Authors: Courtney Rice Gager
“
What boots? These boots?” I kicked out my foot for her to see.
She lit up with recognition.
“Yes! Those very boots.” Her eyelids crinkled. “They’re exactly like I remember them. So he
did
give them to you.”
I was more confused than ever. What did the boots have to do with anything? And why did she think she remembered them? Was she… all there? Back home, the old lady who lived in the apartment across the hall from me had developed dementia. It was sad the way she went on sometimes. Remembering my neighbor made me feel sorry for Ms. Betty. She didn’t seem to be playing with a full deck.
“Ms. Betty, I don’t understand what you mean.”
“
Well, I thought-oh dear, I’m doing it again.” She gave her collar another tug. “There’s a wedding, you say?”
“
Yes.” I leaned to the side and peered around her, trying to spot Jake. I found him across the room, taking a business card from a man in a suit.
“
That’s nice, dear. Who’s the bride? A friend of yours?”
I sighed. How to respond? I couldn’t answer with,
“I don’t know.” It would baffle this poor sweet lady even more. “Well,” I said, eyeing the exit and planning my escape, “I’m the wedding planner.”
She nodded.
“Yes, I heard something about that, come to think of it. How nice. Will you be using the chapel in town then, dear?”
“
No. It’s going to be at the vineyard. Carl’s old place?”
“
Oh! Such a beautiful place. Why, I haven’t been there in years. Is it as nice as I remember?”
“
It
is
beautiful.” I nodded and bit my bottom lip. I didn’t have the heart to tell her how neglected it had been. “But, you know, it needs some cleaning up. It’s coming along, though. We’ve been working hard on it.”
“
Thatcher, too?”
“
Uh-huh.” I scanned the crowd for the conductor, who appeared to be on his way out. Ms. Betty said he was her husband, so I thought I would hang around with her and catch him, but now I wasn’t so sure. Poor Ms. Betty. She had probably never seen that man before in her life. I would have to excuse myself and go track him down. I braced myself to stand up. “Well, it’s been—”
“
He resembles Carl, don’t you think?” She turned and looked at the wall.
I turned
, too, following her gaze to the picture I was staring at a few moments before. I looked at her, and then back at the picture to be sure we were focusing on the same thing.
Yes, we were.
The room emptied out, growing quieter. My mouth felt dry.
“
Excuse me?”
“
Thatcher,” she said, still watching the man in the photo. “He takes after his grandfather. Don’t you see it?”
I tried to swallow, but couldn’t.
“His grandfather?” My voice was scratchy.
“
Yes, dear. Carl. His grandfather.” She pointed at the picture with a hint of impatience in her voice, and just like that, Ms. Betty didn’t seem so crazy after all. She seemed sharp as a tack.
I noticed her expression soften a little as she pulled her gaze from the photo and turned back to me.
“He helped with the fundraising for this building. Carl and Maisy were wonderful people. I grew up next door to her, you know. She would care for me when my mother was helping with the harvest. Such a beautiful, sweet woman. They were a remarkable couple. Did you ever get to meet them, dear?”
I shook my head, speechless.
She placed a hand on my knee. “Well, they would have loved you.”
We were interrupted by a man’s voice coming from behind me.
“
There
you are. I turn around for one minute and you’re jabbering away. Let’s go already. It’s past my dinnertime.”
She hoisted herself up and placed a hand on the arm of the man.
“Harold, this is Tess. Thatcher’s Tess.”
I stood
, and the man nodded at me in an obligatory manner.
“
She’s having a wedding and wants to invite one of your students to play,” she said.
“
Ah.” He looked annoyed as he fumbled around in his jacket pocket and pulled out a business card, handing it to me. “We do it all the time. Put in a call to the music school. They can help you.”
“
It was lovely seeing you.” Ms. Betty took both my hands and gave them a squeeze, then pulled away and tucked her purse under her arm, turning to leave.
“
Wait!” I shuffled ahead of her. “You said something earlier. About the boots. What did you say about them?”
She seemed to be thinking it over for a few seconds too long.
“I don’t remember, dear. I’m sorry. This old mind isn’t as quick as it used to be.” She tapped a finger to her temple, and then took her husband’s arm as she walked away.
“You ready, Tessy?” Jake appeared by my side and patted me on the shoulder.
I stared at the back of Ms. Betty’s head and nodded.
“Great. Let’s roll.”As I followed Jake out of the community center, I glanced back to get one last glimpse of
Carl’s watchful eyes, penetrating me from their resting place in an unknown past.
My thoughts spun faster than the tires
on the asphalt as I sped along the highway back to the vineyard.
“
What’s the hurry, Tessy?” Jake asked from the passenger seat.
“
I have to go to the bathroom,” I lied.
“
You should have gone at the concert.”
“
There was a line.” I was supposed to be spending quality time with Jake, but I wanted him to be quiet so I could think.
