Elderberry Croft: Volume 3 Read online

  A Serial Novel

  ELDERBERRY CROFT

  Volume 3

  July Madness

  August Memories

  September Longing

  BECKY DOUGHTY

  BraveHearts Press

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  ELDERBERRY CROFT

  Volume 3

  July Madness

  August Memories

  September Longing

  Copyright 2013 Becky Doughty

  ISBN-13: 978-0-9845848-3-3

  Cover Design by Becky Doughty

  Published by BraveHearts Press

  Smashwords Edition

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, stored in any retrieval system, posted on any website, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without written permission from the publisher, except for brief quotations in printed reviews and articles.

  The persons and events portrayed in this work of fiction are the creations of the author, and any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

  All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

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  Author Information: www.beckydoughty.com

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  Table of Contents

  Introduction

  Episode 7: JULY MADNESS

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  Episode 8: AUGUST MEMORIES

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  Episode 9: SEPTEBMBER LONGING

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  About the Author

  Other Books by Becky Doughty

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  INTRODUCTION

  For most of the residents, The Coach House Trailer Park is the last lonely stop on the road of life. But one day, on a crisp January breeze, Willow Goodhope sweeps into the neighborhood. She moves into the lonely little shack on the other side of the driveway, bringing her potted plants, her elderberry gifts, and her outrageous laughter. The Coach House residents can't resist her charm as she breathes new life into hardened hearts, yet there's something about Willow, a terrible sadness that hovers at the back of her enigmatic eyes, and it has everyone talking, wondering, worrying. Kathy overhears her sobbing in her kitchen. Doc catches her burning letters in her fire pit. Myra swears she drinks alone out on her patio in the middle of the night. Patti knows the beautiful girl is after her husband, and Eddie and Donny, forever-feuding brothers, are competing to see who can make her smile first, even though they're both fairly sure she'd prefer her men with real jobs, real homes, and real teeth. What--or who--is haunting the mysterious Willow Goodhope of Elderberry Croft? Will her new "family" be able to rescue her before it's too late?

  July Madness

  Donny Banks is trouble. Always has been, and without an intervention, he always will be. Edith keeps hoping if she just helps her baby boy out one more time, he’ll get his head on straight and grow up. But big brother Eddie has had enough. This time, Donny’s taken things too far. This time, Donny’s knocking on the wrong door—Willow Goodhope’s door. And this time, Eddie’s not going to stand by and let Donny win.

  August Memories

  Al Tanner is a quiet, non-confrontational man living in Space #4. His job at the furniture factory keeps him busy during the day, and his Bud keeps him company at night. But Al is a prisoner of his past and every day is spent knowing his life is not his own. When one phone call changes everything, Al must choose, once and for all, to do the right thing, and Willow Goodhope may just hold the key to it all.

  September Longing

  Prudence Meriweather is pushing sixty but hardly knows it. She loves her animal prints and jungle-themed décor, big hair and red nails. She also loves her teddy bear of a man, Carney Hanson, but is beginning to wonder if he feels the same about her. Fresh off the road, the trucker is coming by to spend the day with her, but when he’s delayed, and it’s Willow Goodhope at her door instead, Prudence gets the chance to reevaluate what’s important when it comes to matters of the heart.

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  JULY MADNESS

  Episode 7

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  Chapter 1

  “Who asked you to be her watchdog?” Donny drawled, tipping away from the table on the back two legs of his chair. Eddie’s eyes narrow. He was pushing his luck, but he couldn’t help the knee-jerk reaction to get his older brother riled up. Donny knew he was Ma’s favorite boy, but he also knew that Eddie was the better man. Most of the time, he didn’t care, and when he did, it wasn’t a feeling that a couple of beers couldn’t wash away. But when Eddie started telling him how to behave around a woman—a guy who had no woman, who drove them off out of sheer boredom, who’d tried and failed to steal Donny’s woman—he couldn’t let it rest. And for some reason, Eddie wasn’t blowing him off the way he usually did.

  “It’s not about being a watchdog. It’s about respect.” Eddie turned to look out the front window of the trailer, his attention caught and held, and Donny followed his gaze. There she was, heading their way, all that hair piled on top of her head like Elvis’ woman. “She’s kinda married anyway.” Eddie’s voice lowered, almost as if he thought she might hear them talking about her, and Donny laughed.

  “I haven’t seen any husband around. For all I know, you cooked up this Shadowman so you could play hero to her.” Donny held up his empty glass toward his mother who stood behind him at her kitchen sink, washing the dishes from their late lunch. “Hey, Ma. Remember how Eddie used to make up bad guys so he could run around with his underwear outside his pants?” He snorted. “Can you get me a refill since you’re standing there?”

