Chapter 12

MARLEY

“Are you going to marry my grandpa?” Hunter asked Marley as they were leaving the craft store. Marley had just bought some sculpting clay.

“What?” Marley looked down at Hunter’s serious-looking, big brown eyes.

“I said, are you going to marry Grandpa?”

Marley chuckled as she ran her fingers through Hunter’s red curls. “What makes you ask that?”

“I’m just wondering.”

“As far as I know, I am not going to marry your grandpa.”

“Why not?”

Marley laughed as she unlocked her car. “Because I’m not.”

“You don’t like my grandpa?” Hunter sounded offended as she buckled herself into Marley’s backseat.

“I like your grandpa, Hunter. You know that.”

“Then why won’t you marry him?”

Marley had to think hard now. “Marriage is a big thing,” she explained as she started the car. “It’s not something I would ever jump into. I did that once, and it didn’t work out too well.”

“You were married before?” Hunter sounded surprised.

“Yes. I told you that. Remember? And remember that I have a son, Ashton—the one who makes drums for a living?”

“Oh yeah. But you’re not married now, right?”

“Right.”

“So you could marry my grandpa if you wanted to.”

“Right.” Marley was trying to think of a way to derail this conversation.

“But you just don’t want to?”

“Like I was saying,” Marley tried again. “I was married once, and it wasn’t so great. If I ever get married again—and I’m not planning on it—but if I do, it will only be after I’ve carefully thought about it, and after I’ve prayed about it, and only if I know absolutely, positively that it’s the right thing to do.”

“And then you might marry my grandpa?” Hunter sounded hopeful.

“I’ll tell you what, Hunter.”

“What?”

“If I ever do decide to marry your grandpa, you will be the first one to know. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“So let me explain to you how that clay works,” Marley said in an effort to swing their conversation well away from the subject of marriage. “It’s not like Play-Doh, you know.”

“I know,” Hunter said. “You can bake it.”

“Yes. So I want you to start thinking about what you want to make. We only have a couple of hours before I take you back to your grandpa, and we want to make the most of it.” They began discussing the possibilities of creating jungle animals, clowns, teddy bears, and all sorts of things.

Before long they were in Marley’s beach house, working at her kitchen table, using the colorful clay to create a tiger and a giraffe. Then they moved on to making Christmas-tree decorations. “Do you really think I can sell these in Grandpa’s gallery?” Hunter asked hopefully. The prospect of earning money was appealing to her.

“I don’t see why not, if we do a good job and make a cute display. I know I would buy something like that.” Marley pointed to the sweet snowman that Hunter had just finished. “With that crooked smile and carrot nose, he’s charming.”

Hunter frowned. “His smile is crooked?”

“I mean a good kind of crooked,” Marley explained. “It’s part of his charm, like he’s not perfect. I like that sort of thing.”

“Like my grandpa?”

Marley was caught off guard again. “Huh?” she asked as she rolled out a strip of lime-green clay.

“His leg,” Hunter said, like Marley should know what she was talking about.

“His leg?”

“Yeah, his wooden leg. Only it’s not really wooden. He just says that.”

“Your grandpa has a wooden leg?” Marley tried to say this carefully, not wanting to sound shocked in case it was true, nor confrontational if it wasn’t.

Hunter peered at Marley. “You didn’t know about Grandpa’s leg?”

Marley thought hard. Jack had a slight limp. She had assumed it was caused by arthritis or an old sports injury. It didn’t really slow him down much, and she’d never heard him mention anything specific.

“Do you know why his gallery is called the One-Legged Seagull?” Hunter persisted.

“Because it’s a clever name?”

“Because it’s my grandpa,” Hunter explained. “He’s the One-Legged Seagull.”

“Really?”

“You didn’t know that?”

“I’m not sure,” Marley confessed. “Maybe I knew that and forgot somehow.” But the truth was she did not recall hearing this before, and, even now, she wasn’t totally sure that Hunter wasn’t pulling one of Marley’s legs. “How did your grandpa lose his leg anyway?”

Hunter was rolling out a white ball for another snowman. “It’s a pretty good story.”

“Yeah?” Marley stopped sculpting the clay to listen.

“Yeah. He was working on this boat back when he was a lot younger. Like I think he was nineteen, but I’m not sure. It was a crabbing boat. I know this for sure because when I was really little I thought that Grandpa got his leg bit off by a crab. And I used to be really scared of crabs because I thought one was going to bite my leg off too.”

“That does sound frightening.”

“But it wasn’t a crab that bit off his leg. It was some kind of a machine on the boat. It was really wet and slippery on the deck when it happened, and Grandpa slipped and fell, and his leg got caught in this big machine-thing. They were way, way out in the ocean, and he had to be rescued by the Coast Guard helicopter. I think he almost bled to death too.”

“Oh my!” Marley shuddered.

“Yeah, you should have Grandpa tell you the story. He can tell it really, really scary, especially if he thinks I’m not listening.”

Marley had to smile. “Well, the way you told it sounded scary enough for me.” For a while they both worked quietly, but now Marley was curious as to why Hunter had asked all the questions about whether Marley would ever marry Jack. Was it possible that Hunter had heard something? Well, Marley didn’t want to know. What she had told Hunter was true. She intended never to marry again unless she could be 100 percent sure it was the right thing to do.

