Teddy went off to get himself another gin and tonic. For all he cared, Adam McQueen could go to Hades.
Tilda opened the door to the restaurant and peered into the bar area to the left and ahead. Dennis waved. He was sitting at the very end, by the back wall. He had saved the stool next to him, no easy feat on a busy summer night.
Tilda walked rapidly to the back of the bar. “Thanks so much for coming,” she said. Almost without thinking she had called him on her cell phone soon after overhearing those men talking about her mother. She had asked if he was free for a quick drink. She had told him that she felt stifled by the crowd at home and needed to slip away for a while. He had said that, yes, he was free. They had agreed to meet at Five-O.
“I’m glad you called me,” he said. “I’m glad I can be of some help.”
“I can’t stay long.”
She felt a bit reckless being there with Dennis, like she had snuck out of her parents’ house—which, in fact, she had—when she was supposed to be in bed. She felt as if she was breaking a law. It wasn’t a bad feeling.
“Just too crazy back there?” Dennis asked.
“Mmm,” she said and sipped her drink, which he had thoughtfully ordered for her before her arrival.
“Emotions must be riding high. A memorial is meant to bring back memories, good and bad.”
“Yes.”
“They’re meant to be cathartic somehow. Though I’m not sure they always are.”
Tilda managed a smile. “I wonder if they ever are. Thank you again for meeting me. I hope I didn’t spoil your evening.”
“Not at all. This is the highlight of my evening.”
They talked a bit longer about not much at all and then Tilda said that she had to get back to Larchmere and the party. Dennis walked with her to her car, which she had parked in the lot behind the restaurant.
Without premeditation they kissed. It was passionate. It went on for some time.
Tilda eventually pulled away, but with reluctance. “I feel like a teenager,” she whispered, “kissing out back in the dark.”
Dennis stroked her face with his thumb. “So do I. Thank you.”
“Thank you, too. I had better get back….”
“Of course,” he said. “And by the way, I was wrong when I said back at the bar that that was the highlight of my evening. This was the highlight, right here with you in this parking lot.”
Tilda got behind the wheel of her car. In the rearview mirror she saw Dennis watching her until she was out of sight.
Tilda got back to Larchmere a few minutes later to find the party still in full swing. No one seemed to have missed her. Hannah and Susan were chatting with the Simmons sisters. Craig was lighting sparklers for the children at the party, careful to keep them away from danger. Jon and Jane had reunited with some people they had worked with in past summers and were chatting and laughing happily. Tilda had noted, earlier, that Adam had made no effort to talk to her children since their arrival at Larchmere. Greetings had been exchanged and Kat had been introduced, but, as far as Tilda knew, there had been no further involvement. She was not surprised. Adam had never been a particularly attentive uncle.
Tilda now spotted Adam and Kat over by the gazebo. They were arguing. Anyone could see that from their quick and abrupt hand gestures, their bent shoulders. She wondered if the argument was about starting a family. She felt bad, again, for having interfered in their relationship and turned away from the unhappy pair.
Sarah and the kids had already retired to the guest cottage. Ruth and Bobby were still at Bill’s side. It seemed that neither had wanted to leave him alone that night. His sadness was obvious. Tilda wondered how much of her father’s grief was for his dead wife, Charlotte, and how much was for the fresh loss of his girlfriend, Jennifer. She thought that she knew the answer to that question.
She walked over to where Bill, Ruth, and Bobby were sitting in a grouping of Adirondack chairs. She leaned down and put her hand on her father’s arm. “How are you, Dad?” she asked. She hoped he believed in her concern.
Bill smiled feebly but gamely. “Just fine, thanks, Tilda.”
She opened her mouth to say something comforting, anything, but just at that moment a big, wide man came lumbering up to the group. It was Pete Strout, former owner of a successful musical venue in York Beach, now comfortably retired.
“Bill McQueen,” he bellowed. He always bellowed. “Sorry I got to the party so late but let’s make up for lost time!”
Tilda stepped back from her father. She had lost her chance.
