Chapter 6
Josie and Kendra walked along the sidewalks of Happy Harbor, the sun disappearing over the horizon. Josie remembered watching sunsets over the marsh when she was a kid, and those were some of her happiest memories. The sounds of the marsh were hard to describe. A mixture of mud sucking and bird squawks, it soothed her. And the smells were also hard to describe to someone who didn’t come from the Lowcountry.
“Explain to me again why we couldn’t ride with Joe? Or take our car?” Kendra complained.
“Because Nana’s house is in the historic district, and it’s only a couple of blocks over. A nice walk will do us good.”
“Ugh,” Kendra replied in true teenager fashion.
“Do you really think you could go to school here?”
“Sure. Why couldn’t I?”
“You haven’t exactly been focused on academics lately.”
“Fresh starts are supposed to be a good thing, aren’t they?”
“I wouldn’t know. I’ve never had one.”
Kendra looked at her. “You left here and went to Atlanta. Wasn’t that a fresh start?”
Josie thought for a moment. “It never felt like one. A lot happened here, and just changing locations didn’t take that away. Problems are sticky, and they like to follow you. That’s why I’m worried that you’ll have the same issues here, Kendra.”
Kendra scoffed. “Thanks for believing in me, Mom.”
Josie stopped and looked at her. “I do believe in you, but I also know that your teenage brain is probably thinking you’ll get away with more shenanigans in this little town. Let me tell you, the women of Happy Harbor will not let you get away with stuff. The teachers and the mommas will make sure you stay on the straight and narrow, or at least that’s how it was when I grew up here.”
“Really?”
She laughed. “Back when I was a kid, any momma on the street had Nana’s permission to pick a switch and swat my legs if I was disrespectful or doing anything that required it.”
“What’s a switch?”
Josie sighed and rolled her eyes. “Youth is wasted on the young.” She started walking again.
“What does that mean?”
They turned the corner, and Josie stopped in her tracks, staring up at the house she’d grown up in all those years ago.
“Wow. Look at it.”
Kendra looked up at the house too. “It’s really pretty.”
Josie raised her hand to her chest. “It’s majestic.” The home was built in 1886 by her great-great-grandfather, Franklin Durham Carter. He’d served as mayor in the late 1800s and was well-known by everyone in town.
Situated on a corner lot, the large, white, Georgian-style home was breathtaking. Surrounded by a waist-high wrought iron fence, the home had two stories, each with its own porch spanning the width of the house. Accented by black shutters and thick columns with spindles between them, the home stood out even among the other historic homes in the area.
There were five wide steps leading up to the porch, which had several white rocking chairs on it. Nana had placed beautiful planters with bright-red flowers on each side of the entry door. On the side of the house was a pergola and a gazebo, which then led into her garden where she’d grown her prized roses and a variety of vegetables.
Around back was a huge covered porch with ceiling fans that overlooked a guest house, a small yard with cobblestone pathways, a swing dangling from a huge moss-covered oak tree, and trellises of every color rose Josie could imagine.
In that moment, her breath caught in her throat as she stood there frozen. How had her grandmother left this place to her? This historic home that people stopped to take pictures of and that had been in regional magazines. How would she ever maintain it? How would she learn to grow prize-winning roses? How would she know what to do when the paint peeled or there was a leak? How had her elderly grandmother done this alone for so many years? And how did she die with her home looking like it just dropped out of a design magazine? Josie suddenly felt so small, so ill-equipped for any of this.
“Mom, are you okay?” She could vaguely hear Kendra, but it seemed to be off in the distance.
However, her own breath sounded loud and clear, like a booming drum inside her head. She could hear her heartbeat. She could feel hot tears stinging her cheeks. She could feel her hands shaking.
“Mom!” The volume of Kendra’s voice snapped her out of wherever she was trapped, and she could hear sounds again. A faraway car revving its engine. A bird squawking. She could smell grass. Her vision cleared, and she wiped away a stray tear that had been left behind. A lone soldier.
“Sorry about that,” she said softly, through a still-shaking voice.
“Come over here,” Kendra said, in a kinder tone than Josie was used to. She pulled her over to a power box on the corner of the property. They sat down, and Josie caught her breath. “What was that?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. I guess that was a panic attack?” She didn’t know since she’d never had one, and she hoped to never have one again. It felt like she was dying.
“You scared me. I thought you were having a heart attack.”
“Me too,” she said, chuckling in an effort to make her daughter feel better. As a kid, Josie had spent far too much time thinking about adult things. She never wanted her daughter to worry about her. “I’m fine now. I think a lot of memories are just flooding back, and it hit me that Nana is really gone. She expected me to take care of this place, and I don’t know how.”
Kendra rubbed her knee. “Do you remember that huge science project I had to do in eighth grade?”
“Yes. It was horrible.”
