Breakwater Bay (27 page)

But he hadn’t forgotten the nights of wishing he’d had a mother of his own. And then came Meri. Another motherless child taken in by the Calders. Always room in the Calder clan for another soul.

He looked over at Therese. Beautiful still after all the hard work and the tragedies of life. But she was getting on. Would she be strong enough to help Nora through the hard patches ahead, the times when a mother, not a father, was needed?

Of course, there was Meri, not old enough to be Nora’s mother, but maybe a confidante. She would never play favorites like Jennifer did. But Meri wouldn’t be here; she would most likely marry Peter when he returned from California and be starting her own family.

“I’ll talk to her.”

“And do you know what you’re going to say about her staying?”

“No.”

“Is that no you don’t know or no she can’t stay?”

“I don’t know.”

T
his place is great,” Nora said, her eyes on the cute young waiter who had just delivered their burgers, fries, onion rings, two glasses of wine, and a soda for Nora.

Carlyn had suggested the pub near the wharf. It was loud and busy with college students who hadn’t left for spring break.

Meri lifted her glass. “Here’s to a fun weekend.” They toasted.

They stuffed themselves, and Nora and Carlyn flirted outrageously with the waiters and a table of college students.

It was only seven thirty when they finished dinner and were walking down the cobbled streets and peering into shop windows. But soon the wind off the bay had them hurrying back to their cars.

Carlyn hugged them both. “Since we don’t have to work tomorrow, I’m expecting you two to meet me for a cliff walk and waffles in the morning.” She frowned at Meri. “Are you okay with that hand?”

“Yep. You game, Nora?”

“Depends how good the waffles are.”

“Ha. I’ll see you at nine sharp.” Carlyn grinned at her.

“That good, huh?”

“You haven’t tasted waffles yet. So don’t stay out too late,” Carlyn said.

“Oh, we won’t,” Nora said. “I want to go see Meri’s apartment.”

They drove the short distance across town. Nora spotted a parking place just a half block from Meri’s apartment.

“Wow. You must be my good luck parking charm. Sometimes I have to park blocks away.”

“Another good reason to keep me around.”

Meri made a noncommittal answer. She had thought Nora might forget her intention to stay in Little Compton as the week went on. Meri always started missing home about halfway through a vacation or the times she spent away at school and she came back to Little Compton as often as she could. Little Compton
was
her home. Maybe it was Nora’s home, too.

“This is so cool,” Nora said as they stopped in front of Meri’s apartment building while Meri unlocked the downstairs door.

“It is.” It was nice to look at her little building through someone else’s eyes. She spent so much time looking at other people’s architecture and fixtures that she sometimes took hers for granted.

She loved her apartment, on one of the quieter streets, at least in the off-season. And she didn’t mind the crowds during the season. She could always escape to Gran’s on the weekends.

They walked upstairs, and Meri unlocked the door and pushed it open. Nora followed her in.

“This is so cute.”

Meri laughed. “If you mean small. Yeah, it is.”

“I think it’s perfect.” Nora turned in a full three-sixty. “Cozy.”

“That, too. But remember that when you wake up after having slept on the pull-out couch all night.”

Meri gave her a “tour,” which lasted about a half minute. In her minuscule bedroom, the queen-size bed covered by Moroccan spreads and pillows took up most of the space. There was just enough room for a bedside table. Her dresser was shoved into the closet that was large by apartment standards—and currently had an empty space like a missing tooth, where Peter had always left a change of clothes—until now.

“And here’s the bathroom, also rather small.”

Nora laughed. “Thumbelina-sized.”

Meri smiled. The girl was an oddball, all teenager one minute and fanciful child the next. Or perhaps that was just because she was Alden’s daughter. He was anything but fanciful—he was sometimes terse, often standoffish—but once you’d seen his drawings you knew he had a whole universe living in his head.

And he was always there in a pinch. Yeah, and now she knew why. He’d promised Riley Rochfort that he would take care of her. And he had. To the detriment of his own life, his own happiness? They really hadn’t had a chance to discuss it. Possibly intentionally on both sides. But they needed to and soon.

“You’re so lucky,” Nora said.

