“Obviously,” I said.
“Done.” She held out my phone. I took it and gave her back her own.
She settled behind the wheel.
“Are we on for dinner?” I asked.
“Count on it.”
“Great.” I shut the car door.
She rolled down the window and peered up at me. “This is real, right? You’re not my imagination?”
I placed my hands on the window frame. “I’m as real as they come.”
“Good. Because I don’t like fake people.” She gave me one more smile before starting the car. I watched as she exited out of the parking lot onto Fourth Street. For a second, I stood there, marveling at the day’s events. Was this truly a second chance? My second chance to make Carlie Webster mine forever? God willing.
7
Carlie
When I arrived home, my mother was on her covered back patio shelling peas. Sitting on the old porch swing we’d had since I was a child, she tapped one foot to country radio playing from the Bluetooth device I’d gotten her for Christmas. Her silvery hair framed her small face, pink from the heat. She wore a pair of cream-colored overall shorts that a woman almost seventy shouldn’t be able to pull off, but her trim, tanned frame made it so. As a child, I’d thought she was the prettiest mom in town, and I still thought so.
“Mom, isn’t it kind of warm out here?”
“Feels good to my old bones.”
“Where did this massive bowl of peas come from?” I asked.
“Nora brought them over. She’s overrun with them and knows I don’t have a garden any longer.”
I looked out to the empty pen overrun with weeds where my dad had grown vegetables. Another thing I would need to tidy up before we put the house on the market.
“Do you miss the vegetables in the summer?” I sat next to her on the swing and gathered a dozen unshelled peas onto my lap.
“A little, I suppose. But it’s no fun without your dad. Who would eat it all, anyway?” She touched the cross she wore around her neck. Whenever she talked about my dad, her fingers seemed to subconsciously find it. “I prefer to be on the golf course these days.”
“Who do you golf with? Any of your old crowd?”
“Sometimes.”
I studied her. This evasiveness was new. She was hiding something from me. Maybe she didn’t want me to know she was helping with the Richards campaign? I had no idea why. “Mom, I ran into the Richardses. They said you’re working on his governor run.”
“That’s right.”
“Why didn’t you mention it?”
She shrugged. “I didn’t think about it. Why? Do you not approve?”
“It’s surprising, that’s all. I didn’t think you cared about politics.”
“I care about Richards. He’s a fine man with policy I agree with.”
“Like what?”
She set aside the bowl of shelled peas and turned toward me. “He wants to make laws that protect young women from online predators. Do you have any idea how dangerous the internet is? These men lure information out of these naive girls and then stalk them or worse. It’s horrible.
I hid a smile. “I have a daughter I raised in this crazy age, so yes, I do know.”
“Right. It was more of a rhetorical question. Thom Richards is an advocate for young women. I can’t help but think Beth’s death had something to do with it.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s never said, but I think having one of his students killed affected his outlook on women’s safety.”
Interesting. I didn’t follow up with more questions, but I could see now that my mother felt a connection with him. One that included Beth. No wonder she was devoting so much time to the election.
“Did you have a nice outing?” Mom asked. “Who did you meet for lunch? You didn’t say.”
I’d said only that it was a friend from high school. At the mention of the words friend and high school, she’d turned away, busying herself at the sink. I knew from past experience that she clammed up at the mention of those days. The time when Beth was the queen of the school, homecoming and otherwise. I was never certain if talking about Beth was too painful or if she thought avoiding the subject would help me.
“You won’t believe it.”
“Who?”
“Cole Paisley. I ran into him at the grocery store, and he asked if I wanted to have lunch. He built a house out on his family’s old property.”
“You’re kidding. He came back here?”
“I was surprised too.” I explained how his mother had held on to the property so that Cole could buy it from her when he was ready. “He wanted to be back here and have his little farm. That was his dream back in high school.” I told her what I’d learned of the Paisley brothers, including Luke’s and Drew’s successful careers.
“That’s good to hear. I always felt bad about what happened.”
I sliced open the pea with my thumb and let the peas plop into the bowl between Mom and me. “Their parents divorced after they left here.”
“Is that right? What a shame. That poor woman.”
“She married a doctor after the divorce and is doing well.”
“That’s good. I often wondered about their marriage. In all the years I knew them, I can only think of a handful of times they were ever anywhere together. She was the sweetest lady. Him, though.” Mom scowled. “I never liked him. I once saw him dress down Luke in front of God and everybody after they lost a football game.”
Mom stared out to the yard, a pea held between her fingers as if it were a cigarette. “All three of those boys were sweet. There was something off about their father. Did the boys ever say anything about him being violent? I could swear he was a wife beater.”
“Yes, Cole talked about it with me one time. Luke got the brunt of it, but he hurt all of them pretty regularly.”
“I figured as much. Not that I could do anything
