Sister's Choice (32 page)

“Adversity may be underrated,” Jamie said, “but I could cheerfully live without this.”

“If it weren’t for the hard times in my own life, I never would have realized a number of things,” Grace said. “But this isn’t the time for lessons learned. I’ll only say this. Never assume you know what the people who love you are thinking or feeling. I venture to say more lives have been ruined by bad guesses than harsh truths.”

“You have the bonus of being able to look back and analyze the decisions you made. I just have to falter along and hope I’ve done my best.”

“And the people who really love you will understand that’s what you did.”

Jamie hoped that was true. But she wasn’t looking forward to the day when she found out.

A
s January’s cold breath whistled over him, Cash shoved his hands deep in the pockets of his suede jacket. Standing here, gazing up toward the sinking sun, he thought the Taylors’ house was going to be Rosslyn and Rosslyn’s masterpiece. Everything about it was coming together the way he had hoped but never expected. He wondered if Jamie had really envisioned how perfectly this plan would suit the site, how tactfully it mimicked the cabin that had once stood here while transforming that simple, rustic dogtrot design into something remarkable.

He and his father had added their own touches, of course. Stone columns where her design had called for wood. A different style of windows for the second story. A bathroom where a closet had been anticipated, and a closet where a reading nook had been planned. She’d approved of those and other changes when the reasons were explained. She wasn’t just talented, she was accommodating and sensible.

She was also concerned about something that had nothing to do with her sister’s house. Cash knew that as surely as he knew Jamie liked having her neck and shoulders rubbed and that her feet were swollen and aching after she’d been on them for any length of time. Something was worrying her.

He didn’t know what the problem was, why, for the past month—even through the Christmas holidays—she had spent too much time staring into space. Why, when her daughters spoke to her, she was so often preoccupied that they had taken to repeating themselves automatically. Whatever it was, he intended to get some answers.

Just as soon as he figured out why he was making Jamie Dunkirk’s happiness such a major part of his own.

Although progress on the house had been steady, the inevitable weather delays this month and next probably meant that the Taylors wouldn’t be taking possession of their new home until late spring, a bit earlier if they were willing to live with the noise and confusion of last-minute alterations and finishing work. But Cash doubted the Taylors would be willing, considering that by then they would have two infants. He imagined they would continue to live in Arlington until the last contractor pulled away from the site.

He wondered where Jamie would be by then.

“If you’re done gawking, I could use your advice on the trim work in the great room,” Manning said, walking over to stand beside Cash. “I know that finish is going to darken up with time, but it’s at least six shades lighter than the Taylors asked for.”

Cash didn’t have to look. He had been standing beside Kendra Taylor when she saw the trim for the first time, and she had said exactly the same thing. He had already called the subcontractor and told him to get himself back here to do the job the way he was supposed to.

“It was a stab at artistic license,” Cash said. “The guy he sent to do it had his own theory on what the house needed. It’ll be taken care of next week.”

“Good. They’re on their way down. The Taylors, I mean. I guess I should say Isaac’s on his way. I asked him to come and see what he thought about the fire pit and the pond. I’ve got Amos scheduled to do some excavating as soon as the weather cooperates.”

Cash thought that was odd. He had gone over all the landscape details with both Taylors just last week. Every part of the ground was carefully marked, and all the trees that had needed to be taken out or trimmed
had
been—almost a month ago.

“Is that why you asked me to postpone my trip down to Roanoke, too? So I could go over this with him
again?
It’s been all set up for a week now.”

“There he is.”

Cash listened, but he didn’t hear a car engine, just the quieter crunching of gravel. In a minute Isaac’s Prius appeared.

“That car sure does sneak up on a body,” Manning said. “Like something out of a spy novel.”

“More like something out of a manual on saving the environment. You ought to approve.”

“I never said I didn’t.”

Both men waited until Isaac got out of the car and approached. He was alone, as Manning had predicted, dressed for the cold weather in jeans and boots, topped with a dark ski jacket, although his head was bare. Cash couldn’t recall ever noticing the way Isaac walked, heels digging in first, the boot rolling toward the toe, but today it struck a familiar chord, although he couldn’t say why.

“Sorry to get you all the way out here,” Manning said, extending his hand in Isaac’s direction.

