“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to have the baby. Aside from that, I don’t know.” She hadn’t considered not keeping the baby. This surprised her, actually. Finding a job at a law firm while pregnant would be challenging. No one would admit it, but of course firms didn’t want to hire someone who was going on leave in a few months. And raising a child as a single mom? What would that do to her billable hours? She understood these complications, but they did nothing to change the strange certainty that she should keep the baby. She was afraid hormones had already overtaken the logic side of her brain. Or maybe it was her new understanding of her own all-too-complicated origin story.
“What’s the deal with the father?” Kelly asked.
Marin groaned. “I don’t want to get into it.”
“Why not? Talking helps. And I trusted you with something major. Something really big and really bad.”
Marin looked at her. “Yeah, about that. I’m not the only one you should be talking to. I really think you need to tell Amelia. She’d want to know.”
Kelly shook her head. “I want to spare her for as long as possible.”
“I don’t think you’re doing her a favor.”
“Don’t get off topic. We’re talking about you. You and your baby. Hell, Amelia’s going to be a great-grandmother.” She coughed. “This will be good for her. Just what she needs after…” Kelly teared up. Marin moved from behind the table and put her arms around her.
Kelly pulled back after a minute, wiping her eyes. “Nadine is trying to get her to sell the house.”
“This house? Well, that’s ridiculous.”
“It’s not as ridiculous as you would think. Amelia has a lot of guilt about our relationship, estranging the kids. Now I’m sick. I’m worried the two things are enough to tip the scales and make her do something really misguided.”
Someone knocked on the door. “Marin, there’s a call for you on the house phone,” Rachel said.
Marin put down the cutter. “Really? Are you sure? Who is it?”
“Julian Rowe?”
Julian? Why hadn’t he called her cell phone? Then she realized it had been days since she’d looked at her phone. It just wasn’t a natural part of life’s rhythm out there. How strange that she hadn’t looked at it, hadn’t even thought about it.
Marin brushed past Rachel and ran down the two flights of stairs. The receiver was set on the top of the front desk.
Marin took the phone into the office and closed the door. She sat at a desk, surrounded by calendars and vendor-order forms and a dozen framed photos of Amelia and Kelly and groups of smiling people at the inn, guests from summers past. Three framed wedding photos were on the walls, different couples posing with their bridesmaids and groomsmen on the steps of the front porch.
“Hello?” she said, heart racing.
“Marin—finally. I’ve been trying to reach you for two days. Your phone goes straight to voice mail.”
“How did you get this number?”
“You mentioned where you were staying, and I looked it up.” Had she mentioned it? She couldn’t remember. She was amazed that he had. “I thought you would be back in New York by now.”
“Um, yeah. Change of plans,” she said.
“I was hoping to talk to you in person. When are you coming back?”
“I’m not sure exactly.”
“Marin, I feel bad about our last conversation. I’m sorry for cutting things off so quickly. It was a difficult situation. I was stressed out, and I couldn’t think about our future until I figured out my future.”
“It’s okay.”
“No. It’s not. I’m sorry.”
Her stomach was in knots. Don’t be so sweet. It makes this harder.
“Babe, listen,” he said. “I have some good news. Genie offered me a job as in-house counsel. I can stay in New York.”
“Julian, congratulations. I’m happy for you.” And she was. She also felt wistful. Their lives were taking opposite turns.
“I want to see you. We need to get back on track.”
“What?” Her hand instinctively went to her belly.
This could not be happening. The conversation she’d dreamed about—at the worst possible time. “Well, I’m not going to be in New York for a while.”
“Okay,” he said slowly. “I’ll come out there for a few days.”
“No! Don’t.” The only thing worse than losing him the first time would be losing him a second time, face to face, when he learned she might be pregnant with another man’s child. No—the worst would be if she found out it was his and he still rejected her. Julian might be willing to see her now, maybe talk about how things would work out in the future. But if the messiness of what happened at the firm was too much for him, how would he handle this?
“Marin, I reacted badly last month. There’s no excuse, no denying it. And I’m sorry. Please give me a chance to make it up to you. I’ve missed you very much. Let me come out there so we can talk in person.”
“There’s nothing to talk about,” she said.
“Marin…”
“No,” she said, her voice catching. “Please don’t call me again.” Marin disconnected the call, set the receiver down on the desk, and cried, her arm bracing her midsection. Stop it, she told herself. You have to be strong. For two people now.
She walked out of the office, determined to keep it together.
“Marin, there you are!” said Blythe. “I’ve been looking all over for you.”
Her mother. Standing with her father. Marin lost it all over again.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Amelia didn’t like to lie, had sworn never to lie again after her disastrous falling-out with her children. But now Blythe was asking her to do just that.
She turned away from the kitchen window, where she had been peeking out at the handsome man talking to Marin, the two of them sitting side by side on one of the benches, gazing out at the water. Their heads occasionally bent together.
“I’ll tell him the truth eventually. I will,” said Blythe. “But our relationship is in a very fragile state right now.”
“So why does he think you are both out here? Who does he think I am?”
“Marin lost her job in New York. Her boyfriend broke up with her. She needed to get away, and Kip knows that. I told him you and Kelly are friends of Marin’s.”
Amelia shook her head.
There was another reason, a deeper and more disturbing reason, why Amelia wasn’t in the mood to do Blythe’s bidding. The conversation with Nadine was bothering her more than she cared to admit. Whatever had happened between Blythe and Nick was none of her business, but the thought of their affair being the last straw, the event that drove him to end his life…it was tough. She had long blamed herself for his unhappiness. But to learn that he had had his heart broken all over again by someone else?
“I don’t appreciate being a party to this. Especially since my son was the one hurt the most.”