One Perfect Summer

by Brenda Novak

  “What makes you think so?”

  “I found it when I did a Google search of his name.”

  “When did he work there? Was it right before we were born?”

  “I can’t find any dates. The information isn’t complete. I only discovered it because I read everything that came up.”

  Serenity shoved some pillows behind her back and leaned up against the headboard. “So maybe Vance didn’t have an affair with our mothers. Maybe we were all adopted.”

  “That’s what it looks like now.”

  She felt an avalanche of relief to hear something that suggested her mother hadn’t cheated with her husband’s brother. She felt she could take any other answer as long as it wasn’t that. “But why would your mother adopt a child? You’ve said again and again that she’s never been interested in kids, that she didn’t really want you.”

  “I have no clue.”

  “And why wouldn’t they tell us we were adopted? That’s why we ruled it out. What reason could they have had to hide it?”

  “I wish I knew,” she said. “Can you read Vance’s letter to me again?”

  Serenity pulled it out of her purse. “‘Dear Charlotte, I’m sorry I stood you up last night. Chuck dropped in unexpectedly. At first I thought he knew about the baby, that you must’ve broken down and told him. But he didn’t say anything about it. You understand why you can’t, right? Please promise me you’ll never tell. Love, Vance.’”

  “Now that I hear it again, it could be that he facilitated the adoption,” Reagan mused.

  “But if I was adopted, surely my father would know. So what could my uncle be referring to? What isn’t my mother supposed to tell him?”

  “Where Vance got you from?”

  Serenity felt her pulse quicken. Here she was, trying to get a DNA test from her father, her brother and/or Uncle Vance. But maybe she didn’t need it. If Vance had merely arranged for her parents to adopt a baby, a DNA test would only confirm that she came from two people who weren’t Chuck or Charlotte—something she felt fairly safe assuming now that she knew Vance had worked for an adoption agency.

  “That would mean I’m more related to you and Lorelei than I am to Beau and the twins,” she said. “Or even my parents.”

  “And it would mean I’m not technically related to my mother.”

  “Wow.” Serenity swallowed against a dry throat as she tried to absorb the implications.

  “Are you still there?” Reagan asked when she didn’t speak.

  She sighed. “Yeah, I’m here. Have you done a search for My Sweet Angel?”

  “I have. They’re a private agency located in Atherton, California.”

  Atherton was an affluent area—and it was where her father and uncle had been raised. That had to be more than a coincidence. “They’re still in business?”

  “They are. Says here they’ve been around for forty-five years.”

  “Lucky for us. Maybe we’ll be able to confirm that Vance once worked for them.”

  “I doubt they’ll disclose that type of thing. Legally, I bet they can’t.”

  “We could pretend he’s applying for a job and that he used them as a reference.”

  “It’s been too long. They may not even have employment records going back that far. Why would they?”

  “True.”

  “Why don’t you just ask him, Serenity?”

  There had to be a reason this had been such a well-kept secret, a reason Uncle Vance had pleaded with her mother not to tell her father about “the baby.” She was afraid to alert Vance to the fact that she was digging around in the past for fear he and her mother would close ranks and do what Rosalind had done—offer an alternate explanation, one she couldn’t quite believe.

  But he was probably already aware that the secret he’d been guarding was under attack. No doubt they’d tipped him off when Reagan had impersonated Rosalind on that call.

  * * *

  lorelei

  A white-hot rage filled Lorelei as Francine approached the table. She was wearing a conciliatory expression, a pitiful expression in Lorelei’s opinion, and her best dress.

  She glanced uncertainly at Mark the second she saw Lorelei’s anger. Clearly she’d caught on that this was a mistake, but Mark beckoned her forward.

  “I can’t believe you’d blindside me like this,” Lorelei said between clenched teeth as she turned to him.

  “I’m not blindsiding you, I’m just trying—”

  “Yes, you are,” she broke in, “and you’re doing it in a public place so I won’t cause a scene.”

  “No, wait. You’re getting it all wrong. Just hear me out.” He raised his hands in a defensive gesture. “I would’ve told you she was coming, but I knew you wouldn’t see her if I did. I spent a lot of money on her plane ticket, and she dropped everything to come here. We did it so we could both tell you that we love you and want to make this right.”

  “It doesn’t matter how much you spent. There is no way to make it right.” Lorelei stood up to leave, but Mark jumped up, too, and cut her off.

  “Lorelei, please.”

  “I’m sorry, Lorelei, I really am,” Francine said. “Before you go, think about what you’re throwing away.”

  “What I’m throwing away?” Lorelei echoed. “I’m not throwing anything away. This was your doing, not mine. You destroyed my marriage, broke up my family and killed our friendship in one fell swoop. I can’t think of anything my worst enemy could do that would be worse.”

  Francine flinched. “It was a stupid mistake—” she started, but Mark was speaking, too, and his voice was louder.

  “I know she’s a big part of why you won’t come back to Florida right away,” he said, “but we’ll never be able to save our marriage, not if you can’t forgive us both. That’s why I had her come—so you can see and hear for yourself how terrible she feels.”

