“Go get her and come back.” Jamie patted the space on the mattress next to her. “I’ll save your spot.”
ROAD CONSTRUCTION ON the interstate and a major accident meant Jamie’s trip to Caryville took about ninety minutes longer than she’d anticipated. The added time behind the wheel of her rental car had given her more time to think, and by the time she reached her childhood home, she was pretty sure she knew how to handle things with Sis. She’d hated the look on Dan’s face when she told him she needed some time to herself, but she’d been as honest as she could be. It had been difficult for him to understand that the space was about the changes in her life and how she would deal with them. She suspected that he equated time alone with needing a break from him, which was the last thing she wanted. He was just going to have to trust her.
Once the whole story was public, she could never go back to being who she once was, and she wasn’t a hundred percent certain she was okay with that, despite her assurances to Barbara that she was okay with letting the world know the truth. She was starting to think of her life as having been split in two: before she found the letter in the desk drawer and after. What she needed was to reconcile the two, and she hadn’t figured out how to do that.
She parked in the driveway of her childhood home and sat for a moment. The house looked abandoned, even though they’d hired someone to mow the grass. Sis came over several times a week to keep the flower beds watered and deadheaded, but it was obvious that the house had lost its soul. It saddened Jamie to see the house she’d grown up in—the house she loved—looking so desolate.
Inside, the silence pervaded every nook and cranny. Jamie’s footsteps echoed as she crossed the hardwood floor to the kitchen. When she dropped her suitcase on the tiled floor, it sounded like a shot. That a home once so filled with love was now empty felt wrong. She walked from room to room, mourning the loss. She left by the front door and drove to Sis’s, hoping she’d find her aunt at home.
Sis was in her living room, watching game shows and doing a crossword puzzle, when Jamie rang the doorbell.
“Oh my Lord, Jamie!” Sis threw her arms around her niece. “I am so happy to see you. Why didn’t you call to let me know you were coming? Can you stay for dinner? Have you been by the house?”
“Can you take a breath?” Jamie laughed and hugged her aunt a second time.
“I guess things didn’t go so well in St. Dennis, since I didn’t hear from you.” Sis folded the newspaper and tossed it and the pen she’d been using on the coffee table. “I figured if anything came of your trip, you’d have called.”
“Actually, I found her. I found my birth mother.”
“Wha . . . ? How? Did you meet her? What’s she like? Is she a nice person? Or maybe you couldn’t tell just by meeting her one time.”
“Slow down and I’ll tell you everything.”
Jamie gave Sis the blow-by-blow, bringing her up-to-date through the night before, but leaving out the part about Dan spending most of the night in her bed instead of his own.
“Oh my Lord, Jamie,” Sis interjected about five times as Jamie recited the story.
“She’s a very nice person, Aunt Sis. I met her before I knew who she was, and I liked her right away.”
“Somehow you must have known. Something in you recognized—”
“Uh-uh. I had no clue. But I liked her because she was warm and fun and had a sense of humor and loved books. I think you’d like her.”
“Oh, I don’t know about meeting her, Jamie. What would your mother think?”
“Mom’s not here, and if Mom had been honest with me, I wouldn’t have been looking for this woman now.”
“It’s hard to argue with facts.” Sis got up and paced. “I have to tell you, Jamie, I feel like I’m betraying my sister, like she’s watching and won’t be happy about any of this. It’s one thing for you to meet this woman but something else entirely for me.”
“Try to look at it more as supporting me.”
“Are you going to have some sort of relationship with her? Is she going to be part of your life?”
“Maybe. Probably. Right now I don’t know how much a part, but yes, I think I will have a relationship with her.”
“Then maybe I should meet her.” Sis looked worried, and Jamie could tell she was uncertain.
“I would like that very much. I’m not suggesting that you become the best of friends, but it would mean a lot to me if you’d meet her. I think it would make me start to feel more whole.”
“I don’t know what that means, honey.”
“It means that I feel like I’ve been torn in half. I need to reconcile the two pieces of my life so I can move beyond all this—this whole Whose daughter am I, really? Like it or not, part of me is Caryville, but part of me is St. Dennis as well. I need to know that part, and I need you to know that part of me, too.”
“After all you’ve been through, there’s no way I can say no. So one of these days, sure, I’ll meet Barbara.”
“How about tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow?” Sis made a face. “I don’t think I can go tomorrow.”
“If you’re going to make an excuse, make it a good one. Not I have to water the garden or I have books due at the library.”
“Well, I do . . .”
“I’ll pay the fine. Come on, Aunt Sis. You’ll love St. Dennis. It’s a pretty town, there’s lots of history. And oh, some famous people live there. Dallas MacGregor. Beryl Townsend.” Sis’s eyes widened, and Jamie knew she’d used the right bait. Sis was a huge movie fan. “And I have it on good authority that when she’s in St. Dennis, Delia Enright stays at the same inn we’ll be staying in.”
“She’s my favorite author—after you, of course. I just finished her new book last week.” Sis looked suitably starstruck.
