Jamie was waiting for them inside the front door. “I’m sorry you had to come over, Uncle Mike. This shouldn’t have happened.”
“You’re right. It shouldn’t have happened. But it did. Learn from your mistakes.” Mike slapped Jamie on the back. “Be good to your mom. She’s getting married in a few days. She needs her beauty rest.”
Sam hugged Mike goodbye. “It’s nice to have a doctor in the family. I owe you one.”
“I’m glad to be of help.” He slipped on his coat and hurried down the sidewalk to his car.
Jamie draped his arm over Sam’s shoulder. “Mom, I’m—”
She pushed him away. “Not tonight, Jamie. I’m too tired. We will talk about this tomorrow. After I’ve calmed down and you have sobered up.
Jamie looked to Eli for help, but Eli shot back, “Go to bed, son.”
“Yes, sir.” Shoulders slumped, he plodded off toward his room.
Sam called after him, “And I expect you to be up and dressed for church no later than ten thirty.” She fell back against the door. “What a night! One the most pleasant evenings I’ve spent in a long time turned into the worst. We still need to unload all our gifts.”
“Let’s just leave them in the car, and I’ll take them to the new house on Monday after we close.”
She wrapped her arms around his waist, hugging him tight. “Thank you for tonight, for all you did for Jamie. I don’t know what I’d do without you, Lt. Marshall.”
“I’m going to do my best to make sure you never find out.”
THIRTEEN
Eli spent the night on the sofa in order to keep an ear out for Sophia so Sam could get the sleep she needed. Around eight the next morning, he went home to shower and change for church. Everyone made roll call except Sophia who was snoring like a sailor when they left.
“Mom, about last night,” Jamie started as Eli was backing the Jeep out of the driveway. He’d taken Sam’s car home when he went to change and filled it up with gasoline on the way back.
“Not now, Jamie. We’ll talk about it after church.” Sam needed time to think about what words of wisdom she wanted to impart to her son.
Reverend Webster delivered a poignant sermon about the power of forgiveness, especially during the holidays.
Is he speaking directly to me? she wondered. Does he somehow know about last night’s incident with Jamie?
As was their custom, Sam met with the rest of her family on the sidewalk in front of the church after the service. She gave Mike a hug and whispered yet another thank you in his ear. “Jamie’s embarrassed about last night, as he should be.”
“Don’t worry,” Mike said. “No one will hear about it from me. I don’t even think Faith knows I left the house last night.”
“I don’t mind if Faith knows. I’ll tell her myself. But, for Jamie’s sake, I’d rather Mom not find out about this.”
Lovie had offered to take all of them to lunch, but everyone had begged off, claiming holiday preparations that needed attention.
“Where is she, Jamie?” Lovie searched the throng of churchgoers exiting the sanctuary. “I’m dying to meet your girl.”
“I’m sorry, Gran. She’s not here. Sophia is Catholic. It’s against her religion to attend a Protestant church.”
“Oh. I see.” Lovie’s eyes fell from the crowd to her grandson.
“You’ll meet her this week. I promise. Maybe I’ll bring her by the market.”
Lovie forced a smile on her face. “Be sure that you do.”
The family bid their goodbyes and took off in opposite directions.
Sam dragged Jamie to the car by the collar of his blue blazer. “It’s not enough for you to smoke pot and bring your girlfriend home so drunk I had to call your uncle to come over in the middle of the night to check her out. Now you have to lie to your grandmother? What’s gotten into you?”
“It wasn’t really a lie, Mom. Sophia told me she wasn’t comfortable going to our church. Last night was bad. I’m really sorry. I promise nothing like that will ever happen again.”
She opened the car door and pointed at the backseat. “Get in.” She climbed into the car behind him. “You’ve been responsible about your drinking until now. At least when you’re at home. For all I know, last night’s behavior might be the norm for you when you’re at school. I’d like to think you’ve learned something from watching me struggle with my addiction. But I will not tolerate the drug use.”
