Sweet Tea Sunrise

by Rachel Hanna

  "We do stupid things when we’re young. I know I made a lot of choices I regret in my life.“

  "Yeah, but what kind of loyalty did I show? I don't know why I took off and didn't even keep in touch. I think I just worried that she wouldn't want to speak to me. Then the years went by, I got married, my wife passed away. So much water under the bridge."

  "But here you are now. Why?"

  Travis reeled in his line and then threw it out again. "I guess because I'm getting older. I found myself thinking about her more and more as I got back out into the dating scene. I didn't even know if she was married or with someone, so I had my mom do a little bit of reconnaissance. When I found out she's still single, I decided to take a chance."

  “So, you're here for love?"

  "I guess you could say that."

  "And how exactly are you going to accomplish this?"

  Travis shrugged his shoulders. "Well, you see, I didn't get much beyond the romantic plan of getting her back. I have not a clue what I'm going to do."

  Jack looked at him, a smile spreading across his face. "Maybe I can help you with that."

  "Oh yeah?"

  "Look, this place is pretty boring so far, so why don't you let me help you craft a plan. At least it'll be something to pass the time."

  Travis nodded. "I can use all the help I can get."

  Mia was surprised that Sylvia stayed behind when the men went fishing. Kate had a date with Cooper. They were apparently going bowling, something she never imagined that her new sister would do. She just didn't seem like the bowling type.

  "I can finish cleaning up," Mia said, kind of hoping Sylvia would go upstairs. She liked to be left alone when doing housework. It gave her time to think, and it was a wonderful stress reliever.

  "I don't mind. And who knows how long Jack will be out by that lake. He loves the water."

  "Me too. I could sit out there all day," Mia said as she wiped down the breakfast bar countertop. It wasn't dirty, but she loved to keep a clean house. It was something her mother had taught her well.

  "So, you mentioned your mother passed away. Mind if I ask what happened?”

  “She died of cancer a few months ago." Mia hated saying the word cancer. It brought up so many memories that she wanted to forget. The visions of her mother going through that process in the last months of her life made her want to cry all over again.

  "I'm so sorry to hear that. Losing a parent is incredibly hard. Were you close?"

  Mia washed the sponge in the sink and then rung it out, setting it in the little holder that was suction cupped to the wall. "Very. It was just me and her most of the time growing up, and we ran this place together. I miss her every day."

  "That story about you and your sister meeting is something else," Sylvia said.

  Mia really hated small talk. And as much as she loved interacting with her guests, she preferred to keep her personal business out of it. Something about people knowing the intimate details of her life made her uncomfortable at times.

  "Yes, it was an unexpected blessing. Momma would've been so excited to meet Kate. I'm just sorry that she never had the chance."

  "Is that a picture of your mom?" Sylvia asked, pointing at a framed photo on the fireplace. She walked over and picked it up, staring at it closely.

  Mia joined her in the living room. "That's her. That was taken about three years ago. We had such a good time running this place together. Sometimes I don't think I do nearly as good a job, but I strive to be like her every day."

  Sylvia smiled. "She sounds like an incredible woman."

  "No, she was an incredible human being. Everybody wanted to be like Charlene. All of our guests loved her. She had this amazing spirit that just permeated a room. There will never be anybody else like her." Her mother had been one of those people that made everyone around her feel good, even when she felt bad herself. Even in her illness, she smiled and greeted every guest until she could no longer stand on her feet anymore. She fought until the bitter end.

  Sylvia put the picture back on the mantle. "It sounds like you were very lucky to have her."

  Mia smiled. "I was."

  “You don't know your father then?" Sylvia asked as she walked over and sat down on the sofa. Not wanting to be impolite, Mia followed suit and sat in the chair.

  "No. I don't know anything about him, although recently I did get a connection on the DNA website. I've reached out, but he hasn't responded. I don't even think he knows that I exist."

  "Oh. Did it tell you much about him?"

  "No. No name or identifying information. I'm just sort of hoping that maybe he will reach out at some point. Honestly, I don't know what kind of person he is. Maybe I don't want to know him."

  "I'm sure your mom had great taste," Sylvia said.

  "Hopefully so. I don't know anything. She never would talk about him at all."

  “Did you wonder why she wouldn’t talk about him?”

  "I have many times over the years. But I guess I might not ever get the answer."

  “That would be sad, huh? Never knowing your father?”

  “It would be, but I had such a wonderful mother that she more than made up for anything I think I would’ve missed. I prefer to leave it all in God’s hands, you know?” In reality, she wanted to know her father more than anything. Just having another biological link would give her the stability she desperately needed after losing her mother.

  Sylvia smiled graciously. “I’m sure things will work out like they’re supposed to.”

  Chapter Five

  Kate stood there, staring at the ten pins still standing, her ball disappearing into the dark depths of the gutter.

  "I told you I suck at this game!" she said. Cooper laughed.

  "But you look really cute throwing your ball."

  She put her hands on her hips. "I don't think the people two lanes over thought it was really cute when my ball ended up in their lane!" She playfully stormed back over to the little plastic chair and sat down.

