Everyone hugged Adrienne and welcomed her home. Iris stuck a piece of pineapple in Adrienne’s mouth before she could say a word. I would have been overwhelmed by the attention, but Adrienne took it in stride. She reveled in all the hugs and kisses and patiently accepted every morsel of food that Iris fed her.
When the fervor died down a bit, Adrienne and I escaped to our cottage to shower and dress. The cottage had been cleaned and everything was back in place. I wouldn’t have known it had been ransacked if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. Iris pulled me to the side when we arrived and told me that Mom and Wanda had spent a day cleaning it up. Jeff and Dad repaired the walls at her house, and Mom and Wanda worked their cleaning magic on it, as well.
“Are you sure you’re up for this tonight?” I turned on the water for Adrienne’s shower.
“I’m looking forward to it,” she said as she stripped away her clothes. “I want to thank everyone that searched for me, and especially those who were here for you.”
I swallowed hard fighting back the emotion, and she pulled me into her arms. “I felt your sorrow and fear. Sometimes it was almost too much to bear. Often I was so focused on what you were feeling that I forgot about my pain.”
I broke down then, and in between sobs, I tried to explain. “I couldn’t search for you. I was more of a hindrance because of my leg, so I had to sit here and wait. I felt so pathetic and useless. And you were laying in a cave with no water, food, or even light, and you still worried about what I was feeling.”
Adrienne held me tighter, despite my stepping on her toes with my cast. “Sweetie, you’re missing the point. I felt the depth of your love, and it was like a life raft to me. You were my hope and encouragement.”
I looked at her in amazement. “How is it that you can always make me feel incredibly special?”
“Because you are,” she said with a smile. “Now get in the shower with me, you stink.”
After our shower, she helped me dress around the cast, and I gently rubbed antiseptic cream over her wounds before replacing the dressings. What a couple we made. Me on crutches and her looking like a patchwork quilt with all the bandages. But we were together and that’s all that mattered to me.
“You promised me you’d never take this off,” I said and fastened the bracelet I’d given her.
“And I never will again,” she promised with a kiss.
People from all around the island gathered at our inn. We had the grills going, and the smell of barbecue permeated the air. Adrienne moved through the crowd to give out hugs and kisses and thanked everyone personally.
Mom came to stand beside me and wrapped an arm around my waist. “I’ll never worry about you being on this island again. You and Adrienne are well-loved and cared for here.”
“They’re wonderful people, Mom. Except for a few bad apples, the people of this island are some of the most loving in the world. I consider myself blessed to be among them.”
“I can see why Gloria fell in love with this place and you, too.” Mom looked out over the crowd.
“Thank you for taking care of the cottage and Iris’s house. You don’t know how much that means to me.”
“You’re welcome, and thank you for the week that we’re about to enjoy here. I can’t wait to go down to the beach and explore.”
Since their arrival, my family had been focused on the search for Adrienne, then getting the inn back together. They hadn’t had a chance to enjoy all the island had to offer. They deserved a week in paradise, and I planned to spoil them rotten.
Dad joined us with a beer in one hand and a chicken leg in the other. Barbecue sauce dripped down onto the leg of his Bermuda shorts and he barely raised an eyebrow. It was amazing to see him so relaxed.
“Iris is an amazing cook,” he said after a bite. “If I wasn’t already married…” He let the sentence trail off with a grin.
“Watch it, boy,” Mom warned playfully. She wrapped an arm around his waist and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
“Colie’s arranging for us to go out on his boat and do some fishing. Would you like to come?” Dad asked Mom, then looked at me. “Jeff and Wanda are going. Would you and Adrienne like to join us?”
“Let me think about that,” I said, looking down at my leg and crutches. “I’m not sure if my good leg is a sea leg.”
“I understand,” he said with a nod. “Think about it. We’d love to have y’all join us.”
