Amanda heaved a sigh and dropped her head back. “I told you. I’m going to help my mom set up her legal practice. I might come back for more in-person classes in the fall, but I’m hoping to cram them all in the middle of the week so that I can spend most of my time here. I live here now, Brittany.”
Brittany was disgruntled. “I just don’t understand why Chris has to be the reason I lose you for good. It doesn’t seem fair. I had all these plans for us. When I finally got myself a boyfriend and we all settled down together...”
“I know. I had dreams like that, too and you haven’t lost me,” Amanda whispered. “But I’ve come to realize that nothing really works out the way we planned.” After a pause, she said, “I am jealous of all that wine and cheese, though, maybe not the film guys. I think I might have written off men for a while.”
“I hate when you sound so smart,” Brittany told her. “Because you’re always so sure of yourself and I know there’s no convincing you otherwise.”
As Brittany turned the conversation to other happier things, Grandpa Wes slipped out of his room and stretched his legs toward the window. In the previous week, he’d gotten much stronger, probably as a result of Audrey’s “living room walks” with him, which she often said benefited her just as much as him. While Brittany described the “mega insane new Whole Foods” that was now located near her place in Newark, Amanda watched as her grandfather closed his eyes at the splendor of the sun and really took a moment to appreciate the beauty of the morning.
Amanda wanted to always feel this way about the morning.
Just as Amanda got off the phone, Audrey appeared on the bottom step. She beamed at Wes and Amanda and rolled her hands over her enormous belly.
“Another day in the life of my prison-like body,” she said with a laugh. “But it’s beautiful outside! You can hardly look at the snow. It’s too bright. It hurts my eyes.”
A cardinal landed on the bird feeder on the other side of the glass from Grandpa Wes. The look on his face was exuberant. He looked like a little kid who’d just discovered candy.
“There he is,” Grandpa Wes cooed. “Look at those feathers. My goodness. Can you believe the kind of creatures God cooks up for us?”
Since Grandpa Wes’s illness, he had hardly left the house at all. Everyone had been busy; Amanda had been too fearful to go out with him alone. But today felt different. It felt like maybe, he could handle the thick snow, the deep footfalls and the bright, crisp air.
“Yes. Let’s do it,” Audrey said boldly, after Amanda’s suggestion. “I can’t spend another day cooped up in this house.”
Together, they bundled up. They wore sweaters, thick marshmallow coats, boots, and hats. Amanda watched with cat-like eyes as her grandfather struggled with his right glove, as though he’d lost track of his motions. In a split-second, though, he fixed it, lifted his chin and then winked.
“Let’s go see those birds,” he announced in a joyful voice.
There was something about the woods right next to the Sheridan house. All of the Sheridan family members knew that this was their little slice of heaven, a space where the snow and the birds and the trees belonged singularly to them. Amanda lifted her eyes to the tree-tops, where the little spindly pieces of wood grew jagged against the bright blue sky. Out there, she felt peace.
“Look!” Grandpa Wes whispered, just loud enough for Audrey and Amanda to hear. He placed his binoculars over his eyes and pointed skyward, where the tiniest yellow-brown bird fluttered. “It’s a Ruby-Crowned Kinglet! Look at this little guy. My gosh, he’s stunning.”
Amanda and Audrey caught one another’s eyes as their grandfather continued to gaze at the bird. Their smiles said the same thing: We would do anything for this man.
After Grandpa Wes had pointed out a handful of birds and crunched through the snow for a number of minutes, he took a brief pause to lean up against a nearby oak. His smile was tired but serene.
“I can’t thank you girls enough for taking me out here,” he said.
“We love it just as much as you,” Amanda replied.
“I don’t know about that,” Grandpa Wes said with a soft laugh. “But I really should say, well.” He paused, looking reflective. “I should say that I know how much you girls have done for me over the past few weeks. Your mothers are very busy with work and their lives. And I know you two have both come up against quite a difficult season.”
His eyes found Audrey, first, as he continued.
