204 Rosewood Lane (23 page)

Dr. Fred's office phoned early the next week; he'd ordered a barrage of tests. One, a colonoscopy, required a trip to Harrison Hospital in Bremerton. Not wanting to alarm Olivia, Charlotte had her friend Laura drive her.

“I've had this procedure done myself,” Laura told her when she arrived to pick her up. Bess and Evelyn had come along for moral support.

“We're going to pamper you,” Bess insisted from the backseat.

“You're making me feel like an old woman,” Charlotte protested—but not too loudly. Actually, she was grateful for her friends' presence.

Evelyn snickered. “Charlotte, in case you didn't notice, we
are
old women. Now buckle up and stop complaining.”

Although she was given anaesthetic, Charlotte was awake for part of the procedure. She heard the medical staff whispering together, calling over another doctor, pointing to an area on the screen. She wasn't sure what it all meant and anxiously awaited the verdict.

When Dr. Fred joined his associates, she could see from the look on his face that it was serious. When he did speak, she heard only one word and that was enough to send her world into a tailspin.

Charlotte's friends chatted on the ride home, but her head was buzzing and she scarcely heard a thing they said. Laura came into the house with her.

“Do you want me to call Olivia?” she asked.

Charlotte shook her head. “No…I don't want to disturb her. She's so busy.”

“She needs to know.”

“I'll tell her soon,” Charlotte promised.

Laura fussed about her for a few moments and then, being the good friend she was, realized that Charlotte wanted to be alone. She hugged Charlotte before she left.

Sitting in her chair, with Harry on her lap, Charlotte reviewed her options. She didn't expect to live forever, but she felt she had a whole lot of life in her yet. When she was finally ready to talk, it wasn't Olivia she called but her son, Will, who lived in Atlanta.

“Mother!” Will was clearly surprised to hear from her. “How are you?”

“Just grand,” she lied. “I imagine you're wondering why I'm phoning you at work in the middle of the day, since this is when the rates are high.”

“The thought did cross my mind,” Will said. How like Clyde he sounded, her son, the nuclear engineer. How proud she was of him and Olivia, too. Suddenly Charlotte found herself trembling.

“Mom, what's wrong?”

Will always seemed to know when something was troubling her. “I was in to see Dr. Fred last week.”

A pause followed. “When I spoke to Olivia, she said you'd been tired lately.”

“Yes, well, that's true. I have been.”

“Tired enough to decide you needed to visit Dr. Fred.”

“Yes. You know how he loves my green tomato mincemeat. Normally I would've baked him a pie, but this time I just brought him a jar. I had plenty of green tomatoes this year.”

“Mother, you didn't call me to talk about your pies, did you?”

“No…”

“What did Dr. Fred have to say?”

“Well, not much. He wanted me to have a few tests.” She pressed the phone hard against her ear.

“Which you did?”

“Oh, yes, he was quite insistent about that. The most intrusive one was this morning. It was at Harrison Hospital.”

“Did Olivia go with you?”

“Oh, no, I couldn't bother her on a Thursday, especially at the end of the month. You know how busy her court schedule can get.”

“In other words, Olivia doesn't know anything about this?”

“Not yet.”

“Did you get the test results?”

Charlotte felt the tears fill her eyes and was grateful that Harry was lying on her lap. Petting him soothed her and just then, with her fears close to overwhelming her, she needed him.

“Mother?” Will said more loudly this time. “Are you still on the line?”

“I'm here.”

“What did the doctor say?”

She hesitated. “Will, I know it would be a terrible inconvenience to you and Georgia, but I was wondering if you'd mind making a trip to Cedar Cove in the near future.”

“Mother,
what
did Dr. Fred tell you?”

Charlotte bit down hard on her lower lip. “I'm afraid I have cancer.”

Z
ach didn't want this separation, but Rosie had taken the choice away from him. His soon-to-be ex-wife was the unreasonable one. He'd been shocked and hurt when she'd had him served with divorce papers. Basically he had twenty-four hours to vacate the family home. He was stunned that she'd resort to seeing an attorney and setting everything in motion. Yes, they'd talked about it, but that had been in the heat of an argument. He certainly hadn't expected her to kick him out of his own home.

Since she was obviously determined to go through with the divorce, Zach hoped they could at least handle the whole process in a civilized manner. Nothing he said or did would convince Rosie that he wasn't involved with Janice. He'd given up reasoning with her. If his wife had so little faith in him, he was better off without her.

Finding an apartment within a reasonable distance of the house, however, had proved to be a challenge. Luckily Janice
had been able to help him look; otherwise, he wasn't sure what he would've done. Rosie knew his work schedule better than anyone, and he'd hoped she would appreciate that with quarterly taxes due and the rush of year-end figures he needed to complete for his business clients, his free time was limited. In that hope, he'd been mistaken. Rosie didn't seem to care.

Zach was trying hard to maintain a positive attitude for the sake of his children. His relationship with Allison and Eddie was the most important thing to him. He intended to remain a large part of their lives, no matter what the terms of the divorce.

“Do you have to leave?” Eddie asked, looking forlorn. His son sat on the end of the bed in the master bedroom while Zach packed up his half of the closet.

