Tofino Storm

by Edie Claire

  “Computer modelling,” Laney repeated. “That’s what I do.”

  “It sounds like you and Gordon had similar reactions to the same tragedy,” Jason observed.

  For a moment she seemed lost in thought. “Jason,” she said quietly. “Have you ever heard about the tornado in Joplin, Missouri?”

  He looked up from his phone. “Yes, but I don’t know much about it, except that a lot of people died.”

  “A hundred and fifty-eight people,” she said heavily. “It was an EF5 multiple vortex, nearly a mile wide, and it destroyed almost a quarter of the city. The sirens went off twenty minutes before it struck, but not enough people paid attention. There was confusion over what the sound meant: Was a tornado imminent or just possible? How close was it, really? So people went about their business and hoped for the best. Just like they did in Peck.” She paused, then inhaled deeply. “You asked me once why I went into meteorology, but I didn’t really explain. The day the tornado hit Joplin was their high school graduation day. A couple hours away, it was also my graduation day. We learned what had happened just after the ceremony. Several of my classmates had friends or family there. One girl lost her aunt, her grandfather, and a baby cousin. I’d always been fascinated with tornados and weather, but that day cemented my career goal. I was going to fix the system. I was going to figure out how to keep people safer.”

  Jason drew in a breath. He’d never considered that Laney might have lived through other tornados in her youth, much less had any connection to the horror in Joplin. “That’s an admirable goal.”

  She smiled a little. “Well, they fixed the warning system without waiting for me, thank goodness. The meaning of the sirens is communicated more clearly now, including a new designation for a ‘tornado emergency’ that tells people to take cover right away, in no uncertain terms. But prediction can always be improved. In fact, there’s some research coming out of UVic right now — a professor there has been making great strides with stochastic models. I was just thinking that maybe Gordon’s money has been partly responsible for that.” She looked up suddenly. “Sorry, too much information.”

  “No. Not at—” Jason’s phone made the whale song again. He looked down. Ben had sent an image. It looked like the cover of a program or leaflet announcing the endowment, and it featured a full-color photograph of the family being honored. “Laney,” he whispered roughly. “I think you should see this.”

  He handed her the phone.

  Chapter 25

  Laney stared at the image on Jason’s phone for a very long time. She felt vacant. Drained. Bloodless. Yet at the same time, somewhere painfully deep within her chest, a queer heat had begun to kindle.

  Three people had sat for the studio picture. A man and woman in their late twenties and a baby a few months old. The baby, lying on her mother’s lap, wore a beautiful white dress covered with delicate pink rosebuds. Her head was capped with a fuzz of indeterminate brown; her eyes were squinched nearly shut. To Laney, she looked like any baby. No recognition stirred. She felt no sense of connection.

  The man was standing with one arm curled possessively about his wife’s shoulders. He was of average height, lean, and dressed in a style Laney thought of as “ivy league preppy.” Bookishly handsome, he had straight dark-blond hair, kind brown eyes, and a winning smile. Laney let her eyes linger on his pleasing features, studiously avoiding a more direct examination of the woman seated beside him.

  Eventually, she drew in a breath and forced her eyes toward the face in question. Elizabeth Tremblay Macdonald was smiling. More accurately, she was beaming. Her bright blue eyes and rosy apple cheeks radiated pure joy. She looked as happy as any wife and young mother could be.

  She also looked like Laney. They had the same light-blond hair, the same scant eyebrows, the same high cheekbones and pert, slightly upturned nose. Elizabeth had a cleft in her chin, which Laney did not. She also looked older, in an undefinable, accumulated wisdom sort of way. And she was dressed not in jeans and a sweatshirt but in a tailored dark-green dress that had probably cost as much as Laney’s entire wardrobe.

  The resemblance was, nevertheless, remarkable. One might even say uncanny.

  Laney had no idea how long she sat and stared. How long her mind chugged with racing, contradicting, agonizing thoughts. But at some point, she handed the phone back to Jason. “Maybe trying to meet with Gordon and Joan isn’t such a good idea after all. They might notice…” The quaver in her voice was maddening, as was the moisture once again building behind her eyes.

