Page 28 of The Identicals
“You’re friends with my sister on Facebook?” Tabitha says. “Tell me you’re kidding.”
“Tabitha, stop.”
Tabitha has a lot of old hurt inside her, and this man knows how to tap into it.
“You’re right,” she says. “You should have called. He’s your daughter’s grandfather.”
“Youshould have told me,” Wyatt says. “I shouldn’t have had to find out on social media.” He huffs. “Listen: I’m sorry about Billy. He was a great guy. Whenever I had jobs on the Vineyard, I met him for lunch.”
“You met my father for lunch?” she says. “I’m sure you saw Harper while you were at it.”
“Tabitha, stop.”
Stop,she thinks. Pursuing this particular strain of conversation will lead to no good. Tabitha takes a sustaining breath. “I can’t begin to explain what happened at the memorial reception, so all I’ll say is that my mother drank too much, and when we got home to Nantucket, she fell down the front steps of her house and broke her hip.”
“Oh, jeez,” Wyatt says.
“And so now I’m in Boston and she’s having surgery tomorrow and I won’t be able to get home until Wednesday night at the earliest and I’m wondering if you might be able to go over to the island and keep an eye on Ainsley.”
“Wow,” Wyatt says, and Tabitha immediately knows what’s coming.
I wish I could,she mouths.
“I wish I could,” he says. “But I have a project in Orleans that’s on deadline, and Carpenter has pinkeye, so our house is kind of on lockdown.”
“I wasn’t suggesting Ainsley go there,” Tabitha says. “I know Becky doesn’t like her.”
“Becky likes her just fine,” Wyatt says in a combative tone. “But I have three kids, Tabitha.”
“You havefourkids,” Tabitha says.Youhadfive kids,she thinks. She wonders how often Wyatt thinks about Julian. “And one of them needs you.”
“Don’t be this way, Tabitha, please.”
“You’re her father,” Tabitha says. “Act like it for once.”
“Good-bye, Tabitha,” Wyatt says, and he hangs up, leaving Tabitha to watch his name vanish from her cell-phone screen. She supposes that asking Wyatt to take Ainsley for the summer is out of the question.
Whom else can Tabitha call? The next person who comes to mind is Stephanie Beasley. Candace had been at that party, which is both good news and bad news. It’s good news because apparently Ainsley and Candace are friends again, and it’s bad news because if Stephanie has found out about the details of the party, she will never let Ainsley stay there. Tabithahasto ask. She willnothave Ainsley staying with Emma Marlowe and her father. Tabitha imagines more Snapchat photos: Ainsley and Emma and Dutch all doing shots of Jack Daniel’s and snorting lines of cocaine off the granite countertops in the kitchen, Ainsley in lingerie, sitting on Dutch’s lap. No!
Tabitha is too emotionally spent to have a reunion phone call with Stephanie, so she sends a text:Hey, stranger! My mother broke her hip. I’m in Boston at MGH, and Ainsley is at home on Nantucket. Is there ANY way I could impose on you and Stu and ask you to take Ainsley in for 2–3 nights? I know it’s an enormous favor out of the blue but I’m desperate. I’ll make it up to you. Thanks xo.
She’s a coward, sending a text. They’re talking about the well-being of Tabitha’s only child. Tabitha hates herself. She should have called. Yes, it would have been awkward—it’s easily been four years since Tabitha and Steph have had any kind of meaningful conversation—but sending a text was too casual.
As if to punish Tabitha for her cavalier handling of the situation, her phone pings with a response:I checked with Candace. She doesn’t think having Ainsley here is a good idea. Sorry I couldn’t be of more help! xo.
Oh, sure,Tabitha thinks.Blame it on the sixteen-year-old.
In her heart, she knows this is the answer she deserves.
Tabitha will have to call Meghan and ask her to stay at the carriage house. There is simply no one else. Meghan is as big as a house, and her pregnancy has been a trial—she has developed carpal tunnel syndromeandgestational diabetes. Her ankles are so swollen that she can’t wear shoes, only flip-flops; she has to pee every ten minutes, and when she leaves the other sales associate, Mary Jo, in charge of the store while she goes to the bathroom, something inevitably walks out of the store unpaid for. Mary Jo is seventy-eight years old and myopic. Tabitha has to fire her, but she’s worried about getting slapped with a lawsuit for being ageist.
Meghan will watch Ainsley. She is beholden to Tabitha because Tabitha is paying her through her maternity leave despite the fact that she is a seasonal employee. But Meghan won’twantto do it. All Meghan wants to do when she gets home is eat the low-sugar snacks she’s allowed to consume and watchEllen. On the one hand, Tabitha thinks it would be good for Meghan to get some hands-on parenting experience, albeit at the other end of the spectrum.This is what your child will be like at sixteen if you’re very unlucky!On the other hand, Tabitha knows she should let Meghan enjoy her last two or three weeks of caring for herself and spending quiet time with her husband, Jonathan.
But if not Meghan, then who?
The next day finds Tabitha in a different waiting room, alternately paging through back issues ofTown & Countryand dozing with her head up against the concrete block wall. Eleanor is expected to be in surgery for a few hours, but Tabitha is afraid if she leaves the hospital something awful will happen. If she stays here and suffers, Eleanor will be fine.
At twelve thirty, Tabitha’s phone rings. She checks the display: It’s Ainsley. Twelve thirty means Ainsley is at lunch. No doubt she’s wondering how much longer she’s going to be left an orphan.
