“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that when you stay at a man’s house overnight, he’s not just a friend, Lee.”
“And you would know,” she snapped, and cringed. No matter the past, her mother didn’t deserve to be treated without respect. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
“But why wouldn’t you think it?” Approaching town, her mother flicked the signal left for the street that led down to the boardwalk and Lee’s apartment. “At times propriety wasn’t on my horizon,” Charmaine admitted. “I mean, three men, three daughters? I know what people thought, what they whispered.”
Lee studied her mother. “It wasn’t all bad,” she said, realizing that too was a truth.
Yes, there had been mistakes. Omitting the logistics for Steven Tait leaving his three-year-old toddler was the first; hiding the name of Kat’s father was another; forcing Addie to give up her baby fourteen years ago was the third blunder.
But in all, Lee and her sisters had had a good childhood. More often than not, laughter echoed through the blue-and-white house on the outskirts of town. Sure, there were sibling rivalries, and her mother still had a knack for meddling in the concerns of her daughters three decades later, albeit the meddling had ebbed over the last ten years. But upon reflection, Lee was mildly surprised to realize she wouldn’t change her childhood.
Charmaine pulled into the parking lot behind Coffee Sense and cut the engine. Gripping the steering wheel, she continued, “I know you all think I’m a bad mother.”
“No, Mom. We don’t.”
“I really tried to raise you girls as best I could,” Charmaine went on, staring at the wrought-iron stairway to Lee’s apartment.
“And we all turned out fine.” Her mother had never been prone to warm fuzzies, but Lee rubbed her shoulder anyway. “Let’s go in and I’ll make some tea.”
Charmaine’s eyes blurred. “Okay,” she whispered. “I’d like that.”
Inside, Lee put on the kettle while her mother walked to the curio to survey the heritage teapots. “You got a new one,” she said, pointing to the Meissen with its shamrock-contoured handle.
“In January,” Lee replied. Had it been four months since she invited her mother over? Shame flashed. Charmaine was not getting younger, and soon Lee would have a child. Right there and then, she vowed to do right, to make changes with her mother.
Walking over to stand beside the older woman, she slid an arm around Charmaine’s waist. When had her mother gotten shorter? “You’ve never asked why I collect them,” she said.
“I know why, honey. You always loved the one your daddy gave me on our wedding day. He loved them, so you do, too.”
Surprised, Lee looked at her mother. Lines of life and laughter spooled from the corners of her eyes.
Charmaine smiled and surprised Lee further by setting a hand against her cheek. “You were always such a strong child, and so darn independent. Sometimes, you scared me because you seemed to fear nothing and no one.”
Rogan said the same thing last night, she thought, and realized she’d spoken aloud when Charmaine smiled. “Tell me about this Rogan,” she said. “He’s obviously important to you.”
Lee’s shoulders sagged. “Oh, Mom.”
“Come.” Charmaine took her hand, led her to the sofa. “Sit while I get the tea, then we’ll talk.”
Twenty minutes later and resting her head on the back of the couch, Lee said, “Now you know it all.” Oliver, Rogan, the crisis in her pregnancy, Stuart’s subterfuge. Her plans concerning Sky Dash.
Charmaine sat silent for a long minute. Finally she said, “I’ve never known you to give up so easily, Lee. You know this is a type of blackmail, what Stuart’s demanding?”
Lee sighed. “Whether it is or not, I can’t afford the court costs to fight him.”
“I have a nice little nest egg. It’s yours.”
So strong was the swell of relief it stung Lee’s eyes. “You’d do that?”
“Of course,” Charmaine retorted. “You’re my child, and that,” she gestured to Lee’s tummy, “is my grandchild. Did you really think I’d let that scum hurt you again?”
Lee reached out to grip her mother’s hand. When had she last told her mother she loved her? So long ago I can’t remember. “I love you, Mom,” she said, nose prickling.
Charmaine’s eyes lit. “I love you, too, baby. Now I’ll bet your Rogan has a really good lawyer friend who can cinch this up nice and tight for you.”
