Pieces of the Heart (11 page)

Rainy touched Caroline’s cheek, her finger callused from years of quilting, of pushing needles in and out of fabric, stitching pieces together. That was how Caroline had always thought of her: the solid presence that always held the loose scraps of her life together. Caroline felt the panic grab hold.

The older woman smiled. “I’m not done with this world yet, hon, so don’t be fretting.” She sighed and dropped her finger. “I do get more tired than I used to, and I sure do wish I had more help with this quilt for Jewel.”

Caroline knew that had been aimed directly at her, and her eyes dropped from Rainy’s face. She’d once loved the feel of pushing a needle through fabric, the ability to lose herself for hours creating lively, colorful quilts for other people. It had been her way of getting inside people’s lives in a way her innate shyness otherwise prevented. It had made her popular and sought after, and for the first time existing in the same social circles Jude had become accustomed to since birth.

She recalled the memory quilt she’d started making for Jude before he’d died, that had somehow disappeared in the lost months following his funeral, months she couldn’t recall even now. Oddly, all she could remember from that time were colors—of wet leaves, gray skies, and the stark white walls of a hospital room. And when she’d finally returned home, Jude’s quilt was gone.

Caroline looked at the fabric Rainy still held in her hand. “What’s this one from?”

“A dress Shelby wore at the junior prom. She asked Jude to come up from Atlanta for it. She didn’t care that he was an underclassman—she wouldn’t go with anybody else. They were like that, you know. Inseparable.”

“I remember.” The old grief rose to the surface, and Caroline stood. “I can’t help you, you know. I’d like to, but I can’t. Anything that reminds me of him . . . I just . . . can’t.”

Rainy took off her glasses. “Do you think I don’t understand that? Don’t you think I grieved when Shelby died?” She leaned forward, her eyes narrowing. “But I wasn’t the one who died. I still have a life to live, and I try my best every day to live it to the fullest. Shelby wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.”

Caroline was silent for a moment, unable to find the words to make Rainy understand. “How did it happen? Shelby, I mean.”

“She was on vacation on Sullivan’s Island. She was swimming and had a brain aneurysm and drowned before anyone could bring her in to shore.” She drew a deep breath. “Jewel was with her. She tried as hard as she could to swim back carrying her mother, and she’s a good swimmer, but she was only ten. Her little muscles just weren’t strong enough, and she would have drowned, too, if help hadn’t arrived when it did.”

Caroline let that sink in for a moment as she thought of the calm and cool Jewel struggling with the body of her mother and trying to bring her to shore. “Where was Drew?”

Rainy’s fingers plucked at the yellow fabric on the sewing table as if trying to bring it back to life. “He’d had every intention of being there, but he had to stay in Charleston for an extra day to get some work done before joining Shelby and Jewel.” She looked squarely up at Caroline. “Sometimes punishing ourselves for bad choices in our past isn’t the best way to live our future.”

Caroline rubbed her eyes. “No, probably not.” She wondered for a moment if she should share with Rainy what she’d never told anybody before—about the dreams she’d had after Jude’s death. But then she looked up at the fragile woman, at the scarf that covered a nearly bald head, and knew she couldn’t burden her with one more thing.

Caroline walked back to the table and swept her hand through the sea of fabric, her fingers briefly clutching at memories before letting them go. “Jewel’s headaches—does she get them often?”

Rainy nodded. “Too often. We’ve taken her to doctors and had all sorts of tests, and the only thing they’ve been able to do for her is tell her what not to eat and give her strong pills to make the pain easier to take.” She snorted.

“I was just wondering, you know, with Shelby having a brain aneurysm ...”

“Her daddy and I were concerned about that, too. That’s why we took her to a specialist in California last summer. He said that there’s nothing wrong with Jewel, and what happened to her mama was a one-of-a-kind event and not something Jewel could have inherited.”

“That’s good.” She drew a deep breath to finally broach the subject she’d come to discuss, but her next words were drowned out by the ringing of the telephone.

Rainy picked up the cordless by her feet on the third ring.

“Yes, she’s here. Yes, I got the package. No, don’t know if I’ll use it—not on my face, anyway.” There was silence for a few minutes, then, “Yes, I’ll do that.”

Rainy hung up the phone, then looked at Caroline. “That was your mother. She wanted to make sure that you’d gotten here safely. And she wants me to let her know when you leave so she’ll know when to expect you.”

Caroline rolled her eyes. “This is insane. I am not twelve years old.” She held up her hand to deflect anything Rainy might say in defense of Margaret. “I don’t want to get into this now—that’s not what I came here for. I actually wanted to talk to you about selling Rainy Days.”

Rainy pushed back her chair from the sewing table and stretched out her legs as if she were preparing to watch a show. Caroline leaned against the table, her arms crossed over her chest, and cleared her throat. “I don’t think you should sell it—not to Drew, at least.”

Rainy raised an eyebrow.