  "You have to keep them on their toes," Cooper said, picking up his ball and holding it up in the air to line it up with the pins. His arm came back and then tossed the ball forward. Kate watched as it went straight down the middle and knocked down all ten pins, giving him yet another strike.

  This was embarrassing. She prided herself on being good at things, but bowling definitely wasn't one of them.

  "And that's the game," she said, praying to God that he didn't want to play again. They had already played three games, and she was getting tired of losing.

  "I'm going to assume that you don't want to play again?" Cooper asked, with a wink. She hated that he was so cute. Right now she wanted to slug him, her competitive spirit bubbling just under the surface.

  "I think I've had enough for tonight," she said, as she leaned over and took off the God awful clown shoes she had been forced to wear. Several different shades of brown accented by one patch of orange. They were the ugliest things she'd seen in a while.

  He sat down across from her and started taking off his shoes. "You know, they have an arcade here."

  Kate laughed. "Are you saying you want to spend the rest of the evening playing Pac-Man or something?"

  "I'm pretty sure Pac-Man isn't really all the rage these days. Most of the kids in here wouldn't even know what that was."

  She nodded. "You're probably right. Although, I did see an air hockey table."

  He looked at her carefully. "And you think you can beat me at air hockey?”

  "No. I know I can beat you at air hockey.”

  Cooper chuckled. "That sounds like a challenge to me."

  "Are you up for it?"

  He stared at her for a long moment. "If we're going to have an actual challenge, don't you think we should have a prize?"

  "Okay. What kind of prize?"

  "Well, if I win, you have to cook me dinner at the B&B and have a candlelight meal in the gazebo."

  "And if I win?"

  "Well, what
do you want?"

  “Hmmm… Let me think… If I win, you have to strip down to your boxer shorts and jump in that freezing cold lake."

  Cooper's eyes widened. "Wow. That's really mean!"

  "Then I guess you better win," Kate said, hitting his leg with her bowling shoes before trotting off to return them.

  Mia was kind of enjoying having the house to herself for a little while. Her sister and Cooper were still on their date, and Sylvia and Jack had decided to go listen to some music at a place in town. She got the feeling that there was some conflict between the two of them, but she couldn't quite put a finger on it.

  So far, she hadn’t gotten to know much about Jack. He was kind of standoffish, obviously not super happy to be there. She didn't know why, but it wasn't her job to know. She was just the owner of a bed-and-breakfast, and she couldn't get too involved in other people’s affairs.

  She walked upstairs and slowly opened the door to her mother’s office. It was difficult going through everything, and sometimes she enjoyed having Kate there to help her. Other times, she just needed a moment to herself, just a minute to reflect on how much she truly missed her mother. Her smile. Her life. Her incredible sense of graciousness and southern hospitality. But mostly the way that she made Mia feel like everything was going to be okay, no matter what the world threw at her.

  Over the last few days, she had managed to clean the top of her mother’s desk as well as the file cabinet. Most of it wasn't anything personal, just a lot of old files and tax paperwork. She had decided she would put most of them in the safe, just in case their accountant ever needed any of it.

  Tonight, she was going to start tackling the closet. It was the place she was most likely to find something more personal of her mother’s, and she wasn't sure whether to be excited or nervous.

  Since finding her raincoat in the closet the other day, she hadn't opened it again. She knew there was a lot more behind that door that she needed to go through, things that her mother had never shown her in all her years of life.

  She reached onto the shelf and pulled off a worn cardboard box. Charlene's name was written on the side of it. It was probably things that she took with her when she moved out of her own mother’s house.

  She set the box on the desk and opened it up. A plume of dust assaulted her nose as she let out a sneeze and wiped at the dust in air with her hand.

  Most of what she found were pictures of Charlene when she was little. Standing at preschool, holding up a paper turkey she’d made. Standing in front of the Christmas tree. Standing with her mother in what was probably her Easter dress. All of the requisite pictures one would expect. There were also pictures of Mia when she was little, some that she had never seen before. Her mother holding her as a newborn. Her mother rocking her in her grandmother’s old rocking chair. Mia smiled when she saw those younger versions of her mother. It made her seem more alive again.

  When she finished going through the box, she sealed it up and placed it back on the shelf. One day, she would get some nice photo albums to display all of the pictures. For now, she just didn't have the time to give it the energy that it needed.

  Just as she was about to shut the closet door, she saw a floral box in the back corner. She’d never seen this box before, and it didn't have anything written on it. It wasn't overly big, but it was a beautiful, old box.

  She stood up on her tiptoes, trying to reach it as best she could, but to no avail. Being short definitely had its drawbacks, and this was one of the moments.

  She decided that it was futile; there was no way she was going to be able to reach that box without some help. Remembering that there was a footstool in Travis's room, she decided to go swipe it while he was gone. She hadn't seen him since he went fishing with Jack earlier in the evening, so she had to assume that he had gone to visit his parents.

  She poked her head out the door and saw that Travis's door was closed. She walked over and tapped on it lightly, nobody answering. She knocked a little harder, but again no answer. After waiting a few extra moments, she turned the handle and pushed the door open. Thankfully, his room was dark. She flipped on the light and walked over to pick up the stool. Just as she picked it up and headed back out into the hallway, the bathroom door opened.

