Page 26 of Leave It to Us
“Definitely,” he said. “Actually, if you give me your email address, I can send it to you now, and you can print it out at your leisure.”
She nodded, recalling the small office located on the first floor of the house. Grandma Betty had never liked computers and all the “learnin’” she’d said had come along with them, but she did have oneon the pretty antique desk in the office. Along with that, there was one of those multifunctional printers too.
“Of course,” she said, and then stepped closer to him to rattle off her email address.
“Great,” Jeremiah said. “So we’ll leave you be now, let you get settled in. Ms.Janie’s having a shrimp boil down at her place later on tonight. She told me to let you know if you wanna stop by. Nothin’ formal, just everybody comin’ and goin’ as they please, getting some good food and chattin’ it up a bit.”
Deacon grinned. “Yeah, you know how we do down here. Nothin’ fancy—just good ole-fashioned fun. Man, I miss this when I’m in the city.”
“Oh, you live in the city?” Yvonne asked, not sure why she hadn’t considered that.
Sure, you could tell both men were from the South, but there was also a bit of an edge to them. It was in the way they dressed, the way they talked, and she was certain they’d both had to leave the island to attend undergrad, and law school for Jeremiah. Now, Deacon, on the other hand, she’d have to do a little research on. She figured he’d have to have a degree in construction or some other formal study to be running his own company. TheDW CONSTRUCTIONin hunter-green print on the side of his white work truck had clued her in to him being the owner. That, and the totally boss way he’d walked into the house and taken complete control of the walk-around.
“I’m on and off,” he said. “My company’s based in Charleston, but I was born here on the island. My mother, sister, and her family still live here.”
“Oh, okay. That makes sense,” she said. Not that it mattered.
“Yeah, I gotta take a break,” Lana said, and then headed toward the back of the house. “I’m gonna take a walk or something. Try to wrap my mind around all this.”
Again, Yvonne noted the edge—no, the bitterness—in Lana’s tone. There was definitely something bothering her, and Yvonne wasn’t totally sure it was just this situation with the house or the loss of their grandmother. Lana was the easygoing one of the trio. She took things as they came, but she was also very intentional about her actions. She’d wanted to take pictures instead of model, and she’d done it, despite Freda’s misgivings and hesitance over paying for any of the classes that had come with both of those endeavors. She’d wanted to major in fine arts at MassArt, but Freda had fervently argued that the arts weren’t a viable career. Lana had taken all the AP classes she could handle in high school and applied for every scholarship there was until she was rewarded with a full scholarship to the school of her dreams. That had made Freda’s case against the school, and Lana’s decided career path, a little weaker. And once Lana had graduated, she landed a prestigious internship in Cambridge. After that, she’d returned to Boston a couple of years later, not only with a fine arts degree with a specialty in photography but also with her first gallery showing scheduled and a handsome husband as well.
This version of her sister, who had been so argumentative with Tami yesterday and was both rushed and bothered today, wasn’t Lana.
“Fine,” Tami said. “I’m still hungry, and I want to take some more notes, so I’m going to fix something to eat and sit out on the back porch for a while.”
“Then I’ll print out the list and figure out what our next steps will be,” Yvonne said. She left off the fact that she was always the one to take charge, even though she knew her sisters wanted to toss out their opinions. In the end, all the big decisions would be on her. Every move they made would rest on her, just as Freda had told her. Just as Yvonne had always hated.
“Cool,” Deacon said. “I just sent the email. I’ll be at Ms.Janie’s tonight if either of you have any questions. But I think we should planto get started by the end of this week, especially if you want to try and keep that twelve-week schedule.”
“And I’m just a phone call away,” Jeremiah said. “So just reach out if you need anything or if you have questions. Sallie said she’s coming by later this afternoon, but she doesn’t know the specifics on the will and such—so those questions, definitely shoot my way. Tami has my number.”
He didn’t really have to say that last part. The way the two of them had walked side by side during the entire walk-around had sealed their newfound connection. Yvonne had decided it was easier not to fret over how ridiculously quick her sister seemed to move in the love—or rather, lust—department.
Yvonne had never been that fast, or that experienced, in such things. Perhaps because she’d been too busy trying to maintain a mature and responsible facade, which had embedded in her mind that doing something as fanciful as flirting or flourishing in a romantic relationship was a lot harder than it probably should’ve been.
“Great,” she said, and then cleared her throat. “Thanks for coming by. We’ll let you know something tonight or tomorrow. I know that time is of the essence, so we won’t be drawing this out. The renovations need to be done. We just have to figure out how we’re going to pay for whatever isn’t covered by the escrow account.”
She also had to figure out why she felt compelled to agree with Tami, of all people, that preserving the historical elements was imperative for future generations. But those generations wouldn’t be theirs, right? Not if they sold the house.
Chapter 12
LANA
With her camera raised, body still, eyes poised on the stretch of saltwater marshland in the distance, Lana waited for the right moment. A rabbit had wandered into her line of sight. It seemed bigger than any rabbit she’d ever seen in a pet store or even at the zoo when she’d been there on school trips as a child.
Its eyes were wide and dark but alert. Or perhapsinquisitivewas more like it. Maybe it felt like she did, being surrounded by so much that was familiar and yet still questioning everything around her. The rabbit was also bigger, plumper, around the midsection as it sat back on its haunches, ears sticking straight up. It knew she was there, knew there was an interruption to its ecosystem, its daily routine. She was the interruption.
So she remained perfectly still. She’d already knelt down so that she’d be more level with the beautiful animal, hoping that by doing so, the tall, wispy strands of grass wouldn’t block her view. They hadn’t, instead adding an extra layer to the picture she was trying to capture. Another texture that would pop through, first on her computer screen and then—once she’d made any necessary adjustments—inprint, giving the image life. Every picture should tell a story, and this one she’d already namedWonder.
It was indeed a wonder that through all the turmoil going on inside her head, she’d been able to find a semblance of calm, a piece of the normal to latch on to. Every shot was one of a kind, no matter the likeness to something else. It was one moment, one chance, one snap of the camera at just the right moment.
Snap!
She pressed the shutter button, and the camera whirred. She’d set it on high speed so she’d end up with multiple shots, hopefully catching any sudden movements or changes in the shot she’d zoomed in on and adjusted in her lens. When taking live shots like this one, she liked to have options, to be able to study the pictures for every detail before deciding which would be the final one.
Choices and chances: something she knew she’d taken for granted in life. For as long as she could remember, her one focus had been doing what she wanted, in the way she wanted to. Her mother hadn’t allowed Yvonne to do that. No, her older sister had been doomed to be Freda’s clone, from the order of her birth to the similarities in their looks and personality. While Lana had been the only sister to get Freda’s deep-mocha hue, Yvonne had their mother’s high cheekbones, take-charge attitude, and smile. Even though neither of them smiled nearly enough.
Seeing Yvonne lying on that floor, giving in to Tami’s infectious laugh and Lana’s deep belly chuckles, had been a sight Lana hadn’t realized how much she’d missed. To be fair, that whole moment—even if it had resulted in each of them being soaked and her sisters landing on the floor—had been as refreshing as the balmy summer air she now breathed. It had made her heart sigh in a way that was foreign but welcome at the same time. And all she’d wanted was to fix something to eat and get started with the work that needed to be done.
