Besides, he had sucked down enough champagne to give himself a buzz. Getting behind the wheel wouldn’t be the brightest idea.
There were two beds. Two bathrooms. He could sleep in his clothes, then head out at dawn.
It sounded like a plan to him.
Chapter Twenty-three
“Stanley!” Mariah and Willa burst from Hall’s Rover and raced up the driveway toward the backyard where Stanley was barking a greeting.
“Be careful, girls,” Ellen called out as they dashed by. “Stanley’s been playing down on the beach again. He smells like a giant haddock.”
“Hi, Dr. Ellen.” Elizabeth, Hall’s eldest daughter, exited the car, followed by her sister Kate.
She hugged them both. “It’s been ages since I saw you two.”
“Last Thanksgiving,” Kate said. “Your hair was longer and straighter.”
She winced and tugged at an auburn curl. “I was spending more time with the blow-dryer than I was with my patients. I finally gave up the fight.”
“I like it curly,” Elizabeth said as her sister nodded her head. “It suits you.”
“It better since I’m stuck with it.”
“The munchkins can’t stop talking about Stanley,” Kate said. “I think they’re in love with him.”
“He is pretty lovable,” she admitted. “Go on back and meet him if you want.”
Laughing, they went off to join the little girls.
“They get more beautiful each time I see them,” she told Hall as he joined her.
“Too beautiful, if you ask me. The phone started ringing before they pulled into the driveway. I swear every damn guy in town knows the number.”
“You can’t put them in a convent,” she said.
“Wanna bet? I’ve been looking into a nice cloistered convent near Calais. Maybe I can get group rates.”
They went around back and sat down on the deck. Stanley was putting Hall’s girls through their paces as he ran rings around them, occasionally stopping to shake his sopping wet fur and make them shriek with pretend horror.
“Did I hear you say he smells like a giant haddock?”
“Afraid so. I took him down to the beach for a run, and he decided to swim instead.”
“So we’re going to ride around all day with a giant slobbering haddock in the back of my Rover.”
“This was your idea,” she reminded him. “But now that I’ve told Stanley, you can’t uninvite him. His feelings will be hurt.”
“You’re starting to sound like your sister.” He took off his sunglasses and wiped the right lens with the hem of his Shelter Rock Cove High School T-shirt. “Any news?”
“Nothing. Mary Pat is thinking about calling the police.”
“On a thirty-five-year-old woman with a history of being unavailable?” He laughed so loud that all four of his daughters looked up at him with identical expressions of embarrassment.
“Mary Pat’s a control freak.”
“I figured that out.”
“And get this: Scott’s not back, either,” she said. “Jack said he usually works Saturdays, but he didn’t show up this morning.”
“I guess Mary Pat doesn’t need to call in the cops.”
“I’m not sure. Deirdre told me she was celibate.”
“Was being the operative word here.”
“She’s not the type to run off with an auto mechanic. My sister has her sights set a little higher.”
“Things happen.” What a lot of history you could pack into three syllables.
“I know,” she said softly, “but it isn’t like that with them. She’s only known him a few days.”
“C’mon, Markowitz. You never heard of a one-night stand?”
“She’s made some mistakes. She really doesn’t want to make any more. Believe me, she’s not looking to sleep with Scott Peretti or anyone else.”
“Have it your way.”
“I’m not looking to have it my way. I’m simply telling the truth.”
“As you see it.”
“As I know it.”
“You’re the one who told me the two of you are practically strangers. She’s lived an entire life you know nothing about.”
“That’s true,” she acknowledged, “but I feel like I’ve gotten to know a lot more about her this past week.”
“In some ways she reminds me of you.”
She dragged her fingers through her tangle of curls. “It’s the hair.”
“I like her a lot.”
“So do I, and I’m worried.” Not that there was anything she could do about it. She and Deirdre didn’t have the kind of rich sisterly history that would give her the right to tell her what to do. And they sure didn’t have the kind of history that would make Deirdre listen.
“She’s a big girl, Elly. She can take care of herself.”
“If she could, she would have a cell phone or a forwarding address. Normal people usually have a way for other people to reach them.”
“Maybe she doesn’t want to be reached right now.”
“So you think she took off, too.”
“I didn’t say that.” He looked toward the path that led down to the beach just as Kate, Mariah, and Stanley disappeared. He cupped his hands around his mouth. “Hey! If that dog goes swimming again this morning, we’re not going for that drive I promised you.”
Ellen dissolved into laughter. “That’ll put the fear of God into Kate and Lizzy. What teenage girl wouldn’t want to be locked in a Land Rover with their kid sisters, two gynecologists, and a dog who smells like a giant haddock.”
He sat back down, looking borderline sheepish. “Sometimes I forget they’re not all still six years old.”
“Better have those eyes checked, Dr. Talbot, because Kate and Lizzy are all grown-up.”
“The day before yesterday they were crawling through my office in their foot pajamas.”
“The day before yesterday was a long time ago.”
They applauded as Willa, under Lizzy’s tutelage, cart-wheeled across the yard. “At least I got that part of the equation right.”
