Chapter 30 Rebecca #2
her sister’s hand on one side, her mother’s on the other. She prayed silently that God would make it so her dad loved Rebecca
more than Gigi. Not every day, that wouldn’t be fair, but just for a week or maybe a month. Time didn’t make sense anyway.
She just wanted a little more of her dad than what she had now, that was all.
“Thank you, Jesus, for everything,” was what Rebecca said when it was her turn. “’Specially summer.”
***
“Nice to meet you,” Rebecca said to Clyde now. She simulated a smile. The bend of it, the brightness. Everything felt inverted.
Eloise interjected, perhaps sensing that Rebecca felt a little off. “Why don’t you girls go get some fudge?” she said, discreetly
slipping a twenty-dollar bill in Gigi’s hand. “Tom, we’ll show you to the house.”
“The inn.” Rebecca shot her mother a warning look. “We’re staying at the inn.”
“The inn,” Eloise said, bearing the loss decently. “Yes, that’s what I meant.”
There was a tug on Rebecca’s arm. “Come on, let’s go to May’s,” Gigi said.
“My treat.”
“Mom’s treat, you mean.” Rebecca couldn’t remember Gigi ever offering to pay for anything, even birthday gifts for their mother.
Gigi would find something online and then text the link to Rebecca so she could buy it. “Team effort,” was Gigi’s refrain.
“The family hike to the bluffs starts in twenty minutes,” Eloise called after them as Rebecca and Gigi started off down Main
Street, just the two of them.
“Doesn’t get more American than this,” Rebecca said, taking in the red, white, and blue. Flags fluttered in front of every
storefront and a banjo player plucked “My Country ?Tis of Thee” as a crowd gathered around like it was Carnegie Hall.
“Except for being on a Native American reserve with actual Americans, you mean?” Gigi said. “Or going back to the 1800s on
Mackinac when the Odawa tribe lived in peace, before the white people chucked them out and killed them off?”
“Can we please save the tirade for another time?” Rebecca asked. “I just got home.”
Rebecca braced herself for the rant to worsen, but Gigi’s expression changed.
“Ronny warning,” Gigi said, nodding to an officer on a Clydesdale. “Avoid eye contact.”
It was easy to see why Gigi had gone for Ronny. Trouble emanated from him like heat waves from scorching asphalt. “What happened
with you two?” Rebecca asked.
“He was a dickhead,” Gigi said.
“Care to elaborate?”
“No thanks. You tell Eloise everything.”
“That’s not true.” Rebecca fought the impulse to put a hand to her stomach. “I won’t say anything, I promise.”
“Fine.” Gigi seemed relieved to be able to carry on. “I went back to his apartment one night. He wanted me to stay over, but
I wasn’t feeling it so I left. It seems I shattered his fragile male ego and we haven’t spoken since.”
Rebecca didn’t ask why Gigi had gone over to his place at all or what she’d expected to happen. She just turned and glared
at Ronny. He shifted in his saddle when he saw Gigi.
“I told you to ignore him,” Gigi said.
“I’m allowed to stare down dickheads,” Rebecca said. “It comes with little sister territory.”
“Guess it does,” Gigi said, and she looked a little happier.
***
“What do you think would happen if I started busking?” Gigi asked, sitting on the curb when Rebecca exited May’s Candy Shop.
She’d tired of the line and slipped Rebecca the twenty, then waited outside. “If I paid fifteen people to crowd around and
film me as if I were a big deal, everyone else would join the crowd too. I’d have enough tips to buy a Malibu mansion. Artistry
is pure emotional manipulation. That’s all life is, really.”
“Are you high?” Rebecca asked. Gigi had that faraway look in her eye.
“Sadly not,” Gigi said. “Though I still think there’s a market to open a weed dispensary on the island. But it’s legal now,
which lessens the appeal.”
“And that would require you actually living here, you know.”
“True.” Gigi made a face and stood up. “It’s your fault we’re going to be late for the family hike. You were really soaking
in your celebrity in there.”
“I was not.” But Rebecca had been, and she’d loved it.
Mrs. May had squealed so loudly when she’d seen Rebecca that a tourist had been ready to call 911. Principal Reid was there
too, loading up on sweets for his family barbecue, which he was quick to invite Rebecca and the entire Jenkins-Wood clan to.
And when old Mrs. Doud tottered in, she lassoed Rebecca with her cane for a hug.
“So what’s your deal with Clyde?” Gigi asked. “You don’t like him?”
“I think he’s great,” Rebecca said. “I just didn’t think it would be so weird seeing Mom with someone else.”
Gigi took a big bite of fudge. “He’s loaded, at least. He treats Mom to everything. Me too. Did I send you a picture of the
flowers he sent me? And he has an open tab for us at the Grand Hotel restaurant.”
“Who’s the feminist now?” Rebecca asked.
“I’m not the one dating him for his money.”
Rebecca felt the attack personally. “That’s not why Mom likes him.”
“No, but it doesn’t hurt, does it? There’s got to be a bright side to having your mom act like a lovesick teenager.”
