LITMIR.BIZ

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done something?”

      “I…I…I can’t seem to tell you, Jules. You’re never going to believe I was this stupid.”

      “Just say it.” Juliet fought the tension gripping her, so that she could give her sister the empathy she so clearly needed.

      Something she’d be a lot better equipped to do if she knew what she was trying to be empathetic about.

      “Is it about money?” She crossed her fingers. That would be an easy fix.

      “No.”

      And then something a little more horrific occurred to her. “You aren’t in trouble with the law, are you?”

      “No.” Marcie almost chuckled, but hiccuped instead. “Of course not.”

      Juliet laid her cheek on her hand. Her voice lowered, softened. “Tell me.”

      “I’m…pregnant.”

      Juliet’s entire body stiffened. Her skin felt hot. And then cold. The phone started to slip from her hand.

      “Say something.”

      She would. As soon as she could think.

      “I love you.”

      Inane, maybe, but it was all she could come up with.

      “I love you, too,” Marcie said, and sniffled.

      “Hey, Marce, don’t cry.” Her sister’s tears brought Juliet’s mind at least partially back to action. “We’ll get through this. You know we will. We always do. Together.”

      The assurance was as much for herself as for her sister. “You’re coming here. That’s the right choice.”

      She had to get Marcie out of Maple Grove. Away from settling for life in a trailer, raising a child alone only to have the child go off and find a better life, a fuller life, leaving Marcie with nothing but a bottle of sleeping pills and a bathtub filled with bubbles….

      “It’s only for the weekend,” Marcie said. “I have to open the shop on Monday.”

      “Who cares about the shop?” Juliet said, half-crazed with panic and half-determined to take control and make sure that they all lived happily ever after.

      “I do.”

      Yes. She knew that. “I’m sorry, Marce. It’s just a bit of a shock, you know?”

      “Tell me about it.” The droll tone didn’t erase the tears in Marcie’s voice, but it helped calm Juliet anyway.

      “Okay, did I hear you say Hank doesn’t know?”

      “Yeah.”

      Good. That gave them time to figure things out before Marce was pulled in ways she might not want to go. As their mother had been.

      “And you aren’t planning to tell him? At least not this morning, before you fly out?”

      “No. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

      What did that mean?

      “You’re having the baby, right?” She couldn’t believe she was asking.

      “Of course.”

      “And keeping it?” Neither of them would ever consider anything else. They’d been abandoned by a parent. Twice.

      “Of course.”

      “Good, so go pack, get down here, and we’ll figure out the rest.”

      “Okay.” A loud sniffle sounded again.

      Juliet watched waves roll onto the beach in the distance, wondering how many generations of babies had been born, how many generations of people had died, while that water just kept right on rolling in and out.

      “How long have you known?”

      “The time it took for you to answer your phone,” Marcie said, speaking the entire sentence without a sob. “I knew I’d be in trouble if what I suspected was true, so I made the plane reservation, dialed your number on my cell phone and waited until I got the results before I hit send.”

      That sounded more like the Marcie she knew.

      “I’m only about a month along. I bought the test four days ago,” her twin continued, apparently needing to get things out now that she could speak. “Every night I told myself I’d do it, but I just kept thinking that ignorance was better than the truth. I guess I was probably just waiting until I was free to fly down.”

      The fact that Marcie had needed to come to San Diego during her time of crisis was not lost on Juliet. Her sister might be more aware, less like their mother, than Juliet had begun to fear these last couple of years. She just needed a loving boost to give her the courage to take those first frightening steps out of Maple Grove and the false sense of security she had found there.

      “Does Hank know you’re coming here?”

      “Not yet. I planned to call him from the airport.”

      “You’re driving yourself in?”

      “Yeah.” Marcie sighed, sounding exhausted, which she probably was. Remembering back to her own trip into this same hell, Juliet doubted that her sister had slept more than a few restless hours all week. “I know it’s more expensive to park the car, but I want the time alone.”

      “I understand.”

      “I gotta go if I’m going to make my flight,” Marcie said, her voice weakening again.

      “Okay. Be safe, Marce. I’ll be right here waiting for you. You aren’t alone, you know? You aren’t ever alone.”

      “I know.”

      “And while you’re on that plane?”

      “Yeah?”

      “Think about nothing but what an incredible joy Mary Jane has been all these years.”

      “You’d do it all again, wouldn’t you?”

      “Absolutely,” Juliet said.

      It was about the only thing she knew for sure.

      CHAPTER TWELVE

      THE PAPERS ON THE DESK in front of him were just as he’d left them. Same issues. Same unanswered questions. Same requests.

      There was security in that.

      Filled with what felt like a healthy dose of determination, Blake sat behind his desk Saturday afternoon, feeling better equipped to face what was to come. It was the first time he’d been to the office since the arraignment. He’d intended to come the day before, to carry on as though it were business as usual—partially to convince himself it was. But in the end, he hadn’t been able to make himself do it.

      He’d called Lee Anne to let her know he’d be in on Saturday afternoon and to ask her to leave anything that needed his immediate attention on his desk. He’d spent Friday at the ocean instead. Running on the beach, strolling along the water’s edge with the seagulls, letting the waves wash over his bare feet, sitting in the sand watching the tide roll in, skipping rocks. He’d even bought a ticket for one of the tourist cruises and had dinner with a boatful of strangers out on the water.

      Mourning the family he’d never had, he’d never felt lonelier in his life.

      Today, Blake was back, in jeans and a polo shirt instead of a suit. Working on a weekend when most of his employees were off. It was a start.

      There had been several messages for him at home the night before, from people who knew him well enough to have the unlisted number. They’d heard about the arraignment on the news and, he was certain, had questions.

      He’d answer all of them. He owed them that. But he owed himself this time to toughen up

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