Page 33 of That Last Carolina Summer

“Yes, well, mission accomplished. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”

“Addie,” I hissed. To Liam I said, “Could you go check on the kids? I’ll be right there.”

“No problem,” he said, showing no indication that Addie had offended him.

As soon as he left, I turned on my sister. “What is wrong with you? He’s only trying to help.”

She closed her eyes and shook her head. “I don’t trust him or his grandmother. There’s something not right about them suddenly reappearing in our lives and wanting to take over.”

“Nobody is wanting to take over anything. Don’t forget it was me who called and made the appointment for Mother with Liam on the recommendation from her GP. So just tell me—what have they done to make you so suspicious?”

She shrugged. “Nothing. Yet. It just seems... odd.”

“The only thing odd here is your attitude. And just so you know, I’m hiring Celeste to help with Mother and the house.”

“Are you out of your mind? She just wants to get into your head and bring back your dreams. Is that really what you want?”

“You can find someone else if she doesn’t work out. But I like her, and she’s wonderful with Ophelia, too. Just give her a chance, all right? It’s for your benefit, too. You can’t rely on Mother anymore for Ophelia’s care.”

“But what if Mother—”

“Stop,” I said. “Mother is not getting better. We both need to accept it so we can move forward and make sure she’s taken care of.”

“Right. Like you even care. You come home once a year and make it so obvious that every second spent in our company is distasteful and that you can’t wait to leave.

And don’t say it’s because I’m Mother’s favorite and we wanted it this way.

Did you ever consider that the reason she chose to do things with me was because of your constant rejection?

Maybe if just once you’d gone to the ballet with her when she invited you or showed any kind of interest in the things she loves.

Do you remember how excited she was to have been given the honor to name two new rose hybrids, and she named them after us?

Yours died because you never watered it. How do you think that made her feel?”

She slung her purse strap over her shoulder, pulling at the sleeve of her T-shirt and revealing a large bruise on her upper arm.

“What happened?” I asked, pointing at it.

She yanked up her sleeve. As if I hadn’t said anything, she said, “Do what you want. You always have, no matter what anyone has ever said or thought. Mother cried just about every night when you moved to Oregon, not that you cared. So, hire Celeste. And when you start having your dreams again, I can’t promise not to say I told you so . ”

She left the kitchen, her footsteps heavy on the stairs.

I was still processing the bruise and everything she’d said when the doorbell rang again. This time I did look through the sidelights and threw open the door with a mix of surprise and embarrassment.

Mary-Simms McSwain, my best friend since kindergarten, didn’t wait to be invited in but instead stepped past me into the foyer, holding the hand of a toddler boy wearing a knit shirt and matching shorts with dump trucks printed all over them.

“I had to come see for myself,” she announced. “Rumor has it that you’ve been home for days and haven’t picked up the phone to let me know. So of course I had to rush right over and see for myself, and sure as I’m standing here, there you are!”

She hadn’t paused for a single breath, and the little boy wore an expression of confused worry, as if afraid she might run out of air and pass out.

“Let me squeeze your shoulders,” she said then enveloped me in a hug, leaving behind the scent of Happy, Mary-Simms’s favorite perfume from high school.

I was immediately taken back to our graduation and our plans to celebrate at her parents’ beach house in the Florida Panhandle.

I knew I wouldn’t have been allowed to go despite both Mr. and Mrs. McSwain acting as chaperones, so I’d lied, telling my parents that I would be staying with Mary-Simms at her family home on Queen Street in downtown Charleston and taking day trips to Folly Beach to get a head start on our summer tans.

I hadn’t expected my mother to call and offer to send food since I’d be staying for the week, nor had I expected the punishment to be so brutal in my eighteen-year-old eyes.

I had committed the cardinal sin of lying to my mother.

It didn’t matter that I had graduated with honors or that I had never been in any trouble.

I was forbidden from leaving the house for a week while my closest friends went to Florida, creating memories from which I would be excluded.

I had already begun planning my escape from South Carolina, and this was the first thread to fray, making it easier to separate myself.

Our friendship had never recovered after that trip, since I used the perceived estrangement as a reason to continue to turn down invitations and remove myself from my close circle of friends.

