One Lavender Ribbon (21 page)

Adrienne rolled her eyes and forced an attempt at cheer. “This is great news,” she lied. “Um, let me call you back when I’m done.”

Sara said good-bye, and Adrienne hung up the phone.

Still clutching the grocery bag, she meandered—zombie-like—to the living room and dropped onto the couch. The house was quiet. The tart scent of oranges rose from the bag. They’d probably smashed the bagels. Bagels made her think of shmear. Shmear made her think of Leo. Leo made her think of William. She groaned and loosened her grip.

Over and over she considered stopping this escapade. But it was too late for that now. No matter what she did, people were going to get hurt. Adrienne closed her eyes and shoved the bag away. She thought of Will. Fiercely devoted, pleading with her to butt out. She thought of Pops.
“But when you leave, he crashes,”
Will had said. She thought of Sara, majestic and elegant, but draped in the shame that had cloaked her for so many years. This was finally a chance for her to be free.

She bent at the waist and buried her face in a pillow.
No matter what I do, someone is going to get hurt
.
Will, William, and Sara were at risk. And Adrienne herself was on the line too. She knew she could lose the best, most precious friendships she’d ever had.

Will headed outside, where the warm sun shone against the rich green of the garden. Though the sky was perfect, offering the kind of day that could lend itself to a long boat trip, his heart was heavy. Had been for days. Nothing seemed to help, not even putting the throttle on wide open and attacking the waves with the determination of a bull.

“Have you heard from Adrienne this week?” Will asked as Pops knelt to pick a ripe tomato. The garden was lush, thanks largely to an unusually wet summer. Various leaves were so thick and dense, they had to dig through the greenery to find the ripe vegetables hiding within.

“No, I haven’t.” Pops pushed his hand against his thigh to rise, then placed the tomato in the basket Will held. “Must be real busy working on her house these days.”

Will couldn’t help but notice the sadness that slipped into his grandfather’s words. Guilt stabbed him. “It’s my fault she hasn’t been around.”

Pops used his forearm to hold foliage out of his way. “That so?” He plucked another tomato.

“Last week she came to my office. We, uh, got into a little argument. I didn’t mean to run her off completely.”

“You ever notice the honeybees out here?”

Will frowned. Had Pops not even heard him? He’d just confessed to running Adrienne off. “Uh, no.”

“But they’re around.” Pops took him by the arm and dropped his voice. “Look right over there.”

Will followed his gaze to a nearby tree trunk where a bevy of bees crawled along the bark.

“You see, bees love nectar. And the garden is the best place to get a variety. When we come out here, they move away, but they don’t leave. They’re right there just waiting for our invitation to come back.” Pops light-blue eyes landed on Will. “You understand?”

“Yeah, Pops. You don’t think I ran her off completely. She’ll come back.”

Pops ran his arm over his brow and looked up at the sun, a bright burning ball hanging in the afternoon sky. “Well, I suspect you could take it that way. But I was just talking about honeybees.” His eyes twinkled, and a half-smile deepened the curves around his mouth.

Pops held a tomato up in Will’s face. “Nothing sweeter than this,” he said. “Except maybe for honey.”

Will nodded. Could Pops be right? Maybe Adrienne would be back. He just wanted her to stop dredging up the past. But Will never had been good with subtlety. Wrecking ball, his dad used to call him.

Pops loved Adrienne’s visits, that was for sure. And since she’d been coming over, Pops seemed so alive, younger even. But when Adrienne and Pops would venture into some deep discussion about the war or Gracie, it took too much of a toll on him. When those topics came up, he seemed to melt into a somber mood that sometimes lasted for hours. It wasn’t healthy.

But Will knew his words to her had been unusually harsh. And he hated himself for handling it so badly. Fact was, he missed her. He missed pulling into the driveway and seeing her red sports car there on any given afternoon. Even if, in the beginning, she rushed off as soon as Will hit the door. He missed walking past her in the kitchen and brushing against her soft skin. And her scent. He’d catch himself pulling in that citrusy floral aroma whenever she came near. A toss of her head or a swift movement would send an intense wave of it to him. And when he woke in the night, it was there. Probably residue from his dreams, but it made it difficult to keep her out of his thoughts. And then there were her lips. Man, he couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off them, just waiting for her to bite the lower one or slowly run her tongue along the inner edge.

It had only been a week since he’d gotten rid of her, but it had already been too long. And somewhere deep inside, he feared he’d chased her off for good, no matter what Pops thought. He had drawn a line that—beneath her idealistic surface—she was just too sweet to cross. Adrienne was gone. He’d made sure of it.

He put an arm around Pops’s shoulder, and they walked back to the house, the smell of fresh tomatoes a poor replacement for Adrienne’s scent.

But Will had a plan. Having watched his grandfather’s mood deteriorate over the last several days, he’d decided to do something special for him. He’d leave work on Friday at noon, pick up Pops, and the two of them would cruise down to the Keys. It was a three-hour trip by boat. They’d talked about doing it for years. It was sure to lift Pops’s spirits. And if he was lucky, really lucky, it would leave the garden empty enough for the honeybees to return.

Adrienne put Sara off for a week, hoping that if she kept coming up with excuses, Sara would give up. Her plan failed miserably. It was now Friday morning and she was headed to Winter Garden. They would be at Will’s house by noon, giving William and Sara until five o’clock to sort things out. Adrienne chose Friday on purpose. If the meeting went badly, William wouldn’t be alone the following day. She knew Will would be furious with her, but she also knew it was a risk she had to take. The more she talked to Sara, the more she realized that a terrible wrong had been committed, but it might only take an afternoon to correct. If not, two very dear elderly people were going to have their hearts ripped from their chests yet again, all because of her nosiness. The notion sickened her.

