The Reunion (3 page)

“Pavarotti has nothing on you, Dad,” Rebecca teased.

“He was a good student.”

Jenny looked hard at him. “A good student?”

“I taught him to sing,” Doc said, keeping a straight face. “He never had my natural ability, but he was doggedly determined.”

Everyone laughed, and Jenny went to her room and brought back a wrapped gift.

“Hope you like it,” she said, presenting it to her friend.

“Two gifts,” Ebony said to Rebecca and Doc. “First my favorite movie, now a second present. This woman is incorrigible.”

Jenny beamed at the description of herself.

Ebony unwrapped the small package, and her eyes opened wide. “It’s beautiful!” she exclaimed.

The present was a small piece of stained glass. The size of Ebony’s palm, the glass was stained with vibrant colors and a golden border. It depicted a young woman standing beside a lighthouse and waving to a young man steering his fishing boat into a sheltered cove. Every detail was vivid and sharp, rich in texture, and meticulously crafted.

“Thank you,” Ebony said, hugging Jenny. “It’s so beautiful! It’s from the gift shop, isn’t it?”

She nodded with childlike joy. “The day we went to Peggy’s Cove, you couldn’t take your eyes off it, so I knew it would be the perfect birthday present.”

“It’s a lifelong keepsake. I’ll cherish it always. You really are too kind to me, Jenny.”

“What can I say? You’re the best friend I ever had.”

Doc took a piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to Ebony. “Here’s a little something I wrote for you.”

Ebony smiled as she read it to herself and then passed it to the other women.

“This is lovely,” said Jenny, smiling, “but quite the coincidence. Your poem is exactly the same as one of Shakespeare’s sonnets.”

“Doesn’t surprise me in the least,” he said with a wave of the hand. “Every two-bit hack plagiarizes my work.”

The women laughed.

“Oh, there’s one other thing,” Rebecca said, picking a green envelope off the china cabinet. “This came for you today. It was in the mailbox.”

“The surprise I referred to,” Doc said. “I saw a car drop it off this morning.”

“What car?” Ebony asked.

“I don’t know, just a car. It stopped, then left.”

“What is it?” Ebony asked, placing her stained glass picture on the table and reaching for the envelope with a look of confusion. She read her typed name on a white label. “Who could have possibly given this to me?”

“Secret admirer?” Jenny teased with an animated laugh. “Trying to get in your good graces?” She wiggled her eyebrows.

“I hear a car,” Doc said, starting to get up. “Must be Ron.”

Ebony was going to wait until Ron came in, but everyone urged her to open the envelope. She smiled awkwardly, then, slowly and deliberately, opened it and found a small white cardboard box. Hesitantly she started to lift off the top. Her friends, eager to see what it was, crowded round and encouraged her with nods and gestures. Ebony removed the cover and found a beautiful locket. Attached to a fine golden chain, the heart-shaped locket gleamed brilliantly, its outside edge spotted with five tiny jewels, all of different colors.

Ebony smirked with bewilderment. “It’s a beautiful piece of jewelry, but I can’t imagine who would give it to me.”

Everyone shrugged, and they could hear Ron walking up the back steps. He entered the porch. Ebony pressed a catch and opened the locket. Engraved inside were two words:
Forgive me.

“Does anyone know where this locket came from?” Ebony appealed, glancing around the room with anxiety, her voice strained.

“I do,” answered Ethan Harrington as he stepped into the kitchen.

Rebecca and Doc, seeing a complete stranger before them, looked in surprise. Jenny’s mouth fell wide open. She stared at her brother in silence for a moment, glanced awkwardly at Ebony, and unconsciously covered her mouth with her hand. Ethan glanced affectionately at her, then leveled a solemn gaze at Ebony.

“Happy birthday,” he said softly.

Ebony gasped as if she had seen a ghost. She staggered backward and bumped into the table, knocking the stained glass picture to the floor. It broke into several pieces. Ebony looked down in a kind of drunken haze, and then her eyes darted around the room, focusing briefly on the faces of Jenny and her new friends, then the clock on the wall. For some unknown reason, she noted that it was seven sharp. Then, irresistibly, she turned once again to the handsome, dark-haired man who studied her every move.

“Ethan,” Jenny murmured, staring at her brother. “Ethan!”

