Someone Like You (27 page)

Zach whistled. “Two days after the Saint Valentine’s Day dance.”

Two days after Mark and Mimi met, and the whole thing started.

“This is my father’s wedding ring,” she said to William. “That’s Mimi for you. She saves everything.”

The attempt at sarcastic humor fell flat, and the two men shifted uncomfortably and tried not to meet her eyes. Annabelle, bless her, was oblivious to everything but the cigarette case and the three polished stones.

“What are you going to do with it?” Zach asked as she turned it over in her palm.

“You mean, after I take it to Tiffany for an appraisal?”

“Annabelle.” William crouched down to his daughter’s level. “Why don’t we go for a walk near the lighthouse?”

“I don’t want to.”

“I do,” he said, “and I’d like your company.”

He held out his hand and helped Annabelle to her feet.

“Good going,” Zach said as father and daughter disappeared down the front walk. “Why don’t you save time and drive them to the airport while you’re at it?”

“You’re getting on my nerves, Zach,” she said. “I think you forget this is my family we’re talking about, not yours.”

“What are you going to do with that ring?” he asked again. “And don’t tell me you’re donating it to the Smithsonian. It may not have any sentimental value for you, but it might mean something to Cat.”

“I’m not going to toss it in the recycle bin, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“The thought crossed my mind.”

She glanced around the trashed-out room. “I hate this,” she said. “You have no idea how much I hate being here.”

There were ghosts in every room, memories that only served to remind her of all the ways in which they had failed as a family. A long, sad legacy of getting it wrong.

“Then let’s get back to work,” Zach said. “We can’t leave it all for Cat.”

Yes, we could,
she thought as they both resumed sorting through the boxes of paper and photos, old shoes and faded T-shirts. If she walked away from Idle Point and this whole ugly mess, Cat would pick up the slack the way she had always done, and Mimi would never know the difference.

But Joely would and, for the first time in her life, that mattered to her.

LAQUITA WAS CHANGING Mimi’s IV when Cat arrived later that afternoon.

“I practically needed a security pass to get in here,” she said after they exchanged hellos. “Has it been this bad all day?”

“Worse,” Laquita said. “Security finally figured out how to keep them corralled in the ground-floor lobby.”

“I can’t believe this is happening. She’s been living here for over twenty-five years, and nobody cared, and now it’s like Madonna moved to town.”

“Go figure,” Laquita said as she stripped off her gloves and dropped them into the proper receptacle. “Maybe the universe finally remembered she’s here.”

“Maybe that’s it,” Cat said as she leaned over Mimi and brushed a lock of silvered brown hair off her mother’s forehead. “The universe finally woke up.” She looked up at Laquita. “How is she today?”

“Restless.”

“Is she in pain?”

“I don’t think so. She’s just unsettled.”

“It’s not going to get much better than this, is it?” she asked quietly.

“I don’t know, honey,” Laquita said. “Anything’s possible.”

“Friend to friend.”

Laquita placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently. “Probably not.”

Cat nodded as her gaze settled once again on her mother. “That’s pretty much what I thought.”

“A bit of unsolicited advice: there are some wonderful long-term care facilities within a thirty-minute drive.”

“I know. I had a long visit with the friendly people in financial services just before I came up here. They spelled out the options.” She let out a long breath. “Why does even thinking about long-term care make me feel like I’m failing her?”

“Because you’re a woman, and we think we have to do it all. Don’t underestimate yourself, Cat. You’ll do what’s best for Mimi and what’s right for yourself and your baby.” She patted her shoulder. “I’d better go touch up my eye-liner. You never know when you’re going to bump into a rogue photographer around here.”

The visit with the financial office had set Cat back on her heels. Long-term care was a pricey proposition. Mimi had been declared partially disabled a few years back and was receiving a small Social Security stipend, but not nearly enough to make a difference. Cat thanked God she had had the foresight to enroll Mimi under a long-term-care insurance plan and the income to keep the payments current. Without that, the future would look even scarier than it was looking right now.

