Page 63 of Finding Yesterday

“Oh.” My mind is spinning. What if Mama and Hannah were planning on doing something else together? “Is it weird that Mama just let the idea go, just like that?”

Daddy looks up in thought. “Maybe, I never really thought about it. She wanted to have a restaurant but put it on hold when she had you kids. So, I guess when she talked about doing it again and it didn’t work out, I didn’t think much of it.” He sighs. “You kids were still young, and she was happy going to the Bradys’ restaurant. I thought maybe she’d found an outlet for it there.”

“Makes sense,” I reply.

“Aunty Cwaire, are you going to start your own restaurant?” Dylan chimes in.

I chuckle, leaning over and squeezing his shoulder. “I don’t know, baby, should I?”

“Uh-huh!” He’s got shepherd’s pie all over his chin, and it’s the best review I’ve ever gotten.

“You like it, do you, Dylan?” Emma asks with a smile before looking at me. “And I agree with Dylan. I think this dish belongs in a restaurant.”

Ugh. I notice how Emma changes the meaning ever so slightly to compliment my cooking but not me owning a restaurant.

“I do three. This rocks,” Nate jumps in after swallowing a huge bite.

“Thanks, everyone.” I smile, pushing my annoyance with Emma aside. I’m excited they all love what I made.

“Honey, let me see that picture on your phone again.” Daddy extends his hand. When I give it to him, he studies it more before saying, “That sure does look like your Mama’s handwriting.”

“Really?” I jump up and grab the recipe card, putting it on the table next to the picture on my phone to compare. “It does,” I say, my breath stuck in my chest.

Daddy points at the picture. “And I think that says, ‘ruby mine.’” He shakes his head, chuckling. “Your mama had terrible penmanship.”

I gasp. “I couldn’t read what that said. But I think you’re right.” I look closer. Does this mean Mama wanted to build this place into the ruby mine? But how would she ever have the money to excavate and do something like that? Did Hannah? That doesn’t make any sense.

Maybe no one knew about it, but it’s starting to look like Mama and Hannahweremaking plans for something. Jack said so. And now the plans are somehow tied to the mine, indicated in Mama’s handwriting.

Mama going into the mine to find a ruby never added up to me. It didn’t fit Mama. But this does.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

THE SKY’S CASTINGshades of burnt orange along the horizon when I make it back to the hillside where the mine’s boarded off. This time, I’m not here to visit Mama.

Jack called and asked me to meet him here. I glance around, seeing a shadow appear through the trees, dimmed from the setting sun. And for the first time, I’m nervous to be here. I’m not sure why.

Jack appears from the foliage, and I wave him over.

He approaches, jamming his hands in his coat pockets. “Hey, Claire.”

“Hey.” I look up at him, and in this light, his eyes look like cognac with flecks of gold. I don’t know how he manages to always look so beautiful, in every setting and lighting, but he does. “I’m here.” My teeth chatter, and it’s a warm, muggy evening.

“I’m glad.” He looks around, a nervous expression on his face. “Okay, I had a plan, but now that we’re here, I dunno.” He stares at the entrance to the mine.

Is he going to ask me to go inside with him? “So, what’s going on, Jack? Why are we here?” I’d told Jack about how Daddy recognized the handwriting on the drawing as Mama’s, and how he’d read the words, “ruby mine” on it.

“I, um…” He presses his lips together. “You’ve been in the mine before?”

“Yes. I went into the mine as a kid and teenager, but I never found anything. Are you wanting to go in?”

He scratches at his tattoo, looking around. A bead of sweat forms on his brow. “Yeah. I’ve actually tried to go in a couple of times since I’ve been back in town, but never followed through.”

I remember back to the day in the wine cellar when Jack told me that he had a problem with enclosed spaces. “You think you can go in now?”

“I want to. So much. You know, to see if there’s any answers to what happened that day, just as you wanted to.” He shifts from one foot to another. “But I just…I can’t.”

I squeeze his arm. “I’m sorry, Jack.” I nod toward the mine. “You don’t have to go in. I’ve been in there. There’s not much to see.”

---