Ethan smiled at his sister with a pained look, then returned his gaze to Ebony. Without uttering a single word, whole worlds of meaning passed between the three of them. Ebony noticed Rebecca watching the scene in disbelief. She and Doc seemed befuddled beyond measure, looking at each other openmouthed.

Ron, who arrived moments after Ethan, suddenly opened the door. “Sorry I’m late, everybo…” His voice died, just as if someone was turning down the volume on a radio.

Ethan, noticing Ron only slightly, stumbled forward as if in a daze and stopped directly in front of Ebony. He tried to speak, but could not. She recoiled slightly, then suddenly swung her hand with tremendous force and slapped him across the face with a resounding
whack!
It was so loud and so shocking that everyone stepped back with a gasp. Ethan winced and turned away, his cheek turning blood red. Jenny shrieked and ran to him, throwing her arms around her brother. He hugged her back. Rebecca and Doc glanced at Ron and grimaced.

Ebony, shocked by her own action, moaned like a wounded animal and quickly ran out the door, tears streaming down her face. Her features were contorted, frantic. She seemed to see nothing, hear nothing, understand nothing. The world was a senseless mass of light and figures, so unreal at this moment that everything was like a dream, a mad dream from which she could run, but not escape. It was the moment she had dreamed of, longed for, dreaded—dreaded with every fiber of her being, so much so that she would have given almost anything to be in Africa right now, far from the shock fate had delivered her. But in her right hand she firmly clung to the locket. His locket. The locket he had just given her.

Her locket.

Chapter Two

Ebony ran down the Harrington driveway as if her life depended on it. Images flashed with lightning quickness, as if a thousand memories appeared all at once, then shredded into myriad meaningless pieces. Ebony could not hang onto one solid thought or define any of these new and strange emotions erupting within her, but she ran with all her strength away from that house, away from that man, away from those memories. Soon she was gasping for breath, and drivers in passing cars slowed to look at her, yet she did not slacken her pace, nor did she care who they were or what they thought. His face, burned into her mind’s eye as if with a branding iron, was all she could see. She could not even remember running up her own driveway and rushing into her house.

Without turning on any lights, she stood at her living room window, panting and staring at the Harrington house, feeling his presence like a great magnetic force. She wished with all her soul that he would go away, go away and never return. She tried to force him out of her mind. Never, not once, would she ever think of him again. But his gorgeous eyes appeared right in front of her. She shook her head and banished him from her thoughts. Then, abruptly, she was gripped by the fear that Ethan was following her and that he was reaching out to touch her. She raced to the door and leaned her back against it. Her chest heaved, and her face, as fragile as fine glass, seemed like it might shatter.

In the perfect silence, Ebony finally caught her breath. Though she felt under some semblance of control in her own home, she knew that everything, absolutely everything, had changed. She plugged in her electric heater, absentmindedly started another fire, then sat at the kitchen table. Bathed in the mellow glow from the streetlight outside, she buried her face in her hands and cried. She cried like a child lost in the woods, alone and terrified.

“Think things through,” she urged herself. “Deal with it!”

Suddenly, though, a car pulled into her driveway. Ebony could not move, so overwhelmed was she by emotion. Her hands literally trembled. The door slowly creaked open, and a breath of cold wind brushed the back of her neck. She swallowed hard, afraid to look. The door slowly closed, and she was no longer alone. Someone moved toward her in the dim light. Though she could feel the presence directly behind her, she did not turn her head. A hand touched her shoulder, and she jumped, quickly spinning around to see if it was him.

“Rebecca!” she exclaimed with a sigh of great relief. “Are you alone?”

“Yes.”

Ebony took a deep breath.

“We decided it was a good idea for me to come see you,” Rebecca said tentatively, staring into Ebony’s eyes, “just to make sure you’re all right.”

“Where is he?”

Rebecca sat across from her at the table. “He’s visiting with Jenny, if you could call it that. They seem awkward with each other considering they’re brother and sister. Apparently, he’s going to row out to his cottage on the big island.”

“What!” Ebony cried, abruptly shifting in her chair. “He’s staying?”

Rebecca nodded. “I think so,” she stammered.

“How long? Surely not more than a couple days.”

“I believe he wants to move back here.”

“Back to Shad Bay!” Ebony exclaimed. “You mean live here? Forever?”

