Page 40 of Share with Me

Mom waved her off as if Brinley was being silly. “This is our first grandchild.”

“When do you leave?” Brinley asked.

“Tonight as soon as Gene fuels up.”

Tonight.

“There’s more,” Dad said.

“Okay. What?”

“Cara’s out of town next week to visit her family in Arkansas.”

“And?”

“So you’ll have to keep an eye on Aunt Ella.”

“No way, Dad. Call her caregiver. Have her come down here.”Why me? Haven’t I done enough?

“She gets the holidays off. It’s in the contract.”

“I’ve got things to do.”

Mom smiled. “Take Aunt Ella with you. She’ll enjoy it.”

What about me?

“One more thing.” Dad shifted in his seat.

Brinley groaned.

“I have a fundraising event next week I need you to attend in my place.”

“I can’t take Aunt Ella with me.”

“You’ll figure out something, Brinley Brin.”

Take care of it, Brinley Brin.

“Monday night at The Cloister,” Dad continued. “You could even walk there.”

“You know I’ll drive.”

“It’s the annual Oglethorpe Charity Dinner.”

“I remember that one.”

“You’ll like this. Two violins are going to be auctioned off. One Guarneri and the other… Guess.”

“A Strad.”

“Got your attention.” Dad nodded. “The proceeds will benefit the Sea Islands Preservation Society. Do you still have your colonial garb?”

“Sure do, but the question is whether I can still fit into it.” The silk dress was patterned after something that her colonial ancestor, Rosemary Larkin Brooks, would’ve worn to her wedding in 1734.

Could have. Nobody knew what she had worn, really.

Brinley had it made the year before when she began attending the Oglethorpe Charity Dinner. Dad would’ve gone as General Oglethorpe, but that was already reserved for a paid interpreter. Instead, Dad went as Jeremiah Brooks, that rice planter who’d gone to Savannah to help Oglethorpe cultivate the land and who’d fallen in love with the indentured servant his cousin had died freeing.

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