All but her trembling fingers regained composure, and Kenny picked up the phone to call Hailey.
“Oh, Kenny! I’m so happy you called! I’ve thought about reaching out to you for a long time. Uncle Johnny wouldkillme if he knew I was doing this, but I can’t stand to see him so sad. I hope everything is okay with you, and I don’t know what caused you to leave, but he was devastated when you did. He regretted and second guessed everything he did or didn’t do,” Hailey launched into one of her signature dialogues. “He even bought a plane ticket to go to New York and track you down. He had to know where things went wrong and if you two could work past whatever it was. But then Mr. C abruptly passed away, which, of course, tore him apart. And, Kenny, Mr. C left J.P.everything. Aside from mourning the loss, Uncle Johnny’s overwhelmed. I went down to the funeral and then, again, over winter break. I’m back at WVU now until graduation. I’m worried about him. He cared for you, Kenny. He really cared for you. Do you think maybe you could talk to him?” Hailey vented without taking a breath.
Kenny was speechless. The thoughts in her head swirled like flakes in a shaken snow globe. But this time, instead of falling into a scene of chaos like they usually did, they seemed to fall into a place they had been longing to land.
“Hailey? Can I be honest with you?” Kenny asked sheepishly, embarrassed by what she was about to admit and how juvenile it could sound.
“Of course!” Hailey welcomed.
“I thought you and J.P. were a couple,” Kenny said softly.
“What!” Hailey laughed, “I know I live in West Virginia but don’t believe everything you hear about us Mountaineers, Kenny!”
“Oh my God, Hailey. I can’t believe how badly I screwed things up. I fell fast and hard for your uncle and it terrified me. Before I met you for drinks at the Beach Club that day, I saw the two of you at Pelican Pointe. I heard you talking about a relationship and moving down there permanently. I saw he had his arm around you. That afternoon, you were so excited about the long-awaited commitment between you and your boyfriend. You were wearing the new OHHIO visor that I assumed was J.P.’s and you were talking about your date at Charlie’s. J.P. and I were supposed to go to Charlie’s that week, too. I concocted this whole story in my head. My version of the story was too much for me to handle or face, so I left. I feel like such an idiot.”
“Ouch! You thought Uncle Johnny was a liar and a cheat? And me? You probably had a few different scenarios playing out about me, right? That’s a terrible story,” Hailey said sympathetically.
It perplexed Kenny that Hailey could be so nonchalant, understanding even, about the scenario that she construed and involved unflattering portrayals of her and her uncle; but she was relived Hailey viewed it has as reality TV soap opera and was able to move past it without thinking twice.
“I like my view of the story better. Uncle Johnny is the closest thing I have to a dad. He’s been alone for a long time and deserves a great girl. From the little bit I knew about you and the conversations we had, I was hoping the two of you would run into each other. When I came down for Employee Appreciation Weekend, I told him I had someone I wanted him to meet. He told me he wasn’t interested; that he had met a woman and was taking her on a date that week. But I tried to get him to come with Matt—that’s my boyfriend—to meet us at the Beach Club for drinks, anyway. I had a feeling about the two of you. Earlier that day, I asked Uncle Johnny to come over to Pelican Pointe because I wanted to talk to him about the job offer and getting into a relationship with Matt. Lastly, Uncle Johnnydidgive me the visor, he said it was too small for his head; and I think Mr. Cunningham recommended Charlie’s to everyone,” Hailey chuckled.
“I am at a complete loss for words, Hailey,” Kenny said as she stumbled to her feet, noticing droves of mothers, nannies, and au pairs parking their snow covered UPPAbaby and Bugaboo strollers on the other side of the glass windows, ready to storm the door for story time.
“It wasn’t until a few weeks after you left that I made the connection. He told me he was flying to New York for the weekend, but I could tell in his voice it was for more than the work trip he tried to pass it off as. After I forced him to share a few details, a light bulb went off! What are the odds that the girl my uncle had fallen in love with was the same girl I wanted to set him up with?” Hailey’s enthusiasm grew.
Kenny lost her breath but caught her body on a wobbly bookshelf when she heard the wordlove.
