Sneak Peek!

Out of Left Field

Chapter One

Kendall

August 31, Savannah, Georgia

KENDALL TUCKER SCURRIED TOWARD THE FRONT DOOR IN her bedroom slippers when the knock came. She left behind her laptop, open to work emails, on the dining-room table. 

“Ashley. Hi,” Kendall said after she slung open the door. Her landlady wasn’t who she wanted to see on a particularly busy workday with seven emails in her inbox asking her to update client accounts. Ashley never seemed to bring good news. 

“Hey. So I was just going over my accounting and you’re two hundred dollars short.” The forty-something landlady with a permanent frown gave a little shrug, which jangled her earrings. “I raised rent. I sent out a text about it months ago. And you signed the thingy.” Ashley pursed her lips. 

“I don’t remember that…” Kendall briefly touched her forehead as she thought. “Things have been so—” “Wild, I know, sweetie. Join the club.” Ashley looked at what must have been a pretty downtrodden expression on Kendall’s face. “Sorry, hon,” she said in a way that conveyed that she wasn’t, in fact, sorry at all. “The market demands it. Things are getting more expensive for me too, you know.” 

It was hard for Kendall to sympathize with Ashley on that point. She took trips all the time with her engineer husband and prep-school children. “Expensive” had a different meaning for Kendall. 

It was the end of the month. Maybe if Ashley had let her know she was short weeks ago when she posted rent, she could have paid it right away and cut back to make up for the extra cost until her next payday. 

“Can you please defer this for me? My apartment is the smallest one in the complex, and my budget is kind of tight until I get paid on Friday.” Kendall only made around thirty five hundred dollars a month in her data-entry job. 

“I thought you said you were asking for a raise.” Two sharp lines formed between Ashley’s eyebrows. Kendall sighed at the mention. “I asked, but my boss turned down the request,” she said. 

Last week, she had asked her boss, Carlo, if she could return to her previous, higher-paying position as an entry level interior designer at Rosemberg’s, the famed decorating firm in historic downtown Savannah. She’d studied interior design before abruptly leaving college, and a few years after that, when she was twenty-four, Kendall had been thrilled to move to the romantic, picturesque city and have the opportunity at Rosemberg’s. Her family drama had finally evened out, and she’d allowed herself to think of her own aspirations again—finishing her studies and working in what she loved. 

But everything had changed when Gladys retired, and Carlo had needed a body in the fully remote data-entry position. As such, Kendall’s stint as a designer-trainee had ended. 

When Kendall had asked for her old job back, Carlo had said she’d need to finish the degree she could no longer afford. Then he’d said that if she had such bad money prob lems, she could always move to a cheaper suburb; the job didn’t require her to be in downtown Savannah. Kendall hadn’t stopped thinking about that since he’d said it. But, somehow, leaving downtown and the closeness to her ideal job felt like a failure. Like she was giving up on her dreams again. 

“Nineteen hundred a month just seems like a lot for this little place,” Kendall said to Ashley. She motioned around the small apartment, a kitchen-dining-living-room combination with a lone bedroom and bathroom in the back. She had always liked the cute, homey apartment, which she’d chosen because it was two blocks from Rosemberg’s. When she’d worked in person in the office, she could walk there and save gas and the hassle of finding parking. She’d saved up a bit of money from that for her studies, but then she’d gotten the demotion, which involved a transition to remote work and a small pay cut, and now this rent hike. 

Ashley harrumphed. “Honey, you live in downtown Savan nah. There are not enough units that aren’t vacation rentals, and too much tourism. What do you expect?” Ashley tilted her head to the side and her expression calmed, almost bordering on sympathy. “Look, I can’t keep your rent low while charging the new rate to everyone else in the complex. I’ll need your full payment. Maybe it’s time for you to look for a part-time side hustle.” 

Ashley was suggesting Kendall work more? She already clocked in forty hours a week. She’d only just turned twenty seven—when was she supposed to live a little? 

“I already work a lot.” 

Ashley gave her plaid pajama bottoms a skeptical once over. 

“I really do,” Kendall insisted. 

“Well, a roommate in your living room is another option. Lots of people sleep on couches nowadays, or you could get a daybed instead of a sofa. Or if you had a serious boyfriend… Didn’t I see you on a date the other night?” 

