Second Chances (34 page)

She stood there in shock for a moment…shocked because of the apology, shocked that Hannah had left, shocked that Mr. Meyers would even admit to making a mistake.  Hannah had changed him.  In all the best ways…she had changed him. 

Slowly Gavin walked up the stairs to that room.  He had successfully avoided ever going up there for the longest time.  Then it was remodeled for Hannah.  There were nights spent there reading with her and the girls.  There were nights spent there holding her while they fell asleep.  And now he was spending all his time worrying over when and if she would return.  He forced himself to enter that room.  He had to look around, see if there were any obvious clues as to her whereabouts.  He just needed to know that she was safe.  If she needed time, that was understandable, but mostly he needed to know that she was safe, that they were safe.

In the bathroom, he realized that her toiletries were gone, of course.  Her suitcase was missing from the closet.  There was a pile of clothes in one corner of the closet floor.  He recognized that he had purchased everything in that pile.  At least she hadn’t burned it.  He sighed.  And then he saw her laptop sitting open. 

The first tab was to an etsy shop.  Did she have an etsy shop?  He recognized some of the candles.  Apparently she did.  He glanced at the number of sales.  She seemed to be reasonably successful.  Of course she would be.  Hannah was smart.  He couldn’t imagine her failing at anything she set her mind to or put her heart into. 

There was that hope again.  She had put her heart into him.  She had told him so.  They had something here.  They couldn’t possibly lose it already.

The next tab was her bank account, which had timed out from lack of use.  And the final open tab was MapQuest.  Wilmington.  Her family was there.  His heart sank.  Maybe she wasn’t coming back after all.

Standing, he headed out of the room, wondering what to do with himself next.  What he knew for certain was that if he couldn’t be with Hannah, he wanted to be alone.  Madge deserved some time off anyway.  And with that, he headed to the kitchen to tell her she was on vacation.

The first day, all Hannah wanted to do was sleep.  She was worn out from the drive.  She was worn out from the lack of sleep the previous night.  She was worn out from the emotions that had been coursing through her ever since she discovered Gavin’s motives for moving her in.  Her mother had taken one look at her and announced that she would love to spend some time with her granddaughters.  And with that, Hannah had trudged down the hall to the guest room and slept. 

When she woke in the middle of the night, she made a cup of tea and some toast to eat out on the balcony.  She had always loved the sound of the water she could hear from that spot.  And there was a scent of ocean air on the gentle breeze.  It was quiet and there were few stars in the sky.  The best night sky she had ever seen was when they were sailing.  Those nights…were some of her happiest memories…even now.  And she was glad that she had them.  Soon, she was exhausted and tired again.  Not long before dawn she had gone back to bed.  Finally, she managed to have a dreamless restful sleep.

Madge didn’t want to leave.  Quite frankly, she was worried about Mr. Meyers’ state of mind.  She worried what he would do left to his own devices.  The small taste of that kind of freedom had gone badly the other night.  Still, she left…reluctantly.  And then she did something she never dreamed she’d do.  She called his mother.

Unbelievable.  He owned a house…a really nice big house.  He owned a boat.  He had land and lake rights.  And he had nowhere to sleep.  Apparently Hannah had the right idea.  She left.  He couldn’t leave.  And even if he did, there was nowhere he wanted to go.

Instead he was wandering around his house assaulted by memories, unable to find comfort in any room.  Even his study, that had once been his solace, the one place that India had never decorated, the one room she never entered…had partially become Hannah’s domain.  They shared that space every evening.  He no longer found comfort there, just emptiness.  The patio had really comfortable furniture, but he and Hannah had spent the night in it.  There went that idea.  He couldn’t sleep on the sailboat.  All those locations held memories of Hannah.  Even his bedroom, a room she had never entered, seemed closed in and stuffy, he couldn’t breathe there.  All he could think about was that Hannah should have been upstairs above him, lying on that bed.  Having left the house to restock his liquor cabinet, he now went back to his office to make sure the trip wasn’t for naught. 

Just before noon the doorbell rang.  Gavin didn’t even consider getting it.  No good had ever come of answering that door.  The
door bell rang more insistently two more times.  Then silence.

Minutes later, he heard the front door open, and then his office door.  He didn’t even lift his head.  If he was getting robbed, he didn’t care.  If he was getting attacked or murdered, he welcomed it. 

