A Weekend Getaway (4 page)

Rushing into the building before
it closed, she managed to trip on a rolled up rug. “Damn.” Her palms slammed
against the concrete floor.

Parker came over. “Are you all
right?” He smelled sexy—a combination of manly perspiration and expensive
cologne.

She allowed him to help her
stand. “I’m fine.” The truth was her knee felt bruised, her hands raw, and her
pride hurt.

The rest of the male crew called
out that they were leaving. “Do you need a ride, Parker?” someone asked.

He looked at Beth. “No, I’ve got
a ride. Right?”

She blew cool air onto her
hands. “Sure.” Dusting off her jeans, she tried to regain her composure. When
she took a step, her calf muscle protested. “Ow!” She leaned down to rub her
lower leg.

“Did you pull a muscle?”

“You tell me. As I recall, you
were pre-med for a while.” She smiled flirtatiously. What the hell was she
doing? Parker was no longer an option. Even if his marriage weren’t rocky,
she’d made her choice. She’d moved in with Drew. It was too soon for them to be
pulling apart, even though she sometimes feared that they were.

“Unfortunately, anatomy class
was a killer. Sit down.”

She hopped toward a wooden chair
splattered with dried paint. Once she sat, he gently squeezed her calf. There
was a time she would’ve relished his touch but she reminded herself that those
days were long past.

“When you get back to the
hotel,” he said, “elevate it and put ice on it.”

She nodded. “I guess I won’t be
dancing much tonight. Not that I would’ve anyway.”

“Your boyfriend couldn’t make
it, huh?”

She shook her head. “We have
this old house and something always needs fixing.”

“Maybe I would’ve asked you to
dance.”

Her heart skipped a beat. Why
was he teasing her like this? He made her feel eighteen years old again. “I’m
sure I can walk to the car now.” She pointed toward the wicker chair across the
room. “Would you grab my hat?” After he placed the hat on her head a moment
later, she eased herself up and limped toward the parking lot.

“Let me help you.” He put his
arm around her lower back. Every cell in her body tingled with excitement. She
reached around him, as seemed only natural, and couldn’t help noticing his firm
torso. He was muscular, far more so than Drew ever could be. And boy, did
Parker’s body chemistry smell good! Just like in the old days, her heartbeat
sped up. Obviously, logic had taken a vacation.

All too soon, he eased her into
the driver’s side of her Chevy. “Can you drive?”

“Fortunately the leg that
operates the gas and brake are fine.”

He walked around the vehicle and
buckled in beside her. “Are you ready for tonight’s speech?”

She turned the ignition key and
winced when she grabbed the wheel. Her palms were tender. Not wanting to draw
any more attention to herself, she loosened her grip and pulled out of the
parking lot. “You’re the one who should be speaking. After all, you founded the
club
and
a successful business.
Aren’t you going to say something?”

“They asked me to do the
keynote, but I suggested that each of the original members should share the
spotlight, too.”

“Oh, so I have you to thank for
that.” She gave him a playful scowl.

“I didn’t want it to be all
about me. I’ll say a few words, though.” He swallowed. “Not that they’ll
listen. I know I didn’t listen to anyone when I was their age. If I would’ve,
Ivy and I wouldn’t be together. God, how my life would’ve been different.”

She could’ve told him not to
marry Ivy, but he was enraptured by her. He thrived on her roller coaster of
emotion. He didn’t want someone serious and stable like Beth. Like most men, he
wanted a Victoria’s Secret model in his bed. “Hindsight is 20/20 they say.”

“Definitely. I wasn’t going to
come this weekend since things are so strained between Ivy and me. But then I
thought maybe returning here to where we first fell in love would help us
reconnect. I’d hoped that I would remember how it was in the beginning for us.
But the truth is I can’t help wondering if she was lying to me even then.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know we kind of had to get
married. But then Ivy said she lost the baby.”

“
Said
she lost the baby?”

“Now that I’ve spent years with
Ivy, I’ve learned that she twists the truth to fit her needs. She’s so
narcissistic, she’d make a terrible mother. I think she knew that.”

“Maybe.” Beth had never heard
Parker speak like this about Ivy. No matter how much the woman jerked him
around in college, he always came back for more.

“I hate to say this, but. . . I
sometimes wonder if she got rid of the baby.”

Beth tried not to gasp. Would
Ivy have had an abortion? Had she stolen him away from Beth with a lie? Anger
and fear and regret swirled inside her, tightening her chest. “What makes you
think that?”

“When I was ready to start a
family, I suggested we consider adoption, but she refused. I don’t think she
ever wanted kids. Look how she wimped out of today’s service project. She’s a
child herself. And that’s the way she likes it.”

