Dreaming of You and Me

by Kristy Tate

  Donna placed her hand over her heart as if to slow its beating. “I called 911, but they said there’s been a terrible mudslide that’s closed the 101. Nine homes have been destroyed and dozens are injured.” Donna gasped a breath. “They said you should drive her to the hospital in Safe Harbor because the emergency centers in Ventura are overwhelmed.”

  Cole and Irena exchanged looks. “Then that’s what we’ll have to do.”

  “What about her family?” Mercedes asked.

  “Donna, did you call her husband?”

  Donna nodded. “But—ah—”

  Irena cut her off. “I know.” She turned to Mercedes to explain. “Darrel’s husband is an epileptic and can’t drive.”

  “But he’ll still want to be with her,” Cole said. “Why don’t I drive Darrel while you pick up her husband?”

  Irena nodded.

  A pale red head that Cole didn’t recognize stepped forward. “Can I go with you?” she asked softly. “I’m Tara, Darrel’s niece.”

  Cole stared at her. With startling red hair, almost translucent skin, and pale blue eyes, she looked nothing like sturdy Darrel.

  “I’m staying with her and Uncle Art, temporarily, and offered to help with the music,” Tara said.

  “So, you could pick up your uncle?” Irena asked.

  “No. I also don’t drive.” Tara grimaced. “Sorry.”

  “This is good,” Irena told Cole. “You need someone to go with you, in case...”

  Cole stood. “Let’s go. Hector, help me get Mrs. Poole in my car.” He reached into his pocket and tossed his keys to Donna. “Can you pull my car up to the front drive?”

  NORA SAT IN THE EMERGENCY room of the Safe Harbor hospital waiting for her mom, or a doctor, or someone to resurface and give her an update on her dad. She blinked back tears as she stared absently at a magazine, feeling useless. But this feeling wasn’t new to her. This was exactly how she’d always felt in her family—like the third, unwanted wheel. But now, not only did she feel unwanted, she also felt guilty. Had she caused her dad’s heart attack? Setting the magazine down, she wandered to the window and watched the rain streak down the glass.

  A TV on the wall flashed images of the devastating mudslide that had plowed through thirteen homes and closed the 101 freeway. It reminded her that many people were having a much worse day than she was, but this thought didn’t comfort her. A familiar car splashed through the parking lot and pulled up to the curb.

  Nora watched, stunned, as Cole and a frail, redheaded beauty jumped from his truck. The redhead opened the back -passenger door while Cole called to an emergency attendant, who responded by pushing a wheelchair to the curb. EMTs came to help someone out of the car.

  Irena! But no. Someone else. Someone heavier. Darrel Poole.

  Nora went to the doors to watch but carefully stayed out of the way as the attendants wheeled Darrel into the emergency room and the redhead followed. Cole got back in his car. Would he leave? She desperately wanted him to stay.

  If he stayed or went, she would tell him her secret. Even if it cost her job, or irreparably changed her relationship with Cole or Irena, suddenly the secret became too much to carry on her own.

  Darrel, with her eyes closed and her face gray, didn’t notice Nora. The redhead spared her little more than a glance. Nora didn’t recognize her, either. Was she a student? She looked like a teenager, but Nora was sure she would have remembered the girl’s distinctive appearance.

  Despite the rain, Nora sat on a bench outside the emergency room doors. An overhanging provided shelter from the rain but not the cold. Still, she would rather be outside than amidst the emergency room’s bustle and suffering. She would have to keep an eye out for her mom or a doctor, but she didn’t want to miss Cole.

  He ran toward her, holding a jacket over his head like an inadequate umbrella.

  “Cole!” she called out to him.

  He hadn’t seen her, but he froze at the sound of her voice. Then his gaze found her and he joined her beneath the overhang. “Nora?” Once beneath the overhang, he lowered his jacket and shook off the water. “What are you doing here?” He searched her face. “Are you crying?”

  She bit back a sob. She hadn’t talked to him in over a week. At first, she was had been so consumed with the Apex drama, and then she was had been embarrassed.

  He put his hand on her shoulder. “What’s wrong?”

