Someone Like You (32 page)

They struggled to keep up a light smattering of conversation on the short drive to the hospital.

“I didn’t know Zach had his own plane,” Joely said. “I’m impressed.”

“He learned to fly in college,” Cat said as she turned into the parking lot. “Who knew he’d be able to afford his own plane one day?”

Life was nothing if not surprising.

 

MICHAEL HAD BARELY cleared the jetway when he flipped on his cell phone to check for messages. The voice mail symbol appeared immediately, followed by the text mail envelope. He clicked on the symbol.

A joke, he told himself. Exactly the kind of “gotcha” they liked to perpetrate on each other.

He clicked on the next text mail envelope.

He laughed, imagining the scowl on her face as she waited for him to respond with a crack about The Fockers.

He clicked on the third text mail envelope. This one had to contain the punch line.

It wasn’t a joke. There was no punch line. This was a love letter.

Twenty minutes later, he and his rented Ford Escort were on their way to Maine.

 

WILLIAM AND ANNABELLE stopped by Mimi’s house in search of Joely.

“Come and gone,” Zach said, up to his elbows in dust. “They’re at the hospital.”

“They told you their father’s in town?” he asked.

“I’m still trying to wrap my brain around it,” Zach said. “The guy was my idol.”

William took note of the past tense. “Did you know him?”

“He was gone by the time Mimi and the girls moved here. I was a fan.”

“From what I’ve been seeing, he had a lot of them.”

“The Doyles were huge,” Zach said, wiping his hands on the legs of his trousers. “Everyone out there today owes them a debt of gratitude.”

Regret lodged in William’s throat like a stone. He knew so little about Joely, about her family. Why had they both been so reluctant to share anything beyond the here and now?

“Annabelle and I are leaving tonight,” he said, extending his right hand. “I’m sorry we won’t have more time. I’d like to hear about The Doyles.”

Zach looked at him for a moment. “I’m sorry, too.” He drew his right hand along the side of his trousers once more. “Nothing I like more than a captive audience for my Doyles stories.”

They shook hands briefly, then Zach crouched down to make a proper good-bye to Annabelle, who flung her arms around the man’s neck and sobbed like her world was coming to an end.

“A thespian?” Zach asked with an amused grin.

“Diva,” William said. “I fear the onset of puberty more than I can say.”

“Can we say good-bye to Bess and Mamie?” Annabelle pleaded after they left Zach to his work.

“The sheep?”

“Al-pak-ah,” she enunciated. “Please! Can we?”

“Karen’s not home today,” he said.

“Bess and Mamie are.”

“You don’t wander around private property without permission, Annabelle. You know better than that.”

“Where’s Joely?” she demanded. “She would take me to see Bess and Mamie. I know she would.”

“Joely and Cat are visiting their mother.”

“Mimi,” Annabelle provided. “Her house went on fire.”

He checked his watch. They needed to be on the road to Portland before long. Joely hadn’t said much that morning when he told her they would be leaving tonight for Scotland. Still, he couldn’t leave without a proper good-bye.

He headed for the hospital.

 

“THE DAUGHTERS!” A voice cried out as Joely and Cat approached the entrance to the hospital.

Cameras seemed to materialize from nowhere. Reporters literally leaped from the bushes. The only bright spot was the sight of William and Annabelle standing in the lobby.

“We’ll get through it,” Cat said to Joely.

“We don’t have a choice,” Joely said. “We’re surrounded.”

Neither one of them was surprised to find their father at the center of the storm. Mark, still clad in the same jeans and shirt he had been wearing last night, appeared in the hospital entrance like an aging avenging angel.

“They won’t let me see her,” he announced to his daughters and every microphone within range. “She’s my wife. They can’t deny me the chance to see my wife.”

A reporter stepped into their path. “You’re Mark and Mimi’s daughters,” she said, brandishing a microphone like a weapon. “Are you here to help reunite your parents?”

“We’re here to see our mother,” Cat said, “if you’ll let us through.”

