CHAPTER 22
Beth
“How are things going with Sam?” Sunshine asked, as Beth and her aunt strolled the wide aisle of an indoor antiques market. Her aunt loved looking at things from the past, and Beth enjoyed accompanying her. Sunshine was a study in contrast. Her art was cutting edge and modern, and at the same time she savored reclaiming, restoring, and making new what was once discarded and old.
“Sam’s great.” Beth watched as her aunt walked over to a display of buttons. He had quickly become her everything. It frightened Beth sometimes when she thought about him. Their relationship seemed perfect, and instinct told her that perfection wouldn’t last. Soon they would hit a curve, and at the speed in which their relationship was progressing, they would either crash and burn out or find they could adjust and accommodate.
“First loves are special,” Sunshine commented, picking up a button and examining it. “They are the ones that mark us.”
Her aunt gave no further indication about her own first love, so Beth posed the question. “We never forget our first love, do we?”
“Never,” Sunshine agreed. She replaced one button and reached for a cloth-covered one, holding it in the palm of her hand. “I once read that during the Civil War women of the south would soak these cloth buttons in perfume and then sew them into the collars of their men’s shirts. That way the scent was a constant reminder of their loved ones waiting for them at home.”
“That’s so romantic.” Her mind automatically went to Sam and how dreadful she’d feel sending him off to fight with an uncertain future. Sewing one of her perfume-soaked buttons in his collar would mean as much to her as it would to him.
“Who was your first love?” Beth asked, venturing closer to the subject on her mind. She hadn’t given up the idea of finding Peter Hamlin, although she hadn’t pursued it as of yet. Sam’s words of caution had stayed with her.
Her aunt paused and a dreamy look came over her before she gently shook her head and then laughed, brushing off the question with a lighthearted response. “I had several.”
“Sunshine! Certainly there was one who stuck out in your mind more than anyone else.”
Her aunt increased her pace. “Of course there was,” she agreed, and then marched off, leaving Beth no choice but to pick up the pace in order to follow her.
Not once during the entire afternoon was she able to get Sunshine to bring up Peter’s name, but Beth knew it was him. It seemed that even now after all these years the subject of this man she’d once loved was too painful to discuss. Beth didn’t know what role her mother had played in what had happened between her aunt and Peter Hamlin, but she suspected it was major. Something had caused the rift between them, a subject neither one seemed willing to discuss.
“What about the man you mentioned that night we had dinner?”
“What night?”
She ignored the question. “His name was Peter.”
Her aunt grew suspiciously quiet.
“Did my mother have anything to do with what happened between you two?” she asked.
Her aunt’s eyes grew sad. “Listen, Beth, some subjects are best left alone. This is one of them.”
In that moment, Beth was convinced that her mother did have something to do with whatever had happened with Peter. Now more than ever she was curious to find out what she could.
Beth had found several Peter Hamlins on the Internet but deduced that the one living in Chicago was the man she sought. He was an attorney and worked in a prestigious law firm in the heart of the city. Of all the Peter Hamlins she’d found, this one matched up age-wise, as well. No guarantees, though. The only way to be certain was to contact him and ask. Facebook was no help, as his site was strictly professional.
Sam cautioned her when she told him what she’d discovered. “You could be stirring up a hornet’s nest.”
“Maybe, but I feel that at least I have to try.” Sunshine had done so much for her that if Beth had even a small chance of bringing her beautiful, loving aunt happiness it would be wrong to let it drop.
It took Beth several days to build up her resolve to make the phone call to his Chicago office. She had to do it on her lunch break. Not wanting other staff members to overhear the conversation, she sat in her car. Her finger shook as she punched out the number.
“Hamlin, Wilkens, and Bower,” the receptionist answered.
“I’d like to speak to Peter Hamlin,” Beth returned in her most professional voice.
“Do you have an appointment?”
“No.” She was afraid her voice might have trembled as she answered.
“Would you like one?” the receptionist returned.
“No, this is a personal matter. I’m calling from Oregon.”
“From Oregon,” she repeated, “and you say this is a personal matter?”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry, but Mr. Hamlin is in court this afternoon.”
“Oh…I hadn’t considered that,” Beth said, thinking out loud.
“Would you like to leave me your number for Mr. Hamlin to return your call?”
Beth considered that and realized that wouldn’t work. “I’ll be in the classroom the rest of the day.”
“Can I tell him what this is in regard to?” the woman pressed.
Again an internal debate waged inside her. “No,” she decided quickly. “I’m not sure this is the same Peter Hamlin I need to speak with.”