  “Oh, who am I kidding?” she said with a strangled laugh. “We both know that all I’ve really been doing since I got here is looking for an excuse to turn around and go back home! I don’t want to tell them. I don’t want to give up my life. I don’t want to be vulnerable to them, dependent on them. I never want to be dependent on anyone! But nothing we’ve found out gives me any excuse not to tell them. They seem like perfectly nice people who loved their daughter very much. Why would they not want to know the granddaughter who looks just like her? Their only grandchild?”

  “They would,” Jason said softly, sympathetically. He was sitting on the other side of the car and made no move to touch her. That was her fault, too. They had agreed to be friends, but after she’d shoved him away for no reason, why should he risk offering comfort again?

  “I have to tell them the truth,” she continued, still struggling to stanch her emotions. “I just do. It’s only fair to them, and I won’t be able to live with myself if I don’t. So I should get it over with. Whatever happens afterward, I’ll just have to take it one step at a time.”

  Jason was quiet for a moment. “That’s very brave of you,” he said finally, his voice a husky whisper. “I know what you’re risking, and it’s no small thing. Don’t you dare beat yourself up feeling like it’s trivial, like you’ve been selfish even to consider keeping the status quo. None of what happened was your fault; you’re as much a victim of circumstances as the Tremblays are. If anything, your position is worse because you’re the one who’s being forced to make this decision. And if it matters, I… well, I think you’ve handled all this amazingly well, Laney. You’re a strong woman. I admire that.”

  She wanted desperately to look at him. To take comfort from the compliment, to accept a nourishing, friendly hug in the spirit intended. But she couldn’t move her head. Looking into those gorgeous gray-green eyes of his would undo her.

  “Thank you,” she replied, putting a hand on the car door. “Now I really should get to work at the desk. Could you call Max, please? See about setting up a meeting? I have no idea how to do this. Maybe we should have him tell them that I’m… someone who knew their daughter when she lived in Tennessee. It’s true, technically. Then when they arrive, maybe you—”

  She looked at him, accidentally. But she held it together. Being in action mode always helped her feel stronger. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to presume. Would you be willing to go in first, maybe break the news in stages? Seeing me might be a bit of a shock, and I… well, I don’t want to make this any harder on them than it needs to be.”

  His smile was warm. “Of course. I’d be happy to. I’ll call Max as soon as you’re settled in at the desk.”

  “Thanks,” Laney repeated. She opened her car door, got out, and was overwhelmed by yet another fierce, infuriating desire to cry — exceeded only by an even fiercer desire to scream out loud. Would she never be rid of these insufferable attacks of raw emotion? Why did Jason’s kindness to her only seem to make them worse?

  With a mighty effort, she steeled herself against both impulses and stomped away toward the lodge. The sooner this unreal chapter of her life was concluded, the better off she would be. The tears would stop as soon as her life got stable again. Predictable. Safe. Controlled.

  Jason-less.

  A flat, familiar landscape of brown and gray.

  ***

  Jason gave Laney a brief tutorial on the lodge’s check-in procedure, installed he
r in his office, and stepped into an empty guest room. She didn’t need to cover the desk for him, since no new arrivals were expected for at least another half hour. But since having something concrete to do seemed to make her feel better, he was willing to oblige. He picked up his cell phone and dialed Max Tollison’s number.

  Twenty minutes later, he hung up the phone with a sigh. Why could nothing about Laney’s wretched situation be easy?

  He walked back to the lobby with his feet dragging. There was no easy way to tell her. She would be upset and there wouldn’t be a damn thing he could do about it — as usual. If they could just be clear on their status as friends, he could at least hold the woman when she needed him to. But no, despite their last discussion on the topic, things between them had only gotten more muddled. She was developing feelings for him, he could see it in her eyes. That meant she was vulnerable to being hurt by him, and adding more pain to her life was the absolute last thing he wanted. She wouldn’t settle for a time-limited hookup, nor should she. And he couldn’t promise anything else. Hell, he couldn’t even promise to behave himself as a friend — not with the memory of her body clasped against him still searing his every thought. So what did that leave them with?

