Persuaded (24 page)

“I see
he’s called in reinforcements. Typical.”

Hanna
ignored her sister’s assumption. Experience had taught her that once Mary got
an idea in her head—erroneous or not—there was no reasoning with her.

“Do
you want to talk about it?”

Sniffle.
“What is there to talk about? My husband can’t stand me. I don’t remember the
last time he actually listened to anything I had to say. He spends all his time
outside avoiding me. If I want a break from the kids and I let him take them
out, they come back sunburned!”

The
way Mary said “sunburned” sounded more like she referred to an incurable
disease or loss of limb. “Sunburns are kind of a side effect of spending two
months at the beach, Mare. I think you’re making this into something it’s not.”

Mary
threw her hands up. “And now you too? My own sister?” She made a derisive
snorting noise. “No one understands me.”

Hanna
gritted her teeth. “That’s not true, and you know it. That might slide with
Charles, but not me. We grew up in the same house, remember? If anyone
understands you, it’s me.”

From
the way Mary’s eyes bulged, she hadn’t expected her mousy elder sister to
contradict her. Then again, Hanna usually didn’t. Mary opened her mouth to
respond, then snapped it shut. Speechlessness was a first for her. Hanna saw
the opportunity and snatched it up. “Look, I know marriage,
motherhood—life—isn’t easy.”

Before
she could expound on her thought, Mary cut her off. “How do you know? You’re free
and single, and you don’t have a child.”

The
audacity.
“No, I don’t have a child! I have thirty freaking
children! I’d like to see you handle those numbers.”

Mary’s
mouth snapped shut.

“As
I’m not married, I can’t speak from experience. But I can speak from
observation, and from what I’ve seen there isn’t a whole lot of effort being
expended on either side here. Charles may tune you out, but when was the last
time you said something worth listening to? Talked to him without complaining
or said ‘thank you’ for anything? If you feel neglected then maybe you should
take a closer look at why that is. You could join your family on the beach once
in a while instead of sleeping all day. Your boys miss you, Mary. They
adore
you. And I think underneath it all, so does Charles. You just have to help him
remember.”

Mary
had gone deathly white, dropping to sit on the edge of her bed.

Hanna
softened her tone, sitting down beside her. “I know you’re afraid, Mare. You
were daddy’s little girl, and even though you think that’s a good thing, he
sort of handicapped you. But you’re not that little girl anymore. You’re a wife
and a mother, and it’s time for you to act like it.”

Very
slowly, Mary’s head swiveled toward Hanna. She wasn’t sure what to
expect—ranting and raving or more blubbering excuses. Instead, Mary’s eyes
filled with tears. “It’s just so hard!” she gasped, and then her head fell onto
Hanna’s shoulder as she cried. It wasn’t the dramatic sobbing Mary usually
resorted to, but a soundless mourning that Hanna could feel in the shaking of
Mary’s shoulders.

Hanna
sat with her for what felt like eternity. While Mary came to terms with
reality, Hanna had been thinking of a possible solution—or at least something
that would give Charles and Mary a leg up.

“How
long has it been since you and Charles got away, just the two of you?”

“The
day we went downtown for breakfast, I guess.”

“No, I
mean really away. Like overnight.”

“I
don’t remember.”

That
was good enough for Hanna. “Why don’t you guys take off for the weekend? Leave
the boys with me.”

A long
stretch of silence passed during which Mary seemed to be mulling it over. “I
guess between you and Ella, the two of you could handle it.”

Hanna
wouldn’t be holding her breath on that one. Ella wasn’t exactly
Nanny McPhee
.
“We’ll manage.” Rising, Hanna looked down at her sister. “Do you want me to
send Charles up?”

Mary
wiped her palms on her robe. “What if he says no? Maybe you should mention it
to him first.”

“He won’t
say no, Mary. Just let him know that you want to spend time with him. Trust
me.”

Finally,
Mary nodded. “Okay.”

Hanna
gave her sister a parting squeeze, then went back downstairs.

“How
did it go?” Charles asked as she came into the room. He was flipping between
two baseball games on television.

“Why
don’t you see for yourself?” Hanna answered. She had done her go-between duty
for the day.

“I
think I’ll give her some space,” Charles answered without looking up.

Hanna
narrowed her eyes. Then she strode to over to her brother-in-law, confiscated
the remote, and turned off the TV. Standing before him with her arms folded,
she said, “Seriously, Charles?”

He
froze, not sure how to react to assertive-Hanna.

“You
know I don’t like to interfere in your relationship, but Mary is only half the
problem. It takes two people to make a marriage work, and it takes two to make
it fail. I told Mary that I would watch the boys so you guys can spend some
time together. Now, be a man and go talk to your wife.”

It
took Charles a good thirty seconds to recover from Hanna’s scolding, after
which he hurried from the room to follow her advice.

“Your
turn, Derick,” CJ said, and Hanna looked over.

Derick’s
eyes weren’t on CJ, or on the checker board, planning his next move. They were
taking in Hanna with intense pride, his lips curving up at the corners.

☼

Not
long after the Musgroves made their getaway, Ella returned. On hearing that
Charles and Mary were leaving the kids with Hanna for the weekend, she suddenly
remembered an invitation to visit one of the local islands with Callie’s
family. It couldn’t have worked out more perfectly if Hanna planned it herself.

“So,
boys,” Derick asked, once it was only the four of them, “what should we do now
that your parents are gone?”

“Jump
on the bed!”

“Caw-toons!”

“Stay
up all night!”

“Ice-ceam!”

“Build
a fort!”

“Pay
da Wii!”

Derick
laughed, apparently thrilled at his skill inciting the masses. “How about we
order pizza and build the fort while we’re waiting? Then we can watch a movie
and have some ice cream after.”