“For now that would be best.” Zach refused to drag his children into his problems with Rosie. They were innocent. Rosie was the one he blamed. She'd been acting like a jealous shrew for weeks, although he figured that was just a symptom of her insecurity—an insecurity he'd done nothing to cause.

“I want you and Allison to come over to my apartment with me, okay?”

“To stay?”

This was difficult. “Your mother and I need to work that out. Right now I just want you to see where I live.”

“Okay.” Eddie sounded like he was trying not to cry. “Can I come any time I want?”

“Of course! My apartment is your home, too.”

Eddie shifted on the mattress and sat on his hands. “Do you still love Mom?”

“Of course I do.” Zach set a work shirt on the stack already in the middle of the bed, then sat down beside his son. He placed his arm around Eddie's shoulders and struggled for the
right words. “Sometimes two people who love each other can't agree on certain things anymore. When that happens, it's better if they live apart.”

Eddie lowered his head. “Mom said the same thing.”

Funny that they could agree on the rationale for divorce more than they could agree on anything to do with their marriage. They hadn't spoken much in the past few weeks. All communication had been through their attorneys, which was ridiculous as far as Zach was concerned, since he'd continued to live at home.

“Allison says this whole divorce is bogus.”

Zach noted that
bogus
was currently a favorite word of his daughter's. He didn't bother to respond.

“Will you talk to Mom?”

Not if he could avoid it, Zach mused. They no longer argued, and for that he was grateful. If anything, Rosie went out of her way to be polite. It was almost as though they were strangers. His wife, however, had plenty to say to her attorney. His sins were outlined in legal documents that went on for pages. Knowing it would anger him to read anything more than the title page, Zach left everything to his attorney. He'd known Otto Benson for years and had frequently worked with him, and he trusted Otto to represent him fairly.

“You ready to help me load everything into the car?” he asked his son.

“Okay.” Eddie didn't reveal a lot of enthusiasm. He slid off the edge of the bed and paraded behind Zach with an armload of clothes. Zach arranged the starched dress shirts on the backseat of his car and took the stack Eddie had brought out with him.

“Do you want to see my apartment?” he asked Allison when he returned to the kitchen.

His daughter removed her earphones and turned off the
portable CD player. She stared at him a moment as though she hadn't heard. Finally she muttered, “Are you
really
going to leave, Dad?”

“I'm afraid so, sweetheart.”

“But you vowed to always love Mom.”

“I know, and this is hard, but you can see that your mother and I do nothing but argue. That's not good. We're going through this divorce for you kids, to save you from—”

“You're doing this for me and Eddie? I don't think so, Dad. It seems to me you and Mom are doing this for yourselves. Eddie and I just happen to be stuck in the middle, and I hate it. I really, really hate it.” She was shouting by the time she finished. Before Zach could reply, Allison slipped the headphones back over her ears, blocking him out.

Zach saw the tears in his daughter's eyes and they twisted his gut. He wanted to tell her that the difficulties between him and Rosie had nothing to do with her or Eddie. This wasn't
their
fault.

Maybe he and Rosie had outgrown each other. That was something he'd read in an article on marriage breakdown that Janice had given him. She'd photocopied it from some women's magazine. Maybe he and Rosie had stopped having anything, other than the kids and the house, in common, as the article suggested. Perhaps because he made a good living and they were now financially comfortable they'd lost that sense of being
partners,
facing the world together, creating dreams together. Lately their marriage had been filled with bitterness and resentment. All they did was make each other miserable, and that was no way to live and certainly not a healthy environment in which to raise their children.

Looking around the house one last time, Zach loaded up his remaining essentials. For obvious reasons, Rosie had been
missing for most of the day. This was no surprise, seeing that she spent the greater part of every weekend with people other than her family, anyway. Nor did it upset him when he noticed the breakfast dishes still in the sink, unwashed. That was par for the course. He had his own list of sins that his wife had committed, but unless she made it impossible, he was taking the higher road and refused to drag her faults into a courtroom.

“You coming to see my new apartment?” he asked Eddie, striving for a bit of enthusiasm.

“I guess.”

“You'll have your own room there, you know.” The second bedroom was necessary if he intended to have the children stay with him, and Zach did. He couldn't afford beds just yet, but he'd buy them as soon as possible.

“I don't wanna sleep in the same room as Allison,” Eddie complained.

“You can sleep in my room if you want.”

“I can?”

“Sure thing.”

That appeared to appease Eddie for the moment.

Before he left, Zach asked Allison a second time if she wanted to see his new place, but she sat with her earphones on, music blaring, and pretended not to hear him. She was angry and Zach understood how she felt. Eventually she'd come around and they'd be able to discuss this. Allison had always been closer to him than her mother.

The two-bedroom apartment was a little less than three miles from the house on Pelican Court. It wasn't as large, but then he could barely afford to maintain two households. He'd wanted a three-bedroom place, but couldn't find one within his limited budget. He'd chosen this complex so the kids
would still be in the same school district. Otto was hammering out a parenting plan with Rosie's attorney.

