Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
Alexis surveyed her pantry shelves with all the pride of a queen surveying her queendom. Now that she had the rice, beans, and lentils stowed neatly into the clear plastic organizers, she felt that her shelves were pristinely well laid out.
She hummed to herself as she left the pantry to check on the pies that were baking in the oven. Her family was coming over for dinner that night, and for the occasion Alexis had made sweet potato chicken pot pies. The smell wafting out of the oven was already incredible.
She crouched down and turned on the oven light to inspect the baking pies. They looked excellent, and clearly still had a long time to go. She stood up again, feeling strangely restless. Although she knew the pantry looked as charming and organized as she could possibly want, she still felt as though there was something more that she wanted to do.
It was so fun to reorder the pantry, she thought. Maybe I’m just missing that fun. Or is there really something else that I want to do around the house?
She turned slowly in a circle, looking around the kitchen. When she and Grayson had first moved into their charming red brick colonial house, she’d worked on the kitchen first thing. She loved cooking, and she’d made sure to make it a room that lifted her spirits.
She decided that there was nothing she wanted to add to the kitchen. It was already tidy, organized, and aesthetically pleasing. She smiled, pleased with her previous work, and wandered into the hallway, and then the living room, gazing around her as she went.
“Huh,” she said as soon as she stepped into the living room. She sat down on the couch and tucked her feet up, staring intently at the walls. When they’d first moved into their house, she’d wanted to paint the walls of the living room. She and Grayson had been so busy, however, that they’d never gotten a chance to do it.
She hugged her knees, beginning to feel more and more excited about the idea. She could paint it any number of colors—their couch was made of white leather, and the throw pillows were covered in a black and white patterned fabric, which meant that she could paint the walls almost anything she wanted. She squinted at the walls, picturing sunshine yellow, or mint green, or burnt orange.
She turned toward the fireplace, which was made of natural gray stone. She imagined dark red walls surrounding it, accented by antique photograph frames. She cocked her head to one side and then imagined light blue walls, lightly decorated with motivational plaques.
At that moment, the front door opened, startling her from her reverie.
“I’m home!” Grayson called out cheerfully.
“Hey, sweetheart!” She hopped off the couch and hurried over to the front door to greet her husband with a hug and a kiss. “How was the store?”
“A terrible jungle of angry customers, but I survived.” He grinned. “No, just kidding. There were like four people there and everyone was super helpful. I asked an old lady who didn’t even work there about the green tea ice cream and she pointed me in the right direction. She said, ‘That aisle there is where the crazy people buy their food.’”
Alexis burst out laughing and started to rummage in the paper bag he’d brought home. Inside it was a bottle of Cabernet that she’d asked him to get for dinner, even though she herself couldn’t partake because of the baby, and a container of green tea ice cream. It was her current craving, and when Grayson had heard her ask him for it, his eyes had widened in pretend alarm. He’d kept teasing her that it was a disgusting flavor for ice cream, but she’d told him that he simply didn’t have a refined palate. He’d told her the hormones were making her delusional.
“Yay, thank you, sweetheart!” She gazed at the container of ice cream with satisfaction, considering grabbing herself a scoop before her family arrived. “This will just hit the spot.”
“I’m glad, crazy lady,” he said, and gave her a kiss.
“Hey, at least it’s not an ungodly amount of peanut butter anymore.”
He shook his head. “At least the peanut butter I could understand.”
Laughing, they went into the kitchen together, holding hands. Grayson sniffed the air eagerly as he set the brown paper bag down on the counter.
“It smells glorious in here. We’ve never had this recipe before, right?”
She shook her head. “It’s a new one. I was on Pinterest this morning looking for recipes. You know, with all the free time I have on my hands now.”
He glanced at her knowingly, clearly realizing that she was setting up another statement.
“You don’t have that much free time,” he reminded her. “You’ve been getting extra sleep and you’re still doing a lot of work on your jewelry business.”
“Yeah, but that still leaves me so much time. I mean, honestly, I’ve been getting really bored.”
Grayson cleared his throat. Alexis smiled at him innocently.
“Okay, what is it?” he asked. “What project are you wanting to undertake now?”
