowers. I recognized the style as one Ollie wore often. It was easy to see that Natalie had a great eye for color and patterns.
Ollie wasn’t wearing a headband tonight, however. Her soft hair was down and loose and smelled faintly of chlorine and sunshine. She pushed off me to reclaim her tractor from Cam and then went about driving it over Gideon’s head. He didn’t seem to mind, which made me like him even more than I already did.
“Ollie,” Natalie warned. “Not on the top of his head, please.”
Ollie barely broke stride as she shifted to running the tractor over his face instead.
“To be fair,” he said, laughing, “it’s not the top of my head.”
Natalie smiled, then asked Ollie to please move her playing to the ground.
Cam, I noticed, had stood up and started taking pictures. Of us, the crowd, the fireflies. Every so often, he’d lower the camera and I’d see his gaze wander to Natalie.
Almost as much as I saw Natalie’s gaze wander to him.
&n
bsp; Maybe Faylene was on to something with pairing them up.
Marcy took one of the headbands Faylene held. “These are beautiful, Natalie. The craftsmanship is outstanding. Most headbands are flimsy and not nearly full of this much personality. Could you make more of them? I can sell them at Hodgepodge on consignment.”
“Really?” Natalie asked. “That would be great.”
“Come by tomorrow. We’ll work out the details. Oh my word, are these individual petals on this flower?”
With a pleased smile, Natalie looked to be glowing from the inside out. “They are. Adding them piecemeal allows me to mix and match fabrics and textures. Gives it more visual interest, I think.”
“I’ll say so,” Marcy said, eyeing her sleeping daughter as though wanting to try one of the headbands on her right away, but then seeming to dismiss the idea as quickly as it came. “I’ll need more for Lindy-Lou as well. They’re darling.”
Faylene puffed up as she looked between Natalie and her daughter. She pulled her shoulders back and held her chin high, looking like a proud mama hen. “C’mon, let’s get you something to eat, honey,” she said to Natalie. “I wasn’t kidding about all the food Gideon brought.”
“She really wasn’t,” he said over his shoulder. “Help yourself.”
Shifting on the blanket, Natalie said, “I wish I could, but I can’t stay but a minute more. My parents will be along shortly, and Ollie and I will be sitting with them for the movie.”
My stomach went sour at the mere thought of seeing Doc and Seelie. I’d known it had been a risk coming here tonight, but now I wanted nothing more than to run.
“Have you met Seelie yet, Anna Kate?” Faylene asked.
I wiped my hands on my shorts. “No.”
I didn’t know, upon seeing her, how I was going to react. As much as I told myself to keep any meeting civil, to act distant, cold even, I didn’t know if I could do it. There were twenty-four years of bottled-up emotions stuck inside me. Holding back those feelings wasn’t going to be easy.
Faylene let out a low whistle and looked around as if sizing up escape routes.
As Ollie continued to zoom her tractor around the blanket, Gideon said, “Do you want to leave, Anna Kate?”
My mouth went dry as they all watched me, waiting for my answer. As much as I wanted to stand up and run all the way back to the café to avoid making any kind of spectacle here tonight, it might be better if my grandmother and I met this way, when I had all this support behind me.
“No,” I finally said. “Might as well get it over with, right?”
Faylene coughed. “That’s real brave of you, Anna Kate.”
“There’s nothing to worry about,” Marcy said. “I’ve never met a woman more southern than Seelie Earl Linden. The last thing she’ll do is make a scene. Especially with all these people around. She’d rather dig her own grave and throw herself in.”
It wasn’t Seelie I was afraid of making a scene. It was me. “Maybe we should go,” I said to Gideon.
Without missing a beat, he started packing up the basket. Faylene helped. Natalie, too.
My pulse raced as I tugged at the blanket, trying to get it out from under Gideon while he was still sitting on it.
Ollie came over and held her hand out. “Tactor?”
“Thank you, Ollie,” I said, crouching to her level. “But you should hold on to it.”
Her sweet face crumpled. “Tactor!”
I quickly took it from her. “Thank you. Vroom, vroom.” I ran the tractor over her feet and she laughed.
For a second, all was right in my world. There was something about Ollie’s happiness, her laughter, that brought me peace. I wanted to stay in this moment forever.
But then her eyes went wide at something she saw behind me, and she yelled, “Gaddy!”
“Oh no,” Marcy whispered. “Too late.”
I looked behind me in time to see Doc Linden lift Ollie into his arms. Seelie stood at his side. I slowly stood up to face, head-on, the woman who’d sent my mother through hell.
Seelie didn’t look like I had imagined, either. In my mind, she’d resembled an evil queen from a children’s fairy tale. Tall with high, sharp cheekbones, pointed chin, thin lips. Beady dark eyes, dark hair in a tight bun, long bloodred fingernails.
Seelie was none of those things. She was about my height, five foot seven, with white-blond hair that had cinnamon highlights. A heart-shaped face was aging gracefully. Her large blue eyes flew open when she spotted me, and then narrowed on the tractor I held, before lifting to meet my gaze once again. Her hand went straight to a double strand of pearls, gripping them tightly.
