Breakwater Bay

by Shelley Noble

  “I’ll bring her in.”

  “Good, drop her off at Gilbert House. Carlyn and I will take her to dinner; you, too, if you can stay.”

  “Thanks,” he said drily. “You go on back to Newport. You won’t be any good in the kitchen with one hand. Nora and I will help with the dishes.”

  Meri looked quizzically at him. He often helped with the dishes. But he seemed anxious to get rid of her. Or maybe just Peter.

  “Thanks.” She turned to Peter. “I’ll get my things.”

  Everyone began clearing plates. When she returned with her bag a few minutes later, they were all in the kitchen. Alden was washing, Nora drying, and Gran dividing leftovers into plastic containers, while Peter watched.

  Peter took her bag and they all walked out to the drive to see them off.

  Meri said her good-byes while Peter put her bag in the trunk of his car. She kissed Gran, hugged Nora. She gave Alden a quick hug and said in his ear, “We didn’t get to talk, but I just want you to know, you don’t have to worry about me. I can take care of myself.”

  “Ready?” Peter called from the car.

  “Bye, see you on Thursday.” She got into the car. The three of them waved as Meri and Peter drove away.

  “Absolutely American Gothic,” Peter said and sped up.

  Meri took a last look back, but they had already gone back inside.

  Don’t you guys like Peter?” Nora grabbed the dish towel she’d left on the table and went back to drying.

  “Of course we do,” Gran said. “He’s a lovely young man.”

  “Dad?”

  “Lovely.”

  “Well, I think he’s cool, for an old dude.”

  Gran looked to the ceiling and shook her head.

  “He’s in his thirties,” Alden said.

  Nora grinned mischievously. “Well, old for me, probably a baby from where you’re looking.”

  “That must make me ancient.”

  “Makes you the best dad ever.” Nora stood on tiptoes to kiss his cheek.

  “And don’t you forget it, young lady,” Gran told her, with a twinkle. “Your father’s in his prime.”

  Her words startled Alden into a laugh.

  Nora looked dubious. “So what’s wrong with Peter?”

  “Nothing at all,” Gran said. “I guess we just don’t want our little girl getting married and going away. I’m sure we’ll feel the same when you decide to get married.”

  “Which won’t be for another twenty years,” Alden added.

  “Not to worry, Papa. I’ll never leave you.”

  Alden saw her shoot a look toward Therese. Nora turned resolutely back to him, and he wondered what she was going to drop. God, please don’t let her be pregnant or on drugs or . . .

  “Actually, I mean it. I want to stay here . . . with you . . .”

  “I’m not following.”

  “I want to live with you, go to school here, bake cookies with Gran. I hate New Haven, and I hate living in that house.”

  Panic rushed over him in one drowning tsunami. Had something really happened? He looked at his daughter and saw Riley Rochfort, practically the same age, pregnant and unwanted. And running from something they had never understood.

  “Is someone hurting you?” His voice sounded foreign even to himself.

  In his periphery, he saw Therese’s eyes widen. But Nora just rolled hers. “If you mean is Mark doing the dirty with me, no. He’d be singing falsetto if he tried.”

  That’s my girl, Alden thought.

  “It’s like this. Living there is like being in a hotel. Without room service,” she added.

  Gran pulled out a kitchen chair for him to sit down and poured him another cup of coffee. He sat.

  That put Nora on the other side of the table from him. She stood there with her hands braced on the kitchen table, like a lawyer for the defense.

  “So can I? Ple-e-e-ase?”

  Gran pulled out another chair, but instead of sitting, Nora pressed Therese into it and pulled another one close to hers before she sat. Gran was obviously considered an ally. Had they discussed this before?

  “Nora, dear. I think your father needs a little more explanation than that.”

  Nora nodded and began drawing a figure eight with her finger on the wood. “They’re all happily going about their lives, together as a family. Even Lucas, but mainly because he’s clueless. He eats, he sleeps, he thinks. He’s happy.” She almost wailed the last word. “But it’s their family, Mark and Jennifer, and Henley, Ryan, and little amoeba Mason.