“That’s why I’m here, too,” Mark said as he joined them. “Those fascist bureaucrats won’t let me past the lobby.”

“Good for them,” Cat muttered, then wished she hadn’t when the reporter flashed a triumphant what-a-sound-bite grin.

“You’re keeping Mark Doyle from his wife and partner?” another reporter asked at the top of his voice. “What are your reasons?”

“Ignore them,” Joely whispered. “Don’t let them drag you into a fight.”

But Cat was already engaged. She dug in her heels and faced down the throng. “My mother had a serious stroke,” she said. “She sustained numerous broken bones and is in considerable pain. My first and only concern is her safety and comfort.”

Mark?
Her mother’s voice sounded over her shoulder. She spun around, but Mimi wasn’t there.
Mark! Is that you?

“That’s my concern, too,” their father said. “I think my daughters know that.”

“Your daughters don’t know anything about you,” Cat snapped, “and maybe—”

“We’re going inside, Cat,” a familiar voice said. “Don’t say another word.”

William put an arm around her shoulder and led her into the lobby with Joely, Annabelle, and Mark close behind.

“You don’t want to do that, Cat,” William said when they were safely inside. “Don’t feed the tabloids any more than you have to.”

“Tell him that.” She gestured angrily in her father’s direction. “He’s the reason those vultures are out there.”

“No, he isn’t.” Joely touched her arm with a gentle hand. “He didn’t set this whole thing in motion, Cat. Jack Willis did.”

Cat wanted to argue, but she couldn’t. Of course Joely was right. Karen had told her that Willis, one of the volunteer firefighters and a music lover, had passed the news on to his brother in Florida, who immediately phoned in the tip. Jack and his brother cashed the check. Mark was only looking to benefit from the fallout.

“I’m not asking for anything from you girls,” Mark said. “I just want to see my wife.”

William took Annabelle’s hand and stepped away from the family circle.

“No,” Cat said. “Absolutely not.”

He’s coming home any day, girls. Just wait and see.
Mimi’s clear, sweet voice filled her head.

“I know how you feel, Cat,” Joely said. “I feel the same way. But this isn’t about us. It never has been.”

“Mimi’s in no position to make any decisions.”

“Then let’s make the decision you know she’d make for herself. She’s spent twenty-seven years waiting for this moment. I don’t want to be the one who takes it away from her.”

“He doesn’t deserve a second chance.”

“No, he doesn’t,” Joely said. “But maybe our mother does.”

MARK WAS QUIET as they rode the elevator to the fourth floor. The brash and aging rebel had been replaced by an old man who kept nervously touching his thinning hair.

“She had a stroke,” Joely reminded him. “She won’t know who you are.”

“I understand.”

“I’m not sure you do,” Cat said. “She’s not a young woman anymore.”

“I know that.”

“She was badly hurt, Mark.” Joely wanted to make sure he knew exactly what to expect so there would be no scenes that might upset Mimi. “There are a lot of tubes and machines. We don’t want you to be surprised.”

“Let me put it this way,” Cat broke in. “You do anything to upset Mimi, and so help me God, I’ll make sure you’re the one in a hospital bed.”

His shoulders slumped, and he looked down at the floor.

“Cat,” Joely said softly. “Was that necessary?”

“Yes,” Cat said. “It was necessary.”

The ten-year-old girl who had loved her daddy more than life itself was in that elevator with them, and she needed to be heard. But it was a seven-year-old English girl who was on Joely’s mind.

She wished Annabelle hadn’t seen that exchange in the lobby. She wished she could spin the hands on her watch the way she had on the night of the solstice and claim those few minutes all over again. She wanted Annabelle to know only the sunny side of life.

Thank God William felt that way, too. He had quickly spirited the child away from the throng and Joely had experienced a pang of sorrow as she watched the two of them disappear down the corridor.

The elevator stopped on four, and the doors slid open. Mark stepped aside so Cat and Joely could exit first, then followed them to Room 415.

