Blue Hollow Falls

by Donna Kauffman

  “I don’t know,” Sunny finally said at length. “I’ve been thinking about maybe giving my share to Bailey.”

  Stevie paused, leaf in hand, and looked at Sunny. “That would give her a full third of the place, right?”

  Sunny nodded. “I think of the three of us, she’s the one who could use whatever boost life could hand her. I don’t know if owning a bigger share of our inheritance will be a boon or the proverbial albatross, but Sawyer seemed optimistic about where he thought the renovations would take them, and it’s a pretty cool plan, really. So that would surely up the value of her share.”

  “Don’t you worry that giving her more of a share would be too tempting for Abbey Road?”

  “Addie Pearl. And what do you mean?”

  “Given what I know so far, Addie and Sawyer are tight. Like, mom and son tight, to hear you tell it. So, putting her in charge of an even bigger share of the place just seems”—she shrugged—“risky.”

  “I’ve thought about that, too,” Sunny admitted.

  “Of course, if you hold on to your piece, then you still get a say. Which means you can watch out for how Bailey’s piece is being managed,” Stevie said.

  “You’re right,” Sunny agreed, having had the same thought herself. “It’s just . . .” Now she lifted a shoulder.

  “Spill it,” Stevie demanded, then motioned with her fingers.

  Sunny smiled, thankful again for their friendship, even if Stevie wasn’t exactly the tea and sympathy sort. Maybe because of that. “Holding on to my share, even if I’m playing more of a monitoring or advisory role, still means staying involved with all of them.”

  Stevie propped her hands on her hips. “Well, they’re your family now whether you want to stay involved directly or not.”

  “A family I’d never even heard of until two weeks ago. None of us had heard about each other until then. We were doing fine without each other this long.”

  Stevie clapped her gloved hands several times. “See? Wasn’t so hard now, was it? Let it out, sister. Tell me and these plants here how you really feel.”

  Sunny did the mature thing and stuck her tongue out at her friend, making them both laugh.

  “You know, maybe it’s not that complicated,” Stevie said, going back to work as she talked. “Maybe Addie will do right by the little girl like she promised she’d do. From the sounds of it, Sawyer turned out to be a good guy and she took care of him when he was little.” She leaned around the tree she was examining and wiggled her eyebrows. “Damn shame he’s related though, from the sounds of him.” She smoothed her neatly pinned-up hair. “Maybe you could hook this sister up, though.”

  Sunny just rolled her eyes, but she was smiling as she continued her own work.

  “So maybe you’re right and there is nothing to worry about,” Stevie went on. “They carry on, and you don’t need to do more than check in from time to time. If Addie is cool and Sawyer is sticking around, then it seems like Bailey’s life is already way better.”

  Teasing aside, Sunny really listened to what Stevie was saying. “You’re right. It doesn’t have to be complicated.” But it already felt complicated. Sunny hadn’t even had the time to really get used to being free. To finally being able to put her needs, her wants, first. Heck, she didn’t even know what those wants and needs were yet.

  “Don’t do anything rash. This all just happened. Sit back awhile and take it as it comes,” Stevie advised. “You have your share. They’re not coming after you to invest in the renovation, or anything. So, let them have at it, and go about your business. If things change, then you have the right to change your course of action.”

  “That’s what I’ve been doing these past few weeks,” Sunny said. She looked at her best friend, smiled. “But hearing you say it out loud makes me feel a lot more confident in that choice. I think you’re exactly right. Thank you.” She let out a slow breath, and a good deal more stress than even she realized she’d been carrying felt like it was being released from her along with it. No immediate action was due on her part. She could just go on living her life. Her free-to-be-me life.

  She laughed, feeling almost a little light-headed as the revelation sank in and took hold. “Nothing has changed, really. Unless I want it to.”

