A Crowe's Song Read online

  Crossing my arms, I gave him time to mull over his explanation. When he continued to remain silent, anxiety etched into every wrinkle on his face, I dropped my arms to my sides and casually leaned against the desk. I’d learned long ago that he was more open to sharing business matters when I seemed relaxed. My dad was like a scared animal sometimes—soft, small steps kept him from retreating.

  “Really, Dad…what’s going on? You look tense.”

  He opened the file, took one glance at whatever sat inside, and then quickly closed it again. It was a dark-blue folder with James Fitzgerald, Attorney at Law embossed in gold lettering along the front. The fact that it was from a lawyer was enough to cause worry, but I remained calm—on the outside; on the inside, my heart pounded relentlessly against my chest, trying to break my bravado.

  “It really isn’t anything you need to concern yourself with.”

  I stood up straighter. It seemed that relaxed wouldn’t cut it this time. “Does it have to do with Black Bird?” When he nodded, I asked, “Then why doesn’t it concern me? Aren’t we in this together? Shouldn’t I know what’s going on with the resort?”

  A small smile shadowed the corners of his mouth. “You’re just like your grandmother sometimes. You just can’t help yourself, can you? Always have to know what’s going on.” He leaned back in his seat and ran his hands over his aging face, through his greying hair, and interlocked his fingers behind his head. “Okay, fine. Apparently, the landowner wants to change the terms of our lease, and if we don’t agree to it, they’re going to sell. Which means, the new owners might decide to do something else with the property or ask for even more money than what’s on the table now.”

  I stared at him while he stared at the folder on the desk, neither of us saying a word. The news hung heavily in the air, making the room warm and muggy. There had to be a mistake, a simple misunderstanding. This couldn’t be right. I didn’t know much about that side of the business, but before my grandmother died, she’d told me the story of how she started Black Bird too many times to count. It was definitely bragworthy.

  A single mother with only a high school diploma who’d never even stepped foot on a college campus, let alone attend classes, managed to open a successful bed and breakfast. All on her own. With only the help of a bank loan. That was extraordinary, even by today’s standards. Needless to say, she’d always given every bit of detail when talking about her achievements.

  “How can they do that? I could’ve sworn I’d heard Grandma say it was a lifetime lease, or something like that. How can they just change the terms out of the blue like that?” Obviously, I wasn’t privy to much of the legal side of the resort, but there were things I’d heard or picked up on over the last ten-or-so years to understand this wasn’t right.

  Dad dragged his attention from the file folder to meet my stare. His eyes were as worn as the journal that sat next to me, weathered and full of so much history. Although, right now, he appeared to be at the end of his rope. Desperate and defeated. “The deed switched hands.”

  “I don’t know what that means,” I argued, frantically needing more information to make sense of all this. Because, as of right now, I believed we were being scammed, and the only way to prevent that from happening was if he told me everything.

  “Yes, you were right; your grandmother had signed a lifetime lease. But it was for the lifetime of the deed, not the resort. And since the property has switched hands, the terms of the lease state that a new agreement must be reached between the new owners and us.”

  “But I thought you said the options are to pay more, or they’ll sell the land. Why would they sell if they just bought it?”

  He dropped his hands to his lap and shrugged. “I don’t know all the details, Drew. I’ve never even heard of these people. For as long as I’ve been aware, the checks have always been written out to an estate agent who handles—or, at least, used to handle—the financial and legal aspects of the lease. Anytime we’ve added more buildings or had to renovate the physical land, we’d go through the agent. Not the owner. So I don’t have a clue how or why it switched hands.”

  “Who told you about this? How did you find out about the land and the deed and lease?”

  Dad grabbed the file, held it up to show me the front, and then dropped it back onto the desk. “Our lawyer came by this morning to deliver this. He stayed for a few minutes to explain basic details, but other than that, if I want to know more, I’ll have to make an appointment to see him in his office—for which I’ll be charged a per-hour fee that’s probably more than I earn in a month. I’ve just been going through the paperwork and trying to figure things out ever since.”

  “What I’m saying, though, is…how do you know it’s legit? How do you know we aren’t being scammed?” I wasn’t about to let this go that easily.

  My dad was a smart man, but considering he’d spent his entire life at the resort, it wasn’t like he had much real-life experience. Granted, neither did I, but at least I had thirteen years in the public school system, whereas my dad didn’t. My grandmother couldn’t handle the bed and breakfast and haul him to and from school every day, so she kept him with her and, basically, had him teach himself while she managed the business. There was a lot one could learn at school around kids from all walks of life.

  “He’s our lawyer, Drew. I don’t see him scheming behind our backs. Not to mention, the estate agent gave this information to the lawyer in the first place. So are you implying that everyone who’s ever been involved in this place is trying to get one over on us? For what purpose? What in the world would they have to gain in doing that?” He made some rather compelling arguments, though it wasn’t like I planned to simply roll over and give up.

  “I don’t know, Pops. Something doesn’t feel right about it.” Maybe that had to do with my own personal feelings regarding the resort. I’d finally gotten on board with the idea of rebranding the resort to make it a true success instead of something that barely skates by. So it felt wrong to me that this all had gone down right when I was on the verge of implementing several really good ideas.

