Eleven
1989
“Where’s my dad?” Noah asked.
Shelly Andelin huddled down inside her blanket and kept her eyes on the television. She loved Night Court and Judge Harry Stone. Sometimes he would catch her smiling at the screen. She didn’t laugh, and she didn’t yell, the way he sometimes did when he watched the Jazz. She watched the antics, listened to the canned laugh tracks, and rarely missed an episode.
He’d asked her before, but she’d always shrugged her shoulders and said she didn’t know. He’d asked what his father’s name was too, and never got an answer.
“Was his last name Andelin?”
“No. We weren’t married. You have my last name.”
“What was his last name?”
“Stone. His name was Harry Stone.”
“Really?”
“No.”
“What was his name, Mom?”
“I’m not sure.”
“So you have an idea?”
“No. No idea.”
“Why?”
“Because he didn’t introduce himself, Noah.”
That had shut him up for a long time. He didn’t want to know what that meant. But the labs in Mr. Ward’s class had him wondering again. Blood. Connections. Belonging. He knew nothing about his father and very little about his mother. Sure, he knew she didn’t like to go out. The fact that she’d kept a job in the records department for fifteen years was miraculous. The fact that she worked alone among the accounts of death and disease, slipping out of the hospital in the early-morning hours when everyone else was arriving helped. And he’d helped. That was miraculous too.
He knew her boss—a woman named Carole Stokes—and her coworkers by the shifts they worked and by their competence. He knew who accomplished the most and who skated through the hours, shoving files aside for the night shift to catch up on. Carole was good to his mother. She looked out for her, and by extension, looked out for him.
Carole knew Shelly Andelin’s limitations—mainly interaction—and never pressed the issue. She never told her Noah couldn’t come to work with her, though it was certainly against hospital policy. Nobody else brought their kid to work. Carole was the one who hooked Noah up with the course on medical transcription when he was fourteen. He listened to a tape recording, typed what he heard, and did the corresponding assignments in the workbook and mailed it in. When he finished the course, Carole hired him—technically she hired his mother—to do transcription work on the side, skirting the fact that he wasn’t old enough to be on the payroll. She’d given him the tools to do the job, and do the job he did.
Noah had asked Carole once if they were related. She’d smiled and told him no. She’d met Shelly when she worked in Admitting in the ER. Shelly had been brought in, hugely pregnant, with pre-eclampsia. She almost died. Noah almost died too. When Carole discovered that Shelly had been living under the overpass, she started pulling strings and calling in favors. A bed in a shelter led to a room in a halfway house. The room in the halfway house became a room in a women’s group home.
It helped that Shelly didn’t have a drug habit—that came later in the form of sleeping pills. It also helped that she was quiet and didn’t make trouble. She worked hard and did everything she was told, and when Carole was hired to run the records department, she brought Shelly with her. From the group home, Shelly and Noah moved into the Three Amigos Apartments. It must have felt like an oasis to Shelly, with the space and quiet and privacy she longed for. For the first time, she could stop holding her breath. She could exhale. The problem is, she never inhaled again.
Noah knew all of this about his mother, yet he didn’t know her at all. She didn’t share her thoughts. Didn’t have a philosophy about life. She existed, and he existed with her. But he wanted to know more.
“You said he didn’t introduce himself . . . my father. What does that mean?” Noah asked.
“I didn’t know him. I didn’t want to know him.”
Noah swallowed and closed his eyes. He felt sick and scared, but he needed to know, and pretending the world wasn’t ugly didn’t change its face.
“Were you raped, Mom?” He was fifteen, not five. He knew the basics.
“No. We had an arrangement. It was over pretty quick. He didn’t hurt me.”
“And you don’t know who he was?”
“He was just another homeless man. I found a different place to sleep after that.”
Noah wasn’t surprised. He’d been unable to imagine a scenario where his mother would have had a relationship that resulted in a pregnancy. It was hard to imagine her in any relationship at all. But knowing his father was a random, homeless man didn’t do much for Noah’s self-worth. He had no response to the revelation. What could he say? Surprisingly, it was his mother who broke the silence.
