Inclusions

by Emily Duvall

  “I’ve got work to do.” Kendra grabbed her tablet, a cup of coffee, and rushed out the door to the patio.

  Melanie picked up her breakfast plate and put it in the dishwasher. She’d gotten in a routine of having a second cup of coffee outside on the deck after breakfast. The outside view of the ocean and sky leveled her antsy mood. She took her cup of coffee, told Stevie she’d see Vivian in a little bit, and walked outside.

  Today she wasn’t the only person seeking solace in the early morning scene. Near the edge of the pool, Melanie found Kendra pacing and mumbling to herself. The gray clouds in the sky looked as uninviting as Kendra’s body language. Melanie walked around to her.

  She didn’t say anything to Kendra. She sensed Kendra would vent on her own. Melanie sipped her coffee and stood next to her. “I think it might rain today,” she said.

  Kendra flashed a detestable glance at Melanie. “I don’t care about the weather.”

  “Is everything okay?” Melanie kept looking at the ocean.

  “I’m pregnant.” Kendra sat down, placed her cup of coffee and tablet on the ground, and brought her foot up on the lounge chair.

  “Congratulations?” The news didn’t sound good to even Melanie.

  Kendra spoke in heated breaths. “I needed to tell someone and I don’t trust those two in there.” She gave a quick glance in the direction of the kitchen. “I’m thirteen weeks along and due in December. I’m stuck here for the summer and I can’t talk to anyone.”

  “Luke doesn’t know.”

  Kendra glanced up at Melanie and drew in a long breath. “He’ll be the last to know.”

  “What about your family, can you tell them? Or the father, does he know?” Melanie’s gaze dropped briefly to Kendra’s mid-section and found no evidence of the slightest baby bump.

  The suggestions sent Kendra into a tizzy. “My family won’t understand. They flipped out a few years ago when I moved in with a boyfriend. They’re really traditional. They go to church every Sunday and take off Good Friday every year. They wouldn’t understand how I could get pregnant without being someone’s wife.” She shivered. “I don’t want to talk about the father of this baby.”

  Melanie tried a different route. “Does he know?”

  “I just said I don’t want to talk about the father.” She pressed her hand to her forehead and closed her eyes for a moment. “Our relationship began as a work thing: meet-ups in hotels, late dinners; behind-the-office-door-kind of thing. People would get hurt if they knew we’d been seeing each other.”

  “You’re having an affair.”

  “I was having an affair. He wasn’t married, but he did have a girlfriend—a woman I know. A woman I respect. I wasn’t planning on getting pregnant. My body gave me a parting gift I didn’t want. He doesn’t live in California. I met him on a work trip. The last time he was in town, I texted him as I always do. He shot a message back to me letting me know he’s engaged and won’t see me anymore.”

  “Ouch.”

  Kendra’s hand flew to Melanie’s wrist. “Luke cannot know. The demands of my work are high. They come with lots of travel and late nights. This child will bake my reputation. A woman with a child in this field is at the end of her career.”

  A group of birds swarmed and squawked through the sky over the water at something brown and slick bobbing in the water. They swooped low and began to pick at the seaweed and fought over the same dead rope of ocean slime. Melanie tried to find something useful to say. “When’s your next doctor’s appointment?”

  “I have to go back in three weeks. I found out before coming on this trip and the receptionist at my doctor’s office gave me a list of doctors in this area. I have an appointment scheduled.” She inhaled a long, slow breath as if she’d been taking a drag of a cigarette. She moved her hand over her flat belly. “Felicity’s wedding will keep me busy.”

  “You don’t have to quit your job today, or ever maybe. You don’t know how Luke will react when he finds out about the baby.”

  Kendra cut her off with one look. “You’ve seen the way Luke is around Vivian. He barely knows what to do with his own child.”

  Melanie couldn’t disagree there. “I won’t tell anyone,” Melanie promised.

  “Kendra,” Stevie said, raising her voice and coming towards them. “Luke said Felicity’s plans have changed again. She’s flying separate from Damon and is arriving on a red-eye tonight. A last-minute emergency at the office forced her to push back her flight and she’s going to go straight to her hotel. She’ll come by first thing tomorrow to see Damon and the house, and meet with you.”

