Chapter 7
Josie really wished she had gotten more sleep. It was difficult enough to go over to the restaurant and relive those memories again, but to do it when she knew she was going to be the one running the place with absolutely no restaurant experience was another thing. Kendra had offered to come with her, but she really wanted to do this alone. The last thing she needed was for her daughter to see her break down again.
Thankfully, the restaurant was still closed, so she didn’t have to deal with any customers today. But Joe said that some employees might want to come by and meet Josie since she was going to be their new boss. Josie preferred to work alone most of the time. Managing other people always seemed to get her into trouble.
She turned the key in the lock and walked inside. The place was eerily quiet. It was like she could feel the emptiness her grandmother left. She flipped on the lights, and they struggled to come on. If she ever got the place making more money, she would invest in better lighting.
Nana hadn’t updated the restaurant in many years, and even when she did, she stayed with the same odd theme. Scottish/seafood/Southern. A weird combo, for sure, but one that had worked for decades. Part of her wondered about changing some things, but she also didn’t want the community to abandon the restaurant. And she didn’t want her grandmother to haunt her for eternity either. Those decisions could be made later. Today was about spending time in her new restaurant, meeting some of the staff, and looking over the books.
She walked into the kitchen to get an idea of the layout as well as what they had to work with. She couldn’t even identify some of the equipment, but that wasn’t her job. Her job was to manage the people who knew what they were doing. As much as she was leery about staying in Happy Harbor, she was glad to have a staff that knew how the restaurant already ran.
After walking around the kitchen and the bathrooms, she stood in the dining room again. It was a good-sized restaurant, and the views of the harbor were second to none. There was an outdoor seating area out front, but only a few tables. She thought about bringing live music to the venue at some point, but they wouldn’t be able to fit it outside.
“You Josie?”
Startled, she turned around with her hand against her chest. A large man was standing there. He must’ve been at least six foot five, and he looked like a linebacker. His shaved head set off his variety of colorful tattoos.
“Who are you?”
“Bear.”
“Your name is Bear?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “My momma called me Bear when I started getting bigger, and it stuck.”
“You work here then?”
He nodded. “I’m the lead cook.”
“How long have you been here?”
“Oh, near about five years now. I was sorry to hear about Miss Adeline. She was a good boss and an even better friend. She gave me a chance when nobody else would.”
“A chance?”
He sheepishly looked down at his feet. “I was incarcerated for a while, and nobody would hire me. Miss Adeline took me in, taught me the ropes, and gave me a career.”
Her stomach knotted up. Incarcerated? For what, she wondered, but she didn’t dare to ask. She decided to keep an eye on him, and maybe at the six-month mark, she’d let him go and find someone more appropriate for the restaurant. Given her grandmother’s rules, she had to wait that long, anyway.
“So, how many cooks are there?”
“Just me and a couple of helpers, really. Donnie comes on the weekends to help me with the rush, and Juanita usually works the weekday lunch shifts.”
“What about waitstaff?”
“I think there are two servers right now. We lost Staci when she moved to Florida a few weeks back. You might need to hire more.”
“Thanks for the advice,” she said.
“Well, I’d better get out of here. I don’t get many days off, so I’m going fishing.”
“Good to know,” she muttered. “You’ll be here tomorrow?”
“Yep,” he said, before turning toward the door.
“Oh, hey, Bear? What are the servers like?”
“Dee Dee is great, and the customers love her. Tabby is kind of an airhead, and she messes up a lot, but she’ll get there. That’s what Miss Adeline said, anyway. She believed everybody could turn their lives around.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t. People are who they are. I’ve rarely seen anyone really change.”
He smiled slightly. “No offense, but I’m glad Miss Adeline didn’t believe like you. Anyway, have a good day.”
“You too,” she said as he exited the building. Her grandmother had been the eternal optimist, always giving people the benefit of the doubt even when they didn’t deserve it. Josie’s mother was the main person Adeline always forgave and always believed would turn her life around. It never happened, and Josie wondered what that felt like to Adeline in her last moments, to know her own daughter was nowhere to be found and was probably passed out drunk on someone’s couch, if she was even still alive.
