by CP Smith
I had a sister.
And my mother was dead.
I was also thirsty with a bit of a hangover.
Bad dreams caused me to sweat, so my oversized T-shirt was clinging to my chest with the aftereffects. Careful not to disturb Bernice and the Wallflowers, I unlocked my door and slipped out into the darkness. I headed to the kitchen for water while the last remnants of my dream clung to me like a shroud.
Bernice had insisted on sleeping on the pull-out couch, so I tiptoed past her like a burglar and opened a cabinet.
“Right side,” a soft voice called out.
I looked over my shoulder and saw Bernice propped up on one arm watching me. I moved to the right and opened the door, pulling down a plastic tumbler with seashells floating in a band of sparkly liquid around the outside.
“Couldn’t sleep?” I asked her, turning the tap on and filling my cup. I should probably look for headache medicine, but I was too tired to bother. The past twenty-four hours were kicking my proverbial behind like a prizefighter.
“Sleep and I aren’t acquainted most days, sugar. Too much to keep my mind occupied for that.” When she patted the edge of the mattress, I hesitated for an instant, afraid of what she might ask, then abandoned my cup in the sink and moved forward and sat down.
“You want me read you a bedtime story to help you sleep? I hear they’re all the rage with the under ten crowd.”
Bernice’s eyes brightened at my quip. “Sure. We could make one up together,” she said, then jumped in with both feet. “Once upon a time a scared little girl was abandoned by her father. She was all alone until she grew up and made friends. They were the best of friends too. They had beautiful names and they formed a flower club, one where they each agreed to stop runnin’ from men, so they could find love. And two of them did. But when it was the scared girl’s turn, she balked. Ran in the opposite direction when the handsome and sexy Neanderthal tried to climb the wall she’d built. And do you know what happened next, butterbean?”
I shook my head, because seriously, Bernice could read people better than anyone I’d ever met, and I didn’t think I was ready to hear the end of this story.
Bernice’s eye softened. “The Neanderthal made it over to the other side, ‘cause when men like that make their minds up, they never waver from their course.”
I shook my head harder. “He’ll climb right back over it.”
“And why is that?”
I’d held my secrets close to my vest. Never speaking about them to anyone. I’d spent years thinking if I didn’t acknowledge my past then it didn’t happen. But here in the darkness of the cottage by the sea, I could feel my resolve breaking. Until I’d met Cali and Sienna, I’d never felt strong enough. I’d even caved to Sienna and told her about Blake and how much I’d been hurt by his betrayal. The Wallflowers, in a sense, were weakening me while making me stronger. Crumbling my defenses because I wanted to spew my secrets, to lance the wound that was festering. But I was so afraid they’d look at me differently if they knew the truth. I didn’t want to see pity in their eyes. I didn’t want to be different in any way. But I realize now I’d been choking on the memories far too long. Allowing the wound to turn septic.
“Because,” I began, then stopped. Could I really do this? Could I lance this wound? With a deep breath for courage, I decided to be brave for once in my life. “Because the sharp-witted princess is really a ghost. A ghost of a girl who just pretends to be real.”
Bernice searched my face for a moment, but she didn’t react to my admission. “Who killed the girl?”
My lips trembled uncontrollably. I needed to finish. “A dragon.” The words stuck at first, yet it was still bitter on my tongue. “He found her in the dark and touched her.”
Bernice was good. She barely moved her head, but I caught the jerk like I’d struck her. She pulled herself into a sitting position, wrapping her arms around her long legs. Then she looked me straight in the eyes, as if what I’d confessed wasn’t shocking. There was no pity, no sadness etched across her beautiful face, and I began to breathe again. “The girl’s not dead,” she whispered, reaching out to run a hand down my cheek. I closed my eyes at the motherly caress, wanting to lean in until she held me tight. I was relieved by her quiet resolve to move past my confession with answers, instead of tears. “She’s bein’ held prisoner by the dragon.”
