The Shadow Wife - Diane Chamberlain [108]
“Don’t go there,” Liam interrupted her with a laugh. He looked at Mara. “Don’t worry, honey, we’re not going there.”
They were quiet for a minute, and Joelle felt gratitude toward him for playing this game. Liam closed his eyes.
After a moment she asked him, “What are you thinking about?”
He took in a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. “A memory,” he said, opening his eyes. “When you were over at our house, right after you and Rusty split up. And we made you dinner and were consoling you, and then I got that call that my father died.”
His father had been only fifty-nine years old, and he’d simply keeled over at work one day. She could still remember Liam’s shock and sorrow.
Joelle leaned forward and touched his hand, and to her surprise he turned his hand to hold on to hers. His eyes were on her, and he looked beaten down, tired of whatever game it was they were playing. It was time to free him from it.
“Carlynn?” she said. “Can Liam and I stop now?”
Carlynn nodded, stilling her own hands. “Mara?” she said softly, and Mara smiled at them as though she’d forgotten they were there. She lifted her right arm toward Liam. It was an unmistakable, meaningful gesture. That arm had always been usable, but until now Mara had not seemed to know what to do with it. Carlynn stood up, and Liam took her place on the bed.
“Would you like to visit Mara a while longer, Liam?” Carlynn asked. “Quinn and I can drop Joelle off on our way home.”
Liam looked at Joelle. “Do you mind?” he asked.
She shook her head, still moved by the way Mara had reached out to him.
“Next week, Liam, I would like you to bring your guitar, please,” Carlynn asked.
“I don’t play anymore,” Liam said without looking at her.
“Joelle told me that, but I think it’s important,” Carlynn said. “Music can touch so many parts of the mind and heart in a way that nothing else can. So bring it, please.”
In the corridor outside Mara’s room, Joelle said quietly. “I don’t know if he will.”
“I hope he does,” Carlynn said. “I think it can make a difference.”
They walked together down the hallway, and Joelle could still feel the grip of Liam’s fingers on her hand and recall the way he’d looked at her. The moment had been brief, a mere few seconds, but she hadn’t felt that close to him in months.
28
CARLYNN SAT ON THE VERY EDGE OF THE TERRACE FLOOR LOOKING out at the sea. She hadn’t sat this way, with her legs dangling over the terrace’s stone floor, in a very long time. Probably not since she was a child. She could feel the cold of the stone through the fabric of her slacks, and the sensation was not unpleasant. It let her know she was still alive.
“Carlynn?”
She glanced behind her to see Mary McGowan walking toward her from the house.
“Hello, Mary,” she said.
“It gave me a start to see you sitting out here like this,” Mary said as she neared her. “Are you all right? Can I get you something?”
“I’m fine,” Carlynn said. “And no, you can’t get me anything, thank you. But why don’t you sit down here with me for a bit?”
“On the cold ground like that?” Mary sounded a bit stunned at the suggestion.
“Yes. Come on.” Carlynn waved her hand through the air in invitation. “My sister and I used to sit like this all the time when we were children.”
“Not sure I can get down that low.” Mary laughed, but Carlynn knew she would be able to. She’d seen Mary scrub the kitchen floor on her hands and knees more than once.
“Come on,” Carlynn said again, reaching toward her. “I’ll give you a hand.”
Mary held on to Carlynn’s hand and gingerly lowered herself to the edge of the terrace, letting her own legs and her sensible shoes dangle over the side.
“How are we ever going to get up?” Mary chuckled.
“We’ll worry about that later,” Carlynn said. She’d given that some thought herself. She lived in a house of old people.
“Ah,” Mary said, looking out to sea. “This is beautiful. I feel closer to the water down here.”
“And the trees,” Carlynn said. She studied the milky horizon, where the overcast sky and frothy sea met in an indistinct line. “I was thinking before,” she said.