Hand-Me-Down Love (16 page)

“
You too,” she
said. “Where are you?”

“
I’m in a place
called McGinley’s Gap. I came over from the trail and it looks like
I’ll be here for a while.”

“
What do you
mean?” Marla asked sharply. “What do you mean a while?”

He explained it to
her as he had to his mother. She said it sounded dangerous, as his
mother had. And then she asked him why. Why was he staying there
doing that?

“
I didn’t plan
on it obviously,” he said. “I just went off the trail and
realized that I’m not through yet. Not through with what I need to
do to be free and clear. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Silence. “Marla?
You there?”

“
I’m here,”
she said. “I’m trying to understand. I really am. It’s just
that I miss you so much, but I guess that’s not enough.”

“
Part of me wants
to get out of here and get back to you right now,” Sean said. “But
I know it’ll be better in the long run if I don’t do that.”

“
Okay,” she said
with resignation.

“
I love you,
Marla,” Sean said.

“
I love you too.
I’ll talk to you soon.” But she didn’t talk to Sean soon. It
was a long time before she talked to Sean again.

Chapter
Seventeen

Marla hung the phone
up and cried. Why had she questioned Sean’s slip of the tongue when
he called her Merrie? Why didn’t she just take it in stride? If she
had, Sean would still be there with her, loving her. She cried
herself to sleep with Lucy by her side.

Sean had been gone
for two weeks. Marla thought he would be back after his hike, but now
she had to accept the fact that he wouldn’t be back. In the back of
her mind she was thinking he might never come back. What did he have
in Bay Point after all? A bunch of memories of his life with
Meredith. He had no family there. Only Marla. He had only Marla, and
she didn’t know if he wanted her enough to return.

When a new shipment
of dough bowls arrived, Marla asked Jada if she would call Mrs.
Answorth to let her know. She just couldn’t face talking to that
woman.

“
She said she’d
come by sometime today,” Jada said after she hung up the phone.

“
Jada,” Marla
said. “I talked to Sean last night.”

Jada looked excited.
“How is he? When is he coming back?”

“
Well, that’s
the thing. He’s not coming back right away. He’s working as a
lumberjack, if you can believe that.”

“
A lumberjack? I
didn’t know he knew how to do that.”

“
He doesn’t.
That’s what has me worried.”

Marla and Jada
didn’t share too much personal information, both preferring to keep
the boundaries between employee and employer, but Marla knew Jada
would want to know about Sean. Jada would tell Derrick.

Marla wasn’t on a
vision quest like Sean. She wasn’t hiking the Appalachian Trail or
anything so grand, but she was grieving. She was working through it.
That afternoon, she went to see her mother and told her about Sean.

“
What is he
doing?” Cynthia asked. “Why would he want to leave like that? We
all need to help each other.”

“
It’s his way,
Mom. He has to do it his own way.”

Marla started
spending more time at her parents. She felt she had neglected them in
their grief while she was falling in love with Sean. She knew she had
been deceitful about Sean, and she felt guilty about that. If only
they could understand, but she didn’t think they could. If Sean
didn’t come back, they would never even have to understand, and it
would become a memory for Marla. A sweet and sad memory.

Cynthia started
cooking every Sunday like she used to do, and Marla went over to
visit. Like she used to do. Like Meredith and Sean used to do. It was
good that Cynthia was getting back into a regular routine and doing
things she enjoyed.

But many days when
Marla was at her parents, her mother broke down about Meredith. So
did Marla, and they would cry together in Meredith’s old bedroom,
out of the earshot of her father. They knew it would be too much for
him to handle. He kept a tight grip on his emotions, but deep down
they knew he was an emotional man.

As she and Cynthia
worked through their grief together and separately, Marla kept
running Bay Point Antiques. There were days when she wanted to close
up shop, quit the business, go find herself like Sean was doing. But
she couldn’t leave her parents. They had lost their oldest daughter
and they needed Marla more than ever.

So, she kept going
to estate sales and yard sales, picking up antiques and vintage
pieces. Derrick repaired the damaged pieces, like always. Jada
performed her duties as assistant manager of the shop, like always.
She continued the blogging and Facebooking and had a pretty big
following of more than two thousand people who wanted to see what
Jada had to say that day. She wrote about new pieces or older pieces,
explaining the history of them. She uploaded before and after photos
of some of their furniture. She blogged about special paints and
techniques and explained them step by step. She even included some
photos of Derrick working on furniture and she and Marla laughed at
some of the expressions he made for the camera. Derrick was getting
something of a following himself, but he had no interest in that.

He did have an
interest in Jada, though. After the night when they’d all gone out
dancing, Marla detected a decided shift in the status between the two
of them. More than once, she’d glanced outside to see them stealing
kisses. She wished Sean were there to see it. She wished they could
all go out dancing again, but she knew that evening had been a fluke,
a coming together of particular circumstances that wouldn’t be
repeated.