I stood back and watched my family. Mom and Dad seemed to be closer than I ever remembered. Though Jeff still teased me, it was good-natured. They all came running when I needed help, and not one time did they complain about searching for Adrienne all those grueling hours. I couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment, but we’d become a family again, a loving family. It made me sad that Gloria was not here to be a part of it, but then again, maybe she was.
The party went well into the night, and after Adrienne and I gave thank you speeches, we were drained. We held out as long as we could, then retired for the evening. As we lay cuddled together in bed, we could hear the music and laughter in the distance. It was such a wonderful change from the dismal silence that filled the inn while Adrienne was missing.
I felt her body relax next to me and heard her steady breathing shortly after. For the first time since she disappeared, I felt I could truly relax, and I did.
Chapter Twenty
I stood atop the bluff watching Jeff and Wanda swim in the crystal waters below, and I couldn’t help but grin. They were like two children collecting shells and splashing each other in the surf. Jeff caught sight of me and waved. I waved back and began my hop-along stroll up the paths.
Mom and Dad spent a lot of time with Iris and Colie and appeared to genuinely enjoy their company. Gone were the prejudiced attitudes that I’d grown up around. They’d invited them to New Orleans, and Dad and Colie made plans to take in a Braves game together.
Their attitudes about me and my sexuality had changed, too. Adrienne had become their other daughter-in-law. What surprised me the most was that it was my dad who Adrienne talked with the most about her ordeal with Marta. She would later tell me what they’d discussed and about the comments he’d made. Mostly, he just listened, and that’s what she needed.
Mom and Adrienne, on the other hand, were Iris’s wedding planners. When they got together to talk about dresses, I’d disappear, just like I had this morning. I roamed the inn taking in the sweet smells of flowers in bloom mixed with the salty air. I’d begun making my way slowly back to the courtyard to relax and enjoy a cigarette when I ran into Dad.
“I’ve been looking for you. I thought maybe we could talk.” He scuffed at the ground with his bare foot and stuffed his hands into his pockets, looking a tad uncomfortable.
“Sure, would you like to join me in the courtyard? I was going there to relax.”
He nodded and walked alongside me as I made my way along with the crutches.
“Does it still hurt?” He pointed to the cast.
“Not really. I’ve been trying a little weight on it and it doesn’t cause me any pain. But let that be our secret. Shelby gave me strict instructions not to bear any weight. She thinks I may have set my healing back when I used it so much the night we found Adrienne.”
He chuckled. “I’ll keep your secret, but if you want to be out of the cast anytime soon, you need to mind her.”
“I’ve never been really good at minding,” I said with a mischievous grin.
“No, you haven’t.” He returned the smile. “You got that from Gloria.”
I was surprised that he mentioned her name, much less compared me to her. He had a lot of resentment toward his sister, and I always figured it was because she was a lesbian, but now I wasn’t so sure.
I took a seat in one of the chaise lounges in the courtyard and propped my leg up. He took the one next to me and stretched out with a contented sigh.
“This place is magnificent,” he said as he looked around. “It’s not what I pictured a
t all.”
“It’s not what I pictured, either. When I came here, I was expecting a resort, not quaint cottages and wildlife.”
Dad was silent for a minute. He rubbed his hands on his shorts nervously. It made me nervous, too, so I lit a cigarette and waited for him to speak his mind.
“As a parent, there are so many things I regret. I wish that I could go into the past and change it all, but I can’t. I let petty arguments drive a wedge between my sister and I…and you.”
There were so many questions I wanted to ask, but I figured it best to just let him talk.
“Gloria and I were very close at one time, did you know that?”
“She told me that.”
“Did she tell you why we stopped speaking?”
“She said things changed between y’all when she admitted she was a lesbian.” She also said he was a first-class butthole, but I kept that to myself.
“To be honest, Hayden, that wasn’t it.” Dad’s voice had a tremor to it, and I knew that whatever was coming next was extremely sensitive.
“Would you like a beer?” he asked suddenly.
