“I remember how much you love watching birds.”
“Tell me a poem now,” Hope demanded.
“I don’t know, kiddo. You caught me off guard.”
“Please, John?” Hope begged with hands together.
Linnea laughed at her brazen flirting.
“Well, here goes,” John said, then made a show of clearing his throat.
“There once was a girl who moped
She sighed and her shoulders sloped
Till an airplane came flying
And she stopped her crying
And said, ‘That plane gives me hope!’ ”
Hope clapped her hands. “That’s my name!”
“Uh, I don’t think e. e. cummings has anything to worry about,” chided Linnea.
John set the bird feeder on the ground beside the front steps, then walked closer to Annabelle. “Hey, I’m John,” he said, and extended his elbow. “I’m guessing you’re Annabelle.”
Laughing, Annabelle bumped elbows with him in the new 2020 greeting. “You can call me Anna.”
“Anna?” Linnea asked, her gaze askance.
“I’ve decided to shorten it. I’ve never felt like an Annabelle. It’s too”—she speared Linnea with a look—“like a Southern belle. I’m a woman from the South, and that is not the same thing.”
“No,” Linnea agreed with a laugh.
Anna shrugged. “I figure if 2020 could change my life, then I could change my name. It’s Anna now. Straight, simple, like me.”
“Well, Anna,” John said with exaggeration, “may I carry one of your suitcases in?”
Linnea watched as John, in his inimitable fashion, immediately broke down Anna’s chilly wall. He had her laughing about something, and she readily stepped back and allowed him to hoist the enormous suitcase with enviable ease.
“Back room?” John asked Linnea as he passed.
“Yes. Let me get the door.” Linnea sprang into action and hurried ahead of him, up the stairs to push wide the front door while juggling the potted plant. “Follow me. She’ll be in Palmer’s room.”
She walked into the seaward bedroom. The walls were paneled with pecky cypress and a door opened out to the deck with a view of the ocean. The coastal décor, rich with texture, was fit for a man or a woman. The furniture was vintage: a curved wicker headboard on the full bed, Palmer’s old painted wood dresser, and the small wooden desk under the window where, years back, Toy had studied for her GED under Lovie’s tutelage.
Linnea set the potted plant on the desk and turned to see John taking in the room.
He said, “It’s funny in a cool way how you still refer to the bedroom as your dad’s.”
“It’s the way it’s always been,” she replied. “Back when Grandmama Lovie lived here, these were Cara’s and Palmer’s rooms.” She pointed to the bedroom across the hall, currently occupied by Hope. “They shared the bathroom. Years later when Cara returned to the island, she stayed in her old room while Toy Sooner, who was pregnant, stayed here in Palmer’s old room. I don’t mind telling you it annoyed him to no end.”
“Why would he care?”
“He didn’t want Lovie out here in the first place, then to find out an unwed mother was her caretaker—well, you know my father. Always worried about what other people might think. Anyway, Grandmama Lovie had her own way, and it was the best thing that ever happened to Toy. Changed her life… Now it’s Annabelle’s turn.”
“Anna’s…” they said at the same time, then laughed.
“This sweet cottage has welcomed many visitors in its time,” Linnea said wistfully.
“Which way?” called Anna’s voice from the front door.
“Here!” shouted Linnea, and hurried from the room. John followed, pausing to scan one of the many black-framed family photographs.
“Hey, that’s the Fourth of July party.” John drew closer, then pointed and laughed. “Is that you?”
Linnea knew the photograph he was looking at, had looked at it many times the summer they’d dated. It was the Fourth of July party when they’d first met. Well, in truth, John didn’t remember her, but she’d sure remembered the handsome Peterson brothers in their prime, all bronzed from surfing. They’d breezed through the party as a courtesy to their mother, wolfed down burgers and shrimp, and headed straight back out without talking to anyone. Emmi had been furious.
Linnea went to his side and peered at the photo. He was pointing to the skinny, gawky preteen in pigtails tied with red, white, and blue ribbons.
“Yes, that’s me.”
“Adorable.” He turned, his face inches from hers. “As always.”
A noise at the door had her jumping back. “Annabelle, let me help you,” she called, and hurried down the hall. “I mean, Anna. It’s going to take time to get that right.”
“Coming through!” Anna called out, hoisting the large black plastic bag. “Goddamn, this is heavy.”
“I’d better take it,” John said, grabbing hold of the twisted end of the plastic. “If it drops one more time, I think it’s going to burst.” He lifted it with relative ease and carried it down the hall into the bedroom.
“Nice guy,” Anna said, sotto voce. “Is that John, as in your ex? I thought he was in California.”
“Was is the operative word.”
“He’s come back? For how long?”
Linnea shrugged. “Who knows?”
Anna’s eyes brightened and she said in her low voice, “Well, hello, neighbor.”
“Let’s grab the rest of your things,” Linnea said with a smirk. “I have to check on Hope.”
“What is the deal with Hope?” Anna asked as they walked down the front stairs. “I thought she was going to be gone when I arrived.”
“Change of plans,” Linnea informed her. “David’s not one hundred percent yet, so Hope has to stay until he gets the all-clear. Which should be any day. And,” she added, stopping at the bottom of the stairs to make the point, “we have to be extra careful around her. You’ll have to wear a mask when you’re in the same room with her.”
“I’ve been living alone for the past few weeks. I’m, like, perpetually quarantined.”
“Have you gone shopping?”
“Yeah, sure, but I wore a mask.”
“Just to be safe, please do it. I promised Cara we would. And she’s our landlord, by the way.”
“Fine. But tell the little rug rat to stay out of my room.”
Linnea smirked. “You’ll want to keep your door shut anyway. We have a puppy too!”
Anna’s brows rose with obvious delight. “You’re kidding. Where is it?”
“Next door in the garden. I’m going to fetch her now. You finish unloading your stuff and we’ll all meet in the living room.”
“Puppies. Cute guy next door. Things are looking up, Rutledge,” Anna said, and headed toward the car.
* * *
WHEN ALL ANNA’S things were settled in her room, Hope and the puppy had been washed and changed, and Linnea had served beers and sweet tea, she gathered Anna, John, and Hope in the living room to establish ground rules for the house. Hope sat on the floor playing with a wood puzzle. John sat on one of the two upholstered chairs, a beer bottle in hand, a mask on his face, while Anna slouched in the other, texting on her phone, sans mask. Cuddling the puppy in her lap on the sofa, Linnea looked around the room and realized it was the first time a group had gathered in her house in several weeks. She adjusted her face mask.