The restlessness Laquita had mentioned wasn’t apparent as she sat there talking softly to her mother. Mimi seemed calm, almost tranquil, as she lay there in bed looking up at the ceiling. Every now and again her gaze would travel from ceiling to door to Cat, then back to the ceiling again.

“I wish I knew what you’re thinking,” Cat whispered. “I never really have.”

Her father had been a shooting star racing across her childhood. She blinked once and he was gone, but the memories left behind were still bright. Mimi was more like the moon, beautiful, changeable, but nothing without the sun.

“I’m going to have a baby, Mimi,” she said as she held her mother’s hand. “I was waiting to tell you until I was further along, but now’s as good a time as any.” She told Mimi the due date. She told her a little about Michael, about their very logical, very adult plan to raise the baby in two households, three hundred miles apart.

Suddenly it didn’t sound either logical or adult. It sounded fraught with uncertainty, and she wished she had stopped with the words “I’m pregnant.”

Laquita had told her about the doctors’ secret exit that took her down a back staircase to the basement, which let out at the far end of the parking lot away from the lurking paparazzi.

Her cell phone rang as she pulled up in front of Mimi’s house.

“You’re famous,” a familiar voice said.

“Wait a second,” she said. “I’m parking the car. I need both hands.”

“Come on, Doyle,” Michael said. “You don’t even have sidewalks up there.”

She parked behind Zach’s car and turned off the engine. “We take driving seriously up here, Yanovsky, unlike you New Yorkers.”

God, she loved his laugh. The sound took her by surprise every time.

“So tell me how I’m famous,” she said. “Did you see Julia Roberts walking down Rodeo Drive wearing one of my sweaters?”

“I was at my agent’s office this afternoon. He has live feed pumped in from the studios, all the syndicated entertainment shows, they monitor client mentions, all that.”

“Oh no.” She didn’t need a road map to figure out where this was going. “Another story about Mark and Mimi?”

“Four,” he said. “
Access Hollywood
has a shot of you entering the hospital to see your mother.”

Her eyes flew to the rearview mirror. “I knew I should’ve put on some eye makeup.”

“So who was the mouthpiece?”

She laughed. “Don’t tell me. You’re channeling Raymond Chandler again.”

“He looked like a male model.”

The jealous edge to his voice made her laugh again, louder this time. “I hadn’t noticed.”

“So who is he?”

Another, wiser woman might have played it out a little bit longer, but Cat had never been very good at romantic game playing. “That’s Joely’s William.”

“I thought he was in Japan.”

“So did she. He showed up early this afternoon, jet-lagged and not too happy.” She filled him in on the awkward reunion. “The thing is, I really like him. I found myself wishing things were better between the two of them. I wouldn’t mind having him as part of the family.”

“And Annabelle?”

“Oh, Michael, she’s a delight. Funny, quirky . . . I’d say she was an original, but that sounds silly when you’re talking about a seven-year-old child. Looking at her makes me—” She stopped midsentence.

“Makes you think what?”

“Ignore me. The hormones just kicked in again. Be glad you’re on the other side of the continent, Michael. These days I get emotional over trash bag commercials.”

“Nobody likes to see a family break up,” he said. “You don’t have to apologize for being sad.”

“I wish you could have seen them together,” she said. “Very stiff. Very polite. Like strangers except there was this current running between them that I’m not even sure they were aware of. A bond you could almost see.”

“I thought you weren’t a romantic, Cat.”

“I’m not. I’m just trying to explain what I saw.”

“You were describing how it made you feel.”

“You’re wrong.”

“I know what I heard.”

“And I know what I said. I was talking about William and Joely. Nothing else.”

“It’s not a crime to hope for a happy ending.”

“That’s the writer in you talking. Happy endings don’t translate well to real life.”

“It doesn’t hurt to try to get close, does it?”

Two vans with satellite dishes attached to the roof pulled up in front of the house.