After they shook, Isaac shoved his hands deep in his pockets, the way Cash had done. “Don’t worry. I figure this is a good evening to let Caleb Claiborne drive my car up and down Fitch Crossing. He’s been wanting to get behind the wheel for months now.”

Cash knew Isaac and Kendra had befriended Cissy Claiborne’s brother, Caleb, who must finally be old enough to get his license. Cissy’s in-laws, who lived just down Fitch Crossing, had adopted the boy a while ago, and Caleb seemed to be thriving under their care and affection, along with the Taylors’ friendship.

“So what’s changed?” Isaac asked. “What do I need to look at?”

Manning didn’t speak for a moment. He just stood looking up at the house; then he turned and faced the two younger men.

“This isn’t really about the house,” he said. “That was just my reason for getting you both out here.”

Isaac looked puzzled. Cash was puzzled, too. He couldn’t remember his father ever resorting to subterfuge. Like so many of his friends and cohorts, he said what needed to be said, and that was that. He spared no feelings, although he didn’t make a point of hurting anybody, either.

“What
is
it about?” Isaac asked.

“About a lie I told myself when I heard about you. And about some piece of the truth, or at least what I think might be true.”

Isaac apparently knew better than to question him further. He just waited, and so did Cash.

Manning began slowly. “I told you I talked to Rachel back before you were born, and that was the last time I ever heard from her. Well, I did talk to her, but the last time wasn’t on the telephone, the way I said. Rachel…”

Manning looked at Isaac. “Your
mother,
Rachel. She did call right out of the blue one day, after she’d been gone for years. She said she wanted to see me. You have to know I’d never expected that. Like I said before, she took off after high school, and I’d never heard from her again until that moment. I’d already been married once in the meantime. Cash’s mother is my second wife. My first wife wasn’t around for long. She was a city girl, and she left me for a man with more money and more of what she called prospects. But I didn’t like being alone. I met Sandra, Cash’s mother, a couple of years later, and I fell in love with her. I’d just asked her to marry me a day or two before, when I got that phone call from Rachel.”

Cash saw it all laid out nice and proper in front of him. He glanced at Isaac and saw that he was beginning to suspect what Manning might say, as well. But neither of them spoke. They let the older man continue.

Manning seemed to choose his words carefully. “At first…I just thought I wouldn’t go. It didn’t seem right. Rachel had made her choices, and I had made mine.”

He ran his hand over what hair he had left. “But I did go, because all those years ago, I’d been head over heels in love with that woman. Turned out she was living outside Tupelo, Mississippi. She’d gone there with a man, but she’d sent him packing. She was waiting on tables, cleaning houses, making a life, if not a very good one. I thought maybe she wanted me to rescue her, but Rachel wasn’t that kind of woman. I never met anybody so independent. Seems she had missed me, too, and somehow she had heard my wife had up and left me. So Rachel wanted to see if there was anything left between us that we could resurrect. She said—” he looked uncomfortable “—that I was the only man she’d ever known who meant anything to her.”

Cash knew what had to come next. He waited.

“There
was
something left between us,” Manning said. “I’d never stopped loving Rachel Spurlock, I guess. We spent that one night together, but when I woke up the next morning, I knew what a mistake it was. Rachel would never come back here with me. And if she did, she would be right miserable. I wasn’t willing to leave Shenandoah County. I knew this was where I was going to live and die, and I’d already lost one woman because of it. Then there was Sandra. What I had with Rachel, well, it was young love, that kind of fire in the blood they talk about in books. But I loved Sandra, too, and I knew she was the one I wanted to spend my life with.”

Isaac shifted his weight to his left foot, but it was the only movement he made.

“And so I left for good that afternoon,” Manning said. “Rachel said I was right to, that she would never be the kind of wife I wanted. I think she knew there was somebody else waiting at home, too, although we didn’t talk about it. She said she would stay in touch, but she didn’t. We both knew it was over.”

