Pearl of Great Price (29 page)

No sympathy, no comfort, just a guttural laugh. “Well, then, you and me got some catchin’ up to do. Angie, meet Donna. Now you two don’t fight over me. There’s enough man here for both of you.”

But Donna wasn’t interested in sharing, so she hadn’t lasted long. Pretty soon it was just Angie and Ray again, back to their rootless, laid-back lifestyle. She wanted it to be enough, but it never was. And she wondered often, as she lay in the crook of Ray’s arm under the starry Arkansas sky, exactly how she’d gotten to this point.

To this aloneness. This estrangement from everything she used to take for granted. Mom. Dad. The daily routine at the Swap & Shop. Her dull, boring, wasted life in Caddo Pines.

Or at least that’s how she used to think of it. How could she ever imagine she’d find anything better beyond the Caddo Pines city limits sign? How could she turn her back on the genuine love of family and friends for . . .
this?

Now, after all she’d done, how could she ever go back?

For two years after the miscarriage, Angie had endured Ray’s mercurial moods, his drug- and liquor-induced highs, his frequent absences.

And then Julie Pearl came along and changed everything.

C
HAPTER 34

Present Day

One week later, at precisely 5:02 p.m., I watched Renata release a heavy sigh as she flipped over the CLOSED sign on the front door of the Swap & Shop. She turned to me, her nose in the air. “That’s it, Julie. Two weeks, as promised. I’m going upstairs for a long, hot bath. Then we need to talk.”

Not that we hadn’t talked over the past two weeks, but as usual, our conversations always had more to do with Renata than me. And—as usual—the glimpses she gave me into herself rarely went beyond the superficial. If not for my own observations, combined with insights gleaned from Micah and Aunt Geneva, my sister would have remained little more than a casual acquaintance.

An acquaintance I’d never in a million years ever keep as a friend.

On the positive side, after learning I’d started seeing Micah again, Renata had relentlessly assured me there’d never been anything more than friendship between them. For the most part I believed her, and I fully believed Micah had done his part to keep everything platonic. But I couldn’t shake my convictions that she’d always wanted it to be more, and still would, if only Micah had shown the slightest interest.

Sibling rivalry? The bizarre connection between me and Renata had shifted the concept into a whole new dimension.

After closing out the cash register and tallying a deposit to take to the bank in the morning, I gathered up the puppy basket—getting heavier every day—and trudged upstairs, Brynna and Sneezy at my heels. The squirming pups wrestled and play-growled at each other, making the box even more unwieldy. I couldn’t help but laugh at their clumsy antics. “It’s almost time to find homes for these guys,” I told Brynna over my shoulder.

And then I burst out crying. I sank to the landing outside the apartment door, puppy basket propped on my knees, and sobbed as if I were losing my best friends. One by one, I held each warm, furry body against my tear-streaked cheek, inhaling those sweet, milky puppy smells. Brynna whimpered and stared at me, head tilting one way and then the other. I was glad Clifton and Grandpa had left to deliver an antique table to a customer, so they weren’t here to witness my sentimental breakdown.

“Oh, Julie Pearl, you are a case.” I wiped the back of my hand across my wet face. This wasn’t the first batch of puppies I knew I’d have to say good-bye to, and though I always got a little sad watching littermates move on to their new homes, I’d never reacted quite this irrationally before.

It had to be Micah. We hadn’t really settled anything last Sunday, except to agree to continue exploring where a relationship between us might go. But he still kept a part of himself closed off from me, the part that stubbornly refused forgiveness for a childhood mistake.

Snarling his impatience, Sneezy sidled past me and paced on the landing. With a warbling meow, he stretched his forelegs up and batted the doorknob.

“Suppertime, I know.” I clambered to my feet and opened the door, careful to watch my balance as Sneezy and Brynna rushed into the kitchen ahead of me.

A gasp alerted me to Renata, who stood behind a pile of luggage beside the kitchen table. I skimmed past my usual annoyance at her chronic anxiety around the dog and dove straight into my surprise at seeing her packed and ready to leave.

I set the puppy basket down next to the door. “Wow, when you said your two weeks were up, you meant it literally.”