  “I don’t care how terrible she feels!” Lorelei retorted. “Don’t you get it? I don’t ever want to speak to her again. And I’m done with you, too. I will be the best ex-wife I can be. I’ll let you see Lucy whenever I can manage it, and I’ll be fair when it comes to splitting up our assets. But I won’t stay married to you while you have a baby with the one person I trusted more than anyone else, other than you.”

  Tears rolled down Francine’s face as Lorelei shoved past Mark and nearly bumped into the waiter who was coming to bring them water. But the claustrophobia that had plagued her since Mark told her about Francine was gone. So was all the questioning and the agonizing and the attempts to make herself accept what was, for her, unacceptable.

  She did not have to let someone force her into an existence in which she’d be miserable. She would break free. And maybe she wouldn’t have the future she’d always imagined—that was already gone—but at least she’d live on her own terms.

  * * *

  reagan

  When Reagan spotted Lorelei on the side of the road, she expected her to be standing in a puddle of tears. She knew Francine had shown up without warning at the restaurant where Mark had taken her for dinner. When Lorelei had called to tell her she’d walked out on them, she hadn’t been gone from the cabin for long. That said it all.

  But when Reagan pulled over in Finn’s Jeep to pick her up, she found her sister dry-eyed.

  “You’re driving Finn’s car?” Lorelei asked in surprise.

  “He wasn’t going anywhere tonight, so I asked if he’d mind. It made more sense than to pay for Ubers to take me to you, then take us to wherever we’re going to have dinner and then take us back home. Especially because you might want to get wasted—and I wouldn’t blame you—but I can’t touch a drop, so I’m a great designated driver.”

  Lorelei climbed in and looked into the back seat. “Where’s Lucy?”

  “Finn insisted I leave her with him. I hope you don’t min
d. She’s already had dinner, and I thought you’d be upset, so...I decided it would be better for her not to see you.”

  Lorelei closed her eyes as she leaned her head back. “I’m okay, but that was nice of you—and Finn.”

  Reagan hesitated before pulling back onto the road. Where were the tears? Why wasn’t Lorelei falling apart? “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  Lorelei gave her a weary smile. “Yeah. Things aren’t perfect, of course. But I’m better than I’ve been, and that’s good enough for me.”

  “I’m blown away that you’re handling this so well.”

  “Getting upset will only make it harder.” She adjusted her seat belt as Reagan pulled back onto the road. “What was Finn doing tonight?”

  Reagan thought she detected a trace of jealousy in Lorelei’s voice. “Not much of anything. Nolan’s at work. Davis is practicing tying his shoes—something Lucy is very interested in helping him with. That’s what they were doing when I left.”

  “Davis doesn’t mind Lucy’s help?”

  Reagan shrugged. “He’s the one who asked for it.”

  They drove a few blocks before Lorelei said, “What about Finn’s girlfriend? Hard to believe she’s okay with Finn lending us his Jeep and taking care of my daughter.”

  “I have to admit she didn’t seem pleased, but Finn didn’t ask for her permission. I don’t get the impression she has much say over what he does.”

  “And yet she’s his girlfriend?”

  Finn had treated Michelle more like an old friend when Reagan was there, despite the label Michelle had given their relationship. “My interpretation is that she’d like to be his girlfriend, but he wouldn’t have shown so much concern over what was happening to you if he was in a relationship with her.”

  “I can see why she’d want him.”

  While they were stopped at the traffic light in the middle of town, Reagan peered at her sister more closely. “Do you want him?”

  “Of course I do. But I can’t have him. There are too many things working against us right now.”

  It was the maturity of that comment and the resolution she sensed in her sister that told Reagan Lorelei was going to recover. The next year would be hard; divorce was never easy. But Lorelei was making wise choices—for her and for Lucy. “Finn is special, and you never know. Maybe in a year or two things will work out,” she said. “Now let’s go eat some tacos and forget about our problems for an hour or so.”

  And when they were done? She’d tell Lorelei about My Sweet Angel and Vance Currington.

  * * *

  serenity

  Serenity couldn’t help dwelling on what she’d learned about the adoption agency. When everyone else was watching fireworks at the pier on Ocean Beach, which was where they’d ended up going to celebrate the Fourth, she was thinking how it might change their family if Beau and the twins found out she was adopted. It shouldn’t have mattered to her. She was an adult. But rewriting the story of her life was difficult even at this age.

  She would’ve let it stay a secret—let the past go and tried to forget about it. She’d known all along that she was holding a hand grenade, and she didn’t want it to blow up in her face and hurt her family. But what she could potentially discover was Lorelei’s best bet of plugging the gaping holes in her early life. Serenity couldn’t just...stop.

  Besides, she wanted to know why. Why she’d been adopted if her parents could have children. Why she’d been available for adoption in the first place. Why Chuck and Charlotte had decided not to tell her. Who her biological parents were. And how she and Reagan could come from the same father and be only six months apart. Physically that was possible, of course, but impregnating two different women in such a short span of time was still odd enough to make her wonder how it had all gone down.

  There were still so many unanswered questions. Even the adoption agency lead hadn’t been confirmed. It just made sense in light of everything else.

