THE GIFT (10 page)

Her mother had been right about South Carolina in the summer. It was beautiful with all of the countryside and greenery that flanked the sides of the road as they traveled. They stopped at an old family restaurant in one of the many small towns on the way and ate home-style meatloaf, mashed potatoes and peas. Amanda understood why they called this comfort food. If she ate like this all the time, she would be three hundred pounds, but feel very content about it.

“There are my girls!” Her Aunt Mary met them on the front porch of the old farmhouse that she and her husband had restored over the years. Mary’s husband, who everyone called “Tank” from his days as a Marine Gunnery Sergeant, had inherited the home from family. It was in a state of disrepair when he had gotten it, but was surrounded by rolling meadows and trees. They had done just enough work to make it habitable and then continued with projects for over ten years until it was just the way they wanted it. It was nothing short of majestic what they had created.

“Aunt Mary!” Amanda squealed as she hopped up the front steps and hugged her aunt tightly.

“Sis? How was the trip?” Mary asked Amanda’s mother, grabbing Amanda’s hand as she pulled free and holding on to her as she had always had a way of doing.

“Long, but worth it to see my favorite sister’s smiling face,” Amanda’s mother replied.

“I’m your only sister,” Aunt Mary reminded her.

“Well, there you have it,” she responded, pulling both Mary and Amanda to her in a group hug.

“What are you hens cackling about out here?” roared Tank as he stepped out the front door with a broad smile on his face.

“Good to see you too Uncle Tank,” Amanda laughed.

“Oh, man. Mary, go get the sump pump and let’s get this girl hooked up. She’s gotten so full of crap in New York that her blue eyes have turned brown!” he joked, seeing the change in eye color for the first time.

“It’s okay, Uncle Tank. It’s just the contacts. They are still blue. Don’t hook me up just yet,” she laughed.

“Whew. I was worried for a moment,” he told her, pulling her to his barrel of a chest to hug her tightly as he nodded toward her mother in greeting.

“Well, let’s all get in the house so we can annoy Hank some more with our girl chatter,” Aunt Mary said, opening the front door for everyone to enter.

“No way,” Uncle Tank replied. “I’m out of here until y’all get caught up and wear yourselves out from yakking a little bit. The boys are waiting on me down at the pool hall.”

“Good riddance,” Aunt Mary said jokingly, kissing him on the cheek as he headed out to his truck and made a hasty exit.

The three women went inside and sat down with some sweet tea and snicker doodle cookies Aunt Mary had made that morning just for them. They were delicious, almost the same recipe Amanda used at the shop. Of course, the recipe had been her grandmother’s. Each daughter had spun it off into their own special version and both were slightly different from the original.

“I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to see the both of you. Of course, it is even nicer that you are seeing me, Amanda. It’s such a blessing that has been bestowed upon you,” Aunt Mary told her. Amanda found that she now felt a twinge of guilt and uneasiness at the discussion of her transplants and even that wasn’t fair. Then again, life had never been fair to her. A part of her conceded that it hadn’t been fair to Jagger and Cassandra either, but he had been dishonest with her and that was not acceptable. She wasn’t even willing to consider how creepy it seemed that he had sought her out and pursued her as he did.

“It’s good to see you too, Aunt Mary,” Amanda said and it was. There was one thing that could be said about her mother and her aunt. It was hard to be unhappy when the two of them were together. They behaved largely like the two teenage girls they had once been. Both had been, and still were, great beauties that probably broke a million hearts over the years. They were full of fun and loved a great adventure, often going on girls on trips without their husbands.

“There is a summer hayride in town tonight. I thought we might all get out and get some fresh air,” Aunt Mary told them.

“Sounds very...country,” Amanda replied with a laugh.

“Hey, don’t knock it. You’re going to love the way they do it here. Everyone brings in food for one of the best potlucks you’ll ever have and the hayrides run every hour. You can eat to your heart’s content and ride if you want. There will be plenty of younger folks there for you to talk to, as well,” Aunt Mary continued.

“Well, I guess it beats sitting around listening to Uncle Tank telling me about his fishing and hunting conquests,” Amanda said.

“Don’t be such a spoilsport,” her mother told her.

“Let’s get your things from the car and get you settled into your rooms,” Aunt Mary said, rising from the table. The two of them grabbed their bags from the car and followed her upstairs to the spare bedrooms. The each went instinctively to the rooms they normally stayed in, but Mary was stopped by Mary telling Amanda she would be in a different room this time.

“I’m sorry. I should have mentioned that we have another house guest. He’s over at the Richmond farm right now, but will be back later. His name is Cody. He’s the son of Tank’s friend Henry who passed away last year. He just got back from the military and needed a place to crash until he works out his situation,” Mary said.

“His situation?” Amanda’s mother asked.

“He was pretty tore up when he got back, between the hell he endured over there and the loss of his father. Then, he found out that his mother was seeing a man who has practically moved in with her. They got in a tussle down at the Heavy Hog and Cody spent the night in jail. His mother didn’t want him at the house and Tank wasn’t going to let him sleep in the streets. So, he’s here for a bit,” Mary told them.

“Is he violent?” Amanda asked, concerned as she shot her mother a look.

“No, honey. He just had a little too much to drink and some guy that thought he could take his Daddy’s place waltzed into the wrong bar. If anything, he’s too sad to be angry anymore,” Mary told her.

