A sisters blessing, p.9
A Sister's Blessing, page 9
“Yeah. We’re going to a local bookstore,” Alyssa explained. “A crime writer is doing a reading of his latest book.”
“That’s interesting,” Grandma Nancy said. “I didn’t know you liked crime thrillers.”
“Love them,” Maggie lied with a smile.
“The writer is Heidi’s son,” Alyssa added quietly, her eyes widening.
Grandma Nancy and Janine exchanged curious glances.
“Does Heidi know you’re meeting her son?” Nancy asked with a small gasp.
“Nope,” Maggie said.
Janine looked both impressed and frightened at once. “What are you going to tell him?”
“That his mom needs him,” Maggie said as she stabbed her fork through a veggie sausage. “That she can’t handle the bookstore all by herself. That she’s sick.”
Alyssa wrinkled her nose. “I’m terrified of what he’ll say.”
“Have you read any of his books to get a sense of who he is?” Grandma Nancy asked.
“I skimmed through one over the past few days,” Alyssa admitted. “It took place in Chicago and was sort of intense. I think David might be slightly damaged.”
“He’s a good writer,” Maggie said. “Like Alyssa said a few days ago, he seems like he was raised in a bookstore. I just can’t figure out why he would turn his back on that bookstore and leave his mother all alone like that.”
Nancy shrugged. “Sometimes, people need a bit of prodding. I would never have reached out to your mother if I hadn’t seen her face in that magazine.”
“Never?” Janine paused with her spoon filled with blueberries.
Nancy blushed. “I thought about reaching out to you every single day. But sometimes, people need nudges from the universe, you know? And that came in the form of that magazine for me. Maybe this crime thriller writer needs a nudge from the universe in the form of my beautiful granddaughters. Lucky him.”
By eleven that morning, Maggie buckled Lucy into her car seat as Alyssa hovered outside the vehicle and hugged her mother and her grandmother, asking that they pass on their love to all the other members of the family. They promised they would.
“Good luck tonight,” Grandma Nancy said.
“Don’t be too forceful,” Janine urged her daughters. “There’s only so much you can know about David and his mother’s relationship.”
“That’s what I said,” Alyssa breathed, eyeing Maggie nervously.
Maggie popped out of the back of the car and hugged their grandmother and mother, then jumped into the driver’s seat joyously and started the engine. Alyssa hurried around to the other side and then spent the next thirty seconds waving out the window. “Wave to Grandma and Mom, Lucy! Wave and say bye!” Lucy did, filling their car with her adorable voice.
On the way to the ferry, Maggie called Rex and put him on speaker.
“Hi, babe.” Rex’s voice was flat and tired.
“Hi! Just wanted to let you know we’re on the road,” Maggie said.
“Great.”
Maggie blinked several times but didn’t allow her smile to fall. “Do you think you could watch Lucy tonight? Alyssa and I have a thing we can’t miss.”
“Naw, Maggie. I can’t. I have a big work event tonight.”
“Ah. Of course.” Maggie didn’t skip a beat. “Okay. I’ll ask someone else. Not a problem.”
“Cool. What time will you be back?” Rex asked.
“We’re just leaving now,” Maggie explained. “So not till early evening or so. Maybe later.”
“Drive safe,” Rex said.
On the ferry, Maggie and Alyssa got out to stretch their legs and watch the water. It was a particularly sunny day, one that demanded hope for an approaching spring, and Alyssa and Maggie bought tea and played with Lucy, who couldn’t get enough of running around.
“She could hardly walk when we first got her, remember?” Alyssa laughed as she collapsed on a plastic chair on the lower level of the ferry.
“It’s good for us,” Maggie heaved. “And if Lucy sticks around a bit longer, she’ll have a sibling to play with. Won’t that be fun, Lucy?”
“Yes!” Lucy cried, although she had no idea what they talked about.
“Who will babysit tonight?” Alyssa asked.
“I texted my friend Monica,” Maggie said. “She’s up for it.”
Alyssa nodded. “Cool.”
“I’ll probably take Lucy to her place when we get to the city,” Maggie explained.
