Summer Street Secrets (The Hills of Burlington Book 3) Page 2

  "Go on," Mary encouraged. Rarely did Casey have a bad idea and it had been a while since she'd offered one up.

  "You know how Aunt Charlie's cooking show is doing really well."

  "It just got picked up by a couple of more stations last week," Carrie added, uncertain what this had to do with the house they'd just walked through without the knee high boots they should have worn.

  "Exactly." Casey sat up straighter, comfortable in this topic with numbers at the tip of her fingers. "We get a good portion of the younger audience because they click with Mallie. Based on the numbers we have an audience all over the age spectrum who click with Aunt Charlie. She's the epitome of everyone's favorite aunt, grandmother, and who knows who else. And the two of them together is what brings in every other part of our audience."

  "The combination, grandmother and granddaughter, is one that few can't identify with."

  "Exactly." Casey nodded at Carrie's concise description of what people saw and why they kept tuning in. "Other than the plans for what's cooking in a segment I've given up on any form of script because they do better without one." She ran her hand through her hair. "I don't always agree with their conversations but people love them."

  "They talk about what comes naturally to them in the course of their very real relationship. And that comes through to anyone and everyone who watches them." Mary leaned back, wondering where this was ultimately going. "Sometimes Aunt Charlie is the teacher, sometimes Mallie is, sometimes they both struggle together to put together whatever it is they're cooking in that particular segment. If they come across a hitch, they work it out similar to how it would be done in any kitchen in any home."

  "They bicker like Mom and I did years ago when we all took turns helping to get dinner on the table," Carrie said as she spread her hands out expressively. "If I can see that, identify with it, I bet lots of others can as well. They’re typical of all grandmothers and granddaughters and so much so that there are few out there who can't connect with them on some level."

  "And some who wish they could." Mary added softly.

  Casey nodded. Not everything, everyone was perfect. "And I know you, both of you are wondering what this has to do with the house over on Summer Street." At their nods she dove in. "I'm thinking maybe we take a step further with the concept Aunt Charlie and Mallie have in the cooking shows. Something along the lines of a room by room renovation of the house. Show an initial segment of them walking through the house as it is now, their shock, disgust, and so on."

  "You wouldn't have to prep them for that. Just let them walk through with the video running. I can guarantee you Mallie will be doing a lot of tip-toeing and screeching." Carrie thought about it for a moment. "This of course will be in contrast to my mother's never ending commentary on how anyone could let a situation like this happen, how could anyone live in this, and so on. You'd probably have to edit out more of her commentary than Mallie's."

  "It would be perfect." Casey could see it in her mind's eye and didn't think there'd be any editing.

  "So you want to start a separate decorating show?"

  "No, just enough segments to complete this house. Maybe a segment per room along with the initial segment before it's cleaned up and then maybe a final one tying it all together."

  "A special series."

  "A limited special series," Casey corrected, thinking as she went. "Limited makes it sound even more special."

  "Do we make it clear this is a family home, more specifically the home of Aunt Charlie's grandparents?" Mary thought about the possibilities. "It would tie in to how their cooking show takes place in the kitchen her mother cooked in during her childhood."

  "It's a thought." One she hadn't considered but was willing to consider seriously if it helped ratings, Casey thought to herself.

  "Would we just let Mom and Mallie go through and do as they choose...or what?" Carrie addressed Casey specifically but included Mary in her look because in her mind it was her house.

  "That's a good question and one I don't have an answer for because I really hadn't thought of it. Like I said, this was a thought, one that came to me as we walked through that mess. It was like an epiphany, a very before and after kind of epiphany."

  "I think," Mary began slowly, thinking it out just as carefully. "That if this works out, that it would only work if Aunt Charlie and Mallie were given free rein. Otherwise it would appear scripted and their success is because they aren't."