  Eddie kicked the front of Donny’s chair, nearly sending him over backward. “Say ‘please’ or get up and do it yourself. She’s not your servant.”

  Donny lurched up, slamming his empty glass on the table, eight years old again. “You’re such a jack—”

  “Language!” Edith’s shrill voice cut in on his outburst. “Please, Donny. You know I don’t like that kind of talk. And Eddie, why do you have to pick on him? Why can’t you be nice to your little brother?”

  “Mom. He’s forty years old, no job, and homeless. What’s there not to pick on?” Eddie, too, had risen, and the brothers squared off across the oval dining table. Edith eyed them both, then threw her hands in the air, a small glop of soap bubbles flying off her fingertips to land on Donny’s forearm. He stared down at it for a moment, watching as the bubbles began to burst, then brushed them away.

  He knew he couldn’t take Eddie. He’d tried many times before. And he knew it would just make Mom angry, possibly enough that she’d kick him out again, so he had to be careful, at least until he could convince Sheena to take him back.

  What was the girl’s name, the one from the bar? Liz? Lisa? Lily? He couldn’t even recall her face anymore, let alone her name. But Sheena didn’t care that he couldn’t remember anything about the other girls. It didn’t matter to her that he didn’t care one bit about them. She didn’t care that he only loved her; that the others meant nothing to him, that they were just there when she wasn’t
. It was always Sheena in his heart, always her on his mind, always her he wanted.

  The day Sheena stopped going to the bars with him was the day trouble started up again. When she went with him, she watched out for him. She made sure he got home before he did anything stupid. She made sure the women who were on the prowl for drunken fools like him didn’t get their claws into him. But without Sheena there to protect him, he was in and out of trouble all the time.

  Clean and sober, she demanded. She wanted him clean and sober before she’d take him back. By her standards or his? As far as he was concerned, beer didn’t count, and clean meant he’d tested negative for all the important things at his last physical. Sheena seemed to have a different set of criteria, and Donny couldn’t help wondering if she’d shared that list with Eddie.

  In the past, when Donny’d come to stay with Mom, Eddie just stayed clear. He didn’t get involved in Donny’s relationships, he didn’t try to give Mom any flack about Donny being there, and he didn’t watch him like a hawk, keeping him busy doing odd jobs around the property all day, either. But that was before Sheena had played Eddie wrong to get back at Donny. This time, Eddie was dropping in on a daily basis, usually first thing in the morning, like he was making sure Donny was getting out of bed. Donny had already repaired two screens on the back of the trailer, replaced Ma’s shower head with a water-saver one, trimmed the bushes all along her side of the driveway behind the row of mailboxes, and changed the oil in her car. He actually enjoyed working with his hands just as much as Eddie did, but he didn’t like the fact that it felt like Eddie was babysitting him to keep him out of trouble.

  He turned to watch the girl from Space #12. She practically floated across the gravel driveway and opened her mailbox, the last one in the row, and pulled out a small stack of letters and flyers. The half-smile she wore never wavered, then she continued on past the front of the trailer and over to Myra’s. Probably to check on the invalid. Donny glanced back at Eddie, and couldn’t resist when he saw the way his big brother’s eyes followed her. “She’s married. Or so I hear.”

  “Shut it,” Eddie barked. “And tomorrow, if you’re planning on showing up, you’d better not make a fool of yourself. You make her uncomfortable, I’ll make you uncomfortable.”

  Donny rolled his eyes and laughed. “I think you’re confusing attraction with discomfort, right, Ma?” She didn’t respond, but he didn’t expect her to. He knew whose side she’d take if it came right down to it. “Women don’t want nice and sweet and sappy. They want danger, and spice, and a hunka hunka burnin’ love. They like to feel a little rattled, right Ma?”

  “Looks like that philosophy’s working well for you.” Eddie hitched up his pants and headed for the door. “Thanks for lunch, Mom.”

  “You’re welcome, Eddie. I’ll see you tomorrow at Willow’s.”

  “I’ll see you there, too, big brother. And don’t worry. I’ll be all spit-and-polished up and on my very bestest behavior.” Eddie’s words stung, but Donny had learned to deflect his blows with sarcasm. What did Eddie know about women anyway?

  When he’d first heard about the cookout, he’d had no intention of being there, hanging out with the oldies. Besides, he’d been hoping for a chance to hook up with Sheena again; she loved fireworks and he couldn’t remember a 4th of July they hadn’t spent together. But she hadn’t returned his phone calls, and he was beginning to think she was serious about him changing his ways. It riled him that everyone wanted him to be different than he was. Well, fine. If she didn’t want him, he’d find someone who did. And why not start with the lovely Willow Goodhope? Living just a few hundred feet away from him sure made her convenient. Yes, she was a classy broad, but he could class it up for a while. Maybe Sheena would notice and think twice about cutting him loose.

