“No, they ? nally sold the place and moved to Florida about six years ago.”
Leslie’s question brought home to Dev how little they knew of one another now.
There might have been a time when they’d understood each other without
words, but now there was nothing between them. “I’m working up at the lake
this summer, though. I’m a biologist.”
“You’re kidding,” Leslie said before she could catch herself.
“Jesus, I’m sorry. That was rude.”
Not insulted, Dev laughed as she exited onto Route 9 North, the twisting twolane
lake road that she once could have driven from memory. “No. I don’t
blame you. I’m sure it’s nothing anyone who knew me in high school would’ve
guessed I’d be doing.”
• 42 •
WHEN DREAMS TREMBLE
“I just never remember you being interested in that kind of thing.”
“I wasn’t.”
“So what caused the big switch?”
Dev swung into the driveway to Lakeview and parked in the lot beside Eileen
Harris’s Jeep. She shifted on the seat and met Leslie’s curious gaze. “After the
accident I couldn’t do much more than read, and studying kept my mind
occupied.”
Leslie paled at the unexpected reference to a time she assiduously avoided
thinking about. Ambushed by guilt and regret, she felt a sudden need for air. She
yanked the door handle up and stepped out in front of her childhood home. The
rambling, three-story white clapboard house with its wraparound porches and
gabled upper windows looked just the same as it always had. Her mother, also
seemingly unchanged in jeans and a sweater Leslie thought might once have
been hers, waved from the front porch. On the far side of the parking lot the
grassy slope led down to the boathouse. The boathouse. There were some
things she couldn’t forget, no matter how much she wanted to.
Leslie looked back into the truck. “I’m sorry. So sorry. I’d undo it all if I
could.”
As Dev watched Leslie walk quickly away from her and the painful past that
had suddenly resurfaced, she heard the words she’d never be able to forget.
She’s nothing to me. She’s nobody.
And still, even knowing she’d been wrong about everything, she’d never wanted
to change any of it. Dev climbed from the truck, pulled Leslie’s luggage from
behind the seat, and started toward the lodge.
Leslie’s parting words, in the past and the present, reminded her more
powerfully than any blow that she and Leslie had never shared the same dream.
It had all been in her mind. A ? ction created from her own need and foolish
hopes.
Thankfully, those long-ago dreams had been put to rest, but she was still going
to need to ? nd another place to stay. She had never expected that seeing Leslie
again would hurt quite so much.
• 43 •
• 44 •
WHEN DREAMS TREMBLE
CHAPTER FIVE
Leslie stopped a step below her mother and tried to decipher the expression in
her mother’s eyes. Despite the fact that it was only a three-hour trip, Leslie
hadn’t been home in over three years, and the last visit had been only for a few
hours one Christmas. She’d never had to lie about the reason for her absence.
She always had work to do, even if that was only a convenient excuse. There
was warmth in her mother’s eyes, but wariness too. After Leslie left for college
they’d lost the easy companionability they’d had when Leslie was a teenager.
No, Leslie reminded herself, after you decided to go to law school.
“Hi, Mom,” Leslie said.
Eileen wrapped her arms around Leslie’s shoulders and hugged her. “Hi, honey.
I’m sorry I couldn’t pick you up.”
Leslie felt the stiffness in her mother’s embrace and imagined that her own body
felt much the same. “That’s okay. I didn’t give you any notice, after all.”
“Well,” Eileen said, looking past Leslie down the gravel walk,
“I’m glad Dr. Weber was able to give you a ride.”
Leslie turned just as Dev reached her, Leslie’s briefcase under her arm and the
suitcase in her hand. “Dr. Weber?”
Dev shrugged, coloring faintly. “Not the regular kind.”
“You didn’t need to bring my luggage up,” Leslie said, reaching for the suitcase.
“No problem,” Dev replied, climbing the stairs. “Where do you want them?”
“Your old room’s available,” Leslie’s mother said, “if you want it.
• 45 •
RADCLY fFE
I don’t rent that one out unless I really need to, and the lodge isn’t full now.
You’d have plenty of privacy.”
Not if Rachel manages to come up, Leslie thought. There was no way she was
going to subject Rachel to her mother’s scrutiny or have sex in her childhood
bedroom. That wasn’t exactly the way she wanted to introduce her mother to
the idea that she had a girlfriend.
Plus, even if Rachel didn’t visit, she didn’t want to spend two weeks in the
constant company of her parents and be faced with the subtle disappointment in
their eyes. “I’d rather have one of the cabins. They’re not all full, are they?”
“Not yet, but we’ve got reservations—”
“Actually,” Dev said, wondering if the other two women had forgotten her
presence, “she can have mine. I…uh…should probably get a place closer to the
lab.”
Eileen look startled, and Leslie scrutinized Dev intently before saying, “Mom,
let’s settle the room situation later.”
“Of course. Let me double-check the registrations, and we can decide after
dinner. I’m sure I can work something out.” Eileen looked at Dev. “I hope you’ll
be able to join us tonight.”
“Thank you, but—” Dev said, scrambling for a polite way to decline when the
phone rang inside and Eileen turned away.
“Wonderful.” Eileen hurried inside, leaving Dev to stare after her.
Leslie lifted the suitcase Dev had deposited on the porch. “I’ll make your
excuses, if you want to pass on dinner.”
“I’m that easy to read, huh?”
“You might take a little bit of coaching before I’d put you on the witness stand.”
Leslie smiled softly. “Besides, your eyes always did give you away.”
“No, they didn’t,” Dev said quietly. “You were just always able to tell what I
was thinking. No one else could.”
