Marking Time

by Marie Force

  “Who?” Clare asked.

  “Hailey Harper. Ugh, we’re all so over her. After what she pulled in school last year…” Maggie shook her head with disgust.

  “Maggie, be nice,” Jack said.

  “Whatever. She’s the one with the problem. Hey, can I get ice cream?” Her eyes lit up, and Hailey was forgotten.

  “Sure.” Jack took a ten-dollar bill from his wallet. “Get Mom some, too.”

  “Rocky road?” Maggie asked Clare.

  “But of course,” Clare said with a smile. “Thanks.”

  “Whew,” Jack said as Maggie flew from the room, headed for the hospital cafeteria. He came in to sit with Clare. “She’s a whirling dervish these days.”

  “She always was.” Clare noticed his new platinum wedding ring and wondered what he’d done with the gold one she’d given him. “Some kind of excitement for you this week. Everyone’s doing well?”

  “Yes, but I haven’t slept in four days,” he said with the wry grin that was all Jack. It had never failed to stop her heart. “The one-two punch is something else. It’s nonstop.”

  “I can only imagine.” Clare forced herself to be cheerful. “And Andi? She’s well?”

  “She’s tired and sore, but she’s doing fine, considering she’s had no sleep and seems to be feeding one baby or the other around the clock.”

  “Hell of a honeymoon, huh?” Clare joked.

  He smiled and shrugged.

  “Please pass along my congratulations to her, too.”

  “I will. So how are you doing?”

  “Apparently, well enough to go home.”

  His eyes lit up with delight. “Really? When?”

  “They’re saying early September.”

  “Wow. That’s great, Clare.”

  “I suppose so.”

  “You don’t sound happy about it.”

  “I am.” She brushed some imaginary lint off her jeans as she stole a glimpse of him. God, he’s gorgeous. He always had been, from the day they met on Block Island twenty-two summers ago.

  “We need to get the house ready,” he said. “I’ll send some guys over to adapt the downstairs bathroom and set you up with a bedroom on the first floor until you can manage the stairs.”

  “You don’t have to do that. I can take care of it. You’ve got enough going on.”

  “Let me handle it. It’s no trouble at all.”

  Knowing he had easy access to what she needed done to the house, she nodded. “Okay. Thanks.”

  “Remember what I told you—whatever you need. You only have to ask.”

  “This is so weird,” she said softly, giving voice to the tension between them. They’d been divorced for only two weeks, and he was already remarried with new twin babies. It boggled the mind.

  “It probably will be for a while, but it’s bound to get easier. For both of us.”

  “I hope so. We have to stay focused on the girls, especially Maggie.”

  “Always.” He reached over to squeeze her hand.

  Maggie came in juggling two dripping cones. “Hurry, Mom, it’s running.” She thrust the cone at Clare and handed Jack his change.

  He stood up. “I need to get back. When we left, the babies were sleeping, but that never lasts long. Kate will be by to get you in a little while, Maggie.” Hesitantly, he bent to kiss Clare’s cheek. “I’ll be in touch about the house.”

  “Thanks, Jack.”

  “It’s no problem. See you later, Mags.”

  After he had gone, Clare turned to Maggie as they licked their cones. “So tell me about the babies. It’s so exciting, huh?”

  Her face lit up. “Oh, God, Mom, they’re unbelievable. They have shiny black hair and these tiny scrunched-up faces…” She trailed off and went back to her cone.

  “It’s okay to be excited about your new brothers, honey.”

  Maggie’s cheeks colored. “I don’t mean to be insensitive.”

  Clare was amazed by her youngest daughter’s sudden maturity. She’d left behind a little girl three years ago and had returned to find a young woman. At times like this, the metamorphosis was startling. “You’re not being insensitive. You have two new baby brothers. Of course you’re thrilled.”

  Maggie brightened. “They’re awesome.” She bit into her cone. “Actually, I have three little brothers now.”

  “I know.” Clare had heard all about Maggie’s close bond with Eric, Andi’s son from her first marriage. Maggie had learned sign language to communicate with the hearing-impaired boy and was now almost fluent.

