Page 25 of The Lake House (Southern Charm #2)

Chapter Twenty-Five

Rita had spent the past few weeks in a kind of daze.

The information she’d uncovered in the old stack of letters had unsettled her spirit.

She hadn’t told anyone what she discovered and wasn’t sure she wanted to.

Her parents were gone now. She had no desire to sully their memories.

But it had changed the way she saw them, and she couldn’t undo that now.

She sat in the den at the lake house, in the semi-dark with only a single lamp to light the room.

A photo album lay on the coffee table in front of her.

She bent forward to retrieve it and flicked through the pages again.

She’d already done this three times in the past hour, and every time she did, sadness washed over her. She saw everything with new eyes now.

A photo of the family at Six Flags. Another one at a family wedding.

Still more when they went camping in north Georgia.

Or that time they all went to Perry’s in Daytona Beach for vacation for a week, and it felt like the most luxurious vacation she’d ever experienced.

All of these images looked different to her now.

Her father had always been a grouch. She referred to him as Oscar.

It had been a fun joke, a Sesame Street reference.

But perhaps there was a reason for his recalcitrance.

Something she’d never understood before.

He was in pain, and the knowledge of that sent a piercing stab through her heart.

If only she’d known, she wouldn’t have joked.

She would’ve given him a hug, told him she loved him and that everything would be okay.

Because it was. In the end. The two of them stayed married. They didn’t give up on one another. And they were happy. At least, that’s what Rita had always thought. Maybe she was wrong about that too.

She pulled the album closer to look more deeply at the photographs from Six Flags Over Georgia—her favourite theme park.

Roller coasters were so much fun back then.

She couldn’t imagine anything worse now.

Riding one at her age would probably snap her neck like a twig. She grimaced as she considered it.

The first image was of herself and Helen, holding ice cream cones. They were about to drip, the weather was so hot that day. She vaguely remembered the sweat running down her back as she stood in line, sweltering as they waited their turn.

The next image had the whole family in it.

Someone else must’ve taken the photograph, but she couldn’t recall who it was.

Likely someone passing by had offered. They stood in front of a roller coaster.

Helen had an arm around Rita’s waist. Rita’s arm was casually slung around her sister’s shoulders.

They both pulled a face at the camera, but it was her father’s face that drew her attention now.

He stood with arms folded, his visage thunderous.

Her mother was about as far away from him as she could manage while remaining in the frame.

Her hands were threaded together, one knee bent, her chin down.

She looked sorry. That’s what it was. And Dad was furious.

All in a flash, the memory came rushing back.

They’d eaten lunch at the cafeteria—burgers and fries with milkshakes.

Mom dropped her chocolate milkshake on the ground.

It hit the pavement and sent chocolate milk flying in every direction.

It’d wet Dad’s socks and shoes, and all up his shins. He’d exploded at her.

“Look what you did! You don’t think about anyone but yourself!”

At the time, Rita had rolled her eyes. Typical Dad, overreacting.

She’d taken her mother’s side and given Dad the cold shoulder for the rest of the day.

But maybe his words had meant more at that time than she’d realised.

Her mother was unfaithful. She hadn’t known that, but he would’ve been aware of it in this photo since they’d gone to Six Flags soon after they returned from North Carolina.

She remembered it so clearly. It’d been Mom’s idea—a way to reunite the family after a long separation by doing something fun together.

Something they could remember. Mom was always saying things like that—“We’re making memories. ”

Suddenly she realised there were tears on her cheeks.

So many regrets. So much she wished she’d had a chance to say.

She’d held resentment towards her father for years because of his temper.

She thought he’d driven Mom away when they left Atlanta for those long months, but now she knew differently.

Still, maybe he’d driven Mom away long before, and she’d found solace in his brother’s arms. And maybe she’d paid for that decision the rest of her life.

Uncle Bill and Auntie Shelby had moved away after they got back from North Carolina.

She hadn’t realised there was a connection at the time.

But they’d moved to Florida a couple of months later and the two families had hardly crossed paths again until after Uncle Bill’s death.

She wondered if Auntie Shelby ever knew the truth. It seemed Cathy didn’t have a clue.

She wiped the tears from her cheeks just as Julie arrived home from her date with James. The two of them had been going out steadily for the past month, although Julie hadn’t talked much about him, so Rita had no idea how it was going, and she didn’t want to pry.

“What’s wrong, Aunt Rita?” Julie asked, hurrying over to squat by the armchair.

Rita smiled through a veil of tears. “Oh, nothing, honey. Don’t you worry about me. I’m just crying over memories.” She tapped the photo album. “Doesn’t your mama look sweet in this one?”

Julie sighed, and her worried expression turned to a sad smile. “She sure does. Where was that?”

“This was one of the many family weddings. I couldn’t tell you whose.

But I know she fought Mama tooth and nail over that dress.

She hated to wear a dress at that age, and this one has a big white bow in back.

She didn’t want to wear that thing, and Mama was determined to make her.

’Course, Momma won in the end.” Rita chuckled.

As Julie left to take a shower, Rita watched her go.

How much life Julie had ahead of her—so many adventures to undertake, promises to make, lives to change.

But not for Rita. She knew her best days were behind her.

Almost all she had now were memories, and those memories were being challenged.

It was too much to contemplate further, so she slapped the album shut and flicked off the light switch. Time for bed.