Where Secrets Lie (6 page)

“
How can you be sure?” Lee asked.

Sara was still crying. She tried to answer, but her voice abandoned her.

“
Honey, tell me, how can you be sure?”

“
I… took… a… test.”

“
A pregnancy test? That you bought?”

Sara nodded.

“
So you haven’t been to a doctor?”

Sara shook her head.

Hope surged through Lee. Maybe Sara made a mistake performing the test. Maybe she misread the results. It happens, right? Sometimes, it happens.

“
Ok, the first thing we’ll do is go see Dr. Brown. Don’t worry, we can handle this.”

Lee grabbed a box of tissues off the counter, and handed them to Sara. Sara blew her nose and dabbed at her face.

“
Have you told Brian?” Lee tried to sound neutral. Until this moment, she had been fond of Brian. She was aware it wasn’t rational, but Lee couldn’t help but be annoyed with him. After all, this problem couldn’t exist without him.

Sara nodded. “We had a long talk about it.”

“
Did you? What did he say?”

“
We have a plan, we want to get married.”

Lee suppressed her explosive reaction. Pregnancy at Sara’s age was an event that could derail her promising future. Having a baby now would transform her college years from an exhilarating, carefree time of expanding knowledge and exploration into a life so laden with responsibility it would feel like pure drudgery. Any marriage begun under such circumstances would likely fail, and if it became too difficult for Sara to finish college, the quality of the rest of her life would be adversely impacted.

No, having a child at Sara’s age just wasn’t feasible. A marriage was completely out of the question. The situation was tricky though. Sara wasn’t mature enough to know they’d never be able to pull this off, but she wasn’t young enough that Lee could simply forbid it. Lee needed to stay calm, so she could turn this mess around.

“
Honey, don’t you think you’re too young to be thinking about marriage?”

“
I knew you’d say that, but we talked about all the other options, and we think getting married is the best thing to do.”

“
Yes, well, getting married sounds idyllic, but the reality of it is much different.”

“
We know that,” Sara said.

“
That’s something you can’t know until you’ve lived through it. And on top of a marriage, you’d have a baby. You have no idea what taking care of a baby entails.”

“
We can learn all that.”

“
Yes, you can learn the mechanics of it, Sara, but can you handle the pressure of having a husband, a household, a job, and a baby? Should you even be trying to at your age?”

“
We want to try.”

“
You should be going to college.”

“
We’ll still go to college.”

Sara launched into a detailed explanation of how they planned to manage it all by alternating schedules and working part time.

Lee listened and didn’t interrupt. What was the point? It would all be too much for them. That was clear. She admired their willingness to shoulder all that responsibility, but they’d crumble beneath the weight of it. She wasn’t about to let that happen.

“
I see,” Lee said once Sara finished talking.

“
You do?” Sara expected her mother to be argumentative, but after her initial objections, Lee was eerily passive.

“
Yes, I understand what you’re saying, Sara. It’s really quite a plan.” Their plan was bold, it was courageous, and it was doomed.

“
We know it won’t be easy.”

“
You’re right about that.” Lee placed her hand over Sara’s. “I’m going to do everything in my power to help you get through this.”

Sara hugged her mother. “Thanks, Mom.”

“
Don’t worry, honey, it’ll all work out in the end, you’ll see. Just trust me, ok?”

“
Yes, of course I do.”

“
I’ll call Dr. Brown and set everything up then.”

“
Ok.”

For the first time since she went to the drugstore to buy the pregnancy test, Sara felt at ease. With her mother backing them up, she and Brian were sure to be all right.

~

There was a knock on the door to the study. Sara remained seated while David got up and opened the door. Katie came into the room.

“
Hey guys, dinner’s about to be served, and Mom’s having a fit you aren’t sitting at the table.”

David walked past Katie and left without saying a word. Katie watched him go, and when he was out of earshot, she turned to Sara.

“
What’s that all about?”

“
Oh, it’s nothing,” Sara said.

“
Yeah, it sure looks like nothing.”

Sara’s anguished expression made it clear something serious was going on, but they both knew Katie would never press for an explanation. Instead, she grabbed Sara’s hand and pulled her toward the powder room next to the study.

“
We need to touch up your makeup before Mom sees you. You’re white as a ghost.”

Katie rummaged through the drawers under the sink.

“
I know Mom keeps spare stuff in here somewhere.”

Sara looked at herself in the mirror.

“
You’re right, I really am pale.”

“
Here, this will fix it.”

Katie handed Sara a compact, and Sara began to apply the blush.

“
You know Mom’s gonna ask you what’s going on, right?”

“
What, you don’t think the blush is working?”

Katie laughed. “You’re looking better, but David’s a mess. No way will she miss that. Besides, you guys were gone a long time. She’ll want to know why.”

“
So what do you think I should tell her?”

“
Unless you want to tell her the truth, just stay as far away from her as you can. She can’t grill you with all these people around.”

“
Ahh, the tomorrow is another day tactic?”

It was a classic, which they deployed frequently. Delay the inevitable. At least it gave you room to breathe and the opportunity to come up with a feasible story.

“
Yes, Scarlett, now are you ready?”

Sara turned toward Katie. “You tell me.”

“
You look great, let’s go.”

Lee watched Sara and Katie come out of the house and take their seats on either side of David, who barely acknowledged their arrival.

