Page 77 of Second Chances

She answered Trixie, “Thank you. You look beautiful, too.” Henry’s sister had her dark blonde hair pulled up, glittery earrings dangling from her lobes. Her dress, a multicolored mix of fabrics, was an eclectic style Charlotte identified as Trixie’s own. Though she was an accountant, the woman was far from boring.

“Lottie, my brother…you need to know that I have never seen him like this. So energetic. Happy. At peace. I even heard through the grapevine that he’s been taking off random days during the week, and that’s absolutely unheard of for him. You’ve brought a sparkle and lightness to him. He’s never had that before.” Trixie dabbed at her eyes. “Sorry, I’m just emotional. With Josh getting married, and then Liam getting engaged, there’s so much love. And my brother is part of that, you know. And it’s been so long for him. Too long, but I’m glad he waited. No one deserves to be happy more than Henry, and the two of you together are gorgeous.”

Charlotte flushed because she felt the same, despite her concern over everything she had learned. Although she yearned to talk to Henry’s sister about what she had just heard from Tess and Ruth, something in her wanted…needed…to speak with Henry first. A movement behind Trixie caught her attention, as Diadema stepped through the door Charlotte had been heading to. What had she been doing outside? Heart lurching now, she returned Trixie’s hug, promising, “I’ll talk to you later.”

Steeling herself, Charlotte walked on trembling legs and opened the door. Immediately, Henry’s voice drifted up to her, “All the phone calls, all the texts, but now that I want to talk, it’s just games. Tell me what you want now, because after tonight, it’s over. I won’t do this anymore.” Charlotte’s heart sank. So it was true. He had been calling, or at the very least, receiving calls from his ex-wife. Why hadn’t he just told her? She would have understood. Did he not trust her?

“Henry?” Charlotte didn’t recognize the female voice.

She heard him respond, “Can I help you?”

The female voice spoke again, only louder, “I’m sorry…I’ve been trying to talk to you all day.”

In an angry tone Charlotte had never heard Henry use, he said, “I need to go. No, Melanie, stop. We’re done.” He must have hung up then, because he was calmer when he said, “Sophie, right?”

Sophie? The young woman who had tried twice today to talk to Henry? Who had been at the wedding, yet no one seemed to know who she was? What could she want with Henry? Sophie said, “Yes, and you’re⁠—”

Almost Twenty-Five Years Ago

Tonight was Joshua’s Christmas concert at school, and with his cousin at his elbow, he ran up to her. “Mom, can I stay at Liam’s house tonight?” She shook her head.

At twelve, his blue eyes were only an inch or so below hers. He’d gotten taller, practically overnight, which was good, because he’d started getting a little chubby last year. “Absolutely not.” The two boys had been spending so much time together, you’d think they were brothers instead of cousins. “That medical journal you wanted arrived today. I thought we could look through that together tonight.” Since before he started kindergarten, she’d worked hard with Joshua to ensure his interest in medicine, and now was the time to start really leaning into it. Henry thought she was a little too invested, but as she always explained, they couldn’t have their son failing where he had—Joshua would go to college, and he would become a doctor someday. With his cousin at his side, her beloved son stomped away in a fit to collect his tuba from the band room.

Her sister-in-law intervened, “What’s the big deal about him staying over? It’s a Friday night.” Of course Nora would say that—Liam didn’t come close to his cousin’s intelligence. His sister, Cait, was smart, but if Melanie were being honest, the poor girl was quite homely. A shame, since all the boys in the Livingston family had been blessed when it came to their looks.

Melanie gritted her teeth. “Well, we also want to spend some family time together. Henry’s been working six nights a week at the shop, coming home late, exhausted and dirty, every night.”

“Oh, really?” Nora responded, her perfectly arched eyebrows raised slightly, nodding over to where Henry was speaking with his brother. “George has been home just after five every night. He told me that the shop has been kind of slow.” Nora shrugged into her fur-lined leather jacket, and even if it wasn’t real, it was convincing enough to make Melanie envious. No way could Nora afford something so extravagant on her husband’s salary as a mechanic alone, which meant the income Nora earned working at the auto dealership her parents owned was supplementing her lifestyle. Must be nice to be that rich, Melanie thought sourly. If Henry had lived up to his ambition of becoming a doctor, Melanie would be the one wrapped up in such finery now, instead of pushing her arms into her years-old wool coat, which had seen a lifetime of long South Dakota winters. Before moving to this hellhole fourteen years ago, Melanie had no need for heavy coats.

“I’m sure you’re right. Henry’s probably just planning a surprise for Christmas.” Melanie mustered as much bravado as she could. “He’s always doing sweet things like that.” That used to be true, but it had been years since he’d done anything for her out of the blue.