“I’m not really a living together unmarried type person.” Nana would have a heart attack, and Kendall and her sister had been subjected to enough childhood instability by living with their mom while she did that. Kendall didn’t want to continue the cycles her mother had started—though her sister didn’t seem to have any issue keeping them going. 

Besides all that, there wasn’t anyone steady in the picture. In the three years she’d lived downtown, Kendall couldn’t get past a third date with a man, despite all her matches on the dating app. Most guys in their twenties just wanted something casual and fun, but it was hard to be fun when she’d been forced to grow up so fast and take on others’ responsibilities at such a young age. 

“I’m just trying to help,” Ashley said. 

Kendall didn’t want to keep going round and round with her landlady, who would never understand. “Well, thanks. I’ll think about a part-time job.” She would have to, it seemed. “Hang on a sec. I have some emergency cash hidden away.” She went to a kitchen drawer and pulled two hundreds from an envelope. 

Ashley pocketed them. “I knew you were good to pay. I’ll slip your receipt in your mailbox. Oh, and stop by sometime this week. Your lease is expiring, and I’ll need you to sign a new one for the next year.” 

Kendall shut the door behind Ashley, then leaned on it. She stared at her tiny apartment and sighed. With this latest rent hike, going back to school to land the job she wanted would be impossible. 

If I stay here, maybe I could get a cat. She threw that idea out when she imagined the cost of kitty litter and vet bills, and let out a small laugh at her own expense. 

Carlo’s “cheaper suburb” idea was starting to sound nice. When she thought about it, she couldn’t pinpoint what was keeping her there, other than the fact that she’d loved her old position. She’d been so idealistic when she arrived three years ago, but maybe thinking the city would offer everything she desired had been a pipe dream. All she had to show for her time in Savannah was a solitary job, higher and higher bills, and a nonexistent social and romantic life. 

Her iPhone rang on the dining-room table that doubled as her work desk. She lifted it to see the name “Darlene Tucker” on the screen. Sweet Nana, calling her from Blake’s Inlet, her coastal South Carolina hometown. 

Kendall answered and sat at the table to talk. She offered Nana a warm hello and sensed, just by the seventy seven-year-old woman’s greeting, that something wasn’t quite right. 

Nana’s gravelly voice came through the phone. “I just went down and picked up Archer. He called me.” Kendall sat up taller at the mention of her nephew. Nana sighed. “I don’t even have to tell you the situation, do I?” 

“What happened this time? I thought Corinne was doing well.” Her one-year-younger sister had gotten a steady job at the Dollar General after supposedly getting clean and had been paying rent on time as well as taking care of her eight year-old son, notably without constant support from either Nana or Kendall—something she hadn’t really been able to do in the past. During weekly video calls with Kendall, Archer made life seem grand. Now the thought pricked Kendall that perhaps he just hadn’t wanted to disappoint his Aunt K by telling the truth about his mom. 

Kendall had seen Archer on every weekend visit to Nana’s, but Corinne always made excuses about why she couldn’t hang out. Kendall had allowed herself to give Corinne the benefit of the doubt, figuring that she was just busy. Now Kendall could guess the real reason, and she stung from yet another betrayal. 

“She’s using again,” Nana said quietly. “Got in some trouble. The police came by and arrested her this morning.” Kendall swallowed hard. “She’s in jail?” 

“Yes, and this time it won’t be a revolving door. She’s had so many drug offenses she’ll be put away for a good long while, and her bail is so high. Archer saw the whole thing, my poor sweet baby.” Nana choked up. “He’s in there playing on that cell phone. He’s real serious, but he don’t seem too upset.” 

Kendall’s eyes prickled with tears as well, but she restrained them as she had grown accustomed to doing and instead let out a shuddering breath. They’d been down this road many times before. The cycle had been the same for the past several years: Corinne went back to drugs, Archer went to live with Nana, and Kendall helped out any way she could. 

“What can I do? Do you need money for Archer, or…” She thought about her emergency fund and anxiety gripped her belly. The envelope used to hold a thousand dollars, but had dwindled over time, and was now down to three hundred or so after paying Ashley the extra rent. But she’d give anything for Archer, as long as the money didn’t go to her sister. Kendall had made it clear last time that she would never post Corinne’s bail again, and she hoped Nana wouldn’t press that boundary. She’d made enough financial sacrifices over the years for Corinne, only to end up in the same place. 