I nodded. I was definitely a prisoner.
“Do you know what slays dragons?”
My eyes flew open, interrupting her. “Nothin’ can. The girl tried. It’s why she made friends with the beautiful flowers, but she’s so scared all the time that nothin’ works.”
“You’re wrong, my precious, sharp-witted girl. True love slays dragons the size of Atlanta and heals wounds deeper than the ocean. You only have to open your heart to it.” She held up her hand and snapped her fingers sharply, smiling brightly like the debutant she was. “Then poof.”
I looked at her hand then back at her eyes. “Poof?”
“Poof. Just like that, your past is in the past and the rest is what you and my sweet Calla Lily like to call a happily ever after. No more dragons. No more ghosts. Just happiness.”
I narrowed my eyes because there had to be a catch. If it were that easy, then why had she remained single her whole life? She was from one of the first families in Savannah. Cali was the only grandchild left to take over the reins of Armstrong Shipping when her granddaddy died. And I knew from conversations with Cali, that Bernice and Eunice had been treated badly by their father. Ignored by him for most of their lives, and disinherited because they chose not to toe the line like an Armstrong should. So why then, if love conquered all, had she not married and moved out from under the constant struggle of being ousted by her family?
“Then why didn’t you find love, so you could heal from your negligent father?”
Bernice’s mouth softened, along with her eyes, the blue shimmering with mirth. “I did. I found love in the form of a six-year-old child who needed me more than I needed a man.”
My heart tugged at my insides. She’d foregone love because of Cali. She’d dedicated her life to raising her brother’s daughter, rather than making a family of her own. Bernice’s love had been unconditional, her entire focus on Cali. Unlike my aunt had been.
Now that I knew Shirley was my aunt, and not my mother, some of her actions made sense. I’d never felt like she loved me like a mother should. Protected me enough. Not like Bernice and Eunice had done for Cali. They’d taken care of her, where I had taken care of my aunt from the time I was old enough. How many times had I cleaned up after my aunt had a wild party, so my friends wouldn’t see? How many times had I put myself between her and a man when I was old enough? How many times had I made sure my bedroom door was locked because I couldn’t trust that my aunt would be sober enough to keep the dragon out of my room?
“Cali is so lucky to have you,” I said, my eyes filling with tears. My whole life might have turned out differently if Shirley had raised me like Bernice had raised Cali.
“Not as lucky as I am to have her.” She meant that. Every word of it. She didn’t seem to feel she’d missed anything. Love had healed her. The love of a child. The love of her older sister as they banded together to give Cali the home she needed. And that got me thinking. Why couldn’t I do the same? Why couldn’t I be the cool aunt to Sienna and Cali’s children? She hadn’t been lonely her whole life. Cali said she’d stilled dated from time to time, so maybe that would work for me? If I dedicated my life to being the best aunt I could be, I wouldn’t have to worry about my past screwing up a relationship. I could live my life vicariously through their lives like Bernice had done, and keep my secrets buried deep. I’d never have to worry about sending a man running when he figured out I was broken.
It was the perfect solution!
“Thank you, Bernice. I know what I need to do now.” Her brilliant smile lit up the darkened room, matching the moon’s glow filtering through the open window.
“I’m gonna be just like you. Who needs a man anyway? They’re more trouble than they’re worth, right?”
Her smile, the one that could have launched a thousand ships, slipped like an ill-fitting bra. “Are you out of your cotton-pickin’ mind?” she whispered on a screech.
I blinked. “But you just said—”
“Sugar, I had the love I needed to help me heal from a loveless childhood, but don’t think for a second that I didn’t lay in bed at night wonderin’ where my Prince Charmin’ was.”
The pain that radiated from her as she spoke was almost tangible. “Bernice—”
“I love my girl. I’d kill for my girl. But I still would have welcomed a man into my life, if the right one came along. But we were so busy tryin’ to heal Calla after her parents’ deaths, that I woke up one day on the wrong side of fifty. Don’t close yourself off from the love of a good man, Poppy. Never do that.”
