“Oh, come on,” she whined. “When did you get so domestic? Give the kids twenty bucks for a pizza, and let’s go. My treat. We won’t stay out late, I promise.”
“Gina, I said I can’t.” The sad thing was that there was a time when I would’ve been jumping in the car with her and taking off in search of guys or thrills or anything that would make me feel like I mattered. “Zoey’s really been going through some things, and . . . it’s complicated. You know what, as a matter of fact, I’d like to ask why you were e-mailing back and forth with her and why in the world you told her she could come live with you.”
Gina’s eyes narrowed in a look of confusion, then widened with convincing innocence. “What? When I found out you weren’t at Dr. Strangelove’s anymore, I tracked Zoey down through Facebook. I wanted to make sure he hadn’t dumped you in a ditch somewhere, for one thing. Anyway, I felt sorry for Zoey because she was so upset about leaving Texas. I didn’t say anything about her coming to live with me.”
I studied my sister, trying to separate truth from good acting. With Gina, it was hard to tell the difference. She could spin a story so fast that reality and fiction were nothing but a blur. “She tried to run away, Gina. If she hadn’t been too sick to get out the window, she could be heaven knows where by now.”
“I might’ve said that you guys could live with me . . . or something like that. But of course I didn’t mean for Zoey to hit the road. What kind of an aunt do you think I am?” Her hips jutted to one side, her arms crossing.
We stood momentarily at a stalemate. Who could say where the truth was hiding? Zoey was emotional right now. She could have misinterpreted whatever Gina had said to her. . . .
Someone catcalled from a passing car, and Gina tossed her hair over her shoulder, watching the vehicle go by before giving me a beseeching look. “Come on, Tandi. We haven’t seen each other in forever. Let’s not fight. With Trammel finally out of the picture, we can go have some fun —do sister stuff. We’ll just hit the concert a few minutes. The kids are gone with your nerdy friend, and the weather’s perfect.” Tipping her head back and closing her eyes, she drank in the air, let it flow over the sunlit curves of her body, molding the dress. “Man, I’d forgotten how amazing this place is. And have you seen the beefcake around here? We’re gonna have such a good time!” She started down the street without waiting to see if I was following.
Before I could decide one way or the other, a delivery truck rumbled into the parking lot. The horn honked, and I jumped back out of reflex. When I caught my balance, I recognized Ross behind the wheel, laughing. He left the engine running and exited the vehicle in one smooth maneuver, swinging to the ground with a hand wrapped around the metal grab bar.
“You scared me to death.” I’d completely forgotten he was hoping to make it home so soon.
A wide white smile told me how glad he really was. “Got you something.” He held up a white gift bag with a logo on the side.
“What?” I reached for the bag, but he scooped me up with one arm and kissed me instead.
“It’s a cell phone. I told you I’d buy you one. Believe me, I had plenty of dead time walking around shopping malls and watching movies while I was on the road. Not a beach within four hundred miles. It stunk.” He kissed me again and set me on my feet, giving me the bag. “Gotta go. Still need to dump some lumber at one of Dad’s houses, then beat it back with this truck. Tomorrow, I’m hittin’ the beach, no matter what the waves are like. Be ready.”
He turned, jogged to the truck, and was gone before Gina could make her way back to the parking lot.
She shaded her eyes as the truck turned onto Highway 12. “Well, well, well, Little Sister. You’re doing better here than I thought. No wonder you don’t want to go scope out the local hotties with me. Who was that?”
CHAPTER 22
I WOKE TO THE SOUND of Gina coming in the door, again. As usual, she was staggering and laughing, making way too much noise. She’d been out every night for the past week, other than the one night she’d stayed home with the kids so I could go to Ross’s birthday party. Gina had come down with some kind of food poisoning that night and she’d been flat on her back on the sofa, feeling too lousy to go anywhere. She wasn’t happy about missing the party. When I got back, she made sure to let me know that staying home was a big sacrifice.
“I wouldn’t do that for anybody but my little sis,” she cooed when I came through the door afterward.
I didn’t bother to tell her that she hadn’t missed anything. By midnight, the party had moved to the beach, but it was pretty much over. Ross passed out on the leeward hollow of a dune, leaving me stuck there until some of the guys finally loaded him into the passenger side of the truck. I drove him back to one of his dad’s empty rental houses, left him to sleep it off, and had Gumby give me a ride home. All in all, the evening stank. Ross had been trying to make it up to me ever since, bringing me little gifts and being sweet. He’d even picked up pizza last night and shown up at the house after I got off work.
“All the man did was have a little fun with his friends, and that’s a crime?” Gina had whispered in my ear as she headed out the door to meet up with a guy I’d only seen from a distance. The date must have been particularly good. At 3 a.m., she was giggling as she came in. Instead of crashing on the sofa in her clothes, she put on her sweats and shimmied into bed next to me. She wasn’t as wasted as I’d thought.
“Hey.” Her voice was soft, intimate. She bunched the pillow under her head, turning toward me in a way that was familiar. Most of our childhood, we’d shared a bed or a bedroom, or a mattress on the floor, depending on where we were living. “Just like old times, huh?”
A wave of tenderness washed over me. Gina was the only family I had in the world, other than the kids. Without her, I would never have survived those first months in foster care. She’d made sure the predator next door knew he would be sorry if he ever touched me. I owed Gina. I wanted the two of us to be close. “Yeah.”
Her hand found mine atop the quilt, our fingers threading. I thought of Iola and Isabelle. I’d managed to read from the boxes a few times since Gina had moved in, but having one more person in the cottage made it harder to slip away.
My sister’s hand in mine reminded me of the last letter I’d read, a note written the night before Isabelle planned to leave Hatteras for good. Isabelle and Iola had curled up together on the big bed in the turret room, the blue wedding ring quilt from Isabelle’s hope chest spread beneath them.
Isabelle had fallen in love with a dashing young aviator she’d met during the summer term at college. Girard Benoit had forbidden the relationship as unsuitable for a young woman of Isabelle’s social standing, but after years of freedom while her father was away, Isabelle would not be denied. She planned to meet Andrew Embry on the beach the next morning, elope with him, and travel to his new duty station in idyllic Hawaii. Her mind was filled with romantic dreams of island life as an aviator’s wife, finally free of her father’s control and the family name that seemed to bring both expectation and a lingering darkness with it.
Iola was filled with sadness as she poured out her heart in her prayer box.
Father, what will I do without Isabelle? My sweet and truest friend, this other half of my soul? She, the one who knew my same loneliness when Madame sent me away to the mission school. She who saw to it that I would be brought here to these beautiful shores, with Maman and Mama Tee, rather than given a position in a cotton mill or a tobacco house. She who comforted me as we laid Mama Tee’s body in the ground. “She’s seeing the face of God, Iola. Imagine how grand that must be!” It was Isabelle who brought the preacher to Mama Tee before her passing so that my grandmother might finally know the fragrance of heaven.
How can we live on opposite sides of the ocean, Isabelle walking one shore while I walk another? Isabelle says it will not be for long. She promises this to me, as we lie atop the bed together, her heart buoyant and mine foundering so.