  She stood and he gathered her in his arms.

  “What is it?”

  “My dad had a heart attack.” She leaned against his chest and listened to his heart. He felt warm, safe and solid.

  “Oh, I’m sorry.” He brushed the top of her head with his chin. “Is he going to be okay?”

  “I’m not sure...but even if he gets better, nothing is ever really going to be okay. My parents will hate me.” She couldn’t look at him. “Well, maybe not my dad, because he’s not the hating type, but I don’t think my mother will ever forgive me.” She bit back a sob. “And you and your mom...you’re going to hate me, too.”

  He pulled away from her and gazed into her eyes. “I don’t believe that.”

  She sniffed and nodded. “It’s true. I lied to you. And Irena.”

  He took her hand and tugged her back onto the bench. “Why don’t you tell me why you think I could ever hate you.”

  She swallowed hard and took his hand. “In August at my father’s retirement party, I found a photo album with pictures of my mom. The date stamped on the back was a few days before my birth, but my mom wasn’t pregnant in those pictures. She was wearing a bikini! I tried to talk to my parents but they left immediately on a sailing trip for five months. Every time I tried to talk to them, they put me off.” She blinked back tears. “That’s not unusual, by the way. They’ve always been distant, especially my mom. I just thought that was the way she is. What I didn’t know was that she had a reason to hate me.”

  Cole used his thumb to wipe a tear from her cheek. “I’m sure she doesn’t hate you. And I still don’t see what this has to do with me and my mom.”

  “A friend of my mom’s told me that Irena is my birth mom.”

  “What?”

  “That’s why we couldn’t date! I thought you were my brother! And that’s why I took the job at your school.”

  “None of this makes sense,” Cole said in a hard voice as he dropped her hand.

  “That’s why I kissed you as soon as I found out you aren’t Irena’s biological son. Because it was what I wanted to do from the very first time I saw you.” Nora raked her fingers through her hair. “Oh, I was so confused.” She let out a deep breath. “But I feel better now. I’m not good with secrets. I’m sorry, I’m sure this has been a lot for you to process.”

  Cole stared out at the parking lot without saying anything.

  “Miss Lance?” A middle-eastern doctor in blue scrubs with a stethoscope around his neck came out the doors.

  Nora stood. “I’m Miss Lance. Or, I was. I’m Ms. Tomas, now.”

  “Your father would like to see you,” the doctor said.

  “He’s okay then?” Nora asked, her voice catching.

  “He has a blockage in his left anterior descending artery. We’re going to operate as soon as we can, but he wants to see you before the surgery.”

  Nora moved to follow the doctor, but Cole reached out and took her hand. “Nora.” He searched her eyes. “I could never hate you.”

  COLE REMAINED ON THE bench. Nora’s revelation explained so much about her behavior, but her story didn’t match up with the mother he’d thought he knew. Huddled beneath his rain-soaked jacket, he shivered, not because he was cold, but because he worried that his whole life was about to turn upside down.

  He pulled his phone out of his pocket and pressed the Find Your Friends app. Irena would arrive soon. Should he tell her what Nora had told him, or should he let that be a conversation between Nora and Irena? If what Nora had said was true, he knew that Irena would not hate Nora, but embrace her. Ir
ena’s supposed abandonment of a baby daughter was the one piece of the puzzle that didn’t make sense.

  The Irena he knew and loved would never, willingly, turn her back on her own child.

  Cole stood when he saw his mom’s car pull into the hospital parking lot. Irena drove to the curb to let Darrel’s husband climb out.

  “How is she?” Art Poole asked. He was round, red-cheeked, a Santa-of-a-man. The only thing missing was the beard and red suit.

  Cole was embarrassed that he didn’t know. “Tara is inside,” he told Mr. Poole. After he watched the middle-aged man lumber through the wide doors, before Cole climbed into the car beside his mom.

  “You don’t know how she is, do you?” Irena asked.

  Cole shook his head.

  “But something else is bothering you?”

  Cole nodded.

  Irena put the Camry in gear and steered the car to an empty parking space. “I can’t answer all your questions. I wish I could. But my guesses will be better than yours.”