It was almost one in the morning before the last party guest had gone home. What food was left—not much—had been hastily put away and the McQueen family had retired for what was left of the night.
Tilda was in her room, preparing for bed. She knew she would have trouble falling asleep. She felt all wound up after the events of the last few days. She felt as if her emotions were bouncing against the walls. The memorial. Jennifer’s defection and her own complicity in it. The boisterous crowd at the party. Her dates and excursions with Dennis. The time she had taken his hand. Their unexpectedly passionate kiss. Her father’s strained face and palpable sadness. Her aunt’s, and her daughter’s, accusations of bad behavior.
And what she had overheard at the party about her mother had upset her. She knew her mother had not been perfect—who was?—but to speak ill of the dead at their own memorial seemed wrong. Not that the two men had really said anything that bad or insulting. They had simply been recounting an episode that clearly had stuck in the memory of the town. It was an episode that showed her mother in an unflattering light.
It was that nostalgia problem again, Tilda realized. For some people death seemed to erase a loved one’s every flaw and raise him to the status of saint. But should it? No. Well, maybe not.
Tilda got into bed and yawned. Suddenly, she felt that sleep was, indeed, possible. She was just about to drift off when she heard a strange noise from downstairs. It had sounded like something large falling…. Tilda threw off the covers and raced into the hallway. Hannah and Susan were a few steps in front of her and Ruth’s door was just opening.
“Dad! Craig!” Hannah called as they hurried to the first floor.
“In here, in the kitchen!”
The four women crowded through the doorway to find Craig kneeling over his father, who was prone on the floor. Bill was wearing his pajamas and a robe. One slipper had fallen off a foot.
“I was in the library. I heard a noise. I’ve called an ambulance.”
Craig began to check for a pulse and signs of breathing. Ruth rushed to his side and put her hand lightly on her brother’s head. Susan and Hannah clutched each other, staring. Tilda’s hands were over her mouth.
Only when the ambulance was gone and Bill was off to York Hospital did Adam emerge from his room, annoyed and hungover.
38
Saturday, July 28
“I called Jennifer at her Portland apartment about five-thirty this morning,” Tilda told the others. “I let her know that Dad’s going to be fine. She was going to pack a bag and be on her way.”
It was a little after seven o’clock. After learning that Bill had suffered not a heart attack, as was feared, but a panic attack, albeit a big one, Tilda, Hannah, and Susan had gone back to Larchmere for quick showers and coffee and were now sitting on plastic chairs in a waiting room. Craig and Ruth had spent the night at the hospital; Craig was in his father’s room. Adam had only just arrived, leaving Kat back at the house. Sarah, Jon, and Jane were on their way; they would leave for the hospital when Bobby showed up to watch the children. He had forgone his boat that morning to be at his friend’s side, and had only just left the hospital for Larchmere.
“Jennifer!”
Tilda hurriedly got to her feet at her approach, as did Ruth and Hannah. Adam stood off to the side, arms folded.
“I got here as fast as I could,” Jennifer said. Her eyes looked puffy—she obviously had been cryin
g—but she was as impeccably dressed as always.
Ruth reached out and hugged her. Hannah gave her an awkward pat on the arm. Tilda gave her arm a squeeze. “I’m sorry,” she said.
But Jennifer didn’t seem to hear. She walked over to Adam. “I want to talk to you,” she said. “Away from the others. Now.”
Adam rolled his eyes and half turned away from her. “I said now,” Jennifer repeated. To Tilda’s amazement, he followed her down the hall.
Tilda looked from Ruth to Hannah to Susan. “What is that all about?” she asked.
“Payback,” Ruth said. “She’s going to ream him for abusing her. Good. Not that it will do much good in terms of Adam’s behavior—he’ll never change—but at least it should make her feel better.”
What happened between Jennifer and Adam was this.
“What do you want?” he said. “I thought I told you to get lost.”
