An Honest Kiss

Chapter 15

The last two months had been a whirlwind of activity. She and Ava had been planning multiple fundraising events and the word was out. If you were anybody in Washington D.C. you wanted to attend one of the many parties. If you were really someone then you would receive an invite to all of them.

It always amazed Rachel how Ava, who most people found overwhelming at best, was one of the most popular and powerful people in the D.C. area.

They were kicking events off on Thursday evening with a party in the form of a WWII war bond drive with all of the funds raised going to WAMM, on friday they were having a coktail party which would turn into a massive Scavenger Hunt, an old fashioned southern bar-b-q was planned for Saturday with an evening of line dancing and knee slapping fun to follow, and the final event was a champagne brunch on Sunday at the butterfly conservatory.

The cost of hosting these events was staggering, but Ava had enough contacts and guarantees of a return favor that she had managed to keep the costs manageable. They weren't selling tickets to raise money, but the people who were invited had deep pockets and they knew that there was an unspoken cost for attending the event in a form of a donation.

When Rachel had returned home four months earlier she had found, true to Jack's word, that Mary's sister, Sue, had opened the house and had her and Jack's old room dusted and cleaned. Returning to the empty house had been hard since it was full of so many memories, and with little to do her first few weeks home she walked the rooms of the house looking at all of the old photos as the memories pressed down on her. Painful as it was she was though she was glad to be home.

Now with an afternoon off, her first in months, she was working in the garden, tending the roses that still bloomed. It had amazed her how well they were doing until Sue had told her that Jack had hired someone to tend to the garden in their absence.

She hadn't seen or heard from Jack in over four months, and she missed him terribly, but she wasn't afraid of being alone anymore. He had promised that he would come back this time and she knew he would. Last time he hadn't made that promise.

Addie emailed that she and Paul were engaged to be married, and that they were going to have a civil ceremony while they were in town, preferring to get married stateside. She couldn't wait to see her friend and get caught up on all of the gossip.

Addie had helped her more than she would ever know. She had never had a really close girlfriend before. She had friends in college, but she had been so home sick for her father and Jack that she had never wanted to foster a relationship that she knew wouldn't last past four years. However, Addie was one of those rare friends that she knew she would have for a lifetime, just as Jack would always have Paul.

Rachel was pruning away with these happy thoughts in her head when Sue called her name. She stood up and turned around with a smile on her face, but when she saw Nancy Lancaster standing there her smile quickly turned from natural to forced.

"Dr. Lancaster, I thought you were coming with the others in a few days." Rachel took off her wide brimmed sun hat and set her pruning shears and gloves in it for safe keeping.

"Sue, could we have some ice tea?" Rachel asked as she moved to the table.

"You've made yourself at home," Nancy said as she sat down in one of the chairs looking around her.

Rachel ignored the comment, frustrated that no one had filled her in about her relationship with Jack. She should probably do it now so that there was no confusion. She took a deep breath, "Yes, this is-"

"There you are my dear," Ava said as she fell into one of the chairs. "I know I said for you to take the afternoon, but there's too much to do." She pulled out her phone and started to scroll though her to-do list. "There's been a problem with the bar-b-que, I wanted a whole pig, you know like in the movie 'Giant', but the caterer is drawing a line at digging a hole in my backyard. Really, you think if I pay him enough money he should be willing to do anything. Don't even get me started on the butterflies. I asked for only yellow ones, but they said that they had no control over the color and that, "my color scheme" would just have to work with every color of the rainbow. Have you ever heard of anything so ridiculous? Obviously these people have never planned a successful party before."