Beach Reads Boxed Set

by Marie Force

  “It’s all over your face when you think no one’s watching. But don’t panic, I don’t think anyone else has figured it out—at least not yet.”

  Ted’s jaw clenched with tension as he fixed his eyes on the pond.

  “Oh, honey.” She put her arms around him and rested her head on his chest. “What are you going to do?”

  “I don’t know,” Ted whispered.

  “How does she feel?”

  “The same way I do, apparently,” he said with a touch of awe over the still-new reality of it.

  Lillian gasped. “Then what’s she doing with Smitty?”

  “She’s going to end it with him after this weekend.”

  “Poor Smitty,” Lillian sighed. “I think your mother was right this morning when she said he has a bad case for her.”

  “I keep hoping I’ll find some clean way out where I can have her and still be friends with him, but so far I haven’t had any luck with that.”

  “I’ve waited so long to see you fall in love with the right girl and settle down. I’m so sorry it had to happen this way.”

  “I am, too. You have no idea how sorry. But I’m not sorry I love her. I just . . . I never had any idea it could be like this.”

  Lillian took his hands. “I’m going to tell you something about me that only your grandfather knows. Even your parents have never heard this.” She took a deep breath and squeezed his hands as if to give both of them courage. “I was supposed to marry someone else.”

  “Who?” Ted asked, astounded.

  “He was a family friend, someone I grew up with. We were very good friends, and I was perfectly content with the idea of marrying him until I met Theo at a dance at the university. After two hours with him, I knew there was no way I could marry anyone else.”

  Flabbergasted, Ted tried to imagine his grandmother as a young woman caught between two men. “What did you do?”

  “Well, at first I was afraid to say anything. The last thing I wanted was to disappoint my parents or cause them embarrassment with his parents who were their good friends. I was so sad about the pain I was going to cause a very nice young man who didn’t deserve it. But the more time I spent with Theo, the more madly in love I was. Finally, I reached a point where I just couldn’t hide how I felt any longer.”

  “You told your parents?”

  She nodded, and Ted could tell by her expression that she had traveled back in time to that fateful moment. “Your grandfather came to the house, and we told them together. They were furious. My father screamed and yelled and told me I had made promises that I was going to keep. My mother, as I expected, was mostly worried about what everyone would think. Times were different then. Good girls didn’t go around dumping lifelong friends for a man they met at a dance, even if he was a handsome medical school student.”

  “Yet here we are celebrating your sixty-fifth anniversary. Clearly you made the right decision.”

  “But at a terrible cost.” She looked up at him with sadness in her eyes. “My parents never accepted Theo as a member of our family, and they hardly knew our boys. I made the right choice, but it was a choice, Ted. I chose Theo over my parents. I missed them every day for the rest of their lives, but I’ve never regretted for one minute that I chose him. He filled all the empty spaces.”

  “That’s such an amazing story. I knew from my dad that your parents were never really a part of his life, but I had no idea why.”

  “Neither did he. Maybe now you can see why we were always such involved grandparents,” she said with the twinkle returning to her eye.

  Ted chuckled. “Involved. Yes, that’s a good way of putting it.”

  “You understand why I told you this, don’t you, sweetheart?”

  “Yes, I think I do.” He kissed her cheek. “Thank you, Grandy.”

  She reached for his face. “You’re a kind and decent man, Ted Duffy. You have a difficult road ahead of you, but don’t you think for one minute that loving this woman makes you a bad person or a bad friend. You’ve been a wonderful friend to Smitty for so many years, and eventually he’ll understand that you never would’ve hurt him like this on purpose. He may be angry at first, but in his heart he’ll have to know it wasn’t intentional.”

  “Our family is his family, Grandy. If he loses me, he loses all of you, too,” Ted said, expressing a thought that had been weighing heavily on his mind.

