Carly's Gift (26 page)

Ethan started for the door and then, almost as an afterthought, went over to the bed where he bent and placed a quick kiss on the top of Andrea's head. “Nice to have you with us, Andrea, even if it's only for a little while.”

“I'll be right behind you, Ethan,” Carly said, guiding him out of the room. “Why don't you check on Shawn?”

“Two minutes,” he told her, making an attempt at a teasing voice. “That's all you've got before I come back after you.”

When he was gone, Carly sat down on the bed again and drew Andrea into her arms. To say something about Ethan's behavior would give it too much importance, and it would force them to talk about something Carly still didn't know how to handle.

Andrea was home now. There would be plenty of time to work things out between them. “I'm so glad you're back,” Carly said. “This house finally seems like home again.”

“I love you, Mom,” Andrea said after several seconds.

At that moment, Carly would have given ten years of her life to be able to put words together the way David could. But how did you tell someone they were the air you breathed, the music you hummed, the beauty that blinded you to ugliness? In the end, all she could think to say was, “I love you, too, sweetheart.”

Twenty-two

Andrea stood at
the kitchen doorway and watched her mother. Carly was sitting at the table, holding a mug of coffee between her hands, slowly moving the cup back and forth across her forehead as if fighting a headache. She seemed more alone than just being in the room by herself should have made her look.

It hurt Andrea to see her mother so sad, especially knowing that she was probably the reason. Their past week together had been both wonderful and awful at the same time. They had talked every night, once almost through the night, much to her dad's irritation. And it hadn't been all fun and easy things, like Andrea filling her mother in on what kind of clothes English women were wearing that year or Carly telling how Grandpa Wally accidentally sat on the surprise Valentine cake Grandma Barbara had made for him. Andrea had asked pointed questions about Carly's decision not to tell David that she was pregnant. She'd also wanted to know why Carly had married Ethan when she didn't love him. And she'd wanted to know about Carly's painting, too, why she'd given it up and if she ever intended to start again.

Andrea continued to watch her mother as Carly lowered her cup to the table and reached up to rub her temples with the tips of her fingers. As she silently stood there, an uncomfortable feeling came over her. It suddenly seemed as if she were spying on her mother, as much as observing. She announced her presence by knocking lightly on the door frame.

“Good morning,” Carly said, turning.

Andrea smiled and came into the kitchen. “Did I tell you that I actually got to see the Rosetta Stone?” she said, searching for something that would lift her mother's spirits. “The
real
one.”

“No, you didn't,” Carly said with a show of enthusiasm that didn't quite succeed. “What was it like?”

“Big and black with tiny white writing.”

“I didn't know you'd even heard of the Rosetta Stone.”

“My tutor told me about it.”

Carly pushed back her chair and stood up. “What would you like for breakfast?”

“Nothing—I'm not hungry.”

“How about a cup of cocoa?”

Andrea shook her head. “I guess I've gotten spoiled by the chocolate they have in England. Now the stuff we have here tastes funny to me.”

Carly went to the sink, dumped her old coffee out and poured herself another cup. “How long have you been awake?”

“About an hour, give or take.”

“But you didn't want to come down until you heard your father leave.” It was a statement, not a question.

Andrea pulled out a chair and sat down at the table. “I have to talk to you.”

“Why do I get the feeling I'm not going to like this?”

“Probably because you already know what I'm going to say.”

“You're going back, aren't you?”

The look on her mother's face made Andrea flinch and turn away. “I'm sorry, Mama,” was all she could say, knowing it wasn't enough, but that nothing she could do would take away the hurt.

Carly let out a pent-up sigh. “Is there anything that could get you to change your mind?”

Andrea chanced a look. “I have to finish what I started.” Even from across the room, she could see tears welling in her mother's eyes. “Just because I'm going back doesn't mean I love David more than I love you.”

“I know,” Carly said.

“And it doesn't mean I won't be back.”

“In my heart I knew the day would come when I'd have to let you go, but I never dreamed it would be this soon. I'm not ready, Andrea. If we lose these years, we'll never get them back.” She laid the length of her finger along the bottom of her eye to catch the tears before they had a chance to spill.

“If I don't spend them with David, we'll never have any at all.”

“Goddamn it. I wish he'd never come back.”

Andrea had promised herself she wouldn't cry, it would only make things harder for both of them. “Please tell me it's okay for me to go.”

“When will you come home again?”

“This summer? After school is out?” Whether her return would be permanent or for another visit hung heavily between them.

“It's going to be lonely around here without you.”

“You could come with me,” Andrea said softly. “David wouldn't care.”

“I have a feeling Ethan might.”

“He could come, too—and Shawn and Eric.”

“Maybe someday,” Carly said. “Perhaps when David isn't such a painful reminder of something Ethan has spent half his life trying to forget.”