Down the hall, Diadema, or DD, the annoying name Henry insisted on calling her, waved at Nora, with the Texas-sized diamond on her ring finger flashing underneath the fluorescent lights of the grade school. Immaculate, golden-brown hair fell in waves around the woman’s shoulders, driving Melanie to smooth her own blonde hair, which she had hastily pulled back into a ponytail. With her toddler on her hip, DD stopped to speak with Henry and George. Henry’s fingers reached out, tickling the boy under his chin, and the two of them laughed, reminding Melanie of the many times her husband had brought up the topic of the two of them having another baby. In the first few years, Melanie just changed the subject, until Henry got so insistent that she had to flat-out refuse him. It had been hard enough losing all that weight the first time, and now that she was in her thirties, he wanted her to get fat again? No way. Fanning herself with the concert program, a wave of nausea coursed through her, and she wondered why Henry would want an infant when Joshua was practically a teenager now?

Students poured out of the music room, then, with Liam in the lead, his gorgeous chestnut hair gleaming. At Joshua’s elbow was Euphemie, DD’s daughter, and she groaned. Melanie would never get that woman out of their lives if her son continued to be friends with the girl, although she certainly understood why Joshua wanted to be near her. At thirteen, she was a year ahead of Joshua, and already possessed a beauty more exotic than all the other girls. The middle schoolers had music and band together in the small school, and too many of Joshua’s tales lately began with “Euphemie this” and “Euphemie that”. Her son was growing up and maturing, and Melanie dreaded that soon he would no longer come to her for advice, or anything else, for that matter. He’d already begun resisting her influence in small ways, like when she had tried to dissuade him from playing the tuba, nudging him toward the more elegant saxophone, but that hadn’t worked.

Tasting bile at the back of her throat, she abruptly excused herself to Nora, making it to the restroom just in time to relieve her stomach of its contents. She’d been feeling off for the past few days, but it came in short waves, passing before she could make too much fuss about it. After rinsing her mouth out, she slapped color back into her cheeks. Where she used to see beauty, she only saw a haggard has-been every time she looked in the mirror. “I guess Mama was right,” she murmured to her reflection. Nothing more she could do with herself, she exited the bathroom, immediately spotting Nora and DD huddled together, thick as thieves like always, cooing over Hamilton. Try as she might, she could not keep back the jealousy as she surveyed the friends. Fifteen years in this town, and she still didn’t have anyone like that. Her husband should be her best friend, but they’d never had that, not even those nights under the stars at the Grand Canyon.

Holding a hand on her stomach, sweeping her eyes left and right, she found everyone else at the exit doors. Thanks, Henry, she thought sourly. Were her husband and son going to leave without her? Aiming for nonchalant, she sauntered over to them. “I’m ready to go.” Without waiting for a response, she breezed out the door.

In the car, she tried to cheer up Joshua by suggesting they decorate the Christmas tree when they got home. He snapped, “I thought you made me come home so we could look at those journals?”

“Medical journals again, Mellie?” Henry sighed. “A little obsessive, don’t you think?”

“Someone has to care about his future,” she hotly responded. After a moment, she relented. “I suppose the journals can wait until tomorrow. Do you want to do the tree, Joshua?”

“Yes!” Joshua shouted. At least one of them was happier now.

Henry glanced at Melanie. “It’s getting late, isn’t it? Maybe the tree should wait until tomorrow.”

“And then what?” She hissed at her husband, “You’re never home anymore, Henry, and the tree has been sitting in our house since the day after Thanksgiving! Every weekend, you say we’re going to decorate it, but then you work on Saturday, come home too tired, and Sundays we’re with your family.” Reapplying her lip gloss as “Have a Holly Jolly Christmas” played on the radio, Melanie sharply noted, “You all seemed pretty chummy tonight.”

Henry frowned, “What do you mean?” As if he didn’t know.

“Honestly, Henry, cooing over that baby? Where was his own father?” Since DD’s return to Clover Lake, Melanie had suffered as she swanned around town. It wasn’t enough that DD’s parents were some of the most prestigious people in town, but then she married an even wealthier man? Melanie had never stumbled into that kind of luck, not that she had any desire to be married to anyone but Henry, who was still the most handsome man she’d ever known. He was thoughtful and loving with their son, patient when she was on the verge of snapping. But she no longer saw the promise of love for her in his eyes anymore.

Another sigh, and Henry pulled into their driveway. “Mellie, what’s this all about?” The car shook as Joshua got out, carrying his tuba to the house. “I was only talking to my brother while we waited for the kids.”

“You know damn well what I’m talkin’ about! Standing there, with her and that baby, actin’ like it’s your family!”