Kat groaned as she pawed the nightstand, attempting to silence her ringing cell phone.
“Hello?” she croaked without checking caller ID.
“We solved it!” Penny shrieked. “Hurry! I have a feeling this is the one. But I don’t want to check without you.”
Despite her low spirits, a glimmer of excitement rippled through her. After dressing quickly, Kat raced out the front door.
As she skipped around shimmering puddles on the way to her car, her heaviness began to lift. Warm sunlight filtered through the damp tree branches, and as she tilted her chin toward the periwinkle sky, she inhaled the fresh, invigorating fragrance of an early morning after the rain—the scent of hope and second chances.
By the time she’d reached Penny’s place, she’d resolved to go to Jack’s directly afterward to tell him she’d destroyed the check. She could still see the pained look in his eyes from last night, and she would do anything to restore his usual warmth and playful glimmer.
“Come in, come in.” Penny ushered her inside, beaming like the embodiment of pure joy. “I agonized over the clue all night, then I went to The Calendar Café for a cinnamon roll, and before long, nearly everyone in town was trying to help me solve it.”
Walking briskly, Penny led the way into her father’s old room. “Frank figured out the first line, ‘the seven seas I used to sail,’ referenced a boat, most likely a sailing ship. And Maggie, who’s taken up bird-watching in her retirement, surmised that the second line, ‘the sky was once my stage,’ referred to a bird of some kind. Or more specifically, a feather since the line is in the past tense.
“Of course, it was Beverly who pieced together the rest,” she added. “‘But the greatest story I’ll regale, belongs upon the page.’”
“A book?” Kat asked.
“Close.” Standing at her father’s desk, Penny lifted a small rectangular wooden box with the silhouette of a sailing ship hand painted on the lid. “None of the clues made sense until I remembered this.” She unhinged a tiny gold latch and flipped it open.
A feather-plumed ink pen nestled on a bed of burgundy velvet.
As all the pieces came together, Kat’s pulse quickened. “Do you see the brooch?”
Please, please be there. She didn’t think she could handle another clue. With Christmas only a few weeks away, they were running out of time.
“No…” Penny ran her finger along the perimeter of the box. “But…”
“But what?” Kat pressed, inching closer.
She spotted a tip of burgundy ribbon wedged between the inner velvet lining and the wooden exterior.
Pinching the frayed edge, Penny tugged. The entire base resting beneath the pen shifted, separating from the box to reveal a hidden compartment underneath.
Penny and Kat gasped in unison as they glimpsed a sprig of mistletoe crafted from gleaming gold and gemstones.
“I can’t believe it,” Kat murmured. “It’s even more beautiful than I imagined.”
“Here.” Penny passed her the box. “You’ve waited long enough.”
Taking it gingerly, Kat blinked back tears. “Thank you,” she whispered, suddenly too overcome with emotion to speak.
“Do you want to call Fern with the good news?”
“Yes! Of course.” Sniffling, she dug into her coat pocket for her cell phone, unable to tear her gaze from the sparkling stones.
Fern picked up on the first ring. But before she could say anything, Kat blurted, “We found it, Fern! We actually found it!”
“Found what?”
“Helena’s brooch. The answer to our problem. A miracle!”
“Slow down, mija. You’re not making any sense.”
Grinning broadly, Kat paced the room, too excited to stand still. “I didn’t tell you before because I didn’t want to get your hopes up. But I came to Poppy Creek hoping to find the brooch Helena always talked about.” Kat glanced at her open palm, still stunned by the brooch’s beauty. “It took Penny and me a while to find it, but it was worth the wait. It’s gorgeous. And I know it’ll sell for enough money to keep the shelter open, at least until we can find more donors.”
She paused, waiting for Fern’s reaction.
But instead of a jubilant exclamation, she murmured, “Oh, mija….”
“What’s wrong?” Kat stopped pacing, and Penny shot her a curious glance.
“I’m so sorry.” Fern’s voice fell away and Kat strained her ear against the speaker.
“I don’t understand. Why are you sorry?”
“It’s very sweet what you two girls did. But… the brooch isn’t worth very much.”
“What do you mean? It has to be! All these diamonds and gems—”
“They’re not real.”
The room started to spin, and Kat sank onto the twin bed, the springs creaking beneath her weight. “What?”
“They’re imitations.”