  "You are a brave, brave person," Carrie said as she pulled her ringing phone from her purse. She didn't hide the surprise when she realized who was calling. "I have no idea what this is about, but it can't possibly be anything good." She rose, not wanting to have to have the conversation in front of anyone. "I'll be right back," she excused herself as she walked away.

  "I wonder who that was." Casey tapped her fingertips against her lips.

  "We'll find out soon enough." Mary followed her cousin's movements as she walked out the door of the small restaurant and stood on the sidewalk in front of the large glass window that opened up the eatery to the street it sat on. When she didn't see anything other than conversation taking place, intense conversation obviously, but nothing that appeared to send Carrie into an emotional meltdown, she turned her attention back to her cousin who still sat across the table from her. "Do you really think this would be a good idea or are you just trying to make me feel better about buying the house?"

  "I don't think it's something I would want us to go into on an ongoing basis but for a specific number of limited segments especially if we go with the family home angle, I think it is a feasible idea. And," she added thoughtfully, "I think Aunt Charlie would love it and Mallie would not only get a kick out of it but learn something in the process."

  "We'd probably all learn something in the process," Mary said dryly. Then she looked at the woman across from her and her tone became serious. "But will it be too much for you, Casey?" She held her hand up to stop the immediate response she anticipated. "You have a family now, so it's not ridiculous for me to be concerned that the cooking segments, your own segments, and the online store on top of that, wouldn't adding this to the mix be asking too much of you and your new family?"

  "First of all, this will be limited. I don't think it would be more than ten, maybe twelve segments. And as far as the cooking segments go, I don't do a whole lot more than show up and stand there with my fancy little camera."

  "I happen to know you do a lot more than that. I've seen them do those shows and the end result is thirty minutes and not the sometimes two hours plus that you start off with."

  "Editing," Casey shrugged that off easily. "I've been involved in the process most of my career. And it's something I can do at home and more often than not do just that these days." She saw the protest build in her cousin's expression. "Really Mary. It's just not that major of a deal. I rarely do it all at one time because I do better if I do it in pieces instead of a single run-through of it at one time. It tends to turn out better that way. But if I were to actually time myself I don't think any one segment takes more than a couple of hours to edit."

  "What about the ...."

  Anticipating her question, Casey jumped in before she could complete it. "Carrie does a lot if not most of all that’s involved in the store business. She's a natural and enjoys it on top of that. I still keep a watch out for inventory when I'm out taping segments for the travel show but Carrie does just about everything else." She reached out to lay her hand on her cousin's arm. "What's this about Mary?" She tilted her head at the expression on Mary's face, one she rarely saw. "What's wrong?"

  "I don't know." She tried to explain without sounding petty. "I just don't feel like I'm doing enough. I don't contribute nearly what the two of you do. You're so busy so much of the time and I'm sitting around making coffee."

  Casey struggled with the spurt of laughter that threatened. She knew no one who stayed busier but obviously her cousin wasn't in agreement. But before she could address
it Carrie sat back down seeming to appear out of nowhere as they were so focused on each other they hadn't seen her return. Her agitation wasn't hard to notice though. "What's wrong?" Casey shifted her attention reacting to the deep lines of concern on Carrie's face. "Who was it?"

  "Nick's sister, Pamela." Carrie took a deep breath. "I don't think either of you ever met her except at our wedding."

  "I don't remember her," Mary said slowly, shifting her own thoughts from her own worries to those of her cousin who was very obviously upset. She looked over at Casey who was nodding her head in agreement.

  "It's not like we've ever been very close but she was never anything but kind to me whenever the families got together. That's just the way she is. Very sweet, considerate."

  "In other words the exact opposite of her brother," Casey stated flatly without any great deal of emotion.

  "Pretty much," Carrie picked at her sleeve nervously. "Her husband is wonderful. I don't remember him ever saying a mean thing to anyone." She sighed, remembering family gatherings where she felt more comfortable with Nick's family than with him. When he was there anyway. "They have three kids, two boys and a girl." She looked at both her cousins, her nerves beginning to fray and she knew it showed. "Addie, short for Adeline, used to stay with me each summer, just for a week or two, whatever we could work out."

