Chapter Eleven
Noah propped the baseball bat against the side of the mantel and then got rid of the condom. When he came back into the room, he reached out to Anita. She took his hand and got to her feet.
“I wonder what kind of things made Aggie take out her frustrations on the mantel with a baseball bat,” he said.
Anita shrugged. “The death of her husband, I suppose. Then I guess a daughter getting pregnant without being married was a big one. Apparently, to her that was a big sin. Unforgivable.”
Noah put his arm around her and drew her down the hall toward the bedroom. “I’d say Aggie forgave, or she wouldn’t have left everything to you.”
“Doesn’t mean she forgave my mom.” Anita pulled away from him and headed back to the living room. “I can’t go to bed yet. I’m too wound up.”
He was sorry he’d brought it up. He’d been looking forward to some more skin-on-skin time with her and then a good night’s sleep. “Do you think Aggie would have kept Patty’s things in her bedroom all this time if she thought what your mother did was unforgivable?”
“I don’t know.” Anita padded into the kitchen, gloriously naked. Of course, he followed. “I need to pack up the stuff in here before work starts inside.”
Which would be at least another week. “Now?”
“July will be over before you know it. It needs to get done.”
Noah came up behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders. He could feel the tension there. “It doesn’t have to get done tonight.”
The magnificent phoenix tattoo on her back drew his attention. He traced the fiery wings with a fingertip. “When did you get the tattoo?” he asked, hoping to distract her from whatever had her so worked up. “I assume the phoenix has significance?”
Anita grabbed one of the totes stacked in the corner. Her movements were stiff, so unlike her usual fluidness. “I never knew the happy, lighthearted Patty your mom and dad described. Growing up with her as a mother was stifling.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” The platitude was woefully inadequate, but he didn’t know what else to say. He couldn’t imagine being raised like that.
She started removing the small appliances from the countertop and placing them in the tote. “Talking to her coworkers, I know she was a caring, empathetic nurse, but when she got home after her shifts? She was a bitter woman, overprotective, overbearing.”
Noah took out the coffeemaker she’d placed in the tote and put it back on the counter. They’d need that in the morning. He didn’t think she noticed.
“Thinking about it since I’ve been here,” she went on, “since I found out how my mother used to be, the first big blow for her must have been when Aggie threw her out of the house. I don’t think my mom ever expected that. Then when my father left her? I think that was the last straw. Two big betrayals by people she loved? As I said, I was young and don’t remember much about life before my dad left.”
“I can’t imagine what it was like for her,” Noah said softly, “but I know a lot of people have to deal with tragedy and disappointment, and it doesn’t turn them into bitter and angry people.”
Anita lifted a shoulder. “Well, she kept track of my every move. I think she was afraid she was going to lose me, too, like she did her mother and her husband. Art was my outlet, my escape, but even after I’d graduated high school, I wasn’t free. I wanted to study art, and she said she’d pay for college, but I had to live at home. Follow her curfew. She still kept control of my life. But I told myself I was going to use that college education she was paying for to get away from her.”
She reached for the drawer with the flatware. He stopped her before she could dump all the knives, forks, and spoons into the tote. “Let’s wait on those.”
Anita blinked, stared at the drawer in her hand. “Okay.” She handed the drawer to Noah.
“When I got the trust fund from Tony, I was furious with him for about two minutes. How dare he try to buy me off with all that money? But then in a flash, I realized I was finally free. You were right when you said he gave me my independence. The first thing I did was buy a small condo so I could move out. I got a job teaching, and that paid my bills, so I started to take a trip every summer with money left in the trust fund.”
“But you’ve never talked to your father about all of this? Got his side of the story?” As a father, Noah could remember all the mistakes he’d made as the twins were growing up. None of them had been as drastic as leaving the country, but if his daughters had never forgiven him for some of his stupid missteps, he’d probably have gone crazy.
“What side?” Anita snapped. “He left. He never came back to see me. What’s there to talk about?”
No doubt, there was another side to the story, but Noah decided to drop it for now. “So that’s when you got the tattoo?”
She nodded. “I was able to spread my wings for the first time. I felt like a bird rising up from the ashes of the anger and bitterness that had been surrounding me for as long as I could remember. I painted the phoenix first. There’s a huge canvas above my bed. But it wasn’t enough to see it every day. I wanted to wear it. I wanted it on my skin. It was a part of me, the new part that allowed me to be what I wanted to be.