  “Your mother and I have made him a part of our family, and that’ll never change. I love him like one of my own, but I love you more, and I’ll support you no matter what you choose to do. Don’t you ever question that. You saved me after I lost my Tommy,” she said, referring to her younger son who died in Vietnam. “When you were born you gave me a reason to live again, and I love you as much as it’s possible to love anyone.”

  Ted had heard that his whole life and had never doubted it was true, but hearing her say it always put a lump in his throat.

  “If she’s the one for you, and she feels the same way about you, find a way to be with her. The rest will work itself out as it’s meant to.”

  “Even if it means I lose the three of them?”

  “She’ll fill the empty spaces.”

  He hugged her. “I love you, Grandy.”

  “And I adore you. If you need someone to talk to, you know where I am, right?”

  “Always.” He offered her his arm. “Shall we rejoin your party?”

  She tucked her hand into his elbow. “Lead the way.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Oh, there you two are,” Mitzi said when Ted and Lillian returned to the tent. “We were just starting to worry.”

  “We took a walk to watch the sunset,” Lillian said with a private smile for Ted as he helped her into a chair at their table.

  “I heard my wife was seen leaving the tent with a young blond stud,” Theo said, sliding into the seat next to Lillian. “I’m glad it was only you, Ted.”

  Ted surprised his grandfather when he leaned over to kiss his cheek. “She’s all yours, Grampa. I wouldn’t dream of interfering with a match made in heaven.” His grandmother winked at him as he took the seat on the other side of her.

  They dined on traditional Hawaiian luau fare that included avocado salad, teriyaki beef and shrimp, rice, kalua pork, pineapple broiled in ginger, and vegetable kabobs.

  “This is outrageously good, Grandy,” Ted said. “Who did you get to do it?”

  “An outfit out of Boston. We thought it would be fun.”

  “It’s fabulous.” Ted watched his father get up to greet a late-arriving couple—his old friend and Ted’s boss Martin Nickerson and his wife Jenny. Ed Duffy had been Martin’s boss and mentor. When Ed retired, Martin became the chief of pediatric oncology and later hired Ted. He stood to shake Martin’s hand.

  “So sorry we’re late,” Martin said. “The ferry was running behind.”

  Mitzi squeezed Martin and Jenny into their table between Ted and Lillian and had dinner served to them.

  “It was good of you to come, Marty,” Ted said.

  “We wouldn’t miss a Mitzi and Lillian production. They’ve outdone themselves tonight.”

  “I couldn’t agree more.”

  “I don’t mean to talk shop, but I’ve been trying to get down to see you all week. You’ve been having a tough run of it lately.”

  Ted’s gut clenched at the reminder of the recent string of losses. “It hasn’t been my best month.”

  “You’ve been around this long enough by now to know we all go through these rough patches.”

  “That doesn’t make them any easier. Losing Joey was a particularly tough blow.”

  “I’m sure you’re taking good care of your people through it all,” Martin said, sipping from his vodka martini.

  “I’m doing my best, but some of them are taking it hard.”

  “To be expected. Listen, there’s a three-day conference coming up at Sloan Kettering I’d like to send you to. It’s personal development stuff about phy
sicians dealing with loss and grief. I know you hate that crap, but in light of what’s been going on—”

  Sloan Kettering was in New York City, and so was Caroline. “I’ll go,” Ted said.

  Surprised, Martin studied him. “That was far too easy. I was prepared for all your arguments.”

  Ted shrugged. “I could use a change of scenery.”

  “All right then. I’ll set it up.”

  “When is it?”

  “In two weeks.”

  “Marty, let Ted enjoy the party, will you?” his wife said, rolling her eyes at Ted.

  “Don’t worry, dear. We’re done.”

  The toasting began right after dinner. Because he knew his mother expected it of him, Ted got up to take the microphone offered by the leader of the band that had been hired for dancing.

  When he had the attention of the guests, Ted said, “On behalf of all the Duffys, I want to thank you for joining us tonight for this very special occasion. Many of you were with us five years ago, but for those of you who weren’t, I want to tell you a little about the two couples who raised my sister and me, and about two marriages that, in my opinion, set the gold standard for how marriage should be done.

