Threads of Steel (Bayou Cove) (19 page)

Nancy picked up two empty glasses and a dirty plate as they passed the table. “I’m so embarrassed. This house is a disgrace.”

“No it’s not. It’s got that lived-in look.”

“Yeah, lived in by a bunch of swine.
Ugh. This is awful.” Nancy put the dirty dishes on top
of others in the sink,
then
turned around
.

“Go on out back. I’ll grab us a drink. And I swear the glass will be a clean one.”

Anna Marie laughed to humor her friend,
then
carried Harry out the door. She brushed aside a thick layer of dust from the deck chair before sitting. It was hard not to notice the back yard had been neglected as badly as the house
.

She held Harry on her lap. “I guess your brothers and sisters don’t come in the back yard since they’re back in school, huh?” She hoped that was the case.

Nancy came out with two glasses of cola. “Sorry, but the kids must’ve had the tea last night.”

“No, problem.
Sit down, girl. You look beat.”

Nancy started to sit in the chair next to her, but stopped and swiped her hand across the seat.
“Oh, geez.
I’m sorry. This is disgusting.
”

Nancy looked as if tears were ready to spill from her eyes.

“Nancy, it’s nothing but a little dust. Would you sit and tell me what’s wrong.”

Nancy plopped down. “Everything’s wrong.
My life.
My marriage.
This house.
The bank account.”

“Whoa. That’s a little more information than I needed to hear.”

“You asked. I told.”

Anna Marie touched Nancy’s arm.
“That bad?”

“I don’t know. Maybe my life’s been like this since high school and I’m just noticing.”

“None of our lives are perfect.”

Nancy raised an eyebrow and glared at her.

“Okay. I don’t have a house full of kids to worry about. My little cottage stays neat because I’m there alone. I don’t have a husband or kids. The only thing I have is a nice bank account.”

“See.”

“No, you see, Nancy. You have everything I want—except for the empty bank account.”

“No you don’t want what I have. I’m miserable, and I hate myself because I’m miserable. What kind of mother walks around hating her life?”

“One that’s overworked and underappreciated.”

“You got that right.
”
Nancy slumped against the back of the chair. “Okay. I feel better just having said it.” She puffed out her cheeks and blew out a big breath. “Did you see
Doti
?”

“I did. She looks awful. She had a bad night and her parents rushed her to the hospital. That’s where I found her.” Now it was Anna Marie’s turn to slump against her chair. “I left feeling awful.”

Nancy nodded. “It would make anyone feel awful to see an old friend suffer.”

“It was more than that. Nancy, I told her I forgave her, but I’m not sure I do. I couldn’t give her a hug. You know, the way we used to do. I just stood by her bed like a sack of potatoes while she apologized up one side and down the other.”

“So what did you expect? That you’d walk in that room and you and she would be buddy-buddy again? I don’t think so. The girl tore your life apart. She stole your husband. She betrayed not just you, but me too. I lost a friend in that mess too.” She harrumphed. “She ought to be apologizing on both knees.”

Anna Marie stared at her friend for a long moment then took Nancy’s hand
.

Nancy spoke first. “I hated her for you, and I hated her for what she did to our threesome.”

“But you don’t still feel that way, do you?”

“No, you actually have to have time to think to be able to dwell on the past. I have too much
to worry about in the present to let that bother me anymore. But I did at one time.” Nancy inhaled a long breath. “Tell me what she said.”

“She still hates Ronnie and won’t let her little girl spend much time with him. She didn’t want to hear it when I told her I thought he’d changed and that he still cared.”

“What about Miss Ellie’s house?”

“She’s already made it clear to the Lowery brothers that she wants to sell her share so that Caitlyn had something for the future.”

“That doesn’t surprise me. Her parents don’t have much to help with the child.” Nancy sat up straight. “So she wants to sell it—too.”

As if she was afraid to say it, the “too” was almost swallowed, but Anna Marie heard it.

“Yes. And it sounds like you and Harry want it sold as well.”

Nancy looked down at the table then up at Anna Marie. “Are you upset?”

Anna Marie picked up her glass and took a sip. “No, I don’t think so. It would be foolish to try to keep it and figure out how we could all use it.” She leaned back in her chair again and played with
Harry’s
socked foot.

Nancy touched Anna Marie’s arm. “You don’t sound very convincing.”

“Sure I do. Think about it. Can you see us trying to figure out a schedule to use it and come up with the money for its upkeep? You and Harry have all these children to think about and
Doti
has to think about Caitlyn. That money would certainly take the weight off
Doti’s
shoulders.” She shook her head. “No, trying to keep it wouldn’t be feasible.”

Nancy looked relieved. She nodded her agreement. “I have to tell you, the money from a sale would be a lifesaver for us. Harry works himself to death on those construction sites. We were hoping he’d have his own business by now.
”
She shrugged. “Maybe even part-owner of a construction company, but it didn’t happen. We never had the finances to put into a business.”

Now it was Anna Marie’s time to nod. “The money would be good for you and for Caitlyn.”

“We could even find an auctioneer to dispose of the furnishings that the family leaves in the house.”

Anna Marie scanned the tabletop. The idea that Nancy and Harry had gone as far as thinking of an auctioneer told her how much they needed the money. There was no way she’d stand in the way.

“We’ll talk to the Lowery brothers and see what they suggest.”

“Thank you, Anna Marie. I know you’re in a position not to need the money like we do. I really appreciate you’re going along with it.”

