Page 29 of Leave It to Us
Here was a part of Isaac she cherished. He knew about all her family baggage. He was the only one she’d ever confided in about all her hurt and disappointment concerning her family. And he’d always given her level and sound advice whenever she’d poured into him. Sure, he’d made it known that she was his priority and that he’d always have her back, but he’d also never shied away from telling her when she or the way she was thinking might’ve been wrong or a little diluted by the pain she still carried.
“I know,” she replied. “And I’m trying to keep my mouth shut in that regard. Besides, Yvonne’s gonna say it for both of us, so really, I’ve just gotta wait it out. I swear, though, Isaac, it feels like we’re teenagers again, all of us in that house last night and then this morning.” She didn’t tell him about the sink fiasco, even though the thought of it brought a wistful smile to her face. Not the part about the busted pipe, but the part where she and her sisters were laughing together. “It feltlike Grandma Betty was right there, smiling the way she used to when we’d arrive for the summer or on Thanksgiving.”
“Then that’s what you hold on to, baby. That good part right there. Even when things seem really bad—the worst, even—that’s when you gotta remember the good and hold on tight, Lana. Hold on tight to the good.”
She was still thinking about Isaac’s words an hour later, when she was sitting in the parlor across from Yvonne and Tami, awaiting the first of what she knew were going to be many tough discussions between them.
Chapter 13
LANA
“I think we should do all the things on Deacon’s list; plus, we should work on the little blue house out back,” Tami said, starting the meeting.
She and Lana had each received Yvonne’s text telling them they should talk before heading out to Ms.Janie’s house. While they weren’t expected there for another few hours, Lana knew her older sister well enough to accept that she didn’t want to wait until the moments just before they were scheduled to be out together in public. If their history had taught them anything, it was to give each other time and space to be angry enough to want to fight and then calm down.
Judging by the way Tami had kicked things off, there were definitely going to be some disagreements during this discussion.
“His list was already extensive,” Lana said, speaking up from where she sat at the end of the floral-patterned couch, which had been there ever since she could remember. It wasn’t a pretty couch, with huge burgundy and yellow flowers amid a cream-colored background, but it was still the most comfortable spot in the room. Which was probably why it was always the spot Lana chose to sit in when she was there. “And he didn’t sound optimistic about the money in the escrow account being enough to cover it, so how do you suppose we add on to that?”
Her tone was sharp, but after her conversation with Isaac and the feelings it had evoked, this situation was just making things worse.
Tami sat on the floor across from the piano, her legs crossed in front of her the way they used to be in kindergarten. She held the spiral notebook from that morning in her lap as she stared at Lana intently. “You don’t understand what this all means, do you? Or can you just not see beyond dollar signs? Don’t you and your rich computer-geek husband have enough money?”
Lana sat forward. “What you’re not gonna do is bring my husband into this,” she said, her tone lethal.
Yvonne lifted both her arms now, flashing a hand in Lana’s direction and in Tami’s. She was sitting in one of the two chairs on opposite ends of the couch. “Okay, just calm down for a minute. We can discuss this with level heads,” she told them. “And that means you don’t throw any cheap shots, Tami.”
Tami pursed her lips and rolled her eyes skyward the way Lana could recall her doing for most of her childhood.
“Lana’s right: Isaac has nothing to do with what’s happening here in this house. The decisions that need to be made only concern us, as we’re the owners of this property.” Yvonne took a slow breath and let her arms drop to her lap. “Now, we’re going to take this one step at a time.”
Because Yvonne said so.Lana held in those words as she fell back on the couch once again. She rested an elbow on the arm and brought that hand up to rub her temple. These two were already working her nerves.
“I guess what that really means is, ‘Tami, shut up, and do what we say,’” Tami snapped. “Just like old times.”
“That’s not what it means,” Yvonne shot back. “You just don’t like doing anything anyone else says.”
“Because you are not my mother,” Tami said.
Yvonne huffed, and Lana watched with amusement, as it was now her turn to deal with Tami’s slick-ass mouth without grabbing her by the shoulders and trying to shake some sense into her. Something bothYvonne and Lana had done on more than one occasion when they were young. Tami was truly the most exasperating person to try to get through to.
“Girl, you don’t know how much I thanked the good Lord I wasn’t cursed with a child like you,” Yvonne said in a tone that was oddly calm for her in this particular situation. “But for the sake of our grandmother, I’m here, and I’m trying to do the right thing.”
Wasn’t that what Lana was doing too? Trying to abide by Grandma Betty’s wishesandget this house sold in time to save her marriage?
“Now, before you so rudely jumped to the wrong conclusion, I was going to tell you to speak your piece,” Yvonne said to Tami. “Do you think you can do that without all your usual theatrics?”
Instead of looking properly chastised, Tami quirked her lips and then cleared her throat. “I’ve been looking at houses on the island since we found out we’d be coming here last week. And what I notice about the new builds, and even the look of the resorts that are now trying to take over, is that there’s a very modern flair. Like they’re trying to bring the outside world onto Daufuskie. But then, when I sit and think about our time here, all the things that made this place special to me—and I think to Grandma Betty, why she decided to live out her retirement here instead of Beverly Hills or some other luxurious place that she certainly could’ve afforded—it’s the basic simplicity. Daufuskie represents what once was, what our people lived through in the harshest of times and what they built through hope and resilience.
“It’s that part of us that this world is always trying to bury, to take away and put into a box or a long-lost history book. But what we have here right now, on this day”—she highlighted her words by tapping a finger on her notebook—“is the opportunity to bring all of the things that made us come back to this house—and that house out there, where our great-grandfather used to come in after fishing for enough oysters to sell and take care of his family. We have a chance to put every ounce of our history back into this place and to preserve it for the next generationof Butler sisters, or sons, or even the husbands and wives of those sisters and sons. This is our legacy. And I believe Grandma Betty brought us all back here to preserve it in a way that she couldn’t.”
Tami should’ve been an actress. The way her eyes had widened as she spoke, her voice giving just enough inflection at the proper times to have Yvonne’s shoulders relaxing and Lana’s fingers ceasing to massage her temples. It took everything in her not to clap at the performance. That could possibly be because there was truth to some of her sister’s words. Lana could admit that even if the admission didn’t change her position.
“Don’t you get it?” Tami continued when neither Lana nor Yvonne replied to her comments. “This is our opportunity to create generational wealth—if either of you even know what that is.”
Yvonne sighed. “We know what it is, Tami. And it’s not like we don’t already have generational wealth in the family. Mama’s house will pass to the three of us.”
“You sure about that?” Tami asked. “Mama acts like she can barely tolerate being in the same room with me for any length of time. I would think I’m the last person she’d want to give anything to.”
