Learning about her parents’ lies seemed to change everything and nothing all at once. The woman who raised her, the woman she would always and forever think of as “mom,” was still dead. The father who had spoiled her as a little girl and who had forgotten her as a sick old man was still locked in his own mind. Knowing the truth didn’t erase the car crash that killed Ryan. It didn’t alter the fact that her parents had given her a comfortable, even luxurious, upbringing and as much love as they could muster, which was all any parents could do. If she now understood better why her mother had been so protective of her, why she had so often looked over her shoulder, that understanding didn’t change the fact that she was grateful for all the advantages her parents had given her, advantages, she was gradually realizing, that she was going to need to act upon.
She couldn’t keep living off others. She needed to get a job and make a plan for her future. Grace kept telling Angela to stay as long as she wanted, to take her time, not to worry about a thing. That was sweet of her, but Angela was starting to feel like she had overstayed her welcome. She also had to admit, she missed college. She missed the routine of it, but more importantly, she missed the environment. She’d been talking to Professor Morgan and one of the deans about coming back next semester, but there were so many details to sort out. It was overwhelming.
The question of what role her newly discovered family was going to play in her life was still hanging over her head, though. She certainly wasn’t going to go live with any of them, although Marilyn had called several times to repeat her offer, and now Helen had gotten in on the action, too. But she didn’t want to live in New York City, and she didn’t want to live in some little western Massachusetts town. She wanted to go back to St. Kate’s, she also wanted to stay here. This was home, after all, with all its familiar comforts, and the essential new comfort of Randy’s bright eyes, dimpled smile, and strong arms around her.
After they had decided to slow things down, they had started over, and Randy’s romantic nature had proven a nice surprise. He liked taking her on real dates. He bought her flowers and left her sweet little notes. They’d slowed down the intimate side of their relationship, too, at his request. He wanted to know her as a person without letting lust get the best of them. This was not what Angela was used to from guys. The dating scene in college had been driven entirely by lust as far as she could tell. Randy, however, was not like those partying college boys. He went to church on Sundays with his parents, and he loved babysitting his nieces and nephews, and while he wasn’t immune to Angela’s physical charms, he was clear-headed enough to see that a relationship needed to be about more than sex.
Angela also wondered if he knew how much all the waiting turned her on. Finally, two nights ago, she’d slept over at his place for the first time in the weeks since their dating do-over began, and it had been totally worth the wait.
“Do you have other questions for me?” Calliope asked, calling Angela back from her wandering thoughts.
“How do you go through life like this?” she asked. The idea of being bombarded by the voices of spirits everywhere she went sounded exhausting. She didn’t know if she wanted to learn to use her gift, but she definitely had to learn how to cope with it.
Calliope laughed. “Honestly, there are some places I simply avoid because there’s too much paranormal activity there, but you can learn to control it and to close yourself off from the spirit world, kind of like putting your cell phone in silent mode.”
“And you can teach me that?” Angela asked.
With that, Calliope began her first lesson.
***
“How would you feel about taking a road trip with me?” Angela asked that night over dinner. They had gone back to Antonio’s, the restaurant where they’d met to talk about the first investigation. This time Angela could actually enjoy the ambiance and the food.
Randy raised an eyebrow. “What do you have in mind?”
“I have to go get the rest of my stuff from school,” Angela explained. Molly had packed up her clothes and shipped them to her, but she had other things there, taking up space in what was now Molly and Nicole’s room. Thankfully they hadn’t been assigned another roommate, although they might have one for the second semester.
“Do you think you’ll meet the rest of your family while you’re in New England?”
Angela nodded. She couldn’t go all the way and not meet them. Beechmont wasn’t even two hours from St. Kate’s. Anyway, she wanted to meet them. She and Helen had spoken on the phone several times, and it was clear that Helen was eager for her to visit. She thought she might also visit Marilyn. After all, she’d never been to New York City, and anyway, she felt bad about how she’d treated Marilyn when she was here. She’d taken her frustration with Deb out on Marilyn, and that wasn’t right.
“What about CJ?” Randy asked.
She shook her head. Angela had corresponded with Lindsey Wilcox and had gotten CJ’s full name: Cara Seaver. Lindsey hadn’t been sure what the “J” stood for, but she knew CJ’s first and last names. Having her name, however, had not brought Angela any closer to finding her.
“What if you went to Devil’s Back Island? You could go to that café and ask questions.”
Angela bit her lip. She didn’t want to barge in on CJ the way Marilyn had barged in on her. She wanted to contact her first. Except she couldn’t figure out how. Anyway, if the café’s phone was cut off, how likely was the café to be open?
“I mean, once you’ve driven all the way, you’ll be so close,” Randy said.
Angela took a big bite of pasta and didn’t answer.
“Also, small world, but I got an email today from a paranormal investigator listserv I’m on with information about a big Halloween festival,” Randy said.
Angela didn’t see why this information needed the “small world” preface. She didn’t see how it was relevant at all.
“Guess where the festival is taking place?” he asked, grinning.
Honestly, Angela had no idea and she hated guessing games.
