“Want some?” she asked, holding up the blender.
“Uh, no. I’m good.”
They sat at the kitchen table.
“Is that all you can eat right now?” Kathleen asked, pointing to the green slush in the glass.
Susannah nodded. “Hurts too much to chew. If my jaw doesn’t heal, they said they might have to wire it. Trying to avoid that.”
An awkward silence filled the space between them.
“So what happened?” Kathleen asked.
Susannah took a sip through the straw and sat back, shifting her sling to try and get her shoulder in a more comfortable position.
“One of the neighbors told him she saw Mom talking to the postman, and he…”
Her voice trailed away.
“He went off,” Kathleen supplied. “Let me guess, he waited until you were all there on a Sunday, and then, when he had a ready-made audience, he went off.”
Susannah stared at her. Her lips moved, but no words came out.
“And you got in between them, so he turned on you.” Kathleen shoved to her feet. “Nothing changes. And it never will unless you guys make it change. You do realize that, don’t you?”
Susannah looked up at her, her eyes brimming with tears. “You know Mom will never leave him, and we can’t leave her alone with him.”
Kathleen crossed the kitchen and braced her hands on the counter, her head hanging. “It’s late. Are you going to work tomorrow?”
Susannah shook her head. “Not looking like this. I’d have to explain…”
Yes, you’d have to explain that your father is an abusive monster, and you all put up with it, over and over.
Kathleen longed to say it, but instead, she said, “We should get to bed.”
She picked up her suitcase and followed Susannah down the hall, stepping into the right-hand extra bedroom.
“I thought—” Susannah pointed at the master bedroom.
“No.” Kathleen set her bag down, bracing herself. “I’ll help you get ready for bed, but I’m sleeping here.”
A short while later, with Susannah changed into a nightshirt and settled in the bed they used to share, Kathleen lay in the twin bed in the spare room. She’d never realized how noisy it was here—traffic and people talking out on the sidewalk and other tenants moving around upstairs.
She longed for the quiet of the island and her little cottage. She rolled over, wishing she were snuggled in Molly’s arms with Blossom snoring nearby. How had life changed so much from just last night, when she’d been wishing on a shooting star? She closed her eyes, remembering the way the starlit sky had been reflected in Molly’s eyes, as if she could see forever in their depths. A single tear leaked out.
She snorted into her pillow. “So much for wishes and happily ever after.”
MOLLY LASTED THREE DAYS. Three miserable days of trying to keep herself busy and not think about Kathleen, only to realize she wasn’t able to think of anything else. God, you were so stupid to let her go without telling her how you felt.
Her mom had been agreeable to keeping Blossom at home with her during the day. The poor dog stuck to Molly like glue when she was home at night.
“You missing her, too?” Molly asked him when he followed her into the bathroom.
On the afternoon of the third day, Molly gave up. She went by the cottage. A quick search through a box of old bills gave her Kathleen’s address in Philly. She drove home, where Blossom greeted her enthusiastically.
Jenny glanced up from where she was placing an apple pie in the oven. She pointed to a small, insulated food sack.
“I put together some things for you. Sandwiches, cookies, cold water.”
Molly gaped for a moment. “How did you—?”
Jenny smiled and shook her head. “Molly, your soft heart is matched only by your stubbornness. Go pack an overnight bag.”
Molly ran upstairs and threw some things into her gym bag. She tucked her wallet with her sheriff’s badge into her back pocket and ran down to the kitchen where her mom pushed the food sack into her hands.
“Promise me you’ll stop and get a room if you get tired.”
Molly grinned. “I will.”
Jenny gave her a kiss and a shove out the door as she held onto Blossom’s collar. “Tell your father I won our bet. And give Kathleen our best.”
She hadn’t made it to the Toyota when she heard a pitiful howling coming from the house. Giving up, she jogged back.
“I’ll take him,” she said, reaching down to rub Blossom as he danced around her.