  Stevie started humming “Let It Go” from the Disney epic Frozen, making Sunny snicker. There was no one else in their sector, so Stevie picked up a trowel and used it as a mic, as she went full on Idina Menzel and began to sing the iconic song in earnest. She actually had a pretty good voice—great, even—though Sunny thought better of saying as much to Stevie Aretha, or she’d never hear the end of it. Literally.

  Instead, the normally far less demonstrative Sunny, who was a horrible singer, for once in her life really did let it go and added a little performance art as backup. She picked up a spare apron and swirled it over her head as she spun around Stevie, using exaggerated arm movements to match the refrain.

  She was just swooping in front of Stevie as she hit a piercing high note when someone cleared his throat behind them both.

  Stevie broke off mid “go” and both she and Sunny swung around in surprise, then stood, well, frozen to the spot.

  Sunny found her voice first. “Sawyer?”

  “Do they teach you that in horticulture school?” he asked, an amused smile on his handsome face. He cast his gaze around the interior of the greenhouse. “I have to say, it appears to be working.”

  “You should see how they respond to Motown Week,” Stevie quipped, then turned to Sunny so Sawyer couldn’t see her face. She let her mouth drop open and shook her hand in front of her as if to say, “Whew!” while mouthing Oh my God!

  “What—what are you doing here?” Sunny asked him, not risking looking at Stevie a moment longer. She didn’t need to be told how drop-dead gorgeous Sawyer was. Apparently, two weeks of thinking about him as her brother hadn’t done one lick of good. Then the plastic panels that separated their section of the greenhouse from the rest parted and another head poked through. “Bailey?”

  At Bailey’s glance upward, Sunny realized she was still holding the apron aloft. She pulled her hand down, and balled the apron up in front of her, pasting a big smile on her face as her brain scrambled to catch up with the rest of her. “Hey! What a surprise.” She started to fold her arms, forgot the bundled-up apron, then comically tried to figure out what to do with her hands, finally plopping the apron down on a worktable and propping one on her hip and using the other to smooth back the strands of hair that had escaped the single braid she wore when at work. “What are you guys doing here?”

  “Nice Elsa,” Bailey said to Stevie as she stepped fully into the space.

  “I’m here all week,” Stevie said, then did a deep curtsy, complete with theatrical head drop. “Matinee’s on Sunday.”

  Bailey and Sawyer both grinned at that, but then were nudged out of the way when the plastic panels rustled again behind them.

  “Looks like I missed the show,” Addie Pearl said as she fought her way through the moving panels with her cane. Sawyer held them aside so she could make her way into the hot and humid temperature-controlled space. She took a sweeping look around and beamed. “Well, isn’t this something. Can’t wait to hear all about it.” She looked at a now madly grinning Stevie, who appeared downright tickled pink at this latest turn of events and gave her a big, welcoming smile. “I’m Addie Pearl Whitaker. This here is Bailey, and that’s Sawyer. We’re Sunny’s family. Pleased to meet you.”

  Chapter Six

  “I’m just sorry you came all this way,” Sunny told Addie, as they strolled along the downtown National Mall, past the Air and Space museum, heading toward the Botanic Garden conservatory. “We could have talked over the phone about whatever paperwork needs doing so you can continue moving forward with the renovation. I didn’t intend for you to stop the work or anything like that. I didn’t realize you were waiting for me.”

  “It’s good to get out, stretch your legs,” Addie sa
id by way of reply. She was using her cane, but moving along at such a clip that they all had to hustle to keep up with her. “Besides, Bailey has never seen the Capitol, or any of the monuments. It’s a field trip.”

  Sawyer walked a few paces behind the two women, close enough to hear the conversation, but hanging back just enough so he didn’t have to participate in it. Bailey strolled along next to him. He glanced down at the young girl. “This is your first time here?”