  “Ugh, she even made us look at pictures of that little worm floating around. I can’t stand him already.”

  Alden fought back a smile. Maybe she was just jealous. He would like to ask Jennifer for her take on the situation, but he knew it would only result in her blaming him for inciting Nora to rebel. Would the woman be as clueless with her own children as she was with—He stopped, shocked at his thought. Nora and Lucas were her own children. Alden’s and hers, but not hers and Mark’s. Could that possibly make a difference to her?

  He glanced at Therese, who was looking back at him as if she were thinking the same thing.

  “So can I stay? Meri and Gran think it’s a good idea.”

  Gran gently smacked Nora’s hand. “Meri and Gran said you would be welcome but that you should discuss it intelligently with your father.”

  “I know and that’s what I’m doing.”

  Alden knew he should nip this in the bud, but he was beginning to get attached to the idea. It would certainly change his lifestyle. He nearly laughed out loud. Holing up in that behemoth of an old house, monthly trips to Manhattan for work and a modicum of pleasure—he had no lifestyle. Could he possibly be any good for his daughter?

  “Have you discussed this with your mother and Mark?”

  “No way. She’d just say no, because it involves you.” She hesitated, bit her lip. “Why is she so mad at you? Is it because you stuck her with me and Lucas?”

  “God no. Whatever gave you that idea?”

  Nora shrugged. He could see that she was fighting back tears.

  Fortunately Therese was quicker than he was. She put her arm about Nora’s shoulders. “Your father loves you very much. And he only allowed your mother to take you two because he thought she could give you a better life.”

  Because he’d been a fool, Alden admitted to himself.

  “Well, you were wrong, Dad.” She flung herself at Therese and burst into tears.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. And watched her cry.

  That’s why he’d let them go, he thought, looking at Therese rocking his daughter. Because a woman knows how to comfort and sustain. At least most women. At least the Calder women. Maybe Nora was right. She would be a lot happier here with him and Therese and Meri. He stopped himself. Meri would most likely marry Peter and go wherever Peter got a job. Gran was getting older. Would she be up for lending support to his sometimes troublesome daughter?

  He stood up. “Let’s go home, Noddy. We’ll talk about it later.”

  She looked up, her pale complexion flushed and her eyes swollen pink. “You never call me Noddy anymore.”

  Because until tonight he’d thought she was too old for childhood nicknames.

  Therese pushed herself slowly out of her chair. “You take the rest of that cake home. You might need a midnight snack.” She began collecting containers that she put into a plastic bag.

  She walked them to the door. “You’ve got six more days here; don’t let your worries keep them from being perfect.”

  Nora nodded jerkily. “Let’s walk, Daddy. We can come get the car tomorrow.”

  So they walked home, Nora leaning against him.

  “Were we bad kids?”

  “No, never. It was my fault. Actually it started when we came here to live.”

  “At Corrigan House?”

  “Yeah, I guess the way I had talked about it, your mother thought it was going to be one of the gilded mansions
of Newport. Instead it was this.” He gestured to the dark shadow of the three-storied monster ahead of them. “I thought it was a perfect place to raise children. But your mother hated it. She insisted we move back to Manhattan.”

  “But you said no.”

  “Right.” It was one of the few times he’d held firm, at least in the early years. He’d been stupid enough to think Jennifer would grow to love it as much as he did. She’d lasted long enough to have Lucas, then the traveling started. And with it the affairs. And he sat by and let it happen because he was happy without her.

  In those days he’d hired a cook, Geraldine, who at her interview said, “Most folks just call me Fat Gerry.” Nora and Lucas took to her immediately. And he hired a nurse-housekeeper of sorts, Bernadette. They all got along fine, except when Jennifer was there.

  “You were right, Daddy. This was the perfect place to grow up.”

  Only they weren’t allowed to grow up here; they were ten and eight when they were snatched away. And he’d let that happen.

