Their Family Blessing

“Can I have a nickname, too?”

“Of course. What’s your favorite snack?”

“Cookies.”

“Then that’ll be your pet name. Cookie.”

Ella nodded and smiled. “We’re Cupcake and Cookie, that’s cool.”

Lucy entered the room and hurried toward the new arrivals. “Hi. I’m Lucy. You wanna come play with me on the swing set?”

Ella glanced up at her with a hopeful face. How could she refuse? Besides, she needed to run off some energy after the long drive to Mississippi.

“Go ahead, sweetie. But don’t wander off. Stay close by.”

The girls dashed toward the back door as Thelma slipped her arm in Carly’s and led her toward the hall off the registration desk. “I have the apartment all ready for you and Ella. All your daddy’s things have been packed up and stored for when you’re ready to go through them.”

Carly stopped in her tracks. There was no way she was going to stay in her father’s home—the section of the lodge that had been designed for her family. Too many bad memories. “No. We’ll just stay in one of the guest rooms. We won’t be here that long.” She slanted a glance at Mack, who had been standing at the desk silently, studying her with his piercing blue eyes filled with confusion and a bit of disgust, no doubt. Her only goal now was to convince Mack to sell the property as quickly as possible. Surely he had a life elsewhere?

Thelma exchanged looks with her husband. “Well, of course, dear. Right this way.” Thelma led her to the other side of the lodge, settling her in the corner room with the best view. No memories here.

“Well, I’ll let you get settled. You know where everything is, but if you need anything you let me know.”

She gave the woman another hug. Dwayne and Thelma had been the two constants in her life. The dear aunt and uncle she’d never had. Her dad was always busy running the campgrounds and keeping the place in order. Her mom used to manage the lodge but stopped when things became strained between her and Carly’s father. Dwayne and Thelma, however, had never changed.

“I was sorry to hear about your husband.”

“Thank you. I miss him.” No more than at this moment. Troy always knew the right thing to do.

It took her only a few moments to unpack the few belongings she’d brought. If they were going to stay here for any length of time she’d have to go shopping soon. Her gaze drifted to the large window that looked out over the lake and the long sloping lawn. Age-old oaks, sweetgums and longleaf pines, for which the lodge took its name, swayed in the late-spring breeze. Farther along the back, tucked in a pine grove, was a small worship center.

A yard swing hanging from the branch of a massive live oak at the edge of the water was still there. Swings were a symbol of the lodge. Her dad had them everywhere. They were on each porch around the main lodge; each campground had a swing, and picnic tables and swings were scattered around the pool area. There was a private one on their apartment porch. But the one by the water had always been her favorite. Her dad said swings were the perfect place to think, reflect and relax.

And now two little girls were enjoying the swing set her father had built for her closer to the lodge. Lucy, with her curly blond hair and blue eyes, and Ella, her brown-eyed, brown-haired treasure. It was nice to see her daughter with a friend. She’d been without any for a long while.

Stepping into the hall, she glanced up to see Mack at the top of the stairs. She braced for a barrage of questions about her not staying in her dad’s rooms. He wouldn’t understand her feelings. He had always been her dad’s ally.

“Your daughter is adorable.”

His comment caught her off guard. “Thank you. She’s my whole life.”

“I understand that now more than ever.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m Lucy’s guardian. She came to live with me six months ago. I’ve had a steep learning curve on fatherhood.”

Mack, a dad? She hadn’t expected that. She’d assumed he was watching his niece, not raising her, though she remembered he’d always been good with the kids who came to the lodge and campgrounds. “Where’s Valerie?”

He took a long moment to respond, and she could tell by the shadows in his eyes something was wrong.

“She got into some trouble. She’s in prison for the next decade.”

Her heart clenched. “Oh, Mack.” She reached out and touched his arm. “I’m so sorry to hear that.” Valerie had always been troubled, even back when Carly first met Mack. She’d run away from home, and Mack and his mom had been sick with worry. His dad had walked out on the family when Mack was a toddler.

Mack laid his hand on top of hers, sending a strange current along her nerves, leaving her with a conflicted desire to pull away and remain at the same time.

