21. Penny
21
Penny
“W hoa!” Penny held up both hands. She could feel her cheeks growing warm, and she hoped they wouldn’t assume it was evidence of guilt. “Actually, I haven’t seen him since Monday night. We—we had a disagreement,” she said, avoiding meeting anyone’s eyes.
“You argued after I went to bed?” Hazel asked, aghast. “You were being so sweet to each other. That’s why I called it a night early.” She pressed a hand to her chest.
“You two are perfect for each other,” Claire chimed in. “He brings you pizza and watches Sandra Bullock movies with you, Penny. You said he even laughs at all the right places.”
“We didn’t argue,” Penny tried to interject.
“Wait. He watches romcoms with you?” Candy pressed a hand to her chest and sighed dreamily. “If you don’t want him, can I have him?”
“And you really haven’t seen him since Monday, Sweet Pea?” Hazel wasn’t about to let it go so easily. Her brows were drawn together in concern. “I thought you two were getting along so swimmingly. I peeked outside once more after I left you two alone on the porch, and you were snuggled up together on that chaise—”
Penny held up a hand to stop her, not surprised at all that Hazel had spied on them. “I haven’t,” she said with a sigh. Then she forced a bright smile on her face. “But I’m sure he’s been really busy.”
“What happened?” the older woman asked, seeing her expression for what it was. “Oh, dear.”
“Nothing really happened,” Penny insisted, picking up her mug so she could hide behind it. “At least not the way you’re thinking.”
“How do you know what I’m thinking?” Hazel snapped, her irritation growing, if the look on her face was any indication. “I might just have to have a talk with that young man if you don’t give me a few more details. I don’t like this kind of drama, and I know for a fact that you don’t either.” She circled a hand in front of her, indicating the women gathered around. “You’re among friends, dear. We are here to help you.”
“And support you, no matter what you do or don’t tell us,” Addison said, her voice gentle.
Penny might as well get straight to it. She’d eventually spill her guts to this group at some point, she knew, and now, while the pain was fresh, she might as well be real with them.
“He got a call from his ex-girlfriend while we were—um, snuggling on the chaise lounge.”
“Oh no,” Juno muttered under her breath, her eyes narrowing. “I knew that woman was going to be a problem.”
“Yeah.” Penny dipped her head and blinked quickly. She was not going to cry. She’d done enough of that already in the privacy of her room. But if she let the dam break now in front of them all, she might never be able to stop. “I don’t think she’s as much of an ex as he’d like me to believe. Maybe not as much of an ex as he’d like himself to believe, either.” She set aside her mug, not sure her churning stomach could handle another drop of cooling coffee. She swallowed hard around the lump that gathered in her throat every time she even thought about Ward St. James.
“Yikes,” Juno said. “He was in yesterday, but he didn’t stay to eat. Just grabbed a sandwich and coffee to go. He’s always a little hangry when he comes by at lunchtime, but he seemed off. I should have asked.”
“No, please.” Penny shook her head. “Please don’t ask him anything, you guys. At least not about us, okay?” She was suddenly starting to have second thoughts about discussing the situation behind his back. She knew these women cared about him, but she certainly didn’t want to be the source of any false information circulating about him. “Can we just keep this conversation between us? I’m sure he’ll figure things out, and everything will be set to right with him soon.”
“With him, but not with you?” Addison asked. Her face was a mask of concern. “Where does this leave you, then, Penny?”
“I’m going back home in a month, Addison.” She smiled bravely, wishing they’d change the subject. “It leaves me right where I was when I got here.”
A silence like a lead blanket settled around the table, every one of them drooping under the weight of it.
“I’m assuming you want us to change the subject,” Liz said. It was more of a statement than a question, and Penny had never appreciated her bluntness more.
“Yes, please,” she said with a half-laugh, but even to her, it sounded more like a half-sob.
She didn’t just want to talk about something other than Ward; she wanted to think of something else besides Ward, too. She had spent far too many hours over the last four days thinking about him.
T hat evening, Penny and Hazel sat out on the porch together, listening to the quiet drizzle that had started to fall about an hour ago. The summer cloudburst would pass over soon, and tomorrow would be another hot, humid day. The lake looked moody and dark under the shrouded sky, and Penny could relate. The porch light across the inlet remained off.
