The Man She Left Behind (21 page)

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Authors: Janice Carter

BOOK: The Man She Left Behind
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“We swamped just before we hit South Point,” Leigh whispered, picturing it all again in her mind.
“You were real lucky ’cause you were carried to shore almost right in front of where I was standing on the dock. I just jumped into the water and pulled you out.”
Leigh could hardly speak. “You saved my life.”
“I wouldn’t put it that way. You’d already been swept into the harbor. I just followed after and—”
“Pumped me dry and stopped me from getting hypothermia.”
“I think you had some of that, anyway. You went to the sheriff with me, but he took one look at you and sent you on to the clinic. He asked me to go with him and some other islanders to look for the others, but...” His voice dropped away.
You never found them. Not that night, anyway
. “Why didn’t you talk to me like this years ago?”
“You weren’t talking to me. Remember?”
There was a slight edge to his voice. “I was horrible to you. You must have hated me.”
“No, never. And you have to stop hating yourself.”
His advice replayed itself through the night. Leigh knew Janet sensed something was wrong, but she had no desire to relive the whole story again so soon. Instead, she told Janet that she was anxious about the open house and allowed her to help her pack up some of the mementos she planned to take back with her to New York.
“Then your decision to sell and stay in New York is final?” Janet asked.
Leigh glanced up at her, surprised at the question. “Of course. Why?”
“I just thought that your newfound friendship with Spencer and my turning up might—”
“Janet.” Leigh clasped the woman’s hand. “I have an important job in New York and an apartment. We’ll still keep in touch when I’m back there and when you’ve returned to Elizabeth City.”
“Perhaps. But it won’t be the same.” She looked around the living room. “This is such a beautiful home. I’ve always dreamed of living in a place like this.”
The wistfulness in her voice stilled Leigh’s response.
Then Janet said, almost shyly, “Especially with my daughter.”
The words bounced around in Leigh’s mind into the early, hours of the morning, until she finally fell into a fitful sleep haunted by curling black waves and the unforgettable sound of distant screams.
 
“SHE DIDN’T COME to the open house, I’m certain of it,” Evan declared after Janet left the room.
Leigh rolled her eyes.
Who cares?
she thought. “It doesn’t matter, Evan. You said she was the one who phoned you.”
“I said she
could
be the one,” he clarified.
“Whatever. The thing is—and this is amazing—she phoned about the open house because of the article in the
Island Breeze.”
She explained to a mystified Evan how Janet Bradley came to be a guest at Windswept Manor.
After she’d finished, she could see him working his face into an appropriate response. “Kind of coincidental, wasn’t it?” he ventured.
Leigh decided that would probably be the normal reaction until she had more concrete proof to flash before cynics. She vowed to contact the adoption agency after Janet returned home. Any sooner, she thought, would be an affront to the woman.
“Of course it is! Coincidences do happen in real life. And now I have to pop out for a short while. Okay if I leave you for a bit? I’ve got a favor to do for someone.”
“I’ll wait till you get back to report on anything that happens. How negotiable do you want to be about the asking price?”
Leigh thought for a minute. “I can’t really drag this on, in spite of the extra time from work. I’m willing to come down three thousand, maybe four, if there’s a quick closing date.”
“Righto.” He nodded, then took a pencil from his briefcase and was making notes on a pad when Leigh left the kitchen.
Janet was nowhere in sight, but Leigh had told her about the cleaning job at Sam’s. “I’d come and help, dear, but the back, you know,” she’d said.
Leigh had commiserated, although she was grateful for the chance to be alone. The last two weeks had been so jammed with people and events the time passage seemed more like months than days. The knowledge made her realize how much of her life in New York revolved around work, punctuated by the solitude of weekends and holidays.
When she arrived at Sam’s, she picked a bouquet of flowers from the annuals lining his walkway. She stooped to retrieve the watering can where she’d kicked it last night—
only last night?
—and then let herself in with the key Spence had insisted she keep when they’d parted.
In spite of the mess, the cleanup took a mere hour because Sam’s cottage was so small. She opened windows to air it and changed the sheets on the bed. The flowers she placed in a glass of water since there were no vases or jars available, and then she cleaned out the fridge. She almost wept when she pulled out her own casserole, still wrapped in foil, and tossed it into the garbage with the other offerings. What had Sam been eating?
