Where Secrets Lie

Where Secrets Lie

Copyright © 2011 by Donna Marie Lanheady

All rights reserved.

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form or by any means, without express written permission from the author.

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Table of Contents

In memory of

Ron Wildman

Because you always believed

Of course, Sara wasn’t going to tell her parents about the baby. What was David thinking?

“
You’ve got to be kidding,” she said when he suggested it during breakfast.

“
Why not?” David asked.

“
For starters, there’s no baby to tell them about.”

“
But there will be soon.”

“
You don’t know that, David. It might take a while.” Maybe quite a while longer than either of them anticipated.

“
I’m sure it’ll happen soon, let’s tell them.”

Sara fiddled with what remained of her eggs.

“
C’mon, Sara, don’t you think they’re wondering? I mean, your mom did ask how long we’d wait.”

“
Yeah, I remember.” How could she forget?

Sara’s mother, Lee, cornered them as soon as they returned from their honeymoon to probe about when she would become a grandmother. When they told her they planned to wait five years before they considered starting a family, Lee nodded. Sara never knew if her nod signified disappointment or relief. Either way, Lee would want to be sure the plan remained unaltered, but Sara didn’t care what Lee wanted, not this time anyway.

“
I just think it’s too soon,” Sara said. “Can’t we wait until we know for sure? I don’t want Mom fussing over me already.”

“
Ok… if that’s what you want.” David’s grin faded for a moment, then reemerged. “But the minute you’re pregnant we’re telling everyone!”

“
All right.”

David took one last bite, got up from the table, and put his breakfast dishes in the sink.

“
I better get going,” he said. “Promise I won’t be late.”

He kissed Sara and left.

Later today, Sara’s parents would celebrate their twentieth wedding anniversary by renewing their vows in a brief ceremony, followed by an elaborate reception.

David’s mother called early in the morning and asked him to stop by before the party to fix a leaky sink. Well, his mother considered it a leaky sink. His sister considered it a flood. Even so, David took his time getting ready.

Just after his father passed away from a heart attack and his sister moved back in with their mother, David received a frantic call in the middle of the night.

His sister needed him right away.

David jumped out of bed, slipped on his running shoes without tying them, threw a coat on over his pajamas, and ignored every stop sign and red light he encountered en route.

His sister met him on the front porch and rushed him to the bathroom where a baby mouse, which had fallen into the toilet, squealed as it tried in vain to dig its nails into the slippery surface and climb its way back out. David closed the lid and flushed, and he never again believed his sister’s evaluations of their household maintenance issues. He also never got annoyed with her, which Sara found endearing.

The ease with which David took care of his mother and sister convinced Sara he would make an exceptional father someday, but she could not predict that day’s arrival because when the agreed upon time for children materialized, it astounded her by exposing an inner reluctance toward pregnancy.

~

“
Lee, what tie should I wear?” Jack called toward the bathroom.

He stood in the walk in closet and stared at a confounding number of ties, all lined up on several racks attached to the walls. Lee joined him in the closet, pulled out a black, white, and grey paisley tie, and held it against the light charcoal summer suit he wore.

“
I like this one,” she said and handed it to him.

He turned to face the mirror mounted on the inside of the closet door and began to knot the tie. Lee stood behind him, off to one side, and peered over his shoulder.

Although flecks of grey mixed in with his deep brown hair, Jack’s hairline remained intact. Gentle furrows bordered the outside edge of his eyes, but his tall frame remained sinewy, which he came by naturally, for Jack was neither a sportsman nor an athlete.

Even in heels, Lee stood a half a foot shorter than her husband. Time softened the curves of her body but not the angles in her face where deep-set eyes balanced her narrow nose and chin. Over the years, the length of her hair crept above her shoulders, but Lee ensured it remained the same shade of Swedish blonde she was born with.

Lee slipped by Jack and returned to the bathroom to finish putting on her makeup. Before long Jack appeared behind her, his hands settled on her shoulders, and his cheek grazed her hair.

“
Is there anything you need me to do?” Jack asked.

“
No, Sara and Katie will help me with what’s left.”

“
They’ll be here soon then?”

“
Yes.”

“
Good, I’m going to answer a few emails before everything gets going, ok?”

Lee smiled and nodded. Jack kissed her on the cheek.

~

“
Do we really have to talk about this now?” Katie asked. “I’m already late.”

Emily sat on the bed and watched Katie get dressed.

“
Even if you weren’t late, you wouldn’t want to talk about it,” Emily said. “We have to face this sooner or later, you know.”

“
I so vote for later.”

Emily sighed. “Why don’t you just tell them already?”

If only it were that easy. Any attempt to tell her parents instilled a terror within Katie, which obliterated her ability to speak. She wasn’t about to confide this weakness to Emily though.

“
I will tell them,” Katie said. “Eventually.”

“
Meaning not today?”

Katie went to the bed and sat beside Emily.

“
Does it have to be today?” Katie asked.

“
No, but it needs to be someday, today’s just as good as any.”

In college, Emily heeded her mother’s advice to give Katie space, and let Katie tell her parents in her own time. During those years, Katie’s recurrent rationalization to wait until she no longer needed her parents’ financial support sounded sensible to Emily as well.

However, last spring both Katie and Emily received master’s degrees from the University of Denver, which was also their undergraduate alma mater. At the beginning of the summer, they moved in together. Emily assumed it meant they would not pretend to be best friends around Katie’s parents anymore. She was mistaken. Katie was not ready to tell her parents, and she declined to elaborate about why.

“
I just don’t want to be left alone again while you go off to a party that I wasn’t invited to,” Emily said.

Katie reached over and clasped Emily’s hand.

“
I know, babe. I’m sorry.”

Emily squeezed Katie’s hand but shook her head.

“
An apology just isn’t good enough anymore, Kate. I want to be included in your family the way you’re included in mine.”

Emily’s family welcomed Katie with an ease that touched and amazed her. Emily came out to them when she was in high school, and the way she tells it, they reacted with acceptance despite their initial shock, so they evolved into complete understanding through minimal rough patches long before Katie came along.

Katie knew it would be an arduous undertaking for her parents to understand or accept, if they ever managed to do it at all, which meant Emily might never be able to have what she desired.

“
I want that too,” Katie said, “but telling my parents doesn’t mean it’ll happen.”

Emily shifted to face Katie.

“
So what will happen, Kate, because you never really say. They’ll disapprove, I get that, but there must be more to it.”

“
Isn’t that enough?”

Katie stood up and went to the dresser where she began to sort through a bowl of tangled jewelry.

“
But they’ll get over that eventually.”

“
Maybe, maybe not.”

“
You think they won’t get over it?”

Katie shrugged, hesitant to reveal more.

Emily’s eyes misted. “Do you really think they’d stop loving you over this?”

“
I don’t know.”

“
But Sara didn’t react that way.”

A few years ago, after Sara visited Katie for a weekend while she and Emily were undergrads, Sara asked Katie whether they were lovers. Katie wavered at first, then answered her sister. As far as she knew, Sara never breathed a word of her admission to anyone.