“Oh, that’s a perfect draw for a boutique rental! There are a few out there already, and from what I hear, guests love them.”
“I saw them in that online magazine you told me about. Thanks for that, by the way,” she said, turning back to Mary. “But even better than the passage’s discovery is that it seems to have healed the feud between Addie and Sadie.”
“Oh, that’s great news! Those two have been at odds for a while now.” Mary’s attention drifted for a second, and she became thoughtful. “Good things can happen when people forget about the past and move forward.”
“That’s true.” Andie caught a look in Mary’s eye and was now doing a little thinking herself. Had Mary been talking about her and Shane, or had her thoughts drifted to her own ongoing feud with her daughter?
Rubbing her suddenly fidgety hands against her thighs, she stood up. “Guess I’d better get home. I need to turn in early. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day.”
After Andie left Curlz, Mary and Jules stood watching as she watered her plants in the window boxes across the street.
“I don’t know about you,” Jules said, her tone low, as if she half suspected Andie could hear her from across the street, “but I think Andie really likes Shane. Did you notice? She blushed when you mentioned him earlier.”
"Mm-hmm," Mary murmured, her mood still thoughtful. “I know he really likes her. That boy always did wear his heart on his sleeve.”
Not everyone would have noticed, but it was clear to Mary that Andie’s leaving town all those years ago had hurt him pretty badly.
“They made a cute couple back in their high school days. Sally says they are still cute when they’re together. A little awkward, given the circumstances and their past, but cute.”
Jules chuckled.
“I hope we get to see them together again soon, and I don’t know how or why,” Mary continued, “but I get the feeling we will.”
“It’s hard to keep hearts once joined apart,” Jules said, her voice a little wistful. She walked over to the flowers Andie had brought and bent to breathe in their sweetness.
Mary turned away from the window to look at her. “Interesting, isn’t it, how Addie and Sadie made up by going back to their roots? The Thompson house was where they always hung out as little girls.”
“Kind of like Andie and Shane are going back to their roots, too—the beaches? Seems like everyone is managing to get over whatever their past issues were and move on with their lives.” Jules took a black-eyed Susan out of the center of the vase and tucked it back in along the edge then cast a glance at Mary out of the corner of her eye. “Maybe it’s time you went back to your roots, Aunt Mary, and healed your feud.”
Mary glanced at the phone. Her lips tightened. She hadn’t mentioned it to Jules, but she’d texted Carolyn over a week ago.
Her grandest hope was to see her daughter this Thanksgiving, which was still months away. She had chosen the Thanksgiving holiday because it would give her daughter plenty of time to prepare.
Plus, Mary knew the values she’d instilled in her children, and she felt sure Carolyn would understand the significance—no matter the trials or grievances of the year gone before, Thanksgiving is a time to acknowledge and embrace what is truly important in one’s life.
Mary wanted so much to be able to hug her daughter once more, to let Carolyn know just how proud she was of her. To tell her how very much she loved her still. And she had hoped…
But she never got a response. “Maybe trying to go back and fix things doesn’t work for everyone.”
“I don’t believe that.” Jules’s quiet words soothed. Turning back to her aunt, she said, “I think they all can. Maybe you just need to try harder.”
Mary fisted her hands on her hips, her eyes narrowing as she glared at her niece. “You’re one to talk. Have you spoken to your cousins lately?”
Jules could feel the censure in her aunt’s gaze. Her cheeks flushed, and she looked down. “No, I haven’t heard from either of them.”
“Well then, maybe it’s time you took the initiative yourself. Have you reached out to them?”
“No.”
Jules hadn’t spoken to either of her cousins during the past five years. She couldn’t. They’d ruined her one chance to do something, to prove herself, to be happy.
Quickly, she blocked the thoughts before her mind could drop into the vortex of what could have been. Instead, she forced herself to focus on what did happen. It was life. Life had happened.
Turning back to the window because life outside was easier to watch than the images playing out in her head, Jules gazed out at Andie, who had just finished watering.
She turned and waved, then went into the shop, leaving the ladies of Curlz to the pain of their past and the clamor of unwanted thoughts.
Mary took one last glance at her phone.