“You’re sure?” Jenny asked.
“I’m sure. Maybe he’ll bring me luck.”
She grabbed a second bag, filled it with dog food, and she and Blossom got in the Toyota.
Her dad had a boat fueled and ready for her. Blossom jumped in ahead of her, tail wagging as he paced.
“What was your bet?” Molly asked as she climbed in and stowed her bags.
“I bet you’d be ready to go after her yesterday,” Joe said with a grin, untying the mooring line.
Molly looked back at him as the boat drifted away from the dock. “So, did you go get Mom?”
“You bet I did!”
He laughed as she pushed the throttle forward and waved.
It was a rough ride, with a steady north wind creating a sizeable chop to the water. She wrapped Blossom in a blanket and snugged her jacket under her chin, a knit hat under her hood. The boat settled into a regular rhythm of riding the swells. She forced herself to slow down enough to eat and drink a little, with just a little water for Blossom.
To the southwest, the sun sank below the horizon as an early February dusk settled. The sky darkened, and the stars came out. She watched them, the vastness and depth of those tiny, infinite points of light.
Damn, if only she’d gotten the chance to tell Kathleen her wish…
She steered into the lit-up marina and moored the boat before hauling her bags to the ferry office where she fed Blossom and called her uncle. She turned her back on Sadie, who was listening.
“Might be two or three days,” she said.
“No problem,” Bobby said. “No one else is planning on using it.”
She thanked him. Sadie handed her the key, and she ran to where the blue Escape was parked. What an appropriate model name. She put her water in the drink holder, made sure she could reach the rest of the food her mom had packed. Blossom curled up in the back seat with a contented sigh.
Molly grinned at him. “Here we go.”
Pulling out of the marina’s parking lot, she began her trek to Philadelphia and, hopefully, the rest of her life.
“WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?”
Kathleen glanced back over her shoulder into the dining room. “Nothing.”
Standing on the little Juliet balcony, barely large enough for two small chairs, she stared sadly at the sky, where she could only make out a few of the brightest stars. There was Orion’s belt and one or two of the other bright ones, but all the others, all the amazing stars she now knew were out there, they were invisible here, as if they didn’t exist at all. It was beginning to feel as if her life on Little Sister didn’t really exist, either.
“What do you want to watch on TV tonight?” Susannah asked.
“I don’t care,” Kathleen said.
“Come on in. You’re letting cold air in.”
With a resigned sigh, Kathleen stepped back inside and slid the door shut, remembering to flip all three locks.
“Sit here with me,” Susannah said, patting the sofa.
Kathleen sat but kept a cushion between them.
“Don’t you want to sit closer?”
Kathleen shook her head and positioned a fluffy sofa pillow between them. “The therapist said you should keep your arm propped up when you’re sitting, remember?”
The last few days had been filled with chauffeuring Susannah to follow-up appointments and grocery shopping and writing checks to pay the bills and… Everything
I used to do, Kathleen thought now. It felt as though every one of these tasks was another link in a heavy chain, tying her back down here.
There hadn’t been a break long enough to do any of the work she’d brought with her. If they’d had other friends, Kathleen might have been able to get some things done, but friends were another thing Susannah had always refused for fear they wouldn’t be discreet.
The hardest part had been earlier in the day when Susannah’s sister, Darla, had come by.
“What are you doing here?” she’d asked when Kathleen answered the door.
“I asked her to stay for a while,” Susannah had said quickly.
Not even bothering to hide her displeasure, Darla had pushed past Kathleen into the apartment. “You know what Dad would do if he saw her here.”
“I wasn’t anywhere around when he did that,” Kathleen said, pointing at Susannah. “And none of you stopped it. Including not pressing charges.”
She’d never spoken up before. Darla stared at her.
“You’re sick,” Kathleen went on, unable to stop now she’d started. “All of you. You keep up the pretense that he’s some upstanding citizen, pretending you’re protecting your mother, when all you’re doing is letting him continue to get away with this.”
