Debbie Macomber's Cedar Cove Series, Volume 3 (78 page)

“I can hardly believe my baby sister's married,” Linc said to no one in particular.

“Isn't it time for us to go?” Mary Jo whispered to Mack. “Before my brothers start crying in their cake?”

“We aren't crying,” Mel insisted.

“Well, I'm not giving you a chance to get started,” Mary Jo informed them. “Besides,” she said, smiling up at Mack, “we need to leave for our honeymoon.”

Thirty-Six

“I
don't want her here!” Jolene shouted loudly enough to be heard on
the opposite side of the house.

“Jolene,” Bruce snapped. He knew
Jolene wanted Rachel to hear every word, which she probably had. The tension
between them was driving him to the point of madness. He was trapped in a
seemingly hopeless situation, and anything he said or did only made matters
worse.

“I don't want her living
here,” his daughter continued.

“Rachel is your stepmother and my
wife,” he said with barely restrained anger. “That's not going
to change, so you'd better adjust your attitude.” Bruce had tried to
let the two of them work this out themselves. Unfortunately, that hadn't
happened. He didn't understand how all this crazy, competitive jealousy
had gotten so out of hand, although he was well aware that Jolene had played the
major role.

At one time she'd loved Rachel almost
to the point of idol worship. They'd been close from the day they'd
met, when he'd taken Jolene to Get Nailed for a haircut. It was through
his daughter that Bruce had gotten to know Rachel.

Bruce slumped onto his recliner in the
living room and wished this senseless bickering would end. Rachel had told him
before they were married that Jolene needed more time. He hadn't listened.
He'd wanted the three of them together as a family, so he'd rushed
things and brushed aside Jolene's doubts and Rachel's fears. Now
they were all paying the price.

No one was happy, least of all Bruce. Since
their argument the night of the dinner, he'd been sleeping in the spare
bedroom. That was a week ago. A week without Rachel in his bed. He missed her
and wanted her back where she belonged. With him. He'd made overtures to
that effect, but Rachel had ignored them.

“Dad,” Jolene demanded.
“You've got to do something.”

Slowly he raised his head. “About
what?”

“Rachel.”

“Rachel is my wife.” He
wasn't going to argue with his teenage daughter.

Jolene's eyes narrowed. “She
isn't even sleeping with you. The two of you hardly talk
anymore.”

Bruce couldn't deny the truth.
“Every couple goes through an adjustment period. Rachel and I will sort
this out.” He certainly wasn't prepared to call it quits, and he
didn't think Rachel wanted that, either. They'd come a long way in
the past few years. It wasn't as if they were kids who'd rushed into
the relationship. The marriage, yes, you could say that, but not the
relationship. When they'd first met, Bruce was determined he'd never
fall in love or marry again after Stephanie's death. Then gradually,
through the years, he'd come to appreciate Rachel. More than once he
thought he'd lost her. More than once he'd been sure she'd
marry Nate Townsend, that navy guy. But she hadn't. No, Rachel was meant
to be with him—and with Jolene, too.

“We don't need her,”
Jolene insisted, unwilling to drop the subject.

“But she's
pregnant…”

“So? She doesn't have to be part
of our lives, does she? Everything changed after she moved in with us, and
I—” Jolene stopped abruptly when Rachel entered the room.

“I hope you don't mind if I join
this conversation,” his wife said calmly.

Jolene crossed her arms, looking venomously
at Rachel.

“Jolene has a point,” Rachel
said, again in the same low voice, a voice completely devoid of emotion.
“How?”

“She told us she was uneasy about us
getting married, remember?”

“I
tried
to tell you, but you wouldn't listen,” his daughter accused him,
righteous indignation in every word.

“We'd already made the
decision,” Bruce countered. “Okay, so we rushed the wedding a bit,
but I wanted you with me and you said you felt the same way.”

“I did at the time.”

He frowned at the implications of her
remark. “Are you saying you regret it now?”

To his dismay Rachel nodded.