“I am,” Meri said. “But why do
you
think so?”

“You have this great apartment.” Nora wandered past Meri and back into the living area. “Filled with things you like.”

“Rent that I can’t always afford, a furnace that occasionally breaks down, and there aren’t enough washers and dryers, but yeah, I love this place.” And she’d hate to give it up, if that’s what she had to do to continue working on Gilbert House.

“And you have Gran and your family.” Nora plopped on the couch and hugged one of the pillows. “Dad says you’re going to marry Peter.”

“That’s the plan.”

“But he left you for the summer.”

“He
left
for the summer. We both have our work. It’s only for a few months.” Meri frowned. “Did your dad say something about me and Peter?”

“Not really. I just got the feeling he wasn’t too happy about it.”

“I know.”

“He’ll be lonely if you go away.”

Meri didn’t bother to say she’d been away for years, because she knew where this was going.

All roads led to reasons for Nora to stay. And Meri gave her credit for subtlety.

Resigned, she sat down in the chair. She should have guessed she wouldn’t get off that easily. Hadn’t Alden said that he thought Nora might talk about what was bothering her to Meri?

And really she owed him that much, didn’t she? “Want some tea? Decaf?”

“Sure.”

Meri went to make tea, trying to postpone the inevitable. She wasn’t sure she had any good advice to give the teenager. Hell, she’d just made a mess of her own life. She was raw and off-kilter.

The water seemed to boil in record time, and she was back with two mugs of tea, and a box of shortbread cookies.

“I’ve been thinking.”

Uh-oh,
thought Meri and hunkered down to listen and try to help.

“Gran is getting kinda old.”

Meri nodded.

“So I thought maybe if Dad didn’t want me, I could stay with Gran, help her out with things, you know?”

“I know, but why on earth do you think Alden wouldn’t want you with him?”

Nora shrugged, pulled the pillow closer, her eyes glistening with tears that were about to overflow.

Whew, lightning change. “I’m sure he would love to have you; that’s not exactly the issue.”

“Then what is? My mother doesn’t have time for me, and he doesn’t have time for me. No, that’s not fair. He drops everything when I’m visiting, and he does for Lucas, too.

“But then he has to work during the night to make up for the time he’s wasted on me. I found him asleep on the couch in the sunroom this morning. The work light on his drafting table was still on.”

“I have a feeling that happens a lot,” Meri said. “So don’t think it’s just because he’s out having fun with you.”

“Gran’s teaching me to cook and I could keep the place clean for him and do the laundry . . .”

Nora’s anxiety was palpable. Maybe Alden was right and there was something else going on besides normal teenage angst. But how to approach it? Meri was so out of her element here. And just look how badly she’d botched her meeting this morning.

“There’s only a couple of months left before school is out. Then maybe you could come stay for the summer. Like a trial to see if you’d really want to go to school in Tiverton. Wouldn’t you miss all your friends?”

“No. I don’t hang with the right people. So I’m pretty much not hanging with anyone. I hate my school.” Nora sighed heavily. “You probably think I’m an ungrateful bitch.

“’Cause Lucas and I both go to the best academic schools, private. I know Dad pays for it. I saw the invoice.” A lightning-quick smile. “I know a lot more than they think I do.”

Oh great,
Meri thought,
a snoop.

“It’s not that I’m not grateful, but we don’t even go to the same school. It’s fine for Lucas; he’s a brainiac and he’s kind of checked out all the time anyway.”

That didn’t sound good, but Meri let it pass.

“I’m not. There’s nothing normal there. And next year I have to change schools again. My calculus teacher told Mom and Mark that I have an aptitude for math, so they enrolled me in a satellite school where they concentrate on math.

“I hate math. I don’t want to go to school, go to college, get out, and go to work in some company where I crunch numbers all day. I want to do something interesting, travel, I don’t know. Something . . .”

“Creative?”

“Yeah.”

“Why am I not surprised? Have you told them how you feel?”

“Yeah, over and over. If I dare even mention that I’d like to be a writer or a journalist or something, Mom goes berserkers. Accuses me of being ungrateful for all she and Mark do for me. She and Mark? Daddy pays for everything. I looked.”

