Life Happens (7 page)

Mya and her mother exchanged a meaningful look.

And Mya said, “He’ll be here.”

Millie seconded it with a firm nod. “The ferry’s always late when the ocean’s rough.”

Needing something to do, Mya fed Casper. Jeffrey had taken the orange cats back to his place, along with the rest of his things. Upon learning that Elle and Kaylie had grown attached to the white one, he’d left it behind for them. Silently, Mya had listed all the reasons it hadn’t worked out between them. He was too tall, too young, too sexy, too nice. Especially too nice. He was too calm, too understanding, too patient. He was a doctor, and she hated hospitals. And she’d known, watching him walk away, that none of it would have mattered if she’d loved him. She didn’t know why she couldn’t love him. Maybe Claire had been right. Maybe love wasn’t a decision.

Mya only knew that if it was, that kind of love wasn’t enough for her.

A knock sounded on the front door, freezing everyone in place, even Kaylie. Millicent recovered first. “I’ll get that,” she said, smoothing her shaking hands down her red slacks. “In about a minute, the awkward first round will be over and done with once and for all.”

She went to answer the door.

D
ean stood on Mya’s front porch, more nervous than a thirty-six-year-old man in his right mind ought to be. When had he ever been in his right mind where Mya Donahue was concerned?

True to his word, he’d apologized to his youngest carpenter, then surprised everybody by giving them the rest of the day off, with pay. After explaining to his brother the reason behind Mya’s visit, he’d left Grady to tell the rest of the family. Dean had had more pressing things to do. He’d arrived at the ferry docks half an hour early. As if that wait hadn’t been grueling enough, he’d been tempted to show Pete Jackson, the ferry captain where the gas was.

At least he didn’t have to wait long for his knock on Mya’s door to be answered. But it was Millicent, not Mya, who threw the door open.

“Dean Laker, if you aren’t a sight for sore eyes.”

“You’re not so bad yourself. Hi, Millie.” But his gaze went to the slip of a girl standing a few paces behind her.

If he hadn’t seen Mya earlier that very day, he would have believed time had stood still. A dozen emotions,
none of them pleasant, had been scrambling for attention ever since Mya’s visit. The moment he laid eyes on Elle, that changed, and there was only awe.

He entered without waiting for an invitation. Transferring the gifts from his arms to Millicent’s, he smiled at the girl. She was slender. Too slender? She was pale, but not overly so. Please God, he thought. She wore no makeup that he could see, no jewelry except a toe ring and a simple sterling band on her middle finger.

Bypassing a formal introduction, he took both her hands in his. “You’re beautiful.”

Light blond hair brushed her forehead, framing her eyes, which darkened expressively. “At least that’s original. Everyone else says I’m the picture of Mya at my age.”

She tugged at her hands, and too soon he had to release them.

“Although I have to admit,” she continued, glancing away, “this morning when I stubbed my toe and was hopping around cussing, she said I reminded her of you.”

His next grin came a little easier, but only until he followed the movement he caught out of the corner of his eye. Mya entered the room, holding the baby on her hip. The sight of it cut off his air.

“There’s Kaylie now,” Millicent said a little too loudly. “I’m assuming these gifts are for her?”

“Some are for Elle, too,” he said.

Elle did the honors, unwrapping a soft, silky stuffed
doll and a picture book for Kaylie, and a simple charm on a silver chain for herself. Next came two baseball caps, one in a size medium, one small enough to fit the baby.

Dean said, “Lakers are Red Sox fans from way back.”

He wasn’t at all sure what she would say, or if she would accept her status as a Laker. She looked at him as if studying him, feature by feature, then handed the doll to him, indicating that he should present it to Kaylie.

At five feet eleven, he towered over all these females, but as he took that doll with him across the room, he knew it wasn’t his height that made him feel like a gangly teenager. It certainly wasn’t the baby.

He spoke quietly to her, holding the doll toward her. She looked at it, then at Dean, then hid her face in Mya’s neck. God, she was adorable. Her brief flirtation with shyness didn’t last long. Unable to contain her curiosity, she studied him solemnly, much the way Elle had. Her eyes were blue, her cheeks pudgy, her wispy blond hair adorably flyaway. He must have passed the test, because she grinned at him, then held out both hands.

Surprised, he took her, lifting her easily into his arms. He didn’t know whether it was her toothy grin that did it, or the slight weight of her as he settled her comfortably on one arm. But he was a goner.

Elle said, “You know your way around babies.”

In the awkward silence that followed, he met Mya’s
gaze. It required effort to move it elsewhere. “I practiced on my brothers’ kids.”

“Mya said I have cousins.”