“It’s been an interesting experience, I’ll give you that. But I must attend to pressing matters back in Little Rock, things that require much more attention than I can manage over the phone.” She checked her diamond-studded Rolex. “I know it doesn’t allow much time for good-byes, but Martin will be here at six with the car.”

“So that’s it? I thought you wanted to talk.”

She cocked her head with a questioning look that reminded me of Brynna. “I meant we could talk on the way to Little Rock.”

“On the way—” I staggered like she’d punched me in the gut. Queen Renata had taken it for granted I’d be returning with her to Channing Castle.

“If you want to shower first, you’d better hurry. I laid out one of my sundresses for you. I think it should fit all right.” She pulled her cell phone from the front pocket of her handbag. “It was just plain thoughtless of me not to bring along a few of those nice outfits we bought you. I was simply too rattled by your suggestion—or maybe I should call it your
ultimatum
—that I spend two weeks working in a flea market.”

Too stunned to speak, I sank into the nearest chair and watched as she thumbed some buttons on her phone, then informed her chauffeur we might need a little more time.

Two weeks. Two wasted weeks of trying to get beneath Renata’s high-society façade. Now that her tour of duty was up, seemed she couldn’t get out of here fast enough.

She tucked the cell phone into her purse. Noticing I hadn’t budged, she shot me a frown. “What are you waiting for, Julie? Don’t you want to freshen up before we leave?”

I leaned back in the chair and stretched out my legs in a wide angle. Toying with the hem of my tie-dyed T-shirt, I glared at her. “How’d you ever get so manipulative, Renata? Does it just come naturally?”

Her eyes widened, and for a split second she appeared genuinely hurt. Then her gaze turned steely. “Control is everything. Someday you’ll learn it for yourself.”

“I hope you’re wrong.” My palm smacked the tabletop, the explosive sound sending both Brynna and Sneezy cowering behind the sofa. “Because I’d never want to live in a world where everything I got came at someone else’s expense. Where the rule is to do unto others
before
they do it to you. That’s the total opposite of what my grandpa raised me to believe, what everything in me tells me is right.”

“Jenny, Jenny, how can you be so naïve?” Renata turned away, one hand pressed to her forehead, the other resting on her cocked hip. “You’re pretty good at the manipulation game, yourself, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

I was too incensed by her accusation to take much notice of the fact that she’d called me Jenny. I rose in a huff. “What are you talking about?”

“Oh, please.” She angled a contemptuous smile in my direction. “I concede the importance of my seeing firsthand the life you’ve led up until now, the sacrifices you had to make because of your upbringing. But don’t try to convince me you didn’t have ulterior motives. Admit it, you enjoyed watching me endure such awful drudgery again.”

“
Enjoy?
No!” I stepped toward her, hands extended. “What I hoped more than anything was that you’d rediscover something of who you really are. Rennie Pearl, from Hot Springs. The girl who used to hope and dream and . . . love.”

Her jaw trembled. Her mouth twisted into something hideous. “Rennie Pearl doesn’t exist anymore. And whatever hopes and dreams she may have had are at the bottom of Lake Hamilton with—”

The slamming of a car door interrupted her. She hurried to the door and peered out the glass. “Martin is here,” she said without looking at me. “I assume I’ll be returning alone?”

In two long strides I was at her side. I seized her elbow. “Finish what you were saying. At the bottom of Lake Hamilton with Jenny, is that it? Renata, have you looked at the DNA results?”

“I told you, I don’t need to. I meant—” Shaking off my grip, she closed her eyes in silent despair. Martin appeared on the other side of the door and tapped softly. She drew in a rasping breath and reached for the knob. “Come in, Martin. My bags are over there.”

I had no choice but to back away and allow the chauffeur inside. Renata held the door as he hefted her luggage and started downstairs. When he was out of earshot, she slid her gaze toward me, and a strange, mad smile curved her lips. “You’re my sister, Jenny. Nothing will ever change that.
Nothing
.”

Before I could blink twice, she’d closed the space between us and wrapped her arms around me. I stood stiff as a two-by-four as she planted a kiss on my cheek and whispered sweetly in my ear, “Do come for a visit soon, dear. Your room will always be ready.”

