Page 27 of Leave It to Us
Now she was out here, doing what she’d always loved. Some birds flew overhead. Not nearly as high above as she would’ve preferred, butthey made a loud squawking noise that frightened the rabbit and sent it skittering off into the deeper parts of the marsh. She still didn’t move, not right away. Instead, she stayed in that squatting position and lowered her camera.
Everything was so still here. She’d always remarked at how slow things tended to move on the island as opposed to in the city, where she’d thrived nine months out of the year, going to school and then modeling or photography class, or whatever other extracurricular activity Freda thought would make her college applications more appealing. From late June to mid-August, she’d enjoyed doing nothing more than waking up in the morning; devouring a huge breakfast Grandma Betty, or the cook she sometimes employed, had prepared; and then spending the rest of the day doing whatever she wanted. That had usually been either walking around the island and taking pictures, lying in the lounger on the back porch and flipping through magazines, or writing letters to her friends back in the city.
In the years since she’d been out of college, Lana had never had as relaxing a vacation as the summers she’d spent here. She hadn’t realized how much she missed that until this very moment.
Shaking herself free of the memories, she rose to a standing position. With her camera still in one hand but its strap around her neck, she’d already started to look for another shot. She’d taken a couple of steps, wondering if she should chance going toward the underbrush. Small deer, raccoons, foxes, and bobcats had been known to wander near the wax myrtle and briars, all of which would make a phenomenal set of pictures if she were planning a wildlife exhibit, but she wasn’t. And she wasn’t in the mood to be scared out of her mind should she actually come face-to-face with a fox or bobcat. She’d seen plenty of deer while on vacations with Isaac’s parents at their mountainside cabin and wasn’t necessarily afraid of them. In fact, she’d captured plenty of them on camera. But again, she hadn’t incorporated animals into any of hershows in the past, and she wasn’t about to start now, no matter how much this particular spot seemed to be pulling her in.
All her shows predominantly centered on city life, skyscraper buildings, cars in traffic, the sun rising over the city and setting over Boston Harbor. The whale shots she’d taken the day she’d met Isaac were a memory she’d immortalized in a twenty-four-by-thirty-six print that hung above their bed.
Her phone chimed, and when she eased it out of the back pocket of her jeans, she saw Isaac’s name on the screen. It was as if, from miles away, he could sense she’d been thinking of him.
“Hey,” she said, sounding a little breathless.
“Hey, baby. How’s it going?”
Without a second thought, she let out a heavy sigh. “It’s going, I guess. Met with the contractor this morning, and he has a list a mile long of things that need to be done and that Grandma Betty wanted done. It’s going to take much longer than I thought.”
“Well, you were planning to take the summer to work on your next show, anyway, so maybe just focus on that.” Isaac’s voice had always been soothing to her. It wasn’t deep like Deacon’s or raspy and juvenile sounding like Jeremiah’s, which was probably why the guy irritated her a little.
“How am I supposed to focus on work when I’ve got to stay in that house every night with my sisters? You know we don’t get along, especially in close proximity for long periods of time,” she said.
“But they are your sisters, and you used to stay in that house together before.”
“We used to share a bathroom at one point in our lives too, but that doesn’t mean we want to go back to doing that,” she argued. “Yvonne’s her normal I-can-do-all-things-better-than-anybody-else self, and Tami’s still in TamiLand, deciding what she does and doesn’t want in the house without even consulting us.”
He gave a gruff laugh. “You’re adults now. I’m sure the three of you can come together and get this done for your grandmother’s sake.”
“She’s gone,” she snapped, and then hated how the words left a bitter taste in her mouth. Grandma Betty was gone, and now she and her sisters were here to do whatever it was their grandmother had wanted. Why couldn’t she just focus on that? Hadn’t she hoped that the differences in their personalities wouldn’t cause too much stress? It had occurred to her in that moment that perhaps her quick temper where her sisters were concerned wasn’t totally their fault.
“I know that, baby,” Isaac continued. “But I also know how much you loved her. I heard it in your voice each time you talked about your summers there. All of you loved her, and she loved each of you. That’s why she left this house to you.”
Lana shook her head. She didn’t want to think too long and hard about thewhyof this thing Grandma Betty had asked of them. “I just know that it came at the right time. We need the money from the sale of this house, and we need it sooner than twelve weeks from now. Did you ask for the extension?” She’d suggested that to him just before he’d taken her to the airport, and he hadn’t responded. She hoped for a positive response this time. Maybe then her mood would improve—at least a little.
“I’ve got that under control,” he said, his voice tight. “I told you that before you left.”
They had talked about the debt before she’d left, but she still felt so unsettled about how they were going to deal with it this time around.
“It’s my problem, Lana. I’ll handle it.”
“You don’t have the money, Isaac. I’ve checked the balances on all the accounts. The only other account you have in your name only is at the credit union, and I saw that statement when it came to the house last month. You don’t have thirty-seven thousand dollars.”
He was quiet for so long she thought he might’ve hung up. If he had, she would’ve had yet another reason to be annoyed at him and mayhave used that as an excuse to fly home and cuss him out in person. But she’d refrained from going that route with Isaac. Going off and letting loose with all the thoughts she had about him and his weakness for gambling was something she’d been telling herself she wouldn’t do. Because what good was going to come of it? Would saying all those harmful words and reminding him he’d promised to love and trust her make him confess to why he was doing this thing that was threatening their marriage? She wasn’t a trained or licensed therapist, but she knew that wasn’t how addictions worked.
“You don’t have to clean up after me, Lana. I’ve told you that before.”
“And you’ve also accepted every dime I’ve given you to pay off whatever bookie or whoever you owe this money to.” Some type of insect flew past her face, and she waved it away, almost slapping herself on the forehead in the process. Then she sighed. “You’re my husband; of course I’m going to help you.”
“Not this time. I got it this time, baby.”
She let her head fall back and closed her eyes for a few seconds. “By taking out a second mortgage on the condo?” she asked, unable to hide the irritation in her tone. “I got an email from the bank this morning asking for my business account or profit and loss statements. They need them to properly evaluate our financial situation in order to consider the refinance.”
He let out a heavy breath. “Lana, I’m trying to fix this.”
“By putting our home in danger?” she yelled. “Are you serious right now? You’re willing to risk the home we’ve spent these past years building together—the place we planned to begin our family—for a gambling debt?”
“I’ve got to pay them soon,” he replied tightly.
“That’s why I came all the way down here, still hoping we could get this house sold! If you would just ask for the extension, like anotherthirty days, I can push harder to get this work done so we can put it on the market.”