They started up the hill toward the fort.
“I thought Dad might come back for the Fourth,” Rebecca said.
“We were texting a little the other day,” Gigi said. Rebecca could tell she was trying not to make her feel left out, but
the exclusion smacked anyway. “His South America trip got extended. Said he’ll be on the road another few weeks.”
That was just like their dad, the slow chipping away at timelines, at promises. “Has Mom been talking to him?” Rebecca asked.
“Not that I’m aware of.”
“Good.” The last thing they needed was for Gus to insert himself in the middle of Eloise’s new relationship.
“So you’re Team Clyde?” Gigi asked.
“I’m Team Mom.”
Ceremonial cannons fired from the fort. Children huddled around.
Rebecca thought about the new traditions she and Tom would make with the baby.
Then she remembered it wasn’t safe to imagine those things yet.
The eight-week ultrasound was scheduled for next month.
Rebecca lived in fear of finding blood on her underwear.
One day at a time , she told herself and the baby at least fifty times a day.
“Don’t tell me you’re on a diet,” Gigi said, chocolate dribbling from her mouth. “You’ve barely touched your fudge.”
“Just trying to limit my sugar.” She’d never be able to forgive herself if her poor eating habits impacted the baby.
“I knew marriage would strip all the fun out of your life,” Gigi said. “You don’t drink anymore; you don’t eat sugar. What’s
next?”
“I didn’t drink even before meeting Tom.” Being out of control, however mildly, had never appealed. “Your problem is that
you associate toxicity with love. And because Tom and I have a healthy, stable relationship, you assume we must be bored to
death.”
“Well, are you?” Gigi asked. “Bored?”
Rebecca was hot and sweaty from the climb of the hill, her breath shallow. “Not at all.”
“Glad to hear it.”
Silence stretched. The cannons filled it.
“I’m being a jerk,” Gigi said.
It wasn’t an apology, but it was close. Rebecca wondered if this summer was changing her sister.
“It’s fine,” Rebecca said. “Just between us, I have been a little bored. Not with Tom, but with everything else. I have no job, no friends. I sit at home all day and research
PhD programs and spy on the neighbors through the curtains. I’m Boo Radley.”
“Who’s Boo Radley?”
“ To Kill a Mockingbird ,” Rebecca said. Gigi’s face stayed blank. She’d only ever read summaries for school, never the whole books. “The point is,
I don’t know how to break into social circles. Not like you.”
“It’s because you were too popular growing up,” Gigi said. “You never had to try to make friends like I did. But it’s easy.
I’ll teach you. Take some edibles to the beach and share them. Instant popularity.”
“Such wisdom,” Rebecca said. “I’ll give it a try.”
They closed in on Harrisonville, passing the Grand Hotel stables. Like the rest of the hotel’s amenities, they were elegant
and pristine. Set back on the property, the barn was painted forest green with a red roof.
“Remember when you worked at the barn?” Rebecca said. “You reeked of horse even after you showered.”
“That was probably the best job I’ve ever had,” Gigi said wistfully, and Rebecca found it strange, though nice, to hear Gigi
talking about something good that had happened on Mackinac.
“Maybe I should see if I can move into one of the stables,” Gigi went on, watching a pair of Hackneys graze in the pasture.
“Escape the confinement of Thistle Dew.”
“Living with Mom isn’t that bad.”
“It’s not good.”
“No one’s forcing you to stay,” Rebecca said. “Go join Dad for one of his once-in-a-lifetime trips.”
Rebecca couldn’t stand that phrase. It was how Eloise described Gus’s absenteeism in the years that followed the split, when
he would come back to visit and then vanish again. “He wanted to stay longer but he had a once-in-a-lifetime trip.” As if marriage wasn’t supposed to be once-in-a-lifetime too. As if your family wasn’t the main adventure. How many mountains
and oceans and deserts did he really need to see? Didn’t they all look the same after a while?
“Maybe I will,” Gigi said.
She wouldn’t, Rebecca knew. Gigi had already tried that once, going with their dad on one of his trips. It hadn’t gone well.
Two weeks later, Gigi had called Rebecca in a deep meltdown, asking her to wire her three hundred dollars. “Dad is a child,”
Gigi had screamed over the phone. “An absolute child.”
Rebecca still hadn’t gotten the full story. It was one of the things Gigi refused to talk about, along with the incident with
the governor’s son.
“Just don’t run away again,” Rebecca said now. “Please.”
“Is it technically running away if I’m an adult?”
“Yes,” Rebecca said. “It is. Just promise you’ll tell me before you do anything, okay?”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Gigi said glumly. “Not yet, at least.”
“The offer for the spare bedroom at our place still stands.” Rebecca fought thoughts of how one of the spares would hopefully
be converted into a nursery soon.
“You’re just saying that because you’re lonely,” Gigi said.
“Or because I love you.”
“Maybe they’re the same thing.”
Rebecca broke off a piece of fudge and let herself taste it. “Maybe they’re not.”