Jo filled her kettle for another tea, turned on the front burner, and headed for her favorite spot on the sofa.
“You’re just going to leave that stove on?” Maggie asked, lifting a brow.
“It will not burn down the house, Mags.” She gave a dismissive wave and lowered herself onto the other end of the couch with a softoof.“Oh, yes, I hear you, hips, but I don’t care…” She grinned. “I was like Scarlett at the ball. ‘I’m gonna dance and dance!’”
Now, Maggie did look skyward. “Don’t make me sorry I introduced you to my favorite book and movie, Jo. You quoting it is getting on my nerves.”
Ignoring the comment, Jo pointed to the coffee table. “Speaking of books—what’s that? Looks old.”
“Ancient. It’s Vivien’s diary from when we spent summers in Destin.”
“Oh, I’ve heard about those. Kate just finished reading one. How did you get it?”
“At the wedding, I was chatting with Vivien about a memory of our last year here,” she explained. “When the girls went out on a sailboat that some boys had, remember?”
“I do. You were firmly opposed, but I swooped in and saved the day. Did she write about it?”
“I don’t know, I just started, but I was thinking maybe I could get some…insights.”
“Into what? How you yelled at her when she did anything wrong and almost refused to let her go on that sailboat?”
Maggie winced. “For one thing, I didn’tyell.”
“No. You just gavethe lookand your children fell into line. Can you imagine trying that with Tessa?”
“I’m sure I did try,” Maggie said, shaking her head and thinking of Vivien’s comment about ruling with fear and judgment. “If I could do one thing differently, I would have been less of a disciplinarian and more like you and Artie.”
Jo shrugged. “Your kids turned out great.”
“Well, that’s not why I wanted to read the diary.” She leaned forward, knowing exactly how her friend would react to what she was about to say, but needing to say it anyway. “I want to know if there were any clues I missed. About Roger and Artie.”
“Oh, Mags.” She flicked her finger like a gnat had annoyed her. “Weknowwhat happened. We understand why our husbands separated us. Roger was determined to make up for his petty crimes and Artie worked with him and they were heroes who protected the family. Let’s look forward, not backward.”
“I can’t help but think I’ve missed something.”
Jo Ellen pushed up when the kettle whistled. “Youaregoing to miss something—life. At least you will if you moon over issues that happened more than thirty years ago.”
Maggie closed her eyes, remembering that dream. She wanted to tell Jo Ellen, but knew it would be dismissed as foolish.
“Hard to believe those diaries survived all the years,” Jo Ellen said. “I mean, with Eli tearing down the old cottage to build the Summer House, it’s actually a miracle.”
“He said he found them in the rafters above the garage.”
Jo Ellen turned from the stove. “Why would Vivien put them there?”
“I don’t know. Maybe she hid them from prying eyes.” Maggie suspected Vivien didn’t trust her mothernotto read them and even the thought hurt her heart a little.
She hadn’t been a bad mother, just one who controlled too much.
“How fun that we have them, though,” Jo Ellen mused as she bounced a tea bag in her cup.
“I thought you were opposed to living in the past.”
She smiled and came back to the living room, blowing on the steaming brew. “There’s a difference between remembering and second-guessing, Mags. You couldn’t have done anything differently. Not as a mother or a wife. Today is a new day, a new life, and a new start.” She raised the mug. “Here’s to a great partnership here in our love nest above the garage.”
Maggie had to laugh. She didn’t want to, but that was Jo Ellen’s greatest power. So she sipped her coffee and tried to follow her friend’s instructions to live in the moment.
Outside the big windows over the couch, the tips of palm tops bent in a breeze. A car passed by on Gulf Shore Drive, tires loud on the warm asphalt, and then silence. Then she heard men’s voices and the sound of a truck. She suspected Eli was going to church early because he wanted to spend the day putting up the first-floor hurricane shutters.
