Persuaded (26 page)

“Sorry
about that,” she said, looking around for any wrappers Derick might have
missed.

“How
are the lovebirds doing?”

Hanna
was about to answer when a muffled wailing drifted from the boat. “That’s
Walter,” she said with an apologetic smile, then went inside to check on him.

Derick
watched her go, feeling as if another one of those moments had just passed them
by.

THIRTY-TWO

STARFISH
OUT of WATER

A lady, without
a family, was the very best preserver of furniture in the world.

—Jane Austen,
Persuasion

The
following morning, over a breakfast of crisp bacon and syrup-smothered
pancakes, Derick asked, “What do you guys feel like doing today?”

“Crescent
Beach is supposed to be gorgeous, but it’s on the other side of the island,”
Sophie answered. “Sailing over there would probably take a good chunk of time.”

Derick
pulled out the map he’d picked up at the marina when they arrived. “Looks like
there’s only a narrow strip of land between us and Crescent Beach. There are
trails all over the island. Walking would definitely be faster.” He turned to
Hanna. “We could take turns carrying Walter.”

She
nodded, surprised at his intuition. Normally people unsaddled with children
didn’t think of such things. “It sounds great.”

“I’m
going to need a walk to burn off all these calories,” Adam declared, sitting
back and rubbing his stomach.

Derick
delivered the empty plates to the sink. “Sis, if you’ll pack up some food and
Adam can get the snorkel gear ready, we should be able to go soon.”

“What
about me?” Hanna protested.

“You
just sit there and look pretty,” Derick told her with a wink.

Hanna ignored
the assignment, instead washing dishes while Sophie packed the food. Had he
just called her pretty again? She knew it was a cliché,
sit there and look
pretty
, so she couldn’t put much stock in the words. But last night he told
her she was pretty—and the look on his face coupled with the tone of his voice
left her in no doubt of his sincerity. The only problem was, it didn’t make any
sense to her.

In
about a half-hour, armed with everything but the galley sink, the party set off
across one of the trails toward Crescent Beach. True to his word, Derick set
Walter on his shoulders, holding onto his pudgy little ankles as they made
their way across the island. It didn’t take CJ long to realize he was getting
the crap end of the deal, so Derick handed Walter off to Adam and gave CJ the
coveted place of honor. Hanna stifled a laugh at the look of alarm on Adam’s
face. He might as well have been handed a poisonous snake. Cradling Walter
awkwardly, he looked on the verge of dropping the squirming toddler when Sophie
took pity on her husband, grabbing Walter around the middle and planting him
atop Adam’s shoulders. Adam grimaced in self-deprecation, and the look that
passed between him and Sophie made Hanna feel as if she’d walked in on them
kissing.

The
trip out to Crescent Beach took only a short while. The view that engulfed
Hanna once they came over the top of the hill made her forget how to breathe.
The water, ranging from light aqua to deep blue, was breathtaking—almost
Caribbean against the backdrop of sugary sand. A curtain of variegated green
spilled over the craggy cliffs, the feathery blades of grass swaying in the
breeze.

Since
they’d had such a big breakfast and no one was hungry yet, the unanimous
decision was to snorkel first and eat later. Walter wasn’t old enough to
snorkel, so Sophie offered to stay on the beach with him while the others went.

Hanna
had never been snorkeling before, and breathing through her mouth took some
getting used to. But once the novelty of it wore off, she found herself rather
enjoying the sensation of weightlessness. The variety of sea life was amazing,
all sorts of colorful fish, plants that swayed peacefully in the current, and
coral in all shapes and sizes. The underwater colors weren’t quite as vibrant
as Hanna had expected, but that was bound to happen when her only frame of
reference was
Finding Nemo
. All four of them were fascinated by the
appearance of a sea turtle, which swam obligingly in front of them and then
glided away. Adam, Derick, and CJ followed, and Hanna determined to check on
Sophie and Walter.