She was glad Spence had decided Sam would move in with him at the end of the summer and suddenly had an urgent desire to stay the whole summer, too. Something at the back of her mind warned her it might be Sam’s last, and she hated the thought of leaving. For a minute she toyed with the idea of having Sam move into Windswept Manor, where both she and Janet could take care of him, but she pushed the notion aside almost at once. Although Janet was a nurse, she didn’t seem to have that empathetic nursing gift.
By the time she’d finished cleaning, Leigh had almost decided to stay longer in Ocracoke. Perhaps—and a pang of disloyalty attacked her—she wouldn’t tell Janet until after she’d left for Elizabeth City. Then she’d have Sam to herself. The idea appealed to Leigh. She wasn’t related to Sam, but there was an island bond between them that outsiders would never understand. It occurred to her that the same bond linked her with Spencer, which explained, as Janet had pointed out, why they’d seemed so close.
She locked up, leaving the windows open to continue airing the place. From the bottom of the stairs she took one last look at the Logan cottage where she and Jen had spent so much of their childhood. Her heart glowed with memories.
 
EVAN WAS STILL TALKING to a couple when she returned home. He waved casually, and when he didn’t gesture for her to join them, Leigh headed upstairs to grab a quick shower. The door to the master bedroom was closed. Leigh frowned. Perhaps Janet was napping, although Evan had asked for all the rooms to be open for inspection.
After her shower Leigh went looking for Evan downstairs. He was packing up his things.
“How did it go?” she asked. “I hope you didn’t need me for anything.”
“No, no. No questions I couldn’t answer.” He seemed to hesitate.
“But?”
He pursed his lips.. “Your...mother? She stayed in her room most of the time. Said she had a headache and I had to
tell
people what the master bedroom was like.” Annoyance pitched his voice. “The most important room in the house, next to the kitchen, and I couldn’t show it. People need to see the bedroom, Leigh. Not...
imagine
it.”
Leigh swallowed.
Brother. What next?
“Look, I’m sorry, Evan. Janet must have had a terrible headache, because she’d agreed to vacate the room and sit on the veranda all afternoon. I even took out her favorite chair and a stack of magazines.” She heard her own voice break with frustration with this last weak disclaimer.
Evan rolled his eyes and sniffed. “That wasn’t all,” he said.
Leigh rubbed her temples, feeling the start of her own headache. “There’s more?”
“Just before this last couple came—I knew they weren’t serious, that’s why I waved you on—there was a bit of a lull. Janet came downstairs—as if she owned the place, but that’s another matter—and asked me what you were asking for the house.” He looked expectantly at Leigh.
Her head was swimming with Evan’s start-and-stop reporting style. “And?”
Another sniff. Disdain now, rather than irritation.
“Then when I told her, she asked what you’d settle for.”
“I give up,” Leigh said, shaking her head. “What are you saying, Evan?”
“I’m saying she made an offer on your house.”
“What?”
“That’s what I said to her, too.” He giggled.
“Gawd, what’s going on?”
“My thought precisely. However—” he made a flourish with his hands and snapped the clasps of his briefcase “—that is your problem, I’m happy to say.”
Evan headed for the door, turning around once more to announce, “And she quoted the price you were willing to settle for!” He fluttered his fingers. “Toodle-loo! Call me tomorrow when you’ve recovered.”
Leigh stood staring at the empty door frame until she heard the whap of the screen door. Then she ran upstairs looking for Janet.
By the time she knocked on the bedroom door, Leigh had counted to twenty—one for each step and five for the hallway—so when the bedroom door was finally cracked open, she was a bit calmer.
“Leigh!” Janet exclaimed in delight. “I thought it was that agent. He’s a very rude man, you know.”
Leigh took a deep breath. “He was upset that the room wasn’t available.”
Janet’s smile vanished. “I’m sorry, dear. I know I promised, but I had such a migraine and you weren’t here. He wasn’t at all sympathetic and I just had to lie down. Come in.” she motioned with a hand and walked back to the bed.
The covers were pulled back and the pillows indented. Obviously she’d been resting. Leigh said, “It’s okay. Can I get you anything? Pills? Hot-water bottle? Ice pack?”
Janet swung her legs back onto the bed. “No, dear, I’ve taken my medicine. Now it’s just a matter of waiting till it works.”
“Why don’t I make more iced tea?”
