Chapter 2 #2
After dinner, the girls scattered. Jack helped Frannie clean up the kitchen and then set out for a walk on the beach.
Usually, he ran at this time of day, but today he didn’t feel like it.
Taking in the soft late spring air and relieved to be out of the house, he walked for miles and visited with Clare for a short time.
He returned home well after dark and took a moment to stare into the dining room, which once again boasted a table and chairs where a hospital bed had been for more than a year.
Even though he knew he’d done the right thing for his kids, it would take some time to get used to not having Clare close by.
He trudged upstairs, halting when he heard sniffling in Maggie’s room.
He peeked in to find her tucked into bed with her favorite sleeping buddy, Froggie. She looked so cute in her yellow pajamas with her cheeks pink from the day at the beach and her dark hair shining.
“Maggie? Are you are all right?” When she scrambled to wipe her face on the sheet, his heart began to ache.
“Uh-huh.”
Stepping into the room, he moved hesitantly toward the bed, not sure if he’d be welcome. “Can I get you anything? Some water, maybe?”
“No, thanks. I’m fine.”
“Okay.” As he turned to leave, something stopped him. He wasn’t sure if it was Clare looking down on him from wherever she was just then or what, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave his child crying in her bed. Summoning courage, he sat on the edge of the bed. “You want to talk about it?”
She bit her lip, and his heart broke all over again when her eyes filled with new tears. “Is Mommy ever coming back?” The small voice was so unlike her. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one adjusting to yet another change in their lives.
“Oh, honey, I don’t think so.”
She sat up and reached for him. “Why did Mommy let that car hit her?” she asked with a sob as she clung to him.
How long had she waited to ask him these questions?
“Baby, she didn’t do it on purpose. She froze because she was scared.
The accident hurt something in her brain, so she can’t be with us.
But inside, where her heart is, she still loves you and Kate and Jill and me very, very much.
You have to believe that.” He settled her back onto the pillow and tucked her in again.
“I do,” she said, wiping her face.
“Good, because as long as you believe it, then you’ll feel Mommy’s love, no matter where she is.” He wished he could believe it.
“Will you be here when I wake up?”
The question tugged at his already raw emotions. “You bet. I’ll even make my famous chocolate chip pancakes.” It was the only thing they allowed him to cook.
“Awesome!” she said, sounding more like herself again.
“See you in the morning.”
He walked out to find Frannie waiting for him in the hallway. She had gathered her long auburn hair into a ponytail and was dressed for bed in a T-shirt and sweats.
Spent, he rubbed the back of his neck. “How much did you hear?”
“Enough. You said all the right things.”
“I’m so tired,” he said, anxious to get upstairs where he could be alone.
“Go to bed. I’ll wait up for Jill.”
“Where is she?”
“On a date.”
“With who?”
“A boy in her class named Kyle. I’ve met him. Seems nice.”
Jack realized that he should’ve met the boy his daughter was out with. Next time, he’d make sure he did. “Well, if you don’t mind waiting up…”
“I’ve got a movie to watch. Go to bed.”
“Thanks, Frannie. For everything.”
“My pleasure.” She kissed his cheek and headed downstairs.
Jack went up the spiral stairs to his room and wandered again to the deck overlooking the pool and ocean farther below.
He waited to crawl into bed until he was certain he was tired enough to drift off to sleep without being tortured by unpleasant thoughts.
Just as sleep overtook him, the phone rang, jarring him awake.
He waited, hoping Frannie would answer it. On the third ring, he grabbed it.
“Dad?” Jill sounded a bit frantic. “Can you get Frannie?”
“She must’ve fallen asleep downstairs. She didn’t pick up.”
“I need to talk to her.”
Something about Jill’s tone and the slight slur to her speech caught his attention. “What’s wrong?”
“I need a ride home.”
“What happened to your date?”
“Can you just get Frannie? Please?”
“I’ll come get you. Where are you?”
“That’s all right. I’ll find a ride.”
“Jill. Tell me where you are. Right now.”
Reluctantly, or so it seemed to him, she gave him the address.
“I’ll be right there. Don’t move.”
He threw on clothes, grabbed his keys and cell phone, and went downstairs, where Frannie was curled up on the sofa sound asleep.
Not at all sure of what he would find when he got there, he drove into downtown Newport.
At the address Jill had given him, several police officers were attempting to break up a raging party.
