“So? You got Hedricks’s card.”
She was still standing in front of him and she turned the card over. Handwritten on the back was an address and a phone number.
It took him a moment to realize what they were. The address was of the corporate apartment, the one used by out-of-town clients. He didn’t recognize the number.
“If you call it, you’ll find that it’s your boss’s private cell number.”
“How did you get this?”
Shelly sat back down on the couch, looked at the candle, and didn’t answer him.
But Braden had a lawyer’s brain and he figured it out. He’d seen the way Hedricks looked at Shelly when she was introduced. At the time, he’d felt nothing but pride. Later, the man had sent Braden away to do work and that’s when he must have done whatever caused Shelly to lose a button.
“How did you get away?” Braden asked softly.
“I told him no in a way that let him know I meant it,” she said. “I’ve had a lot of experience doing that.”
All the anger left Braden and he fell back against the chair. “I’m really sorry.”
“Good,” Shelly said. “Maybe you’ll remember that when you’re trying to get me sent to prison.”
Braden winced because all day he’d worked to do just that. He’d spent a lot of time thinking about how he could persuade Hallie to press charges against her stepsister. “Why?” he asked.
“Why did your boss see me as an easy mark? I don’t know.”
The rain was slashing outside and the darkness of the room with the single candle made them seem isolated, just the two of them.
“That’s not what I mean,” he said. “For all those years, I saw and heard what went on in the Hartley house, but it was all from one side. I’ve seen you do mean things to Hallie. You buried her toys. I saw you pour grape juice on her new dress. You bent the spokes on her bicycle. Why?”
When Shelly looked up, there was something deep in her eyes, a kind of emptiness. “No one knows this, but I don’t know how to ride a bicycle. I used to watch you and Hallie riding together and my jealousy nearly devoured me.”
“What did you have to be jealous of Hallie about?” He was incredulous.
Shelly snorted in derision. “You want to hear the truth? The real truth?”
“Yes, I do.”
She took a moment before speaking. “No one seemed to understand that my mother was obsessed with using my looks to make money. How I looked was everything to her. While Hallie was liked. Loved even.” Shelly got up from the couch and began to pace.
“I was jealous of Hallie from the second I went to live in her house. She had grandparents who adored her. They cared about her so much they grew food in the backyard. But my mother was dragging me around to auditions for everything she could find and I was lucky if I got a candy bar for dinner.”
She stopped to glare at Braden, who was sitting there listening intently.
“Mom didn’t bulldoze their garden to put in a swimming pool. She did it because she knew it would make the grandparents so angry that they’d leave. They were beginning to say things like ‘Oh, Ruby, let the child stay home. I made a nice butternut squash soup.’ I wanted to stay home. I was hoping that maybe they’d start liking me as well as Hallie.
“Mom saw it all, so the garden had to go. And of course when the grandparents left, they wanted to take their beloved Hallie with them, but Mom said no. Hallie was free babysitting.”
Shelly took a breath. “Yeah, I did rotten things to Hallie. I remember one day Mom was yelling at me because I couldn’t memorize lines from a Shakespeare play. Hallie was on her computer with her grandparents in Florida. They kept saying how they loved her and missed her and couldn’t wait to see her again. That night I went into Hallie’s room and poured Diet Coke on her keyboard.”
Braden was watching her with interest.
Shelly took a breath, her hands in fists at her side. “Then Mom and Dad died when I was still a minor. After that, I was at Perfect Hallie’s mercy. She quit college and took on lots of jobs so I wouldn’t be put in a foster home. All I heard was what a martyr Hallie was. While I was reviled. I was the one who’d caused poor, dear, sweet, lovable Hallie to have to give up her career.
“So, yeah, I acted out. Between no longer being under my mother’s thumb and having to live with Saint Hallie, I went wild. I admit it.
“The day after I graduated from high school, I told Hallie what I thought of her. I left with some no-good dirtbag just to make her angry. I went to L.A. and tried to get jobs in movies, but I wasn’t any good.”
