by Barbara Lohr
Whoa. He stopped so fast, coffee splashed all over his shirt. “Damn.” In his private bathroom, he grabbed some paper towels, which did absolutely no good. Diana and babies. Where did that come from? Wasn’t it bad enough that he’d told her he loved her twice and got little response? But there was no stopping his feelings. He’d dated plenty of women but none with Diana’s combination of sweetness and gutsy drive. Her story about the guy who’d lied to her turned his stomach. Made him want to fill her life with happiness. How many women would admit to that? Heck, he’d dated a woman for four months without knowing that she had kids. One night they ran into one of her friends at a restaurant, who asked his date if she was enjoying a night out, away from the kids. The fact that she had children didn’t bother him. But she hadn’t been honest about it.
If a woman would lie about her children, what else would she keep to herself? Will wanted the truth.
He glanced at the clock. Just past eleven and Diana would be in the shop. Grabbing his phone from the desk, he hit the speed dial button. She answered on the second ring. “Did I get you at a bad time?”
“You are always so polite. I don’t expect anyone to come in until lunch hour. What’s up?”
“How did last night go?” Will closed his door and sank into his chair the chair behind his desk.
Diana’s sigh held a world of hurt.
“That bad?”
“Awful. Kate had been crying. We hardly even talked about the book.”
“Must have been a lot of support for her.” Women were so different from men when it came to stuff like this. When guys said “man up,” they meant stay strong and keep quiet.
“I think being with the group helped a little. Sarah and Chili both have children. Chili had a miscarriage so she knew how it felt.”
The line went silent. “Hey, you still there?” he asked.
“Yes. Sure.” But Diana sounded distracted. “It must be so exciting to be pregnant. But then I can’t imagine how terrible you would feel if you lost the baby.”
“You’ll be pregnant one day.” Whoa, where had that come from? He heard her suck in a breath.
“Oh, Will, you never know.” Her voice became vague and distant. She was pulling away again.
Picking up his stapler, Will wanted to use it on his mouth. He sure as hell knew what and who he wanted in his future, but Diana must have doubts.
He heard the bell chime in her shop. “I’ll let you go. Call me back if it gets quiet.”
“I will. Thanks, Will.”
When he opened his door, Gus from the maintenance crew was pushing a huge cart loaded with decorations down the hall. Maybe dressing up the facility would help his mood. He sure didn’t have much Christmas spirit this year. First Diana’s accident and then Kate’s news. “Hey, Mr. Applegate,” Gus greeted him. “You gonna help us trim the tree?”
He smiled. “Sure. As soon as you get it up.” Trimming the tree was a tradition at Gull Harbor Care Center. When he was in training, he actually visited a facility where the tree sat in the activity room all year. Lazy administrator and staff, that’s how he saw it. At Gull Harbor, decorating the tree added excitement. No way would he just shove the tree into a corner and then drag it out every year.
His cell rang and Will grabbed it from his pocket.
“Hey, so your customer didn’t stay long.”
A cough came from the end other end of the line. “What customer? Will, it’s me, your sister.”
Delinda? “What’s up?” Will sat down. Christmas was coming and his dear sister always used any holiday as an excuse to hit him up for cash. Their dad would not allow Mom to send Delinda any money. But Will was a softer touch.
“How would you like a visit from your favorite niece?” Her blunt approach hadn’t changed one bit. Delinda got right down to brass tacks.
“You want to come visit with Maisy?” The chair squeaked when Will rocked back.
“Kind of. Wouldn’t that be fun?” Her voice held that little girl tone she probably thought was cute. He braced himself. “My boyfriend Richie has planned a holiday vacation for us, him and me. Am I lucky or what? Won it in a lottery and decided to tack on an extra week or so.”
“Isn’t Maisy in school?” As he recalled, his niece had been a shy little tyke.
“Lots of parents take their kids out of school for vacations.”
“Yes, Delinda. But usually they’re vacationing with the child.”
“No one in these parts wants Maisy.” Desperation crept into her voice.
So that’s how it was. The poor kid. “Where are you living now?”