“He doesn’t know the first thing about marketing. I mean, he’s creating one-of-a-kind pieces that could make him a sheer fortune if he’d allow them to be mass-produced, but he doesn’t want to do that. Imagine what he’d do to your store with an attitude like that—‘if it’s popular don’t sell it.’ He’d run it into the ground within a year.”

Warm brown eyes contemplated Caroline for a long moment. “Have you had much of a chance to get to know Drew?”

“No—thankfully. No offense, of course, to Shelby, but the man seems a little . . . slow.” Grudgingly, she added, “Although he makes the most beautiful pieces of furniture I think I have ever seen.”

Rainy’s mouth quirked a bit. “Um-hmm. Well, it’s too late now. It’s a done deal. I’m planning on sticking around until the end of the year, and then he’ll take over. We’re having the contracts drawn up now.”

Caroline straightened. “But . . . but the ‘for sale’ sign is still in the window. Surely this is still negotiable.”

Rainy stood and made her way through the kitchen to the front of the store with Caroline following close behind. “I’d forgotten I had that there. I’ll take care of that right now.” She reached into the window display and plucked out the sign. “There. Done.”

Caroline felt the unmistakable urge to cry. “But, Rainy, this can’t be the end of it.”

Rainy put her arm around Caroline’s shoulders and started leading her back toward the kitchen. “Honey, every ending is just really a beginning of something different. I know Drew’s heart isn’t into owning a country store up in the middle of nowhere. But I also know he’ll do his best by it until he figures out what he really should be doing.”

Caroline stopped walking and looked up at Rainy. “And what would that be?”

Rainy just shook her head and continued to propel Caroline toward the back of the old house. “Hell if I know. But we all have to figure out what we want to be when we grow up—no matter how old we are. It just takes some people longer than others to find out what that is.” She looked pointedly at Caroline, making her squirm.

“But Drew needs this right now. He has a lot of guilt—thinking he should have been there with Shelby, that maybe she wouldn’t have died if he had been. Things had been . . . well, difficult in their marriage for a few years. I guess he felt for whatever reason that he needed to work constantly to prove himself to his father, even if it meant taking time away from Shelby and Jewel. And something . . . changed in him after Jewel was born.”

She shook her head slightly at the confused look Caroline wore. “No, it wasn’t like that—he adored his daughter. And loved Shelby. I’ve just never been able to figure it out.” She walked toward the kitchen. “Anyway, this is something he needs right now—for him and Jewel both. He’ll work through it and move on, which will be the best thing for everyone involved. A person can’t move forward if he keeps his feet glued to the ground.”

She sent another pointed look at Caroline, but before Caroline could respond, Rainy said, “Come on into the kitchen with me and I’ll make us some tea. Then you can help me oil the hinges on my back door with that stuff your mama sent.”

Caroline pushed back the need to defend herself and allowed a reluctant smile to tug at her lips as she followed Rainy through the kitchen door.

P
IANO MUSIC FLOATED FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE INTO THE COOL, damp air as Drew stood uncomfortably on the Colliers’ front porch. But this time it was a lively scherzo with none of the minor chords he’d heard Caroline play before that made him think of the deep end of the ocean.

Jewel slouched against the railing behind him, trying to look bored. She’d brushed her hair and pulled it back in a thick ponytail, showing off bright silver earrings in the shape of crescent moons. With a start, he realized that they had been Shelby’s.

The door opened and Margaret Collier smiled broadly as she stood there wearing a flowing silk caftan, something Elizabeth Taylor might have worn in her heyday. “I thought I heard someone knocking—I didn’t realize the music was on so loud.” She opened the door wider for her guests to come inside.

Drew motioned for Jewel to precede him into the house as they followed Mrs. Collier inside. He looked around for Caroline. “I didn’t realize it was the stereo. I thought it might have been Caroline on the piano.”

Margaret closed the door and began herding them into the great room. “Oh, no. Caroline doesn’t know how to play a note. Her brother was quite gifted, but I could never convince Caroline to give it a try.”

Jewel paused by a large framed picture on the far wall as Drew followed Margaret, feeling confused. “But I heard her play—and she was pretty good, if I recall correctly.”

He felt Caroline’s presence behind him before she spoke. “When I’m bored I sometimes sit at the piano and play random keys. I guess to the untrained ear it could sound like Chopin.”

Drew turned to look at Caroline to see if she was joking, but she met his gaze with a half smile that would have fooled him if he hadn’t seen the flash of desperation in her eyes.

Margaret indicated a spot on the sofa for him to sit before she turned her attention to her daughter. “We’re going to have a drink first so you’ll have time to change for dinner.”

“I did change.” She indicated her T-shirt and jeans.

Her mother’s perfectly lined eyebrows rose. “But you’re wearing jeans.”

Caroline’s expression matched her mother’s like a mirror image, and Drew suppressed a laugh.