Текст книги "Forever, Plus One"

Emily was glad that Chantelle could take such a mature attitude to the whole thing, though she hoped Chantelle might soften as she grew older about cutting Sheila out of her life completely. Emily knew that family relationships could be strained, trying, and damaging at times, but she still kept minimal contact with her own mother because she knew she’d feel significantly worse if she didn’t. They had until Chantelle reached eleven before anything would happen with regards to her having contact with Sheila, so there was plenty of time for Chantelle to digest the situation and change her mind.

Just then, Emily heard some banging noises coming from outside. She looked out the window and saw that several work vans had arrived next door while they’d been working on the nursery, and were now unloading crates of goods into Trevor’s house. There were also several people with huge spades in Trevor’s yard.

“Come and look, Chantelle,” she called to the girl. “They’re starting the landscaping work.”

Chantelle rushed over to the window and watched with bated breath as the diggers took down the fences between the two houses, effectively doubling the size of the inn’s grounds.

They watched together as the fence came down completely, along with the large trees that Trevor had planted years ago to stop his neighbors snooping on him. Then the diggers started bringing up mounds of soil, landscaping the garden in preparation for Raj’s final work. As they watched, Emily noticed the crew stop and crowd around something.

“What are they doing?” Chantelle asked.

“It looks like they’ve found something in the dirt,” she said.

One of the crew turned then and looked up at the window where they were standing. He waved them down.

“I wonder what it could be,” Emily said, filled with intrigue, as she and Chantelle left the room.

They trotted down the stairs and out onto the lawns, then hurried across to the crew. When they got there, they saw Daniel exiting the outhouse as well, approaching the crowd with a curious expression.

“What have you found?” Emily asked the workman who was standing in a large hole.

He looked up. “It’s a tin box,” he said. He managed to wedge it out of the soil and handed it up to Emily.

She took the tin in her hands, turning it over. It was rather large, perhaps an old cookie assortment tin. As she wiped the dirt from it, she recognized the faded design beneath, of a Victorian lady sharing a cup of tea with friends at a bistro table. The tin had been Roy’s, one of a myriad amongst his collection of trinkets. As she regarded it, a memory was sparked in her mind, of her father giving her and Charlotte the tin one day. But that was as much as her mind could recall.

“Is it a time capsule?” she said with a gasp, shaking it gently and hearing it rattle. She felt a surge of emotion as she tried to prize open the lid with her fingertips only to discover it was stuck fast.

“Here,” Daniel said, gesturing for it.

She handed it to him.

“Careful,” she said. “Don’t damage it.”

Daniel tried, too, to open the tin but it was stuck. “Let’s go inside and use something to pry it open.”

They all went inside the inn and into the living room. Chantelle watched with excitement as Daniel fetched his flat-head screwdriver from his toolbox and began to prize the lid open.

Finally it popped off and clattered to the floor. Emily winced. Daniel looked up at Emily with a grimace. “Sorry.”

Chantelle grabbed the lid. “It’s okay. Not damaged or anything.” She handed it to Emily.

“So?” Emily asked Daniel. She bit her lip, feeling apprehensive at the thought of seeing what was inside.

“You were right,” he confirmed with the nod of his head. “It looks like a time capsule.”

He held it up to Emily.

She took it in her hands delicately, cradling it, knowing that there was only one person who could have buried it: Charlotte. Memories returned to her as she looked at all the little items inside, some damaged by water, but most remarkably intact. Small plastic toys, trading cards, and drawings. Emily saw a handwritten note and pulled it out. She recognized Charlotte’s childish scrawl instantly.

When I grow up I want to be a doctor. I want to live in a house by the beach like my daddy, but in a lighthouse, not a normal house, and my big sister Emily can live there too. We’ll have five cats and a turtle. There will be chickens in the garden so we can eat eggs every day.

Tears sprung into Emily’s eyes. She folded the paper away, holding it against her heart.

“What did it say, Mommy?” Chantelle asked.

Emily looked tearfully at the child, her mind conjuring the image of Charlotte in her face more strongly than ever. “It’s a letter my little sister wrote about what she wanted to do when she grew up.” A tear trickled down her cheek. “But she never got to grow up.”

Chantelle touched her arm lightly. “Why don’t you tell me and Daddy about her? That’s what Gail says to do, when you miss people. To think of some happy memories about them. That way they don’t feel so far away.”