“No, not money,” Nana said, then hesitated. When she spoke again, emotions clouded her voice. “Kendall, baby, I’m so sorry to ask this. I don’t know how to even say it.” 

Kendall’s heart rate picked up speed. “Say what? You can tell me anything.” 

“I just don’t think I can do it all this time. I’m a lot worse than when this happened last year. My lungs are bad, and you remember when I messed up my leg a few weeks back. It’s still not the same, and I’m walking with a cane now. I’ll be all right with him for a few days, but Archer’s a lot to handle with his emotions and all, and… I just wonder if I should send him to stay with you.” 

Kendall placed her free hand on her chest as she took in Nana’s heartfelt request. Kendall had left college to raise Archer for a while when he was a toddler, but Nana had taken him in for two short stints since then. Nobody could understand Archer as well as Kendall, since her single mother had turned to drugs…and eventually lost her life to them. Nana had taken Kendall and Corinne into her care when they were teens, and now Kendall could do the same for Archer. At such a low point, what Archer needed was family, and Nana and Kendall were all he had. 

She knew exactly what she needed to do. 

No matter how much hope she’d had about life in Savannah, her dreams hadn’t panned out, there was nothing keeping her there, and financially she couldn’t sustain it. She could cut her losses with the famed city this instant, and life would go on without any hitches. Maybe her “cheaper suburb” was an hour away, by the coast, back home in Blake’s Inlet. 

“Of course I’ll help you with Archer,” Kendall said. “But I could never afford to keep him here in the city. I’m coming home. Some things have happened this morning and…well, it’s time.” 

“Are you sure?” Nana asked, then exhaled her pent-up stress. “I appreciate this so much. You can stay in your old room and save your money. The house is paid for. I don’t need rent.” 

“Thanks, Nana.” She would still pay her grandmother something fair, even if she had to be creative. The old woman would be stubborn about it, but Kendall could buy all the groceries or check the mail before Nana got to it, and ninja pay her utilities without her realizing. Anything to bless the woman who had given her so much throughout her life. 

“You’re so welcome. So when can we expect you?” Nana asked with a more relaxed lilt in her voice. 

“This weekend,” Kendall said. “Only if you’ll be okay with him until then. Please tell Archer I look forward to seeing him. And that I love him.” 

“I’ll go do that right now,” Nana said. “And Kendall? Thank you, darlin’.” 

They shared their goodbyes and Kendall opened her email and sent a message to her boss, letting him know about the move and confirming that she could be in Savannah for any meetings with prior notice. 

She got up and went to her coffee pot where she poured herself another cup, then stirred in some creamer. She took a few minutes to enjoy it while looking out her front window at the historic district several stories below, the vintage facades of the multi-story buildings housing cafés and shops on their lower levels. Kendall watched as a couple of female tourists in sundresses stepped into her favorite bakery. She could almost taste the chocolate croissants they were about to enjoy. She raised her gaze to the Savannah River glistening in the distance. Oak and maple trees with thick summer foliage peppered the landscape as far as she could see, and the soft ringing of a distant church bell filtered through the antique panes. 

As she watched and sipped, a city tour via horse-drawn buggy made its way down the cobblestone street. The guide stopped the horses to point out a significant spot to the couple in the carriage, who snapped photos on their phones. 

It sure was lovely. But she was ready to go. 

By the time she returned to her laptop to tackle her pending client accounts, Carlo’s response was there, giving her the green light. It was official. Her boss was okay with it, and Ashley would have to understand that Kendall wasn’t renewing her lease. She was free to return to the town and people that had made her. Sure, she’d be facing an onslaught of family issues—yet again—when she got there, but she’d be able to pick back up with her nephew, who was a lot like a son to her. She longed to comfort him amid the chaos of the situation and be a part of changing his future. 

Maya, Kendall’s childhood best friend, crossed her mind, and she quickly texted to let her know she was moving back, and almost immediately received a GIF of an elderly lady dancing happily, and a text that read 

CANNOT WAIT!!! 

Kendall hearted the message, then opened her notes app on her iPhone. Despite her frustration with Corinne, an odd excitement tingled in Kendall’s chest after she added the words “Pack Up Living Room” to her to-do list for the day. 

She hadn’t known how much she’d needed a change until one fell in her lap.