“That would be nice, thank you. By then, I should be well enough to come downstairs and sit on the veranda with you. Is the open house over?”
“Yes.” Leigh turned to leave the room.
“I hope I didn’t inconvenience anyone. Or ruin a sale for you.”
Leigh paused. “No, but Evan said you’d made an offer on the house yourself. I thought he must be mistaken.”
Janet waited a moment before responding. “I did, my dear. Maybe we can discuss it at dinner. I think it might be the answer to our dreams!” she exclaimed.
“I don’t understand,” Leigh murmured. She knew her mouth was gaping but couldn’t help herself.
“Our dream of staying together.”
Leigh took a step forward. “Janet,” she began, changing what she’d planned to say at the stricken look on the woman’s face. “I’m not selling this place for the money. I don’t need the money. I just can’t maintain it from New York.”
Reassurance spread across Janet’s face. “I realize that, my dear. That’s why this is so perfect. I’ve always wanted a house like this, and you get to keep your childhood home with all its memories. And,” she added triumphantly, “you also have a permanent vacation home.”
Leigh backed toward the door. It all sounded so convincingly right she couldn’t think of a rejoinder. “We’ll talk about it at dinner,” she blurted, and closed the door behind her.
On her way downstairs she couldn’t shake the feeling of being sucked up in some kind of vortex. Why did she feel as though everything was out of control? Because it was, she told herself. At least, out of
her
control.
Leigh headed promptly for her cell phone and took it into the kitchen with her, closing the door behind her. She slumped onto the cool tile floor and called the first person her bewildered mind plucked from a list of random names. Spencer.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
H
ALFWAY THROUGH her telephone call to Spencer, Leigh got the very clear message that he wasn’t a hundred percent with her. She heard his rundown of events for the day, including the important fact that Jamie was given a court-imposed curfew and ordered to stay with his father.
“There goes my plan to have Jamie spend the summer with Sam,” he said. “Maybe you can help me persuade Sam to come here.”
Leigh listened to him complain about Jamie, who still remained “mute and sullen. Even with the two-hundred-bucks-an-hour lawyer I’ve hired!”
When finally he came up for air to ask how she was doing, his reaction to the news about Janet’s offer on the house was disappointingly flat.
“Frankly I don’t know why you’re so upset. I mean, it does seem peculiar, but she’s given you some pretty good reasons why she did what she did. You don’t have to take the offer, you know.”
“That’s not the point, Spence. It puts me in a weird position. If I don’t take the offer, what kind of person am I? If I do, it’ll mean...”
“What will it mean? Spell it out.”
“I don’t know. She’ll be, you know, like
here,”
Leigh said.
“Here, as in Ocracoke?”
Leigh closed her eyes. The irony in the question was all too obvious. “Yes,” she whispered.
And as she’d expected, he added, “Isn’t that what you wanted? To have her become part of your life? Didn’t you plead her to believe that when you asked her to come and stay with you?”
At that point Leigh wished she’d never called him. “Coming to stay for a few days isn’t the same as...as moving in.”
“Maybe it is to Janet Bradley. I hate to say I told you so.”
“Then don’t. I called for advice, even sympathy, though heaven knows I probably shouldn’t have expected that.”
“Come on, Leigh. You’re being unreasonable. I’m only pointing out to you that, yes, Janet’s put you in an awkward position, but she must have good intentions. She believes—and you can deny it, but it’s clear to me—that you’ve accepted her as your mother and want her to be part of your life.”
His unexpected defense of Janet surprised her, but she pushed her point. “Even if my mother was alive and well, I wouldn’t be living with her. I’m going to be thirty-three next month and I don’t want to live with someone who could be my parent. You know what I mean.”
A loud sigh. “Yeah, I know what you mean. I’ve got a fourteen-year-old going on thirty who feels the same.”
Leigh couldn’t help but laugh. Suddenly her anxiety seemed very unimportant. “What should I do?”
“My real advice is to try to get her out of your house as soon as you can.” He waited and then said, “The advice I think you
might
consider would be to ask her to withdraw the offer and hint that you’ll make some kind of arrangements to see her—wherever—in the future. Be as vague as you can. Obviously she’s the kind of person who takes things very literally.”
“I think so, too, and I’ve already suggested something like that.”
