Mammoth Secrets (33 page)

“Not so hidden anymore.” He held a wait-a-sec finger to the driver, and then clasped her hands. “If I could bring you with me I would.”

“Just promise to take Tom and Earnestine to Disneyland. They'll get a kick out of the roller coasters. Send me pictures. Texts. Emails.”

“I promise.” His smile went serious, and in a flash his mouth found hers. No tentative, treading water, but hungry, needing her, wanting more with strong hands weaving through her hair, on her shoulders.

She returned every unspoken word, every shaking emotion as she clung tight, mouth inhaling sweetness, light, and somehow understanding all he couldn't, wouldn't say. Her head filled with a rush of love and panic. Wrapped in his arms, heart to heart, she wanted so much, all at once. To show him how much she'd miss him, to beg him to stay, to make him want to come back. To tell him how she really felt. And when he pressed an aching kiss to her forehead, she knew this might be not the beginning, but the end.

A honk from the driver broke the spell, and as his tail lights disappeared around the bend to the falls, doubt dug its ugly place into her heart.

Even if he could come back, did he want to?

 

~*~

 

After a week of closure, Eden and Luke announced they'd be married before summer was out. Why wait when they'd wasted so much time already?

Lilah accepted the news and their insistence that she stay on at the house, but vacated for the new couple, anyway. “You guys need your alone time.”

“What I need is a chaperone, twenty-four-seven.” Eden popped her gum with a grin. “You sure you want to go out there by yourself?” Eden looked visibly relieved, smiling a bit too wide as she helped Lilah pack her duffle.

She'd admitted her plan of returning to the river place.

“You tell Jake?” Eden dragged the top issue off a stack of bride magazines heavy with advertisements for trending gowns, ring-sets and honeymoon destinations.

“He'll be fine. Who knows if he's even coming back.” Lilah swallowed the notion she should tell him her plans. She didn't owe Jake explanations. He, of all people, should understand. “And I...I need some time before...before things get any more serious.”

“Really?” Eden arched her eyebrows. “Why?”

“It's not like I've known him since we were kids.” Lilah cinched the duffle's sides together, zipping it closed. “What if he's a rebound guy? What if I screw things up again? What if—”

“I get it. Take your time. Make sure it's right.” Eden waved the rest of her worries away, her diamond engagement ring sparking a rainbow of light. “You tell Nana you're going?”

At that, Lilah felt her blood cool. “I told her. She didn't like it, but didn't try to stop me.”

“So that's what you two were yelling about last night.” Eden cast a cool gaze at the understatement as she flipped another page. “I guess you know what you're doing.”

“Yeah. Just like always.” Lilah stuffed the little convertible with clothes, towels, shopped out the Ultimart for cleaning products, and headed to the river house. Away.

It was too much to be near Jake now. She couldn't think, couldn't breathe, couldn't process all the rifts in her world with him around. She might never fully understand all of the hurts left behind. She tried each and every day to heal the open wounds. Injured by a father who'd remained unknown, and by her grandmother, the only mother she'd ever known, who'd kept him away. And now, just when she was ready to accept him into her life, he'd vanished once again.

Lilah rolled up, parked in the weed-cleared space and observed the single wide trailer with an appraising eye. Outside would need a good washing. The porch sagged, but was sturdy. Inside, she blinked at the dust motes in the thin-curtained light, and sighed at wood-paneled walls and the ancient checkered couch.

Guthrie kept the place neat, but it was at least ten years past a good clean. Corners filled with cobwebs, spider webs, and worse. She threw open a window to let out the stale odor it might take weeks to get rid of.

She set to scrubbing the aged river house, a surrogate therapist ready to help her work out her issues. Lilah pounded the brunt of her anger out on dingy, ragged rugs from the cabin floor, now hung on a clothesline strung up between pines. She harnessed her hurt sanding dings out of scarred chairs, washing, bleaching lace curtains until they hung white, smelling fresh along the front windows. Her soul finally cleansed by letting the humid, late summer Ozark air filter through the long closed up house.

