“You’re home early.”
“Is this what you’ve been doing since I’ve
gone to work? Having parties? You have school tomorrow.” Dread
weighted her stomach. Had Linda been going to summer school? She’d
just assumed, but maybe…
“Relax. Not every night. Just—a couple times.
Just friends.” Linda unwound herself from the boy’s lap and swayed
to her feet, careful not to spill her drink.
Beth strode over and snatched the half-full
can from her sister. “You’re underage and you’re a mother. You
need--”
“Oh, God, are you going to go into the whole
responsibility thing again? Just because you didn’t have a life
when we were growing up doesn’t mean I can’t have one. Jonas is
fine. He’s asleep. I checked on him just two—beers ago.” She
exchanged a look with Vivian and burst into giggles.
The urge to check for herself was strong. But
she didn’t want to let the other teens leave yet. They couldn’t be
allowed to drive in the condition they were in.
She walked over to the Westley boy first,
hand outstretched. “Keys.”
The boy looked startled. “I’m okay to
drive.”
“No, you aren’t. You either hand me your keys
and start walking home or I call your parents to come get you. You
can get your car in the morning when you’re sober.” She looked over
her shoulder at the other three. “That goes for all of you. Keys or
phone calls.”
“You’re just going to tell our parents
tomorrow anyway,” Vivian said petulantly.
Beth hadn’t actually thought that far ahead.
“Tomorrow’s better than two in the morning, don’t you think? I’m
not letting you drive, and don’t you think they’ll wonder where
your cars are? Keys. Now.”
One by one they handed over their keys,
reluctantly, and shuffled out the door. Beth was glad she’d come
home when she did. She couldn’t imagine what she might have walked
in on a few moments later.
Once the others were gone, she turned to her
sister. “You clean up this room now. I’m going to check on
Jonas.”
“I told you he was okay.”
Beth pivoted on her sister, the temper she’d
reined in slipping its leash. “Pardon me if I don’t trust the words
coming out of your mouth. Clean up, take a shower and get to bed.
I’ll make sure personally that you get to class bright and early
tomorrow.”
Beth moved down the hall to the bedroom
illuminated with a Disney night-light she’d gotten at the dollar
store. At least Linda was telling the truth. Jonas slept on his
back, his breathing peaceful in the sudden quiet. He squirmed a
little when Beth bent to kiss him, and she straightened, tears
streaming down her cheeks. What was she going to do about her
sister?
The alarm came too early for both of them.
Beth fed and changed Jonas while Linda got ready, very slowly
thanks to her hangover. Beth showed no sympathy, slamming cabinets
and calling to her sister every five minutes to hurry her along.
When they walked out front, two of the three cars remained. Beth
wondered whose parents had a second set of keys.
It didn’t matter, though. She had to get her
sister to school, then she’d deal with the rest. She’d lain awake
long hours after she went to bed, trying to figure out what to do,
only to drift off moments before the alarm went off.
She pulled up in front of the school,
unstrapped Jonas from the car seat, and followed her sister up the
walk to the front door.
Linda pivoted. “I’m here. You can see that,
right?”
“I just need to talk to the counselor for a
bit.” To see how many summer school days she’d missed. To maybe
have someone help her figure out how to straighten her sister
out.
She wished she had someone to turn to, and
hated that her thoughts went instantly to Maddox. No. He wasn’t the
one to help her. She didn’t want him to see how she’d failed.
Maybe, if she couldn’t get help here, she’d talk to Trinity, though
going to the preacher’s sister intimidated her—even if she knew the
woman in question was pregnant on her way up the aisle. She
followed Linda in, and her sister didn’t even say good-bye as she
peeled off to go to her class. She waited to see Linda actually
enter a class, then turned toward the office, Jonas pressed against
her shoulder.
She hated that her sister hadn’t even kissed
her son good-bye. Beth had always been affectionate with her
siblings, to make up for their mother’s absence and their father’s
lack. Why did Linda not feel the same toward her child?
She had to wait a few minutes to be seen, and
found herself dozing in the molded plastic chair before her name
was called. She sat upright, gathered her purse with an extra
bottle and a couple of extra diapers, hefted Jonas higher and
walked into the counselor’s office.