  I’m flying over an ocean in search of my parents and their yacht, The Dream Catcher. In the water below me, dolphins play in the rolling tide and chatter. My parents’ boat is on the horizon, but even though I’m flying at a tremendous pace—the wind whips through my hair and tugs on my clothes—the yacht remains the same distance away. I can’t close the distance.

  From Nora’s Dream Journal

  CHAPTER 12

  Irena shut off the car and faced Cole. “Please don’t judge me harshly. I’m deeply embarrassed about this chapter of my life.”

  Cole smirked. “I’ve had a few of my own embarrassing moments....”

  “But you didn’t have an affair with a married man—at least not as far as I know.”

  “True,” Cole conceded.

  “I didn’t know he, Nora’s father, was married, at first. I should have ended it as soon as I learned about Katheryn, but by that time I was already in love with him.”

  “How did you meet?”

  “He was a young hotshot attorney working for the Fergusons. A laborer was injured on the school property and tried to sue. ...Weatherford and I spent a lot of time together because the laborer only spoke Spanish and the Fergusons asked me to translate. I didn’t know he was married,” she repeated.

  “Mom,” Cole squeezed her hand, “it’s okay.”

  “It’s not okay. It’s actually a really terrible story. I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Weatherford came to visit her—we had ended things by this time—but he still wanted to see the baby. He told me that Katheryn wasn’t able to have children and that they wanted joint custody. I thought that seemed fair. Then Weatherford had an overseas opportunity in Italy and they wanted to take Angela with them. Letting her go was the most painful thing I’ve ever done, but eventually, I realized that he and Kathryn could provide a stable, loving home, where I struggled.” Her face paled and she gripped the steering wheel. “What could I do? In those days, we didn’t have the internet. I had to rely on snail mail. All of my letters were returned unopened. After three years, Katheryn called me and ask that I no longer try to contact Angela or Weatherford again. She told me that if I did, she would make sure I was deported. Remember, at that time I wasn’t a U.S. citizen. Also, I didn’t want anything to do with Weatherford. I considered him a tragic mistake.

  “By this time, I had met your father and I was so in love with him and with you and Talia. I still thought about Angela every day and longed to meet her. After the invention of the internet, I followed her career and felt I had made the wise choice by stepping out of her life when I saw what an amazing person she’d become. While I knew Weatherford would make sure she had the finest education and all of life’s advantages, I still ached for her. When she applied for the position at the school What could I do? How could I let another opportunity to love her pass by?”

  She sucked in a deep breath before continuing. “It’s funny, isn’t it? She’s never met my mother and yet there are moments where I see my mom in her movements or hear my mother’s tone in her words.”

  “She’s afraid you will hate her,” Cole said.

  “Hate her? I could never hate her.”

  She sobbed and Cole reached out and took her in his arms. She felt small and fragile. He kissed her cheek and for a moment, remembered when she had been the strongest member of their small family. “I love you,” he whispered in her ear.

  “I love you, too. You, Talia, your father, you’ve made my world complete.” She pulled away so she could look him in the eye. “And Nora, she’ll be another person to love. We’re lucky to have found her.”

  “What if she’s not your daughter?”

  “It seems unlikely...We are so much alike, in temperament, if not looks.” Irena shrugged. “Yet, if she isn’t, we can still love her.”

  NORA FOLLOWED THE DOCTOR down the hall, past the open rooms. He wore padded sneakers, but Nora’s shoes clicked as they walked. Antiseptic hung in the air. A man nearby screamed in pain. A nurse accompanied a shuffling woman in a flowy hospital gown with pink socks and an attached IV pole down the hall. The doctor rounded one corner and then another. They passed a nurses’ station before turning into an open door.

  Her dad looked gray and bloodless against the stark white linens. Her mom stood at the window, looking out at the rain pinging against the glass. The lights of an ambulance flashed red and white and cast a wave of reflection on the parking lot’s rain sheen.

  “Dad,” Nora said as she picked up his cold hand, “how are you feeling?”

