“Six months? A year?” I took a deep breath.
“A long time. Do you have other plans?”
“What do you mean?” He backed me up against the wall and put his arm over me, blocking my escape.
“I mean, just what are we supposed to do with ourselves until then?”
“Are you saying we should pass the time by having an affair?”
“No, I’m saying we should be planning our wedding. Come on, Linda. Everyone knows we’re in love except you.”
Oh. My. God. I was going to drop dead.
“They do?” The tiny bit of moisture that I felt under my arms had now grown to a trickle. And, I refuse to even acknowledge what the other parts of my body were up to, twitching and pulsing like independent little idiots.
“Yeah.”
“You don’t understand, Brad. I don’t fall in love. I raise children. I worry . . . that’s what I seem to do best. Worry.”
“What are you worried about?”
“I don’t know. I mean, I’ll admit that I have had the casual, intermittent, innocent thought . . .”
He roared with laughter and said, “Intermittent? Innocent? What are you? Dead?”
“No! I mean, Jesus, Mary and Joseph, you’re asking me to marry you? Marry you? You’ve never even brought me flowers, taken me anywhere or even kissed me one time! Isn’t this a little insane?”
“In my mind, we’ve been living together for months. In my mind, I have kissed you thousands of times. In my mind I have brought you so many dozens of roses . . .”
“Oh bull!”
“Not bull!”
“Well, maybe we should start with some kind of flowers?”
He laughed and shook his head and said, “Linda Breland, I am hell-bent and determined that I am going to laugh my way into old age with you and that is that.”
“May I just ask what brought you to this conclusion?”
“Okay, that’s fair. I’m assuming that you mean why I never even said something like Nice haircut, Linda, and now I’m proposing marriage?”
“Yeah. That’s the little detail that has me going.”
“Okay, well, it started with Loretta dying so suddenly. What happened were two very interesting things. One, I saw firsthand how fragile life really is, the same way that Alex did. I mean, you bury old people, but not people your age, right? You hear about it, but you don’t believe it until it happens to you. And two, I didn’t feel one ounce of remorse and for a long time I asked myself why.”
“And the answer to that is?”
“That I knew I didn’t love her and probably never did and that I would have stayed in that marriage forever, loveless and pathetic as it was, because I lacked the courage to do anything about it. But then fate stepped in and made me react anyway.
“Remember when we had that dinner for Lindsey? I watched you and how emotional you were and I wondered when the last time was that anyone ever cared for me that way—my mother, thank you—and I knew that the love you had for Lindsey was greater than the love you had for yourself. Then you got gumboed and said that thing about Gee, it’s a good thing she didn’t hit my temple, and I knew you were right. Another couple of inches and hearts would have been shattered and lives ripped apart. And then the fire and the whole drill with Gracie scared me out of my mind. I realized that I really loved Gracie and the world without her would be unbearable for you and therefore, for me. And I thought about your love for Gracie and Lindsey and your sister and how your family cared for each other and I remembered that your family operates like mine used to—not with Loretta but with my folks and how I grew up. And, I saw that it all came from you. It all came from you. You were willing to pull the Jersey plug and flush almost twenty years there just to improve the quality of your relationship with your daughters. I wanted in. It’s not just you I love because I want to get in your shorts—which by the way, have I told you that I want to get in your shorts? Anyway, it’s the way you are that has me over the cliff—the stuff of your soul. That’s all. I think.”
“Oh,” I said. “Well, then . . .”
And that was when he lifted my chin, looked in my eyes and laid one on my lips. Honey? That man could kiss like no other. It was also when I discovered that kissing was like riding a bicycle—it all comes back and you do just fine.
“Come on,” he said, “I want to show you the remains of Jackson Hole.”
“Okay,” I said. I was a little disoriented.
We left the garage holding hands. Lupe was pulling into the yard and Louise was at the top of the steps. Lupe pointed to us and covered her mouth with her hand. When we looked back at Louise she was smiling wide.