“You’re a miracle, Noah,” she whispered, haltingly.
“What?”
“You’re a goddamn miracle.”
Her vehemence shocked him, and he stared at her, waiting. She met his gaze before looking back at the TV. The honorable Harry Stone was comforting his bailiff, Bull.
“You made me a believer,” she muttered.
“In what?” He willed her to look at him again, afraid she would just stop talking like she so often did.
“In God.”
“Why?” he urged. His voice had risen, and she exhaled heavily, like the whole conversation just made her tired.
“I sure as hell didn’t create you. That piece of shit who humped me didn’t create you. We made your body. But we didn’t make your soul. Your soul came from somewhere else, I’m sure of it.”
It was the nicest thing his mother had ever said to him. The wisest thing. And maybe because she rarely said anything at all, he believed her.
* * *
Noah didn’t know what the solution was. On the one hand, he didn’t want to know whether Gia was biologically his. On the other, he couldn’t ignore the fact that she might not be.
Before Afghanistan, he’d known he and Cora were in trouble. He’d known she wasn’t happy. Oddly, he’d never suspected she was cheating on him. Maybe it was his own naiveté, maybe he’d thought she loved him more than she did, or maybe it wasn’t about love at all. With Cora, it was hard to know. And now Noah would never know.
Part of him wondered if what happened with Mercedes over the weekend would have happened had he not been so angry with Cora. The thought worried him. He’d had a psychology professor who used to say, “hurt people hurt people.” It was true, but it didn’t mean it was okay. He didn’t want his hurt and anger harming Mercedes.
Would he have made love to Mercedes had the opportunity presented itself a week ago? Would he have moved so quickly from despondence to desire had he not been feeling so betrayed, had he not wanted to “show” Cora he didn’t love her either? The thought made his chest ache and his hands curl in shame. He wanted Mercedes left out of the equation. He wanted his feelings for her, his love for her, kept entirely separate from the ugliness in his head. But the lines had been blurred—the lines had been erased—Sunday night. He needed to fix that.
He’d moved through the stages of grief quickly—denial, anger, bargaining, and depression—before arriving at acceptance. Friday he’d walked out of the pediatrician’s office numb with denial. He’d swung between anger and depression Saturday and Sunday. When Mercedes left Sunday night, he’d found himself bargaining with the universe, negotiating and rationalizing. But acceptance came on Tuesday as he fed Gia her breakfast, a ritual that he enjoyed on the days he was home with her in the mornings.
Gia usually woke cheerful, which made waking easier for him. He was never ready to wake. On Tuesdays and Thursdays they ate, babbled, and took their time with life, moving through the morning without haste or hurry. Gia liked to help him clean—Dee-Uh cween, Daddy—and handed him clothes from the dryer, wiped everything knee level and down with her little, pink towel, and rode on the vacuum like she was a train conductor. He’d invented that game when Cora was alive, and Gia still got excited when she heard the vacuum whir.
Gia was a happy, little companion, a tiny reminder of all that was good and right in his world. As he watched her that morning, toddling at his heels, mimicking everything he said, and blissfully unaware of his heartbreak, he decided he could face the truth, whatever it was. Gia would not be fatherless. Not like he was. He was her father, and he would always be her father. His name was on the birth certificate, and his presence—the minutes, hours, and days—in her life meant more than the blood in her veins.
Commitment didn’t require genetics, and he was all in. But he’d never been one to stick his head in the sand. It was too frightening, too dark and gritty, his ass in the wind, his senses dulled. Whatever the truth was, he wanted to know it, if only to better protect his daughter, to better understand his wife, and to better prepare himself. So on Tuesday afternoon he got Gia dressed and prepared himself for the worst.
Gia might be cheerful, but she was also stubborn, and if she looked like a tiny bag lady when they left the house, it was not her daddy’s fault. She had a thing for layers, and she hated shoes. Maybe it was because Mer painted her toes every Monday—usually a different color on every toe—and Gia liked the way her toes looked and didn’t want to cover them. The only shoes Noah could reliably get her to wear were the pink sparkly snow boots that Heather had given her for Christmas. They were growing too small, and Noah, worried that she would outgrow them before she was ready to part with them, had purchased three pairs in the next three sizes. Pink snow boots in August could be a problem, but he would cross that bridge when he came to it.