“Honestly, would it kill you to answer the door?”  Bitty stood over him with her hands on her hips.  She glanced about the room.  “And did you have to crawl into a bottle?”  She was moving about the room, muttering in disgust.  Just as Madge had done, Bitty opened the curtains, threw open the door.  She left the room, leaving the study door open, and headed to the kitchen.

It didn’t take Bitty long to figure out where everything was.  She made a big pot of coffee, grabbed two big mugs, and returned to the study.  In her absence, Gavin had only managed to sit up and hold his head in his hands.  With a sigh, she walked purposefully down the hall to his bedroom, opened the door, and walked straight into his bathroom to the medicine cabinet.  This looked like it was going to require some extra strength pain reliever.  They were well past the two aspirins stage.

“Take these,” She said shoving her open palm of acetaminophen at him.

Without arguing, Gavin reached over and took the offered medicine, the small cup of water, and even started to accept the coffee when he paused.  “Not that mug.”

Bitty looked at it.  “What’s wrong with this mug?”

“It’s Hannah’s,” he explained.  He looked at his other option.  “Pass me that one.” 

After doing so, Bitty spoke.  “You need to pull it together, Gavin.  You have a lot of responsibility.  You don’t have time to fall apart.  Since when do you fall apart over a woman?”  She studied him for a reaction.  His face was blank; his hands were holding the mug, betraying nothing.      

“I don’t want the responsibility.  I don’t want the company.”  He growled angrily.  “I’ve wasted my life trying to make our father happy.  And he was never happy.  I’ve tried to make him proud, carry on after the accident.  I don’t remember him ever being proud of me.  Do you?”

“Sure,” Bitty shrugged.  “You were the favorite.”

“Well, he never let on, believe me.”  Gavin sighed and drank some coffee.  He loved the way the warmth trailed down his throat until it hit his stomach.  “I don’t suppose you want the company?”

Bitty looked at him.  “What do you mean?”  She asked slowly.  “I’m going to need you to spell it out for me.”  Her eyes narrowed.  She leaned in seriously. 

“I want to be happy.  Doing everything I was supposed to do has never made me happy.  Look at my life.”  He paused to see that Bitty was listening.  “You love the company.  You were always better at the business.  The only reason father didn’t want you to have it is one of the lamest reasons of all.”  He stared into his mug for a moment.  Then a thought occurred to him.  “He’s not why you’re a lesbian, is he?”

For the first time in a long time, they were talking again like siblings should.  It felt good.  They should have done this all along. 

“No, I would still be a lesbian,” Bitty said with a chuckle.

“Oh.  I thought maybe the thing with India was to get back at me.”  He smiled and shrugged.

“Oh, well, that was.  Or…that’s how it started any way.”  She stood up and walked to the fireplace.  “I hate to admit this now, but the truth might as well come out.”  She sighed before turning to face him.  “India was supposed to be my revenge on you for stealing the company.  I wanted to make you pay for getting something that I wanted.  I wanted to hurt you.  Only…I fell in love.  I guess India did, too.”  She sat down on the couch in front of him.  “So, I can’t even look at you and say that I never meant to hurt you…because I did.  I’m sorry for that.  And I’m sorry that you are suffering now.”

Gavin stared down at his mug.  Slowly, he raised his face to look at her.  “Well, it seems we have more in common than I would have thought.”  And he smiled sadly as he explained to Bitty everything she had missed.  And when he finished, he said simply, “And I don’t know how to fix it.”

“Let’s put our heads together, Gavin.  I’m sure we can come up with something.  But we’ve got to get you cleaned up.  Hannah can’t see you like this.”  She stood and put her hands on her hips.

Gavin smiled at her.  There was that hope thing again.

The beach had always been therapy for Hannah.  She had spent the first two days with her family sleeping on and off.  She hadn’t interacted with them or even with the twins.  And finally by Sunday she felt ready to face her life again.

“So, the mind is healing,” her
mother commented.  “Let’s see what we can do for that soul.”

Hannah smiled weakly while she sipped her hot tea.  “What do you recommend?” 

“Let’s go walk the beach, see what we find.  The girls would like that and you need it.”  She seemed confident in her decision.

“I don’t know,” Hannah said.  She wasn’t sure she was ready to face the world again. 

“Yes.”  Her mother said.  And that was it.  It was an edict, a command.