The Chesapeake Diaries Series (223 page)

Ellie nodded. “I get it. I do. But it isn’t easy to tell someone that you are not who they think you are.”

“Oh, but you’re exactly who I thought you were.” Her eyes had welled with tears and he reached over to wipe them away with his thumb. “Changing your last name isn’t going to change who you are. I don’t like you any more because you’re Lynley’s daughter, and I don’t like you any less because you’re Chapman’s.”

“I didn’t know how to tell you. I didn’t want it to come out wrong. I didn’t want you to get up and leave.”

“That will never happen.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the truth before we …” She stopped. “Well, actually, at one point last night, I did come into the living room to tell you but I got distracted.”

“I’m hoping to get you distracted again very soon.”

The front door slammed.

“Ellie, can we come in now?” Gabi called. “We’re getting cold.”

“Of course. We’re in the kitchen.” Ellie smiled at Cameron. “To be continued.”

Cam shook his head. “Nothing more to say on the subject, unless you do.”

“I don’t know if I do.”

“Feel free to revisit whenever you need to.”

Ellie squeezed his hands and got up to meet Gabi in the doorway.

“We’re just having coffee,” Ellie told her. “Would you like some?”

“No, thank you.” Gabi unhooked Dune’s leash and took it to the back hall to hang up. When she returned to the kitchen, she said excitedly, “We saw an eagle. At least, I think it was an eagle.”

“Very large bird, huge wingspan, white head?” Cam asked.

Gabi nodded. “I didn’t know they were that big. I never saw one before. It took my breath away.”

“You’ll see them from time to time around the Bay,” he assured her.

“I was afraid it would come after Dune, so we came back.” Gabi addressed Ellie. “Is it okay if I unpack some of my clothes and put them in the dresser and the closet?”

“Of course,” Ellie assured her.

“Thanks.” She turned back to Cameron. “It was nice meeting you.”

“Nice meeting you, too, Gabi.”

Gabi’s footsteps padded down the hall and up the steps.

“She seems to be adjusting awfully quickly,” Cam noted. “Is that normal?”

“I think she’s trying really hard to make me think she is, but she has to be hurting. She’s tried to act as if this is all very normal when it decidedly is anything but. No one adjusts that quickly when their life is turned upside down. But I have to give her a lot of credit for the effort she’s making. I don’t know that I was as strong at her age.”

“Well, I should probably go and give you some time to be with her. You have a lot to talk about, I’m sure.”

“I don’t know where to start.”

“You’ve been doing okay so far. The two of you will figure it out.”

“What about us?” she asked solemnly. “Are we good?”

“We haven’t
not
been good. We were good yesterday and last night and this morning. We’re good now, and we’ll be good tomorrow and the day after that.”

He took a strand of her hair, wrapped it around his finger, and used it to gently pull her closer to him. He brushed his lips across hers, then kissed the side of her mouth. “We’re good, Ellie.”

The rain began as misty drops that showed up silently on Cam’s windshield as he made his way home. By the time he pulled into his own driveway, it was a steady beat against the hood of the pickup. He jumped out of the truck and ran to the side porch. Once under the overhanging roof, he fitted the key into the door and pushed it open. The house was quiet, as if too well mannered to greet him with anything other than the hush from the hot-air vents. Usually he appreciated it. Today he could use a little more than white noise to drown out the cacophony in his head.

All he’d been able to think about all day was Ellie. He’d never experienced that kick to the gut he’d heard other guys talk about, but the first time he saw her, he felt sucker punched. Still did. She was everything he’d ever looked for and never thought he’d find. Funny that the two things he wanted most in life were so deeply entwined. The woman and the house.

How ironic that, to have the one, he’d have to say good-bye to the other.

Not for the first time, Cam wondered why life couldn’t be less complicated and more simple.

