Family (29 page)

Ashley felt her stomach fall to her knees. “His birth parents?”

“Yes.” jenny shrugged. “Dayne was adopted. A few years ago he hired a private investigator and found out that his birth family lives right here in Bloomington.” She smiled. “That’s why he was here in the first place, why he met Katy at all.”

With a sudden jolt, Ashley’s heartbeat slipped into double time. Dayne Matthews was adopted? And his birth parents lived in Bloomington? Dayne, who looked so much like Luke? who had seemed so familiar the night he’d driven her home after drama practice? Dayne, who knew her father’s cell-phone number? who called during the trial? Then she realized something else. Dayne’s number had been programmed into her father’s phone under the name Dayne, right? Otherwise it wouldn’t have said so in the caller ID window.

So was it even remotely possible that… ?

Before she could ask another question, before she could even order her thoughts to line up so she might even know what that question would be, Katy ran through the doorway. She was red cheeked and breathless. “Sorry … I can’t believe I made you wait.” She gave jenny a one-armed hug and flashed a smile at Ashley.

“Ready?”

Ashley wanted to speak, wanted to turn back the clock five minutes so she could learn more about Dayne, about his adoption and whatever other information jenny Flanigan knew. But she couldn’t say a word. All she could do was stand, collect her purse, and nod in Katy’s direction.

A memory popped into her mind. Years ago when she was six she’d shared a bunk bed with Erin. One night they were telling knock-knock jokes, and Ashley-on the top bunk-leaned too far over the edge. Before she could stop herself, she slipped over the side and landed flat on her back. The fall knocked the wind 241

from her and scared her to death because her lungs seemed to take forever simply to remember how to breathe again, to draw in even the slightest bit of oxygen.

Which was exactly how she was feeling right now.

.‘4’

s

Katy hated running late.

Her mother had always told her it was a sign of selfishness, that people who were chronically late gave the impression that they didn’t care about others and the schedules others kept. But when she opened her closet she knew she was in trouble. The jeans there definitely weren’t her own. In a house the size of the Flanigans’, there was no telling what mix-up might’ve happened. One time she’d found four pairs of her jeans neatly folded in Connor’s closet.

She moved quickly, leading the way to Ashley’s van and breathing apologies. “I’m so sorry, Ash, really.”

“It’s okay.” Ashley took the driver’s seat and stared straight ahead.

That’s when Katy saw it. Something was wrong with her friend, something she hadn’t seen before. Her eyes looked distant and almost terrified. “Ashley? You okay?”

She started the van and gave her a quick glance. “Definitely.” “You look pale.”

Katy pressed her back against the passenger door and watched her friend. Maybe it was the new baby or Sleepless nights. “Are you sure?”

I’m fine.” She uttered an anxious-sounding laugh. “Today’s about your life, not mine.”

But even as the two of them talked about baby Devin and Landon and Cole’s recent love for John Wayne movies, Katy had feeling that something wasn’t right. And that whatever it i Ashley wasn’t going to talk about it. Not now, anyway.

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They reached the coffee shop and joined Rhonda at a booth in the back.

“Hey guys!” Rhonda looked upbeat, the way she usually did. “Get your drinks and let’s get talking. I have a date to talk about, but my story can wait.”

Katy didn’t want to be a downer, but if she was going to talk about Dayne, the conversation was bound to turn sad. Maybe now wasn’t a good time to open up, but she needed to share what was going on in her heart. She missed Dayne more with every breath and at the very least she needed Ashley and Rhonda to pray for her.

Otherwise she might go the rest of her life never finding the right man, always comparing every guy she met with the one she could never have.

They settled in with their drinks. Ashley sat next to Katy, and Rhonda was directly across from them.

Rhonda started in. “Okay, so what gives?” She planted her elbows on the table and gave Katy a sympathetic look. “Weve been dying to hear about Los Angeles.”