“Devil’s Back Island!”
Chapter 46
Devil’s Back Island, Maine
The phone at the Wild Rose Inn had been ringing nonstop since Rosetta began her marketing blitz. Where were all these people during the regular season? she wondered. One weekend of heavy traffic wasn’t enough to change anything, but at least she wasn’t going out quietly. She was about to change the message on the inn’s answering machine to say there were no vacancies when the phone rang.
“Greetings from the Wild Rose Inn. How may I help you this fine day?” Rosetta asked.
“I, um, do you have any rooms for Halloween?” a youthful, nervous female voice asked.
“I’m sorry to say we’re booked. I can add you to the waiting list, though, in case we get any cancelations. Always have people change plans last minute.”
“Oh. Right, well, never mind,” the girl said.
“You don’t want the waiting list?”
“I’d be coming from too far away to wait until last minute to know if I had a room,” she said.
“I hate to disappoint travelers from afar. Where you calling from?”
“South Carolina, actually,” the girl said, and Rosetta’s heart skipped a beat. Obviously South Carolina was a huge state full of young women who might be interested in a trip to Maine for Halloween. There was no reason to get excited over a phone call. Still, there were no other guests coming from so far away. Not even close.
“That is far. Have you ever stayed with us before?” Rosetta asked.
“No, but I, my boyfriend, he got an email about your Halloween festival.”
Rosetta was cheered to think that news of her celebration had made it as far away as South Carolina but disappointed to hear that the girl, or her boyfriend, anyway, was just a ghost hunter.
“Tell you what, why don’t you give me your name, and if we know of any openings by Monday, I’ll let you know,” Rosetta said.
<
br /> “I don’t want to waste your time,” the girl said.
“Don’t be silly. What’s your name?”
The girl paused like she was taking a moment to make up her mind and then said, “My name is Angela. Angela Ellis.”
Rosetta almost dropped the phone. She was practically jumping up and down with excitement, but she kept her voice calm, “Angela, what a nice name. And your address?”
And the girl rattled off an address that concluded St. Nabor Island, South Carolina. Rosetta had to hurry her off the phone so she could get a grip on what had happened. Angela Ellis of St. Nabor Island, South Carolina, Casey’s daughter, had called to see about visiting the island! Rosetta wanted to call her back right away and say she realized she did have a room available. She didn’t actually have a room, but she’d figure it out. Someone would cancel. Hell, the kid could stay in Rosetta’s own apartment and she’d go sleep on the floor at the Beach Plum. She’d do anything if it meant getting the girl here, but she had to tell Casey first.
She put up a “Back in 5” sign at the registration desk, called Bentley, and went as fast as she could to the café.
***
“You have to sit down,” Rosetta said, bursting through the door of the café like a gale force wind. Bentley, caught up in Rosetta’s excitement, pranced around her feet, waiting for whatever exciting thing was going to happen next.
“I’m a little busy,” Casey said. She was piping frosting onto cupcakes. She had to be ready to open the doors at 7 AM tomorrow, and there was still so much to do.
“Please, sit down.”
“I can do that,” Brett said, reaching out a hand for the pastry bag. He was wearing an old apron over his crispy pressed khakis and button-down shirt.
Casey shot him a dirty look. “You stick to the cookies,” she said. She set down the pastry bag and came around the counter to sit at a table.
“I have to tell you something, and you need to listen,” Rosetta said.
Casey crossed her arms. If this had to do with her daughter again, she was going to scream. How many times did she have to tell Rosetta she couldn’t know. It wasn’t about what she did or did not want. It was about what she needed. She needed not to know.
“I got a phone call,” Rosetta said, “from a girl in South Carolina.”
Casey made a hurry-it-up gesture.
“It was from an Angela Ellis.”
Casey pushed her chair back to stand up. She’d heard enough. There were zillions of people with the last name Ellis. If Rosetta freaked out every time she met one, they were going to have a big problem on their hands.
“It’s her,” Rosetta said.
Casey shook her head and pursed her lips.
“It’s her. I know it is because I found her weeks ago, which is what I’ve been trying to tell you.”
“How? How in the world could you possibly have found her?” Casey refused to believe it. This was all absurd.
“Well, Casey, there’s this magical thing called the Internet, I don’t know if you’ve heard of it—”
“Stop it! I told you to stop!” Casey shouted. Nothing about this was okay. Rosetta had violated her wishes and contacted her daughter and what was she supposed to do now? “I have begged you not to look for her, and now you’re telling me she’s calling you? Are you leaving out the fact that you called her first?”
Brett came out of the kitchen and looked back and forth between them. Rosetta motioned for him to go away.
“I swear to you on my life I didn’t reach out to her in any way. I found her, and I’ve been trying to tell you, but you won’t listen. I didn’t think it was my place to contact her.”
“So she up and called you out of the blue?” That was awfully convenient.
“She wants to come to the festival. Is that so hard to believe?”
“Um, yes,” Casey said. She rubbed her hands over her face. “How sure are you that it’s her?”
“I’m pretty sure.”