“All right, good to know,” Amanda replied. “So, where do I sleep?”

“Well, if your mom wants to stay in her usual room, you can sleep in the attic room. We’ve redone the entire thing into a reading room for me, but there is a small bed in one of the dormers for extra guests. I sometimes nap up there and the view is fantastic,” Mary replied.

“I don’t know, the attic is kind of creepy,” Amanda said, not feeling at all good about it.

“Honey, take my usual room and I’ll take the attic room. I can get into all of Mary’s reading and sewing stuff up there,” her mother offered.

“Are you sure, Mom? I can stay up there. I’m sure it is nice,” Amanda offered, feeling bad that her mother was going to have to stay in the attic.

“No, it’s fine. Drop your stuff down here and you can come up with us and see how great it is. I bet, you’ll be sorry you gave it up, her mother told her. Amanda put her bags on the refurbished wrought iron bed in the available bedroom and followed them up the narrow set of stairs that led to the attic room.

“Oh, wow. You really have done some work since I was up here last,” Amanda’s mother exclaimed.

“It’s beautiful, Aunt Mary. I can see why you like it up here. Probably a great place to be when Uncle Tank is yelling at the Giants on TV during football season,” Amanda laughed.

“You have no idea. I think this little hole is my best idea in the whole house. I have my sewing machine set up on one side and a little miniature library on the other with a small loveseat to curl up on. Then, there is the bed that Tank custom built into one dormer and another wingback chair in the other for when I want to sit and read in the sun but there are too many insects outside. You know how it gets here in August,” she told them proudly.

“It really is nice. Mom was right, I’m already regretting that I let her have this place,” Amanda laughed.

“No take backs,” her Mother said playfully. “My bags are on the floor and I’m here to stay.”

“All right, well I will let the two of you get settled in and then you can come back downstairs or take a nap, whatever you are up for. We’ll leave at about five for the hayride,” Aunt Mary told them. She headed toward the steps and left them there alone to hash out what they were going to do.

“I think I’ll just get unpacked and then head back down to spend some time with Mary before Tank shows back up to suck up all the peace and quiet. Though there was no ill will between Amanda’s mother and Tank, it was pretty common knowledge that he loved to talk and hardly anyone could get a word in edgewise.

“A nap sounds pretty good to me. I think I’ll just go lay down for a bit while you two get your gossiping out of the way,” Amanda said with a smile.

“Okay, honey. I love you. We’re going to have a good time here. I promise,” her mom told her, kissing her lightly on the forehead.

“Yeah, we will,” Amanda replied, though she didn’t really feel like she was going to have a good time anywhere for quite some time to come. She left her Mom in the attic room while she made her way down to the second floor and closed herself up in her room. Glancing at her cell phone, she realized it was still turned off and she held her breath as she powered it up to check for messages or missed calls. There was only one from her Dad telling her that he loved her. She tossed it on the dresser, stripped down to her panties and a t-shirt and climbed into bed.

After the lost sleep in recent days, she had drifted off quickly, sleeping soundly for several hours. She awoke in a haze, not knowing where she was or how she had gotten here, but as the fog wore off she remembered she was at her aunt’s house. Climbing from the bed, she threw on some shorts and padded down the hallway to the bathroom, pushing open the door to find herself face to face with some naked guy that looked just as shocked to see her as she did him.

“Oh, God! Oh, God! I’m so sorry,” she blurted out, turning around and running from the bathroom. She quickly made her way downstairs and went to the bathroom down there, emerging moments later to find her mother and aunt looking at her quizzically.

“The upstairs toilet isn’t overflowing again is it?” Aunt Mary said with a furrowed brow.

“No. Um, at least I don’t think so. Uh, there was someone in there,” she said, realizing now that it was probably Cody. Cody who apparently didn’t know how to lock bathroom doors when he was indecent.

“Oh, yeah. I think he got in just a little while ago,” Mary said idly. “Well, you’ll want to get on some jeans and solid shoes to go into town with us. Hay tends to stick in sandals and scratch legs.”

Amanda nodded, still in a state of shock from her previous encounter. Cody was hard to not notice. In only the seconds she had seen him, she hadn’t missed that he was tall, muscular and put together in all the right ways. His shock of blonde hair stuck out wildly everywhere and his large green eyes cut right through you. Sparse hair populated a well-defined chest and well, she had tried not to look at other things, opting instead to make herself scarce.

She practically ran back into her room for fear of bumping into him again before she had even stopped blushing from the first encounter. Changing into a summer tank and a pair of faded jeans, she slipped on some socks and sneakers before pulling her long hair up into a ponytail. She put her glasses aside and replaced them with her contacts and dabbed on a light coating of makeup, eyeliner and lip gloss before rolling a bit of mascara across her lashes. Just a touch of blush finished it out. She didn’t want to wear too much makeup, but didn’t want to look too pale either.

Exiting her room, she turned to find herself once again face to face with Cody. At least this time he was dressed, wearing a t-shirt with a line of crows on it that read simply “Murder” and jeans that hugged him close enough to remind her of all she had seen just a little while ago in the bathroom.

“Hey, I’m sorry about earlier. I didn’t know anyone was up here but me. I usually have the bathroom to myself,” he told her.