At the River’s Edge

by Mariah Stewart

  “What was that he said, about spelling …?” Sophie whispered.

  “Just something he’d asked me to look up for him, dear,” Violet said without taking her eyes from her old friend’s face. “There are so few of us left, you know, from that time. My husband’s long gone—Rose, too—so many of our friends.” She shook her head. “It’s hard to see another leave this place.”

  “Do you think he’s really going to …?” Sophie couldn’t bring herself to say the word.

  “It’s not for me to say.”

  Sophie sat on the side of the bed and watched her grandfather’s labored breathing. “Do you believe all that stuff about my grandmother? You know, about her being in the house, just waiting for him …?”

  Violet nodded. “I do.”

  “Even though you couldn’t see her?”

  “I’m not so sure that sometimes I didn’t.” Violet smiled. “Though that’s neither here nor there. We can’t see love or friendship, but we know those things are real.”

  “That’s not the same as seeing ghosts.”

  “Ghost is just a word, and a misunderstood concept at best. Who’s to say what form we’ll take, or what we’ll find when we pass from this world to the next?”

  “So you believe …”

  “Oh, in so many things, dear. Perhaps someday, you will, too, if you live long enough.” Violet glanced at the figure on the bed, then looked up at Sophie. “Perhaps you should get your brother now.”

  Sophie sent a text to Jesse, telling him to come to Curtis’s room. She waited for him in the hall outside the room, wanting to give Violet a few moments alone with her old friend. Jesse and Brooke were there in a flash, but when they entered the room, they were shocked to find Curtis’s eyes wide open.

  “Tell me the truth, Vi,” he was saying, “were you one of the ones who dabbled?”

  Before she could respond, Sophie and Jesse descended upon him.

  “Pop! You’re awake!”

  “Oh, my God,” Sophie exclaimed, “you’re awake!” She tried to grab the buzzer to summon the nurse, but her grandfather took it from her hand.

  “Don’t be calling people to come in here, now. They’ll start poking and prodding again,” he grumbled. He glanced up at Sophie and saw the tears on her face. “What’s all that about?”

  “Pop, we were afraid we were going to lose you,” she told him.

  “I thought I was going,” he told them, “but apparently I’ve more to do here before I go for good. Damn it. Thought I was going to make it this time, but something sent me back.”

  “We’re all glad you’re here, Pop,” Jesse said.

  “I’ll bet you called Mike, didn’t you?” Curtis tried to sit up.

  “I did.” Jesse nodded. “Nick and the others, too.”

  “Well, call ’em all back and tell them not to bother. I just saw everyone a month or so ago. Especially Mike. He’ll be fussing, trying to bully someone into letting him get on a plane tonight. Tell him to save his energy.” Curtis fumbled with the controls for the bed, trying to sit upright.

  “Maybe you shouldn’t sit up until the nurse comes in,” Brooke said.

  Curtis responded with a dirty look while he continued to adjust the bed.

  “He’s back to normal,” Violet announced.

  “Apparently,” Jesse agreed.

  “Now, if you’ll all go away, I want to talk to Jesse alone.”

  “Not until I have my say.” Violet drew herself up in the chair. “You gave us a damned hard scare, Curtis. Took a few years off me, and I don’t know that I have that many to spare. I think it’s high time you moved out of that big house. You can’t continue to live on your own anymore.”

  When Curtis started to protest, she shut him down.

  “It’s not an option. Had it not been for Jason’s quick thinking, you might have gotten your wish and we’d be making funeral arrangements right now. It’s time to give it up, Curtis.”

  “I am not moving to a home,” he said indignantly. “Never.”

  “You can move to my home,” Violet told him. “You can stay with me.”

  “Are you suggesting we cohabitate, Vi?”

  “Call it what you will.” She sniffed.

  “We’ll be the talk of the town. Why, I can hear the gossip mill starting to grind already.”

  “I’d think that at your age, you’d be flattered.”

  Violet stood, then turned to Jesse. “You make him understand that he cannot continue to live alone.”