  He rolled his head toward her before opening his eyes. “I’ve been better.” He licked his lips. “I need to tell you something.”

  “Weatherford,” Katheryn said, her voice a warning. “Must we do this right now?” She folded her arms across her chest and glared at Nora.

  “We should have done this twenty-eight years ago,” Dad said.

  Nora took a seat in the faux leather chair beside the bed. She tried to ignore the machines and their flashing lights that were attached to her father and their flashing lights. She steeled her voice so that it wouldn’t sound accusing. “It’s okay, Dad. I know about Irena.”

  He closed his eyes as if a wave of pain had hit him. “It’s was a mistake, but a lucky one, because it gave me you.”

  Katheryn snorted.

  “Katheryn, can you excuse us?” Dad said.

  Katheryn strode to his bedside. “I’m not leaving,” she said through clenched teeth. “I’ve put up with you for thirty-five years and if you want to get rid of me, you’ll have to die first.”

  Dad laughed. “Good threat.”

  Katheryn’s lips twitched, and it hit Nora that her parents really did love each other in their own reserved way.

  “I’ll be outside,” Katheryn said. “Don’t talk about me!” She crossed the room and closed the door with a sharp click.

  Dad closed his eyes. “She’s a bitch,” he said without rancor. “But she’s mine. Our marriage—I’m sorry you got caught in the middle of it.”

  “Dad.” Nora didn’t know what else to say.

  “I think, at first, Katheryn kept you out of a spirit of revenge. Keeping you from Irena was the best way Katheryn knew how to hurt her—although, Irena wasn’t to blame for the affair. It was my fault. I took advantage of Irena. She was young, beautiful, sweet...so charming. Whereas your mother was a pit-bull attorney. Did you know they used to call her Killer Katheryn?” A smile flickered across his face. “She was a dynamo. Still is.”

  “Why didn’t you ever tell me about Irena?”

  “I wanted to protect you. Irena had her own life. A new husband, ready-made children, a good job. I didn’t want to ruin anything for her, but I kept tabs on her. I’m proud of her, of what she’s become. She started with so little. I wish I could tell her so.”

  “You can,” Nora said. “She’s here.”

  “Here?” Dad’s eyes flew open, but he closed them. “You can’t let her see me like this.”


  “Dad, you’ve had a heart attack,” Nora said.

  He waved a hand without opening his eyes. “Get your mom. I need your mom.”

  Nora hurried to the hall. She found her mother standing before a large picture window.

  “Did you upset him?” Katheryn asked.

  “I didn’t mean to,” Nora said.

  Katheryn answered by walking away. She went to the Nora’s father’s room and closed the door behind her with a sharp click, effectively closing Nora out. Again.

  COLE FOUND NORA IN the waiting room on the third floor. She had her back to him and her gaze fixed on the TV coverage of the local mudslides. Cole touched her shoulder. “Would you like to get some dinner?” he asked.

  Nora shot a glance at the skinny woman with a frown etched on her face sitting across the room.

  The woman blinked. “Who are you?” she demanded.

  “Cole Rowlings.” Cole guessed that this was Nora’s mother. He crossed the room and extended his hand.

  The woman took it and studied him. “Why is your name familiar?”

  “You probably know my mother, Irena Rowlings.”

  “You’re her son?”

  Cole bristled, but he schooled his voice. “Stepson, actually.”

  “What are you to Nora?” the woman demanded.

  Cole flashed Nora a smile. “I’m not sure. That’s one of the reasons I want to take her to dinner.”

  “Well, you might as well go,” the woman said. “They said the surgery could last hours.”

  “Are you sure you don’t mind?” Nora asked.

  The woman waved her hand for an answer.

  Nora’ ‘s shoulders drooped, but she said, “Dinner would be lovely. Thank you.”

  Cole took her hand and led Nora out of the hospital. The rain had finally eased to a slow drizzle. Hand in hand they walked to the edge of the parking lot, where the cement met a tangle of bushes. After the commotion of the hospital, the air held a quiet reverence. The cloud-shrouded sun balanced on the edge of the horizon, threatening to disappear.