Although it seemed much longer, it was probably only a couple of minutes before Chloe appeared on the front stoop, her wrists handcuffed behind her as one of the FBI agents propelled her forward. Faith’s body relaxed with relief when Eli emerged from the trailer with Bitsy in his arms, her hands gripping his neck and her legs wrapped tightly around his waist.
Faith rushed to Eli’s side. “Mama!” Bitsy cried out when she saw her. “You’re here.”
Faith took Bitsy from Eli and held her tight. “Are you okay?” She kissed all the parts of her daughter’s body she could get her lips on—hair, face, neck, hands, and bare dirty feet.
“I was scared being in the trailer. I had bad dreams about Daddy. But I had Dolly.” She held up her doll. “And Chloe was nice to me. We watched SpongeBob and ate lots of pizza.”
When Annie and Mike joined them, Bitsy leapt from her mother’s arms into Annie’s. “I knew you would come for me! I just knew it.”
Forty
Faith
Faith and Mike didn’t return home with the girls until nearly five thirty when the room began to turn pink with the first morning rays. Bitsy insisted that Annie sleep with her in her bed, and the two went out like flashes of light. But Faith and Mike were wound too tight to think about sleeping.
Coffee mugs in hand, they watched the sunrise from the porch, while discussing their family’s future. Around seven, Faith sent a group text to her family, which included Moses, notifying them of Bitsy’s safe return. “We might as well make breakfast,” Mike said, rising from his rocker. “It’s only a matter of time before everyone arrives. We’ll let the girls sleep as long as they can.”
They made large platters of scrambled eggs, french toast, sausage, and bacon. Faith set out the last of the pastries from the Island Bakery and used the juicer Moses had given them as a wedding present to make two pitchers of orange juice.
First came Jackie and Lovie with Sam and Jamie on their heels. Then Cooper and Sean stopped by in their boat on their way out fishing. Even Roberto popped in to pick up Jamie on his way to open the market. Bitsy was too busy basking in the attention to touch the food on her plate. Watching her daughter, Faith remained cautiously optimistic that the child had survived the ordeal unscathed.
They all gathered around the table, kids at one end and adults at the other, as they’d done two days ago at Mack’s funeral. Cooper and Sean gobbled down their breakfast before excusing themselves in order to take advantage of the changing tides.
Mike pushed back from the table. “What say, Bitsy, are you up for working on your playhouse?”
“Yeah!” Bitsy hopped to her feet and performed a victory dance in her chair.
“If we work real hard, we might get a couple of walls up today.” Mike stood with his back to Bitsy’s chair. “Climb on and we’ll go take inventory to see what we need from the hardware store.”
Bitsy jumped on his back and he took off like a galloping pony.
Jackie took a sip of her coffee and set her mug down. “Annie, honey, my sisters and I, and Lovie of course, would like to talk to you about your plans for the future.”
Annie’s face filled with fear as she slowly nodded her head.
“But before we get to the future,”—Sam turned to Annie who was sitting next to her—“have you given any thought to burying your father?”
Annie shrugged. “Don’t they bury people like us, people without any money, in a poor person’s field?”
Sam smiled. “It’s called a potter’s field, but we can do better than that for your father.” She brushed a strand of stringy hair out of Annie’s face. “We all know how much your dad meant to you. Did he ever talk about his burial preferences?”
A look of sadness settled on her face. “He mentioned once or twice that he’d like to be cremated and his ashes spread across the water. He said the ocean was the only place he’d ever truly been happy. We have a few friends in Florida, but nobody that would come this far for his funeral.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do,” Jackie said with a decisive nod. “With your permission, I’ll have Bill call MUSC and make the arrangements.”
Annie was too choked up to manage more than a mumbled, “Thanks.”
“You’re a special person, sweetheart,” Jackie said. “You’ve come to mean a lot to each of us in a very short period of time. If you’ll have us, we’d like for you to consider us your adopted family.”
Annie stared down at her plate, swiping at her eyes with the back of her hand. “I’d like that very much,” she said.
“Great!” Jackie clapped her hands. “That’s settled, then. All we need to do now is figure out the living arrangements, which we don’t have to decide today. You have plenty of time to think about it. You can continue living in the guest cottage, if you’d like, although I’m not sure that’s the best choice.”
Annie looked up, surprised. “But… I thought… Cooper and Sean said their grandmamma might be moving into the guest cottage.”
“We’ve tossed around the idea, but we haven’t decided anything.” Lovie glared at Jackie, although Faith knew by the tone of her mother’s voice that she was teasing. “My daughter seems to think I’m not up to living alone. If you’d like to move into my townhouse with me, we could have a grand old time.”
Annie’s face lit up. “Think of all the new recipes we could create.”
“You’re welcome to live with us,” Sam chimed in. “Jamie and I would be thrilled to have you.”
“Jamie will be going back to school soon.” Annie smiled, a mischievous twinkle in her eye. “Having a teenager living in your house might cramp your style, since it’s only a matter of time before you and Eli get back together.”
“A-men!” Lovie said and they all laughed.