  In that moment, she was very lucky not to have broken her toe by dropping the stool.

  Time stood still as she found herself staring face-to-face with Travis wearing nothing but a fluffy white towel. His hair was wet, his body glistening, his muscles better than they had been in high school. Where did he get such a good tan at this time of the year? And how strong was that towel? Was it going to fall down at any moment? Was there a chance she might just rip it right off and snatch it away?

  “Travis!"

  "Mia?”

  "What are you doing here? I didn't even know you were home."

  "I was taking a shower…" he said, pointing at the bathroom behind him.

  "Why didn't I hear the water?" Realizing the washing machine was also running downstairs, she hadn’t put two and two together when she heard the water running through the pipes earlier.

  "I'm sorry, Mia. I didn't know there were rules against me taking a shower.”

  She could feel her face turning redder and redder. This was the part of having an Irish heritage that she hated. "And you were just gonna walk out here in the hallway wearing nothing but a towel?"

  "My room is two feet away. I thought I would be safe,” he said with a wink.

  "Next time, wear a bathrobe or something," she said, quickly turning and heading back toward the office. She slammed the door behind her, put the stool on the floor in front of the closet and took in a deep breath.

  She couldn't believe what she just saw. Why was he even more handsome in his thirties than he was when he was sixteen years old? Everything had filled out. Even those little crows’ feet around his eyes were handsome. He looked like he could be one of those anchormen on TV.

  She had never expected to feel this way about anyone again, and certainly not Travis Norton. Something about him just got under her skin. Memories flooded back every time she looked at him, and so did regrets.

  Trying to push away the past, she stepped up onto the stool to reach for the box again. Still, her arms were too short. Why was this dang closet so deep? For a moment, she considered just climbing onto the top shelf, but with her luck it would probably come crashing down and she’d split her head open. And then Travis would have to use that white towel to stop the bleeding and…

  "Do you need some help?" he said from the doorway. She needed to get her hearing checked. First she hadn't heard the shower and now she hadn't heard him open the door.

  "You're trespassing." She knew it was a stupid statement, but it was all she could think of at the time.

  "I don't think so. I'm paying to stay here." He smiled that lazy smile that made her want to kick him in the teeth. Or maybe kiss him. She couldn't tell which one.

  "What do you want?"

  "I'd like to help you," he said. Thankfully, now he was wearing a pair of gray gym shorts and a lighter gray T-shirt. His hair was still wet, although combed. There was a little piece of it that hung in his face, but it didn't look messy. It looked sexy, and that made her mad.

  "No, I've got it."

  She turned to ignore him, and tried reaching up again. This time, she hadn't paid close enough attention to where her feet were positioned on the stool. Her tiptoes were on the edge and, before she knew it, the stool was tipping over toward the closet, about to send her into a wonderful face plant against the wooden shelf.

  Before that could happen, somehow within a split second, she felt his strong arms around her waist, pulling her backward. She was holding onto the shelf so tightly that the force pulled it out of the wall with them. Travis fell to the floor on his back, and Mia landed on top of him on her back while a whole host of boxes fell on top of them both. Of course, none of them were the floral box. She could see it still sitting on its littl
e shelf in the back corner, dang it.

  Then, there was silence. Had he been knocked out? Did she need to call the ambulance? They both just laid there, neither of them moving, his arms still firmly around her waist. She saw his fingers move, and at least she knew he was still alive.

  "Are you okay?” she asked.

  "I think so. I might have a headache."

  She did her best to push off the boxes and pictures that had landed on top of her and scooted herself around to face him. This was bad news. She was currently laying on top of Travis Norton, now face-to-face.

  "Are you all right?” he asked her. Oh Lord. Looking into his eyes was like going home again. She had to get up, and fast.

  She scooted off of him and onto the floor next to him.

  "I'm fine. I don't know why you grabbed me. I pulled the darn shelf out of the wall!”

  "I'll help you fix it."

  He slowly sat up, rubbing the back of his head. "And I'll have you know, if I hadn't grabbed you, you were going to hit that pretty little face of yours right on the wood."

  He said she had a pretty face. Don't get distracted. Don't get distracted.

  "I don't need you to fix it. I can fix it. Or I'll get Cooper to do it."

  "Cooper? Cooper from high school?"

  "The very same one."

  "Don't tell me you're dating Cooper!"

  "What if I'm married to him?" she said, unsure of why she was poking and prodding him like this.

  "You're married to Cooper?"

  Mia chuckled loudly. "Of course I'm not married to Cooper. But he is dating my sister. "

  "After how he treated you in high school? I'm surprised you let that idiot anywhere around you."

  She sighed. "At first, I didn't. But he and my sister are falling for each other, and he apologized. In fact, he built my deck and my gazebo out back. For free."

  "So your love can be purchased?"

  "Talk to me after you build me a gazebo," she said, sarcastically. She stood up and started gathering things back into the boxes.

  She could've asked him to get the floral box for her, but she didn't want to give him the satisfaction. Right now, she just wanted to get him out of her mother’s office.