AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Two
Elise arrived outsideof Wayne’s house at five minutes after seven. Ordinarily, she wasn’t late to anything—something that had always made her mother laugh. Allison Darby had been late to almost everything, her blonde (then grey-ish) curls flowing out behind her as she walked into the café or restaurant or movie theater with a ready apology and, sometimes, an extra dessert to share.
We’re so similar and yet so different, Elise,her mother, had said often.We balance each other out. We are ying and yang.
Elise buzzed, with memory of what she had just learned. It felt a little bit like a nightmare.
According to her mother’s diary, Allison Darby had loved Dean Swartz enough to ask him to leave his wife, Mandy, and create a new life with her. The words had been so specific, expressing the fact that Allison could love his children; she could be the second-wife; she was strong enough.
Plus, she was pregnant and she wanted Dean to be in her and her baby’s life.
She had even said something about the whole “actress career” thing. That it had always been juvenile—that maybe she’d only wanted it because she’d never had another option.
But then, Dean had said that his youngest child, Alex, had cancer.
That they had to seek treatment in Chicago.
That he had to focus on his family and step back from the affair and whatever he felt for her.
And as a result, defeated, pregnant, and sad, Allison Darby had returned to California to raise her own California girl alone.
Elise stopped short before she lifted her knuckles to Wayne’s door.Mom did what she had to do to keep Dean’s family intact, alive and well. She gave them space to become this: the richest family on Mackinac Island.
Now that I’ve returned, what am I doing to that memory? Am I tainting it?
Would Mom have wanted me to stay away? Just let the Swartz family live?
She knocked on Wayne’s door twice with her knuckles, then waited. From outside the door, the smell of chicken wafted through the cracked windows. Her stomach gurgled with hunger. When Wayne had left the note on her door earlier that day, she had felt a jolt of electricity.
Would Wayne finally acknowledge whatever it was that brewed between them?
Would he finally be honest about all he hid from her?
Still, what Alex had said on the night of the fire hung in the back of Elise’s mind.
Should she prepare for this guy to break her heart?
Oh, but wasn’t she in the mood for something, anything to happen? If she returned to California with a broken heart, memories of a single night with her father, and knowledge of this other whole world, wouldn’t that be enough?
That’s the trouble about life, isn’t it? Once you taste something, you want more and more of it. You’re greedy, and the greed never ends.
Still, Wayne didn’t come to the door. She glanced from left to right, realizing she had forgotten a bottle of wine. Her mind was a whirlwind. She could hardly put two thoughts together.
Is Wayne tired of hearing about all this Somewhere in Time, Allison Darby, Dean Swartz stuff?
Probably my scavenger hunt to find my “true family” isn’t as exciting as I think it is.
“Wayne?” Elise called toward the cracked window. “I’m here!”
Elise exhaled and shifted her weight. Maybe he was out back tending to the horses? She lifted a hand to the doorknob and found it open; a frequent thing on Mackinac Island after tourist season came to a close, according to Wayne. She stepped into his beautiful foyer, slipping off her jacket and hanging it on the coat rack in the mudroom.
“Hello?”
The smell of dinner permeated through everything. It was a welcoming smell, the kind of thing that allowed Elise to imagine,Yes, this is my life. I’ve returned home from a long day of writing, and my love has cooked me dinner...
“Wayne?”
She stepped into the kitchen and blinked down at the beautifully decorated dinner table, with its glistening china plates, its two forks and knives, and a large tray of butter chicken still cooling on the stovetop. A candle flickered in the center of the table. After a quick sniff, Elise turned around to find a burning loaf of garlic bread in the oven.
