Sherryl Woods - Sand Castle Bay

“You took offense when Cora Jane brushed off your offer,” he guessed based on past experience. “You thought it meant she didn’t need you here, didn’t you? You thought that’s why she didn’t jump all over your advice about the renovations.”

“Maybe,” she conceded, the tears gathering in her eyes proving his point.

He tucked a finger under her chin. “She needs you here, Em. She needs all of you here, not because of what you can do or how much help you’ll be. She needs you because she’s getting older and she misses you. Remember that, okay? She loved you all enough to let you go, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t want you underfoot from time to time. She needs to fuss over you, meddle a little, to feel your love again.”

To his regret, more tears filled her eyes and spilled down her cheeks.

“When did you get to be so darned smart and sensitive?” she asked, her voice hitching.

“I was always smart and sensitive,” he claimed, amused. “You might have missed it because back then all you cared about was my body.”

Because she evidently had no response that wouldn’t be a flat-out lie, Emily turned and walked away, swiping impatiently at the tears on her cheeks as she went.

Though her lack of response left him chuckling, he couldn’t help staring after her and wondering just how complicated his life was about to get. Despite her declarations and his promises, he was pretty sure things between them were far from over. And that was going to cause more problems and heartache than he’d ever wanted to experience again.

4

By late morning, Cora Jane’s cell phone had rung half a dozen times, and several members of her kitchen and wait staff had shown up to help with the cleanup. She had put them to work scrubbing down the kitchen, top to bottom, so it could pass the toughest health inspection ever, if need be.

The last to arrive was Jeremiah Beaudreaux, better known as Jerry. He’d been cooking at Castle’s practically since the doors opened. Now in his sixties and still standing tall at well over six feet, the one-time Louisiana fisherman’s face was deeply tanned and weathered, his hair white, but he still had a smile that lit his bright blue eyes.

“Well, this sure enough is a sight for sore eyes,” he declared when he saw Emily, Samantha and Gabriella at work sweeping the debris in the dining room into piles to be discarded. “Looks like an ill wind blew us at least some good, Cora Jane.”

“Better wait till you see how much trouble they manage to stir up, Jerry,” Cora Jane retorted, but her eyes were sparkling.

“Let me give you girls a hug,” he said, lifting them each off their feet in one of his massive bear hugs.

“How’d you get to be so strong?” Emily teased, just as she had the first time he’d tossed her into the air as a child. Compared to her reed-thin grandfather, Jerry had seemed like a gentle giant.

“Toting around those cast iron pots of crab soup your grandmother has me making,” he responded. “Now let me get in that kitchen and see what else needs to be done. Those kids you put to work, Cora Jane, will do a slapdash job of it without my supervision.”

“Some of those ‘kids’ are as old as you are, Jeremiah Beaudreaux,” Cora Jane said. “They know what to do.”

“I’ll feel better if I see the results for myself.” He winked at Emily and her sisters. “We’ll sit down and have us a long visit once this place is set to rights. Andrew said he’d be over here in an hour, Cora Jane, soon as he helps his grandmama set a few things outside in the sun to dry out. You just put him to work whatever needs doing around here. I promised his grandmama we’d keep him out of mischief.”

Jerry spotted B.J. “There’s my best helper,” he said exuberantly. “You gonna come with me, young man?”

B.J. beamed. “Whatever you need,” he said eagerly.

Before heading into the kitchen, Jerry paused and gave Cora Jane a searching look. “You doing okay? We’ll have this place shipshape in no time. You’re not to fret about it, okay?”

Emily caught the tender look that passed between them. She waited until Jerry and B.J. were gone before asking, “Did anyone else happen to notice the way Jerry was looking at Grandmother just then?”

“Oh, hush! You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Cora Jane responded tartly, though there was a surprising blush in her cheeks. “Jerry’s been my right-hand man around here for a lot of years. He was one of your grandfather’s best friends.”

“Looks to me as if he’d like to be more than friends with you,” Samantha chimed in, her eyes alight.

“No question about it, Grandmother,” Gabi added. “Is there something you’d like to tell us?”

Cora Jane regarded each of them with an impatient look. “Don’t think you’re going to throw me off course by trying to turn the tables and meddle in my life,” she said. “Now, let’s get back to work. We’re setting a poor example for the girls who came in here to help out.”

Emily let the subject drop as she picked up her broom and went back to work. Gabi pushed her own pile of debris over to merge with Emily’s.

“You don’t really think there’s something going on between Jerry and Grandmother, do you?” Gabi asked. “You were just trying to rattle her, the way she said.”

Emily shrugged. “I saw something. Maybe it was nothing more than two old friends exchanging a fond look, but it seemed like more to me.”

“Would that be so bad?” Gabi asked, her expression thoughtful. “She must get lonely. Grandfather’s been gone a long time now.”

“I guess I never thought about that,” Emily admitted. “I don’t think kids ever give much thought to their parents being lonely, much less their grandparents.”

“We’re adults, not kids,” Gabi said. “We should be more sensitive.”

“Boone said something very much like that earlier,” Emily admitted.

Gabi grinned. “You’re quoting Boone now. That’s quite a turnabout.”

“Don’t make too much of it,” Emily said. “He just mentioned that, even though Cora Jane let us all go, it doesn’t mean she doesn’t want or need us around from time to time.”

“He’s right about that,” Gabi admitted. “Not even I get over here half as much as I should, and I live closest. Forget about Dad. Until the other day when he drove over to pick her up, I can’t recall the last time he set foot in Sand Castle Bay. He doesn’t even drive crosstown in Raleigh to see me unless I force the issue.”

“Did you honestly expect otherwise?” Emily asked her.

Gabi looked momentarily disconcerted by the question, then laughed self-consciously. “I suppose I did. Crazy, huh? Mom couldn’t even get him to come home for dinner most nights. I guess a part of me was thinking that with Mom gone, he might need company from time to time, maybe even a home-cooked meal.”

Emily regarded her with sympathy. “I’m sorry, Gabi.”

“Don’t be sorry for me. He’s disappointed all of us, Mom included.”

“But I think it affected you the most,” Emily said. “Mom accepted the way things were. Samantha went her own way. So did I. We gave up expecting anything, but you’re the one who’s settled right there in Raleigh, followed in his footsteps, tried to become a part of his world. Now don’t go and take offense at this, but we all know you did that hoping to finally get his attention.”

Gabi didn’t even bother trying to deny it. “I may be in the same field, but I don’t sit over a microscope the way he did,” she said candidly. “I write press releases about other people’s discoveries.”

Emily chuckled. “Worse, you do it for a competitor, who’s wildly successful, in part thanks to your PR work,” she said. “That must give Dad heartburn.”