Chapter 10 #2
Audrey laughed, thrilled that both women were so enthusiastic about the idea.
Her confidence in the whole endeavor grew significantly as she was hyped up by Harper and Penelope.
“I’m so glad you both think it will work out,” she said, popping a black olive into her mouth.
“It sounds like the whole process is really complicated.”
“What do you need to do first?” Penelope asked.
“Well, the first thing I had to go was get information and paperwork about permits,” Audrey said, remembering her interactions with Evan and laughing a little.
“I talked to the actual mayor himself, which was surprising, I thought. He, uh—he was pretty impatient with me and told me I should quit before I started.”
Harper wagged her eyebrows. “That man is cranky—but it can’t be denied that he’s nice to look at. I’m sure he was stubborn about the whole thing—from what I’ve heard working with him can feel like a battle sometimes.”
Audrey, finding that she felt safe enough in their friendly girl-talk to embrace a little bit of her inner peacock, tossed her hair a little. “Well, since I had to engage in an unexpected battle, I’m glad that at least I was looking my best.”
Penelope laughed. “That-a girl. You’ll beat him with your powers of distraction.”
Audrey laughed and Penelope and Harper laughed with her.
This is so much fun, Audrey thought. I’ve forgotten how nice it feels to spend time with encouraging women. They’ve made me feel so much better about everything.
She felt a rush of gratitude that she hadn’t cancelled the dinner, fearing that it might be too much for her. Spending time with good friends was exactly what she needed.
* * *
Michelle leaned back in the swing on her grandmother’s porch and took a deep breath of the cool night air.
She was bundled up in sweatpants, a cozy sweater, and a comfy hat to ward off the way the night air had become more bitter than balmy.
Still, it was comfortable enough with her warm clothes on, and she loved the way the wind smelled faintly of the ocean and strongly of her grandmother’s budding flower garden.
“This is such a beautiful night,” Elaine said, taking a long sip of her mug of tea. It released clouds of steam into the darkness along with the fragrant aroma of lavender.
“So beautiful.” Michelle reached for one of the lemon drop cookies that Elaine had set in a bowl on the porch railing. “That moon is just breathtaking—bathing everything in silver.”
“You didn’t get to see moonlight like this out in the city, did you?” Elaine asked.
Michelle shook her head. “No, not really. I mean, you could see the moon, but there was so much artificial light that got in the way of the moonlight. I mean, look at that! The way the moonlight is lighting up the fence, and the leaves on the maple tree. It’s almost like a painting or something.”
Elaine smiled thoughtfully and broke off a small piece of her cookie with her fingers. “I think in a way, it is like a painting.”
At that moment, Audrey appeared on the sidewalk in front of the house, strolling along with a spring in her step.
“Mom’s back!” Michelle exclaimed eagerly. “She looks happy—I bet her dinner with Penelope and her other friend went great.”
Audrey made her way up the driveway, looking relaxed and smiling warmly. She waved as soon as she saw Michelle and Elaine sitting on the porch and hurried over to them.
“Hey! How was your dinner?” Michelle asked, standing up to give her mother a hug.
“Do you mean the food or the company?” Audrey asked, giving Elaine a hug in turn.
“Both.” Michelle laughed. “Here, have a cookie.”
Audrey grinned and took a bite out of one of the plump little lemon drop cookies. “Mm, this is almost as good as the pizza—and to answer the question about the food, it was out of this world.”
“The Brick Oven really does have amazing pizza,” Elaine said.
“I’ll say it does.” Audrey nodded eagerly. “It’s even better than I remembered. We tried four different kinds, and they were all fantastic. The three of us should go there soon—Michelle, I think you would really love their barbeque chicken pizza. It was just the right amount of tangy.”
“Oo, sounds great. I’ve been missing that pizza place I used to go to in Scottsville a little.”
Audrey smiled. “I don’t think you’ll miss it too much once you try the pizza at the Brick Oven. That stuff is so good.”
“And how was it catching up with Penelope and meeting Harper?” Elaine asked.
“It was really fun.” Audrey looked off into the dark night with a glow in her eyes.
She grabbed onto the porch railing and began to swing on it absent-mindedly as she talked about her evening.
“Harper is super sweet and fun to talk to, and it’s like Penelope and I have just picked up right where we left off.
The three of us get along great, and with that amazing pizza, it was just a really fantastic—”
All at once she stopped speaking and let out a squeak of alarm as the railing snapped apart in her hands, causing her to tumble backward. She landed on the floor of the porch with a thud, and it was only a second before Michelle and Elaine were at her side.
“Oh my gosh, Mom, are you okay?”
“Oh, sweetheart. You didn’t hit your head, did you?”
“Oof. No, I’m fine.” Audrey sat up, wincing a little but appearing to be uninjured.
“What happened?” Michelle asked, turning to stare at the broken railing. “I’ve never seen anything like that before—it just snapped away like that.” She snapped her fingers. “It didn’t look like it was in danger of breaking.”
Elaine sighed. “Your grandfather fixed this porch railing himself years ago after a windstorm damaged the house. A tree fell on most of the wrap-around porch and we had to get rid of it. I think he was trying to preserve as much of the original woodwork as possible, which is why he patched the railing like that instead of simply repairing it completely. I’m sure he didn’t suspect that his beloved daughter would someday be swinging on it. ”
Audrey chuckled. “Oh, Dad. He could do the most amazing things with woodworking. Carpentry wasn’t necessarily his element, though. But I do think he did a great job on this part of the porch.”
Michelle looked around curiously. “So you’re saying the porch used to be bigger?”
“Oh yes, very much so.” Elaine nodded. “It used to wrap around the entire house. It was so lovely whenever we had parties—we’d hang lights and light lanterns. The whole thing looked just magnificent.”
“Why not restore it?” Michelle suggested, straightening up. “We could hire someone to do the work and look at photographs to try to replicate the original design of the porch. I mean, we are trying to be a historical site here, after all.”
“I love that idea,” Audrey said, clapping her hands together. “I’ll go into town tomorrow and see what I can do about that. I think you’re right, Michelle—if we’re turning our home into a historical site, we should make sure that it looks the way that it did during most of its history.”
“That sounds wonderful.” Elaine squeezed her daughter’s hand and gave Michelle a sideways hug. “I can’t wait to see this place restored to its former glory.”
Michelle darted inside to pour her mother a cup of tea, and then the three of them settled down on the porch swing together, munching cookies, sipping tea, and looking forward to the future.
.