By the time Mary-Simms married, I wasn’t a part of the bridal party despite pinky-swearing as girls that we would be each other’s maid of honor.

I didn’t even attend the wedding, citing distance and work commitments.

My visits home after I started college were sparse, and as the years went on, it became easier and easier not to pick up the phone.

My sporadic responses to her letters and emails didn’t dissuade her from trying to maintain our bond.

It was as if she knew me better than I knew myself and felt confident that our friendship was too important to both of us to disregard on a technicality and that one day I’d come around.

Her persistent optimism was just one of the many things I loved about Mary-Simms.

She stepped back. “You’re still as pretty as ever.

Obviously, you don’t have children or you’d look a little more worse for wear.

” Leaning down, she picked up the little boy.

“This is Andrew Jackson Mobley III, but we call him Drew. He is the apple of my eye, and I wouldn’t change a thing.

Except for the sticky fingers and occasional whininess, but who doesn’t need a good whine every once in a while? ”

“Mary-Simms. It is so good to see you.” And it was.

We’d always joked that Happy had been made for her because she was perpetually in a good mood and had the annoying habit of always seeing the bright side of any situation.

Even her dark hair, bobbed in the same hairstyle she’d worn since kindergarten, bounced with joy with her every step.

Drew was her spitting image, and even he was grinning at me as if he’d just found his long-lost best friend, too.

The little boy surprised me by reaching for me, and I took him from his mother and hoisted him on my hip, feeling the crinkle of a diaper under my arm. He continued to grin at me, and I couldn’t resist poking his button nose, which made him laugh.

“Look at you two. You’re already best friends.”

I smiled at her, surprisingly close to tears. “It’s so good to see you. I’m so sorry I’ve been such a stranger. It’s just...”

She put her finger to her lips. “You don’t need to explain anything to me of all people, so shush.

I’m just so happy to see you, and I hope you’ll be here long enough so we can spend some time together.

And no worries—I knew you would be a bit shy about reaching out if you needed a friend, so I decided to save you the trouble.

” She closed the door behind us. “I was about to say how hot it is outside, but I think it might be hotter in here.”

“Yes. Long story, but the electricity was turned off.”

“Let me guess. Addie had something to do with that.” She flashed me a smile so I didn’t have to answer.

“I need to refill Drew’s sippy cup with water.

I know where to go.” She brushed past us and headed to the kitchen as if no time had elapsed since she’d last been in my mother’s house.

Which, I calculated as I followed her into the kitchen, had been at my father’s funeral.

She pulled out a blue plastic tumbler from her enormous purse and snapped off the lid before turning on the tap. “Are you throwing a party or something? There are so many vehicles in the driveway that I started to think my invitation got lost in the mail.”

“Hardly.” I felt something wet on my forearm and turned to see Drew drooling as he sucked hard on his thumb while closely regarding me from close range.

His mouth opened in a smile around his thumb when he caught me looking.

“Addie’s here, and the dad of one of Ophelia’s friends stopped by to drop off a couple of fishing rods. ”

She turned off the tap and leaned forward to get a better look at the people down by the dock.

“Is that Ophelia? She’s gotten so big. She was a baby the last time I saw her.

My, how time flies. And is that your mama?

I can’t believe she’d be in the sun without her sunhat.

I know how particular she is about her skin.

” She took Drew from my arms and handed him his sippy cup. “So, Phoebe. How are you?”

I gave her a genuine smile, wondering why I’d cut all ties when I’d fled across the country. In my desperation to leave, I must have thought that I needed a clean slate. “Much better now that you’re here.”

“Mama calls that a dose of vitamin Mary-Simms. Works like a charm, or so I’ve been told.

How’s your mother? Mama says she hasn’t seen her at book club for a while.

She called a bunch of times, but her cell might be turned off.

And when she called the house and Addie answered, she was just told that Miss Elizabeth wasn’t feeling up to it. Is everything okay?”

I opened my mouth to respond but instead felt another overwhelming need to cry. Mary-Simms gave my arm a sympathetic rub. “Is it Addie, your mama, or both?”