Chapter 17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Sender: Margot Massey
Subject: RE: Touching Base
Hello Aaron,
I have been well, and busy, which I believe is evident by my lack of response. I’ve been navigating rough waters on this side of the internet, so I will not be checking my email often. We’ll speak more in person at the wedding, as you initially wished.
Safe travels when you do,
M.M.
I n the passenger’s seat of my car, I typed the email with no emotion, knowing it probably read abrupt and blunt, but not bringing myself to care. If Aaron Astor was wowed by just a glimpse of me, as Vivienne had claimed, I doubted a brusque email would change his mind.
The seat’s heater warmed up the leather, one of the only comforts. Sumner sat behind the wheel beside me, one hand gripping the leather. We didn’t speak; in fact, neither of us said a word since he pulled up at the curb of the hotel and I climbed in. The atmosphere had immediately turned tense when I shut the door and sealed myself in.
For me, it was because in the light of day, my feelings for him felt too obvious. Now that I realized them, I had no idea how to hide them. For him… I didn’t know why he was so quiet. It made me nervous.
“Take a right up here,” I told him. I sent the email off, and I hated how I waited to hear Sumner’s phone chime with a notification. It didn’t. “Her driveway is the gravel one between the trees.”
Sumner obeyed. The gravel popped over the tires as Sumner eased into Nancy’s driveway. He parked in front of her rusting car, shutting off the engine. The air was still and calm, and from here, I could see a small glimpse of the pond in her backyard.
When he didn’t open his door, I looked over at him. He, too, stared out the windshield, but almost like he wasn’t seeing. I thought about cracking a joke as I normally would, but my mind was blank of anything other than concern. “Are you okay?”
He made a soft affirmative sound, but still didn’t meet my gaze. “I’ll wait here while you go visit.”
When Sumner had picked me up from Pierre’s, instead of going back to the hotel, I asked him to take me to Nancy’s. It’d been a few days since I visited her, and after everything with my parents, I needed her biting banter to take my mind off it. “You can come in,” I said softly, squeezing my phone in my lap. “If you want.”
“Nancy’s was your one safe place. I don’t need to come in.”
“That was back when you were just my babysitter. Not my friend.”
He finally turned to look at me, and it was then that I noticed how tired he looked. The sparkle in his blue eyes seemed duller than normal, like an overcast sky instead of a sunny one. Gloomy . That was the perfect word for it. Something was wrong.
“Nancy would be happy to see you,” I added, unable to stop picking at the case of my phone.
Sumner reached over and laid his hand on top of mine, ceasing my movements. His fingers were soft, stilling my own. I like your hands , I’d told him the night prior. My cheeks flamed at the confession now, as true as it was. “You’re fidgeting.”
I wanted to turn my hand over, to press our palms together. I didn’t need comforting… but I wanted to hold his hand anyway. “You’re on Nancy’s property this time, though. Instead of grabbing your bicep this time, she might grab your tush .”
My lame attempt worked; Sumner’s lips tipped up at one corner ever so slightly. A small shot of victory lanced through me at the tiniest crack in his expression. “Yeah, she wasn’t too impressed with my bicep, was she?”
That’s enough for now , I told myself, and pulled my hand out from his to pop my door open. “But I’m sure she’ll have different feelings toward your back end.”
As I shut the car door behind me, I realized something wasn’t quite right about the sight of Nancy’s driveway, though, and it took me a moment to place what it was.
I frowned. “That’s weird.”
“What is?”
“No one’s here. I thought they said someone was with her at all times.” There was no car parked beside Nancy’s rusting one. “I swear, if they took her to the country club again…”
Sumner rounded the front of the car. “Let’s check it out, hmm?”
The door was unlocked when we got to it, which increased my apprehension. It swung in easily, revealing a silent house. There was no sound of the TV, no sound of someone speaking, and not even the small clattering of Nancy’s wheelchair rolling over the hardwood floors.
I didn’t want to call out. It seemed wrong to raise my voice in such a silent house.
There was a slippery slope in my mind, and my thoughts began falling down it. What if something happened? What if whoever was here had to rush her to the hospital? What if no one came today, and she had an accident? What if I find her…?
Sumner’s hand wound around mine, wedging its way through my semi-closed fist and grabbing on. He didn’t say anything, but gave me a slow nod. I’m here , his expression said. Whatever we walk in on, I’m here .
I returned the grip, and despite my anxiety snowballing out of control, that was the tiniest bit of comfort.
Nancy’s bedroom door was shut when we got to it, and I raised my fist to the wood. “Nancy?”
No answer. Sumner reached for the knob for me, positioning himself in front of the door. He glanced at me as if for permission before pushing it open, its hinges creaking as if we were in a scene straight out of a horror movie. The bedroom was empty, though, and I drew in a breath that gave my lungs no relief.
“She isn’t supposed to be out of the house so often,” I said in a rough voice, fishing my phone out of my pocket. “That’s too many days in a row. She knows this. Everyone knows this.”
“Maybe she had a doctor’s appointment?” he offered as I scrolled through my contacts. I had just found hers when Sumner placed his hands on my shoulders and pivoted me toward the far wall in Nancy’s bedroom, facing the window. “Margot. Look.”
For a wild moment, I thought I’d look outside and find Nancy lifeless on the ground. The view from her room was half obscured by the giant hedges she had outside, but through the bristles of green, I could see what he made out. Barely. The worry replaced with a fiery annoyance that bloomed in its wake. Letting out a sharp breath, I ducked out of her bedroom and started toward the back door.
And there Nancy was, parked in her wheelchair by the pond, just as she’d been the first day I came to see her. The only difference was that there was no one here at all to make sure she was okay.
