“I saw how you were looking at Colin and Emily. Granted, the girl is a bit over-the-top pretentious; did you see her Fendi handbag actually matched her shoes? And that scarf. Who wears a scarf with a polo? I saw it in a magazine last week and retail on it was four hundred dollars. But what do you care?” Whoever said Mallory Prescott didn’t know fashion was ill-informed. She knew more than Vogue magazine.
Claire pulled her to the side, and looked first to make sure the jolly boaters were out of the house. “Mallory, Colin and I have been kind of seeing each other.” She licked her lips and hesitated to admit the big one. “It’s getting kind of serious.”
Mallory squealed. She fanned her hands and jumped up and down. “I knew it. I told Mom I suspected something was up with you two. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh. And that day you two disappeared. I saw how you looked at him after it. Oh my gosh!” She sounded like a tween who’d just heard her favorite boy band was coming to town for a concert… and she had backstage passes to see them.
“Oh crap. You told your mother?” It hit Claire like a five-story building, toppling over her all at once. “What did she say? Did she tell Mr. Prescott?” That might be the reasoning behind the plane and miniature airport. She knew he wasn’t as much of a philanthropist as he’d bragged himself up to be to the Hamiltons.
“She told me to mind my own business and that it wasn’t true.” She came off her boy band crush giddiness and said it in a mocking tone of her mother’s voice. But then she got giddy again. Hormones. “Do you know what this means?” She grabbed her by the arms. “This means we’ll be sisters. That is, if you two decide to get married. I mean, if it gets to that point. He seems so different now. I thought it was just that I hadn’t seen him in a while, but maybe it’s you.” She jumped up and down. “And we can have our children play together. Jason is going to be so stoked. He likes you a lot, Claire. And you’re beaming. It’s written all over you that this is something good. Oh, I’m so happy for the two of you.” She went to grab her for a hug.
“Hold on, Mallory.” Claire pulled away. She enjoyed her enthusiasm, but she had to extract Colin from the Prescott web first. “Your dad brought Emily here to throw a wrench in it. He wants them to ride off into the sunset so he can get some waterfront property and retire.”
“Well then, let’s just go and get little Miss Fendi and throw her from the boat.”
Claire laughed and waited as Mallory took two bottles of wine from the cabinet. Claire carried the basket of long stem wine glasses and they began their way to the boat.
Chapter Eleven
Melanie’s Secret
When they got to the boathouse, they found the boaters already idling next to the dock, smoke coming from the exhaust pipe and only one line of rope holding them to land. Unlike the small yacht Claire figured Mr. Prescott had ordered, it was a speedboat with the capacity to hold six passengers. One more if they wished to strap themselves to the front deck, which was something Claire considered doing. Emily had chosen to seat herself next to Colin, of course. He looked like the bird who’d been caught by the neighbor’s cat. His eyes were as big as golf balls when Claire showed up with Mallory.
Melanie pulled the boat closer to the dock and stepped off. Claire handed down the basket to Mallory, who’d already jumped in.
“Dad, why did you get such a small boat?” Mallory squeezed next to Jason on the white leather sofa that stretched across the back.
“I didn’t know it was this small. The guy told me this is all they had on such short notice.” He pulled down the gear, idling it louder. “Come on, let’s get going.”
Claire looked from the dock to where she could stand in the compartment. Colin stood to walk toward her when Melanie intervened. “Honey, just go on. It’s too many people in there. Claire and I will catch the next trip.”
Colin shouted out to be heard over the engine. “Let me out first, Dad. I’ll wait for the next ride, too.”
Melanie threw the rope over to Mr. Prescott before Colin could get off. He stood next to the rail as the boat trailed off, desperation in his eyes as he stared at Claire. She wanted to cry. Mr. Prescott had won again. Only this time with the assistance of his wife, Melanie, best friend of her dearly departed mother’s.
