Updrift (8 page)

Gabe sputtered. “Of course not, Dad. I had lunch with Kate today, and when she mentioned she’d heard about our party from Solange Wilkes, I had a hunch she might sneak over. I turned around when I was halfway to Anna’s.”

Michael seemed slightly mollified. “Well, that’s better than it could be, I guess. But you know the risks of having uninvited guests to this kind of thing, Gabe. It wasn’t your place to intervene. You should have told your mother or me.”

“I wasn’t sure she’d be here!”

Kate shot Gabe a dirty look. The traitor. He glared back at her. “What?” he grated. “I told you this afternoon it wasn’t safe for you to come.”

On this, Michael took Gabe’s side, something Kate did not much appreciate. “You girls have no idea how much trouble you could have caused. You had
no business
coming here tonight.”

By the time they entered the house, Kate heard Carmen letting Cara and Alicia in the front door. Michael excused himself saying he needed to get back to his guests. Maya groaned when she heard her mother. “I’ll be grounded ‘til I’m thirty.”

“You got that right.” Alicia came in, her eyes blazing, with Cara two steps behind her. “You violated a trust you will not enjoy again anytime soon, young lady. Let’s go.” Alicia gripped Maya’s arm and ushered her away.

Kate’s mouth fell open when John Blake entered the room from the back of the house. She hadn’t seen him since that night on the beach almost two years ago. Cara also stood rooted to the floor.

“Um…” He stalled as he saw her. He ran his hand through his hair, which, strangely, was dripping wet. “Carmen called to warn me you were coming by, and I was in the area…”

Cara stood unmoving from her position by the entryway. Carmen looked from her to John and back as if making a vital decision. “Cara, I’ll talk to Kate and Gabe, if you don’t mind.” To Kate’s complete astonishment, Cara didn’t even spare her a glance as she and John considered each other.

“Sure.”

John started to cross the room.

Carmen propelled Gabe and Kate down the hall. “Into my office, boys and girls.” Gabe watched Kate with a worried expression, which she noted only briefly in order to see what was going on with her mother. John closed the distance between them and reached for Cara’s hand, his other hand circling her wrist in a way that was now familiar to Kate. Almost immediately, he dropped Cara’s hand, wrapped one arm around her waist, and bent to kiss her. Her mother tilted her face, closed her eyes, and raised herself on her toes to meet him. This was the last thing Kate saw before Carmen shut her office door.

Carmen closed the door behind them and leaned against it with a sigh. “Kate, I know I should be mad at you but I’m so glad you’re okay, I’m not. And if everything goes well out there tonight with your mother, I’ll actually be grateful to you.” She turned to her son. “I’m proud of you for checking on your friends, honey. You did the right thing by coming back, so I’m not mad at you either.

She went to the closet. “We’re going to be in here for a while, so I’m breaking out the Scrabble board. After we’re done with that, I’m setting Kate up in one of the guest rooms to stay the night.”

“But…” Kate started to protest before Carmen cut her off.

“No buts, no excuses, no questions, and no other options. Pick out your tiles,” she ordered.

They were all were grounded, of course. Kate learned Jeremy had driven by her house late in the evening and noticed Maya’s car missing. When he called to see if the girls had made it back, her ruse with Maya fell right apart. Cara had apparently become so worried she threatened to call for a police search, until Jeremy remembered Solange’s comment about the Blake party. He had a hunch they’d sneaked out, and he convinced Cara to call Carmen before calling nine-one-one.

Maya’s parents were the most upset over the evasion, so she received the harshest punishment. Technically, all three were under house arrest for two weeks; although Gabe and Kate were pretty much free after three days. Maya was truly grounded during that time—no calls, no privileges, no going out. In addition, she lost use of the car for one whole month.

Gabe regretted the incident but Maya and Kate did not. “What I regret is I didn’t have a better plan to avoid my parents finding out,” Maya lamented. “I wouldn’t have missed that for the world. Plus, it helped me understand what’s going on with Solange.”

Kate agreed. “That whole thing was fascinating, Gabe. I didn’t know your relatives could be so fun.”