The Cavanaughs’ house had been a sanctuary to Cam, the calm in the midst of the storm. It had been a refuge for him and Wendy that terrible day when the whole world had shifted and they were suddenly cast out from their family—such as it had been—and became “the O’Connor orphans.” It had been their first taste of what a normal home life might be like, their first up-close-and-personal with consistently rational adults. Meals were at the same times every day and everyone was expected to be at the table at six o’clock every night. Homework was expected to be completed, and if there was a problem understanding something, Lilly or Ted would be there to offer help. People spoke kindly and listened when others spoke and engaged in real conversations, no shouting, no screaming, no slamming doors or loud cursing. The Cavanaughs’ house was definitely a no-drama zone. Even as an adult, when things bothered him or he felt confused or conflicted about something, he’d stop by the house at the end of Bay View Road. When Lilly was still alive, they’d sit and talk, and Cam would always feel better—calmer—just for having spent some time with her. After she passed, sometimes he’d let himself in and he’d sit for a while, sometimes in the living room, sometimes in the kitchen, and he’d let the memory of her spirit and loving heart soothe him.

Cam believed that if he’d grown up to be a good man, he had Ted Cavanaugh to thank for being the
role model he’d needed, when he needed it, and Lilly to thank for loving him and Wendy when they’d most felt unlovable. The Cavanaughs’ house represented all that was good in St. Dennis to Cameron, and knowing that it would be his by summer—when Ellie said she’d be ready to sell—should have gladdened his heart.

But that was before he’d acknowledged his feelings for Ellie, before he realized just how deeply those feelings went. Before he understood that he’d gladly give up the house if only the woman would stay.

Chapter 19

E
llie took her time washing the coffee cup that Cam had used, drawing out the process by rinsing it first in hot water, then in cold. She wanted to curl up in the corner all by herself and sort out the events of the past twenty-four hours but there simply wasn’t time. Any sorting or thinking she was going to do would have to wait until she crawled into bed that night and could go over it all: the night spent with Cam and the new direction their relationship was taking; the fact that he’d known who she was and didn’t tell her that he knew; the revision of what she’d believed to be her parents’ love story from that of total mutual devotion to a husband who’d cheated. Gabi …

Ellie wondered if her mother had known that her father had strayed. Had she known about Gabi? Was Clifford’s infidelity the reason Lynley began spending less time at home and more time working, accepting modeling jobs that would find her on any given day in some exotic place far from home?

Ellie had to accept the fact that those were questions that most likely would never be answered. The
questions about Cameron and their relationship—those were very different. Her feelings for him left her totally confused. She’d thought she was in love with Henry, but Henry had never ignited her whole being the way Cam did. When she was with Cameron, she felt totally alive, totally engaged in whatever they were doing or talking about. Her mind didn’t wander onto mundane things like a pair of shoes she’d seen in the window of a shop earlier that day or which trendy restaurant they’d go to for dinner. Cameron was always in the present, and he brought her with him and kept her there.

It was so strange to think that what had begun as the most difficult time of her life was turning out to be the most rewarding in so many ways.

And then there was Gabi.

Ellie’d agreed to take her in because she couldn’t bear to send any kid into the hell of foster care and the possibility that she’d be bounced from one foster home to another. It wasn’t Gabi’s fault that Clifford had cheated on his wife with her mother. It wasn’t her fault that her mother was dead and she had no one else to turn to. It wasn’t her fault that there was no one living who loved her enough to give her a home. Ellie hadn’t really wanted her, but she wasn’t heartless enough to turn her back on a kid who needed her. Even if the last thing Ellie needed right now was a kid to complicate her life.

Right now that kid was upstairs trying to make herself at home in a place where she had to know she hadn’t been wanted.

Ellie turned off the voices in her head. Too much had happened today for her to think rationally about
any of it. It was time to shut down the inner chatter and deal with things in order of priority.

She went upstairs and stood in the doorway and watched Gabi sorting through her clothes. She was struck by Gabi’s obvious attempts to make even this task seem, well, normal.

“I have more clothes than dresser space.” Gabi looked up when she heard Ellie in the hall. “I hung stuff in the closet, but I have a bunch of other stuff that doesn’t fit anywhere.”

“You can use a dresser from one of the other rooms if you like. There’s one that matches this one across the hall.” Ellie looked around the room. “We could move out that chair and put the dresser there.”

“I was thinking that would be a good place to read,” Gabi told her. “I like to read at night before I go to bed.”

