“Yes, she came with me. The children wanted to come, but we told them next time. We didn’t want to come down on you like a ton of bricks.”
“Cara, my poor sweet girl, how have you been holding up?” Julia crooned, rushing in behind Palmer. She was impeccably dressed in a blue chambray linen dress with bold strands of blue and white coral around her neck. Julia’s blond hair was neatly cropped around her ears in an elegant, sleek style.
“Hi, Julia,” Cara said in a dull voice.
Julia hurried to wrap one arm around Cara, cupping her face with her other hand. “Just look at you! You’re so thin. It’s shocking. Why, you’re just withering away. Well, don’t you worry. We’re here and we are going to take care of you and get you fixed right up. Aren’t we, Palmer?”
Cara couldn’t respond to the force of Julia’s concern, even felt tears come to her eyes.
Julia stared her down appraisingly. “I’ll just bet you haven’t eaten yet today.”
Cara shook her head, embarrassed, but she didn’t have the presence of mind to lie.
“I thought not. Tell you what we’re going to do. Palmer, you sit and chat with your sister a minute while I go fix her up something to eat.” She looked to her husband. “Well, go on!”
Palmer approached his sister as Julia vanished into the kitchen, and they shared a commiserating glance. He chortled and indicated the sofa.
“Come on, we might as well just go along with her plan. I find it’s easier that way. Sit down, Cara, and tell me how you are. I mean, really are. Because I’ve got to tell you. You look like you’ve been washed, spun, and hung up to dry.” He sat down with a soft thud and patted the seat beside him.
Cara came to sit beside her brother and, without speaking a word, leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder. Palmer, caught unawares, sat stiff in surprise, his hands still in the air. This was so uncharacteristic of Cara. After a moment his face softened, and he rested his hand on her back, stroking her shoulder.
“I remember the last time you came crying to me,” he said in a gentle voice. “You couldn’t have been more than six or seven. You wanted to play ball with us boys and we didn’t want you on our team. The boys said some mean things to you.”
Cara sniffed. “They told me my hair was a rat’s nest.”
She heard his laugh deep in his chest. “Well, it was! Kind of like it is now.”
Cara choked out a laugh. It was true, and only he could tell her. “I was mostly mad that they wouldn’t let me play. Because I was a girl.”
“Yeah, I know. I felt bad about that.”
“You got in a fight for me.”
“I wasn’t a very good fighter. They beat me up, if I recall. Some hero.”
“You were my hero.”
He paused and swallowed thickly. “I’m sorry if I fell off that pedestal you sometimes put me on.”
“Look at me, brother mine. None of us are perfect. I’m lying prostrate on the floor.”
“Now, honey, you were knocked down, good and hard. There’s no denying it. But you’ll get up again. When you’re ready. You always do.”
“I don’t know. Maybe not this time.” Cara straightened and wiped her eyes with her hands. Palmer dipped into his pocket and pulled out a pressed handkerchief. He had always maintained the old-world ways of Charleston. Cara blew her nose gratefully and twisted the delicate linen in her hands, then folded it into a smaller and smaller square as she forced herself to find the words to tell Palmer what had happened.
“It’s more than just Brett being gone,” she confessed. “My life is a mess.” She looked up at him. It was her style to be blunt when necessary, and there was no sugarcoating this. “I’m in serious financial trouble.”
His blue eyes sharpened. “Oh?”
Cara quickly brought her brother up to speed on her financial situation, sparing no details.
“In a word, I’m broke,” she finished helplessly.
“I had no idea,” Palmer said in a hushed voice. He shook his head. “I loved Brett like a brother. But right now, I’d like to kick his butt.”
Cara chuckled, glad he could freely voice his feelings with her. “Yeah, but we both know he wasn’t the best at finances. But it’s done, and now I have to move forward. Palmer, I’m not angry. I’m scared.”
“What are you going to do with the business?”
Cara set her mouth in a firm line, the way she used to when she needed to ream out a wayward employee at the ad agency or bring an account back into line. “I have to sell it.”
“Is Robert interested?”
“I think he is, yes. Whether he can come up with the money, I don’t know. I only know I can’t keep it going. And honestly, I don’t want to. The ecotour business was Brett’s passion, not mine. Selling it might not even be enough.” She gestured vaguely around her. “I might need to let the house go, too.”
Palmer looked mildly alarmed at that. “But if you sell this house, where will you move?”
“I’m still working that out. Palmer,” she said, raising her eyes from the handkerchief she was still twisting in her hands to meet his gaze. “I need your advice. John said I’m going to have to sell something to pay back the loan. Right away. How long will it take for this house to sell?”
Palmer considered the question, then shrugged. “I don’t have a crystal ball. But we’re smack in the summer season and, you’ve got the advantage of having a modest-size house on a deepwater lot. There are only so many of those around. I’d be surprised if it didn’t go quick. In fact, I may know of someone who’s been looking for just such a place. He might just jump on it.”
“Then would you put it up for sale? Just get me the best price you can as fast as you can.”
“Sure I will, but let’s just talk this through a minute. This is your home. The one you lived in with Brett. You can sell the beach house, too, you know.”
“I could, but I can’t do anything until Heather moves out. And I’m not sure I want to sell it. You know how I feel about Primrose. Palmer, I simply cannot live here because I’m surrounded by memories. This was Brett’s house.” She paused. “I . . . I think I might want to live in the beach house for a while. It’s my home. I need to feel safe.”
“Sure, honey, I can understand that.”
“So, you’ll take care of it for me?”
“Of course. And of course there’ll be no commission.”
“Thank you.” It was heartfelt.
He seemed taken aback by her gratitude. “Honey, of course I wouldn’t charge you commission. You’re my sister!”
“That’s not what I was thanking you for.”
“No? For what, then?”
She shrugged. “For understanding. And for not badgering me to sell Mama’s house like you did earlier this spring.”