Retreat to Woodhaven (The Hills of Burlington Book 2)

by Jacie Middlemann

  "They were in shock." He thought of his own mother, both quiet...and quietly suffering. He seen it then but only understood it when they'd lost her. "I'd be surprised if anyone was thinking real clearly at the time."

  "I know." Mary had come to the same conclusion. "How could they?"

  "You guys have done a lot." He looked around from where he now stood. "Last time I heard about all this it sounded like your place was a warehouse and the only place to sit was in here." He looked around the kitchen, swamped by memories of another time, another way of life, still having a bit of a hard time believing he was standing in the very same place.

  Mary sat at the table and motioned him to join her. "It took a while but between all of us we went through it all." She thought back to the heated discussions that sometimes took place over what to do with some of those family heirlooms they'd found in both the basement and the attic of her house. "It really wasn't difficult with those items that were obviously tied to the family, like the family bibles, some of the linens, and such," she elaborated with her hands that had Jake smiling.

  "Kept a lot of it, didn't you?" He knew his sister, and didn't doubt Mary and Carrie weren't too far apart in their thinking.

  "We did," Mary admitted. "But not nearly as much as we would have if it weren't for Aunt Charlie." She tilted her head to the side, thinking back over some of those heated debates in this very room. "And Mallie as well for that matter. She sometimes came up with some of the most common sense statements that would get us all thinking. We may not have liked it, may not have agreed with her, but she made a lot of sense."

  "The very young and the very old often see things through different eyes than we who are stuck in the middle do," he said simply.

  Mary just stared at him. The Jake she knew wouldn't in a million years think along those lines let alone say it out loud even if he did. "They certainly did in this case," she continued. "The items that we decided pretty quickly not to keep were easy enough to determine. They went into the online store inventory. It was the stuff that the decision one way or another didn't come quickly or easily that we got stuck on at times."

  "And that's where Mallie and Aunt Charlie came in." He could see it in his mind. Charlie had never been one to mince words unless she chose to and young Mallie hadn't reached that age yet to have learned the art of being politically or diplomatically correct.

  "Pretty much." She smiled at him, could see his thoughts even as he thought them. Didn't think twice about how easily she could read him. She just always had. "The few things we just couldn't reach a consensus on one way or another ended up either being packed away with the stuff we decided to keep or we used it somehow either in Casey's travel videos or Aunt Charlie's cooking videos." She watched his eyes widen and realized some of what was going on here hadn't made it to his personal inbox.

  "Aunt Charlie is doing cooking videos!" His voice was strangled as he tried to wrap his mind around the image.

  "And loving every single messy moment of it. Mallie is her assistant and they look perfect together." She fought to hold back the smile as he obviously struggled with this new information and the image he was coming up with. Throwing caution to the win she dug in a little deeper. "Casey's travel videos have been picked up and are airing on a couple of the local regional cable stations. She's been so excited about it she's thinking about possibly expanding her stories farther out than what's she's done so far. She focuses on out of the beaten path places you wouldn't think to visit unless you knew they were there."

  "And that's where Casey comes in."

  "She'll never get rich from it but..."

  "That's not the bottom line for her. It never has been."

  "No, she just didn't always realize that." Mary found it interesting he had. Long before Casey herself had understood it her brother had seen her far more clearly than she had seen herself.

  "Casey always wanted to make a difference. She just hadn't found a way to do it. Looks like now she has."

  "In a couple of different ways actually. Aunt Charlie and Mallie are the perfect pair for the cooking videos but they'd have never gotten it off the ground without Casey. She took what Aunt Charlie envisioned and made it real." She leaned back and thought about the chaos of those first couple of videos. But after a lot of trial and error they'd all fallen into a system that worked for all of them. "Grace has been instrumental in getting their videos as well as Casey's picked up by the local cable networks."

  Jake rose and helped himself to a cup of the coffee Mary had brewed. He'd slept most the day away but knew without a doubt, despite being wide awake at the moment, coffee or no coffee, he'd fall asleep instantly once he returned to the house down the street. "I know Casey is focusing her efforts on out of the way small town America, but I have no clue what the basis is of Aunt Charlie and Mallie's cooking show. And..." he turned to his cousin as he sat back down. "Who is Grace?"

  Mary took the questions in the order he'd asked. "They started off with recipes from the cookbook I put together but now they're doing other dishes as well." At his questioning look she explained further realizing that other than what involved Casey directly he was totally out of the loop. "I put together a cookbook of all our favorite family recipes, most from our mothers but some also from Nanno and a handful that we had from her mother...our great-grandmother." She rose to get her own cup of coffee. "The intent was to focus the show on those recipes but after they aired we got requests for other recipes including some of the older regional dishes that no one knew how to make anymore. Casey and Grace would research them, find what they could, then Mallie and Aunt Charlie would test the recipe until they felt comfortable with it."

  "Then it would end up in a video segment." He was amazed at all they'd accomplished in the recent months.

  "Exactly."

  "Did you publish your cookbook through your regular publisher?"

  "Not exactly." She sat back down, took a breath and spit it out, not certain what his thoughts would be on this aspect of things. "Casey and her online store, which we all kind of have a share in, is the exclusive, her word not mine, distributor and seller of the cookbook."

