Dragonfly Blessings, page 6
“I see. Well then, Mr. Johnson, I won’t take up any more of your time. May I call you if I think of any other questions?”
“Absolutely, call me anytime, Rebecca. Are you considering traveling farther south to see the property anytime in the near future?”
“I am. My cousin is here in town with me. She’s a real estate attorney in Virginia and has convinced me that I should at least take a look.”
“I’m not sure that Michele and Rod are at the inn right now. She had a few good days, and there was some talk about taking a short trip on the boat. But I’m sure they wouldn’t mind if you took a look around. When will you two be leaving town?”
“We’re leaving first thing tomorrow morning. I’m going to meet her at the hotel, and then we’re planning to go down to the waterfront for an early dinner.”
“If you like seafood, you might want to try Captain G’s on the water. They have a wide variety of dishes and an interesting bar.”
“Thanks! We’ll check it out.” Turning to leave, Rebecca shook the attorney’s hand. “And thank you for everything, sir.”
“Oh, there’s one more thing, Rebecca.” Reaching into his desk drawer again, Michael Johnson produced another envelope and a large set of keys which he handed her. “Michele has already given me an extra set of keys to all four buildings, the truck, and a safe deposit box in your name at a bank in Buxton. There is a list in the envelope with all of the account numbers that are mentioned in the will along with names of suppliers and construction people Michele and her husband have been using for the renovations.”
She shook her head, amazed at what the attorney had given her. With the keys and paperwork in her hand, Rebecca waved on her way out of the office. “Thanks again, Mr. Johnson.”
“It has been a pleasure, Rebecca.”
The air felt a little warmer as the late afternoon sun peeked through the clouds. As she crossed the street, so many thoughts were crowding her mind that she could barely sort through them: a birth mother, property in the Outer Banks, and Evan—always thoughts of Evan and how different her life would be if he was here with her now. At this point he would have encouraged her to accept the information about her birth mother gracefully. She could almost hear him say, “You were raised by good people, babe. And Michele is a good person too. Let go of the drama, and get on with your life.” Of course, Evan had always been the voice of reason. By now he would have chosen a new name for the property and been frantically working on a business plan that would bring the place to life. So if the only way she could feel close to him was by following what she knew would be his logical plan, that’s exactly what she would do.
Rebecca pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and sat down on a bench at the edge of a small park next to the water. Gulls wheeled overhead in the salty breeze as she dialed the hotel room.
“Nicole, it’s me. Come on down to the waterfront.”
“Beck, how did everything go? Are you okay?”
“Well, I’ve got a few things to get used to and an awful lot of questions, but I’ll fill you in over dinner. It’s less than a ten-minute walk to the water from where you are. There’s a park down here on the waterfront, and I can see some seafood places down the block, so I’ll wait for you here.”
“Are you actually hungry for a change?”
“I’m starving, Nicole.”
“Me too, and seafood sounds good. Oh, and Becca, I’ve got a surprise for you! See you in a few.”
While she waited for Nicole, Rebecca sat quietly, watching the soaring gulls and enjoying the chill of the breeze on her face. Her life had just changed remarkably, and yet she felt oddly at peace with everything she’d learned. She looked toward the street just as Nicole rounded the corner with a chunky, red-haired young woman trailing behind her.
“Em,” Rebecca called out, “What on earth are you doing here?”
The two young women crossed the cobblestone street, dodging a delivery truck and a young boy on a bicycle. Emilie threw her arms around her cousin.
“Sug, I am so happy to see you! My original plan was to meet y’all farther south, but I changed my mind about that along with a few other things.”
“But how did you get here? Did you drive?”
“Nicole picked me up at the airport in Norfolk while you were in your meeting with the attorney!”
“Gosh, I’m glad she did! It’s so good to see you, Em.”
Laughing and chatting, the three young women walked in the direction of Captain G’s. When they stepped inside, they were welcomed by a wall of windows that allowed an amazing view of the Elizabeth City harbor and an enticing aroma of fish laced with the tang of fresh lemons. The restaurant was decorated in an eclectic mix of ship’s wheels, lanterns, fishnets studded with green glass floaters, and a faded life-size mermaid that had once served as a ship’s masthead. She floated obscenely over the bar, where someone had taken the time to outfit her bare breasts with a pair of sparkly red stripper’s pasties.
“Well, isn’t that just the silliest thing you’ve ever seen!” commented Emilie. “Y’all wouldn’t find that in any self-respecting Charleston restaurant!”
Nicole sighed loudly, “Let’s hope the food outshines the décor!”
“Will you two please stop complaining about every little thing? This place will be fine.”
The restaurant and bar were unusually busy for a February evening. “Table for three?” asked the hurried waitress.
“Let’s get a table by the window,” replied Rebecca. “I love the reflection of the sunset on the water.”
The waitress grabbed three menus and motioned for the group to follow. When they were seated and had placed their order for a bottle of Chardonnay and a platter of steamed oysters, Rebecca faced her cousins.
“Okay, you two, it’s time to fess up.”
Emilie and Nicole exchanged a worried glance.