Lee slumped back. “He’s not my Rogan. Besides, he doesn’t want to see me again.”
“Is that what he said?”
“Not in so many words.” You don’t know me very well, he’d said and she’d agreed. What more was there to say?
Charmaine refilled their cups. “Hmm. From what you’ve told me, he’s not a man who takes things lightly.”
“Precisely.”
“Including asking a woman to marry him.” Charmaine’s eyebrows lifted. “Am I right?”
“Even if you were, Mom, I’ll always know it was my fault for not reporting Bill Norton.”
“Except it was Stuart’s responsibility. It was his company. Have you forgotten how he made you sign a pre-nup before your wedding? One that excluded your rights to any part of the company?”
“Doesn’t matter. I should’ve reported Norton.” Lee covered her face.
“You did.” Charmaine grabbed Lee’s wrists and tugged them down. Her eyes blazed blue fury. “You told the boss of the company. It was up to him to report the man. But he didn’t, which was his choice. This isn’t your fault, understand? Not your fault.”
Never before had Lee seen her mother so angry. For a moment she sat spellbound.
Charmaine went on: “For years I beat myself up over your daddy’s leaving. Maybe I should’ve cooked better meals. Maybe I should’ve been sexier in the bedroom. Maybe I shouldn’t have nagged him to get a better job. Maybe I should’ve loved him more. Bottom line, Lee? He chose to sever himself from us. He chose that option. Not me, not you. Only Steven Tait.”
Lee sat stunned. Charmaine climbed to her feet, paced in front of the couch. “I promised myself I would never tell you this, but you’re a grown woman, with a baby on the way and a man who loves you, waiting on that farm. Lee, your father had another family.”
“What?”
“He had a year-old son with another woman. They lived down in Portland. He told me he couldn’t live the lie anymore, couldn’t support two families.”
Mouth ajar, Lee gaped at her mother.
Charmaine shrugged. “He loved her.”
“And not us?”
“Not me. He loved you.”
“Well,” Lee said, anger taking root. “He had a peculiar way of showing it.”
Charmaine gazed at Lee before her mouth curved. “That savings account I mentioned? He opened it with five thousand dollars after you were born. Said to let it collect interest for a rainy day. I’d say that day has come, wouldn’t you?”
Chapter Twelve
A fter Lee left, Rogan couldn’t stay in the house, so he drove into town and sat at his office desk reviewing two cases he’d taken the previous Friday. One dealt with a property variance, the second was a messy divorce and custody case.
Amazing, he thought, how fast people require a lawyer when one’s available.
He lifted his head and stared at the door. Lee could use a good lawyer. If it weren’t for the conflict of interest…
For a long minute, he ruminated. Had her mother returned her to the apartment, or driven Lee to her childhood home?
He wanted to knock on the door across the landing. He wanted to see Lee. Most of all, he wanted to wrap her in his arms, say everything would be okay, that he had the answers to keep her plane, and would battle dragons to save Sky Dash.
He stayed seated and worked. He made and received calls, accepted three new cases, researched a point of law for Johnny, and put together an affidavit for a previous case from R
enton.
And he thought of Lee. Of the night they spent together, cuddled into each other, alert to nuances…heartbeats, breathing, heat. He remembered how she looked coming out of the guest room, tousled and sleepy-eyed, snug in his navy blue terry robe. How her long, freckled fingers dipped the teabag into the hot water she’d boiled. Watching her, with the memory of her delicate china swirling in his brain, Rogan had wondered if tea tasted differently in large, thick mugs like those in his kitchen cupboards.
During lunch, he changed into his running gear and, for an hour, took to the spongy, tree-shadowed trail Lee and her sisters walked the day Addie’s leg cramped.
And still he could not get her out of his head.
You might see me as a bad person, she had said, when all he saw was a woman of integrity.
At three o’clock, he drove to Danny’s school.
“Is Lee home?” the boy asked, scrambling into the backseat.
“No, son. She went home with her mom.”
“Aw. How come? Doesn’t she like us no more?”
I love you. There. Are you satisfied?
