Return to the Beach House (13 page)

“Did you ever wonder how I could be half mom’s kid and a part of you and none of it show? Doesn’t it seem a little strange that the only genes I inherited were from the men in the family?”

How could she have done this to him? She drained her glass and refilled it again. Liquid courage.

“Would it help if I told you that your dad hated salmon?” she said, knowing it was wrong to try to lighten the mood with a stupid question, but unable to come up with anything she hadn’t said a dozen times already. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

Christopher let out a humorless laugh. “I’ve never told you, but I’m not that crazy about it either.”

“Your dad was afraid of horses,” she quickly added. “So was your grandfather.”

He reacted as if she’d flung a bucket full of water at him, drawing back, his mouth open in stunned surprise. “No way.”

“When your dad was five, he was invited to a birthday party where they had pony rides for entertainment. Peter fell off the horse, and when your grandfather went to pick him up, the horse kicked him. The hoof hit his forehead, and even though it really wasn’t cut that badly, it bled all over everything—and everyone who tried to help them. Imagine your dad screaming, your grandfather bleeding, and the birthday boy crying. That was a party to remember.”

“I can see why they wouldn’t like horses after that.”

“It didn’t bother you when the same thing happened to Freddie. You just stuck his head under a faucet and wrapped a towel around him until the ambulance came.”

“I’d forgotten about Freddie. I don’t think he ever came back for another lesson. At least I don’t remember seeing him.”

“See? You are different. Especially from your grandfather. He couldn’t handle the sight of blood.”

He came forward again, propping his elbows on the table. “You’re trying too hard, Grams.”

“Okay, how’s this—your dad hated being a broker. He wanted to be a musician. A bass guitar player, actually. He had no desire to be the front man, just wanted to be a part of the band.”

“How could I not have known this?”

“Because no one told you. You were so young when he died. I didn’t think it was important. It was a dream he had when he was a kid. I don’t know how he felt about it when he was older because we never talked about it.”

“What about Grandpa? What was his dream?”

“He wanted to sail around the world.”

“I didn’t know he had a boat.”

“He didn’t. I don’t think there’s a rule that dreams have to make sense. I’m sure he figured he’d have plenty of time to learn how to sail after he retired. You never noticed all those sailing books in the library?”

“Yeah, but I never paid attention to them. There’s a lot of books about space flight too, but—” He pinned her with a stare. “Don’t tell me he wanted to be an astronaut too.”

“That was my dream.”

“So why didn’t you ever do anything about it?”

“I was in love with the idea, but wasn’t willing to put in the effort. It was a different time for women back then, and I wasn’t the bra burner type. I was content to go from my parents’ home to the home your grandfather and I built together.”

“What was it like for you when Sally Ride went up?”

“I cried,” Alison reluctantly admitted.

“Why?”

“For what might have been. I was only twenty-nine at the time and didn’t know myself well enough to recognize I would have made a terrible astronaut.”

“I don’t know, Grams. I can picture you up there with your face pressed to the glass looking at Earth and wondering if you forgot to unplug your curling iron.”

Alison laughed. She wasn’t ready to let go of him. What would she do with herself when he was gone?

He got up from the table and took his dishes to the sink. “I have dessert,” she said.

“Maybe later.”

“Going out?”

“I thought I’d hang around with you tonight.”

“Oh, Christopher, you don’t have to do that. I’m perfectly capable of entertaining myself.”

“I know. But there are some things I want to talk to you about.”

She cleared the rest of the table. Neither of them had finished their meals. “Such as?”

“I want to know more about my father and grandfather. I understand why you and Mom have only told me the good stuff, but I need to know who they really were. I used to think there was no way I could ever measure up to them, that one day the Vatican was going to announce they were candidates for sainthood. But then I got older and looked around, and there just aren’t a whole lot of people who are like that. There must have been something about them that made them like everyone else—just regular guys.

“And then I started wondering if you were keeping something bad from me because you thought I couldn’t take it.”

It never once entered her mind that he could or would come up with anything remotely like this. It was long past the time she and Christopher should have had this conversation. “Let’s leave the dishes for later. I’m going to open another bottle of wine. We can go outside and watch the sunset, and I’ll fill you in on the good, the bad, and the ugly about your father and grandfather.”

They settled into two oversize chairs with blue-and-yellow-striped cushions and put their feet up on the matching ottomans. She touched her glass to his canned soda and said, “To new beginnings.”

When she’d settled back in the chair and taken a moment to absorb the beauty surrounding her, she began. “Do you want to ask questions or should I just pick something and jump in?”

“Jump away.”

What were the important things, the ones that would make a difference in understanding two people Christopher would be tied to for the rest of his life but would only ever know through the eyes of others? With the same faith that accompanies a skydiver who steps through the open door of a plane, Alison took a deep breath and jumped.

“Your father ran away from home when he was thirteen. It wasn’t the first time he’d sneaked out of the house with his valuables in a backpack, but it was the most serious. This time he was angry at me in particular, but his dad was a close second. We’d refused to let him transfer to a new high school, and he was convinced that if he didn’t go he would lose the girl he’d fallen in love with that summer.

“Naturally, we combed the neighborhood where the girl lived, thinking he’d gone there. A day turned into three and then a week. There were police and private detectives involved in the search. We were frantic, as I’m sure you can imagine.”

“Where did you find him?”

“St. Louis.”

“No shit,” Christopher said in awe. “He was only thirteen and he made it all the way to Missouri?”