She clasped her hands together eagerly. “What do you think about me painting the living room?”
“Now?” he protested.
“Not right now! We have people coming over for dinner.”
He shook his head. “I don’t mean now as in right this second, I mean now when you’re pregnant and you’re supposed to be resting. Painting the living room would be a really big undertaking.”
“Oh, not really,” she protested. “The walls are already so nice and clean, it wouldn’t take me long to prep them. And the room isn’t all that huge so it wouldn’t take me too long to paint it—especially if I decide to do a couple of accent walls in a darker color instead of paint the whole thing.”
He chewed on his lip. “What color are you thinking?”
“I don’t know,” she said contemplatively, taking his question for an agreement and starting to waltz with him across the kitchen. “I haven’t decided yet.”
Grayson started to laugh. “I still don’t know that it’s the best idea?—”
At that moment, the front doorbell rang, and they stopped waltzing.
“We can discuss it later,” Alexis said cheerfully, and hurried with her husband over to the front door. She opened it grandly and grinned when she saw her whole family standing there.
“Hi, Aunt Alexis!” Samantha said, hurrying forward to hug her. “We brought a salad. It’s got fancy croutons and strawberries in it.”
“Sounds amazing,” Alexis said, hugging her niece back. “Thanks for bringing that, Hazel.”
“You got it.” Hazel gave her a hug as well. “I know how hard it is to feed all of these hungry people at one time.”
“So do I,” said Julia, “so Mom and I brought lemon lavender sugar cookies.”
Talking and hugging and laughing, the family took off their coats and winter boots and made their way into the dining room. Vivian and Hazel helped Alexis and Grayson get the pies out of the oven and cut into slices while Samantha, Dean, and Julia set the table.
“Sorry I wasn’t ready,” Alexis said. “I got an idea and time kind of got away from me.”
“What idea was that?” Dean asked curiously.
“I’m going to paint the living room,” she sang out eagerly.
Grayson coughed. “We’re still not sure that’s a good idea,” he said.
“Yes, we are!” She placed a finger on his lips, and he shook his head, laughing.
A few minutes later, everyone sat down to dinner. The pot pies were letting off a rich, slightly sweet aroma of spices and buttery pie crust. Grayson began to dish out the slices while Alexis added salad onto everyone’s plates.
Dean, as soon as he’d gotten his plate, picked up a crouton and tossed it across the table to Samantha, who caught it with a triumphant grin.
“Dean!” Vivian scolded. “Honestly, you’d think you were in middle school again.”
Alexis smiled. She knew that despite her scolding, Vivian was thrilled to see Dean acting so energetic, as they all were. Her younger brother had recently been given the tragic diagnosis of early onset osteoarthritis, and for a while his energy levels and physical strength had both been concerningly inadequate.
Now that he was in physical therapy, however, everything about his life had improved. Not only did he have more strength and energy than he’d had before, but he’d first met his girlfriend Noelle when she was his physical therapist. Although he’d switched to another PT before the two of them had started dating, the family loved knowing that Dean was in a relationship with someone who could look out for his physical needs and remind him to rest. That had been a learning curve for Dean at first, and he’d often pushed himself too hard at work, resulting in days when his fatigue seemed to rule his life. Now, however, he’d seemed to have finally made a breakthrough, and his balance of work, rest, and physical therapy allowed him to feel good physically again.
“I saw you and Noelle looking like a couple of middle schoolers the other day,” Julia said with a grin. “You were standing outside Main Street Auto holding hands and whispering.”
“Yeah, we were plotting to rob a bank,” Dean said gravely. “But we decided against it.”
Everyone laughed and shook their heads. Dean got extra goofy when he was happy, and he always brightened up whenever anyone brought up his beautiful, kind girlfriend.
“Don’t you think right outside the auto repair shop that you own is a bad location for plotting to rob a bank?” Alexis teased. “One of your customers might overhear.”
Dean shook his head. “That’s why we were whispering.”
Everyone laughed and groaned again, and then the conversation turned toward Julia’s wedding planning. Everyone spoke animatedly and ate their food hungrily. Alexis got a compliment from everyone at the table over how delicious the food was, and Hazel begged her for the recipe.
