But neither of those was a good reason for turning down the responsibility Aunt Rebecca had thrust upon her.
Ill think about it, she said, rising. Ill let you know what I decide.
Jake stood, too, looking down at her for a long moment, his face giving nothing away. Ill look forward to hearing from you. He glanced at his watch. If youll excuse me, I have to get back to the office. Without waiting for a response, he walked quickly out of the chapel.
Lainey followed more slowly. Heading down the hall toward her aunts room, she tried to marshal her thoughts, but they refused to be collected.
She was aware of one overwhelming urge. Escape. That was what she always did, wasnt it? When things got difficult, when relationships grew sticky, she escaped. At least, unlike her mother, she didnt marry her mistakes.
At the moment, her stomach churned with anxiety, with the urge to keep going right past that hospital room where Aunt Rebecca lay, to get on the elevator, to get in her rental car, and get out of town.
She didnt. She turned and walked back into her aunts room. If she was going to back out of this situation, at least she wouldnt run.
* * *
LAINEY GLANCED AT the clock over the refrigerator. Jake had told Zeb hed stop by to see him this evening. He might be there now. What was he telling the man?
Odd, wasnt it? Shed never heard of an attorney who made house calls, and on someone who wasnt a client, no less. Maybe Jake was just a really nice guy. Or maybe there was more involved in this situation than she realized. In any event, shed better curb her well-known gift for acting impulsively and consider all the options before making such a big decision.
She dried the plate shed used for her supper, looking out the window over the sink. The sun was sliding over the ridge, its slanting rays turning the trees in the woods to gold. Beyond the patch of woods, where the land sloped gently upward, she could see cows moving toward a barn, prompted by a small Amish boy whose straw hat didnt even reach the cows backs.
Shed forgotten how peaceful the valley was. And how beautiful. Of course, it was possible that as a child she hadnt noticed it. Shed been too busy running around all day with those two girls...she blanked out, unable to remember their names for a moment. Then it came back to her, swimming up from the depths of memory. Rachel and Meredith.
Rachel had been the Amish girl from the farm on the other side of the creek, and Meredith the one who lived in the house next door. Apparently she still did, from what Lainey remembered of her great-aunts letters. It was hard to imagine someone as bright and energetic as Meredith had been settling down in a place like Deer Run.
People did, she supposed. Her thoughts went back to Jake. He had, obviously. Maybe he liked being the big fish in the small pond.
What was he saying to Zeb Stoltzfus? She couldnt help feeling a sliver of uneasiness, despite Jakes assurances. Jake had claimed he didnt support the idea of Zeb controlling Rebeccas assets or her care, but what if he liked the idea of Lainey doing it even less? Despite those few moments when theyd seemed to click, hed clearly thought Rebecca had made a mistake in naming her.
Laineys cell phone rang, and her nerves seemed to jangle in tune with it. Shed given the hospital her cell number. Dropping the dish towel, she snatched up the phone.
Hello?
For a moment there was nothing. Then a voice, a muffled, hoarse whisper that might have been a man or a woman, muttered a string of the abuse and obscenities that had grown all too familiar in recent weeks.
She yanked the phone away from her ear and punched the off key. Her stomach churned, and her ear tingled as if something ugly had crawled inside.
She wrapped her arms around herself, trying not to shake. She ought to be getting used to it. The calls had come in a steady stream since Joanna Marcus had so publicly attempted suicide. Shed tried reporting them to the police in St. Louis. The officer she spoke with had looked as if he thought she deserved what she got.
But those calls had come on her landline at the apartment in St. Louis. How had someone gotten the number of her cell phone? Of course, anyone whod worked in the ad agency could easily have access to her cell number. Her stomach churned at the thought that the caller might be someone she knew.
Lainey reached out to turn off the phone and realized she couldnt. That number was the only way the hospital could reach her.
At least she could be smart enough to check the caller before she answered. After a string of remarkably stupid decisions, surely she could manage that.
Lainey ran her hand through tangled curls. She was not going to go through it all again. But the memories, once started, unrolled in her mind like a disaster movie, where one wrong choice led inexorably to another.