“Come on, dear. Let’s go and sit in the shade of the magnolia tree and rest until they return. It’s in bloom now and the smell is absolutely enchanting.” She took Claire’s arm and led her to the bench where Claire would always sit when she was little, reading Nancy Drew mystery novels.
The bench looked weathered now. Tiny splinters poked out on the edge where she sat. Something Melanie had failed to remember to get painted.
“I think I know why we’re here, Melanie.” She moved her leg to avoid injury from the chipped wood. “Mallory said she told you about her suspicions of me and Colin. That must be why you pretty much pushed the boat for takeoff without me just now, huh?” She hoped she was wrong, but her gut told her she was spot-on. Question was, why would she? She thought she liked Claire.
Melanie shifted on the seat and pulled something off her pant leg. “Yes, Mallory did mention something about her suspicions of you and Colin.” Her nostrils flared a bit.
“I wish Mom were here so I could talk to her. Tell her how I’m feeling and ask her what to do.”
“What are you feeling?” She leaned in on her knees.
Claire took a deep breath. It was now or never. “I love him.” She let that settle for a second before she continued. “I’m really new at this. I can’t say I’ve ever loved anyone before to compare it, but I love the man Colin’s become. He’s smart, fun, amazingly handsome, and he makes me feel like I’m beautiful. I look at things differently now. I don’t just live in a tiny box. I can do anything I set my mind to. He makes me feel secure. I’ve never had someone, other than Mom of course, who’s made me feel this special. I’m really, truly in love with him.”
Melanie’s face softened. Her nose got back into joint. She rested her hand on Claire’s. “Well, honey, I know I can’t ever take the place of your mother. She was great at this sort of thing, but I’d like to offer you my advice if you’d allow me.”
“Okay.” Maybe she was wrong about Melanie and how she thought she was trying to sabotage her and Colin.
“I think she’d tell you that although you think you’re having all these feelings, that it’s probably no more than confusion from the last six months of your life.”
“What?” What confusion? Claire reared back, reclaiming her hand in the process.
“Claire, you’ve just lost your mother. Honey, you feel lonely. And then Colin comes and—”
“Okay, let me stop you right there. Colin is not taking the place of what I lost with Mom. No one can do that. He’s a man I love in his own right. And yes, I was lonely, but I’ve been lonely all my life to some degree. It’s just been me and Mom. Colin fills that empty space. Not because I was looking for a warm body, but he’s someone I found in a surprising way.”
“Okay, I get it. It’s fun—it’s youthful. It’s something you’ll look back on when you get back home and smile. It was a well-needed diversion from reality. But that’s all it is, Claire. And I strongly advise you to let it go. Let him go.”
Claire’s eyes squinted as she looked at Melanie. Was she serious?
“Forget him and go back to New York to begin your new life as a scientist, or whatever it is you have your degree in. You’ll have a chance to fall in love with someone you can be with. Someone who it doesn’t matter who is his family.” She tapped her chin. “I bet I can fix you up with someone nice. I know you’ll find someone, Claire. You’re a pretty girl with everything going for you.”
Forget about him? Melanie will find someone else for her? What? Suddenly Claire found herself not being Melanie’s biggest fan. She was sounding more and more like her husband James every day. She jumped off the bench and looked down at Melanie.
“I think I’d rather take the advic
e my mother would’ve given and follow my heart, which will lead to happiness. With Colin. I can’t believe you just told me what you did. Of anyone, I thought you’d be the sound of reason. Someone who was on my side. Would actually be happy that her own son was happy. Have you seen him lately? Seen his smile?”
“I’m on the side of not ruining people’s lives with a knee-jerk reaction to what you think is love. Want my son happy? All I do is for Colin and Mallory. I’ve lived my entire life making them happy. Even if they don’t know it.” Her tone and mannerisms were someone Claire didn’t recognize. It was authoritative and matter-of-fact.
“Knee-jerk?” Did she just hear her correctly?