“Done
already?” Sophie asked as Hanna joined them.

“I
thought I’d see if you wanted to trade places.”

Sophie
waved a hand. “I’m not big on snorkeling. I had a bad experience with it once.”

Hanna
raised her eyebrows. “Do tell.”

“The
first time I went we were in the Caribbean with Adam’s parents, I accidentally
touched a sea urchin—you know, those pokey black things? Anyway, I got one of
the spines in my finger—it felt like a bee sting times ten,” Sophie grinned at
the memory. “Adam’s dad tried to take it out with tweezers but it just kept
going further in, so then he tried a needle.”

Hanna
winced.

“Yeah,”
Sophie agreed. “Nothing worked, so finally we looked it up in one of the books
onboard. Turns out you’re not supposed to remove the spines. They dissolve on
their own.”

“Wow,”
Hanna laughed. “Note to self: avoid sea urchins while snorkeling.”

“Or
wear gardening gloves,” Sophie added sagely.

Walter
wandered over to his aunt, proudly displaying the sand-packed bucket in his
hand. Then he plopped himself on Sophie’s lap with a soggy squelch.

Hanna
was about to apologize when she saw the look on Sophie’s face. She squeezed
Walter, placing a kiss on the top of his head. Before Hanna could stop the
words, or consider their impertinence, she said, “You would be the best mom,
Sophie.”

An
awkward beat of silence passed in which Hanna wished she could recall the
words. Then Sophie said, “I don’t imagine motherhood is easy, but . . . I
always wanted to have kids.”

Hanna
had no clue what to say to this. She had wondered why the Crofts had no
children, but as it was sort of a taboo subject, she never asked Derick. Seeing
as Sophie just brought it up, she felt comfortable enough to ask. “No luck?”

“We
tried for a long time—years and years. Every month was a new heartbreak when we
didn’t get pregnant.” She brushed some sand off Walter’s face. “After a while
it was all we were about anymore. It was like we’d forgotten what brought us
together in the first place.”

“Did
you ever think about adopting?”

Sophie
shrugged. “It didn’t really occur to us at the time. Neither of us wanted to
admit the possibility that we couldn’t have our own kids, you know? It would
mean that we had failed in some way. I think I felt that way more than Adam,
though. I couldn’t come to terms with the fact that I would never carry my own
child. But when I saw the impact my grief was having on my husband, I decided
it was time to let go.”

Mary
had never been mother of the year, but seeing her parenting through Sophie’s
eyes was appalling. How awful it must have been to watch children being
neglected and taken for granted, when you had none of your own to cherish.

“Anyway,
we’re probably too old now. The best hope I have is living vicariously through
Derick, if he ever gets on the ball,” she said with a sidelong glance at Hanna.

“You
are most certainly not too old!” Hanna countered, hoping her crimson cheeks
were misinterpreted as indignation over Sophie’s age. “You and Adam have so
much to give, any judge would be out of his mind if he didn’t see it.”

A
tolerant smile lit Sophie’s face as she turned to Hanna. “Maybe,” she allowed.
“But after all we’ve been through I don’t see us going down that road. It’s a
sizable investment of time and emotions, not to mention money—with only a
chance of success.”

Hanna
could see Sophie’s point. Filling out all the paperwork and putting up the
money would be committing to the process emotionally and opening herself up for
possible heartbreak. “I get that, but don’t you think it would be worth it in
the end?”

Sophie
digested the question but didn’t answer.

“A
couple who would make such stellar parents owes it to the world of orphaned
children to try, at least,” Hanna pressed.

Sophie
eyed her for a moment, as if she were sizing her up. “My brother is right about
you, you know. You’re spunky.”

Hanna
decided to take it as a compliment, and didn’t ask Sophie what she meant even
though her curiosity was piqued. “I didn’t mean to offend you or anything—I
know it’s a really personal thing. I just don’t think you should give up yet.”