  “Why can’t anything ever go as planned?” Kendra griped.

  “Lower your expectations.” Stevie squeezed her arm affectionately. The necklace dangling at her throat caught sunlight and sparkled. “Learn to duck when someone throws a punch. Luke’s in his office.”

  “I’ll see the two of you later.” She picked up her cup of coffee and headed inside.

  Melanie tried not to stare at the cross hanging around Stevie’s neck. Gold embedded with square-cut emeralds the color of lush plants after a fierce rain. “Your necklace is incredible.”

  “Emeralds outlast a husband.” She slipped her hand under the cross and laughed. “This was a gift from someone in my family. Not my husband,” she added. “The man I married didn’t have the best taste in jewelry, bless his heart.”

  “Your children must have good taste then.”

  “I don’t have children. My husband and I weren’t able to expand our family beyond the two of us. Now my immediate family is down to me.” She glanced at Melanie as though a bad thought entered her mind. She asked, “Do you have children?”

  “No children and no husband.” Melanie grinned feeling awkward whenever someone asked her about her life. Despite how far women had come in the last thirty years, she still felt lacking without a family of her very own, like her life couldn’t be good unless she could answer this one question in the positive. Her life felt full as it could be, but even Melanie knew there could be so much more to her world.

  The cross fell back against Stevie’s chest. “What about your family, are you close?”

  “I live at home with my mother and my younger sister,” Melanie admitted with a pinch of pain. “I’d been in the process of starting to look for a condo before I took the job for Luke.”

  Stevie’s hands jumped to her mouth. “At your age?”

  “I moved back home after graduate school to save money. I don’t talk to my father much and I have a brother I see once a year.”

  “Why do you only see your brother once a year?” Stevie blinked disbelievingly. “Is he married to a woman no one can stand? I’ve been fortunate in my life to not have experienced having either a mother-in-law or sister-in-law. I’ve heard both can be dreadful.”

  Melanie let out a nervous laugh. “No, my brother Mark isn’t married. He’s ah…” Melanie cleared her throat. A natural reaction any time someone she didn’t know asked her about Mark. “He’s serving a sentence in federal prison.”

  Stevie’s hand flew to her mouth. “What did he do?”

  The insinuation of her brother being at fault irked Melanie. She glared. “My brother got involved in a business with a friend, a start-up company, much like what Luke does except on a smaller scale. The business partner and my brother had a falling out over the finances.” The explanation rolled off her tongue in swift, practiced verse. The story of her brother had been whittled down to a few concise sentences. “The other business partner claimed my brother tried to shoot him. The case went to trial. The business partner got a sympathetic vote from the jury.” Melanie uncrossed her arms. “End of story.”

  “Nonsense; the end of the story is never the final chapter. I’m sorry for you and the situation for your family.” Stevie headed for one of the lounge chairs, stopped and turned with hands wiggling at her sides. “May I ask another question? This business partner of your brother’s that you spoke about. The o
ne claiming your brother had tried to kill him. Were you ever in touch with him after the trial?”

  “Not until recently.” A ripple of hair blew up her neck. Melanie pushed down the irksome strands. “His story hasn’t wavered.”

  “Do you think he’s lying?” The wind stopped blowing as if to also hear the answer. “Do you think he’s capable of causing such pain in your life with no good reason?”

  Melanie bit her lip. “I honestly don’t know anymore.”

  Chapter 20

  Melanie fluffed out the striped beach towel and parked herself on the beach. The sunblock on her skin created a thick layer of oil and gave off a heavy coconut scent, sweet enough to want to taste. The morning off from work, thanks to Stevie taking Vivian to the park, gave Melanie a chance to unwind and soak up the warm, blissful rays with the scents of saltwater and sunblock, pure magic. She could spend the rest of her life under the hot sun, nestled on a bed of towels with her heels crisping and sand sticking to her skin. The waves shushed out the noise of neighborly beachgoers and small kids, screaming and laughing, with their mothers yelling at them to be careful.

