Chances Are (40 page)

Maybe they had. She had changed since returning home to New Jersey and her family. The urge to run when the going got tough was slowly being replaced by the need to stay where she was, to dig her roots a little deeper, to admit there was something wonderful about being part of a family, even when the family in question sometimes made you crazy.

She had finally decided what to do about Kelly, and she had Rose to thank. Her mother was right. She wasn’t doing anyone a favor by keeping her suspicions and worries to herself. Tomorrow evening she would sit down with Aidan and tell him what she knew, the plain facts without embellishment, and pray that she had been worried for nothing.

They checked out of their suite with just two minutes to spare, both of them reluctant to leave their secret hideaway but feeling the pull of home and children.

“Go ahead,” he said as they merged onto the Parkway headed south. “You know you want to.”

“You want to just as much as I do.”

“Yeah, but I can’t. I’m driving.”

“I know it’s ridiculous. Rosie would have called if there was anything we needed to know, but I can’t help myself.”

“If you didn’t do it, I would,” he said, and she burst into laughter.

She reached into her tote bag, pulled out her cell phone, then punched in her mother’s number. All she had to do was say hello. Rose took care of the rest.

“Our kids are okay,” she said to Aidan after she disconnected, “but Mike Meehan is in the hospital.”

She relayed the tale about Fritzie, the broken ankle, the minor surgery, the chemotherapy-connected complication.

“Sounds like Mike isn’t exactly being a model patient. Rosie said Claire’s having a tough time keeping him there. She called two of her sisters, but they’re not sure they can break free to help her out.”

“Her sisters only show up when there’s a will to be read,” Aidan said. Then, “Damn. That means she’s probably not going to work this afternoon.”

“And Barney Kurkowski was checked in. Smoke inhalation.”

Aidan flinched. When a firefighter got close to retirement, nobody rested easily until the day he hung up his gear and said good-bye.

This led to a flurry of phone calls to O’Malley’s that ended up with Aidan saying he’d take over Claire’s four o’clock spot.

“I forgot to tell you the juicy gossip Rose heard at Mass this morning. Gina took Crystal to that karaoke bar down near Wildwood and ended up getting herself tattooed.”

“What did she get, and where did she get it?”

“A triton’s horn, and it’s someplace you’re never going to see and live to talk about.”

“Sounds like they had a few too many margaritas. How the hell did they drive home?”

“Crystal panicked when Gee passed out on the way back to the bar. She called Peter Lassiter, and he drove down to get them.”

“That’ll look good on tape.”

“That’s exactly what I was thinking. She’s had a rough time of it lately with Joey being sick and all that trouble with her ex. She was just blowing off steam. I really hope they don’t use it in the documentary.” God knew her family had already provided them with enough material to run a weekly series for the next ten years. “Crystal swore it was an off-the-record night out but . . .”

“She’s not a kid, Maddy. She knew what she was doing when she went off with Crystal.”

“I know you’re right but—” She stopped midsentence and shook her head. Gina’s problems were better saved for another time. “Let’s declare a moratorium on the real world until we see the Welcome to Paradise Point sign bearing down on us. What do you say?”

“I say I like the way you think.” She felt the heat of his look in every secret part of her body. “Almost as much as I liked the way you—”

Now that was the kind of talk that made the miles fly by.

It was all beginning to seem real to her in a way it hadn’t before this weekend. Up until now it had all been about the wedding—what to wear, who to invite, where to hold it—and very little about the marriage, but that had all changed overnight. Suddenly she saw them not just as the giddy bride and groom on top of a spun-sugar wedding cake, but as a husband and wife with children to protect and a future to build, and it was as exhilarating as it was terrifying.

“What do you think Rosie will say when you tell her?”

“Shh,” Maddy said, holding her index finger to her lips. “I don’t want to think about it.”

“She’s not going to be happy.”

“No, she’s not. She thought a September wedding was too short notice. Late July is going to push her right over the edge.”

“Good thing we didn’t elope this morning.”