Noah was constantly trying to woo Gia with other options, but so far, she was not interested. Mer had found some slippers that looked like Oscar’s siblings, and Gia liked those too—Oscar didn’t—which wasn’t much better. So with a pair of stretchy cotton pants splashed with puppies, a matching sweater featuring the mama dog, the pink snow boots, and a fur-lined cloak that looked fit for the opera, Noah and Gia paid a visit to Montlake.
At reception, Noah greeted Char, who cooed and complimented Gia on her fancy clothes, but he bypassed everyone and everything else but the lab on the first floor. His visit was personal, and he knew that Ronnie Claridge, who ran the lab, would realize in an instant what he was up to, but there was no way around it.
Gia didn’t like Ronnie’s scrubs or the gloves on his hands. She’d just had her shots and she wasn’t excited about the prospect of more. She immediately went into flight mode, and Noah got right to the point before things escalated.
“Ronnie, I took Gia for her two-year checkup a couple of weeks ago.”
“Okay,” Ronnie nodded. He and Noah had been friendly from the first day, and he clearly wasn’t uncomfortable doing him a favor.
“When her pediatrician was reading through her file with me, she mentioned Gia’s Rh incompatibility with my late wife. My wife’s blood type was 0 negative.”
Ronnie continued to nod. “So they kept an eye on her?”
“Yeah. No problems during pregnancy,” Noah said. His stomach was churning.
“She hadn’t been sensitized,” Ronnie supplied.
“From what I understand. But they still tested Gia’s blood type when she was born.”
“Standard when mother is negative, and father is positive,” Ronnie agreed.
“Right. Apparently, Gia is A Positive.”
“Okay.”
“I just need to verify if that’s true,” Noah finished quietly.
Ronnie stared at him, puzzled.
“We can test her blood type here, can’t we, Ronnie?” Noah asked.
“Sure . . . I can do that.”
“Will you test me too, just so Gia isn’t scared?”
“I don’t understand, Noah.”
“My wife was O Negative, Ronnie.”
“Okay . . .”
“I’m O Positive.”
Ronnie eyed him for a moment, realization dawning. “Okay, Doc.”
For all the trouble it was to get Gia to wear shoes, she wasn’t excited about parting with her boots so Ronnie could prick her heel. But Ronnie was skilled, and he had what he needed before Gia registered that she was “injured.” Plus, she couldn’t see the welling drop on the bottom of her foot. Noah slapped a Band-Aid on her heel and pulled her boot back into place, keeping up a steady conversation about ice cream and a trip to Hogle Zoo to see the monkeys when they were through. He hated the zoo, but Gia loved it, so they went often. Season passes and a good stroller made it bearable. The fact that it was five minutes from his house helped too.
Noah offered up his own finger, and Ronnie worked quickly and quietly, his eyes on the droplets.
It took less than five minutes to confirm that Gia was not Noah’s biological daughter.
Ronnie was stunned. Embarrassed. Compassionate. But Noah was calm. Acceptance was like that.
“You’re sure your wife was O Negative?” Ronnie murmured.
“That’s what Gia’s file said. That’s what a test in health class, freshman year, confirmed. I saw the results with my own eyes.”
“What are you going to do?” Ronnie whispered, his empathy and friendship stripping away all pretense.
“Go zoo!” Gia cheered. Noah laughed. The sound was a little choked, but he laughed, and Ronnie smiled too.
“That’s what we’re going to do, Ronnie. We’re going to the zoo,” Noah said.
“Doc?” Ronnie ventured.
“Yeah?” Noah responded.
“I was adopted. Blood’s important. But to a kid, blood means nothing.”
“I know, Ronnie. That’s what I keep telling myself,” Noah whispered.