Emily smiled, touched by Chantelle’s words, by the fact she wanted to cheer Emily up and take away her tears. “Okay,” Emily began. “Charlotte loved animals. And drawing. She was very creative. She loved to party, to decorate the house and make cards.”

As Emily spoke, she realized how she could just as readily be describing Chantelle. The similarities between her sister and the young girl were striking, almost eerie.

“What animal was her favorite?” Chantelle asked, her expression conveying to Emily genuine interest in Charlotte. It occurred to Emily then that she’d never really spoken at length about Charlotte to Chantelle. But the child was clearly curious about the aunt she’d never get to know.

“Well, she loved dogs,” Emily said, think of Persephone, Toni’s golden Labrador that Charlotte had adored. “But I don’t know if they were her favorite animal.”

Chantelle looked up at Emily with her big blue eyes, something glittering behind them that made her look suddenly older than her years. “I wonder if it was turtles,” she said. “Or cats?”

Emily’s breath caught. She glanced briefly at Charlotte’s letter, at the mention of turtles and cats. She herself had no memory of Charlotte being fond of turtles or cats so there was no way she’d mentioned it in passing. Chantelle must have made a lucky guess, she told herself in an attempt to quell the spooky sensation tingling up her spine.

“Maybe,” Emily said, her voice thinning.

“What else was she like?” Chantelle quizzed Emily.

“I don’t remember too well anymore,” Emily explained, feeling a little sad at the fading memories, at the ones lost forever. “She had a wonderful imagination. She liked to dress up and play make-believe games.”

“Like pirates?” Chantelle asked. “Hunting for treasure?”

A jolt hit Emily then as she recalled the treasure chest she’d found in the attic when she’d first come to the house. It had sparked a memory in her of the imaginative games the two had played together in their youth. Chantelle must have found the treasure chest, Emily told herself sternly. There was no other explanation for it… was there?

The tingles in her spine grew stronger and stronger. She’d felt Charlotte’s presence in the house before, her spirit watching over. Was she here now?

She looked at Daniel. He seemed to be in his own world, completely occupied with work-related documents, forms, and letters that he was studying intently. He wasn’t paying any attention to them at all. It was as if Emily and Chantelle were existing within a protective bubble, just the two of them, the outside world fading to nothing.

“Yes,” Emily replied. Her voice was becoming a whisper. “Like pirates.”

She looked into Chantelle’s eyes and saw that same flicker behind them; of knowing, of deeper understanding. Was it Charlotte?

“Following treasure maps,” Chantelle said. “Steering the boat through storms at sea.”

Emily could hardly catch her breath. Chantelle wasn’t asking questions anymore. It felt more like she was telling Emily how it was, like she was recalling a memory rather than guessing at one.

“A stuffed parrot companion,” Chantelle continued. “Peg legs made of wood.”

As she spoke, it felt as if she was adding to Emily’s memories, bringing to the forefront things she had forgotten. The stuffed toy bird they would wrestle over – not a parrot but a toucan, though it was the closest thing they had available. And peg legs they would try and fail to tie to their knees, usually dissolving in laughter at their attempts to walk.

A chill swept through Emily’s entire body. “Maybe we should put this away,” she said, motioning to put the lid back on the tin. She was getting too freaked out.

“But we’ve hardly looked inside yet,” Chantelle said.

Emily faltered. She couldn’t be certain whether Charlotte’s spirit was with them but she could definitely feel something, and it compelled her to continue looking through the contents of the tin.

There were more toys, some cassette tapes, a wilted daisy chain that disintegrated when Emily touched it. Then she found more paper. Another letter. She opened it up.

This is the first box but not the last box. If you want to find the next one you will need to swim!

Emily frowned and handed it to Chantelle. “It’s a riddle,” she said, thinking instantly of their father. This was just like him. Had Charlotte been inspired by Roy? Or helped by him to lay a treasure hunt of time capsules? “A clue to another box.”

“How exciting!” Chantelle exclaimed.

Emily looked at her and saw the child once again, not Charlotte, nor that knowing look that had lingered behind her eyes. She just looked like an exuberant kid, excited at the prospect of a time capsule treasure hunt. Even Daniel, sitting on the couch, seemed to have suddenly returned to the present. The eerie moment was over, leaving Emily with a strange feeling in her chest.

