by Terri DuLong
I refrained from telling her that booking something right away hadn’t been my initial intention, but it had just kind of happened. “Here’s your tea,” I said, passing her a mug. “Come on, I’ll show you the photos on the computer.”
I clicked the link and scrolled through, showing her the rooms and the balcony.
“Gosh, that’s really gorgeous,” she said. “And it’s pet friendly?”
“It is and that was the deciding factor. Apparently, Henry, the owner, also has a dog. He lives in Vermont but gets down here frequently. I guess he really likes Ormond Beach, both the setting and the people. I’m looking forward to spending some time there and forming my own opinion.”
Grace leaned over and gave me a hug. “I just want you to be happy, Chloe. No matter where you are. You’ve had a difficult time these past few years.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I have, but it’s like when I first came here. Nothing was going to change until I took the first step to make it happen. And coming here to Cedar Key was absolutely the right thing to do. The thing is, sometimes a place is just a temporary stop on our journey. . . and then it’s time for new beginnings.”
“Exactly, and you won’t know until you go over there and see for yourself. Is there anything I can do to help you get ready to leave?”
I laughed. “Thanks, but I think you’ll be busy enough getting things together for the three of you to fly to Paris. Do you have dates yet?”
“Lucas is going to check on flights tomorrow and I’ll let you know. But if we’re both gone at the same time, Berkley or Marin can come to check on the house.”
“Oh, I’m sure they’ll be happy to. We’ll give them a key. We have to put a hold on our mail delivery too. I guess I should start making a list tomorrow. Is Lucas going to keep the book café open while you’re gone?”
Grace shook her head. “No, not this time. I feel bad about putting Suellen out of work while we’re away, but business is so slow that it really isn’t worth staying open. Lucas has been giving her hints that we might be going to Paris for a while and she actually mentioned to him today that she’s thinking about moving to Gainesville. I think she’s been going there to check out job possibilities.”
“Gosh, I hope it all works out for her.”
“Me too. Well, I need to get back upstairs. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
I got up to give her a hug. “Thanks, Gracie. Thanks for all of your encouragement and support. I love you.”
“I love you back,” she said before leaving.
As I drifted off to sleep that night, I thought about my trip to Ormond Beach. It wasn’t really a vacation in my mind. Instead I considered it a visit to do research and check out the area. Discover if perhaps I did still want to relocate there. On my own. And for the first time in a year, I felt an emotion that had been absent in my life: excitement.
Chapter 4
Henry Wagner had sent a packet of information as he promised, along with the keys to the condo and the security code. He had also included various brochures of restaurants, maps of the town, community events, and little notes with descriptions. And he had called me twice. The first time he said it was to make sure I’d received the packet and the second time . . . well, I’m not quite sure why he called the second time except we did end up having a nice conversation for about twenty minutes.
And with only one day remaining until I left, my excitement level continued to creep up.
I had just poured my first cup of morning coffee when I recalled a dream I’d had the night before. It was still a bit foggy in my mind but I worked to bring it to the surface. The dream had been about a house. A large, two-story, Victorian-style house. I remembered that it had a black wrought-iron fence surrounding it, set back from the sidewalk with grass in front and a driveway to the side. The image got a little clearer and I recalled a turret on the second floor, but the most striking part of the dream was the fact that my mother had been standing in the doorway, waving to me with a huge smile on her face and beckoning me to enter. That was when I woke up.
I shook my head. Dreams could be so confusing and most of the time made no sense. My mother had passed away almost thirty years ago. It wasn’t like I’d been thinking of her or talking about her the day before. It was then that I remembered Grace’s experience shortly before she married Lucas. She claimed the spirit of our mother had appeared to her, wearing the exact wedding gown that Grace ended up wearing after Aunt Maude gave it to her, telling us it had belonged to our mother.