  “Theo and Lillian met at a dance at Harvard University in the spring of 1941. Their wedding plans were interrupted on December 7, 1941 when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.” Ted recited the story he knew well but was still amazed to realize there had been so much more to it than he—or his father—had ever known.

  “They were married on December 9, and Theo joined the medical corps later that month. He was shipped off to the European theater, and Lillian didn’t see him for three long years, during which time she worked as a volunteer for the Red Cross. Their son Edward Theodore Junior was born almost ten months to the day after Theo returned home from the war, and a second son, Thomas, was born three years later. Second Lieutenant Thomas Duffy was killed in Vietnam in 1968. After World War II, Theo completed his medical training and went on to a long and prestigious career as a pediatric oncologist in several Boston-area hospitals. Lillian is well known in Boston for her philanthropic work, especially on behalf of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s Jimmy Fund Clinic, a cause that, as you all know, is near and dear to the Duffy family. Theo and Lillian retired in 1985 and now spend their time playing golf, traveling, and doting on their two grandchildren. And when I say doting, I mean doting,” Ted said to laughter. “Soon they’ll have a great-grandchild to ruin—I mean spoil.”

  Theo shot him a scowl, but his eyes were full of amusement and sentiment.

  “Please join me in congratulating my grandparents, Theo and Lillian Duffy, on the occasion of their sixty-fifth anniversary.” Ted led the thunderous applause that filled the tent.

  Theo stood and offered his wife an arm to escort her to the dance floor as the band launched into “The White Cliffs of Dover.” Ted watched his elderly grandparents move slowly but smoothly around the dance floor and thought about what she had told him earlier. She had no regrets about the choices she had made, and Ted could only hope he would feel the same way when he looked back on his life.

  In that moment, he acknowledged that he was standing at a crossroads. The choices he made in the next few weeks and months were going to set the course for the rest of his life. He tuned back into the party when the guests applauded at the end of the song.

  Wearing big smiles, Theo and Lillian returned to their table.

  Ted stood to hug and kiss them both before he picked up the microphone again. “Our other guests of honor, my parents Ed and Mitzi Duffy, met in Washington, D.C., during a protest to end the war that later took his brother’s life. Like his father before him, Ed was beginning his studies at Harvard Medical School. Mitzi was a junior at Bryn Mawr, and both were active in the student demonstrations that were a hallmark of the sixties. They were married in 1966 and settled in Boston where Ed followed his father into the family business. He retired as head of the pediatric oncology department at Children’s Hospital Boston just a few years before he would have had to decide whether or not to hire yours truly.” Ted paused when the guests laughed at his joke. “Like her mother-in-law, Mitzi devoted herself to her children and continues to be a tireless advocate on behalf of Dana-Farber and several other charitable causes in the Boston area. Ed and Mitzi will welcome their first grandchild in September. Please join Tish and me in congratulating our parents, Ed and Mitzi Duffy, as they celebrate their fortieth anniversary.”

  As Ed and Mitzi danced to “When a Man Loves a Woman,” Ted noticed his grandmother dabbing at tears and reached for her hand.

  “Their wedding day seems like five minutes ago,” Lillian whispered in Ted’s ear.

  He smiled and squeezed her hand.

  The microphone was passed around to friends and relatives who added their congratulations.

  “Whenever I hear someone say all families are dysfunctional, I think of the Duffys who epitomize the word functional,” Smitty said when the microphone reached their table. “I thank the four of you for making me a part of your functional family, and I love you all.”

  Ted was touched when Smitty’s voice broke at the end.

  “I spend my days brokering the end of marriages, and it would be so easy for me to become a cynical disbeliever,” Parker said. “I think the only reason that hasn’t happened is because of my long friendship with the Duffys. These two marriages have gone the distance and have done it with so much style. I also thank you for including me as a member of your family, and I’ll be here in five years for the forty-five-seventy party.”

