Pawleys Island-lowcountry 5 (26 page)

When I arrived home, Daphne’s car was in the yard and she was at the top of my steps with her hands on her bony little hips.

“Where have you been? This phone’s been ringing off the hook! I was worried sick! I called your cell phone about a thousand times! Congratulations!”

“Thanks. You finished?”

“Finished what? Cleaning this house? This house is as clean as a whistle. You know it! Clean as a whistle. Here, give me that bag! You shouldn’t be carrying all this stuff at one time, ’specially when I’m standing right here, waiting to help you!”

“Huey’s coming for dinner.” I handed her my hanging bag. “Who called?”

“Half the world! You got calls from all kinds of people from newspapers and radio stations—all the names and numbers are on your desk. What’s going on? Did Ms. Simms shoot her husband in the head?”

“Nope, he shot himself in the foot. We kicked his butt in court, he lost every piece of dignity he ever had and over fifty percent of everything else to boot, and guess what? I feel pretty darn good about the whole thing!”

“Well, all right then. I’m glad to know that Ms. Simms got her justice ’cause that is one very bad-to-the-bone man! Yes, ma’am! He is bad to the bone! But he ain’t done with his foolishness yet. Somebody needs to start reading Psalm Fifty-four and pray that man dead.”

“What are you saying, Daphne?”

“Humph. You don’t know about Psalm Fifty-four? David said,
Let their death surprise them; let them go down alive to the netherworld
. Shoot, my momma had a friend and her husband ran around like an old alley cat. Then he spent up all the money and beat her and the children till they all had to go to the hospital. She and my momma said that psalm every day for a month, and don’t you know that man dropped dead? Forty-one and he dropped dead on the floor.”

“What?”

“Yes, ma’am! It’s a fact. Ask Byron. Poor Ms. Simms. Her husband buying his trashy girlfriend all those body parts! What’s the matter with men these days? Hmm? Tell me that if you can, but you can’t, ’cause if you knew the answer to that, you’d rule the whole world!”

Wait a minute, I thought. I had never discussed Rebecca’s case with her.

“How do you know all this about Mr. Simms?

“How do you
think
? Byron, of course! Shoot, he’s worse than an old washwoman at the clothing line! Besides, nowadays we all got clothes dryers, so who’s he gonna tell? And who am I gonna tell? Nobody but you, ’cause you’re the only one I know who even cares!”

She had followed me to the bedroom, and the first thing I noticed was that the furniture was rearranged.

“I moved it like this for very good reasons,” she said.

It looked a thousand times better, I had to admit, but
still
!

“Let’s hear,” I said.

“Well, the headboard was between those windows. Winter’s coming, and if you have a draft—and you do in every single window in this place—you can get sick. And with the headboard on the back wall, the room looks better from the porch. Before, it was all chopped up. Besides, you can get in bed and watch the ocean roll in and the sun rise too. That’s the best part. What time is Mr. Huey coming?”

“Seven. He’s bringing Byron to help.”

“Maybe I’ll stick around and help my brother. I haven’t seen him in a while.”

She was right about it all. I’d had many a stiff neck in January. The room looked so much larger with the bed away from the middle of the room. This arrangement made the bed look important, and if there was anything I wanted, it was for Julian to think my bed was just that.

“Yeah, hang around. You’re right about the room, Daphne. Thank you. But how did you move all this heavy furniture by yourself?”

“An inch at a time. That’s how. An inch at a time.”

What a proverbial statement, I thought. How many things happened in our lives one inch at a time? Certainly weight loss, spiritual growth and the arrival of a repairman of any kind. And healing from the death of your loved ones.

As nervous as Rebecca was to take the helm, it was probably a good thing that Nat had not given her too much time to think about it. As an added bonus, Nat’s decision had not given him any extra time to poison the children’s minds about how Bad Mommy had wasted him in court.

I hung up my clothes, looked through the mail and the phone messages and was tempted maybe, hmm, a thousand times to call Rebecca. I couldn’t shake the thought of her. How had it played out? Did the children run into her arms, crying, saying how sorry they were and how glad they were that she was home? Probably not. Were they angry to see her and discover she had regained custody? No, they were probably just on guard. Were they strange and distant? Probably a little. Did they notice there were no more potato chips in their beds and that their bathrooms were clean? Definitely not.