“Oh. Okay.” Alyssa considered this, remembering how Maggie and Monica normally talked for two-plus hours whenever they saw one another. The last thing she wanted was to get trapped at Monica’s place, silently waiting in the corner for their conversation to finish.
Maggie sensed something was wrong. “I can drop you off on the way there if you want.”
“Really?”
Maggie laughed. “You don’t like Monica.”
“I do like Monica,” Alyssa corrected. “But you two need to catch up without me. You can even tell her all the stuff I do that annoys you. Won’t that be nice?”
“Nothing annoys me about you, Alyssa,” Maggie said sweetly.
“That was the lie of the year,” Alyssa shot back.
Maggie laughed, her eyes in slits as she dropped down to collect Lucy in her arms. “Let’s get back to the car, huh? We’re about to get to Woods Hole.”
The drive back to the city was uneventful. Throughout, Alyssa and Maggie sang songs they liked, talked about celebrity gossip, and discussed which other friends they wanted to reach out to while they were in the city. Alyssa explained that Scarlet Copperfield had moved to Nantucket to be with her grandparents and extended family, and Maggie laughed and said, “Everyone’s leaving the city. I wonder if I could get Rex to move to the island full-time?”
“Would he ever do that?” Alyssa asked.
Maggie considered this, adjusting her hands on the steering wheel. “We were both such city kids. It’s one of the reasons we bonded in the first place. But I don’t see why we can’t grow and change now that we’re a bit older. I mean, we’re about to have this baby, and if Lucy stays with us, I want them both to have the rolling hills and beautiful beaches of Martha’s Vineyard. I want our mother and Grandma Nancy to be in their lives.”
“Rex is obsessed with work,” Alyssa said.
“I wish I could tell him there’s so much more to life,” Maggie breathed. “But all of our university friends are moving quickly up the corporate ladder, and I think he feels a lot of pressure to be as good as them.”
“You should tell him you want him to keep his soul,” Alyssa pointed out.
Maggie shot Alyssa a look. “Rex has a beautiful soul. I’m in love with him, you know.”
Alyssa decided not to mention Rex for the rest of the drive. She knew better than to stick herself where she didn’t belong. Maggie’s marriage was off-limits.
The city skyline arose from the horizon and filled Alyssa with hope and nostalgia. Almost immediately, memories of her father flooded her, and she closed her eyes to try to blot them out.
“We have a big night ahead of us,” Maggie said, perhaps as a way to get Alyssa’s mind away from Jack Potter. “Are you up for this?”
“I don’t know,” Alyssa said. “I just hope he doesn’t start screaming at us to stay out of his business.”
“He is a crime writer,” Maggie said. “His emotions are probably all over the place.”
“Oh gosh.” Alyssa gave Maggie a nervous smile. “We’re doomed.”
Maggie did her best through city traffic, stopping and jostling them from lane to lane until they finally reached the Brooklyn street where she lived. Alyssa reached across the car and hugged Maggie, then squeezed Lucy’s hand in the back seat.
“I’ll see you later, baby,” Alyssa said to Lucy. “And I’ll meet you at the bookstore later?”
“Yep,” Maggie said. “Monica and I will probably talk right up until I have to leave.”
“Just don’t be late,” Alyssa insisted. “I’m nervous.”
“I won’t,” Maggie promised.
Alyssa wheeled her suitcase into the lobby of the Brooklyn apartment building and then into the elevator, which was miraculously on the ground floor, waiting for her. Inside, her thoughts became very slow, and her eyes were half-opened, prepared for a nap. She’d heard that pregnancy made you a little more sluggish. Perhaps she’d already begun to experience this symptom. This wasn’t like her. Normally, she was wide-eyed and ready for anything.
Alyssa used her key to enter Maggie and Rex’s apartment, dropped her suitcase in her bedroom, then walked back to the kitchen to get a glass of water and a snack. Her thoughts were incredibly loud, bouncing around her head, and it took a moment for her to orient herself and calm down.
It was only when she stilled her mind that she realized she wasn’t the only person in the apartment.
