Where Secrets Lie (2 page)

“
Sara’s totally different. You know it’ll be harder for me to tell my parents.”

“
Harder, yes, but you act like it’s impossible.”

“
Sometimes that’s how it feels.”

Katie put on a pair of earrings and rummaged through the jewelry bowl some more. Emily watched, and her forehead furrowed.

“
You know,” Emily said. “I’ve never seen you back down from anyone. You always stand up for what you believe.”

Katie’s gaze remained on the bowl. She liberated a bracelet from its midst.

“
Tell me, Kate, why won’t you stand up for us?”

Katie flinched from the impact of the words. The muscles in her hand slackened, and the bracelet slid back into the bowl. She turned to Emily.

“
I want to, Em, I really do. I’m just…” her voice quivered, “too scared I’ll lose them.”

Emily sprang off the bed and embraced Katie.

“
It’s all right,” Emily whispered into Katie’s ear. “I’ll wait. I’ll wait.”

Yes, but for how much longer?

~

Sara walked into her parents’ house and called, “Mom?”

“
In the kitchen…”

Sara entered the kitchen and saw Lee looking inside the caterer’s containers.

“
Mom! What are you doing?”

“
Just checking, besides it’s not like I’m snooping. I ordered it and paid for it, so technically it’s all mine.”

“
Yeah, well, it still looks a lot like snooping.”

Sara laid her sunglasses and purse on the counter before she went over to her mother and kissed her cheek.

“
If you met the man who delivered this you’d understand,” Lee said. “He didn’t know what was going on, it made me nervous.”

“
He’s just the delivery guy. Is he supposed to know what’s going on?”

“
Maybe not,” Lee said, “but it certainly didn’t instill confidence.”

“
So is anything missing?”

“
Not that I can tell so far, but I’m not done yet. Check those containers on the island, will you? I still haven’t found any appetizers.”

Sara moved to the island. “When’s Katie getting here?”

“
Soon, she called to say she was running a little late. Any luck?”

“
Not yet, I think all the side dishes are over here. Is Emily coming with her?”

Lee froze. “No, why would she?”

“
I don’t know, she usually comes with Katie.”

“
Well, that wouldn’t be appropriate today. Oh good, here they are. They’re probably all in this stack.”

Lee proceeded to verify she was correct.

Sara wished she’d avoided this subject, but for Katie’s sake, she forged ahead.

“
What’s the big deal, Mom? Katie and Emily are really close.”

“
Which is fine, in its place, but sometimes those two carry it a bit too far.”

Lee went to the kitchen table where a dozen small arrangements of yellow roses stood clustered together. She picked up an arrangement, scrutinized it, set it aside, and replicated the ritual with the next arrangement.

Sara followed her mother, sat at the table, and watched.

“
What’s the matter, Mom, don’t you like Emily?”

“
Of course, I like her, Sara. She’s a nice enough girl, but what does that have to do with anything?”

“
I just think Katie really enjoys spending time with her, that’s all.”

“
I’m sure they spend plenty of time together, especially now that they’re roommates. Now grab a couple of these, and come with me.”

~

“
Where is everybody?” Katie called when she arrived.

“
We’re in here,” Sara said.

Katie walked through the kitchen.

“
Oh my God, there’s a ton of food. How many people are coming anyway?”

She joined Sara and Lee in the dining room.

“
You’re just in time to help us with the flowers,” Sara said.

Katie’s smile vanished. “I was hoping I was late enough to miss that.”

“
Very funny,” Lee said. “Go into the kitchen and grab a couple of vases. We’re moving into the living room next.”

They were busy with the last of the arrangements when the caterer and her staff arrived. The kitchen began to pulsate. The noise and the emerging aromas drifted into the study and infiltrated Jack’s consciousness.

Just as he made his way into the living room, Lee declared her satisfaction with the placement of the flowers. Both girls cheered.

“
If I’d known I was going to get such a nice reception,” Jack said, “I would’ve come out earlier.”

The girls hugged and kissed their father.

“
They’re just glad I’m done torturing them,” Lee said.

“
Now you could’ve pretended it was for me.” Jack winked at Lee. “At least for a little while.”

The doorbell rang, and Lee looked at her watch. “Whoever that is, is really early.”

“
Shall we, ladies?” Jack put an arm around each of his daughters and walked toward the front door.

~

Their living room, situated in the middle of their home, had French doors that opened onto a huge rectangular brick patio with a fanned outside edge, which spanned the length of the house yet made a minor dent in their one and a half acre lot. Two ancient trees shaded the patio and over the years provided the girls with ample climbing challenges and an ever-expanding tree house, which Jack extricated once the girls grew too old to protest.

In fact, as the accoutrements of childhood suffered their inevitable attrition, the yard made a gradual transformation from a playground into an oasis.

A rock garden, which contained a small waterfall and a miniature pond full of goldfish, replaced the swing set. Every winter when Jack drained the pond, he moved the goldfish to an indoor aquarium in the basement.

The playhouse made way for a gazebo crawling with twisting vines replete with royal purple flowers.

The area that accommodated the trampoline became an enormous rose garden partitioned from the rest of the yard by a latticework fence covered with climbing roses. The garden contained a winding flagstone walkway and cast iron benches at its nucleus. Lee spent an inordinate amount of her time and energy performing the never-ending gardening chores herself.

