‘Time to get up, sleepyhead.’
A groggy grumble from Max as he burrows under the covers: ‘I’m cold.’
‘You’ll be warm once you’re up and dressed. Come on. I’ll go get your breakfast ready.’
‘Chocolatey Oaty-Os?’
‘Only if you can get yourself downstairs in five minutes, washed and brushed and dressed for school. And the countdown starts … now! Go!’
Max bolts from the bed.
Smiling, Bella heads back down the hall, past the vacant second-floor guest rooms. Things are quiet now that the season is over, and it’s nice having the place to themselves again.
Wearing a warm sweatshirt over her pajamas in lieu of the bathrobe Pandora has yet to return, Bella can’t deny the nip in the air.
An unusually hot August had quickly given way to an unseasonably chilly September.
Well, not unseasonable for Lily Dale, according to Odelia, who is predicting snow before the month is out.
‘Mark my words,’ she’d said at last night’s book club meeting. ‘We’re in for an early winter this year. Mother Nature isn’t going to be kind to this little corner of the universe.’
Yeah, well, Bella will take whatever Mother Nature dishes out, as long as she and Max can continue to call this little corner of the universe home.
It might be slightly more challenging to take whatever Pandora Feeney dishes out when she takes over as mistress of Valley View next month. She claims that she isn’t planning to actually move in – not yet, anyway.
‘Maybe one day,’ she’d said. ‘But for the time being, just think of me as your silent partner, Isabella.’
‘You? Silent? I’ll believe that when I see it,’ Odelia had muttered.
‘Gammy!’ Calla had said in a warning tone.
‘What? I’m just observing a fact.’
‘The fact is, Pandora is doing Bells a huge favor by buying Valley View,’ Misty said. ‘Actually, Pandora, you’re doing all of us a huge favor. Especially Jiffy. I don’t know how he’d get through any of this without his best friend Max.’
By any of this, she means her separation from Mike, and the ongoing fallout from Jiffy’s role in the theft at the Slayton house, and the subsequent one he’d staged at Misty’s to cover up the loss of his own belongings.
He’d intended to confess the truth to both Misty and Lieutenant Grange, but when Odelia had escorted him over to Valley View to do just that, Grange wasn’t there.
No, he was busy slapping handcuffs on the man who’d held Bella at gunpoint, and putting out an APB for a woman driving a white Chevy with Massachusetts plates. She hadn’t been hard to locate, waiting in the getaway car just outside the Dale.
The Slaytons’ sapphire necklace hadn’t been hard to locate, either. Jiffy had produced it from the hidden compartment under a stair tread at Valley View, along with the ugly pink vase from Misty’s mantel. He couldn’t bear to take her wedding ring or jar of cash, but had correctly assumed Misty wouldn’t mind losing the vase.
The stair compartment is a popular spot for necklaces, as Bella’s tourmaline pendant had turned up in that very spot last summer. Currently, it’s at the jeweler’s for a repair on the delicate chain that had broken at some point during Bella’s violent struggle with her assailant.
Millicent has since filled her in about Sam’s illegitimate half-brother.
‘Bella, when that man turned up at my door, I thought for a moment that he was Sam’s ghost, just like you did.’
That had been in February last year, when her grief for her son was still fresh. Her shock at seeing his lookalike gave way to the shock of discovering that her late husband had a son just a few years younger than Sam.
‘It probably shouldn’t have caught me off guard. All Thierry’s business trips, the late nights at the office … oldest story in the world, isn’t it?’
‘You never confronted him?’
‘About being unfaithful? No. At the time, I don’t think I ever allowed myself to suspect the truth. You know what they say – sometimes, we only see what we want to see.’
Oh, yes. Bella knows.
‘In any case, even Thierry didn’t realize his mistress – one of his mistresses – had had a child. She was married, too. Unhappily, and violently, according to her son. I guess it’s no surprise that he turned out the way he did, growing up the way he did. I guess we should pity him, but when I think about what he did to you … and the way he acted right from the start, making it clear he wasn’t there to find out about his father and brother, or you and Max. I never realized I was putting you in danger, telling him about you. That was in the very beginning, and I thought he was asking about you because he cared.’
What he wanted, Millicent said, was money. She sent him away, only to have him come back from time to time, looking for a handout.
‘I stopped answering the door when he buzzed. But he’d sit out there in front of my building, waiting for me to come out. I never thought he was dangerous. Just … a nuisance.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me about him?’
‘For one thing, I could never find the right time. You’ve already been through so many difficult, emotional times. And for another, I was afraid that you might not see him for who he really is. That you might look at him and see Sam.’
