Dress Me in Wildflowers (32 page)

That thought depressed Farrin. If only there were some other option.

****

Farrin was showing a bride-to-be several styles in the showroom when her phone rang. She left the young woman and her mother, who’d driven the considerable distance from Kingsport, to browse while she answered it.

“Have you changed your mind about adopting the kids?” Drew asked.

“No, why?”

“Because I just heard that the Carlisles have retained Frank Jillian to fight you.”

“What!? There’s been some mistake.”

“I think you better talk to Janie before this gets ugly.”

Farrin had never had so much trouble concentrating on catering to a bride, but the moment the young woman placed her order and left with her beaming mother, Farrin raced to Janie’s apartment. But when she tried the door, it was locked. And her key didn’t work.

“Go away,” came Jewel’s cool voice from the opposite side of the door.

“Let me in. I need to talk to Janie.”

“You have done quite enough damage to our family. Either leave or I’ll call the police.”

“And tell them what?”

“That you’re harassing us.”

“That’s not true. I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m not taking the kids.”

“You’re right, you’re not.”

“Listen, there’s been a misunderstanding. There is no need for an attorney.”

The only reply Farrin got was the sound of Jewel’s retreating footsteps. The woman was stark raving mad! Could Janie hear all this craziness or was she somehow sleeping through it?

At a loss for what to do, Farrin stalked down the steps and sank onto the bottom one. Frigid air slapped her cheeks, but she didn’t move. She tried to figure out how the situation had spun out of control. How could she live knowing Dara and Jason were going to have to put up with that crazy woman?

A silver Cadillac pulled into a space in the parking lot, and Dara jumped out of the back door and raced toward her. Farrin hugged the child close and realized how much she’d miss being able to do so. Jason walked up more slowly but sank down close to her.

“Come on, kids, let’s go upstairs,” Mr. Carlisle said.

“I want to talk to Farrin,” Dara said.

“You know your grandmother won’t like that.”

The granddragon opened the door at the top of the landing. “Get in here now before you catch your death of cold.”

“No,” Dara said.

“What did you say, young lady?”

“I said, ‘No’!”

The outburst was so uncharacteristic that Farrin jumped. And then she saw the pain in Dara’s eyes. What the hell was going on?

“You will not talk to me that way. You will respect me and not talk back, and you’d best remember that.”

It wasn’t so much what Jewel said but how she said it that pissed Farrin off. A young girl with the kindest heart she’d ever known did not need a Marine drill sergeant screaming at her. But Farrin bit her tongue. It was best for the kids if they didn’t anger their grandparents.

“It’s okay,” she said to Dara and smoothed her hair. “Go on in and see your mom.”

Dara hugged her as if she knew she might never see her again. She wouldn’t if Jewel Carlisle had anything to do with it.

****

Farrin threw herself into work, even helping Faye and Opal prepare for the coming opening of the restaurant. If she stopped for anything other than to drop into an exhausted sleep, reality caught up to her and made her heart ache. She’d not seen the twins in nearly a week, and she had no idea how Janie was doing, guarded as she was by her mother.

She’d passed Mr. Carlisle on the street this morning and before he’d looked away, she’d almost swear she saw an apology on his face. Surely it was her lack of rest making her manufacture expressions.

“Are you ready to brave Oak Valley’s finest and break down that apartment door?” Tammie asked from the doorway.

Farrin looked up from where she’d been staring at the same half-filled-out check for the past ten minutes. “I didn’t know you were here.”

“Just pulled in. Hon, you look exhausted.”

“I’m fine.” She stared down at the check. Who was she making it out to anyway?

“Do you even know what day it is?”

“Friday?”

“Close, but no prize. Why don’t you go get some sleep?”

“I can’t sleep. Can’t turn my brain off.”

“What are you going to do?”

Farrin sighed. “What can I do? I’m not related, so I have no say.”

“This isn’t right.”

“Sometimes life isn’t.”

The front door opened and slammed against the wall. Feet ran down the hall, and then Dara slid past Tammie and launched herself at Farrin. Her face was red and tear-streaked, causing Farrin’s heart to nearly stop.

“What’s wrong?”

At first, Dara just gasped for breath.

“Is it your mother?”

Dara shook her head.

“Dara, honey, what’s wrong?”

The girl sniffed loudly. “Grandma, she took my necklace. And Mom’s, too.”

“What necklaces?” But Farrin knew, and God help Jewel Carlisle.

“The ones you got us at Tiffanys. She said that the money they’d bring would be better used to pay bills. And that little girls shouldn’t have such expensive jewelry.”

“How did you get here?”

“I . . . ran.”

Farrin looked at the clock. It was after 4 p.m. and getting dark.

“From your apartment?”

Dara lowered her eyes as if she were afraid she was about to be punished. “Yes.”

Farrin rose, and grasped Dara’s hand. “Tammie, call and let them know Dara is fine and that I’m bringing her home.”

“Farrin.” Concern echoed in Tammie’s voice.

“Don’t worry. I won’t let that woman be the cause of me going to jail.”

Farrin gripped the wheel of the car so hard on the way back to the apartment complex, the blood stopped flowing to her fingers. Dara still sniffed beside her.

“Don’t worry, sweetie. We’ll get the necklaces back.” She reached across the car and squeezed Dara’s ice cold hand.

When Farrin pulled into the apartment complex, Jewel was waiting at the bottom of the steps, her arms crossed and her face pinched. She’d marched halfway across the parking lot by the time Farrin and Dara got out of the car.

Farrin stepped between Dara and her irate grandmother. In a low voice, she said, “You touch this child, and you will answer to me.”

