Chapter One #3
Isabel jumped up, shrugged into her jacket, then dropped her phone into her handbag and hurried toward the door. On the way to the car, she texted both Jerry and Mason to let them know she was on her way to the factory to sort out scheduling repairs.
Part of her regretted not sticking around and speaking with Mason when he got out of the shower because he’d probably be asleep when she came home from her meeting.
But she was tired of fighting with him about how she managed her time.
For the sake of the family’s business, she couldn’t ignore a broken pulling machine.
* * *
“But, Daddy, I don’t want to move.”
Darby Jane looked up at him, chin wobbling. Her blue eyes filled with fresh tears. Poor thing. She’d cried buckets in the last year. He hated that he’d provoked more sorrow.
“Baby girl, listen.” Burke Solomon dropped to his knees beside her on the hardwood floor in their historic home’s entryway.
He smoothed her pale blond hair from her forehead.
How to explain to a five-year-old that he couldn’t live here?
That Charleston couldn’t be home. Not anymore.
They had to go where people weren’t constantly staring at him.
Judging him. And he couldn’t possibly live in a house where every single room reminded him of Mary Catherine and Henry.
“We’re going to go where huge snowflakes are falling from a sky full of stars.” He forced a smile and gently clasped her slender shoulders in his hands. “We’ll learn to ice-skate together and build snowmen and get hot cocoa topped with whipped cream and sprinkles.”
“I like cocoa.” She sniffed. “Candy canes are yummy too.”
“I’ll take you to Evergreen Candy Company, where they make the best chocolates and the softest sugar cookies ever.”
She hung her head. “Not better than Mommy’s.”
Again, with the punch in the gut. How did she remember Mary Catherine’s sugar cookies? “Your mommy’s cookies were pretty spectacular, but the ones in Evergreen, Alaska, are equally amazing.”
“I don’t want to go,” she whispered, turning away from him.
Bobo, her pink-and-gray hippopotamus, worn and smudged with dirt, dangled from one hand as she wandered toward her empty playroom.
The place was packed up. A young couple moving down from New York had already signed a one-year rental agreement.
Burke had four suitcases to take with them on the plane, and in a few minutes, the car carrier was scheduled to arrive.
He’d sold his vehicle to an acquaintance who planned to resell the car at an auction.
If his aunt’s truck wasn’t still in good shape, he’d have to buy something used and practical when they got to Alaska.
Selling here in Charleston had seemed less daunting than having his car transported to Alaska for an exorbitant fee. And to be honest, he didn’t want his luxury sedan. Just one more excruciating reminder of the life he’d once known. Besides, the hefty payments were eating into his savings.
“Darby Jane, let’s put on your coat, and you can walk across the street with me.”
She turned and stared at him, her face blotchy from crying. “Why?”
“You’re going to play with your friend Leah and see her new puppy. You like dogs, right?”
Their neighbors across the street, the Watkinses, had helped him out countless times in the last year.
He’d stumbled through his tumultuous grief journey and endured the public scrutiny of being a single dad whose selfish decision had wiped out half his family.
Today he had to call in one last favor because he did not want Darby Jane to see his car go away.
“I don’t want to play with Leah.” She hugged Bobo to her chest. “Why can’t I stay here until we have to go?”
He held out her coat like going outside in the chilly air and hanging with a friend she’d likely never see again was a big thrill.
Instead of just one more miserable thing he’d have to ask of her.
“This will be probably your last visit for a while. It’s polite to say goodbye. They’ve been so kind to us.”
Katie Watkins, her husband, Todd, and their daughters, Leah and Grace, were among only a handful of people who’d tempered their harsh words.
Who’d chosen kindness and empathy instead of disgust. He stopped short of mentioning that.
Darby Jane was too little to understand.
Mary Catherine’s parents hadn’t forgiven him.
And at this point, it seemed like they never would.
How could they just cut Darby Jane out of their lives, though?
He couldn’t wrap his mind around that. Still, he’d written them a letter and told them he and Darby Jane were moving to Alaska, and they were welcome anytime.
That was the best he could do. Of course, he understood that his in-laws were heartbroken, and he didn’t expect them to forgive him, because he couldn’t forgive himself.
But he wanted them to have a relationship with Darby Jane.
His brother, Shane, had stopped by before the movers came and tried to persuade him to reconsider.
Insisted that leaving town wasn’t a wise decision.
Burke had resisted the temptation to remind Shane that he didn’t know the first thing about coping with the loss of a spouse or an infant, given Shane didn’t have a wife or children.
But it would’ve been a wasted effort. Instead, they’d exchanged brief backslaps and polite, empty words.
Burke hadn’t been convinced Shane’s efforts were genuine, anyway.
His brother’s uneasiness hinted that their father had sent him to convince Burke to change his mind.
Dad thought he was bananas for leaving the South and had told him in no uncertain terms that he should get back to the advertising agency where they had worked in tandem for years.
Dad didn’t seem to understand Burke hated advertising.
He’d much rather write books. Well, at least that was how he felt when he’d left the firm.
These days, he couldn’t seem to string enough words together to make a complete sentence, much less a whole book.
Worse, he’d blown past his deadline for submitting his second manuscript months ago.
But that was next week’s problem. Today, he had to figure out how to get Darby Jane out of the only home she’d ever known.
“Come on, sweet pea. Let’s walk across the street. I need you to stay at Leah’s house until I handle one last thing.”
“What thing? I’ll help you,” Darby Jane said, moving closer.
He shrugged into his jacket. “This part is going to be kind of loud and scary.”
Her chin wobbled again, and her mouth turned into a frown. “What’s more scary than losing Mommy and baby Henry?”
Emotion welled, and he wasn’t sure if he could tamp it down this time.
He tried his best not to lose his composure in front of his daughter, but sometimes the grief slipped out.
He swallowed past the boulder lodged in his throat, then turned toward the door.
“Come on. It’ll be less than thirty minutes.
You can pet the puppy, and you don’t have to play with Leah if you don’t want to.
Miss Katie’s going to keep you safe, okay?
She probably has a great snack waiting for you. ”
Darby Jane set her stuffed animal down, put on her jacket, then snatched Bobo up again. They stepped out the front door and walked across the street, a crisp breeze sending dry leaves skittering down the lane.
After he dropped Darby Jane off, he walked down the neighbor’s driveway in time to hear the rumble of a diesel engine. The double-decker car carrier eased down the street and stopped in front of his house. Brakes hissed and classic rock played from the speakers through the open window.
A burly guy wearing greasy gray coveralls and a faded ball cap stepped down from the cab. He spit tobacco in an empty plastic soda bottle before handing over an electronic tablet.
“How’s it going? Are you Burke Solomon?”
Burke nodded and took the tablet. Why had he expected the standard unassuming tow truck? By now half the neighborhood probably had their noses pressed to their front windows. So much for hoping Katie would be able to distract Darby Jane with snacks and a cute puppy.
He signed all the places on the electronic forms the driver told him to, then stood back watching helplessly as the guy loaded his car into the last vacant spot on the lower deck of the carrier.
A few minutes later, the truck pulled away, belching exhaust into the air.
Bracing for the worst, Burke turned around to see Darby Jane in the window of the Watkinses’ house, sobbing.
The look of disdain on Katie’s face as she met his gaze through the window made him turn away.
Yep, it was time to go. Moving to Evergreen wasn’t going to be easy.
He didn’t have any idea if his wild notion would work out.
He had to go where they could start over, where his little girl could have a delightful childhood.
Because he was determined to make that happen for her.