“He was a very clever thirteen. And he could easily pass for a lot older mainly because of his dark hair and the fact that he was already shaving.”

“Where was he going?”

“California.” She glanced at Christopher, a “can you believe it?” look on her face. “He was going to support himself by playing bass guitar in a rock band after the money his grandparents gave him for his middle school graduation ran out.”

“What happened?”

“He got mugged. And tired. And lonely. And more importantly, he got arrested for shoplifting from a grocery store after he lost all his money to the mugger. Suddenly living at home with parents who couldn’t understand him didn’t seem so bad after all. Dennis flew out to pick him up. I never asked what they talked about when he got there or on their flight home. It was enough that Peter was safe and willing to promise that he would never do anything like that again.”

“My dad got arrested? How did that turn out?”

“He was taken to the Juvenile Detention Center and held there until your grandfather could bail him out. The shoplifting charge went away when your dad went to the store owner and apologized.”

“And the girlfriend?”

“We were willing to yield on that, and as soon as he was home and settled we took him to the school so he could see it for himself—hoping, of course, that he would hate it. It turned out that I actually liked the teachers I met, and even though we believed it was a mistake, we agreed to let Peter transfer. It was one of the hardest decisions we’d ever made as his parents, but we figured that, if being with her was important enough for him to take such drastic measures, we had to respect his feelings and be there for him if something went wrong. He was beside himself and couldn’t wait to tell Katie. He found her holding hands with another boy.”

“Ouch.”

“It was a rough winter that year, for all of us.” She put her glass on the end table and stood. “I’ll be right back. I’m going to get my sweater. Then I’ll tell you about your grandfather’s first job and how he got fired.”

Christopher stared into the orange and pink sky and then at the people sitting on the beach doing the same thing. He’d always wondered at how slowly the sun seemed to move across the sky—until it reached the end of the day. Then, as if picking up speed from its downhill slide, there was a rush to end the day.

Was that what life was like? Was this what his grandmother meant when she said she could feel her days slipping by too fast? Was that the reason for her deep sigh whenever he insisted he couldn’t wait to be older?

Chapter 11

Christopher stood on Grace’s porch and rang the doorbell. She answered wearing her work clothes instead of the swimming suit he’d expected. After three weeks of lessons and conquering some decent-size waves, it was as hard for him to stay off the water as it was for Grace to stay away from riding the horse she’d fallen in love with. “I thought we were hitting the waves this morning.”

She had tears in her eyes when she answered. “I can’t. Two of the packers didn’t show up for work, and my dad needs me at the nursery. He doesn’t know that this is our last day together, and I didn’t have the heart to tell him. He really needs me. If he doesn’t get this order out—”

Christopher took her in his arms. “It’s okay. I’ll be back before you’ve had a chance to miss me.”

“Don’t do that,” she said, hitting his shoulder with the flat of her hand. “You’re not ever coming back, and we both know it. This is it. Our last day together. Ever.”

Too many people had left Grace for her to believe anyone ever came back. He could tell her a hundred times that he would be ringing her doorbell within six months and it wouldn’t make any difference. The only way to convince her was to leave and keep his promise. “Does that mean you’ll stop waiting for me?”

“No.” She lifted the bottom of his T-shirt and wiped her cheeks, then tried to smile. “I’ll just add you to my list, along with my mother.”

“Hey, that’s not fair,” he said, feeling both defensive and sad.

“I don’t feel like being fair.”

“When do you have to be at the nursery?”

“A half hour ago.”

“Want me to drive you? That would give us a little time.”

“What about tonight?”

He winced. “I promised Grams I’d have dinner with her. She’s trying really hard to pretend she’s excited for me, but she’s not. And I think she’s a little afraid of what my mother is going to say about her not keeping a tighter rein on me.”

“I thought you were going to talk to your mom last night.”

“I did, but it was pretty one-sided. No matter what I said, she kept telling me just to wait until she gets home in the morning before I take off. I kept telling her it wouldn’t make any difference, but she wouldn’t listen. She wants to talk about what I’m doing. Or so she says. What she really wants is to guilt me into doing what she thinks is best for me.”

“Wow, sounds pretty ugly.”

He let out a sigh. “Not ugly, just normal. She’s having a hard time with me making my own decisions. Probably because it doesn’t happen very often. For the last year it’s been like she’s standing in the basement and I’m standing on the roof. We can’t hear each other, so neither one of us makes any effort to listen. Usually it’s easier for me to go along with what she wants, but not this time.”

“What did she say about not going to Penn State?”

“That put her over the top. I thought she was going to catch the next flight home. She started breathing again when I told her the woman in admissions had arranged everything so that I could take a yearlong leave and come back in the fall next year without any new testing or penalty. It helps to have your grandfather’s name on a building when you want a favor.”

“How’s she going to feel when she finds out you lied to her?”

“I didn’t lie. I just left out a couple of things.”

“Like you’re going to be applying to other universities and changing your major?”

“I figured she had as much as she could handle. I’ll drop that one on her at Christmas. With any luck, she’ll be so caught up in her life with James by then that it won’t matter that I’m going to apply to veterinary school. She’ll be happy just knowing I’m actually going back to school.”

Grace’s phone announced she had a text. “That’s my dad wondering where I am.” She went inside and grabbed her phone and keys, sending a quick “On my way” as she followed Christopher to the truck.

“Can I call you later for a ride home?”

“What time?”

“Four-thirty.”

“I’ll be there. Dinner isn’t until seven, so that will give us a couple of hours.”