“Did I hear someone call the bartender?” Chad asked, striding into the kitchen. Then he welcomed his grandkids to Blue Hill and offered Hope her beverage choices.
Chapter Ten
“There you are, big brother,” Sally said, giving Brent a kiss on his cheek when he joined her, Jackie, and Ava by the firepit. William and Sofia were there, too, and his parents and grandparents sat on the porch.
He grinned at his baby sister, who appeared upbeat. Brent found this remarkable, as she dealt with heartrending tragedies day after day. Most of her cases concerned divorces. Sometimes Brent wondered if that was why she herself seemed shy of marriage.
“Sal, good to see you.”
“We were just chatting with Ava about karaoke,” Sally filled in.
Ava turned to Brent. “That’s right. You haven’t seen the video.”
“Mo-om,” Jackie muttered, doing an embarrassed eye roll.
“I don’t mind seeing the video,” Brent said.
Jackie leaned toward him and teased, “It’s the hearing part that matters.”
Brent repressed a grin, glancing over at Jackie, who’d dressed in a pretty skirt and top. She’d washed her hair, which flounced about her face in wispy layers. It was funny—Brent had never really paid much attention to Jackie’s hair before, but now all he wanted to do was run his fingers through the soft waves. He’d clearly missed a lot about her. Her heart necklace glimmered in the firelight, and he wondered why she’d waited until this point in their relationship to wear it. Or had she worn it before, and he’d never noticed that, either?
It was a disappointing possibility.
And something he intended to rectify this weekend.
“Sally was just telling us about Grandmother Margaret being a concert pianist,” Jackie said, redirecting the conversation. “Does she still play?”
“Not as often as she used to,” Sally said. “Although she played a lot when we were little.”
Brent remembered that being one of the best parts of their Blue Hill summers. The sound of his grandmother’s sweet sonatas wafting up to his bedroom as he drifted off to sleep.
“She used to play late at night,” Sally explained to Jackie and Ava. “Her music filled the whole house.”
“All the way up to the third floor,” Brent agreed.
Sally smiled. “It helped when we had our windows open and the windows were open in the living room, too.”
“What a marvelous place to vacation,” Ava said, her gaze sweeping the lawn. She admired the expanse of the house, staring up at the three dormer windows. “You children slept up there, then?”
“That’s right,” Sally answered. “Those times were so much fun.” She frowned. “I really miss them.”
“Miss them?” Ava asked. “What do you mean?”
“Once we all got into college and started developing our own summer plans, with jobs and such, it was harder for us to get together. This is the first time since William’s wedding,” Sally said, sipping from her drink.
“How long ago was that?” Ava asked.
Brent smiled and took a swig of his beer, recalling the happy day. “Two years ago this summer.”
“My!” Ava exclaimed. “This is getting to be quite the wedding locale. Was it a small wedding like this one?”
“Much bigger,” Sally replied. “Sofia’s from a large family, too, and has eight nieces and nephews. She’s the youngest of four girls. She and William also have tons of grad school friends. So…” Sally lifted a shoulder. “The wedding list grew quickly.”
“Did everything go okay with getting your SUV and the canoe?” Jackie asked Brent.
“Ahh, yes. That reminds me,” he teased, thinking of the specimen he’d saved. “When Derrick and I hauled it out of the mud, we had a run-in with the swamp monster you saw earlier.”
She gasped. “Oh no.”
Brent chuckled. “Hang on. Let me just go and get it.” He set his bottle on a table and traipsed toward the dock stairs.
“Brent, wait!” He turned back to see she’d paled. “Do you really think that’s necessary?”
“Oh, yeah,” he said, stifling a chuckle. “Absolutely.”
Minutes later, he returned with the gnarly twisted stick that had been poking out of the mud, right alongside the set of tracks Brent had left behind him as he’d carried Jackie toward the house.
Sally wrinkled up her nose at the icky specimen. “What’s that?”
“Something much more harmless than a bloodworm.”
“A stick?” Jackie asked with surprise, and then she burst into laughter. “Oh boy.”
“Maybe someone will let me in on the joke?” Ava asked.
“Time to eat, everyone. Come inside.” The group glanced toward the porch, where Parker and Chad were getting to their feet. Margaret stood by the French doors with Derrick beside her.
“Sure, Mom,” Jackie said as they strolled back inside. “I’ll tell you at dinner.”
…
The meal passed pleasantly enough, and Hope was glad that the tension of her being here was easing. Much of this had to do with her and Margaret’s earlier talk in the kitchen.
She never would have guessed about Brent’s grandmother being a former hippie—or a concert pianist. The two things seemed so at odds with each other. Then again, Grandmother Margaret herself appeared a contradiction.
She was so stoic and stiff on the one hand. On the other, it was just like Brent had said. She really did have a heart of gold. Hope was touched that she’d finally opened up that heart to her—and, by extension, to her sister. Jackie was going to be so pleased by how everything had gone.
Really, that was the only thing that kept her participating in this terrible charade.
Derrick ended another rollicking tale about his boatbuilding school that had the whole group in stitches. After the laughter subsided, he asked Hope, “When is your sister arriving?”
“Not until Wednesday, sadly, but Meredith will be here tomorrow.”
“Meredith is Jackie’s best friend,” Ava supplied, placing undue emphasis on the name. She shot a sly wink at Hope, and Hope slid down in her chair. Her mom was so proud of her secret, and also apparently pleased with her ability to keep it.
Just a few more hours, Hope tried to tell herself. Soon, it would be bedtime. Then, she’d only have one more day and a half to get through. Thankfully, tomorrow would be extra busy.