The Long Way Home (37 page)

The receptionist’s desk was right inside the door, and Ellie stopped to check in. The receptionist looked terribly young.

“I’m Ellie Ryder and I’m here with Dune.”

“I’ll let my dad know you’re here.” The girl went through a door and returned a few moments later.

“Dad … ah, Dr. Wyler … will be with you in a minute,” she said as she started back to the desk. She stopped when she saw Gabi. “Hey, you’re in my English class.” A broad smile crossed the girl’s face.

Gabi looked up and nodded. “Yeah. I am.”

“You’re new. You just started this week.”

“Right again.” To Ellie’s eye, Gabi looked a bit uncomfortable.

“I’m Paige, Paige Wyler. My dad’s the vet. Is this your dog?” Paige took the seat next to Gabi. “She is really cute. What’s her name?”

“Dune.”

“That’s so cool.”

The door opened and Grant stepped out.

“Ellie, hi. Bring her in.” He looked across the room at his daughter. “Remember the dog that got away from the transport a few weeks ago?” He pointed down at Dune. “Fugitive.”

“Dad, can I take Gabi over to the shelter to look at the puppies?” Paige asked. “Emmy just pulled into the parking lot, so she can take the desk.”

“Sure, if Gabi wants to.”

“Gabi, you have to see these puppies. Cutest ever.”

“Okay.” Gabi looked at Ellie.

“Sure,” Ellie told her.

“How do you know my name?” Ellie heard Gabi ask Paige as they went through the double doors.

“Duh. I’m in your class.…”

Their voices faded away and Ellie followed Grant into the examining room.

Dune’s vaccinations took less than ten minutes, but it took Ellie another twenty to find Gabi. She and Paige had decided to take some of the shelter dogs—two each—on a walk, and they were just coming back up the drive when Ellie came out of the barn for the third time.

“I’m sorry, Ellie,” Gabi apologized. “We started walking the dogs, and one dog sort of led to another.”

“I can see how that can happen.” Ellie loaded Dune into the car yet again.

“I’ll take these two back,” she told Ellie. “I won’t be long.”

“It’s okay, Gabi, I’ll take them.” Paige reached for the leashes. “Thanks for your help. I’ll see you later.”

“Did you make plans for later with Paige?” Ellie asked as she drove back to Charles Street.

“She’s having a sleepover and she invited me. Could I go?”

“Sure, but you don’t look too happy about the prospect. Do you not want to go?”

“I want to go. I like Paige. I just don’t know about the other girls. I don’t know any of them.” Gabi looked worried.

“This could be an opportunity to get to know them.”

“I have to think about it.”

Later in the afternoon, Cameron stopped in, and Ellie assumed it was to pick up the ladder he’d left in the kitchen. She started to walk to the back of the house, but he sat on the steps in the foyer.

“Why didn’t you tell me that my sister was here on Sunday?” he asked.

Ellie shrugged. “It didn’t seem important.”

“What did she say?”

Choosing her words carefully, Ellie replied, “She just wanted to make sure that I understood how much it would mean to you to buy this house.”

“She shouldn’t have said anything at all. That’s between you and me.”

“I’m sure she thought she was being helpful. And besides, I think she was looking for a reason to come inside, see the place again.”

“She was meddling. She’s one of those people who cannot leave well enough alone.”

“It’s okay, Cam. I didn’t mind, and I assured her that come summer, you’ll be the new owner.”

“Have you thought any more about where you’re going or what you’re going to do?”

“Not really. I haven’t really had much time. I’ve mostly been focused on the work I have to do to get the place in shape.”

“You could just take it easy from here on in,” he
told her, “leave everything for me to do. I still don’t really understand why you won’t just sell it to me now.”

“Trying to get rid of me?” she teased.

“No. I don’t want to see you go. I just don’t understand you.”

“Here’s the deal, Cam. Here’s the part I left out the other day.” Ellie sat on the step next to him. “My mother’s will stipulated that I would inherit the house only if I lived here for six months. Which brings us to May. So I have to stay until then, or the house is sold and the proceeds go to charity. I can’t sell the house now, even if I wanted to, which frankly, I don’t. I’m not ready. I can’t even sell the paintings now, because the contents of the house are included in that stipulation. And besides, right now I can’t afford to go anywhere else. Once Carly has sold a few paintings … well, those paintings change everything. She says they’re worth a lot of money.”