“So you returned home,” Braden said.
“Yeah, I did, and people rushed to tell me every wonderful thing Hallie had done, then they asked me what I had achieved. And the answer to that was a big fat nothing.”
She paused for a moment. “And then one night I was watching TV and Hallie was, of course, at work, and an express envelope was delivered. I put it on a chair and it fell down the side and I forgot about it. A couple of days later, when I saw the corner of it sticking up, I panicked. I thought Hallie would throw me out on the street. I only opened it to see how much trouble I’d be in for not giving it to her right away.”
Shelly took a few breaths to calm herself down. “When I read that she’d inherited a house from a guy she’d never even met, I went crazy with anger. It was all so deeply unfair. Why did she get everything good in life?!
“I didn’t think about what I did. I wrote Jared that I was Hallie and I had lots of degrees and I would gladly accept the house. It threw me when he told me some rich guy wanted me to do physical therapy on his son, but what was I supposed to do? I couldn’t back down, so I agreed to take him on as a client. Hallie’s such a do-gooder, I figured that once I was there I could get her to write me out a plan for how to work on the guy.
“Most of all, I saw the whole thing as my once-in-a-lifetime chance to take another path. Just for a while I’d pretend to be Hallie, a person who never screwed up, who never got weak-kneed at the sight of a guy in black leather sitting on a big Harley. I’d have a highly respected career—and I’d be liked. Loved. Just like Hallie is.
“But it all backfired and I may be sent to prison. Yet again, Hallie is the good one and I’m bad. But then she probably won’t prosecute me even after I tried to steal an entire house from her! What does it take to knock her off that holy cloud she lives on?!”
Braden was staring at her. He’d never heard this many words from Shelly—and her anger had taken away his. “I think we should ignore the rain and get out of here.”
“All right,” she said.
When Braden tried the doorknob, it turned easily and outside the rain had stopped. He led the way to his car across grass that was quite dry and opened the door for Shelly. When he got in, he paused for a moment to look at her. Even though he’d known her since she was a kid, he was feeling that he didn’t know her at all. “Mind if we get carryout and go back to the house where I’ve been staying? I think we should talk more. All right?”
“I’d like that,” Shelly said and smiled at him.
Chapter Twenty-four
Hallie kept looking at Jamie as she worked on his knee. He was lying on the massage table and staring up at the arbor. Neither of them was speaking.
But then last night they’d done a lot of talking. They’d ended up buying food at Bartlett’s, then driving back to the chapel. It was a quiet place and that’s what they needed.
The building was beautiful in the fading light. They walked past it to sit on the sand by the water.
Hallie was still feeling the effects of her confrontation with Shelly and she didn’t know if she was happy or sad about it. What happened now?
Jamie sat down with his braced leg stretched out and he took care of the food while Hallie began to talk. He wanted to hear her side of her life. He didn’t tell her what he and Braden had spoken about.
Hallie’s side of the story was softer than Braden’
s version. Between the two, Jamie was able to see what had been a very lonely childhood.
But what he liked was that Hallie carried no bitterness or hatred about it all. She just wanted it all to stop. She especially wanted to quit worrying that Shelly was going to steal her boyfriend.
“You mean me?” Jamie asked. “I’m the bargaining chip?”
“You are,” she said. “If you and I are…you know.”
That led into a discussion of their future, and they agreed that they’d like to try being together.
“I’d just like to stay here for now,” Jamie said, “here on this magical island.”
“Me too,” Hallie said.
They made love on the beach. Slow, sweet love. Gentle, quiet, enduring love.
Afterward, they lay in each other’s arms and looked at the stars, saying nothing, but both of them thinking about the future and where they would go from there.
It was late when they left and drove home. They slept together, cuddled, wrapped up in each other. And when Jamie’s nightmares began, Hallie was there to soothe him.
