Kaleidoscope Summer (Samantha's Story) (52 page)

“Enthusiasm is good. Are you from the
Stone
Valley
area?
I’m sure I’ve heard your name somewhere.
”

“Near
there
.
I’m from
April Springs
. My husband and I
were attending a function in
Stone Valley. Driving
home
,
we were assaulted by carjackers and my husband was murdered
.
It was plastered on the news.
”

“
I
live in
Stone Valley
.
I
remember
reading about it
. A
horrific
tragedy.
” I shook my head in sympathy.

“Buying the bookshop is my attempt at a fresh
start
—no place better than
Serenity
C
ove.”

“D
efinitely a
unique town
.” Nowhere better—
I couldn’t have agreed more.

Jezz waved goodbye, and
I was about
to lock the door
when
I noticed
Daniel Cunningham crossing from the opposite side of the street
, coming toward the shop. It didn’t surprise me
. “Hello
,
D
r. Cunningham,” I said as he approached.

“May I come in?
And please, call me Daniel.
”
He raised a single eyebrow
.

“I expected you might return
.” I allowed him
room
to enter the shop
.

He had changed into a polo shirt with the addi
tion of a cap. “I wrote Anne
a letter. I don’t know how much you know.”

We sat at a table in the rear of the shop
.
“I know you walked away and left her pregnant with your child.
Left her to deal with
the repercussions
, alone
.
”
I cross
ed
my arms and pulled them tight
ly
against my chest.

He
sat his cap on the table,
clasped
his hands and rested them in front of him.
Probably
a pose he
often used when conversing with patients. I found no comfort in his words or his mannerisms.

“My memory tells me it was much worse
. I regret never seeing Anne—never
ask
ing her forgiveness in person.
I didn’t
intend to return to
Serenity
Cove, but
Au
dra said she needed my help—
here I am.”

Yeah, here you are.
“And your wife?”

“
We divorced
before Audra’s first
birthday.”
His demeanor made me think his
personal
li
fe had not been short on chaos
.

“
Reality
is often stranger than the imagination can conjure up. Last night, by accident, unless you t
ake in
to consideration
God’s way
s are higher than ours—and I do—I found
the letter you wrote Anne
. If it makes any difference
,
she forgave you.
Evidently
I’m no
t as good at forgiving as she was
.”

“When I agreed to come here
with Audra
, I had no idea
this had once
been
Anne
’s bookshop.” He repositioned himself on the chair
and leaned back
. It looked like
a child’s chair for
a
man his
size.
On the tall
side
,
and
he
obviously
saw the i
nside a gym often. “Audra isn’t
aware of any of this.”

“She
won’t hear it from me—that
her father ran out
on my mother.”

He stood
,
putting his cap back on
. “
I can’t ask for more
. I’d like to see you again before I leave.”

I rose from my chair
. “I never had the privilege of meeting Anne
while she
was alive. I’ve met
her since arriving in Serenity
C
ove, b
y talking to pe
ople
and studying her life, I’ve concluded s
he
was a special,
loving
, and giving
person. She grieved for me her
whole life. I can’t
get past the
fact you were the cause
of
that
grief
.”

“Can’t fault you there.
I’ve spent
years wishing I
could change the past.
I don’t
expect
you to understand or
pardon me
—I have
n’t forgive
n
myself.
” He
cast his eyes down briefly
.
“
I don’t want to compound the mistakes.
A
udra is an only child. For a large chunk of he
r
early years
, she pretended
one
of her
doll
s
was her sister. How can
I deprive her of her real one
?
”

“Th
at’s your call
, D
aniel
.
”
I moved
toward the front of the shop.
I avoided looking at him—making conversation impossible.

He stepp
ed past me out the door
and paused
.
His Adam
’
s apple moved as he swallowed.
“I hope you do find a way to
accept
me.
I see much of myself in you. I’d be proud to call you my daughter.”
He
crossed the street,
climbed into his Mercedes and was gone.

I
was l
ike
him
? H
ardly
.
And I thought I’d felt fur
y earlier
. Forgive him?
Please, Lord
don’t ask it of me.
The proble
m was He already had.

Chapter
Forty-three

The fields behind the shops lay blackened and
scarred
.
I’d
heard there are
pivotal days
in
each of our li
ves—days with the power to
influence
the course of
our lives
. One of my
grandmother
’s famous-
ism
s claimed
,
we
come out stronger on the oth
er side of adversity
. Was it a
steadfast rule?
Even when
problems
were
stacked
like bricks—
mortared and
layered
?

I made an impulsive turn
in
to Maggie’s
driveway
.
Sam
’s SUV was there
.
I reversed gears, too late. Maggie flung her front door open and jogged down the drive to meet me.

“
Logan
, I’m glad you’re here
.”

“I’ll drop by later.”
I wasn’t ready for another face-to-
face with Sam.

“Sam needs her friends around her.”

I never could say no to my sister. I went inside.

Sam
sat
on the sofa
,
looking distraught. “What’s going on?”
Histrionics
hadn’t been lacking since
Sam
’s arrival—although not by her doing
.

“She met
the elusive Daniel Cunningham.
”
Maggie’s
voice held
a touch of sarcasm
.

With no intention of staying long, I leaned against the mantel.
Sam
turned to face me. “
Anne
for
gave him—why can’t I
?”

The
sadness in her eyes stabbed my chest
. “She had years
to reconcile what Daniel had done
.
”

Maggie
sat on the other side of
Sam
. “F
orgiveness frees our soul of bit
terness and hate. Maybe
Anne
found forgiving Daniel helped
her
to
find a glimmer of hope
.”

“I know you’re right
, b
ut
I want to de
spise
him.
And I don’t want to forgive him.
”

My phone beeped
. “Hey, Alec
.
”

“Need back-up at Mick’s.”

“On my way
.”
I shoved the pho
ne back into the case clipped on my belt
. “N
eed to make
a run out to Mick’s
Bar
. Drinking and fighting—
don’t get
the attraction
.”

“Tell ole Mick hi for me.”
Maggie’s amusement lifted the mood.

“Give the guy
’
s heart a rest.”
I wink
ed
at my sister.
I dusted my hand across
Samantha
’s hair.
“You’ll work through this.”

“I’m
fine.
Goldie and I are tucking in here for the night.”
She smiled
, a
bull’s eye smack in
the center of
my
heart
.

“Catch you later.” I left, steps heavier than when I arrived.

A few miles later
,
Alec
let me know everything
was
already
handled
,
and
offered to buy the coffee at
Rubi’s.

I’
d grabbed a table and waited until h
e
ambled in. “
Mick needs to break down and hire security for his hot nights.” He eased into the booth.

“Send hi
m a letter. Either he gets
his own security
or he’s going to be billed for our services.”
Alec
sat quietly
ignoring
my last comment. “What’s up?”

“
Peggy and
I stopped by
Brandon
and Rachel’s
house this afternoon. The painters and
landscapers are finishing up today
. C
arpets go in tomorrow.” He checked his cell. “Make that
today.” He blew across
the top of the mug
before taking a swallow.

“
Maggie and
Sam
just need to
finish
the inside.”

“Have any idea what the story is wit
h
Brandon
?”
Alec
tapped out
his
annoying
tune on
the table.

“
The p
rofile
follows the lines of substance abus
e
. Alcohol would be my first guess—may
not
be
limited to that—I
’d prefer to be
wrong.”

“
S
een it all too often
in our line of
work. I’m concerned how his
in
juries will affect
his problem
.”
He s
uddenly
stopped tapping
. “Boss, there’s
gossip going aro
und. Some guy named Cunningham’
s in town—I hear he’s
Samantha
’s father.”