He swept his hand over her back. Her skin was cool. Time to get her into bed. “It must have taken a long time. Must have hurt a lot.”
“Sure, but there’s something exhilarating about getting through the pain and suffering, surviving everything.”
“You did more than survive your childhood. You’ve thrived.” Except for the part where she refused to let herself fall in love. He put his arm around her and drew her out of the kitchen and onto the bed. “Do you still see your mom?”
Noah pulled her onto his lap. He’d never seen her look so vulnerable. “I didn’t for a long time. For probably ten years, we rarely spoke. Then I realized I was becoming like her, and I didn’t want to. Remember Aggie’s note that said the women in our family are stubborn and don’t forgive? Well, she’s right.” Anita let out a bark of a laugh. “Maybe you were right, and Aggie regretted her decision. Maybe she even tried to apologize, but my mom wouldn’t forgive her. I know that’s possible, because Mom wouldn’t forgive me, either, for leaving her, for the harsh things I said to her when I left. She refused to let me in the house. She didn’t answer my calls. So I stopped trying.”
“No one would blame you.”
“I blame me. Because I didn’t see her again until a few years ago, when I got a call from the hospital where she worked. She was beginning to behave strangely, and they were concerned.”
“What happened?”
“She was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. She couldn’t be a nurse anymore. She couldn’t be trusted to be left alone. I tried in-home care for a while, but eventually, I found a wonderful memory care facility not far from where I live. When I get the money from selling this house, I won’t have to worry for a long time about keeping her there. She seems happy there. Happier than I ever remember seeing her. So that’s good. Even if she doesn’t remember me.”
Noah wrapped his arms around her. “I’m sorry. That must be awful.” So this was it, the reason she wanted to sell the house. And now that he knew she needed the money, he’d never try to convince her to keep it.
She rubbed her arms briskly. “We never got along anyway.”
“Still.” He drew her down onto the mattress with him, pulled the covers over them. He didn’t want to think about her selling the house. “Let’s change the subject. Have you had a chance to do much painting since you got here?”
“When have I had the time?”
“You have to make time. That’s one of the things you look forward to each July, isn’t it?” He rolled over on top of her. He’d keep her warm. “I’ll finish stripping the wallpaper tomorrow. You spend the day painting. I imagine it would be too hard to be outside here with all the work going on, but people sometimes set up easels in the park. You could do that.”
“I have a studio upstairs. But I promised to help you with the wallpaper.”
“Wait. You have a studio?”
“The front room.” She pushed him up, and she slid out from under him. “Come on, I’ll show you.”
He reached for his shorts, but she stopped him. “It’s only you and me. No one’s going to be out on the lake at midnight, waiting on the off chance to get a picture of you naked.”
The thought of that was enough to make him pull on his shorts and hand her the robe. “It’s getting chilly. Humor me.”
She rolled her eyes but took the robe and slid her arms in. Was it her stubbornness that compelled her to leave it unbelted? “Come on, salvage man.”
He followed her up the stairs. The sway of her ass, hidden by the silky robe, made him wish he’d let her remain naked. The first thing he noticed was that the door was open to her mother’s bedroom. “Did you find what you were looking for in there?”
Anita shrugged, but he doubted she was as indifferent as she appeared. “Found a few photographs. Not much else.” She opened the door across the hall and flipped on the light. “This is what I want to show you.”
Soaring ceilings. Clean white walls. Gleaming hardwood floors. Huge windows that would let in a lot of light during the day. He peeked out and didn’t see the lights of any boats holding potential photographers from the Bradford camp waiting to take compromising pictures. He couldn’t wait for election day. He was getting paranoid.
“Aggie had this made for you?”
She shrugged again, then swept her arm around the room. “Look at this. Won’t it make an awesome master bedroom? Got to be a great selling point, right? There’s a half bath over there in the corner.”
Her eyes had dimmed. Noah knew she wanted to keep the house. Ached to use this studio. Maybe if she didn’t travel so far every summer, maybe if she came here instead, she wouldn’t have to worry about money for her mother. Would he be satisfied with seeing her only in the summers? He didn’t think so. “Paint up here tomorrow.”
