Page 44 of An Island Summer
“Depression and his emotions over your parents’ death could also be affecting him,” Dr. Hughes said, typing notes into her computer and then looking back up at them, clearly not giving what Meghan said any further consideration.
“What do we do to snap him out of it?” Toby asked, untying his tie, the knot hanging loose at his neck, and unbuttoning the top button of his collar.
“Let him know you’re here, without putting pressure on him to interact with you.”
“Would it make any difference at all if he did know Hester?” Meghan pressed, wishing for a magic bullet to pull him out of this. She recalled the tears streaming down Rupert’s cheek and felt very strongly that he had something to say, yet he wasn’t able to get the point across.
Dr. Hughes regarded her with empathy as if Meghan were grasping for straws. “I think the important thing here is to keep his mind active.”
Meghan turned to Toby. “May I go in to see him with you?”
“Of course,” he replied.
“Looks like you two were having a nice night,” Dr. Hughes said with a smile as she eyed their clothes. “I’m sorry to have pulled you from it.”
Toby’s gaze fluttered over to Meghan with fondness. “This is more important,” he said.
Meghan couldn’t help but wonder about Toby’s reasoning as to why it was more important, the rumors swirling around in her head juxtaposed with the connection they’d had during their dance. She wanted to believe he wasn’t the person people thought he was, but just like with Rupert’s fantasies, maybe she was more of a romantic than she thought she was.
The two of them walked down to Rupert’s room and found him sitting in a chair, staring off into space, not even acknowledging them when they came in.
“Gramps?” Toby said, turning on the lamp by his bed. “It’s Toby. I came to check on you.”
“I’m here too,” Meghan said, her heels clicking on the tiled floor as she stepped over. When she got in front of him, Rupert’s gaze shifted to her dress, his cloudy eyes widened, filling with tears, tugging at her heart. “What is it?” she whispered, but he didn’t answer.
Meghan and Toby took a seat on the bed across from Rupert, the buzz of the lights the only sound in the room. As Meghan sat there in silence, she considered again how the man next to her and the one across from her were the two people on the island she knew the best, besides Tess. The irony wasn’t lost on her that she didn’t really know either of them at all. So why did she feel like there was nowhere else in the world she wanted to be than right there? She looked over at Toby, allowing her thoughts to show and wondering if he could read them.
He locked eyes with hers, questions in his gaze, but neither of them said a word.
After they’d sat in silence for more time than was bearable, Toby finally stood up. “We never got to finish our dance,” he said, offering her a warm look that sent a bolt of delight through her. Putting in one of Rupert’s DVDs, he skipped to a scene where Cary Grant led Hester Quinn onto the floor of his New York apartment, set her martini down for her, and pulled her into his arms, an old 1950s song playing as the two of them danced around the room.
Toby took Meghan’s hands and pulled her up. With her hand in his, he began to lead, the two of them gliding around the hospital-style floor. Rupert’s gaze moved from the wall to them, following their steps with interest, filling Meghan with hope that he might snap out of it. She squeezed Toby’s hand and he twirled her out and back in, Rupert’s eyebrows rising, his set jaw falling slack with awe.
Allowing their movements to speak for them, Toby’s hands were soft when they trailed along her body, as if the two of them were in this together, giving her a shiver of happiness. She let her fingertips caress his shoulder, his other hand finding hers and gently holding it. He pulled her in, his cheek grazing her temple, and she feared that he could feel the beating of her heart and know that it was thumping because she’d never felt anything quite as wonderful as being in his arms.
Before she was ready, the song ended, the actors beginning their dialogue, and Meghan and Toby both slowed to a stop. The two of them looked at Rupert, a smile emerging through the old man’s downturned features. “Where are the Baldwins?” he asked out of nowhere, his voice croaking from not being used.
Meghan let go of Toby and walked over to Rupert, thrilled that he was back in his Hester fantasy once more. While it wasn’t the lucid man she’d hoped to know, there was something comforting about their little relationship.
“And Audrey?” he continued, stopping her cold.
“What?” she asked, the word coming out on a breath of shock.
“You have on the earrings you gave her.” His gaze found Meghan, and he waited expectantly for an answer, but she couldn’t speak. Her limbs began to shake.
She turned to Toby and pulled him to her, the spicy scent of him hardly registering as she leaned into his ear. “Audrey is my grandmother, and I’m wearing her earrings,” she whispered. She spun around and faced Rupert again, thinking on her feet. “Is Audrey here at the Baldwins’?” she asked.
“She’s supposed to be,” he said. “Why? Has she left?”
“I don’t know,” she answered, caught, herself, between the past and present. “I’ll be right back,” she told Rupert, grabbing Toby by the arm and leading him into the hallway.
“There are too many coincidences for Rupert not to be telling the truth,” she said urgently.
“Had you mentioned your grandmother’s name to him?” Toby asked.
“No,” she replied emphatically. “I’ve never mentioned her.”
“Would he subconsciously know you were her granddaughter since he grew up on the island?” Toby asked. “He might have made that connection but can’t verbalize it, so it’s coming out through his fantasies.”