Well, Beth couldn’t argue with
that. “Even so, that doesn’t mean Ivy purposely did something to end her
pregnancy. I remember how devastated she was. She cried for weeks.”

“But only when she thought
people were watching. I saw her once right afterward when she thought she was
alone. She looked out the window, touched her belly and smiled. We were married
by then and I didn’t want to believe it. I thought we’d have more
children, that
we’d go on with the lives we’d planned. Ivy
kept singing in night clubs while I worked all day. Without children to bring
us together, we grew apart.”

“Wow, Parker. I’m sorry I don’t
know what to say. Ivy always bragged that she was daddy’s little girl who could
do no wrong. But as far as lying about an abortion, I don’t think she would.”

“I probably should’ve divorced
her years ago, but. . . I didn’t want to fail.”

Beth could relate. She was a
perfectionist, too. But relationships weren’t like school or work. You couldn’t
just study harder. You didn’t get a report card to let you know how things were
going. What you got were pecks on the cheek instead of a kiss on the lips. You
got “sorry I’ve got so much work to do” instead of a romantic weekend. You got
a little girl thrown between you, taking the place of your own family.

He shifted in his seat. “I
shouldn’t have dumped all of this on you.”

“No, it’s okay.” Should she tell
him about Ivy bringing some guy back to the hotel room last night? Was her
loyalty to her girlfriend or to Parker, the man for whom she obviously still
harbored a crush? Well, it was more than a crush.

She’d been robbed of the man who
would’ve made everything right.

CHAPTER
THREE

Parker typed “painless suicide”
into the search engine on his laptop. Most men would go for a gunshot to the
head, but surely there was something more civilized. The first website he found
was a ruse—a warning from some religious group that suicide would mean
he’d burn in hell, complete with a video of someone on fire. He quickly clicked
off that site and onto another. Drowning, suffocation, hanging. All of that
sounded horrible. Not as horrible as if he did nothing, though.

Apparently if he went to Mexico
he could get an over-the-counter drug used for animal euthanasia. He’d have to
think about that.

He heard the hotel room door
unlock, and Ivy giggling as she entered. He turned off his computer and flipped
the lid down. “Feeling better?” After settling Beth into her room across the
hall with her leg propped up on pillows, he’d sat alone, watching the sunset
outside his window. That was an hour ago.

Ivy’s smile fell. “I was crazy
tired when I was sorting at the Salvation Army. After a little nap, I decided
to check out how much campus has changed.” She dropped her Gucci purse on the
double bed, kicked off her Jimmy Choos and came near. Her thick eyelashes
fluttered which meant she was in the mood. She climbed onto his lap and wrapped
her arms around his neck. Her lips met his.

Her breath smelled of alcohol
and he pulled away. “You went out drinking while the rest of us were working?”

She stroked his hair. “Don’t be
mad. This weekend is supposed to be fun. It wasn’t my idea to do a service
project before the banquet.”

“I’m sure it wasn’t.”

“But it was my idea to celebrate
our fifteen year reunion.”

“Sixteen years.”

She shrugged. “Oops. So I’m off
a year.”

How did he not know she’d
planned this? They led such separate lives these days. Him working ten to
twelve-hour days and her singing in that run-down club every weekend. “This was
your idea?”

“Sure. I noticed you seemed kind
of down lately, going through an early mid-life crisis or something. So, I
contacted the current club president and arranged tonight’s celebration.”

His heart skipped a beat. His
wife had done all of this just to cheer him up. She still cared for him in her
own, dysfunctional way.

He moved forward and kissed her
red lips.

###

Parker watched Beth give her
speech and tried to listen, but his mind wrestled with the words he would soon
share with the crowd. A glance around the room revealed about one hundred
people sitting at banquet tables. Thirty of them were current college students
while the rest consisted of alumni and their spouses. The lights were dim
except for one shining on the podium where Beth stood. She was the only female
in the room wearing a pantsuit instead of a dress. Once a tomboy, always a
tomboy, he figured.

Beth’s words came to him in
spurts. “The friends I made here were the best friends I ever had.” “I learned
as much from this club as I did in any classroom.” “Don’t wait for other people
to make your dreams come true.” Hard to believe that confident woman turned
beet red and fainted the first day of speech class.

He’d be up there soon, saying
things he wasn’t sure he could say, and the weight of it glued him to his
chair. This was it. He’d never visit campus again. Never share words of wisdom
with his comrades. He’d never see his college buddies again, either. How had he
let so many years pass with Christmas cards as their only form of
communication?