“Teddy told me that you hounded him about Bill’s will at the party last night. How dare you treat people like they’re inferior to you, just children to be bossed around, and threatened, and manipulated. And don’t you ever again even dream of speaking to me the way you spoke to me the other day. If you even come close I will go directly to the police. Do you understand me?”
“I—” Adam began but Jennifer went on, her voice tight with fury.
“Shut up, Adam, and listen to me. I will never forgive you for trying to stand in the way of your father’s happiness, let alone my own peace of mind. Do you hear me? Never.”
Adam attempted a grin. Since Sarah, no one had spoken so angrily to him. He was slightly amused. “I suppose you’ll go running to my father and accuse me of all sorts of crimes against him. Isn’t that the way you people work?”
Jennifer looked up at this man, the oldest child of the man she loved. How could father and son be so different? She actually felt pity for Adam, along with disgust. What a miserable human being he was! “On the contrary,” she said calmly. “Your father will never hear a word of your behavior from me. It would be cruel, and I’ll leave the cruelty to you.”
Jennifer walked back to where the women stood. A nurse came over to guide her to Bill’s room. Adam followed her in. Craig was already inside. Craig hugged Jennifer and she hugged him back.
“I’m glad you’re here,” he said. Then, he stepped back to let her sit on the bed by Bill’s side. Adam stood stiffly by the door.
Jennifer took Bill’s hand and smiled down at him. Her smile was a little wobbly but she refused to cry.
“How are you feeling?” she asked.
“Fine. Better. Thank you for coming.”
Of course he sounds so formal, Jennifer thought. He doesn’t really believe I’m here because I love him so. He thinks I’ve come back out of courtesy; he thinks I’m paying a courtesy visit to the former partner. She would have to convince him otherwise.
“Bill,” she said, “believe me, the only reason I left Larchmere was for your sake. I thought it would be better for you if I weren’t around for the memorial. Everyone seemed…” Jennifer took a deep breath. She remembered her words to Adam in the hallway. She would not speak badly of Bill’s children to him. “I felt that I was out of place. I felt that I was interfering. Well, maybe I was wrong. I’m sorry. I should have stayed by your side.”
There was a moment before Bill could speak. He squeezed her hand and smiled. “No, no,” he said, his voice breaking. “It’s my fault for not seeing what was going on, for not shielding you, for not protecting you. I let you down, Jennifer, and I’m sorry.”
Jennifer smiled. “Let’s just say our communication skills could use some work. I love you, Bill McQueen, and I will never leave you again.”
“Good,” Bill said. His voice was stronger. “Because I wouldn’t want my wife anywhere but right at my side.” He reached into the drawer of the bedside table and took out a blue velvet box. “This is for you,” he said, “if you’ll have it. It was in the pocket of my robe when I collapsed. I’ve had it for about a month but I just couldn’t find the right moment to propose.”
Jennifer took the box and laughed. “Nice,” she said. “So you wait until you’re in the hospital….” Carefully, she opened the box, and then the tears did flow. She held out her left hand and Bill slipped the ring onto her finger.
“If you don’t like it—” Bill began.
“Sshhh,” she said. “Don’t even think such a thing. It’s a lovely ring and I love it and I love you.”
The door to Bill’s room slammed. Adam was gone.
Craig quietly slipped out after him. “I thought I should give those two lovebirds some time alone,” he said to his brother, who was very red in the face.
“I think Dad is mentally incompetent. Someone not mentally competent isn’t considered capable of contracting marriage. That’s the law.”
“He had a panic attack, Adam, not a psychotic break.”
“We’ll see what my friend John has to say about it. He’s a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. I’m going to give him a call today. He’ll give us a break on a complete psychological evaluation.”
Craig struggled to keep his temper. “No one is having my father ‘evaluated.’ Don’t be ridiculous, Adam.”
“Don’t tell me I’m being ridiculous!” Adam shouted. “Do you know what’s at stake here? Do you?”
“Uh, our father’s happiness?”
“Who gives a shit about his happiness! I’m talking about the house, the money, the—”
A nurse suddenly appeared. He was large. His neck was covered with tattoos. “Sir,” he said to Adam, “if you can’t keep your voice down, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
Cool, Craig thought. The hospital has bouncers. He watched his brother stalk off down the corridor. And he felt a stab of sorrow.
