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Chapter 3
“It’s a mansion!” Penelopeexclaimed as they got out of their car and stared at the huge white two-story house with the cute picket fence and the massive old oak tree in the corner of the yard that reminded Jubilee of a 1950s sitcom with the perfect family. The perfect house and perfect life.
That certainly wasn’t her. But here she was, being rescued by someone who apparently had grown up in such a thing.
“It’s not a mansion, it’s a castle,” Scarlett, normally the one of her daughters less prone to fantasies, whispered.
“It’s just a regular house, although it is much bigger than what we’re used to,” Jubilee said, trying not to sound as awed as her children.
Matt laughed. “I guess I don’t usually see it through the eyes of someone who hasn’t seen it before. But maybe that’s why my mom has been working on switching it all over to a bed-and-breakfast. There are plenty of bedrooms to go around, especially now that all of her children have moved on.”
“You don’t live here?” Jubilee asked, then she wished she could take the question back. It shouldn’t matter to her where he lived.
“I grew up here. But the farm sprawls all over the northern part of Strawberry Sands. Most of my siblings live around it or on it, just not in the main house. I live down by the stables, in a cottage by the beach. I’m mostly in charge of renting out the horses, and I do a lot with the hay we make, so it makes sense for me to be down there.”
“You wanted to live closer to the lake?” Jubilee asked, looking over at the shimmering blue that glowed just below the horizon.
“I guess. Closer to the storms that blow in, but mostly because it was closer to the stables and I’m right there when the tourists come.”
“I see,” Jubilee said, looking again at the house. It had a beautiful view of the lake. It was huge and had character and just said “family” and seemed so welcoming. She couldn’t imagine moving out of it and choosing to live somewhere else, even if it was closer to the shore. But everyone had their different things. Sometimes it seemed like whatever a person had, they wanted something different.
Was that a human trait? A person was never satisfied with what they had but was always looking for something else. Something more. Striving and fighting instead of being content.
“Come on in,” Matt said, his hand on the white picket gate. “I texted my mom, and she’s expecting us.”
“Are you sure that we’re not going to be an imposition?” Jubilee bit her lip and tried to keep her fingers from twisting together in front of her. Now that they were here, while she knew she had nowhere else to go, she wished she wouldn’t have come.
“I’m sure. Mom will probably try to talk you into moving in and staying forever. She’s like that.”
Matt had no sooner said that than a slender woman in her fifties pushed open the screen door and stepped out on the front porch.
“Matthew Landry. Why are you standing out there staring at the house? Grab that girl and bring her in here.” The woman didn’t stop on the porch but bounded down the steps with the bounce of someone much younger than Jubilee had expected Matt’s mother to be.
She would have to be in her fifties. Late fifties. And yet, she careened down the steps like a teenager.
“What a terrible thing to have your car break down along the side of the road. That’s not exactly a busy highway, and you would have been sitting forever waiting for someone to come.” Matt’s mom talked as she hurried toward them.
“I hadn’t even called anyone because I don’t have any money to pay them.” Jubilee couldn’t see pretending or hiding the truth. If her lack of ability to pay was going to affect whether or not Mrs. Landry wanted to allow them to stay, she wanted to know it now.
“Mom, this is Jubilee. She was planning on moving into Strawberry Sands and getting a job.”
“Really?” Mrs. Landry said, looking very interested. More interested than Jubilee would have expected her to look. She wasn’t sure what to say about that.
Matt and Mrs. Landry seemed to share a look before Mrs. Landry’s attention turned back toward Jubilee.
“Jubilee, this is my mom, Lana.”
“Such a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Landry,” Jubilee said, holding out her hand.
“Please, call me Lana. When my husband walked out on me, I almost changed my name back to my maiden name. But with six kids, it would have been a real paperwork nightmare to change everyone’s, and I didn’t really want to kick the sleeping giant, if you know what I mean.” Lana grinned a little, and Jubilee found herself grinning back. She knew all about that. Sometimes it was better to just live and let live, and not do things deliberately, things that one knew was going to make someone else mad. Even if they were things that someone wanted to do.
“I have some experience in that,” Jubilee said, feeling an immediate kinship with Lana that she hadn’t before as the older woman gripped her hand in her own callused palm and gave it a firm shake.
“These are my daughters, Scarlett and Penelope,” Jubilee said as she pulled her hand back.