Hands white, pruned from mop water, the kitchen and bathroom counters sparkled. Walls scrubbed, smelling of pine and bleach, brought wallpaper back to its former glory, which unfortunately revealed the mauve and teal of the early-eighties decorator palette. She took one look around and decided the place needed updating. But really? It wasn't hers to change.

Taking her daily walk down the rutted, red dirt driveway, she angled to the row of mailboxes. No-seeums buzzed along with cicadas under the canopy of oaks. She maintained the simple act of retrieving mail out of habit, though nothing ever came except ads and junk.

Still, it was a connection to the outside world, a chance to wave “hey” to the neighbors. To see horses prancing in the Taylor fields, sauntering past the sagging red barn. She clicked to them, scratched behind the ears of an old roan, and let it blow grass from her palm. The mare set off back to its grazing. Tomorrow, she'd bring an apple.

Lilah sifted the stack of mail as she hoofed it uphill to the river house. She had daylight to burn today. She flipped over a coupon flyer and saw the yellow, manila envelope addressed to her. Inside, a letter from some lawyer in Plain View. A quick scan set her jaw hinging open as she read of property and transfer of ownership from Samuel Guthrie to Delilah and Eden Dale. Though the papers waited at the Thayer bank, this place was for all purposes, theirs.

She returned to the neglected back porch and sat to take in the expansive view. The river cut through the Ozark hills, rambling over the stepped falls with a chute that whip-tailed around the little island. There, a father and son fished off the sandy bank while a little girl scrabbled on hands and knees, hunting something at the water's edge.

The breeze in her face, she flipped through the Ultimart flyer. The ad beckoned with brightly colored Adirondack deck chairs. The deck could use a couple of those. Maybe some lights strung in the trees, or some outdoor lamps. Summer was just getting started.

She turned the page, seeing a sale on bedding and a two-for-one deal on paint. Why stop at the deck? If this place was theirs…shouldn't she do her best to make it a home?

 

 

 

 

 

48

 

The Thayer Ultimart was a sad comparison to its west coast counterparts. Less than half the size, serving as grocery store, nursery, electronics outlet, fashion mall, and pharmacy, it was a lot to pack into a tiny space that shared its parking lot with the squat, dark brick of Thayer's National Bank building. There, her sister waited on a bench, filing her nails, dressed in her day-off clothes of work out shorts and a bright orange, loose t-shirt.

Two birds, one stone.

“How're wedding plans going?” Lilah slammed her car door, making a red-dust streak on the paint.

“Stand still.” She rushed Lilah into a bear hug, but paused at Lilah's palm out request to admire the engagement ring. “I want the party of the century, and Luke wants to run off to Vegas.” Eden's eyes went wide as Lilah stiffened. “Not that there's anything wrong with—ah, shoot. We just can't agree on the details.”

Lilah observed Eden's band of platinum, infused with a forest of tiny diamonds, the fat, round crystal-clear rock at its center. “He knows you so well. You two'll figure it out.”

Eden nodded, wiping away a wash of tears. “Let's do this thing.”

Together, they stepped to the double glass doors and pressed them open to the lobby.

An air-conditioned blast greeted them, as did the chirpy bank teller with the sandy-blond bob. Lilah drew a mint from the table and spun it open as Eden explained they had an appointment with the manager. Moments later, Beverly Abernathy had them in her office, seated in two leather chairs, promising to be back with water and their papers.

Lilah flipped through last month's
Field and Stream
, while Eden perused the pictures behind Beverly's desk. A snapshot of a fat baby on a pink blanket, drooling a toothless grin. The next frame showed the same child, now about age five, with curly blond hair, laughing, gray eyes, and a blue cotton candy crusted smile.

“Mr. Guthrie was here about an hour ago. He has business down in Joplin, but he said he'd…well. He'd like to see you girls soon.”

They nodded, but Lilah wondered what Guthrie would want or need in Joplin. Family, maybe? There was still so much about her birth father that she didn't know. Odd, to think there was a whole side of their family that remained a mystery.

A figure at the door had them both look up.

Nana breezed in, her hair freshly fluffed from the Thayer salon with white curls arranged to perfection, dressed in her smart blue suit.

“Hey.” Lilah dropped the magazine and stood, drinking in her grandmother's subtle beauty. She didn't sense a bit of chill in those sky blue eyes.