“More than right. Fatherhood suits you.”
He turned from his children and met her eyes. “Believe it or not, so does being a husband.”
“Your track record might suggest otherwise.”
“That’s one of the things I love about you, Markowitz. You never pull your punches.”
She touched his hand. “You know I didn’t mean to hurt you. I’m probably not the best bet in the marital sweepstakes, either. I formed my idea of the perfect family from watching Brady Bunch reruns.”
“You should give it a try,” he said. “You might surprise yourself.”
“I came close once, but the gentleman ended up making other plans.”
“You picked the wrong man.”
“Actually he picked me.”
“Did you love him?”
“I loved the idea of him more than the flesh-and-blood reality.” She let her gaze drift across the yard, his daughters, the sun-dappled grass, the years of longing. “What I really loved was the idea of being a family.”
“I’ve made that mistake a few times myself.”
Her mouth curved in a smile. “So I’ve heard.”
“Lizzy! Willa!” Kate’s voice lifted toward them from the beach. “Come down here and see what Stanley found!”
“Uh-oh,” said Ellen, laughing as the girls ran for the path that led down to the shore. “Your poor Rover will never be the same.”
“I’ll deduct the cleaning bills from their inheritance.”
He laced his fingers with hers and she stopped laughing. She almost stopped breathing.
“This is perfect,” she said, meaning the morning sun and his girls’ laughter and sitting there together. “I don’t want anything to change.”
“Too late,” he said. “It already has.”
She let the silence drag on for maybe a year or two. “The sun’s almost straight up. Maybe we should ge
t the girls and—”
“It didn’t just happen Sunday night, Ellen, in case you’re wondering. I’ve been falling in love with you for a long time.”
“You fall in love too easily.”
“Only once before,” he said, “and I was never in the running.”
“Did you ever think that might be the way you like it?”
“I loved someone who didn’t love me. It was bad luck, not bad psychology. We don’t always have a choice when it comes to who we love.”
Her heart ached so much it hurt to draw in a breath. “I was there with you Sunday, Hall, and I know who else was there with us.”
“You’re wrong.”
“I know what I heard.”
“I don’t know why it happened, but it did.” He stared out across the yard toward the beach path. “I would trade away that night with you if it would erase the doubt from your mind.”
“It’s more than Annie,” she said after a moment. “I’m not sure either one of us knows how to make a marriage work.”
“Life doesn’t come with guarantees, Elly. Sometimes you have to jump into the deep end and swim like hell.”
“What if you can’t swim?”
“I’m out of metaphors,” he said, releasing her hand. “I spent most of my life waiting for the right moment to tell a woman what was in my heart, and while I was busy waiting, some other guy came along and told her ‘I love you’ and it was all over.”
A gull swooped overhead, his cry loud and raucous and full of life.
“I won’t make that mistake again.” He met her eyes. “When I read a good book or see a great movie, you’re the one I want to share it with. You’re in my dreams at night and in my heart when I wake up in the morning, and when you go away it’s like you took the sun along with you.”
“You’re thinking I might be pregnant.”
“I’m aware it’s a possibility,” he said, “but that’s not what I’m talking about.”
“I know you. I know the kind of man you are. You’ve probably already calculated a due date.”
“I’m an OB. It comes with the territory.”
“I know,” she said, starting to soften just a little bit. “I calculate due dates in my sleep.”
“You’ve delivered hundreds of babies, but I’ve never heard you say you wanted a baby of your own.”
“I want the whole enchilada,” she said. “Husband, babies, in-laws, PTA meetings. I already have the house and the dog.”
He took her hand in his again and kissed her palm. Such a simple gesture, but what powerful emotions it unleashed inside her.
“I don’t know how to tell you this, Markowitz, but your dog’s a loaner.”
She rested her forehead against his shoulder and laughed until she cried.
* * *
It was after ten by the time they crossed Mount Desert Island and began driving south on Route lA to Lincolnville. They hadn’t said a word since they left the Crooked Isle Inn, which was fine with Deirdre. His reaction when he woke up to find her in bed with him didn’t rank high up on her list of memorable moments. For a man who had held her like she was all that stood between him and grim death, his retreat into monosyllables was downright insulting.
“You were having a nightmare,” she told him when he leaped from bed like his feet were on fire. “I tried to wake you up, but you weren’t having any of it.”
He had been crying, too, although she didn’t tell him that. Ugly silent sobs that racked his body and made the bed shake beneath him. She had stroked his shoulder, whispered soothing words, nonsense sounds you would whisper to a small child who was afraid of the dark, and somehow she ended up on top of his bed with her arms around him, holding him while he slept.
She could have stayed behind at the Crooked Isle, enjoying the Jacuzzi and room service until they finally tossed her out, but what was the point to hanging around where you weren’t wanted? She had done that too many times in her life. Sooner or later she would have to figure out how to get herself back down to Shelter Rock Cove without a car, and it was crystal clear that Scott the Mechanic’s taxi service ended today.