Jolene thrust a triumphant finger at her
stepmother. “See? See, she doesn't want to be here.”

Rachel ignored her. “Jolene has never
accepted me as her stepmother.”

Bruce didn't like the way this
conversation—like so many of their conversations—revolved around his
daughter's likes and dislikes. He and Rachel were the adults in the room;
he wasn't about to let a thirteen-year-old girl dictate his life or his
marriage. He realized now that stepping aside and leaving his daughter and his
wife to work out their differences had contributed to the problem.
“Jolene,” he said pointedly, “will learn
to accept you.” And if it took a counseling session with some stranger to
make that happen, so be it.

“Daddy!” the girl screeched.

“Maybe she will.” Rachel shook
her head. “And maybe she won't.”

“All she needs is time,” Bruce
muttered.

Jolene marched up to Bruce. “Stop
talking about me like I'm not even here.” Whirling around, she
confronted Rachel. “I hate you. I never wanted you to marry my dad. Look
what you've done! You ruined my life.”

“Jolene!” Bruce had taken all he
could from his daughter. Rising to his feet, he clasped the girl's
shoulders and turned her to face him. “You will apologize to Rachel. I
won't have you speaking to her that way.”

Jolene glared back at him, her eyes flashing
with defiance. His own anger simmered just below the surface. He'd been
stupid and blind. Jolene and her malicious jealousy had driven a wedge between
Rachel and him.

“What Jolene said is true.”
Rachel surprised him by siding with the girl. “I
am
pregnant and now there's another person to consider in this
equation. Jolene doesn't want this baby any more than she wants me in her
life.”

“Now just a minute.” Bruce
needed to make it clear that despite his daughter's attitude
he
wanted this baby.

“It's fine. I
understand—”

“You understand what?” he
asked.

“To paraphrase you, when Jolene said
you don't need me, you basically told her you're stuck with me
because I'm pregnant.”

How she'd arrived at that conclusion,
Bruce would never know. “I didn't say anything like that!”

“I heard you, and frankly, neither one
of you made any effort to hide your conversation from me.”

“Does that mean you're going to
leave?” Jolene asked, eyes wide with feigned innocence.

Bruce was quick to answer. “Definitely
not. Rachel's staying here, where she belongs.”

Jolene's shoulders slumped forward.
“Daddy, let her go. We
don't
need
her.”

“Jolene's right,” Rachel
confirmed. “And as she's said more times than I can count,
I've come between the two of you and ruined everything.”

Jolene's eyes blazed with triumph.
“See! Even Rachel admits it.”

“
I
need
you,” Bruce argued, ignoring his daughter's outburst. “Our
baby needs you.”

“I agree,” Rachel said far too
easily. “Our baby does need me. He or she needs me to live in a
stress-free environment. This child also has to know he or she is loved and
wanted by this family.”

“I love our baby,” Bruce
insisted.

“I think it would be best if I
left,” Rachel said firmly, as if anything he said, any opinions he held,
shouldn't be taken into account.

“No.” Again, Bruce's
response was quick and automatic. This wasn't what he wanted. Rachel was
actually suggesting she move out. None of this seemed real…or right.

“I think it would be best if you left,
too,” Jolene chimed in, sounding gleeful at the prospect of getting rid of
her stepmother.

“That's not going to
happen,” Bruce said heatedly.

Rachel just smiled. “Do you plan to
hold me captive?”

“No.” Bruce couldn't
believe it had come to this. “You don't mean it. Rachel, tell me you
aren't really going to walk away.”

A sad, defeated look came over her. “I
can't continue
like this. All the fighting and stress
isn't good for the baby and it isn't good for me. Jolene is anxious
to be rid of me and I don't have the energy to fight her anymore—not
when I have to do it alone.”

“Okay, you're right. I made a
mistake,” he said. “Maybe I should've taken a more active role
in this…this conflict between you, but I was afraid if I intervened it
would only aggravate the situation. I don't know…”

“Well,
I
know,” Jolene yelled. “Get Rachel and that baby out of
here.”