Jamie moved in for the kill. “I heard that Dallas is going to be shooting her first film in St. Dennis soon and will be looking for extras. Women of a certain age, so they say.”
“I’ll get my suitcase out of the guest room closet.”
“I MADE A decision about the house,” Jamie told Sis after they’d been on the road for a while. She wasn’t sure how her aunt would take the news, but it had to be discussed. “For a while, I thought I’d keep it, you know, stay there whenever I came to Caryville. But being there yesterday and sleeping there last night made me realize it’s not my house anymore. It needs a family to bring some life back to it. I almost felt that it had forgotten me. I know that sounds silly . . .”
“Not at all. I’ve noticed it, too. The air is dead there. Every time I go inside, I open the doors and all the windows to bring some fresh air in, but it doesn’t seem to help. I think the old place has lost its heart, Jamie. So if you’re thinking about selling it, I think that might be the right thing to do. I’m sure we can find a nice family to fill it.” Sis turned in her seat to face Jamie. “As a matter of fact, I ran into Karen Williams at church last week. You remember her?”
Jamie nodded. “She was a year ahead of me in school.”
“She said she was in your Brownie troop and remembered the picnics you used to have in the backyard.”
“I’d forgotten about that. Mom was one of the troop leaders.”
“Long story short, she said if you were going to sell, she and her husband were interested in buying.”
“When you get back to Caryville, give your Realtor friend a call and tell him. I think maybe we should just let it go.” Jamie turned the air-conditioning up a few degrees. The day had started off hot and gave every indication that it was going to get hotter. “I thought I’d feel Mom and Dad there, but I don’t.”
“I guess wherever they are, they’re together and don’t need to be tied to this world anymore.” Sis added hastily, “Which isn’t to say that your mother won’t know what’s going on with this Barbara woman or that she’ll be okay with it.�
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“I’ll take my chances,” Jamie told her.
They passed a few miles in silence, then Sis said, “I hope that selling the house doesn’t mean you’re cutting your ties to Caryville.”
“Of course not. You’re still there. Mom and Dad are buried there. My roots are there. Well, some of them are.” Jamie thought back to the one-sided conversation she’d had with her parents late yesterday afternoon when she visited the cemetery.
“You still have that lovely house in Princeton, so it’s not as if you’re going to be homeless.”
“Actually, I’m thinking about selling that house, too.”
“What? Why?”
“I’m thinking about buying a place in St. Dennis.” Jamie held her breath.
“So soon? You’re just going to pick up and move there so you can be close to your new family?”
“So I can be close to someone else who is very important to me.”
“Let me guess. You’ve met a man.”
Jamie nodded.
“Sweetie, do I need to remind you that you haven’t exactly been lucky in love?” Sis said gently.
“This time is different.”
“Oh, where have I heard that before?”
“No, really. You’ll see.”
“So I will be meeting him?”
Jamie nodded. “He owns the inn where we’ll be staying.”
“Does he know you’re thinking about selling everything and moving to St. Dennis?”
Jamie smiled. “Not yet, but he will.”
“YOU’RE LOOKING GLUM, my brother.” Ford stood in the doorway of Dan’s office and leaned against the jamb. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” Dan grumbled.
“This is your little bro you’re talking to here, bro.” Ford closed the door behind him and took a seat. “Talk to me.”
“Go away. I’m busy.” Dan shuffled some papers on his desk and picked up his phone, as if about to make a call.
Ford’s eyes narrowed. “It’s Jamie, isn’t it? Mom said she left unexpectedly and then came back and left again. What’s going on with her?”
“I really don’t know.”
“You’re full of it.” Ford leaned back and rested his feet on his brother’s desk. “I’m not leaving until you tell me.”
“Jamie came to St. Dennis to look for . . . for someone. She found what she was looking for, and now she doesn’t have any reason to stay here. I’m sure she’ll visit from time to time, but . . .” Dan sighed.
“But that’s not enough.”
“No. It isn’t enough.”
“Have you told her this?”
“Not in so many words.”
“Then maybe you need to man up, tell her that occasional visits might not work for you.”
“The truth is, if that’s all I can have of her, I’ll take it.”
“You’ve got it bad.”
Dan nodded. “Sad but true.”
“Where is she now?”
“She went back to her hometown. She has an aunt there, her only family.” Dan paused. “Oh, hell, you’re going to find out anyway. Just act surprised when you hear it.”
“Hear what?”
“Jamie was adopted as a newborn, but she didn’t know it until after both her parents died.”
“They never told her . . .” Ford shook his head. “That’s messed up. How’d she find out?”
“She found a letter from the attorney who handled the adoption. Curtis Enright.”
Ford digested the information. “So her birth mother is . . .”
“. . . from St. Dennis. That’s why she came here. That’s what she was looking for. Now that Jamie’s found her . . .”
“She found her? How?”
“Long story. But the point is, now that her search is over, I don’t know how much time she’ll be spending here.”
“Does she know how you feel?”
“I hope so.”
“Which means you haven’t told her, have you?”
