“What does this have to do with anything?”
“Right,” Nick says. He’s stalling. He doesn’t want to do this. “Bobby can’t have kids. Because of the mumps. There were… complications.”
Horror. The expression on Gina’s face is one of true horror.
“Bobby doesn’t know,” Nick adds quickly. “My mom never told him.”
“But… she told you?”
“She did, eventually. When I stood up for you. She thought you were lying about the pregnancy to get Bobby to marry you.”
Gina’s face falls on her palms. “That’s why she hated me.”
“I told her I’d gotten you pregnant.”
Gina’s eyes widen. “Tish knows we slept together?”
“She does,” Nick says. “But she doesn’t know you know. She thinks I… tricked you. Bobby and me, we had this game when we were younger, we’d both kiss a girl pretending to be each other. In retrospect, it was a messed-up thing to do, but we were kids. I wouldn’t have done that to you, of course.”
Gina is silent for a moment. Nick worries it’s too much. Too many revelations at once. “She thinks you… assaulted me?”
Nick doubts Tish sees it like that, though, yes—if he had tricked Gina into believing he was Bobby to sleep with her, it most definitely would’ve been assault. “I told her I made a mistake. And that I was in love with you. Knowing my mom, she’s romanticized it in her mind.”
“But we kept on trying,” Gina says. She presses her knees against her chest and hugs them. It’s like she wants to curl up into a ball. “We kept trying to have more kids and all the while you knew that… that we couldn’t.”
“I didn’t know you were trying,” Nick says.
“Because you weren’t around.” Her tone is accusatory. “But while you were in Indonesia or Australia or wherever else, I was peeing on a stick every month, and every month I got my heart broken. I blamed myself.”
“I was trying to get over you.”
“You knew I wanted a big family.”
“I did.” He swallows, moving closer to her on the couch. “You can still have that… if you want.”
Gina blinks. She rests her elbows on her kneecaps. “What are you talking about?”
“We can be together,” Nick whispers. “You and me.”
She stares at him, her mouth agape. “You can’t be serious.”
Nick feels his heart deflate. This isn’t the reaction he’d been hoping for. But he can’t give up, not now. He’s never been this close to having Gina, not since they spent their night together, back in college. If Nick could relive that night, he’d never let go.
“I still love you,” he begins. “I’ve always loved you, Pearl.” He hasn’t used that name in years. He still remembers the day, early into their friendship, when he pointed out that Gina’s middle name suited her because, like a pearl, she closed herself off inside a beautiful shell. And nothing was more wonderful than opening it. “This might not be fair, springing this up on you like this. But I want to be with you. And I think you want to be with me, too.” He reaches over and touches her neck. “You still wear it. Every day.”
Gina brings her hand to the necklace he’d given her so long ago. Their fingers graze. “I love it.”
“And I love you. I always have.”
Gina shakes her head. “You’ll always be special to me, Nick.” With that, she gets up and leaves the office. Nick follows her, wordlessly.
“Where’s Bobby?” Gina asks, looking around.
Nick’s heart collapses like a soufflé. Bobby. That’s who she was thinking of while he was professing his love.
“He just left,” Alice says, walking into the family room. “He went to see Charles.”
Fifty-Three
Bobby
Friday, November 1st
Bobby hadn’t expected his mother to pick up the phone.
Civilized people do not place calls after 9 p.m.—and it’s past eleven. But Tish hadn’t sounded tired or annoyed. She told him to come over, her voice curt and no-nonsense. Like everyone else on Backer Street, she probably heard the commotion outside Nick’s house. A fight between brothers: that’s what she must assume this visit is about. Bobby still isn’t sure how he’ll break the news to his mom. But he knows he has to.
The light isn’t on in the porch, but he doesn’t need it to be. How many times has Bobby climbed these steps? Six altogether, a loose board on the fifth. His childhood home. His parents’ house. A traitor’s house.
Bobby decides against knocking and heads inside.
“There you are.” Tish is a ghost at the top of the staircase, backlit by the living room’s soft glow.
“I need to talk to Dad.” Bobby feels a tightness inside his chest.
Tish makes her way down the steps, one hand on the banister. Her eyes travel across the room, as though she is expecting to see someone else. Probably Nick. His mother is always looking for his brother. Bobby should be used to it by now but, in truth, it hurts every time.
“Is he asleep?” Bobby asks.
“Your father isn’t home.”
Bobby frowns. How could he not be home?
Tish continues, “He hasn’t been staying here.” Her voice is weak, raspy.
It doesn’t make sense, not at first. But then Bobby thinks back to the past two months and searches his memory for the last time he had seen his dad in town. He draws a blank. They hadn’t run into each other on Main Street. He hadn’t stopped by Nick’s house. His mom had even canceled Friday night dinners—Bobby had thought it was out of respect for Gina. He remembers Charles stopping by the Manhattan office a few times, trying to convince Bobby to let Nick take over as interim CEO, but when had he last seen him in Alma?
Bobby feels his heart flopping like a fish thrown to land. “Is he with her?”
Tish nods solemnly. She looks as though she has aged at least ten years. Her skin is sunken and ashen. There are dark circles under her eyes. She looks nothing like the powerful and polished Tish Dewar that rules this town.
Bobby moves closer to his