  At one point, she asked Vance to tell her about some of the jobs he’d had over the years, and he’d mentioned a few, but he hadn’t said anything about an adoption agency. If Chuck and Charlotte hadn’t been around, Serenity might’ve been more direct, but he didn’t give her the opportunity to get him alone. He visited with her parents the entire time he was in town. Then he left very early on Sunday morning, before the rest of them were up.

  “You’ve sure been on your phone a lot this weekend,” her mother complained while making breakfast.

  Serenity had been texting quite a bit—with Reagan, Lorelei and Sawyer. They all wanted to know what was going on, if she’d learned anything. So far, she had nothing to tell them, but now that she could safely assume her mother hadn’t been unfaithful to her father, she was willing to overcome her reservations and ask Charlotte for the truth.

  Unfortunately, however, this wasn’t a good time. She couldn’t cause a big emotional scene right before Beau shared his news. Like her, he was leaving later today, so this would be his only chance, and she knew he didn’t want to put it off any longer. Trevor was expecting to set a date. “Sorry,” she said.

  “No need to apologize. Who’ve you been talking to?”

  This was the perfect lead-in to tell Charlotte everything. But Beau walked into the kitchen, freshly showered and shaved and looking nervous as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

  “Where’s Dad?” he asked.

  “In the shower,” Charlotte said. “He’ll be down in a minute.”

  The smell of bacon permeated the house. Her mother had cooked it in the microwave and was now frying eggs on the stove.

  “Uncle Vance is gone?” Beau said.

  Charlotte took a piece of toast out of the toaster and buttered it. “Yeah. He left a couple of hours ago.”

  Beau shot Serenity a look that said, This is it, and Serenity smiled. She knew her parents wouldn’t care that he was gay, but it would come as a shock. He’d hidden it so well, had never let on.

  “Morning,” her father said when he finally joined them.

  “Morning,” Serenity replied and nudged Beau with her foot.

  He put down his coffee. “Dad? Mom? Can you come over and sit down for a second?” he asked. “There’s something I’d like to tell you.”

  * * *

  lorelei

  After a busy and emotional weekend, Lorelei was relieved to have Monday off. It hadn’t been easy to get used to working again, but she was grateful to have a job. Earning a paycheck gave her a degree of independence, and that would be important, especially after what happened on Friday night. Mark had finally accepted that she wasn’t coming back to him, but it had made him even angrier than she’d expected. Although she’d unblocked his number when he came to Tahoe so they could make arrangements for Lucy and so that she’d be accessible if anything went wrong, she’d had to block him again.

  On Saturday, she and Lucy went with Reagan to see the fireworks instead of going with him because he’d sent a string of vile texts claiming she was the most unforgiving bitch he’d ever met and he’d make it as difficult as possible for her to get anything out of the divorce—as if she hadn’t contributed to their marriage at all and was trying to steal something she didn’t deserve.

  Whether or not he could back up his threat of leaving her penniless, she didn’t know. It was upsetting to think she could spend twelve years with him and it would come down to this. When he swung by to tell Lucy goodbye yesterday morning, he wouldn’t even speak to her.

  But Lorelei had expected her divorce to be a painful journey; she couldn’t let the very first step cause her to falter. She was doing her best to cope with the fallout and to be grateful for what she did have. Lucy was the light of her life, and her two sisters were quickly becoming her best friends.

  You’ll survive, she told herself. He was gone now, which brought some relief, and Serenity was back. She hadn’t been
able to get a DNA sample from her father while she was in San Diego. Although she’d mentioned that it would be interesting for him to learn about his ancestors and could be helpful from a medical perspective, he’d told her he was concerned about the amount of information such places were accumulating and what they might do with it, which was an objection she hadn’t been able to overcome. She had, however, convinced her brother to take one, in case it provided some information that might turn out to be pertinent. She’d mailed it off before leaving San Diego, which meant they’d have the results in early September.

  At least that was hopeful. And spending the day with Lucy and her sisters on the beach was proving therapeutic.

  “This is so relaxing,” she murmured as the sun warmed her skin. They’d played in the water when they first arrived—had attempted to skip rocks even though they weren’t nearly as good at it as Finn—and then Lucy had fallen asleep on a towel under their beach umbrella, which gave them a chance to lie out in the sun.

  “I’ll always remember this summer,” Reagan said.

  From the first, Lorelei had admired Reagan’s beauty, but with all the time off work, the rest, the sun—maybe even the pregnancy—she looked healthy and vibrant as well as beautiful.

  So did Serenity, even though she wasn’t pregnant.

  Raising herself up on one elbow, Serenity lifted her sunglasses as she scanned the horizon. “I’ll never forget it, either.”

  Lorelei smiled. They’d all arrived with significant problems. Some of those problems lingered. Reagan didn’t know how Drew was going to respond about the baby. They hadn’t figured out how they’d come to be related and Lorelei still didn’t know anything about her parents. But everyone had problems. Their time here had been a godsend. They’d gotten to know each other on a level they couldn’t have any other way—had become real sisters—while staying in this beautiful place.

  She wondered if she would’ve had the strength to leave Mark had she not made the decision to spend the summer here with Reagan and Serenity...