The Last Original Wife (34 page)
Read The Last Original Wife Online
Authors: Dorothea Benton Frank
“What're you going to do with yourself down there in Charleston all day long?”
“Well, I'm looking into volunteering at the South Carolina Historical Society. I want to learn all about the women in South Carolina's history.”
Wes laughed at me as though I had truly lost my mind. “Really? Why?”
“I don't know. I'm interested in history, I guess.”
Wes was completely incredulous. “Well, I guess you know what you want then.”
“Yes, I do.”
So, in a very small ceremony at St. Philip's in Charleston, with Danette as my witness and Harlan as Jonathan's and with my children and their future spouses (yes!) and Holly and Nader in attendance, as well as Jonathan's lovely children whom I was meeting for the first time, I married again and officially began a new life with Jonathan Ray. We would toast each other with champagne and feast on oysters and roasted guinea fowl in the private room at Magnolias and cut a small cake with a bride and groom on its top and make small talk throughout the afternoon while my mind traveled the years. When I thought about the individual births of my children, my chest would swell with joy, and for the moment it seemed that they were finally on the right track. I hoped so with all my heart because I loved them so dearly. They, along with Holly, were my greatest treasures. Little Holly was as completely enamored with Harry Chen as he was charmed by her. Her ambitions had been altered as she announced she was going to grow up and become a doctor. We were thrilled to hear it, every one of us, because we knew what it meant for her to say it.
I looked at Danette, remembering us with Tessa, taking our children to the park, sitting together as we watched them perform in holiday pageants, carpooling and birthday partiesâhow I missed Tessa then, wishing she was with us, hoping she was somehow with us in spirit. Wouldn't Tessa love to know her daughter would be my daughter-in-law? I had already vowed to be a good mother-in-law to Suzanne one hundred times but just in case Tessa could hear me, I vowed once more.
Harlan tapped his knife on the side of his glass and stood. He was going to make a toast.
“I'd like to say a few words about these two madcap daredevil kids who just tied the knot. First of all, Jonathan, I'm a little disappointed you couldn't find a seersucker tuxedo . . .”
“Next wedding!” he said. “I'll track one down by then! I promise!”
We all laughed and Harlan continued.
“And I want to congratulate my beautiful sister, who has done the most remarkable thing in that she beat her own children to the altar!”
Everyone laughed again and said things like
here
,
here!
“But seriously, I want to wish y'all happiness in every single hour of every single day for the rest of your lives and I hope that's fifty years at least. I know it's not possible to have that but I wish it for y'all anyway. So I just wanted to say, and this is what I know is certain . . . love is a gift, it's a noun but it's also a verb. And yet, for all the poets in history and how they throw the word âlove' around like a beach ball, the word âlove' still doesn't cover nearly what we need it to mean. Maybe cherish is the better wish for you. Yes, cherish each other and be happy.”
“Awesome,” Bertie said, and everyone clapped.
I looked at Jonathan and he looked at me and we gave each other a kiss that wouldn't embarrass the children or anyone, for that matter. He took my hand in his and gave my new wedding band a spin around my finger, smiling, his blue eyes twinkling. I loved the feeling it gave me, to know I belonged with him. I was finally home in the Lowcountry of South Carolina where I was meant to be. At last I was with the man who was the right one. I was surrounded by love, and truly I felt cherished. There was nothing more I would ever want.
Using a real person's name for a character in
a book has been a great way to raise money for worthy causes. And in
The Last Original Wife
three generous souls come to
life in these pages as my characters. I have never met these folks (actually,
one of them is a cat), so I can assure you that the behavior, language, and
personalities of the characters bear no resemblance to the actual people. (Or
the cat.) My thanks go to Carol St. Clair who supported my old high school,
Bishop England, and secured the position of a psychiatrist for her mother, Jane
Saunders. To Danette Stovall, who won an auction prize from my grammar school,
Christ Our King, and will live on as the best friend to my protagonist. Dr.
Harrison Katz is the feline friend of Jennifer Blumenthal, who bought
immortality for her cat at an auction to benefit the Hollings Cancer Center.
Bravo, ladies! I hope you'll get a kick from seeing these names in print. And
Nader Tavakoli is in here as Nader Tavakoli because he's my buddy, and I thought
it would be fun for him. He knows this random act of generosity will cost him
down the line. Nader? It will. However, he has never met Danette Stovall, and
they have never engaged in what happens in this story.
Also, special thanks to Barbara L. Bellows for
writing her excellent book on the very interesting life of Josephine Pinckney,
A Talent for Living
(Louisiana State University
Press, 2006). If anyone wants to know more about the Charleston Literary
Renaissance and all about Jo Pinckney, this really is the book you want. Ms.
Bellows is just the most wonderful writer, and reading her book will surely
enrich your life. I bow to you, Ms. Bellows, and hope our paths will cross one
day.