  “Dad’s adopting Eric.”

  “That’s a nice thing for him to do.”

  “He doesn’t know his own father, so Dad’s like his dad already.”

  “He’s just making it official,” Clare said with a smile. Oh, how this hurt. Jack’s life was all set, and hers was in shambles. She reminded herself that it had been her decision to let him go. Now she just had to find a way to live with it. “So the doctors are sending me home in about two weeks.”

  Maggie’s eyes lit up. “Really?”

  Clare nodded. “I’m hoping you’ll want to spend some time with me.” I sound so pathetic. How will I ever compete with three new brothers?

  “I’ll come to your house to catch up on my sleep,” Maggie teased.

  Clare laughed and finished her cone. “Oh, I see. You’ll be using me?”

  “Definitely.” Maggie giggled. “So Dad bought a house on Ocean Drive.”

  Kate and Maggie had been staying with Jack and Andi at the hotel since the babies were born. He had moved out of what was now Clare’s house just before their divorce became final. “Did he?”

  “Yeah, some gray place, gray house or something,” Maggie said with a shrug.

  “Oh, Gray Hall.” Clare had been a Realtor before her accident and was well aware of the estate. “That’s a great old house, right on the water.”

  Maggie rolled her eyes. “Of course it is. You know how weird he is about that.”

  “Yes, I do,” Clare said, smiling at Jack’s need to live on the water.

  “Anyway, I guess we’re moving in at the end of next week. Living at the hotel is getting kind of old, and they want to get settled with the babies and all.”

  “I can imagine they do. When I get home, we’ll work something out so you can spend time with both of us, okay?”

  “Sure. I’m glad you’re getting to come home.”

  “Me, too. We’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”

  The door opened, and Kate came in. Clare was always amazed at how much her middle daughter resembled her, with the same unruly blonde hair and bright blue eyes. It was like seeing herself at eighteen except Kate had Jack’s height, which gave her a coltish stride as she crossed the room to plant a kiss on her mother’s forehead.

  “What’ve you been eating, brat?” Kate asked her sister. “It’s all over your face.”

  “Don’t call her that, Kate,” Clare admonished, sending an empathetic smile to Maggie.

  “That’s okay, Mom. I’d fall over and die of shock if she called me Maggie.”

  Kate’s eyes twinkled. “Really? Maggie, Maggie, Maggie. Damn, it didn’t work.”

  “Ha-ha,” Maggie said, using a wet paper towel to wipe the ice cream off her face.

  “I see some things never change,” Clare said, delighted by her girls.

  “Mom’s coming home the week after next,” Maggie told her sister.

  “That’s great! I’m glad you’ll be home for a while before I leave.”

  Clare nodded. “Me, too.” She didn’t like to think about Kate’s impending departure for Nashville. Jack had made that decision before her recovery, and he had convinced Clare to give it a try for a year. He had promised her he would see to all the details, including making sure Kate had a safe place to live. Clare was glad she had a couple of months yet before she had to deal with that.

  “Sorry, Mom, but we’ve got to go,” Kate said with a kiss to her mother’s cheek. �
�I’m working tomorrow, so I need to hit the sack.” She had been playing the guitar and singing at the Infinity Newport Hotel’s outdoor bars all summer.

  “That’s okay. I’m glad to see you, even just for a minute.”

  “I’ll call you tomorrow,” Maggie promised, kissing her mother good night.

  “I’ll look forward to it.” Clare waved as the door closed behind them. Watching them go, she was hit by a sense of panic, wondering if they felt closer now to their stepmother than they did to her, wondering if she’d ever get back the close bond she’d shared with each of her daughters.

  Chapter 3

  November 22

  Today is Thanksgiving, and my goal is to help the girls remember all the many blessings of their lives, despite their loss. Mother, Dad, Jamie, and his parents are coming for dinner, and I hope having them here will help Jack. I feel Clare’s absence so acutely today. The holidays were her favorite time of the year, and she always made them special for the rest of us. Just getting out of bed to face this day took effort for me. I can’t imagine how Jack and the girls must feel.