  Nothing. That’s what.

  He reached his office door. He had no answers for their predicament, no plans for how to move forward. But he couldn’t put off what he had to tell her. He opened the door to find her standing at the window, gazing out at the sea. The rain had abated, but the wind was still brisk. The trees bowed and swayed under its pressure, and impressive waves continued to crash against the rocks below, sending up plumes of frothy spray.

  “No one’s come in,” she reported. “I swept some sand off the floor, though.”

  “Thanks,” he replied. His voice sounded as down as he felt.

  She noticed. Her eyes widened as she turned fully toward him. “What is it? What did he say?”

  “Nothing terrible,” Jason answered, attempting to lighten his tone. “It’s just going to be a little complicated.” He sat down on the wicker loveseat opposite the counter and gestured for her to join him.

  “Just tell me,” she demanded.

  “Not until you sit down.”

  She didn’t move.

  “I’ve had to catch you in a dead faint twice now,” he said wryly, changing tactics. “Can you give my back a break, please?”

  She huffed out a breath and dropped down beside him. Their shoulders bumped only briefly before she straightened and pulled away, but the sensation still affected him. He wanted her closer. He’d desired many different women at many different times, but the effect Laney had on him was painful. Maybe it was because she was so different from his norm. Maybe it was because he knew he couldn’t have her. Either way, he questioned how much more he could take.

  “First, let me give you the good news,” he began. “Max was happy to tell me all about the Tremblays. He and Gordon have been friends for nearly a decade, as I suspected. Back when Gordon was busy working and making money hand over fist, his favorite pastime was fishing on Lake Ontario. As a getaway, he and Joan would rent a place in Ucluelet, and he’d charter boats from Max to fish for chinook and halibut. The two men even made a few trips up to the Northwest Territories together. A couple years ago Joan decided she’d had it with the snow and cold, so they decided to leave Toronto altogether. They bought property on the harbor and built the house we saw yesterday.”

  He stopped and took a breath. Laney was watching him intently, drinking in every word. “Max had nothing but nice things to say about both of them. He said Gordon is smart as a whip, and though he can be autocratic, he has a reputation for being fair and aboveboard. He also, according to Max, has a real soft spot for kids. Joan has a long history of doing volunteer work with children’s charities, and she and Gordon do a lot of that work together. He loves taking groups of kids out fishing on his boat, like we saw in the article. He’s had a bunch of surgeries on his knees and has trouble walking long distances, but he’s otherwise in good health. Joan has some lung issues that made winters in Toronto hard, but as far as I could tell, she’s in reasonably good health, too. They’re both around eighty, Max thought. He’s met their son Richard, too, but only once. You were right about them having no grandchildren. He said…”

  Jason paused. The hard part was coming. “Max knew about the tornado. He said that Gordon and Joan both had been greatly affected. After Richard was born, Joan had been told she couldn’t conceive again, so Elizabeth’s birth had seemed like a miracle. They absolutely doted on their daughter, her whole life. They were very pleased with her choice of husband, and when their granddaughter was born” — he looked at Laney and was relieved to see she still had color in her cheeks — “they doted on her, too. Max couldn’t tell me much more because he said it was hard for Gordon to talk about. But Max did say that there were pictures of the family all over the couple’s house. And that they usually took a cruise at Christmas, because Joan couldn’t bear to be home around the holidays.”

  Laney made a sharp intake of breath, and her eyes began to water. Jason hated upsetting her, but he was too close to the end to stop now. “I told Max what we’d discussed, that I’d met a woman who’d known Elizabeth and wondered if she could speak with them. He wasn’t sure if they’d want to meet with you or not. But he told me he couldn’t help me right now, anyway.” Jason braced himself. “Because the Tremblays aren’t in Ucluelet. They live here most of the year, but in the winter Joan prefers a warmer climate. They left the beginning of December, and he isn’t expecting them back until March.”

