“That little shit. When’s the bonfire?”
“Shel-bee,” Lauren whined. “I’m not going to burn his music. He didn’t mean to hurt me.”
“No, of course not. It’s obvious you’re his first concern.”
“Can we not talk about this now?” Lauren pointed at their father. “Things are bad enough.”
“Sure. No problem. I was just mildly curious how you plan to raise these babies by yourself. But we have plenty of time to discuss that. So! Where the hell were you last night?”
“I told you. I went to that dance at the temple.”
“Until three in the morning?”
Lauren blushed. “No, but I met someone, and we stayed up all night talking.”
“Oy! Here we go again,” her father muttered into his pillow. “God give me the strength.”
“How late did you try calling?” Lauren ignored him.
“Until I finally conked out. I guess it was about three-thirty, four o’clock.”
Lauren looked sympathetic. “What kept you up?”
“Oh, the usual. I’m pregnant with my sister’s twins, but her husband abandoned her, but that’s okay because she’s already on to the next guy, Lord knows what a psycho this one is. Also, I finally found Matty Lieberman, on the Hutch Parkway of all places, then had the privilege to meet his lovely bride of Frankenstein, who happens to be Lieutenant Governor Armonk’s daughter…”
“What?” Lauren cried out. “Oh, God! Tell me everything.”
“You have to call him,” Lauren pleaded after hearing the whole, bloody story.
“Why? What’s the point? Did you call Avi and beg him to come back?”
“No.” She bit her lip. “But your situation is completely different.”
“How?”
“Because Matty really loves you, Shel. I’m sure of it.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Yes, but you said the way he kissed you…”
“Oh, please. It was just a male ego thing. You know how they like to try to get you hot before they dump you.”
“Girls, please,” their father yelled. “I’m trying to get some rest.”
“You don’t believe that for a minute.” Lauren continued to ignore him.
“I don’t know what I believe. All I know is, right now I feel like I’m dying.”
“Join the crowd!” he cried out.
“Hey. I’ve got an idea!” Lauren clapped. “Call him to ask about the car. That’s a legitimate reason. You just want to know when the guy is bringing it back.”
“Good thinking. That’s not at all transparent. Hi. Remember me? You broke my heart yesterday? But forget about that. I just wanted to know if you heard from the Lexus dealer.”
“So, come up with a different reason. It doesn’t matter what. Just as long as you get to talk to him and tell him how you feel.”
“He knows how I feel. That’s what he’s so afraid of.”
“Maybe he just needs time, Shel. The poor guy was in shock.”
“Hey, I was in shock, too, but that didn’t cloud my feelings. He’s the one I want!”
“I know what you mean.” Lauren sighed. “I’ve been there.”
“Several times,” their father interrupted.
“Daddy, stop!” Lauren cried. “I’m trying to help Shelby with her problems.”
“How about helping me with mine by getting the hell out of here. Go visit your mother.”
“In a sec,” Lauren replied. “So what are you going to do?”
“I don’t know. My head is spinning, I’m depressed, I feel sick to my stomach…”
“Maybe this is good, Shel. I mean accepting the fact you finally found him, but he’s not available. Now you can move on. Meet someone better. Like I just did.”
“There is no one better,” Shelby cried. “And shouldn’t you at least wait until the body is cold before you get involved again?”
“I didn’t plan it, Shel. It just happened.”
“Why do people always say that? It sounds so stupid.”
“But it’s true. See, I was hanging around with Andrea and her friends, when I noticed this very cute guy staring at me. So I sort of waved, and he smiled, then I smiled…”
“I get the picture.”
“Okay, so anyway, we got to talking, and it turns out we knew each other from high school. Do you remember Mark Siegel?”
“Sure. Pencil Pocket Boy. We were on the debate team together. That’s who you met?”
“No, his younger brother, Danny. We were in the same home room in tenth grade, which I didn’t remember, but then he confessed that’s when he had this major crush on me.”