  “It still is,” she prodded.

  Alden sighed. “Honey, it’s falling down. I didn’t keep it up.” There was no reason to once they had gone. He just hadn’t cared. Now he saw how selfish he’d been. If he didn’t care about the place, he should at least have kept it up for the next generation. Just like his father had, after his mother had left.

  “We can fix it up together.”

  Alden pulled her close. “You’re a great kid, you know that.”

  “I’m not a kid.”

  “No, you’re a great young woman.”

  She gave him a little push. “You are such a dad.”

  Why don’t you stay at my place tonight?” Peter said as they drove over the bridge into Newport. “You can stay in bed all day and I’ll pamper the daylights out of you, among other things.” He gave her a villainous eyebrow waggle that made her laugh.

  “As appealing as it sounds, I really need to get home. I have work tomorrow.”

  “You’re kidding, right? You only have one usable hand and I’m leaving in three days.”

  “I know, I’m sorry. But Doug is expecting me. There’s plenty of stuff to do with one hand.”

  That got her a laugh, but he immediately sobered. “Doug would understand.”

  Meri began to get annoyed. “I’m sure he would. But it’s my job. And I won’t let him down. The project depends on everyone involved. You’re leaving in a few days, but I’m not. I need to keep on track and keep my job.”

  He sighed and drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. “Want me to stay at your place?”

  Meri turned to look at him. “I would love that. But like always, I’ll be up and out before nine.”

  Peter groaned. He reached for her hand, then realized it was the bandaged one and went back to drumming his fingers on the steering wheel.

  It was Sunday night and those residents who had left for the weekend were back. It was almost ten minutes before he squeezed the car into a minuscule parking place several blocks from her apartment.

  Meri was beginning to wish she had just sent him home, because he’d turned from entertaining to sulky by the time they walked up the stairs to her door. They were barely inside when he dropped her bag, turned, and took her in his arms, walking her backward all the way to the bedroom.

  And for the first time that she could remember, Meri didn’t feel that rush of desire that made them rip off clothes and fall laughing into bed. What she felt was a sense of closure that somehow they wouldn’t make it past this summer, even if Peter did come back for good.

  She pushed the thought out of her mind. She’d been doing way too much thinking in the last week. Too much trying to sort out her life and her future. She was just too tired to worry anymore. So she gave into the moment, enjoying what she had, and trying not to think about what she was about to lose.

  It wasn’t until the next morning standing on the sidewalk that Meri remembered that her car was still at the site where she’d left it. “Do you mind dropping me off?”

  “No, but we’ll have to hurry.”

  Great, he was pissed. He’d tried to talk her into staying home again that morning, but she’d held firm. She knew that Doug wouldn’t begrudge her another day off, and quite frankly she didn’t know how much she could really do with her injury.

  But on the drive home the night before, she had been attacked by an overwhelming desire to see her ceiling. To discover just what lay beneath that detached medallion.

  And now that morning was here and they were out of the apartment, she could hardly contain her curiosity. She didn’t mention it. The last thing she needed was for Peter to think she was more excited about a ceiling than about staying with him. But it was what it was.

  He was leaving to pursue his career and she was happy for him, if not exactly ecstatic about being left solo. But she had her work, too, and though it might not take the world by storm, it was important to her and to history.

  She would just have to wait and see which one weathered the test of time better, her ceiling or her boyfriend.

  Peter dropped Meri off at the door. “See you tonight?”

  “Sure thing.”

  “I’ll call you.”

  She’d better get used to it. Calls would be the only thing she’d be getting from Peter in the months to come. As she watched him drive away, an empty, sick feeling settled in her stomach. Aftermath of the drugs, she told herself and went inside.

  Coffee was made; Doug’s desk was gone. A flicker of panic shot to her gut before she remembered that Carlyn was moving him to another room.

  Meri poured herself a mug of coffee and would have taken a donut from the box on the kitchen table if she had the use of both hands. Between food, the beach, and Peter, her bandage was looking the worse for wear. The doctor had said she could change the bandage.