“You’re going to sell all of them?”

“Yes, when I can. She’s certain she’ll have buyers lined up for them. I can use the money to start fresh somewhere.”

“So what exactly does ‘starting fresh’ mean?” he asked. “Just what is it you want to do, Ellie?”

A shuffle near the top of the stairs drew their attention upward.

“Is that true? What you said?” Gabi asked from the first landing. “You’re going to sell this house? You’re going to move away?”

“Yes,” Ellie told her.

“Oh.” Gabi appeared crestfallen.

“I’ve always planned on selling it, Gabi. I never meant to stay here in St. Dennis. But don’t worry. You’ll be going with me.”

“Where?”

“Well, I don’t know yet.”

Gabi turned and went slowly back up the steps.

“Are you almost ready to go to Paige’s? It’s close to four,” Ellie pointed out.

“I changed my mind. I’m not going.”

“Why not? I thought you were looking forward to it.”

“I was,” Gabi said pointedly. “But what’s the point in making friends if I’m going to be moving away soon and have to make friends all over again?”

“Not soon. Not till the summer.”

“That’s soon.” Gabi went back up the hall and quietly closed her bedroom door.

“I should go talk to her. I guess the thought of another move has really upset her.” Ellie avoided Cam’s eyes. She knew their conversation wasn’t over.

She stood, and looked anywhere but at Cameron.

“I’ll talk to you later, then.” He leaned over and kissed the side of her face. “I’ll let myself out.”

She nodded, and went upstairs to talk to Gabi.

From the hall, Ellie could hear Gabi crying. She knocked softly on the door and waited to be invited in.

“Come in,” Gabi told her.

Ellie found Gabi lying across her bed, sobbing into her pillow.

“Gabi, want to tell me what’s wrong?”

“Everything’s wrong.”

Ellie took a deep breath. Of course, for Gabi, everything
was wrong. Her mother’s dead, she’s living in a strange town with a stranger, she just starts to make friends and finds out she’ll be moving at the end of the school year. Again.

“I’m sorry, Gabi. It didn’t occur to me to tell you about selling the house. It just isn’t something I was thinking about.” Ellie stood awkwardly next to the bed, then sat down cautiously on the edge of the mattress. “I know that all of this—everything that’s happened to you over the past month—has been a nightmare. If I could change things back to the way they were for you, I would.”

“I miss my mother,” Gabi sobbed. “I want my mother back.”

“I know, sweetie.” Ellie rubbed Gabi’s back and smoothed her hair back from her wet face. A few minutes later, Dune jumped up on the bed and licked the tears.

“I miss her so much, Ellie. I don’t know why she had to die.”

A few more sobs escaped her lips, then Gabi sat up, her face red and blotchy.

“I wake up sometimes at night and I cry because I miss her so much. I try to keep quiet because I don’t want to wake you up. I don’t want you to think I don’t like living here with you.”

“I wouldn’t think that,” Ellie said softly. “You can wake me up anytime. I don’t want you lying awake, alone and sad.”

“I’m sad but I’m not alone.” Gabi sniffed. “The lady with the white hair is always here when I wake up.”

“The lady with the white hair?”

“I told you about her. She just lets me talk, and she listens, and then I fall back to sleep.” Gabi wiped her face with a tissue she pulled from a pocket of her jeans. “What would happen to the lady if we left? She wouldn’t have anyone to keep her company.”

“You know she’s not real, right?”

“Not real like you and me, maybe, but she’s real, Ellie. I see her every night.”

“Does it scare you to see this …” What to call it? “This woman in your room at night?”

Gabi shook her head. “No. I like her. She makes me feel safe.”

Great
, Ellie thought.
I now have a thirteen-year-old child and a ghost of a woman who’d been near one hundred living with me. But at least the ghost is Lilly
.

Ellie shook her head. Had she really just thought that?

“The next time we see Cam, I want you to describe the white-haired lady to him, all right?”

Gabi nodded. “Has he seen her, too?”

“I think it’s been a long time since he’s seen her, but then again, not much would surprise me today.” In spite of herself, Ellie was starting to think that maybe Gabi was seeing Lilly. It defied everything she believed, but still, the child was convincing. “So about tonight. I think you should go and have a good time. I think you’ll have a lot of fun. You and Paige got along so well this morning. I think she’d be disappointed if you didn’t go.”

