A million drops of relief flooded through Maddie. “That’s wonderful.” And it was. But then she doubted Taylor had driven all the way up-island to convey the rehab message. She could have called. Or texted. Or asked Kevin to pass it on.
Maddie gathered her wits and her patience as best she could.
Taylor tossed back her mane and spun it into a ponytail, snapping an elastic band around it. “I came to apologize,” she said.
If she next said she’d stopped by to say King Charles would be there for the grand opening, Maddie would not have been as surprised. So she simply stood there, staring at Rex’s sister.
“I was too harsh on you, for which I’m sorry,” the auburn-haired curiosity continued. “But I wasn’t ready to lose my brother. I’m not sure I ever will be.” She looked at the floor.
“I was about to take a break,” Maddie heard herself say. “Join me for tea?” She went to the “Tea and Scones Corner” area of the shop and plugged in the hot pot. “Our kitchen isn’t set up yet, and Grandma hasn’t yet packaged her teas, so right now we’re dependent on the good people at Twinings. Is green tea okay? It’s decaf.”
“That’s fine,” Taylor said.
Maddie got to work as a proper hostess; when she turned around again, Taylor was sitting on a folding chair by the window that overlooked the harbor and the deck. She’d opened another chair for Maddie.
Yes, Maddie thought, Taylor, indeed, was a curiosity.
The water bubbled.
Maddie poured, brought the mugs to where they apparently were going to meet, and sat.
“It’s nice of you to come,” Maddie said, “but there was no need to apologize. Rex’s ordeal must be horrible for you, Taylor.”
“And a tiny bit for you?” she asked.
Maybe Kevin had slipped a bottle of “be nice to Maddie” pills into his wife’s morning coffee. She almost sounded compassionate.
“I can’t say it hasn’t,” Maddie said, “but you … you went out to California. And now these past weeks …”
Taylor raised her eyes up to the ceiling. “The hardest part was seeing him in the coma.” Then Taylor did something completely out of character: She cried.
Maddie wasn’t sure if she should acknowledge it or pretend she hadn’t noticed.
“I’m sorry,” Taylor apologized again, wiping her tears, and then taking a gulp of tea. “I’ve been kind of crazy lately.”
“I know the feeling.”
After a pause, she asked, “What about you? Have you been feeling okay? With the baby?”
“I feel great. I want to be on prenatal vitamins for the rest of my life.”
Taylor laughed. Out loud. Which was another surprise. “I was sick as a dog with Jonas. Almost every day for nine stupid months.”
Then they talked about the mysteries of being “with child,” at one point commiserating, even laughing. It didn’t seem that Taylor was accustomed to sharing her emotions with a friend; Maddie wasn’t sure that the woman had many of those. But then Taylor became serious and shared her story that she’d been pregnant as a teen and had watched the father of her baby drown. He’d been a kid from a wealthy, summer family—her loss was magnified when she told her parents she was pregnant and her father shipped her off to Boston and told her to never return. She studied the floor again, the wavy old boards having been replaced by gleaming new ones.
Maddie didn’t need the details to tell she must have suffered.
“Anyway,” Taylor added, “I had Jonas and gave him to my boyfriend’s parents to raise; I had no choice.”
Maddie was appalled.
“I didn’t meet my boy until he was out of college, when he came to his grandparents’ summer home on Chappy—they’d raised him to think they were his mom and dad. They’d had no idea I was back on the island, taking care of my mother after my father died. The fact that Jonas and I are close today still amazes me.”
Maddie had an urge to ask about Rex’s child, if she knew how old the child was, or where he or she lived. But she quickly stopped herself. That information had to come from Rex, not his quirky sister.
After saying all she evidently wanted to, Taylor finished her tea and said, “But I’ve taken too much of your time. I only came to apologize and to ask a favor.”
So … the woman has an ulterior motive. Which might explain why she’d been so nice. Maddie sat up straight. “Go ahead.”