Manning looked up and into Isaac’s eyes. “Only I don’t think it
was
over. I think there was more, a lot more, Rachel didn’t tell me. When your wife came here and moved into the cabin and I heard about you, Isaac, and the way Leah had left the old place to you because you were Rachel’s son, I told myself that Rachel was a free-spirited woman who didn’t live by society’s standards. I knew there had been men before me, and I figured there had been men afterward. But when I started looking through all that paperwork you and your missus signed for this house, I finally took a look at your birth date. By then I’d already figured out there was a chance you’d been conceived that one night your mother and I spent together. I saw things about you that reminded me of my own father. Little things, like the way you move. Nothing anybody could put a finger on. But they weren’t that easy to push aside, and finally I just sat down with those papers…”

Cash realized now why Isaac’s walk seemed so familiar. Manning saw his own father in the way Isaac moved, but Cash saw someone else. Isaac walked exactly the way that Manning did.

“You’re saying you’re my father.” Isaac didn’t make a question out of it.

“I don’t know for sure, but I think I probably am.”

Manning shoved his hands in his pockets, just the way both of the other men had. “I told myself that date didn’t mean anything much, that there were weeks before and after Rachel and I were together that one time when she could have gotten pregnant. Then, when I got over trying to fool myself, I figured I’d better just leave it alone and stay out of your way. You’re a grown man. You don’t need a stranger coming forward to tell you he might be your father. I couldn’t imagine you’d appreciate hearing the story I just told you.”

Manning turned slightly to include Cash. “And I couldn’t imagine you’d appreciate hearing that I cheated on your mother. We weren’t married at the time, but we were on the way.”

“You’re not the first man who slipped up,” Cash said, trying to put it in perspective.

“I’ve been faithful to Sandra ever since. Never even thought about anyone else. But you’re probably trying to figure out why I involved you this way, huh? Well, I struggled with this. But I figured you might have a brother, Cash, and I wanted you to know it. So which of you did I tell first? And, Isaac…” He turned to include him. “I didn’t want you telling me Cash shouldn’t know what was going on. I’m sorry, but that wouldn’t have been right. So I decided to tell the two of you together.”

Isaac didn’t say anything. Cash didn’t know what to say.

“There are tests.” Manning snapped his fingers. “It would be that easy to find out. I’m willing if you want.”

“Why?” Isaac asked.

“I’d like to be your father.”

A muscle in Isaac’s jaw worked, as if he was silently chewing Manning’s words. “Does blood matter that much?” he asked at last.

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t think I want to take a chance that you
aren’t.
”

For a moment Manning didn’t seem to understand; then he did. His entire body relaxed. “You mean that?”

“You’re the kind of father I wanted as a boy. I don’t know what we can do about all this now, but I’d like to get to know you better. I’d like you to get to know my sons.” Isaac looked at Cash. “I wouldn’t mind having a brother.”

Cash cleared his throat. He was surprisingly affected and glad he had not been left out of the drama. “So what does that make us? Semi—possible—could be—siblings?”

“I’ll tell you true,” Manning said. “I don’t need a test to know what’s what. You ever feel like you do need proof, Isaac, you let me know. In the meantime, we’ll take this a bit at a time. But I consider you mine, son, from this day forward. And I hope someday you’ll really consider me yours.”

Cash watched them, his father and the man he had always liked who might well be his half brother. He saw that the two of them wanted to do more, but neither of them was a demonstrative man. There were no hugs, tears or rash promises. Manning finally stuck out his hand, and Isaac took it and clasped it.

To seal the deal, Cash began to whistle the Sister Sledge standard “We Are Family” and this time, after flashing Cash a grin, Isaac whistled the harmony.

Jamie sat with her feet propped on a chintz footstool, a stack of yellowed letters on her lap. Her hands were folded over them, and her head rested against the back of a comfortable upholstered rocker in the room Grace called the breezeway. Windows lined the outside wall, looking over old trees with winter’s bare branches silhouetted against a nearly dark sky. Ben had added the room for Grace after Sandra was born, so that she would have a place to sit and nurse their little girl and still look over the orchard. The breezeway efficiently connected two smaller rooms, and from an architect’s point of view, it was sensible as well as sentimental.

“Granny Grace said I’d find you here.”

Jamie looked up at the sound of Cash’s voice. “Hey, I thought you were heading out of town. Weren’t you supposed to be meeting with a cabinet maker somewhere south of here tomorrow morning?”

“Got canceled. I’ve just been over at the Taylor house talking to Isaac and my dad.”

“Oh?” Jamie sat a little straighter. “Was Kendra there?”