As she had. There’s no denying the two men shared similar features.
His attempts to get money out of the Jordan family had escalated in the past month, when he began dating his accomplice, the woman using the alias Polly Green.
After seeing Bella and Max getting into that shiny black limo at Millicent’s, Sam’s brother had assumed he’d discovered a potential new source of cash, and had followed them to the airport, intending to introduce himself as Bella’s long-lost brother-in-law and ask her for money.
After the security guard had thwarted that plan, and they’d slipped away, Polly had come up with the idea to go to Lily Dale. She’d checked into Valley View, intending to see what she could uncover about Bella’s finances. She’d found not just the whopping check from Millicent, but the bills that had led to the preposterous story about Sam in trouble with loan sharks and faking his death.
As she heads down the stairs, Bella again thinks of the sapphire necklace Jiffy had hidden under the tread. When he’d shown it to Misty and Odelia, he – and they – had fully intended to tell Lieutenant Grange the full story.
But Misty, hearing that he’d stolen it in a misguided effort to save his parents’ marriage, couldn’t allow him to go through with it.
‘If Jiffy puts it right back where he found it, no one will ever have to know who took it, or how it got back there,’ she’d told Odelia, who’d later confided the story in Bella. ‘No punishment Grange gives him will hold a candle to what he’s going to go through with the divorce.’
Odelia might not approve of that logic, and Bella might not have handled it the same way, but Jiffy is Misty’s son, and – as Odelia put it, ‘Some tales aren’t ours to tell.’
Kevin Beamer won’t be sharing any incriminating tales about Jiffy with Grange, either, and not just because the evidence had been deleted from his phone. The day after Odelia had cornered him at the auditorium, he’d had a bad fall while riding Jiffy’s scooter in the park, breaking an ankle, his right wrist and his nose in the process.
Max and Jiffy, running through the sprinklers in Valley View’s front yard, had witnessed the accident … or was it?
‘Lizzie pushed him,’ Jiffy had informed Bella.
‘Who’s Lizzie?’
‘She’s my friend. She likes to swing in the park.’
‘There’s no swingset in the park,’ Bella pointed out.
‘It’s a tree swing. Lizzie’s spirit. I kept telling Kevin she was going to get him for what he did to me, but he didn’t believe me. Not even when he got that bad shock from my Playbox.’
‘Lizzie did that?’
‘Yep. She’s electrocuted,’ he added matter-of-factly.
A few days later, Jiffy found his scooter, Playbox, Ninja Zombie Battle video game, and phone on the doorstep, and Kevin Beamer hasn’t bothered him or Max since.
‘Every bully meets his match sooner or later,’ Odelia commented when Bella shared the news with her and Pandora. ‘All the better if the match is a pretty little girl with corkscrew curls and pink ribbons.’
‘It is, isn’t it?’ Pandora agreed with her – for once. Sort of. ‘Oh, and you mean violet ribbons, don’t you?’
‘I mean pink ribbons.’
‘Ah, then you must be thinking of someone else.’
‘I’m thinking of Lizzie,’ Odelia said. ‘From the park.’
‘As am I. Lizzie has violet ribbons. But then, you’re not much of a gardener, are you?’
‘Meaning …?’
‘Meaning, violets are a flower, as are pinks, and when it comes to flowers, you’re rather …’
And off they went. Some things, Bella supposes, will never change.
As book club meetings go, last night’s had been one of the more argumentative gatherings they’ve had – mostly, but not entirely, due to Odelia and Pandora’s vastly different interpretations of the novel they’d just finished reading. The tension was broken only by Sprout and Twixie, Odelia’s newly adopted kittens, chasing a catnip ball around the room.
The book they were discussing was a romance – Bella’s pick, courtesy of her mother-in-law’s recommendations.
‘I just think it was completely unrealistic that the hero and heroine would end up together in the end,’ Misty said. ‘They have absolutely nothing in common.’
‘That’s what made it work,’ Odelia told her. ‘When a couple has everything in common, life is too predictable and boring.’
‘Well, when they have nothing in common, they get divorced,’ Misty said with a shrug.
‘Well, sometimes, people get divorced because the wanker meets a trollop.’
‘We’re not talking about you and Orville, Pandora.’
‘Gammy,’ Calla said in a warning tone.
‘What do you think, Calla?’ Bella asked.
‘About the book? I don’t know. I think it’s a lot like every other romance novel I’ve ever read. Next month is my pick, and I’m going to choose a nonfiction title.’
