Sweet Southern Hearts
Author: Susan Schild
Publisher: Lyrical Press
Genre:
Contemporary Women's Fiction
Susan Schild welcomes you back to the offbeat
Southern town of Willow Hill, North Carolina, for a humorous,
heartwarming story of new beginnings, do-overs, and
self-discovery…
When it comes to marriage, third time’s
the charm for Linny Taylor. She’s thrilled to be on her honeymoon
with Jack Avery, Willow Hill’s handsome veterinarian. But just like
the hair-raising white water rafting trip Jack persuades her to take,
newlywed life has plenty of dips and bumps.
Jack’s
twelve-year-old son is resisting all Linny’s efforts to be the
perfect stepmother, while her own mother, Dottie, begs her to tag
along on the first week of a free-wheeling RV adventure. Who knew
women “of a certain age” could drum up so much trouble? No sooner
is Linny sighing with relief at being back home than she’s helping
her frazzled sister with a new baby…and dealing with an unexpected
legacy from her late ex. Life is fuller—and richer—than she ever
imagined, but if there’s one thing Linny’s learned by now, it’s
that there’s always room for another sweet surprise…
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Back
home, after they’d unpacked Jack left to pick up Neal at his ex-wife’s house
and Linny hopped in her trusty old Volvo to drive the ten miles from their
farmhouse to her mother’s house. She bumped down the long gravel road lined by
rows of bushy tobacco plants thriving on the land her mama owned and leased out
to other farmers. Rolling down the window, she breathed in the country
fragrance of loamy earth, mown grass, and honeysuckle. She caught a whiff of
skunk and it didn’t bother her a bit. It just smelled like her childhood.
Slowing,
she approached the driveway of the aqua blue trailer—the one her mother had let
her stay in for free when Linny’s second husband had stolen her money and then
died on her. The trailer had become such a haven for her while she’d rebuilt
her life. She peered down the driveway, but it was too overgrown for her to see
much. She spied a clothesline strung with brightly colored T-shirts and dresses
that danced gracefully in the breeze and felt better. Mama said the new renters
were a real nice young couple who adored the
trailer Linny had turned into a little jewel box with new drywall, fresh paint,
and reclaimed wood floors from Habitat Re-Use Center.
Linny
pulled in to the driveway of her mother’s tidy ranch, right beside the carport
that housed her mother’s Buick. Trotting up the front walkway, Linny knocked on
the screen door and looked inside. “Mama? Mama?” she called. In the background
she heard a man’s voice on the TV, which was turned up to her mother’s usual
blare level. Linny rapped harder and peered in the crack between the door and
the frame. Her mother had a hook and eye holding the door shut, her version of
home security. Linny pulled her cell from her purse and dialed Dottie but heard
the ring and ring of the phone from inside the house. No one picked up. Her
heart fluttering faster, Linny cupped her hands and called more loudly, “Mama!
Mama!”
A
clatter sounded and Curtis barreled down the hallway, woofing a baritone bark
that would have sent burglars straight into cardiac rehab at Raleigh Memorial.
Her mother followed, cooing to the dog, “Now, sugar, you just hush. That’s just
our Linny.”
Breathing
a sigh of relief, Linny broke into a smile. Though she’d always loved Mama,
she’d only recently begun to really like her.
Once Dottie shared the truth about how empty her marriage had been to Linny’s
father, some weight had been lifted from her. Dottie had become sunnier,
warmer, and more real—and Linny wanted all the time she could get with her. So
if Dottie had a cold, Linny worried it was budding pneumonia. If she had a
headache, it was a sign of an impending stroke. Dottie was a fit fifty-nine
with no real health problems. And ever since she’d met the dapper Mack and
begun to play pickle ball and dance the tango with him, she’d lost ten pounds
and started doing a Jane Fonda DVD every morning. She could probably lap Linny
in a 5K. Trying to hide how rattled she’d been, Linny waved too animatedly and
made a big show of fussing over Curtis whose face was now pressed to the
screen. “How are you, baby dog?”
Curtis
began to wag his long, thick tail—the one that could clear side tables and
buckle you if he clipped your knees.
“Sorry
for not hearing you sooner, honey. I was snoozing with that Inspirational
Living channel on in the background to keep me company,” Dottie said.
Linny
tried to be surreptitious in sizing up Dottie as she shooed away the dog and
unlocked the door. Her hair was bunched up on either side like she’d slept on
it funny, but she was steady on her feet and her eyes were bright. “Hey, Mama.”
Linny wrapped her mother in a hug, comforted by the familiar smell of Jergens
hand cream and baby powder with a hint of Aqua Net.
“How
are you, shug?” Dottie asked, motioning Linny to follow her back into the
living room. “How was your trip and why are you back early?”
Dottie
sank into her velour chair and reclined and Curtis gracefully curled into a
loop on the carpet beside her. Linny filled her in on the honeymoon, omitting
the part about Vera’s dramatics and talking instead about Jack needing to get
back for a work issue. As her newly tech-savvy mother scrolled through the trip
pictures on Linny’s phone, Linny noticed she was wearing a faded, polyester
pink zip-up housecoat and those awful white Velcro-shut sandals that she
thought had been relegated to the Goodwill box. Those were remnants of the bad
old days when disappointment had made Dottie dress like a frumpy woman twenty
years older than her actual years.
