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As she brushed, she thought back to that summer so long ago.
JULY 1994
ATLANTA, GEORGIA
What’s more complicated than family? Tayla thought as she pulled into the driveway of her sister Diane’s mega mansion. Tayla rolled her eyes at the sight of the house. It was a fake Tudor. Next door was a reproduction French chateau. Next to it was... The whole suburb was full of huge houses that were modernized copies of some time period that had nothing to do with Atlanta.
She got out of the rental car to get her suitcase from the back.
Yet again, she wondered why she’d allowed herself to be bullied into doing this. But her mother and Diane had piled masses of guilt on her. Diane and her rich husband, Garett, had to go to Brussels. Had to attend some conference. “He’s the keynote speaker,” her mother had nearly shouted. “You must do this.”
“All right,” Tayla snapped back. “I’ll see if I can get away.”
“No,” her mother said. “Not see, but do.” She’d slammed down the phone.
Family obligations, Tayla thought in disgust.
Her mother wanted Tayla to fly to Atlanta and
stay with her niece, Charlene, for the week Diane and her husband would be away.
Tayla’s husband, Walter, had loudly protested. If she was gone, who was going to run his office, his house, his life? When he told Tayla it wasn’t possible for her to go, she’d booked a plane ticket. Sometimes you had to choose your battles. She was much more afraid of her formidable mother than of Walter.
She leaned against the car and looked up at the big house. Everyone in her family was angry at her. Her mother, her sister, her husband. Her fancy brother-in-law was probably angry too but at least he hadn’t yelled at her.
It was all about Charlene, her sweet, adorable, quiet, docile niece. She was what now? Fifteen? No, she’d turned sixteen. Damn! She forgot to send a gift.
Tayla knew that none of her family understood the amount of work she and Walter did. Halfway through college, when she and Walter married, his dad gave them a small strip mall outside Philadelphia. It was nearly derelict, but Walter was a salesman at heart and Tayla knew how to work. They now owned four lucrative malls. She didn’t have time to pop back to Lachlan for every Thanksgiving, Christmas, or even for the birth of her sister’s only child, Charlene.
But then, Tayla had had a lifetime of being compared to her younger sister. According to their parents, Diane was the epitome of the “good daughter.” She’d married the son of a rich family from Fort Lauderdale. Since his job at the family’s firm was there, they’d stayed in Lachlan. Perfect Diane had had a baby. That Tayla—or Walter—was infertile gained no sympathy from her parents.
When Charlene was thirteen, Diane’s father-in-law wanted his son to move to Japan and start an office there. Tayla wasn’t sure exactly what went on—she was too busy with work to listen to a long saga—but Charlene stayed behind in Lachlan with her grandparents. “Until she finishes high school,” her mother said on the phone.
Last year, they’d changed plans again. Diane and Garett had abruptly left Japan, moved to Atlanta, and Charlene left Lachlan High School to live with them.
Tayla had a feeling that something had “happened,” but no one would tell her what. Was it some scandal concerning Diane’s perfect husband?
It wasn’t very kind of her, but the thought made Tayla smile. Her parents weren’t shy about telling Tayla that her husband was far from perfect. “He orders you around like you’re his unpaid servant,” her mother said. Her father was more kind. He said, “Any time you want to come home, we’ll be here.”
Tayla defended her husband. Always defended him. After all, she had chosen him. That damned Sara Medlar had told her not to but...
Tayla tilted her head back and looked up at the sky. It was gray and felt like it might rain. That meant she was going to be stuck inside with a sixteen-year-old. What in the world was she going to do with her? She hadn’t seen her in years, so what was she like now? Tayla truly hoped the reason she’d been given this task wasn’t that the kid was doing drugs. Or maybe sex was the problem. Please, she hoped she wasn’t expected to tell her niece about using a condom. The old banana demo? She could hear her mother. But you live in a city, so you know about these things. They don’t have sex in Lachlan, Florida? Ha ha.
Tayla grabbed the handle of her suitcase and rolled it up the drive. There was a shallow porch with potted plants that looked like they needed watering. Tayla was a day later than she’d been told to be here but that couldn’t be helped. One of their tenants said he wasn’t going to pay rent if his roof wasn’t repaired. Walter told Tayla to take care of it as he had to meet with new tenants—on the golf course. So Tayla dealt with hot tar while Walter had martinis at the club.
When she was delayed, she’d called her sister’s number but got only her answering machine. The same happened at her parents’ house. Had her niece become such a wild child that she couldn’t stay alone for twenty-four hours?
Tayla noticed that one of the potted plants had been ripped apart. It was a short plant with big leaves and tiny white flowers on a stalk. She couldn’t remember the name. Oh yes. Lily of the valley. It looked like something had torn out half the plant, leaving a hole in the dirt.
She’d been told that the key was under the mat but she didn’t want to barge in on her niece. After all, there was no telling what a sixteen-year-old girl was up to. Boys? Girls? When it came to that, she had no idea which way her niece swung.
She rang the doorbell, then waited. She was about to get the key when the door opened. There was Charlene, as pretty as she remembered—but at least twenty pounds overweight.
A gym! was Tayla’s first thought. Long walks. Cut out the burgers. Is this why she’d been told to babysit? To put the girl on a diet?
They exchanged double cheek kisses.
“Come in,” Charlene said. “Can I get you something to drink? Or maybe eat? I’m not a great cook but I can do pasta dishes. They fill you up.”