At first, the sound was like a cat’s meow. Alyssa furrowed her brow, wondering if a cat lurked in the hallway of the apartment building. But when she stepped toward the front door, another sound came from down toward Rex and Maggie’s bedroom.
Suddenly, Rex’s voice boomed from beneath the bedroom door. “I mean, that presentation today. It was pure art, wasn’t it? Didn’t you see the way I had them eating out of my hand?”
Was Rex on the phone? Alyssa took a tentative step toward the bedroom, careful not to make a sound. Again came a soft and high-pitched sound, what she’d initially assumed was a meow. It wasn’t Rex— it couldn’t have been. But who was he talking to?
A shiver of fear raced down her spine.
“I saw you smiling the minute I cinched the deal,” Rex continued, his voice louder. “You couldn’t hide how happy you were.”
Alyssa found herself on the other side of Rex and Maggie’s bedroom door. There, she was able to make out the soft rhythm of a woman’s voice— a woman who was definitely not Maggie. Alyssa couldn’t breathe.
“I always knew you would get it,” the woman told Rex. “But I was so panicked before your presentation. I couldn’t eat all morning.”
Rex laughed happily. Beneath them, the bed creaked, as though they rolled around it together, neither bothered with the fact that that bed was supposed to be Maggie and Rex’s bed.
“We’d better get out of here soon,” Rex told her. “I made dinner reservations at seven.”
The woman cooed, then said something else Alyssa couldn’t understand. Panicked, she turned and walked gingerly back to the kitchen, where she hid any evidence she’d been there, then retreated to her bedroom. There, she cowered on the floor by the door and listened intently as Rex and his mystery mistress gathered themselves and eventually left the apartment. Throughout, quiet tears fell from Alyssa’s eyes.
Alyssa got into bed after that and stared at the ceiling, at a loss. For months, she’d felt something was off with Rex. His tone had been sharper, and he’d been needlessly cruel. Each time she’d asked Maggie about it, Maggie had asked Alyssa to stay out of her business. Now, Alyssa was up to her ears in Maggie’s business, and she had absolutely no idea how to tell her the truth.
The truth would destroy her.
Alyssa couldn’t help but feel heartbroken, as well. Only two years ago, at Maggie and Rex’s engagement party, news of Jack Potter’s affair with Maxine had come out. That night had altered the course of her once-happy family’s life forever.
Now, Rex had shoved aside all consideration for Maggie’s feelings, just as Jack once had with their mother, Janine. It was almost too heavy to carry, yet Alyssa knew, somehow, she had to. She had to tell Maggie the truth and prepare for the worst possible outcome. Whatever happened, Alyssa would be there to pick up the pieces of Maggie’s life and help her move forward. She had to.
Chapter Fourteen
Alyssa took the subway to the Manhattan bookstore. On the train, she clasped her fingers together nervously and stared at the ground, practicing how she might explain the circumstances of Rex’s affair to Maggie. Once, when the doors opened onto a subway platform near Wall Street, a massive rat rushed past the train, and Alyssa placed her hand over her mouth with surprise, telling herself not to scream. None of the other subway passengers cared about the rat at all.
Alyssa exited the subway and walked through the streets to find the bookstore. Already, a number of David Withers’ fans assembled in the front of the store, chatting to one another about favorite books of his and purchasing copies of his newest novel. Alyssa weaved through the crowd, hunting for Maggie. Suddenly, a finger tapped on her shoulder, and Alyssa turned, panicked, to find Maggie laughing at her.
“You look nervous,” Maggie said as she collected Alyssa into a hug. “But there’s nothing to be scared about! We’re just going to tell this guy what we know, and he can do what he wants with that. You know? There’s no pressure on either side.”
Alyssa gazed into her beautiful sister’s eyes and nodded. She felt that she carried with her a ticking time bomb that would ultimately explode and destroy everything in its wake.
“Let’s get some punch,” Maggie said, taking Alyssa’s hand.
Alyssa forced herself to speak, knowing she was acting strangely. “How was Monica?”
“Chatty as usual,” Maggie told her. “But Lucy seems happy to be there. I said we’d pick her up around eleven-thirty or so.”
“Great.” Alyssa took a plastic cup of punch and sipped it as she scanned the crowd.