Josie turned her attention to the stack of binders behind the front desk. Adeline was old school, so all of her receipts and pertinent numbers for the accountant were stored in thick binders. She opened the first one and three receipts fell out. She bent to pick them up, and then heard the bell on the front door ring, signaling someone walking into the restaurant.
“Hang on. I’m behind the counter,” she called out, gathering the receipts and standing up. She raised her head, as if in slow motion, and froze in place like her feet were stuck in quicksand.
“Hi, Josie.” The face was older, but the voice was the same. Memories of her childhood came flooding back in waves, each one crashing into her and almost knocking her down.
“Diane?” she said, hardly able to believe her eyes. She refused to call her Mom. She didn’t deserve that title. “Why are you here?”
Diane looked down at the apron she was wearing. It was green with a tartan edging. “Honey, I work here.” Her name tag read Dee Dee, the server Bear had mentioned moments ago.
Josie felt like she’d swallowed her tongue. She worked there? Impossible. Nana had never told her Diane was back in town, much less working for her. Her grandmother wouldn’t have lied to her like that. Diane was up to something, as usual. Probably trying to connive her way into getting the money Adeline left.
“I don’t believe you. You’re just trying to weasel your way into my life and this restaurant. Nana would never have hired you!” Josie came out from behind the register and stood a few feet in front of her mother. “Now, get out and don’t come back, or I’ll call the police.”
Diane smiled sympathetically. “Josie, I’ve been working here for three years now. And I’ve been clean even longer.”
Clean? Also impossible. Her mother had never strung together more than six months of sobriety. “I don’t want to hear any of your made-up stories. Just get out!” Josie walked past her swiftly and opened the front door, pointing to the Riverwalk outside.
Diane smiled, as if she was unaffected by the outburst. “Josie, listen?—”
“Oh, hey, Dee Dee. Glad to see you back,” a woman said as she walked right through the front door. “You must be Josie? I’m Juanita.”
Josie stood there with a lump in her throat. This woman knew her mother? “Yes, I’m Josie. You’re one of the cooks?”
“Yes, ma’am. Just thought I’d come by and say hello. I’m sorry about Miss Adeline. She was a lovely lady. Really helped me and my kids a lot.”
“You and your kids?”
Juanita looked down at the floor for a moment. “Well, we were homeless for a time. Life kinda got messed up, ya know? Anyway, Miss Adeline took us in at her house for a few weeks, gave me a job, and helped us find a nice apartment over off River Street. My kids called her Grandma Addy.” She dabbed at her eyes and sniffled. “Sorry. We all knew she was sick, but it didn’t make it any easier.”
More and more, Josie was seeing what her grandmother had done for the people of Happy Harbor. It seemed like everyone had a story about her, and she had no enemies.
“Dee Dee, did no one tell you we were closed until tomorrow?” Juanita asked, glancing at her uniform.
“I thought we’d be, but I wasn’t sure,” Diane replied.
“Well, it was nice to meet you, Juanita,” Josie said, trying to hurry her along so she could get rid of her degenerate mother.
Juanita must have sensed something was going on because she quickly backed toward the door. “I’ll see you soon, Josie. Bye, Dee Dee.” Within seconds, she was gone. Apparently, everyone called her mother Dee Dee now, but to her she would always be Diane, the woman who birthed her and then ruined her life.
“Look, I know this comes as a shock to you?—”
Josie laughed loudly. “A shock? Nana could’ve owned a brothel, and I wouldn’t have been more shocked than I am right now. Why did Juanita welcome you back? Where’ve you been? Rehab again?”
Diane looked hurt. “Rehab? Of course not. I told you, I’ve been clean.”
“Yeah, right,” Josie said, rolling her eyes.
“I’m trying to be understanding here, Josie, but I won’t have you disrespecting me. I have been clean for years, and I’m very proud of that. I will always be an alcoholic, but I’m in recovery whether or not you want to believe it.”
“If you say so.” She was starting to believe Diane was serious, but she didn’t care. The woman had wrecked most of her life, and she wasn’t about to work with her every single day.