Maya and Kate began calling the party
the Blake orgy
. Gabe winced at the moniker but did not challenge it. And while Kate didn’t witness anything that actually spelled out what happened with the couples they watched that night, the proof was definitely
in the pudding
, as Maya put it. According to her, Solange left a message with her parents the following morning on how she’d decided to take a trip with a friend. She said she’d be out of touch all week and then disappeared. Alicia and Jeremy hadn’t been able to reach her.

Kate was at Maya’s house when Solange came home a week later. She arrived with Luke Hokeman in tow and no explanation for her sudden departure or for her change in plans to finish college, news she announced too casually at the dinner table that night. “I’m staying with Luke, and I’m not going back to school.” She continued to cut primly into her steak, ignoring her parents shocked gasps.

Kate felt she shouldn’t be party to this exchange, although, for all the attention she received in the wake of the bomb Solange just dropped, she might as well have been invisible. Still, she attempted a discreet rise from her chair with the intention of departing. Maya clasped her hand under the table and tugged her back into her seat. “Stay with me,” she pleaded in a low voice. Kate sat down quietly and tried to make herself unobtrusive.

After a few seconds of recovery, Alicia and Jeremy’s shock became anger. “That is not up for negotiation, Solange,” her father told her. “A degree is one of the only things you can get to ensure you’ll have any earning potential, some stability, down the road. You’ve already studied ahead. You could take summer classes and finish early.”

Luke appeared to endear himself greatly to Solange’s family when he supported them. “They’re right, Solange. I’ll find a job in Boston by your school. I think you should finish, get your degree.” After a long pause, she said she’d consider it.

Alicia still squirmed, however, and given her artless efforts to capture Solange’s attention during dinner, Kate surmised she wanted a private conversation, one Solange was unwilling to provide.

By dessert, Alicia was done with diplomacy. She came back from the kitchen carrying plates of cake, one of which she placed in front of Solange before gripping her shoulder. “Since you won’t speak with me alone, I guess we’ll do this here. I think I have a pretty good idea as to what’s going on but I’d like to hear it from you. Am I right in understanding you met this young man eight days ago?”

Solange smiled kindly but with condescension. “I know how this must seem to you, Mom, but this is not just a fling, I promise. Luke’s waiting to bring it up because it has been such a short time but we’re getting married. I love him, he loves me, we’re sure we want to be together. That’s what’s going on.”

“Solange!” Alicia exclaimed. “What’s your hurry? You’re twenty-one years old and you’ve never been on your own. Why not wait a couple of years?”

“Mother, what for?” Solange replied gently, but with steel in her voice. “If you’re worried I’m not my own person yet, that I need more independence, you haven’t been paying attention.” Alicia didn’t say anything, although her expression spoke volumes.

Solange softened. “Listen, I know this because you taught it to me: I am a strong, smart, capable woman. Just like you. I know what I’m doing, and I know this is right.”

After several tense moments, Alicia relaxed her shoulders and her mouth stretched in a sad smile. “I don’t suppose I’ll overcome your romantic ideals
and
inborn tenacity,” she allowed. “Tenacity I probably passed on.” She smoothed Solange’s bangs from her forehead, the gesture tentative and bittersweet. “I guess we should shop for wedding dresses.” Solange squealed with delight as she stood from her seat and wrapped her mother in an embrace. “Thank you,” she whispered. “I couldn’t do this without you.”

When they released each other, Alicia faced Luke, who stood awkwardly from his chair. Alicia went to him and put her arms around his waist. “Welcome to the family, son. You do right by our girl, you hear?”

Luke hugged her back. “I’ll do my best,” he promised humbly.

* * * *

Whatever John Blake’s business commitments had been prior to the party, Kate noticed they no longer kept him away after it. His presence was now all but constant at the Sweeting home; he left during the day to tend to his business, returned for dinner, and stayed into the evening each night. By the end of the month, he had purchased a small building in Griffins Bay, which he began to renovate into an eye clinic.

Kate had never seen her mother so happy. Over the next several weeks, Cara blossomed while she watched, her features becoming more vibrant, her figure softer, her eyes more lively. Kate loved how her mother’s face literally shone with pleasure these days.