“Kentucky. Up in the hills.”
She’d been that close to his parents for God knows how long and never bothered to contact them. His forehead began to throb.
“Consider this my Christmas present.” Her laugh held the harsh edge of too many cigarettes.
“Have you asked Mom? She might want to visit with her granddaughter.”
“Right.” Delinda snorted. “And hear Dad lecture me? No way.”
God he was so torn. Every cell in his body told him this was a bad thing to do. But where would his niece end up if he said no? Will wasn’t Delinda’s first choice. She’d made that clear. “Okay, fine. As long as the school knows. She can bring her homework here, I suppose.”
“Absolutely.” Delinda let fly her nervous, horsey laugh. That much hadn’t changed. Wasn’t until after he hung up that he wondered how Diana would take the news.
~.~
“My sister is coming,” Will told Diana as they sat in front of the fire in his condo. “She’s bringing her little girl.”
“For the holidays? Terrific. How long will they stay?” She’d get to meet someone from his family.
“I don’t know.” Will stared into the flames.
The crackling fire threw deep shadows, and she couldn’t read his expression. “You mean they’re coming for a holiday visit?” Christmas was only two weeks away.
“In a way. Guess I should have asked more questions.” Jumping up, he grabbed another log and opened the fireplace screen to toss it in. Sparks flew up the chimney when the wood hit the glowing embers. With a sigh, he sat back down. Poor guy didn’t seem happy.
“Hey, what’s up? Aren’t you excited?” This was a different Will, one she’d never seen. Not too long ago, she’d thought the man came from a perfect family, upstanding citizens and all that. Far too solid and stable for a girl with no father and a mother who’d kicked her to the curb. Now? She wasn’t so sure. The picture had shifted.
“Delinda’s not exactly the family success story.” Leaning forward on his elbows, he stared into the fire, as if it might have some answers. “I haven’t seen her in a long time, Diana. She’s kind of like my older sister who never grew up.”
“You said they went West. Where did they go? Did your folks ever find them?”
His grimace didn’t bode well. “They wound up in Vegas. But the marriage didn’t last. Mark eventually took off and they got a quickie divorce.”
“He abandoned them? Did she come home then?”
Will shook his head. “No, Delinda can be very stubborn. My father even went out there. But when he threatened to have the baby taken from her...”
“He would do that?”
Will huffed out a rough chuckle. “If he thought the baby was in danger, yes. He didn’t find Delinda in the best of situations, but she was eighteen and stubborn.”
Diana’s own heart twisted just thinking about the poor little girl. She pictured dirty hotel rooms and meals at gas stations. What kind of life was that? Maybe she was lucky her mother had left her behind with her grandparents. “So what happened?”
“They argued. Delinda promised she’d give Beanblossom a trial period, just to get Dad off her back. She was supposed to follow him home. Instead, she cashed in her ticket, took the traveling money from Dad and disappeared, taking Maisy with her.”
Chills chased down her spine. “Oh, my word. Just like my
mom, Will. When she didn’t come home from Chicago and just sent a text, my grandparents hired a detective. They found her in Florida, and Grandpa Stan went down to bring her back. But she wasn’t coming back and she was eighteen.”
“Trust me, you were lucky.” Disgust etched lines in Will’s face. “You’d never want to live through what my sister and Maisy have seen...and I don’t even know the half of it.”
Holding her closer, he kissed her forehead. She was fine with that as long as he didn’t end up on her left cheek. Diana still kept him on her right side if she could manage it.
“You must have really missed your mom, Diana.”
“Sure. As I grew up, I was convinced she didn’t love me. Oh, she’d send me those refrigerator magnets or a t-shirt from whatever city she was passing through. But my grandparents were wonderful. Grandma Kit would fix my lunch every day and walk me to the bus. My grandparents never missed a parent teacher conference.”
“Did she ever come back?”