  January 1

  I don’t know when I’ve ever been so glad to say good-bye to a year! Jill and Kate were invited to a slumber party for New Year’s Eve, and I encouraged them to go. It’s good for them to spend time with their friends. After Maggie went to bed, Jack and I tied one on and watched the ball drop at Times Square. When I looked over at him at midnight, there were tears running down his face. His pain is so intense. Christmas was a horror show around here. They didn’t want a tree or decorations. I tried to cajole them, but Jack told me to let it go. No one was in the mood.

  The phone rang, startling her. Clare set aside the journal and took a deep breath to calm her emotions before she answered.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi, Clare. It’s Janice Hayes.”

  “Hi, Janice. It’s so nice to hear from you.”

  “How are you?”

  “I’m actually getting ready to go home. One more week.”

  “Oh, that’s wonderful news! Cooper and I have been keeping tabs on you.”

  Cooper Hayes had been Jack’s attorney for years. The four of them had socialized on many occasions, and he’d handled their divorce. It was nice to know she hadn’t been forgotten by her old friend. “Thank you, it’s good to hear your voice.”

  “I’ve wanted to come by to see you, but Jack said you weren’t taking visitors at the hospital.”

  “Yes, well, I kind of wanted to get back to my old self before I greeted the world. Why don’t you come by the house when I get home? I’d love to see you.”

  “I’d like that. Coop told me what happened, that you were—”

  “I was raped, and he threatened to kill one of my kids if I told anyone.” Clare saved her friend from having to say the words. “I didn’t tell anyone, and the stress was horrible.” She paused before she continued, knowing she might as well tell her friend the rest. “That day, in the parking lot, when the car was coming at me… I’m ashamed to say I saw it as a way out. I let that car hit me, Janice.” Clare had only recently been able to speak of it after months of intense therapy. “I did a terrible thing to my girls by letting that happen right in front of them.”

  “I’m so sorry, Clare,” Janice said in a whisper, and Clare could tell she was crying. “The man who hurt you—”

  “He’s doing a life sentence in California. Apparently, he was a career felon.”

  “Thank God they got him. I saw the piece in the paper about Jack getting married. I just can’t imagine how you must be feeling. You two were always so in love. We envied you.”

  “Yes,” Clare said with a sigh. “On top of everything else, while I was in a coma, my husband fell in love with someone else and was expecting twins with her by the time I recovered. Needless to say, it was quite a shock.”

  “I’m sure it was terrible for you. Are you all right?”

  “I’m doing better. It worked out the way it was meant to.”

  “What you’ve been through, all of you… If there’s anything I can do for you, I hope you won’t hesitate to call.”

  “I’ll need all the friends I can muster over the next few months. I do hope you’ll come by.”

  “I will. I promise.”

  They ended the call, and Clare set the phone down on the table next to her bed. I guess that’s the first of many times I’ll have that conversation.

  She went home on a Saturday so the girls could be with her when she left the hospital. Jill came from college in Providence, and Clare’s mother, Anna, was there from Hartford for the big day.

  The halls of the rehabilitation center were lined with staffers applauding their star patient as she was taken on one last wheelchair ride to the front door. Embarrassed by the attention, Clare emerged into the late summer humidity, handed her crutches to Kate, and eased herself into the passenger seat of her own beloved burgundy Volvo. She had paid cash for it with the proceeds of the first house she ever sold and had hung on to it despite Jack’s many attempts to get her to upgrade. When she closed her door and looked over, she was startled to see Jill behind the wheel.

  Jill laughed. “Yes, Mother, I drive now.”

  “I do, too,” Kate said from the backseat where she sat with Maggie and their grandmother.

  “Me, too,” Maggie said, and everyone laughed.

  “Of course, I knew you guys were driving, but having you drive me is another story,” Clare said. “This’ll take some getting used to, ladies.”

  “That’s okay,” Jill said.