  Jake shook his head. His baby sister might have the heart of an angel and be a champion of the underdog but she also had the mind of a financial shark. "So, who's Grace?"

  "Do you remember Mr. Joe up at the store on the corner?" Mary watched his expression, wondering if the man and his store had had the same impact on him as it had on her through the years of her childhood.

  "How could I not." Jake thought back easily to the summers spent scouting around the old general store, spending every cent he had on pop and candy.

  "Grace is his granddaughter. She came to Burlington a couple of years ago, restored the place back to how it was when we were little and now she runs the place." She shook her head. "I still have to think twice when I walk in there. You almost expect him to come from out behind the counter."

  Jake took it all in. What was it, he thought to himself, that brought some people back to where they began while others ran as fast and as far as they could away from it. "How is she involved in all of it?" He still wasn't completely sure of all that his sister and cousins along with his aunt had involved themselves in. It seemed as if in a short matter of months they'd found themselves proprietors to a number of little businesses.

  "She handles most the public relations and marketing for us." She saw the doubt, the questions, had expected them. "Before moving here she was a speechwriter in D.C. She knows marketing from that angle and according to her this is easy compared to that."

  "I bet." Jake mumbled under his breath He'd have to find out more about the little speechwriter from D.C.

  Again Mary could read his thoughts even as he thought them. Her brothers were the same way. She sighed knowing nothing she could say would change the course of his thoughts or actions. Decided to let him waste his time since he would anyway. "Anyway, in a nutshell, Mallie works for Grace part time at the store, helps
Casey with the travel videos mostly in the editing process which according to Casey she excels at, and does the cooking videos with Aunt Charlie. Casey does the production of the travel videos, cooking videos, helps out a lot with the online store but Carrie is taking that over more and more along with doing a lot of the purchasing for the store though we all help out with that end of it."

  "I just bet you do." Jake didn't bother mumbling this time and didn't care if she heard him or not.

  Mary continued as if she hadn't heard him but smiled as she did. "Like I said, Grace does the PR and all that's related to it. Aunt Charlie obviously is our cooking video star but she's also painting again and those that she's willing to give up go on the online store and are usually snatched up before the end of the day if they last that long," she paused and took a breath. "And since I finished the cookbook I've mostly been puttering around the house, helping out everyone where ever and whenever they need it and pretty much still trying to figure out what to do when I grow up."

  Jake couldn't help the muffled snort that escaped despite his best efforts to hold it back. No one, simply no one he knew, and to his frequent dismay he knew a lot of people, came even close to accomplishing as much as his cousin even with all the background noise she had going on all along the way. But he could also understand the concept of being of an age and still feeling as if you hadn't quite found your place...found exactly what you wanted to do when you grew up. Even when you found yourself all grown up. Before he could comment on either the door off the back of the kitchen flung open and his sister came barreling into the room followed by his cousin Carrie. He was on his feet but just barely when she stopped almost directly in front of him. He saw the indecision, wondered what it was that had placed this questionable space that had come to exist between them in recent years. "You've come this far," he murmured quietly, barely loud enough for her to hear but no one else. "I've missed you little sister."

  That did it for Casey, whatever hesitancy had stopped her evaporated with his softly spoken words. She threw herself the remaining short distance and held on to him tightly. He had lost weight since the last time she'd seen him, and while that was over a year, he was not one to have a lot of excess weight to lose. For those few moments she allowed herself, as he held her as tightly as she held him, an overwhelming sense of relief to be able to see for herself he was safe. She moved back, "You've certainly stirred up a hornet's nest in your wake." The words were shaky, and she blinked repeatedly, refusing to allow anything to mar the moment.

  "From everything I've read," Carrie added as she moved forward to give him a big hug and allow her cousin the moment she needed to swipe the tears away as inconspicuously as possible. "You uncovered another black hole that looks like an awful lot of folks are falling into and deservedly so."

  "You look good too Carrie, I especially like your outfit. Wear it out much?" Jake had heard the story of how Mary had rushed out of the house months ago in her robe. His aunt and Casey doing so wouldn't surprise him any but that Mary had floored him. He wondered now what it was in the water here in Burlington for his other prim and proper cousin to have done much the same.

  Carrie refused to be led into a verbal contest she knew he would easily win. "Your sister was in a rush. Even the few minutes she allowed me to get slippers and a robe on ruffled her feathers." She turned purposely to block his view of that particular cousin wiping her eyes, not an easy task in their grandmother's little kitchen. And she knew, her movements were enough to signal both Jake and Mary of her intent should they notice. and knowing Casey as they all did, would understand her reasons.

  "I've got coffee if you want some Carrie but there's juice and milk in the fridge if you'd rather." Mary moved around, trying to give time for everyone to settle down. She understood Casey, understood immediately what Carrie was doing. She was worried about Jake's sudden discomfort though. It didn't have anything to do with Casey specifically, he'd been too easy with her, had always been, more so than she had ever been with him. She took the pot over to his cup and filled it back up, placed her hand on his arm as he sat back down. Heard the deep and shaky breath he took. "Jake," she spoke softly. "Whatever it is," she looked around the room, saw that she had Carrie and Casey's attention as well. "Whatever it is," she repeated, "we will fix it."