“Five in all,” he said.

“No shit?”

Elle ducked her head, and Dean realized he’d just witnessed another brief flirtation with shyness. But her outburst broke the ice.

“Believe me,” he said, “My mother and two sisters-in-law share your dismay.”

Before anyone knew how it had happened, they were all seated in Mya’s living room. Kaylie sat utterly still on Dean’s lap, the doll on the floor. She peered up at Dean, transfixed as he talked about his family on Keepers Island.

“Grady and Gretchen have two boys, Michael and Greg. Reed and Sylvia have three, Cole, Brad, and their youngest, Dougie. Their mothers are always telling them to wash their hands and put down the toilet seat, not that they ever listen. Sylvia claims they have selective hearing, like their fathers. The dogs like it, though.”

“Dogs?” Elle asked.

“As many dogs as kids. All males, too. Their houses are zoos, but thanks to the boys, the dogs never go thirsty.”

Millie made a face as his meaning sank in, but Elle laughed out loud.

Mya watched the exchange quietly.

Dean Laker looked good on her couch. That shouldn’t
have surprised her, for he’d always looked good anywhere. But he’d grown up. No longer an adolescent boy, his voice was deeper, his hands steadier, his chin stronger, his gaze more direct. Not that he directed it at her. His attention was trained on Elle. Mya not only understood his fascination and preoccupation with the girl, she shared it. It was difficult not to think about what might have been.

The phone rang. When Millie went to answer it, Dean said, “The family wants to meet you, Elle.”

“Then you already told them about me?” Elle asked.

He nodded. “They’ve all waited a long time.”

Mya tensed as Dean’s gaze met hers. Maybe he’d meant it as a personal affront. Maybe not. But that was how it felt to her.

Millie returned almost instantly, handing Elle the phone. “It’s for you.”

Rising slowly, Elle said, “Is it my dad?”

Mya couldn’t have been the only one that heard the wistful hope in her voice. Sparing a glance at Dean, Millicent said, “She said she’s your little sister.”

Kaylie started to fuss, and Elle paused in indecision. Huffing slightly, Millie reached for the baby. “Would you like your diaper changed, young lady? And then a bottle?”

Suddenly Mya and Dean were alone.

Poor Dean. Clearly, his nose was out of joint, and Mya couldn’t even blame him.

“Dean, I—”

“Let’s keep this about Elle, shall we?” He jerked to his feet. “I think I’ll get some air.”

Donning a jacket, she followed him onto her front porch. Dean stood near the top step, facing the street. The evening was quiet at dusk, crocuses and daffodils blooming along either side of the sidewalk, their colors muted in the fading twilight.

Mya hugged her arms close and said, “It’s been an emotional day for Elle. It’s only natural that she wants, maybe even needs, to speak with her, er, other father.”

Seeing his shoulders stiffen, she chastised herself, wondering how else she might rub salt in the wound. “I think keeping this about Elle is a good idea.” She reached out, instinctively finding his hand. “The important thing is she’s here. I know she’s glad you came tonight.”

He looked at her, an emotion she couldn’t name hiding in the backs of his eyes. He almost smiled, until he remembered why he didn’t. He drew his hand away, and she knew that in her haste to reassure him, she’d gone too far. The animosity was back between them, and there was nothing she could do about it.

So what else was new?

“Trevor wet the bed again. And Bubbles died.”

Elle dropped tiredly onto the bed in the room she shared with Kaylie. “The new Bubbles?” she asked her little sister.

“Mama says he was just sleeping.” Lauren made a scoffing sound into the phone.

The girl didn’t sound nine.

“Goldfish don’t have long life spans, Lauren.”

“’Specially not mine.” She sounded genuinely sad. “Elle? When are you coming home?”

Home. The word resonated inside Elle. That house in Harrisburg hadn’t felt like home since the day Brunhilde moved in. Elle loved her dad, and Lauren and Trevor, too. She didn’t know where she fit in, though. She thought about Millie and Dean and Mya. She didn’t hear any voices coming from Mya’s living room, and wondered if her dad, she grimaced, her birth father—grimacing again, she finally decided to think of him as Dean—had left. Earlier, she’d told Mya she’d talked to her doctor back in Pennsylvania. But she hadn’t told her he’d given her the results of her last blood test. Elle was scared. She wanted her mom, her real mom, the mom that had raised her until she was a little older than Lauren was now.

Lauren wanted to know when she was coming home. Feeling hollow inside, Elle had an important decision to make. She really needed to talk to her dad.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Elle said.