Once at his apartment, Zach opened the door for his son. Eddie walked into the living room and glanced around, frowning. “Where's the TV?”

“I'm taking the one in the master bedroom.” Rosie and he were still in the process of dividing everything up, but most of the furniture had yet to be moved. So far, Rosie hadn't been difficult about the division of household assets, and Zach trusted that would continue. Considering that he was the one who'd paid for everything in the family home, it was only right that he take what he needed for his new place.

Apparently it hadn't occurred to Rosie that she was going to have to find a job. Zach made a respectable income, but he couldn't afford to pay all the expenses for two households. For the first time since the children were born, Rosie would be forced to work outside the home.

“Check out the bedroom,” Zach said as he hauled a load of clothes into the larger of the two rooms. The newly carpeted room was stark and empty without a bed, but all of that would be resolved shortly. Soon, Zach told himself, he'd feel just as much at home here as he had in the family residence.

“Hello.” A soft rapping was followed by a voice Zach recognized instantly.

“Janice.” Zach hadn't expected a visit from his assistant, especially on a weekend. “Hello,” he said.

Shyly, she came into the apartment with a boy close to Eddie's age.

“This is my son, Chris,” she said with her arm around her son's shoulders.

“This is Eddie.”

“Hi,” Eddie said, sounding tentative.

“I thought I'd stop by and ask if you have everything you need,” Janice said. “I know how much work moving can be and I wanted to see if there's anything I can do.”

She'd always been helpful, and Zach appreciated her efforts more than ever. She brought in a sack and placed it on the kitchen counter.

“Eddie, why don't you show Chris the apartment?” Zach suggested. Almost immediately the two boys disappeared into the back bedroom.

“I brought you a housewarming gift,” Janice said, then proceeded to unpack a coffeepot, plus grounds.

“You didn't need to do that.” Zach remained on the other side of the kitchen, a little uncomfortable with her generosity.

“I know… You can tell me to get lost if you want, but I knew you were moving in today. I know from my own experience how difficult this is and I hope the transition goes smoothly for you and your wife.”

“Thank you.” Zach preferred to keep his business and his personal life separate, but without Janice's help in this recent crisis, he didn't know what he would've done.

An hour later when he drove back to the house with Eddie, the first thing he noticed was Rosie's car parked in the driveway. Eddie brightened as soon as he saw it. He threw open the car door and raced toward the house. Zach followed with far less enthusiasm. He'd hoped to move all his personal stuff before Rosie returned. There were still books and CDs and…

“Hi,” Rosie said, her face tense, but not unfriendly. “I see you're packing up.”

Zach nodded.

“I made a new friend,” Eddie said, hugging his mother about the waist.

“That's nice. You'll have friends both here and at your dad's place.”

“Chris doesn't live in the apartment building. His mother is Dad's assistant and they came over with a gift to warm the house.”

Sure enough, his wife's eyes narrowed to thin, angry slits. “I'll just bet,” she muttered under her breath, then stormed out of the kitchen.

Zach's shoulders sagged in defeat. This was something Rosie would try to use against him when they went to court. Janice's innocent gesture of friendship and support would be turned into “evidence.”

 

Cliff Harding had a good feeling about this Saturday afternoon date with Grace. It'd been three weeks since their dinner and they'd spoken intermittently on the phone. He could tell that Grace still had reservations regarding their relationship. Something had happened in the past three weeks. He wasn't sure what, but when they did speak she'd sounded shaken and uneasy. When he asked her about it, she made excuses and quickly got off the phone.

Under normal conditions, he would've questioned Charlotte, who was his best source when it came to Grace, but his friend had enough to deal with. She'd soon undergo surgery, followed by chemo, which was hard on a person, physically and emotionally. He'd seen his own father waste away, ravaged by lung cancer. Of course, back in those days they didn't have the effective cancer treatments they had now. Still…

So, no, he couldn't ask Charlotte what was going on with Grace. She had troubles enough of her own.

But Cliff was convinced it had to do with Dan. She wanted
answers about what had happened to her ex-husband, and hadn't realized yet that the peace she sought had to come from within.

However, he was encouraged by her invitation to lunch. Perhaps now he'd understand what had caused her to withdraw from such a promising beginning.

It was a blustery, windy day, the first weekend in February, when he drove into town. The sky was leaden, threatening rain.

Buttercup announced his arrival with a sharp bark, then ambled onto the porch where Cliff stood waiting. The golden retriever wagged her tail, and after Cliff rang the front doorbell, he leaned down and stroked the dog's silky fur. At least he'd managed to win
her
over.

“Hello, Cliff,” Grace said, sounding stiff and reserved. She unlocked the screen door to let him in. “Typical February day, isn't it?”

He agreed, thinking she looked wonderful in a red turtleneck sweater and tight jeans. The scent of chili simmering in a Crock-Pot on the kitchen counter wafted toward him and he breathed in appreciatively.

“Smells good.”

“It's my chili.” Her eyes refused to meet his. “Would you like to sit down?” She motioned toward the living room.

“Sure.”

She waited until he was seated, then sat across from him. “I've been rude lately and I thought I should explain what's been going on.”