Relief spread across Nancy’s face. “Come on, Harry. You’re getting Aunt Anna wrinkled.”

Anna Marie handed the baby over, but not before giving him a big kiss. Nancy walked with her through the yard around the house. “Do you want me to call the attorneys?”

“No,” Anna Marie said as she opened her car door. “I have some time today, and I have a few more questions I need to ask. I’ll get back with you.” She hugged Nancy,
then
slid in the car.

As she pulled off, she looked back at her friend and baby and had to smile because Harry had his fingers wrapped in Nancy’s hair.

“So sweet,” she said out loud
.

She smiled, but as she turned the corner, the smile faded. Visiting with Nancy had always given her spirits a lift. Nancy had a way of taking the weight from her shoulders, seeing the path to solve a problem, or at least giving her a reason to smile.

Today, she left with a heavy heart. Nancy wasn’t her bubbly self, and it hurt Anna Marie to see her depressed and worried. Nancy had hinted at problems in her marriage once before, but
Anna Marie had refused to believe her. Now, she had to face the reality that Nancy’s life wasn’t what Anna Marie had made it out to be.

As a young girl, Anna Marie had watched as her own father verbally abused her mother, ran around on her, drank, and finally was thrown in prison for armed robbery. When she married Ronnie, she worked hard at having the kind of marriage that her mother never had. She thought nothing could ever ruin the beautiful love she and Ronnie shared.

Boy,
was she wrong.

Now, Nancy’s marriage, a marriage that stood as a symbol of what true love could be, showed signs of falling by the wayside like all the other marriages she knew of. How could that be?

As she tried to think of a good marriage in her group of friends, she drove through the streets of the older part of town, but none of her acquaintances had anything near to being a good marriage.

Maybe being single isn’t so bad after all.

She grunted and turned down a street where she’d played as a girl. Nothing much had changed. A few of the houses could have used a fresh coat of paint, but most of the yards showed that the people who lived there cared.

The street where she and her mother had lived wasn’t too far from here. Close enough so she could play in a good neighborhood, but far enough away from the better houses and larger house notes. She didn’t need to ride down her street to know more than a few of those homes would need coats of paint and grass would need cutting, just as it was when she’d lived there. There was no reason to believe anything had changed.

Pride of ownership and feeling a part of the community is sometimes hard to obtain when the family struggles to make ends meet. That’s how it was in her old neighborhood. She and her mother had tried their best to keep the outside of their home as neat as could be, but the task seemed monumental at times. The inside was a different story. The neighbors used to joke that their floors were clean enough to eat on.

One day her mother told her to finish the dusting. Anna Marie remembered looking around their tiny living room with worn, second-hand furniture and a TV that sometimes worked, and sometimes didn’t. “Why dust? What difference is a little dust when the furniture is falling apart?”

The hurt in her mother’s face touched her deeply. She crossed her hands in front of the ironed cotton blouse with several tiny stains on the sleeve. “You don’t have to have a lot of money or fancy things to be clean. We might not have money, but we’re not trash. You remember that.” She turned around and left Anna Marie holding the dust cloth
.

Today as she drove past the side streets that would’ve taken her to her old house she could still feel her mother’s pain.

“Mom, I wish I could take those words back,” she whispered. But the words she’d said that day would always remain cemented in her brain, just like the good years and the bad years that she and her mother spent together.

One street led to another and without consciously directing the car toward Miss Ellie’s road, Anna Marie found
herself
pulling up to the curb. She stopped the car, turned off the key, and stared at the house that a piece of paper said would be part hers.

With its location close to the beach, it was valuable real estate. Anna Marie knew she had the money, or at least good enough credit, to buy the property from Nancy and
Doti
, but did she want it
?
She had already told
Doti
she’d never felt part of this town and never would. Owning a
house wouldn’t change who she had been, no matter how much she’d changed since leaving the area. And, Lord knows, it wouldn’t change the fact that her father had run over Miss Ellie.

No, her name on that will and soon to be on a deed was meaningless. She was sure Miss Ellie had hopes of bringing the three friends together through her gift to them, but Anna Marie had a feeling it would bring them together only long enough to sign their names on a document to sell.

She sighed. Her claim to ownership of Bayou Cove real estate would be short-lived. Staring at the house brought back good feelings, when the tie of friendship and the guidance of Miss Ellie had been a bright spot in her depressing childhood days.
Doti
had been right. Here they had felt a sense of belonging. Miss Ellie had made sure of that.

She started the car once more and pulled away slowly, taking in the lines of the porch, the gables in the roofline, the tall floor-to-ceiling windows on the porch and side, features that no longer could be found in modern structures. She knew that if they sold, no one could guarantee the house wouldn’t be torn down to make room for newer, more modern homes.

No doubt about it. Miss Ellie had left them a piece of real estate that was worth money. But Anna Marie wondered if she was the only one who saw Miss Ellie’s house as something more than a dollar sign?

As she pulled away from the curb, a car pulled up behind her. A man jumped out of the car and slammed his door. Anna Marie stopped and lowered her window slightly as a man stomped up to her car. She thought about pulling off. She’d lived in a big city long enough to know not to be careless when it came to strangers, but here in front of Miss Ellie’s house, she didn’t feel threatened.

“Are you Miss
LaFaire
?” the man’s voice boomed through the partly opened window.

“I am. Can I help you?” She made sure her door was locked.

“Yeah, you can help me. You and those two friends of yours can withdraw from my grandmother’s will and save yourselves a lot of trouble.”