I was struck silent, unable to process anything she said except one. That not once, in all her years, had she met a man she could have loved. A woman like Bernice. Beautiful, sexy, crazy Bernice who had everything going for her.
“You’re sayin, that not once, in the fifty some odd years you’ve been gracin’ this planet, has a man floated your boat, rang your bell, or tooted your horn enough to marry him?”
Bernice clasped her hands and looked down, sniffing as if she were offended. “Ladies don’t normally speak of such things,” she mumbled, still buried by the conventions of her past. She’d been raised to be a debutante, and occasionally, those lessons still held her hostage. “But since we’re on the subject, I want to be completely honest with you, so you don’t make the same mistakes. My bell has been rung on many occasions, but my toes have never curled in a way that I would have been tempted to explore a relationship with anyone.”
“Your toes have never curled? No man has ever tempted you in any way?”
She seemed to hedge for a moment, bobbing her head back and forth. “Once,” she finally admitted. “But he was a stranger on vacation. I didn’t know him, mind you, but there was somethin’ about him that called out to me in a way that no other man had before.”
I was suddenly intrigued like a cop following a lead. How could a woman like Bernice not have found anyone to tempt her all these years, except this one man? She could have had anyone with her looks and witty charm. I needed to know more about this man, so I scooted across the bed, laid down on my stomach, crossed my feet at my ankles and got comfortable. Then I propped my chin in my hands like a child ready for a bedtime story, eager to hear the whole romantic tale. “Tell me everything.”
Bernice looked over my shoulder suddenly, and her eyes grew wider. “You didn’t hear all that did you?”
“By all, do you mean did I hear, you gave up on love to raise me? Then yes.” Cali’s voice was soft. When I turned to look at her and Sienna, her expression was tender. You could see the love she felt for Bernice written in every look, every beat of her heart.
Cali moved to the bed, followed by Sienna. They both crawled on top, next to me, and lay down just like I had.
Bernice glanced at Cali, her expression pensive.
“Tell us. Wallflowers don’t keep secrets,” Cali said, reaching out to tug on her foot.
Bernice smirked. “It was nothin’. Next to nothin’.”
“Then tell us if it’s nothin’.”
She looked at each of us, then her eyes seemed to empty of conscious thought as if she were recalling the incident. “Eunice and I were here on a long weekend. I’d just gone outside to water the plants, and there were two cars parked in the street. I looked up to watch a family loadin’ their bags, and there he was. Tall. Dark. Dangerous lookin’. I could hardly breathe just lookin’ at him. He had an edge about him, similar to your men. The kind that said my daddy wouldn’t be able to run him off. The way he looked, the way he commanded the space around him was like a force of nature.”
Cali smirked and looked at me, her eyes lighting from the inside. I bit my bottom lip to keep from swooning myself at the look on Bernice’s face as she reminisced about the encounter. Whoever the man was, he’d made an impression on Bernice, one I don’t think she’d soon forget.
“But he had a family?” Sienna asked, confused. “You were lustin’ after a man who was married?”
Bernice shook her head. “He wasn’t married. It was just him, another man with his wife and young son, and a young family with little girls. Besides that, no man openly looks at a woman the way he looked at me if they’re married.”
“He saw you too?” I questioned.
She nodded. “He was puttin’ a bag in the trunk and turned. We locked eyes and he stopped dead in his tracks. He stood there starin’ at me like I was somethin’ he’d like to eat. I tried to mentally will him to come closer, but the spell was broken when Odis Lee showed up for Eunice. He walked up while we were frozen in time and hugged me where I stood. When I looked back, hopin’ he’d come introduce himself, he was openin’ the driver’s door and climbin’ in. Then he drove away without a backward glance. I haven’t seen him since, and believe me, I’ve looked.”