“Do you think there’s another box at the beach?” Chantelle asked Emily. “That’s where people swim.”

Emily shrugged. “I have no idea. But if it is, there’s a chance we won’t ever find it. The beach is very big.”

“We can’t give up!” Chantelle exclaimed. “We’ll buy a metal detector to help us search the beach.”

Emily loved the girl’s enthusiasm for the project, but felt in her heart that they would never find the next capsule. The clue could easily be directing them to one of the islands off the coast of Maine, and Daniel had told her there were thousands of them. They’d never find it!

“That’s a lovely idea,” Emily said, agreeing with Chantelle. She didn’t want to dash her hopes. Plus, it warmed her heart to know that her daughter cared so much about Charlotte.

They put everything back in the tin. It had been a wonderful discovery and Emily knew she would treasure it forever, even if they never found the next capsule. But her heart felt heavy at the same time. Feeling Charlotte’s spirit had unsettled her, and looking through the tin that she’d once so diligently filled made her absence feel suddenly bigger.

Just then, she felt Chantelle’s arms wrap around her waist. She hugged the girl, feeling comforted by her presence, consoled by her.

“I think Mommy needs cheering up,” Chantelle whispered loudly to Daniel.

He was watching them patiently. Emily looked at him and smiled her pride at how caring and sweet their daughter was.

“What do you think we should do to cheer Mommy up?” Daniel replied in an equally loud whisper.

“I think there’s supposed to be a fair down on the beach for the Fourth of July,” Chantelle said. “We could go and see what it’s like. Yvonne said she would be there.”

“I think that’s a very good idea,” Daniel said. “Why don’t you ask Mommy?”

Emily pretended she hadn’t heard a word of their whispered conversation when Chantelle drew out of the hug and announced, “Mommy, I have an idea.”

“What’s that?” Emily asked, feigned curiosity in her tone.

“I think we should all go down to the beach for the Fourth of July celebration. We can collect shells and eat cotton candy. Bailey said there’s a face painter there too. Do you want your face painted?”

Emily smiled, comforted by her sweet daughter. She squeezed her. “I’d love to.”

Chantelle didn’t need any more encouragement. She tugged Emily’s hand and began leading her toward the door. Emily laughed and shook her head. Daniel followed, looking as equally touched and amused as Emily felt.

CHAPTER TEN

The beach was crowded with families, groups of young people dressed in patriotic colors, and hordes of children. It was gloriously sunny and everyone ran around in high spirits. It seemed to Emily that everywhere she looked there was another woman pushing a newborn in a stroller or cradling one in their arms.

Stalls lined the perimeter of the beach, mainly geared up for the children. There was a Frisbee-making stall where Chantelle got to squirt red, white, and blue paint into a spinning machine. She also visited the face painter, who gave her a sparkly red star on her cheek, and the lady in the temporary tattoo stall where she chose a red bow for her forearm.

“Look, an ice cream truck!” Chantelle cried excitedly.

She dragged her parents over and spent a dollar on a cherry-flavored sno-cone. Emily got herself a creamy vanilla cone and Daniel a mint chocolate chip one. Then they sat on a picnic bench and ate happily.

“I wish there was always ice cream and stalls on the beach,” Chantelle said. “Not just on the Fourth of July.”

“We’d probably spend more time here if there was,” Emily said, surprised herself that they rarely used the beach when it was just across the street from them.

Emily noticed her friend Yvonne approaching with her daughter, Bailey, who was Chantelle’s best friend. Chantelle leapt up and hugged Bailey and then proceeded to show off her tattoo and face paint proudly.

“Did you hear about baby Robin?” Yvonne asked, hugging Emily.

“I did. It’s so exciting! I’m thrilled for them.”

Emily felt her own secret on the tip of her tongue. How easy it would be to let her friend know she was also expecting. But she managed to hold it in.

“This is great, isn’t it?” Yvonne said, looking around at the fun beach event. “They should put this on every year. It’s better for the kids than a parade.”

“I’ll send a petition to Mayor Hansen,” Emily joked. “No more parades. Beach parties only from now on, thank you very much.”

Everyone laughed.

Yvonne joined them for an ice cream, then they were shortly followed by more parents from school. Everyone was buzzing about the news of Suzanna and Wesley’s new baby, the excitement palpable in the air. It gave the already buoyant celebrations an even more exuberant atmosphere.