The woman grew hesitant. “Perhaps I can help you. My name is Sondra Reacher and I’ve been with the firm for nearly forty years. Technically, I’m retired, but I can’t seem to stay away, so I come in two days a week.”
Beth was tempted, but she didn’t know enough about Peter Hamlin to ask the right questions. “This might sound silly, but does he enjoy fish tacos?”
The receptionist got another call and Beth was put on hold. She waited what seemed like a long time, but it was only a couple minutes before the woman returned.
“Where were we?” she asked.
“Fish tacos.”
“Yes, I remember now. I’ve known Peter from the time he joined the firm and his father before him, too, as well as the other partners. As I recall, Mr. Hamlin does like Mexican food. I can’t remember what he orders, though.”
“That’s encouraging. I think I might be on the right track.”
“Won’t you give me your name?”
Beth hesitated. “It would mean nothing to him.”
“Try back again, and in the meantime I’ll mention your call to Mr. Hamlin.”
“Thank you,” Beth said.
As soon as Beth disconnected she contacted Sam. His lunch break coincided with hers and they often spoke as they had when she was hospitalized. He answered on the first ring, as if he’d been anticipating her call.
“So how’d it go?” he asked right off.
“He wasn’t there, but the receptionist was as helpful as she could be. She urged me to call back.”
“Are you going to?” he asked.
“I suppose I will. I think this lawyer is the one.”
Sam didn’t approve of her plan, but thankfully he did nothing more than offer his advice. “Think carefully before you do,” he urged.
“I have been giving it a lot of thought. I want to do this for Sunshine. It might go nowhere, but the least I can do is make the effort.” The more she thought about it, she knew Sam might be right. She could be opening a can of wriggling worms and the ramifications might well bleed into her entire family. The hostility between Beth’s mother and Sunshine was as thick as lava, and adding to it was sure to cause even more problems. The two sisters were rarely in the same room together, and when they were, the tension was often unbearable. Beth loved her aunt, and more than anything she wanted do what she could to help Sunshine to find the happiness she deserved.
Beth tried again on Tuesday afternoon. A different receptionist answered and blew her off like she was a fly on her pizza plate. Wednesday it was the same thing. The most she could get out of the woman was the time for an appointment, the soonest of which was in December. The woman urged her to take it, as Mr. Hamlin was in high demand. Although she never expected to actually make the appointment, she booked it, anyway.
On Friday Sondra Reacher, the older receptionist, was back on duty. “It’s me again,” Beth said, hoping the woman recognized her voice.
“Ah, yes, I remember you.”
Beth was relieved. “Please tell me Mr. Hamlin is in his office today and not in court.” She didn’t mention that she’d called four times that week already.
“He’s in,” the woman said.
“Can I speak to him?” Beth asked, her excitement growing.
“Let me put you on hold. I’ll check with him. You’d better give me your name this time.”
“It’s Beth. Beth Prudhomme.”
The woman repeated her name, asked for the spelling, and then lowered her voice to say “I’ll do my best. No promises.”
“Thank you.”
Beth was put on hold and her heart raced the entire time she waited.
“This is Peter Hamlin.” His voice was sharp and impatient, as if she’d interrupted an important meeting. “I understand this is a personal matter?”
“Yes, yes, it is,” Beth said, her mouth going dry.
“In regards to what?” he demanded.
“I’m wondering if you’re the same Peter Hamlin who once knew my aunt. Her name is Louise, but her friends call her—”
“Sunshine,” Peter finished for her, his voice instantly softening.
“Yes. So it is you?” Happiness and relief bubbled up inside her. “I was making an educated guess and—”
“What does she want?” He returned to the clipped gruff voice he’d used earlier.
Then, before she could answer, he asked another question.
“Is she okay?” He made the questions sound like she was on the witness stand for the opposing side and any response was to be treated with suspicion.
“She’s in good health…now, if you’d give me a chance to explain.”
“Then she wants something.” The hostility made her stiffen.
“No, not at all. My aunt doesn’t want anything. She doesn’t even know that I’ve contacted you. I haven’t told her…she mentioned you and I could tell that you’d been important to her at one time and decided to try to find you.”
He was silent for several heartbeats. “Then what do you want?” he asked, sounding less angry now but not overly pleased.
“I want my aunt’s happiness.”
“She’s a successful artist and—”
“So you’ve followed her career.”
He didn’t answer right away. “Yes.”
“Then you know she never married?”
Again the slight hesitation. “Yes.”
“Did you?” Beth ventured. She had this romantic picture in the back of her mind that she would bring these two people who had once loved each other back together again. There would be roses and champagne and they would still be madly in love after all these years.