“I think that’s his plan.”

A long silence followed.

“Ebony,” said Rebecca, lightly touching her hand, “come stay at the house with us tonight. You shouldn’t be alone like this.”

“I have to chop some wood,” she answered distractedly, almost as if heavily drugged.

“Spend the night with us. You’re in no shape to chop any wood right now, and they’re calling for a big storm tomorrow.” Rebecca gently rubbed the back of her hand. “Come back with me.”

“No!”

The response was so forceful that Rebecca jumped slightly. “Why not?”

“I don’t want to take the chance of running into him.”

Another long silence followed.

“Don’t you think you should tell me what’s going on?”

“I hate him!”

Rebecca winced. “What has this man done to you?”

“I hate him,” she repeated, “and I will never, never forgive him.”

“Forgive him for what?”

Ebony narrowed her eyes, but she said nothing.

“How did he get that little scar above his eye?”

“He got into a fight with a man named Bern Baxter.”

“Oh?” Rebecca inquired, obviously hoping she would continue. She waited a moment, then, seeing Ebony would not continue on her own, added, “How did the fight happen?”

“Ethan would never back down from anybody, and one night he crossed paths with Bern Baxter at the tavern. They went toe to toe. When it was all over, Ethan had a cut above his eye, and that little scar is his souvenir, but Bern was knocked out cold and got a big gash on his jaw. When he regained his senses, everyone kept him back, but he swore he’d get revenge.”

“Did he?” Rebecca asked softly.

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because Ethan ran away.”

“Ran away?” Rebecca asked. “When?”

“Five years ago.”

“Five years?” she asked.

“He left Shad Bay five years ago, on my twenty-third birthday.”

“Today is the first day you have seen him since then?” Rebecca asked incredulously. “He left on your birthday and came back on your birthday five years later?”

“Yes.”

“There’s obviously more to this story.”

“I wish he had stayed away. I can’t stand the sight of him. He’s an idiot.”

“Maybe he’s changed.”

“Not a chance.”

Rebecca switched on the kitchen light and plugged in the kettle. As she waited for it to boil, she looked out the window and seemed to be lost in a reverie. When the kettle boiled, she made a pot of tea. She poured two steaming cups and then sat down, seemingly eager to hear more.

“You don’t have to stay,” Ebony said. “I’ll be all right.”

“You don’t look too well.”

“I’m fine. I just had a poor sleep last night.”

“I think I’ll stick around for a little while anyway, if that’s okay with you.”

Ebony, lost in thought, silently traced her index finger along the rim of the teacup.

“Tell me more about Ethan.”

“He was the most untrustworthy man on Earth,” Ebony said immediately. “He was drinking, acting like a fool, fighting.”

“How did you meet him?”

Ebony lifted her eyes to Rebecca. “It’s hard talking about these things,” she said, “but it’s just a matter of time until you hear the whole story anyway. I might as well tell you what really happened.” She sipped her tea, staring into it almost as if in a hypnotic trance. “We met at a place called the Stillwater, a small lake on the Nine Mile River. That was six years ago. I was studying for my physiotherapy degree, but I didn’t enjoy living in the city, so I rented this house and moved to Shad Bay in the spring. A couple weeks after I arrived, Jenny came up and visited me. The weather was beautiful, and she asked if I would like to walk up the Nine Mile River with her. I love the outdoors and liked her right away, so I agreed. I had no idea Jenny’s brother was fishing there, but when we reached the Stillwater, he walked around the corner with his fishing rod and tackle box, and we saw each other for the first time.”

“What did you think of him?”

“Love at first sight,” she said with a frown.

Rebecca lifted her eyebrows. “He is very good-looking.”

“He is, but I found out he had a rough reputation. He was drinking and brawling.”

“So what did you say when you saw him face-to-face?”

“I just wanted to be friendly, but something clicked right from the beginning. He called me the next day. Before I knew it, we were seeing each other on a regular basis. Then he started giving me a ride to the university.”

“He was a student, too?”

“He was in his senior year of architecture. His professor told me he was the most brilliant student he ever had and that he could work wherever he wanted to. He has a tremendous gift, you know.” She paused. “But instead of using his talent to express beauty, he smothered his abilities with drunkenness and troublemaking.”