Gia and Noah spent the rest of the day—a day that ended up holding more sunshine than showers—visiting the giraffes and the elephants, the kangaroos and the koalas. They stood outside the monkey enclosure, calling and whooping and doing the monkey dance. They strolled slowly past the snakes and the lizards so Gia could growl and hiss at them, half-terrified, half-entranced. They ate corn dogs and stayed too long, but for once Noah didn’t mind. The animals had no quarrels or cares. They didn’t worry about who they were, where they came from, or what tomorrow would bring, and Noah pledged to do the same.
When all the hurt and the betrayal was stripped away, nothing had changed. His love for Gia was unaltered, her dependence on him was just as great, and in the end, just like Ronnie said, love mattered a whole lot more than blood.
* * *
Mercedes was always moving. You would think someone like that would be hard to be around. But Mer wasn’t. She wasn’t jittery, and she didn’t pace or pick at things. She was just always doing. She didn’t walk fast—she sauntered—but she never sat down. Noah watched her walk through the salon, sky-high heels, hair slicked back from her beautiful face into that long, sleek, ponytail that very few women could pull off. She hadn’t noticed him yet, but he took note of her dewy lips, her perfect skin, her dark eyes, and her long lashes. She said they were fake, but they’d been just as long when she was ten years old.
Wherever he looked, the salon reflected her influence. Maven didn’t have that new-agey, goth feel like a stereotypical salon. It reminded Noah of lemons in a brown, wicker basket. It was bright, with dark wood floors, buttery walls, and white trim. It even smelled like fruit, like a veranda on a pineapple plantation, complete with icy beverages and soft, ocean breezes. Everywhere you looked it was pristine and bright, no loud, pulsing music or even Zen mandolins. The music wasn’t actually music at all. It was white noise—waves and seagulls and the occasional distant laughter, like kids on a beach. It was nice.
Noah knew if he asked her to, Mercedes would cut his hair at his kitchen table like she’d done the first few months after Cora died. But for some reason, today he needed the salon around him. He needed the safety of eyes and ears. He hadn’t seen her since the weekend. Since she’d forced him into the shower. Since he’d kissed her mouth and removed her clothes and had sex with her against the tile wall.
He’d thought about going somewhere else, to the barbershop with the old-fashioned pole just across the street from Montlake. It would have been easier, just this once. But that would wound her. Avoiding her would break her heart. And Noah had no wish to hurt Mercedes. The thought of causing her pain made his heart twist and his arms tighten around Gia, who was asleep against his chest. He could feel a little wet spot where she’d drooled on his shirt.
Mer wasn’t easily intimidated, but he saw her shoulders stiffen and the slight double-take when she saw him standing just inside the front door, Gia in his arms. She wore nude heels that made her slim legs look longer, even though the only thing that was “long” on Mer was her hair. Her snug, khaki skirt matched her shoes, and a fitted, white, button-down shirt was tucked into the high waistband. Gold hoops and a slim, gold necklace with a cross, framed by her creamy skin, completed the outfit. The bottom of her shoes, her nails, and her lips were red, and he was guessing her toenails were too. They’d been red on Sunday.
“Today’s been crazy. I lost track of time, and I totally forgot today was our day. Go back to the sinks and pick a chair. I’ll be with you in five,” she said softly, meeting his gaze head-on. “If Gia wakes up, I’ll have one of the girls take her and give her a snack.”
He nodded and obeyed, walking to the row of inclining chairs and easing himself into one. Gia didn’t move at all. Noah caught the lingering gazes of several stylists, including that obnoxious Keegan—Gia had that effect wherever she went—and waited for Mer to arrive. He closed his eyes for half a second, and was surprised when he felt her hands in his hair and liquid heat on his scalp. He kept his eyes closed, letting her take care of him, the way she always had.
She smelled good. Always. Morning, noon, and night. After work, before work, the middle of the night. Sweet and warm with a hint of spice that was uniquely hers. And it made Noah uncomfortable. Even before Sunday, it had made him uncomfortable.
In the last few months, he’d begun to notice things he already knew. He’d known Mercedes for most of his life, and he’d watched her become the adult version of his childhood friend. In that respect, there wasn’t much about her that was new. But suddenly he was seeing things that he’d once studiously ignored.
