Summer's Child (31 page)

Bonnie sighed tiredly. “What do you want me to do?” she asked.

“Go next door and ask Nancy to bring the baby over so I can finally see her, and then I can talk to her about how I can get the baby into foster care while I’m getting on my feet.”

“All right,” her friend said, standing up. “Remember, we have to get out of here by one. And we don’t have a thing to eat, so after I get Nancy, I’m going to go to the store and get some bread and some sanitary napkins for you. Nancy said you’d need them.”

“Okay, but bring the baby over first, please?”

“Okay.”

Grace got out of bed, slowly, after Bonnie left the cottage. She cleaned herself up in the bathroom, and she was horrified to see several bloodied towels in the wastebasket. They would have to remember to get rid of them before they left. She improvised a sanitary pad for herself out of a washcloth and got dressed. She couldn’t wait to see her baby.

She walked out of the bathroom to find Bonnie in the doorway of the bedroom. Her face was white.

“They’re gone,” Bonnie said.

“Who?” Grace asked, although she was afraid she knew the answer.

“Nancy and Nathan,” Bonnie said. “The cottage is deserted. Their car and suitcases and everything are gone.”

Struck instantly by an overwhelming grief, Grace sat down on the bed. Her mind raced. “I don’t even know their last name. Do you?” she asked.

Bonnie shook her head. “I don’t think they ever told us,” she said.

“Oh, God, Bonnie. My
baby
. They took my baby.” She began to cry, and Bonnie moved to the bed and put her arms around her.

“I know. I’m sorry. But she’ll be all right. I’m sure they left early so they could get to the hospital to make sure the baby was fine and healthy. Nancy seems like a really good nurse to me. She’s going to make sure everything’s perfect for your baby.”

“But I’ll never get to see her!”

Bonnie was crying, too. “I shouldn’t have agreed with Nancy last night,” she said. “I didn’t realize you’d change your mind, though. It seemed to make such good sense.”

Grace cried for a long time in Bonnie’s arms. Then, finally, she looked down at the pillow on her bed. It was inviting. She lay down, facing the wall, and pulled the covers over her head. She felt Bonnie’s hand on her back and closed her eyes.

“I’m going to the store,” Bonnie said. “I’ll get you the pads. Is there anything else you want? Soup or anything?”

Grace didn’t bother to answer. She’d barely heard the question.

“M
Y
G
OD
, G
RACE
,” E
DDIE SAID
. H
E WAS SITTING NEXT TO HER
on the sofa, having moved there sometime while she was speaking. “Why didn’t you ever tell me about this?”

“It was something I was trying to forget,” Grace said.

“So…I’m trying to understand. Was it Pam’s death that made you start thinking about this other baby? Realizing that somewhere out there you had a child living with her adoptive parents? And I still don’t get it—the part about Rory Taylor. What’s going on between the two of you?”

So many questions, so much he still didn’t know. “I haven’t told you everything yet,” Grace said. God, she hated saying all of this out loud. She’d gone over it in her own mind too many times to count, and, of course, she and Bonnie had revisited the experience over the years, but to recite it this way gave it a terrible credibility. “Bonnie went to the store that morning,” she said, “and when she came back, she was very quiet. I thought maybe she just felt guilty about her role in getting me to give the baby to Nancy. She tried to get me to eat something, but I just couldn’t. I’d never felt so despondent. I wanted to die.” She looked at Eddie. “It was the same as I felt after Pamela died.”

Eddie covered her hand with his, and she didn’t pull away. “Me, too,” he said. The two words cut through her. She had given him no comfort, no sympathy after Pamela died. Only blame and recriminations.

“Bonnie finally started talking,” she said. “She told me that when she was in the little market, everyone was talking about a newborn baby girl that had been found on the beach very early that morning.”

“Oh no.” Eddie tightened his grip on her hand.

“The store clerk told Bonnie the baby had been found dead. When Bonnie told me that—” Grace shut her eyes at the memory “—I was torn apart, Eddie. I’d wanted that baby. I’d been willing to turn my life inside out for her. But I thought the nurse might be right, and I’d trusted her. And she went and left my baby on the beach to be washed away like a piece of driftwood.”

“Oh, Grace,” Eddie said. “How awful.”

“So, Bonnie called me early this summer and said that she’d found out that Rory Taylor wanted to do an episode on his
True Life Stories
show about that baby. He was going to look into how she came to be on the beach that morning.”

“So, you contacted him and told him you thought you were the mother?” Eddie asked.

“No,”
Grace said, horrified by the thought. “I didn’t dare do that. I…manipulated a meeting with him to try to find out what he knew. And what I found out was…the baby had not died. A little girl found her, and her family adopted her. And now she lives in the house right across from the house where Rory Taylor is staying. She lives with her sister. She had some brain damage from that night. It’s mild, but she really does need someone to look out for her. Her sister seems to have done a good job of that.”