“Actually, I’d like a rum and Coke.”
“Great. I’ll be right back.”
Dad was on his feet in a heartbeat and scampered off toward the bar. He returned shortly with a few beers, a fifth of rum, and a two-liter bottle of Coke on a serving tray, along with two glasses of ice. “They’re still talking about the wedding, so I thought I’d stock up,” he said with a grin.
“Excellent.” I scrubbed my hands together in delight. “With all this, we can hole up out here for hours.”
He poured us a drink, then stretched back out on the lounge chair. “As I was saying, that’s not what caused the problems between me and Gloria.” He took another long swallow that drained his glass and sighed. “It’s hard for a man to admit something like this, so be patient with me.”
I nodded and waited for him to continue.
“Your grandfather was very tough on me and Gloria. He’d never had the benefit of a college education, so he demanded that we both go. After graduation, we were expected to learn the family business. Being a contractor didn’t appeal to either of us, but we tried.”
“I can’t imagine Aunt Gloria poring over blueprints.” I chuckled.
“She never got that far. Dad had her answering phones and taking care of secretarial duties. It was degrading, but truth be known, she was much smarter than I was.”
Dad paused and poured himself another drink.
“I was scared when my dad died. I wasn’t sure I had what it took to manage the business, but I had Gloria to help me. Then one day, she told me she was leaving, she wanted to travel. I was stuck. I was married with a baby on the way, and the one person I thought I could depend on for help was pulling up stakes. At first, I begged and pleaded, but her mind was set. I got angry then and told her that she wouldn’t get any of the money the company made, and it didn’t faze her at all.”
I nodded for him to go on when he looked at me.
“We argued for days, then one night she sat me down and explained that nothing I could come up with was going to make her stay. Then she told me she was a lesbian. All of my hurt and fear coalesced into one big ball of fury. I told her that no Tate had ever been a homosexual, and as far as I was concerned, she was not my sister.”
Dad took another gulp of his drink and stared straight ahead as he spoke. “I wanted to hurt her, like she was hurting me.”
“Do you think you can ever forgive her?”
Dad looked at me and smiled to mask the tears. “I waited until it was too late.” He let out a long sigh. “She came here and it was too easy to let her go. She was so far away, what did it matter? The news of her death was such a blow that I couldn’t even tell your mother about it until after Gloria was buried.”
“I’m sorry, Dad, I didn’t know.”
I watched as he scrubbed roughly at his face. “I was so terribly wrong for what I did to you and Adrienne on Christmas Eve. Please don’t wait until I die to forgive me.” He lost the battle with his emotions and they overflowed.
“I’ve already forgiven you,” I said as he pulled me into a hug.
As we held on to each other, he asked so quietly I almost didn’t hear him, “Do you think Gloria has forgiven me, too?”
“I’m sure of it, and if you’d like, I can take you down to the cemetery and you can ask her yourself.”
He pulled back slightly and looked at me smiling between the tears. “I’d really like that.”
Dad and I took on lighter topics after that. He gave me ideas for improving the inn and offered to finance the projects if my partners and I were interested. Then he did something really special. He listened when I talked.
We ended our conversation on a healthy drunk, which had Mom fussing at us both. Dad and I were too smashed to care and laughed like fools as she led us back to the bar for dinner. He took me by the arm before we got there and gave me another hug. “We’ve only scratched the surface today, kid. I really want us to do this more often.”
It was a somber occasion the morning my family left for New Orleans. Adrienne and I had taken Dad to Gloria’s grave and stood back to give him time alone with her. Just like Adrienne did the first time I visited the gravesite. He had a lot to get off his chest and spent quite a while sitting there.
Afterward, we drove them to the airstrip in one of the buses. We did that for two reasons. Colie and Iris wanted to come, and no one wanted to be peppered with the hellish island bugs. We all exchanged hugs, and when Dad hugged Adrienne, he held her for a minute longer while whispering in her ear. She nodded and smiled at whatever he’d said.