“They can’t be,” Kat argued, her chest tightening. “The way Helena went on and on about it, I thought—” She scrunched her eyes shut, her temples beginning to throb. “How do you know it’s not real?”
“Because your mother told me. The same night she admitted that mourning the loss of the brooch was simply a transference, a less painful way to grieve her greatest loss—the love she left behind.”
At Fern’s words, a small sob escaped Kat’s lips.
Penny rushed to her side, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder, although she could hear only one half of the conversation.
“It was a gift from Penny’s father on their wedding day,” Fern explained. “It wasn’t the monetary value that made the brooch special. It was the meaning behind it.”
Kat sat motionless, too distraught to speak. She couldn’t even answer when Fern called her name, worry etched into her voice.
Finally, Kat managed to whisper, “I’m sorry, I have to go.”
And with that, she hung up the phone.
Leaning against her sister, she cried until she had no more tears left.
Jack rolled to a stop in front of the Windsor place and released a sigh. He’d hoped to spend a few hours alone with his thoughts, but Reed’s vintage VW van that he’d converted into a mobile flower shop sat at the end of the driveway.
Jack opened the passenger door of the truck, and Fitz hopped to the ground. He sniffed the air a moment before bounding behind the house, his tail wagging.
As Jack rounded the corner, he laughed when he spotted Reed squatting down to pet Fitz, only to receive a slobbery greeting.
“It’s nice to see you, too, buddy.” Reed scratched the scruff around Fitz’s neck before standing and wiping the slime from his face with his sleeve.
Fitz proceeded to roll around in a shallow puddle, caking his white coat in mud.
Jack groaned. That would take some time to scrub out.
“Hey, Fitz enjoys the dirt as much as I do,” Reed said with a grin.
“Don’t encourage him.”
“What are you two doing out here?” Reed asked, retrieving his sketchbook from the ground by his feet.
“I thought I’d pull up a few broken planks from the front porch before heading in to work. What about you?”
“Sketching out some landscaping ideas. I can tell there used to be an impressive garden back here at one time. And check out the gazebo.” He nodded toward a structure covered in wilted vines. “It’s still in pretty decent shape.”
“Great,” Jack muttered. “At least one thing in my life isn’t falling apart.”
“Meeting the family didn’t go well?” Reed led the way to the expansive back porch where he’d left a tall Coleman thermos.
“Actually, it went great. Until my dad offered Kat money.” Jack flopped onto the top step, watching Fitz dig a sizable hole in the middle of the backyard.
“What? Why would he do that?” Reed poured hot chocolate into a plastic cup and handed it to Jack.
“To tick me off, no doubt.”
“I’m sorry, man.” Using the thermos lid as his own cup, Reed settled a few steps down. “How does Kat feel about it?”
“To be honest, I was so caught up in my own stuff, I haven’t asked her.”
Reed nodded, contemplating Jack’s admission as he took a sip.
“It’s strange,” Jack continued thoughtfully. “It’s like my anger toward my dad blinds me from everything else. I don’t know why I let him affect me like that.”
“I get it. When I found out about my dad’s affair, I didn’t speak to him for almost two years. We’ve only barely started to patch things up.”
“What made you want to try?”
Reed stared into his hot chocolate a moment before answering. “For a while, I thought my anger was some form of justice for what he’d done. But it turns out, I wasn’t just punishing my dad. My whole family suffered.”
Jack thought about all the times Lucy had begged him to work things out with their dad. And last night, he’d been reminded of how much he missed everyone—how much he needed them in his life.
“What’s it like between you and your father now?” Remembering the hot chocolate in his hand, Jack took a sip. While delicious, it lacked a certain hint of spice he’d become accustomed to.
“Not great, but it’s better than it was. It’ll take time to rebuild what was broken. But we’re working on it.”
“I’m glad. You’re a better man than I am.”
Reed flashed a teasing grin. “I’ve been saying that for years.”
“Ha!” Jack snorted. “Just for that, I’m not going to tell you that Fitz is digging a crater-sized hole in the backyard.”
Startled, Reed followed Jack’s gaze, shaking his head in bemusement. “I guess I know where I’m planting the cherry tree.”
They shared a chuckle before Reed offered, “You can leave Fitz here with me while you’re gone.”
“Gone where?”
“Well, the way I see it, there are two conversations you need to have. One with Kat. And one with your dad.”