Eddie stood up and began to pace, something he always did
when he was upset. “This is unbelievable,” he said. “Who knows that the girl is your daughter? Have you gotten to meet her? Talk with her? Have you told—”

She held up a hand to interrupt him. “I don’t know, with one hundred percent certainty, that she
is
my daughter. It seems crazy that in the middle of a storm, the nurse would take her out to the beach, but—”

“How many babies could have been born that night in Kill Devil Hills?” Eddie asked.

“I know, I know. I just can’t make myself tell her, though, Eddie. What if I’m wrong?”

“Does she look like you?”

“Not really. She’s very blond, but then, so was her father.” She said the word
father
as though it tasted bad in her mouth. It did. “But she’s tall and slender, just like me. Just like Pamela was. And she has seizures, Eddie.”

“Marfan.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of. And to make matters worse, now she’s pregnant. She’s pregnant, she doesn’t know she has Marfan’s syndrome, her child might have it, it might go undiagnosed, and—”

“You’re being tortured by this.” Eddie sat next to her and took her hand again. He touched her cheek. “I wish you could have told me what was going on with you this summer. I would have been there for you, Grace.”

“I know,” Grace said. “I was too angry with you.”

“I loved Pamela, too, you know.”

“I know you did,” she admitted. “As much as I did. And you didn’t know she was sick, just like I didn’t know it. She loved flying—I can’t deny that. You might have encouraged her to do it more than I would have liked, but it was her choice. You only gave her that choice.”

Eddie lowered his head, and she knew he was struggling for
composure. “Thanks for saying that,” he said. He leaned back against the sofa. “The girl,” he said. “What’s her name?”

“Shelly.”

“Shelly. If you truly believe Shelly is your daughter, and if she and her unborn baby are…at risk, then you have to tell her. Or, at least tell her sister so she can get her evaluated and started on any treatment she might need. You have to do that, Grace.”

“But what if she’s
not
my child?” Grace asked. “She’s a bit fragile. I don’t want to confuse her.”

“Does Shelly have a widow’s peak?” Eddie asked.

Grace shook her head.

“Don’t all the women in your family have one?”

“Most, but not all.”

“Did you ever try to find the nurse?” Eddie asked. “It seems that she’s the missing link in all of this.”

“There’s no way to find her,” Grace said. “All I remember about her was that her name was Nancy and she worked in the oncology department of a hospital in Elizabeth City, twenty-two years ago. That’s not much to go on.” Grace was suddenly overwhelmed by the hopelessness of the situation. “I was using a…friendship with Rory Taylor to stay close to Shelly,” she admitted. “I can’t believe I did that, but I did. But now he’s involved with Shelly’s sister, so I have no reason to go up there anymore. I want to see Shelly again. I miss her already.”

“Let me help you with this,” Eddie said. “Let me take on some of the burden you’ve been carrying around all summer, okay?”

She didn’t know what he could do to help, but she was far too tired to fight on her own anymore.

“Okay,” she said.

He gently pulled her closer, lowering her head to his shoulder, and for the first time since before Pamela’s accident, she let her body relax against his.

D
ARIA ROLLED ONTO HER BACK, STILL TRYING TO CATCH HER
breath. She stared at the ceiling of her room, while Rory traced her profile with the tip of his finger.

She had cried out. That was a first. No one had ever elicited that from her—surely not Pete—and she’d wondered if that sort of intensity ever truly happened for women outside of books and movies. Now she knew. She had never thought of lovemaking as a talent before, but Rory certainly had it, and she was glad no one else had been home at the Sea Shanty when he’d revealed it to her.

“Well,” Rory said, the tip of his finger circling her lips, “I think Zack is on to us.”

“You mean…that we’re lovers?” Zack certainly knew she and Rory had been seeing each other for the past two weeks, but Rory had been careful about concealing the physical side of their relationship from his son.

“Uh-huh. This morning he asked me if I’d been sure to use a condom when I was out with you last night.”

She laughed. “Touché, huh? What did you say?”

“I said I’m an adult in an adult relationship and that it wasn’t appropriate for him to ask me a question like that. Then he
called me a hypocrite and went out to the beach. Not sure I handled it the right way.”

“I think you did,” she said. “He needs to know there are some boundaries between you and him.”

The past two weeks had been a mixture of joy and worry. Being with Rory, being able to openly acknowledge her feelings for him, had been glorious. Everyone on the cul-de-sac knew about them and approved. Shelly was delighted. Only Chloe seemed less than enthusiastic. “He’ll be leaving in a few weeks,” she’d say to Daria. “Don’t throw yourself into this so freely.” Chloe was only trying to protect her from being hurt, Daria told herself. Yet she felt as though there was something less noble in Chloe’s admonitions, and she wondered at times if Chloe was simply jealous. After all, Chloe’s lover was dead, her life in a serious state of disarray.

And that’s where the worry came in. Chloe’s silence and irritability were evidence of the war going on inside her, and although Daria could think of no way to ease her sister’s suffering, that didn’t stop her from worrying about her. Then there was Shelly, who grew more attached to her unborn baby with each passing minute. Daria would never be able to persuade her to have an abortion, that much was clear, so some other arrangements would have to be made. She felt no rush to do that. Right now, she wanted to focus her time and attention on Rory. With her sisters’ turmoil swirling around her, she had found a safe harbor in his arms.