“How romantic. What did that get him to? First base? Second base? A home run?”
“Shel-bee, stop. He’s a very nice guy. He didn’t lay a hand on me.”
“GET OUT RIGHT NOW, BOTH OF YOU! AND DON’T COME BACK UNTIL YOU’RE BOTH MARRIED FOR AT LEAST TEN YEARS!”
Shelby and Lauren ran out the door. Even in his immobile state, he could still scare them.
“Man, is he ever grouchy!” Lauren closed his door.
“I know.” Shelby shrugged. “I wonder if they gave him a new medication or something. So what’s the story with this guy? Is he single, divorced…”
“Neither. He’s a widower.”
“Really? Isn’t he sort of young for that?”
“Even younger than Daddy was when Mommy died.”
“You know you’re right?” Shelby nodded. “Here I’m thinking it’s so rare…Was it cancer?”
Lauren shook her head. “Anorexia. She starved herself to death.”
“Well, now there’s something he wouldn’t have to worry about with you.”
“Shel-bee!”
“I’m sorry. I’m really, truly sorry. It just slipped out.”
“I don’t care. How could you say something so mean? I have feelings, you know. And this poor man was left with a two-year-old son, thousands of dollars in medical bills…”
“You’re right. That was an awful thing to say. He’s obviously suffered, and my heart goes out to him. So, you two really hit it off?”
“Yes. After the dance, we spent the whole night talking at his house.”
“So that’s where you were? I kept calling you to tell you what happened to me.”
“I couldn’t believe it when I looked at the clock, and it was five in the morning.”
“So how much did you tell him about yourself?”
“The whole story. Starting from Allen, then Avi, the DES stuff, you, the babies…”
“You told him your husband left you and you’re having twins, and he still didn’t bolt?”
“He’s a really great guy, Shel. He said he understood better than anyone how your life could fall apart in a heartbeat, and he really admired me because I wasn’t sitting home dwelling on the negative.”
“Okay, so either he’s had loads of therapy, or he’s in the business.”
“Both, actually. He’s a child psychologist.”
“A noble profession, and there’s always lollipops around. So now what?”
“I don’t know. I guess we’ll take it nice and slow. He’s very protective of who he introduces to Jordan, and I’ve got a long legal road ahead of me. But I really like him, Shel. And as crazy as it sounds, I think we could really be good together.”
“You know a man a total of twelve hours, decide you’ve got a great future, and this is taking it nice and slow?”
“Let’s just say I’m taking it about as slow as you would if Matty called tonight, and said, ‘Let’s run away and get married.’”
“I’ll shut up now.” Shelby blushed.
“I like it,” Ian announced, after he finished reading Shelby’s revised draft of the wedding piece. “I do. It’s pithy and fun. Say nothing of informative. Excellent job, my friend. I knew you’d deliver for Uncle Ian.”
“Thank you,” Shelby beamed. “I know it’s not what we set out to write, but
Warner fans are going to go crazy for it.”
“So will the kids in sales. They can market a whole bridal advertising section around this.”
“Not so fast, Uncle Ian.” Shelby removed the pages from his hand. “Remember our deal? This was a two-for-one special. You have to approve my DES piece before I turn over my pithy little story to you.”
“My dear, naive Shelby. Are you blackmailing me?”
“Of course not. I’m just telling you I’ve spent hundreds of hours on an extremely important investigation that uncovered…”
“Sob story after bloody sob story,” Ian finished. “Especially the one about that poor woman who bled to death because the doctor misread her ultrasound and didn’t know the embryo was lodged in her fallopian tube. Dear God, is that what you want us reading over our coffee and Krispy Kremes?”
Shelby just blinked.
“I’m simply asking, can’t we uncover anything a bit more scandalous to spike the punch?”