“Trust me, Mom. I get it. I totally screwed up. I told you that Coach randomly drug tests us during the season. I’m sure it won’t take long for the little bit of pot I smoked last night to leave my system. But it was a dumb move. I don’t want to do anything to risk my scholarship or my chances of starting next year.”
Eli started the car and turned on the heat. “You put your mom in a bad predicament last night, Jamie. Sophia’s parents are out of the country, on the other side of the world. They left their daughter in your care, which means our care. If anything bad had happened . . .”
Jamie hung his head. “I know. I’ll talk to her.”
“I suggest you do,” Sam said. “Because I don’t need any more drama, especially not this week when things are already so hectic.”
“I didn’t really think it through when Sophia invited herself for Christmas.”
Sam locked eyes with Eli. Invited herself?
Eli gave a slight shake of his head, warning her that now was not the appropriate time to bring it up.
Jamie went on, “I know how busy you are at the market. I want to help you. I really do. But I can’t just leave Sophia at our house all day alone. I could bring her to work with me, but I’m not sure she’s cut out for peddling seafood.”
“You’re right about that.” Sam didn’t want SoDiva anywhere near her place of business.
“I can’t just sit around all day and do nothing,” Jamie said. “Is there something I can do to help you around the house? I can start packing for the move.”
Sam tossed her hands up. “Finally! You are beginning to sound like my son.”
Eli put the car in gear and they headed toward home.
“I have boxes and packing paper in the garage,” Sam said. “Pack the kitchen first. I bought paper plates for us to use this week, but leave out some eating utensils.”
Eli dropped Sam at home, and then took Jamie to pick up his truck at last night’s party scene. She prepared a brunch of scrambled eggs, sausage, and biscuits while they were gone. No matter how many cabinet doors she slammed and pots she banged around, she could not rouse Sophia from sleep.
“Do you think Sophia will ever come out of her room?” Sam asked over coffee.
Jamie shrugged. “She’ll come out when she gets hungry.”
“She’s probably afraid to face you,” Eli said.
“Ha. I don’t think Sophia is afraid of anything,” said Sam.
When Eli left to tend to his own chores, Jamie went to the attic for the tree ornaments and Sam retired to her bedroom to wrap the pile of gifts stuffed under her bed. Around two o’clock, she heard the bathroom door click shut and the shower turn on.
Princess SoDiva has emerged from her castle.
An hour later, Sam found Sophia curled up on the sofa watching something on her iPad, a half-eaten pimento cheese
sandwich and a sweating glass of iced tea on the table next to her.
Sam picked up the glass and used her shirttail to wipe the condensation from the table. “I’ll get the jar of mayonnaise for you to rub that out.”
Sophia followed her gaze to the watermark. “Oops.”
Sam’s nostrils flared. “We missed you at church this morning. My family was looking forward to meeting you.”
Sophia returned her attention to her iPad. “My family doesn’t go to church.”
“How sad for you.” Sam took three steps toward the kitchen and turned back around. “What you do in your own home doesn’t concern me, but last night’s behavior will not be tolerated in mine.
If it happens again, I’ll be forced to call your parents.”
Sophia’s eyes remained glued to the iPad. “Really, Sam? We’re not in middle school anymore. But have fun trying to reach them in Russia.”
Sam spun around and stomped off to the kitchen. This insolent little bitch would get what was coming to her eventually.
For the rest of the day, Sophia didn’t move from her spot on the sofa. Even when Jamie and Sam wrestled the Christmas tree into the room. Even when Sam handed Jamie a list and sent him off to the store. Even when Sam set the table for dinner in the adjoining dining room. Even when Jamie asked if she wanted to go outside with him to grill.
“My patience is growing thin,” Sam said to Eli when he brought in the steaks.
“I know, baby. But trust me, none of this spoiled brat behavior is lost on Jamie.”