  The 4th of July cookout she was throwing for the residents of the Coach House Trailer Park would be the perfect opportunity to work his magic. He’d show up ready to help, ready to serve, ready to be there in whatever capacity she needed him. And if she really did have a husband out there, all the better; no commitment required. He’d be free to go back to Sheena when she came to her senses.

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  Chapter 2

  The day dawned hot and dry, and by 9 o’clock in the morning, Edith was ready for a nap. She’d been up early to do some baking before the heat set in, and to have a little time alone. She loved having Donny around, but she’d grown accustomed to having her own space, her own schedule over the years, and every time he moved back in, it was an adjustment all over again. She knew it was temporary—it always was—but this time, she hadn’t heard from Sheena. In the past, the girl usually called within the first few days to talk about the man they both loved, but this time, things were different.

  “Nope,” Donny said the last time she asked if he’d heard from his girlfriend. “I screwed up in a big way this time, and she’s really mad. But you know how it is, Ma. She just needs time to cool off a bit.”

  Unfortunately, Edith did know how it was. Donny wasn’t a little boy anymore, and if he didn’t figure that out soon, he’d end up with nothing, nobody. But Edith didn’t know how to tell him that without hurting his feelings, and she wasn’t going to be the one to do that. He’d been hurt enough by the people in his life.

  When her husband left the first time, the boys were little, just five and nine, and all three of them wandered around the house a little lost and uncertain. In the months that followed, Eddie seemed to come to some kind of understanding about the situation, and he fell back into the rhythm of boyhood, just a little more watchful and reserved than he’d been before. But Donny, for whatever reason, seemed to regress. He often woke up crying in the middle of the night, and started wetting his bed again after being completely potty-trained for almost two years. Then Andy came back, full of remorse and affection, and Donny blossomed, but it was the beginning of a roller coaster ride for the little boy. Andy coming and going, Donny regressing and progressing correspondingly, and Eddie just rolling with the punches, steady and stable. She never had to worry about Eddie; he just seemed to have a better understanding of the bigger picture, not taking responsibility for his father’s presence or absence. But Donny, poor, sweet Donny, he always needed more attention, more accolades, more validation, and he got it from whomever would give it to him; particularly, his women friends.

  Poor Sheena. The girl really loved him, and Edith’s heart hurt for what she was going through. She wouldn’t step in, and she certainly wouldn’t take sides against Donny, but she sympathized wholly with her.

  In that way, he was just like his father, walking around with his ego on his sleeve, leaving behind him a trail of hurt.

  The sounds of Donny waking up made her reconsider taking a nap. He’d slept in this morning—Eddie hadn’t been by to recruit him for some odd job—but now that he was awake, he’d be wanting breakfast.

  And she was missing money from her secret stash tucked inside the candy dish on the top shelf of her curio cabinet.

  “Mornin’ Ma,” Donny mumbled, making his way into the kitchen and dropping into a chair at the table. “What’s for breakfast?”

  “I can make you some scrambled eggs and toast,” she replied, wondering, not for the first time, how he managed to feed himself when she wasn’t here with her. She was pretty sure Sheena didn’t wait on him hand and foot, and Donny didn’t appear underfed.

  “Sounds great. I’m going to jump in the shower while you cook.” He ran his fingers through his thick, brown hair, just beginning to turn steely at his temples, and stretched his arms up over his head. “I’m going to head on over to Willow’s place a little early; see if she needs some help getting things ready.”

  “That sounds nice,” Edith replied, careful to keep her expression blank. It did sound nice, but she also knew Donny. He didn’t offer to help anyone unless he thought he might be getting something out of it. He didn’t mind working; he just didn’t initiate it without a good reason. She knew this
had a lot to do with the exchange between him and Eddie yesterday, but she wasn’t sure if Donny was simply trying to make Eddie mad, or if he was considering pursuing the Goodhope girl. Either way, they were heading for some kind of fallout, she was certain. Eddie would be livid, or if the latter was the case, Sheena would be devastated. Donny, like Andy, almost always got the girl. “I’ll start the eggs when I hear the water go off.”

  Maybe she should call Eddie and give him a heads up. Maybe she should call Willow and give her a heads up. She waited until Donny had closed himself into the bathroom, then picked up her phone and dropped into the chair he’d vacated. But what would she say? If she let on to Eddie that she was concerned, he might come down on her for taking Donny in at all. She knew how he felt about her letting Donny come back; that was why she hadn’t told him until after the fact. And Willow? She hardly knew the girl.

  Hello. My son is coming over to offer his services, but make sure you’re fully aware of what services he’s offering before you say ‘yes.’