My heart pounded as I searched for something, anything, to say and found nothing at all.
Seelie’s gaze didn’t waver from my face as it swept from feature to feature. She swayed and Doc grabbed onto her arm to hold her steady.
“She … AJ. Oh my Lord,” Seelie said so softly I almost didn’t hear her.
“Mama?” Natalie said, coming up beside me.
As Seelie continued to stare at me, she blinked, once, twice, and pools of tears gathered in her eyes but didn’t fall. She took a furtive look around and saw everyone nearby watching her. Watching us. Abruptly, she turned on her heels and rushed off.
Doc handed Ollie to Natalie and went after his wife.
“Bye! Bye!” Ollie waved her arm.
Stunned, I watched Seelie go, feeling a mix of relief … and confusing sadness. I hadn’t seen the evilness I’d expected in her eyes. Or any cold, calculating intentions.
I’d seen only the sudden, heartbreaking realization of all she had lost.
And there was nothing remotely satisfying in that.
Because in that moment of locking eyes with her, I suddenly realized all I’d lost, too. It was a devastating feeling.
“Well, look at that,” Faylene said with an awestruck sigh as she came up next to Natalie and me. “I didn’t think it was possible, but Anna Kate’s done it. With just one look, she managed to crack Seelie’s steely core flat open. And I’ll be damned if there wasn’t a heart hiding in there after all.”
15
“You’ve lived next door to the café for five years now, but you didn’t know the blackbirds were a rare species not commonly found in the United States?” the reporter asked.
“I knew they were special,” Gideon Kipling said. “The former owner of the café protected the birds fiercely. Didn’t let anyone close to them.”
“Didn’t that level of protection strike you as odd?”
“Lots of things strike me as odd in this town.”
He tapped his pen. “Let me get straight to my point. Do you think the previous owner was hiding something?”
Gideon folded his hands on the table. “Aren’t we all?”
Natalie
I pulled open the front door of the little house late Sunday afternoon. It was just after three o’clock, and Ollie was still napping. “Come in, come in. I thought for sure you’d had a moment of insanity when you called earlier. Have you considered seeking medical attention immediately? Could be you’re having an aneurysm or something.”
Anna Kate clutched a foil-wrapped platter with both hands. “Having my head examined might not be a bad idea. I’m not sure what I’m doing.”
That made two of us. When Anna Kate had called this morning and asked me to let Doc know that she decided to accept his Sunday supper invitation after all, I about fell over. I suggested she come here first, so we could walk over to the big house together in hopes of taking some of the strain off Anna Kate. “Ollie’s still napping, and I’m letting her sleep as long as possible. She’s grumpy if she wakes up too soon, and we don’t want that at supper tonight on top of everything else.”
“Why not? I hear grumpy pairs well with awkwardness and discomfort.”
“As tasty as that particular menu sounds, I think I’ll let her keep sleeping a few minutes more.”
“Cute place,” Anna Kate said as she
followed me inside. She wore white denim capris and a teal-blue sleeveless blouse that brought out the green in her eyes. I hoped to the heavens that Mama wouldn’t say anything about the rubber flip-flops.
“It is that. Mama has good taste. It’s the free rent that makes it especially attractive, but I’ll be moving as soon as I can.”
Light glinted off the copper in Anna Kate’s eyebrows as they furrowed. “Really? Where?”
“An apartment in town. Maybe a rental house if I can swing it. Just…” I’d been about to say “away from here” but realized it wasn’t the whole truth. “I want to be independent, stand on my own two feet. I really envy you, Anna Kate. It’s inspiring how you came here and picked up running the café like it was no big deal. I could never do something like that.”
“It was a big deal, and yes, you could. Your success at the café is proof—look how you stepped right in without batting an eye. Besides, being independent isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I can’t tell you how many times I wished to have a normal, stable life growing up. Like you.”
“Normal is in the eyes of the beholder, I suppose.” I gestured to Anna Kate’s hands. “If you’re willing to let that dish go, you can set it on the kitchen counter and come sit down. I’m just cleaning up my mess.” I’d been working on sewing projects while Ollie slept.
Anna Kate glanced down as if not realizing how tightly she was gripping the platter, then laughed as she set it down. “I guess I’m a bit nervous.”
“I have to admit, I am too. Mostly because I don’t know what to expect.” I knelt in front of the coffee table and went about picking up the notions I had spread out. The lace, ribbon, pearls, and sequins. I’d been crafting items to sell at Hodgepodge. Marcy Kolbaugh had been excited at my ideas for designs to sell in the shop.
Anna Kate sat on the floor on the other side of the coffee table, and rested her hands on her knees. “You and me both. What did your parents say when you told them I was coming?”
“Daddy smiled. He gets this glint in his eyes when he’s happy—he was glinting like crazy. I didn’t see my mother. She’s been in hiding since the incident. He says she’s fine, just sorting through her feelings.”
Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe Page 18
