Evvie at Sixteen (2 page)

But Aunt Grace was a whole other matter. She was eighty-five years old and Evvie couldn't remember ever having seen her smile. Not that they'd spent much time together. Not that Evvie had ever wanted to.

“I don't think she likes me, Nicky,” Evvie said. “And I know I don't like her. So there's no point in my going there.”

“There's every point,” Nick said. He got up from his chair and walked over to the window. The view of the lawn was as depressing as the room itself. But Meg could do miracles with a garden, even with a start as late as July. “Think of it as a long term investment.” He turned to face Evvie and he smiled. Evvie felt the power of that smile, and in spite of herself, smiled back. Everyone she knew smiled back when Nicky graced them with a smile.

“You want me to get Aunt Grace to like me?” Evvie asked. “I love you, but that's crazy. Aunt Grace is never going to like me. She's known me sixteen years, and she hasn't liked me yet. What makes you think if I spend the summer there, under her roof, driving her crazy, she's going to start liking me now?”

“You underrate yourself,” Nick declared. “You have a gift for making people like you, Evvie. It's a useful talent, and it should help you in years to come. Now make it help us. Stay there with Grace, do things for her, show her how much this family cares about her, and she'll like you automatically.”

“Wait a minute. Then she's supposed to leave us everything in her will?” Evvie asked. “I can't handle that kind of responsibility. What if she hates my guts and leaves everything to the Humane Society? You'd hold it against me forever.”

“I could never hold anything against you,” Nick said. “Certainly nothing as unimportant as money. I don't care if Grace leaves us nothing but her best wishes. I've never taken a penny from her, and I'd be just as happy to keep it that way forever. The money means nothing to me. It's Daisy whose feelings are concerned.”

“Oh come on,” Evvie said. “Megs never cared about the money. She actually loves Aunt Grace. Why, I'll never know.”

“She feels grateful to Grace,” Nick said. “For giving her a home after her parents died. And maybe she's right to feel grateful. I know what it's like to be without a family, on your own, when you're hardly more than a child. When my mother died, my stepfather made it abundantly clear I was no longer welcome in his house. I was sixteen, and there was no one I could turn to. My own father had died on D-day. He was a hero, I guess. At least I told myself he was a hero. When you don't have a father, the one you dream of almost has to be a hero.”

Evvie nodded. Her father rarely talked about his past. As far as he was concerned, his life began the day he met Megs. The way Megs talked, the same was true for her.

“It's important to Daisy to be in the will,” Nick said. “To prove to her that Grace does indeed still love her. The money is just a symbol. It's the acceptance that counts. Grace will never accept me. But if she disinherits Daisy, Daisy will feel Grace never truly accepted her either. I don't know if you can understand that, Evvie. I like to think the one thing Daisy and I have given our daughters is a strong sense of how much they are cherished.”

Evvie nodded. No matter how her parents' fortunes shifted, she and her sisters always knew they'd be protected and loved.

Nick turned away from Evvie. “Daisy was lucky, I suppose,” he said. “Her parents adored her. The three of them were like a valentine until their death. She tells such magical stories. You know, you've heard them. But sometimes I think that must have made what followed so much worse for her, going from that fairy tale existence to living with Grace. Sometimes I think I had it easier. I had no real memories of my father. My mother was always tired, always distant. My stepfather was cruel to her, brutal to me. When she died and he kicked me out, ultimately, I felt relief. No expulsion from Paradise there. In fact, things got better when Mr. Wilson, my English teacher, took me in and then paid for my education at Princeton.”

“I knew you weren't happy,” Evvie said. “I didn't guess how bad it was for you though.”

“No reason for you to,” Nick said, and he faced her again. “No reason for you to guess now, except we need you to go to Grace's, and there are things you have to understand. She hated me for taking Daisy away, kept us apart every way she could until we finally eloped. I had to get her out of that house. I had to rescue her. And she rescued me as well, with her love, and with the family she gave me. I cannot imagine who I would be if I hadn't met Daisy.”