Carl was Thatcher’s grandfather.
Carl was Thatcher’s grandfather
.
I rolled the idea around in my mind, trying it on for size, examining it from various angles.
It explained a lot. Thatcher
did
know pretty much everything there was to know about the vineyard, didn’t he? And he
had
said he was raised by his grandparents, hadn’t he?
But then again, for every question answered, another one surfaced. Like, why hadn’t Carl left the place to Thatcher? It seemed odd to me that Thatcher
was practically Carl’s son, but Sara got the vineyard. What happened?
And why hadn’t Jake or Sara told me about any of this?
Then again, why would they? From their perspective, what did it even matter to me? I was supposed to be visiting for a few weeks, tops. Of course they wouldn’t tell me.
And then there was the question of the conversation I overheard between Thatcher and Sara. He said he loved her, that he always loved her. And he did. But not in a romantic way. They were, what… cousins?
Yes, cousins. Sara James. That was right. Sara told me she spent summers with Carl, I remembered. So they were closer than most cousins. More like siblings, even. Like me and Jake.
“You’re awful quiet,” Jake said.
“Am I?” I readjusted my hands on the steering wheel.
“Something’s bothering you. You’ve been acting strange lately.”
“Nothing’s bothering me. I’m just thinking.”
“About what?” he asked.
“About Thatcher.” As soon as I said it, I wished I could take it back. “And Sara,” I added. “Sara, too.”
“
Tessy, I
told
you—”
“I know, I get it now. Of course they weren’t married. They’re cousins, aren’t they?”
“Yes.” His voice teemed with exasperation. “You didn’t
know
that?”
“No. Not when we had the conversation in the driveway today.”
He snorted. “That explains a lot.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Why the sudden interest in Thatcher anyway?” he asked.
“There’s no interest.” I squirmed in my seat.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. No! I mean… yes, I’m sure. No, I’m not interested in him.”
“Tessy… I’m going to ask you a question, and I need you to tell me straight.”
“What?” I tightened my grip on the wheel.
“Is there something going on with you two?”
“Who?” I gulped and cast a nervous glance in his direction.
“You and Thatcher,” he said.
Oh, no. He’s on to me. Of course he is. He’s Jake.
My pulse sped up and I forced a loud laugh. “Of course not!”
He took a deep breath. “Because if there is, it’s really important for you to tell me.
Really
important.”
“There’s nothing!” I turned up the radio to tune him out before he could say anything else and guilt me into talking.
My mind flooded with questions. Like, why was Jake so concerned about my love life? And what was going on between Sara and Thatcher? They were cousins. It made sense, but it didn’t begin to explain the rest of what I overheard them talking about. A little bit of light was shed, but something still didn’t quite add up.
I saw the sign for Carl’s Creek approaching and
turned on my blinker.
I was done
trying to figure this out on my own. And Jake was no help. It was time to find Sara and get the facts straight.
We arrived back at the house, and I followed Jake inside. A
s soon as he bounded upstairs to change out of his dress clothes, I went to find Sara. She stood at the kitchen sink with her hands plunged into dirty dishwater.
“
What’s in the package?” I asked.
“
What?” She stopped scrubbing and looked at me, startled.
“
The package that came for you. What’s in it?” My voice had a sharp edge to it, and I could tell it made her uncomfortable.
“
Tess, is everything all right? What’s going on?”
“
You’re hiding something.” I slapped the countertop in frustration. “What are you hiding?”
She pulled her hands out of the dishwater and grabbed a nearby towel.
“Keep your voice down.”
“
I’m not going to keep my voice down!”
She sighed and walked out of the kitchen, down the hall to the bottom of the stairs.
“Hey, Jake?”
“
Yeah?” I heard him call from the bathroom.
“
I’m going to go to the cottage with Tess for a few minutes. Wedding stuff. I’ll be back.”
“
All right.”
She walked back into the kitchen, tossed the towel onto the table, and opened a drawer to retrieve the package, all without looking at me. Then, she went to the screen door
and paused for a second to say, “Well? Are you coming?”
I followed her outside, and she led me to the back patio of the cottage where we sat across from one another.
“Tess, I don’t know what you’re implying, but you’re right about one thing. I
am
hiding something. If you can keep a secret, I’ll show you. Can you keep a secret?”
I nodded. Sure I could. As long as it wasn’t anything that would hurt Jake. But she knew that. It went without saying.
She placed the package on the tabletop and slid it over to me. I opened the top of the envelope and reached inside, pulling out a small clear plastic bag. I turned the bag over in my hands. There were two pairs of crocheted booties inside.
“
Do you recognize them?” she asked.
I pulled one of the booties out of the bag and held it between my fingers.
“Yeah. They were mine. And Jake’s.” I placed it in my open palm and marveled at how small it was in my hand. “How did you get these?”
“
I asked your mom to send them to me,” she said.
“Why?”