Rogan caught his son’s somber gaze in the rearview mirror. “She likes us.” More than.
“Is she coming back?”
“I hope so.”
“Can we go see her?”
“Not today.” Not until they sorted out the problems she believed stood between them.
Danny rode in silence as Rogan turned onto Shore Road. He wondered what mulled through his son’s head while the boy viewed the environment out the side window.
He didn’t have long to wait.
“It’s probably good Lee’s staying with her mom.” The rearview mirror reflected round brown eyes. “If I was sick I’d want you to stay home with me.” Pause. “That’s sorta like staying with a mom, right?”
Rogan swallowed. Memories of Darby could still pop up in unexpected ways. Sometimes, he welcomed them; sometimes, he wished them gone.
Today, he did not want to remember Darby. Not while his mind was full of Lee, and his chest aching with an emotion he was at a loss to clarify. Pure and simple, he wanted her back.
“Is it, Dad?” Danny repeated.
Ah, hell. How to explain the fine line of discrepancy? “Staying with either parent is good, son, because in most cases—in yours and Lee’s—both parents love and care for their children very much. Dads, though, might play videogames with their kid, maybe give him a kiss or two on the head—” his style “—whereas moms might read to him and do lots of cuddling.”
Again, Danny fell silent. “No offense, Dad,” he said in a voice Rogan didn’t recognize. “But when I’m sick, do you think we can ask Lee to stay over? I mean she bought me the digger, and she saved me from the loft, and tells stories and she smells really nice. Anyway,” he added, staring out the window. “I really, really like her. Don’t you?”
“Yeah, I do, Dan.” I’m crazy about her.
“Good. ’Cause I think she’d be a great mom. What do you think?”
Lee floated in a deep dream. She knew it was a dream because one moment she drifted above the courtroom, and in the next she faced the female judge, whose long black robe dwarfed her petite frame.
Either way, Lee knew Judge Judy was far from weak. Her hazel eyes glimmered behind wire-rim glasses as she surveyed the defense table where Stuart sat with a smirk across his lips.
Beside Lee, her attorney rose and spoke. “Your Honor, I would like to begin by—”
Stuart’s lawyer pushed to his feet, and it shocked Lee to see Bill Norton representing her ex. When had the pilot changed careers? she wondered, floating above the room again.
“Excuse me, Judge,” Norton said, “but that woman—” he pointed at Lee “—is a gold digger. Not only has she cheated on my client, Mr. Hershel, by having another man’s baby, but she’s taken Mr. Hershel’s most valuable plane without his permission. He’s now bankrupt. Oh, and the latest news is she’s shacked up with Rogan Matteo. God only knows what she’s planning to take from him!”
“Mr. Norton!” The judge whacked her gavel on her mahogany desk; behind her the flag shuddered. “You are out of line. Sit down before I throw you to the wolves.”
“No, Judge, the wolves say she’s at fault. I did not fly that plane drunk. She’s making up stories the way she made them up for Danny about her wonderful childhood.”
“Order, Mr. Norton.” Whack-whack!
“I am in order, Judge. Did you know her daddy left her? Did you know Stuart and Oliver and Rogan left her?
“Mr. Norton!”
“Even her baby left. Everyone leaves-leaves-leaves-leaves!”
Lee wrenched awake. Her heart flailed her ribs. Her lungs screamed for air. Inside her mouth flowed the iron taste of blood. Gingerly, she touched her tongue to the lip her teeth clamped.
A nightmare, she’d had a nightmare. Norton wasn’t alive. She wasn’t in a courtroom. No judge sat on the bench. Her baby…
She touched her abdomen. My baby’s okay.
Slowly, she waited for her pulse to calm, her vision to focus. Checking her wristwatch, she saw it was after midnight—and she lay in her childhood bed. After their talk over tea in the apartment, Charmaine had convinced Lee to stay with her in the little blue house where she’d grown from baby to woman.
Staring through the darkness, she contemplated the nightmare. For years she believed vivid dreams, the ones you remembered in detail, could tell you something if you read them close enough.