In the morning they went about their usual routine, but they kept stealing looks at each other. Was this the person they would spend their lives with?
Hallie received a text message from Braden.
SHELLY IS WITH ME AND I’M TAKING HER HOME TOMORROW.
After she read it to Jamie, he made a call to Raine. The last of the Montgomery-Taggert family had left the island and were on their way home.
Jamie clicked off the phone. “I think you should be told something, but I’m not sure how you’re going to take it.” He told Hallie that Shelly and Braden had spent the night together. Night as in one bed.
“Oh,” Hallie said and sat down on a chair at the kitchen table.
“Are you okay with this?”
“Sure,” she said. “It’s just a bit of a shock.” She looked at him. “But, no, it’s not. Not really. Braden never treated Shelly as a little girl, at least not after she reached puberty. What’s that look for?”
“Raine said Braden asked him an odd question. He wanted to know if Raine knew where to buy a set of motorcycle leathers.”
Hallie and Jamie looked at each other and laughed at the vision of a lawyer in black leather with silver studs.
Jamie told Hallie of his talk with Braden and how he’d looked after her all her life. Jamie recounted Braden’s attraction to Shelly but that he’d held off for the sake of Hallie and his mother.
“He did all that for me?” Hallie asked in wonder.
Jamie could see what a shock it all was to her and that she needed a way to relieve the stress. “Let’s hit the gym.”
Hallie groaned. “How did I get stuck with a doctor-jock?”
“I’m not sure, but I think a couple of ghosts did it all. You and me, and maybe Braden and Shelly. Raine said that Braden kept talking about a storm last night that locked him and Shelly together in the tea room.”
They looked at each other and laughed.
And now Jamie was on the table and Hallie was finishing with his knee. It was nearly four P.M.
After Jamie got dressed, they walked back to the house together. There, sitting on the kitchen table, was one of the lavish teas, with food piled high and a steaming pot of tea.
“Edith, I love you,” Jamie said as he washed his hands, Hallie beside him.
“I enjoyed your relatives’ visit, but I’m glad to get back to normal,” Hallie said. “We need to thank Edith for all this and do something nice for her.”
“Shall we give her a trip away from her angry daughter-in-law?” Jamie suggested.
“I wonder how Betty and Howard did with all your relatives staying there? Especially the children.”
“I’m sure the Montgomery kids were perfectly polite, but Mom said Cory discovered the way into the attic and found a box full of magazines with naked men on the covers.”
“Ooooo,” Hallie said. “Will she share?”
“I think that—” He broke off at a knock on the back door. “Speak of the devil, it’s Betty.”
He went to the door, Hallie just behind him.
“Hello,” Jamie said as he opened the door. “It’s good to—”
“Have you seen my mother-in-law?” Betty demanded. “Has she been over here to see those damned ghosts of yours?”
“We haven’t seen her,” Hallie said, “but she brought us another fabulous tea from your beautiful inn.”
“We should pay you for them,” Jamie said. “Tell me what you charge and Hallie and I will repay you. Plus a delivery fee.”
Betty frowned. “What are you two talking about?”
“The teas Edith brings over,” Hallie said. “But maybe you don’t know about them. Sorry, but as Jamie said, we’ll pay for them.”
“Tea?” Betty said. “Delivered to you by my mother-in-law? Brings them over often, does she?”
“Yes, fairly regularly,” Jamie said, leaning on his crutches.
“Remember the last time I was here?” Betty asked and they nodded. “The next afternoon Howard and I sent Edith to Arizona to visit her daughter. She just got back this morning and she’s already disappeared. I don’t know who’s been bringing you food, but it wasn’t her.”
“Then who was it?” Hallie asked, puzzled. She stepped aside so Betty could see the table with the opulent tea set up. There were a couple of tiered trays full of sandwiches and cookies, cakes and pastries.
“As you can see,” Jamie said, “there’s a lot of food and the big pot of tea. Maybe someone else from your inn is delivering it.”
