Sanctuary

breezed in, all smiles. She’d had her ear to the door for the last two minutes and calculated it was time to make an entrance. It pleased her to enter a room in that house and not find apathy or bitterness. Temper, at least, was clean.
    “That coffee smells wonderful. I’m just dying for some.”
    In a calculated move, she brought a cup and the pot to the table, sliding in beside Sam before he could wriggle away. “Just let me top this off for you, Sam. Jo, bring your cup on over here. I swear I don’t know the last time we sat down for a quiet cup of coffee in the morning. Lord knows, after that chaos in the dining room last night, we need it.”
    “I was on my way out,” Jo said stiffly.
    “Well, honey, sit down and finish your coffee first. Brian’ll be coming in soon enough to tell us all to scat. You look like you got a good night’s sleep.” Kate smiled brilliantly. “Your daddy and I were worried you’d be restless.”
    “There’s no need to worry.” Grudgingly, Jo got her coffee and brought it to the table. “Everything that can be done’s being done. In fact, I’m feeling so much calmer about it all, I’m thinking about going back to Charlotte.” She shot a challenging look at Sam. “Soon.”
    “That’s fine, Jo, if you want to send the lot of us to an early grave with worry.” Kate spoke mildly as she spooned sugar into her coffee.
    “I don’t see—”
    “Of course you see,” Kate interrupted. “You’re just angry, and you have a right to be. But you don’t have the right to take that anger out on those who love you. It’s natural to do just that,” Kate added with a smile, “but it’s not right.”
    “That’s not what I’m doing.”
    “Good.” Kate patted her hand, as if the matter were settled. “You’re planning to take some pictures today, I see.” She glanced over at the camera bag Jo had set on the counter. “I got out that book that Nathan’s father did on the island. Put it in the public parlor after I’d looked through it again. My, there are some pretty photographs in there.”
    “He did good work,” Jo muttered, struggling not to sulk.
    “He sure did. I found one in there of Nathan, Brian, and I suppose Nathan’s younger brother. Such handsome little boys. They were holding up a couple of whopping trout and had grins on their faces that stretched a mile wide. You ought to take a look at it.”
    “I will.” Jo found herself smiling, thinking of Nathan at ten with a trout on the line.
    “And you could think about doing a photo book on the island yourself,” Kate went on. “It would be just wonderful for business. Sam, you take Jo over to the marsh, that spot where the sea lavender’s full in bloom. Oh, and if the two of you go through the forest, along the southwest edge, the path there’s just covered with trumpet vine petals. That would make such a nice picture, Jo Ellen. That narrow, quiet little path just dusted with fallen blossoms.”
    She went on and on, chattering out suggestions without giving father or daughter a chance to interrupt. When Brian trooped in the back door and stared, baffled, at the cozy family group, Kate beamed him a smile.
    “We’ll be out of your way in just a shake, sweetie. Jo and Sam were just deciding which route they were going to take around the island today for Jo’s pictures. Y’all better get started.”
    Kate got up quickly, gathering Jo’s camera bag. “I know how fussy you are about the light and such. You just tell your daddy when it strikes you as right. I can’t wait to see what kind of pictures you get. Hurry along now, before Brian starts to fuss at us. Sam, you get a chance, you take Jo down to where those baby terns hatched a while back. Goodness, look at the time. You two scoot.”
    She all but dragged Sam to his feet, kept nudging and talking until she’d shoved them both out the door.
    “Just what the hell was that, Kate?” Brian asked her.
    “That, with any luck at all, was the beginning of something.”
    “They’ll go their own ways when they’re five feet from the house.”
    “No, they won’t,” Kate disagreed as she started toward the ringing phone on the wall. “Because neither one of them will want to be the first to take that step away. While they’re each waiting for the other one to back off first, they’ll be heading in the same direction for a change. Good morning,” she said into the receiver. “The Inn at Sanctuary.” Her smile faded. “I’m sorry,