Kaleidoscope Summer (Samantha's Story) (34 page)

Alec
stilled his fingers on his knee
. “Do you still have family here?”

“My aunt’s granddaughter
,
Betsy
,
lives there now. I’m ashamed to say I’ve only
met her once. I intend to see her while I’m here
.”

Alec
rubbed
his palm
s on his jeans
. “
John
says Betsy shops for him and Elizabeth—delivers their groceries to them.”

Roger
frowned
and
shook his head. “I’m glad on Elizabeth’s behalf.
John
—not so much
.”

“So when
you met
Anne
you were a junior or senior in high school?”
I continued to study him for any indication that he might be Sam’s father.

“
I arrived
in
Serenity
Cove
a couple of months before our
senior year. Like I said, we became good friends
. That summer holds the best memories
of my teenage years.
” Roger hesit
ated briefly
.
“
Anne
’s parents thought
we were
together
too much
and
headed for
trouble.
I
’d be lying if I said the potential never existed
, at least on my part
. I was crazy about her.
”
He
stopped making eye contact. Maybe,
reliving the past
more
than talking to us.
“
I can still picture her. Free spirited, golden hair blowing
in the sea
breeze, her
blue
eyes always smiling.” He gazed
at
Sam
. “You have her same hair
, but your
eyes are different. Hers were
a softer blue
.”

I decided to pull the conversation back on track.
“I’m going to dive right i
n the deep end.
What do you recall
about her getting pregnant?”

H
e
looked at
Sam
. “I
assume you’re
trying to fi
gure out who your father is? F
or the record, as teenagers,
Anne
and I never t
ook our friendship to that level
.”

“Did she tell you his name
?”
Hope
shone
in
Sam
’s face
.

“No. Just said s
he h
adn’t intended it to happen
.”
He raked
his fingertips across his neck.

I
studied his body language
. “I take it you disliked her father?
”
F
orth
coming as Roger had been
,
my gut said he wasn’t telling the whole story
.

“He
blamed
Anne
for what happened—
refused to listen to her
about wanting to keep her baby
. Elizabeth tried
to be supportive—
John
wouldn’t allow
it
.
”

“He
still
refuses to acknowledge me
.”
Sam
fidgeted
with her napkin.

“Don’t confuse
John
’s opinion with Anne’s
.
”
Roger
focus
ed
totally on Sam
.
“
For nine months Anne
cherished
you—i
t broke her heart
to
give you up
.”

Sam
remained
silent—as though
t
o c
alm
the
visible tears
. After a moment
,
she
asked
the
haunting
question
. “She
n
ever mentioned my father
?”

He
shook his head.
“
No
. W
ish I could help
.”
He
straightened his
shirt collar.
“
Anne
possessed a brightness, and it
attracted people to her. She never met a s
tranger—too trusting of people
.”

I pressed
again. “She never hinted at a name?”
Was
Anne forced, o
r worse? Unless there was proof,
Sam didn’t
need to hear speculations
.

“No. We’d always talked and shared about our families
,
our hopes and
dreams. Wh
en it came to the father of her baby—
she shut me o
ut. To be honest, I
doubt
she shared the details with
anyone.
If
John
found out the father’s name
, I
think
she feared what he
might do.
”

Maggie picked up the carafe. “More coffee
anyone
?”

Roger declined
. “If you’ll excuse
me
,
I told Betsy I’d see her in time for an early supper.
”

“We appreciate your willingness to talk to us
.”
I made a move to walk him to his car.

“Stay seated. I’ll see myself out.”
He waved and t
rotted to his car
.

Sam
sipped from her mug
and set it back on the table.
“Is it p
ossible no one knows
?
”

“Perhaps
she
confided in Elizabeth. A
fter all
,
she
’s
her mother
.” Magg
ie topped off their cups
.

I tipped
my chair back on two legs
. “
A
ccording to Roger,
Anne feared
what
might
happen
.”
Some secrets shouldn’t
be tampered with
—
was
this
one of those
.

Alec
glanced at Sam
. “Might be best to
respect
her wishes
and leave it alone?
”

“I
f she’d lived
,
s
he
would’
ve told me the whole story
, i
ncluding my birth father’s name
.
There’s a freedom to be gained—it’s intrinsic to the truth.”
Sam
stood and
plunked
her mug
on
the tray
, sloshing some over the edge
,
as though
end
ing
her comment with an exclamation point.

For her sake
,
I hoped she was right.
There could be
more to this story than she was prepared for.

Chapter
Twenty-seven

The web of decepti
on grows vast and intricate. Lord, help me to have faith. Help me
to tru
st you. Help me
to believ
e
.
Why do
answers keep eluding me?
Father, l
ike
the children of Israel, who wa
ndered in the desert
for
forty
years. I keep
circling the same crazy
mountain
.
Please show the way.
~
Journal e
ntry

The beach was busier than when I’d first arrived in Serenity Cove.
Castles were erected on the sand, and windsurfers were bumping and jumping through the waves.
In the distance
,
fishing boats were pulling up their nets.

A
curative breeze
swept across the sea
,
drawing me closer
.
I held on to Goldie’s leash and
wove
my way
through the towels and mats
.
Finally, I
hit a st
retch where
the crowds lessened
. The sun felt wonderful, b
ut
questions
never strayed far
from my thoughts
.
Anne had become
a person
others respected, accordi
ng to
Logan
,
Maggie
,
and most anyone who knew her
. Who was she, this
young
woman who
had
nourished and shielded
me for nine months?
Had adoption been her way of
protect
ing
me? I looked up and saw
Ro
ger
strolling
in
my direction
and felt
God had heard me
. M
y nanny wo
uld’ve called it a God-incident
.

He came toward me,
a
tentative
smile on his face
.
“Good morning.”

“
Have time to
chat?”
I nodded toward
a weatherworn bench
facing the waves.

“Of course.” The breeze
opened his windbreaker
,
revealing a man still fit for his age.
He wasn’t
old—
fifty by my calculations.

We sat
watching Goldie play
in the sand and surf
.
Hesitant,
I turned
toward Roger. “Tell me
more about Anne.”
Long-legged
sandpipers trotted along the shore
,
busily making their rounds.

“
You want to ask me questions?”
He
reached dow
n and picked up a stick and
tossed it for Go
ldie before turning back toward me
.

“
S
tart at the beginning,
the summer the two of you met?”

  He stare
d at the water for a moment.
“
The day
after moving
to
Serenity
Cove
,
I walked for miles
,
concentrating on hating my
parents for uprooting
my life. I
ended
up
at the cove. There she sat
on a moss-
covered log
,
the sun creating a halo
on her hair
. She
g
azed
o
ut at the s
ea as though
her daydreams
were taking
her to far
away
places.
” He paused, seemingly
lost in the past.
“I fell in love with her then and there.”

I placed my hand on
his to give him comfort. I wish he’d been the one—my father.

“
Being a savvy teen
—
I said hi and called her Goldi
locks.
It’s odd how the dumb moments stick with you
, even after all these years
.” He sho
ok his head, chuckled and
picked up his story again.