“You mean other than the fact that the FDA, the most prominent medical journals, and dozens of pharmaceutical companies ignored the mounting evidence that DES was having tragic effects on millions of women and their offspring, and chose to continue marketing it anyway? You mean aside from the fact that if this sort of indifference had afflicted millions of men, the people responsible would have been indicted for criminal negligence? You mean aside from the fact that nearly 80 percent of DES daughters have benign precancerous cells known as adenosis around their vaginas…”
“Eegads.” Ian shivered. “Can’t you find a more pleasant way to refer to that region?”
“That region?” Shelby said sarcastically. “Sure. Maybe I could refer to it as the sunbelt!”
“Look, all I need to be happy is one little smoking gun. One aerial shot of a fat guy retired in Tahiti who is lounging poolside at his mansion, thanks to the moolah he made off this drug.”
“The scandal, Ian, is not that one man got rich on blood money. The scandal is that thousands of knowledgeable medical professionals, top researchers, and multibillion-dollar corporations made big money and looked the other way…and are still looking the other way.”
“So you’re saying, basically, the guilty parties are just counting the years until all the victims are dead and buried?”
“That’s right.” Shelby fanned herself with the pages of her story.
“You’re going for a Pulitzer, aren’t you?” Ian swiveled in his chair
“I’m going for the truth, and if out of that comes recognition, yea for our team.”
Ian formed a teepee with his fingers and bounced them against his lips. “It’s not really our kind of story, you know. It’s rather morbid and serious.”
“You said it.”
“And I’ve had more than my fill of hearing about deformed you-know-whats.”
“Sunbelts?”
“Precisely. Although I must admit that the caliber of the writing and the reporting is par excellent. Pulitizer quality, in my humble but very experienced opinion.”
“Thank you,” Shelby bowed.
Ian hummed and swayed in his chair for a minute, then clapped. “Okay then! God help me, we run it as is. Although the suits upstairs will surely tweak my behind for this.”
“Oh, come now. You’d love that.” Shelby winked.
“You know me so well, darling.”
Chapter Twenty-six
To celebrate the completion of her Informer assignments, Warner and Ian offered Shelby a night on the town, never expecting she’d beg off, citing limited free time. If only they knew that her free time was being spent moping around in pajamas.
A sympathetic Maria tried coming to the rescue with homemade soup, back rubs, and a constant array of bright, fragrant flowers that filled the guesthouse. Still, no smiles. “I’m tryin’ my best, but the only thing gonna cheer this child up is a blessed phone call,” she told Lauren.
It had been six long days since she’d seen Matty, and not one word from him.
“It’s not like when we were kids and the only way you could stay in touch was to sit down and write a letter,” Shelby cried to Lauren. “I gave him my screen name, my cell phone…”
“Maybe he’s swamped at work,” she offered. “It could be a real busy time.”
“Maybe his child has taken a turn for the worse, and he’s spending day and night at her bedside,” Maria tried.
“No. He’s sending me a message.” Shelby sniffed. “Obviously, he doesn’t want to see me.”
That last possibility was devastating, but not completely unexpected. She and Matty had had strong feelings for each other as children, but he never made the effort to stay in touch then either. Why would he care about her now that he was a busy father and husband?
On the other hand, he wasn’t the only one avoiding contact. Shelby hadn’t called or e-mailed Matty because she simply couldn’t bare her soul again, only to have him patiently explain that as much as he cared about her, he would never leave his wife. Nor could she take the chance of calling, then chickening out, then discovering the McCreighs had caller ID. She wondered if the whiz kids who developed that technology ever considered how their invention would foil love.
Shelby did, however, make other calls. First, she spoke with the service manager at the Lexus dealer, only to learn that once the car was up on the lift, they discovered several minor mechanical problems. They’d call her as soon as the parts came in, whenever that was.
Next, Shelby called her friend Mira in Chicago to pour out her heart and bitch about men.
“Tell me about it,” Mira replied. “The men I date are like savings bonds. They take forever to mature.”