“How long ago was this?” Cali asked.
Bernice shrugged. “Last summer. Fourth of July weekend.”
“So, when Devin showed up, and you said what you wanted for your life wasn’t the same as what I wanted for my life, it was a fib?”
Bernice snorted, but it still sounded ladylike. I’d give the Armstrong women credit; they could make any word or situation sound dignified when it came out of their mouths. Cali included.
“Butterbean, what I wanted was to be happy. After growin’ up in that house, raisin’ you made me happy. Don’t you fret about me, I’ve lived a very full life.”
Cali’s eyes brightened with unshed tears, then they grew determined. “Would you’d be open to love if the right, tall, dark, and dangerous man walked into your life now?”
Bernice smiled, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “I’m in my fifties, any man worth his salt is already taken. I know this, and I’m okay with it. Besides, I get to live vicariously through you, my dear sweet girl.”
Cali didn’t seem to hear her. She was worrying at her lips, her eyes deep in thought. Then she looked up at Bernice with a shrewd smile, one I knew meant adventure for the Wallflowers. “Did you happen to catch this man’s name?”
Bernice blinked. “Why?”
“Just curious is all.”
Bernice eyed her suspiciously but answered. “I heard the young woman call out to him while we were starin’ at each other.”
“And?”
“Joe. She called the man Uncle Joe.”
_______________
“I’m gonna find this Joe,” Cali whispered, watching Bernice out of the corner of her eyes.
I peeked over the top of her head and watched her aunt pour coffee grounds into a filter. It was 4:00 a.m. and we’d all decided to stay up and watch the sun rise over the ocean. “A man named Joe isn’t much to go on.”
Sienna leaned in closer. “We know he rented a place on the same street as this cottage, so that narrows it down.”
I hated to burst their bubble, but since I lived in the land of denial, and ‘the glass is half empty’ more than most, it was my duty to point out the pitfalls. “What if someone other than Joe booked the rental?”
Cali’s lips pinched at my observation. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
“Plus,” I went on, because I’m always a ray of sunshine, “No realtor or rental agency is gonna give out that information just because you bat your lavender eyes at them.”
Cali and Sienna both slumped in unison. I reached out and patted Cali’s hand. “It’s the thought that counts.”
“No, dangit. She sacrificed so much for me. She deserves to be happy for once in her life. To have a man who, you know, she can spend quality time with and do you know what with while she’s still young enough.”
I glanced at Sienna and smiled. “I’m sor
ry? Do ‘you know what’ with?” Cali still couldn’t say the word sex. It was so flipping cute. Especially since we know she and Devin go at it like rabbits.
She rolled her eyes. “Have sex.”
“Sister, she did it. She said—”
A loud crash from outside silenced me. The girls and I turned to Bernice, who was looking out a window facing the side of the cottage.
“What was that?” Cali asked.
Bernice looked back at us and shrugged, turning back to the window just as a scream filled the night. I reacted without thinking and ran to the door. Flipping on the porch light, ripping open the door with both Cali and Sienna hot on my heels, we ran outside and searched the darkness for the source. Movement caught my eye and I turned toward the rental next door, where the aliens were staying with their three daughters. The window that faced the alley was broken, glass littering the ground below, sparkling in the low light from our porch light. I moved closer to the end of the deck and waited. Listening.
“We should call the police,” Sienna whispered.
The world seemed to hold its collective breath as we waited for something to happen. The hair on the back of my neck began to rise as if unseen eyes were staring back at us. Like an invisible rope began to pull me, I stepped off the porch and rushed across the alley. Cali and Sienna followed, whisper-shouting for Bernice to grab her phone. A sense of urgency coiled through my body. Something had happened in that darkened rental by the sea, and all I could think about were their three daughters possibly hiding from dragons.
As soon as I reached the front door, I knew I was right. It was slightly ajar.