They had come very close, and only the fact that their daughters deserved an easier entry into living as a blended family had held them back. Waiting until September suddenly made no sense at all. They loved each other. They were well past the age of consent. They understood exactly what they were getting into and wanted to do it just the same. They also both knew that life came with no guarantees, and sometimes the smartest thing you could do was to follow your heart.

They had talked late into the night about anything and everything, and now, speeding down the Parkway, they picked up the threads and began to weave them into something real. Major issues like where they would live (Aidan’s house) and how many children they wanted to have together (they finally talked the number down to two) and whether or not they would raise them as practicing Catholics (to be determined) came together effortlessly in seamless agreement.

They talked about O’Malley’s. They talked about The Candlelight. They talked about her radio gig. He told her about his plans to go back to school and pursue the degree he had abandoned years ago. She told him that she wasn’t sure it was going to work out for her at Cuppa, that it was painfully clear she and his brother’s widow didn’t see the world through the same lens.

“You don’t have to like each other to work together,” he said. “All you have to do is stick around and make it work.”

“You make it sound like I’ve spent my life running away from things.” She let out a loud, theatrical sigh. “A girl runs away for ten or fifteen years and—boom!—she finds herself with a reputation.”

His silence went on a beat too long.

“Laugh,” she said. “You were supposed to laugh.”

“Stick around, no matter what,” he said. “You can run away from anyone else, but don’t run away from me.”

An odd little chill rippled up her spine at his words.

“As if that could happen,” she said, but she couldn’t help thinking about Kelly as she did.

 
AIDAN ASKED IF she wanted to stop in at the hospital with him and see how Mike Meehan was doing, but she begged off. She didn’t know Claire’s father well at all, and she was eager to get home and see Hannah.

“I’ll stop by tomorrow,” she said. “I’m sure he won’t miss me.”

Mike Meehan was one of those men who gathered friends the way squirrels gathered nuts in the fall. His room was probably crowded wall-to-wall with enough visitors to constitute a fire hazard.

Aidan pulled into the driveway behind the house and unloaded her bag. They laughed at the sound of Priscilla’s excited yapping as she scratched at the back door with insistent puppy claws.

“Rosie’s car is gone,” Maddy observed as he carried her bag into the house. The ever-watchful Priscilla greeted them with much tail-wagging, then galloped out to the yard to take care of business. “She and Hannah must have gone over to the hospital to see Mike.”

“There’s a note on the table,” Aidan said as he placed her bag near the doorway. He picked it up. “Hospital first, Gina’s second. She’ll be back around six.”

She wrapped her arms around him. “You mean we actually have the house to ourselves?”

He pretended to peer under the kitchen table. “Unless Lassiter and his crew bugged the joint.”

She shuddered. “Don’t even say that! They’ve learned enough about the lot of us as it is.”

He tilted her chin up for his kiss. “So you’re going to tell Rosie tonight?”

“Yep,” she said, her lips moving against his. “No point delaying the inevitable.”

“July twenty-first.” A full eight weeks earlier than originally planned.

“You’ll hear her scream of horror all the way at O’Malley’s.”

“You’re sure?”

“Positive.”

He whispered something in her ear that made her melt into him and want to never let go. She was going to suggest something illicit and highly erotic when Priscilla came charging back into the house, trailing what looked like a small bramble bush behind her.

“Coward,” she said as Aidan made for the door.

She could hear him laughing as he drove away. So much for her graceful reentry back into everyday life.

Priscilla looked up at her with those big brown eyes of hers, and Maddy sighed. “I know, I know,” she said. “My hair’s curly, too. It’s a pain in the neck, isn’t it?”

She hunted down the grooming comb and a small pair of blunt-tip scissors, then sat down on the back porch to untangle the poor puppy from the forest of brambles and thorns she had somehow stumbled into. A steady breeze was blowing in off the water, turning the late afternoon noticeably chilly. Priscilla didn’t think too much of standing still while Maddy tried to work through the mats and burrs, so Maddy had to gather the puppy up in a bear hug with her left arm while she carefully wielded the scissors with her right.

