Summer Street Secrets (The Hills of Burlington Book 3) Read online

  "I've never heard it put that way," he interrupted her. Feeling calmer knowing the purpose of her visit he stood and moved around to the other side of his desk and sat down.

  "That's how my mother referred to it." She watched his features shift as his surprise showed and he didn't bother trying to hide it.

  "Your Mom?"

  Now Beth stood. Paced from one end of the office to the other. "I should have said something when you brought everything up, when you told me what was going on with your cousins." Why was it so much harder with him than with Wes? Because it mattered so much more, she answered herself immediately. "I just didn't know how to tell you," she spurt out in an anguished voice without thinking.

  "Is this about the whole sensitivity thing?" Jake watched her continue to pace, tried to figure out how to best handle this mood. He had no clue, how could he when she never had moods. He understood moods. He had a sister didn't he? And Lord only knew that Casey was the queen of moods. But his daughter was a different one. She'd been as close to the still waters cliché as anyone he'd ever known. Just about the complete opposite of her mother. "I figured being my kid you'd very possibly have some of the same."

  "Yes, but..." she looked out the window, it was still hard to think about her parents let alone talk about them especially after she'd already gone through this once today. She turned back to the man who was her father, the man who had been nothing but completely accepting of her from the moment she had appeared in front of his home months ago. She did neither of them justice by doubting him now. "What I am...what I have," she corrected herself, "doesn't come just from you but from my mother as well." She watched him sit back in his chair and understood in that moment her mother had never shared this with him as well.

  "Your mother?"

  "She was more than what we've talked about before." She knew she wasn't handling this well. If she sounded confusing to herself how must she sound to him?

  "More?"

  "More than sensitive, she was...."

  "Go on," he encouraged, trying to come to grips with what she was telling him. Or trying to. Some of the possibilities terrified him. Not what she was, what she had, but what she’d dealt with. He could still see her face when he'd walked out to her car parked in front of his house all those months ago. He'd assumed grief. How much worse could it be?

  "She was very strong..." Beth searched for a way to explain just how strong. "She was unusually strong in several areas...so strong that she could block them if she chose."

  "And you?" Which was what he really wanted to know. Needed to understand. There was a lot more he wanted to know and understand like what more meant in regards to what Lizzie could or couldn't do...know. And the several areas she talked about. But he also knew Beth was running on fumes and the amount of information he was going to get was going to depend on how much longer she was capable of going so he wanted the most important answers for now. They could deal with the others later. "What about you?" He asked again. And knew for as many questions it might answer it could also easily open the Pandora's Box to many more.

  "About the same," or a bit more she added quietly to herself. She didn't want to lie to him but neither did she want to worry him more than she knew he already was. "I think it surprised Mom but now that I know about your own family history it explains quite a bit."

  "Because it wasn't diluted but increased because of its existence on both sides of your parentage." Jake drew the dots for himself and decided they'd dig further into that later. "She never said anything." And he never noticed anything.

  "She didn't much to anyone. Not even to Dad."

  Jake thought about it, tried to decide how best to ask what he wanted to know without coming right out and doing so. "You see things?"

  "Yes."

  "Past, present, or future?" He held his breath desperately hoping it would be only the first.

  Beth struggled for a moment, almost fibbed, then decided it would be ten times more difficult to deal long term with the lie than the more uncomfortable truth. "All three," she shrugged as she spoke, sighed wearily. "All three in varying degrees."

  Jake sucked in deeply as his worst fears were confirmed. He could visualize her face the first time he saw her, pale and shallow weeks after the deaths of her parents. He didn't want to ask, didn't want her to have to answer, but he had to know. "Was Lizzie able to block you when she needed?"

  The question was general but Beth understood what it was he was specifically trying to get to. Her father wasn't stupid by any stretch of imagination. She'd read every single one of his books. She knew his intelligence and imagination were without limits. Ducked her head as she muttered the answer.

  "Beth."

  "No." She pressed away the memory that clawed at her. "She tried."

  "Damn." The quiet intensity of the word made it all the stronger in impact within the small room. Each felt the stranglehold of emotions it held as it literally vibrated between the walls.

  Beth forced herself to breathe. Just breathe, in and out. If she could just do that the memories would recede. They always did. Because she was so focused on that she didn't hear the movements in the room until she was lifted by her shoulders and engulfed in a hug so tight she couldn't do the very thing she been struggling to. Breathe. But the warmth that soaked through to her in his embrace calmed her. The sigh that escaped her was the first of many and the effort it had taken to fill her lungs evaporated with the comfort her father's arms around her offered in the continued silence of the room. If the noise surrounding them outside the office walls continued she didn't hear. Wes had held her as well. But this was different. This was her father.