“Right.” A deep yawn and then, “Look, I gotta go. Dinner’s ready and I was up most of the night. I’m headed for the sack as soon as we’ve eaten. Jamie and I are leaving for Raleigh at daybreak to pick up Sam. Can I call you when I get back to the island?”
“Please.” The word was heartfelt. “Give Sam and Jamie a hug for me.” She clicked off the phone and sat staring at the tile pattern for a long time.
What she’d really wanted him to say was that he’d come over. But he had more than his own share of problems, and he was correct when he’d said she’d probably led Janet to expect more than she was ready to offer at the moment. Still, she thought wistfully, a few minutes snuggled in his arms would be wonderful.
She heard Janet call her and she stumbled to her feet.
Tonight I’ll have a little chat with her, maybe take Spen-cer’s advice
. Leigh grinned.
That’d be a first
.
 
“I DON’T WANT to pressure you, but I just had another offer on your house this morning. About one hour ago, to be precise.”
“What time’s it now, Evan? I just woke up.”
“Oh, dear. Sorry. It’s now ten-forty-eight and the second offer was made about nine-thirty.” A meaningful sniff traveled over the phone line.
Leigh shook her head. What had she done to deserve a real-estate agent with attitude? “A
second
offer?”
She could almost see him rolling his eyes heavenward. “Your mother, or that woman staying with you—whoever—made the first offer, remember?”
“But do we have to consider it a serious offer? I mean,
really?”
“Oh, she was dead serious when she made it.”
“Well...just ignore it. What was this other offer for?”
“I can’t just ignore it, Leigh. I do have a code of ethics, you know, not to mention a license I’d like to hold on to. Have you talked to her about it yet?”
Leigh had an impression of standing in front of her math teacher, homework incomplete. “I..I haven’t had a chance. I started to last night,” she said lamely, “but she has this annoying habit of sidetracking you when she doesn’t like where the talk is headed. I’ve noticed a few things about her in the past couple of days.”
“Well, living with another person tends to gel first intimations, if you know what I mean.”
Leigh wasn’t certain she did, but mumbled agreement.
“Then there isn’t much I can do here until you turn down her offer or she withdraws it.”
“Evan!”
“My hands are tied.”
“I’ll talk to her right after breakfast.”
“You had all last night.”
“I know, I know. She kept relating all these stories about distant relatives. I come from a family of scoundrels, to hear her rave on.”
“Lucky she didn’t bring her photo albums.”
“Yes.” Leigh shivered. “Though I’ve got plenty here. She’s working through them—very slowly.”
“Hide them. Have your talk and get back to me by midafternoon. No later than three-fifteen,” Evan ordered.
Leigh promised and put the phone back on her night table. This time she wouldn’t allow Janet to change the subject. She couldn’t face Evan otherwise.
But an hour later, after a discussion over coffee, Leigh wondered why she’d worried so much about Janet.
“Of course, dear. If you think other arrangements can be made for the two of us to see each other, then by all means, go ahead. I only wanted to make things simple for both of us, and my idea seemed the obvious solution.”
Leigh could only stare at her in mute admiration. Janet’s negotiating skills and resilience would go far in the business world, should she ever decide to enter it. And because she felt such relief at the way Janet had responded to her talk, she was completely unprepared for her closing remark.
“I have some business to take care of back home, and I’m afraid it requires more than a phone call. Would you mind terribly if I left for a few days?”
Leigh was surprised, but mainly at her own lack of disappointment. The notion of having several days to herself again—especially with Spencer returning—was very appealing. She worked her face into an appropriate mixture of dismay and encouragement.
“How will you get there?” she asked, recalling that they’d returned Janet’s rental car the day she’d arrived with her luggage at Windswept Manor.
“Oh, I can take the bus,” she said.
But one look at Janet’s pinched mouth prompted Leigh to ask, “Would you like to borrow my car for a few days? No, really,” she said, forestalling the protest. “I don’t need it to get around Ocracoke. I insist.”
And by midafternoon Janet had left. Leigh called Evan, leaving a message on his machine that Janet’s offer had been withdrawn. Then she spent the remainder of the afternoon poring over old photograph albums. Odd, she thought, that looking at these with Janet had seemed almost an invasion of privacy.
As if I want to keep my life. here separate from any life I have with Janet.
She tried to ignore the inner voice that questioned such a feeling.