“Because I’m pregnant. With twins.”
I jumped up without even meaning to.
“What?”
“
Shh.” She held a finger up to her lips. “Jake doesn’t know.”
“
What do you mean he doesn’t know?”
She leaned back in her chair.
“Well, he knows I’m pregnant. But he thinks there’s only one in there. I went to the doctor last week. He didn’t go. I didn’t think it’d be a monumental appointment. I assumed they’d weigh me and schedule me for a follow-up. You know, nothing special. But when I got there, they ended up listening for a heartbeat. And there were two. Two hearts, thumping away in there.”
I lowered myself back onto my chair, my hands cupped over my mouth in shock.
“That’s incredible.” A tear formed in the corner of my eye, and I reached up to dab it away. “It’s amazing.”
“
Don’t
tell Jake. Not until I have a chance to talk to him, okay?”
“
I won’t.” I picked up another bootie and held it up. “I promise.”
She crossed her arms.
“Good. Are you satisfied?”
I winced.
“Almost. I have one more question. Well, one more question about the package, that is.”
She raised her eyebrows in response.
“Why did it come in your maiden name?”
She rolled her eyes.
“Tess, I love your mother, but do you know she
still
refuses to call me Sara Dougherty?”
“
You’re kidding.”
“
I’m not. She says she will, if we have a”—she raised her hands on either side of her head to make quotation marks with her fingers—“real wedding.”
“
Oh, Sara.”
“
Yeah. I think she’s mad she wasn’t there. I mean, I get it I guess.”
“
I’m sorry, Sara. About my mom. And me. I shouldn’t have been so pushy.” I put the bootie down on the table. “It’s just that I’ve been feeling a little out of the loop.”
“
About what?”
I propped my feet up on a nearby empty chair. Where to even begin?
“Well,” I said, “for starters, I just realized tonight you and Thatcher are cousins.”
A look of concern settled on her face.
“What does that have to do with anything?”
I sucked in my breath and held it.
Oh boy. Here we go.
I looked at the table to avoid meeting her gaze.
“I overheard something. And from what I heard, it seemed like you guys were… involved.”
“
Involved in what?”
“
Involved, like, in the romantic sense.”
“
What on earth did you hear?” Her voice became shrill.
“
I heard you guys talking up at the house. I shouldn’t have eavesdropped. I’m so sorry. But I heard something about how it should have been him? Something about needing to tell Jake? You were really upset.”
“
Oh.” She glanced at the darkening sky. “That.”
“
You remember it?”
She fidgeted with a stray leaf that had fallen on the table.
“Yeah. I remember. We were talking about the vineyard. Most days I think it should have been him. That Carl should have left it to him, I mean.”
“
Why didn’t he?”
“
It’s a long story,” she said.
“
I’m not going anywhere.”
She sighed.
“I don’t like to talk about it because I know it upsets Thatcher. But he and Carl, they had a falling out of sorts. Right before he went off to college.”
“
About what?” I asked.
“
Thatcher didn’t want to be stuck here for the rest of his life. Growing up, he had all these big, crazy dreams. Sometimes it seemed like he wanted to leave for the sake of leaving. And Carl didn’t like that. He spent all those years teaching Thatcher the business. Leaving the way he did, it seemed so… reckless. That’s how Carl saw it anyway. Things got heated, and they never really reconciled.”
Yes. I nodded to myself. Yes, that made sense. Thatcher’s biggest regret:
I lost someone very important to me because of a disagreement that seems ridiculous now. I can’t undo what has been done. And I will always, always regret it.
“
So you got the vineyard because Carl was mad at Thatcher?”
She shook her head.
“No. That’s what a lot of people think. But he didn’t do it out of anger.”
“
How do you know?”
“
Because Carl was never the type of person to do anything out of anger. And also, he wrote a letter to Thatcher. It was tucked in with his will. To this day I haven’t told him I read it. At first I came across it by accident. But then…” She shrugged.
“
What did it say?”
“
I shouldn’t. I wasn’t even supposed to read it to begin with.”
“
Who am I going to tell? Just give me the gist of it.”
She reached up and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
“Fine. Carl said he forgave Thatcher for leaving, and he didn’t want the vineyard to be a burden on him. There was a lot of personal stuff in there, too.” She looked around as she spoke, and her gaze landed on my feet, which were still propped up on the chair. I thought I detected a flash of astonishment on her face. “Tess, where did you get those boots?”
I stared at the boots as if I
were trying to remember.
“
A… uh… yard sale. I think.” I don’t know why, but the urge to lie was so strong, I couldn’t resist.
Sara seemed strangely relieved.
“Oh. They’re nice.”
“
Thanks.” I put my feet down and tucked the boots under my chair. “Why do you ask?”
“
Hmm?”
“
About the boots. Why do you ask?”
She shrugged.
“I was just asking, is all.”
“
You’re the second person today who’s asked me about them.”