Adrienne picked Sara up at nine o’clock. The older woman was dressed in a floral print blouse and khaki skirt. Sara was pretty and didn’t look her seventy-eight years. Her straight hair was cut in a flattering style that fell just below her collar. One swoop in the front gave it a youthful yet sophisticated edge. As Adrienne opened the passenger door and saw the beaming face, all hesitation about this meeting dissolved.

“Are you nervous?” She adjusted the air so it wouldn’t blast her in the face.

Sara wore soft pink lipstick and had enhanced her eyes with a charcoal liner. She smoothed her skirt. “Not yet.” She sounded more like a teenager going on her first date than an old woman. “But I’m sure I will be by the time we get there.”

Adrienne patted Sara’s lap and put the car into drive. “You look beautiful. I thought you didn’t like to wear dresses. It’s all I’ve seen you in.”

“Goodness, when I was a kid, my mom couldn’t get me in a dress. But I grew to love them as I got older.”

Three hours and a side trip to Starbucks later, they were sitting in front of William’s house. Sara flopped the mirror down again, studying her reflection. “We should have let him know we were coming.”

Adrienne gave her a long look. “I couldn’t tell him, Sara. What if you backed out? He’d have been crushed.”

Tension filled the car, pressing so hard Adrienne thought the windows might burst. She attempted to calm Sara’s sudden onset of fear but couldn’t. Honestly, she was as nervous as Sara. Neither of them knew what kind of reception they would receive. “He knows I might be stopping by today.”

Sara studied her with pale gray eyes. “No, we should have told him
I
was coming. This is a mistake.”

A movement in front of the car caught both their attention. They realized with horror that William was opening the front door.

“Oh!” Sara scrambled, curling her fingers together over her chest. “I’m not ready.”

Adrienne put a calming hand on her arm.

Sara turned to her, eyes wild with panic. “I can’t do this.”

Adrienne took her hand and squeezed. “It’s okay.” She shot a quick glance back to the house where William stood, one hand to his forehead and squinting in the sun at Adrienne’s car.

Sara’s breath came in short spurts.

“Calm down. I can go talk to him first.” Adrienne tried to judge whether this was what a heart attack looked like. “Let him know you’re out here.”

Sara started nodding and didn’t seem able to stop until Adrienne left the car.

William hugged Adrienne as she reached the top of the steps. She felt her muscles stiffen with anxiety, and he pulled his head back and frowned. “What’s wrong, honey?”

“I need to talk to you about something, William.” She shook her head. “And I’m not sure how you’re going to take it.”

He dropped his arms from her. “Okay, come inside.”

“Actually, there’s someone with me.”

Pops’s gaze went back to her car, but the glare made Sara impossible to see. He squeezed Adrienne’s hand. “Whoever it is, you two wait here on the porch, and I’ll go shut off the teapot.”

After he disappeared into the house, Adrienne motioned for Sara, who left the car and walked toward the steps like a death row inmate, arms tight to her sides, hands fisted in the material of her garment.

“It’s going to be okay,” Adrienne whispered.

Sara moved as far from the front door as possible, choosing a seat in the corner, where the porch banister gave her something to grip. It looked like a good knock against her would shatter her entire body like cracked glass.

William stepped outside. Adrienne rushed to stand beside him as his eyes roamed to the far end of the porch. A frown deepened as he looked from Adrienne to the older woman on the porch swing.

“Grace,” he whispered.

Fire shot through Adrienne. Oh, no. She took his arm forcefully. “William, it’s Sara.”

A hand came up, half-covering his mouth. Confused eyes found Adrienne, then returned to the woman waiting in the corner. Slowly, she stood. When she did, he stumbled one step back. Adrienne could feel the years and memories flood him.

“It’s Sara. She’s come to see you. William, she has something she needs to tell you.”

Adrienne sent a coaxing look to Sara, but she shrank away. A stray cat skittered behind the older woman, who looked more like a marble statue than a human being. The color had left her cheeks, and her skirt was wrinkled at the hips from her fingers clinging desperately to the cotton. But something, some unnamable strength gathered in Sara’s soft eyes. Her chin tipped back, and her hands flattened.

“I . . . I wanted to say,” Sara’s voice cracked on each word. “William, I never told you, but I was in love with you. I think Gracie knew it and stepped aside. I think she went to that other boy because—because of me.”

What?
That’s not what Sara was supposed to be saying. “William, what Sara is trying to say, is—”

Sara took a step toward him. “It’s my fault. It’s all my fault. The fact she left, the fact she died. And not only that.”

Adrienne’s hopes of a tender, beautiful reunion of two people who once cared for one another crumbled around her feet.

Sara—who had certainly found the words she had misplaced in the car—forged on, as if the confession were cleansing her soul with each new admission. Her head shook. “Not only that. I
knew
you were coming home, and I made Momma agree to leave before you got there. I was ashamed. So ashamed, and I couldn’t face you.”

Pops’s look was unreadable. One hand moved to brush across his forehead. Watery eyes blinked as if trying to sort the pieces of her confession. A confusion-filled silence stretched to the point of torture. “You were in love with me? But you
left
when you knew I was coming home?”