The following people have no idea or maybe they
have a smidgen of an idea that their names are in these pages: Trisha Gustafson
from Croghan's Jewel Box, Karen Stokes and Faye Jenson from the South Carolina
Historical Society, Shawn Nicholls from HarperCollins, my dear friend Clare
Mullarney, the great Gerald Imber, and our dear friend of a million years, Ann
Del Mastro.
Special thanks and loads of love to Harlan Greene
and Jonathan Ray. In this book they play leading roles, and if you've read this,
please know they are even more wonderful and brilliant and handsome in real
life. Love y'all!
I'd like to thank my brilliant editor at William
Morrow, Carrie Feron, for her marvelous friendship, her endless wisdom, and her
fabulous sense of humor. Your ideas and excellent editorial input always make my
work better. I couldn't do this without you! I am blowing you bazillions of
smooches from my office window in Montclair. And to Suzanne Gluck, Alicia
Gordon, Eve Attermann, Samantha Frank, Tracy Fisher, Elizabeth Sheinkman,
Colette Patnaude, Covey Crolius, Jo Rodgers, and the whole amazing team of Jedis
at WME, I am loving y'all to pieces and looking forward to a brilliant future
together!
To the entire William Morrow and Avon team: Brian
Murray, Michael Morrison, Liate Stehlik, Nicole Fischer, Tessa Woodward, Lynn
Grady, Tavia Kowalchuk, Ben Bruton, Leah Loguidice, Shawn Nichols, Frank
Albanese, Virginia Stanley, Rachael Brenner Levenberg, Andrea Rosen, Caitlin
McCaskey, Josh Marwell, Doug Jones, Carla Parker, Donna Waikus, Rhonda Rose,
Michael Morris, Gabe Barillas, Deb Murphy, Mumtaz Mustafa, and last but most
certainly not ever least, Brian Grogan: thank you one and all for the miracles
you perform and for your amazing, generous support. You still make me want to
dance.
To Buzzy Porter, huge thanks for getting me so
organized and for your loyal friendship of many years. Don't know what I'd do
without you!
And special thanks to Patti Callahan Henry for her
details on Atlanta.
To Debbie Zammit, it seems incredible but here we
are again! Another year! Another miracle! Another year of keeping me on track,
catching my goobers, and making me look reasonably intelligent by giving me tons
of excellent ideas about everything. I know, I owe you so big-time it's
ridiculous, but isn't this publishing business better than Seventh Avenue? Thank
you, from the bottom of my pea-pickin' heart, Deb, for your friendship all these
years. Love ya, girl!
To Ann Del Mastro, George Zur, and my cousin,
Charles Comar Blanchard, all the Franks love you for too many reasons to
enumerate!
To booksellers across the land, and I mean every
single one of you, I thank you most sincerely, especially Patty Morrison of
Barnes & Noble, Tom Warner and Vicky Crafton of Litchfield Books, Sally
Brewster of Park Road Books, and once again, can we just hold the phone for
Jacquie Lee of Books-A-Million? Jacquie, Jacquie! You are too much, hon! Love ya
and love y'all!
To my family, Peter, William, and Victoria, I love
y'all with all I've got. Victoria, you are the most beautiful, wonderful
daughter and I am so proud of you. You and William are so smart and so funny,
but then a good sense of humor might have been essential to your survival in
this house. And you both give me great advice, a quality that makes me
particularly proud. And William, my sweet William, my heart swells with
gratitude and pride when I think of you and you are never far away from the
forefront of my mind. Every woman should have my good fortune with their
children. You fill my life with joy. Well, usually. Just kidding. Peter Frank?
You are still the man of my dreams, honey. Thirty years and they never had a
fight. It's a little incredible to realize it's only thirty years, especially
when it feels like I've been loving you forever.
Finally, to my readers to whom I owe the greatest
debt of all, I am sending you the most sincere and profound thanks for reading
my stories, for sending along so many nice e-mails, for yakking it up with me on
Facebook, and for coming out to book signings. You are why I try to write a book
each year. I hope
The Last Original Wife
will
entertain you and give you something new to think about. There's a lot of magic
down here in the Lowcountry. Please come see us and get some for yourself!
I love you all and thank you once again.
Bestselling author D
OROTHEA
B
ENTON
F
RANK
was born and raised on Sullivans Island, South Carolina. She and her husband divide their time between South Carolina and New Jersey.
Please visit her website at www.dotfrank.com and join her on Facebook.
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Pawleys Island
Shem Creek
Isle of Palms
Plantation
Sullivans Island
This book is a work of fiction. References to
real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only
to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used fictitiously. All other
characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author's
imagination and are not to be construed as real.
THE LAST ORIGINAL
WIFE
. Copyright © 2013 by Dorothea Benton Frank. All rights reserved
under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the
required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to
access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be
reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored
in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form
or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter
invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST
EDITION
ISBN 978-0-06-213246-8
EPub Edition JUNE 2013 ISBN 9780062132451
13 14 15 16 17 OV/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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