“Is that why he doesn't want me to live here anymore? Because I remind him of David?”

“Where did you get that idea?”

How could she explain a feeling? “He didn't want me to come home for Easter.”

“He told you that?”

Andrea moved her shoulders in a casual shrug, trying to diminish the impact of her words. “He said you already had too much to do taking care of Shawn, and that I should wait a while before I came home to visit.”

“I didn't know you'd talked to him,” Carly said, her voice artificially calm.

“He called a couple of days after you and Shawn phoned me from the hospital and I told you I was coming home.” She tried to remember the reason he'd given her. “I think he said it was because you asked him to give me a report on Shawn.”

She studied Andrea. “Even though you thought Ethan didn't want you here, you came anyway. Why?”

“David convinced me that I was wrong about him, that he really did love me and wanted me to come home.” She noticed several grains of salt that had been spilled on the table and methodically began to gather them with the tip of her finger. “But that wasn't why I changed my mind. David told me how much it would hurt you if I didn't come.” She looked up and smiled. “And I missed you, too.”

“What am I going to do without you?”

“Can't you come to see me without Dad?”

“Maybe someday,” she said, repeating the evasive answer.

“I hate it when you say that. What it means is, there's no way in hell.”

“I can't promise you anthing now.”

“I'm not asking you to promise you'll come, just that you'll think about it.”

Carly let out a disparaging laugh. “Oh, you can count on that.”

Andrea stood. “I should call David now. He told me if I changed my mind about staying, he would come and get me so that we could fly home—” She saw the look on her mother's face and felt like biting her tongue. “So we could fly back to London together,” she finished lamely.

“It's all right,” Carly said, taking Andrea into her arms. “I wouldn't want you to live anyplace you couldn't think of as home. I just don't want you to ever forget you have a home here, too.”

Andrea hugged her mother tightly. “David was right—you are the best mom in the world.”

“When will he come for you?”

“I don't know—probably tomorrow. I have to be back to school on Monday.”

“Tell him I want to talk to him when he gets here.” She tilted her head back to look Andrea in the eye. “Alone.”

“There might not be enough time.”

Carly brushed the bangs from Andrea's forehead. “If he wants me to let you go with him,” she said softly, “he'll find the time.”

Twenty-three

“Aren't you taking
a hell of a chance being seen with me like this?” David asked, turning left onto the road that led to Lender's Mill. “After all, we wouldn't want to mislead anyone into thinking we still actually cared about each other.”

“Sarcasm has never been your strong suit, David,” Carly said. “You hit the jugular better when you're being direct.”

“Is this why you wanted time alone? So we could trade insults out of Andrea's earshot?”

“We have some things that need to be settled.”

“I hope you don't intend to waste my time and yours by going over the same old crap you've been throwing at me the past six months. If so, tell me now and save us both the effort.” He checked the rearview mirror before turning onto a narrow dirt road.

Carly didn't answer him.

David drove the final mile to the mill without trying to draw more information out of her. When Andrea had called the day before, she'd been strangely uncommunicative, saying little beyond that she had decided to return to England to finish school and that her mother wanted to talk to him when he came to pick her up. He still had no idea what had happened to make her change her mind or how the family had responded to her decision.

He parked on the shady side of the mill and waited for Carly to make the first move. She stayed in the car for several more seconds, then opened the door, got out, and started walking toward the creek. David took a deep breath and followed.

When she reached the creek, she took off her jacket, laid it on the new grass, then sat down and gazed at the swiftly moving water. “You won,” she said, at last breaking the long silence.

David wasn't sure he'd heard her correctly. Carly had never given up this easily. “What's the punch line?”

“She loves you, David.”

“It's because she thinks I'm her father.”

“That may be what drew her to you, but it's not what's made her stay. Somehow, you managed to say all the things a fifteen-year-old wants and needs to hear. You're rich and famous and, in her eyes, Super Dad to boot. How could she keep from falling in love with you?”

He sat down, careful not to crowd her, but near enough for the breeze to taunt him with the smell of her perfume. “She was sad and confused when she came to me. All I did was listen.”

“Having someone hang on my every word would be a heady experience for me. I can only imagine what it must feel like when you're fifteen-years-old.”

“I honestly tried, Carly. Everything I did was aimed at making her feel good about herself so that she would want to go home again.”

“She told me.”

He plucked a blade of grass and stuck the tender end in his mouth. “But you didn't believe her?”

“You can stop being so defensive. I didn't ask you here to fight with you about what you did or didn't do.”

“Then why did you ask me?”

“For my own peace of mind, I have to know what kind of person you've become.” She turned to look at him. “How have you changed, David? What has living a privileged life done to you?”

“What you really want to know is what kind of influence I'm going to have on Andrea and whether or not it's something you're going to have to overcome when you get her back.”