The young woman across from her was only a
couple years older than Beth, and hadn’t been here the last time
Beth came to talk to the counselor, when they found out Linda was
pregnant and needed to look at options. That had been an older
woman who had been kind but firmly believed Linda should give up
the child. Beth shifted Jonas nervously, and he began to fuss.
“I’m Linda Lapointe’s sister, her guardian,
and I was wondering how she’s doing in her summer classes, if she’s
going.”
The other woman, whose nameplate on the desk
read Claire Bellows, sat back in her chair, looking from Jonas to
Beth. “Are you raising him now?”
“I’m helping out while Linda goes to school.
She has been coming to school, right?”
Ms. Bellows typed something on her laptop and
checked the screen over the tops of her glasses. “She’s missed
three days.”
“Three days of summer school?” She eased
Jonas onto her lap where he could look at her. Summer school had
only been in session, what, a week and a half? “How many can she
miss before she won’t get credit?”
“Three’s the max. We do a lot of work in a
short time here, so she needs to be in class every day.”
“She’s been leaving the house,” Beth said
when she saw the accusation in Ms. Bellows’s gaze. She thought of
the days Trinity had given up to watch Jonas, and the little sneak
hadn’t even been coming to school. “And her work? Has she been
turning it in?”
“You’d have to ask her teachers that. I have
no record of that.”
Beth’s exhaustion was catching up to her, and
Ms. Bellows’s attitude was off-putting, to say the least. “Well, do
you talk to her? She’s an at-risk student, a single mom raised by a
guardian. Don’t you talk to her on a regular basis?”
“You may know that Linda is a—difficult girl
to get through to.”
“Right, but you’re trained for that,
right?”
“Sure, but she’s at a stage where she’s cut
herself off from any authority figure. She won’t listen to any of
us. I presume you’re facing the same difficulty.”
“I am.” Jonas wriggled, his mouth open to
cry, and Beth popped a pacifier into his mouth. He sucked noisily,
but looked at her accusingly for fooling him.
Beth debated for a moment telling this young
woman about Linda’s drinking, but her innate need for privacy
prevented her from doing so. She didn’t feel comfortable in here,
and wanted to leave, but she also needed help to reach Linda.
“We can’t give up on her,” Beth said. “She
doesn’t understand what she’s throwing away, how hard she’s making
her future. I didn’t get to go to college, so I’m limited, but I
want her to be able to go. Maybe if someone who isn’t me talks to
her about it—there’s got to be someone here she respects, or
likes.”
“I’ll ask around,” the other woman said
without much conviction. “Let me ask—I know it isn’t easy for two
young women to raise a baby, when you have to work and she has
school. Have you considered—it isn’t too late to put him up for
adoption.”
Beth picked Jonas up from her lap so fast
that he squawked and lost his pacifier. Beth was shaking so much
she didn’t even bother reaching for it. Anger heated every pore in
her body as she rose, Jonas clutched to her chest. “Out of the
question. He’s part of our lives now, and I couldn’t give him away
like an unwanted puppy.” She reached for the door handle. “I
appreciate your time,” she managed, and hurried out the door and
down the hall.
She sat in the car a long moment, waiting for
the trembling to subside. She wouldn’t let Linda give up Jonas now.
She couldn’t. Maybe it was for the best, but she’d sooner cut off
her arm or leg than part with him.
Finally feeling calm enough to drive, she
turned the ignition and headed home, to see Trinity waiting for
her.
God she didn’t want to do this, but she
needed to. She needed help for Linda. She got out of the car and
unbuckled Jonas as Trinity approached, looking fresh and pretty in
a floral T-shirt and white shorts, not looking the least bit
pregnant.
“I thought you’d forgotten about me,” Trinity
said. “You don’t usually take Linda to school.”
“No.” She picked up Jonas, who was fussy from
the change in his routine, and held him a little closer than usual,
the counselor’s suggestion ringing in her head. “We just had some
drama last night. In fact—can I talk to you?”
She wished she knew this young woman better.
God, she hated opening up to anyone, but particularly a
stranger.
“Sure.” Trinity’s blue eyes were wide as she
turned to follow Beth into the house.