“Juanita welcomed me back because I was on vacation. I went on a retreat with my ladies’ Bible study class from church. When I got back, Momma took a turn for the worse, and I sat by her side until she passed, so I’ve been away from work for a couple of weeks.”
Josie stared at her. “Your church group? Oh, please. Now you’re really going too far. Everyone knows if Diane Campbell walked into a church, the whole place would go up in flames.”
Diane sucked in a long breath, like she was trying to keep from lunging at her daughter. “I see you still have quite the mouth on you.”
“Wonder where I got that from?”
Diane crossed her arms. “We don’t have to stay where we are in life, Josie. People can change.”
She looked at her. “People never change. You are who you are. At some point, that ugly monster will always rear its head.”
“Being in AA has taught me I can change. Anyone can change with help from God and hard work. Even you can change.”
Josie leaned against the counter. “Oh, you think I need to change, huh? Not you, the alcoholic mother who abandoned her own daughter time and time again?”
“I’ve tried to apologize a million times for that, and you know it! I sent you birthday cards for years, tried to call, even sent emails. You turned me away every single time.”
“For good reason, don’t you think? I never wanted to see your face again, and yet here you are. How you managed to manipulate your own mother is beyond me. Nana must’ve been losing her sanity to let you back in here.”
Diane stepped forward, her finger in Josie’s face. “I will not listen to you talk that way about my mother. Do you understand me?”
Josie smirked. “Be careful. Your monster is showing.”
Stepping back, Diane sighed. “My mother and I had a wonderful relationship the last few years. I was her primary caregiver, and we healed all the old wounds. In fact, we even went to therapy a few times.”
Josie’s insides twisted. How was any of this possible? Why did her grandmother keep it a secret? She felt so betrayed.
“I don’t care what went on between you and Nana. She had the right to do whatever she wanted, but that doesn’t mean I have to be forced into a relationship with you. I don’t want you here.”
“Well, you don’t get that choice.”
“Excuse me?”
“Your nana wanted us to work together for six months. She had that in her will.”
Josie glared at her. “And I suppose you encouraged her to do that. It’s just like you! So manipulative!”
“Actually, I begged her not to do it. I don’t want this any more than you do.”
Josie felt nauseated. “Just like always. You don’t want me. Why should I be surprised?”
Diane walked closer, her eyes tearing up. “I have always wanted you. Always. And I want to be your mother. I just didn’t want you to feel forced into a corner.”
“You could quit,” Josie said, not looking at her.
“If I quit, I would be going back on my promise to my mother.”
“What promise?”
“To try to heal things with you. She lived with worry over whether both of us would end up alone in the world.”
“I have my daughter, and I’m actually close to her.”
“Then maybe she was afraid I’d end up alone. Look, I don’t know, Josie. But I love my job here, I’m good at it, and nobody knows this restaurant as well as I do. I can help you get this place up and running. Six months will pass before we know it.”
Josie walked toward the door and turned around to face Diane. “No. If me running this place means working with you, then I quit. You can run it.” She opened the door and walked out onto the Riverwalk.
“That’s not what your nana wanted!” Diane called behind her, following her outside.
“Nana betrayed me! She was talking to you all along and never told me anything about it. I’m going back to Atlanta!”
Before Diane could say anything else, Josie jogged away. She managed to get out of sight before bursting into tears.
* * *
Kendra let her feet dangle from the swing. She’d always wanted one of those big tree swings, and now she had one. Her dream as a little girl had been to have her father living with them—if he’d been a remotely good guy—and to help him build a tree house and hang a swing. Even though she was almost an adult herself now, she still thought about him and what could’ve been if he’d been a good person. If he hadn’t abandoned them both before she was born.
Her mother had gotten pregnant when she was just a year older than Kendra. Then, she’d taken off for Atlanta, hopeful that she could start a better life for the both of them. For the most part, she’d done just that, but Kendra remembered how tough those early years were. Why her mother hadn’t gone back to Happy Harbor to raise her with Nana was beyond her. It sure would’ve been easier than jumping from rented room to rented room for months on end. Or working three jobs. But that’s what Josie had done. She’d worked and gone without food more times than Kendra could count just to make sure her daughter was okay.