“Yes. You’ve only just experienced this, this summer with Colin, am I correct? I mean, he’s been gone for the last four years. These are very new feelings. I believe it’s safe to say you’ve only had these for a few short days. You can’t base anything off a few short days.” She dismissively tilted her head. “The flu comes and goes in a few short days. Horrific as it can be, you lay down, fall asleep and wake up to find it’s over. That’s with this, too. Lay down, sleep it off, and it will be over in no time. You’ll be fresh as a daisy when you return to New York and forget about this place.”
The flu? Really? A sickness that makes your insides wrench and gives you the chills? Who was this woman? Where did the compassionate one go who took care of her mother in her last dying days?
“I’ve only just discovered my true feelings for him, yes, but they’re unbelievably strong. And I’ve known him for longer than just recently, Melanie. I’d go to the ends of the earth for him. I’m in love with him. I think I’ve loved him for years. Since high school. I just never believed he could feel the same way about me. But he does—he told me so.”
She actually laughed at Claire. “I think you’re pulling my leg now, Claire. I’ve never seen two more different people than you and Colin.” Shaking her head, she elaborated. “He wouldn’t know the first thing about the world you live in. Not to mention—”
“No offense, Melanie, but it doesn’t matter what you think. We don’t have to justify our relationship to anyone. And I’m pretty sure I know how to live in whatever world in which he resides.” She tried not to be offended at Melanie’s slant against her.
“Well, if it’s something worth ruining three lives for, I certainly wish you’d tell me more about it. Like how it’s going to make you feel when Colin and Mallory have nothing and nowhere to live, should you push Colin to tell his father he chooses you over running the company.”
“What are you talking about?”
“That’s what’s going to happen if you don’t leave him and never look back, Claire.”
Claire had no idea what a drama queen Melanie was. It was difficult to rationalize with an irrational person. “What are you trying to tell me would happen if we tell his dad where to stick his company and new toy airplane? Don’t think I don’t see what’s going on there with that bargaining chip.”
“No one assumes you’re ignorant to the game, Claire. And don’t you assume you’re the only one who’s ever loved someone and it doesn’t work out. For you, though, you can start over. Find someone else you can love. I certainly couldn’t.”
Melanie transformed before Claire’s eyes. No longer sitting erect with a put-together countenance and the temperature of a cold fish, her mother’s friend slouched down and looked brow-beaten with what she was about to say. Years of a poisonous secret began to seep from her mouth. Claire sat back down and waited to hear it.
“I’m not sure what your mother told you about our friendship and when it began, but it started when I was fifteen years old. I came from a broken home. My mother loved her vodka bottle about as much as the men who’d sell it to her. I was fourteen before I found my courage to tell her I wasn’t going to entertain the men she brought home with her anymore. That’s when she kicked me out. I spent a year living on sleepovers with friends from school until social services caught up with me. That’s when I tried to run away. Only instead of a train station, I went to the airport. I thought I’d go to California. I’d always admired Marilyn Monroe and how she’d gotten discovered. I figured I had blonde hair and a decent-looking body and I was going to try my luck in Hollywood. Only instead of boarding a plane that day, I ran into your mother.
“She was sitting in her blue sweater uniform, at one of those café tables. Her hair kept getting in her eyes when she’d take a bite of her sandwich. I watched her take each bite. She wore blue nail polish that kept my attention.” She adjusted herself on the bench and took a deep breath. “Anyway, she saw me watching her from a sign I was leaning on, pretending to be waiting for my mother inside the bathroom. She asked me over to the table and I confided in her that I needed to get on a plane to California…I was going to be the next Marilyn Monroe. Before I knew it, she was taking me back home with her to her little one-room apartment in Queens. Long story short, I’d confessed and told her I was on my own. She enrolled me in school as her younger sister, I got my GED degree and later got a job at the airport with her.
“She was nineteen and just barely getting by, herself, when she took me in. I owed her my life. I shudder to think where I’d be now if it weren’t for her.” She looked out toward the bright water, squinting from the reflection of the sun’s rays on it. “But anyway, I met James while I was working there. He asked me out to dinner a few times and when I saw he was being driven around in a privately owned car and came from money, I made it my mission to become his wife.