His heart in his throat, he called Jill’s cell.
“Hurry up and get out here. The place is crawling with cops.”
Jack watched the police drag one teenager away in handcuffs while another puked in the empty lot across the street before Jill materialized out of the darkness.
She slid into the car and slammed the door.
“What’re you doing here? Have you been drinking?”
“Spare me the fatherly concern, will you?”
“Fine, then let me get one of the cops to take you for a sleepover at the city jail.” He reached for the door handle.
“Yes! I had a couple of beers. Who cares?”
Punching the gas to get out of there, he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “I care! You’re sixteen, Jill!”
“I know how old I am.”
Under the glow of the streetlights he could see her eyes were glassy and deduced that she’d had more than a couple of beers. Jack’s mind raced with things he wanted to say, but he kept his mouth shut until he figured out what he should say.
Jill stayed quiet on the way home.
“What happened to the guy you were with?” Jack finally asked.
“I don’t know. We got separated.”
“What were you even doing there?”
“They’re friends of his. We were just going for a little while.”
“How much did you have to drink?”
She shrugged. “I told you. A couple.”
“Really, Jill. I just can’t believe you’d—”
“Relax, Dad! It’s no big deal. Everyone does it.”
Jack bit back the urge to snap at her. “You’re not everyone, and don’t tell me to relax.”
“Whatever.” Her cell phone rang as they pulled into the driveway. “Where’d you go?” She glanced at her father. “I got a ride. All right. Yeah, I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
Jack waited for her and watched her teeter on the way into the house.
Frannie sat up as they came in. “Hey, what’s going on?”
“Someone had a few too many at a party and got separated from her date.”
Frannie frowned at her niece. “Jill…”
“Can we save this Hallmark moment until tomorrow? I’m tired.”
“Sit down,” Jack said.
Releasing a dramatic sigh, she dropped into a chair.
“Is this what you do with your friend Kyle?” Jack asked. “Go to out-of-control parties and get drunk?”
“I’ve never been to an out-of-control party or gotten drunk with Kyle before.”
“You might want to lose the sarcasm, Jill,” Frannie warned.
“You’re not my mother! You can’t tell me what to do.”
“That’s enough, Jill! You’ll not talk to your aunt—or me—like that, do you hear me?”
Just as Jill started to reply, she turned green. Clasping her hand over her mouth, she bolted for the bathroom.
Jack glanced at Frannie before he got up to follow his daughter. Standing at the open door to the bathroom, he watched helplessly as she wretched.
Frannie came up behind him. “Go,” she whispered. “Go to her.”
Hesitating for another second, he ventured into the bathroom and gathered Jill’s long dark hair into a ponytail.
“Go away,” she moaned. “Leave me alone.”
“You’re stuck with me.” He stayed with her through another vicious bout of vomiting as well as the dry heaves that followed. When it was over, he wiped her face with a cool washcloth and sat down next to her on the bathroom floor.
“I’m never drinking again.”
Laughing softly, Jack remembered once making the same vow after a similar incident. “Good.” He put his arm around her, brought her to rest against him, and was relieved when she didn’t resist. “Think it’s over?”
“For now, but there could be more.”
“Then we’ll wait.”
“Why are you being so nice to me?”
“Because you’re sick.”
“So I’m not grounded?”
“I never said that.”
She mulled that over for a few minutes. “How long?”
He hadn’t the foggiest idea. “What would Mom say?”
“Um, forever?”
“That sounds about right.”
Jill moaned. “Seriously. How long?”
“How does a month sound?”
“Like forever.”
“But fair in light of the crime?”
“I guess.”
He held out his hand. “I’ll take your phone and keep it safe for the next month.”
“Oh come on!”
“As I recall, cell phone surrender was a key part of Mom’s grounding program.”
“Why does it have to be part of yours?”
“Cough it up.”
She dug it out of her back pocket and slapped it into his hand.
They sat on the bathroom floor until she sagged against him, asleep. Somehow, he managed to lift her off the floor and carry her to the sofa in the family room. Covering her with a blanket, he kissed her forehead. Then he got comfortable on the other sofa.
Just in case she needed him again during the night.
Leaving the port of Point Judith on the Friday night ferry, Jack stood on the bow and watched the ship sluice through the foamy water.
He took a drink from his cup of coffee, wishing for a shot of whiskey instead.
“Here goes nothing,” he whispered as he turned away from the rail to join the girls inside.