Page 82 of Second Chances

“I can assure you, no more pop ins. I’m incredibly ashamed I did it in the first place. Again, I was insecure and jealous, for lack of a better way to put it. You and Henry are so good together. You suit each other in a way few couples do. Except for my daughter and his son, of course.” Diadema looked back at the restaurant. “I should get Burnside so we can go to the hotel.” She cocked her head at Charlotte. “Maybe we could have lunch together sometime?”

She smiled at Diadema, “I’d like that,” and watched her go back into the building, then started toward her house. This afternoon, when she’d made her way on foot to the park, she had expected to ride home with Henry tonight. Of course, she could have asked someone for a ride, but the last thing she wanted was to explain where Henry was, or why he wasn’t with her. She leaned against an oak tree and removed her sandals, walking the rest of the way home barefoot. Had she made a mistake slipping away without telling him she was leaving? What else could she have done, short of interrupting him? She had to trust that he would come to her when he was ready.

At her house, creamy yellow light bathed her porch, thanks to Henry. The light had flickered on and off since she’d moved in, but after the first night Henry spent at her house, she’d come home from an afternoon at the city swimming pool to find him standing on a footstool, screwdriver in hand, removing the fixture. “Henry,” she had told him, “I’m sure I could get the rental company to take care of that.”

He had merely shrugged. “Why bother with that when I can do it?”

She had laughed, enjoying the sight of him stretching and twisting. When he was done, she drew him off the stool and into her arms, sinking her fingers into the silver curls she loved so much at the back of his head, and he had tossed his screwdriver down onto the small table under the light, both hands sliding over her hips, pulling her body against his, and then lifted her so her mouth could meet his.

Charlotte leaned her forehead against the door before unlocking it, reliving that day. Entering her house, she hung her keys on the hook just inside before heading to her bedroom. Part of her wanted a cup of hot tea, but another longed for nothing more than crawling into bed, consumed with thinking about Henry, worrying for him, for Josh, and for his new daughter.

Letting the dress she had worn to the wedding fall to the floor, she ignored the silky, sexy lingerie at the foot of the bed she had planned to wear for Henry tonight. A pile of his clothing from a couple of days ago was in an easy chair by the window; well, not a pile, really, since, in usual Henry-fashion, he had folded everything up neatly. She padded over to it and brought his white tank to her nose, inhaling his scent: sweet from the honeysuckle shower gel of hers he used, smoky from the coffee beans he roasted with what had to have been vanilla…and was that Irish cream?, and the masculine musk that was uniquely him. Tossing her bra on top of his clothes, she pulled the tank on, comforted by being surrounded by him in this way. Choosing numbness over concern, after brushing her teeth and washing her face, she crept into bed, where she fell into a troubled slumber.

“Mom?” Sophie’s voice quavered, and she fell into Josh as Henry swiveled to meet the gaze of the woman he hadn’t seen in twenty-five years. Sick at the sight of her, nauseous with her betrayal, Melanie was still beautiful, he supposed, but time had worn her down, making her cheeks sunken, which lent to a haggard appearance. Not only was weight missing, but so was the hope that had once sparkled brightly in her blue eyes, a testament to her belief that she would be somebody important one day. Too bad she had never realized that she had been. She’d been the center of the world for two people. Three, if she had stayed.

Melanie glared at Henry. “I tried to prevent all of this, if you had only met up with me. Every call I made to you, begging you to speak to me, to meet with me in person. I tried to warn you she was coming. I wanted to explain-”

“Are you serious right now?” Henry demanded. “You tried to ‘prevent all of this’?” His arm swept out to encompass the scene of their children comforting each other. “You caused this, Melanie! The day you left town, pregnant with my child—my daughter! You had to know, right? That you were pregnant?” She avoided his eyes now, looking somewhere over his shoulder. He snarled as grief and anger collided, “I’m assuming that’s why you left. Couldn’t bear to raise another child with me or be married to me, so you had to run away?”

“Dad!” Josh’s voice was panicked. Even in the days following Melanie’s abandonment, Henry had kept his temper from his son.

“I’m okay,” he assured Josh. To Melanie, he said, “Am I right?”

“No,” Melanie denied, shaking her head. “That’s not what happened.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t walk away from our son? Didn’t leave, pregnant with our daughter, stealing her away from me, from us, from her family?”