Forty-Three
Something slowly drew Kenny out of a deep sleep but before she fully opened her eyes, she observed from behind closed lids that the sun was shining. She saw a canvas of yellow and could feel the warmth on her skin.
“Miss Sloane. Excuse me, Miss Sloane.” Kenny heard a gentle voice in the distance.
She lazily blinked open her eyes and through squinted lenses pieced together her surroundings. She jolted to an upright position. The voice wasn’t echoing from the distance; it was coming from the mouth of the patient flight attendant who hovered over her. The plane was empty of passengers and the overhead bins cleared of any luggage.
“I’m so sorry! I hope I didn’t keep you too long,” Kenny exclaimed, shoving the manila envelope that was resting on her lap into her black bag.
“No worries, Dear. You were sound asleep before the cabin was fully onboarded back in New York. You must have needed your rest. Even the older gentleman who sat next to you commented on how peaceful you looked. I hated to wake you,” the soft-spoken attendant whispered.
Kenny gingerly walked down the plane’s steep, shaky metal steps that led to the tarmac, through the small airport and back outside to a rocking chair at the entrance of the terminal where she called an Uber. She pushed her sunglasses off her face and looked around at the palm trees while the breeze waved across her skin. It was cooler than when she left in October but warmer than the plunging temperatures and accompanying blizzard that she narrowly escaped back in Manhattan. The familiar smell of pine, oak and sea salt permeated the air and Kenny’s eyes were drawn to the vibrant colors that blossomed from the trees and flowers and brought the landscape to life.
Kenny quietly slid into the backseat of the Uber and immediately started to second-guess the rash decision to raid her savings account and jump on the first direct flight out of New York to Hilton Head. The voices in her head started to chatter. She should have called or texted or emailed J.P. before dropping everything to rush to the island. There were countless scenarios that Kenny didn’t evaluate or factor into her plan. J.P. could be out of town on business. Perhaps he wouldn’t be as forgiving as Hailey when Kenny told him the truth about what prompted her to leave without warning or regard in October. Maybe he wouldn’t understand at all, and her sheer presence would make this already difficult time even worse. There was the chance that the major events that unfolded in his life over the last four months left a version of him that she wouldn’t recognize.
Kenny was so engrossed and distracted with her internal dialogue of weighing the pros and cons of the plan she didn’t have in place and deeply regretting not balancing them before she left the confines of The Dollhouse, that she didn’t realize how close she was to Sea Pines. She was grounded back to the present when the small, black compact car pulled up to the Greenwood Gate and Derek the gatekeeper popped out of the tan hut with his Hawaiian shirt, toothy smile, and overstated welcome wave.
“You can roll down the windows, ma’am,” the reserved Uber driver suggested. “It’s too warm to turn on the heat and too cool to turn on the air conditioner, but it’s a beautiful day for fresh air,” he winked at Kenny from the rearview mirror.
“That’s a great idea, thank you,” Kenny replied.
As she rolled down the rear windows and slid the sunglasses to the bridge of her nose, she brought her attention back to her senses. She fixed her eyes on the beauty of her surroundings, felt the fresh air hit her skin in the form of a light breeze, and smelled the ocean that was only a few hundred feet away. Behind the flapping of the wind, she heard a soulful tune coming from the speakers in the front seat. They were the wise words of Billy Joel. The same reflective lyrics that started her on this journey.
In that moment, as the car pulled around Fraser’s Circle, Kenny had all she needed. The last four months of her life were about to come full circle. They started and were going to end here, in her Vienna.
She anxiously pounded the four-digit code into the keypad at Villa #5 and pushed open the heavy, beige door. She left her suitcase in the foyer and walked to the back of the airy room to open the blinds and back door to the patio. There were no swimmers or waders in the pool but the pickleball courts were brimming with players. The pavilion was free of construction equipment and busy with people lunching, reading, and playing cards.
She walked back into the villa that looked the same as when she left it in October and noticed a small white cardboard box, tied up with a green ribbon, on the counter next to the plantation passes. She untied the ribbon, opened the box, and found a business-card sized note with three perfectly shaped and frosted cookies.
“We hope your stay with Low Country Hospitality is as refreshing as Miss Luana’s famous key lime pie cookies!”