“Once or twice. Mainly I think she wanted money but not me. She’d breeze in on a cloud of perfume, looking so beautiful.” Her voice caught in her throat. Even as a child, she could detect her mother’s hard edge under the glamour. “Don’t know how she did it, but she always wound up with another high roller, as Grandpa said, a man who could give her what she needed. Paulo is her third or fourth husband. I’ve lost track. Their place on Ibiza isn’t shabby, from the pictures.” She was over feeling hurt.
Will appeared to mull this over. How amazing that their families shared the heartbreak of a lost child. They watched the logs collapse on each other in the fireplace, sending sparks up the sooty bricks.
“Do you think you’ll ever have a relationship with her?” he asked.
“I doubt it. What she did to my grandparents was unforgivable. She was their only child. Grandma Kit...she’s all the family I’ve got now. Besides, I’d have a hard time getting over all those scenic magnets she sent me.”
Will’s arms tightened around her and the hurt eased a little. “Magnets are easy to pick up. Kids require constant attention. You were lucky that your mother didn’t drag you along.”
“Right. Well, I could have gone for a vacation in one of those villas.” She’d imagined that so many times over the years. Her beautiful mother would send her a plane ticket. Upon arrival, she’d tell Diana how bad she felt about the past. To atone, she’d whirl her daughter through Europe, one beautiful hotel after another.
But Diana had given up those dreams. They weren’t worth having. “When I catch a gleam of platinum blonde hair or the flash of blue eyes, I wonder. But it’s never her. She had the most amazing turquoise eyes.”
“At least she gave you those.”
Dragging a strand of hair over her scar, she ducked her head. The eyes were probably all she had left that resembled her mother.
Will’s arm tightened around her shoulder. “Don’t. It takes more than a pretty face to be truly beautiful. Heck, you know that, Diana.”
Did she? His lips coaxed her into forgetting. When she was in a dark room with him, she could pretend she was the same Diana Prescott. Soon he had her stretched out on the leather sofa. Her whole world became Will Applegate from Beanblossom.
“What’s that smile on your face?” He traced it with a finger.
“Never mind. Come here.” Locking one leg around his thigh, she twisted, molding her body to his. They made love that night with feverish urgency in the flickering light of the fire.
Long after Will had fallen asleep, his news kept her awake. He was a patient man but he’d never had a child. How would he be with his niece?
The concerns stayed with her as Christmas came closer. The snow continued until the plows couldn’t keep up with it. Some of the cross-country skiers came by and cleared her out of the ski apparel she’d ordered as a test. Next year, she’d order more. No other Gull Harbor store carried it.
Decorations sprang up along Whittaker Street, but she had zero Christmas spirit. For her, the holiday season held bitter memories. That’s when she found out Bryce was married. By that time, she’d taken out a lease on the storefront in Gull Harbor. Bryce hadn’t been excited when she shared her news and that hurt. They were supposed to be having a romantic dinner at his place in Gull Harbor that Friday when a package arrived at the shop in Chicago.
Her hands had shaken as she opened the outer box. This must be the perfume she’d mentioned to him last week. But it wasn’t. Instead, her stomach turned at the cloying scent she’d never buy. How had he gotten this wrong? The man was always jotting things in his black leather book with a small gold pen. Only later did she understand why he had to keep things straight. Maybe Diana hadn’t been the only “other woman.”
When she questioned Bryce as they sat at the dinner table overlooking a gray Lake Michigan, the story came out. He even seemed tearful. Yeah, right. Sometimes she wondered if he hadn’t planned the mix-up. And the worse thing was, he expected her to continue but in secret. “Let’s not spoil a good thing,” he told her.
“But you’re married.”
“Of course I am. You must have known that.” He’d blinked those brown puppy dog eyes. That probably worked on some women. “But it’s not a good marriage, and we’ve been talking about splitting up...” The words stung like pebbles.
Then her anger flared. “Do you have children?”
“Of course. Two, a boy and a girl.” No names. He was protecting them.
“Really. And you’d do this to them?”
After that, they’d thrown angry words at each other while below the waves thundered against the ice floes. The drive home was silent and long. She held her tears until she was inside her own apartment above the shop. Then she wrote him a long letter and sent it to his house. After she was settled in Gull Harbor, she drove past the mansion on Lake Shore Road and a For Sale sign was attached to the gate.