Betty looked from one to the other. “You two are as crazy as my mother-in-law. There is nothing on that table but a bunch of empty dishes.” She put her hand on the door. “I think my mother-in-law should go back to Arizona. It’s saner there.” With a shake of her head, she left, closing the door firmly behind her.
Jamie and Hallie looked at each other, then very slowly turned toward the table.
Moments before they had been hungrily eating the wide variety of foods and drinking tea that never grew cold.
But now they saw empty dishes. They were sparkling clean, but then they had often washed and stacked them, ready for whenever Edith came by and picked them up.
There was no food and no steam coming from the teapot.
When Jamie and Hallie looked back at each other, their eyes widened as they realized that for weeks they’d been eating nothing. And without saying it aloud, they knew that each feast had been prepared by hands that no longer existed.
Hallie was the first to speak. “So now we see why I lost weight.”
For a moment Jamie looked as though he didn’t know what to say, but then a bit of laughter escaped him.
“The Ghost Diet,” Hallie said. “Think it will catch on?” She too began to laugh. Within seconds, they couldn’t hold back. They fell into each other’s arms and their laughter filled the house.
And inside the tea room, two beautiful young women smiled at each other. Yet again, they had helped True Love find itself.
Epilogue
Three months after Jilly’s wedding, an email from Shelly came through. Hallie drew in her breath. “She and Braden have set a wedding date for next January and she wants me to be her maid of honor.”
“What are you going to do?” Jamie asked.
“Decline, of course. She only asked me so I’d do all the work for the wedding while she does nothing. Absolutely not.”
“Having relatives isn’t all fairy tale happiness,” he said. “I think you should give yourself some time to think about what you want to do.”
Hallie thought that was good advice, so for three days she thought about nothing else. The first day she felt only anger. Of course she’d refuse! How dare Shelly even ask? But by the second day Hallie began to consider the repercussions of her actions. If she did attend Shelly and Braden’s wedding, would it be with a heart full of anger? Did Braden deserve that? Would she cry with Braden’s mother abo
ut the horror of his marrying someone like Shelly?
By the third day Hallie knew she had to make an effort at attaining peace. She left Jamie in Nantucket and flew back to her house outside Boston. Things there were worse than she’d imagined. Braden’s mother was despondent to the point of depression. She was sure that her son was ruining his life—and she told him so often. Braden was working sixteen-hour days to keep his mind off the problems of his personal life. And according to him, Shelly was living in fear that at any minute he was going to break up with her. Nothing he said reassured her.
Hallie decided she had to help Braden and his mother. First of all, she spent hours talking with Braden. She wanted to be sure that he loved Shelly and wasn’t just infatuated with her looks. She heard of his long-term love, and he told her about Shelly’s side of her childhood hurt. It took a couple of days and many telephone talks with Jamie, but Hallie adjusted to this new knowledge.
Hallie thought about sitting down with her stepsister and having a heart-to-heart talk. But what would that be like? Bringing up years of accusations? “You broke my doll!” “Your grandparents loved you but not me!” “You stole my boyfriend!” “You got to play when we were kids, but I didn’t.”
No, that would accomplish nothing.
After some very long talks with Jamie, then with his aunt Jilly, Hallie decided to use the coming wedding to bridge some of the gaps between people.
Hallie went to Braden’s mother and put on the show of her life. She took half a dozen bride magazines with her and, crying rather copiously, said that Shelly wanted her to plan her wedding, but Hallie didn’t know how.
Within ten minutes, Mrs. Westbrook was organizing a wedding. It took Hallie two days before she managed to get Shelly into her place. She and Braden’s mother became obsessed with flowers and cakes and gowns and even the crystals on the shoes. When Shelly told her future mother-in-law that she’d dearly love to have a baby right away, the bond was sealed.
In the ensuing peace, Braden called Hallie and said, “I love you.”