  "She's your niece," Mary spoke softly, understanding the emotional pull her cousin was dealing with. "Just because you're no longer married to her uncle doesn't stop you from being her aunt. From loving her."

  "She's in trouble," Carrie spit it out, still shocked at all that Pamela had told her. Shocked at what she'd asked of her. Worried that she'd agreed to something she wasn't prepared to handle. But even more terrified at the uncharacteristic fear and concern she'd heard in her former sister-in-law's voice.

  "What kind of trouble?" Casey smiled in thanks at the waitress who quietly set their order down in front of them. Pushed the huge plate of fries closer to her cousin hoping some food would keep her from keeling over any moment as she looked like she might.

  "Carrie," Mary reached over, took the hand that was obviously trembling. "How old is she?"

  "Fifteen," Carrie squeezed her eyes shut, thinking. "No, she just turned sixteen a couple of weeks ago."

  "A tough age," Casey said, thinking to herself she'd never want to go back to those years. No way.

  "Very," Mary agreed thinking about her own daughters. "Carrie, look at me." She waited for her cousin to turn towards her. For her eyes to dry and to focus. "We'll get through whatever this is with you." She squeezed her hand. "I can't imagine Addie could do anything worse than what my kids dished out."

  Carrie could only stare at her cousin. The simple fact she had daughters had completely escaped her. But here was someone who would at least have some sense of what she would be dealing with. She still couldn't believe she'd agreed to this. She wasn't prepared. She certainly wasn't equipped. She had no children of her own, no experience to speak of. A couple of weeks in the summer filled with nothing but fun times wasn't enough to equip anyone for what was to come.

  "Carrie," Mary spoke quietly but with a steady firmness she normally reserved for her children. But she could see the panic slowly and steadily build in her cousin's very open expression. "What happened?"

  "I don't know everything," but enough, she thought to herself, enough to know Pamela wasn't exaggerating and had every right to be on the verge of full out panic. "Addie was at a party, a bunch of girls, what we used to call a slumber party I guess." She looked over as Casey snorted in disgust.

  "A bunch of girls in the same room always spells either trouble or pain."

  Carrie silently agreed, had experienced her own grief but nothing like what Addie must be going through. And Oh God! On so many different levels was all she could think. She brushed those thoughts aside and continued. "They were drinking and I know Addie, she's easily swayed. A little alcohol would go a long way in her." She took a deep breath and let the rest of it out. "She and a couple of the other girls were talked into taking their clothes off and skinny dipping in the pool, something Addie normally wouldn't even consider." She looked at her cousins, everything she was thinking laid bare in her eyes, her somber expression said so much more than the words she couldn't find. "And apparently one of them took photos and a video of it and later that night posted it online."

  "One of her so called friends," Casey's voice very nearly shook with anger on behalf of the girl she didn't even know.

  "Yes." Carrie couldn't imagine it. Couldn't begin to imagine what her niece was suffering through. "Pamela is distraught."

  "Because of the photos?" Mary asked slowly, she could understand the embarrassment factor but worried more for the child.

  "Partly..." she hedged. "Probably." Carrie closed her eyes, trying to remember every piece of the recent conversation. "But mostly because she's frantic about Addie. She won't talk, won't eat, can't sleep. Pamela found her just sitting in her room staring at the wall the last couple of nights. When she does fall asleep she wakes up screaming."

  "Poor child," Mary said softly.

  "What about the girls who took the photos and put them online?" Casey was still fuming.

  "We didn't even get into that." Though she'd dearly love to know. "Pamela asked if she could bring her here." She looked at her cousins. She knew they'd stand by her on anything but this was huge. Probably bigger than she realized. "Pamela got her talking this morning, asked her what she wanted, what she needed." She splayed her hands upward. "She pretty much offered to do whatever she needed to get through this."