These
days, Dottie had a nice lady at Belk who helped her pick out sassy but
age-appropriate clothes. So why was the frumpiness back?
After
her mother’s final so pretty! and that looks so sweet, Linny settled back on the couch and
cocked her head. “How are you feeling, Mama?”
“Oh,
I’m bumping along,” Dottie said, not meeting Linny’s eyes.
Trying
to sound casual, Linny persisted. “So you didn’t feel up to going to the RV
show?”
“It’d
be real crowded, plus my stomach was bothering me.” Dottie picked an imaginary
piece of lint from her housecoat.
“I
thought it was your feet and your sugar,” Linny said, raising a brow.
Flushing
guiltily and probably trying to remember her original ailments, Dottie nodded
her head vigorously for emphasis, “It was all three. Stomach, sugar, and feet.”
The
poofs on her mother’s hairdo bobbed as she nodded, and Linny pictured Precious
the poodle with the faux tummy-toothache-itching issues. Linny was such a bad
person. She bit the inside of her cheeks and tried to keep a straight face.
“What’s really going on, Mama?”
Her
mother blew out a gust of a sigh. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “Maybe I’m just
getting cold feet about the whole trip.”
“Why,
Mama?” Linny asked. All she and her two friends talked about was Graceland
versus Dollywood, interstates or secondary roads, and how to find the most
accurate reviews of campsites on the internet.
Dottie
paused and blurted out, “I’m scared. What if we have a flat tire or pick up a
murdering hitchhiker or fight with one another the whole way? What about
beavers with rabies coming after us? That happened in a campground in Arkansas
just last weekend. Dragged the man under while he was swimming at the lake.
What if we drive over a steep ravine?” She made a swooping downward hand motion
to simulate driving off a cliff.
Linny
hid her smile. She’d had the same awful visual of the motor home flying off a
cliff when she’d first heard about the US of A trip. Clearly, Mama was the
genetic link to her own worrywart streak. “Anything else on your mind?”
“Well,
none of us are world trotters.” She glanced at Linny and smoothed the lace
doily on the arm of the chair.
Linny
suppressed a grin. World trotters. Globe travelers. Dottie could mix an idiom,
mash a metaphor. But it was a big deal that
Mama and her girlfriends, who had been homebodies for most of their lives, were
taking this trip. Travel could be daunting, especially when they were all in
their late fifties and early sixties and planning on driving a giant bus of a
motor home/camper thingy.
Her
mother went on, her words rushing as she let them go after penning them up for
so long. “I’d never been out of the state before the big cruise and the girls
had only been to South Carolina. Ruby went to Myrtle Beach once and Dessie went
to Dillon, South Carolina, because she was underage and wanted to marry her
first husband, who…”
Linny
raised a hand to try to head off the inevitable spelling, but it was too late.
“…turned
out to be G-A-Y.” Her mother nodded, looking proud of herself for being so
wildly progressive as to know a G-A-Y person. “Anyhow, what if we can’t handle
it? What if we get lost? What if Mack finds another lady friend while I’m gone?
What if Curtis forgets all about me?” Looking stricken, she leaned over to
scratch under the giant dog’s chin and stare at him soulfully.
“You’ve
been worrying about this a lot, Mama,” Linny said softly.
Dottie
nodded, poodle poofs bobbing again. Linny felt like reaching over and gently
smoothing them down but didn’t. Dottie was feeling inadequate enough right now,
the way her husband Boyd had made her feel for most of their marriage.
“All
of you are smart, competent women, and you did so well on that cruise,” Linny
said in a soothing tone. “And you went to all of those islands and had
different languages to deal with, and you flew in and out of some of the
busiest airports. That’s pretty impressive.” Linny didn’t think she needed to
mention that none of them had ever even flown before.
Her
mother considered this, a little smile playing at her lips. But after a moment
doubts must have crept back because she threw up her hands and shook her head
wearily. “I don’t know, sugar. I don’t think I’m up for this.”
“What
could make you feel more comfortable about taking this trip, Mama?”
Linny’s
mind was in high gear, sifting through options. Was there a Triple A deal for
RVs or campers? Could the three women pool their money and hire a driver or…
Her
mother didn’t miss a beat. “I'd feel better if you came with us on the first
week of the trip.” Dottie’s gaze was steady. “You can help us learn the ropes.”
Linny
opened her mouth and closed it again. Her big mouth. But she watched her mother
patting Curtis and saw the thin gold band she still wore despite her husband’s
betrayal. Linny understood every one of her mother’s fears and was so proud of
her for all her courage. But Linny’d been married less than a week. She
breathed out a sigh. “I can’t, Mama. Jack and I are just getting settled in and
Neal’s coming to stay with us for a while.”
“I
shouldn’t have even asked,” Her mother nodded, but her lower lip trembled and
she looked as though she might cry. “I’m afraid I need to cancel on the girls,
then.”
Susan has an undergraduate degree from James
Madison University and a master’s degree (MSW) from The University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has used her professional
background as a psychotherapist and corporate trainer to add
authenticity to her characters.
Susan is a wife, a stepmother,
and a dog lover. She and her family live near Raleigh, North Carolina
where she is busy finishing up the third novel in the Willow Hill
Series.
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