“Thirty percent of my grade for that stupid project, and I was so scared I wouldn’t pass that class. Anyway, I remember sitting in my room one day with everything scattered around me, crying. You came in to tell me it was time for dinner, and I was sobbing. Do you remember what you told me?”
“‘Stop crying’?”
Kendra laughed. “No. You told me to do the next right thing. You said not to focus on the ten other things I needed to do. Just focus on the next right thing. And then when I finished that one, work on the next right thing. I think this is like that. Nana wouldn’t expect you to know everything about this house or the restaurant, but she trusted you to know the next right thing to do.”
Josie smiled. “You are so smart.”
Kendra shrugged. “I think it’s the salty sea air.”
“Come on,” Josie said, standing up. “We’d better not keep Joe waiting.”
* * *
The house was everything Josie had remembered: The huge open foyer with a beautiful staircase leading up to the spacious second story. The formal living room on the left, the parlor on the right. Thick moldings at the ceiling and around every doorway. The creaky, original wood floors with more character than new houses would ever achieve. The smell of her grandmother’s perfume wafting through the air gave hints of her presence.
Home.
She’d worried that it wouldn’t feel like home anymore, but it felt more like home than her Atlanta condo did. Josie walked into the living room and ran her fingers across the painted brick fireplace in the corner. There were fireplaces in almost every room of the house, but this one had always been her favorite. Hanging over it was a picture of Franklin Durham Carter. He wasn’t a handsome man, with his bulbous nose and thick eyebrows. They probably didn’t do a lot of male grooming back in those days. Still, she’d always felt a connection to this man who lived here, who started their family legacy in Happy Harbor all those years ago.
“I forgot how fancy this place is,” Kendra said, touching the floral wallpaper. Josie had shown her pictures of Adeline’s home over the years. She was happy Kendra was finally seeing it in person.
“Yeah, it is. But it was always so cozy with all the fireplaces going, and Nana making cookies and hot chocolate.”
“Did it get cold enough for that?”
“Of course. We had a few weeks of winter. I mean, rarely much snow, but it would get cold. Your grandmother surely loved this place. Just last Christmas, she said she decorated for a home tour and had a different style Christmas tree in every room. Of course, her friends helped her, but she was devoted to its history until her last days.”
Again, Josie wondered if she was any match for this lifestyle. Could she really run a restaurant and a historic home? Did she even want to? Her emotions were a jumbled mess. She wished she had time to think over her options, but what good would it do? Without a job, she wouldn’t be able to afford her condo for much longer. And her daughter wasn’t going back to that school without a fight.
Why not stay in Happy Harbor and give it a try? What was the worst that could happen?
* * *
Josie sat up in bed, her heart racing. It’d been so many years since she’d slept in her old room, and her mind was full of memories. The times Nana read her stories before turning out the lights. The time she had the flu, and Nana had made her chicken noodle soup and let her eat in bed, which was normally a big no-no. The time her mother called to say she wasn’t coming for Easter because she was leaving town for a while with her new boyfriend. Happy memories mixed with sad. The story of her life.
She pulled on her robe and tied it, quietly opening her door. Maybe a drink of water would calm her down, but it was more likely she’d grab a piece of that pound cake she’d brought back from the luncheon. All day, neighbors and friends of Nana’s had been bringing casseroles and other meals so she and Kendra wouldn’t have to worry about food for a while. Both freezers and the refrigerator were now full.
She tiptoed past the room Kendra had chosen as her own, making her way down the creaky stairs. She would have to get a contractor to fix those because she couldn’t stand the noises. Walking into the kitchen, she turned on the dimmest light she could find and retrieved a glass from the cabinet, filling it with water. Nana didn’t have a filter, so that was something to put on her list, too. Drinking tap water wasn’t her thing. Once, she’d asked Nana about investing in one. When Nana called them “hogwash mumbo jumbo,” Josie knew it wasn’t to be.
She finished her water and thought about heading back upstairs, but her brain was way too awake. It wasn’t quite five in the morning yet, and Josie knew she didn’t need to be at the restaurant until seven, so she had plenty of time to get cleaned up before going.
A part of her was nervous about introducing herself to the staff. The other part was ready to take on the challenge. If she was going to make the restaurant even more successful in honor of her grandmother, she’d have to be tough on the staff, and they probably weren’t used to someone ruling with an iron fist.
The caveat that she couldn’t fire anyone for six months was a problem. Her initial idea would’ve been to make everyone interview for their jobs again, and then fire anyone who didn’t seem to fit the bill. But this was Happy Harbor, not Atlanta or Manhattan, so her fast-paced management style probably would not work here.