Grace and Aunt Maude had always claimed to have a gift of sight in relation to dreams and visions. I humored them but never for a moment believed in any of it. Although my dream had felt real, I chalked it up to the fact that I’d been researching various vacation rentals and house images were in my subconscious.
I turned around as I heard Grace’s voice and a knock on the kitchen door.
“Are you up, Chloe?”
“Yeah, come on in,” I hollered.
“I just dropped Solange at the day care center, and I wanted to let you know that Lucas finally got our flights arranged.”
“Oh, good. Coffee?” I held up the pot.
“That would be great. We’ll be leaving May sixteenth and fly back June sixteenth.”
“So you’ll be here for a couple weeks after I leave.”
“Right, and you’ll be back a couple weeks before we are. And I spoke to Berkley and Marin yesterday and they each offered to take turns checking on the house during the two weeks it’s empty.”
“Sounds like we’re moving right along.”
“Are you all packed and ready to leave in the morning?”
I nodded. “Pretty much. I thought I’d start loading up the car this afternoon. I really don’t need that much staying in a fully equipped condo. But I do know one thing . . . I have to stick to a diet when I get over there. I could barely fit into some of my clothes when I began packing.”
Grace laughed. “A diet on vacation? Unheard of.”
“Yeah, well, when a woman gets to be a certain age, the pounds creep up out of nowhere and I have a good ten to lose.”
“Oh, I just realized. We leave for Paris the day after your birthday, and we won’t be together to celebrate it. I feel bad about that.”
I waved a hand in the air. “Don’t be silly. Turning fifty-two isn’t a momentous occasion. Just another day.”
“No, it’s not and I want you to promise me that you’ll do something fun and nice. A good dinner and wine. Who knows, you’ll be there two weeks by then—maybe you’ll have made some friends to celebrate with.”
I seriously doubted that. “I’ll celebrate with Basil. Hey, Grace . . . do you still read your tarot cards?”
Grace laughed. “I thought you hated those things and had no belief in them.”
“Well . . . I really don’t. But I remember you did read them once and a lot of that information was correct.”
“Hmm, yeah, they can be pretty accurate, but to answer your question, no. I gave them up shortly before Lucas and I married.”
“And you never dabble anymore? You were always the one who said it was part of our heritage, passed down through generations of women.”
“True, but what’s the sudden urge to have your cards read? What’s going on?”
I shrugged. “Nothing. It’s just that I had a dream last night.”
Grace sat up straighter in her chair. “Oh, now dreams . . . that’s an entirely different matter. I still pay attention to my dreams. And visions. They have to be taken seriously. With the cards, I really don’t want to know what’s ahead. I just want to live it. But with dreams . . . well, those are messages. Sometimes from your subconscious, sometimes from beyond.”
“Like from spirits?”
“Exactly. What was your dream about?”
I explained about the house, gave a good description of it, and then mentioned our mother standing in the doorway, wanting me to go inside.
“Interesting.”
<
br /> “What’s that mean?”
“Do you remember anything else? Was the house here in Cedar Key?”
I pulled back into my brain for a moment and then shook my head. “No, it wasn’t here. I know that, but . . . I do remember water across the street from the house.”
“Well, all of it could mean a number of things. Your subconscious knows you’re going to a new area, so it could have to do with that. As for Mom being in the dream . . . you said she wanted you to go inside the house?”
I nodded.
“It sounds to me like she’s telling you there’s change ahead for you, which isn’t so surprising either. You’re going away for a month, but there could be more to it. Wish I could be more help, but just pay attention, because you’re the only one who will be able to figure out any meaning.”
“It’s probably nothing. Just an overactive imagination on my part.” I glanced at the clock over the fridge. “Well, I need to jump in the shower. I want to go downtown and say bye to Berkley and stock up on some chocolate to take with me.”
Grace got up and placed her mug in the sink. “I need to get moving too. Oh, before I forget, Lucas and I want to invite you to dinner tonight. He’s cooking some special French dish for your going-away dinner.”