Walter
positively screeched with delight, and CJ started bouncing on the couch. Had
she not been a respectable adult of twenty-eight, Hanna likely would have done
the same.

Derick
swiped CJ out of the air before he could inflict any permanent damage on the
furniture, or himself, then announced that he and CJ would take care of the
pizza if the other two picked out a movie. The sofa and kitchen chairs were
arranged to make the frame for the fort, then draped with sheets and blankets.

Hanna
wrangled the boys upstairs for a bath while they waited on dinner. She was on a
high from having had a positive effect on her sister’s marriage. And, Charles
and Mary’s absence—plus Ella’s—equaled euphoria. Hopefully they would make good
use of the time, and be able to connect on some level. It was doubtful that
they would come back acting like honeymooners, but any progress at all would be
an improvement.

Half
an hour later, when Hanna came downstairs with two squeaky-clean kids, Derick
was dishing up pizza for the boys and arranging baby carrots for each plate.
The sight was beyond adorable.

Walter’s
movie pick was
101 Dalmatians
, which CJ wasn’t thrilled with, but since
Derick had let him place the pizza order, CJ let it go.

After
polishing off two pizzas, the four scrunched together in the “fort” with a tub
of Red Vines
licorice. The adults were propped against the front of the
couch, and the boys were sandwiched between them. Being in this situation with
Derick was strangely nerve-wracking for Hanna. It almost felt like a date—even
if they were chaperoned by a six- and two-year-old. The very thought gave her
anticipatory tingles.

Derick
was on the right, Hanna on the left, and a good amount of space between them.
But that space crackled with an elusive
something
Hanna couldn’t
place—something that teemed in the air surrounding them. Did he feel it too?

Hanna
scuffed her palms against her jeans, then folded them in her lap. She wished
that she had something to do with her hands, just to use up that extra bit of
nervous energy. Then she remembered her sketchbook. It took her a moment to
recall its whereabouts, and then she asked CJ to run upstairs and grab it. Not
wanting to miss one second of the movie he’d vetoed, CJ zipped up the stairs
and returned in record time. Hanna pulled her pencil from the notebook’s spiral
binding and Derick leaned over to watch. His shoulder pressed up against hers
with the action, causing her pulse to skip around—but Hanna did her best to
disregard it and began drawing the boys.

They
were lying on their stomachs with their chins propped on their hands and their
feet in the air. To an outsider, it might have been coincidental that the boys
had the same exact posture, but it was no mystery to Hanna. Walter glanced at
his brother every few minutes and mimicked whatever he did, right down to
scratching his nose or coughing.

Around
the time the puppies onscreen were rolling in soot to hide their spots, Hanna
finished the sketch and held it up for inspection.

“Can I
see it?” Derick murmured, and she handed it over. He stared at the sketch for a
few minutes, but didn’t say anything. His silence scorched Hanna’s curiosity as
he flipped through the other drawings in the book, giving his full attention to
each of them in turn. He lingered over the one she’d done of the Lymelight—that
day she’d looked up and found him watching her. Hanna’s memory of the
mortification she felt on that occasion was still fresh, but with Derick next
to her now, that other moment felt like something from another lifetime.

When
he came upon the drawing she’d done of Eli, Hanna tensed, but Derick just
flipped to the next page, and the next. Ocean waves, kites in the air, the
pier, the harbor, then the
hei matau
. His mouth turned up at the corners,
leaving Hanna in no doubt of his favorite. With a small sigh he closed the book
and handed it over. “You are incredibly talented, Banana.”

The
boys looked back when Derick spoke, and Walter relocated to his aunt’s lap,
clasping his little sausage arms around her neck.

“I
think someone’s tired,” Derick observed.

Combing
her fingers through Walter’s fine hair, Hanna pulled the scent of baby shampoo
in through her nose. Was there a better smell than that of a clean baby? If so,
she had yet to find it. She stroked Walter’s hair, and eventually his eyes
began to droop. After pressing a soft kiss to his forehead, she looked up to
find Derick’s eyes fastened on her.

He was
giving her a look she couldn’t read, his eyes swirling with some indefinable
emotion.

“What?”
she asked, suddenly feeling self-conscious.

“Nothing,”
he answered, then paused as if he were trying to word something. “It’s just . .
. that looks really good on you.”

“What
looks good on me?” He couldn’t be talking about her clothes—she had on a plain
blue T-shirt and jeans.

“A
baby.”

Hanna’s
heart stuttered at the words, and she hid her smile by burying her nose in
Walter’s hair.

THIRTY-ONE

WHERE
the WILD THINGS ARE

“Ah! She was a
dear old
Asp
to me . . .”

—Captain
Wentworth,
Persuasion

The
following morning Derick was just finishing a run when he saw Hanna and the
boys on the beach. He dove into the surf to wash off the sweat, then collapsed
on the sand next to Hanna. She mumbled a brief greeting, then shifted her
attention back to her nephews. Curious. Derick noticed that she averted her
eyes whenever he didn’t wear a shirt. Did it make her uncomfortable? If so, was
it a good uncomfortable or a bad uncomfortable? Determining to make her
reactions his future study, he focused on the kids. CJ hunted shells along the
wet sand while Walter entertained himself with a bucket and shovel.

“Looks
like you made it through the night,” he said. “I half-expected you to be tied
up somewhere this morning.” He winked, pleased when she responded with her trademark
blush.

“We
survived,” she said, looking away. “One day down, two more to go.”

“I’ve
been thinking about that,” Derick said, clasping his hands over his knees.
“There’s this place, only a few hours’ sail from here—Block Island—that I’ve
been wanting to check out. I think the minions would like it.”

“Like
a day thing?”

“No,
we’d have to stay a couple nights to make it worth the trip.”