“So, when do Ellen and Ted get here?” Rory asked her.

She rolled onto her side, resting her head against his shoulder. “Early tomorrow morning,” she said, then added sarcastically, “I can hardly wait. They hadn’t planned to be here this weekend, but when I stupidly mentioned that the bonfire was scheduled for tomorrow night, they changed their minds.”

“I’m not going to be able to look at Ellen the same way now,” Rory said.

“Well, I don’t think she was one of your favorite people to begin with.”

“Shelly was really lucky that you were the one to raise her, and not Ellen.”

“I’ve thought of that,” Daria said. “And I was lucky, too. I can’t imagine my life without Shelly.”

“She hasn’t asked me if I’ve uncovered any more information about who left her on the beach,” Rory said.

“How have you explained to Zack or the neighbors why you suddenly stopped researching Shelly’s background?” she asked.

“No one’s asked me yet,” he said. “When and if they do, I’ll tell them I wasn’t able to come up with enough information to make it worthwhile. The person I worry about telling that I failed in my research is Shelly.”

“I know.”

“Have you thought about whether Shelly should know the truth?” Rory asked. “I think I would want to know the truth if I were in her shoes, no matter how hard it might be to hear.”

Daria smoothed her hand across his chest. “Well,” she said, “I’d have to confront Ellen with it first, and I have no desire to do that. I hoped that someday she would come forward herself, but that’s never going to happen. It’s not Ellen’s style. Ellen has one person on her mind, and that’s Ellen. I sometimes think she’s in denial about Shelly being her daughter. In a different sort of world with a different sort of mother, I would say that Shelly should be told the truth. But Ellen is such a bitch to her, that I can’t see how it would do Shelly any good to know.”

“Maybe Ellen is a bitch to her, as you say, because she resents her. Shelly was unwanted. The pregnancy got in Ellen’s way.”

“I don’t know, Rory,” Daria said. “I’ve tried analyzing Ellen over the years, and I’ve never come up with any very charitable perspective on her. I try to remind myself that she was only fifteen. If something like that had happened to me when I was fifteen, I might have done the same thing.”

“I doubt that very much.” Rory rolled over and leaned on his elbows. He smiled down at her. “Not my Daria,” he said. “You would have been too smart to get pregnant in the first place. But if you did, you would have probably delivered the baby yourself, cut the cord with your teeth and breast-fed her while saving three swimmers caught in an undertow.”

She laughed. “I think you have me on a bit of a pedestal,” she said.

He was quiet a moment. “You haven’t talked about your EMT position,” he said finally. “After the incident on Andy’s pier, I thought you might want to get back into it.”

She drew in a long breath. “I feel less afraid,” she admitted. “I haven’t had a nightmare about the pilot in a few weeks. But I still lied, Rory. I was involved in a cover-up, and I just can’t get past that.”

“What would happen if you admitted what you did?” he asked.

“I’ve thought about it. You know, plead temporary insanity and beg for mercy. But the system doesn’t work that way. There would have to be an investigation. This sort of thing is taken very seriously, and it should be. I did it to protect my sister, and you and I both know she had no idea what she was doing and that she truly needed that protection. But if
I
can get away with doing that, then someone else should be able to protect his brother for having done something else, and maybe that something else wasn’t quite so innocent. So, it can’t simply be erased and forgotten. At some point, I’ll have to deal with it, because I truly do want to be an EMT again. For the
rest of the summer, though, I just want to forget about it and have steamy sex with you. Okay?”

He laughed. “Glad I can help with your escape from reality,” he said.

Finished with that topic, she flipped onto her back again. “I have to buy the ingredients for my baked beans today,” she said. “What are you bringing to the bonfire?” Everyone on the cul-de-sac was expected to bring food to share.

“Jill suggested I bring the paper plates and napkins and plastic silverware,” he said. “I guess she figures I don’t look like much of a cook.”

Daria could already imagine the smell of the bonfire. Once the daytime crowd had left the beach, Jill and her husband and children would set up two fire rings, one for the adults, a second for the teenagers. Everyone from the cul-de-sac would slowly make their way to the fires, to eat and talk and bemoan the fact that summer was nearly over. The bonfire was always the prelude to summer’s end.

Rory glanced at the clock on her night table. “Well, I guess I’d better get back to Poll-Rory,” he said. “Time to face more of my son’s probing questions about my love life.”

He sat on the side of the bed as he dressed, and Daria ran her hand across the warm empty space on the bed where his body had been.

The bonfire. The end of summer.

“Rory?”

“Uh-huh.”

“I haven’t asked you this, because I’ve been afraid of the answer,” she said. “But when exactly are you going back to California?”

He looked at her over his shoulder, hesitating for a moment before answering. “Let’s not talk about it now,” he said.

She accepted his answer willingly, not truly wanting to know.