Evvie wondered if any man would ever speak of her that way. Part of her hoped there would be, and part of her rejected the whole idea of being someone else's universe. It was hard enough just getting through high school.

“Grace hated me for taking Daisy away,” Nick said. “For removing her from that perfect social order. But she hated me for who I was as well. A nobody. An upstart. An outsider, no family, no name. She did everything she could to break us up. She hired detectives, and showed me the report to try to frighten me off.”

“You're kidding,” Evvie said. “Real detectives? What did they find?”

Nick laughed. “She dug up all sorts of sordid little truths about my past, my family,” he replied. “A few things I didn't even know, and would have been just as happy not to find out. When she didn't frighten me away, she showed the report to Daisy, hoping it would shock her back to her senses. She dreamt that Daisy would drop me, when she saw what I was, and fall in love with Clark or some other equally appropriate young man. Only Daisy was as much in love with me as I was with her. Poor Clark never stood a chance. Neither did Grace, really, although she didn't give up trying. She'll try with you, too, which is why I'm telling you all this. Just ignore her if she baits you.”

“Let me get this straight,” Evvie said. “I'm to make nice with Aunt Grace, get her to love me, so she'll leave Megs all her money as a symbol of acceptance. Meanwhile, if she teases with hints about your dark and murky past, I'm to smile cheerfully and pretend I don't know what she's talking about. Is that it?”

“Exactly,” Nick said. “No wonder your grades are so good.”

“No one could manage all that,” Evvie insisted. “She'll say one wrong thing, and I'll explode and the next thing I know, I'll be out on the street looking for symbols of acceptance from you. It isn't worth it. No thank you.”

“Evvie, we all have to make sacrifices sometimes,” Nick declared. “Do things for the good of the family. And frankly, Evvie, what we're asking of you isn't that terrible. Be kind to an old woman. Spend time with her, keep her company. Prove to her that Daisy's marriage wasn't a mistake. A man who can have you for a daughter can't be all bad.”

“Nicky, I don't know,” Evvie said. “I can't play a part all summer. It isn't in me.”

“I'm not asking you to,” Nick replied. “Just go there and be yourself. You might even have a good time. Eastgate is a fine old summer resort town, Grace's cottage is a damn sight nicer than this slum, and Clark will see to it that you meet all the right people. Grace has Mr. and Mrs. Baker as live-in help, plus a gardener and a maid who comes in daily. You'd hardly be Cinderella.”

“More like Mata Hari,” Evvie said.

“More like a loving grandniece who's spending a summer helping her great aunt out,” Nick declared. “Reading to her. Working on needlepoint together.”

“Needlepoint?” Evvie said. “Nicky, I can't even thread a needle.”

“Then ask Grace to teach you how,” Nick said. “She's an old woman, she takes naps, you'll have plenty of time at the beach to flirt with rich boys. Find yourself a husband. Your mother did at sixteen.”

Evvie gazed at her father. She wondered what was in those detective reports. But she knew better than to ask. “I don't know,” she said. “It could be such a disaster.”

“I promise to love you no matter how big a disaster it is,” Nick said. “As long as you promise the same, that you'll love me, too, no matter how it goes.”

“That's easy,” Evvie said. “Nicky, give me a little time to think about it. I just can't agree right away. Please let me see if I can agree to it at all.”

“Fair enough,” Nick replied. “It's your birthday, after all. You have other things on your mind. Just think about how much we love you, Evvie, and I'm sure you'll make the right decision.”

C
HAPTER
T
WO

“Birthdays are the best,” Thea said as she watched Evvie put on her eye makeup that evening. “Presents and dinner out with Megs and Nicky. I wish it was my birthday.”

“You just had yours,” Evvie pointed out.

“But we were packing then,” Thea said. “Everyone is always in a bad mood when we're packing.”

“Unpacking isn't much fun either,” Evvie replied. “I hate knowing the minute we settle in, we'll just start packing all over again. Although, frankly, I'm not going to mind leaving this place.”

“It is a dump,” Thea said. “Don't tell Claire I said so though.”

Evvie laughed. “How do I look?” she asked.