She stood at one of the big windows facing the backyard and stared into the still-black sky. She could see stars, which wasn’t something she saw in the city as they were obscured by tall buildings with lit-up offices. She noticed a lightning bug fly past the window, and it made her smile. Nana had always helped her catch them in canning jars when she was a kid. Of course, they let them go quickly so they didn’t die.
Josie quietly opened the door and stepped onto the big porch. Standing at the top of the stairs, she watched the bug fly, its little hindquarters lighting up over and over. Closing her eyes, she took in a deep breath, all the smells of her childhood filling her soul.
A memory of her grandmother singing “Amazing Grace” suddenly came to her as she watched the lightning bug flit around. She didn’t know why. Sometimes memories were strange, popping up in the oddest of places. She began humming the song and then singing it as she swayed her hips back and forth. It made her feel closer to her grandmother just to sing her favorite song.
“That was pretty.” The voice of a man came out of the darkness, and suddenly she wished she had that antique shotgun hanging on the wall of the den. Of course, the thing was probably just for looks anyway. Josie turned around and saw the man sitting in one of the rocking chairs at the end of the porch. He didn’t move, and she could see the hint of a smile in the moonlit darkness.
“Who the heck are you?” she screeched, still not totally sure he wasn’t an apparition. She was in a historical home, after all.
He stood up and slowly walked toward her. She thought about running into the house and grabbing a butcher knife, but he was tall with long legs and would definitely outrun her. So, she froze in place, determined to scream her lungs out if he got too close.
“I’m Walker Jackson. I’ve been renting Adeline’s guest house for about four years now.” His accent was thick, like something out of Gone with the Wind. His walk was more of a stroll mixed with a strut. His hair hung near his shoulders with little wings on the sides that kept it out of his face. The only other thing she could see were dimples, not that she was noticing. He stuck his hand out to shake hers, but she just stared at him.
“Nobody told me there was a renter.” She wondered why her grandmother never mentioned it, although Josie had always steered her questions away from the happenings in Happy Harbor.
Walker slowly retracted his hand and stuck it into the pocket of his jeans. “Sorry about that. I was out of town when Adeline died. I only just got back last night. Guess you’d already gone to bed by then.”
“I guess so.”
“I hated to miss her funeral. She was like a mother to me. I never had one of my own, really.”
“Look, we’re not telling our deep, dark secrets right now. I want to know why you’re up here on my porch in the wee hours of the morning.”
“Why are you on your porch in the wee hours of the morning?”
“Because I couldn’t sleep,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Same here.” He leaned against one of the columns and waited for her to respond.
“This is my house now. I don’t need my tenant loitering around my porch. You have the guest house. That’s the property you’ve rented. I don’t understand why you think you have the right to just go wherever you want!”
He walked down the few steps onto the lawn, turned around, and looked at her. “Is this better?”
She crossed her arms. “It would be better if you were inside the guest house and not up on a dark porch to scare me in the middle of the night.”
“I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t think anybody would be outside at this hour, and I have a lot on my mind. Sitting on this porch is something I’ve done since I moved here. Adeline and I had our morning coffee out here together. I guess I was trying to feel closer to her.”
Now she felt a bit bad. Just a little, though. This guy was a stranger, and she didn’t like the idea of him living on her property, regardless of how good-looking he was.
“You had coffee with her?”
“Every morning like clockwork. She’d tell me stories about when she was a kid, but also give me life advice.”
“About women?” she asked, for reasons unknown to her. Why did she care about this guy’s love life?
He laughed. “Occasionally.”
Josie sat down on the top step, unsure of why she didn’t just go back inside the house. The sun was starting to light up the edges of the sky, and she needed to get ready to go to the restaurant soon.
“She gave brilliant advice.”
“She did,” he said, leaning against the handrail. “What’s your name, by the way?”
“Why do you need to know?”
He chuckled. “Well, you are going to be my landlord.”
She looked up at him. “Unless I decide to evict you.”
“Yikes,” he said, holding up his hands. “I pay on time, and I promise I’ll stay off your porch.”
She stood up. “As long as you pay on time, we won’t have a problem.” She walked toward the door before turning back to him. “Oh, and you can make those checks out to Josie Campbell.”
Josie didn’t linger to see his face, opting to break their conversation right there. She wasn’t looking for new friends. She was in Happy Harbor to help her daughter, honor her grandmother, and try to make some kind of future for herself. Handsome tenants didn’t factor into any of that.
As she shut the door, she saw Kendra standing in front of the window, peeking between the closed plantation shutters. “Good Lord! You startled me! Why aren’t you in bed?”
Kendra let go of the blinds and looked at her, grinning. “Who was that?”
“Apparently, we have a tenant in the guest house.”
“He looks kinda cute.”
Josie shrugged her shoulders. “Really? I didn’t notice.” She walked out of the room before Kendra could see her face because it would surely give away the fact that she had noticed everything about him, and she didn’t like herself one bit for it.