Authors: Barbara Bretton
Someone Like You (26 page)
That laughter would have delighted her a year ago. Knowing that her sister and the man who shared her life enjoyed each other’s company would have been proof positive that they were all meant to be a family. Now it only served to remind her of everything she was about to lose.
William was finishing off a sandwich when Joely walked into the kitchen. Cat was hunched over a lined notebook, scribbling furiously with an emerald-green felt-tip pen.
“What are you up to?” she asked the room in general.
William raised what remained of his sandwich in answer, while Cat mumbled something about a press release.
“Press release? What are you talking about?”
Cat waved her off and continued scribbling. She turned to William for clarification.
“A statement for the media,” he said. “It might give you all some breathing space.”
“So would driving over them with a backhoe.”
He stared at her like he had never seen her before.
“That’s one way to solve the problem,” he said evenly, “but it would create new ones.”
“Yes, it would,” Cat said. “I’d have to get the driveway resurfaced.”
The two sisters looked at each other and burst into raucous laughter and a quick high five.
“Black humor,” Cat said to a watching William. “It’s a family trait.”
“We’re not dangerous,” Joely assured him. “We just sound that way.”
“So I’m not in peril?” he asked.
“The day’s young,” Cat said with a wink. “We’ll see how things play out.”
William laughed with her, but Joely could see the hint of unease lurking just beneath his English surface. They were on her turf now, playing by her family’s rules. It would be interesting to see how well he managed to adapt.
She caught herself. Interesting but essentially unimportant. Things like blending families, sharing jokes, building traditions, none of it mattered anymore. Instead of planning a future together, they were reduced to planning an exit strategy that did as little damage as possible.
“I promised I’d meet Zach at the house,” Joely said, plucking her car keys from the Peg-Board near the door. “We were going to start sorting through Mimi’s things.” They wanted to do at least one quick sweep in case her mother had any valuables they needed to secure. The real heavy lifting would begin tomorrow.
Cat looked up from her notebook. “I’m going over to the hospital as soon as we get this taken care of. How about I meet you at Mimi’s afterward?”
Joely jingled her car keys in her sister’s direction. “Sounds like a plan.”
William was far too polite to say, “What about me?”
“I can’t imagine any of this is going to be much fun for you,” Joely said. “Maybe Cat could drop you off at Karen’s. Annabelle will be so excited to see you.”
Cat gave herself a V8 slap to the forehead. “I should’ve thought of that. Of course I’d be happy to take you over to Karen’s, William. I’d be delighted.”
“Don’t change your plans for me,” he said, favoring Cat with a warm smile. “I have a rental in the drive. All I need are directions.”
“I’m off then.” Joely hesitated. She placed a hand on William’s shoulder for an instant, then quickly stepped back. “See you at Mimi’s,” she tossed over her shoulder, then made her escape.
CAT DID HER level best to pretend she hadn’t seen or understood the tension between Joely and William, assuming a stance of willful ignorance that fooled nobody but served a very useful purpose.
It hurt to see the tension seep from William’s shoulders when the door closed behind Joely. That wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. Not after years of being together, building a life together, raising a child together. When the man you shared that life with started to feel more comfortable when you left the room, you were in trouble.
Trouble that not even a big sister could make go away.
She made coffee for William while he read the statement she’d prepared.
“This should satisfy them for awhile,” he said. “They live from news cycle to news cycle. This will buy you twenty-four hours, at least.”
“I was hoping for a little longer than that.” She poured him a cup of coffee and placed it in front of him. “I’m sorry we had to meet under such . . . unusual circumstances. There are occasional moments when we actually resemble a normal family.”
He busied himself stirring sugar into his coffee.
“Sorry,” she said. “Another example of black humor. It really is a family trait.”
“So I’m learning.”
Cat backpedaled again. Clearly Joely hadn’t felt the need for black humor in Loch Craig. “Maybe it’s a Maine thing,” she said lightly. “All that sea air and lobster get into your blood.”
Leave it to Joely to pick a man even more circumspect than she was.
“Okay,” she said, leaning back in her chair. “We have fifteen minutes until I leave for the hospital and a lot of family history to cover. Let’s see if I can get you up to speed.”
“YOU MEAN HE flew from Japan to Idle Point to see you?” Zach looked at her with undisguised envy. “Now that’s a statement.”
“Don’t go getting all Hallmark on me,” Joely snapped. “He’s furious with me, and I don’t blame him.”