“There’s a McDonald’s up ahead,” he said as they neared the sign for Lincolnville Beach.
“Great,” she said.
He barely slowed down long enough to place the order and grab the bag of Egg McMuffins. The plan was to stop at an auto wrecker so he could pick up the parts for her Hyundai. The sooner the better as far as she was concerned. She had been geared up for summer in Bar Harbor. Free room, free food, the chance to earn some real money and maybe begin to figure out what she wanted to be when she grew up.
Now it was all shot to hell and that old itchy feeling of having stayed too long at the fair was all over her. The Mechanic said he could have the car up and running by Tuesday or Wednesday. It couldn’t happen soon enough for her. Ellen had her own life, and if she spent any more time mooching coffee at Annie’s Flowers, she might as well join the payroll. Unless she pitched a tent on the beach behind her sister’s house and spent the summer working on her tan, it was time she figured out her next step.
She closed her eyes as the car rocketed down the highway. She had worn out her welcome in Maine. Monday morning she would be on the phone with her agent. It was probably too late to snag another cushy summer gig at a resort, but there had to be a place out there somewhere for a girl, her harp, and her dog.
* * *
Saturday afternoon was their time. Susan usually farmed the kids out with her mother or one of her sisters so she and Jack could have some quality time together. Quality time used to be a euphemism for loud dirty sex, but over the years it had devolved into a PG-13 rental from Blockbuster and a nap. She had no business being angry with Jack for sacking out during Unfaithful. It wasn’t like she wanted him getting an eyeful of Diane Lane in the bathtub. He had a right to take a nap. The guy worked hard. If he wanted to catch a few winks, she would be a major bitch on wheels if she tried to deprive him.
She felt like an oyster with a piece of grit except she wasn’t about to produce a pearl for her troubles. Everything about poor Jack bugged her lately. Truth was, everything about her entire life seemed a size too small, a shade too loud, a bit too familiar. She hated being home. She hated going to work. Her children got on her nerves. She was a handful of years away from turning fifty and she couldn’t remember the last time she looked forward to anything more exciting than a house closing. She had never been to Europe. She had never taken a cruise to the Caribbean. The last time she went skinny-dipping, Clinton was still in office. The last spontaneous thing she could remember doing was changing toothpaste brands.
She was short-tempered with the people she loved most and indifferent to everyone else. Small work crises that might have bounced off her radar screen last month turned her into a screeching harridan now. If she closed her eyes she could sec her life slipping away faster than she could pull the days back. One morning she would wake up and see her mother in the mirror and her brains would fall into the sink and it would be all over.
Her mother thought it was menopause and maybe some of it was. She had been feeling restless and irritable since Christmas, but that was nothing compared with the onslaught of tangled feelings she had been experiencing since Kerry Amanda’s christening on Sunday. Seeing Hall and Ellen laughing together had awakened a longing in her so fierce that it almost brought her to her knees. She felt as if she were seeing him for the first time. The gold hair streaked with silver. The clear blue eyes. The way he always looked as if he’d stepped fresh out of the shower and straight into clothes tailor-made for his tall, muscular form.
She knew him as well as she knew her own siblings. He was part of the family in every way except DNA. She had watched him fall in love with Annie, then marry women he liked but couldn’t love. She was godmother to his children, occasional baby-sitter, repository of many of his juiciest secrets.
She loved Jack, but she wasn’t in love with him anymore. Her knees did
n’t knock when he walked into a room. Birds didn’t start singing love songs.
She wanted love songs. She wanted hearts and flowers. She wanted to wake up in the morning and not know where the day would take her. She wanted it to be new again, the way it used to be, the way it never was. New smells. New sounds. New touches.
But most of all, she wanted Hall. He was gorgeous, he was familiar, and best of all he would never tell.
* * *
All in all, it wasn’t Stanley’s finest hour.
Halfway to Idle Point and the animal shelter, he decided he needed to go out now, as in five minutes ago, and they had to pull over to the side of the highway so Ellen could walk him into the woods.
That took forty minutes.
Once back in the car he panted faster and faster until they pulled over again, barely in time for him to make a beeline for a secluded area where he could take care of business.
“He was fine all morning,” Ellen said, puzzled by his predicament. “This seems to have come from nowhere.”
They settled back into the Rover and headed once again for the highway.
“Stanley smells funny,” Willa announced ten minutes later.
“I think he’s going to be sick,” Mariah said, inching away from the dog.
Hall, jaw set, kept his eyes on the road.
“Something stinks!” Lizzy took off her headphones and glanced around.
A second later Kate let out a groan. “Stanley’s about to blow.”
Ellen sniffed the air. “Hall, I think we’d better stop. He really doesn’t smell too great.”
“We stopped six times already and we’re still not halfway to Idle Point.” He looked at his daughters through the rearview mirror. “Have you been feeding him back there?”
Lizzy and Kate shook their heads in unison while Willa and Mariah feigned a sudden hearing problem.
“You didn’t give him that box of beef jerky we had left over from your camp-out, did you?”
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