Finally, Shelby called directory assistance for Portland and requested the residential and business numbers for Carol McCreigh. Odd though it was not to be referring to her as Mrs. Lieberman. And even odder that when they connected, the effusive woman was now considerably more subdued.
“Honey, I wish you luck. I really do,” she said. “But the more I tried getting in between those two, the closer they got.”
“Really? You tried driving a wedge between them?” Shelby forced herself not to giggle.
“Even at the wedding.” Mrs. McCreigh laughed.
“Don’t tell me you gave a reason why this couple shouldn’t be joined together?”
“Actually what I said was, ‘All in favor say aye!’”
“Oh my God. What happened?”
“Nothing. Everyone looked at me like I was a loon. And after the ceremony, Matthew refused to speak to me.”
“So you understand how I feel,” Shelby whined.
“Of course I do. And believe me, nothing would make me happier than to see you two together again. But, honey, my hands are tied.”
“I know.” Shelby sighed.
“There is one thing though,” Mrs. McCreigh hesitated. “I’m not sure if it means anything.”
“What is it?” Shelby’s skin tingled. She loved hearing sources utter those words.
“I think it was two years ago that Gwen had an affair.”
“With her best friend’s husband?”
“Yes. I’m surprised Matthew told you about it.”
“He didn’t,” Shelby said. “I happen to be an expert on debutantes. They either go for their best friend’s husband or their husband’s best friend. They never venture too far from the club.”
“How convenient,” Mrs. McCreigh said dryly. “Anyway, a few months later they reconciled, and Matthew moved back home.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Shelby asked.
“Because when I was in, Matthew happened to mention that same best friend and her husband were filing for divorce.”
“Did he seem…. concerned?” Shelby’s heart skipped.
“Matthew never seems concerned, dear. That’s part of his charm. But if I was him, I’d be worried as hell.”
It was the best news Shelby had heard in days. If Matty and Gwen’s marital boat could run aground on
ce, then surely it could sink. In the meantime she was treading in her own sea of confusion and pain. Would Matty ever swim safely ashore, far away from his stormy marriage?
Maria knocked on the guesthouse door, only to have to let herself in when Shelby didn’t answer. Sure enough, Little Miss Mommy-to-be was sprawled across the bed, looking peaceful at last, after a week of walking around in a tearful fog.
“Miss Shelby, wake up child,” Maria gently shook her shoulder. “Wake up.”
“Leave me alone.” Shelby opened one eye and rolled over. “I’m sleeping.”
“But, Miss Shelby. You have to get up. There’s a man here to see you.”
“You’re kidding,” she grumbled. “What time is it?”
“Just past eight. Here. I brought you some tea.” Maria pulled Shelby up with one, strong arm, and handed her the steaming cup. “Oooh it’s cold in here, child. The heat should have come up by now.”
“I turned it off,” Shelby sipped the weak tea, sorry it wasn’t Lauren’s eye-opening brew. “It got so hot in here I couldn’t breathe…Who’s here? And please spare me the lip about askin’ not being your job.”
“I didn’t have to ask. I could see plain as day. It’s the man with your mother’s car.”
“How can that be? No one ever called me for directions. Where is he?”
“Out front.”
“Oh, God,” Shelby groaned as she threw on her long, flannel robe and slippers. “Why now? I finally fell back asleep…”
“You can’t go outside like that.” Maria stood with hands on hips.
“I can too! I’m just running out to give the guy a check. Then I’m going right back to bed.”
“But it’s November, child. You’ll catch your death of cold.”
“I’ll take my chances, because I’m sure as hell not getting dressed, just so I can go talk to some greasy mechanic with bad teeth. Believe me, this guy didn’t dress for me!”
But Shelby was wrong. And she knew it the instant she marched down the driveway. For there was no greasy mechanic waiting by the car. Not even highbrow Westchester auto dealers employed handsome, well-dressed men who came bearing flowers.
A Little Help from Above Page 30