“I did. Are you Ellie’s daughter?”
“Yes.”
“Listen, Beth Prudhomme, I’m a busy man. I have a client waiting. I don’t know what you expect from me, but I want none of it. I made my choice, your mother made hers, and so did Sunshine. Let’s leave it at that.”
Before Beth could say another word, the line was disconnected. Beth sat in her car, staring at her phone, unable to believe her aunt could have loved a rude, arrogant man like Peter Hamlin.
“He was awful,” Beth told Sam later that evening.
“Babe, what did you expect?”
“Not that,” she admitted as she tossed together a salad for their dinner. Sam had offered to take her out, but Beth wasn’t in the mood. She wanted to vent, and doing it in a restaurant wasn’t the best idea.
“I’m sorry you’re disappointed.”
“I had this fantasy built up in my mind of the two of them reconnecting and discovering their love had never died.”
“That’s in the movies, Beth. Real life is different.”
“I can’t believe my aunt could love such a jerk.”
Sam tucked his arms around her waist and nuzzled her neck. “They fell in love years ago. Time changes people.”
“I know.” Inwardly, she prayed it would never change the way she felt about Sam.
“What does Sunshine have to say about him?”
“Nothing. Every time I ask about her first love, she changes the subject. The most information I’ve gotten out of her is that he likes fish tacos.”
“You did your best.”
Beth tried, but she couldn’t help being disappointed.
Hours later, as she tossed and turned, unable to sleep, she couldn’t accept that this bad-tempered, unfriendly man was the same one her aunt had loved. And from all outward indications, Sunshine loved him still.
Saturday morning Beth waited until after her three piano students had come for their lessons before she reached out to her aunt. She wouldn’t tell Sunshine what she’d done, but she had to know more about Peter if she was going to make this work. There was a missing piece in this family drama—actually, there were several such pieces missing—and Beth was determined to lock it into place.
She brought Sunshine lunch at her studio. Her aunt had always made Beth feel welcome and special.
“What did you bring me?”
“Hummus and fresh cut-up veggies, a hard-boiled egg, and a huge peanut-butter cookie.”
“Perfect. That’s a well-rounded lunch. Let’s start with the cookie.”
Beth couldn’t contain her smile. “We always ate dessert first when I was a kid, too, remember.”
“I’m not likely to forget.”
“Do you remember the time you wanted to take me on a picnic and Mom wouldn’t let me go because she said I had hay fever?”
Sunshine rolled her eyes. “Which time?”
Beth pretended not to hear the question. “We ate under the dining room table.”
“And your mother had a fit.”
“We got crumbs on the carpet,” Beth reminded her.
“A federal offense for sure.”
They both laughed. Beth took care peeling away the plastic wrapper around her cookie. “I’ve never asked why you and my mother avoid each other.”
“It’s a long story, honey, and best left as it is.”
“Perhaps,” Beth agreed. “Still, I’d like to know.”
“Have you ever asked your mother?”
Beth had years ago, after a short visit with Sunshine. Her aunt was appropriately named. Her visits were like scattered rays of beaming light that came into Beth’s life when she seemed to need it most. She often wondered how Sunshine knew the best possible time to visit.
“I did ask Mom and she brushed me off and said I should ask you and then warned me against it.”
Sunshine laughed. “That sounds like something she would do.”
“She means well,” Beth said. She did, too, and hoped she wasn’t about to make a fool of herself. “Won’t you tell me?” Beth asked, growing serious.
Her aunt waited a few moments before she answered. “I’m thinking this isn’t the time or the place. I will, my love but not now. Another day.”
It was hard to accept but she agreed. “Answer one question; that’s all I’ll ask for now.”
“Okay, ask away,” Sunshine said, with a classic wave of her hand.
“Was whatever happened between you over a man?”
Sunshine’s gaze shot to hers and her eyes widened. “Yes,” she whispered.
“Is his name Peter?”
“You said one question.”
“This is part B.”
“That’s two questions.”
“Louise, tell me the truth.” To the best of her knowledge, this was the first time Beth had used her aunt’s given name.
“Yes,” she whispered, her eyes filling with sadness. “His name was Peter.”
“And he loved fish tacos?”
“And sculpting, and, oh my, he was talented. He loved to laugh and sing songs he’d composed in my honor, and read aloud to me until I fell asleep in his arms. We connected on every level. I never loved anyone the same again,” she whispered, lost in the perfect love in her past.
This was the same Peter Hamlin Beth had spoken with over the phone? It didn’t sound like she’d found the same man at all.