And she felt livelier too, somewhat to her surprise. She had no memories of her father living with them, and she thought they’d been perfectly happy since moving to Childress. Consequently, John’s presence filled a hole she hadn’t known was there, with an energy that made their previous existence seem too quiet and dull by contrast. She felt as if they had gone from living in black-and-white to living in color.

She realized she could have felt more conflicted about the changes taking place at home, but when she tried to consider the loss of time with her mother and John’s abrupt entry into their family life, her attempts at pessimism seemed hollow and kind of silly. Mostly, this was due to John’s caring attention to her as well as her mother. His affection never came off as contrived or obligatory. He was easy to talk with, fun to be around, and so intelligent and thoughtful she couldn’t
not
like him.

Another reason for her quick acceptance of the situation was the extent to which Cara and John made long-term plans. John demonstrated via words and deeds he meant to stay by them, no question. He and her mother talked openly about getting married as soon as possible but did not want to detract attention from Luke and Solange’s wedding in August, selecting a date in late September instead for a much smaller affair. And it wasn’t a conversation about just the two of them, but about Kate too. Somehow, she was an integral part of the happy life they were creating. Kate didn’t doubt her place in the new order of her world.

Of the twenty or so couples Kate had watched milling around the night of the Blake party, including Cara and John and Luke and Solange, all were engaged or already married by the time of Solange’s wedding. This, of course, led to speculation as to whether or not any of the women were pregnant.

Gabe appeared uncomfortable and as if he knew more than he was letting on. “Probably.”

“Wow. It really was an orgy,” Maya teased. Kate giggled.

“No, it wasn’t,” Gabe insisted. “An orgy means everyone had indiscriminate sex. These couples are monogamous and…it’s not the same thing at all.” But while he continued to defend the event, he didn’t appear comfortable with his family’s role in it either. Curious about what he wasn’t admitting, Kate made a few additional inquiries but he did not explain.

* * * *

The rest of the summer revolved around social events surrounding Solange and Luke’s upcoming wedding. John, Cara, and Kate also started functioning as a family, running errands together and for each other, going to movies, playing board games, and taking strolls around the neighborhood. They also spent time working on John’s clinic to get it ready to open in August, an activity that gave Kate an unexpected sense of belonging.

On the wedding front, Cara held a shower for Solange for which Kate cooked, and they attended two others. Maya and Kate were both recruited to be bridesmaids, which meant dress shopping, fittings, and a couple of trips to the salon to try out hairstyles. All the girls were required to take dance lessons, which Maya and Kate did scornfully and with purely comic intent. Sylvia studied cake decorating—like someone possessed—in order to produce a perfect representation of the cake Solange wanted at her reception.

“I know roses are traditional but I want marigolds. The color is so rich, and they match the time of year better, I think.”

“I’m on it.” Sylvia acted as if she’d been entrusted with a mission to save the planet.

Kate saw Gabe frequently that summer but they were always surrounded by friends and family now. Following their conversation at the Bait Shop, she was never quite at ease around him again, always a little nervous when she talked with him and overly anxious to know what he thought of her. Thankful her flightiness was diluted by the presence of others, part of her still yearned for a chance to be alone with him, so she could further explore the new feelings that had emerged during their lunch.

She was surprised and happy to learn Gabe would be in the wedding as well. Surprised because she’d never heard him mention Luke Hokeman in all the years prior to the day Kate had met him, so she didn’t think they could be close. But she didn’t really care; she secretly relished the idea of being with Gabe at the reception, her in a formal dress with her hair done up. She wondered if he would think she looked pretty. She had no doubt he would be handsome in a tuxedo.

One week before the wedding and two weeks before the opening of the clinic, John planned a long weekend for all of them in New York. “Things have been hectic this summer, and they’re going to get worse when the clinic opens, so I think we should sneak away.”

They had a wonderful time. Times Square exploded with energy and activity, really not something one could understand without seeing; and Central Park was its own oasis in what was an inconceivably huge city to Kate’s mind. They ate out lavishly every night, got tickets to a Broadway show, and ordered decadent breakfasts from room service each morning. John had reserved a room for Cara and Kate and one for himself but they usually ended up all together, talking and eventually falling asleep on top of the covers or on the couch, dressed in whatever clothes they’d worn to dinner.