Marla and Cynthia
joined a grief support group that met once a week at the library. The
group was led by a retired therapist, Diane, and they both liked her
very much. She was kind and understanding and included her personal
experience with grief often in the group sessions. Her husband had
died of bone cancer fifteen years earlier. With great skill, Diane
helped the participants face their grief. She encouraged them to cry
or get angry or express any feeling that they had. “You will always
feel your loss,” she said. “Always. But you can come to a level
of acceptance so that you can continue to live your life, hopefully
in a productive way. But never let anyone else tell you when it’s
time to stop grieving or how you should grieve. That’s unique for
you.” Marla and Cynthia found comfort in Diane’s words.

February moved into
March and by the end of the month, azaleas were blooming all over
town. Marla picked her mother up one day and they drove to Mobile to
see the streets lined with azaleas. Afterward, they stopped at a
seafood restaurant for lunch.

“
I want you to
know how much you’ve helped me, Marla,” Cynthia told her over
lunch. “I don’t think I would have gotten to this point without
you. So, thank you, honey.”

“
I feel the same,
Mom. We’re in it together.”

They munched on
their West Indies salad and sipped their iced tea.

“
Have you heard
from Sean lately?” Cynthia asked, breaking the silence.

“
Not really. He
sends me a text every now and then just saying “Hi,” and I send
him one back saying the same thing. We haven’t talked in a long
time.”

“
I hope he’s
doing all right,” Cynthia said. “Now that I understand grief a
lot better, I sympathize with him. I didn’t understand, but now I
do.”

“
I think I do
too,” Marla said, and she meant it.

“
I do miss him,”
Cynthia continued. “We couldn’t have asked for a better
son-in-law and he made Merrie so happy. You wouldn’t believe the
stories I hear from my friends about their son-in-laws. Such
bastards, a lot of them. But Sean was a treasure.”

Marla tried hard to
fight back her tears.

“
Are you all
right?” Cynthia asked, putting her hand on Marla’s. “I didn’t
mean to upset you, honey.”

“
No, you didn’t.
I’m okay. I’m just sad for Sean right now, thinking about him.”
She didn’t say thinking about him and missing him and loving him
and wanting him to come back to her bed.

March moved into
April and it had been three weeks since Marla had received a text
from Sean. Business at the shop had been good, especially since the
weather warmed up. Marla tried not to think about Sean, but when she
did, she realized he’d been gone longer than they had even been
together.

Then, one day in
late April, Marla was sitting at her desk when a goodlooking young
man walked in. That was unusual. Most of their customers were women.
“Hey, Marla,” the man said. She jumped up from the desk and
started walking toward him.

“
Hey, Michael,”
she said, smiling. “Long time no see.”

“
I know, right?”
he said. “I saw on Facebook that you have this shop and decided to
just drop in on you. I hope that’s okay.”

She gave Michael a
hug. “Of course it’s okay. It’s good to see you.”

Marla and Michael
dated for two years in college but broke up in their senior year. She
hadn’t talked to him since.

“
Can I take you to
lunch to catch up on old times?”

“
Sure. I’d like
that. Let me tell my assistant manager.” Jada was in the courtyard,
probably stealing some kisses from Derrick.

A few minutes later
Marla came back into the shop and got her purse.

“
I don’t
remember much about Bay Point from the few times we came here in
college. Where should be go for lunch?”

“
Steamboat Joe’s
is right down the street. We could get some shrimp if you want.”

“
I want.”

Marla regretted
suggesting Steamboat Joe’s as soon as they walked in the
restaurant. She hadn’t been there since the night they went dancing
and memories flooded her. She tried not to think about them.

The waitress led
them to a booth on the street side and handed them their menus.

“
Well, we know we
want the shrimp,” Michael said, putting his menu on the table.

“
Marla, I heard
about Meredith and I’m sorry.”

“
Thanks, Michael.
It’s been pretty difficult.”

“
I’m sure it
has.”

“
So, tell me what
you’ve been up to,” Marla said, wanting to change the subject.

“
Well, I turned my
passion into a business,” he said with a laugh.

Marla searched her
mind for what Michael’s passion had been. She only remembered that
he loved to party. In fact, that’s why she had finally broken up
with him. She hadn’t seen much of a future in that.

“
I own several
bars!” Michael said, laughing again.

Marla laughed too.
“Really?”

“
Yep, they’re
called Mojo Mike’s and I’ve got three of ‘em right now. My dad
helped me start the first one down in the Keys.”

Marla could picture
Michael hanging around in the Keys wearing Hawaiian shirts and a
straw hat, drinking margaritas, Jimmy Buffet providing the background
music.

“
My second one is
in Destin and my third one in Panama City. They’ve been very
successful.”

“
That’s great,
Michael. I’ll have to check it out online.”

“
I kept the
concept pretty simple. Beer and liquor, oysters on the half shell
when they’re in season, boiled shrimp, and gumbo. Plus, I bring in
musicians sometimes, mostly blues people.”

Meredith’s gumbo
flashed through Marla’s mind, and then, Meredith. She forced
herself to pay attention to Michael, who was still talking.

“
So, that’s why
I’m here. Well, in the area at least. I’m looking at a place in
Gulf Shores and Mobile. I may do both.”

She looked at her
old boyfriend and he seemed so excited. “Let’s celebrate then,”
Marla said. “Let me buy you a drink for all of your success.”

She motioned for the
waitress and ordered beer. When it came to the table, she raised the
mug and said, “To Michael and Mojo Mike’s.” They clinked mugs
and drank.