“She tried to turn her life around, even got a good job on the coast and moved Mom down there to help with Lucy, but after Mom passed away, she fell back into her old ways. Thankfully, she arranged for me to have Lucy.”

“So you live on the coast now?”

“Gulfport for the time being.”

She pulled her hand from beneath his, rubbing it slightly to dispel the lingering sensation of his broad palm. “You’re moving?” A wry smile moved his lips.

“I’d like to raise Lucy here at the lodge. She needs a family, and between me and the Thompsons she could have a good life.”

A long-forgotten memory flashed into her mind of a childhood spent outdoors, hiking, canoeing, climbing trees and sitting around campfires. It was quickly overshadowed by other memories of shouting and anger and betrayal. She squared her shoulders. “If you’re trying to play on my sympathies, it won’t work.” She stepped past him and started down the stairs.

“I’m only telling you what I want for my niece. She deserves a real home, and I can only give her an apartment and part-time father.”

Carly stopped. She was in a similar position, raising her daughter alone without a father. She understood his concerns. Looking over her shoulder, she met his gaze. “Lucy is very fortunate to have you, Mack.”

“I’m the fortunate one. She’s changed my life.”

A thread of empathy fluttered along her nerves. “Children can do that.” Her mind bloomed with a bouquet of sweet memories from childhood until the last one scrolled by, shading all the others in a dark cloud. She moved away toward the stairs.

“Carly, I was sorry to hear about your husband.”

She spun around. “How did you know about that?”

“Your dad told me.”

“How did he know? I never told him.”

A deep frown creased Mack’s forehead. “Why wouldn’t you tell your father that your husband died?”

“A better question might be why would he care?”

“What? Carly, how can you—”

She hurried down the stairs and made her way quickly to the backyard. The fragrant spring air filled her lungs with the familiar scent of water and earth and pine. Giggles floating on the air from the swing set made her smile. It was so good to hear her daughter laugh again. She knew how hard and unfeeling her words sounded to others, but they didn’t understand. Her father was the one who’d destroyed everything. She swallowed the old hurt, and smiled at Ella and Lucy on the swing.

“Hello, girls. Are you having fun?”

Ella grinned and dragged her toes on the ground to slow the swing. “This is the best swing ever. It goes really high.”

“Mr. Wade built it a long time ago.” Lucy made the announcement with a very serious tone.

“I know. He built it for me when I was your age.”

“Who’s Mr. Wade?”

Ella’s question nearly brought Carly to her knees. In her animosity toward her father, she had totally forgotten that he was Ella’s grandpa, too. “Mr. Wade was my daddy.” She had some explaining to do. Coming back here was going to be much harder than she’d ever dreamed. “Ella, why don’t you come inside for a moment and I’ll show you which room we’re in. Then you can come back out and play with Lucy.”

“Okay.”

Lucy followed them inside.

“Mommy, can we stay here for a long time? I like it.”

Even her own daughter was falling under the spell of the lodge. Carly’s heart wrenched. “We’ll see, honey. I don’t know yet how long we’ll be here.”

“I hope it’s a whole week because I want to play more with Lucy.”

She’d never felt so outnumbered. Everyone but her wanted her to stay at Longleaf. Why couldn’t they understand that the memories were too painful, the betrayal too deep.

This place had torn her family apart.

She could never live here again.

Chapter Two

Mack had been patient long enough. He’d held his tongue during the delicious feast Thelma had prepared. As they sat around one of the large tables in the lodge dining room, Dwayne and Thelma tried their best to keep the conversation light by talking about amusing guests that had stayed at the lodge and reminiscing about happy times in the past. Carly had only nodded and made a few muffled responses, choosing to stare at her food most of the time. The girls had helped keep the meal from being awkward by sharing the fun they’d had during the day.

When Carly announced that she was putting Ella to bed, Mack had to speak up. Time was crucial, and he wasn’t about to let Longleaf Lodge go to auction and end up with an owner who didn’t understand or appreciate the history and significance of the place. He stopped her at the foot of the stairs.