“What are you doing?” I demanded as soon as I pulled open the sliding door, voice a snap that carried its way to where she was sitting. I could tell, because she lifted her head ever so slightly. “You know you shouldn’t be out here by yourself. ”
“Oh, I know that, do I?” she asked with a sigh, one that turned into a crackling cough. “Ally went to the store to get more pain relievers. I ran out.”
“You shouldn’t be outside when no one’s home to watch you, Nancy. It’s too hot?—”
“I’m old. I’m always cold.”
“Just because you feel cold doesn’t mean you can’t get heatstroke,” I shot back. I came up behind her now, grabbing onto the handlebars of her wheelchair. “Or slide down the slope into the lake.”
I tried to tug her, but the wheelchair wouldn’t budge. “That’s what brakes are for, Margot,” she said in a voice that lacked all energy.
“Do you at least have your phone on you if you needed help?” I asked while looking for the clips on her brakes.
“It’s in the house.”
I closed my eyes. “Nancy?—”
“I’m not feeling too good today,” she mumbled. “Everything hurts.”
With my grip on the handlebars, I stopped. There wasn’t a breeze today, so the water in the pond was very still, algae blooming on the stagnant surface. Her words sounded more like a confession than anything else, one I selfishly wished she’d kept to herself. I couldn’t see her face, but I could see her hands where they were folded in her lap. The backs of her hands looked bruised, veiny, weak. I was surprised they could wheel her all the way out here. Surely, they wouldn’t have been able to wheel her back inside.
It was only then that I noticed that Sumner hadn’t followed me out to the pond, but still lingered by the back door by the house. “If you’re not feeling good, why did you come out here?” I asked.
Nancy coughed again, this time the hacking, body-wracking sound only lasted a moment. “I figured if I keel over, might as well have a nice view.”
This time, I thought she was joking. The words were designed in her normal ornery way; she was just lacking the strength in her voice. “I suppose you’re right,” I said, trying to be as lighthearted as I knew she wanted me to be. “Better out here than your bathroom.”
“What, you thought I keeled over in the bathroom?”
“I considered it.”
She gave a wheezing laugh. “What a sight you’d find. Hopefully I don’t go out that way—or, if I do, that Yvette is the one that finds me naked on the floor.”
I allowed myself to smile, but it withered away when what we were talking about sank in. The jokes and banter attempted to keep the truth at bay, but the reality broke through as Nancy’s laughs turned into labored wheezing. “You can’t leave me, you know.” I left no room for argument.
It could’ve been a shift in the wind if there’d been any, but following my words, all lightheartedness between us disappeared. I’d known Nancy Du Pont since before I could remember. As co-founder of the country club, everyone pressed close, but especially my parents. She was the one who allowed them to build the very first Massey Suites on the property beside Alderton-Du Ponte, allowed them to build grand dreams. They paid more attention to currying her favor than they did to me, but it was me that had captured Nancy’s attention. At every gala, every fundraiser, every event, she’d make sure she sat beside me. We were a pair of thieves, snickering at everything together.
In my world, there was no life before Nancy Du Pont. I couldn’t even begin to picture a world after.
“I can’t very well live forever, Margot,” she said.
My hands clutched the handles of her wheelchair tighter, the grooves in the plastic handles digging into my skin. “You could try. You’re stubborn enough.”
“I don’t want to be stubborn anymore. I’m… I’m tired, Margot.”
There was a ripple in the pond then, as if something stirred just underneath the surface. I don’t want to be standing here anymore , I thought, feet aching, throat aching. I wish I hadn’t come. I wish I could unhear this .
Nancy lifted her hand from her lap and held it up to me, wrinkled fingers outstretched to me. I stared at the hand, puzzled about what she was reaching for when it was as if Sumner spoke into my ear. Comfort .
I wanted to knock it away. I wanted to laugh at it, because it was an absurd thing, Nancy offering her hand out to me. Nothing about Nancy was warm and fuzzy, but prickly, like a cactus. She didn’t offer her hand out without pricking your finger. Her reaching out was a silent admission following the verbal one I’d tried to push past. I’m not feeling too good today.
An invisible grip tightened around my throat as I placed my hand in hers.
We stood there for the longest time, watching the water that hardly moved, wondering when it had lost its charm. Neither one of us spoke, and we didn’t look at each other. My eyes burned, and the pond grew blurry, but my cheeks remained dry.
I didn’t know how much time passed before my phone in my jacket pocket buzzed. I was going to ignore it at first, but eventually ended up pulling it out just to check the notification.
Aaron Astor.
Before even reading the email, I turned around and searched for Sumner on the back deck. He leaned against the side of the railing, not facing us, but it was still clear to see the phone in his hand.
Sender: Aaron Astor
Subject: RE: Touching Base
Hello Margot,
I completely understand what you mean about being busy. I hope nothing too negative is keeping your schedule booked. Perhaps when I come, it will be a nice reprieve—a vacation of sorts—and I can take your mind off anything that’s bothering you.
Sending you my best wishes.
Fondly,
Aaron
“Anyone important?” Nancy asked. I hadn’t realized she would’ve been able to hear the notification buzz.
The question of it all continued to swirl in my mind, but I didn’t want to say anything to Nancy. Not yet. “We’ll see,” I replied to Nancy, all while typing out a quick email in my right hand.
Sender: Margot Massey
Subject: RE: Touching Base
Aaron,
I just realized, I never said where we should meet. There’s a restaurant in Bayview called Pierre’s. I’ll attach the address to the email. Wear something red so I can see you.
See you then,
M.M.