“Hazel, I have to tell you something.” Penny had been dreading this conversation all afternoon, but after their club meeting that morning, after everything that had happened with Ward, she just didn’t feel right keeping the project a secret any longer. Hazel had asked some rather probing questions about their club, what the purpose of it was, and what would happen to it after Penny left. Well, she’d answer all those questions now if she could, and if Hazel wanted it to stop, she’d go to the girls and that would be the end of it.
“What is it, Sweet Pea?”
Penny shifted Jimbo so that he wasn’t pressed right up against her. The rain had cooled the air, but the humidity made sitting close to any warm-blooded creature uncomfortable. “I told my friends that I was worried about you. About Garden Gate. And I am worried. I saw your stack of bills the other day. You have no guests. The garden—” She broke off when she saw Hazel’s smile fall away. “Oh Hazel, I’m sorry. I didn’t really think of it as being deceptive. Not at first. Ward said he thought I should tell you, and even then, I kinda figured that he was a guy, and he didn’t understand how much we women like nice surprises. But then today, we kept having to circumvent your questions. It made me really uncomfortable that you didn’t know why we were there, even though we were there with the best intentions.”
Hazel nodded slowly. “I see.”
Penny licked her suddenly dry lips. She was in it this deep already; she might as well jump. “Are you? In trouble, I mean?” Penny asked, her voice barely above a whisper. “I just… I just want to help if I can.”
Hazel sighed deeply, then Murtagh sighed, too. She scratched his head between his ears, and he flopped his tail in appreciation. “I suppose you could call it that, although not in the way you’re thinking.” She let out a wry chuckle. “Not that I presume to know what you’re thinking,” she added, apparently recalling the similar conversation they’d had that morning.
Penny’s heart lurched. “Are—are you sick?”
“No, honey. No, I’m not sick. But I’m getting old, Sweet Pea. Finally,” she added with a chuckle. “I’ll be eighty-four this year; did you know that?”
Penny shook her head but didn’t say anything. She’d thought the woman was in her seventies at the most.
“Well, I will be. And I’m tired. You girls talked today about your dreams for the future. Business ventures. Romance. Travel and more. I’ve lived my dreams, Penny girl. And now I’m ready to do less, not more.”
Penny nodded. “I can understand that. But what about this place? What will you do?”
“Well, now, that’s the dilemma, isn’t it?” Hazel made a show of covering Murtagh’s ears. “I don’t have children,” she said sotto voce, then let go of his ears and scratched between them. “Or even other family members who might be interested in this property. So I’m going to have to sell it.”
“Oh, Hazel.”
“I’m not quite ready to do anything yet; don’t worry. It’s probably ridiculous of me, I know, but I want to handpick the new owners. I won’t have anyone moving in here who will just tear this place down and put up a mini version of that monstrosity across the lake. I couldn’t do that to Rachel and Ted. Or the rest of our little community. But this property is large, and with the home and the outbuildings, and it being waterfront, it’s worth a lot of money. It’s going to take a very specific buyer, and I need to start looking now, because it may take years to find him or her.”
“What are you going to do if you find a buyer sooner than later?” Penny couldn’t imagine The Garden Gate without Hazel at the helm. “Where will you go?”
Hazel let out a dry chuckle. “There’s another catch. I’ve been looking at retirement homes in the surrounding areas. I don’t want to leave Autumn Lake, but there’s nothing like that here. However, I’m so discouraged by what I’m finding out there.” She pointed over her shoulder toward the general direction of the kitchen. “That’s what the pile of paperwork is in there. Old folks' home brochures and price sheets, contracts, and menus, the works. It’s a little overwhelming trying to keep all that stuff straight—who does what and when and where and what’s included in the prices and what isn’t.”
“I’m so sorry I assumed.” Shame washed over Penny.
Hazel shook her head. “Don’t be sorry. Your heart is in the right place. Anyway, I’ve been visiting different homes over the past few months. That’s where I was the morning you arrived, in fact. I’ve been to two others since then. I had dinner at a place about half an hour from here Monday night while you were out with Ward; I won’t even consider a place if they don’t let me have a meal or two to test it out.”