“Whatcha’ll mean by fess up, Sugar?”
“I want to know what the two of you know about my adoption,” answered Rebecca. “And don’t say ‘nothing.’ I can tell by the look you just exchanged that the attorney’s package wasn’t the first time you heard I’m not blood.”
“Good grief, Becca. That’s an awful way to describe being adopted. You know you’ve always been like a sister to us.”
The waitress returned with three glasses and uncorked the bottle of wine. “Does anyone care to taste?” she asked.
“No,” answered Emilie quickly. “Tonight I think we’ll just go on and drink. And, honey, you might as well bring another one when you have a minute.” She took the bottle from the startled waitress, hurriedly poured three glasses and handed them around.
“Listen,” began Rebecca, “I’m not upset with you, but I can’t help wondering why I never knew anything about this. And I have to wonder who else in the family knew and didn’t tell me.”
Emilie looked at Nicole. “This one’s on you, Nic.”
Nicole took a long sip of her wine. “Okay, Becca. Once, a long time ago, we overheard our moms mention your name and adoption in the same sentence. When we asked about it they denied ever having said anything.”
“We didn’t know what to think, Sug!”
“That’s right,” added Nicole. “So we’ve been almost as surprised by all this as you are.”
“Pinkie promise, Sugar, that’s all we ever heard.”
“Well, this whole situation has really thrown me off. You’d think at some point I’d have noticed that nobody in the family has dark hair and green eyes except me.”
“If I were you,” began Emilie, “I’d be darned happy to look the way you do, Sug. You could have ended up with a carrot head and freckles like me. Instead, you’re gorgeous! Just look at those guys over at the bar. A couple of them can’t take their eyes off you.”
Rebecca glanced over her shoulder at the bar. Nearly every stool was taken by a male figure of one size and shape or another. “Get real, will you, Em? The absolute last thing I’m interested in is anyone at that bar.” Rebecca sat her wine glass on the table. “Hey, you said earlier that you’d changed your mind about meeting us at the property and ‘a few other things.’ What’d you mean by that?”
“Well, I got to thinking, why stay so far from the property at the other inn? So I looked at the real estate rental sites online and found a cottage that sits right next door to Michele’s place. I figure if we stay there it will be easier to go over anytime we want, and I can treat y’all to some great cookin’ for the next few days. I canceled those inn reservations and booked the rental cottage. I hope y’all don’t mind.”
“It’s probably smarter for us to visit the inn for lunch and a tour rather than be full-time guests when we’re likely to be the competition,” Nicole chimed in.
“Well, I don’t mind. I’m sure it’s nice, or you wouldn’t have booked it, Em. But don’t assume that we’re likely to become the competition. I might take one look at the place, put it on the market, and unload the whole mess on someone else.”
“You’ll make the right decision, Sug. You’re pretty famous for good choices, ya know!”
“Thanks, Em. You may think I’m famous for making good choices, but I’m really second-guessing myself right now. Everything I thought I knew about my life has just been turned upside down. For a minute there in the lawyer’s office I thought I was going to lose my mind completely. But when I left I started to think about how Evan would have handled this; I felt a whole lot better all of a sudden.”
Nicole lifted an oyster off the platter in front of her and began to ease it out of the shell. “Becca, Evan would have been thrilled for you to inherit this property. And he would have been the first one to figure out a plan for its renovation. That man, aside from being ridiculously handsome, had the best head on his shoulders of any man I’ve ever known.”
“That’s a fact, honey! I wish we could find ourselves one of them!” Emilie looked up from her wine glass sheepishly. “Oops! I’m sorry, Sug. My mouth gets away from me sometimes.”
“It’s okay, Em. I know exactly what you were trying to say. He was one of a kind. Listen, I want the two of you to read the letter Michele Dupré left for me.” She reached into her bag and set the letter on the table between them. “Here, take a look. I’ll be back in a minute.”
Rebecca stood and walked quickly toward the restrooms, pointedly ignoring the rowdy group of men seated at the bar. Alone in the pink wallpapered room, she studied herself for a few moments in the mirror. She looked exactly the same as she had before, yet suddenly a whole new twist on her identity existed.
At the table Emilie held her head in her hands. “Nicole, I feel like a traitor.”
“I do too. But we never mentioned anything because we didn’t know for sure what the truth was. And listen, Em, she has enough to deal with right now without us getting ourselves into some kind of guilt trip. We’re going to stand beside her because we love her. Now pull yourself together and let’s read this letter before she gets back here.”
In the ladies room, Rebecca reached into her bag, ran a brush through her hair and touched up her lip gloss before going back to the table.
“Hey, beautiful, why don’cha have a drink with us?” A man on a barstool reached out a hand toward her as she passed by.
Rebecca ignored him and stared straight ahead at the table where Nicole and Emilie were waiting. A new bottle of Chardonnay sat in the chiller and an additional bottle stood unopened next to her plate. “You ordered two more bottles? We have to walk back to the hotel, you know.”
“We only ordered the one in the chiller, Beck. The other one came from a guy at the bar. Specifically for you, according to the waitress,” said Nicole.