Nana wrapped her up in a full hug. “Missed you, my girl.”

“I didn't know you were coming.”

“I wasn't sure you two'd want me here…but, well.” She glanced over her shoulder at the busy bankers. “I figured…”

“We want you. Come on in.” Lilah gave up her seat and then, after a moment's hesitation, perched on the chair arm like she used to. Nana's hand to her back, they settled into their newfound truce. Her grandmother looked serene, at peace. “So what's the news?”

“We're just waiting.”

The booming laugh from the next office could only be Tom Steadman. “When did they get back?”

“Day before yesterday—he even passed out Mickey Mouse ears to everyone at the diner.” Eden showed hers in her purse. “Property sold, so he came back to buy papers.”

Nana drummed the chair arm. “Bought themselves an RV. They're gonna go get lost in America.”

Questions wove, but Lilah refused to ask. Did Jake come back with them? She spun to see Mr. Steadman, hands stuffed full of paperwork, standing at the counter chatting up the teller. Lilah watched as he said goodbye, then exited into the sultry Missouri heat, no weight of his shattered home about those easy steps.

She remembered how he and his wife held each other, the only thing that truly mattered when all else was lost. Love. Family. Small towns. Where you knew everybody, and everybody's business, and when someone asked you how you were, you cared enough to find out the answer.

“Don't you all look a picture?” Beverly breezed in, shot a sunny smile to the trio of Dale women, and set out water bottles for all. “Mrs. Dale, we sure do miss Earl. He was one of the best.”

Nana nodded, folding her hands.

Lilah covered them, and Eden topped the pile.

A moment of silence, then Beverly continued with the business at hand. “The river property—thanks to Mr. Guthrie—is now deeded back over to the Dales.”

“About that.” Eden tapped her teeth. “Nana and I've been talking about that one.”

“What Eden's trying to say is—” Nana cleared her throat, she turned to her wayward granddaughter. “Honey, I know what that place means to you. It should be just yours.”

“But the papers said—” Lilah dry-swallowed at the thought. Revamping the river house, the landing, and the slope, the dock, and the hilltop singlewide—so much to do, and all of it, hers to decide?

“Papers say something else now.” Eden sat up straighter. “Don't go thinking you don't have to save a room for me, when Luke and I want to visit.”

“I've got the house.” Nana sighed. “Eden has her cottage. We thought you needed a place to call your own—such as it is.”

Lilah stared at the blur of papers that Beverly offered forth to sign. Her name, and initials on the signature lines. The pressing of fingerprints to notarize the change of ownership. At last, it was done.

Hugs all around, Lilah inhaled the buoyant feeling, anchored by all that remained undone.

“One more thing.” Nana wrapped her arms around her girls. “Your Papaw wanted you each to have a little something. We're paying for Eden's wedding—something we waited a lot longer than we thought we ever would.”

Lilah stiffened at the words. Eden's wedding shone a light on her own failure in the marriage department. For that matter, the fact that neither one of them even mentioned Jake, was proof positive she'd failed in that relationship, as well.

Nana held her all the closer. “Your sister's getting married. And, we'll celebrate proper—all of us. Together.” Nana turned from Eden to face Lilah, full. “And as for you, sweet Delilah Dale, when you choose the right man, we'll do the same. In the meantime, let's outfit your new home, right special.” Nana pressed a kiss to her forehead as only a mother can do, then closed Papaw's Chevy keys into her hand. “And get you a decent truck to get you out that'a'way.”

“Nana, I—”

“Just remember how much you're loved, sweet girl.” Tears pricked sky-blue eyes, full of love. Her voice heavy with emotion. “Now let's go shopping.”

 

 

 

 

49

 

Over a month later, she'd filled the river place with everything from housewares to patio furniture, to a truck full of Nana's hand-me-downs. Lilah transformed the cliff-top single-wide into a very pretty little home.

She'd have everyone out for Independence Day. A big party. So big, no one would notice if Jake came or not. They were in some polar standoff, delaying the inevitable, maybe. She loved him, he loved the church, and she was not the kind of woman he needed on his arm.