“Uh-oh,” she said. “We’ve got company.”

“Press?”

“Two TV crews,” she said.

“Where are you parked?”

“In Mimi’s driveway, right behind Zach’s car.”

“Zach? Who’s Zach?”

“I’ll e-mail you the cast of characters when I get home. Right now I’d better make a run for the front door.”

“I could be there this time tomorrow if you say the word.”

“It’s enough to know that you would.”

“You’re a tough one, Doyle,” he said.

“Not half as tough as you think, Yanovsky,” she answered and then she hung up just in time. Another moment longer and she might have done something crazy and told him she missed him.

 

KAREN, BLESS HER heart, had left a picnic basket filled with barbecue chicken, potato salad, and fresh tomatoes in the studio and a pretty amazing note.

“Diane Sawyer?” Joely said as they trooped across the lawn to the house. “That has to be a joke.”

“I don’t think so,” Cat said as she unlocked the back door. “Michael phoned. He said the story’s being picked up by four or five other entertainment shows tonight.”

“We’d better call hospital security and let them know,” Joely said. “They may need to hire on some more guards.”

They looked at each other and said, “Diane Sawyer!” then burst into tired laughter. The thought of paparazzi roaming wild through Idle Point was surreal at the very least, but the idea of Diane Sawyer leaving phone messages put the whole thing right over the top.

“Just when you thought life couldn’t get any stranger,” Cat said, and they started laughing all over again.

“Do you think we should have sent William and Annabelle off to the supermarket alone?” Joely asked as they put the picnic baskets down on the countertop in the kitchen.

“The man does business around the world,” Cat said as she pulled out a huge container of spicy, juicy chicken. “I think he can handle a grocery store.”

Joely opened the refrigerator and searched around for the iced tea. “So what exactly did you two talk about after I left this afternoon?”

“You,” Cat said. “Oh, don’t look so stricken. You were just one tiny branch on our whole twisted family tree. I figured somebody had better get him up to speed if he was going to go out there and handle the press.”

“I thought all he did was read a prepared statement.”

“You’ve been living with him for over four years, Joely. I think he had a right to know a little something about the family he was representing.”

Maybe she was tired. Maybe she was just feeling a little raw and vulnerable. Whatever the reason, Cat’s words struck an unexpected nerve. “And how much does this Michael of yours know about the family? Give me a phone number, Cat, so I can bring him up to speed, too.”

“You know what?” Cat said. “Maybe that’s not such a bad idea. Maybe it’s time I practiced what I’ve been preaching.”

Leave it to her big sister to know exactly how to take the wind from her sails.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Cat said more gently this time. “I meant what I said. It’s all out there now anyway, honey, and it isn’t going to go away anytime soon. Mark and Mimi are the ones who set this whole thing in motion. We’re just along for their ride.”

Joely poured two glasses of cool iced tea and slid one toward Cat. “I don’t like that analogy,” she said. “You make us sound like cogs in a wheel.”

“When it comes to their lives, that’s what we are, honey, that’s what we’ve always been.”

Her throat tightened against memories of a childhood spent longing for something she could never have. “Maybe it’s easy for you,” she said. “You had ten years with them. I barely had ten minutes before Mark walked out.”

“And here I always envied you,” Cat said. “At least you didn’t spend ten years wondering if you were the reason your parents were so unhappy together.”

“You’re right,” she said. “I didn’t. But how do you think it felt to know your father walked out the door as soon as you were old enough to eat solid food? You didn’t have the market cornered on guilt, Cat. There was more than enough of that commodity to go around.”

“And yet here we both are, picking up the pieces for her,” Cat said. “Maybe we’re as crazy as Mimi.”

“There’s a happy thought for you,” Joely said. “Since she was handing out presents from her gene pool, why didn’t she throw some musical talent my way?”

“I wouldn’t mind her thighs,” Cat said with a shake of her head. “The woman is in her sixties, and she doesn’t have a drop of cellulite.”