by Susan Wiggs
“I care for your mother,” John admitted, “but as I said earlier, this isn’t your business. What’s between your mother and me is between your mother and me.” Now, that was profound!
Paul seemed to accept that. “I realize it isn’t my place to be asking you these kinds of questions,” he said, “and I apologize for stepping over the bounds, but we don’t have a lot of time.”
As it was, they were scheduled to vacate the house in a few days. “I need to be sure you won’t hurt her—not after my dad.”
“Paul.” John felt the boy’s pain at the loss of his father and longed to reassure him. He leaned forward and held his gaze. “Your father died in an unfortunate accident. No man can guarantee how long he’ll live. I can’t tell you when I’ll die. Loving someone is risky—”
“I’m not talking about my dad dying,” Paul blurted. He clenched his fists and his eyes were wet with tears. “He was cheating on my mom, cheating on me. It’d devastate her if she knew.”
It felt as if all the oxygen had been sucked from the room. Paul knew about his father’s affair!
“Don’t ever tell her,” the boy warned, his soft brown eyes near panic. “It’d destroy her.”
Mother was protecting son and son was protecting mother.
“Are you sure she doesn’t already know?” John asked gently.
“Positive. Why would my dad do something like that?” Paul cried, and his voice cracked. “She loved my father.”
“I know she did.”
Paul nodded. “She needs someone to be there for her. So far, that’s been me. Well, friends, too, like Mary Jane. But mostly me.” He gave a quick shrug. “I’m going to get my driver’s license next year,” he added with the assurance of a young man who’d mastered the skill of parallel parking. “In a few years I’ll graduate from high school.”
“And be off to college,” John said, yearning to comfort Paul and not knowing how to do it without embarrassing him. The boy struggled with his composure, and John realized Paul Graham was mature beyond his years.
Paul nodded. “I don’t want to think of Mom living alone.”
“In other words, you’d like her to remarry.”
“I would,” he said in all seriousness. “Someone I like and respect. Someone I trust, who’ll make her happy, and who’ll never cheat on her the way my father did.” He hesitated, gazing confidently at John. “Someone like you, Mr. Livingstone.”
Someone like you. To think one of the greatest compliments of his life would come from a teenage boy.
“She needs you,” Paul continued, “and if you don’t mind my saying so, you and Nikki need us, too.”
John couldn’t argue with the truth.
“Now, what’s it to be?” Paul asked.
Following the evening meal, Beth puttered around the kitchen, putting away leftovers. She was going to miss this kitchen, with its spaciousness and state-of-the-art conveniences. But it was far more than the kitchen she’d be thinking about in the months to come. This summer would stay in her memory. Rainshadow Lodge, the beach, exploring the island. Their day-long expeditions. And, most of all, John Livingstone. He and his rebellious daughter had touched her heart.
“Hi!” Nikki sauntered into the room as though she hadn’t a care in the world. She pulled out a stool at the island and plopped herself down.
“Hello, there,” Beth said, looking for space in the refrigerator for the bowl of leftover green salad.
“Have you seen Paul lately?” Nikki asked.
“No, I can’t say I have.” Her voice echoed from inside the massive refrigerator as she rearranged the middle shelf.
“He’s talking with my dad.”
“Oh.” It seemed odd that Nikki would ask her a question when she already knew the answer.
“Don’t you want to know what they’re talking about?”
“Do I?” The twelve-year-old seemed to have all the answers.
“I think you should,” Nikki said.
Beth glanced over her shoulder and saw that the girl was slouched forward on the stool, both elbows on the countertop.
“Paul’s asking my dad if he is interested in marrying you.”
“What?” The salad tumbled out of her hands and crashed to the floor. The ceramic bowl shattered, and lettuce, tomatoes and other fresh vegetables colorfully decorated the tiles.
“Paul’s asking my dad if—”
“I heard you the first time,” Beth said as she reached for a broom. This was a joke. It had to be, and she’d fallen for it hook, line and sinker. “You’re kidding, right?” she asked, sweeping the broken bowl and salad vegetables into the dustpan and dumping it all in the garbage.
“No, I’m serious.”
“Nikki, this is crazy.” Beth’s face went pink with embarrassment.
“What would you say if my dad does decide to propose?”
“He won’t! Nikki, why in the world is Paul doing anything so crazy?”
“It isn’t only Paul. I’m involved in this, too. We both are. You didn’t leave us any choice. We had to do something. It’s fairly obvious you two were desperately in need of help.”
Beth pressed the heel of her hand against her forehead as she tried to assimilate what was happening. “Help?” she repeated. “What do you mean, help?”
“You were both going to walk away as if this summer meant nothing. Paul and I couldn’t let that happen.”
Beth sank onto the bench in the breakfast nook, not sure her legs would support her.
“Paul and I talked everything over, and we realized we had to act quickly.” Nikki took a banana from the fruit bowl and peeled it. “You love my dad, don’t you?” she asked nonchalantly. “I…”
“You don’t need to answer that if it embarrasses you,” Nikki said, smiling benevolently. “Besides, I already know you do.”