They gathered around the ancient walnut table in the dining room and Eli offered the blessing. Sam took in the floral wallpaper that was outdated ten years ago. “Sad to think that this will be our last meal in this dining room. At this table for that matter, if my sister has anything to do with it.”
Sophia brightened. “Then we should celebrate with some wine.”
Eli raised an eyebrow. “ A little hair of the dog?”
Sophia’s lip curled up in a snarl. “What. Ever. We always have wine with dinner at my house.”
“You’re a guest in someone else’s home,” Eli said. “As the saying goes, when in Rome . . .”
“Eli and I are alcoholics,” Sam said. “I don’t keep booze in the house.”
A gloomy silence settled over the table. Sam usually had much to share with Jamie and Eli at Sunday dinner when they planned their week. With business booming at the market and the wedding in six days, there was plenty to discuss. But Sophia’s sulky presence put a damper on their holiday spirit. She picked at her food, barely taking more than a bite of her steak.
“Are you a vegetarian?” Sam asked, eyeing her untouched meat.
Sophia pushed her plate away and got up. “I don’t have much of an appetite. If you’ll excuse me.” She left the room and her untouched plate on the table.
Sam glanced down at the plate and then up at her son. “Obviously her staff at home does more for Sophia’s family than decorate their Christmas tree.”
Jamie snatched up both his and Sophia’s plates and walked them to the kitchen. Sam heard the water running as he rinsed the plates. “Thanks for dinner,” he said as he passed through the dining room on his way to join his girlfriend on the sofa.
Eli reached for her hand. “I’m sorry, honey. I don’t even know what to say.”
“Neither do I.” She gulped in a lungful of air. “We can’t let SoDiva spoil our holiday. Especially not this year when we have so much to celebrate. After we finish with the dishes, we’re going to march in there,”—she pointed at the doorway leading to the sitting room—“turn on some Christmas music, and decorate our tree in true Sweeney style.”
“That’s my girl.”
Jamie had already started putting the lights on the tree by the time Sam and Eli joined them. Sam connected her iPhone to her speaker and accessed her Christmas music playlist on iTunes. She turned to face Eli and Jamie. “I’m excited about our new house. But tonight I want to celebrate all the wonderful times we’ve had here.” She raised her arms in the air. “Let the decorating begin!”
Sophia on the sofa forgotten, the threesome spent the next two hours bedecking the tree. They scaled back on the number of ornaments and lights that they usually used, but the process went a long way to improving their moods.
“Here, you do the honors.” Sam handed Jamie the angel topper when they were nearing completion. “I’m glad you insisted we put up a tree for our last Christmas.”
As he situated the angel on top of the tree, Jamie said, “Everything doesn’t have to change, you know. You’re getting married and we’re moving, but we still have our traditions.”
Eli ripped open a package of tinsel. “And I’m excited to share in those traditions.”
Sam grabbed a handful of tinsel and tossed it on the tree. “And we can start new ones that include you.”
“I agree, Mom. Next year we should mix it up, do things a little different.”
“What did you have in mind?” she asked.
“An oyster roast. We can invite all our friends, yours and mine. Make it an annual thing.”
She smiled. “No mystery about who’s going to supply the oysters.”
Jamie and Eli draped tinsel from the top branches above Sam’s head, and they stood back to admire their handiwork. Eli hooked his arm around Sam’s waist. “This time tomorrow, we’ll be the proud owners of waterfront property.”
“So tomorrow is big day number one,” Jamie said, the lights from the tree reflected in his dark eyes. “What time is the closing?”
“Four o’clock,” Eli said. “If all goes as planned with the bank.”
“We should celebrate,” Jamie said. “Why don’t we take dinner over to the new house tomorrow and hang out?”
“I’m working nights until Wednesday,” Eli said. “But we’ll do plenty of celebrating this weekend.”
“Did somebody mention a party?” Setting her iPad aside, Sophia stood and stretched. She walked over to the tree and inspected if from different angles. “Tinsel is kinda tacky, don’t you think?”