David was not the pensive type, but he had been brooding ever since he sat down at the table without any regard for who might be watching him. Although his behavior piqued Lee’s interest, she would save her questions for her daughter, and she would ask them when no one else was around.

Lee was not overly concerned. She was confident Sara and David’s well-matched personalities would allow them to quell any disturbance that brewed between them. Her own marriage possessed that trait as well.

Even before they were married, she and Jack shared an easy compatibility, which had not waned as the years passed.

~

Jack moved into the old Reynolds’s place down the street right after Katie was born. Since Lee was too exhausted to contemplate making anything homemade, she sent her husband Paul on a solo welcome mission armed with a plate of assorted pastries from their popular local bakery. She hurried Paul out the door on a Saturday afternoon right after lunch, but he did not return home until well after dark.

The camaraderie between Paul and Jack was instantaneous. Unloading the truck segued into discussing in detail the extensive renovations Jack had planned for his new home. During the next several months, in order to help with those renovations, Paul spent more waking hours at Jack’s house than he did his own.

Eventually, Jack started dropping by for reasons unrelated to renovations, and he often stayed for dinner. Whenever he was around, his lighthearted demeanor was contagious, and all of them, children and adults alike, looked forward to his visits.

~

On a clear night, the first weekend in May, Lee and Paul enjoyed a nightcap on their patio. Earlier that evening, they had Friday movie night with their daughters, which consisted of a movie right after dinner with both girls followed by another movie with just Sara.

Since Katie was only three years old, she went to bed after the first movie while Sara, who was nine years old, did not go to bed until after the second. Once Lee had both girls tucked into bed, Paul opened a bottle of wine, and they decided to drink it on the patio.

“
I forgot to tell you,” Paul said. “Jack’s coming over to help me with the swing set tomorrow.”

“
I thought I was helping you.”

“
It’ll go a lot faster with Jack.”

“
But you said it was simple.”

“
It is, but some of the pieces are heavy, and he’s better with tools than you are.”

Paul took a drink of his wine. “I thought you’d be happy, this way you can spend your time with the girls.”

Lee scoffed. “You mean I can keep them from bothering you.”

“
If it was just the two of us you know they’d want to help.”

“
They’ll want to help you and Jack too.”

“
Maybe, but this way you’ll be free to keep them from doing that.”

“
Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

Lee tried not to get annoyed. After all, she really didn’t care who assembled the swing set, as long as it got done. Besides, Paul was right. She would be happier spending her time with the girls.

~

The next morning, Lee was cleaning up after breakfast when Jack walked through the kitchen door.

“
Morning,” he said.

“
Good morning, Jack. There’s some coffee left if you’re interested.”

“
Thanks, but I think I’ve had my fill.”

“
Just help yourself if you change your mind.”

“
Will do, where’s Paul?”

“
He’s in the garage opening the boxes, which by the way are huge. I hope he warned you… this is no ordinary swing set.”

Jack laughed. “Is that right?”

“
I’m afraid so. There’s still time, you could make a run for it.”

“
Jack,” Paul called from the garage, which had an entrance off the kitchen, “is that you?”

“
Too late,” Lee said.

Jack smiled and went into the garage.

A couple of minutes later, Lee poked her head into the garage. “Paul, your dad’s on the phone.”

“
Be right back,” Paul said to Jack.

“
No problem.”

Paul went inside the house, and Lee went into the garage with Jack who was studying the swing set’s assembly instructions.

“
You weren’t kidding,” Jack said. “I wish they’d made swing sets like this when I was a kid.”

Most of the swing set was constructed from wood. In addition to swings, it included a raised deck encircled by a safety railing and covered by a dormered roof. Kids could climb onto the deck from a short rock climbing wall, a rope ladder, or a wood ladder. A large slide was attached to the deck and a built in picnic table and sandbox were housed beneath it.

“
It’s a little overboard, isn’t it?” Lee asked.

“
No way, I think it’s great.”

Paul came back into the garage.

“
Sorry, Jack, we’ll have to postpone. I need to go into the office.”

“
Oh no, Paul, not today,” Lee said.

“
Hey, it’s not my doing. Someone made a mistake on a client’s account, Dad needs my help to fix it.”

Paul was a C.P.A. and worked in his father’s accounting firm.

“
Are you the only one who can do it?” Lee asked.

“
Of course not, but I’m the only one Dad trusts to do it.” He turned to Jack. “If you’re free next weekend, maybe we can try again then.”

“
It looks pretty straight forward,” Jack said. “As long as Lee’s willing to lend a hand, we could start it today.”

“
I couldn’t ask you to do that,” Paul said.

“
Why not? You’ve done plenty of work at my house. I’m happy to return the favor.”

“
Then I guess it’s up to you two. I’ve got to run.”

Paul left the garage and headed for his car, which was parked in the driveway.

“
So what do you say?” Jack asked Lee.

“
I’m game if you are,” she said.

“
Great.”

“
Where do we start?” Lee knew the girls were about halfway through watching a video and would not be converging on them anytime soon.

“
By unpacking all of these boxes and organizing the parts.”

Paul had opened the boxes but only so he could find the instructions. None of the pieces were unpacked yet.

Jack pulled a piece of wood out of the first box, turned it around, and frowned at it.

“
What’s wrong?” Lee asked.