Dating your boss was stupid. She knew that, but shed let Phillip Marcus charm her anyway. Shed let it get serious, more so than she ever did, believing him when he said he and his wife had been legally separated for a year, that his divorce would be final in a matter of months, that he was free of a marriage both of them agreed was a mistake.
Lainey had bought it all, and now she looked at her actions with disgust. Anyone would think shed been a starry-eyed eighteen-year-old instead of a cynical thirty.
If it had ended quietly, shed still have been ashamed, but at least it would have been a private shame. But Joanna, the wife Phillip had insisted wanted to be rid of him, had called in to a radio talk show, announcing she had taken a massive dose of sleeping pills and naming Lainey as the worthless tramp who had stolen her husband.
The paramedics had been in time to save her, thank God. If shed been anyone else, the whole affair might have passed from the medias attention in twenty-four hours. But Joannas family was a prominent oneher father a judge, her brother a state senator. Lainey had been completely unprepared for the level of vitriol launched at her.
Maybe shed deserved it, but she hadnt expected it to follow her here. Shed been wrong, it seemed.
A loud meow, followed by a scratching at the back door, jerked her out of that profitless line of thought. She hurried to open the back door.
All right, all right. You dont have to make scratch marks on the door.
The black cat walked inside, tail high, with an air of owning the place. He sat down on the exact spot where she had fed him the previous night and looked at her.
Doesnt your owner feed you? She opened the cabinet and retrieved a can of tuna. If this keeps up, Ill have to lay in a supply of cat food. I dont imagine that Aunt Rebecca can afford to keep you in tuna.
The cat followed her every move with unblinking green eyes. When she set the bowl down in front of him he stared at her for another moment and then tucked in.
She couldnt help smiling. You have a fine sense of your own importance, Ill say that for you. At least hed announced himself at the door this time, instead of appearing out of nowhere.
A knock at the front door pulled her away from contemplation of the cat. She went quickly to the front of the house and swung the door open. Maybe Jake...
But two women stood on the front porch, looking at her with an expectation that reminded her of the cat.
Dont you know us, Lainey? The taller woman brushed a wing of silky brown hair behind her ear. I think Id know you anywhere.
Dont you know us, Lainey? The taller woman brushed a wing of silky brown hair behind her ear. I think Id know you anywhere.
The pieces fell into place. Meredith, of course. And Rachel. I was just thinking about you. Please, come in.
Strange, to see them now when the only images in her mind were of a tomboy in braids and blue jeans and a sweet-faced Amish girl, blond hair drawn back under a kapp, dress reaching below her knees. Memories began to filter through the intervening yearsof giggling slumber parties and secrets shared in the tree house Merediths father had built in her backyard. It was as if Lainey had a whole life shed forgotten, just waiting for her to remember.
Youve changed. Still, I guess weve all grown up, havent we? She followed them into the living room. They seemed to know their way around the house as well as she did, which wasnt really surprising.
Rachel chuckled. Youre thinking that Ive really changed, right? Its a shock when youre expecting an Amish woman in kapp and apron. She gestured toward her jeans and cotton sweater.
I think Aunt Rebecca wrote to me about it when you came back to Deer Run. Laineys brain finally caught up. She probably should have reread Aunt Rebeccas letters on her way here. You have a little girl, dont you?
Rachels face lit with maternal pride. Mandy. Were next door, actually. She gestured toward what was the last house in the village. Ive turned my mother-in-laws old home into a bed-and-breakfast.
And Im still on the opposite side of your aunts house, so we have you surrounded, Meredith said.
Just like old times. It was oddly familiar to be here with them, even though shed thought of them so seldom in recent years.
Meredith sat down in a rocker. I run my accounting business out of my home.
Accounting? Lainey shook her head. It seemed to me you were going to be an astronaut. Or run a dude ranch out West.
That summer must have been the end of my cowgirl phase, Meredith said, brown eyes smiling at the memory. It finally occurred to me that I was afraid of horses, something that limited my cowgirl ambitions. As I recall, you were going to live in Paris and be an artist. What happened?