And Lauren sighed on the other end of the line. There were almost ten years between them, and yet the sisters had always gotten along well. Much to Brunhilde’s chagrin. She was always saying Lauren was exactly like her.
Fortunately for Lauren, it wasn’t true. Elle had always thought the girl was a lot like their father. Elle wondered who
she
was like, not outwardly, but deep inside where she kept everything private. Who did she take after there?

“Did I tell you I have a cat?” Elle asked.

“A cat! Lucky!”

“Yeah, lucky me.” Her voice sounded odd suddenly in her own ears, for lucky wasn’t a word she would have used to describe herself or her life, her new cat notwithstanding. She still couldn’t believe she had a cat. It was hard to find fault with Jeffrey, that was for sure. She wondered if Mya was going to regret ending it with him. Then she thought about how tense things were between Mya and Dean.

Maybe she shouldn’t have come to Maine. But what else could she have done?

“Elle? Are you still there or what?”

“I’m here. Actually, the cat’s name is Casper, you know, like the ghost, because of his white coat.”

“I thought you liked dogs.”

“It’s a long story, but Casper thinks he’s a dog.”

“Mom says Trevor can have a dog when he stops wetting the bed. Why should I have to wait for him to stop acting like a baby? He’s such a pain.”

“He’d be easier to hate if he wasn’t so darned cute and nice, wouldn’t he?”

“Yeah.”

Elle was pretty sure six-year-old Trevor was going to need therapy after Brunhilde was finished with him. “Hey, Lauren? Could I talk to Daddy?”

Elle heard a voice in the background. And then Lauren said, “I’m talking to Elle, Mama.”

There was a series of clunks, followed by static, and then the voice in Elle’s ear changed. “How are you, Elle?”

Great. Brunhilde was all Elle needed. “I’m okay.”

“What do you need?”

Now there was a question. Obviously, the woman thought Elle had called, not vice versa. Far be it from Elle to set the record straight, for doing so would gain poor Lauren a lecture. “Is Dad home, Roberta?”

“As a matter of fact, he isn’t. May I take a message?”

Elle had known her stepmother to behave more cordially to telemarketers. Of course, telemarketers weren’t the enemy. “Tell him I said hello, okay?”

“I’ll see that he gets the message.”

The line was disconnected.

Elle lowered the phone, lost in thought. It looked as if she was going to have to make her decision on her own.

Millie was rocking Kaylie in the living room when Elle ventured from the spare room. Whispering, the eldest Donahue said, “I’m hungry for pizza. If you order, I’ll pay.”

“Where are Dean and Mya?”

Millicent motioned to the porch.

Elle went outside just as Dean and Mya were coming in. All three paused. Cutting off their entrance, Elle closed the door and said, “Millie wants me to order a pizza. What do you want on it?”

“Anything except anchovies.” Mya reached into her pocket.

Dean reached into his. “I’ll get it,” he said.

“It’s my home, Dean.”

“Yeah, well, she’s my kid, too.”

Elle looked up, one finger over the send button on Mya’s cell phone. “Millie said she’ll spring for it. It’s
just
pizza. I’m starting to see why you two didn’t get married.”

Both adults looked stricken. Mya was the first to look away. And Elle knew she’d scraped a nerve. It made her curious about why they hadn’t married.

“Is Kaylie sleeping?” Dean finally asked.

“Almost. Millie’s rocking her.”

“I should be going. The last ferry leaves at eight-thirty, and it’s a long swim if I miss it.”

Mya’s smile looked forced, causing Elle to wonder what she’d interrupted. She figured her own expression was more in the
oh brother
category. More awkwardness followed, and Elle wondered if she should forget it, forget everything, just let it all go. But then she thought of Kaylie, and the conversation she’d had with her doctor earlier.

Dean said, “I really have to go, Elle.”

She knew he wanted to touch her, maybe give her a
hug. She was too numb inside for that, so she said, “Yeah. It’s a little cold for that swim. Thanks for the gifts. Kaylie likes her doll.”

Looking at her long and hard, he took the hint and went down the steps without touching her. He was on the bottom step when she called, “When?”

Dean and Mya looked at her. Both were strangers to Elle in many ways. Hell, in most ways. And yet there was something about each of them that felt strangely familiar. It was the way they looked at her as if she was something precious. It put a lump in her throat, but it also made her feel weird, as if she was being disloyal to her family. She hated to admit it, but she was scared. She wished…

What did she wish? That her mom wouldn’t have died? And her dad wouldn’t have remarried? That Cody still loved her? That she didn’t have cancer?

Yes! She wished all those things. Every one of them was a waste of time and energy, and she had little of either to spare. She had Kaylie. She had today. And she was here. Those were her
givens.
Everything else was a
maybe.
She’d always hated
maybes
.