She looked around at her family, feeling a glow of happiness in her chest. She was thankful she had such a close-knit connection with all of them. She didn’t know how she ever could have faced the trials of life without them at her side.
She thought suddenly of Faith Talbot, their cousin, who had lost both her parents. Alexis wondered what Faith was doing at that moment. She was probably alone. Alexis wondered how many times Faith had gotten to experience the kind of community that her family was together. She thought that perhaps Faith had never gotten to experience anything like it at all.
“Penny for your thoughts,” Grayson told her, dishing a second helping of pie onto her plate. “You look serious all of a sudden.”
“I was thinking about Faith Talbot,” she said. “You know, that woman who just moved here. Our cousin.”
“Yeah, I heard about that,” Dean said. “I want to meet her. I vaguely remember her visiting all those years ago.”
“A totally unexpected cousin,” Hazel mused. “I wonder how many other unknown family members we’ve got out there?”
“Well, in Faith’s case, she wasn’t unknown,” Vivian reminded them. “I was pretty good chums with my cousin Lyle when we were growing up. I should have remembered to check in with her. I know I thought about it during the time of the funeral, but then there was so much to catch up on when I recovered from the flu that it slipped my mind. I know I sent her a card, but I wish I’d written her a letter or called her or something later on.” Vivian bit her lip, looking pained.
“It’s okay, Mom.” Julia put a hand on her mother’s arm. “You meant well. That’s just how life goes a lot of the time. Besides, if she’d needed something, she would have known that she could reach out.”
“Maybe that’s what she’s doing now,” Samantha said.
“Oh, I don’t think so, honey, I think she’s just moving somewhere new,” Hazel said. “I mean, you said she just kind of drifted off after introducing herself. She didn’t ask to spend time with any of us, did she?”
“No, but we didn’t invite her to either,” Alexis said thoughtfully. “I mean, I know personally, I was totally floored and didn’t think to arrange any kind of a meet-up.”
“What’s she like?” Hazel asked. “Does she seem nice?”
“Yeah,” Julia said slowly. “She does. But I kind of got the impression that she was hiding something.”
“Hiding something?” Dean echoed. “What do you mean?”
“I felt that way too for a second,” Alexis admitted, “but then I realized that she just seems super tired.”
“Hmm, sounds like she’s got a past of some kind,” Grayson said. “I wonder what it is.”
“I stopped by the bed and breakfast later that day,” Vivian said. “I wanted to make sure she got there all right. Faith wasn’t there at the time, but Megan was working the front desk and she told me that Faith had said she needed a break from her fast-paced life in Boston.”
“I knew she was a city girl as soon as she walked in through the door,” Alexis said with a chuckle. “She definitely has that vibe.”
“Do we really know anything more than that about her?” Julia asked, looking somewhat troubled. “I have to admit, I feel kind of wary about the fact that she’s just showing up out of the blue after all these years. I mean, why now?”
“Maybe it’s the first time she’s had a vacation in a while,” Vivian said.
“But it’s not a vacation,” Julia pointed out. “She moved here. Don’t you find that odd?”
Vivian shook her head. “Sometimes people decide to reach back out randomly. I wish I’d reached out to her father much sooner, before he—” Vivian swallowed. “Well, anyway, she might seem like a stranger to you kids, but she doesn’t to me. Her father Lyle and I didn’t get to see each other too often when we were kids, but we went on some very memorable family road trips together. Wonderful places—like the Grand Canyon and the Rocky Mountains and New Orleans. You sure bond with people when you’re trapped in a van with them for hours at a time, let me tell you.” She laughed.
“Oh, we know,” Dean interjected with a grimace.
Vivian winked at him. “Well, anyway, once we grew up, his family moved even farther away and then we kind of lost touch. That year they visited us when you were kids, it was because they were going on a trip along the East Coast anyway, and he called me and asked if we could all meet up for a while. It was a wonderful day.” Tears filled Vivian’s eyes for a moment, and Hazel gave her mother a sideways hug.