I discovered I wasnt that talented. Funny, how easy it was to admit that to them. Maybe the bond theyd formed then was more durable than she would have expected. I ended up working for an advertising agency. At least, thats what she had been doing. Technically, at the moment she was unemployed.
Life seldom turns out the way we dream it will when were ten, Rachel said. But you were a wonderful artist. We still have the scrapbook from that summer with your drawings.
Meredith glanced at her, frowning almost in warning, it seemed, making Lainey wonder why that would be a touchy subject.
Id like to see it sometime. That seemed the polite thing to say, although Lainey would have to admit that her memories of that summer were rather hazy. It was about some story we made up, wasnt it?
Something like that, Meredith agreed. Have you been to the hospital yet? I was there yesterday, but the nurses werent very forthcoming about Rebeccas condition.
That was nice of you. Lainey was reminded that Rebecca had an entire life here, with relatives and friends who were all probably wondering about her. I dont think they can predict very much about how much shell recover. She was still...
She lost the thread when the cat, apparently finished with his dinner, appeared in the kitchen doorway. He stood for a moment, assessing them, and then crossed the room to jump lightly onto Laineys lap and settle there.
You have a cat. Rachel reached out to run her fingers lightly along the glossy back. My daughter, Mandy, will fall in love. Shes been asking if she can get a kitten, but since she already has a puppy, I think thats enough.
Shes welcome to come and visit, but I cant guarantee the cat will be here. Its not mine. I supposed it was Aunt Rebeccas, but Jake Evans said she didnt have a cat, so I guess it belongs to a neighbor.
Thats odd. Merediths forehead furrowed. I cant think of anyone on the block with a black cat.
Probably a stray, Rachel said. Rebecca has such a tender heart that she wouldnt turn it away. Hes a handsome creature, isnt he?
Laineys cell phone rang, and her hands clutched in the cats fur. With an annoyed glance, he leaped to the floor and began washing himself.
If you want to get that, please go ahead, Meredith said, obviously surprised that she wasnt answering.
Lainey pulled the phone from her pocket. A quick glance told her that it was an unfamiliar number. She clicked it off. Its nothing important. Ill deal with it later.
There must have been something odd in her tone, because both Meredith and Rachel were looking at her with varying degrees of puzzlement.
Well, it didnt matter what they thought, did it? Much as she enjoyed seeing them again after twenty years, that was alljust satisfying a passing curiosity. She wasnt going to be here long enough to make friends.
CHAPTER THREE
JAKE HELPED HIMSELF to coffee and lifted his mug in a mock toast to his father. Heres to a better day today than yesterday.
Dad raised his eyebrows, and the result was like looking in a mirror. Mom always said that hed look exactly like his father when he grew older. If so, that wasnt such a bad reflection, he figured. Dad was still lean, still fit, with just a bit of gray at the temples to add distinction.
I take it things didnt go as well with Rebecca Stoltzfuss relatives as youd hoped? As always, Dad was careful not to tread on his cases, but their ritual morning coffee on reaching the office had become a time when Jake could air anything that bothered him.
Not exactly. He pondered for a moment. How much to say? Dad was safe, of course, and as senior partner, had a right to know. Rebeccas relatives might have reason to be worried about her decision to leave the great-niece in control.
Dad set his mug down, frowning. Are you saying the great-niece might make decisions that arent in Rebeccas best interest?
An image of the tenderness with which Lainey had bent over Rebeccas hospital bed slid into Jakes mind. I wouldnt say that, exactly. He realized he was falling into the careful phrasing his father always used, and he couldnt suppress an interior grin. Laineythe great-nieceseems to care about Rebecca. But she hasnt been back to Deer Run in twenty years. How can she know what Rebecca would want in this situation?
What did Rebecca say when you raised that point with her? Dad didnt seem to doubt that Jake would have covered all the bases with his client.
She insisted that Laineys good heart would help her make the right decisions. And when I pointed out that shed only known her as a ten-year-old, she just smiled and said character was as plain at ten as it was at twenty or thirty. He shrugged. So what could I do?
His father mused, the fine lines around his eyes deepening. You had to do as your client wished, of course, but its an unsatisfactory situation all around. Im sure we all hope Rebeccas condition improves, but if it doesnt...