Page 42 of Share with Me

Chapter Fifteen

Brinley was pickingup her evening gown and packing up her suitcase in Mom’s library when her widowed sister-in-law messaged her an apology. She couldn’t make lunch. Again. This was the umpteenth time Riley Brooks had canceled.

Every time Brinley was in town she tried to get together with Riley because she and her two kids were the closest connection she had left with her older brother, Parker, who had died in a drowning accident about five years before.

Brinley messaged back a quick “no problem,” but she didn’t like it. Riley had been cooped up in her sprawling estate on Sea Island for a long time now. She and Parker had used to go to church but she didn’t anymore. The last Brinley had heard, the kids still went but only if someone else gave them a ride back and forth. Brinley didn’t know how to help Riley get out of her unhealthy and protracted grieving period.

Perhaps she could ask Yun McMillan this afternoon when she had tea at her house. Perhaps she had some sort of sagacious wisdom for her about matters of life and death. She’d find out.

Brinley rolled the suitcase toward the door and turned off the light on her way out. The hallway was quiet. Twenty years ago it wasn’t. As a precocious six-year-old child she had tried to keep up with her older brothers Dillon and Parker as they played cowboys up and down this very hallway back in the days when the floor was then new parquet and running on it made a lot of noise. Considering that Brinley was cattle while her older brothers were cowboys, she did a lot of running if she didn’t want to be lassoed.

Today, the floor was a darker tone of hickory wood. So many layers of history there.

She left her suitcase and the pile of evening gown outside Dillon’s door and then headed for the elevator rather than the stairs because the former went downstairs to the hallway outside the gourmet chef’s kitchen.

She headed for the refrigerator. Cara always had food there. Brinley was foraging for said food in the double-wide Sub-Zero when she heard the sound of clogs getting louder in the French country kitchen.

She spun around. She was right. It was Cara. She was wearing what looked like Mom’s old pink lambs-wool sweater. Mom usually cleared her wardrobe once a year, and Cara and her teenage daughters got first dibs.

“My sweet Brinley!” Cara opened up her arms and waited for Brinley to hug her. “I didn’t see you last night after the party since I had to leave early.”

Brinley smiled.Earlyto Cara meant she left the house before midnight.

“My husband is still sick with the cold and he’s very needy when he’s sick.”

“I hope he feels better, Cara.”

“He will be. I made him chicken soup last night. Then he slept like a baby.”

“There you go,” Brinley said. “What did Dr. Endecott say about Aunt Ella?”

“She’s disoriented and confused, probably because she’s not taking her medicine properly. Might also be an early onset of dementia.”

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.”

“We just need to keep an eye on her until her caregiver comes back to get her. Then she can go home to her regular physician and they’ll take care of it.” Cara walked past Brinley. “What are you looking for? Lunch?”

“Yes.”

“What did you have for breakfast?”

“Coffee and doughnuts.”

“Doughnuts!” Cara made atsk-tsksound. “How about chicken curry with saffron rice for lunch? Salad on the side. Homemade dressing. And your favorite apple pie, baked from scratch just the way you like it. All organic.”

Cara had prepared for Brinley’s arrival. “I feel loved.”

Cara seemed pleased to hear that. “They just opened a new organic grocery store on Demere. It’s a hit.”

“You bought and cooked me my favorite food. Why are you always so good to me?”

Cara hadn’t changed. She had always been like that. She had fed the Brooks kids all the time. If not for the high Brooks metabolism, Brinley and her siblings would not have been able to work off the high carbohydrates and sugar. Overall, Cara had cared for the three of them better than Brinley’s parents could ever do with their jet-setting lifestyle. When not running global companies or campaigning for their favorite political candidates, they’d be on vacation.

Parker, Dillon, Brinley, and Zoe, in that order, grew up with Cara. She had bathed them, driven them to school, helped them with homework, taken them to soccer and swimming and field trips. She had been their surrogate mother.

To be fair, Brinley’s parents had done the best they could. They loved the kids in their own special way. What they couldn’t provide, Grandpa Brooks had made up for the lack. What Grandpa couldn’t be there for—which was most of the time with his own busy schedule—they had Cara to fall back on. The erstwhile nanny and current housekeeper had always been there for the kids.

Quietly, Cara took out containers of food. When she turned around, Brinley thought she saw tears in Cara’s eyes.

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