If she ever got to the place where she was actually considering marriage—and who knew, maybe it would be with Jack—she would do it differently. She would definitely ask God for some direction.

* * *

After Marley dropped Hunter at the gallery, she couldn’t quit thinking about Jack. He was such a great guy, such a good grandfather to Hunter, such an encourager to Marley in regard to her art. As she drove away, though, she felt uneasy. Whether it was Hunter’s questioning or Marley’s own imagination, she knew that she had acted differently around Jack that evening, and she suspected he noticed. She’d been slightly cool, aloof, and standoffish, even as she gave him simple information about Hunter and a quick update on the painting she was finishing. Then she’d turned and left. That was not like her.

In the past she usually lingered a bit, visiting with Jack or Jasmine or both of them, hearing about the latest comings and goings in the gallery or in town. Sometimes they’d even grab a bite to eat. Today she ran out of there like a scared rabbit, which made her mad. She wasn’t mad at Hunter, although she wished the little girl hadn’t questioned her so much about the whole marriage issue. She wasn’t mad at Jack either. Poor guy, he had no idea what was bugging Marley tonight. The truth was, she was simply mad at herself. Why hadn’t she just acted normally?

As she turned into the hospital parking lot, she considered blaming her bad behavior on her concern for Caroline and Caroline’s mother, even though that hadn’t been on her emotional radar at the time she was scurrying away from the gallery. Although it provided a believable excuse, it was disingenuous. She didn’t want to do that to Jack. No, the next time she saw him, she would simply strive to be herself.

Marley spotted Caroline coming out of the women’s restroom. She looked so weary and worn out, as if she’d aged by ten years in the past week. “How are you holding up?” Marley asked her after a quick hug.

“Okay.” Caroline made what looked like a forced smile.

“And your mom?”

“The same.”

Marley just nodded. “You’ve been here all day again?”

“Yeah.” Caroline sighed. “I know, it’s probably futile. I mean, my mom seems totally oblivious. In fact I almost feel like she’s already gone. It makes me wonder if the spirit really can leave although the body is still down here.”

“I’ve read accounts of people who experienced the afterlife, then returned to life,” Marley told her as they sat down in the waiting area.

“So maybe some people do leave here? I mean, before their bodies do?” Caroline looked hopeful.

“Maybe.”

“I hate to sound like I want her to die. I really don’t. I just don’t want to see her suffer anymore. If she did come back, well, she’d have all those burns, and the treatment for it, and then there’s still the Alzheimer’s.” Caroline almost brightened now. “Unless the frightening experience of nearly being burned to death could’ve shocked the Alzheimer’s out of her. Do you think that’s possible?”

Marley didn’t know what to say. “I’m no expert, but I kind of doubt it.”

“Yeah, it sounds a little nutty. Even to me.”

To distract Caroline, Marley told her about Jack’s wooden leg.

“You’re kidding me.”

Marley shook her head. “I don’t think so. Hunter told me a very believable story this afternoon. In fact she said that’s why the gallery is called the One-Legged Seagull.”

“Wow, I never would’ve guessed that about him.” Caroline frowned. “Does that change how you feel about Jack?”

Marley had to chuckle. “I don’t even know how I feel about Jack.”

“Well, you know what I mean. You guys spend a lot of time together. It could develop into something more. Would him having lost a leg change anything for you?”

“No, of course not.” Marley laughed. “If anything, I find it charmingly attractive.”

Caroline looked surprised. “Seriously?”

Marley nodded. “I actually do. I mean, Jack kind of reminds me of an old sea captain. The fact he has a wooden leg, or whatever it is, well, I find it rather romantic.”

“Romantic?” Caroline made a funny face. “Wow, you and I have some very different opinions about what’s romantic.”

“I mean romantic in the storybook sense,” Marley clarified. She didn’t tell Caroline about Hunter’s inquisition. For some reason she just wasn’t ready to talk about that. Instead she let Caroline fill her in on the latest news about Janie and Victor.

“Oh my.” Marley shook her head. “Victor’s ex living in the same house where Janie’s got her law office? That should be interesting.”

“I’m going to live there too,” Caroline said. She told Marley all about Abby’s plans to get the B and B started as soon as possible.

“Man,” Marley just shook her head. “I’m out of the picture for a few hours and I miss out on all kinds of things.”

They talked for about an hour, then Caroline wanted to go in for her last visit of the day with her mom. Marley was ready to head for home, but first she hugged Caroline. “I’ll keep praying for your mom. I really believe that God is at work with her. Whether you can see it or not, I believe that God has your mom in his hands. God is big enough to handle this.”

Caroline nodded with a grim expression. “It’s not always easy, but I’m trying to believe that too.”

As Marley drove back toward the beach, she did pray for Mrs. McCann, and she prayed for Caroline, too. Although Marley’s faith still felt relatively young and new and perhaps even a bit naive, she sensed it was growing stronger. By the time she got home, she felt certain that both Mrs. McCann and Caroline were going to be just fine.