Authors: Nancy Hopper
"Do you want to call her back another time?" Tim offered cautiously.
"No! No. I'll talk to her, just ... give me a sec." She gasped.
Tim pulled a chair up to the phone table, and Tasha gratefully sank onto it. She took the receiver with trepidation, and looked at it for a long moment before she put it to her ear. She couldn't absorb that this was happening … it was like a dream. Her hand shook, and was wet with sweat. Her mother was on the phone! Right now!
"Hello?" she said quietly. Her eyes grew very round, filled with tears, and she crumbled. Tim stood behind her, and put his hands on her shoulders. He waited patiently while Emilie talked to her daughter.
"Do you think you could come to the wedding?" Tasha finally asked uncertainly. "I know; Daddy could be difficult, but I don't think so. He's very different than he used to be." She assured. Then she looked up at Timothy.
"Oh, I'm so very happy. Wait until you meet Timothy, you will love him." She promised.
Tim grinned at her. He watched as tears ran down her cheeks, and he listened to the questions and answers on Tasha's end of the conversation. He was certain that things were going well. Very well.
"Mama, I am so grateful to you for calling! Thank you!" Tasha said at last. "I will be in touch with you
from now on
." She promised. Then she said goodbye, and handed the phone back to Tim.
"She wants you." Tasha informed him, dimpling as she grinned up at him.
"Timothy! You
darling
man! You will never know what this has meant to me. Thank you so much for letting me speak with my sweet little girl. I will treasure this time, always! One day, we will meet. If I am not able to come, will you send me a picture of your wedding?"
"Sure. But I think it would be wonderful if you came," he assured her.
"Well; perhaps. I don't know that everyone would be quite ready for that, and I would do nothing to spoil your day."
Tim grinned. "Well, he took it all right when Elaine showed up. I think you'll find him different than he was." He promised. Then he said goodbye, and went to get Elaine.
Tasha followed him up the stairs. "She lives in Florence, Italy. She's married again, and she had a daughter; but she was killed in a plane crash! Can you imagine? Tim, she called me! Isn't it wonderful?"
"Yes. It sure is, darlin'." He answered gently as he knocked on Elaine's door. Elaine opened it, and looked at the two of them in puzzlement.
Tim gave her a knowing look. "Telephone for you, Elaine." He said, with empathy in his eyes. Then he put an arm around Tasha, and led her back down the stairs. Elaine watched them go with confusion in her eyes, and followed them down the stairs, to answer the phone.
As Elaine picked up the phone, Tasha looked at Tim with wary eyes. She was beginning to put pieces together that weren't making any sense. "Tim – Why is Elaine talking to my mother?"
Tim looked at her kind of bleakly, and shrugged. "I think they're … well acquainted … friends." He admitted evasively. "But I don't think Elaine realized that you were Emilie's daughter when she met you. Why don't you wait until Brent and Elaine can talk to you about it?" he suggested gently.
Tasha nodded, completely perplexed.
"I'll get Brent, and when Elaine gets off the phone, we'll sit down and explain everything. All right?"
"Okay." Tasha agreed dubiously.
Tim left her on a sofa, and came back with Brent, who looked decidedly nervous. Then Elaine joined them, looking very guilty and uncomfortable.
"I told Emilie she was welcome to come to the wedding, Brent. I hope you don't mind. I think it's high time that we all begin honestly living again." Elaine said nervously.
"Fair enough." Brent agreed, with a quiet smile. He couldn't take his eyes off Elaine, somehow.
Tasha looked from one to the other with absolute confusion in her eyes. "What in the world is going on here?" she demanded. "Elaine? You already know my mother --
and
my father?"
Elaine nodded guiltily, with her eyes on her hands. "Yes. I do. I know them both … quite well." She admitted feebly.
Brent sighed. "You've been on the phone with Emilie?" he asked Elaine bleakly.
"Yes." Elaine confirmed.
"And you, too?" he asked Tasha.
Tasha bit her lip uncertainly, and nodded affirmation.
"Well, good. Then all I have to do is fill in the gaps." He sighed.
He looked at Tasha with a grin. "Did I ever tell you how I met your mother?"
"No." Tasha replied, worriedly.
"I was looking for
this one
." He said of Elaine, with a toss of his head in her direction. She was blushing furiously. "It's a long story. You know, Tasha, it's no secret that I've had my share of women and done whatever pleased me, at the moment. I'm not proud of it now, but I can't undo the past. Explaining this is going to be a little bit difficult, so bear with me, if you would."
At Tasha's shaky nod, he went on.
"The first and really, the only true love of my life, was a beautiful brunette girl who was being badly abused. I had this most unusual desire to help her. Something rose up inside me, telling me to save her. So, I gave a man some money; and took her home with me, out of a horrible situation. I … tried to make her my own.”
He shrugged. "It was flat crazy; she was too messed up to love anybody at the time; and yet, I was too madly in love to
give
her any time. Well, she stayed a year or so, and then she left me.”
"I was crushed. I couldn't understand it. Now, I understand that she just couldn't be in a relationship and be happy, until she worked through her own anger and grief. I was expecting her to give her all to me. It was simply too soon for her to do that.”