Mercedes’s skin had always been her best feature. Clear and unblemished and smoky, like a spoonful of coffee in half a cup of cream. When he was with her, he ached to touch it. He wanted to run a finger over her cheeks and across her hands, down her slim neck and behind her ear. He wanted to rub his thumb along the high arch of her small foot and continue up her calf to the smooth skin at the back of her knees. That made him uncomfortable too.
Mercedes didn’t need to wear make-up, but she always did. There were times growing up when she’d worn too much, though with Mer it never seemed like she was attempting to wear a disguise. She was practicing. Experimenting. Learning. He’d let her cut his hair once at sixteen, and resolved to never let her do it again. When she came back two months later, asking for another try, he’d succumbed, and she’d succeeded.
She’d been cutting his hair—minus his stints in boot camp, Kuwait, and Afghanistan—ever since. It was the time they caught up with each other. Their worlds could be running in opposite directions, but they always made time for a haircut. Then they would talk nonstop, trying to catch up in the thirty minutes, once a month, they spent together. Mercedes had spent more time with Cora after they married. They went to lunch and hit the gym together. He joined them sometimes, though he would rather run around the University of Utah campus than do yoga.
Mer said yoga was relaxing as long as you shut your eyes; otherwise, yoga class was just asses in your face, which was not especially calming. When Noah had fallen in love with Cora, he’d made a mental note not to consciously appreciate other women’s asses. It wasn’t especially hard. He saw a nice ass, he looked away and thought about his wife. Mer had an exceptionally nice ass—another thing he’d noticed—and it hurt to think about his wife, so what was he supposed to do now? He opened his eyes, needing to change his train of thought, and found Mer’s face above his.
“I thought you were asleep,” she murmured.
“I was. For a minute.”
“I can’t imagine why. Today is Friday . . . which means you haven’t slept since when, Wednesday night?” She smirked and quirked one perfectly-groomed eyebrow.
“I’ll sleep tonight.”
“Something’s gotta give, Boozer.”
He smiled at her, as though they were just Stockton and Malone again, playing on the cracked square of concrete at the Three Amigos.
“I’m okay, Stock.”
“Last weekend you hit a wall, remember?” she scolded.
“Yes. Uh. In more ways than one. Actually, it was you who hit . . . a wall.” He waggled his brows, trying to tease her the way he’d done in her kitchen, making her laugh, restoring the old give and take. But her cheeks pinked, and she turned away, snatching up the conditioner even though she hadn’t yet rinsed out the shampoo. Flustered, she set the conditioner down and turned the water on. But the nozzle was facing outward, and she soaked her shirt and missed his head completely.
“Son of a—,” she hissed. She adjusted the temperature and rinsed his hair, not meeting his gaze. “Lately, I tend to get wet when you’re around.” Her eyelids fluttered like she couldn’t believe she’d just said what she said, and an expression of complete humiliation crossed her face.
“Mer?”
“Hmm?” She didn’t look up.
“I’m sorry. I thought you would laugh.”
“I’m going to go change. I have another shirt in the back. Can you hang tight right here? You can close your eyes for another minute.” She turned and practically ran through the door that led to the employee break room and the massage rooms beyond. He and Cora had helped Mercedes paint the whole area one spring.
“Well, damn,” Noah whispered. His hair was dripping, and his arms were full of sleeping child, but he eased himself up and followed Mercedes through the door marked “Employees Only.” He didn’t think anyone would stop him.
He should have waited a few minutes. The door to the employee locker room had caught and not completely closed, and he pushed it open with his shoulder. Mercedes was standing near an open locker, her back to him, her wet shirt removed. A pale pink bra strap crisscrossed her caramel skin, and she threw an outraged glance over her shoulder.
He glared back. “The door was open, Mer. Anyone could have just walked in. Keegan could have walked in!” He still hadn’t forgiven Keegan for being straight. Noah was the straight best friend. Keegan was going to have to find someone else.