‘Good idea,’ Odelia said, and turned to Bella. ‘What do you think about this one? You haven’t said much.’
‘I think the message is that true love conquers everything, if you’re lucky enough to find it.’
‘Most people aren’t,’ Misty said darkly.
‘Sometimes they find it and lose it,’ Pandora said.
‘Some people find it not just once in one lifetime, but once in several lifetimes,’ Odelia said. ‘Did I ever tell you that back in the fourteenth century, I was married to—’
‘Yes!’ they said in unison.
‘Well, at least you can all agree on something,’ Odelia said dryly, and turned to Bella with a thoughtful smile. ‘You know, some people are lucky enough to find true love twice in one lifetime.’
Bella knew that she was talking about Drew. They all did, of course.
But these things are complicated. They take time, and patience, even when two people have a lot in common; when they want the same thing. This isn’t a romance novel, where happily ever after is guaranteed. Bella isn’t a heroine, and Drew isn’t a—
‘Hero!’ he shouts from the kitchen as she reaches the bottom of the stairs, and she smiles, hurrying to the back of the house.
She can smell coffee brewing, and …
‘Is that bacon?’ she calls, sniffing the telltale scent in the air.
‘It is. Well, it was.’
Crossing the threshold, she sees him, dressed for work in his scrubs, clattering about with spatulas and pots and pans.
‘I thought I’d surprise you and Max with a nice hot breakfast on a cold morning,’ he says, turning to greet her with a quick kiss. ‘Eggs, hashbrowns, bacon … only someone ate the bacon when I wasn’t looking, even though he’d already polished off his own food.’
He waves an accusatory hand.
Bella sees the cats, busily eating their breakfast in the usual spot on the mat.
Beside the two small bowls – one that reads Chance in pink lettering, the other that reads Spidey in red – is a much larger bowl. That one bears the name Hero, inscribed in blue. It’s also empty.
Sitting beside it, the foxhound regards Bella with those big eyes of his – no longer sad, but perhaps a bit guilty.
Bella laughs and bends to pet his head. ‘What did you do, Hero? Did you steal the bacon?’
‘Of course, he did.’
‘Come on, boy. Let’s get you out of the kitchen. You can come with me to get the newspaper from the porch.’
‘Good idea,’ Drew says. ‘I’ll fry up some more bacon.’
Bella opens a cabinet and grabs something, slipping it into her sweatshirt pocket.
‘Come on, Hero. Let’s go.’
‘Did you just smuggle dog treats into your pocket?’ Drew asks.
She laughs. ‘Of course.’
‘You’re spoiling that dog of yours.’
‘He deserves a little treat every now and then. He misses the puppies.’ All three had gone to their permanent homes last week, while the foxhound remained in his. Right here at Valley View, with Bella and Max and Chance and Spidey and – occasionally – Drew.
No, he doesn’t live here – not yet, as Pandora might say. But now that the guest rooms are vacant, he’s been spending the night more often than not, helping Bella and Max learn the ropes of dog ownership.
‘Better bundle up,’ Drew calls from the kitchen as she heads for the door. ‘It was really cold out when I took him out for his morning walk.’
‘It’s still summer!’ Bella reminds him, and steps out onto the porch.
It’s summer according to the calendar, for another ten days.
Hero lifts his long nose and sniffs.
‘What do you smell?’ Bella asks, but she knows. She can smell it, too.
Just the slightest hint of autumn, wafting in air that will soon be thick with the scent of ripe fruit and woodsmoke and fallen leaves.
It isn’t here yet. No, it’s still summer.
Looking up at the big old maple tree beyond the porch, she confirms that the leaves are indeed still lush and green.
All but one.
Against a deep blue sky, a single, glorious red leaf flutters and dances toward her, borne on the cool breeze that gently stirs the wind chimes.
It lands at her feet.
She looks at the sky, and at the delicate blue glass angels, tinkling softly in the eaves.
‘Got it. Thanks, Sam,’ she whispers.
She picks up the red leaf, tucks it into her pocket, and wipes her damp eyes.
Hero is watching her.
‘It’s OK,’ she assures him with a smile. ‘It’s fine. Come on.’
Back inside, she calls up the stairs, ‘Max! Breakfast is ready!’
‘Chocolatey Oaty-Os?’
‘Something better! Dr Drew made eggs and hashbrowns and bacon!’
‘Yes! I love Dr Drew and eggs and hashbrowns and bacon, don’t you, Mom?’ He bounds down the stairs.
‘I do,’ Bella says, and she means it with all her heart.