Beyond the patio, the caterer’s staff arranged and set round tables for the reception, and beyond them toward the far end of the yard, they positioned a long rectangular table to showcase and serve the food.

Since a kitchen door opened onto the left side of the patio, it made logical sense to place the food table there, but that location did not suit Lee’s sense of aesthetics, so she hampered the caterers with the grueling task of traversing through the yard. If Lee realized they charged her a sizable fee for this added aggravation, she did not acknowledge it when she accepted their inflated proposal.

The placement of chairs on the patio created an aisle leading from the French doors to a couple of large planters brimming with vibrant flowers that cascaded all the way down to the bricks. Just past the planters, Sara and Katie stood and waited for the ceremony to begin.

At the wedding, they had been young girls, ten and four respectively. They were their mother’s bridesmaids and, as such, stood on the bride’s side of the aisle.

However, when the ceremony began, Katie believed Jack looked lonely and moved over to his side in order to provide him with what she deemed to be much needed company. Today she took that position from the inception.

Lee and Jack stood just inside the open French doors and waited for the musicians’ cue to start their procession down the aisle.

Lee perused the crowd. Many of today’s guests had also been at their wedding. Of course, Sara and Katie had been there as well, but back then, they were little girls, thrilled beyond measure by the excitement of the day.

~

In the master bedroom, on the morning of their wedding, Lee primped for the day ahead.

The door burst open, and Sara and Katie, both breathless, rushed into the room.

“
Nana says it’s almost time to start and we should show you how cute we look,” Katie said.

“
You look cute,” Sara said. “I’m too old to be cute, right Mom?”

“
You’re both just beautiful. Now turn around so I can see the full effect.”

They twirled around several times, Katie quickly and Sara slowly. Although their attire was identical, their physical attributes were a study in contrasts. Sara was compact with round cherub features and her mother’s Scandinavian coloring while Katie was all arms and legs with an angular facial structure and her father’s olive skin and silky raven hair.

They both wore tea length white dresses with embroidered lace on the bodice and a pale pink satin sash at the waist, which tied into a bow in the back. Their white patent leather shoes had an ankle strap and a delicate bow with a rhinestone knot. The shoes enamored Katie the moment she tried them on, and Lee had a terrible time convincing her not to wear them until the wedding.

Lee clapped her hands. “Yes, absolutely beautiful.”

“
Should we show Jack now?” Katie asked, poised to run back out the door.

“
He’s not supposed to see the bride before the wedding,” Sara said.

Katie frowned. “But we’re not the bride.”

“
That’s true, but let’s let him be surprised anyway.” Lee sat on the bench at the foot of the bed. “Besides I want to talk to you, come over here by me.”

The girls approached their mother.

“
Remember how we talked before that it would be ok for you to call Jack ‘Dad’ once we’re married?”

They nodded.

“
So what do you think about that?”

“
I like it,” Katie said and sat down on the floor and fussed with her shoes.

“
Sara?”

“
I’m not sure.”

“
About what?”

Sara hung her head and did not answer, so Lee put her arm around her and pulled her close.

“
You can tell me, whatever it is.”

Sara lifted her head. “Won’t Daddy mind?”

Lee was mulling over similar questions herself. Would Paul mind that she was remarrying so soon? Would he object to Jack being the groom? How would he feel about the direction his family was taking in his absence?

All complicated questions, which eluded answers, and Lee didn’t want Sara burdened with her own version of them. She kissed Sara on the forehead.

“
No, sweetie, I don’t think Daddy would mind. He loved Jack too, and I’m sure he’s happy Jack’s filling in for him so you can both still have a dad.”

Sara nodded. Katie was not paying any attention to them. She wandered over to the full-length mirror and twirled around for herself.

After a quick knock, the door opened a crack. Lee’s mother poked her head in. “C’mon girls, it’s time.”

Sara and Katie ran to her and vanished through the crack.

Lee smiled. “I’ll be right down.”

Her mother smiled back and closed the door.

~

As her parents made their way down the aisle, Sara marveled that they looked as happy as they had twenty years ago.

Back then, their wedding day had been confusing for Sara, burdened by a dichotomy too complex for a young girl to reconcile. She was glad they were marrying, but she sensed something awry in their union. It made her uneasy and that, in turn, made her feel she was somehow betraying her parents and their pending family. Therefore, she banished the feelings in a way only children can, with innocence and a vow to revisit them someday when maturity would be able to work its foretold magic and provide elusive insight.

Over the years, layers of joyful familial memories smothered the feelings, and the puerile vow remained unimplemented.

~

Katie’s scant memory of her parents’ wedding enmeshed with numerous retold stories of it until she could not distinguish between them, so despite her young age when they married, she could recount the day as well as any of them.

As an adult, watching her parents come down the aisle, she contemplated whether they would ever watch her do the same.

Would Jack give her away? Would Lee help her plan a wedding? Would they be as happy for her as they had been for Sara?

Katie knew Emily envisioned them marrying, and Katie desired it as well, but could she hope for her parents to embrace a wedding before she allowed them the opportunity to embrace the relationship?

As soon as the ceremony ended, the caterers brought out the hors d’oeuvres and began to serve drinks. The neighborhood teenagers Lee hired for the day cleared the chairs away from the patio, which allowed the musicians to reassemble there and still left ample space for dancing.

Jack, Lee, Sara, and Katie reemerged from the living room and joined their guests by the hors d’oeuvres.