“Sounds reasonable to me,” Penny agreed, pushing back the overwhelming desire to weep for both of them and the big changes looming ahead.
“Some of the facilities I’ve seen are downright gorgeous, and the apartments, although frighteningly small after living here, are quite elegant. But nothing I’ve looked at so far has felt like home to me.”
“Home.” Penny said aloud. The word seemed to be on everyone’s lips these days.
“This is my home, Sweet Pea. It’s the only real home I’ve ever known. I grew up here, and although I lived away from here for the two years of my marriage before my husband died, I came right back here so I could grieve and grow old in the sanctuary of this place. I’ve never wanted to live anywhere else.”
“I can’t blame you,” Penny murmured. In Hazel’s shoes, she wouldn’t want to have to move, either.
“But I don’t want to be one of those awful news stories you hear about.” She held up her hand like she was framing a headline. “Woman who lives alone slips and falls in the shower. Her body is discovered a week later when passersby report a cloud of flies hovering over the chimney.”
“Hazel!” Penny covered her mouth with one hand. “Don’t say such things.”
The older woman chuckled softly. “Don’t worry. I’m very careful getting in and out of the shower. I even had grab bars installed several years ago, and I have a seat in there, too. One I use, just so you know. I’m quite aware of my limitations.”
“Have you—have you ever considered hiring someone to help you run this place?” Penny asked, not sure that was really the solution Hazel was looking for. “Maybe even just while you’re looking for the right buyer?” Oh, if only she had a million bucks.
“I have, but unless the guesthouse starts making money again, I really can’t afford to pay someone in anything other than room and board. But I’m not so sure I want someone moving in with me. I’m old and set in my ways, and the idea of having someone else running what has always been my life scares me a little, I have to admit.” She smiled grimly. “It’s a terrible catch-22 I’ve gotten myself into. I’m sitting on a golden egg here, and once it sells, I can easily afford to do just about anything I could dream of… except stay here. I just waited too long to make too many changes, it seems.” She tugged gently on Murtagh’s ear, and the dog stuck out his long tongue to lick her wrist. “I always thought I’d live forever.”
Penny could tell she wasn't even half serious, but she understood. Hazel did seem ageless, timeless, in so many ways. “I wish with all my heart that I was in a position to help you,” Penny declared. “I’d move in here in a heartbeat, and together, we’d get this place up and running again in no time. You wouldn’t even have to pay me. Ever.”
Hazel blew her a kiss. “You’re my favorite person in the whole world, Sweet Pea.”
“So you’re not mad at me?”
“I could never be mad at you, darling girl. Frustrated? Perhaps. I do wish you had come directly to me with your concerns. I wasn’t trying to hide anything from you. I just didn’t want to worry you.” She snorted wryly. “And look how that turned out. So I can’t be mad at you, can I? I’m the one who created the situation in the first place.”
Lying in bed later that night, Penny let the tears that had been gathering all evening trickle from the corners of her eyes as she poured out her heart to God. She prayed for Hazel’s difficult dilemma, for Ward as he, too, seemed caught in a tug-of-war over circumstances in his life. She prayed for her group of friends here at the lake, thanking God that He’d brought such wonderful women into her life. She prayed for her mother and aunt and uncle back home, and finally, she prayed for herself. She asked for courage to face the new challenges that were just around the corner, for wisdom in making the right decisions for her mother’s future, and for peace in whatever circumstances He allowed Penny to be in.
She was just drifting off when her phone rang, the sound shockingly loud in the quiet of her cozy room.
“Penny.” It was Aunt Jean. She sounded distraught.
“What is it?” Penny gasped, lurching up in bed.
“It’s your mother. She got out at some point over the last two hours. We thought she was asleep in her room, but I got up to use the bathroom and checked on her, and she’s gone.”
“Gone? She’s lost? Or is she—is she dead?” It was her worst nightmare come true; that her mother would slip away, and she wouldn’t be with her. She turned on her lamp and threw back her covers, struggling to untangle her feet from the sheet in her haste.
“Oh, honey, no. Don’t assume anything like that. We just haven’t found her yet. The police and other emergency services are here with search teams, and several of the neighbors are out looking, too. They all know Judy; we take walks with her every evening.”