  She nodded, but otherwise said nothing. She had been pretty quiet since he’d met up with them in the parking lot of the production facility. Fortunately, when Addie had seen that Bo’s was open again, they’d stopped and had breakfast before heading out of town. He was surprised Seth hadn’t run into them there on his beignet and coffee run. So, Sawyer had been able to catch up with the two just as Addie was trying to talk her way into the production facility, after having already stopped by the conservatory only to find out that Sunny worked at a different location. She hadn’t seemed all that surprised to see him, which had only confirmed she was up to something.

  Sunny didn’t have an office, so there hadn’t really been a convenient place to talk privately at the greenhouse complex. Addie wanted to see the Botanic Garden, so Sunny had taken a long lunch break, and they’d caravanned over from Anacostia to the city proper. They’d parked at L’Enfant Plaza, walked down to the Mall, and were now heading down Jefferson toward the conservatory, which sat in the shadow of the Capitol Building. It was a pretty fall day, clear skies, unseasonably warm temperatures, a light breeze, perfect for an excursion. Except for the part where Addie was the only one who’d actually planned on taking said excursion.

  Sunny hadn’t seemed exactly excited about the proposition, either, but Sawyer couldn’t blame her, given they’d all dropped in completely unannounced. She’d handled it well enough, though, especially where Bailey was concerned. As they’d learned when they’d entered the place, the production facility was only open to the public one day a year, which happened in March, but Sunny had offered to pull a few strings to give them a look at the rare orchids she cared for. She’d taken time with Bailey and Addie both, showing them some of the specific work she was doing to help find new ways to cultivate the critically endangered members of the species.

  He’d found it fascinating as well, and while his impression of Sunny was still that she liked others to think she was an all-business sort, her obvious love and passion for her work had shone through the no-nonsense exterior, adding a sincere warmth and earnestness he wouldn’t have previously ascribed to her. Of course, the little song and dance skit he’d inadvertently interrupted had already forever changed his opinion of her. For the positive. Made him wonder how else she lived up to those five names of hers.

  Brogan had gotten that part right, as it turned out. Damn sexy, indeed.

  Sunny had told them before they’d even left the production facility that she’d decided to hold on to her interest in the mill, but wouldn’t block Sawyer or Addie from doing whatever they wanted with the place. She’d offered to contact the estate attorney who had helped her with her mother’s living will to get something in writing to that effect, which would protect each of their interests. Addie had told her to do whatever she felt best.

  Sawyer had hoped to be right back on the road after that little announcement, but then Addie had come up with her plan to see the Botanic Garden. Which was when Sawyer had known she wasn’t done yet.

  “Any particular thing you’d like to see?” he asked Bailey as they walked past the Museum of the American Indian. He decided since they were here, they might as well take advantage of the visit. In for a dime, in for a dollar. He had great respect for the District of Columbia and all it represented. It was a powerful place to be, and to see. He’d visited the city countless times in his life, and it had never once failed to move him. The domed Capitol Building, stationed as if keeping watch at the head of the table, sat at one end of the National Mall, with the stone edifice of the Washington Monument soaring skyward at the opposite end of the open, parklike area, which was lined on either side by the Smithsonian museums. Then there was the Jefferson Memorial, holding sway over the Tidal Basin with the cherry trees draped around the water’s edge like a festive garland each spring, and the Lincoln Memorial, stately and reverent, at the end of the grand reflecting pond. All of it reminded him why he’d given service to his country. This was the foundation of the entire nation, the seat of freedom.

  Since Bailey was being more or less dragged around with no say in the matter, he found himself wanting to make this trip meaningful to her in some way. “The Museum of Natural History has everything from dinosaurs to gemstones. Air and Space has lunar modules and—”

  “I’m good,” Bailey said.

  Sawyer glanced down at her, but she was looking straight ahead, glancing here and there, taking it all in. She seemed to be exactly as she’d stated. Good. If she was feeling upset or put out by the field trip, she certainly didn’t show it. Conversely, she didn’t appear to be all that excited about it, either. She was just . . . good. Going with the flow. He’d noticed she did that a lot, and wondered if that was how she’d learned to hold it together.