  “I’m not deaf, and I’m not stupid,” Curtis grumbled.

  “Then act like it.”

  “What’s wrong with my house? Why don’t you move in with me, you’re so set on us living together.”

  “Your house is too big. Mine is just right.”

  “What about Rose?” His voice softened. “I can’t leave Rose behind.”

  “She’ll know where to find you.”

  Violet walked out the door and waited for Sophie in the hallway.

  Sophie caught up with her a few moments later. “Guess you told him.” She grinned.

  “What do you suppose he’ll do?” Violet’s concern was evident.

  “He’ll go to your place when he leaves here,” Sophie assured her. “Jesse just told him he wasn’t going to go back to the house, and he could choose to go along with your suggestion, or he could go to Florida to live with Mike, or he could go to an assisted living facility. I think we all know which of the three he’ll choose. But are you sure you want to take him on? He can be a handful, not to mention that he’s a grumpy old man at times.”

  Violet laughed. “I’ve known that grumpy old man for seventysome years, worked for him for sixty. I can handle Curtis Enright. His bluster never bothered me.” She sobered for a moment. “It’s the least I can do for him and for Rose.”

  “I think that your plan is the best,” Sophie assured her.

  “Well, then, I think I’d like to go home now, if you wouldn’t mind taking me. I think this old lady has had enough excitement for one night.” Violet reached for Sophie’s arm and leaned on it.

  It occurred to Sophie that she’d never known Violet to need assistance before, but she wasn’t sure if it was physical or emotional fatigue that caused the older woman to want to lean on someone else.

  “Oh, wait one second.” Sophie ducked back into the room. “Jess, I’ll make the phone calls to Nick and Mike, but I’ll need their numbers.”

  Jesse, already deep in conversation with their grandfather, handed her his phone. “You can get the numbers from there, then leave it with Brooke.”

  “I was just on my way back to the waiting room,” Brooke told her. “Let’s do this outside.”

  Once in the hall, Brooke whispered, “Your grandfather isn’t taking this as lightly as he tried to make us all think.”

  “Good. He shouldn’t take it lightly.” Sophie opened Jesse’s phone directory and began adding the numbers she needed to her phone. When she finished, she handed the phone back to Brooke.

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to make some of the calls?” Brooke offered.

  “No, I’m good. Thanks.”

  “Someone should call Jason. He should know.”

  Sophie held up her phone. “I’ve got his number. I’ll call.”

  “Okay.” Brooke hugged Sophie, then walked toward the elevator where Violet was waiting, and hugged her, too.

  Sophie pushed the down button, and a moment later, the elevator pinged and the doors slid open. She waved goodbye to Brooke, then helped Violet into the car, where two men and a woman with a small child waited patiently for the doors to close.

  On the way home, Sophie asked, “Violet, what did my grandfather mean when he asked if you dabbled?”

  “Oh, that.” She chuckled. “He meant painting, dear. He wanted to know if I still painted.”

  “Do you?”

  “On occasion.”

  “Are you working on anything now?”

  “Actually, I
dabbled a bit this afternoon.”

  “I’d like to see some of your work sometime.”

  “Perhaps you shall, dear.” In the darkened front seat, Violet smiled. “Perhaps you shall …”

  Chapter 24

  AFTER she dropped off Violet, Sophie made the calls to Nick and to Mike, both of whom were relieved to hear that not only was Curtis apparently recovering, but he wouldn’t be returning to the house where he’d lived alone for so many years. It was, everyone agreed, time.

  She saved the call to Jason for last. When his voice mail picked up, she left a simple message: “My granddad rallied. It looks as if he’s going to be all right.” She hesitated. “We just wanted you to know and we wanted to thank you again.”

  She couldn’t think of anything else to say that would be appropriate, so she disconnected the call. She wanted to say, “Call me. Can we please talk?” But she was afraid that maybe he was okay with the way things ended. Maybe he didn’t want to talk. Maybe he was still angry that she’d bought the property he’d set his heart on.

