Moon Dance Page 20

  "Is there anything more earnest than little girls who are just learning their first ballet steps?" The woman who sat next to Matt patted his arm. "Aren't they just delightful?"

  "They are cute, yes, ma'am," Matt nodded.

  "And have you ever seen anyone more graceful than Georgia?" The woman shook her head slightly in admiration, then added, in Latin, "Vera incessu patuit dea."

  It took a minute or so for his four years of high school Latin to kick in so that he could translate the phrase. By her walk the true goddess was revealed.

  He smiled wryly and asked, "Virgil?"

  "Good for you, my boy." The woman laughed. "I'm afraid I forget myself at times. I taught Latin for more years than I care to admit to, and old habits, you see, do indeed die hard." She said as she stood, dropping the forgotten sweater. Before Matt could respond, she asked, "Now, did I hear Ally call you 'uncle'?"

  "Yes," he said as he bent down to pick up the sweater, earning him a smiled thanks as he handed it to her. "Ally is my niece."

  "Then you must be Matthew. Laura's brother." She touched his arm softly with the fingers of her left hand.

  "Yes," he nodded.

  "I'm very pleased to meet you, Matthew," she said with a smile that revealed dimples in her softly lined face. "Laura's told us so much about you. And of course, we've all been looking forward to meeting you."

  "I'm sorry, ma'am, but you are…?"

  "Terrible of me." She flustered. "I'm August Devlin."

  The name rang familiar but not familiar enough for Matt to readily identify it. His blank expression gave him away, and she laughed again, saying, "Which tells you nothing, I would guess. I'm India Devlin Enright's aunt."

  "Oh," he said, not quite sure of who India Devlin Enright might be, other than to know she was a part of Laura's life that did not include him. "Nice to meet you. If you'll excuse me, I just want to see my sister for a minute…"

  Matt's head had begun to pound as he walked toward Laura, the barn walls closing in upon him. How many of the people surrounding him were members of her new family, and why hadn't she prepared him? He stopped halfway across the scuffed pine floor and caught Georgia's eye. He wanted to pretend he had not seen her, but there was something in her expression—a wary, uncertain welcome—that spoke to him whether he wanted to listen or not, and for a moment he felt as if he had read her mind. The unexpected intimacy spooked him, and suddenly, speaking to Laura did not seem so very important after all. He turned and walked toward the stairwell, fishing in his pants pocket for his keys. By the time he had reached the door to his apartment, the key was in his hand and slid into the lock in the blink of an eye.

  Georgia's eyes were on him every step of the way.

  He's fled like one in fear—or in pain, she thought. Perhaps a bit of both…

  She bit her bottom lip, wondering whether to follow her first instinct—to follow him—or to let it go.

  "This was lovely, darling," Delia approached Georgia from behind and kissed the side of her daughter's face. "What a wonderful place for a dance studio, such wonderful space. Although you really do need some mirrors and a real barre. And you really should do something about the lighting."

  "What?" Georgia, whose mind had not been on her surroundings, tuned back in. "Oh. Yes. Well, you know I'm only staying month to month for the time being, so I have to make do."

  "Maybe you should think about looking for a more permanent spot. Your little dancing school has tremendous potential. All the mothers are talking about signing their daughters up for regular lessons. You could have quite the lively business going. I can just see the sign out front," Delia mused. "Ballet in the Barn… at Pumpkin Hill."

  Georgia laughed. "Why, thank you, Mother. If I decide to open a real dancing school, I just might use it. It does have a certain flair, doesn't it?"

  "You are a wonderful teacher, Georgia." Zoey joined them. "You had those little ones eating out of your hand. And you looked like you were having such a good time."

  "I was. I really enjoy working with them more than I ever imagined."

  "Well, I for one am very impressed." Delia said. "Your little students are adorable, and you look better than I have seen you look in years. I had the same feeling I used to get, watching you dance so long ago. You look, well, happy, Georgia."

  "I am happy, Mother." Georgia's eyes kept returning to the door in the wall at the top of the steps to see if Matt had reappeared. He had not.