  Just before Beth walked back out the office door some time later Jake stopped her. "Beth." He waited for her to turn. "I never resented your Dad. How could I? He was one of the best friends I ever had. If I resented anything it was the loss of time with you. But when your folks knew, whatever they knew, they made sure both of us felt secure in whatever relationship we chose to pursue. Neither of us should resent that...we should be grateful for it. I know I am." He watched the flicker of understanding in her features and hoped he had said the words as well as they were etched in his mind. This time he watched her as she continued on through the door and out into the huge newsroom filled with the numerous people it still took to put a newspaper together. It was only when he could no longer see her that he sat back down and let out the pent up breath he only then realized he'd been holding. He had known she was there. Even before Mark called him he’d made his excuses to those in the room, excuses he couldn't remember now for the life of him, and was making his way back up to the newsroom. He'd known she was there from almost the moment she'd walked into the building. And how could he rationalize that in his head?

  

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Mary glanced over in Beth's direction as discreetly as possible. After the long phone call with Jake a couple of days ago she wished she could find a way to talk with her about all that was going on but the right opportunity to do so just hadn't presented itself.

  When Casey had thrown together this impromptu meeting for the show-and-tell portion of what she'd finished up to this point of the filming at the Summer Street house she hoped it would give her the chance she'd been waiting for.

  "Okay everyone. I know it's not the greatest way to do this but I haven't transferred it off my laptop yet." Casey turned her computer around so the monitor was facing all those gathered around Mary's kitchen table. Everyone was crammed around the table anxious to see the results of their efforts so far. "I've got clips from all the rooms edited here and there but the only one I finished all the way through is the segment on the bedroom Mary and Addie did. The only thing that's not included is the final couple of minutes for the overall summary of the room and their thoughts on it now that it's done."

  "That's because we were the first to finish a room," Addie spoke up proudly thrilled with her part in the project. Because her attention was on the
laptop she didn't see the shared looked between her aunt and some of the others who couldn't be more thrilled themselves with the way Addie was coming back to the young woman she'd been before her world had been carelessly turned upside down.

  "Indeed, my young prodigy," Casey smiled as she spoke. Addie's visible pride of her success in the project was only one of the reasons that she'd taken into consideration when choosing this specific room to edit first.

  "Grandma and I are almost done in the kitchen," Mallie tossed out into the fray.

  "Everyone's almost done with what they're doing. Beth and I are going to finish our bedroom later today if things go as planned," Casey glanced at her niece pleased at her nod that their plans were still on. "That's why I wanted us to get together. I want everyone's input on the format I'm using for the segments and any ideas for how we should do the final couple of minutes summarizing the effort."

  Her aunt spoke up, "I thought we'd decided the last couple of minutes would be a review of how the room turned out."

  "We did," Casey agreed easily. "But I'd like ideas on how to go about that since that's where we're at in just about all the rooms at this point." At her aunt's confused look that was also reflected on a few of the other faces around the table she gave a few examples of what she'd been thinking of. "Do we want the same people who did the room to do the review or critique of the room," she had played with that scenario in her head, if nothing else it would keep things smooth. "Or do we want everyone involved in the entire project to be part of those last couple of minutes giving their reactions to the finished product...." a little more spontaneous and crowded she thought to herself, playing that possible clip in her head, both figuratively and literally. But it would give the finish a real pop. "Or maybe even have one completely different person outside of the project doing the critique in those final minutes...or maybe a couple of people." She shrugged, open to ideas even as she thought of more on her own. She looked around the table again, was pleased that she had them thinking. Now she was going to give them something else to think about. She pressed a couple of buttons then turned the volume up to make sure everyone, especially her Aunt Charlie, would be able to hear every word.

  

  The room was silent after the close to twenty minutes it took for the video to run. The last moments of the video were silent compared to the noise and laughter filling the rest of it as it slowly panned the finished room. It was the dream of every little girl. Lots of pink and the lightest of mint greens accented by other pastels with sudden dashes of bright raspberry, summer peach, and hints of royal blue. Though Mary and Addie had discussed wallpapering the ceiling they had gone instead with painting it a soft yellow then added a garden of flowers throughout with stencils and some freehand thanks to Addie's artistic talents and limber neck muscles. The ceiling on its own just about stole the show and while they'd all seen it, seeing it like this had given them all a different view of how the room would look to others seeing it for the very first time.

  "I could live in that room," Grace spoke softly, in awe of what they’d just seen. She turned to Mary. "I have to have that bed."

  Mary laughed delightedly. "You wouldn't believe what went into that bed." She winked at Addie sharing their own personal joke between the two of them.

  "I could learn," Grace said seriously. "It is seriously awesome."

  Casey cleared her throat. "Actually," she began, pinning her cousin and Addie with a look, "I was thinking that bed and a couple of other things done in the course of doing all the different rooms in the house might be worthy of their own segments." As the room went silent she knew she'd not just gotten their attention again but had surprised them mute which was no easy task. "A couple of how-to segments would be a neat special series that would easily be picked up by the same markets that love us now and we might even get picked up by a few others."

  "I knew it," Carrie said on a deep sigh. She looked around, saw the nods of agreement, chuckled lightly, softly. "I knew you had something else cooking." She looked toward her cousin. "I'm not at all surprised and think it's a great idea."

  Casey's sigh of relief was obvious. Carrie's words carried heavy weight in any situation. This one was no different and maybe even more so because while everyone was excited with the finished results of the weeks long project they were also tired.