  She changed into short sweatpants and a tee when she got home, then heated up some soup she had in the refrigerator. She was sitting on the back porch eating when her doorbell rang. Two quick rings. Her brother.

  She went inside and let him in.

  “I was hoping you hadn’t gone to bed yet.” Jesse looked tired from the long day at the hospital.

  “Not for a while. Want some soup?”

  “Yeah. I didn’t get dinner and I’m starving.” He walked past her to the kitchen.

  “Help yourself.”

  He did.

  “So what’s up?” She took a seat at the table, and after filling a bowl from a pot on the stove, Jesse sat across from her.

  “I just wanted to go over a few things with you.” He took a few spoonfuls of soup before continuing. “Pop wants to write a new will.”

  “Go on.”

  “Aside from the usual bequests—you, me, Nick, Zoey and Georgia, Uncle Mike and his kids—he wanted to make sure that stuff that’s been in the family for a long time stays in the family. Some pieces of furniture and some of Gramma’s stuff, jewelry and silver and stuff like that. He had a list of who gets what. It’s fair, and I could tell he’s been giving it a lot of thought. I think everyone will be happy with the way he’s distributing things.” He paused to eat a little more.

  “It’s good of him to think of all of us.”

  “You know how he is about family.”

  “He mention Dad?”

  Jesse shook his head. “It’s sad, isn’t it? I hope my kids and I never have that kind of distance between us.”

  “You’ll make sure that you don’t. You know too well what it’s like not to have a normal relationship with your father.”

  “Do I ever,” he muttered. “Anyway, back to the will. He’s made a few other bequests—to Violet, of course, and to Mrs. Anderson. Oh, and to Jason. He was very particular about what he was leaving Jason.”

  Surprised, Sophie put her spoon down. “What’s he giving Jason?”

  “Apparently, Pop has some first editions of some plant books that Jason was interested in. He gave me a list of the titles. And he wants Jason to have the greenhouse.”

  “That might be a bit strange, once the house is sold and someone else is living there.”

  “He wants the estate to pay to move the greenhouse to Jason’s place out on River Road.”

  Good, Sophie thought. I know just the spot for it.

  “And anyway, the house isn’t being sold,” he went on. “He’s giving the house to St. Dennis.”

  Sophie frowned. “How’s that going to work?”

  “He’s got it all spelled out. He’s leaving money for maintenance and upkeep, but he’d like the house to be used for tours and for education, maybe to showcase local art or something.”

  “What if the town doesn’t want it?”

  Jesse grinned. “There’s no provision for that.”

  “It could be used as a moneymaker,” she said. “Weddings and meetings and such.”

  “Well, that will be up to the town council. By the way, Pop’s doctor came in while I was there, checked him out, ran another EKG. Says he can go home in a few days, once they get him hydrated. Apparently he was dehydrated when they brought him in.”

  “I was really afraid we were going to lose him,” Sophie confessed.

  “So was I.” Jesse finished his soup, rinsed the bowl and the spoon, and set them on the counter. “Thanks for the snack.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  She walked him to the door. “You weren’t breaching any confidentiality by telling me about Pop’s will, were you?”

  “No, he said I could share it with you. Oh, and he also told me to give you the next two weeks off. He said you were looking gaunt—his word—and that I should give you some time to get things set up at the restaurant. So there you go. Bonus weeks. Use them well.” Jesse stepped outside.

  “Shocking,” she laughed. “We both know that he hates the idea, but two weeks off would be awesome. I could really use the time, and frankly, it’s harder than I thought it would be,” she admitted.

  “I’m trying really hard not to say ‘told you so.’ ”

  “I’ll be fine, once all the physical work is done. It’s just that right now, it’s all a bit overwhelming. Trying to get the place organized and figure out what I can keep and what I should toss and what I need to order and what I can make over.”

  “Take the weeks. Get your shit together.” Jesse headed down the sidewalk.

  She nodded and leaned on the door frame. “Thanks.”

