“Our family seems to be growing exponentially, doesn't it? I don't see how you can't take him. Do you really think she'll die?”
“Sounds like it. She sounded pretty bad.”
“I don't think we have much choice. At least he's cute,” he said, leaning over to kiss her. He was an incredibly good sport. And they agreed not to tell Pip about it for the time being. It was too depressing, and she had been through enough trauma with her mother over the past six weeks. She didn't need to know Andrea was dying. It was just too much.
Ophélie got a note from Andrea, thanking her, a few days later, and she didn't call after that. Ophélie was going to call her, but she was so tired and weak herself, she kept putting it off and it still upset her. Matt drove her to the beach two weeks later, with Pip and the dog. They took a short walk, and sat in the sunshine. It already felt like summer, and was only March. They talked about their wedding plans. They had decided to do it quietly at the beach, with just their children present, and a priest Matt knew in Bolinas. It sounded just right to them. Neither of them wanted a fancy social event.
And two days after they'd taken Pip to the beach, they went back out together on a brilliantly sunny day. She said that she thought the sea air had been good for her, and he agreed, but he had something else in mind. They packed a picnic lunch in the city, since he had nothing to eat out there. And as soon as they got to the house in Safe Harbour, he set the basket on the table, and put some music on. She had a fair idea of what he was thinking, and she was ready this time. They had waited a long, long time for this. It was what should have happened in Tahoe, and didn't.
As soon as they walked in, he put his arms around her and kissed her, and she looked up at him. Long before he ever touched her, she was already his, and wanted to be. She followed him into his bedroom, and he took her clothes off gently and laid her down on his bed, and then he joined her, and they cuddled quietly under the sheets, until passion overtook them, and swept them away on a gentle sea. It was the joining of two lives, two people, two hearts, two worlds, and was all they wanted it to be. It was what they had both hoped for and had only dreamed. And together in each other's arms, at Safe Harbour, the dream came true at last.
28
OPHÉLIE HAD BEEN PLANNING TO CALL ANDREA EVER since she'd heard from her two weeks before. But she'd been overwhelmed, trying to catch up on things that had piled up when she was sick. She had to go to a suppression hearing in the case against her assailant, because the defense wanted to suppress her testimony and prevent her from testifying at the trial. After an exhausting morning in court, which Matt attended with her, the defense's motion was denied. And she was still tired. Something always seemed to stop her when she was going to call Andrea. She had promised herself finally that she was going to call that afternoon, before Pip came home. She was about to dial the number, when Andrea's au pair called.
“I was just going to call her,” Ophélie said pleasantly. “How is she? I'm glad you called.”
The voice at the other end sounded uncomfortable, and hated to tell her the news. “She died this morning, just before noon,” she said, and Ophélie felt as though she'd been hit by a brick.
“Oh my God… I'm so sorry…I didn't know…I thought… she told me it would be a few months …I had no idea it would be so soon.” Death didn't always come on schedule, or as planned. In fact, it never did. And all she could think of as she sat there was of having been at the delivery with her, less than a year before. It had been so exciting and so joyful, and so moving, and as she thought of it, she realized that that was how she would remember her. And suddenly she was glad that she hadn't seen her when she was sick. After nearly twenty years of friendship, their lives had become unhooked, but maybe it was meant to be that way. Andrea had a path to follow that no longer included Ophélie. She had made a terrible mistake that had hurt Ophélie terribly, but a child had come of it, and now he was coming home to her. All of life's strange twists and turns never led where you expected them to. It was impossible to even guess at one's destiny.
“Is there a funeral?” Ophélie asked her, wondering if she was supposed to organize it. How odd that was too, they had always talked about weddings and affairs, and Ophélie had given a christening party for Willie because she was his godmother. And now they had to have a funeral for his mother. But the au pair explained that that wasn't what Andrea had wanted. They had already come to get her, she wanted to be cremated and sprinkled at sea. No service, no memorial, no mourners, no tombstone anywhere, just peo-ple's memories. It seemed cleaner to her that way, and for once Ophélie agreed. Under the circumstances, it was going to be less painful for everyone that way.
She had made her own arrangements to get rid of her apartment, and her things. All that was left was Willie. The au pair offered to bring him over later that day. Which meant that Ophélie had to tell Pip.
She was waiting for her in the kitchen when she came home from school with Matt. And Pip instantly reacted to the look on her mother's face. Matt already knew. She had called him in the car while he was on the way to school. And he had said he would do everything he could to support her, and Pip.
“Is something wrong?” Pip still remembered the last time she had seen her mother look like that, it had been a lot worse, but it frightened her anyway. She was afraid she was going to tell her that she and Matt had decided not to get married, but Ophélie instantly assured her that everything was all right, but she had sad news.
“Is it Mousse?” He was out in the garden and she hadn't seen him, and Ophélie smiled at her. Other than Matt, they had no one else left.
“No, it's Andrea. She died today.” Pip looked shocked at first and then sad. “She was very sick. She called me over two weeks ago, but I didn't want to tell you for a while.”
“Were you still mad at her?” Pip asked, watching her mother's face.
“Not really. We kind of made up when she called and told me she was sick.”
“What did she do to you?” Ophélie exchanged a look with Matt and he wondered what she would say, and he approved of what she did say to Pip.
“I'll tell you all about it one day, when you're grown up, but not till then.”
“It must have been very bad,” Pip said solemnly. She knew her mother well enough to know that she would have forgiven Andrea sooner otherwise, and seen her again.
“I thought it was.” But Pip also needed to know that Willie was her half brother one day.
“What's going to happen to Willie?” Pip asked sadly. He was an orphan now. It was a terrible thought, even to her.
“He's coming to live with us,” she said calmly, and Pip's eyes grew wide.
“He is? Now?”
“Today.” Pip looked pleased, and Matt smiled. It was a strange turn of events certainly, but like everything else, meant to be, if it happened that way. It made him realize again how odd life was. If things had turned out differently, Ophélie might have died of her gunshot wounds. Instead, they were getting married, and another woman's baby, who was also Ted's, was coming to live with them. Life and its extraordinary and often complicated and unexpected turn of events.