  “Oh good; I thought I recognized you,” Goldie crooned and walked up to Melanie just as she’d settled on her stomach. A large woven basket hung from Goldie’s arm and under the other, a beach towel.

  Melanie propped herself up on her elbows. The need to be polite stopped on the end of Melanie’s tongue. Goldie could talk the waves into retreating. The less Melanie spoke, the better. Otherwise, she’d never get to finish her peaceful afternoon.

  “Sid’s taking me to court, again. This time he’s trying to get his lawyer to lower the alimony payments when we go through with this divorce. We’re going to court in two months.” She ran her fingers through her tangled, wind-blown hair. “Over a million dollars in his bank account and he’s playing the cheap card. What about the welfare of his daughters? Doesn’t he care about them?”

  A sympathetic smile crossed Melanie’s lips. Still, she said nothing.

  Goldie’s gaze strolled up to the water, to a group of shirtless men. She paused at them and continued watching with the intensity of picking out her next husband. “I’m disappointed to see Luke’s not out enjoying this gorgeous weather. For a man on vacation, he doesn’t take advantage of his access. Do you think he’ll come down this morning?”

  Melanie’s sucked in her lips and answered with a smack. “I have no idea.”

  “I should go up and convince him to join me. I owe him for the way he comforted me yesterday with such discretion. Sid discounted all of my emotions. Ugh. I’m such a wreck these days.” The bag in her hand plopped on the sand. “I’m so embarrassed about earlier and the scene I made at the house.”

  “It looked like the two of you resolved the problems.” Melanie eyed the bag with spite and held her breath for Goldie to pick any other spot to enjoy.

  Goldie pushed the aviator sunglasses up her nose. “Luke must think I’m a silly girl the way I cried to him.” She put her hand on her forehead like a visor, like she’d really seen Melanie for the first time. “You work with Luke. What do you think?”

  “I’ve no idea what Luke thinks about.” Impatience trundled out with every breath Melanie took. She could say with certainty that joining Goldie on the beach wasn’t on his priority list for today.

  “Of course you don’t.” Goldie removed her sunglasses and stared down Melanie like a bull coming out of the gates. “Ava would know. She and Luke were close. It’s a shame they couldn’t work out their problems, given that they have a child together. Did I tell you I’m going to attend Damon’s wedding? Brent invited me. I’m getting fitted for a gown later today.” She glanced up at some other activity on the beach. “Oh look, I see the Swansons. I do have to get going. We’ll chat soon, okay? Tell Luke I said hello.”

  Melanie wouldn’t do anything of the sort. She waited while Goldie moved away from her and chose a spot a good distance away near the shirtless men throwing around a football. Melanie folded her elbows and rested her head on the towel. She closed her eyes and got lost in her own thoughts. That unforgettable face of Luke’s appeared behind her closed lids and she groaned. There would be no escaping him. She thought he would look past their differences long enough to make love to her, but that was before their trip. Even if things had gone better on their trip, she didn’t see how Luke would have made anything meaningful of their relationship beyond a few weeks. Not when she didn’t accept the guilt he placed on her brother. Why was this idea so difficult to give into? Melanie sighed. She contemplated for a moment what it would feel like to look at her brother’s story from another angle. It scared her to her bones. What was the point of all those years of being loyal to Mark? What would be the point if they would never be a mended family? She shook her head and tried to erase the questions pounding on her heart.

  The plans to spend the morning doing nothing and thinking about nothing fell away fast. “Oh, this is useless,” she finally said. She sat up and crammed her belongings back in her beach bag, slung the massive canvas over her shoulder, and did a half-run/jump back up to the house, fleeing from the scorching sand.