This one reeled in Technicolor with faces sharp and menacing.
Had the courtroom scene foretold a future, or an abridgment of her life?
Whatever, the dream illuminated one factor: nothing, absolutely nothing, mattered beyond her baby.
Stuart and his schemes could go to hell.
Rogan and his proposal…She would think of Rogan later, when her heart no longer ached this hard.
Right now, however, she needed to concentrate solely on making a home for her child. If that meant selling Sky Dash to the highest bidder in order to keep her business—her assets—out of the clutches of her ex-husband, so be it.
Thursday night, Rogan finished up the dinner dishes and called Johnny while Danny watched a sitcom.
“Hey, R.B.,” his younger brother said. “I was just about to call you. Got some good news.”
Rogan could imagine. Wasting no preliminaries, he said, “I need you to dump the lawsuit.”
Silence. Then, “You’re kidding, right?”
Rogan swiveled his desk chair around and gazed at the pink and orange aura the setting sun hung on the trees. “I’m dead serious.”
“Mind explaining?”
“Long story short, it’s been dragging me down for too long. I’m sick of it. I want to move on.”
“Well,” Johnny said. “That’s noble and all, but we’re this close—” Rogan imagined his brother creating an inch of space between thumb and index finger “—from getting a significant compensation. That’s why I was about to call. Hershel’s willing to meet our latest request.”
“As of when?”
“This morning. I was in court all day and didn’t get the news until I got back to the office a couple hours ago.”
Rogan’s hand clenched the phone. Of course Hershel would roll over and submit; Lee probably agreed to the jerk’s demands. Biting back a curse at the thought, Rogan said, “Fine, tell Hershel we’ll take his original offer. The one from two years ago.”
“Are you nuts? Now is not the time to start waffling—”
“It has nothing to do with waffling. The whole thing’s been a ball and chain.” He sighed. “I can’t do it anymore, Johnny. It’s twisted me inside and out and I just want to put an end to that part of my life. Danny’s finding friends here, he’s smiling and excited to go to school, and I’m enjoying my profession for the first time in years.”
Again, silence hummed through the line. “You’ve found a woman.”
“Yeah,” Rogan admitted. �
��But that’s another story.”
“I got all night.”
Rogan exhaled slowly. “All right,” he said. “Don’t interrupt until I’m finished.” And then he told his brother about Lee, how he met her, why she walked away last Monday—and everything in between. When he was done, the only sound he heard was the wind gusting past the corners of the house.
Quietly, Johnny said, “Lee Tait is the source I told you about, the one I was attempting to track down for an interview.”
Rogan swallowed. “Well, now you can forget about trying to contact her.”
Another beat of silence. “So. Correct me if I’m wrong. You think she’s decided to trade her seaplane, so the bastard can sell it to pay the amount we’re currently demanding.”
“Pretty much.”
“Except you’re assuming this is her real intention.”
“I know Lee.” Simply saying her name sent an ache through Rogan’s bones.
“Huh. It’s barely been a month since you met her, Ro. And she’s going to help a man in conflict with her ex-husband?”
“I know Lee,” he repeated stubbornly. He couldn’t explain it. He simply felt her suffering with every cell in his body. The blame she harbored for that plane crash matched his own.
“All right,” Johnny said finally. “If the original offer is what you want, consider it done. Later, though, I’ll be putting out the word about Abner Air. They should face some music over this.”
Rubbing a hand down his whiskered cheeks, Rogan drew a long breath. “Thanks, Johnny. I owe you.”
“You don’t owe me a damned thing. But I want to meet this Lee Tait. I want to meet the woman who’s changed your perspective on life.”
Rogan felt his lips curve. “If she’ll have me.”
“Why wouldn’t she have you? After all,” Johnny teased, “you are my brother.” On a more serious note he added, “You’re a good guy, R.B. You always were.”
“So are you, li’l brother.”
Johnny issued a soft chuckle. “I’m the family black sheep, or did you forget?”
“I form my own opinions,” Rogan said.
“Good. I look forward to meeting your Lee.”
And Baby Makes Four Page 15