“That’s why we like it,” Sam and Jamie said in unison.
Like a cat slinking across the room, Sophia moved to the window and peeked through the blinds. “I’m bored. Isn’t there anything to do in this town?”
Jamie shook his head. “I tried to warn you, Soph. Prospect is not a happening place.”
“Then we’ll have to make our own fun. Lucky for you, I’m tired tonight.” She retrieved her iPad from the sofa before heading off to bed.
FOURTEEN
Everything that possibly could go wrong did go wrong at the market on Monday morning. One of the larger coolers had stopped working over the weekend, resulting in several hundred dollars worth of lost merchandise. Their weekly shipment of fish failed Sam’s sniff test, and a cement mixer rear-ended the wine distributor on his way into town from Charleston, transforming the highway into a river of red wine.
Sam was in the back office, leaving her third message for the refrigerator repairman, when Faith arrived around nine. “Mike told me about Sophia. He said you wouldn’t mind me knowing. It sounds like you’ve got your hands full. Is there anything I can do to help?”
“We’ve got it under control, but thank you.” Sam opened the desk drawer and shook two tablets out of the bottle of Advil. “I keep hoping Sophia will show some redeeming qualities, but that’s looking less and less likely with each passing day.”
“Jamie needs to see this side of her for himself if this is in fact the true Sophia.”
“That’s what Eli keeps telling me.”
“You realize that the best way to get a girlfriend to show her true colors is to take her home to meet your parents. That goes for boyfriends too of course.”
Sam thought about Eli and how thoughtful and considerate he was to her mother. “That’s very true. Let’s just hope something good will come from her bad behavior.”
During a lull in business later that morning, Sam asked Annie if she’d met Sophia.
“Briefly. Jamie introduced me to her at Rachel’s party on Saturday night.”
Sam looked up from the produce cart where she was straightening a display of green beans. “I didn’t know you were at that party.”
“Believe me, Sam, that is not my scene. Rachel’s brother invited us to come. Cooper and I stopped by for a few minutes on the way to the movies, but we didn’t stay long.”
Sam finished with the beans and moved on to a bin of butternut squash. “It’s a good thing you didn’t. Things got pretty out of hand.”
“That’s what I heard,” Annie said as she sprayed cleaner on the front of the display case. “A lot of peo
ple were already drunk when we got there. They were playing drinking games with tequila.”
Sam gritted her teeth. “I hope Jamie had enough sense not to participate.”
“He didn’t. At least not while we were there. Sophia, now she’s a different story. She was running the show, and plastered out of her mind. I’m not sure what he sees in her. She’s pretty and all, but so are a lot of other girls.”
“Tell that to him. Jamie respects your opinion, Annie. It would mean more coming from you.”
“Believe me, I will. First chance I get to talk to him when she’s not around.”
Unfortunately that chance didn’t happen when Jamie stopped in with Sophia after their lunch at the Main Street Grille.
Sophia crinkled her nose the minute she crossed the threshold. “It smells bad in here.”
Jamie’s expression darkened. “Obviously you haven’t been in many seafood markets. Ours smells fresh compared to most others.” He dragged her over to the checkout counter. “Sophia, this is my Aunt Faith and my grandmother.”
Lovie came around from behind the counter. “You can call me Lovie. Everyone else does.”
“Lovie?” Sophia’s lip curled up in distaste. “Is that some kind of nickname?”
“Short for Louvenia.” Lovie ran her hand down Sophia’s auburn mane. “Aren’t you the pretty one? What a shame you can’t bottle this color.”
Sophia brushed Lovie’s hand out of the way as she lifted her hair into a ponytail.
Sam’s cell phone lit up with Craig Smalls’s caller ID on the counter beside the register. Reaching for the phone, she said, “Excuse me. I need to take this call from my attorney.” Pressing the phone to her ear, she stepped away from the others.
“We’re going to have to postpone the closing,” Craig began. “There are some discrepancies with the numbers.”
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