  Lillian rolled her eyes and groaned, which made everyone laugh.

  Chip took the microphone from Parker and stood up. “I, too, have had the great honor to be included as a member of the Duffy family, and let’s face it, we all want what they have. In keeping with this great celebration of marriage, I asked Mitzi and Lillian if they would mind if I hijacked five minutes of their party to do something I should’ve done a long time ago. I’m lucky that my beautiful girlfriend Elise has stuck with me for almost six years, and I’m hoping someday she and I will be celebrating an occasion like this with our family and friends.”

  Elise looked up at Chip with wary, expectant expression.

  “Elise, I love you. Will you marry me?” Chip asked as he produced a ring from his pocket.

  She gasped and then burst into tears as the other guests applauded.

  Astounded, Smitty and Parker whooped and hollered when Chip gathered Elise into his arms and kissed her before he slid the ring onto her finger.

  Ted stood up to get a better view and saw Caroline wipe tears from her cheeks. “You two have been holding out on me,” he said to his mother and grandmother.

  Both shrugged with delighted innocence.

  “You didn’t have any idea?” Mitzi asked.

  “Not a clue. I think Chip managed to pull off a total surprise. Elise looks floored.”

  “Go on back there with them,” Lillian said. “You’ve done your duty up here.”

  “You did a wonderful job, darling,” Mitzi added.

  “I’ll be back to collect that dance you owe me,” Ted said to his grandmother before he made his way through the tent to his friends’ table in the back. He hugged Chip and kissed Elise, who was still crying and gazing at the ring on her finger.

  “Well done, buddy,” Ted said to Chip. “You surprised us all.”

  “I was dying to tell you today at the beach,” Chip said with a euphoric grin. “I didn’t think I was going to make it.”

  “Did she say yes?” Ted teased. “I never heard a yes.”

  “Of course I did,” Elise said.

  “It’s the end of an era,” Smitty lamented with mock seriousness.

  “Nah,” Parker said. “Nothing’s going to change.”

  Ted glanced at Caroline, filled with the sudden awareness that everything was about to change.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Ted was dancing with his grandmother
when he saw Caroline slip out of the tent and head in the direction of the guesthouse. Smitty, Parker, and Chip were enjoying cigars on the lawn, and Ted couldn’t see Elise but assumed she was with them.

  When the song ended, Ted escorted Lillian back to her seat and was on his way to a clean escape when his mother stopped him.

  “Oh, Ted, darling, do you remember Madeline and John Harrington?”

  They had been summer friends of his parents’ for as long as they had been coming to the island. “Of course.” Ted shook hands with both of them. “I ran into Jack in Newport a month or so ago,” he said, referring to their son. “He was pushing a big stroller.”

  Madeline laughed. “His twin boys are two years old.”

  “Doesn’t he have older children, too?” Mitzi asked.

  “Yes, four of them. The oldest is in college. He had the twins with his second wife.”

  The small talk was killing Ted. “Would you all excuse me, please? It was great to see you again.”

  “You, too, Ted,” John said.

  He left them talking to his mother and followed the gravel path through the pitch black night to the guesthouse where the creak of a rocking chair told him Caroline was sitting on the back deck.

  “I saw you leave. Are you all right?”

  She didn’t answer.

  “Caroline?” His heart knocked against his ribs. “What is it? Are you all right?”

  “I really wanted to . . .”

  “What?” he asked, his heart pounding.

  “Cut in on you and your grandmother, broken ankle and all.”

  He jammed his hands into his pockets to resist the overwhelming need to touch her. “This has been the longest day of my life,” he whispered.

  “Mine, too. I loved hearing about how your parents and grandparents met.”

  “My grandmother has us figured out.”

  Caroline gasped. “Oh, no! Oh, God, Ted, what she must think of me!”

  “She thinks you’re lovely.”

  “Does she think we’re awful?”