  The placement of her foot she wasn’t watching. A sharp object pierced the bottom of her foot. “Crap!” she exclaimed and fell flat on her rear. The bag and all of the contents hit the ground. She brought up her foot, examining the cause of such pain and cursed at the sole of her foot. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  A piece of glass, not a shell, stuck out of her skin at a sharp angle among a ring of sand and blood sticking together. The dirt beneath her fingernails assaulted the small wound each time she tried to pry the glass out, gasping with each breath at the pain spearing skin to ankle to toe. The same moment she pulled at the glass, she looked up to the sound of footsteps coming her way. Luke ran down the steps, coming towards her on powerful legs and quick feet.

  “I saw you fall,” he shouted, coming through the gate. The latch banged against the lock, shaking the entire gate. Luke knelt down, pressing his hand to her ankle. He took in the scope of her cut with a testy expression. “Stop touching your foot.”

  “I almost have the glass out.” Her toes automatically curled as she reached out her hand. “Let me try again.”

  “Not a chance.” Luke held her foot in his hands, leaning into her naked legs. The sand brushed off on his pants. “You need to go to a hospital.”

  “I can get out the glass.”

  Luke pointed at her foot. “You’re not getting out of a trip to the hospital. We’re going.” He stuck his thumb to his chest. “I’m driving.”

  “Everything okay?” called down a male voice, on a face Melanie didn’t recognize. “We’ve got to go.”

  “You have to go.” Melanie looked up in the direction of the voice, but was unable to get a good glimpse.

  “I’m not going to make dinner,” Luke yelled back. “I’ll join you for drinks later.”

  “I’ll get Kendra to drive me to the hospital.”

  Luke scowled. “We both know you won’t do that. You’ll go up to your room and try to remove the glass and douse your foot in hydrogen peroxide.” He held out his hand. “Either you take my hand, or I’ll carry you.”

  “I’ll die of embarrassment if you carry me. I’d like to try to walk.” She uncurled her knee, placing her toe down first, already feeling the tinge of pain. The warm skin of her sole hit the sand, rolling farther until she couldn’t avoid the shock of the glass dredging into her raw skin, exacting up a pure, unfiltered cry from the well of her chest. Luke caught her fall and placed his solid hand around her waist.

  “You’re beautiful for trying,” he added in a whisper and dug his fingers into the flesh of her bare waist. Luke helped Melanie up the stairs, and his lean body didn’t fold against her jarring frame.

  The freshly showered scent on Luke’s skin drove her senses mad. She groaned and glimpsed the other two men at the top steps, each with a beer bottle in hand. She recognized Brent with a face wid
er than the younger version of Luke standing next to him. “Great. I must be suffering an aftershock of some sort. I see three of you.”

  “You already know Brent and this other guy is my brother, Damon.” Luke paused and Melanie stopped hobbling. “Damon, this is Melanie Cahill.”

  Damon summarized his reaction with a cold smile. She didn’t like his eyes, black as his jacket. She pulled away from Luke, instantly regretting the choice.

  “I’m taking her to the hospital.” Luke assisted Melanie in sitting on the stone wall. “I’ll join you later.”

  “Ms. Cahill,” Damon said, and finished the last of his beer. “I’ve heard so much about you.”

  The tone of his voice didn’t sound complimentary. She sat down on the stone wall. The sun touched her face and the breeze blew back her hair. For a tiny moment, she ignored the shooting stabs up her foot, knowing the smallest wiggle of her toe could bring her to her knees with pain. “I’ve heard nothing about you.”

  Damon lifted his eyebrows. “My brother talks only about his family to those who mean something to him.”

  Luke flashed a glance heavy with warning. “Damon, if you’ll excuse us,” he said. “You both should get going. I’ll meet up with you later.”

  Upon his command, they collected their drinks and returned to the house. Luke turned back to Melanie. “Why is my past so important to you?”

  “The past is a piece of you. Besides, I want to know. I want to know all about you.”

  He sighed. “What do you want to know?”

  “Where are your parents?” The agitated nerve-endings in her foot spiked. The pain she would put off. She wanted to hear this. She’d waited for forever to hear the answer to this question.

  “My father used his fists to communicate to my mother and his punches weren’t far behind for any of us.” He bowed his head to hers. His breath played off her lips. “If I don’t talk about my father, then he doesn’t exist. He isn’t real.”