She hobbled to her feet. She felt totally weak and nauseous, and her boobs ached, and her mind raced. But when she stepped out into the soft light of the evening and gazed up into his eyes, she had this strange feeling — something that told her that maybe, just maybe, everything would be all right.
“Oliver. Can I explain?”
Oliver swept his fingers through his hair. He staggered forward a bit and then returned himself back to her.
“It happened before I ever met you,” Amelia murmured. “Just that one-night stand I told you about. I never thought this could ever happen for me, and when I found out, I totally lost my mind. But Oliver, I’ve always wanted this. To be a mom. And it’s not happening the way I always pictured it, but it is happening, and I have to welcome that.
“But then, there’s you, Oliver. I didn’t expect this at all. I feel things for you that I couldn’t have anticipated. But if you don’t want to stick around and see where this goes because I’m pregnant, then I have to respect that. I would totally understand that you wouldn’t want to be with me, in fact. It’s actually crazy to ask.”
Oliver held her gaze for a long time. Amelia could almost imagine the words he might choose. She couldn’t imagine a single world in which she wasn’t totally rejected. Enough of her life had been just a series of rejections, over and over again.
But Oliver reached forward and gripped her hand. His green eyes never lost hers.
“This is messy, isn’t it?” were the words he chose. They weren’t unkind. In fact, there was something of a joke in their tone.
Amelia laughed slightly. “Ever since we met, it’s been a bit messy, hasn’t it?”
“From that very first day, I thought, this lady is about to make my life a living hell,” Oliver joked.
“And I have. Even now,” Amelia said.
Oliver chuckled. His eyes turned out toward the street. They seemed contemplative yet happy. How difficult it was, Amelia thought now, to ever truly know a person. Just now, she felt so strangely close to this man, whom she’d only met about a month before.
“What is that look for?” Amelia said softly.
Suddenly, he dropped his lips over hers, and he kissed her right there on the sidewalk of downtown Edgartown as countless residents filed past. He kissed her as though nobody else on the planet mattered. He kissed her as though this was the only thing he knew.
When their kiss broke, he said, “I’m totally falling for you, Amelia Taylor.”
Amelia’s throat nearly closed up. “What does that mean?”
He shrugged slightly. “I have no idea. I guess it just means that I’m not willing to give up on this. Not now.”
THEY DIDN’T RETURN to the movie. There was too much to say and too much to feel. Amelia returned to the passenger seat of his Mercedes and allowed him to drive her back to his rental property, there along the Nantucket Sound. He poured her a cup of tea and listened to her as she spoke about her fears and excitement regarding the pregnancy. He asked questions and seemed totally focused. And when the end of the night came, neither of them made any motion to leave.
It was a night of passion and darkness and beauty — one of the best nights of Amelia’s life. In every way, Oliver made her feel protected and loved. And when she awoke, as the sunlight from the Nantucket Sound streamed over the bedspread, and Oliver slept on, Amelia felt assurance and wealth.
Perhaps she didn’t have to do this all by herself, after all.
Perhaps there was a better way.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Mandy sat at the edge of the chair at the doctor’s office with her hands on her knees and her eyes toward the wall. Amelia felt the anxiety and panic rolling off Mandy in waves. Her father and brother were meant to arrive at any minute, and Mandy wasn’t entirely sure they would show. The mood at Daniel’s house hadn’t been exactly kosher the previous few weeks.
“They’ll come,” Amelia whispered. “They have to.”
Mandy grimaced. “Maybe I should stop expecting people to show up for me.”
“I think the people who love you will always show up for you,” Amelia murmured.
“Well, Colin clearly doesn’t,” Mandy scoffed. Mandy had broken the news of the pregnancy to Colin, who’d just said, “Leave me out of this,” very much in the style of Nathan Gregory.
Both Amelia and Mandy had basically decided to say, “Good riddance” to their baby-daddies. Still, it stung to have this huge intimate thing with someone — deliver their baby into the world, without them wanting to be around for it.
Suddenly, Daniel burst into the room, followed by Jake, who carried a catcher’s mitt beneath his armpit. Both of them looked winded as though they’d rushed across town. Their eyes found Mandy just as she burst into tears.
There was something about the love between close family that was so powerful. It just made you weep.
