Concealed Attractions (Cedar Island Tales) (62 page)

Anna pulled out a handkerchief and blew her nose. “She went to school and tried to keep her pregnancy hidden. If it hadn’t been for Ben
when she was kicked out of the dorm
, she might not have been able to find an apartment
.
And s
he kept her grades
up
in spite of all that.
She
was trying
to make it up to you
.”

“But—”

“I’m not done, David.
Please
!” Anna sighed. “
Do you know how
dee
ply
you hurt her
when you told her she couldn’t come home again, that she was no longer our daughter
?  She would have been completely alone during Thanksgi
ving and Christmas if it hadn’
t been for Ben. He
stayed with
her
at
the cottage because I was afraid
of what
you
might do
if she came
home
.”

He gripped the
front
seat of the car.
“I saw her on the beach a
couple of times.”

Her eyebrows r
ose
.
“Did you
talk
to her?”

“I couldn’t.
She
brought shame on
our family.”

“
No, she didn’t.
Not on
our family, o
nly
in your mind
. The entire congregation rallied around her.
Didn’t you see that
? T
hey
were n
early all there when
Jimmy
was
baptized.
They knew she wasn’t married, but s
he
love
d and cared for that child
.
She
even named him after you! She was trying to get you to
se
e that she still
love
s
you
—even after those awful things you said
. Oh, David, w
hy c
ouldn’t you see that?”
Her
tears
overwhelmed her
again
.
H
er sobs
seemed to fill the air
.

He looked away from her.
“
I didn’t want to see
it
.”

She fumbled in her purse for a
nother
tissue.
“A
fter
Jimmy
died, no one has
had anything but kind words
for
her. She’s been working at
Joel’s
clinic—full
ti
me now that
Jimmy’s
gone, and she’
s planning to go back to school.
T
he day they brought over the cradle and the baby’s things—” her voice
broke
.
“
Danni said
she knew how important her college was to you and maybe if you knew she was going back, you would forgive her.”

Her sobs prevented her from continuing
for a moment
.
“Why she wants your forgiveness, I
can’t fathom
. It’s
you
who should be asking
her
to
forgive
you
.”

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“Being sorry isn’t enough
.
I’m not driving
down
here
again
. Y
ou
have to
tell
Danni
you
don’t hate her, that you aren’
t ashamed of her, that you
love
her and you want her to be pa
rt of our family.
And, if you w
on’t do that, I’m afraid our marriage is over. I
can’t—I won’t—
accept anything less from you.”

She
looked
at her husband
as he huddled on the
back
seat
. “I
f you can’t see that your sister was as
blameless as your daughter,
and that
I
, too, got caught because of what
I
thought was
love
, when it was something else
…
W
ell, then, I guess you’ll have to live with that—alone
.
I’m done making
excuses for
you
.
”

Anna
stopped talking and cleared her throat
.
“
That’s all I have to say.
” She
looked
at her watch.
“
You need to go back to work.”
She opened the car door and stepped out
side
.

David
remained
in the back
seat until he heard the
lunch
whis
tle. Then h
e
left
the car
,
looked
forlornly at
Anna
, and
returned
to
the warehouse
.

Anna
wept fitfully during the
long
drive home.
Before she went to bed
, she made a mental note to call an attorney by the end of the month if David had not
spoke
n to
Dannilynn
by
then
. 

“It’s all I can do,” she
said
to herself
as she turned out the lights in the house
that night
.

“Is it my turn or yours?” Joel twirled his pen as he talked with Angela.

“
Mine
, but I’ve been up two nights in a row, and I’m beat. Can we put
off
our dinner until tomorrow?” She yawned
into the phone
.

“I thought doctors for two-legged
pat
ients were used to staying up nights when the
y are reproducing,” he teased.
“Or are these women not quite as fast as
Danni
was at
birthing their babies
? ’
Course, you weren’t even there for that one.”

“Probably the s
econd, and yes, I’
m used to it, but I had
two
pat
ients
in labor at the
sam
e time and
a couple of others in-
house—
things got a bit dicey there for a while. I have to go, Joel. I
need
to go to bed.”

“How ’
bout I join you?” h
e
suggest
ed before
s
he hung up.

Angela was in th
e shower when
Joel
let himself in
to her house
shortly after dawn.
He
doffe
d his clothes
and slipped in behind her. “Let me
rinse
you off
,” he said
over the sound of the water.

Angela
glanced over her shoulder at
hi
s tanned
,
lean
body
. “You scared me!”

“You don’t look scared.” H
e
grinned and
directed the water onto her back.

She soaped his body and helped him rinse
. After the shower,
they indulged in the excitement they
’d
created in
each other. B
ed
clot
hes
lay
scattered around the
room
as they cuddled together after
making love
.
An hour later, she rolled over.

“That was a r
ather nice way to start the day. Thank you for that.” One of her hands
trailed over his chest and
continued downward
.

“I thought you might
like it.”
He
stroke
d her body, enjoying the silky smoothness of her skin. “
Matt
er of fact, that’s one of the nicest showers I’ve had in a long time
. We
should get an e
cology award
for saving
water!” H
e
laugh
ed, before covering her mouth
in a kiss
.

“I never would have believed that so many people would be interested in
adopting
those
pit b
ull puppies,
or the mother.
”
Joel finished
writing in
a chart and shut the
nearby
cabinet with his foot
.

“Y
ou saw them at their worst
when the chief called and asked you to collect the evidence at that dog-fighting ring
,”
Dann
i
replie
d. “That mama calmed down once she realized she wasn’t going to be be
aten. She reminds me of Magic. B
ehind all that bluster
and
growling to prot
ect
her babies
, she truly is a lady. And, d
on’t you just
love
her
expressive
eyes?”

“I have to admit you
did a great job
rehab
bing
her,
Danni
. Have you ever thought of setting up your own business as a dog trainer? I think you could make a go of it.”

“Maybe, but I have
to get my degree first. I
t’s very important to
my dad and my mom
.
”

“Is
n’t
it
important to you
?
You need to do it for yourself as much as for them.”

“
Of course
.
I’m thinking
I might
declare
a p
sych major.
” She
looked
at her boss and chuckled. “How can I possibly carry on an intelligent conversation with you and Ben if I don’t have
at least
one degree to call my own?”

“You do pr
etty well without one.
” Ben
joined
them
at the window
as they watched
the people cluster
ing
around the pups in the yard.

“Come
on.
” Joel stood up.
“
We need to draw
the names.
I
said we would do that at
four
.”

Several dozen people had entered the lottery for a chance to win one of the
pit bull
pups.
He
pulled
a
name
for each little dog, then had a separate drawing for the mother.
Cheers followed when all the names had been drawn, along with a few disappointed groans.

“What about those
r
etriever
puppies
of old man Seversen
? When can we get
one of
them?”
a customer
asked.

“That’
s being handled differently
—at
the request of the breeder.”
Joel
went inside to close up shop for the day. He had
a
date with Angela on the boat, and h
e intended
to make the most of it.

The eight retriever puppies
, now six weeks old,
reminded Ben of butterballs as they bounced around the yard behind the clinic, chasing anything that caught their attention
in the late
May
sunshine
.
Ben
had
asked if he might keep one of them,
and
Jo
el
told hi
m to take it up with Mr. Severse
n
, who had admitted to Joel he’d reacted badly to the loss of the mother dog
.
When Ben called, the old man was
less
brusque.