“Pretty sure or actually sure?”
“I’m sure.”
“Jesus.”
“Can I tell you the rest?” Rosetta asked.
“There’s more?” Casey said, grimacing. What more could there be?
“Deborah Ellis is dead, Casey,” Rosetta said. “She died back in September. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”
Casey felt her eyes fill with tears and tried to blink them away. “And you think that means I’m free to contact my daughter now?”
Rosetta gave her a look that said she did think so.
“The inn is totally booked, so I put her on a waiting list, but I can call her right now and tell her I found her a room. She could be here in a matter of days,” Rosetta said.
“And then what? I walk up and say, ‘Hi, I’m your mother’?”
“All I know is that it’s like the universe wants you to meet. That’s what I think.”
“Do not give me your tarot card bullshit.”
“What if the real reason she’s coming here is because she wants to find you? Don’t you think you should give her the chance to find you?”
“How would she know to look for me here?” Casey said, suspecting again that Rosetta must be orchestrating this whole thing.
“Well, if her parents told her who you are, she could have traced you here.”
“How?”
Rosetta shrugged, and then Casey remembered that day in the fall when the hipster couple came into the café and the woman had recognized her.
“Okay, tell her you have a room for her,” she said softly.
“Are you sure?”
“Are you really asking me that now?”
Rosetta stood up and pulled Casey into a hug. “This is the right thing.”
Casey wasn’t sure, but there was only one way to find out.
Chapter 47
I-95 North
Angela and Randy had a few tense moments criticizing one another’s driving, but for the most part the journey had been smooth sailing. They stayed with Marilyn for a night, and she gave them a whirlwind tour of Manhattan, and then they continued on to Massachusetts. When they arrived at Helen’s house, they were greeted with a surprise party. Helen had gathered all of her siblings and most of their children to meet Angela. The whole scene was vaguely terrifying for a person who had spent a lifetime thinking she had no extended family. Fortunately Randy was from a big family, so he helped Angela navigate the celebration.
They stayed for two days and two nights, two days and nights of awkward, getting-to-know-you conversations, but her father’s family proved to be kind, open, and loving. Helen was an incredible cook. She took one look at Angela’s skinny arms and legs and vowed to fatten her up. Helen showed Angela old family photos, everyone told stories, and Angela soaked up this new heritage that was hers. It was so hard to reconcile this great big, happy family with her withdrawn father. Even before he got sick, he had never been an effusive person. When Angela was old enough to draw conclusions, she decided it was a generational thing, but now she thought maybe he had been protecting himself, that losing this family had made him withdraw.
Before they left, Angela promised to keep in touch, and she meant it, but she also knew that these lovely people weren’t suddenly going to be a part of her daily life, a fact that made her sad. But they lived here, and she didn’t, and everyone was busy. Helen said she was going to come visit Rich, even if he wouldn’t know her, and Angela decided that the occasional phone call or holiday greeting might be enough. That was what most people seemed to have with their extended families, and now she was going to have it, too.
From Helen’s they drove north into New Hampshire to St. Kate’s, which sat on the Connecticut River. Even though the trees were already winter-bare, the campus was beautiful, the leaded-glass windows in the old brick buildings glistening in the sun. Angela was nervous to introduce Randy to Molly and Nicole, but she quickly realized, she was worried for no reason. They loved him instantly. They loved his
southern accent and good manners, and they loved how he looked at Angela, like he’d never seen anyone so beautiful in his life.
Angela’s things were piled in boxes in a corner of the room, and it almost felt like she was arriving for the semester, not like she was here to take her things home forever. She hadn’t realized how much she missed her friends until now, sitting with them on the floor of their room, eating pints of ice cream and catching up on gossip. Now that she was back, she wished she didn’t have to leave.
On Monday morning, she had a meeting with the financial aid office. She’d spoken to a woman there on the phone several times in the past couple of weeks, and there was a chance that they could get things sorted out for her to come back next semester. While Angela had never had to cope with a sudden change in her financial circumstances before, the folks in financial aid seemed used to crises like this. She hadn’t told Randy yet. She didn’t want to upset him if it wasn’t a sure thing.
The meeting was early, and Randy was still sound asleep when Angela crept out of the dorm room. Nicole was up, though, and walked her across campus.
“Randy’s sweet,” she said, hooking her arm through Angela’s as they walked.
“He really is,” Angela agreed.
“How’s he going to feel about you coming back to school?”
Angela shrugged. She didn’t want to talk about this now. She just wanted to have a nice time.
“You shouldn’t quit school for a boy, you know. That’s a terrible idea,” Nicole said.
Angela stopped short. “Nic, I love you, but you have to stop babying me,” she said. She had let Molly and Nicole treat her like a kid since the day they met. When she’d first been paired up with them as roommates first year, they had both seemed so much more worldly than she, and certainly they were better students than she, so she’d quickly fallen into a habit of deferring to them, and they’d developed a habit of treating her like their little sister. But in the past few months, she’d grown up and realized she didn’t need her friends to tell her how to live her life. This part of their friendship she had not missed.
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