Cherie ran her fingers through the black curls falling over her forehead. “It’s not going to be until the end of the year. The owner and his wife are in the process of negotiating building a house in Hawaii to be close to their daughter and grandchildren.”
“You must be talking about Jeremy and Katherine Murphy.” Kayana was familiar with the older couple, and rumors were floating around the island that the retirees were planning to relocate to the island of Oahu. They’d vacationed on Coates Island for several years before permanently retiring on the island, and now they were leaving to be close to family members. They’d frequented the restaurant on weekends during the off-season and rarely interacted with other residents.
“So you’re really serious about living here year-round?” she asked.
Cherie nodded. “Living here will allow me not to have any distractions once I go back to college. Besides, there’s nothing in Connecticut that’s keeping me there.”
“What about your family, Cherie?”
“What about them?”
Kayana paused when Cherie answered her query with a question. And to say it had undertones of defensiveness was an understatement. “Won’t you miss them?”
Cherie stared at her clasped hands atop the table. It was a question she’d asked herself over and over since she’d decided to relocate, and each time the answer was a resoundingno!
“Not really,” she admitted honestly. She glanced up and met Kayana’s eyes. “I’ve never really had a good relationship with my mother, and it worsened when my oldest brother was killed during a drive-by shooting.” She ignored Kayana’s gasp of surprise.
After Cherie was enrolled in the private prep school and witnessed a lifestyle that was the complete opposite from the one in which she’d been raised, she’d blamed her mother for not defending her when the folks in Edwina’s social circle called her a stuck-up ho, bougie bitch, or even worse. Not once did Edwina Thompson open her mouth to refute them, which only served to widen the rift between Cherie and her mother.
Cherie had what she thought of as a love-hate relationship with Edwina. She loved her mother because she had given birth to her and attempted to raise her the best way she could, but she also resented her because Edwina refused to better herself. She also refused to name the men who had fathered her children, which made Cherie reluctant to become involved with any of the boys in her neighborhood for fear she would be dating her half-brother or a cousin.
“I’m so sorry you lost your brother.”
Cherie closed her eyes as she attempted bring her fragile emotions under control. It was never easy for her to talk about losing her older brother. “I’d been pleading with my mother to move out of the neighborhood where we lived because it had become a cesspool for drugs and crime, but she claimed she didn’t want to leave her friends. Even after she buried her firstborn, she still refused. Once I graduated college and got a job, I moved into a studio apartment, and I found myself constantly preaching to my younger brothers that they had to stay in school and keep away from gangs. Thankfully, they listened; both were able to get into military academies, and this past May, they graduated from West Point and the Air Force Academy. I paid for my mother to fly out to Colorado with me, and it was the first time I ever saw her cry, and that was enough for her to talk about taking college courses so she can get a higher-paying job and move into a better neighborhood.”
“Didn’t you tell me that your mother had earned a GED?” Kayana asked.
Cherie nodded. “My mother is very smart, but what she lacks is motivation. I think seeing her sons become commissioned officers was the impetus she needed to change her lifestyle. Although when I told her I could get her a position at the childcare center, she turned me down, saying she wanted to find something on her own.”
A smile parted Kayana’s lips. “She sounds like a proud woman.”
Cherie made a sucking sound with her tongue and teeth. “It’s more like false pride.” She didn’t want to tell Kayana that she’d bought Edwina a used car because she’d had to take two buses to get to the diner for her late shift. Edwina had rounded on her, saying she didn’t need her handout until her boss threatened to fire her if she was late one more time.
“I just wanted to stop by to let you know that next year you will have two permanent book club sisters.”
Kayana slowly shook her head. “I could not have imagined when we met for the first time that Leah would leave her husband and move in with my brother or that you would relocate here when young men and women can’t wait to leave Coates Island.”
“Well, this thirty-something woman has had enough of the bright lights of the big city, and I’m now looking forward to, as they say, living my life by my leave.”
Reaching across the table, Kayana covered her hands with one of her own. “Good for you,” she said before removing her hand. “Will you have a problem selling your condo?”
“No. There’s a waiting list for two-bedroom units.”
“I suppose that solves your problem of trying to unload one property before you can buy another one.”
She didn’t tell Kayana that moving to Coates Island would be a renaissance, the rebirth of Cherie Renee Thompson, who would begin her life anew where she would be in complete control of her destiny.
Cherie knew relocating would solve a lot of her problems. And the first was distancing herself from Weylin so that she wouldn’t have to read about him in the local newspapers or see his image during a televised segment covering local and national politics. He’d been sworn into Congress as a representative six months before his thirtieth birthday, and less than a year later, he’d revealed that, after seven years of marriage, he and his wife were now the parents of a mixed-raced infant son through a closed adoption. What he’d neglected to inform members of the press was that he’d fathered that child with a woman with whom he’d had a clandestine affair for more than a decade.
Born into wealth, Weylin had it all: a beautiful wife and son, and a political career with endless possibilities, while Cherie was left with a condo in an exclusive Cos Cob, Connecticut, enclave and enough resources to allow her to live quite comfortably with or without employment.
Cherie still could not believe she had waited until she was thirty-four years old to do what she’d needed to do to make herself happy rather than concentrating on others whenever she reevaluated her life every ten years, beginning when she’d celebrated her fifteenth birthday. The events of that year were branded into her memory like a permanent tattoo. Unconsciously, she shook her head as if to banish the painful decision she’d made that had changed her life.
Pushing back her chair, Cherie stood, Kayana rising with her. “I have to leave now because I plan to stay in Philly overnight before heading out again tomorrow afternoon.”
Rounding the table, Kayana hugged her. “Drive carefully, and don’t forget to text me when you get home.”
Smiling, she pressed her cheek to Kayana’s. “Yes, Mama. Now you take care of your wonderful husband and give him my regards.” The year before, Kayana had married a man who had moved from Massachusetts to retire on the island.