The air was thick with tension. You could almost see the sparks of nervous energy coming from Cat, while Joely was sure her heart was going to split open. Mark seemed to be aging right before their eyes. The closer they got to the door, the older and smaller he grew as if the weight of the lost years were grinding him into dust. She didn’t mean to, she wasn’t even sure exactly why she did it, but she reached out and touched his hand.

“It’ll be okay,” she said, and he managed a smile.

He still didn’t seem to connect with her, but that was okay. She would survive.

She reached into the pocket of her trousers. “I found this yesterday,” she said. “I think it’s yours.”

She dropped his old wedding band into his palm and all of the sweet emotion she had hoped to see washed over his face.

“Thanks,” he managed as his long fingers closed around the circle of gold. “She kept it all these years.”

Maybe she was a fool but she didn’t have the heart to tell him about the long-forgotten cigarette box under the carpet.

“Mimi’s in the first bed,” Cat said as she opened the door. “Let me prepare her before you say anything.”

Mark nodded. Joely had the feeling he was too nervous to speak.

Mimi looked tiny and frail. Her graying brown hair was swept up and away from her heart-shaped face, which only served to highlight the starkness of the black stitches against her pale skin. The array of tubes and apparatus were daunting even now that Joely had grown accustomed to them. Next to her, she heard a low moan from deep inside her father’s gut.

“Morning, Mimi.” Cat bent on the right side of the bed. “You look pretty today.”

Mimi’s eyes opened and roamed Cat’s face as if the secret of her own identity might be hidden there.

“Hi, Mom.” Joely crouched down on Mimi’s left side and gently stroked her hand. “It’s Joely.”

Mimi’s gaze shifted in her direction, but there was no recognition in her eyes.

“Mimi, we have a big surprise for you,” Cat said. Neither one of them knew how much their mother understood. “Daddy’s come home.”

No response.

Cat gestured for Mark to step forward and slip into her place. He was shaking so hard Joely was afraid he would break apart.

“Talk to her,” Joely urged. “Let her hear your voice.”

He opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He cleared his throat and tried again.

“Mimi, I’m here. It took me a long time, but I’m here.”

Joely’s chest hurt too much to breathe. She grabbed Cat’s hand and moved away from the bed.

“Mimi,” he said again. “You haven’t changed . . . you’re still my beautiful girl.”

Mimi turned in the direction of his voice. Her eyes, so wild and unfocused before, seemed to gain clarity as her gaze settled on his still-handsome face.

The sisters held on to each other as their father leaned closer to the bed.

“What did you say, Mimi? Did you say something?”

She lifted her head from her pillow, eyes roaming his face for something only she could possibly understand.

“She’s upset,” Cat said, taking a step toward Mimi.

“No” Joely held on to her arm. “Wait a minute.”

He reached for Mimi’s hand and Joely saw he was wearing the wedding band at the same time Cat noticed it.

“You gave him the ring?” Cat glared at Joely.

“It belongs to him,” she said and to her surprise Cat backed down.

Mimi murmured something unintelligible.

“What does she want?” he asked, not taking his gaze from Mimi. “Am I hurting her?”

“Just talk to her,” Cat said, her voice husky.

He did better than that. He began to sing a song Joely had never heard before, a sad lament for a brown-haired girl and the boy who broke her heart. The sound of his voice seemed to soothe Mimi. Her restless movements slowed down. Her gaze met his and stayed there. And then suddenly the room was filled with the sweet sound of her voice rising to meet his the way it had all those years ago.

All her life Joely had searched for a fragment of memory, a whisper of something that would prove to her that once upon a time there had been a family named Doyle, but she always came up blank. How could she remember what she had never known or experienced? Now here they were, the four of them, gathered together in Mimi’s hospital room, bound by a common past, by sorrow, and by love.

She reached again for Cat’s hand and held tight, wanting to anchor this moment in time and space and memory forever. Flawed and imperfect, this was her family. She didn’t have to understand them. She didn’t have to like them. None of that mattered. Their blood coursed through her veins. Their hopes and fears and dreams were all part of her, always had been, always would be.