“I don’t know.”
“Are you avoiding the painting? Or avoiding the studio?”
“No. Well…maybe this is a little too much like the trust fund.”
“It feels to you like she was trying to buy your forgiveness?”
“Something like that.”
“Do you still feel that way?”
“A little. But I’ve gotten to know her better this week.”
“Are you ready to accept the studio for what she intended it to be?” He slid his arm around her waist. “If she wasn’t trying to buy your forgiveness, why do you think she had this studio built for you?”
Anita’s eyes were bright. “Maybe it was her apology.”
“And I think she was showing her love for you. Whether you forgave her or not, she still loved you.”
“Maybe.”
“So will you paint up here tomorrow?”
“But the wallpaper. I’ll feel guilty leaving the work to you.”
“It’s not your job to do the renovation, remember? It’s mine. You do what you came here to do. Paint.”
She slid her arms around his waist. “Have I ever told you I like you, salvage man?”
“I like you, too.” In fact, I think I love you. His chest was filled with emotion. But he’d never say those words out loud. Not unless he was sure she wanted to hear them. Would she ever want to hear them? “Tell me you’ll paint tomorrow.”
“All right, I’ll paint. But right now, let’s go back downstairs and do more of that other thing I like to do in July.”
…
For the next week, Anita painted during the day and spent time with Noah in the evening when she could. He did what he did for the salvage company and oversaw the renovation of the house. He’d also started campaigning door-to-door, talking face-to-face with as many of the residents of Lakeside as he could. Some nights, he fell into bed with her, too tired to do much more than kiss and hold her, but he made it back to her every night.
The outside work on the house was nearing completion. The gingerbread had been repaired. The clapboard siding was a smooth, bright white, giving the old girl a much-needed facelift. The black shutters would go up soon. And the red window boxes. She couldn’t wait until the gorgeous porch was finished.
Soon, the painters and carpenters would move inside, and the landscaping could begin out there. It was coming together faster than she’d imagined.
She’d thought she would be painting the view from the window. The sun glistening on the lake. The docks skimming across the surface of the water. The colorful boats bobbing with the waves. Instead, she’d painted her grandparents on the old porch, sitting on a white wicker swing, a little pink bundle in a buggy beside them. The lake was there only as a backdrop.
The scene came full-blown in her mind, just as quickly on the canvas. Photos in the albums she’d found in the bedroom had given her a feeling of the house back then. Of her grandparents back then. It wasn’t realism, no portrait of the ancestors she’d only seen in photographs. The soft blur of impressionism conveyed her emotions as she painted. She didn’t know these people, but she felt them.
The creativity she craved swirled within her. She enjoyed coaxing it out of her students. Loved seeing them bloom under her teaching. But there was nothing that beat taking brush to canvas.
When her cell phone interrupted, she set down the palette and brush. She had to let the oils dry now anyway.
She glanced at the screen and almost didn’t answer. It was Ethan Bradford again. He’d called three days ago to offer to buy the house. After hearing what Noah and others had said about him, she’d turned him down flat. Besides, the price he’d offered was an insult. She had a feeling it was his company that had made the anonymous offer on the day she arrived.
She knew she might as well answer and get it over with. Last time, he’d called her every hour until she talked to him. She stepped over to the window to soak in the relaxing view before she accepted the call. “Hello?”
“Anita, it’s Ethan Bradford again.”
“What can I do for you, Mr. Bradford?”
“You can sell me that beautiful lake house,” he said with a laugh. “I got to thinking that maybe you didn’t understand when I made my offer the other day that I’d take it off your hands immediately, and then you wouldn’t have to pay all those people who’ve been working nearly around the clock on all that unnecessary work.”
“What are you talking about?”
He continued as if she’d never spoken. “In fact, you can tell them right now to stop that work. It’s throwing money away, Anita.” He cleared his throat when she remained silent. “Ms. Delgado, Noah Colburn is costing you a fortune for what is no more than an expensive publicity stunt.”
“I had already planned to have that work done.”
“Of course you had. But why spend all that money making the house nice for strangers? I can give you money and save you the trouble.”
She let out a bark of a laugh. He had all the appeal of a used car salesman. “So you can win the mayoral race and tear down my grandmother’s house?”