“Which guy is that?” Rebecca asked as she turned back toward the bar.
“The class act with his ball cap on backward,” Nicole answered.
Rebecca motioned to the waitress. “Please take this bottle back to the bar and tell the man who sent it I’m not interested.”
“I know Bobby Lee Walker, and I’m pretty sure he won’t take kindly to you sending this back. You sure about this, honey?” the woman asked.
“Yes. Please tell him I said thank you, but I can’t accept it. I’m a married woman.”
Nicole and Emilie exchanged startled glances as the waitress picked up the bottle and carried it over to the young man at the bar.
A few moments later he slid off the barstool, hitched up his faded jeans, and walked toward the table, where he stood next to Rebecca.
“You’re a married woman, huh? Well ya don’t look so married to me.” The man reached over and grabbed Rebecca’s left wrist. “I don’t see no ring on this hand,” he growled.
Nicole stood up quickly. “Jerk, take your hands off of her.”
Shocked at his bold move, Rebecca reached inside her shirt with her right hand and pulled out the chain that held the ring she wore close to her heart. “This is my wedding ring,” she spoke softly. “Now leave me alone!”
Reluctantly, the man dropped her hand. “Well, that’s a damn strange place for a woman to wear her wedding ring. How’s a guy supposed to know?”
“You southern fried hillbilly jackass!” Emilie hissed as she set her wine glass on the table and rose from her seat. “Her husband was killed in Afghanistan a little over a year ago. You get away from us, now!”
The man started to back away as the manager, who had been alerted to the commotion by other patrons, hurried to their table. “What seems to be the problem here?” he asked Rebecca, who remained silent as she nervously rubbed her wrist.
“I think we’ve resolved the problem. But in the future, you might want to reconsider the clientele you serve at your bar. My client could easily press charges against that man,” Nicole said as she pointed a perfectly manicured finger at Bobby Lee.
“Are you an attorney, ma’am?” asked the manager.
“I am, and we would like our check immediately.”
“A check won’t be necessary, ladies. Your drinks and appetizer are on the house. I apologize for the disturbance.”
Rebecca grabbed her letter off the table, and the three young women started toward the door. “So much for a nice quiet dinner by the water,” she whispered. “That guy gave me the creeps.”
“He was a total loser! He had some nerve to grab your wrist like that.”
“Let’s just get back to the hotel before he decides to follow us or something.”
“But, y’all, what are we going to do about dinner?”
“Calm down, Em. We’re hardly going to starve. There’s a little deli on the corner near the hotel. I think we’ll just slip in there and order some sandwiches to take back to the room,” answered Nicole. “And with any luck, they’ll have a decent wine selection too.”
The sun was setting as the three walked into the chilly evening. Rebecca put one arm around her cousin. “I can’t believe you told that guy I was your client, Nicole.”
Nicole smiled. “Everything changed when I did!”
“I’m just glad we’re out of there. I felt like I was going to be sick. I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to enjoy being around men again.”
“Well, we aren’t going to ship you off to a convent, Sug!”
Rebecca shook her head and pulled her jacket tighter around herself. “Sometimes it feels like that would be my best option.”
Six
Rebecca rose early the next morning to a cloudless sky and luminous sunshine. “Hey, you two, let’s get up and moving. I’ve been awake off and on all night, and I’m getting anxious to see that property.”
Emilie lifted one eyelid. “Time to go already, Sug?”
“All right, all right, I’m getting up.” Nicole groaned as she reached for an elastic band on the nightstand and wrapped it into her blond mane. She stared sleepily at Rebecca. “You’ve already been in the shower and dressed? How’d we sleep through that, Em?”
Rebecca laughed. “Could have been the massive amount of wine the two of you put away last night!”
“Couldn’t have been that much ’cause my head doesn’t hurt even one teensy little bit, y’all!”
“Whatever! You snored like a linebacker all night, Em.”
“Don’t y’all even start!”
Both of the young women grumbled their way through showers, makeup, and a quick packing job. An hour later they were in Nicole’s BMW headed south.
Nicole slipped a CD into the player. “Do you have any idea how many hours it will take to get there, Beck?”
Rebecca glanced at the delicate gold watch Evan had given her as a wedding gift. “It’s ten o’clock now. I think we ought to be there around twelve thirty.”
“Perfect!” answered Nicole. “That will give us plenty of time to check into the house and then look the property over in the daylight.”
“Ooh,” squealed Emilie as she began to sing along from the backseat, “I just love this song, y’all.”
A few minutes later she stuck her head between the two women in the front seat. “I’ve been wondering, Sug. Are you planning to meet Michele while we’re at the house?”
“I don’t know. Michael Johnson said he thought she and her husband might be away. I’m not sure what I’ll do if they’re home.”
“If it was me, I’d want to know everything about her. Y’all probably have a ton in common.”
“Maybe,” Rebecca answered. “But right now I need to concentrate on dealing with the property. I haven’t quite gotten used to the idea that I have a birth mother, let alone wonder what she’s like.”