“Then it’s settled,” Faith said, grinning from ear to ear. “You’ll come live with us. Mike and I talked about it this morning. Having you here will make our family complete. And nothing would make Bitsy happier.”
“Do you really mean it?” Annie’s face brightened. “Because I would love to live here with you. I know it doesn’t make much sense—I’m sixteen and she’s eight—but Bitsy is like my best friend.”
“The two of you need each other,” Faith said. “I’ve known that since the night of the wedding. You’re lucky to have one another.”
“You’ll have a built-in babysitter,” Annie continued. “You and Mike can go on date nights, and I can take care of Bitsy after school if you need to work. I can help with the laundry and the cooking and the housework.”
Faith brought her fingers to her lips to hide her smile. “I’m not hiring a housekeeper, Annie. Although I will certainly appreciate help with the chores. Your life has not been easy until now. But that’s going to change.” She gestured to her sisters and her mother. “We all want you to have a normal life. Be a teenager while you have the chance. Make friends. Go on dates with boys. Play sports.”
“Go to college,” Jackie added.
Annie gulped. “College?”
“Bill and I will pay for your college, if that’s what you decide you want to do.”
Annie placed her hand over her heart. “This is like a dream come true.”
“We’ll fix up the guest room any way you want it,” Faith said.
“Can I move in right away?” Annie asked, on the edge of her seat.
“Of course.”
She rose from the table. “I can’t wait to tell Bits. I mean, if that’s okay.”
Faith waved her on. “Of course. Go tell her. She’s gonna be thrilled. We’ll listen out for her squeals.”
The Sweeney women got up from the table at once and began clearing the breakfast dishes. “That girl is an enigma,” Lovie said. “One minute she’s like a six-year-old child, innocent and unsure of herself, and the next minute she’s the streetwise young woman she’s learned to be to survive these past years.”
“She certainly has Sam pegged,” Jackie said. “Like the rest of us, she knows
what a huge mistake you’ll be making if you let Eli go.”
Faith bobbed her head enthusiastically, and Lovie added, “A-men again!”
“What is this, some sort of intervention?” Turning her back on them, Sam went to the sink and began rinsing dishes. “Now that you have Annie’s life all sorted out, you have to start interfering in mine?”
“As a matter of fact, yes.” Jackie joined her at the sink. “We didn’t plan an intervention, but one is certainly in order.” She took a plate from Sam and placed it in the dishwasher. “Not only is Eli one of the most handsome men I’ve ever had the pleasure of setting my eyes on, but he is sweet and thoughtful and supportive.”
“What he has done for this family goes above and beyond the call of duty,” Faith said, covering the leftover bowl of fruit with plastic wrap. “I want you to know he never left our side the whole time Bitsy was missing, not even to go home and shower.”
Lovie deposited two handfuls of dirty silverware on the counter beside Sam. “Eli loves you, honey, so much. It is evident by the way he lights up when you enter the room.”
“He’s leaving Prospect because he can’t be in the same town with you if you’re not together,” Jackie said. “He loves this place. One word from you, and he’ll stay.”
“My feelings for Eli aren’t in question. I love him more than I ever thought I could love a man.” Sam squirted liquid soap in a pot and began to scrub with vengeance. “I’ve learned a lot about myself this week. I want to be with Eli. That’s not the issue. But I’m afraid. Of a lot of things. Of change. Of letting myself be vulnerable to another person. Of losing the special bond I have with my son. I can’t help the way I feel.”
“Tell him that, then” Jackie said, waving a dishtowel in the air. “Not only will Eli understand, he’ll give you the space and the support you need to get over your fears.”
Taking her by the arm, Lovie spun Sam around until they were eye to eye. “Eli deserves your honesty, sweetheart. It’s time you stopped playing games with that man’s emotions.”
Forty-One
Sam
An hour later, Sam was stopped at the light at the intersection of Main and Creekside on her way to work when blue lights appeared in her rearview mirror. She turned on her blinker and pulled into the marina parking lot.
When the police cruiser pulled in behind her, Sam was relieved to see Eli get out of the car.
Arriving at her open window, he tipped his hat at her. “Morning, ma’am. If you don’t mind stepping out of the car.”
“Did I do something wrong, Officer?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said in a gruff voice. “You failed to come to a complete stop when you exited the driveway two miles back.”
Sam stepped out of the car. “But there is no stop sign in my sister’s driveway, Officer.”
“I’m going to have to issue you a citation anyway.” He removed his notepad from his shirt pocket and, walking backward to the rear of her jeep, jotted down her license plate number.
Placing her hands together in prayer formation, she said, “Please, Officer. I can make it worth your while if you’ll give me a warning instead. I have an exemplary driving record. I promise it won’t happen again.”
Eli stopped writing and looked up at her. “Are you offering me a bribe, ma’am?”
“You name it,” Sam said. “I won’t be able to afford my insurance premium if you give me a ticket.”
He closed the space between them. “I might consider letting you off the hook if you’ll agree to have dinner with me tonight.”