“Now who told you I was going to tear down the house?”
“It’s common knowledge that you want to demolish it like you did the Packard property next door, and I don’t want my grandmother’s house torn down. So the answer is no, Mr. Bradford.”
“Hold on a minute. We can help each other out. I run a development company. It’s what I do. It’s common knowledge that you’re not staying here in Lakeside. I’ll take the house off your hands right now and you can get back to your life in Philadelphia.”
Get back to her life in Philadelphia? Why didn’t that sound as appealing as it should?
“I can raise my offer,” he added when she didn’t respond. He quoted a price almost double what he’d offered previously. “Cash money. It can be in your account tomorrow.”
It was tempting, but as much as she’d hated her grandmother when she’d first come to Lakeside, Anita had come to know her better. Perhaps even understand her. Enough that she wanted the house preserved for more than its historical value. Curled up with Noah in the middle of the night or painting in the studio she’d finally accepted from Aggie, she sometimes thought about keeping the house. But she knew that was a foolish idea. Not only did she need the money from the sale to take care of her mother, she wouldn’t have time to use it if she did keep it.
They were only halfway through July. Someone would want to buy this house for their full-time or vacation home. She had time.
“My answer is still no, Mr. Bradford. Please don’t bother to call me again. If for some reason I change my mind, I have your number.”
…
Noah enjoyed getting out of the office and out on salvage jobs whenever he could, so when Todd called in sick, he called Carter, and they jumped in the box truck with Louis for a one-day job in East Aurora. He’d be home before dark, so he could check on the progress on the porch. The painters thought they’d be done this afternoon. It was all coming together.
Many of the residents he’d talked to when he’d gone door-to-door had mentioned they were looking forward to seeing the renovations on Aggie’s house. They thanked him for respecting the history of their community. Of course, there were others who worried the village was going to stagnate, that without the boost of fresh businesses and ideas, Lakeside would lose what it had and eventually turn into a ghost town. Noah had agreed with the sentiment but pointed out that tearing down what made their town great, simply because it was old, wasn’t going to do the town any favors.
He’d mostly enjoyed the face-to-face conversations with the residents. But now that he was done with that part of the campaign, he was enjoying his evenings with Anita again. She was ordering pizza for dinner tonight. He had to remember to pick up the beer on the way home. He started every day looking forward to getting back to her. Each day, it was getting harder not to hope she’d want to stay once the house was finished.
She was putting her own touches on the house. She’d chosen all the latest kitchen appliances. She’d known neutral colors would be the best for resale, but she’d decided on a purple accent wall in the living room and an orange one in the dining room. She’d told him she wanted the outside to look like the historic home it was, but the inside to be new and fresh.
How could she walk away from the house when she was putting so much of herself into it?
Noah knew he was betting too much on a house. Not only the mayoral race, but his future with Anita. He had to get his mind back on the work at hand.
He and Carter got to work pulling out the heavy solid wood doors from the early twentieth-century home slated for demolition. Louis was working on removing the gorgeous vintage tiles in the bathroom. It was obvious the house had been vacant for years and the structure had been compromised to the point that renovation wasn’t possible. They were there today for the doors, hardware, and light fixtures. They’d be back home for dinner. His mouth was already watering for pizza.
And Anita.
They’d gotten all the doors loaded in the back of the truck when his cell rang. He knew from the ringtone it was Hannah. He hoped there wasn’t a problem. The twins normally texted. “Give me a minute?”
Carter waved him off and grabbed a bottle of water from the cooler.
“What’s up, sweetie?”
“Hey, Dad. We wanted to let you know we might be coming home earlier than we’d planned.”
They could come home as soon as they wanted. He wouldn’t have enough time with his girls before they left for college as it was. But his daughter’s voice wasn’t upbeat. “Problem?”
“Mom and Bruce are fighting.” That was Sarah, her voice a little softer than her sister’s. He could picture them in their usual huddle around the phone. “About us. I don’t think he wants us here anymore.”
Noah held back the furious growl that threatened to escape. He’d been afraid the childless executive would be jealous of the time two teenage girls would take. “Did he say that to you?”
“No,” Hannah said. “But sometimes we can hear them arguing. Mom’s pissed at him, and he’s all grumpy when he gets home from work.”