Applause brought his mind back
to the present. Beth’s expression looked satisfied and relieved. The woman had
been reserved in college, but now she glowed. Why hadn’t he realized that she’d
been something special back then? Ivy, on the other hand, hadn’t matured or
grown much at all. With her Botox and her musician friends, she desperately
clung to her youth. How ironic that he should be the one guaranteed to never
grow old.

He stood and made his way to the
podium as Beth limped back to her seat. He patted her on the back when she
passed. “Good job.”

She beamed from his compliment.
She’d had such an obvious crush on him years ago. But all he’d seen was a
chubby girl who didn’t even bother to wear makeup. He cringed just thinking
about how shallow he’d once been.

As he raised the microphone several
inches, he stole another glance at the crowd. The applause faded and expectant
faces turned to him. The joke he’d planned as an opening darted from his mind,
He didn’t feel like laughing anyway, so he jumped right in.

“When I arrived at I.U., I
rushed a fraternity as soon as I could. We did some stupid stuff. One pledge
almost died of alcohol poisoning and I was the only one who insisted we call
911. Because of that, we lost our charter and everyone hated me. I started
thinking that these guys were never my friends. They’d risk a young man’s life
rather than get in trouble. I decided there should be a club for like-minded
people. People who didn’t need to be hazed to prove their commitment. People
who wanted to leave this world a better place than when they found it.”

He paused, looked down at his
notes for the first time. “I hope you continue to celebrate every five or ten
years because what you do here touches those who are less fortunate than
you—the poor, the elderly, the ill.” Another lump to swallow before he
could go on. “You are amazingly hard-working, altruistic people. Those of you
who know me know that I met my lovely wife in the Leadership Club.” It was a
man’s duty to acknowledge his wife. At least that’s what Parker had always told
young professionals, too nervous about their speech to think straight. He
wasn’t about to break his rules now. “Since we were never blessed with
children, this club will be my only legacy.” He swallowed and continued. “You
see, I just found out that I have Huntington’s disease...” His eyes burned.

The audience gasped. He pinched
the bridge of his nose. “Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for
thinking beyond yourself, beyond your GPA, beyond your next pub crawl.” A few
uncomfortable chuckles. “Thank you for carrying on something that I started
over fifteen years ago. You make me proud.”

A roar of clapping. People
pushed back their chairs and stood, applauding. His first and last standing
ovation.

# # #

Beth gasped.
Is Huntington’s fatal? Is it genetic?
OhGod-ohGod.

She watched Parker bypass the
table where he’d been sitting and rush out of the room. Ivy, in a low-cut black
dress, jumped up and followed him.

The people around her mumbled
“But he looks so healthy” and “I never would’ve guessed” but Beth shut out
their voices. Leaning over, she whispered to Sarah. “Did you know he was sick?”

Sarah’s hazel eyes looked bigger
than usual. She shook her head. “I know his grandfather died young, but I’m not
sure from what.” Her gaze locked on Beth. “Want to go somewhere to talk?”

A brunette twenty-something that
Beth didn’t recognize took the podium and cleared her throat. “Um. That’s it
for our guest speakers.” Her voice quivered with nervousness as she adjusted
the lace collar of her dress. “The d.j. will take it from here. Thank you for
coming.”

Beth nodded to Sarah, and they
tiptoed out of the banquet hall as Lee Ann Womack’s “I Hope you Dance” started
playing. They walked through the Union in silence—Beth barely favoring
one leg. With each step, she felt transported further back in time, back to her
old timid self whose voice quivered whenever she had to speak in public. To a
time when she struggled to strike a balance between sitting it out and jumping
in. A time when bold actions were only achieved with the help of alcohol.

They ducked into a vacant
women’s restroom, and Beth plopped down on a settee that sat opposite a row of
sinks. “Parker’s sick. I can’t believe it.”

Sarah sat next to her. “That was
so sad about the club being his only legacy. Sounds like he regrets not having
any kids. You never told him, did you?”

“No. He married Ivy right before
I found out. He didn’t want to know about me and my problems.”

“It was his problem, too. I
think he would’ve been there for you.”

Beth bristled. “How? Maybe he
would’ve paid child support, but he wouldn’t have left Ivy for me. He wouldn’t
have been a full-time father. My baby deserved two parents who were ready for a
family.”

“Hey, I’m not criticizing. I
can’t imagine how hard it was to give up your baby. You did what you thought
was best.”

Silence filled the air. They’d
had this same conversation years ago. Yet it still felt like on some level Sarah
disapproved.

Sarah crossed her legs. “Do you
ever wonder what she’d be doing now? How old would she be?”

