Read Lowcountry Summer for Free Online Page B

1950s, believe it or not. I was trying to find a solution for Mom. You know. She’s my mother, right? I worry about her morning, noon, and night.”
    “I’m sure you do, honey. I’m sure you do. But, sweetheart?” The poor child. She needed to study, not to fear for her sister’s life. “Listen, I don’t want you to worry anymore. Let us old fogies do the worrying for a while, okay? Why don’t you see if you can soften your sisters’ hearts and I’ll keep you in the loop on everything. Is that a deal?”
    “Sure. I’ll try. But they’re pretty convinced of the party line, you know.”
    “Yes, I know that. Listen, Amelia, on another topic?”
    “Sure, what?”
    “Do you think Eric is seeing someone?”
    There was silence.
    “Are you there, Amelia?”
    “Yes, I, um, don’t know. Maybe you should ask him?”
    “Oh! I didn’t mean to pry, I mean . . . of course, you’re right!”
    We said good night and I felt like I had failed miserably in trying to console her. But I had let her know that she wasn’t alone. Poor girl. Not even twenty-one years old and she was like Atlas trying to hold up the globe on her back. And to make matters worse, I asked her to betray some sort of confidence by prying into Eric’s business. Of course I was prying! He was my son! I was his mother! So, if she didn’t want to tell me, she must know something. I’d find out.
    I put my wineglass in the sink and decided to forgo the grapes for a while—at least until Frances Mae went away.
    I went to the front of the house to turn out the rest of the lights and saw familiar headlights at the end of our avenue of oaks. I blinked the porch lights to signal that it was not too late to approach. Was it Trip? No, it was a patrol car driven by my friend Matthew. Matthew was coming by to check on me. That cheered me on the spot. I watched as he pulled up our long road. I ran my hand through my hair to smooth it. And I bit my lips to give them some color, hoping I didn’t look like a hag. He got out of his car and turned to look at me standing there in the doorway. Good grief, he was so appealing. Was it the uniform?
    “Can I help you, Officer?” I said, teasing him in my best slow Scarlett drawl.
    “Yes, ma’am, I reckon you can.” He said this with a smile but his eyes were telling me another story.
    “Would you like to come in?” I leaned against the doorjamb and he stood very close to me, leaned down, and smelled the side of my neck, giving me chills.
    “Yes, ma’am, I reckon I would.”
    “Do you want to pull your car around back for the sake of the neighbors?” It appeared I was to have company at least for a few hours.
    “If you think I should, then I will. But there’s nobody out here tonight. I checked. A couple of opossums and some bears.”
    “Bears?” He was kidding, of course, but I pretended to be alarmed. “Oh my!”
    “Yes, big black bears. Hungry ones. I just wanted to make sure you were safe.”
    It should be noted here that I had not slept with Matthew in decades. Okay, it was last week but there was no sleeping. I was unsure of how to proceed. No, I wasn’t. I mean, was it all right to just sleep with him without some sort of goal on the relationship beyond the obvious? Of course it was. We were consenting adults, after all. So much for moral dilemmas. Problem solved.
    “Are you hungry, Officer?”
    “Yeah. Do you have something you might offer a starving servant of the people?”
    I thought of offering him a roll in bed with honey, but instead I said, “That depends on what you’re starving for. Why don’t we go inside and see what we can find?”
    Our words were corny and silly but intellectual debate on the true meaning of life was not on the agenda. I led him through the hall and up the stairs to my room. Now, may I just mention that the kindest thing ever invented by mankind is the dimmer switch? I slipped into the bathroom to change into something ooh-la-la, and there was my tub, filled