“So we got married. Fortunately, I didn’t have to prove myself to anyone but him. His mother’s only concern was that I loved James. And I thought I did, or at least I thought I could, given time. I was married to him for a year when I discovered just how untrue that theory was. I was very unhappy. He was never home, always at the office, and I didn’t know the first thing about being prim and proper, doing work for the Prescott charities and hosting parties. That’s when Richard came into the picture. He was James’s company attorney. Ah, he was handsome.” Her smile melted the wrinkles on her face and she stared off wistfully at the tall magnolia tree. “Dirty-blond hair, kind of the color of mine, laughing eyes, and dimples on both his cheeks, each time he’d smile. Which of course was often. He told me he couldn’t help but smile every time he looked at me.” She paused, more than likely remembering Richard in her mind.
“So anyway,” Melanie had come back off her cloud to finish the intriguing story, “Richard was always at the house to get papers signed and to go over proposals with James. And slowly we fell in love with each other.” She glanced at Claire’s furrowed brow and touched her leg to explain. “Oh, it didn’t happen so quickly. It was a slow progression. He’d come over more often when James was still at the office, or we’d meet for lunch at places where we knew neither one of our friends ever went. It took six months for us to get up the courage to tell James. Richard was going to quit and we were going to move to San Diego. He was going to work with his brother in his law firm.”
Claire wondered whether her mother knew all of this, too.
Melanie found a magnolia leaf that had blown off the tree and began rolling it back and forth in her hand. “I remember it was the day Richard was going to come and pick me up. We’d wait until James left for work and I’d already written a note for him to find, telling him I couldn’t stay married to him any longer. I had a small suitcase packed and waited to hear from Richard. But he didn’t come, and I couldn’t get a hold of him on the phone. I was beside myself with worry.”
Melanie flicked the bloom off her lap and her face went pale. She drew in a deep breath. “James got home first. I heard the front door shut and shoved the suitcase underneath the bed and went downstairs. Mary, our cook, called us in for dinner. I sat next to him at the table, waiting to hear the doorbell ring. Maybe Richard had gotten tied up with something. Or, he had problems at work or his car wouldn’t start. Whatever the reason he was late, I’d
forgive him. Only it never rang.”
Claire rested her chin on her hand and leaned in closer. She saw the water pool in Melanie’s eyes.
“Dessert came out and by this time my stomach was nauseous. It wasn’t like Richard to not just show up without a call, send a note, or something. We’d planned for weeks—this was going to be the day. Your mother had reserved our flight for that night.
“Just as James went to put another spoonful of cherry pie into his mouth, he said matter-of-factly, ‘Oh, I forgot to mention. Richard was found dead this morning in his house. Seems it was an aneurism that killed him. His uncle found him when he didn’t return his call from the night before.’”
She clutched the front of her shirt—her knuckles went white. “The room began spinning around me. I couldn’t feel my arms or legs. They were things I could see but couldn’t feel. It was like someone had taken a double-edged sword and driven it right through my heart. I watched as my blood soaked the white tablecloth, running over the cherry pie that sat untouched on my plate. It made its way to the edge of the table, dripping onto the blue chintz rug, soaking through to the hardwood floors.” She wiped her eyes. “And there James sat. Scraping the last morsel on his plate into his mouth.
“Without saying a word, I stood and went upstairs and unpacked my suitcase, putting it back into the closet on the top shelf. I don’t even remember hoisting it up there. My body had taken over my brain and just started doing things for me. Then I took a shower.” She stared out toward the water. All the color from the blush and lipstick had disappeared. She continued.
“I stood in that shower against the wall for an hour that night. Crying uncontrollably. I didn’t care that the water had turned to cold and my skin felt numb. I was numb. The insides of me were numb and they would be for the rest of my life.”
Rewrite the Stars Page 11