“And what does Mark say?”

Nora snorted a bitter laugh. “Mark just leaves the room. He never stands up to her about anything.

“All she does is shop, meet ‘the girls’ for drinks at the club, make an occasional appearance at all the right committees at Henley’s school. She arranges playdates, where the mothers just sit drinking coffee and talking about renovating their kitchens while the au pairs take care of the kids. She used to play tennis three times a week until she got too fat.

“She’s totally useless. And spends money like she worked for it. Mark isn’t such a bad guy. If he weren’t such a wuss, I’d almost feel sorry for him. At least Dad stood up to her.

“What am I going to do?”

Meri tucked her feet under her and settled in for the long haul. Nora had obviously been holding these feelings in for a long time. The least Meri could do was listen while they all came out.

“What do you love? Do you want to be a journalist?”

“I don’t know. Just something that’s interesting. Like something that does something to make a difference. It’s just that I’m not getting a chance to find out what that is.”

Meri nodded. And there was the crux of the matter. No choice. Jennifer had determined that Nora would use her math to get an acceptable profession.

“And Mom will never let me. Every time I suggest anything, she blames it on Dad. Like he put the idea in my head. And he doesn’t. When I called to ask if I could come for the break, she got on the phone and reamed him for plotting against her. She’s crazy and she hates him.

“Plus she said he misrepresented himself when he asked her to marry him and she was being smothered out there in the boonies. Can you imagine? She called the beach the boonies?

“And she goes on about how she doesn’t want us getting stuck in some dead-end profession where we’d barely make a living.

“I hate her when she says stuff like that. Corrigan House is the best, and we never went without anything that I can remember, and Dad sends a load of money every month. I saw the checks. It’s not like he’s indigent.”

Meri reached for a cookie and offered the box to Nora who shook her head.

“I don’t know anything about your father’s finances. But he appears to make a good living. And I know he’s well respected and gets excellent reviews. That counts for something.”

“It does. And he loves it, you can tell. And he used to make up stories and draw pictures about them with me and Lucas in the picture. It was so cool.”

“It sounds cool. I remember he did something like that when I was growing up. Of course he wasn’t a famous illustrator then.” Meri wrinkled her brow thinking back. “I think he’d just started high school. I hadn’t even started kindergarten yet. I wanted a school book so much like the big kids had. And he drew me one. I’d forgotten that. I bet it’s still in my closet at Gran’s.”

“See. He’s not selfish.”

“Of course he isn’t. He looks after Gran . . . and me.”

“And me and Lucas.”

“Exactly, he’s responsible and he makes a living at what he loves.”

“But he doesn’t seem to have a girlfriend or significant other. And he doesn’t go out except to see his editor. I could be good company for him. I wouldn’t be in his way.”

“Have you talked to Alden about how you feel?”

“Not really. I told him I wanted to stay. But I haven’t pushed him, because, well, I’m not sure he wants me.”

And that did it. One large fat tear overflowed Nora’s lid and rolled down her cheek.

She dashed it away as if she were angry at it for escaping. “I thought maybe you could.”

“I think this is a subject you should discuss between the two of you. But believe me, your father loves both you and Lucas very much. And that—”

Meri’s cell phone rang. She fished in her bag and pulled it out. “And speaking of dads, this is mine. I’ll just be a sec.” Meri went into her bedroom to take the call, not because she wanted privacy as much as . . . well, she wanted privacy.

The call was short. He said he loved her and asked about her hand. They chatted for a second, then he said, “Gran called to say you met Everett Simmons today.”

Meri heard the question behind his statement and wished she’d never heard of Simmons, but it was too late for that. “I did. It was a big mistake. I was kind of rude, didn’t take his shock into account, I guess. I mainly was concerned about genetics, for the future.”

“I understand. And you have every right to want to know. Are you okay with what you found out?”

“I didn’t find out much. He seems nice enough, but . . . well, he’s not you. Now I’m done with him. I don’t blame him; he didn’t know what had happened. I saw pictures of his family and they look really nice. I’m glad for him, but I don’t feel the need to see him ever again. Should I have asked you first?”