Kendra assumed it was because of her mother’s relationship with her own mother. It had made her outer shell so tough that nobody could really crack it. It had also made her stubborn and untrusting, characteristics which often got her into trouble and had caused her to lose the best job she’d ever had.
As she swung, Kendra dreamed about what living in Happy Harbor was going to be like. Nothing was perfect, but surely a small-town school would give her more freedom.
“Oh, hey,” a man said as he came out of the guest house. Wow. So this was the tenant. She’d only seen him in the darkness last night. Sure he was an older guy, but he was still pretty dang handsome.
“Hey. I’m Kendra, Josie’s daughter.” She stopped the swing, kicking up dark dirt onto her bright-white sneakers.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Walker. I knew your grandma.”
“Great-grandma. We called her Nana.”
“Right. Nana. I called her Miss Adeline. Most folks around here did.” He leaned against the enormous oak tree that was holding the swing. The Spanish moss hanging above him made it look like a romance novel cover.
“I didn’t get to see her much. My mom doesn’t like coming back here.”
He cocked his head to the side. “Really? Why is that?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “Bad memories, I guess.”
“Gotcha. Bad memories can make us avoid a lot of things, I suppose.”
“Yeah. That’s one reason I’m glad we’re moving here. I have a lot of bad memories from my old school.”
“Really?”
“Lots of snobby, rich kids. Plus, I kind of got in trouble a lot.”
He smiled. “Ah, I remember those days. I got in my fair share of trouble at your age.”
“What kind of trouble?”
“Well, I grew up north of here, near Myrtle Beach. My dad was pretty strict, which only made me want to rebel even more. One year, my buddies and I sort of took the principal’s car for a joy ride.”
“I mean, that’s not so bad.”
“It is if you drive it to Florida.”
Kendra let out a loud laugh. “Florida? How many hours was that?”
“I think about ten? We had a nice day at the beach, and then the cops caught up with us. Thank goodness our principal didn’t press charges, but we all got suspended for a few weeks. Ended up having to empty the garbage cans around school for the rest of the year.”
“That’s an epic story.”
“Happy Harbor is a much quieter place. I wish I’d grown up here.”
Before Kendra could respond, the back door flew open and her mother came rushing out of the house like her hair was on fire. Her face was beet red, and she was sweating, even though it wasn’t that warm outside. As she stomped toward Kendra, her arms flew back and forth by her sides like she was jet-propelled.
“Mom?”
“Pack your stuff. We’re getting out of here!”
“What?”
“I mean it. Get off the swing and go pack your stuff. We’re leaving!”
Kendra slowly got off the swing and stared at Josie. “But I don’t want to leave. I already like it here. Plus, Nana wanted?—”
“I don’t care what Nana wanted! She lied to me!” Kendra had never seen her mother so angry and upset.
“Mom, we have the house and the restaurant...”
“I don’t care what happens to any of it. Now, go get packed!”
“What happened? Why are you acting this way?”
“Because of me.” Kendra didn’t recognize the voice, but when she turned to see who was speaking, she knew exactly who the woman was—Diane, her grandmother. She’d only seen her once or twice in her whole life, and then she’d disappeared again when she relapsed.
“Grandma?”
“Don’t call her that! She’s Diane, and nothing more,” Josie said, giving Kendra a look of warning.
“Josie, can we please just sit down and talk?”
“There’s nothing to talk about, and right now you’re trespassing on my property.”
“Wait, so it is our property, or it isn’t?” Kendra asked.
“Don’t be a smart aleck,” Josie said.
Kendra felt tears welling up. She hated crying. It made her eyes blurry and made her feel dizzy.
“Can I say something?” Walker suddenly said. Between her mother and grandmother screaming at each other, and Kendra worrying that she had to go back to Atlanta, she had totally forgotten he was standing there.
“What business is it of yours?” Josie asked, turning around.
“Well, none, honestly. But it seems like you could use an objective third party here.”
“I don’t want anybody’s opinion. I’m going upstairs to pack. Kendra, you need to pack too. And Diane, get off my property.”
Without another word, Josie went into the house, slamming the screen door behind her.