“Do you think so?”

“I do.”

“Maybe …” Gabi scooched over to sit next to Ellie. “Why do you have to sell the house in the summer? Why can’t you just decide to stay here?”

“For one thing, I’ll need a job.”

“You have a job. With Cameron.”

“That’s only temporary. I don’t know that I could support us by scraping wallpaper.”

“What’s the other thing?”

“I already promised Cam I’d sell the house to him in May. I gave my word. I can’t change my mind now.”

“I bet he’d be okay if you wanted to stay. He likes you.”

“Cam’s waited a long, long time to live here. I can’t tell him I’m not going to sell it to him.”

“Even if you wanted to?”

“Even if I wanted to.” Did she want to? She was starting to wonder.

“When I first got here I thought it was just an old house,” Gabi confided, “but now I think it’s the best place.”

“Why’s that?”

Gabi shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s just a happy place to be.”

“Well, it
is
that.” Ellie remembered something else she wanted to ask about. “Gabi, do you have a cell phone?”

“I did, but I don’t have one now.”

“Where is it?”

“It was in my book bag when my mom dropped me off for my dance lesson. It was in the car when …” Gabi swallowed hard. “When the truck hit it.”

Instinctively, Ellie put her arm around Gabi’s shoulders. “Look, if you ever want to call any of your friends in New Jersey, you can use my phone.”

“I can?” she asked as if it hadn’t occurred to her to ask.

“Sure.” Ellie took it out of her pocket and handed it over. “Who was your best friend?”

“Laurie.”

“I’ll bet you miss her.”

Gabi nodded. “Everything happened so fast.…”

“Give her a call. Maybe after speaking with Laurie you’ll feel more like socializing. I’ll drive you to Paige’s, if you decide to go. Otherwise, you’ll have to call her and let her know that you’re not coming.”

“Thanks, Ellie.” Gabi began to punch in the numbers.

Ellie stopped in her room to pick up the journal she’d been reading the night before, and heard Gabi laughing, a sound she hadn’t heard since the girl arrived. She started toward the steps, Gabi’s voice floating down the hallway.

“Oh, I’m living with my sister in Maryland. It’s the coolest house, it’s right on the Chesapeake Bay. And we have a dog. Her name is Dune. No, my sister is cool. She’s the best.…”

Ellie smiled. She’d met with one of the counselors at Gabi’s school this week and discussed the situation. The psychologist warned Ellie that Gabi would most certainly have mood swings following the trauma she’d been through. Right now she might be happy, but an hour from now she might be sobbing
and despondent. All to be expected, Ellie’d been told. It could all turn on a dime.

But right now Gabi was laughing with a friend, and Ellie was “cool.” She’d take it. And if Gabi decided to go to the sleepover, Ellie would have a sleepover of her own.

T
HE
call to her old friend cheered up Gabi considerably. She was in a fine mood when Ellie drove her to Paige’s for the sleepover.

“Paige said her stepmom is Dallas MacGregor. The movie star?” Gabi chatted happily in the car. “Have you met her? Is she really beautiful in person?”

“Yes, and yes,” Ellie replied.
Mood swings, indeed. Let’s hope there’s no meltdown later tonight.…

“Paige said she’s really nice, though. She said sometimes she likes Dallas more than she likes her real mom. She said her real mom mostly cares about her new baby brother. She said she’s been wanting to live with her father ever since her parents got divorced but her mother just finally said okay so she came to live here in September. She likes it here better. She likes that her dad has all these dogs he takes care of. She gets to take care of them, too. She said I could help walk them sometimes.”

Gabi continued her chatter all the way to the Wylers’ house.

“Did Paige say what time I should pick you up in
the morning?” Ellie asked as Gabi gathered her things before hopping out of the car.

“I think she said ten.” Gabi paused in the open car door and blew Ellie a kiss. “Thanks, Ellie.”

“You’re welcome.” Ellie blew the kiss back to her, then waited until the front door opened and Gabi was safely inside.

Sighing deeply, Ellie decided to stop at Cam’s house instead of calling him once she got home. His pickup was in the drive, but there were no lights on in the house. She hesitated before getting out of the car. He could be taking a well-earned nap, or he could be out in the back. She rang the doorbell, waited a minute, then rang it again. If he didn’t answer, she’d go quietly and call him later.