It seemed to Emily like everyone she’d ever met in Sunset Harbor had congregated on the beach for the day. As she looked around, Emily was surprised by just how many people they now knew. Chantelle’s circle of friends seemed to grow day by day, and with it the number of parents that Emily and Daniel got to become friends with. The thought pleased her immensely.

The children got to work building a sandcastle, giving the adults some downtime to sit and chat about actual grown-up things. But Emily couldn’t help find her mind wandering to Suzanna’s baby news, and her attention drawn to the table next to her, where there was a group of four young moms with babies of various ages shrieking in a variety of pitches and levels of distress.

Emily watched on as the mothers attempted to find out what was the matter with their children, from checking on their diaper situations to giving them pacifiers, rocking them, winding them, rattling toys in their faces. All the while the infants shrieked and wailed. It all looked very stressful. Emily couldn’t believe she would be one of those mothers soon. The thought started to panic her. Did she have that kind of patience? What if she had a child that always cried, that was never soothed? How would she cope?

“Emily, what’s wrong?” Daniel asked, concerned.

Emily tore her gaze from the table of new mothers and looked at Daniel, her expression panic-stricken. She hoped none of the others at the table had noticed her freak-out. She still wasn’t quite ready to reveal to her friends that she was pregnant. She wanted some kind of acknowledgment from her father before she revealed it to the rest of the world.

“Babies,” she whispered under her breath.

She looked over her shoulder and Daniel followed her gaze. When she turned back to him he was smiling.

“It’s not funny,” she stammered. “Look how stressed they all are. They look overwhelmed.”

Daniel carried on smiling. “Emily, it’s going to be okay. Honestly. Babies cry. Parents make mistakes.”

“But I don’t know if I can do that,” Emily replied. She could hear her voice becoming more shrill.

“Of course you can,” Daniel said simply.

“I won’t be able to keep my composure if my baby is screaming like that in public!”

Daniel rubbed her arm. “Yes, you will,” he reassured her. “You’re going to be an amazing mom. You already are.” He gestured to where Chantelle was laughing with her friends on the beach beside the huge, elaborate sandcastle they’d constructed together.

Emily wanted to be reassured by Daniel’s words but she herself wasn’t so sure. Chantelle had come to them fully formed, a child with interests. They could play with her, reason with her, have conversations with her. They’d never had to change her diaper or feed her in the middle of the night. They’d never had to deal with her spit-up or colic. It was all that stuff that seemed suddenly daunting to Emily. Daniel may have faith in her ability to cope with it all.

But Emily wasn’t certain she had faith in herself.

* * *

Emily’s anxiety didn’t abate that day. Even while watching the inn’s firework display on the porch with all the staff and guests, all she could think about was her appointment with Doctor Arkwright tomorrow. They were due to find out the gender. She should be excited, but instead she was filled with worry. What if it was a boy? Boys were supposed to be rambunctious and accident prone. But then again baby girls were supposed to cry more and express greater anxiety. Then a thought of utter horror struck her. What if she was having twins?

Emily couldn’t stop herself from mulling these thoughts over and over in her mind, speculating what her life would be like once the baby arrived.

“Did you know that Mommy gets to see the baby tomorrow?” Daniel asked Chantelle.

It was as if he’d read Emily’s mind. She leaned against the porch post, her arms tightening around her for comfort. Behind them, the sky exploded with blue sparkles.

“How?” Chantelle asked, perplexed.

“There’s a machine,” Daniel explained. “It can look inside the body, a bit like an X-ray. The doctor will tell us whether you’re having a brother or sister.”

He touched Emily’s stomach as he spoke. As though in response her heart fluttered with anxiety. She felt on the periphery of their conversation rather than a part of it.

“I want a sister,” Chantelle said. “What about you, Daddy?”

“Well, I already have the best daughter in the world,” he said, ruffling her hair. “So I think I’d prefer it to be a boy.”

They both looked up at Emily then, expectantly. She shifted from one foot to the other feeling suddenly put on the spot.

“What about you, Mommy?” Chantelle asked when Emily stayed quiet.

“I don’t mind either way,” Emily said. “As long as it’s healthy. And not twins.”

Chantelle’s eyes widened. “Twins? I hadn’t thought of that!”

Daniel shook his head and laughed. “It won’t be twins.”