  “Go slow, Jill, you don’t want me to have a heart attack on my first day out of the hospital.”

  Anna reached out to pat her daughter’s shoulder. “Relax, honey, they’re both excellent drivers.”

  “Thanks, Gram, I think she needed to hear that,” Jill said with amusement as she pulled away from the hospital. “What do you think, Mom? Shall we take the scenic route?”

  “Absolutely.” Clare rolled down the window to let in the breeze. She’d been out of the hospital only once since her recovery in April, to attend Kate’s high school graduation in June.

  Jill drove through downtown, along Newport Harbor. Clare was quiet during the ride as she drank in the familiar and noticed all the changes wrought by the passage of time—a new lane added to a roadway, the landscaping in front of a favorite restaurant, once-loved shops long gone and replaced by new ones.

  “Can we take a ride?” Clare asked as Jill approached the traffic light at the end of America’s Cup Avenue, where they would have gone up the hill at Memorial Boulevard to go home.

  “Sure, where do you want to go?” Jill asked.

  “I’d like to see the hotel.” Jack had met Andi while building the hotel, and Clare had been curious about it for months.

  “No problem,” Jill said, taking a right onto Lower Thames, which would lead them to Ocean Drive.

  “Look at all the people.” Anna marveled at the tourists crowding the quaint city’s sidewalks and cobblestone streets.

  “Newport is as popular as ever,” Clare said.

  They navigated Ocean Drive’s winding curves in silence until an elaborate gold-leaf sign announcing “Infinity Newport” appeared in front of them. Sitting at the end of a quarter-mile driveway, the hotel kissed the shore of Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay.

  “Oh my.” Clare took in the sprawling two-story shingled building with dark green shutters and trim. “Why, it already looks like it’s been there for years!”

  “I know,” Kate said. “I’ve thought that, too.”

  “It’s magnificent,” Clare said.

  “Wait ’til you see the inside,” Maggie said. “It’s awesome.”

  “We’ll save that for another time,” Clare said as Jill drove slowly past the hotel. “Dad and Uncle Jamie did a wonderful job. Thanks for showing me.”

  They fell quiet again as they wound along the ten-mile Ocean Drive on Newport’s southern coast.

  �
��Oh, look, that’s the house Dad and Andi are buying.” Maggie pointed to an ornate wrought-iron gate in front of a two-story gray colonial.

  “Is that it? I haven’t seen it yet.” Jill slowed the car to get a better look. “Wow, it’s huge.”

  “It is,” Kate agreed. “There’s a little beach out in front, too.”

  “Very nice.” Clare felt suddenly disconnected as her daughters checked out their father’s new house. “I think I’m ready to get home, guys.”

  “Sure, Mom,” Jill said, taking the curve to Bellevue Avenue where they passed the city’s famous mansions. They drove by the merry-go-round at First Beach, and a few turns later, Jill pulled into the gravel driveway at home.

  Kate retrieved Clare’s crutches and helped her mother from the car.

  Clare took a long look at the house she hadn’t seen in more than three years. The only noticeable difference was the landscaping, which had grown and matured in her absence—just like her daughters. She shook off their offers of help and navigated the three small stairs to the front porch. When a flood of memories assailed her, she gestured for the others to go on in.

  “I’ll be right there.” She rested against the porch railing. “Go ahead, honey,” she said when Jill hesitated.

  Jill went in, and Clare stood riveted, staring at the bright red front door, remembering.

  “Three small steps,” he had said, taking both her hands to lead her. “One, two, okay, stand there a minute.”

  Listening to a door opening, she’d been tempted to nudge aside the blindfold he insisted she wear. “Jack, where are we? What’s going on?” She felt him come back to her, and before she knew it, he swept her up into his arms. “Jack! What are you doing?”

  “Carrying my bride over the threshold.”

  “Bride? Have you lost your mind?” she asked as he set her down and untied the blindfold. When her eyes had adjusted to the light, she saw high ceilings, shining wood floors, and glass—lots and lots of glass through which there was a dazzling view of the ocean. “What is this place? Where are we?”