“‘Her family’?” Melanie raged, “You mean your family? The one where no one cared about me for the fifteen years I lived there? Only your dad ever gave me the time of day⁠—”

Henry interrupted, “Not this again,” unwilling to listen to her tear his family down. Melanie had been the one to shut them out, time and time again, not the other way around. It had been Melanie who had never been interested in bonding with his sister, or chatting with his mom at family gatherings. Melanie, always reluctant to allow any of Josh’s cousins to stay the night at their place, rarely let him sleep over at their houses. Despite the fact that Henry had tried to convince her to become part of the small-town community in Clover Lake, she had barely left their home.

Josh said softly, “And what about me, Mom? Where did I fit into all of this? Am I your family? Dad’s family? My sister’s family?” Josh, still with his arm around Sophie, gave her shoulders a squeeze. “Because I can tell you with one hundred percent certainty that I cared about you. I missed you.” Josh wrenched off the tie he had worn all day, the tie that Charlotte had straightened for him when she had arrived at Henry’s house as they were getting ready for the wedding. Thinking they would all be ready for some light snacks, she brought crackers, triangles of yellow and white Colby-Jack cheese, and rounds of cured summer sausage, fresh from the meat locker on the south end of town. Charlotte had helped Josh to finish getting ready, calming him when his nerves threatened to get the better of him, when it should’ve been his mother there. “I needed my mom!” His voice hoarse, he let loose the anguish he’d contained for the past twenty-five years. “You are the one who didn’t care.”

“Joshua, that’s not true,” Melanie denied. “I left for you, believe it or not. I felt like I was wasting away in Clover Lake, with nothing more to give⁠—”

Sophie interjected, “Well, that certainly explains all I needed to know about my childhood.”

“Sophie, no, you know I didn’t mean that! I gave you the best I could⁠—”

“The best you could?” Sophie’s lovely face twisted. “Without my dad…without my brother. They didn’t even know I existed, Mom. You robbed me of that…robbed us of all of this,” Sophie sobbed.

“I never meant for that to happen. I wanted to tell you for years, Sophie, baby. You don’t understand. I…I didn’t mean to leave! I just needed to get away. My mind was spinning when I found out that I was pregnant again. I couldn’t think in that god-forsaken town, so I took the bus to Omaha. I called Casey, and she met me there. I never meant to stay away, or go anywhere else, but then too much time passed.” Melanie ducked her head, running a hand through her still-blonde hair.

“Casey? Casey met you in Omaha? From Florida? That doesn’t sound like a spur-of-the-moment decision. That sounds like planning, my dear.” Henry quaked with fury. “And don’t forget about the divorce papers you took the time to file in Sioux Falls.”

“No, you don’t understand! Henry, you told me repeatedly that one day I would get to live out my dreams⁠—”

He snorted, “What? Of going to California? You were never serious about that.” Surely, she must have realized by now what a ridiculous pipe dream that had been. She’d never even taken an acting class. He had encouraged her to at least volunteer with the drama program at Clover Lake High School, or to take part in the community theatre, but she’d told him that was beneath her; instead, she sulked around the house, not even getting about a job. Not once had she ever acknowledged his own ambitions, dreams that he had forgone so he could provide for her and their son.

“That was the problem, Henry; you never took me seriously! How could I live in that environment?” Her eyes left him to focus on their son. “Joshua, leaving you was not a choice I made. I never meant to be gone forever. Please—” she started toward Josh, then, but he shook his head and backed up to escape her.

“No. You don’t get to hug me. Not today. My long-lost mother, showing up out of the blue on my wedding day. But wait—you didn’t actually come to see me get married, did you? Oh no! You came to, what? Try and stop my dad and me from learning about my sister?” Henry’s heart wrenched as Josh, tears coursing down his cheeks, sought the comfort of his new wife, also crying as she held Josh to her. “Let’s go,” he said to Effie. “I don’t want to start our life together like this.”

“Joshua, please—” Melanie started.

Henry cut her off. “Let him go.” To Josh, he said, “Why don’t you and Effie say your goodbyes to anyone who is still inside?” Inside. Where he had last seen Charlotte. His heart twisted. What must she be thinking? How was he going to explain any of this to her? “I’ll finish up out here.” With no idea how long he’d been outside, he cast Melanie a scathing glance. “I think we’re all too damned tired for this.”

Effie nodded. “That’s a good idea. We can go to our honeymoon suite, Josh.” The newlyweds had reserved a room for the next few nights at the Beverley Arms B&B, the nicest place in town, with a view of the river that ran perpendicular to the town. Henry doubted they’d enjoy any of it now. Effie hugged him, whispering, “I love you.” She then took Sophie’s hand in hers, drawing her new sister-in-law in for a hug. “Welcome to the family.” Uncertainty on her face, Effie studied Melanie before turning and going up the stairs.