“I’ll get him fed, then make some
coffee.”
“I’ll feed him, I don’t mind. But I can’t
have coffee, and don’t you need to sleep?”
“I don’t think I could sleep if someone paid
me right now.” She unlocked the door, set Jonas in his bouncy
chair, and opened her cabinet looking futilely for something
Trinity could drink. “I may have some juice.” She opened the
freezer and found some fruity concoction Linda had begged for, then
never drank.
“That’s fine.” Trinity entertained Jonas,
distracting him from his tummy. “He’s such a sweet fellow, isn’t
he? It was brave of your sister to keep him.”
Brave, or selfish? She knew the answer but
didn’t want to say it aloud. “I don’t know what I’d do without
him.” She couldn’t stop the catch in her voice.
Trinity straightened. “Beth, what is it?”
“Linda’s drinking.” Best to say it straight
out. “I came home last night and she and her friends were drinking
and—well, if I’d come home any later…” She shook her head. “With
Jonas sleeping in the other room. I need to get help and I don’t
know how. She’s just like our father.” Beth set the pitcher on the
counter and closed her eyes. “I don’t know where I went wrong.”
“Oh, Beth. Oh, honey.”
The next thing she knew, Trinity’s hand was
on her back, then her slim arms were around her, and Beth was
crying—no, sobbing—into this stranger’s arms, holding onto her like
a lifeline. It felt so nice to be comforted, soothed by another
woman, something she hadn’t known in—God. Ever. She tried to stop,
tried to pull away, but the strain of the past two weeks wouldn’t
let her. Only Jonas’s fussy grunts gave her the strength to
straighten and pull herself together. She wiped her face on her
sleeve and tried not to notice how she’d rumpled Trinity’s pretty
top.
She busied herself with appeasing Jonas, then
offered Trinity a watery smile. The young woman was looking at her
with such concern, she almost lost it again.
But no. She needed answers. “So. Tell me.
What can I do?”
“What have you tried to do?”
Defensiveness tightened her stomach. Whatever
she said would be the wrong thing. She’d made so many poor choices
with Linda. It was too late to fix them. “I’ve told her not to. I
reminded her what our father has become because of the drinking. I
remind her of her responsibility to Jonas, to her decision to keep
him. I can’t understand why she wanted to keep him so much and now
doesn’t have anything to do with him, if she can help it. She’s
just like our father. I don’t know what mistakes I made that she
can’t love her own baby.”
“You didn’t,” Trinity said in her soothing
voice. “You did the best you knew how in an impossible
circumstance. I know how hard it had to be, to make that choice.
I’m going to tell you something only my family and Leo know.”
Beth stiffened. “I don’t need to know any of
your secrets.”
“This one you do. I gave up a baby for
adoption when I was in college.”
Beth dropped onto a nearby stool, suddenly
too weak to stand. Miss Perfect Preacher’s Daughter had given up a
child? “God, Trinity, I had no idea.”
“I should have told you sooner, when I knew
you were going through with the same decision. It’s not something
easy to talk about, though, with a stranger.”
Beth gave a dry laugh. “I do understand
that.” Her gaze fell to where Trinity idly played with Jonas’s
hand. “How do you feel about it?”
“It was the hardest thing I ever did. The
only thing that would have been harder would have been keeping her
and trying to raise her.”
“The counselor at the school told me it’s not
too late to give him up.”
Trinity drew in a sharp breath. “Are you
kidding me? She said that to you?”
Beth didn’t take her gaze from the baby. “I
can’t imagine being without him. Yes, he makes things
more—challenging, but I love him. I wish Linda did, enough to give
up the drinking.”
“Have you looked into Al-a-Teen or anything
like that?”
“I knew it was a problem, but never so much
as last night. God, Trinity. She had no shame about it. And the boy
she was kissing, it wasn’t Jonas’s dad.”
“Is Jonas’s dad in the picture at all?”
Beth shook her head. “His mom won’t let him
be. She says he has a future. What about Jonas’s future? How can he
grow up secure when his mother has no more pride than that?”
“Because he has you.” Trinity reached across
to take Beth’s hand. “If I’d had the support Linda has, I would
have been tempted to keep my baby.”