Julia nodded, but Alexis could see that her sister still had her reservations. “Cousin Lyle sounds like a great guy.”
“He was.” Vivian smiled. “I’m really glad Faith is here.”
“I just wish I knew why she was here,” Julia said.
“Hey, you people don’t get it,” Samantha said, shaking her head. “She’s an only child, right? Well, as an only child I can tell you that I definitely would be curious enough to move to a new place if I had family there.”
“That’s a good point, Sam. I’m sure she’s perfectly lovely,” Hazel said warmly. “I’m glad she’s here.”
Dean shrugged. “Yeah, I think she’s probably hoping to connect with us. Makes sense to me.”
Alexis didn’t quite know how she felt. It was almost jarring to have someone new show up out of the blue like that, especially someone who they were automatically tied to. But Faith had seemed like a very nice person, even if her arrival did feel oddly random.
Besides, she thought, feeling her heart stir with sympathy for her cousin. Wasn’t I just thinking about how good it is to be surrounded by family and how I don’t know what I’d do without mine? Seems like Faith is looking for a similar connection.
“Speaking of new arrivals to town,” Dean said, leaning back in his chair with a sigh as he finished his second helping of pie. “Ryan McCormick is back, at least for now. I guess he was working on some job out in Colorado.”
“And it’s over now?” Alexis frowned. “I don’t like the sound of that.”
“What do you mean?” Hazel asked, spearing one of the strawberries that had slipped away from her salad.
“Well, if he needs a new job now, maybe that means he’s planning on jumping onboard the brewery team, to help with the family business.” Alexis grimaced.
“I see what you’re saying.” Julia nodded. “Three McCormicks working against us has been bad enough. Four would be even worse.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that.” Vivian shook her head. “I’m hoping they’ve learned their lesson and won’t try to compete with us anymore. After all, I think their last few attempts have made it clear that our place in the community is secure.”
“Hear, hear!” Dean exclaimed, and they laughed and followed him in a toast.
“I agree that the McCormicks won’t be able to shake us again, even if they try,” Alexis said. “I just wonder why he’s back in town.”
“I think he lives here,” Dean said, frowning as if he couldn’t quite remember. “He’s just basically always away for work.”
“Until now.” Julia wrinkled her nose.
“He really has been away a lot, hasn’t he?” Alexis asked, taking another rich, flavorful bite of the sweet potato chicken pot pie. “He’s never around town. He wasn’t around for any of the last few stunts the McCormicks have pulled. I mean, we’ve never seen him act hostile toward us before. I don’t think anybody in town knows him very well.”
“True,” Dean said. “As far as I know, he’s a nice guy.”
“I see what you’re saying,” Julia conceded. “I shouldn’t make assumptions about him just because he’s a McCormick. But I do feel wary about him. I mean, our history with his family isn’t exactly great, and Seth and Brady are clearly loyal to their father. And all those apples fell off the Judd McCormick tree.”
“If he works that much, he probably cares a lot about profit, like his dad does,” Samantha pointed out sagely.
“Hmm, you might be right,” Hazel said, ruffling her daughter’s hair. “But I still think we shouldn’t make assumptions about people, even if those assumptions make a lot of sense.”
“You’re right,” Julia said, smiling at her sister. “Even so, I’m going to be on my guard while he’s here. I’m going to keep sniffing the air for another stinky McCormick scheme.”
The Owens continued to eat and talk together, their conversation soon turning to more pleasant subjects. After dinner, they ate ice cream sundaes, and Alexis got to indulge in her green tea ice cream. They gathered in the living room to play board games for a while before the guests yawned and said it was time for them to go home. Alexis and Grayson stood in their doorway, calling out cheerful goodbyes into the night.
“What a lovely family we have,” Alexis said. “And such a lovely house. You know what would make it even better?”
“Goodnight, Alexis.” Grayson turned around and kissed her before she could say any more.
“But really, painting the walls?—”
“Goodnight.” He kissed her again and began to half-carry her toward the staircase. “It’s time to go to sleep.”
“Oh, fine.” She laughed and held his hand as they started up the staircase together. She glanced back at the living room as they went, imagining beautiful colors on the walls.