“But Audrey. No matter what you’re feeling right now about your pregnancy — I should tell you; I don’t think I’ve been this excited about a baby since your own mother was born. I feel included in this, even though I’m the great-grandpa, for goodness sake.”
Audrey’s eyes grew glossy.
“You two are so much like your mothers, you know? It’s uncanny,” Grandpa Wes continued. “Amanda and Susan. Audrey and Lola. But you’re also your own women. You’re building your lives. And it is one of the greater privileges of this old man’s life to watch it happen.”
He then turned his eyes toward Amanda. Amanda, again on the verge of tears, could hardly breathe.
“I just want to say one thing, Amanda. I don’t know what happened up in Newark this past week. I just know that one thing about Susan Sheridan is she feels she has to be hard all the time to keep everyone up. I want you to know that we will help you hold yourself up. If you need rest; if you need to grieve, we are here. You don’t have to be so strong. Not every day.”
SEVERAL HOURS LATER, Aunt Kerry came over with sandwiches. Grandpa Wes gave her the dramatic details of every single bird they spotted in the woods until Aunt Kerry looked about as bored as a piece of wood. Amanda and Audrey nestled together on the couch, both quiet. That’s when the call from Susan came in.
“What’s up, Mom?” Amanda asked.
“Can you get downtown, honey? I have something I want to show you.”
Amanda and Audrey borrowed their grandfather’s car and eased through the darkening roads to meet Susan downtown. Once there, they found Susan beaming at them from the doorway of the office space they’d just rented. She beckoned them inside, then whipped open the door to reveal an enormous antique desk, built in the mid-1800s, with elaborate carvings on all sides. Amanda placed her hand over her mouth in complete shock.
“What is this, Mom?”
“It’s your desk, honey! And look. I had a plaque made up for you,” Susan bubbled with happiness as she placed the gold-lined name card on the mahogany desk. “Amanda Harris,” she read aloud. “I always thought that sounded like such a strong, beautiful name. And you are the strong, wonderful woman to fill those shoes.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Several days later, Susan rapped her nails across the Sunrise Cove front desk and glared at the door. Natalie had said she would arrive just past eleven so that Susan would be allowed time to eat before putting hours in at the law office. Now, the clock ticked past eleven-thirty, and there hadn’t been so much as a text from Natalie.
The door bucked open to reveal Scott. He furrowed his brow and said, “I thought for sure you’d be out of here by now!”
“I know. I was supposed to be.” She lifted up on her tiptoes to kiss Scott tenderly and then dropped herself down. “Natalie’s late.”
Scott nodded. “Which isn’t entirely unlike her...”
“True. It’s just if I’m going to keep up the inn and the law office and everything else, I really need everyone else to pull their weight,” Susan said softly. “Otherwise, I might go crazy.”
“Said the woman who kept me up all night talking in her sleep,” Scott said. He ducked around the side of the desk to stand alongside her and throw his arm around her.
“I didn’t, did I?” Susan breathed. “I’m sorry about that. What did I say?”
“You gave me a recipe for vanilla pudding,” Scott said, his smile widening. “And then you asked me to pick up Jake at baseball practice.”
“Oops. There�
�s no telling where my psyche was,” Susan replied, grinning.
“Just promise me you’ll consider fixing your schedule just the slightest bit,” Scott suggested as he dotted a kiss on her forehead. “I don’t want you to overwork yourself, especially so soon after you just got better.”
Natalie appeared in the doorway that second and poured out a whole list of excuses, all of which were totally reasonable and easily wiped away. Susan kissed Scott again, grabbed her coat, and hustled out toward downtown. She kept her coat unbuttoned, as somehow, the sun rippled through the bright air with forty-degree temperatures, the likes of which they hadn’t seen since October.
When Susan appeared in the offices, she found Amanda straight-backed and regal-looking, at the desk she’d purchased for her, with a phone to her ear. She lifted her finger and mouthed, “Just one sec,” before she started to scribble something on a pad of paper. Susan jumped through the doorway, overcome with excitement. Already, since Audrey had put up the social media ads, they’d had several calls and pitches for potential clients, including a few off-the-island people up in Falmouth. It was up to Susan and Amanda to decide how much they could take on.