“I like what I see now,” she said, and wagged her finger at us. “I like what I see.”
He opened the car door for me and I got in. He closed it, walked around the front of the car and I watched him like a hawk. He was so good-looking I thought his face should be on a coin. Better yet, the pent-up harlot in me thought, that face belongs on my pillow.
When he got in his side of the car, he turned to me. “Well?” he said.
“Well what?”
“Will you marry me or what?” His eyes twinkled with excitement.
“Yeah, sure. Why not?”
“Not much else going on?”
“Yeah. Something like that.”
“Okay. Done.”
As he backed the car up to turn it around, we started to laugh. We laughed and laughed and laughed. We told each other we were crazy and brilliant. Out of control and too conservative. Then he placed his hand over mine again and gave it that lovely squeeze. As ridiculous as the situation was, it made perfect sense.
“Did you really love Fred?”
“At the time I married him, I thought I did. Didn’t you love Loretta on some level?”
“I think I felt she was a good choice. But I never felt like this.”
“Me either.”
Brad’s cell phone rang and he answered it, mouthing Robert to me.
“Yeah, sure, I’m going there now.”
It took all of four minutes to reach Shem Creek and I could hardly believe my eyes. If I was reeling from Gracie’s accident and reeling again from Brad’s proposal, I was reeling once again when I got out of the car. The stench of it was horrible and I knew we had to start removing the rubble immediately or it would hurt the business of the other restaurants. Part of the building was still standing, but a stiff wind would collapse the whole thing. It was mindboggling that the politics of one nut could cause such a disaster in just a few hours.
“Brad, this is unbelievable.”
He was kicking his way through it, but he could only go so far.
“What are you trying to do?”
“I’m thinking that there might be as much as ten thousand dollars in the safe and if I can get to it . . .”
“Oh, no you don’t! We can call a company, somebody who does this, and they can come and do it. Don’t you think we’ve had enough excitement for a while? I can see it all now! Headline! Brad Jackson, owner of Jackson Hole, Dies Stupidly Over Ten Thousand Dollars! Nah nah nah. Not happening.”
“You’re right. Of course, you’re right. What was I thinking?”
“Really, Brad, sometimes you’re scary.”
“Just wait until dark.”
“Excuse me; I thought we were going to start with flowers.”
“Right! I’ll call Belva’s!”
Robert’s car pulled up and he got out. He took off his sunglasses and squinted toward the restaurant.
“It was a dump anyway,” he said. “Hey, Linda, glad you got back safely. Terrible about Gracie, she’s okay?”
“Besides her broken ankle and concussion and some minor scrapes and burns,” I said, “but at least she’s conscious now.”
“Yeah, Brad called to tell me and I was there for a while last night.”
“Yes, I know. Thank you for that. She’s home, resting.”
Robert shook his head back and
forth with the enormity of all that had happened. “Well, like my grandfather used to always say, it could’ve been a lot worse, right? Isn’t that right? Thank God it wasn’t. Susan sent some flowers. Let me know if they get there okay.”
“Thanks,” I said, “I don’t think Gracie has ever been sent flowers before.”
“Don’t worry! She’ll get tons of them!” Brad said. “And, hey, Robert, there’s money in the safe but we can’t get to it.”
“How much?”
“Linda says it’s chump change next to the risk involved trying to retrieve it now.”
“Linda? I’ve been telling Brad for weeks that he should figure out a way to keep you around! You’re the smartest woman I have met in years!”
“Well, I figured that out, Robert. I just asked Linda to marry me!”
“What? What? Married? You’re shitting me! That’s fabulous! Hold on, I gotta call Susan! You old dog.” He slapped Brad on the back and then shook his hand. “Come here, Linda! Let me kiss your cheek! Man, this is great!” He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and called his wife. “Hi, it’s Robert. Is Susan in the office? Sure, I’ll hold.” He put his hand over the speaker and said, “Don’t you love this? I’m on hold. Don’t they know what I bill an hour?”
