Treading Water (29 page)

“
That poor kid, I’m sure it
was embarrassing for him.”

“
It probably was. I hadn’t
thought about it that way. There’s Hailey Harper.” She nodded at a
girl across the street. “I don’t like her.”

“
Why not?”

“
She thinks she’s so fancy
with her funky French braids.”

“
Guess who knows how to
braid like that?”

“
You do?” Maggie’s eyes lit
up. “Could you do it for me?”

“
Sure, we’ll do it
tomorrow.”

They chatted all the way home, and Andi
celebrated her first breakthrough.

One down, two to go.

Andi stifled a laugh at the loud moan from
the master bathroom.

“
Oh my God!” Frannie flung
open the door and held up the stick with the large pink cross. “I’m
almost forty-four. I
can’t
be pregnant!”

Andi hugged her. “You can, and you are.”

Tears spilled from
Frannie’s eyes. “Jamie will
freak
,” she moaned. “We’re both too
old!”

“
He’ll be thrilled,” Andi
assured her.

Frannie sat on the sofa and dropped her head
into her hands.

Andi did and said everything she could think
of to comfort Frannie, but nothing seemed to work. “I’ll be right
back.” She went downstairs to use the phone in Kate’s room, so
Frannie wouldn’t hear her. “Hi, Jamie, it’s Andi.”

“
Hey, Andi, what’s
up?”

“
Everything’s fine, so
don’t worry, but can you come over to the house…um…now?”

“
Is something
wrong?”

“
No, it’s Frannie,
she’s—”

“
I’ll be right
there.”

Jamie bounded up the stairs fifteen minutes
later and stopped short at the doorway when he saw Frannie
crying.

“
Frannie, honey, what’s
wrong?”

“
I’ll leave you two alone.”
Andi closed the door and went downstairs. A few minutes later, she
smiled at the loud whoop that came from upstairs.

Jack came in a few minutes later looking
worried. “What’s wrong, Andi? Quinn told me you called and Jamie
went running out of the office.”

Andi kissed him. “Nothing’s wrong.”

“
Then why did Jamie come
over here like that? It scared the hell out of me.”

“
I’m sorry it scared you,
but you’ll have to let them tell you,” she said with a mysterious
smile.

He seemed to get that whatever was going on
wasn’t bad news, so he picked her up. “Tell me what you know,
woman!”

“
Put me down!”

But instead he flung her over his shoulder
and pretended he’d drop her if she didn’t tell him.

“
What’ll we do if our kid
turns out like him rather than me?” Jamie asked as he and Frannie
came into the kitchen.

Jack gasped as he set Andi
down.
“
Your
kid
?”

The others nodded.

Jack let out a whoop of his own and hugged
them both. “Congratulations! What a surprise!”

“
No kidding,” Frannie
muttered.

Glowing with delight, Jamie put an arm
around his wife.

Jill came into the kitchen. “What’s all the
yelling about?”

“
Your aunt and uncle have
some wonderful news,” Jack said.

“
We’re having a baby!”
Jamie said.

Jill squealed and called her sisters
downstairs.

Eric trailed along with Maggie, and Andi
signed the news to him.

Everyone was talking at once when Frannie
turned green again and ran for the bathroom.

Frannie was sick for weeks, until Jamie
couldn’t take it anymore and called her doctor. She was admitted to
the hospital and put on intravenous fluids. An ultrasound done the
first day she was in the hospital confirmed what the doctor thought
she’d heard on the fetal heart monitor—two heartbeats.

Frannie was asleep when Andi stopped to
visit later that day after Jamie called to tell them about the
twins.

She woke up when Andi sat down next to her
bed. “I blame you, you know.”

“
Oh, really? I can’t wait
to hear this.”

“
Everyone you buy paintings
from ends up with all these kids—first triplets and now twins.
You’re some sort of fertility witch.”

Andi snorted with laughter.
“You keep thinking that, but I’ll tell you exactly what got you in
this boat
—
two
weeks in a hut in Fiji.”

“
It was a very nice
bungalow, and we saw no reason to leave it,” Frannie said with a
spark of life back in her eyes. “I’m thinking now that maybe we
should’ve done some sightseeing.”

“
I’ll bet you are,” Andi
said with a chuckle.

“
My mother was here
earlier, telling me how twins run in her family. Mine will be the
fifth set she knows of. Her great-grandmother was a twin. I never
knew that. I was like, thanks a lot, Mother, but it’s a little late
now to tell me I was playing with fire.”

“
No kidding! Are you
feeling any better?”

“
Yeah. At least I’m not
puking constantly anymore.”

Andi winced. She could think of nothing
worse. After an easy pregnancy with Eric, the delivery had been
chaotic and ended in an emergency cesarean. She often wondered if
the problems during delivery had somehow caused his hearing
impairment, but she would never know for certain. “Well, I’ll let
you get some rest. I’m sure the girls will be by, and Jack will
want to come in later, so I’ll see you then, okay?”

“
I still blame
you.”

After a spell of rainy days that Andi
thought would never end, May dawned warm and sunny. The tulips were
in bloom, and a few days were nice enough for her to finally try
out her new convertible. She picked Jack up at his office one day
and took him for a ride on Ocean Drive. They stopped to inspect the
hotel, which was now framed and crawling with construction workers.
Jack had been there earlier in the day and said he was pleased with
the progress.

A week later, he and the girls noted the
second anniversary of Clare’s accident by visiting her and having
dinner out. They asked Andi and Eric to join them for dinner, but
Andi thought they needed to be alone together and took the
opportunity to spend some time with Eric.

She was in bed reading when Jack came home
looking exhausted. “How is everyone?”

He unbuttoned his shirt and sat next to her
on the bed. “They did very well. They handle seeing her much better
than they used to.”