  "And..."

  Carrie turned to Casey so she could watch her expression on what she'd agreed to. Mary was the diplomat. But Casey she knew, had no doubt whatsoever that her cousin would let her know one way or another what she thought about what she was up against. If she was up to it. God, who could be up to this, she wondered, the anger and fear for her niece still warring it out within her. With her eyes steady on her cousin, she answered her question. "Addie wants to go away, which on several levels terrifies her mother. But after throwing out a couple of options she suggested coming here to stay with me. She said it was the only thing Addie responded to with anything more than a slight grunt." She watched Casey's eyes narrow, but didn't see anything else to signify what she thought of this new situation. "She's driving her here herself. They should be here sometime tomorrow."

  "She'll stay with you at the main house." Mary was already planning, thinking of what needed to be done over the course of that day before they got here. Not once did she given any indication of anything but immediate acceptance at what Carrie had agreed to.

  "I was thinking of putting her in the room that connects to mine." If she still hadn't been watching Casey she would have missed the wince. "What?" she asked. "Tell me."

  "Put her in my old room across the hall." She shrugged at the narrowing of her cousin's eyes. "I get wanting to keep an eye on her. She'll get it too. Whether she appreciates it one way or another is still to be seen. But I don't think it will help to advertise it by putting her in the room that connects to yours. If she wants the room connecting to yours she'll ask for it one way or another."

  Carrie slowly nodded her head. She understood especially thinking back to her own teenage years. Hell had sometimes seemed more appealing than going from one day to the next during those years. Which was why she couldn't begin to imagine how she was going to deal with a teenager going through what Addie must be.

  "You'll do fine, Carrie," Mary assured, reading her every thought.

  "I hope so," she whispered fervently.

  

  Carrie glanced at the old grandfather clock on the far wall of the entry hall as she passed it on her way to the front door. She knew it wasn't her mother. She and Mallie had left just a short while ago and even so her mother would come in through the back door with her key. For that matter she could come in the front door with her key and not bother with the
bell. A lifetime of habits ingrained deeper than she cared had her peeking through the small hole before opening the door.

  "Jake." She stepped forward as she swung the door open to give her cousin a long hug. He might only live a few blocks away but she never felt like she saw him enough. They always seemed to be going in different directions with everything they each had going on in their lives. "How's Beth?" She asked about his daughter who had only recently come to live with him after losing her parents in a violent uprising that seemed the norm now in so many of the small countries on the other side of the world.

  "Good." He followed her to the kitchen at the back of the house. "She and Mallie are completely entrenched in running the rink. And both are talking seriously about enrolling in a couple of business classes at the college in the semester that's coming up."

  "I knew Mallie planned to but this is the first I've heard about Beth." She glanced over her shoulder from where she was putting together a plate of cookies from the never ending supply they had courtesy of her mother and Mary. "Has she taken any college courses before this?" She scrambled around in her memory as to if it had ever come up before. She knew Beth was nineteen, close to twenty but couldn't remember what she'd been doing since high school.

  "She's got a couple of semesters behind her, just basic stuff." Jake searched the interior of the huge refrigerator and helped himself to one of the beers he knew they kept around for he and Pete, Casey's new husband. "I don't think she's settled on a major yet which is probably why she's just considering a couple of business courses." He turned around and leaned against the refrigerator. Tried out a few approaches in his head for opening up the topic his sister had vented her spleen over for the past hour and a half. He'd gotten the gist of it after fifteen minutes but had no problem watching his usually quiet daughter engage with Casey on the issue. They'd spent a good part of an hour sharing horror stories of growing up female in the company of other females. None of it had been pleasant and given him an entirely new perspective on his sister. Deciding there was no good approach he went for straight forward as he sat down at the table with one of his favorite cousins and a plate of cookies. "So, what's the plan for when your niece gets here?"