goal and what you’re trying to achieve.”
He knew that look. She was thinking and that was good. “Take the beef strudel recipe for instance,” he said. “You got carried away with certain ingredients so it didn’t taste so hot. If you’re really serious about learning to cook, how about taking a cooking class? I understand there’re several good ones in New Orleans. If you’d like, I’ll see if they offer Saturday classes.”
Her smile came back and it brightened her entire face. “You would do that for me, Dad?”
He smiled at her. “Don’t you know that I would do just about anything for you, Jade?”
She nodded and then flung herself into his arms and hugged him. “Yes, I’d like that and you are the best dad ever.”
And you, he thought, are my pride and joy.
THE NEXT MORNING after breakfast, Vashti and Bryce went to Berkshire Nursing Home to visit Ms. Gertie who didn’t recognize either of them. Bryce had tried preparing Vashti, but seeing the older woman in such a state tore at her. She tried engaging in conversation with Ms. Gertie but the older woman became annoyed and told them she didn’t appreciate being interrupted while watching CNN.
According to Bryce, Ms. Gertie’s son, daughter-in-law and grandson didn’t visit her often because it bothered them when she didn’t recognize them. Vashti thought that was a poor excuse. Whether Ms. Gertie recognized them shouldn’t matter. The important thing was that she wasn’t left alone, and that they recognized her and remembered her importance in their lives.
“When you visit her tomorrow it might be a different story,” Bryce said as they left the nursing home. “She might remember you.”
“Unfortunately, I’m leaving first thing in the morning.” And what she didn’t have to tell Bryce was that she didn’t plan to come back.
Bryce gave her a look that told her exactly what she thought of that, but let it be. “We’ll stop by the folks’ place before driving out to Shelby by the Sea. Mom and Dad would love to see you.”
“Alright.” Vashti wanted to see them as well. Vashti would admit to being surprised at how friendly two of her former classmates had been when she ran into them at the nursing home, almost as if they were glad to see her. She had once considered Charlette Hansberry and Mavis Green to be her good friends, until she’d gotten pregnant and they’d become scarce. Their mothers had probably ordered them to stay away from her, but still it hurt. She’d needed more of her friends during that time, not less of them.
It turned out Charlette owned the nursing home, having taken over for her parents when they decided to retire and move to California to be close to their only son and grandkids. Charlette was divorced with a six-year-old son. Mavis was the head nurse on staff. She had married her childhood sweetheart, Hugh Green. Like a number of men in town, Hugh worked at the blueberry factory and the couple had two kids.
“I was surprised Charlette and Mavis gave me the time of day,” Vashti said, getting into Bryce’s car and buckling the seat belt.
“Why wouldn’t they?” Bryce asked glancing over at her before starting the car.
“Do I need to remind you of how things were for me here, back then?”
“No, but that was back then, Vash. Years ago. People change and ideas they might have had change, too. I’m sure they look back at that time with regret about how they treated you. If I remember correctly, it was their parents forbidding them to have a friendship with you and not them doing it on their own.”
“Your parents didn’t forbid you to hang out with me,” Vashti reminded her. Once she’d gotten pregnant, the parents of some of her friends acted like pregnancy was catching. However, she knew what they were really worried about was that since she’d been sexually active that made her a loose girl and they didn’t want their daughters around anyone they thought lacked morals.
“My parents weren’t your typical parents,” Bryce said.
“Yes, that’s true.” It had been rumored that back in the day when he’d graduated from high school here, Chester Witherspoon had fled to Canada to avoid fighting in the Vietnam war. It wasn’t that he’d been a coward; he just didn’t feel the country needed to go to war. At least he hadn’t at first. A year later he returned with a wife and baby in tow. It was then that he’d decided to do his patriotic duty and enlist, leaving Bryce’s mom and three-month-old brother in the care of his parents.
After returning home from the war, Bryce’s parents had another son before Bryce, their only daughter, was born. Although Bryce never said and Vashti never asked, if you did the math of the date the Witherspoons celebrated their anniversary and the close proximity to Bryce’s oldest brother’s age, her mother was pregnant before her parents had married. Both of Bryce’s brothers, Ryan and Duke, lived in Catalina Cove and were partners with their parents in the family-owned café.
“I honestly think Mavis and Charlette were glad to see you again,” Bryce was saying, interrupting Vashti’s thoughts. “If you give Catalina Cove a chance, I think you’d find people aren’t the same.”
Vashti chuckled. “Oh, they feel they can change but they want the town to stay the same?”
“Pretty much. I don’t have a problem with some change here but I don’t want too many developers coming in here and changing things. You recall what I told you about Allen Heart.”
Yes, she remembered. Bryce had family who’d lived in Allen Heart, South Carolina, years ago when it had just been a small town with no name recognition. A mass of developers came in and all but ran the locals out when property taxes soared. Most of the residents had been forced to sell homes and land that had been in their family for years when they couldn’t pay escalated taxes.
Vashti glanced over at Bryce. “Are you saying you don’t want the Barnes Group to buy Shelby by the Sea? Do I need to remind you how much commission you’d make with the sale?”
“No, you don’t need to remind me. I was thinking about what I would do with all that money. It would be nice but it won’t buy me happiness, Vash.”
Vashti thought about that then asked, “And what would make you happy, Bryce?”
They had stopped the car at a traffic light and Bryce glanced over at her. “I’m thirty-two and have never been married so to start off, a husband would be nice.”
“Don’t wish for things you’re better off not having, Bryce.”
“And please don’t think every man is a loser like Scott,” Bryce begged. “I want to believe my soul mate is still out there.”
“Still reading those romance novels, are you?” That had been Bryce’s favorite pastime. She had been reading them long before her mother discovered she’d been doing so.
Bryce chuckled as she moved the car forward. “And what if I am?”
Vashti shook her head. “Because they are filled with unrealistic expectations and are a real disservice to women.”
“I beg to differ. They provide some of us with hope.”
Vashti decided not to counter. If that’s what Bryce believed then she wouldn’t try bursting her bubble, but personally, she knew better. There was no such thing as that much passion and desire. And most of the time it was the woman who worked at the romance part. A man was out for what he could get. He had needs.
But then so did women.
She hadn’t thought much about those needs until yesterday when she’d been pulled over by the town’s sexy hot sheriff. She would admit that for the first time in years...possibly ever, she’d felt attracted to a man. Really attracted to one. At least the encounter