“We need to talk, Carly. We can’t put this off any longer.” The look on her face told him that was exactly what she wanted to do. She glanced up at her daughter, who was hurrying up to her room, and her expression shifted to one of resignation. When she faced him again, her brown eyes were filled with determination.

“Fine. I’ll come back down after I put Ella to bed.”

Mack watched her as she took the steps, each graceful movement reminding him of his old attraction. His heart skipped a beat and he turned away. That was a long time ago and the will loomed between them now, making any kind of friendship difficult.

He stood by the stone fireplace staring into the empty firebox, his mind scrolling through old memories, all of them centering around Carly. He’d fallen for her the first time he’d seen her—not in a romantic way since she’d only been twelve, but she was cute and smart and her cheery personality had been adorable. As the years went on, she’d changed into a feisty teenager with a heart for the guests. When she’d turned sixteen, things had started to shift. Mack had admired her from afar. Her being the boss’s daughter and an underage teen were obstacles that prevented any action on his part. Time had always been their enemy. A perpetual wrong-place wrong-time scenario.

He turned when he sensed a presence behind him. Carly came slowly toward him as if fearful of getting too close. He couldn’t help but wonder why. “Is Ella okay?”

“All settled in. What about Lucy?”

“She’s watching a movie. I’ll check on her in a minute.”

She nodded, resting a hand on the mantel and glancing up at the top of the stone chimney. “I never understood why you’d put a fireplace in a Mississippi house. We rarely used this in the winter.”

“True, our weather stays pretty warm in the southern part of the state, but I think people like them not for the warmth of the fire, but for the ambience. A fireplace is comforting. It makes us feel safe, as if we’re protected from the forces beyond the flames.”

“That’s very poetic.”

He had to chuckle at that. “Yeah. I don’t know where that came from. I seem to have all kinds of new viewpoints since I became Lucy’s guardian.” He could see the questions forming in Carly’s eyes, and he didn’t want to be distracted by talking about his niece. They had more important things to sort out. He motioned to the leather chairs at the side of the fireplace.

Carly didn’t wait for him to start. She sat on the edge of the cushion, stiff-backed and serious. “I spoke with a real estate agent today and he gave me a rough estimate of the value of the land and the lodge. I think the simplest solution would be for you to buy me out. Then you can have Longleaf, and I can take my share of profits and go home.”

“Profits? Is that all the lodge means to you? Money?”

She swiped her hair behind her ear. “Yes.”

He knew that gesture. It meant she was hiding what she was really feeling. It didn’t make any sense. Unless he was misreading her. It had been a long time since they’d seen each other. Old hurts resurfaced without warning. “I never realized how much like your mother you were.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing. Sorry. I was out of line.” He knew she wasn’t like her mother. “Carly, I can’t buy you out. I know what this place is worth, and there’s no way I can raise that kind of money.”

“That’s what loans are for.”

“I’m a cop, a sergeant with the sheriff’s department. I’ve been flipping houses on the side to make ends meet. Why don’t you buy me out? Then you can sell and have all the money you need for your big-city lifestyle.”

“I’m an administrative assistant for a friend’s clothing-design business. Not exactly a cash cow.”

“Then that leaves us with only one option. We have to follow the dictates of the will.”

Carly leaned back in the chair, her shoulders slumped. “I can’t stay here for two months. I have a life in Atlanta. Besides, what makes you think we can get the lodge open and running again?”

“I already spoke to Dwayne. He says the staff he let go when Wade got sick are all anxious to come back to work. He thinks we can reopen in a week, maybe two. With you and I taking up some of the slack, we can start hosting guests soon after that. He gets calls every day asking when they will reopen.”

Carly tapped her thumbnail against her teeth. “It sounds impossible.”

“I won’t lie to you, it’s not going to be easy. A large hotel chain built a resort-type facility across the lake, which has lured a lot of guests away. Wade was very discouraged.”

“Then what makes you think we can make a go of this place in only two months? What’s the point if we’re only going to sell out at the end?”

“I think there are still a lot of tourists who want a peaceful, calm outdoor experience. The hotel is pricey, their food is pricey and there’s always something going on. Longleaf offers a slower pace, an escape from that kind of environment. It appeals to an entirely different demographic.”

