Page 31 of Happy Harbor
“Mom, we have the house and the restaurant...”
“I don’t care what happens to any of it. Now, go get packed!”
“What happened? Why are you acting this way?”
“Because of me.” Kendra didn’t recognize the voice, but when she turned to see who was speaking, she knew exactly who the woman was—Diane, her grandmother. She’d only seen her once or twice in her whole life, and then she’d disappeared again when she relapsed.
“Grandma?”
“Don’t call her that! She’s Diane, and nothing more,” Josie said, giving Kendra a look of warning.
“Josie, can we please just sit down and talk?”
“There’s nothing to talk about, and right now you’re trespassing on my property.”
“Wait, so itisour property, or it isn’t?” Kendra asked.
“Don’t be a smart aleck,” Josie said.
Kendra felt tears welling up. She hated crying. It made her eyes blurry and made her feel dizzy.
“Can I say something?” Walker suddenly said. Between her mother and grandmother screaming at each other, and Kendra worrying that she had to go back to Atlanta, she had totally forgotten he was standing there.
“What business is it of yours?” Josie asked, turning around.
“Well, none, honestly. But it seems like you could use an objective third party here.”
“I don’t want anybody’s opinion. I’m going upstairs to pack. Kendra, you need to pack too. And Diane, get off my property.”
Without another word, Josie went into the house, slamming the screen door behind her.
CHAPTEREIGHT
Josie went to her grandmother’s study to try to calm down. It was the one place in the house that she most remembered. She would often see Nana sitting there early in the morning, reading her Bible and drinking her first cup of coffee of the day. She could still smell the lingering scent of her perfume in the room. On the credenza, she noticed a big stack of mail that would need to be sorted, but she’d think about that later.
She picked up the Bible that was sitting on the table next to her favorite chair and ran her fingers across the rough leather cover. This Bible had seen a lot of use over the years, but Nana had refused to replace it. She said that once you’ve broken in a Bible, you keep it forever. She didn’t need anything new because all of her notes were in this one, and all her prayers had seeped into every page.
Josie had never been particularly religious, although her grandmother had tried to get her into church over the years. Not that she didn’t believe in God. She just didn’t believe in religion. She didn’t believe in people.
And right now, she wondered if she believed in Nana. Why in the world would she do something like this? Why would she force Josie into the position of working with her estranged mother?
Nana had never talked about Josie seeing Diane. She always allowed her to bring it up on her own. Once she was an adult, and especially after she had Kendra, neither of them ever brought it up. It was like an unspoken rule. They didn’t talk about Diane.
So why did she do this? Josie felt betrayed, frustrated, and upset. She missed her grandmother more than anything, but she was mad at her. And she didn’t know if she would ever get over it.
What was she to do? The thought of looking at her mother every single day at work made her want to vomit. She’d left that life behind so many years ago, and now it was just dredging everything up again. If she had been on her own, she would’ve made the easy decision to leave town and never look back.
However, if she didn’t find a job soon, she and Kendra would have nowhere to live and nothing to live on. And even if she somehow did find a new job, Kendra hated school and didn’t want to go back. If she stayed here, she had a house and a business, and she could support them. Plus, maybe Kendra would do better in school and have some kind of future ahead of her.
She needed an alternative to her nana’s plan, some sort of compromise. She’d talk to Joe about it.
She stood up and walked over to look out the window. Nana’s study overlooked the side garden, and she often found her grandmother standing there staring down at her beautiful roses. She said there was nothing more soothing than reading her Bible and looking at her flowers. Josie wished she had some of that peace. Right now, all she felt was turmoil.
It was a familiar feeling, at least. It wasn’t like she’d had a peaceful life, even when she had lived with her grandmother. Although Nana did everything she could to make life normal, Josie always knew that her mother was missing. She always felt abandoned. She always felt unwanted and unloved.
How a mother could choose alcohol over her own child was beyond her. Josie made a point of drinking rarely because she never wanted to get addicted. She decided her daughter wouldn’t have an absentee mother, and she had kept that promise. It was the one thing she was most proud of in her life.
“You okay?” Walker was standing in the doorway of the study, leaning against the doorframe.