  Maybe she could enlist Carlyn and the project first aid kit. She walked down the hall to the tiny office Carlyn called the executive suite and stuck her head in the door. “You busy?”

  Carlyn looked up from her computer screen. “Just counting the minutes until this computer crashes again.”

  “Uh-oh.”

  “I called IT, but they can’t get over until this afternoon. So I called Joe Krosky. He’s on his way.”

  “Joe fixes computers?”

  “Joe does everything. It’s amazing. He’s working toward a Ph.D. in molecular biology while tracing wall paper patterns in an old house, and tinkering with my hard drive . . .”

  Meri burst out laughing, almost upsetting her coffee. Carlyn joined her. “Hell, he’s probably good at that, too. I wonder if he can sing?”

  Now they were both laughing. It was good to be back. Any qualms about not going to California vanished. This was where she belonged.

  “So what did you need me for?” Carlyn asked, wiping her eyes.

  “Hold an extra flashlight so I can get a look at my ceiling? They haven’t covered it or anything, have they?”

  “Nope, waiting for you to tell them what to do.”

  “Good. Then I need help putting on a new bandage.” She held up her hand and turned it for Carlyn to see.

  “Ewww. Looks like you’ve been coal mining with that paw.”

  “I know. It’s pretty disgusting, plus there’s way too much bandage.”

  “Don’t even think about using that hand for another week.”

  “I’m not.” Well, not exactly. She’d be careful. “But I do want to see my ceiling.”

  “You certainly do.” Carlyn rolled her chair back and came around her desk. “But you won’t need a flashlight. Doug set up floodlights. You’re going to be amazed.”

  They sped walked to the foyer.

  “Do not look up.”

  Meri looked at her feet while lights popped on around her. Carlyn took her shoulders and turned her slightly, much like Meri had done with Alden the day he’d come to bring her mother’s diary.

  Excitement and gratefulness for her fr
iends and work filled her.

  “Now.” Carlyn let go and Meri looked up at the ceiling.

  Spotlighted by the floor lights, the ceiling practically gleamed with unfaded blue, aquamarine, green, and gold. The medallion had been installed over the original decoration and had protected it for a hundred years.

  Meri knew when she looked more closely she would see hairline cracks and maybe some bubbling, but from where she stood it looked pretty incredible.

  “Did someone check the condition of the foundation plaster?”

  “Doug called in Tommy O’Connell. He’s coming today or tomorrow, whenever he can squeeze us in. Until then Doug has closed off the rooms above it. He doesn’t want to take a chance of some heavy-footed intern dislodging the section. So you did good, kid.”

  “Wow, just wow.” Meri shoved her mug toward Carlyn. “Take this.”

  “Why?”

  “I have to take a closer look.”

  “Oh no. Doug said you’re not to climb until you have both hands back in working condition.”

  “Doug doesn’t have to know.”

  Carlyn gave her a look.

  “I know, you’re right. I wouldn’t do that to Doug.” She blew out a breath and took her mug back. “Come see what you can do with this hand. Then put me to work.”

  Chapter 16

  Carlyn fetched the first aid kit and began cutting off the old gauze. “Are you sure it’s all right for me to do this?”

  “You were there. The doctor said it could be taken off after a few days.”

  “And replaced with another one. But are you sure you wouldn’t rather go to him?”

  “I’m sure.” Meri began peeling away the layers, a little worried at what she would find. “I’d rather be stripping a ceiling,” she said and carefully lifted off the last layer. There were three strips of clear tape running across the stitched skin. All in all, the cut looked innocuous. She knew that could be misleading, but she wiggled her thumb and other fingers. “It works.”

  Carlyn let out a sigh. “I knew it would.”

  “Boy, I’m pretty lucky.”

  “You are. Between nerves and arteries.” Carlyn shuddered. “But I’m wrapping this up and you’re putting it back in that nasty old sling, because we’re not taking any chances. And don’t you dare try to use your hand.”