“No. Oh, no, oh no.” The syllables tumbled out of her mouth and ran together. “I’m coming home. I—I’ll get dressed and get on the road right now. I can be there in about six hours. Maybe five.”
“Penny, no. Please don’t drive right now. I didn’t want to wait to tell you, but I don’t want you to risk racing home with this weighing on you. We are doing everything we can, and I will keep you updated.”
“I can’t just sit here and do nothing!” Penny practically shouted into the phone; her words made harsher by the tears that clogged her throat. She was already tugging open her closet door to find something easy to throw on. “I have to come.”
There was a knock at Penny’s door, and she hurried to open it. Hazel stood there, her long silver hair spilling in disarray over her shoulders. “What’s happening? I heard shouting,” she said, eying the phone Penny had clutched to her ear.
“Penny?” Aunt Jean was trying to get her attention. She thrust the phone at Hazel.
“Here. You talk to her. I have to get dressed.”
A few minutes later, despite her trembling hands and whirling thoughts, Penny had managed to pull on a pair of yoga pants and a t-shirt and was running a brush through her hair when Hazel ended the phone call and stepped in front of her. She took Penny by the shoulders and firmly told her to sit down.
A wave of fear washed over her, and she covered her mouth with both hands. She dropped to sit on the edge of the bed, certain Hazel was going to tell her the worst.
“I’m not going to let you get behind the wheel of a car right now,” Hazel said, her eyes as steely as her voice. “You want to do something to help find your mother? Then you and I are going to sit here and pray. That’s what you can do. It’s the most powerful action you can take right now. And I’m going to be right here with you, fighting alongside you, got it?”
“I need to get home. I need to be there. She must be so afraid.” Her words came out in broken sobs, but when Hazel stepped forward and put her arms around her shoulders, Penny sagged into her. “I shouldn’t have left her,” she sobbed. “I knew something like this would happen. Oh, Momma, where are you?”
True to her word, Hazel sat with Penny and prayed with her. Hazel said all her words out loud, while Penny’s just ran in circles inside her head, but she knew God was more than capable of deciphering them.
And also true to her word, Aunt Jean kept them apprised of what was happening.
After what seemed like an eternity, but was, in fact, little more than an hour later, Aunt Jean called to tell them that Judy had been found, that she was safe. “She walked several houses down—” She broke off and cleared her throat before continuing. “The same way we walk every evening. We should have known. She wandered into the backyard through a side gate that had been left open, where she sat down on a lawn chair and fell asleep.”
“Is she okay? Is she scared?” Penny could hear a myriad of noise in the background from Aunt Jean’s side of the conversation. It sounded like utter chaos to her, and she imagined the worst.
Jean let out a shaky laugh. “She doesn’t seem to be any the worse for wear, honey. She’s not distressed in any way that we can tell. The paramedics are checking her over right now, and I wish you could see her. She’s eating up the attention from all those handsome boys in uniforms.”
Penny could imagine. Her mother had always had a thing for men in uniform. “She’s really okay, though?” she asked again, desperate to hear the words repeated.
And once more, Aunt Jean assured her that she was.
“I’m going to come home anyway,” Penny told her. She’d already made up her mind.
“Don’t cut short your time away. I’ll feel so bad if you do,” Aunt Jean pleaded.
“And I’ll feel bad if I don’t. It’s not about us, Aunt Jean. It’s about Mom. I need to be there with her.” She straightened her shoulders, the weight of worry and guilt lifting a little as she set her course. “I’m going to try to get some sleep, then I’ll head out in the morning. I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon sometime. I’ll keep you posted on my ETA.”
Penny slept surprisingly well. She bustled out of bed in the morning and started packing her belongings, hoping Hazel would be willing to ship anything that she left behind in her haste.
A knock sounded on her door, and Hazel pushed it open and stepped inside. “Good morning, Sweet Pea. Can you take a break just for a few minutes? Here. For you.” She handed her the cup of coffee she was carrying.
Penny took the coffee, not caring that it was black. She took a fortifying sip. “Thank you,” she said, glancing around the room, looking for anything she might be missing.
“Please,” Hazel said, drawing her attention back to her. “Will you sit? I have a proposal for you.”