If yau really felt right about everything, why can’t you feel comfortable about mingling the past and the present? Ellen and Pete would be thrilled for you
.
But would they have so readily taken Janet Bradley into their home? That was the question Leigh could no longer avoid.
 
“I WAS JUST THINKIN’,” Sam said, looking happily around the room, “how dam important it is to have a family. Lying here in me own bed again, havin’ all of you with me, there’s nothin’ like it, I tell you.”
Tears stung Leigh’s eyes. She was standing at the foot of Sam’s bed, with Jamie perched awkwardly on the edge and Spencer leaning against the door frame. What Sam had uttered about family had really hit home. But he’d been referring to his own family and she wasn’t part of it. In fact, she no longer had any family at all.
Except for Janet
. Somehow that wasn’t consolation enough. She envied the three of them.
After a decent interval she said, “It’s good to have you back with us, Sam. And now... I ought to leave. I have a few things to do.”
“Oh, I hoped you’d stay. Maybe we can get Spencer here to bankroll dinner for us. I hear the charter business is picking up now. What do you think? Some clams and fries from Howard’s?”
“Coot!”
Sam smiled. “There you go. Jamie’s all for it. What do you think, Spencer?”
Leigh didn’t trust herself to turn around. She’d been avoiding eye contact with Spencer ever since she’d arrived. He’d telephoned earlier to invite her over to see Sam; the call had been terse and businesslike, as if he’d wanted to relay a message and get off the line as quickly as possible. Something was definitely on his mind.
“Sure, I’d be happy to drive over to Howard’s and pick up dinner. How about it, Leigh?”
There was no way she could gracefully decline. Besides, the eagerness in both Sam’s and Jamie’s faces was enough to persuade her that, if she wasn’t family, she was definitely welcome. “I’d love to stay,” she said.
While Spencer and Jamie drove into the village to pick up the food, Leigh kept Sam company. The strain of the trip from Raleigh was taking its toll. He drifted off a few times, awakening at last to drink some fruit juice and listen to Leigh’s account of the past few days. She didn’t want to burden the old man with her problems, so purposely kept the story brief.
“You say you’ve no paper proof that this woman is your birth mother, and I agree with you that perhaps she never received any herself years ago when the deal was done. But what does your heart tell you, my girl?”
Trust old Sam’s radar
. “I don’t know, Sam. I suppose I want to believe it’s true because I’m all alone now and... and it would be nice to have a family.”
“You have us, Leigh. We’re your family.”
“Thanks, Sam, I needed to hear that. But you know what I mean. If she is my mother, then I want to get to know her.”
“It does seem possible. Like you said, she knows all that stuff about you. Stuff no one else could know. Maybe your misgivings have something to do with, you know, your feelings of loyalty to Ellen and Pete.”
“Maybe, but you know, Sam, in my heart they’re my parents and always will be. They made me who I am. I’d just like to learn about my biological parents in case I ever get married and have children.”
“No ‘in case’ about it,” he harrumphed. “And if I have anything to say about it, you’ll hitch up with the one you were meant to years ago.”
Leigh was rescued from a response by the noisy arrival of Jamie flying up the wooden porch steps and bursting through the cottage door.
“Dinner’s here!” he called.
Leigh and Sam exchanged smiles. “Do one thing for me, Leigh. Help patch things up between that boy and his daddy.”
From the way his daddy is acting, I doubt I’m a candidate for the job
. Leigh patted Sam’s hand. “I’ll do what I can. You know how stubborn he can be.”
Sam’s eyes twinkled. “That’s why I asked you. You’re a good match.”
“I’m not sure I like the implication of that, Sam,” Leigh teased. “But I’ll see what I can do. Just can’t promise anything.”
“You can promise me one thing.”
Leigh turned in the doorway. “What’s that?”
“Not to run away anymore.”
Leigh bit down on her lower lip. “I’ll do what I can, Sam,” she whispered, and headed out of the room to find Jamie.
Later, after they’d loaded their plates and joined Sam in his room, perching on extra chairs, Leigh was filled with a contentment she knew she ought to preserve in her mind. She glanced around the room and at the men she loved.
Yes, it really does feel like family
.
 
LEIGH WAS ALMOST RELIKEVED when Spencer informed everyone he had some phone calls to make at his office. He and Jamie would spend the night with Sam. Leigh insisted on staying behind to help clean up.

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