She’d tried for over an hour to get them to see that the whole family needed help, but they wouldn’t listen. “You don’t understand,” Darla said over and over, while Susannah kept silent.
Kathleen’s nostrils flared now, just thinking about it. Susannah had clicked the channels until she came to some police drama she liked. Now that’s ironic, Kathleen thought, as the detectives tried to convince a victim of domestic abuse to leave her situation. Does she even see it?
But one glance at Susannah confirmed that she didn’t. Smothering a scream of frustration, Kathleen pushed to her feet.
“Where are you going?” Susannah asked as she reached the door.
“Just going to the car for something,” Kathleen mumbled as she grabbed her jacket and wrenched the door open.
She nearly ran down the stairs and out onto the sidewalk. Pausing to take a breath, she coughed, choking on a cloud of diesel fumes as a delivery truck rumbled by.
“Kathleen, what are you doing here?” she grumbled aloud, echoing Darla’s question from earlier in the day.
She shoved her hands into her pockets and walked toward her rental car. As she neared it, she saw a piece of paper fluttering from under the windshield wiper.
“No, no, no!”
She hurried the last few steps to the car. She’d made sure she parked legally—a difficult feat in this neighborhood. She snatched the paper from under the wiper. She had to angle it under the streetlight to read the writing on it: Look inside.
She whirled around, scanning the street to see if she was being watched—her city guard immediately up, something that hadn’t been needed on Little Sister. Seeing no one, she unlocked the car.
Lying on the passenger seat was a small cloth bag secured by a ribbon. She got in, locking the door after her. As she picked the bag up, she realized the ribbon wasn’t a ribbon at all. It was a dog collar, embroidered with pink and white blossoms. She unclipped it and tugged open the bag’s drawstring. Reaching inside, she pulled out a small envelope and a black velvet box.
She opened the envelope first. Inside was a small card with neat handwriting.
We both miss you. Please come home.
Love,
M&B
Her eyes were so blinded by tears, she could scarcely see as she pried open the hinged lid of the velvet box. Lying inside was… “a shooting star,” she whispered, touching a finger to a necklace with four small diamonds arcing toward a larger fifth one at the end of a graceful sweep. She placed a hand over her mouth, forgetting to choke back her tears.
She hurled herself out of the car, spinning in place. She searched the dark shadows between the cones of light from the streetlamps, hoping to see Molly and Blossom. Nothing.
She clasped the dog collar and the little velvet box. Hanging from the collar was a small tag she hadn’t noticed before. Flipping it over, she read, We’re waiting for you.
A window opened overhead.
“Kath?”
She looked up toward Susannah’s voice. “Coming.”
The window closed. She set the velvet box on the hood of her car and took the necklace out, fastening the chain around her neck. She slowly climbed the stairs to the apartment. Tomorrow. Tomorrow, Susannah would have to figure out how to be on her own again.
Outside the door, she paused, smiling as she touched her fingers to the shooting star on her chest.
BLOSSOM LIFTED HIS HEAD and Molly lowered her book as they both listened to a new voice outside. Realizing it wasn’t Kathleen, Blossom sighed and rested his head on Molly’s thigh. She reached down to scratch his ears where they both lay on the bunk of the boat’s small cabin.
“No bad memories of being here?” she asked him.
His tail thumped once in answer.
This waiting was murder. Had Kathleen found the note and the gifts she’d left? What if she hadn’t gone to her car at all? Or worse, what if she didn’t feel the way Molly did?
Molly felt only a small twinge of guilt over having used her sheriff’s credentials to get the car rental company to release the make and license number of the car Kathleen had rented. As for the Slim Jim she’d used to open the car door, well lock-picking tools were necessary equipment in a place where people locked their keys in their cars with no locksmiths available.
