Tides of the Heart (40 page)

She stared out the window, but didn’t respond. Phillip reached across the console and put his hand on hers. “Lisa, I like you a lot. I may even be in love with you, whatever that means. But I think before you go back to L.A., and continue to do whatever it is you do, you should take a look at a few things. Or you’ll wind up with another Brad Edwards and another disaster.”

Those beautiful, irresistible topaz eyes began to water. Phillip wanted to shoot himself for hurting her feelings. But he felt he had spoken the truth, and if there was ever to be anything more between him and Lisa, he knew she had to be honest with herself. Only then would she be able to be honest with him.

“You’re right,” she said softly. “There was more to the story.”

Rain pelted the windshield. Phillip took her hand in his. “I’m listening.”

“Brad was planning to take Ginny to court over Jake’s estate. He asked me for money to pay his attorneys. I couldn’t do it. I knew Jake well enough to know he must have had his reasons for doing what he did. I tried to tell Brad there was no way Ginny would have been able to convince Jake to do anything. My mother loved him. He saved her life, in a sense. He was, I think, perhaps the first
man in her life she ended up not using. If he wanted her to have his money, then he really wanted it. I also knew she had tried to convince him not to do it. But he had refused.”

“So when you wouldn’t give Brad the money to fight Ginny, he came up with the blackmail plan.”

“Yes,” she said. “And that’s when I knew for certain that he didn’t really … love me. He was only using me to get what he wanted. Just as Ginny tried to tell me.”

“So you threw him out?”

“What else could I do? He was asking me to choose between him and Ginny. I’d spent twenty-five years not even knowing who she was. Sure, she’s a little … different. But I love her, Phillip. She’s my mother.”

Phillip picked up her hand and held it to his lips. “You see?” he said. “You are a good person.”

“But I don’t care what you say, I do love acting.”

“Acting, maybe. But being a star?”

She smiled. “No. Actually, I hate that part. I hate seeing my picture on the covers of magazines. I hate people recognizing my face.”

Phillip smiled. “I knew it! You’re simply too … 
emotional
to like all that false surface stuff.”

She slid over the console and took his face in her hands. “And just how do you know that I’m too emotional?”

Phillip smoothed the hair from her forehead; he wiped the tears from her cheeks. Then he kissed her slowly, deeply, warmly. And she kissed him back, their tongues touching lightly at first, then more urgently, the fire igniting, the passion rising.

“See what I mean?” Phillip said, breaking away. “Did you forget we’re sitting in a parking lot at a hospital emergency room?”

“Yes,” Lisa said almost shyly. “I seem to forget a lot of things when you’re around.”

“Hmm. Well, I’ll have to decide what to do about that some other time. Right now, I really do want to see Jess.”

“Okay,” Lisa replied. “But no matter how long we stay
here, I want you to know I’m going to be sleeping with you tonight.”

The grin that spread across Phillip’s face he felt clear down to his toes.

Unfortunately, Brad survived.

Dick had arrived at the hospital and told Ginny the grim news: Her stepson had a nasty concussion, but was awake, alert, and being monitored down the hall from Jess’s room.

After Phillip and Lisa had said “How are you feeling?” to Jess and “My God, Karin was behind all this?” Phillip turned to Ginny. She had not commented that the whole time they’d been in there, he’d been holding Lisa’s hand.

“I think we should confront Brad together,” he said. “And now seems as good a time as any.”

Ginny frowned. “Everyone around here seems to forget that I was the first one in pain. And no one seems to care that right now my back is throbbing like an abscessed tooth.”

“Would you like me to arrange for a bed for you?” Dick asked.

“Are you crazy? Hospitals scare the shit out of me.”

“Then let’s at least do something positive,” Phillip said. “Come with us to see Brad. I’ll do all the talking.”

Ginny moved her gaze from Jess in the bed to Richard by her side to Dick to Phillip to Lisa. She did not look at Karin.

“Please, Mom,” Lisa said. “I think Phillip is right. Let’s get this over with.”