I giggled and looked at Brad, dressed in sunlight, smiling for all the world.
“I didn’t even know y’all were dating!”
“Well, now we are,” Brad said.
“Yeah, starting now!” I said.
“Why not?” Robert said and then turned his attention to the phone. “Call Cypress or the Peninsula Grill! Get a table for four for tonight! Brad and Linda are getting married! Yes, married! What? Oh, hell, call his secretary. We can have dinner with Joe Riley anytime! Okay. Call me back.” He flipped his cell closed and looked at us. “Unbelievable. Well, let me tell you something. The happiest years of my life have been the ones I’ve shared with Susan. I wish y’all the same.”
“Thanks, Robert,” Brad said and they shook hands.
I extended my hand to shake Robert’s and he jumped back. “No, no! That’s okay! How about a hug instead?”
“Oh, God, I will never live my handshake down, will I?”
We hugged in the most platonic way and Robert said, “It’s important to have one flaw, Miss Linda, otherwise nobody will think you’re human.”
“Miss Linda?” I said.
“Well, now that you and Bradford are betrothed, which actually needs no explaining, and I have no objection, you have gone from the status of an available girl and I, and I, oh hell, never mind. I guess I just like the sound of Miss Linda.”
“Tell you what,” Brad said, “let’s go pick up lunch, take it back to the house, feed the troops and start making phone calls. We gotta clean up this mess on the double or our neighbors will be very unhappy.”
“Sounds good,” Robert said, “I’ll follow you.”
“No, ride with us,” Brad said.
“Oh, shit!” Robert said. “I knew there was something else I had to tell you! But between the news of your engagement and this horrible sight . . .”
“What?” Brad said.
“Loretta’s estate lawyer called me on the way over here. Seems that old Theo signed the house over to Loretta on her thirtieth birthday.”
“She never told me that,” Brad said.
“She had no will. Now it’s yours, all the contents and whatever she had that was worth anything.”
“God, no kidding,” Brad said as the color drained from his face. “Any idea what the house is worth?”
“Yep. I called my cousin who’s a broker there. She just sold a house in the neighborhood, similar to yours. Three-point-two.”
“Three-point-two what?” Brad said.
“Million, my boy! Three-point-two million dollars!” Robert started laughing at the shocked look on Brad’s face. “Now after lunch, go buy Linda a diamond. Am I right, Linda? Am I right or what? This calls for a Cohiba! Later though. After lunch. Where are we going?”
“Bessinger’s,” I said.
“Bessinger’s? You must be kidding! Well, I’ll get a chicken sandwich.”
“Robert! Since when are you kosher?”
“Since I got on the scales this morning! A ha ha ha! Right? Right?”
We started toward the car together. Brad was as white as a sheet.
“You okay?” I said.
“Three-point-two?”
“Oh, cheer up. Maybe you’ll get three-point-three.”
There was a lot of celebrating in my future and had I not been so exhausted I would have been euphoric to be able to say that. When we came to our senses we decided that we would say we were engaged for a while and see how it went. When the restaurant was rebuilt, if we hadn’t fallen out of whatever the enchantment was that seemed to have swallowed us alive, we would be the first private party there.
I knew though that it was all for real. I knew also that there was a higher hand at work. The one whose mighty dreams breathed us into existence in the first place. How else could I explain the hits and the misses of my life? Everything about Brad was right. Everything about this place was right. All it had taken to get my show on the road was that first step and then events unfolded with such a ferocious velocity that I knew they had to be almost preordained.
After a fabulous dinner at the Peninsula Grill and after another bottle of champagne with Mimi and Louise, who had stayed together to watch over Gracie, I helped Gracie to bed that night and covered her up, kissing her forehead over and over. Then I sat down beside her.
“You gave me the scare of my life, you know.”