The following Christmas had been a year of quiet forgetting. This year? Christmas would be different. Her life was coming together, despite the harrowing accident. She couldn’t pass a window or mirror without touching her left cheek. The heavy theater makeup worked, but strangely, the thick coating reminded her of what lay beneath.
After Thanksgiving, she went back to the Sunday dances at the Gull Harbor Care Center. Everyone seemed so glad to see her. Their questions were open and honest. She felt relieved when that part was over, and residents stood in line to dance with her. Of course, Harold was first, clumsy in his eagerness and so sweet. But then it was Tim and Richard, Luanne and Edith. She maneuvered Frieda around the floor and listened to her account of when her husband took her to the Silver Lake carousel up at St. Joe, Michigan. Or Roseanne would tell stories about her grandchildren. Diana had seen the gaggle of children at the picnics.
Usually Will would ask her for one dance, but she had to hold herself so stiff with him. They wouldn’t tease the way they had at the Firemen’s Ball. Instead, they kept a proper distance. Sometimes it almost felt agonizing.
Diana looked forward to Delinda’s arrival, but his sister hadn’t given Will a date yet. Although Will didn’t seem to think much of Delinda, she’d shed some light on his past.
How could she know they were opening a door to a nightmare?
Chapter 20
Will was on the phone when Kelsey appeared at his door. He waved her in. “I know you have other customers, Zeke. But we’re a living facility for seniors, and the weekend’s almost here. Family visits mean a lot to my residents.”
Kelsey’s expression made him cup a hand over the phone. “What is it?”
“Someone to see you.”
He glanced outside. Staff cars huddled under a heavy blanket of snow. A white car that screamed rental was stuck right at the entrance of the unplowed parking lot. “Zeke, I have to go. A car’s blocking my entrance. Can you put us at the top of your list? Thanks.”
When he ended the call, Kelsey edged closer and whispered, “She says she’s your sister?” Disbelief ti
pped her words into a question.
His glance swerved to the car. “Yep, probably.” Delinda was the kind who would just show up without a call. “Any cookies out there?”
She looked offended. “What do you think? Of course.”
Her response made him smile. “Could you offer the little girl a cookie?”
“They took care of that as soon as they hit the reception desk.” That sounded like Delinda. With a flutter of her hand, Kelsey was gone.
Slipping into his hounds tooth jacket, Will worked on his attitude. He’d be loving, supportive but firm. Where was she going and when would she be back? The smell of bacon and french toast hung in the air as he walked through the tiled halls. Corporate had warned him about exceeding the food budget. No problem. He just shifted some numbers from the activity budget. Covered the parties and picnics out of his own pocket. Food was the one pleasure left for a lot of his residents. He didn’t care what it cost.
Two women huddled at the front desk. “Only one more, Maisy,” he heard his sister say. No way could he miss Delinda’s wildly curly hair, now a dull brown. When she turned, the eyes that once sparkled matched the hair. His attention shifted to his niece. This tall young woman with bright green hair and sullen features was Maisy? His steps slowed. How many years had it been? He gulped. Maybe thirteen since that Thanksgiving when Delinda stopped in Beanblossom before disappearing again. Mother and daughter were dressed in cheap-looking navy quilted jackets and stocking caps. No snow boots, just running shoes that looked soaked.
Time hadn’t been kind to his sister, and her sagging cheeks couldn’t even hold that smile. “Ah, here he is. And all grown up. Maisy, let’s give Uncle Will a big hug.”
Will restrained the urge to duck when Delinda threw her arms around him like a cobra.
“Delinda.” Slipping from her grasp, he turned to his niece, munching her cookie as if it were her last meal. Crumbs sprinkled her quilted jacket like brown snow. Looking tough and resistant, she had none of her mother’s brightness at that age. So young and so road weary. A fist tightened in his chest. “Hey, Maisy. Been a long time. You were three or so when I last saw you.”