39
The house was very quiet. It didn’t occur to Adam to wonder where his children were.
He went straight up to the second floor. He felt he had not shaved properly that morning and was eager to examine his face in the bathroom mirror. Nothing irked him more than a sloppy shave.
He passed the door of the room he was sharing with Kat. It was closed. He thought that Kat might still be asleep but then he became aware of noise from within, a dresser drawer closing, and he opened the door.
“What are you doing?” he said immediately.
Kat, whose back had been to the door as she stood by the bed, turned and gasped. “You startled me,” she said.
“What are you doing? Why is your travel bag on the bed?”
Kat reached deep down for every bit of confidence she possessed. “I’m sorry, Adam,” she said. “I can’t do this.”
“Can’t do what? What are you talking about?”
“I can’t marry you!” she cried, frustrated with his inability to see, to hear, to listen.
Adam closed the door to the bedroom behind him. “What do you mean you can’t marry me?”
“Just what I said. I can’t marry you. I’m leaving. I’m going home.”
Adam took a step closer to Kat. “Look, what’s this all about? Close that bag and talk to me. What’s gotten into you?”
Kat’s blood rushed just a tiny bit. He was a sexy man. He was handsome. Were his looks all that she had fallen for? The thought shamed her. She took a deep breath and a half step back.
“Nothing’s gotten into me. It’s just…I…I thought I loved you but…and then there’s the kids, Cordelia and Cody…and I feel so uncomfortable here, with your family. I need to leave, Adam. I’m sorry.”
Adam chuckled in that annoyingly patronizing way he had perfected. “Kat, don’t be ridiculous. I demand you stay and get this nonsense about leaving out of your head.”
“You demand?” Now Kat was angry. “I’m not your kid, Adam. You can’t order me around. I don’t love you anymore, you lied to me about wanting a family, and I’m not marrying you and I’m going home. I’ve already called my parents.”
There
was a dead, scary silence. Kat wondered who would hear her if she screamed. She desperately hoped she would not have to scream.
Finally, Adam spoke. His voice was hard and cold. “Then I want my ring back.”
Kat, stunned, clutched her left hand in her right protectively. “It’s mine,” she said. “You gave it to me.”
“Under the condition that you marry me. Now, give it to me.”
He took another step toward her. Kat felt menaced. Instinctively, she retreated a step, then jerked the ring off her finger and threw it at him. It hit the floor by his feet.
“You idiot!” he hissed. “You could have damaged the diamond! I’ll never get my money back if it’s damaged!”
The loud sound of a car’s horn made Kat reach for her bag. “That’s my ride,” she said. She did not meet his eye as she dashed toward the bedroom door.
Adam followed her down the stairs and out the front door.
Teddy and Tessa Vickes were there in their old green Cadillac.
“Mr. and Mrs. Vickes are driving me to Portsmouth,” Kat said as Teddy got out from behind the wheel of the car. “I’ll get a bus back to Boston.”
Teddy nodded curtly to Adam and helped Kat stow her bag in the trunk. “You ready?” he said kindly to her.
“Yes. Thank you.” Kat climbed in the backseat and Adam saw Tessa Vickes turn to give her an encouraging smile. No doubt, he thought sneeringly, she would also have a bag of home-baked cookies for Kat.
Adam stood, rigid. He watched the old green Cadillac pull off and head down the driveway to Shore Road. He watched the woman who had promised to be his wife leave him. She did not turn to look back at him. His hands were clenched at his sides. When the car was out of sight he became aware of children’s laughter, followed by the booming laugh of a man. It was coming from the direction of the guest cottage. His children. He remembered now that Bobby had been sent to Larchmere to watch them. He knew he should go and fetch his children from Bobby’s care. Instead, he went back inside, up the stairs, and into the room he had once shared with Kat Daly. He lay down on the unmade bed.
The Family Beach House Page 25