“That sounds great, Sam. Thanks,” Amanda said. “I’ll call you back with a time shortly.”
When Amanda hung up the phone, she grinned up at her mother and did a little dance, still-seated. “That was a guy who wants to meet with you about potentially representing his brother,” she explained. “DUI.”
“Wow. Another one!” Susan said.
“We’re reeling them in,” Amanda said. “All we can do is try to keep up.” After a beat, she continued, “I thought you’d be in before now, actually. Did something happen?”
“No. Natalie got held up,” Susan replied. She dropped her things on the desk she’d purchased for herself, which was similarly antique, but not as ornate as Amanda’s. “I don’t know how I can juggle all this. I need to figure something out.”
“Maybe I could take on some hours at the Sunrise Cove?” Amanda suggested. “We could juggle both together.”
“No. You still have all your classes to take care of,” Susan said, tapping a nail to her cheek. “I have to find another option.”
SEVERAL HOURS LATER, Susan drove over to Edgartown to meet with Sam Fuller, the man who had called the office earlier for a request to meet with Susan about his brother’s DUI. She’d left Amanda with a whole stack of paperwork and said, “Make me go to bed early tonight. I swear, I can’t see straight anymore.”
“Aye, aye, captain,” Amanda had said. “Let’s keep everyone healthy.”
Susan drew the car into the Frosted Delights Bakery parking lot and turned off the engine. Through the glass, she spotted Jennifer Conrad in what looked to be a hilarious conversation with one of her dear friends. Susan was pretty sure she was the nurse, Camilla, but didn’t know those girls well enough to confirm. Susan only really knew them as the Sisters of Edgartown.
A handsome, twenty-something guy in what looked to be a second-hand suit appeared at the door of the Frosted Delights. He glanced over the tops of the cars, searching. Susan had a hunch that it was her guy.
“Sam?” she asked as she lifted out of the car and waved a hand.
Sam smiled. It was a deliciously handsome smile, one that assuredly made women his age swoon.
“That’s me. You must be Susan Sheridan,” he said. He stretched out a hand, and Susan shook it. “Thank you again for meeting me. I really could have met you at the office downtown, but —”
“No worries,” Susan said. She hadn’t allowed potential clients into the office space yet, as it wasn’t fully decorated, and it would build a bad impression. “Besides. There’s nothing I like more than a Frosted Delights latte in the middle of the afternoon.”
Jennifer and Camilla greeted them warmly and then set to work on their caramel and mint chocolate lattes. Together, Susan and Sam sat near the window while Sam explained the drama of the previous weekend.
“My little brother is a great guy,” he explained, with his hands spread out nervously across the table. “But he gets it in his head he’s invincible, sometimes.”
“Don’t we all?” Susan chuckled.
“I guess you have a point,” he said. “When he called me from the police station, I wanted to wring his neck, but —”
“But luckily, you held back. Otherwise, we’d have a very different case on our hands,” Susan finished for him.
Sam laughed and clicked his nail across the counter. “True. And I don’t even really look good in orange.”
As their lattes arrived, Sam explained still more of the backstory of Xavier’s misstep. “He was out with a few friends, had a few too many drinks, and got pulled over on the way back to Edgartown,” he said.
Susan took notes as they went; in her mind, however, this was a pretty simple case. She could have walked through DUI cases in her sleep.
“Okay. Well. In these kinds of cases, there’s no way not to prove that he didn’t do it, obviously,” Susan told him.
“Obviously.”
“But we can walk back the charges a bit, reduce the fine he has to pay, that kind of thing.”
“Great. Yes. That’s exactly what I need,” Sam said. “We just came out here a little over a month ago, and I haven’t been able to nail down a job yet.”
“Oh? So you aren’t an islander, then?”
“No. We’re from Oklahoma, actually,” Sam replied. “Far, far from home.”