“I’m not convinced.” She crossed her arms. “Why do you want to keep the lodge?”

“I loved it here. I loved your dad. I’d like Lucy to grow up with this kind of home, free to run and play outdoors, and surrounded by a sense of permanence. This has been in your family since your grandfather built the lodge in the seventies. It has a history. Your dad loved this place.”

Carly’s mouth pinched into a tight line. “I know. He loved it more than anything or anyone.”

“What does that mean?”

She brushed off his comment.

Mack’s chest tightened. He was beginning to think Carly would never agree to any plan he suggested. She wanted no part of the lodge and he didn’t understand why unless, like her mother, she was more interested in a luxurious life in Atlanta. He found that hard to accept. He remembered how much Carly had loved the lodge growing up. There had to be a way to convince Carly to at least make an attempt to save the lodge. It’s what Wade had wanted. Maybe he could offer a compromise. It wasn’t exactly honest, but he had to do something to break this logjam they were facing. If he had to fudge a little, then so be it.

He sent up a prayer that Carly would agree to his next suggestion. “What if we work together to get the place up and running? We clean up the grounds and maybe update the interior of the lodge to make it more appealing. Then we would have a better chance of getting top dollar.”

“You would agree to that?”

“It’s not what I want, but I don’t want to stand by and let the place be auctioned off. It would break your father’s heart. We don’t have time to mull this over. We have to make a decision now. If we do nothing, then we both lose. Is that really what you want?”

The shadow of doubt in her eyes gave Mack a ray of hope. Maybe deep down she really did care. He just had to find a way to make her remember.

“I think I can do that. As long as we agree our goal is to make the lodge attractive to prospective buyers, and as long as you understand that I don’t want Longleaf.”

Mack shoved aside his twinge of guilt for misleading her. “I understand.”

“Good.” Carly stood, meeting his gaze and sending a strange longing through him. Seeing her here the way he’d always remembered was a bittersweet moment, and he wanted it to last.

“We should get started in the morning right after breakfast. We need to get an overview of the estate, see the condition of the grounds so we can prioritize the needs.”

Carly looked reluctant. “So soon?”

“We can’t waste any more time. I thought you were anxious to get back home.”

“Fine. I’ll see you in the morning.” She walked off and up the stairs, never looking back.

Mack watched her go, his heart sinking slowly. Dwayne strolled to his side, watching as Carly disappeared.

“How did it go?”

“I had to compromise on the truth a little.”

“How so?”

“I got her to agree to stay and fix the place with the intention of attracting a good buyer.”

“Did you both agree that you want to sell?”

“No. But I’m hoping that after she’s been here awhile she’ll remember how much she loved the place and she won’t want to let it go.”

“I wouldn’t hold your breath. From what I’ve seen so far, whatever chased her away from Longleaf hasn’t softened with time.”

“What was it, do you know?”

“Not really, but it had something to do with her mother, I can tell you that.”

Mack went upstairs to tuck Lucy in, mulling over Dwayne’s comment about Carly’s mom. He had no idea what had gone wrong, but it had changed everything in the blink of an eye. Wade had never been the same after his wife had left him. Carly had only returned once after that, a year later and left suddenly after they’d shared that one unbelievable kiss. He’d forgotten for a moment that she was the boss’s daughter. But he just couldn’t ignore how the moment had seemed so right, and the kiss, as brief as it had been, had shifted his world. So much so that he’d made a date with Natalie Reynolds, his old girlfriend just to forget the whole incident. He’d taken her to the lodge for a canoe ride. Carly had left the next day, leaving him confused and guilt ridden, and with pain he’d never experienced before. The memory could still send tiny pinpricks of hurt along his nerves.

As much as he hated to admit it, Carly was part of his life and always would be. No matter how much he wished he could stop caring. It would be easier to stop breathing.

Carly watched her sleeping daughter. She envied the ability to simply set aside the events of the day and drift off. Her thoughts were too stirred up to consider sleeping. She needed to move, to do something. Slipping from the room, she made her way quietly downstairs, relieved to find the lodge silent and empty.