“Get out of my way. This is all your fault, buying a child something made for an adult.”

“And how do you explain stealing Janie’s necklace?”

Jewel inhaled sharply. “I didn’t steal!”

“What do you call taking other people’s property with the intent of selling it?”

“I’m doing it for them, to pay bills.”

“I happen to know Janie has enough money in her account to pay her bills.”

“How would you know that?”

“Because I put it there. I think you want to rid their lives of anything that even hints of me, and perhaps you don’t want to spend any more of your own money on your grandchildren than you have to.”

“Must you say this now?” Jewel glanced at Dara peeping around Farrin’s side.

“What, all of a sudden you’re concerned what they hear and think?”

Jewel’s face reddened beneath her makeup. Even while caring for her dying daughter, the woman had taken pains to appear perfectly coifed and attired. “You seem to forget that I will be raising them and not you.”

“If you’re planning to make them feel miserable and unloved like you did Janie, I might change my mind about fighting for them.”

Farrin expected anger from Jewel, but the older woman surprised her. “Unloved?” Unless she was a fine actress, Jewel Carlisle was genuinely shocked by the accusation. “We gave Janie everything she could have ever wanted or needed.”

Jewel seemed to age before Farrin’s eyes. Could the woman truly be that blind to her daughter’s anguish? Or had Janie been as good at hiding it from her parents as she had been her classmates?

“You can’t buy a child’s love.”

For several moments, Jewel didn’t move, didn’t make a sound. And then she turned and walked away, not toward the apartment but toward the complex’s playground. Farrin took the opportunity and with Dara climbed the steps to the apartment.

They found Jason feeding a small cup of vanilla pudding to his mother. Farrin stifled a cry. Less than a week had passed since she’d last seen Janie, but those days had not been kind to her. The dark circles under her eyes had deepened, and her eyes had a faraway, glazed look about them. Farrin walked forward and took the pudding from Jason. The poor child. He shouldn’t have to see his mother waste away.

“Her favorite used to be chocolate,” he said. “But she doesn’t like the taste of it anymore.”

Farrin bent and kissed his head. “You are a very good son. Your mother loves you very much, and she always will. Remember that.”

Jason nodded and blinked back tears.

“I have a job for you. I want you to call Drew at his office. Tell him what you’d like for dinner from Thelma’s and have him pick it up. Order something for your grandmother, too. You know what she likes?”

Jason looked at a loss.

“She likes chicken and dumplings,” Dara offered, sounding a bit unsure.

“It’s a good night for those. I think I’ll have that, too.” Though she doubted she’d be able to eat a bite. But the kids needed something to do, something to make them feel useful.

Only when the kids left the room did Farrin gently close the door then sit on the side of the bed before looking at her friend. Janie turned her head and recognition registered in her pale eyes.

“I missed you,” Janie said, her voice a whisper of its former self.

“I missed you, too. I’m sorry. It has been really busy at the inn. The restaurant’s almost ready to open, and—”

“Farrin.”

“Yes?”

“I know what Mom did. I just didn’t have the strength . . . to stop her.” The words cost Janie as she labored to breathe.

“She was upset.”

“Because I told her I wanted you to raise the children.”

“They’re her flesh and blood.”

“And she’ll make them unhappy.”

Farrin thought about the haunted look in Jewel’s eyes before she’d walked away. “I don’t know.”

Tears leaked out of Janie’s eyes. “Please, please take care of my babies.”

Farrin didn’t know what would happen, but she couldn’t manage to refuse, not when Janie looked so alone and tired and desperate. “I’ll do my best to make them happy.”

“Thank you.”

Farrin pulled a tissue from the box on the nightstand and dried Janie’s tears.

It appeared to take a lot of effort, but Janie lifted her hand to her hair. “I want to . . . take a shower.”

When her time came, Farrin hoped her own death was quick. This lingering, the gradual loss of your ability to take care of yourself, the loss of dignity was awful in the extreme.

By the time they managed to get Janie showered and into a clean gown, the kids had slipped into the bedroom and changed the bed linens. Janie lifted her frail hand to caress their cheeks as Farrin helped her back into bed.

“Drew’s here,” Jason said.

“Did your grandmother come back inside?”

“No, she’s still sitting on the swings.”

Exhausted, Janie drifted off to sleep almost as soon as they tucked her in. Farrin ushered the kids into the living room so Janie could rest.

“I’ll be back in a minute,” Farrin said when she reached Drew. “Can you set out the meal so they can eat?”

“Sure. But where are you going?”

“There’s a conversation I need to have.” She grabbed a quilt off the back of the couch and went outside.

The moon had risen and cast the night in wintry white light. She spotted Jewel sitting on one of the children’s swings, staring at the dark line of trees at the back of the property. There was something incredibly sad about the picture. And dangerous considering Jewel was in her sixties and likely chilled to the bone.

When she reached her, Farrin held out the quilt. But Jewel didn’t seem to see it. So Farrin unfolded it and wrapped it around the older woman’s shoulders. “You need to go inside before you get pneumonia. You need to stay strong and well for Janie’s sake.”

A sob escaped, one Jewel had likely been holding in since she’d walked away nearly an hour before. “I never knew she thought we didn’t love her.”

“She shouldn’t have had to say it.” Maybe Jewel was hurting, but she’d caused a good deal of pain as well.

“I wanted her to have the life I didn’t.”

“Your life always seemed fine from where I was standing.”

“Looks can be deceiving.”

In the town where everyone knew everything about everybody, was nothing as it seemed?

Jewel pulled the quilt tighter around her shoulders and continued to stare into the distance.