Daniel stepped toward his daughter, who lifted herself into a hug. Jake remained awkward, off to the side, as Daniel splayed his hand across Mandy’s hair and whispered, “I’m so sorry, Mandy. I’m so sorry. We haven’t been there for you the way we should have been. It won’t happen like this. This baby is our family, too.”
After Mandy’s check-up, Amelia, Mandy, Daniel, and Jake sat out by the pier with ice cream cones. It was a beautiful day in late April, and at the very edge of each breath, you could taste the summer season. Amelia licked at her pistachio ice cream and caught Mandy’s eye. The girl glowed — not from the pregnancy, but from the fact that her father and brother had finally given in and shown up for her.
Suzy, her mother, was absolutely nothing to her, now. She was just a fleck of memory. She hadn’t stuck around.
“You know, our babies are going to be so close in age,” Mandy said to Amelia. “Probably best friends.”
“They’ll be unstoppable,” Amelia agreed. “They’ll get into all sorts of trouble together.”
“I don’t even know what that relationship is. Your baby is technically my cousin. Which means it’ll be my baby’s first cousin, something?”
“Once removed,” Daniel affirmed.
“Apparently, your dad has a talent for family trees,” Amelia said with a laugh.
“Actually, Mom told me that this morning,” Daniel said. “And she wants us all to go there for family dinner tonight if you can manage it. I know Grandma hasn’t been the most supportive so far, but I think she wants to be. She’s going to do her best.”
Just then, Amelia heard her name across the winds. She stood and spotted Oliver, out on his sailboat, with his hand whipping wildly through the air. He beamed at her, and his green eyes reflected back all the love that brewed within him.
“Is he coming to meet us?” Mandy asked.
“I think he is,” Amelia said, watching as Oliver tied up his boat and stepped out onto the dock. He then reached down into the boat and drew up two bouquets of flowers.
Oliver approached with windswept hair, his eyes alight. When he reached them, he stepped first toward Mandy and handed her the first bouquet of lilies. She blushed and wrapped her hands around the base.
“Thank you,” she said.
“I heard you have prom this next weekend,” Oliver said.
Mandy nodded as she wrapped a strand of hair around her ear. “It’s going to be a little bit different this year. Aunt Amelia and I picked out a dress the other day. Luckily, I’m not showing so much yet. Not that the whole school hasn’t caught wind of it.”
She paused as she dropped her eyes toward the ground in shame. Amelia wanted so desperately to translate just how little shame she should have felt for this!
“But a guy friend agreed to take me, you know, despite everything,” Mandy finished.
“You mean, someone who loves you a great deal as a person wants to spend a night of dancing with you, about a month before your high school career ends,” Amelia corrected. “It’s a beautiful thing. He didn’t ask you as a consolation. You’re one of the greatest catches, Mandy Tay
lor, and don’t you forget that.”
Mandy gave her a genuine smile. “Something like that.”
Oliver then turned back toward Amelia. He wrapped a strand of hair around her ear, then pressed her bouquet of lilies into her hand. When he spoke, his words were only loud enough for her, especially as Daniel, Mandy, and Jake fell into their own conversation.
“I thought of you all morning out there on the water,” he said. “I dreamed that I taught your son or daughter how to sail. I dreamed that I never had to call anywhere but Martha’s Vineyard home, ever again.”
Amelia could hardly believe her ears. As a blush crept across her cheeks, she said, “You’re an old sap, aren’t you?”
“Guilty as charged,” Oliver said. “Now, how about you sail off into the sunset with me? I’m parked right over there.”
Amelia chuckled. “I’ll do it. On one condition.”
“Anything.”
“We have to be home in time for dinner. My mother is dying to meet you. And she doesn’t like it when we’re late.”
Oliver’s smile grew wider. “You want me to meet the famous Anita Taylor?”
“If you’re brave enough, I think it’s time.”
Amelia and Oliver told the others they would meet them at the Taylor house later that evening. Then, Amelia slipped her fingers through Oliver’s and allowed him to guide her down toward the dock, where she watched him yank the huge white sail into the wind. It whipped them out across the Nantucket Sound waters. And in mere moments, she closed her eyes and lifted her chin to drench her face in the late-April sun.
Coming Next in the Sisters of Edgartown Series
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37 Peases Point Way Page 16