When their plane taxied down the runway, I asked Adrienne what he’d told her. She looked at me with an evil grin. “I know who to call if you don’t behave.”
When we returned to the inn, Adrienne and I decided that we’d spend the whole day doing nothing. It was obvious that she was tired; there were dark rings around her eyes, and they lacked their usual luster. We took our favorite spot on the chaise lounges in the bar, where she fell sound asleep.
Though I tried, I couldn’t make myself nap, so I hobbled back to our cottage and retrieved Gloria’s journal. After fixing myself a glass of tea, I settled in next to Adrienne and began to read. This time, I read for enjoyment and I could almost hear Gloria’s voice with each word. Maybe I imagined it, but reading between the lines, I think she forgave her younger brother, though she never came out and said it. At least that’s what I wanted to believe.
Adrienne snored next to me as I read page after page. I laughed softly when Gloria complained that Adrienne was “too skinny” and she and Iris conspired to fatten her. Both of them gained weight while Adrienne maintained her slim figure.
But when I got to the end of the journal, all humor was gone. Gloria had a secret that she had chosen to share with me alone. My hands shook slightly as I read the last of it again. I lit a cigarette and contemplated her words with a grin as I closed the book.
Chapter Twenty-one
I was not looking forward to the day we’d have to face Marta in court. Adrienne suffered bouts of anxiety, usually anytime Marta’s name was mentioned. Iris and I noticed changes in her personality; she was moody and sullen at times. And I knew that she was dealing with the trauma of what happened. Adrienne spent a lot of time with Myra talking everything out, and that seemed to help. But I worried about her having to face her captor in court and what testifying would do to her.
That day would never come, though. Marta dropped dead in the middle of the lunch serving line one sunny afternoon at the jail. The autopsy mystified many. A healthy twenty-seven-year-old body with no trace of drugs or trauma didn’t normally just give up the ghost. Her heart simply stopped.
She had no family aside from little Teddy, so a handful of islanders took sympathy on the dead and had her buried in an old cemetery across the island from us. We didn’t attend the ceremony, but Adrie
nne felt that she needed closure, and we visited the gravesite with Iris and Colie. There on the simple headstone lay a doll similar to the one Marta crafted for Adrienne and me. A pin was thrust through the chest. Perhaps someone did it to make a point after her mysterious death. I refused to consider the alternative.
“I want to adopt Teddy,” Adrienne said as we drove back to the inn from the cemetery.
“I know, love.” I’d already been pondering the possibility and she knew it.
Colie let out a long sigh. “There’s a lot for you to consider, aside from how your lives would change with the responsibility of a child. First, you’re lesbians and we all know the controversy that always stirs up. Then his mother victimized you both, not to mention that Hayden threatened to send her over a cliff.” Colie smiled in the rearview, hoping to lighten the moment.
Iris turned in the seat and looked at us. “Colie and I have discussed it, too. Maybe they’ll consider letting us adopt him, then we could all take care of him.”
Adrienne tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and gnawed at her lip. She looked to be on the verge of tears. Iris reached between the seats and rested a hand on her knee. “We’re not competing with you for the boy,” she said softly. “But whoever has the best chance of getting him should make the first move.”
“It’s obvious that you and Colie have discussed it…” Adrienne looked out the window as tears dripped down her cheeks. “Will you try?”
Iris smiled and squeezed her knee again. “We will with your blessing.”
“You have mine,” Adrienne said as she looked at me.
“Mine too,” I said. “Let’s get our boy.”
That same afternoon, we went to the registrar’s office and waited as Colie and Iris began filing what would be a mountain of paperwork. Colie had pull, and I prayed that it would be enough. They also filed for a marriage license and a week later had a private ceremony. Their vows would be made public in September as planned in front of friends and family, but they were willing to do whatever possible to make sure that we got Teddy. Then we began the long wait.
Gloria’s Secret Page 19