  Jake just stared at her. It almost seemed absurd but in her way she absolutely meant it. Not in the way of fixing broken bones or bruised feelings, but in the way of family. In the way family took care of you. He looked around the table, at his sister who had alternately driven him nuts and worried him beyond distraction. At his other cousin who could spit with the best of them and had a penchant for all things Vegas. And who he knew from personal experience could shoot a coin out of a leafy tree on the first shot. And he looked back to Mary. The woman who could spin a story that alternately made you cry, laugh, then cry a little more, and wish it would never end. The woman who drew family like flies to honey and loved every moment of it. They might not be able to fix what brought him here, but they meant to help him so he could do what needed to be done. And he realized in that moment it was exactly that which had brought him here.

  "Jake," Casey waited for him to look up at her. He'd been studying his coffee for a couple of minutes. She knew without having to ask that whatever had led him to Burlington...then to Mary's house at this late hour...whatever it was wasn't small stuff. Whatever was putting that look in his eyes, an uncertainty she'd never seen there before, frightened her. "I'm not certain what this means, and call me crazy but if I don't tell you now I'll forget and well..."

  Jake smiled, nodded for her to continue. This was the sister he needed.

  "I was talking to Mark and Terry tonight," she saw his eyes squint, question. "You know, Mark that I used to work for and Terry from college who married him though I still often wonder why." She waved her hand in the air as if pushing all those thoughts away. "Never mind that. Actually I was talking to Terry earlier in the day. We were talking about this whole thing with your article and Terry said she was looking online at houses here and because I was worried about you I didn't catch on to that right away. Then later I wanted to find out what she was talking about and what was going on with your article so I called to find out and Mark answered and he certainly didn't sound like he was in a good mood or a bad mood really so..."

  "You're rambling."

  Casey looked at Carrie. The dry statement had been said quietly and simply but she could see the slight smile on her cousin’s face, amusement in her eyes. She sighed. No one made her nervous like her oldest brother. And all he had to do was breathe.

  "Casey," Mary waited for her to turn. "What did Terry say?"

  "Not Terry, that was about them coming here. It was Mark. Mark wanted me to give you a message." She looked at her brother. She had his full attention now that was for certain. "Something to do with when the two of you were in Iraq together. He just said you would know, it was something you talked about then. And that he's in if you are. Or if you're if in he is." She heard the slight muffled snort from Carrie's direction and knew she was rambling again. "Whatever." She gave up.

  "I'll be damned." Jake knew exactly what Mark had been talking about.

  "Probably," Carrie agreed dryly. She had no such problems with Jake as Casey seemed to. She had brothers too and had long ago realized either she ran the show or they would run right over her like an out of control tank. Thinking about that she wondered why she had allowed her husband to do for so many years what she'd never allowed anyone else.

  "Did he say anything else?" Jake asked his sister.

  "Just that, and Terry reminded me again before we hung up to tell you." Casey watched her brother closely. She wasn't certain what it was about. Hadn't even realized the two men knew each other beyond polite professional acknowledgements.

  Jake knew they were waiting for an explanation. Knew exactly what Mark referred to. It was something he planned to give some deep thought to. But at the moment he needed to s
tay on track. That meant getting through the conversation with these three women. And he had no idea what their reactions would be. Individually or as a group.

  "Speaking of Iraq," he began, grateful to Mark for giving him the opening he had been at a loss to find himself. Unaware of just how cautious he sounded he was instantly alert to the sudden shift in Mary's usual relaxed demeanor. And he wondered just how much she had put together from their conversation all those years ago. He cleared his throat and from years of habit moved to stuff his hands in his pockets but only one made it because even as he had shifted ever so slightly back from the table to do so Casey saw and anticipated his actions and instead slipped her own hand into his and held it tightly. She held her breath, not certain how her arrogantly proud brother would react. He didn't look at her, but squeezed her hand. Only then did she let out the breath she'd unconsciously been holding.

  "When I was in Iraq there was a woman. We were friends. Had been friends for years. We'd meet up in some of the same locations simply as a result of being on similar stories. She freelanced a lot for a handful of media outlets at the time. I knew her husband. Not as well as I knew her but whenever we found ourselves in the same place we tended to spend what time we could together." He took a breath, held on to the hand that still had a tight grip on his. And wondered if his little sister had any idea what such unconditional support meant to him.

  "The last time I saw her the war was beginning to wind down with a vengeance." He sighed, there was no sugar coating it, not then, not now. "The long and the short of it is we had an affair. I'm not even certain if you could call it that. It was short. Very short. And even before it was over both of us were sorry about it for numerous reasons." He looked around the table, felt the compassion that emanated from each of them. There would be no judgment this night regardless of how much he deserved it. He sighed, felt the gentle squeeze from the hand that held his. "I received a letter from her over a year later. She'd written it some months before but as in all things it took a while to catch up with me." He looked over to Mary. "I'd been on a tour for the first book, the one someone brow beat me into writing."