“I think he’s tired of us being here,” Sarah added.
If this were a cartoon, steam would be blowing out of Noah’s ears right now. “You can come home anytime. Just let me know when to pick you up at the airport.”
“Okay. We don’t like the fighting.”
He gritted his teeth. “Is your mom there?”
“She’s pacing out on the lanai and yelling on the phone at him.”
“Tell her to call me as soon as she’s off. We’ll work this out. I don’t want you two to worry about it.”
“Wait. She tossed the phone down,” Hannah told him. “Whoa, that just missed sliding into the pool.”
“I’ll get her,” Sarah said.
In a moment, his ex-wife was there. “Noah? What’s up?” Her voice was strained, like it always was when she talked with him nowadays.
He usually tried to stay as pleasant as possible with her, but there was no way that was possible today. “What the hell, Char? Do you two have to fight where the girls can hear you? They think you want to get rid of them.”
Carter had been wandering around at a discreet distance, but now he frowned and walked closer, eavesdropping unabashedly.
“No one ever said that,” Charlene shot back.
“Well, that’s what our daughters heard. They think Bruce wants them to leave because he’s tired of them being there.”
“He never said that.” But the hesitation in Charlene’s voice made him think her boyfriend had definitely said something close to that.
“I don’t want them to think they’re not wanted there. Or anywhere. You shouldn’t, either.”
“I want them here, Noah. I’ve…I’ve missed them. We’ve been having a good time. Going shopping. Going to the beach. I don’t want them to go home yet.”
“Well, at the end of the day, they’re old enough to decide for themselves. You know they can come home whenever they want to.”
“Yeah, and how’s your new girlfriend going to feel about that?” The snark was new to Charlene. She’d always been easygoing and soft-spoken. Until she met Bruce.
“Anita would be fine with it.” At least, he was relatively certain she would. She knew he had twin daughters, but they hadn’t talked about them much because Anita was supposed to be gone before the girls came back. What if she decided to stay in Lakeside? How would she feel about his girls?
“Looks like the two of you’ve been hands-on all over the place,” Char went on, the snarkiness still clear in her voice. “You never grabbed my ass in public.”
Noah sighed. “This isn’t getting us anywhere. I have to get back to work. Just…just handle it. The girls are young and were upset enough to call me about it.”
“They’re almost eighteen. Not that young.”
“They shouldn’t feel they’re not wanted at any age. If your boyfriend can’t make them feel welcome, send them home.” Charlene was quiet. “You know I’m right.”
“Yeah, I know.” She’d lost the attitude. “I want them here, Noah. I’ll work it out.”
“Good. Let me talk to them for a sec.”
“Hang on, they’re in the next room.”
In a moment, his girls were back on the line. “Listen, you guys call me if you have any more problems, okay?”
“Okay, Dad. Love you.”
“Love you, too.” He disconnected and turned to Carter. “Let’s get back to work.”
Carter handed him a bottle of water. “Troubles in Florida?”
“The damn boyfriend.”
“I never got what Charlene saw in Bruce Shaw.”
“According to her, Bruce didn’t come home with dirt under his fingernails.”
“That was it?”
“And she hadn’t known him since she was twelve.”
Carter crossed his arms. “So she just wanted something different? Someone different?”
“Who the hell knows? Let’s get back to work.”
Noah’s mind wandered as he continued to load doors, disassemble light fixtures, and get more dirt under his fingernails. Part of him wanted to jump on a plane, gather his daughters in his arms, and bring them home where they’d be safe from thoughtless people and hurtful words.
What would his life have been like without his girls? What if Charlene had decided fifteen years ago that she didn’t want to be married to him any longer, wanted to move to Florida and take their little girls with her? He couldn’t imagine a scenario where he wouldn’t have followed them there, or at least visited as often as he could. He wouldn’t have cared how long the distance. If he’d been separated from his daughters, he would have moved heaven and earth to be with them as much as possible.
What had happened to Patty and Tony Delgado? Anita had only heard Patty’s side of the story. Noah couldn’t help but feel that Tony had a story to tell, too. And if he was reaching out to Anita, then he wanted his daughter to know his side. Better late than never, right?
After work, before he stopped to pick up the beer to drink with the pizza, Noah pulled up Facebook on his phone and began to search.