Katy smiled. “I guess I had to leave Narnia first.” Ashley stirred her iced tea with a straw. “Tell us about Dayne. There was a depth in her voice that seemed to cut through the small talk. A depth and a longing, as if she had a deep concern over whatever Katy’s answer might be. “What happened during the trial?”, ,

For a moment Katy studied Ashley. Could she know? Could she possibly have found out somehow that Dayne was her brother? Ashley’s expression, her voice, everything about her seemed poised to hang on to every word, almost desperate for her answers about Dayne. So did she know?

Katy let her gaze fall to her hands, tightly folded in her lap No, it was impossible. Dayne hadn’t told them, and she hadn said a word to anyone. Even jenny knew only that Dayne was adopted and that his birth parents lived in Bloomington, not that

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they were the Baxters. There’s no way the topic had come up in the few minutes while she’d been scrambling to get ready.

Katy lifted her chin and looked from Ashley to Rhonda. “It’s over between us.”

Her voice threatened to give her away, to crack and release the dam of emotion built up behind it. “Dayne and I, we decided it could … it could never work.”

She spent the next half hour telling them what happened in LA, how she and Dayne had struggled to find a minute alone, and when they did, how it never was long before the photographers found them. She told them about his faith, how sincere it was and how determined Dayne had become to live for God, which led to the details about the trial, the beach house Dayne’s attorney had found for them, and how even that hadn’t been safe from the tabloids. Finally she told them about the near accident.

Again, Ashley seemed more intense than she’d been before. “Did he say anything about that being a close call or whether he’s had near accidents before?”

“He said it could happen anytime. The photographers are always chasing him.”

Again Katy wondered about her interest in Dayne, in his welfare. Ashley couldn’t know; there was no way. Not unless her father told her, and from what Dayne had said, John Baxter was committed to wait until Dayne had made up his mind about the timing and whether it would ever work for the Baxter siblings to know about the identity of their older brother.

“That’s terrible.” Ashley had finished her tea. She was definitely swept up in the story. “So that’s why you ended things?”

“What choice did we have?” Katy stared at the last of her latte. It was too cold to taste good. “I guess that’s why I wanted to tell you. So you’d pray for me.”

Then Rhonda told her story, how she’d gone out with a guy and how he’d called himself a “believer” and how he’d been a perfect gentleman all night. “Until we drive past a Christian bookstore, and the guy starts laughing.”

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“About what?” Katy had no idea where Rhonda was headed with this story.

Rhonda raised her hands and let them fall to the table. “About Christians. He says, ‘I can’t believe anyone really buys all that garbage about faith.’”

Ashley remained quiet, but Katy felt Rhonda’s frustration. Were there no good guys left, none that would make the kind of husbands Jenny and Ashley had found?

No one committed to faith and family? No one real, anyway? She waited for Rhonda to finish.

“Turns out the guy’s a believer all right. A believer in atheism. Studied science all his life, bought every politically correct line of rhetoric any teacher or textbook ever told him.” Her eyes grew flat from the irony of it.

“The first guy I’ve met in a month who isn’t a regular at some bar, living at home with his mother, or without intimate knowledge of deodorant.” She frowned.

“And the guy’s an atheist.”

They laughed, but they did their best to cheer Rhonda up, to convince her there’d be other guys, even if Katy struggled to believe the possibility herself.

When they finished, Ashley drove Katy home. Halfway there, they were at a stoplight and Ashley turned to her. “I think you’re making a mistake.” Her tone was kind, sympathetic. But there was no mistaking the seriousness in her voice.

“You and Dayne both.”

“Walking away, you mean?” This was the sort of deeper conversation she’d wanted to have at the coffee shop. But Ashley had been quiet, and the conversation had shifted to Rhonda’s dismal date.

The light turned green. Ashley nodded and turned her attention back to the road.

“Sometimes life makes love feel next to impossible. It was that way with Landon and me. But Dayne … I don’t know, he seems very special.” She hesitated. “I’ll bet you

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know a side of Dayne that no one else knows, no matter how many times his picture runs in the tabloids.’”

Katy looked out her window and closed her eyes. She could hear the ocean waves one after another hitting the shore, feel Dayne sitting beside her, sense his pain at knowing the Baxters but not being able to contact his siblings. Her eyes opened, and she leaned her head against the cool glass. She turned to Ashley.

