Chapter Eleven #2
“Actually, Iris is literally the only person who knows anything for sure. Even I don’t know the truth of it, though I suspected.
There were rumors, of course, but were they true or, as Iris told me, was Kim just bent out of shape because she chose to believe the rumors?
” She paused, her eyes sad. “Of course, the older Taylor got and the older you got, the more it looked like Kim was bent out of shape because she was right and her husband actually got Iris pregnant.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Tears slid down Helen’s cheeks, but Lucy wasn’t sorry for the accusatory question or the bite in her tone. Gran should have told her.
“To what end?” Helen said. “You already have a mother who cares more about herself than you. Would knowing you have a father who didn’t want you and refused to claim you as his daughter have made your life better?”
No, Lucy admitted, if only to herself. “But I have a sister.”
“Kim Perkins wouldn’t have tolerated you in Taylor’s life when you were younger.
And you haven’t been on this side of the country for fifteen years, so I had no reason to ever think you and Taylor would cross paths.
She’s never approached me. And once you got here, well…
Kim hasn’t spoken to me in thirty years.
I thought they’d both avoid contact with you, and, with Jack already gone, it could only hurt you.
And you were already in a rough place. I never expected Taylor to seek you out, and I’m sorry you found out this way. ”
“I don’t know what to feel,” she confessed.
“Of course you don’t, honey. It’s a shock.” Helen wiped the tears from her cheeks and sniffled before managing a smile. “Is Nick with you?”
“No. He’s at work, though he’ll be home soon, I’m sure.”
“Okay. Have him make you a nice soup or some hot chocolate. It’ll help you feel better. You haven’t called Iris, have you?”
“No.” She’d thought about it, but hadn’t had the strength. “She’ll just lie, and if I push, she’ll feel cornered and that can make her mean.”
“I wish that wasn’t true, but I know it is.
There’s no reason you need to call her because the one thing it won’t do is bring you clarity and comfort.
” Helen looked directly into the camera with eyes that were still brimming with tears.
“I should come home. I don’t know how, but they must have some way of getting people off this ship when stuff comes up at home.
I’m on an excursion now and this little coffee shop has Wi-Fi, which is why you got me.
Maybe they can just get my things off the ship and—”
“No!” Lucy forced herself to brighten her expression. “No, you don’t need to come home. I shouldn’t have called you while you were on the cruise, anyway. Even if you came home, there’s really nothing you can do.”
“I could hug you. Really tightly.”
“We’ll just stockpile all the hugs, and when you get home—after your cruise and your visit in South Carolina because I promise I’m okay—we’ll just have one massive squeeze hug when you get here.”
“Okay, sweetheart. Let Nick take care of you, and I’ll be home soon.”
Once they disconnected the call, Lucy sighed and flopped over on the couch. Dragging a blanket over herself, she thought about her grandmother’s words and felt a flash of anger. No, she was not going to let him take care of her.
Because she remembered the look on Nick’s face the first time somebody mistook her for Taylor. He had to have known, too. And he didn’t tell her.
* * *
Nick had a pounding headache, and all he wanted to do was sink down on the couch and close his eyes.
Theo had gotten called out for a garage fire early in the day, so Nick had to drop what he was doing and finish framing the laundry room his youngest brother had been working on so it would be done for the plumbers.
Plumbing was one of the very few jobs they had to outsource, and delays took a chunk out of the Slater & Sons bottom line.
Then the landscaper had shown up to get an idea of the homeowner’s plans and the timetable. Nick hadn’t had time for him, but the guy was hard to get hold of, so he made the time.
It was one of those days, and he walked through the door thankful it was over. He was going to take something for the headache, relax for a few minutes, and then he’d get to have supper with Lucy. He missed doing that, and it was her day off, so it was the one thing he’d been looking forward to.
And then he saw her on the couch, under the blankets again.
“What happened?” he asked, the question coming out of his mouth harshly because all he could think of was somebody from that Fairee fandom thing finding her again.
She sat up, her face flushed and her eyes red from crying. Pushing the blankets aside, she stood and walked toward him. And her face did not light up the way it usually did when he walked through the door.
“Since you know everybody in Wayward Harbor, I assume you knew Jack Perkins?”
Nick’s stomach tightened and the headache upped the intensity. “I did.”
“So you know Taylor.”
“I do.”
“And did the utterly invasive, overgrown weed that is the Wayward Harbor gossip grapevine tell you that Taylor came into the Scuttlebutt while I was there to tell me she’s my sister? Did you know that?”
No, he hadn’t known about that. He hadn’t stopped in town at all after work, and he’d put his phone on Do Not Disturb mode during the meeting with the landscaper and had forgotten about it.
“Lucy, I—”
“You knew. All this time, you knew. Gran knew. And neither of you told me.”
He winced at the pain in her voice, but he couldn’t deny the accusation. While he hadn’t felt good about it, it hadn’t been his place to tell her.
Lucy wasn’t done yet. “There’s been this customer at the Keel who obviously hates me, and I thought it was ridiculous because glaring at me because she didn’t like my mother or because of the Fairee thing seemed so petty.
But it turns out I’m her dead husband’s secret love child, so yeah. I’d glare at me, too.”
“She shouldn’t be throwing hostility your way when none of this is your fault.”
“It would have been nice to know what I was walking into. I know a woman was murdered because a man liked her whoopie pies, and I know Bones choked on a chicken bone in third grade, and I know Pete and Jenna may or may not be married, but I did not know my mother slept with a married man and this town isn’t going to forgive me for it. ”
“And what would you have done?” he demanded, the incessant headache feeding his temper. “You would either have run away and Helen would have been heartbroken, or you would have stirred up all kinds of trouble with our neighbors.”
“Right. The warm and welcoming neighbors.”
“I’m not going to blow up my community for a woman who’s just passing through.”
As soon as he said the words, Nick wished desperately that he could take them back.
It wouldn’t have mattered because Lucy was already gone. She stormed past him, pausing only to shove her feet into her shoes before she was out the door.
Nick waited a few minutes, cursing his headache and himself and this entire crap day, but he didn’t hear Lucy’s car door or the engine starting.
Telling himself she was taking a walk to cool down, he went in the bathroom and took the strongest stuff he could find for his headache.
Then he drank an entire glass of water with it because he’d been busy all day and there was a possibility dehydration was partly responsible for the throbbing temples.