Beth would’ve liked to say something witty, but she couldn’t get her tongue to work. Not that she even had a comeback, smart or otherwise.
“I realized not long ago how much I wanted my mom and dad to get back together, but it’s not going to happen and I have to accept that. Which means Dad will eventually remarry…and I think you’d make a wonderful stepmom.”
Beth smiled weakly at the compliment.
“Besides, you’re still young enough to have babies, if you wanted. You do, don’t you?” she asked, and stuffed half the banana in her mouth.
“Where are Paul and your father?” Beth demanded. She had to put an end to this before it got any more out of hand. She could only imagine what John must be thinking.
“I’d baby-sit,” Nikki said, her mouth full of banana.
“Baby-sit?”
“My little brother or sister, but I’d rather you had a girl. I’ve wanted a baby sister forever.”
Babies. This had gone on long enough. “Nikki, I’m honored that you’d want me as a stepmother, but—”
The kitchen door opened. John and her son stepped inside.
Paul gave Nikki a thumbs-up and she returned the gesture.
“Paul, I want to talk to you this instant,” Beth insisted, then added. “Alone.”
“Sure, Mom, but first—”
“But first,” John interrupted, “I need a few minutes of your time.”
“Mine?” Beth asked, flattening her palm against her chest.
He nodded, then added. “Alone.”
Eleven
Mary Jane: So you’re going to marry John Livingstone, after all.
Beth: I didn’t say that.
Mary Jane: No. Paul did, and he should know.
“John,” Beth said after Paul and Nikki had left the kitchen. She pressed her hands to her cheeks, mortified to the very marrow of her bones. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am.”
“I’m not.”
She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “You can’t possibly mean…” Rather than put words in his mouth, she clamped hers closed and decided to let him talk.
“I take it Nikki’s be
en discussing the idea of you and me getting married?”
She nodded. “She volunteered to baby-sit.”
“Baby-sit?”
“Later.” She motioned for him to go on. “You’d better tell me what Paul had to say.”
“Simply that I need you in my life.”
She wasn’t sure how to comment or if she should.
“I don’t know if Paul’s given much thought to a career, but I think the boy would make a fine lawyer. His argument was very persuasive.”
“You aren’t actually considering…I mean…”
“That’s up to you,” John said.
“Me?”
“He’s right. I do need you, Beth.”
“But…” Her vocabulary seemed to be reduced to words of one syllable.
“Yes?” he urged when she didn’t immediately continue.
“Marriage?”
“Well, that might be putting the cart before the horse.”
She felt a flood of relief, replaced almost immediately by a surge of disappointment. “I…Naturally it’s too soon. I mean, it’s only been three weeks, and—”
“Could you love me, Beth?” he asked. His eyes were tender and vulnerable, almost as if he feared her response and at the same time hungered to know the truth.
Her reply was immediate. “Yes,” she whispered. She was halfway there and struggling to keep from falling head over heels for him as it was. “Could you…love me?” she asked.
His smile told her everything she needed to know.
John held out his arms and she walked into his embrace. He hadn’t so much as kissed her when there was a knock at the kitchen door.
“Can we come in yet?” Nikki shouted from the other side.
“Can they?” John asked. He’d slid his arms around her waist and smiled down at her.
“What did I just agree to?” Beth asked.
“To love me and my daughter.”
“No problem.” She smiled up at him, knowing her feelings shone from her eyes.
“To share my life.”
“Marriage?” she asked again.
“In time, but I think it’d be better if we took a few months to really get to know each other first.”
“I agree.” They were older, more mature, and with maturity came a certain wisdom. Neither of them needed to rush into a second marriage, not with the numerous complications they already faced.
“Dad?” Nikki shouted. “At least tell us what’s happening. We have a right to know.”
“Hold on,” John called back.
“Nikki mentioned another child,” Beth said, her eyes avoiding his. John had no way of knowing how much she’d yearned for a second child. Jim hadn’t been keen on the idea and found one excuse after another to put her off.
“Are you interested in having more children?” he asked, his face intent.
She nodded eagerly.
John’s returning grin was bright enough to rival the sun. “Me, too.”
“Where would we live?”
“I have a job offer in Seattle,” he said to her astonishment. “Should be firmed up this week.”
That was a possibility she hadn’t even considered. Living in Seattle…
“Mom.” Paul’s impatient voice sounded from the other side of the door.
“All in good time,” she promised him, “all in good time.”
“Do you think I should accept it?” John asked.
“Well, moving to L.A. would be one option. Mary Jane and her family live there,” she said, thinking out loud. They’d been friends almost their entire lives, and being closer to her definitely appealed to Beth. But starting over with John on fresh ground held an even stronger appeal. “I like the idea of moving to Seattle.”
“Paul said—”
“Dad,” Nikki complained loudly. “Just how long is this going to take? You love Beth and you know it.”
John leaned his forehead against Beth’s. “Why do I have the feeling those two are doing their best to keep us physically frustrated?”
Beth threw her arms around his neck. “Kiss me first. Just once.”