A moment later she was gone.

~~~

“I think she’s crazy. I honestly think she’s certifiably insane.”

It was Tuesday, and Sandy asked me to meet her for lunch at the Dixie Café in Hot Springs. She sliced off a bite of her chicken-fried steak and swirled it through the thick, peppery cream gravy. “Then you’re lucky she’s gone. I suspected it from the start, Julie. And Micah warned you too. The woman is nothing but trouble.”

“I know, but . . .” I pushed my practically untouched hamburger away and stared through the front window as noontime traffic crept along Central Avenue. “If she really is my sister, I owe it to her to try to help somehow.” The memory of all those pills on the bathroom counter brought a twinge to my belly. I still wrestled with unspoken fears that if both Renata and our mother suffered from mental illness, I might someday be in the market for a straightjacket myself.

“Key word—
if
she’s your sister. And even if it’s true, you can’t help someone who doesn’t want to be helped. Renata Channing may be too far gone even for someone as persistent as you. Face it, Julie. She isn’t another one of your strays that you can win over with patience and affection.”

Our waitress came over with a pitcher of iced tea. “Can I get y’all anything else? Blackberry cobbler? Coffee?”

“I’ll have some cobbler.” Sandy took a gulp of iced tea. “With ice cream and decaf, please.”

“Nothing for me, thanks.” As the waitress sauntered away, I grinned at Sandy and shook my head. “Only someone with your metabolism could get away with chicken-fried steak and blackberry cobbler a là mode in the same meal.”

Sandy polished off the last of her baked squash. “Couldn’t keep eating like this if Micah didn’t have me hopping around all day like a jackrabbit on steroids.”

Even though Micah and I had been spending more time together, we seemed to have reached a tacit agreement not to discuss Renata or anything connected with the past, so I’d avoided asking where things stood with the resort. I twirled the straw in my iced tea glass. “What’s he got keeping you so busy?”

“Are you kidding? I’ve been running redrawn plans and documents back and forth to city hall, contractors, architects, you name it.”

“Redrawn—? I don’t understand.”

She shot me a wide-eyed stare. “You really don’t know?”

I crossed my arms, irritation lacing my tone. “If I did, would I be asking?”

“Let’s see.” Looking toward the ceiling, Sandy tapped her jaw with her index finger. When she met my gaze again, her reply dripped with sarcasm. “Only
completely
revising every plan he’d ever made for the resort.”

Something told me I should be worried.
Very
worried. “Revising how, exactly?”

Chewing her lip, Sandy studied me as if she couldn’t quite decide how to answer. Finally she said, “If Micah hasn’t told you, I’m not sure it’s my place to say. You should hear it from him.”

“But you’re my best friend.” I reached across the table and grabbed her wrist. “Sandy, please!”

“I’m sorry, Jules. I love you, but I value my job too much.” Her apologetic frown only went so far in soothing my extremely ruffled feathers.

I ground my teeth. “Then at least tell me when this all started.”

She dropped her gaze. “Exactly one week ago yesterday.”

One week ago yesterday. The day after Micah had admitted his feelings for me.

Micah Hobart, what in heaven’s name are you up to?

I snagged my purse and shoved out of the booth. “Are you finished? Let’s go.”

After dropping Sandy at the La Quinta, I drove straight to the old resort. I’d had enough of Micah’s secrets, and if he didn’t care to fill me in on his change of plans, I’d have to see it for myself.

Only there wasn’t much left to see. Beyond the chain-link construction fence, Micah’s crews had leveled the cabins, bulldozed the cracked driveway into a pile of concrete rubble, ripped out tree stumps, and planted surveyor’s flags in a hodgepodge pattern only an expert could interpret. The only original building still standing was the main house, but with the rotted porches torn away and the windows boarded up, it gaped like a toothless monster.

A temporary access road had been carved along the south side of the house. Down the hill where the road branched off to the boat dock, I spotted Micah’s pickup. He stood on the dock with another man in a yellow construction helmet, both of them poring over a fat wad of curling blueprints. I shuffled down the road, red dirt sifting through the weave of my huaraches. When I called Micah’s name, he looked up, his initial surprise morphing into a boyish grin.

“Don’t let me interrupt,” I said with a wave. It took great effort to keep the irritation out of my voice. “Just thought I’d see what all you’ve done so far.”