  Georgia handed Delia the tape deck and said. "Mother, would you take this down with you? We're going to need these chairs outside for the party— some of the mothers are staying plus there are so many of us—so I want to get Nicky and Ben and Zoey to help carry them. Oh! And there's Gordon Chandler. Ally must have invited him."

  "Gordon Chandler…?" Delia's eyebrows knit together in concentration, as she tried to place the name.

  "Oh, Mother, you've met him. At a book convention or something a few years ago, he mentioned it. He's a ship salvager…"

  "Of course! I remember him." Delia smiled. "Fascinating man."

  Georgia grinned and her eyes began to sparkle. She leaned close to her mother's ear and whispered, "Intelligent. Handsome. Witty. And he's a widower."

  Delia laughed and took the tape player from Georgia's hands. "I'll certainly be interested in seeing him again. Now, did you want this in the house, sweetie?"

  "The girls might want to play some music later, so I guess you can leave it on the big folding table that Laura is setting up in the yard." Georgia turned and called to her brother, "Nicky, there are four more chairs along the wall there…"

  The children had taken off down the steps, headed for the house where they would change into play clothes, the mothers who had attended following behind, all enthusiastically discussing their plans to not only sign up their daughters for regular lessons, but to talk Georgia into having an adult class as well. The chair brigade had formed and was on its noisy way toward the ground floor. Georgia watched as the Enright crew passed by.

  Nick. India. Aunt August. Zoey. Ben. Corri. Mother. Me.

  It must seem to Matt that there are so many of us.

  And only one of him.

  She paused at the top of the steps, her hand on the light switch. Matt would still be in his apartment, right behind that door.

  He must be feeling so alone. So overwhelmed…

  Without a second thought, Georgia knocked lightly on the door, which swung partly open at her touch. When Matt did not answer, she pushed the door open the rest of the way and stepped into the small kitchen.

  Matt stood at the sink, a glass of water in his hand, his gazed fixed upon the farmyard below.

  "Excuse me," she said softly from the doorway. "May I come in?"

  "It looks like you already have."

  She smiled wryly, then took a few steps into the room that was rapidly filling with tension. She took a deep breath.

  "Ally is having a wonderful birthday," she began. "She was so afraid you wouldn't come."

  "I have never missed Ally's birthday." He said somewhat stiffly, trying to ignore the faint trace of honeysuckle that seemed to accompany her. He knew the scent well, it being the only fragrance his aunt had ever worn. "She knew I would be here."

  "I'm glad you are."

  Georgia took another tentative step toward him, as if approaching a rabbit that was likely to take off at any minute. Searching for the right thing to say, she followed his gaze to where the strangers gathered below.

  Perhaps, she thought, if the strangers had names…

  "That's August Devlin, in the blue and white dress. The woman you sat next to during the dance class."

  "She introduced herself."

  "Then you know that she's India's aunt."

  "Yes."

  "India is that beautiful young woman with the honey-blond hair. She's married to my brother, Nick. She's pregnant."

  "That would explain the maternity clothes."

  Georgia ignored the sarcasm.<
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  "Nicky is the man in the yellow sweater."

  Matt did not respond, so she took a step forward, and continued.

  "Nick's a marine biologist. He and India live on the Delaware Bay with their daughter, Corri." Georgia ventured close enough to put a finger to the window pane. "Corri is the little girl with the long brown braids. We're also celebrating the finalization of Corri's adoption today. She had been adopted previously by India's brother, Ry. India kept her when he died. She's a wonderful little girl, and we all love her so much. And she's so thrilled to find that she has a cousin. She and Ally have become fast friends."

  He recalled the look of total joy on Ally's face when she had announced excitedly that she had a cousin. Just like all her friends.

  "Now that tall, dark-haired woman who looks so much like Laura—surely you noticed the resemblance—is my sister, Zoey. She's a sales host on a TV shopping channel. The tall man with the dark hair speaking with August is Ben Pierce. He used to race cars. Grand Prix. He and Nicky were best friends as children. Now he and Zoey are engaged."

