“If I’m reading between the lines of our conversation correctly, you’re thinking there must be something wrong with you. That you’re not attractive enough, or interesting enough, or adventurous enough—or something—or your husband wouldn’t have gone elsewhere for what you were already providing.”
What he said was so accurate, and her self-doubt so severe, that tears sprang to her eyes.
“But don’t you believe it,” he added and gave her arm a sympathetic squeeze before striding down the beach.
* * *
serenity
The bedroom off the loft that contained the library smelled of old leather, and dust motes floated in the swordlike shafts of sunlight stabbing through the blinds. This place wasn’t spooky like the basement in her house in Berkeley. There were no cobwebs or spiders. But it was packed so tightly with storage that it wasn’t easy to navigate. There were boxes stacked to the ceiling, some old furniture and an antique lamp shoved into one corner, a standing jewelry box her father had once given her mother but was now out of fashion, extra bedding, a pile of sheet music from when the twins were taking piano lessons and other odds and ends.
Serenity had already burrowed through the box just inside the door—the one filled with toys and games. That was where she’d found the puzzle for Lucy. Serenity had taken a game or two out of that box before. But as far as she was concerned, there’d never been anything else of interest in this room.
Until now.
Before texting Charlotte about Stuart Sands, she’d decided to see what she could find up here. When her parents were moving from Berkeley to San Diego, they sold their house as soon as they put it on the market, months before the new place was finished. Rather than rent an apartment, they’d decided to live at the cabin. And when they finally did move to their new home in Southern California, they’d left quite a lot of their belongings behind—anything they wanted to keep but weren’t likely to use.
Serenity thought that might include some old scrapbooks, photo albums, files for home purchases and/or other records. After all, the cabin was more enduring than anything else the Curringtons had ever owned. Their cars changed. Their boats changed. Even their main residence had changed. But Serenity knew her parents would never sell the cabin. Too many memories had been formed here. And with their children now grown, they were planning for the next generation.
Even if her mother hadn’t left any family photographs or birth certificates behind, there could be something here that would shed a bit of light on what her parents’ lives had been like in the early years of their marriage, before Serenity was born. A journal chronicling the years in question. A picture of her mother with another man from about the time Serenity was conceived. Keepsakes. Mementos. Love letters.
She went through the boxes first. They contained the twins’ college textbooks, some handmade Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls from when they were small—and old prom dresses. Why Charlotte was hanging on to those, Serenity couldn’t say. She supposed her mother was saving them for grandchildren, so they could play dress-up.
Other boxes included various things Beau had made in Boy Scouts or at school. Her mother had kept a lot of their schoolwork and other projects.
Disappointed by what she’d found, she moved on to the closet but had no better luck. The clothes there were so dated they had to have belonged to her parents way back when they were in college.
When she was finished with even the drawers of the tallboy dresser—which she’d only been able to reach by pushing and pulling and heaving the other furniture out of the way—she turned in a slow circle, wondering if there could be something she’d missed.
Had she spent her afternoon on a wild-goose chase? It felt that way.
“Damn.”
Her phone buzzed in her pocket.
She took it out to see that Reagan had texted a picture. They were at Sand Harbor. Finn had Lucy on his shoulders and was standing to one side of Lorelei. Reagan was on the other side with the water glistening behind them.
Serenity was tempted to forward it to Mark. Although Reagan was in the picture, too, it looked like Finn was Lucy’s father—that Finn, Lorelei and Lucy were a family. And going by the way they were smiling, they seemed happy.
If Mark wasn’t careful, maybe Finn really would step in and replace him...
But it was the fact that Reagan had looped her arm casually through Lorelei’s that made Serenity stop and study the picture. How was it that they were becoming so close already? Not too long ago, they’d barely known each other and yet...
There was something powerful and meaningful there. Something beyond friendship. She felt it, too. A defensiveness toward those who weren’t treating her sisters right. A hope that they could overcome their struggles. The desire to help them do so.
If that wasn’t a testament to genetics, Serenity didn’t know what was.
With a flicker of regret for not accompanying them—especially since she hadn’t found anything of interest in the cabin while they were gone—she wrote Reagan back. Glad you made it to the lake. Beautiful, isn’t it?
Spectacular. Now I see what I’ve been missing spending all my time in a New York City high-rise.
Maybe what happened between you and Drew—what sent you on this course—was meant to be. Your life was out of balance.
I have to grant you that. But forced change is never easy.
As long as it’s worth it in the end?
Fingers crossed.
When will you three be back?
We’re starting back now.
If you get too tired, give me a call. I can pick you up.
We’ve got Finn with us, so we should be fine. There’s no way Lorelei or I could carry Lucy that far, but he seems to have no trouble.
Serenity scrolled up to take another look at the picture she’d received before responding. Lorelei really likes Finn.
From what I can tell, he likes her too.
How much?
I guess we’ll see.
It would serve Mark right if Lorelei fell in love with Finn. But she supposed that was the sisterly defensiveness she’d noticed creeping in again. Reagan was right when she said they shouldn’t judge Mark too soon. Serenity needed to remember how hard it was to evaluate a situation accurately when she was only looking in from the outside—but it wasn’t easy to be that fair-minded.
She put her parents’ storage back the way she’d found it and meandered into the library. If her mother had a cache of love letters or an old journal, she hadn’t come across it. There was nothing left to do but text Charlotte about Stuart Sands.
But that could tip her mother off and might bring Charlotte rushing to Tahoe to either explain or justify the past. And considering how things were going with Lorelei and Reagan, Serenity wasn’t convinced that would be a good idea. Yes, they wanted to discover how they were related. But they also wanted to get to know each other.