Chapter Twenty
Hugo left the library, following Jack. Lucy waited a while, but he never came back. Back to the guesthouse, she supposed. Could she follow him? Yes. But what would she say? I forgot to tell you but thanks for the shoes. By the way, if I’m getting the riddle right, that means your wife dumped you for another man. Tell me all about it.
That might not go over well.
Something knocked loudly against the house, kicked by the wind. All three of the contestants were jolted by the sudden noise. Jack hadn’t been kidding about the coming storm.
“Maine is crazy,” Andre said, his dark eyes trained on the window and the churning ocean in the distance. “Sounds like a hurricane.”
“Just a bad storm,” Lucy said, hoping it wouldn’t turn into a nor’easter.
“I hate storms,” Melanie said, shivering as she glanced at the window, then shook her head. She gave a little scoffing laugh. “Wonder if Jack arranged this to make me face my fear of storms.”
Andre looked at her. “Thought you said you were only afraid of losing your bookstore.”
“If you want to know the truth, I’m afraid of proving my ex-husband right by losing my bookstore. He told me during the divorce that I’d never make it work. I hate to think he was right, that I didn’t know what I was doing.”
Lucy’s heart clenched at Melanie’s confession. “When I met you,” Lucy said, “I assumed you had this perfect life. You seem like you have everything together.”
“I have nothing together except my outfit,” Melanie said.
“Truth is,” Andre said as he got up to stand in front of the dying fire, “the thing I’m most afraid of is telling the truth to my son. He knows his granddaddy is sick, but we haven’t told him he’s not going to make it if he doesn’t get a kidney transplant soon. They’re best friends.”
“You’re not a match?” Melanie asked.
Andre shook his head. “Dad’s got a rare blood type. It’s been a nightmare.”
“Maybe you don’t want to tell your son,” Melanie said, “because you don’t want to make it real yet for you either.”
Andre nodded but said nothing.
“I’m sorry about your dad,” Lucy said. “But pretty jealous you and your son have such a good relationship with him. I would have killed for that.”
“I keep forgetting how lucky we are to have each other,” he said. “Thank you for reminding me of that.” He smiled. “God, I miss the things I was afraid of as a kid. I’d kill to be scared of ghosts and closet monsters again, and not my dad dying before he sees his grandson grow up.”
“And spiders,” Melanie said. “And rats. Real rats are so much less scary than the rat I married.”
“Come on now. What about you, Lucy Lou?” Andre said. “We ponied up. What’s your real fear?”
“I don’t think I have just one,” she admitted as she mindlessly spun the dregs of her hot chocolate in the bottom of her mug. “I mean, take your pick. Seeing my ex-boyfriend again. Or worse, letting him see how little I’ve done with my life. Never getting to do the one thing I really want to do with my life. Finding out the reason my parents and my sister didn’t love me is that there’s nothing to love about me. And trust me, I know how pathetic that sounds, but no matter how old you get, no matter how many times you tell yourself it was them and not you, you never really persuade yourself that it wasn’t you.”
Andre leaned in, met her eyes. “It wasn’t you,” he said. “Speaking as a father who’d move mountains for my son, it wasn’t you. Any parent who makes their kid feel unwanted has something wrong with them.” He pointed at Melanie. “And you, bad times come to every business. Man, even Apple was on the edge of bankruptcy in the nineties. I’m smart, okay? They don’t let dummies into Harvard Law School, and you skunked me in the last game.”
Melanie grinned broadly. “Thank you.” Then she made a face of almost-comical disgust. “Dammit, now I want you all to win as much as I want to win.”
“Jack’s sneaky as hell,” Andre said. “He probably planned this.”
“I wouldn’t put it past him,” Melanie said.
“Definitely. See y’all at breakfast.” Andre stood and went to the door. Then he turned around and faced them. “I hope I win, but if either of you wins, I’ll be happy for you. I hope you both get your wish somehow. I hope we all do.”
Melanie smiled at him, and Andre left.
“What is it you don’t have the money for?” Melanie asked Lucy as she stood up from her armchair.
Lucy hesitated. She hated telling her sob story, but she also relished any chance she got to talk about Christopher.
“There’s a little boy I want to foster. Actually, I want to adopt him, but I’d have to foster-to-adopt first. I don’t meet the qualifications for foster parenting. He and I…we want to be a family, but we probably never will.”
“Unless you win and sell the book.”
“Right. Unless I win.”
Melanie smiled and said, “That’s a very good wish.”
* * *
—
From the window in her bedroom, Lucy watched the storm rising. God, she’d missed the wild skies of Maine in springtime. Scary sometimes, but beautiful with the clouds racing toward some unseen finish line and the ocean churning as if the Kraken were about to rise. She imagined Christopher here with her, standing in front of her, face pressed to the glass. And when the storm passed, they’d run out to the beach to look for driftwood and throw stranded starfish back into the water.
Her phone buzzed on the nightstand. She picked it up and saw a long message from Theresa.
I don’t know how to tell you this, but Christopher just came by the classroom. He said he’s getting a new foster placement. In Preston with an older couple. They’re letting him finish the last week out at school. I’m in a meeting right now, but I’ll call you as soon as I can. He’s really scared and upset, of course, but I don’t think he realizes he’ll be going to another school next year. Honey, I’m so sorry.
Lucy read the message over and over until the words sank in. She was in too much shock to cry. Denial was her first instinct, that there must be a mistake. Preston was almost twenty miles away from Redwood. Same county but…
She knew in theory that kids in foster care were moved around all the time, that they were forced to pack their bags at a moment’s notice all the time, that they were transferred from school to school all the time no matter how much it traumatized them and made keeping up with their schoolwork nearly impossible.
Of course she knew all that, but she never thought it would happen to Christopher. Maybe he’d get moved, but not to another town, not to another school.
This was her worst nightmare.
Lucy took deep breaths, deep gulping breaths. She stared wildly around the Ocean Room as if somewhere in there, she’d find the answer. But there was nothing to help her. The bed. The dresser. The vanity. Hugo’s shark painting over the fireplace. A few books on the mantel tucked between grandfather clock bookends.