  "Well, now, it sounds like you're just one big happy family."

  "We are one big happy family, Matt, and whether you like it or not, you're a part of it," she told him gently, touching his arm with her right hand. When he did not pull away, she sought his hand, and slowly began to entwine her fingers with his. "As much as August Devlin and Corri and India… as much as any one of us."

  She waited for his protest, and when it didn't come, she continued. "Matt, I know this has not been easy for you. I know how close you and Laura have always been. No one wants to come between you. We're not trying to take her away. Look, I know that accepting major changes in your family is a very difficult thing."

  "And what might you know about that?"

  She took a deep breath and told him something she had shared only with Zoey.

  "I know how I felt when I found out about Laura. I felt… betrayed, that my mother had kept this secret from us all these years. Realizing that her secret had been the cause of our father abandoning us so long ago. That I had a sister I had never met, had never even heard about. It was so hard, meeting Laura that first time—sisters meeting as adults—and trying to get to know her. To find out what she was like, what kind of person she was. I was so afraid to meet her, that first time…"

  "Laura is a wonderful person. I've always been proud to be her brother." Matt rose to Laura's defense.

  "Yes, she is a wonderful person, and you've every reason to be proud of her. I can honestly say that knowing her has enriched my life greatly. I adore her. But if I'd held onto my fear, my prejudices, I'd never have discovered how wonderful she is. Look at all I would have missed, if I hadn't given her a chance."

  He continued to stare out the window. Nick was carrying Corri on his shoulders, and Ben was chasing two golden puppies across the lawn.

  Finally, smiling reluctantly, he told her, "You're not very subtle, you know."

  "It was the best I could do in a pinch." Georgia watched his face hopefully. "Please give us a chance, Matt. For Laura's sake. And for Ally's."

  And for your own.

  And for mine.

  "Maybe you won't like us. Maybe you will. But you'll never know if you don't at least try to get to know us. We're really a very nice family. Laura is very much a part of it, now and always. So in a way, you are too."

  He wished he could tell her that it wasn't her, it wasn't her brother or her sister or even her mother that he thought he wouldn't like. Watching them from the window, the easy way they interacted, with lots of laughter, he was starting to think he probably would like them. But at some point during the hours he'd spent at Riverview over the past week he'd lost all hope that his mother would ever regain any semblance of the woman that she had been, and he mourned her. How could he embrace this new family of Laura's and still be true to the family they had once had, especially now, when their mother was slipping away from them forever?

  Then, as if reading his mind, Georgia said softly, "It's not a choice, you know. Not either, or. It's both. Laura knows that. I wish you did, too."

  She stood on her tip toes to kiss the side of his cheek, then dropped his hand, turned and left quietly. He could hear the padding of the soft leather soles of her ballet shoes as they raced down the steps. The barn door swung shut with a bang, and he watched her walk across the drive.

  By her walk the true goddess was revealed.

  Her candor had stunned him, and it took him a moment to recover from her words as well as from the lingering wisp of her perfume, the softness of her lips on his skin, the gentleness of the touch of her hand, all of which had set his senses on edge. He'd had no defenses against her rationale or the emotions she had stirred up in him.

  It isn't either, or…

  Knowing that he'd been bested on all fronts, Matt sighed.

  Who was he to refuse the wishes of a goddess whose touch was both light and searing, who smelled of honeysuckle and was wise enough to temper his inner chaos with her tender logic? Maybe for today, he could put it all aside—his confusion, his uncertainty, his fears for Laura as well as for himself—for Ally's sake, for Laura's.

  He emptied the remains of his glass into the sink, then went off to find Ally's gift.

  Later, Matt reflected, joining the lively group outside had been so much easier than he had anticipated. Georgia had been right, the Enright's were a nice family. There had been more than enough warmth and laughter and good cheer to go around. And, he admitted, it had fed his own family pride to show off Pumpkin Hill to people who admired and appreciated it.