  Now Laney’s face lost all color. “March?” she repeated weakly.

  “I’m afraid so,” Jason answered.

  “Are they… in Florida?” she asked. “California?”

  He shook his head. “Hawaii.”

  “Hawaii!” Laney exclaimed, jumping up from the loveseat. Jason had expected such a reaction. But although he hated to see her angry, at least her blood was pumping again. “I can’t go to Hawaii! I couldn’t afford to come here!”

  “I know,” he commiserated. “I’m sorry.”

  “Till March?” she continued to exclaim. “What am I going to do? This isn’t something I can handle over the phone! I just… I can’t! If I don’t manage this right, if there’s some miscommunication or something… they’ll either think I’m a fraud and have me prosecuted or…” The anger left her as suddenly as it came. Her voice dropped to a croak. “If they say anything, make anything public, I could lose everything. If only I could meet with them face to face, talk to them, I’m sure that wouldn’t happen. I’m sure I could make them understand.”

  “I think you’re right,” Jason agreed, rising also. “You should wait until you can talk to them in person. There’s no chance they’ll think you’re a fraud then. I’m sure of it.”

  She stepped back to the window and began to pace. “If only I could convince them to come back here, just for a little while. Then I could—” She blew out a breath. “No. Nothing short of the truth would get them to do that, and I have to be with them when I tell them.”

  “Maybe it’s best to wait, then,” Jason offered, even as he questioned the statement. Having this hanging over her head for months would be torture.

  Laney shook her head at him. “How can I wait? Right now, like you said, I’m legally an innocent victim. I didn’t create the problem; I didn’t know I was living with a false identity. But I know now. How can I go on signing checks as Laney Miller? Signing legal documents to probate the will of a woman I’m not even related to? Reentering the US on a falsified passport? If I keep quiet and do all those things for another three months, it will make me a part of the fraud!”

  Jason swallowed. She was right. He was no lawyer, but it certainly seemed like it would complicate her case if she waited until after inheriting her mother’s estate to admit she was somebody else. “Then you’ll have to go to Hawaii,” he decided. “Forget about the money. You can borr
ow it from me.”

  She let out a groan. “Thank you for that, Jason, but I can’t borrow something I can’t pay back. The reality is I may never get the inheritance, or the money from the house, or even my mom’s car. God only knows how many thousands I’ll wind up owing the hospital, on top of what I’ve already spent to get here. There’s no money and Hawaii is crazy expensive! Not to mention I’d be all on my own breaking the news to them… they’d keel over with the shock.” She sank back down onto the love seat and rubbed her face with both hands. “I’m sorry. I just need to think.”

  Jason had already been thinking. The idea came to him like a Christmas present, all wrapped up with a shiny red bow. He didn’t know why he hadn’t thought of it before.

  “Laney,” he said earnestly, sitting beside her again. “It might not be so impossible after all. Max didn’t know where they were staying, but he did say they were on Maui. And I happen to know a place on Maui that we could stay for free. Ben already offered me his and Haley’s condo — it’s empty now, while they’re in Victoria, and he said I could stay there anytime. As for food, well, you have to eat something wherever you are. The only cost to you would be the plane fare. And that’s what credit cards are for.” He pulled her hands away from her face. “You need to do this, Laney. There’s no other way.”

  Her hands felt like ice. She looked at him incredulously. “We?”

  Jason replayed the speech he’d just given. He supposed he had said that. He supposed he meant it. “Yes, we,” he confirmed. “I’ve been wanting to surf in Hawaii for ages. As soon as Ben offered I knew I would make it happen, I just didn’t know when. But this is perfect. He said the condo has two guestrooms and an extra bath and they let friends stay there all the time. They have some little cabins in Alaska they loan out to friends, too. That’s the kind of people they are. You met Ben — if you told him the truth, you know he’d be happy to help you. He’s captained whale-watching tours on Maui for years; I bet he knows every boat captain and charter business on the island. It really is perfect, Laney, don’t you see?”