“Great,” Thea said. “Do you know where they're taking you?”

Evvie shook her head. “Probably someplace expensive,” she said.

Thea sighed. “It's my curse to have been born three weeks before the trust fund check arrives,” she declared. “Some years it isn't so bad, but this year all I got was pizza. Nicky in a pizza parlor is a terrible sight. I would have died if he'd insisted on the ritual birthday dance there, but Megs talked him into waiting until we got home. That was wonderful. He put on a record and we danced in the living room. We were surrounded by boxes and everything was a mess, but I didn't care. We waltzed. I never really believe I'm a year older until I have my birthday dance.”

“This year I feel older even without it,” Evvie said and gave herself one last lookover in the mirror. She was wearing the blouse Thea had given her, soft blue, with a white skirt, and in spite of everything, she felt great.

“You'd better get going,” Thea said. “Your birthday dinner awaits.”

Evvie and Thea raced down the stairs. Meg and Nick had already gathered together in the living room.

“You look radiant,” Nick said as Evvie entered. He kissed her on the cheek and she smiled up at him.

“Thea, you have wonderful taste,” Meg said. “That shade of blue is perfect for Evvie.”

“I am the luckiest man in the world,” Nick declared, as he slipped his hand into Meg's. “Come on, Daisy. Let's celebrate the birth of our firstborn.”

They said good-bye to Thea and walked to the car. Nick unlocked their doors, then slid into the driver's seat. “There's only one restaurant in town with a dance floor,” he said. “They only have a pianist, and I make no guarantees about the quality of the food or the music.”

“We don't have to go anyplace expensive,” Evvie said. “We can have my birthday dance after we get home.”

“Not very easily,” Nick said. “I pawned the stereo the day after Thea's birthday. I suppose I could find a radio station we could dance to, but it's not a moment I want shattered with commercial interruptions.”

“Besides, I'm in the mood for a formal dinner out,” Meg declared. “I think we all deserve one. The past few weeks haven't been easy on any of us.”

“Dansville was a disaster,” Nick agreed. “Next time I check out my potential business partners a bit more carefully.”

“Darling, the man wore a holster,” Meg said, but then she laughed. “And did you ever talk to his wife? She told me all about her breast implants. We're well rid of them, and I have very positive feelings about Harrison. This town needs a man like Nicholas, filled with bright ideas. All we need to do is meet a few of the right people, make a few good moves, and we'll be on our feet again.”

Evvie smiled. It wasn't the first time she'd heard her mother give a speech like that, and she doubted it would be the last. Roughly half the time her mother's predictions came true. The other half of the time, Evvie chose not to think about. At least not on her birthday.

“I've already checked a few things out,” Nick declared. “That's one reason why I thought we should splurge on dinner. This restaurant seems to be the place the leaders of Harrison go to. It won't hurt to be seen there, especially with two beautiful women.”

Poor Thea, Evvie thought. By the time it was her birthday dinner, Nicky no longer cared where he was seen in Dansville.

“I like Harrison,” she said. “At least what I've seen of it.”

“The town is very nice,” Nick agreed. “The house we're in is appalling though. It's going to be tricky inviting people over, coming up with some explanation of why we're living there, however temporarily.”

“It'll be better once I'm through fixing the place up,” Meg said. “And the kitchen has a lot of possibilities. Maybe we can pretend to be country folk, and invite people over for a downhome kitchen supper.”

“If anyone can pull it off, you can,” Nick declared.

“I'll concentrate on the kitchen then,” Meg said. “If we only owned the house, we could tell people we were renovating, and explain things that way. But everyone must know it's a rental. It's a shame you couldn't find a better place.”

“Time was of the essence,” Nick replied. “Well, here's the restaurant. Pierre's. At least it pretends to be French.”

“I'm sure it'll be delicious,” Meg said. “Come on, Evvie. Let's celebrate.”

Evvie got out of the car and walked with her parents to the restaurant. They never failed to amaze her. Obviously, they'd decided to leave the subject of Grace alone, at least for the evening. She only wished she could stop thinking about it.