He stroked Emily’s arm tenderly but it didn’t help resolve her worry. She always felt like they were at odds with one another. When Daniel wanted kids, she didn’t. Whenever she felt excited about the baby, he seemed stressed. And now they’d switched again. He was relaxed about finding out the baby’s sex in their appointment tomorrow whereas it had prompted an anxiety attack in her. She wished they could get into sync with one another.

An enormous boom sounded in the sky, followed by fizzling sparkly lights. Like Daniel and Chantelle, the gathered guests made appreciative noises, their eyes turned to the sky, their expressions joyful. Emily wanted to enjoy this moment, to put her fears to rest. She took a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself.

“Why don’t we do a gender reveal party?” Daniel suddenly suggested.

Chantelle tore her eyes away from the display momentarily in order to exclaim, “Party!”

Emily was shocked. She frowned in Daniel’s direction.

“Really?” she asked, the surprise audible in her tone. She couldn’t help but feel like gender parties were a little on the twee side, the sort of thing her New York City friends would do in order to show off and get more attention. She hated all forms of attention. The wedding had been plenty for her. And for the suggestion to have come from Daniel – who was usually very logical and practical about things – made it even more surprising.

She thought about his reasoning for a moment and wondered if this was spurred on, once again, by how much he’d missed out on with Chantelle. Maybe he wanted to make sure he got to experience everything this time, from the gender parties to the baby shower. It just felt so strange.

“You don’t think it’s a good idea?” Daniel asked in response to her prolonged silence.

“It’s not that,” Emily said with a shrug. “It just feels a bit … showy. Extravagant.”

There was a pause in the explosion of fireworks and Chantelle turned then, looking up at Emily, bemused. “You love parties,” she stated. “We both do.”

“I know, I know,” Emily replied, rubbing her forehead. She couldn’t quite put into words her reticence so decided it would probably be better to just relent. It was a two against one situation anyway so she was going to lose either way. “We’ll do a gender reveal if it’s what you both want.”

“Yay!” Chantelle exclaimed. “How do we do it?”

Daniel explained. “What we do is get Doctor Arkwright to put the gender in an envelope without telling us. Then we can give it to Karen to bake into a cake – pink for a girl, blue for a boy. Then when we cut open the cake we’ll be surprised along with everyone else.”

Emily chewed her lip. “That would mean Karen finds out before other people.”

“That’s okay, isn’t it?” Daniel said. “Karen is your friend.”

“Yes, but wouldn’t it be a bit strange? Her knowing before us? Especially when no one even knows I’m pregnant yet! What if she accidentally told someone else? I’d feel more comfortable if it were made by someone who didn’t know us at all.”

“You are peculiar,” Daniel said, planting a kiss on her forehead. “But we can go to another bakery and get it done there if you prefer.”

Emily nodded, a little relieved. She tried to analyze where her reticence was coming from and realized that it wasn’t really that she didn’t want Karen finding out the gender first, but that she didn’t feel ready yet to let people know she was pregnant at all.

“Are we having the party tomorrow then?” Chantelle asked. “After the doctor?”

Emily felt her face blanch. “That means everyone will know I’m pregnant… The whole town. My staff. All our friends.”

Chantelle’s eyes sparkled at the realization that the time had finally come to spill the Morey family secret. But then a new emotion passed through them, one that Emily recognized to be grief.

“But Papa Roy…” Chantelle said quietly. “We still don’t know if he knows. It wouldn’t be right to tell anyone before him, would it?”

Emily rubbed her back gently. She realized that she felt the same way, that that had been why she’d felt such anxiety about revealing the news. She felt Daniel’s hand touch her arm gently.

“We can wait a little longer if you want,” he said. “There’s no rush.”

Emily paused for a moment and thought it through. But she had to accept that she couldn’t put off telling people forever. She couldn’t put her life on hold because of her father again.

“I think it’s time we stopped waiting,” she said.

“Then it’s tomorrow?” Daniel asked.

“Tomorrow,” Emily confirmed.

Chantelle nodded too, then her slightly sad expression was replaced by a mischievous smile that appeared on her lips.

“I don’t think you should tell anyone what the party is for,” she said. “It should be a baby reveal. Then a surprise gender reveal. That way it’s extra surprising.”

Emily smiled too. “I love that idea.” She looked at Daniel. “What do you say?”

His eyes twinkled with the same mischief as his daughter. Then he nodded.

“Let’s do it.”