  "Georgey, you're the luckiest person in the world," Zoey had sighed with contentment as she stretched her legs out on the grass, an enormous wedge of birthday cake tipping perilously close to the edge of a paper plate. "It is so beautiful here. Look at all those daffodils and all those tulips! Gorgeous!"

  "It's just heaven early in the morning," Georgia told her, "when the sun first comes up and it's so quiet, you just can't imagine. And then the birds start singing…"

  "We'll have to come back and spend a weekend," Nick sunk to the ground between his sisters. "After the baby has been born."

  "Oh, I can't wait to see this baby, Nicky."

  "Neither can any of the rest of us, Zoey." Delia beamed. "After all, this will be our first baby. I am so sorry that I missed Corrie and Ally's babyhoods. I'm really looking forward to the whole experience."

  "We'll see how much she appreciates the 'experience' the first time we drop the baby off for a long weekend," India winked at her husband.

  "I will be more than happy to baby-sit. Anytime." Delia laughed. "August and I will be watching every move this child makes, won't we, August?"

  "Absolutely every move," August nodded vigorously. "Do feel free to plan a long trip. The baby will be in excellent hands."

  They were easy with each other, as those who know each other well, who understand each other's body language, tend to be. In spite of himself, Matt found that he envied the closeness of the group. In truth, he had to admit that they had all made an effort to include him in conversations, and had all applauded him heartily when he had defeated Ben, the odds-on favorite in the pie eating contest that Ally had insisted on. Having recently read a story set in the early part of the century, Ally had become fascinated by the descriptions of the games the children had played, and so, along with the pie eating contest, had set her heart on sack races and an egg toss, in addition to the traditional Pin the Tail on the Donkey.

  When the games had concluded and the candles on the cake had been lit and blown out to a spirited chorus of the birthday song, some of the young guests had departed and the sun had begun to dip lower behind the trees. For the first time, Laura's entire family—except for Charity—sat together on the grass, savoring the remaining hours of what had been a very pleasant afternoon.

  "You know, Pumpkin Hill reminds me a little bit of Mother's place when we were little." Nick said.

&n
bsp; "It does," Georgia nodded. "It even has a pond like the one we had."

  "Ben, remember when you used to teach me how to catch frogs?" Zoey leaned back against him lazily, her eyes closed, a slight smile on her lips.

  Before he could answer, Ally jumped up and cried, "Aunt Zoey, you know how to catch frogs?"

  "Are you kidding?" Her eyes still closed, the smile slid across Zoey's face into a grin as she held up her hands and said, "These hands are feared by frogs from here to Pennsylvania."

  "Would you show us how?" Ally jumped up and down. "Me and Corri and Samantha and Carly? Now?"

  "Sweetest, the first thing you have to do, if you want to catch frogs, is to be very, very quiet."

  "We can be quiet." Ally whispered.

  "And you have to be barefooted."

  Four little girls hit the ground and started to take off their shoes and socks.

  "Zoey, they're going to be covered with mud." Delia pointed out.

  Zoey sat up and shielded her eyes from the afternoon sun and asked, "Is there a hose?"

  "Right on the side of the house." Georgia pointed to it.

  "Then it's a-hunting we will go." She kicked off her sandals and stood up. "Now, let's get in a nice, straight line. We need to creep up on the frogs, remember."

  Zoey made the motion of zipping her lips.

  The girls nodded wordlessly, zipping their lips as Zoey had done.

  She motioned for them to follow behind her, and the train of frog hunters headed for the pond with exaggerated stealth.

  Ben and Nick exchanged a look of pure mischief.

  "So, Ben," Nick asked, "how long you suppose it's been since you gave my sister a good pond-dunk?"

  Ben pretended to ponder the question before responding. "Has to have been at least seventeen, eighteen years…"

  "My, my," Nick grinned, "has it been that long?"

  Without another word, the two men immediately began taking off their shoes and socks and set off toward the pond.

  "If you go around from behind the barn," Matt called to them, "she won't hear you coming."