He complied, slanting his mouth over hers in a kiss that was slow and thorough. When he lifted his head, Beth moaned in protest. She never wanted it to end. Then he was kissing her again with a need that had grown even more intense.
“They’re kissing,” Nikki shouted, and hurled open the kitchen door. “You’ve obviously agreed to something!” she declared, arms akimbo.
“We’ve agreed not to let kids meddle in our lives,” John told them. He and Beth stood side by side, arms wrapped around each other’s waists.
Beth caught a wink between John and her son.
“When’s the wedding?” Nikki asked.
John and Beth looked at each other. “We don’t know yet,” Beth answered.
“When will you?” Nikki wasn’t giving up easily.
Again John and Beth exchanged looks. “Soon,” John promised.
“Soon for the wedding? Or soon you’ll know?”
“I think we could easily have two attorneys in the family,” Beth whispered.
John grinned and dropped a quick kiss on her lips. “Yes, to both,” he assured his daughter.
Nikki and Paul shouted with joy and exchanged a high five.
“I told you all they needed was someone to point them in the right direction,” Nikki reminded him, as though the whole thing had been her idea.
Beth felt a smile touch the corners of her mouth. “I suggest we save the debates for later. As it is, there’s plenty to decide and even more to discuss.”
“Why don’t we all sit down and talk this out?” John suggested.
“That’s what you said the day we arrived,” Nikki remembered. She slid into the booth and patted the empty seat beside her for her dad.
Saturday night Beth found her son sitting on the beach long after midnight. “I wondered where you’d gone,” she said, lowering herself onto the sand next to him.
“I was just thinking.”
It was their last night at Rainshadow Lodge, and everything was packed for the trip out in the morning. Their last two days in the state had been spent exploring downtown Seattle. They’d ridden the monorail, gone up to the observation deck of the Space Needle, even toured underground Seattle. By all rights, Paul should be exhausted.
“Mom,” Paul said, his voice little more than a whisper, “were you and Dad happy?”
She didn’t know what had prompted that question. “I thought we were,” she whispered back.
His chest heaved with a sigh as he turned to study her face in the moonlight. He frowned, and Beth raised her hand to cup his jaw, staring at him, noting his hurt and anger.
“How long have you known?” she asked, trying to keep her voice even.
He hesitated. “I…saw Dad with her about a month before the accident.”
Beth swallowed tightly and closed her eyes against the unexpected flash of pain. “I…wanted to protect you.”
“I didn’t want you to know. I was afraid…”
“Of what?” she prodded, seeing her son struggle with the words.
“I don’t understand why he did it,” Paul blurted. “She wasn’t even pretty.”
“Paul…Paul.” She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tight, understanding that, in betraying her, Jim had also betrayed his son’s trust and allegiance.
“Sometimes I think I hate him.”
“Your father had his faults,” she told him, and kissed the top of his head. “I can’t—won’t—defend his affair, but I can tell you this with complete and utter confidence. He loved you, Paul. You made him so very proud.”
She felt the emotional conflict within her son and thought for a moment that he might break down and cry. He stiffened with the pain, then regained his composure and nodded. “I loved him, too.”
“So did I,” Beth whispered, and hugged her son close to her heart.
“Are you ready?” Mary Jane asked, openin
g the door to the master bedroom. Beth and Paul had moved into the Seattle house just that week.
Beth cast one last glance at her reflection in the full-length mirror and nodded. She doubted any bride had ever been more ready for her husband than she was for John. So much had changed in the past few months. Her house had been sold. His, too. A new job for him and one for her, with the same hotel chain that had hired her in St. Louis. A new start for them both. And a new start for Paul and Nikki, who’d helped bring all of this about.
“I’ve never known anyone to put together a wedding as fast as the two of you,” Mary Jane said as she handed Beth the bridal bouquet.
“It was either marry the man or hand over my life savings to the telephone company. Besides, we’re in love and we didn’t want to spend the Christmas holidays apart.”
Someone knocked gently on the door, and Nikki entered the bedroom. “He’s a nervous wreck.”
“Your dad?”
“No, Paul. He’s never been a best man before. I’ve never been a maid of honor, but I don’t feel like I’m going to throw up. Are we ready to leave for the church or not?”
“Ready,” Mary Jane answered, and dabbed at her eyes.
“Mary Jane,” Nikki chastised.
“Don’t mind me,” Beth’s friend sobbed. “I always cry at weddings.”
Dave met the small troupe at the bottom of the stairs. “Your chariot awaits you,” he said, and made a courtly gesture toward the front door. A stretch limo was parked outside.
“By the way,” he asked as Beth swept past him. “Where’s the honeymoon taking place?”
She didn’t get a chance to respond. Nikki answered for her. “Rainshadow Lodge, of course. Where else?”
ISLAND TIME
Susan Wiggs
Dear Reader,
Before I became a writer, I was a teacher, so I never really lost my childlike anticipation of that magical time of year known as “summer.” For this reason, I wanted to bring that special feeling into the story Island Time. I’m also delighted to have the opportunity to be published with two of my favorite authors and dearest friends, Debbie Macomber and Jill Barnett.