I laughed. “Aw, he didn’t have to do that, but I never turn down one of his great meals. I’ll be there. Usual time?”
“Yup, seven is good. See you then.”
I had the car pretty well packed, stocked up on my chocolate, enjoyed a delicious dinner with Grace and Lucas, and was just preparing a cup of herbal tea before settling down with a book for an hour or so when my house phone rang.
“Hey, Mom,” I heard my son Eli say. “You weren’t in bed yet, were you?”
I laughed. “It’s only nine. No, I don’t go to bed quite this early. How’re you doing and how’s Treva?”
“We’re both great. Just super busy working.”
My son had been married for four years already, and I admit that each time he called, I wondered if it was to tell me I was about to become a grandmother. Not that they were trying, as far as I knew. Living in Boston, they were both in high-pressure situations—Eli as an accountant with a prestigious company and Treva as a Columbia University grad who had recently completed her master’s in health care administration. I doubted this left much time to think about planning a family. So I was quite surprised at what he said next.
“Actually, that’s why I’m calling. We’re both getting a bit tired of the rat race up here. Not to mention the horrible winters we’ve been having the past few years.”
“Oh, so are you moving?”
“Yes, but not until autumn. Still, we’ll be out of here before another snowfall—we’re heading for the sunny south.”
“Seriously?” I had never dared to hope this might happen.
Eli laughed. “Seriously. I’ve been offered a very nice position with a company in Jacksonville.”
“Jacksonville, Florida?” Surely, he was joking.
He laughed again. “Yes, Mom, that’s the place. On the east coast, and since it’s north Florida, we’ll be a lot closer to you. Don’t forget, I grew up in Savannah, and although I’ve toughed out the northeast winters since college, it’s not my favorite climate.”
“And how about Treva? Does she have a job too?”
“Not yet, but with her credentials, I don’t think she’ll have a problem. That is, unless she gets pregnant first. We had always agreed that when that time came, she wouldn’t work full-time.”
Grandma, here we come! “Well, Eli, I couldn’t be happier for both of you. You have an exciting time ahead.”
“And how about you? All set for your solo adventure tomorrow?”
“I am.” I let out a deep breath. “And actually, I’m quite excited as well.”
“That’s great. Well, give me a call in the next day or so after you get settled in. I love you, Mom.”
“I love you too,” I told him as I felt a huge smile cross my face.
I took my cup of tea and headed to bed to read a little before sleep. Basil promptly jumped up next to me.
“Well, Basil, it looks like there could be some good things ahead for the Radcliffe family. And tomorrow, you and I will take the first step on that journey.”
Chapter 5
Following a weepy good-bye with Grace and Solange, Basil and I headed east right on time. It was roughly a three-hour drive, depending on traffic, and I planned to arrive in Ormond Beach around noontime.
It was a beautiful, sunny May morning and I tried to push thoughts of Gabe out of my head as I drove along US 27 in Ocala. But it was hard not to remember just a year ago when Gabe and I had made this trip together, both of us filled with plans for our future.
But as I knew all too well, sometimes plans simply don’t work out. I recalled my conversation with Eli the night before. Following my divorce from Parker, both of my sons had also seemed to drift away. Granted, both Mathis and Eli were busy forging their own careers, but I can’t deny that it felt like rejection to me.
Mathis was now twenty-eight, two years older than Eli, and had been living and working in Paris, France, for the past three years before transferring to Atlanta the year before. He did call me now and then and had managed to fly to Florida to visit me twice, but I didn’t feel like I knew very much about his life. Only what he wanted me to know.
And until Eli married Treva, he had also kept to himself. I wasn’t happy when I learned that they’d had a simple civil ceremony in Manhattan with no family present, but that was their choice, and since becoming a husband, he was always in touch with me a few times a week, which I welcomed. I attributed some of this to Treva. Her mother had passed away before she married Eli and she didn’t get along with her stepmother, so even her relationship with her father was strained. I always got the feeling that she liked having me in her life. And I adored her. As soon as I met her, I forgave both of them for not including me in their marriage ceremony. And now within a few months, they’d be living much closer.