She slumped back against the Jeep. “I would love to have dinner with you tonight, Officer, but only if we can agree to take things slow. A very wise woman recently advised me not to play games with your emotions.”
“That wise woman wouldn’t by any chance be Lovie Sweeney?”
Sam smiled. “The one and only.”
“In that case, I think you should listen to her.”
Wrapping her arms around his neck, Sam drew his face closer to hers until their lips met. As the hurt and uncertainty between them dissipated, sparks ignited and erupted into a flame. By the side of the road at the busiest intersection in Prospect, they came together in a passionate embrace, kissing for all the townsfolk to see, with toots of horns from passersby egging them on. When she finally pulled away from him, over his shoulder, she saw Jamie standing at the front window of the market offering her a thumbs-up.
“It appears as though we have an audience,” she said.
Eli followed her gaze. “Who? Jamie? He’s been expecting this.”
Sam scrunched up her face. “Why do you say that?”
“I told him I was planning to stalk you until you agreed to take me back.”
Sam stepped away from him. “I said I’d have dinner with you. I don’t remember agreeing to take you back.”
He ran his finger down her cheek. “It’s only a matter of time. You can’t live without me anymore than I can live without you.”
“Does this mean you’re not moving to Columbia?”
“I don’t want to go.” He traced her lips with his finger. “But I need a wink and a nod from you to stay.”
Sam winked her eye and nodded her head. “But that’s all I can give you right now, Eli. I admit that things look a lot clearer to me today than they did a week ago. But I’m still scared to death. Yes, I want to be with you. More than anything in this world. But…”
His face fell. “You don’t hear wedding bells in our future.”
“Is the forever commitment really necessary for expressing our love for one another?” she asked, her head cocked to one side.
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about over dinner, but I might as well say it now. I made a mistake. I got caught up in the excitement of the wedding, of seeing Faith and Mike so happy together. I didn’t stop to think about how much pressure I was putting on you, about how resistant you are to change. Things were great between us before the wedding. I realize now that getting married isn’t all that important to me. Don’t misunderstand me. If you wanted to get married, I’d walk you straight to the altar. But no, I don’t need a forever commitment as long as I have you in my life.”
“What about your job in Columbia? You can’t just pass up a promotion.”
“Actually, Chief Andrews offered me an even better promotion to stay.” He pointed at the nameplate pinned to his chest. “You may call me Lieutenant, milady.”
“Eli!” She offered him a fist bump. “That’s wonderful!”
“What’s wonderful is that I’m next in line for detective.”
“Detective? Wow! That’s what you’ve always wanted. Congratulations.”
“And I don’t have to move from the town I love to get it.” He leaned back against the Jeep beside her. “That’s not to say I haven’t outgrown my tiny apartment here. I’m in the market for a small cottage on the water. When I find it, maybe I’ll invite you over to spend the night.”
“I’d like that.” She moved close to him, laying her head on his shoulder. “We can watch the sunrise over the water together.”
He kissed the top of her head. “And, if you’re a good girl, after that, I’ll make you some waffles.”
If you enjoyed the book and have a moment to spare, please consider posting a short review on Amazon and Goodreads to share your thoughts with others…
Please visit my website at ashleyfarley.net for more information about my characters and upcoming releases. You will also have an opportunity to sign up for my newsletter. For a limited time, just for signing up, I’m offering a free e-story that dovetails into the Sweeney Sisters Series.
A Note to Readers
Everything I’ve learned during my writing journey came together for me in Her Sister’s Shoes. After exploring the brother/sister bond in Saving Ben, a study of three middle-aged sisters was a nice change of pace. I was thrilled, and pleasantly surprised, when Her Sister’s Shoes began to fly of the e-bookshelves at Amazon, Ba
rnes and Noble, and iTunes. I was even more excited when I began receiving wonderful emails from you, my faithful readers, sharing what you enjoyed about the novel and which sister you identified with the most. You saw the Sweeney sisters as I hoped you might—flawed women facing real-life issues as they struggle to balance career and home. I returned briefly to the brother/sister bond in Merry Mary and Breaking the Story, with Scottie Darden, an impulsive photojournalist whose brother, Will, saves her from herself when she gets into trouble. Which she often does. I’m not finished with Scottie and Will, but for the time being, my heart is deep in the Lowcountry with the Sweeney family.
While I love Richmond, Virginia, my home for the past twenty years, I miss the easy-going ways of the folks who reside in the Lowcountry. Writing about these quirky characters and their unique way of life is the next best thing to experiencing them on a daily basis. I love the beauty of the area—the marshlands and moss-draped trees—and the southern accents and local cuisine. I have become so immersed in the lives of these three special ladies that I dream about them at night, think about them during the day, and plot ways for them to keep you entertained.
I love hearing from you. Feel free to shoot me an email at [email protected] or stop by my website at ashleyfarley.net for more information about my characters and upcoming releases. For a limited time, I’m offering a free e-story, Heading Home, for those who sign up for my newsletter. Heading Home dovetails between Lowcountry Stranger and my third installment of the Sweeney Sisters Series, which is scheduled for release in fall 2016.
Lowcountry Stranger Page 22