“Not exactly.”
“Take a little advice from your little brother. When you find someone who fills all the places in your heart, you hold on.” He grinned. “And if you ever tell anyone I said that, I will kill you.” He took a small box from his back pocket and tossed it to Dan. “I stopped at Harris’s this morning and picked up this.”
Dan opened the box, then whistled. “That’s some rock, buddy.” He looked up at Ford. “Does Carly know she’s getting this?”
Ford shook his head. “I’m planning on giving it to her tonight.”
“Well, I can’t say I didn’t see it coming. Congratulations, Ford. I know you and Carly will be very happy together. She’s a great girl.”
“She’s the best, and yeah, we’re really happy.”
“If you’re planning on getting married here at the inn, better talk to Lucy. We’re booked into next fall already.”
“We’ll work something out.” Ford stood and held his hand out for the box, and Dan tossed it back to him. “I need to get going. Delia Enright is here this weekend, and she’s agreed to let me interview her, and I have about three minutes to get to her suite.”
“Tell her I said hi.”
“She’s here over the weekend for the baby shower for Brooke and Jesse’s baby. All of Jesse’s half sibs—Delia’s kids—are here, so Delia came as well. I think she comes to hang out with Mom.”
“Everyone likes to hang with Mom.”
“True.” Ford walked to the door. Before he opened it, he asked, “So Jamie’s birth mother. Is it someone we know?”
Dan nodded. “Barbara Noonan.”
Ford’s eyes grew wide. “Barbara the bookseller?”
“Yes.”
“Barbara the bookseller and Jamie the writer,” Ford mused. “Somehow, that’s very cool.”
“Yeah, cool,” Dan muttered to himself. He couldn’t help but wish it had taken Jamie a little longer to figure it out. She’d have stayed in St. Dennis longer, spent more time with him, and maybe she’d have come to see that this was where she belonged. He knew it as surely as he knew he belonged here, too. But that was something Jamie would figure out on her own or not. It was the “not” that had Dan worried. What if she didn’t feel the pull toward him as strongly as he was drawn to her? He hadn’t heard from her since she’d left, and he was afraid that her connection to her home and hometown might be stronger than her connection to him. If she decided to stay there, what would that mean for them?
There wouldn’t be a “them.” There’d be Dan living his life in St. Dennis and Jamie doing her thing in Caryville. So much for his gut feeling that he’d found the one.
He left his office and went into the lobby, which was filling up with both arriving and departing guests. The desk clerk was swamped and the line was growing. Dan stepped in to give her a hand. The computer screen had a list of registered guests as well as reservations. He glanced at the screen quickly, then looked back to make sure he hadn’t misread the name. J. Valentine. Two guests. Arriving today.
Why hadn’t she called him to let him know she was coming? Who was she bringing with her, and how long would she stay? His eyes kept returning to the door even as he greeted his guests and wished them a happy weekend in St. Dennis.
Finally, around four, Dan looked up and saw her coming through the double doors, and his heart stood still. He left his post at the registration desk and walked toward her. When she saw him, she smiled, and as always, that smile dazzled him.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hey, you.”
“I just saw your name on the register,” he said. “Why didn’t you call?”
“Because I wanted to surprise you.”
“I missed you.”
“I haven’t been gone very long,” she reminded him.
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“Still . . .”
“I missed you, too,” she said softly.
Their gaze locked, and he held her by both shoulders to stop himself from pulling her into his arms and kissing her senseless in front of the entire inn.
“Dan, this is my aunt Sis. My mother’s sister. I told you about her.” Jamie stepped aside, and Dan saw a woman in her sixties with pale strawberry blond hair and an expression that bored right through him.
“I’ve heard a lot about you,” he said, offering his hand.
“I’ve heard about you, too.” She took his hand and shook it. “My niece tells me you’re something special. I hope she’s right.”
Caught off guard, Dan nodded. “She’s very special to me, too.”
“Well, let’s hope . . .” Sis paused, her attention drawn to something behind Dan.
“Dan.” Grace was approaching in her wheelchair. “Son . . . Oh, hello, Jamie. That was a quick trip.”
“It didn’t take as long as I thought it would to do what I had to do,” Jamie explained. “Grace, this is my aunt, Evelyn McCoy. Aunt Sis, meet Grace Sinclair, Dan’s mother.”
“How do you do?” Sis said somewhat stiffly.
“I’m doing well, thank you.” Grace held her hand out as another woman approached them. “Delia, this is Jamie Valentine—you probably know her as J. L. Valentine.”
“Of course.” Delia Enright, stately and cordial as always, smiled at Jamie. “We share an agency, I believe.”
“We do.” Jamie returned the smile and took the arm of her speechless aunt. “Aunt Sis, Delia Enright.”
“Oh my goodness, I’m such a fan,” Sis blurted. “I just finished your new book.”
“What did you think?” Delia asked. “Too gory?”
“Not at all. I thought that Aaron character deserved everything he got.”
That Chesapeake Summer (Chesapeake Diaries Book 9) Page 29