  He recalled their brief conversation the day they’d first met; he knew there was a sharp, observant, inquisitive brain inside her young head. He wondered if the lesson she’d taken from her life thus far was to basically go along and not rock the boat. He wondered if she let herself want things. Any things. Or if that was just too damn scary, given her life could change at a moment’s notice, based on the whims of others. The way it had just two weeks ago. Did she have dreams? Did she want to be something specific when she grew up? Did she dream about being old enough to break free, to be out on her own?

  Sawyer had talked to Addie at some length as she’d begun the process of becoming Bailey’s legal guardian, so he knew that Bailey wasn’t a problem kid. She’d never run away, she’d never been in any kind of legal trouble, or trouble in school. She was a good student, made good grades, never truant, though quiet and not exactly a joiner. In fact, her teachers and her various foster families had always had good things to say about her. The word shy had been used more than once, but Sawyer didn’t buy that. Bailey had no problem speaking up; she simply chose not to. Her caseworker had told Addie that Bailey’s file was one of the thinnest she’d ever seen. Mostly just listing her various residences, beginning and end dates of her time with this family or that. Her being shuffled around the system had always had something to do with the foster family itself, which was common enough, rather than any problem with Bailey.

  Sawyer thought about his own childhood, prior to landing with Addie Pearl. He smiled then, thinking maybe Bailey was the smart one after all. He had not been particularly good at going along to get along. His case file would not have been described as thin. He knew what it was like to yearn, to want, to dream. To want something other than what he’d been handed in life. He’d felt all of those things when he’d been her age and had worn every bit of it on his sleeve. And on his tongue. Even after landing with Addie. Once an orphan—whether in fact or by abandonment—always an orphan. At least to some degree. Even when life got better, it was still part of the core truth of the person, and that affected how they looked at things. It couldn’t not affect them.

  Their similar backgrounds should have made it easier for him to find a conversational toehold, but he felt at a complete loss. So he just respected her silence, watched as she looked around, thinking maybe she’d give a clue if something in particular caught her eye.

  In the end, she solved the problem for him. “Have you been to the Wall?” she asked, as they waited at the corner to cross Maryland Avenue.

  He knew which wall she meant. “I have,” he told her.

  She looked up at him then. Her crystalline blue eyes were sober, yet inquisitive. “Do you know anybody on it?”

  The Wall she was talking about was the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. A long, sloping gran
ite wall with the names of all who had made the ultimate sacrifice during that war engraved on its long, segmented face. “I do,” he told her. “Buddies of mine have their father’s names engraved there.”

  “Army buddies?” she wanted to know.

  He nodded, then the crosswalk light turned white and they hoofed it across the busy thoroughfare. She startled him by taking his hand, and for reasons unknown to him, the gesture made his eyes burn. Just a little. She seemed so cool, so together, it was easy to forget she was just a little girl. He curled his big fingers around her far smaller ones, but a quick glance down showed him she wasn’t looking up at him. As soon as they got to the sidewalk on the other side, she let go. She didn’t seem embarrassed, or, well, anything really. It had been matter of fact, like everything else the young girl did. As if that’s just what you do when crossing a busy street. And maybe that’s all it had been. Probably. But Sawyer knew it would be a while before he forgot the feel of her small hand in his.

  “Would you like to see the Wall?” he asked her, as they neared the old glass conservatory that he now knew, from seeing where Sunny worked, housed only a small part of the U.S. Botanic Garden’s collection.

  “No,” she said, with a quick shake of her head.

  “I’m good,” they both said at the same time. She glanced up, caught his sardonic wink, and busted out a short trill of giggles. The transformation was a pure delight, causing Addie and Sunny both to look back, big smiles creasing their faces now, too. Bailey was a cute young girl, but far too sober. Seeing her face light up, hearing her laughter, which was surprisingly girly, considering the girl herself was not, lifted his heart. He made a promise to himself to see about getting her to do that more often.