How strange it was that here beside her was Dayne’s sister. The entire situation was almost more than she could take in. “Yes, I know Dayne very well.”

“Okay, then.” Ashley’s words came faster now, more determined. “You can’t let go, Katy. You can’t give up just because he’s in show business. There has to be a way to make it work.”

“That’s what I told myself all those months.” She felt her throat thicken, felt the sorrow building inside her. “But look where that got me.”

“Does he still call you?”

“Once in a while. But both of us know there’s no point. He has to live there and make movies, and I have my life here.”

Ashley looked as if she were about to say something else, but she stopped herself. As they pulled up in front of the Flanigans’, she added only one more thing. “If you love Dayne, you need to beg God for a way.” Her tone was kinder, softer than before, and her eyes glistened with empathy. “That’s what I did with Landon, and look at us now.” She smiled. “Really, Katy, don’t give up. With God at the center, you’ve got to find a way to bridge the distance.”

Katy nodded. “Pray for us, okay?”

“I will.”

She squeezed Ashley’s hand, thanked her, and climbed out of the van. As Ashley backed down the driveway, Katy couldn’t get past the feelings tugging at her subconscious. What if Ashley knew the truth? Could that be why she was so adamant, why

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she’d brought up Dayne again and made the strong push for Katy to never give up?

Ashley’s last words rang in Katy’s head as she headed up the steps to the front door: “With God at the center, you’ve got to find a way to bridge the distance.”

She looked over her shoulder at Ashley’s van as it moved out of sight. Now the question was a simple one, really. Was Ashley referring to Dayne and Katy?

Or Dayne and herself?

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Ashley was on the cell phone calling her dad as soon as she dropped off Katy.

For the past hour she had barely been able to catch her breath. Every time her mind tried to run unbridled toward the wild possibilities, Rhonda or Katy would shoot a question her way, and she’d have to stay in the moment. Yes, it was too bad about the paparazzi; no, she hadn’t known about the near accident with the cameramen chasing them; yes, she understood Rhonda’s thoughts about the difficulty of finding a good guy.

But all the while she’d wanted to stand up and shout, look Katy in the eyes, and say, “Tell me the truth … is Dayne Matthews my brother?”

And he had to be, didn’t he? Every piece lined up. Especially his call to her father during the trial. Luke never would’ve forgotten his cell phone-he was way too detail-oriented for that. What had her father said? That he was talking to their older brother often, right? So Dayne had probably called to catch their dad up on the details of the trial.

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Of course Dayne was their brother. It would’ve been why he was in town when he met Katy, why he had chosen Bloomington for his location shoot, and why he’d given her a ride home. If he was her brother, he would’ve been anxious to spend time with her, curious about her life, her family.

She’d been dying to ask Katy about it through most of the morning. If Rhonda hadn’t been there, she wouldn’t have hesitated. But during the ride to the coffee shop, the shock had been too great, and by the time they were headed back to the Flanigans’ house, Ashley had changed her mind. If Katy knew the truth, Dayne would’ve asked her to keep quiet about it, at least until he figured out how to handle the situation. Putting that responsibility on Katy wasn’t fair.

Besides, if Dayne was her brother, she didn’t want to find out from Katy. She had Dayne’s number after all. She could call him or her father.

That was the answer. She needed to talk to her dad. All her life, Ashley had never been one to mince words. Never had she (tiptoed around an issue when the straightforward method was

so much more effective. She could call her father and have the answer in a matter of seconds.

His number was on her speed dial, so it took no time to call his cell. But after three rings, the call went to a message center. The whole time her father’s voice was giving instructions about leaving a message, her mind raced. Should she ask on the phone? Should she hang up and try later?

Finally she decided on a cross between the two. When the beep sounded, she cleared her throat. “Dad … it’s me.” She held tight to the steering wheel with her free hand. “I have a question about our older brother. I found out something today, and I think … maybe I know who he is. Maybe not, but maybe.” She tried to breathe, but her lungs wouldn’t fill up. “Call me, Dad.

Please.”

Only after she hung up did her body find a way to inhale. She called the Baxter house and left the same message there. He