  “Like I said, Drew…it’s nothing you need to be concerned about. I’m handling it.”

  I nodded and turned away. There wasn’t much I could do since he refused to actually involve me. Simply telling me about the changes to the lease was pointless unless he planned to hear me out and at least be open to my opinions and suggestions rather than dismiss my questions as if they were nothing more than conspiracy theories.

  “What’s that?” he asked, dragging me out of my ranting thoughts.

  When I glanced up and found him pointing to the worn book on the corner of the desk, I was immediately reminded of why I’d come to the office in the first place. I pulled open the bottom drawer, grabbed a large mailing envelope, and set it on top of the diary. “Just something a guest left behind. She asked if I could send it back.”

  I hated referring to Kenny as a guest, but I wasn’t sure what else to call her. She’d texted me a few days ago to ask if I could look for it, and since then, we’d spoken pretty regularly. Granted, it had all been in text form, but at least it was something. Although, not enough to refer to her as my friend, and even though we’d had sex several times, I couldn’t say we were more than that. It was just easier to say she was a guest.

  “Why didn’t I get that call?” Doubt darkened his eyes as he narrowed his gaze and furrowed his brow. He typically handled all guest relations calls. Kenny wasn’t the first person to have left something behind only to call and ask if it’d been found. Yet she was the first one I had taken the initiative to handle. “And more importantly, why was it never turned into the office? I’ve never seen that book before.”

  “It was left in a drawer, so the cleaning crew didn’t find it. I went and looked for it myself, which is why I decided to handle the follow-through.”

  “Which guest was it?” He was onto me. The glimmer in his eye told me so.

  Doing my best not
to give anything away, I busied myself with the envelope. “The one who stayed in the east-end cabin two weeks ago,” I said as I flicked through my phone, searching for the address she’d given me.

  “The one you spent so much time with?”

  Dammit. There was no avoiding it now.

  “Yeah, that’s the one.”

  A smile stretched his lips, though I heard it in his voice since I refused to look at him to see it on his face. “Who is she?”

  Dad and I never talked like this. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that nothing ever happened here, so it’s not like we had much to talk about. But he knew me, and he knew I didn’t personally entertain guests, so considering I’d spent so much time with this one, it was all the proof he needed that there was more to the story than I’d let on.

  “There’s really not much to tell, Dad. She was here for a week, and when I found out that she was staying by herself, I offered to show her around.” I wasn’t foolish enough to think that would placate him, but honestly, there wasn’t much more to divulge.

  “If you want to keep your secrets, son, keep them. But don’t expect me to buy what you’re selling, because I know you. There have been at least a dozen women—and even more, if you count guys too—who’ve vacationed here alone, and not once have you ever offered to spend time with a single one.”

  “Well, I guess she’s different.”

  “What makes her different?” He leaned forward with his elbows on his thighs, interest gleaming in his eyes. This was new territory for us, but it was nice. For the first time since I was a little kid, I felt a real connection to my dad. Ever since Mom left, he’d been hardened. He was dedicated to his job first, fatherhood second, but in this moment, it felt like nothing else existed. That it was only my dad and me, talking shop. Discussing my personal life—something I couldn’t recall ever doing.

  I caught myself staring off over his shoulder, lost in visions of the way her eyes lit up when she smiled. It was only when my cheeks began to ache from the automatic grin, which appeared anytime I thought of her, that I realized I’d spaced out.

  “I couldn’t even begin to tell you, Dad. I really couldn’t. She was already on the dock the night of the Fourth when I got there, and rather than make her leave, I asked her to stay.” A chuckle filled my words. I didn’t ask her; I pretty much told her to stay. “We talked for hours, and before I knew it, I was asking if she wanted to hang out the next day. I’m not sure when it happened, but at some point during the week, I think I stopped asking, and we both just assumed we’d see each other and made plans.”

  “What’s her name?” His interest was genuine, which was unusual, considering how much of my life he hadn’t even bothered to dig past surface-level interests.

  “Kenny.” When his brows knitted tightly, deeply lining his forehead with concern, I realized how confusing that would be to hear without knowing the whole story, so I explained. “Well, technically, it’s McKenna, but I call her Kenny.” And that was as much of the whole story as he’d get—least of all because I still had no idea where the nickname came from.

  “Do you call her Kenny because she looks like a guy?”

  I laughed and shook my head. “Not even close.” Without skipping a beat, I tapped on the photos app and pulled up the one I’d taken of her mid-laugh in my living room. Just seeing the wrinkles on the bridge of her nose and roundness in her cheeks filled me with a calming warmth. The entire time she was here, she’d had an effect on me, but I hadn’t expected to experience it when merely thinking about our time together.

  Dad’s gaze narrowed even further when I turned the screen to show him the picture I had taken of her. Deep confusion spread along his brow. Bewilderment stretched out the creases next to his eyes. And disbelief hitched his top lip. It was as if he’d seen a ghost.

  “What did you say her name is?”

  “McKenna. Why?”