“And how was your nap?” Maggie asked.
“Oh.” Alyssa hadn’t been able to sleep at all. “I felt a little sick, I guess. I couldn’t calm myself down.”
Maggie rubbed Alyssa’s shoulder. “We can go home a little bit earlier if you want.”
“No. Tonight is important,” Alyssa told her, although she wasn’t sure she believed it. Ultimately, she wanted the night to last forever, if only so she wouldn’t have to tell Maggie the truth about Rex.
A woman who worked at the bookstore soon stepped behind the punch table to announce that David Withers had just arrived, and the reading would begin shortly. “I’m a super-fan,” she went on, “And I know many of you are, as well. Remember that David has promised he will sign one book for every person here. After the reading, we will form one line— so don’t get impatient, and remember, you’ll get your turn.”
Alyssa and Maggie grabbed seats toward the back of the reading area. Around them, David’s fans whispered excitedly and clutched their newly purchased books. On the back cover was an unsmiling photograph of David, one that offered a small resemblance to Heidi.
A back door opened, and David Withers stepped into the front of the bookstore. He walked quickly, and he ruffled his dark hair just before he sat at the table they’d set up for the reading.
“Good evening, everyone,” David said as the crowd quieted. “Thank you for coming out tonight. It means a lot.”
Several people in the crowd murmured their thanks to him. Maggie then reached over to squeeze Alyssa’s hand with excitement. This was it.
David began his reading afterward. The new book was about a crime in the wilderness of Maine, one that required detective work from a young man who’d originally promised himself he would never return to Maine for reasons that were ultimately teased out in the book. His prose was sharp, and his style was alluring. Alyssa found herself wrapped up in the story, grateful it distracted her from her own miseries.
The reading lasted approximately twenty-five minutes. At no time did anyone speak, not until the very end, when several of the fans stood and roared, “Yes!” or, “Thank you!” or, “That was fantastic!” Alyssa and Maggie stood as well, both caught up in the moment.
“Heidi would be so proud of him if she was here,” Maggie breathed.
After the crowd quieted, David took several questions from fans regarding his writing process, previous books, and his next novel, which would be published in a year. David was gracious with his information and frequently added interesting, personal details, such as his favorite crime writers, what brand of coffee he liked to drink, and how he felt about New York-style pizza. It was common knowledge through his fanbase that he’d grown up on Martha’s Vineyard, and one woman in the crowd asked him whether or not he ever considered setting one of his books on the island.
“I don’t know,” David answered. “I haven’t been back to Martha’s Vineyard in over seven years. When I write a book, I like to spend time in the setting and really dig into it. For the most recent novel, for example, I spent three months in the wilderness of Maine, trying to imagine what it’s like to be raised there.”
At this, Maggie and Alyssa exchanged glances. He’d side-stepped the question of Martha’s Vineyard easily by giving his fans something else they wanted. It had been a clever move.
David answered the last of his questions forty minutes later. “He’s very generous,” Maggie muttered as they applauded a final time.
“Should we wait in line to get an autograph?” Alyssa asked.
Maggie shook her head. “No. I think we should wait until he’s signed all the copies. Then we can approach him and…” She trailed off.
“Tell him the big news? That his mother misses him?” Alyssa sighed, still unsure if this was a good idea at all.
“Let’s grab a cup of tea and wait it out.” Maggie shot over to the other side of the bookstore, where one of the employees sold snacks and hot drinks. Maggie then ordered them two cups of tea and a piece of banana bread to share. They sat in the warm glow of the window and watched as the line inched toward David Withers, who seemed, in every way, very kind and open-hearted with each of the people who approached him. He laughed at their jokes and signed his name with a flourish.
“It must be cool to be a famous writer,” Alyssa breathed. “I bet he just stays in his pajamas all day and makes up stories.”
“You stay in your pajamas most days,” Maggie pointed out.
“True.”
“You could write stories if you wanted to.”
Alyssa wrinkled her nose, unsure about that. As far as she could tell, true life was far stranger than fiction— and she was still in the midst of dealing with true life. Maybe if she ever got bored with it, she would move on to fiction.