Carly fingered the key in her hand, fighting the knots in her stomach. She wasn’t sure why she was doing this. She didn’t want to remember the past, but something inside her compelled her to visit the place where she’d grown up.

Inserting the key, she turned the lock and opened the door, stepping into the rooms that had been her childhood home. The west side of the lodge consisted of a two-bedroom apartment, so large and spacious it had never felt like an apartment. With open rooms, a second floor and wide private deck, it had provided a sanctuary for the family away from the constant flow of guests staying at the lodge.

Carly stepped into the rooms, bracing for a barrage of bad memories. What slammed into her, however, were the good ones from when she was small. The winter evenings spent in front of the fire, the Christmas tree sitting by the large windows looking out onto the lake.

She turned when she heard tapping on the doorframe. Dwayne stepped in, a small smile on his lined face.

“It’s good to see you in these rooms again, Carly. They’ve missed you.”

She set her jar. “I doubt that.” She noticed a collection of photographs on the mantel. She picked up one, shocked to see a picture of Ella when she was small. “What are these doing here? How did he get this?”

Dwayne tugged on his ear and grinned. “Your husband sent them. He felt it was the right thing to do. Wade wanted to see his grandchild.”

A hot flush washed through her. Of course her father would want to see Ella. Troy tried repeatedly to convince her to visit her father and bring Ella, but her anger and hurt had run too deep. She never wanted to feel that sense of betrayal again. Yet Troy had betrayed her, too, and gone behind her back.

“Your papa cherished those. It wasn’t all bad, you know. You were happy here. But after your mom came back and took you away, nothing was the same. Especially your father.”

“What do you mean, came back?”

“Don’t you remember? It was that summer you were sixteen. Your mom walked out real sudden-like. She was gone a week, then she showed back up, caused a scene and took you away. Your dad never told me what happened, but it nearly killed him. It took him years to fight through that.”

Carly shook her head. “No. That can’t be true. He caused her to leave. It was all his fault.”

Dwayne studied her a moment. “Maybe things aren’t quite the way you remember them. When we’re young, events don’t always make sense.”

She crossed her arms over her chest and set her jaw. “No. It made sense.” She knew exactly why her mother had left.

“Well, I’ll leave you be.”

Carly rubbed her forehead, struggling to understand what Dwayne had said. What had he meant about her mother leaving? She tried to remember but came up empty. Climbing the stairs, she went into her old room. It looked different yet still the same. A new solid blue bedspread replaced her flowered one, and most of her posters and decorations were gone. Apparently her dad hadn’t done the old make-my-child’s-room-a-shrine thing, which only proved that he hadn’t really cared for her the way she’d believed.

Her old desk was still there, and she sat down and scanned the items on top. Her old digital camera. It was the last gift her father had given her, and she’d carried it everywhere. She’d loved to capture those once-in-a-lifetime moments where the sun shone just right over the lake or the moon glistened through the pines leaving rays of white light on the trail. She’d decided she would become a professional photographer. Sadly, she’d lost sight of that dream along the way.

Sliding open the middle drawer where she kept all her special mementoes, she touched the assortment, little flashes of memories flaring, each one bringing a warmth to her chest. Her fingers picked up a small silver earring inlaid with a pearl and a diamond. A lance of pain and sadness sliced her heart in two. It wasn’t her mother’s. She had pierced ears. This was a clip-on and she’d found it on the floor of her dad’s car. Proof of what her mother had told her. The reason her family had been torn apart.

Her dad’s unfaithfulness.

She shoved the jewelry back in the drawer, slammed it shut. Tears welled up in her eyes as she hurried back to the main room of the lodge. She wanted to go home. She wanted out of this horrible arrangement, and she wanted away from all the memories.

Just then, her phone rang. She recognized the name of the company calling, and her throat closed as it always did when the bill collectors harassed her. They had no problem calling at all hours. There was no point in answering because there was nothing she could tell them. She still didn’t have the money to pay them. She shoved the phone back into her pocket, unwilling to even contemplate the consequences she might be facing soon. She prayed that a buyer could be found for the lodge quickly; otherwise, she and Ella might be homeless.