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“Mary Elizabeth Shipley, you can tell meanything and you know it.Now tell me what’s wrong or I call the Babes and get them down here.”
She swallowed hard, releasing the bench to cradle her throbbing hand.“I… This would have to stay in the vault.Imeanit.No one can know, not even the other Babes.”
Tessa shoved the phone back into her pocket and shifted until she sat beside Mary Elizabeth on the bench, her pixie face drawn by a frown even Botox couldn’t stop.
“MeMe?What’s going on?”
“Vault.”
“Honey, I swear.It stays in the vault and not even the Babes will know,” Tessa said, her hand shifting to wrap around Mary Elizabeth’s wrist.“Nothing you say to me will be repeated.”
Mary Elizabeth’s gaze flooded with tears and Tessa patted and fussed and fished a tissue from her impossibly tiny purse, pressing it into Mary Elizabeth’s hand.
Then Tessa waited, silent.And maybe if she hadn’t been content to give Mary Elizabeth whatever time she needed to formulate the words, she could’ve stayed quiet.But in the silence, memories flooded her and the words began to roll out.“Do you remember that summer when I went away?I stayed at my aunt Dottie’s house?”
“Yes.We were all mad because we’d finally gotten old enough to really have some fun and you got shipped off for the entire summer.”
“It’s because…I had to be.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean,” Mary Elizabeth said, her voice shaking, “it was 1973 and young girls were still being sent away when…when they found themselves in the family way.”
“The fam— You werepregnant?”
“Shhh,” Mary Elizabeth said, glancing around them to see if anyone had heard.It was ridiculous, she realized, but it wasn’t any easier to acknowledge at sixty-two that she’d gotten pregnant so young than it had been at fifteen.
“I’m sorry.I’m just…You were pregnant?” Tessa asked again, though this time in a lower tone.
Mary Elizabeth closed her eyes and nodded.
“I can’t believe… All these years and you’ve never said aword.How could we not know this?”
“That was the point,” she said softly.“That no one would ever know and I’d take the secret to my grave.”
Tessa’s expression revealed her shock.
“I’m so sorry,” her friend said softly.“I’m sorry you went through that alone and felt that you couldn’t tell us.Oh, hon.”
Tessa pulled her close and leaned her head against Mary Elizabeth’s.
“Who was the father?Did you put the baby up for adoption?”
Mary Elizabeth took a deep breath and focused on the first question.“Do you remember Dean Carpelli?Tall, dark hair?He… He was in our math class.”
“Not ringing a bell.”
“He worked at the garage and gas station—the one called Ace’s now,” Mary Elizabeth said.“Frankie Cohen, one of Andrew and Andrea’s daughters, owns it now.The one home from the military.”
“Oh, I do remember him.He pumped gas.”
Mary Elizabeth pushed herself away from Tessa to ease the ache in her back, saddened at the thought that her friend’s only memory of Dean was one of service.
“How did you two…?”
She inhaled and let her mind drift to the days that brought a smile to her lips.“I wasn’t allowed to date until I turned sixteen, but we knew my parents wouldn’t approve of him regardless, so…we snuck around.”Mary Elizabeth smiled again, her mind filled with love and memories.“I could tell he was having trouble in math, so one day I offered to tutor him.”
“Sounds like he tutoredyou.”