Just as I turned east on SR 40, the sun disappeared behind clouds. “Damn,” I said out loud. “I hope it doesn’t rain before we get there.”
In case it did, I thought we should stop at a McDonalds I spotted. I could let Basil out of the car to pee and I could grab a coffee to go.
As I pulled out of the McDonalds parking lot after our brief pit stop, the sky opened up and it began to pour. I turned the radio to NPR and took a sip of coffee. Maybe by the time I reached Ormond Beach, the sun would be shining again.
We had just entered the stretch of road that bordered the Ocala National Forest when I felt a thump beneath the car and the steering mechanism seemed to freeze up.
“Oh, no! I think we have a flat tire,” I said, as I slowly edged the car to the side of the road.
I had no choice. I had to get out and check, and of course, my umbrella was packed in my luggage in the trunk. By now the pouring rain had turned to a deluge.
I pointed at Basil, who was sitting up in the backseat, probably wondering why we’d stopped. “You stay right there,” I told him. “This might not be pretty.”
I jumped out and was immediately drenched. Sure enough, the left front tire was flat. As a pancake. Shit! Now what?
I ran back inside the car, shaking my head like a wet dog. Droplets of water flew everywhere. Since Parker had left me, I’d learned to become somewhat self-sufficient. However, changing a tire was beyond me. I recalled Lucas telling me many times that I really should sign up with AAA just in case I encountered a road problem alone. And had I listened? Of course not.
I realized no traffic had even gone past since I’d pulled over. Great. Just great. Alone in the pouring rain. I guess I could call Lucas, but God. That would be a one-hour drive for him to just get here from Cedar Key and then a one-hour drive back. What the hell was I going to do? Without any warning, tears slid down my face, mingling with the rain. Maybe I never should have made plans to d
o this trip. Maybe I should have just stayed put on Cedar Key. Safe and sound. But that was the old me talking. Afraid to take a risk. I’d been a doormat for Parker almost all of my married life, and once I had made a decision to leave Savannah and arrived in Cedar Key, I’d become a different woman. And I wasn’t about to go backward.
I swiped at my tears and saw a black BMW speed past me. Thanks, I thought. Thanks so much for stopping to help me.
I took another sip of coffee while still trying to decide what to do when I glanced up and saw the BMW had turned around and was now slowly heading back toward me. For a brief second, I felt relief, and then I realized whoever was in that car could be a serial killer.
The car slowed across the road and the driver’s side window slid down. I saw it was a man alone. Yup, could definitely be a serial killer.
“Do you need any help?” he hollered across the road.
Yes, of course I did. “It seems I have a flat tire,” I yelled back.
The man made a U-turn and I thought he was going to speed off again, but I looked in my rearview mirror and saw he’d pulled up behind me with his hazard lights on. He jogged to the side of my car.
“Got a spare?” he said as the rain pelted down on him.
“Yes, I think so.”
“Flip your trunk,” he instructed me.
This perfect stranger wasn’t going to actually change my tire, was he? But I did as I was told and then jumped out to join him, getting drenched again within a matter of seconds.
I watched him push aside my luggage, remove a tire from the wheel well, and go to the front of the car.
“You should get inside,” he said as he went to the front of my car with a jack in his hand. “You’re getting soaked. Besides, it’s not safe standing on the side of the road. Put your hazard lights on.”
Again, I did as I was told and slid into the driver’s seat sopping wet. After turning on my hazard lights, I peered to my left to better see him and make sure he was okay. Not that I could do anything to help. In the brief encounter we’d had, I noticed he was about my age, quite good looking and wearing a white shirt and tie that would probably end up in the trash heap before the day was over. I also noticed that although more cars were now speeding past, not one stopped to offer any assistance. This man was quickly becoming my savior.
