The older woman’s knees wobbled, and Roxie latched on to her.“Get a chair.We need to find her someplace to sit.”
“Here.”Cam wrapped an arm around Mrs.Shimwell and supported her from the other side.With the bullheadedness of a celebrity bodyguard, he moved them all through the crowd to a park bench away from the chaos.His touch was gentle as he guided the woman onto the seat.“There.How’s that?Better?”
“Yes, thank you.”She patted around for her purse.“Does anyone have a tissue?”
Lexie handed the woman her bag, along with a bottle of water.“It’s so hot out here today,” she said kindly.
“I’m sorry.It got to be a bit much.”
A bit much.Yes, Maxie would have to agree on that.She stared at Mrs.Shimwell, her mind blank yet running a million miles per hour.How did this woman, of all people, know something about her so private she hadn’t known it herself?She felt like she’d been punched in the chest.“You and my grandmother weren’t friends,” she blurted.
Audrey lowered the bottle of water and toyed with the plastic cap.“Not at the end, we weren’t, but Naomi was the closest friend I ever had until…”
She let out a ragged sigh that had Roxie kneeling onto the grass next to her.“Why don’t you start at the beginning?”
“Yes.The beginning.”Audrey looked to the sky.It was filled with puffy white clouds.Maxie knew because she’d been watching them all day long.As a child, her grandmother had loved to encourage her imagination.Together, they’d found flowers and animals and faces in that kind of sky.She’d felt her grandma’s presence here all day long.
She felt it even now, although her stomach was twisting in a way that wasn’t so happy.
Adopted.
With everything that had happened, it had been the obvious conclusion.She’d figured it out, but it was something else to have it confirmed.
“Naomi and I were the best of friends,” Audrey began.“We met playing bridge, and we had so much in common.She loved books, and I loved flowers.She’d started her family young in life, while I waited until I was much older.I’d just had my Martin when she began telling me about the troubles that Peter and Mary were having getting pregnant.”
She took a moment to blot her cheeks with the tissue.
“It got to be such a weight on their shoulders and on hers.They were living in Cobalt City at the time, and she felt so helpless.You can’t imagine how happy and excited we all were when the kids were finally able to adopt.Then when they decided to move back to Indigo Falls?Naomi was pleased as punch.She fell in love with you the moment she saw you.”
Audrey’s gaze was heavy with compassion, but it made Maxie feel even worse.Zac’s arm tightened around her, but she couldn’t allow herself to relax.“It was just me?”
Audrey nodded emphatically then glanced at Lexie and Roxie.“I didn’t know about you two until now.”
“Do you think...?”The words fell off until the trophy jabbed Maxie in the thigh.She’d forgotten she was even carrying it.“Did Grandma know?”
“No, she couldn’t have.She would have told me something like that.”Mrs.Shimwell gestured helplessly.The water sloshed in the bottle, spilling onto the seat beside her.She blotted it up with another tissue.“I don’t know how that could have possibly happened.Peter and Mary were desperate, but I can’t imagine them being part of something so…so… Were you all adopted by different families?”
“Roxie was left behind in foster care.”
A horrified expression settled onto the older woman’s face.She caught Roxie’s hand again, drawing her closer.“Oh,dear.”
Roxie shrugged in discomfort.“I guess I was the runt of the litter.”
The hard-nosed librarian sniffled.She cupped the back of Roxie’s head and tilted her forehead close.“It makes no sense,” she said fiercely.“They couldn’t have known.As much as they wanted kids, they would have taken you in.”
“Would they have taken me too?”Lexie was still as a statue, and her voice sounded impersonal.Cam stepped up behind her and wrapped both arms around her waist.He pulled her close until some of the rigidity left her body.
“I…I don’t know,” Audrey admitted.“Maybe three… Naomi and I might have had our falling out, but I vow to you,shedidn’t know any of this.”
Zac was standing so solid beside her, but Maxie couldn’t lean on him right now.Not now.Every single memory she had of her parents had just been made cloudy.And if her grandmother was so upright, why hadn’t she told her the truth?“Why am I hearing all of this from you?Why didn’t Grandma tell me?”
Mrs.Shimwell’s wobbling chin snapped back into its obstinate position, and her lips fell into a familiar purse.“That was my question as well, and the beginning of the end of our friendship.”
“What happened?”Roxie asked.
“The accident happened.”Audrey’s voice cracked, and the dampness reappeared in her eyes.She looked out over the crowd.“It was such a horrible thing, such a tragic waste.”
Maxie braced herself when the woman’s gray gaze settled on her again.Zac’s fingers dug into her side.She was still dressed as Roxie, with her T-shirt knotted high around her waist, but the skin-to-skin contact grounded her.“We were happy, weren’t we?”
