“It was an emotional night, and…” No use offering excuses.
“I just wanted him,” she said.
“I still do.”
Chloe looked through the now-screen less porch windows toward Poll-Rory. They could hear Rory working on his cottage windows, but he was around the side and invisible from the porch. After a moment, Chloe turned her | gaze back to Daria.
“Well,” she said with a rueful smile, “who am I to cast stones?” Her gaze suddenly shifted toward the beach road.
“Is that Andy’s van?” she asked.
Daria saw the van turn into the cul-de-sac. She stood up as Andy drove into the Sea Shanty driveway. He walked around the car and opened the passenger-side door for Shelly, and Daria was moved by his chivalry.
Shelly got out of the car, and for the first time, Daria realized how perfectly matched they were, physically at least, with their long blond hair and tall, slender bodies. She held the door open for them as they walked onto the porch. “Julie and her little boy are at the hospital in Elizabeth
City,” Andy said.
“Jim says they’re going to be okay. Thanks for coming over, Daria.”
“I’m relieved to hear that,” Daria said. She glanced at Chloe.
“Why don’t you two have a seat?” She motioned toward one of the picnic-table benches.
“I explained to Chloe that you’ve been seeing each other, but I think we’d both like to… have a better understanding of what’s going on.”
Andy and Shelly sat down as a unit on the bench, holding hands. Shelly looked nervous, and Daria felt sorry for her. Still, she was angry with both of them for their dishonesty.
“It’s just like I told you last night,” Andy said.
“Shelly and I have been seeing each other for two and a half years. I apologize for not telling you, Daria. I tried a few times, but you always started talking about how Shelly needed to be protected from men, and I was afraid of what you’d say. Or what you’d do.”
Chloe had brought two rockers onto the porch, and Daria lowered herself into one of them. Her mind raced back over the previous two years, hunting for clues she might have missed. She could remember a few conversations with Andy in which he’d talked to her about Shelly’s need for more freedom. She’d told Andy he didn’t know Shelly well enough to understand.
“I’m really angry with you, Andy,” she said, leaning forward.
“You lied to me.”
“No, I never lied,” he said.
“I just never said anything about what was going on.”
“Shelly is… she’s vulnerable,” Daria said.
“Do you know what that means?” She was not sure either of them understood the meaning of the word.
“She needs to be protected.”
“Not as much as you think,” Andy said.
“I can take perfectly good care of myself,” Shelly finally spoke up.
“You worry too much about me, Daria.”
“Besides,” Andy added.
“I wouldn’t let anything bad happen to her. I love her. I” — “If you’d known about me and Andy, you would have tried to ruin it,” Shelly interrupted him.
“You ruined things with my other boyfriends.”
“That was different,” Daria said.
“No matter what you think. Shelly, those guys were going to hurt you.” Was that true? she suddenly wondered. Had she really known those two young men well enough to know that about them?
“There’s something else you need to know,” Andy said. He glanced at Shelly. “Shelly is pregnant, and we’re going to get married.”
Chloe groaned, and Daria felt her patience snap.
“I thought you weren’t going to let anything bad happen to her,” she said, unable to mask the sarcasm in her voice.
“It’s not a bad thing,” Shelly said.
“I’m happy about it. I want to have a baby. And I want to marry Andy.”
“You can’t have a baby,” Daria said.
“Shelly, sweetheart, I’m sorry.
You’re just not able to take care of a baby. You’ll have to . consider options. ” She would have suggested an abortion, but found she couldn’t with Chloe sitting right there. Chloe might be a rebel where the Church was concerned, but Daria knew she was still passionately opposed to the idea of abortion.