They were sitting on the floor of Mimi’s living room, sifting through a stack of boxes they had found in her bedroom closet.
“Not good,” Zach said after she told him about the job in Surrey. “Why didn’t you tell him you were up for the position?”
“I didn’t think it would come to anything.”
He stared at her. “You didn’t think you’d get it?”
Her eyes filled with tears. “Worse,” she said. “I hoped I wouldn’t need it.”
“Did you tell him that?”
“Why prolong the inevitable?” she said. “It’s over, and we both know it.”
“Don’t jump to conclusions.”
“I’m not,” she said. “It’s been a long time coming, Zach. Sooner or later everything ends. I knew that going in.”
“Didn’t Cat stitch that charming sentiment into a pillow once?”
“Not funny.”
“Endings never are.”
“Who sounds like a needlepoint pillow now?” she teased gently.
“There’s a difference between us,” Zach said, “apart from the obvious ones. At least I know I gave it my best shot.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’re the smart sister. Why don’t you figure it out?”
“You don’t know me half well enough to insult me, Zach.”
“You’re not that tough. I saw you with Mimi this morning. She got to you.”
“I’m human,” she said. “It’s difficult to watch someone deteriorate the way she has.”
“And that’s the scientist in you talking?”
“That’s what I am, isn’t it?”
“How about the daughter? What’s her take on this?”
She stood up. “I’ve had enough of this. There’s no point.”
“Heading back to Scotland?” he shot back. “Or is it Surrey you’re running away to this time?”
“Shut up, Zach. You don’t have the right to say any of these things.”
“Like it or not, kid, there’s a bond between us. We both survived that accident and, the way I look at it, there has to be a reason we’re still here. I want you to be happy. Hell,
I
want to be happy. There’s not much point to anything else, is there?”
I
want to be happy. There’s not much point to anything else, is there?”
“I’m not sure we Doyle women do happy very well.”
He rose to his feet next to her. “Cat’s on the right track.”
She sighed and leaned her head against his shoulder. “God, I hope so.” He draped an arm around her, and she closed her eyes. “I always thought she was happy alone. Shows how well I know my own sister, doesn’t it?”
“Alone isn’t all it’s cracked up to be,” Zach said, and she laughed. “We’re not wired for it.”
“You’re doing okay.” She opened her eyes and looked up at him. “Aren’t you?”
“Getting better every day,” he said, but he didn’t fool her. The pain of loss was in his eyes, and she knew it would be a long time before it went away.
“We’d better get back to work,” she said. “Cat will have our hides if we don’t make at least a little progress.”
“Joe-leee! Joe-leee!” Annabelle burst through the door, shrieking at the top of her lungs. “Daddy’s here!”
Joely’s stomach tightened into a fist as William appeared in the doorway behind Annabelle. She moved away from Zach’s hug but not before William took note of the embrace. She almost laughed at the absurdity of the situation.
Annabelle flung herself into Joely’s arms. “Did you know Daddy was coming,” she demanded, “or were you surprised, too?”
“I was very surprised,” she said, summoning up her best smile. “Isn’t it wonderful, honey?”
“Yes!” Annabelle did a pirouette. “Brilliant!”
Zach stepped forward and extended his right hand. “Zach Porter,” he said. “Good to meet you.”
“William Bishop.” They shook hands. “You’re Karen’s husband?”
“Brother-in-law,” Zach said.
The two men took each other’s measure as Annabelle, giddy with excitement, danced through the mess.
“Annabelle!” Joely warned. “Be careful. You might hurt yourself.”
“I won’t!” Annabelle said. “I’m just twirling!”
“There’s broken glass, honey. Come over here where I can keep an eye on you.”
She watched Zach watch William watching her and experienced a moment of total disorientation. There she was in Idle Point, the town where she’d grown up, with her gay friend, her English lover, and the little girl she loved like a daughter. For a moment she didn’t recognize her own life or her place in it.
“The fire itself didn’t do all of this damage,” she said, as William’s gaze began to take in the wreckage. “The fire department had a hand in some of it.”
He nodded, his eyes traveling past the boarded-up windows, the water-soaked wallpaper, the overturned bookshelves. “This is the house where you grew up.”
She nodded. “This is it. We moved in with Grandma Fran when I was still a baby, and she left it to Mimi when she died.”
She tried to see it through his eyes and almost laughed out loud.
