“What?”
Colleen glanced warily toward the empty doorway. Neither Liam nor Eric were within seeing or hearing distance.
“I’ve been wondering.... Does Eric know what happened last summer?”
“You mean about Lincoln DuBois being Deidre’s biological father?” Natalie asked, suddenly solemn. Colleen nodded. “No. I haven’t told him.” Natalie shrugged, looking uneasy. “I figured it’s such a private thing to your family. It’s not my place to talk about it with others. Eric has asked Liam about his and Marc’s visits to Lake Tahoe to see Deidre, but he’s under the impression that DuBois is an old family friend of your mother’s, and that since Deidre is a nurse, she’s out there helping to take care of him. I haven’t corrected him in his understanding of the situation.”
Colleen sighed. DuBois was an old family friend of her mother’s, all right—such a good, old family friend that they’d created a child together while her mother was still married to Derry. Of course, Derry had erred, as well. The discovery of Derry’s infidelity had been why Brigit had turned to DuBois for comfort.
“You’re going to be a Kavanaugh soon,” Colleen said as she examined the belt on her coat. “And Eric is part of your family. I’d understand it if you felt the need to tell him the truth. It all relates to the crash, after all. It was the reason my dad was so upset that night…why he got so drunk. It relates to your mother’s death, and so it relates to Eric, as well. But I’d appreciate it if you didn’t get into it with him in the near future…not while we plan for the wedding, anyway.”
“Of course, Colleen,” Natalie said in a hushed tone. “I’m actually glad you brought it up. I’ve been wondering where the line is, in this situation. Eric never shared my obsession to understand the truth about what was going on with Derry on the night of the crash…to discover why your father behaved so uncharacteristically. I figured since he hadn’t been as curious as I was, I wasn’t as obligated to tell him what Liam and I found out.”
“He never thought about my dad’s motivations as much as you?”
Natalie shook her head.
“Well…there’s little doubt that when it comes to grief and trauma, every human being on the planet responds in a different way,” Colleen reflected.
“I know there’s been a history of friction between Eric and you,” Natalie said earnestly. “But I want you to know, he’s been beyond a brother to me. He’s been a parent. He would do anything for me.”
Colleen stepped forward and gave her future sister-in-law a big hug. “Believe it or not, I know. I’d have to be the hugest fool on the planet not to be able to see how much Eric cares about you.” She stepped back and gave Natalie a smile. “At one time, I would have just thought it was easy for him, you being as wonderful as you are. Now…I have to admit, some of the goodness might be on his side.”
She laughed when she saw Natalie’s concern. “I’m only kidding, Natalie. Eric deserves a medal of honor for brotherly affection. My heart has been melting in secret. I’ll deny it to the end of my days if you ever tell him, though.”
They shared a smile
and went out to join the men.
She didn’t know why, but she didn’t want Eric to know about her mother and father and Deidre. She already felt vulnerable enough around him as it was. Sometimes, she got the impression he saw right through her armor to her insecurities…her weaknesses.
It was the combination of her weakness when it came to resolving her past and her weakness for him that had her treading like she was on paper-thin ice.
Eric completed the finishing touches on Brendan’s bandages while Jenny jumped several inches in the air. She was trying to assess the success of her Halloween costume in the decorative mirror hanging on the wall in his office and coming up a few inches short.
He affixed the bandage and sat back to study his work. He’d originally thought to use only a smidgeon of the fake blood he’d purchased, but Brendan had gleefully encouraged a more liberal dosage.
Jenny, who Eric had dressed as a physician, had complained that people would think she was a very bad doctor given her patient’s copious bleeding.
“Better hurry,” Brendan said anxiously. “My mom will be here any minute. She sounded surprised when I told her to pick us up in your office.”
“Was she worried?” Eric asked, interested in how Colleen would respond to the special plan he, Brendan, Jenny and Brigit had cooked up for Halloween.
“No. She trusts you,” Brendan said. “She thinks you’re the best doctor at the hospital. She just sounded confused about why Jenny and I were at your office.”
Eric did a double take in the process of walking across the room. “Best doctor at the hospital?” he asked, stunned. He removed the mirror from the wall and held it at hip level. Jenny grinned widely as she admired herself in her surgeon’s outfit. Luckily, Eric knew a very petite female surgeon who had recently shrunk a set of scrubs in the wash. Only minimal safety-pin usage had been required to fit Jenny’s wand-thin frame. The fact that she wore several layers of clothes beneath the scrubs helped. “Where did you get the idea your mom thought that?”
“She said so. I heard her telling my aunt Deidre on the phone yesterday,” Brendan said matter-of-factly as he sailed across the office on his crutches in order to inspect his costume in the mirror alongside his sister. Eric had seen a lot of kids use crutches, but no one moved more quickly and effortlessly than Brendan.
Eric absorbed this fascinating tidbit of information as the children vied for a central place before the mirror. He wanted to ask more about what Colleen had said about him, but he couldn’t figure out how to without seeming obvious.
“It’s not very realistic,” Brendan said, inspecting the pair of them in the mirror. “Who would believe that a doctor could be so much shorter than her patient?”
“Who would believe that a patient would be bleeding so much when they have such a good doctor?” seven-year-old Jenny responded with admirable quickness.
Eric smiled. He liked Jenny’s feistiness. He’d met her last summer at the fundraiser for The Family Center. Jenny had been surprisingly focused and determined on the task of dunking Harbor Town’s mayor, Tony Tejada, in the dunking booth, despite the fact that her small arm wasn’t quite up to the task of hurling a baseball the full distance required. Tony had agreed nonchalantly when Eric had suggested moving the mark up a few feet to give Jenny a fighting chance. Tony’d paid for underestimating Jenny’s resolve and skill. The tall, slender, seemingly delicate girl had felled the mayor on her first attempt at the newly designated mark. She and Eric had shared a satisfied grin as Tony sputtered and thrashed around in the water behind them. When she’d recognized Eric after Brendan’s surgery, they’d quickly resumed their budding friendship.
Did he like Jenny because she reminded him so much of her mother, minus the defensiveness? Eric suspected that was part of it. One thing was for certain: Jenny was a force to be reckoned with, just like Colleen.