“You have a house here now?” my mom asked.
“It’s an investment,” he explained. “But such a steal! Needs a lot of work.”
My mom shook her head. “I had no idea you were anything but fully corporate.”
“Ah.” He nodded, then smiled. “I’m full of surprises.”
My mom pointed at one of the pots. “Well, this one is a low-grass fern. And the tall one, with thorns, is a temperance plant.”
Jeremy looked at her. “Wow. Catherine! Now who’s the surprise?”
My mom shook her head, but I was pretty sure she pinkened a bit, hearing this. “My mother knew them all. As kids, she used to take us walking around the lake, naming the species.”
It was one of the first times I’d seen her recall a memory in a fond way. Or at least not under duress as someone else got nostalgic. Would I have noticed this if not for our talk the night before? Maybe. But it seemed more important now.
“What about this?” I asked, pointing to a prickly green one.
“Sand plum. In late summer, when it fruits, you can make jelly.”
I heard the door bang shut. A moment later, Kasey appeared in the kitchen. My mom, still talking to Jeremy, didn’t see her.
“… and this,” she was saying, “is called a hawk flower. See the red and white?”
“Beautiful,” Jeremy replied as he studied it.
I looked at Kasey. She was in another oversized golf shirt, shorts, galoshes on her feet, now watching as my mom continued.
“Carolina grass,” she said now. “Spreads like wildfire, sokeep it contained. Same with this one, the lake mint. And this last one…”
She fell quiet, studying it. I wondered if Kasey would pipe up. She didn’t.
“… is a heartspice,” my mom finally said. She plucked off a leaf, smelling it. “Smells like cinnamon.”
Jeremy leaned closer, and she handed him the leaf. He closed his eyes, breathing it in. “Okay. That’ssupercool.”
Just then, the house phone rang. Loudly. Jeremy jumped. I really needed to see if there was a volume button. I went into the living room, lifting the receiver. “Hello?”
“It’s me,” Lana said. “Clark’s trying to reach Kasey, but she’s not picking up. Is she there?”
I relayed this to Kasey, who pulled her phone from a back pocket. “Whoops,” she said, beginning to type.
“She’s texting him now,” I told Lana.
“Speaking of basic communication, you know what would be great?” she asked. “If you’d turn on your phone. I’ve tried to be understanding about your whole woo-woo thing about wanting to separate home and here, but seriously.”
“It’s not woo-woo,” I told her, irritated. “It’s a conscious choice for very valid reasons.”
The silence that followed was not respectful as much obviously restrained. Finally, she said, “Okay, well, my point is, it’s getting kind of ridiculous. Earlier Anne was asking where you were and I had no clue how to find out.”
“Anne?” I asked. “What did she need?”
“Company. She was going back to her and Jonathan’s placeto get some stuff and didn’t want to be alone.” Since calling off the wedding, Anne had been staying with Liz and Travis, in her childhood bedroom.
“You can’t go?” I asked.
“Kasey was desperate for someone to run flowers to the Tides for a baby shower. I’m loading up the truck now,” she said. “Just turn on your phone, please. If not for me, for Anne. But really, for me.”
While I wasn’t a fan of her exact approach, I had to admit she was probably right. The line between here and the rest of the world, once distinct, had been muddied, now that I knew my mom’s past as well as why she’d not been present in my own. An actual direct line between them wouldn’t change that, as much as I wanted to believe otherwise.