His gaze landed on her. “You lived here with your parents?”
“Mark was long gone by the time we got here,” she said as Zach tried to interest Annabelle in a box of old Christmas cards he’d found tucked in Mimi’s bedroom closet. “It was just us girls.”
“Catherine tried to sketch out your family tree for me over lunch.”
“Enough to put you off food permanently, isn’t it?”
He didn’t exactly recoil, but she could see that her flip comment set him back.
“Sorry,” she said. “It’s a family thing. When we’re nervous, we get sarcastic.”
“Catherine told me about that, too.” He met her eyes. “I told her you weren’t like that in Loch Craig. She figured it’s something in the Maine air.”
“I’m glad you two hit it off.”
“We did,” he said. She could see him relax the slightest bit. “I like her.”
She forced her smile wider. “Great!”
Not that it mattered. It wasn’t like they were destined to be one big happy family. Cat and William would probably never see each other again once he went back to Scotland.
“What’s this?” Annabelle pulled her hand out from underneath a sodden carpet runner and held up a thin metal box.
“Looks like an old cigarette case,” Zach said.
“Let me see, honey.” Joely turned the damp metal container over in her hand. “You’re right,” she said to Zach. “Looks like it was some kind of advertising promotion for Chesterfield cigarettes.”
“Open it up,” William said. “I heard something rattle when you turned it over.”
The lid was rusted shut. She fiddled with the latch and then the hinges.
“Let me,” William said. “I was master of the keys at boarding school.”
Zach’s eyebrows shot skyward, and Joely laughed. “English humor,” she said. “It’s an acquired taste.”
William’s eyes met hers, and for a second she had a glimpse of the man who had swept her up to his house in Loch Craig and given her a home, but it was gone before she could imprint the image on her heart.
He did something to the hinge with his thumbnail, and the lid popped open like magic. She held out her hand, and he tipped the cigarette case over and a gold ring and three polished stones fell into her palm.
“Pyrite,” William said.
“Fool’s gold,” Zach amended.
Fitting,
Joely thought. Her mother’s entire life had been built on a foundation of fool’s gold. She slid the stones back into the cigarette case, then carried the dented gold ring over to the window.
Joely thought. Her mother’s entire life had been built on a foundation of fool’s gold. She slid the stones back into the cigarette case, then carried the dented gold ring over to the window.
“Not too close,” Zach warned. “They have telephoto lenses trained on the house.”
“He’s right,” William said. “We had to run the gauntlet to get in here.”
It was a cheap band, devoid of either artistry or significant gold content, remarkable only for its size. No stones of any kind. No design work etched on the surface.
She slid it onto her right thumb. “This thing is huge,” she said. “I could almost fit two fingers in it.”
“Is there an inscription inside?” William asked as Annabelle sat down on the floor to play with the three polished stones in the tin cigarette case.
“I didn’t even think to look.” Rings, with or without sentimental inscriptions, didn’t even register on her radar screen.
She held the ring up to the thin stream of sunlight that filtered through a crack in the closed blinds. “I don’t think there’s anything inside this thing but rust.”
“Gold doesn’t rust,” Zach said. “That’s plain old dirt.”
“Who said this was gold?” She held the ring closer to the window, turning it slightly so she could get a better viewing angle. “I’m not sure, but I think I see something.”
“Let me.” William reached for the ring, and she dropped it into his outstretched hand. He held the ring overhead, twisting and turning it until he found the right angle. “I see something . . . it’s badly etched . . . there! I think it reads
Mary
. . . no, it’s
Mark
. . . with a date.” He handed the ring back to Joely. “February 16, 1961.”
Mary
. . . no, it’s
Mark
. . . with a date.” He handed the ring back to Joely. “February 16, 1961.”
Other books
VANISHED, A Romantic Suspense Novel (Edgars Family Novel) by Suzanne Ferrell
La metamorfosis by Franz Kafka
Last Kiss Goodnight (Otherworld Assassin) by Showalter, Gena
The Right Thing to Do by Jonathan Kellerman
Shipwrecked by Jenna Stone
The Beast of Barcroft by Bill Schweigart
And Then Came Paulette by Barbara Constantine, Justin Phipps
Hope and Vengeance (Saa Thalarr, book 1): Saa Thalarr, book 1 by Connie Suttle
Painted Love Letters by Catherine Bateson
Duty and Devotion by Tere Michaels