  "And while I agree the bed is amazing I'd pay dearly to have that garden on my bedroom ceiling," Carrie stared steadily at her niece who she knew had the magic hands with the paintbrush that designed many of the gorgeous flowers they'd just seen. In person the image had been overwhelming. On the small screen they’d seemed real...so real you could almost smell them.

  "Really?" Addie couldn't believe someone would pay her for something that came so easily to her. She had never thought much about her painting. It was just something she did when she had time to fill and nothing else to fill it with.

  Carrie sighed to herself. Sometimes the young child still lived in the young woman Addie was struggling to become. "Yes," she said. "Really." The statement was all the more serious because of its quiet intensity of the assuredness in her voice. She meant every word she said.

  "I can do that, Aunt Carrie." Addie spoke to her aunt as if no one else was in the room. "You don't have to pay me anything. It's the least I can do after all you've..."

  "Addie, I said I'd pay dearly and I will. You should know me well enough after all these years to know I do nothing I don't want to." She looked to her mother and cousin for confirmation. Casey was the first to speak.

  "I can tell you from a life time of experience, kid. Your aunt has little tolerance for what she cares little for. If she didn't want you here you wouldn't be here." Casey didn't believe in dancing around and cut straight to the core of it all.

  When Addie ducked her head, Carrie ran her hand lightly over her niece's hair still freshly styled from their most recent foray to the salon and yet still had the softness of the little baby she once held close in her arms. "I'm so sorry for what brought you here, Addie but I'm so grateful that it did. These last months have been wonderful because of everything your being here has brought me. I wouldn't trade them for anything." She tipped her niece's chin up with her finger. "And I want a really cool garden on my ceiling."

  Casey decided to move the meeting on since both Carrie and Addie looked like they were about to cry which she knew from experience would set everyone else at the table off and they'd get absolutely nothing else done that day. "Okay, let's put the concept of how-to's to the side for now and get back to the last couple of minutes of our videos. Any thoughts on which way to go for closing up each of them?"

  "I think it would be better to go with either everyone or someone totally different," Mary leaned forward as she spoke, her face as serious as her tone. "I think having the same people closing would be okay but something different would give it more of a punch."

  "But if you had all of us in there wouldn't it be kind of cluttered? Who would get anything substantial said and would anyone watching get anything out of it?" Mallie spoke up for the first time.

  "If you had someone totally different finishing up the last couple of minutes who would it be?" Charlie asked into the silence that settled after Mallie's observation.

  Silence reigned again as they all pondered that.

  "A guy?" Addie threw out.

  "What guy?" Mallie asked.

  "Yeah." Addie answered the cynicism in Mallie's voice rather than the literal question. "What am I thinking? And what do they know? They would hate the room we did," she glanced over at Mary automatically. "It's too pink, too pretty, just way too everything for a guy."

  "You're not giving them enough credit," Casey said thoughtfully as Addie and Mallie's words and skepticism swirled in her mind. "Actually, that might work for us."

  "That they hate it all?"

  "No, that they don't get it and their view, a man's view might give it that punch you were talking about," she addressed the room at large and t
he younger set more specifically.

  "What are you thinking?" Carrie asked worriedly. Whenever Casey got that gleam in her eyes she was thinking something. Most the time it worked out well. Most the time.

  "I'm thinking a guy, the right guy, or maybe even a couple of guys, might work out well." She looked around the table. Saw the doubt and more, the concern. "I can edit out anything too stupid or ignorant that might be said." She sighed at the thought of all the possibilities. "Not that they're stupid, but the girls are right. They don't always see things the way we do but in this instance it might work for us." She looked around the table, saw she had some convincing to do. "With some editing in the process."

  "I'm still not certain about this," Mallie spoke for the room at large.

  "Let's at least think about it for a couple of days. It will take us that long to finish up the rest of the rooms and a couple of days after that for me to put all the segments together the way we want." She thought about her schedule at home as a new mother and sighed again. "Maybe a bit more than that. But we can think about it, get together next week and go from there." At the reluctant agreement she closed up her laptop. "Let's dig into that coffee cake I know Mary's got stashed in the fridge."

  

  As everyone began to make their way to whichever door they planned to leave from Mary worked her way across her tiny dining room to where Beth stood talking to Grace. "Beth, honey, could I steal you away for a minute?" She smiled at Grace knowing she would understand even without knowing exactly what was going on.

  She led Beth back toward the kitchen which had emptied out and at the same time glanced towards the front door to make sure whoever was heading out closed it behind them. Satisfied they had relative privacy for the moment she delved directly into what she had inadvertently set into motion.

  "I pressed your Dad pretty hard a couple of days ago," she began, determined to take it on herself and not cause any rift between father and daughter. "I finally got him to talk." She grimaced hearing how she sounded. "I pushed him," she admitted. "I could tell he was worried and nagged him until he had little choice." At Beth's soft laugh she reached over to take her hands in her own. "I feel badly if my digging into our history, our...abilities or whatever you call them have caused you any pain. Any more than what you've already had to deal with." She added, knowing the young woman had dealt with far more than any one person should.