“An excellent habit. Did you bring any books with you?”

“A few. Just my favorites. I didn’t have time to pack up everything. I don’t know what’s going to happen to all our stuff. All my mom’s stuff.” A dark cloud crossed Gabi’s face. “What happens to people’s stuff when they die?”

“Depends. If your mother had a will, then things will be divided up in accordance with the instructions she left.” Even to Ellie, that explanation sounded stiff. “Do you know if she had a will, or if she had a lawyer?”

“She had a lawyer.” Gabi’s eyes lit, remembering. “That’s how I got to go to the Foresters. Because her will said that if anything happened to her, I was to go
to my father.” Gabi made a face. “I guess she wrote that part before he went to jail.”

“Do you know the name of the firm?”

“Mr. Forester would know.”

“Maybe it’s in that envelope that you brought with you. Do you know where it is?”

Gabi nodded and leaned into one of the big boxes Jesse had carried up for her. “It’s here.” She handed it over to Ellie, who immediately opened it and started leafing through the papers.

“Let’s see if we can find … oh, here it is. Donald Ansel. Germaine, Ansel and Gallagher.” She glanced at her watch. “It’s probably too late to call now but we can call on Monday.” Ellie paused. “Actually, maybe we should have Jesse call.…”

“He can find out where my mom’s stuff is? Where the rest of my stuff is?” Gabi looked hopeful.

“I don’t know why not.”
And I don’t know why Max Forester hadn’t dealt with this, but whatever. It will be dealt with now
, Ellie resolved.

“I didn’t have much time to pack.” Gabi sat on the edge of her bed and Dune jumped up next to her. “It was hard to know what to take.”

“Didn’t anyone help you?”

“Mrs. Carroll, next door, helped. She said I should just take my winter stuff because the cold weather was coming.” Gabi stared at the space between her feet on the carpet. “She said I could only take a few books because there wouldn’t be room in the car.”

“Mr. Forester’s car?”

Gabi nodded.

“We’ll work this out next week, and we’ll see if we can get your books and your other things.”

“My summer clothes, too?”

Ellie knew Gabi wasn’t thinking about what she’d wear next year as much as where she’d be. She was asking if she’d still be here.

“Whichever of your things you want, we’ll bring. Maybe you could make a list,” Ellie suggested. “In the meantime, let’s see where we could fit another dresser in here, maybe rearrange the furniture if we have to.…”

The furniture was rearranged, the second dresser brought in and filled, and dinner made and eaten by eight thirty. They’d barely finished eating when Gabi began yawning, her eyes at half-mast.

“Why don’t you turn in early?” Ellie suggested. “You’ve had one heck of a long day.”

“A life-changing day,” Gabi replied. “A day after which my life will never be the same, ever.”

Ellie suppressed a smile. Had she been this dramatic at thirteen?

“We’ll need to put clean sheets on your bed,” Ellie told her.

“I did that already. I switched the sheets that were on the bed in the first room. They smelled clean.”

“They were. Good thinking.” Ellie mentally added
independent
and
self-sufficient
to
intelligent, adaptable
, and
good-natured
.

“Can I take Dune up with me?”

“If she wants to go, sure. But I don’t let her sleep on the bed.”

“Come on, Dune.” Gabi snapped her fingers and Dune got up and trotted after her, leaving Ellie to wonder if she’d just lost her dog to this child.

“I’ll be up in a while to say good night.”

“I’ll be awake for a while. I like to read before I turn off the light. I like to have nice things in my head before I go to sleep.”

“What are you reading now?”

“Anne of Green Gables.”
Gabi hastened to add, “I know it’s a kid’s book, but I really like it. I’ve read it, like, a million times.”

“That was my favorite when I was a girl,” Ellie told her.

“I like that Anne was always so hopeful. I mean, she was an orphan and still believed that good things would happen when she went to live with Matthew and Marilla.” She paused, then added, “And I like the way she looked at things, like everything was special. Like the Violet Vale and the Lake of Shining Waters. I was thinking about that when I was looking at the Bay today, but Bay of Shining Waters doesn’t sound quite the same.”

Ellie couldn’t help but smile.