“What brings you all the way out here? It’s pretty strange that you’re here in the winter and not an islander. Vineyard winters can be brutal.”
Sam gestured out toward the melting snow and said, “Today is beautiful winter’s day, actually. It’ll be spring soon.”
“Yes. Yes, you’re right. It is,” Susan agreed. “But really. Oklahoma? I’m curious.” She flipped the folder closed and crossed her fingers beneath her chin. It was a rare thing that she allowed herself even a few moments of interesting conversation. Normally, she had to rush off.
“Well, tell you the truth, Xavier and I’s parents died a few years back,” Sam said.
Susan’s heart dropped. “Oh. I’m so sorry to hear that.”
“Yeah. Well. It wasn’t a fun ride for either of us. They died in a car accident, which only exacerbates my anger toward my brother’s drunk driving, but that is another story. Anyway, I had a full-ride for a master's in tourism management and hospitality out east, and I dragged Xavier out here with me. My program ended at the end of last year, and we were both wicked sick of Boston.”
“Ha. Wicked,” Susan said, mocking the fake accent.
“Exactly,” Sam said. “We’re from a small town, and we wanted to find a place that we could call home and lay some roots down. We heard of Martha’s Vineyard, and we popped over one day, found a little rental house, and never left. That said, the hospitality doesn’t pick up till May or June, I guess, and we’re running low on funds. Now, Xavier got arrested and I’m starting to second-guess the whole plan.”
Susan’s heart swelled with pity for this man, who had only just grown out of his own boyhood. “That’s awful,” she said. “Really. It’s too many things for a guy like yourself to take on at once. But — and this is coming from someone with her own share of heartaches over the years — I hope you won’t blame your brother too much for what happened.”
Susan thought of Christine and Lola and the way they’d interacted together earlier the previous summer. It had been difficult initially for them all to forgive one another for the stress and hardships and sadness they’d put on one another. Now, in the wake of forgiveness, it all felt so simple.
“I know. I don’t want to,” Sam said. “I just can’t get it out of my head. I’m killing myself, trying to get a job, and well...” He blinked several times, then added, “I don’t mean to bore you. This is completely outside of your job description. You’ve done enough. Thank you.”
The words flew out of Susan’s lips swiftly.
“I actually operate an inn in Oak Bluffs,” she announced.
“Oh?” Sam’s eyes glittered strangely, as though he didn’t dare to hope for whatever it was she suggested.
“Yes. Now that I’ve opened this law office, I’m in desperate need of a helping hand around the inn. Someone with your background would be very beneficial to our family business. I wonder if you would like to stop by tomorrow afternoon for an interview?”
Sam looked shocked at her sudden offer, but then excitement marred his face. He stuttered for a second and then said, “Are you sure?”
“Of course,” Susan replied. She stood and stretched her hand out between them for him to shake. “You sound uniquely qualified and besides, I like the idea that you came to Martha’s Vineyard on a whim, without ever having been here before. Maybe the island called to you, like a siren. Who knows?”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Amanda hustled out of her bedroom to find Grandpa Wes and Audrey seated at the kitchen table. Grandpa Wes had his large hands wrapped around a coffee mug while Audrey read from her phone.
“When did the Civil War start?”
“April 1861,” Grandpa Wes returned.
“And when did the Berlin Wall fall?”
“November 9, 1989. I remember that like it was yesterday,” Grandpa Wes stated, lifting his mug to take a sip.
“Who was the thirteenth president of the United States?” Audrey asked, as though he hadn’t added his own anecdote.
Grandpa Wes furrowed his brow for a long time. Amanda stepped delicately around the table to gather her things. After a long pause, she said, “I don’t think anyone knows who the thirteenth president was, Aud—”
“Millard Fillmore,” Grandpa Wes blurted out just then. “It has to be him.”
Audrey snapped her fingers gleefully, then turned and then smiled at Amanda. “He’s still got it! Sharp as a whip!”
A Vineyard Vow Page 14