“As for us,” Dick said, putting an arm around Karin, “I think we should leave Richard and Jess alone. They must have a few things to talk about.”

Ginny knew she was being railroaded, but didn’t seem to have any control over it. “All right,” she reluctantly agreed. “I’ll go and see Brad. But I can’t guarantee that this time I won’t kill him for sure.”

•  •  •

“The doctor said he only needs to keep you overnight,” Richard said to Jess once everyone had left the room.

She nodded. The pain in her foot now had been replaced by a grogginess she couldn’t shake, but the damp chill that had invaded her body out there in the woods had finally been warmed by the soft flannel sheets the nurse had put on the bed and by the presence of people, the renewal of life. “I’m so tired,” she said, closing her eyes. “And I can’t believe that Father and Karin were lovers.”

“I knew Karin had someone, but I had no idea it was your father. I never saw him here,” Richard said.

“You only saw him once anyway.”

“At your mother’s funeral.”

“The day …”

“In the backseat …” Richard ran his hand through his hair. “God, how Karin loved it when he came each summer. She was a different person then—so happy and alive.”

Jess listened to the soft rhythm of Richard’s voice, trying to imagine her father with Karin, remembering the months that she herself did not—had not wanted to—see Father, because she’d thought he had never loved her … when all along he’d been here, loving Richard’s sister, loving Jess’s baby. Capable of loving, in his own private way.

Richard squeezed her hand now. “You’re tired,” he said. “I think we can wait until tomorrow to have our talk.”

Slowly, she stirred. “I thought everything had been said. I told you I’m not going to pursue this with Melanie.” She rested a moment, then added, “If you think it’s best that she doesn’t know about me—about us—then I won’t interfere. I care about her happiness, Richard. I don’t want to upset that.” A wave of sleepiness came over her.

“We’ll talk tomorrow,” she heard Richard say as she drifted away, finally safe and warm.

•  •  •

“Blackmail is a felony,” Phillip said to the man in the bed, who was wearing a turban of bandages. “If you persist in this charade, I’ll be sure you are sent away for a very, very long time. And from what I understand, prison is not very pleasant for guys who look like you.”

Brad did not answer.

“Don’t think he can’t do it,” Ginny said. “Phillip is not only a good friend of mine, but he has friends in high places.”

Ginny, of course, did not know what she was talking about, but Phillip admired her chutzpah at calling Brad’s bluff. He only hoped Brad had never heard of the likes of Nicole’s father—or his West Coast counterparts, who probably dealt not in divorce but in other legal forms of deceit.
Nicole
 … Phillip wondered what he’d ever seen in the self-centered law student. No matter what happened next, he was lucky to have been saved from a life with her.

He turned back to Brad. “What we’re doing is giving you a break,” he said. “Technically, we could bring you up on charges right now. Attempted extortion. That would be good for at least a few years.” He knew he was shooting in the dark; it had been too many years now since he’d had a class in criminal law. But Brad had no way of knowing that.

Finally, Brad spoke. “You can’t prove a fucking thing.”

Phillip smiled. “That’s where you’re wrong. You did try to assault Mrs. Edwards.”

Brad struggled to sit up. He flopped back down on the pillow and raised his fist. “She’s the one who attacked me!”

“That’s funny,” Phillip said, “that’s not how Ginny remembers it, is it, Ginny?”

Ginny leveled her eyes on her stepson. “He tried to rape me,” she said.

“Bullshit!” Brad shrieked.

“I’m sure a jury would see things differently,” Phillip said. “After all, you do not exactly have a clean record in a court of law.”

Brad started to say something, then he gave up.

“If I were you,” Phillip continued, “I’d cut my losses. File bankruptcy, if you have to. And sell the red Porsche. It might appease the IRS for a while. Make a new start, Brad. And, for once, try and do something constructive.”

He put one arm around Lisa, another around Ginny, feeling a bit like a comic book hero, but sometimes comic book heroes were called for. “And whatever you do, stay the hell away from them.” He escorted the ladies toward the door in a purposefully dramatic exit. “Or you’ll regret it until the day you die.”