“You look like you need some help.”

Maddy jumped, almost pitching Priscilla to the ground, at the sound of Kelly’s voice. “Where did you come from?”

“Sorry if I scared you,” Kelly said. “I rang the front doorbell. When nobody answered, I figured I’d come around and let myself in with the back door key.” She laughed as Priscilla wriggled free and bounded down the steps toward her, tail at full mast. “When did you guys get home?”

The words were innocent enough, but Maddy felt herself go instantly into red alert.

“About fifteen minutes ago. Your dad went on to the hospital to see Mike Meehan.”

“I suppose he’ll be working tonight.”

Maddy nodded as she gathered Priscilla back up onto her lap and prepared to try again.

“So what brings you here?” Maddy asked as she gently eased the wire comb through some nasty knots on the dog’s coat.

“I left an envelope of photos on the dining room table this morning.”

“Sounds like Rosie had you and Hannah scrapbooking last night.”

“It was fun,” Kelly said in her usual easygoing manner. “Between your Grandma Fay and my Grandma Irene, they must have known everything there was to know about everyone.”

“Did she show you the box labeled O’Malley?”

“Yeah, and it was pretty amazing. I didn’t realize our families were that close way back then.”

Way back then
was probably around the time of Maddy’s birth.

“Door’s open,” she said, “if you want to get them.”

Kelly hesitated a second, then hurried up the three steps and let herself in through the kitchen door.

A moment later she let herself back out again. She had a thick brown envelope tucked under her arm.

“You found everything you were looking for?”

“No problem. Mrs. D left them on the sideboard for me.”

There was a natural rhythm to conversations between friends and family, and Maddy waited for the
good-bye
and
see you later,
but Kelly didn’t say a word. She didn’t leave. She didn’t talk. She just stood there, looking down at her running shoes.

“Kelly?” Maddy slid Priscilla from her lap and stood up. “I was just about to splurge on some of Lucy’s Black Forest cake and a pot of tea. Why don’t you join me?”

“I shouldn’t. I have a lot to do. I’d better go.”

“One piece,” Maddy urged, like one of those food pushers whose main goal in life was to make sure you couldn’t squeeze your thighs into your jeans.

“Next time, okay? I have to give my cousin Kathleen a lift to the train station and—”

She couldn’t hold back the question. It had been there between them all week, and it wasn’t going away.

“Did you run the test, Kelly?” Oh God, what was she doing? It sounded so harsh, so stark. So not her business.

“Test?” The girl tried to look puzzled, but the expression in her lovely eyes gave her away.

“The home pregnancy test you bought at the mall yesterday.”

Kelly’s face turned dead white, and Maddy pulled in a breath. Her muscles tensed, and she felt an almost irresistible urge to race down the steps, dash across the yard, then jump into her car and drive as far away from this whole thing as her battered old Mustang could carry her.

Aidan was right. They were all right. She did want to run.

Her mother and her aunts and her cousins, even Claire. All of them. She didn’t need this. God knew she didn’t want any part of it. It would be easy to turn away from Kelly’s troubles, let them flow through her fingers like grains of sand. But she knew too much about what Kelly was going through, felt too much and too deeply for the young woman to take the easy way out. Not this time.

She put her arm gently around Kelly’s shoulder and led her back inside the kitchen. All of Kelly’s natural ebullience and self-confidence had drained away. The girl sank into a chair, shoulders slumped, her lovely face a mask of sadness.

“How far along are you?” Maddy asked as she knelt down beside the girl.

Kelly’s whole body recoiled at the question. “Maybe five or six weeks.” Her words were little more than a whisper, and Maddy had to lean close in order to hear them.

“You’re sure?” Maddy pressed. “You ran the test and it was positive.”

“Positively positive,” she said with a small, hollow laugh. “I ran it twice.”

“So did I when I first found out Hannah was on the way.”

“I thought I was being anal about it.”