Sophie
watched Walter for a moment, then looked up at the approach of the men. CJ was
practically jogging to keep up with Adam’s long strides. “I’ll think on it.”

With
that, Sophie stood and draped a towel around her husband’s shoulders. There was
something so automatic in the gesture, so selfless and basic, that it pricked
Hanna’s eyes with tears. Feeling lame, she stood and held out a folded towel to
Derick. Drops of saltwater fell from his strawberry hair and landed on his
shoulders, dribbling over his sculpted abdomen. He looked as though he was part
sea-god or something—and she was nothing more than a sea-cucumber.

“Thanks,”
he said, tucking the towel under an arm. “I got you something.”

“You
did?” Hanna asked, curiosity eclipsing her gravity.

Derick
grinned at her reaction, then opened his hand to reveal a tiny starfish.

Hanna
gasped in delight. “Won’t it die out of the water?”

Gingerly,
Derick transferred the creature to Hanna’s palm. “They can survive out of
water, but not for long. I just thought you might like to see a live one.”

The
starfish moved, tickling her skin. Positively mesmerized, Hanna asked, “How is
it moving?”

Derick
sandwiched her hands carefully between his, then flipped them over so that the
starfish was on its back. “See all those wormy-looking things? Those are its
legs—tiny tubes that fill up with water. It’s how they get around.”

“Like
water balloons.”

“Yep.”

“How
do they eat, though? I don’t see a mouth . . .”

Derick
poked his finger into the sea star’s middle. “This little guy’s mouth is right
here.”

“It’s
so tiny! How does he get anything through that?”

“They
actually project their stomach through that little mouth and devour their prey
outside their bodies.”

Derick
laughed at the face Hanna made, then made a vice out of his thumb and
forefinger and gently picked up the sea star. Its legs curled and twisted in
the air, as if in protest.

“Let’s
go put him back,” Hanna suggested, still a little wonderstruck.

By the
time they returned the starfish to its watery home and made it back to the
Crofts, Adam had inhaled his lunch and was eyeing Derick’s sandwich. Before
seeing to her own lunch, Hanna reapplied sunscreen so the boys wouldn’t get
fried. The wind had picked up since they set out this morning, the tall grass
at the top of the bluff waving at them as if in farewell as they returned to
the cove. Adam and Sophie were several hundred yards ahead of them, arm-in-arm
with their heads together. Hanna wondered if Sophie was telling Adam about the
discussion she’d had with Hanna earlier. She hoped so.

CJ
skipped alongside Derick, who carried Walter on his shoulders.

“Did
you have a good day today?” Derick asked Hanna.

“The
best day,” she amended. “I
love
your sister.”

“She’s
all right,” Derick said, and Hanna elbowed him. “What did you guys talk about?”

“Kids,
mostly. She told me about their not being able to have children.”

“Really?
Huh . . . she doesn’t usually like discussing it.”

“She
brought it up,” Hanna assured him. An awkward silence passed. “Did I upset
you?”

“Not
at all. I just don’t understand how life can be so unfair sometimes, you know?”

“Me
either. Adam and Sophie would have been the world’s best parents. Like, ever.”

Derick
gave Hanna a lopsided smile. “Did she say anything else?”

Hanna
cleared her throat. “That she’d have to live vicariously through you, whenever
you have kids,” she said, warming at the memory of Sophie’s sidelong glance.

“Hanna
Elliot, I do believe you’re blushing,” Derick said. “Care to tell me why?”

“Not
really.”

He
laughed, the sound fading into the wind that came over the bluff. On their way
back to the Great Salt Pond, the six of them stopped off at one of the gift
shops. Hanna told the boys they could each choose one thing. CJ picked up an
enormous plush shark—which Hanna refused—then settled for a water gun instead.
Walter picked the same thing, and then Sophie ignored Hanna’s decree and bought
two giant sharks anyway.