“I know. I’m sorry, Mom. I’ll never do anything crazy like that again.”
“No, I don’t expect that you will.”
“Mom? Are you really gonna marry Mr. Jackson?”
I sighed with all the force of every woman who ever put her faith in a man and said, “Gracie? To tell you the truth, I don’t know. I don’t know if he asked me because he was so relieved that you survived the fire and that Alex got himself and you out alive. Or maybe he asked me because he was so traumatized by losing the restaurant and he thought I could be his rock. I don’t know. Time will tell. If he shows up with a diamond, then we can say it’s official.”
“Or maybe he just loves you, Mom. Did you ever think about that?”
“Yeah, I think about that a lot.”
“Do you love him? I mean, are you like in love? Wiggly knees and all that?”
“Yeah, maybe I am. We’ll see. You get some sleep now, okay? I’ll leave my door cracked so if you need anything, just shout.”
“Okay. Love you.”
“Love you too, baby. I’m just gonna get something from the garage and I’ll be right back.”
I went outside to retrieve the box, deciding that for some reason I had to know what was inside. Besides, it would remind me to call the Epsteins and tell them about it. I opened the door and saw it sitting where I had dropped it earlier. I lifted the box to my hip, closed the door behind me and then I stopped. It was so quiet and the air smelled so beautiful. I left the box to rest on the steps and walked around to the front of the yard, facing the harbor, and just stood there for a few minutes, taking in the view over the water of Charleston in the distance. There were thousands of stars above me and the world had grown quiet with the late hour. I was as tired as if I had run a marathon and then I realized I had not slept but a few hours, that my day had begun in the middle of the night. Still, I stood there, listening to the lapping water against the pilings and wishing for a dock. Maybe if I stayed in the place, I would put one up eventually. The moonlight was a siren’s call and half drunk on its beauty I pulled myself away from swirling dreams to find well-deserved rest.
I climbed the steps and went inside, locking the door behind me, and put the box on the counter. I pulled the top flaps open and saw it was filled with photograph albums. I opened one, just out of curiosity, and could not believe what I saw before me.
Picture after picture. They were all images of the old man from my dreams at various moments of his life. If I had any tears left in me or if I had still possessed the smallest amount of energy to call them forth, I would have cried a river. This old man had reached out from across the divide of life and death to let me know he was there, watching, doing what he could to protect us, caring about us.
I went to bed because it was too late to call Mimi and tell her about my discovery. She would believe it. So would Louise. They had been hearing stories like this one for all of their lives.
I wondered if things like this ever happened in New Jersey and could not recall ever having heard of something similar. But I knew for sure that they happened here all the time. But that was the magic of the Lowcountry. Heaven was always nearby.
EPILOGUE
WE all know it’s vulgar to discuss money, but to fully bring you up to date we are going to have to wade in those waters for a few minutes. Remember Mimi? That biscuitmaking Queen of the Pound Cakes from the Old Village of Mount Pleasant? That swirl of a girl with the frosted blonde hair, who was never seen without the perfect shade of a rosy-colored lipstick? That little sneak! She had been taking ten percent of her alimony every month and buying Microsoft for almost twelve years. Well, it had split and split and split, as the world knows. Mimi could now well afford to buy her Donna Karan control-top pantyhose at full price. Not that she really had to pinch pennies anyway, but who knew she had a nest egg?
“I have just been tithing for my old age,” she said. “However, I’m thinking I would like to have a bakery. Do you think it would be possible for me to squeeze out three hundred square feet from the new restaurant? Even two hundred, if Duane would let me share the ovens. And, actually, it could be a good site for takeout and catering from the restaurant too?”
It was a brilliant idea. More and more, people didn’t want to wait for tables and we had never successfully run a takeout business. If the public was unaware that you were in the takeout business, they would rarely ask for takeout and then they felt like it was an imposition if they did ask.
“You want to invest?” Brad said. “Is that what you’re saying?”