  “Oh, and call me if you need help.” Jesse got into his car, waved, and gave one quick toot on his horn as he drove away.

  Sophie watched the taillights disappear, then stood in the doorway for a few minutes, watching the stars wink overhead. She made a wish on the first one she saw, then closed the door behind her, turned off the lights, and went to bed, thinking that maybe the star didn’t exist that could make her wish come true.

  Cameron was waiting for her at the restaurant the next morning, a checklist in his hand. “I heard about Curtis,” he said. “Is everything all right?”

  “He’s good. How’d you hear about it so fast?” Sophie unlocked the front door.

  “Ellie saw Brooke picking up take-out from the Thai place last night.”

  “He’ll be fine. I’ll tell him that you were asking for him.” She turned on the lights. “Thanks for putting the bulbs in so we can see what we’re doing.”

  “Yeah, it was pretty dim in here.” He handed her an envelope. “Copies of all your permits, estimates, and my contract are in there. Take some time to look everything over and sign it when you get a chance. Ask if you have any questions. You don’t have to do it right now. I can see you’re antsy to get to work.”

  “I just want it all done. Jesse gave me the next two weeks off to try to get ready to open, but I don’t know if even that’s going to be enough time.”

  “You won’t need more than that. My guys will be in tomorrow and out by Thursday. You’ll have new windows, nice shiny floors, new bathrooms, and new lighting fixtures and ceiling fans. What’s the story with the appliances?”

  “The guy who inspected the cooler and the refrigerator said they both need new compressors, which he can install on Tuesday. Said other than dust on the coils, things looked pretty good. The stove is okay, just needed some cleaning out of a mouse nest in the oven and a lot of spiders around the burners. The exterminator got rid of everything that had been living in here for the past six years, so right now, I’m the sole occupant.”

  “What else do you have to do?”

  “I need to order some dishes and some utensils, get my final menu worked out, order supplies, and oh, yes. I’ll need to hire some people. Two waitresses to start, a dishwasher, another cook. Someone to help prep.”

  “That going to be enough?”

  “We’ll see. I don’t k
now that business will be all that brisk at first.”

  “You might be surprised. A lot of people are talking about it.”

  “Let’s hope they do more than talk.”

  Cameron left with the promise to return in the morning with a crew to tackle the bathrooms and the new windows. Sophie put a drop cloth on the floor next to the largest wall and opened a can of paint. By four in the afternoon, the entire dining room had been freshly painted and Sophie was envisioning how the enlarged photos in their black frames would look against the pale yellow walls. She washed her brushes off in the deep stainless-steel sink in the kitchen and set them on the counter to dry. Then she walked down to the dock behind the trees and sat on the edge, dangling her feet in the water and watching the swans on the other side. She leaned her head back to catch the sun, and when her hair got too hot, she stood up.

  “Break’s over.”

  She made a call to Grace Sinclair to place ads in the paper for the employees she thought she’d need to start, and to set up an interview for Wednesday. The preopening publicity would be good to generate interest that, according to Cam, was already starting to build. She made a shopping list of items she’d need for the kitchen and her first week’s food requirements. She called Clay Madison and discussed the amount of eggs and produce he could supply. Then she called three other farmers and sketched out her first week’s menu.

  She had almost finished with the lunch specials when she heard activity next door. She went to the window and looked out across the fence. For the first time, she noticed that the smelly piles had gotten smaller. How much smaller might they be by next week, she wondered. If Cameron’s crews were as good as he claimed they were, she could target Friday of the following week as her opening day.

  Of course, by then, Jason would probably have had another delivery. The thought of a new pile of stinking mushroom soil a stone’s throw from her side window made her want to cry.

  She stepped outside and walked around her building, taking note of the work she still had to do out there. Weeds to pull, volunteer saplings to be cut down, flowers to plant. She walked to the front and was considering how she’d manage to have something growing and blooming by the front door in a week, when a car pulled in behind hers. She turned to look just as a man in dark glasses hopped out of a black BMW.