"At the same time, she wanted me to marry her, and I was too proud to give in to her demands. I was shocked to my toenails when she left me, though. I never dreamed that any woman would leave me and all my money!"
"Anyway; I knew where she'd come from. She was foolish enough to tell me. So, I went down South, and looked up her family. But she hadn't gone home, and I could sure see why. Her home was as bad as what I'd rescued her from! The mother was toothless, fat and smelly, and malicious to boot. The father was sadistic, incestuous and alcoholic, and the children were terrified of both of them."
He paused, and sighed. "I saw a girl ... peeking at me through the kitchen door. I pounced, thinking it was the very one I was after. But, it wasn't; she turned out to be a younger sister. She was slim and tall, graceful and lovely; with hair black as night, and clear blue eyes. I asked the mother about her. Though she was young, she was voluptuous and very tempting."
"I'll never forget the calculating look that came into that woman's eyes. 'You gonna marry her?' she snapped at me. She got up like a rattlesnake and yanked that child out into the room by the hair. She assured me she was untouched by the old man, and said I could take her with me if I'd marry her first."
Brent chewed his cigar. "It was dumb, but I loved a risk." He said tiredly. "So, I decided to do it. I thought I had nothing to lose. She reminded me so much of my lost love, that I stupidly figured she could replace her, in my heart. So, we were married and I took her home."
Tasha looked at him with shock in her eyes. "My mother?" she asked incredulously.
Brent nodded. "She was terrified, but a shopping trip changed her perspective dramatically. She was like a kid in a candy store. She was happy in a way; but I never had her love, and she never really had mine. We liked each other, but that was it. To me, she was a shadow of her sister, and she simply couldn't satisfy me.
"Tasha, she was too young and unstable to be a mother. She deserved a shot at a real life, and I couldn't let you go. You were the only human being I loved, and you were a link back to ...
her
."
"My mother?" Tasha asked uncertainly.
"No. Your
aunt
." He corrected gently. "After your mother left, nothing seemed to matter. I couldn't admit that I was deeply wounded and unhappy. I tried to pretend that there was no such thing as love, and I proceeded to cut a very wide swath. Well, I've been pulled up short. There is a thing called love, and it can't be ignored, gotten over, or extinguished! I managed to dissipate my feelings by indulging myself in any woman who'd have me, but there was no real consolation."
“
Why didn't you marry the one you were in love with?" Tasha asked.
Brent shrugged. "I did give in and ask her once, but she wouldn't have me. She knew me too well. She didn't think I really loved her, and I was too big a boob to show her how much she meant to me."
"So – she just disappeared?"
"
Vanished
." He confirmed. "I never saw her again, until ... well, until today." He finished softly.
Tasha looked glazed. Tim put a worried hand on her arm, but there was no stopping it, now.
"
Today
?" she repeated incredulously.
Brent nodded, his eyes tender. "She showed up at my office door, and told me she'd been invited as a house guest."
Tasha just sat down suddenly, obviously not quite grasping it all.
"Now that your mother has called, it seemed best to tell you everything."
Tasha looked at Tim with a clear appeal for help. He smiled at her, and pulled her into his arms. "Look around you, honey." He urged her gently.
Tasha looked at her father, and then she looked at Elaine. She saw Elaine's clenched hands, the embarrassment staining her cheeks, her downcast eyes. "
You!
" she choked. "
You,
Elaine?"
Elaine gave Tasha a beseeching look. "When you walked into my shop, I thought it incredible that you were so like Isabelle. But I
never
connected you with Brent, until Tim called you Tasha Charles that day at the airport, when Pattie repented. And I didn't know what to do, then! So, I did nothing. I wanted to be your friend. I didn't want to lose you! So, I just waited until I could come here, and talk it over with Brent. I felt that I owed you both that much. Oh, what a mess!"
Tasha shook her head in wonder. "So the man who saved you from Ben, was ...
my father?
"
"That's right." Brent answered. "Though I didn't treat her a whole lot better than he did. I decided when she left me, to erase her from my memory. My pride was wounded, and I was mad! But nothing worked. Life was never better than it was with Elana."
Elaine blushed brilliantly, and lowered her lashes.
"She told me that the man who rescued her from Ben was very good to her!" Tasha argued.
"She would." Brent agreed. "She wouldn't want to be a wedge between us." He stood and towered over Elaine. "But now, it's time for us to put all this unhappiness behind us. Elaine, I was a perfect bastard. Will you forgive me?”
Elaine forced herself to turn her tear-filled eyes up to Brent. "Only if you can forgive me." She whispered. "I should have stuck it out with you, Brent."
Tasha felt very strange -- almost alarmed as they hugged one another soundly. She looked at Tim, as if to tell him that her whole world had just gone on tilt.
Elaine turned to Tasha bashfully. "I hope that you'll forgive me too, Tasha. I just didn't know quite what to do, or how to handle this whole thing."
Tasha shook her head. "I don't have a problem with any of it. It just takes a bit of getting used to." She admitted.
"No doubt." Elaine agreed. Then she sighed heavily. "I'm so glad it's finally all out in the open. My stars!"