Lone Star

Chloe thought no more about it, except in January when Hannah asked to be driven to Bangor again because the admissions office needed to go over a couple of things.

That couldn’t be the man Hannah needed to break up with. Chloe had it wrong. It couldn’t be him because he was …

“Hannah, I’m sorry, but how old is Martyn?”

Hannah studied the lilac bedspread as if the answer was written on her sheets like a cheat sheet. “Sixty-two,” she said.

Chloe jumped off the bed.

“Sit down. What are you getting all riled up about?”

“Hannah!” Chloe couldn’t sit. She could barely focus on Hannah’s aggrieved face. “Please tell me you’re not involved with a man forty years older than you. Please.” Was Chloe the only one who thought this was gross?

“Okay,” Hannah said. Metallica segued into Nirvana. Come as you are. As a friend. “Forty-four years,” she corrected Chloe.

Come as you are.

Chloe didn’t know why she should feel so affected by this. Hannah on the other hand was flushed, blinking rapidly, breathing through her mouth, as if she was catching the strands of the plot on her tongue and was about to jump on her computer and write a story for the ages. “He’s very much in love with me,” she said musically. “I didn’t realize he would fall so deep. He’s a widower and has been very lonely. At first he told me it was just for company. He knew we couldn’t last. He’s the one who told me it wouldn’t last!”

“But you’ve only seen him the few times I’ve driven you to Bangor,” Chloe said dumbly. “Right? I mean …”

“Don’t be naïve. We’ve been meeting every Tuesday at the Silver Pines Motor Court. And some Saturdays. He finishes teaching early on Tuesdays.”

Chloe’s expression must have been a sight.

“That’s why I didn’t tell you,” Hannah said. “I didn’t want to be judged, and I was afraid you’d spill the beans to Mason, and then Blake would find out.”

Where had Chloe been that she hadn’t noticed Hannah’s twice-weekly disappearance? What did Hannah tell Blake about her regularly scheduled absence from their already convoluted life? How could he not know? Chloe had been busy squirreling away her own secrets from Hannah, and perhaps was grateful for a few days a week when she didn’t have to look away every time Hannah waxed about the University of Maine they would both be attending in the fall. But what was Blake’s excuse?

Tonight Chloe had nothing to say about Hannah’s dilemma. She remained stuck on the geezer’s age. He was thirteen years older than her father! Yet Hannah seemed unconcerned with this most startling detail: that she was sleeping with Cain and Abel’s uncle. Hannah sighed as if in a romance novel. “It’s extremely flattering to be loved like that,” she said. “So intensely. Oh Chloe! Do you know what it’s like to be loved so intensely?”

“Oh, sure.” Chloe stared into her hands as if they loved her intensely. “Quite a situation you’ve gotten yourself into, girlfriend,” she said.

“Don’t you think I know that?” For a moment, Hannah looked ready to cry. Yet Chloe knew that to be false, for Hannah didn’t cry. She only appeared to look to be ready to cry.

“I gotta go,” Chloe said, rising. “Hey, look on the bright side. My parents probably won’t let me go anyway.”

“How is that the bright side?” said Hannah. “We’ve been dreaming of Barcelona since we were eleven.”

4 (#ulink_2bc00385-1cdd-5668-b573-4e843332e76a)

Paleo Flood at Red River (#ulink_2bc00385-1cdd-5668-b573-4e843332e76a)

IT WAS DARK OUTSIDE AND HER FATHER’S BLACK DODGE Durango was parked in the open clearing by the time Chloe left Hannah’s and made her way through the brambles between the two properties.

It was a warm evening. Through the open window she could hear her mother’s soft voice and her father’s booming one. Chloe slowed down. Treading quietly over the pine needles that crunched under her feet, she inched up to the screened-in window in the living room.

“It’s out of the question.”

“That’s what I said.”

“Why would she want to go there?”

“She says because she hasn’t been.”

“What kind of a reason is that?”

“She says because we went to Ireland without her.”

“If I hear one more word about Ireland!”

“Shh. I know.”

“I hope you were forceful, Mother. I hope you said no.”

“I was forceful. I said no.”

“But what?”

“But nothing.”

“No, I can see by your face it’s something. What?”

“She’s insisting.”

“So? We’re going to allow the child to make the decisions?”

“She said something about turning eighteen.”

“Oh, so she’s going to play that card!”

“That’s what I said.”

“Why does she really want to go?”

“I don’t know, Jimmy.”

“What’s in Barcelona?”

“Nothing. It’s not Fryeburg, not Brownfield, not Maine.”

“So why doesn’t she go to Canada? We’ll drive her to Montreal. It’s only a few hours away. In another country. We’ll leave her and Hannah there, then pick them up a few days later.”

“Yeah. Well. I haven’t told you the half of it.”

There was rustling, cooing, small giggles. “You haven’t heard my half of it, sweet potato. It’ll give you and me a chance to stay in a hotel. Like newlyweds.”

“Jimmy, don’t be bad.”