Mer yanked a black T-shirt with Maven written across the front from inside the locker and eased it over her head, careful not to mess her sleek ponytail. She tucked the T-shirt into her skirt, and Noah marveled again at the ease in which she made everything look good, the way she made everything work.
“I thought we were going to laugh about Sunday,” he said gently.
“We are.” She shot him a bright, fake smile and a cheesy, “Ha ha ha!”
“You’re upset.”
“I’m having a bad day, Noah. That’s all. Homeless Cuddy stopped by this morning. That’s twice in the last month. He keeps asking about Cora, and I keep trying to explain. I guess I just don’t feel like laughing today.”
Noah had never met Homeless Cuddy. Mer and Cora had talked about him often. The name wasn’t meant to be derisive. In the beginning, it was simply a way of identifying him, and the name stuck. He’d seen Cuddy lurking from a distance, but he’d never made use of Noah’s services. Cuddy had adored Cora, and he got regular haircuts from Mer, but he steered clear of Noah.
“What if . . . we never talk about the shower scene again? Not even jokes,” he suggested.
She nodded, swallowing. She wasn’t acting like Mer.
“But what if . . . I want . . . to do it again?” she whispered.
She was joking. He was sure she was joking. Almost. He looked for her tell. She turned her head, so he couldn’t see her face.
“Do you?” Noah asked.
“Yes. And so . . . it’s not actually funny to me.”
“You want to have sex in the shower?” His voice sounded a little hoarse.
“Yes. Or on a bed. Or maybe on the kitchen table. Or in front of the TV. Or maybe we could try out the front seat of the Corolla. It’s surprisingly spacious.”
Noah started feeling lightheaded and looked for a place to sit down. His arms were cramping from being in the same position for the last half hour. He sank down on the long bench centered between the walls of lockers
“I’m kidding, Noah.” Mercedes began to cackle and dance around, shooting the air like she was totally killing it. He’d known it. He’d called it. So why couldn’t he catch his breath?
“You aren’t a nice woman, Mer,” he grumbled.
“You should have seen your face. You looked like you were going to faint.”
“It was the Corolla that scared me. I don’t think it’s spacious enough. You know I’m claustrophobic.”
“You are not.”
“But I am a germaphobe. The kitchen table is an absolute no.”
Mer laughed and sank down beside him, smoothing a hand over his wet hair. He still needed that haircut. He wondered if he would actually get one today. She pulled her hand away and sighed.
“All kidding aside, I feel very guilty,” she muttered, and rubbed the space between her brows. “I keep dreaming of Cora. I don’t dream, Noah. You know this. I sleep like the dead.” She grimaced. “But I keep dreaming of her. In my dreams, she’s alive, but Sunday still happened. And I wake up feeling terrible. I haven’t been able to shake that feeling all week. Do you feel guilty?”
He didn’t feel guilty at all. Not one whit. But he wondered, in the far recesses of his mind, if he would feel guiltier had he not been so angry with Cora. He was going to have to do something about that anger, something that wouldn’t backfire on his best friend.
“Surprisingly . . . no. I don’t. I found comfort in a friend, someone I trust. Someone I love. It didn’t feel cheap or tawdry,” he said.
“It didn’t?”
“No, Mercedes. It didn’t.”
“Good. That’s something.” She exhaled heavily.
“But I have been worried about you. About us. I need you, Mer. It’s obvious, isn’t it? I don’t want you thinking that I . . . expect . . . what happened last weekend to happen again.”
“You don’t?”
“No. I don’t expect it to happen again.” He hoped it would. But he didn’t expect it to.
“Huh.” Mer bit her lip.
Gia arched her back and came awake in Noah’s arms, opening her big, blue eyes and staring up at him blearily.
Noah shifted her again, trying to ease the ache in his biceps, and Gia spotted Mercedes.
“Meh,” Gia greeted sleepily.
Mercedes smiled and leaned in to nuzzle Gia’s cheek, whispering hello into her soft ear. Noah caught a whiff of roses and bergamot, and his legs went weak, and the back of his neck got hot. He really hoped it happened again.