I couldn’t wait for Claudia to call, and I kept checking the reception on my cell phone to see if she’d have a problem getting through. The signal was strong. She would have no problem. I clipped the phone to my belt because this was one call I didn’t want to miss.

Just as the sun was slipping away for the day, Huey and Byron arrived with a picnic basket.

“What fabulous things have you brought, Mr. Wonderful?” I said and pecked his cheek.

“A meal from the gods to toast the victorious!”

“Meat loaf and mashed potatoes?”

“Silly girl. Caviar and blinis—three hundred and twenty-five delicious grams of it, pâté de foie gras with toast points and petit cornichon, and two bottles of Veuve Clicquot champagne to wash it away!”

“Veuve Clicquot
Reserve
!” Byron said.

“Holy Moly! Fabulous!” I said.

“I’ll set up the table on the porch,” Daphne said. “Come on Byron. You can help me.”

“You get the dishes and I’ll bring the basket.”

“Um, I don’t have a table on the porch,” I said.

“You do now,” she said. “The judge had it delivered yesterday.”

I followed her outside, and there it was. A small square glass-top table on a black wrought-iron frame and two wrought-iron chairs. It made the rest of my rocking chairs look decrepit, but I knew I could solve that with a paintbrush. There was a card in an envelope taped to the top.

“I didn’t read it,” Daphne said.

“Then how’d you know he sent it?”

“Um, um…”

“Don’t ever lie to your attorney,” I said and smiled at her. There was probably not one thing about me she didn’t already know.

“She’s a nosy thing,” Byron said. “Don’t waste your energy on privacy, Miss Abigail!”

I opened the envelope. It had a pencil drawing of St. Phillip’s church on the front, and inside he had written,
For a million shared sunsets and sunrises! Love, Julian
.

Well, the old boy was having a Hallmark moment, wasn’t he? Then I quickly calculated how many years a million days was and thought, was this a marriage proposal? Nah, no way. He was just trying to be romantic.

Time crawled along as Huey and I rehashed the whole court case, stuffing our mouths with the delicious treats he had brought. We laughed about Charlene’s appearance but then finally concluded that she was the hero of the day. It was her assessment of Nat’s character that had really shown the entire courtroom what kind of despicable person he was.

“Some people are just like that, Abigail. If it’s good for them, then it’s good. If it’s bad for them, then it’s bad. They rearrange morality to suit their ambitions. Nat simply thought he could do what he wanted and never suffer any consequences.”

“You are absolutely right. But you know what? I understand a little of what Nat felt. When I met Julian years ago, the feelings I had were so euphoric and all-consuming that part of me couldn’t understand why I shouldn’t have this happiness. I mean, how could something so good be so wrong?”

“Honey, it’s just lust. And you know lust ain’t nothing but the devil dressed up to be beautiful. The Bible doesn’t say he’s a trickster and a liar for nothing, you know.”

“I prefer to remember it as bad timing.”

“Tell yourself whatever you want. Lust is lust. The difference is that you and Julian had the strength to walk away from each other. That stupid Nat blew up his whole family and acted like a disgrace.”

“Well, Huey, the truth is that my family eventually blew up too.”

“Yes, but that wasn’t because you had a brief dalliance with Julian! Good grief, Abigail! Are you still feeling guilty? Put it aside, girl! There ain’t anything you can do anyway!”

“Dalliance? Oh, Huey! I love that. It makes my scandal sound courtly. You know what, Huey? It was a chain of unbearable pain that began with Julian. First, I met him and fell for him. Then John and Julian’s wife, Lila, found out about us. Lila left Julian and he left me. John became depressed and started drinking. Then I drank with him because I felt guilty and I missed Julian. He never called.

“John and I fought like all hell. He gained an enormous amount of weight, all the while withdrawing from me. I had been drinking when I got in the accident with Ashley. John blamed me for his death and for everything wrong with his life. His knees went bad from the weight gain, but he just kept piling on the pounds. He goes in for knee replacement surgery and his heart stops. You think I don’t feel guilty?”

“Yes, but Abigail, my dear Abigail, you didn’t skim the business and speak ill of John to everyone you knew. Nat committed the worst kind of sins here. Look what he tried to do with Rebecca’s relationship with her own children! The odious, heinous skunk!”

