“Well, if you do start dating, be careful. After what my daughter has been through, I wouldn’t want you to get caught up with a certain gentleman who lives here.”
The two women who’d wandered into the store left without buying anything. “Quinn’s back?” Autumn asked as though she didn’t already know.
“He is. And all the single women are flitting around him because he’s so handsome. But fishing lures look awfully attractive to the poor fish they hook, too,” she replied and walked out with her purchase.
Autumn sighed as she sat on the stool. She wondered what Quinn thought about his ex-mother-in-law going around town saying such terrible things about him. She was willing to bet he wished he could leave this place. But with his own mother stricken with cancer and his father in need of help with the restaurant, there probably wasn’t much he could do.
5
“What is it?... Hello?... Hey, I’m talking to you.”
Mary finally heard Laurie over the pounding of her own heart. But it wasn’t until Laurie touched her elbow that she lifted her eyes from the article she’d been reading. As soon as she’d walked out of the bank, and Laurie had gone into the store next door to get some allergy medicine for Chris, the headline had jumped out at her from one of the newspapers in the bins by the door. “What? Oh, it’s nothing,” she said and tucked the paper under her arm.
Laurie followed her to the car. “It’s obviously something. You seem upset even though our meeting went well. They’re going to give us the money. Aren’t you excited?”
Mary was hopeful that putting a coffee shop in the bookstore would bring in more business, but she was too worried about her family to focus on the progress they were making toward that goal. “I was just reading an article that... Never mind. It’s no big deal.”
Laurie didn’t let her get away with the evasion. “What was it about?” she asked after they climbed into her Honda Accord and snapped on their seat belts.
“What was what about?” Mary tried playing dumb in hopes that Laurie would let it go in her hurry to get on with the day.
“That article!” Laurie responded in exasperation.
Reluctantly, she handed over the newspaper she’d purchased, and before starting the car, Laurie read the heading that had caught her attention. “DNA Reveals Daughter’s Only Parent To Be No Relation.”
“Can you believe that?” Mary said. “Some poor woman took a DNA test because she wanted to learn more about her mother, whom she’d never met, and found out that the man who’d raised her wasn’t even her father. He’s dead now, so she can’t ask him what happened, and she has no idea how she came to be in his custody.”
“Poor thing. That would be a real mystery, wouldn’t it?”
“I don’t think these DNA tests are a good thing.”
Laurie frowned. “I can see why you wouldn’t.”
Mary rubbed her forehead. “Stories like that are popping up all over the place.”
“Which is why I think you need to get out ahead of the problem. If Autumn takes a DNA test, how will you explain the results?”
“It won’t be easy. But I’m not sure I want to guarantee she finds out by telling her, either. The truth won’t impact just her life. Or mine. Or yours. It’ll impact Taylor’s and Caden’s. I doubt that’s what she’d want.”
“Then let her decide whether to share it with the kids.”
Mary adjusted her seat belt, which suddenly felt too confining. “But once she knows, she can never not know. Should I really put her in the same position I’m in now, trying to decide whether it would be best to bury the past or drag it into the present?”
Laurie folded the newspaper, put it on the console and started the engine. “There are no easy answers, Mary. You could be right. I was talking to my mother this morning, and she thinks you’d be crazy to bring it all out into the open. So maybe I should quit encouraging you to do it.”
“You’re just trying to help. I know that.” She waved at Joann Hunter, who’d come out of the grocery store. Joann owned an alterations business in town and brought her granddaughter into the bookstore two or three times a month. Mary liked her but was grateful when she didn’t stop and expect Mary to lower her window so they could chat. “What, exactly, did Nana have to say?” she asked as Joann got into her own vehicle one row over.
“That it’s behind you, and we should let it stay that way. That it doesn’t have any bearing on the present. She also mentioned that Autumn has been through enough and insists that talking about how you came to be who you are, and she came to be who she is, won’t serve any good purpose. There’s no reason to look back.”
Mary desperately wanted to agree with Nana, but... “Did you mention how easy it would be for Autumn to find out the truth without me?”
“Of course. She said to let that make the decision for you. If Autumn finds out, then you’ll have to address it.”
Mary tried to imagine how her daughter might react to the news. “She matters more to me than anything, Laurie. She always has.”
Laurie put the car in gear but hesitated before backing up. “You’ve proven that time and again. You’ve done an amazing job as her mother, have always tried to protect her.”
“Maybe now what I have to protect is our relationship. That’s what frightens me.”
“Does that mean you’re going to tell her?”
“It does. I just... I want to enjoy one final summer with her and the kids first—one summer in which everything still feels the same. Do you think that’s too much to ask?”
Laurie glanced at the newspaper as though it were a ticking time bomb. “I hope not.”
* * *
When Taylor’s phone rang, all of her new friends were swimming with her brother except Sierra, who’d come out of the water and was lying on a towel beside her. Sierra must’ve heard the buzzing, because she opened her eyes, leaned up on her elbows and gazed out to sea while Taylor dug her phone from her bag.
The caller had a Tampa area code but didn’t have a number Taylor recognized. It could be Oliver—Danielle had told her he might call—but it could also be someone else, like her high school with news about the yearbook, which hadn’t been ready on time this year, or registration dates for fall.
She’d been monitoring her calls and would’ve waited to see if whomever it was left a message. But Sierra glanced over as if she was surprised Taylor wasn’t answering, and that made Taylor impulsively hit the talk button.