She let her book flop onto her stomach. What if it didn’t work? She really had to face the possibility that Kathleen might not come back. Molly closed her eyes and flung her arm over her face. Her brain, tired of this hamster wheel of speculation, shut down for a while. She drifted off.
She was awakened by a sudden rocking of the boat.
“Ahoy there!”
She sat up as Blossom bounded off the bunk. They both scrambled up the stairs to the deck, where Kathleen was standing. Blossom wriggled and jumped, trying to lick every bit of her he could get to.
Kathleen rubbed him and then flung herself into Molly’s arms. Blossom stood on his hind legs to join in the group hug.
“How did you find me?” Kathleen asked, her voice muffled as she buried her face in Molly’s neck.
“Well, being sheriff does have its advantages,” Molly said. “I might have implied you were a person of interest in a case I was working and got your rental car info.”
Kathleen pulled back, the necklace glinting at her throat. “You lied, didn’t you?”
Molly’s answer was in her kiss—passionate, hard, her arms holding Kathleen tightly, wanting never to let go. Kathleen kissed her back just as hard.
“Oh, I’ve missed you. Both of you.” She planted a kiss on Blossom’s head.
“You have?” Molly asked.
“Yes,” Kathleen said, laughing and crying at the same time. “I have.”
“How are you?” Molly asked. “How are things there?”
Kathleen pulled Molly over to sit down on a cushioned seat. “Things there are…”
Molly bit her lip.
“…such a good reminder of why I left.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really.” Kathleen bent down to hug Blossom again. He wagged his rump happily. “I can’t wait to get home.”
Now it was Molly’s turn to get choked up.
Kathleen reached over to take her hand. “You really came to get me? Both of you?”
Molly lifted one shoulder in a careless shrug. “The island has been a little lonely without you. And the skies a little emptier.”
Kathleen pressed her fingers to the diamonds. “A shooting star?”
“You never got to hear what my wish was,” Molly said softly.
Kathleen leaned close and wrapped her arms around Molly’s neck. “I think I can guess.”
A serious expression settled over Molly’s features a
s she deliberately unwrapped Kathleen’s arms from around her neck and took her hands.
“I need to say this.” She stared hard into Kathleen’s eyes, trying to make certain Kathleen understood the impact of what she was about to say. “I love you. I’ve never said that to anyone other than my mom or dad. I love you, Kathleen Halloran. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. If you can’t come back to Little Sister, I’ll…” Her voice hitched a little. “I would leave to be with you. As long as we’re together.”
Kathleen stared wordlessly for a long moment. “You would leave Little Sister?”
Molly nodded mutely.
Kathleen’s face split into a wide smile. “I love you, too, Molly Ahearn Cooper. And I want to live with you. On Little Sister. Forever. Watching shooting stars.”
They kissed again, softly, slowly this time.
“I need to return the car,” Kathleen murmured when they parted. “But then, can we go home?”
Molly glanced to the sky, already a deepening indigo as the sun tracked toward the western horizon. “We’ll be sailing in the dark.”
“That’s okay,” Kathleen said. “We’ll navigate by the stars.”
Chapter 16
KATHLEEN SAT AT HER DESK, immersed in the manuscript she was editing. It really was a very good novel, but the author needed some help with developing the secondary characters. Blossom whined and rested his head on her thigh. She patted him absently and kept working. A moment later, he gave her a hard nudge with his nose.
She glanced down at him and then at the clock in the corner of her monitor. “Jeez, I had no idea what time it was. You probably need to go out, don’t you?”
He barked and raced her down the stairs. When she opened the front door, he launched off the porch and raced to the nearest bush to lift his leg. She chuckled at his expression of relief and raised her face to the sun. The snow was nearly gone, and the air was mild, holding a promise of spring. It was warm enough to go without a jacket. She decided to stretch her legs and give her eyes a break from staring at the computer. She pulled the door shut and headed toward the bluff, Blossom galloping after her.
When the Stars Sang Page 22