  He shook his head before scrubbing his face with his palms, as if trying to wipe away the shock that consumed his expression. He held up one finger and said, “Wait here for a second.” Then he was out of his chair and digging through the small supply closet within seconds.

  When he returned, he handed me an old photo that had yellowed around the edges. It was square and matte, lacking the shine of modern picture paper. I had to hold it close to my face to make out the image clearly, but once I realized it was of two young women in the middle of what appeared to be a fit of laughter, it was easier to see. I didn’t have to hold it so close anymore.

  And that’s when I saw it.

  Or, I should say, saw her.

  The one on the right was unfamiliar in every way, but the one on the left was a stunning blonde. I could say she was stunning because she was the spitting image of Kenny. Same long, stick-straight blond hair, identical blue eyes—shape and, from what I could see, color too. Her cheeks were round like Kenny’s when she smiled, and they both had the same nose. All the way down to the wrinkles on the bridge. They even shared the exact same top lip, stretched thin with their matching smiles.

  The hairs on the back of my neck prickled my skin.

  “Who’s this?” I asked, holding out the photo as if he didn’t know who I was talking about.

  He took it from me, studied it for a second, and shrugged. “I was told that she’s the woman my dad had gotten in a fight over at the town’s last Fourth of July celebration. The night he and the rest of the family disappeared.”

  “Grandma kept it?” When he nodded, I blurted out, “Why would she do that? Wasn’t she in love with him? Keeping a photo of another woman seems weird to me.”

  “I don’t understand it myself, but from what I gather, it wasn’t a typical situation. My dad never knew about me. My mom left as soon as she found out she was pregnant, and by the time she was able to come back to tell him, the town had been flooded, and he was missing.” That was most definitely not a normal situation for anyone.

  “Did she know about this other woman?” Somehow, my dad and I had fallen into an alternate universe, one where we showed genuine interest in the other’s life. It was a universe that was foreign, but one I could’ve totally gotten used to.

  He hummed for a moment, musing over the image in his hand. The aged image that held the exact replica of Kenny’s face. “I’m not positive, but I believe she did. Something makes me think she found out before I was born, which played a big part in her decision to stay away. I’m pretty sure that’s what she told me, and she only came back because she found out they weren’t together anymore.”

  A lot of this was brand-new information, though parts of it felt very familiar. “Why did she leave town to begin with?” That was something I never understood, and it was something my grandmother had purposely left out when telling the tales of Chogan.

  “Well, back then, having a baby outside of wedlock was heavily frowned upon. Especially in the South. From what she told me—and keep in mind she only ever told this to me once, and it was when I was about your age—she left to have an abortion, which was even more heavily frowned upon than being pregnant in the first place. Anyway, she said that, once she heard my heartbeat, she couldn’t go through with it, but by the time all that happened and she was ready to come back to tell my dad, that’s when she found out about her.” He held up the photo and waved it in the air.

  “Did she tell you how she found out about your dad and this woman?”

  “Apparently, her ex-boyfriend came to visit her. I’m not positive, but I think he’s the one who helped her get out of town. And again, don’t quote me on this, but I’m pretty sure I remember her saying he was trying to get back with her, but when he found out she was having the baby—me—he changed his mind. I could be wrong about that, though. It was over forty years ago, and it’s been at least twenty years since I was told the story. So I could be adlibbing some of that; I don’t know.”

  I stood frozen, completely lost in a state of confusion. “I don’t understand how that has anything
to do with why she”—I pointed to the picture in his hand—“looks identical to Kenny.”

  “I don’t, either, son. I’ve heard that everyone has a twin, so maybe that’s why.”

  That was such a cop-out excuse, though it was really the only thing that made any sense. Nothing else explained how Kenny found her way into an old photo from the seventies. Well, except for time travel, cloning, and of course the obvious, she’d been cryogenically frozen.

  I shrugged, deciding to give up on trying to figure it out, and turned my attention back to the journal. I’d originally come to the office to grab an envelope and stamps, and somehow, I’d managed to do everything but finish my task. So while my dad returned the old photo to the closet, I pulled some stamps from the drawer.

  “Nice chat, Pops,” I said over my shoulder on my way toward the door. I could’ve prepared the package in the office where we had pens and tape and anything else I’d need to mail the diary, but considering everything that had taken place since I’d walked in, I figured it would be best to finish it elsewhere. Between the drama with the lease and then the dramatic history lesson, I wasn’t sure I could handle much more at the moment. I needed time to regroup before entertaining another conversation like that anytime soon.

  “Hey, wait,” he called out, halting my exit. But before I could grumble any annoyance, he bent over and picked something off the floor. “You dropped this. I think it came out of your book.”

  I took the folded piece of paper from him and opened it, not sure it even belonged to Kenny. But once I read the first line of the typed and signed document, all doubt had been vanished. It was definitely Kenny’s. “It’s just an in-case-of-emergency letter, with what looks to be her mom’s information along with phone numbers and health insurance details. Pretty smart, considering she was here all alone. Unfortunately, if anything had happened to her, this wouldn’t have done any good since I didn’t even know it existed.” I laughed quietly under my breath.

  “Well, she’d probably want it shredded if it has personal information on it.” He held out his hand, silently offering to take care of it for me.