Bruce's patience had reached its
limit. He pointed to the hallway. “Go to your room. Rachel and I need
privacy to talk this out.”

“No.” Jolene stamped her foot.
“You can't keep me out of this. I have a right to my say,
too.”

“Go to your room! Now.”

His daughter seemed about to argue, but then
shrugged and marched out of the room.

Bruce waited until Jolene had disappeared
before he spoke again. “Let's talk about this.”

Rachel's eyes revealed pain and
disappointment. “I'm not sure what there is to talk about. I
can't live like this, Bruce. I love you and Jolene, but I think we can
both say we made a mistake.”

“No.” Bruce refused to see their
marriage that way. Okay, he'd admit it; he'd made more than his
share of blunders. He should've done more to reassure his daughter and to
support his wife. Perhaps he'd been naive to assume that Jolene would be
as thrilled about Rachel's pregnancy as he was. He'd hoped
she'd be excited. That seemed a vain, foolish hope now….

“What if we went to family
counseling?” he said desperately. “We could see someone at the
clinic or…or Pastor Flemming or—”

“It's too late. And as you told
me before, Jolene won't go anyway.”

“But…”

“I'm leaving, Bruce,”
Rachel said simply. “Please don't try to persuade me
otherwise.”

That had been his intention, but seeing the
determination in her eyes, he knew it would do no good. “Where will you
go?” he asked, feeling defeated.

“A friend offered me a place to live
until I can make other arrangements.”

“Teri?”

“A friend,” she repeated.

“For how long?” he asked.
“How long will you be gone?”

She took her time answering. “I
don't know yet.”

“One week?”

“Longer.”

“Two weeks?”

She shook her head.

“A month?” She couldn't
possibly intend to stay away an entire month. He couldn't bear it.

“I…I can't answer
that.”

It hit him then that she might not ever come
back. The realization stunned him. “This…this is what you
want?” he asked.

Tears filled her eyes. “I never
dreamed it would end like this.”

“Me, neither.” He sat up
straighter. “Will you keep in touch, let me know how you are, where you
are?”

She didn't immediately agree.
“Okay,” she finally said. “I'll phone you.”

In other words, she wasn't willing to
give him her contact information. Still, if that was all she'd offer him,
he'd take it. The alternative was too harsh to even think about.

“I'll leave in the
morning,” she said, and started to walk away.

Bruce caught her hand. “Give Jolene
time. Please. She'll come around.”

“No, I won't.” His
daughter's voice rang down the hallway.

Despite the seriousness of the moment,
Rachel smiled. “She's always had the best hearing of anyone
I've ever known.”

Bruce smiled, too, remembering the early
days of their marriage when they'd self-consciously tried to hide the fact
that they were lovers from his daughter. In retrospect it had been ridiculous.
They weren't fooling anyone, certainly not Jolene.

“I'm sorry, Bruce,” she
whispered.

“I am, too.” It occurred to him
that she might need help. “You'll call if you need anything, right?
You'll keep in touch?” he asked again. He'd go mad if she
didn't. He couldn't believe he was actually letting her walk out the
door, not knowing where she intended to live or how long she'd stay away.
This wasn't supposed to happen. Not to Rachel and him.

“I'll be in touch,” she
promised.

“Can I hold you?”

She considered his request, tears
brightening her eyes, then slowly nodded.

Wrapping his arms around her, Bruce held her
close, savoring the feel of her in his arms. “I don't know if I can
let you go,” he whispered into her hair. “Don't,” he
said again. “Please don't do this.”

Her shoulders buckled in a sob. “This
isn't what I want, either, but I don't see any other
alternative.”

“We'll make it work,” he
said urgently. “We
can.
”

“I thought we could, too, but I was
wrong.” She disentangled her arms and stepped away from him. “Like
I told you earlier, I'm afraid all this stress is
hurting the baby…. This is something I need to do for me and for our
child.”