“Sixteen.”

Sarah repeated the number as it
settled around them.

“Old enough to drive a car. Old
enough to date. Old enough to find out about me.” Beth looked up at the wide
mirror above the sinks and saw a stranger staring back at her. A wisp of
dishwater blonde hair had fallen from her chignon. Worry lines creased the
forehead above her sky blue eyes and for the first time in her life, her
cheekbones stood out. “That’s what we agreed to when I placed her. They’d tell
her she was adopted from the get-go and when she was sixteen, they’d tell her
about me so she could make contact, if she wanted.”

“Have you heard from her?”

“No.” She’d been bracing herself
for it since August. So far it hadn’t happened.

“Wow. I mean, I don’t know what
to say. I always thought adoptees felt this yearning to meet their biological
parents.”

Beth had assumed the same thing.
But part of her felt relieved that the baby she gave away hadn’t reappeared. It
would throw everything into turmoil. She wouldn’t mind confirmation that her
child was healthy and happy, but she didn’t know how Drew would handle the
news. One of these days, she had to tell him. Although it seemed Parker might
shake things up sooner rather than later. “Do you know if Huntington’s is
genetic?”

Sarah shrugged.

“Maybe I should inform the
agency so they can tell her.” Beth didn’t even know her name. “I wish I
understood more about the disease.”

“Want to go to the twenty-four
hour computer lab?”

“You think it’s still there?”

“Probably.” Sarah put her hand
over Beth’s. “I told you this when we were freshmen and I’ll tell you again.
I’m here for you. Whatever I can do to help, I’ll be here.”

Tears stung Beth’s eyes, but she
resisted them. The memory remained amazingly fresh. Sarah had bumped into her at
the store when she’d been waiting in line to buy the pregnancy test. Beth had
tried to hide it under a magazine when she checked out. Sarah, who lived three
doors down, had insisted they walk back to the dorm together. She’d waited
outside the bathroom stall while the test strip turned pink. She’d patted
Beth’s back while she bawled. Within minutes Beth had moved from isolation to
collaboration.

Beth had never told anyone but
her. She’d hid the pregnancy with baggy clothes, which was easy to do when you
were already overweight. She’d stopped drinking at parties and started eating
healthier. She’d tried to do all the right things. As the daughter of a
minister, she still felt guilty for giving in to the sins of the flesh.

Beth reached around Sarah’s
shoulders for a hug. Her friend had always been so compassionate, so nurturing.
Beth reminded herself to keep it together. “We should go.”

A moment later, they were back
in the hall, heading toward the computer lab. A blast of cold, dry air and
too-bright fluorescent lights greeted them inside the room. Most of the chairs
remained vacant. Beth selected one and typed in “Huntington’s disease.”

Staring at the word “terminal”
on the screen, she took a deep breath. A couple of hours ago her biggest worry
was her speech and her commitment-phobic boyfriend. Now the past she’d buried
so deep inside her, had to be addressed. She couldn’t know what she now knew
and return home like nothing had happened. Could she?

Sarah leaned toward her. “It
sounds horrible.”

Poor Parker. Both his mind and
body would deteriorate until the disease killed him. Somehow modern medicine
had yet to cure this condition. Patients could live another 10 to 25 years
after experiencing symptoms, but it struck each generation younger and younger.

Sarah kept staring at her. “What
are you going to do?”

 
“I don’t know. Tell the agency, I guess,
so they can pass the information along.”

“What about Parker? Are you
going to tell him that he has a child?”

Anxiety squeezed her chest.
Should she tell Parker? He might not understand. Even worse, Drew might not
forgive her. He often ranted about what a heartless person his sister was for
giving away her firstborn. What would he think if he found out Beth had done
the same thing? She had given birth, then tried to go on with life as if
nothing had changed. Was she willing to risk the relationship she’d waited so
long for by dredging up the past?

Beth shook her head and cleared
the screen.

Sarah whispered. “Don’t you
think he has a right to know?”

Beth chewed on her thumbnail.
Maybe she could tell Parker and Drew still wouldn’t find out. It’s not like the
two men ever spoke to each other. She pushed away from the computer desk and
headed for the door, Sarah right behind her the whole way.

Sarah fell in step beside her.
“I think you have a moral obligation to tell him.”

Beth didn’t respond.

“If you want, I’ll stay there
with you. But it’s time he knew the truth, don’t you?” Sarah was worse than
Jiminy Cricket.

“It’s not that easy. I’ve gone
on with my life. I’m in a serious relationship.”

“You’re worried about how it
will affect you.”