“Well, I broke John’s faith and trust in me. I broke his heart, Huey.”

“Let me tell you this, Abigail Thurmond, and you remember this too. Maybe you were weak, but when you realized you could walk away from Julian, you did. If John never forgave you, that’s on his Christian soul, not yours. You were sorry; he couldn’t forgive. Isn’t pride a sin too?”

I hadn’t considered John’s unforgiving heart. I reached over and covered Huey’s hand with mine. “You are such a dear man, Huey Valentine, and I love you so much.”

“Well, I love you too,” he said. “You’re the best woman friend I’ve ever had. And you do so many good things. I can’t stand it for you to torture yourself over the past. Besides, if the good Lord hadn’t wanted you to be with our friend, the judge, He wouldn’t have brought Julian back into your life. So, go think about
that
for a while!”

“Well, Huey darling? It’s one of those things that I’m never going to know for sure, isn’t it?”

“It doesn’t matter, Abigail. Really, it doesn’t matter. The important thing is that you and Julian found each other again and you had one helluva day in court today! I am so happy for Rebecca, I just can’t tell you. And I am so proud of you.”

“Thanks, sweetheart. Oh, Lord! I wish Claudia would call us! What time is it?”

Finally, the quiet exploded with the ring of my telephone. It was Claudia. I put her on speakerphone so Huey and I could listen together.

“Claudia! We’re pacing the floor like expectant grandparents! Tell us what happened!”

“No,” said Huey. “We’re bingeing on some of the best caviar and pâté I’ve ever had! Not to mention swilling down some very excellent champagne! But do hurry, Claudia! Tell us!”

“Listen,” she said, “what’s the biggest tearjerker movie you ever saw?”

“
An Affair to Remember,
” I said. “Or maybe
Imitation of Life
.”

“
Beaches,
” Huey said. “Or maybe
Bambi
. I cried all through grammar school after that one.”

“He’s shitting me, right?” Claudia said.

“Probably not. Come on! Tell us!”

“Okay, I went back to the hotel and by the time I packed up all her stuff, my stuff, got it all in the car, checked out and got back to her house, the kids were there. It was intense. First they were around the kitchen table crying, all of them sobbing. I put a box of Kleenex in the middle of them and went upstairs to put Rebecca’s stuff away. When I got back downstairs, they were drinking milk and eating brownies.”

“Were they still crying?”

“Evan wasn’t, but Sami was still very upset. I have to give Rebecca a lot of credit. She said,
Look, I’m not going to say ugly things about your daddy. Not today and not ever. He’s your father, you love him and you should. But your father had some very peculiar ideas about how people can behave and the judge didn’t agree with him. Neither did I, neither did your grandfather and neither does society in general. Now we have to start acting like a family again
. Then Sami threw a little fit.”

“What did she say?” I said.

“She said something like,
Well, Daddy promised me certain things and I’m going to get them and you can’t tell me what to do either!
Rebecca said,
Sami? From this moment forward, we’re going to speak to each other in a loving and respectful way. I’m not sure what your father promised you, but we can talk about it. If it’s reasonable and appropriate for you
. You should’ve seen the look on Sami’s face. Sami knew Rebecca was fully informed about the promised breast augmentation just by the way Sami cowered. It was priceless.”

“So little Sami isn’t going to get big breasts quite yet?” I said.

“You got it,” Claudia said. “Anyway, Rebecca was great. She went on to say, W
e’re going to take care of each other and we are going to work everything out, one issue at a time
. Then she told them about the therapist that the court had ordered and they talked about Nat’s visitation and so forth. Oh! And did I tell you about the flowers?”

“What flowers? The ones we bought?”

“No. The ones that arrived from Jeff Mahoney with a note saying congratulations and welcome home.”

“Whoo hoo!” Huey said. “I knew that man had his eye on Rebecca! I liked him. Did y’all like him?”

“Sure, he’s okay,” I said, “but no rocket scientist. But a sweet guy.”

“Yeah, he’s a nice man. A very nice man. But then the doorbell rings and guess who’s there?”

“Charlene with an apology?” I said.

“Jeff Mahoney in a raincoat?” Huey said and laughed.