In the hallway, out of Brad’s sight, Phillip moved to loosen his tie, then remembered he wasn’t wearing a tie. Ginny high-fived him and gave him a huge hug. Lisa kissed him smack on the lips. Phillip Archambault would not have traded this moment for all the McGinnis and Smiths in the world.

“I’m okay, honey,” Jess said into the phone to Maura. “I have a small break in my foot, but I’ll be okay.” She closed her eyes and half listened as her daughter said things like, “How did it happen?” and “Are you sure you’re all right, Mom?” and “Do you want Travis and me to come there?”

“I’m okay, honey,” Jess repeated. And she
was
okay. She had felt Richard kiss her forehead just before he left; she had heard him whisper, “I’m so sorry, Jess. I’m so sorry for everything.” Jess had realized then that maybe that was all she needed. Or, at least, that it was enough. Enough for her to get on with her life. She had seen her daughter; she knew she was alive, happy, and healthy. She had seen her granddaughter, the little girl who looked so much like her. Jess had seen them and now she knew. It was enough, and it was so much more than she’d had.

“Did you find her, Mom?” Maura was suddenly saying.

“Find her?” Jess asked.

“Your … daughter. Is she there?” Her voice sounded so childlike, so unsure, almost frightened. Jess knew that
she had been right: Maura had felt threatened, afraid that her life was going to change, that she would lose that special place in her mother’s heart, that there wasn’t room for more than her. Jess knew she would have to work very hard to erase that fear; and she knew that every tenuous, difficult moment would be worth it.

She smiled. “Yes, honey, I did see her. But no, she’s not here now. She has a little girl. A little girl who looks a lot like you did.”

Maura paused a moment. “Really?” she asked.

“She’s so cute,” Jess went on. “And Melanie seems so happy.”

There was hesitation again. “That’s nice.”

“It is nice, Maura. It’s what I needed to know. I’ll be home in a few days, and we can talk about it more if you’d like.”

“Yes, Mom. I think I’d like that a lot.”

At least Ginny could move without shrieking in pain. She sat on the veranda in a chair next to Dick. Morticia was nowhere to be seen.

“She’s probably out at West Chop,” Dick said, “looking for sea glass.”

“She needs help, Dick,” Ginny said, and was surprised to realize that she meant it.

“I know. I’ve ignored it for years. Now I’m going to encourage her to get some. She’s only forty-nine. She still has the rest of her life to live.” He turned to face Ginny. “What about you, Ginny? What are you going to do with the rest of yours?”

“Well, I probably won’t go back to eating Tostitos and watching TV. I don’t know what I’ll do. I’m too old to act and I was lousy at it anyway.”

“But you’re going back to L.A.?”

“Well, sure. That’s where I live.”

“I was hoping I could convince you to stay here.”

“You want me to live on a freaking island?”

“There are worse fates.”

She felt a twinge in her back. She remembered how kind he had been. How kind he had been to nurse her in her pain; how great he had been as a lover, a partner, breaking through the sex block she had, making her feel special again.

“I don’t know, Dick. I think that right now I need to go home and put things back together. I still miss my husband, you know. No offense.”

“None taken.”

“And I need to make some decisions about his business, which, believe it or not, I’m actually thinking of keeping and running myself.”

Dick let out a hearty laugh. “I’m sure you’d be great. You’d show those Hollywood types a thing or two.”

Ginny grinned, not realizing until now that maybe she really should do that, and maybe she would really be great.

Dick reached over and patted her hand. “But you’ll need a vacation from time to time. And this ‘freaking’ island isn’t going anywhere for a few thousand more years until the beach erosion wins the battle with the environmentalists and it drops it into the sea. Until then, I’ll probably be here, too.”

Ginny smiled.

Jess adjusted the crutches under her arms and hopped into the dining room at Mayfield House. She was the first one there; Richard had asked that they all meet there at one o’clock.