Andi reached out to him. “How about
you?”

He laced his fingers through hers. “It never
gets any easier to see her like that. I can’t believe it’s already
been two years.”

“
Can I do anything for
you?”

“
You already have. I was
anxious to get home to you.”

She gave their joined hands a tug to bring
him close enough to kiss. What she intended to be a quick kiss
turned into a lingering embrace, and before long, her hands were
under his shirt, caressing his back.

He shivered from her touch and kissed his
way up her neck. “You make me crazy with wanting you, Andrea.”

“
You have me, love. I’m
right here.”

Chapter 22

As Jillian Frances Harrington’s name was
called at graduation, Jack held on tight to Andi’s hand and fought
the urge to bawl his head off.

Jill walked across the stage in her red cap
and gown to shake hands with the principal. She wore gold cords
around her neck, signifying her acceptance into multiple honor
societies, and Jack thought he would burst with pride.

When she reached the end of the stage, she
moved her tassel to the other side and blew them a kiss.

To his right sat Andi, his parents, Clare’s
mother, Frannie and Jamie, Neil and Mary Booth, Kate, Maggie, and
Eric. The adults wept as they watched the girl they loved leap into
adulthood.

Jack wished Clare could have been there to
see it. He’d thought of her often in the weeks leading up to the
ceremony and knew she was also on Jill’s mind that day. The time
with his first-born daughter had gone by in an instant, and he was
sad to think about her leaving them at the end of the summer. When
the last of the graduates had been called, he went to find his
girl.

Jack took them all out to dinner and invited
everyone back to the house to swim and have cake. They were
throwing a party for Jill and her friends the next day, but this
night was for family.

Jill glowed with excitement as she opened
cards and gifts. She was delighted with Andi’s gift—a certificate
for professional decorating services for her dorm room at Brown
University. Jack thought it was a great gift, and Andi seemed
relieved that Jill liked the idea.

When Jill had opened all her gifts, Jack
handed her a black key and pointed to the front door.

Shrieking, she flew out the door to find a
lime-green Volkswagen Beetle with a large yellow bow on top sitting
in the driveway.

Jill let out another shriek and launched
herself into his arms when he followed her out the door. The others
were right behind him.

Her eyes widened with excitement. “Is it
really mine?”

“
All yours, with only one
string attached—you have to come home to us often.”

“
I will, Dad. I promise.”
She hugged him again. “Come with me. You get the first
ride.”

He slid the bow off and handed it to
Andi.

Jill almost jumped out of her skin with
delight as she beeped at the family on her way around the circular
driveway. She hit the gas, and the gravel went flying.

He groaned. How many times had he talked to
her and Kate about blasting in and out of the driveway? He was
forever raking the gravel back into place.

Jill drove around the block to the beach.
“This was the best day of my whole life.”

“
You’ll always remember
it.” His right foot shot out looking for brakes that weren’t there.
“Slow down, Jill!”

She flashed him a saucy grin that reminded
him of her mother. “Thank you for the car. I love it.”

Willing his heart back to a normal rate,
Jack said, “I had a feeling you would.”

She pulled into a parking space at the
beach, where the surf was up, and people were enjoying the end of
one of the year’s longest days.

They sat on the sand to watch the surfers
riding the waves.

“
I was so proud of you
today, and your mother would’ve been, too. She’d be thrilled to
know you’re going to Brown.”

“
I hope so.”

He slipped an arm around
her. “I know so. I love that you’re staying right here in Rhode
Island but still going Ivy League. That gives me
lots
of bragging
rights.”

She groaned and laughed.

“
You’re a good girl, Jill,
and a wonderful daughter. I hope you’ll never forget where your
home is or that you can come back any time you want to or need to.
I’ll always be right here for you.”

She leaned into him. “Thank you, Dad,” she
whispered. “For everything.”

Overcome, he kissed the top of her head and
held on tight, wishing he could hold on forever.

“
We’d better get back to
the party,” he said.

They got up, brushed off the sand, and
walked hand in hand back to her new car.

With Jack in New York for a few days of
client meetings, Andi sent the kids to the beach and buckled down
to write a recruitment ad for an executive chef. After working for
several hours, she pushed back from the computer and stretched.

She wandered into the kitchen for a glass of
juice and to watch the surf for a few moments before she used the
last of the juice to refill her glass. Looking around for a piece
of paper to make a grocery list, she noticed the dry erase board
that no one seemed to use on the side of the refrigerator. Taking a
wet paper towel to wipe off the old writing, she started a new
grocery list and then went back to the window to finish her juice.
She never grew tired of such ready access to the ocean and had come
to depend on the roar of it to lull her to sleep at night.

Andi was back in her office when the garage
door opened. Checking her watch, she couldn’t believe it was so
late and went out to greet the kids.

“
Hi,” Kate said as she came
into the kitchen with Jill right behind her.

They made a beeline to the fridge.

Jill stopped short, let out
a cry, and looked at Andi. “
Did you erase
that?
”

Taken aback, Andi said, “We needed a new
list.”

“
Nooooo
,” Jill wailed and flew from the room.

Andi turned to Kate, who seemed stricken as
she studied the board.

“
What’s wrong? I don’t
understand.”

Kate shrugged. “My mom wrote that.”

Andi’s stomach dropped. “Oh my God, Kate. I
had no idea. I’m so sorry.” The note had been there for more than
two years, and she’d wiped it away in a careless instant. She’d
hardly even noticed it before.

“
You couldn’t have known,”
Kate said.

Andi wondered how many more times she would
hear that phrase.

“
What’s wrong?” Maggie
asked when she came in with Eric. She let out a short gasp when
Kate pointed to the dry erase board.