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New York City, New York
“And that’s a wrap!” The director of May’s talk show finished out the half-hour as the crowd roared with applause. May’s eyes were dewy and grateful. She dropped forward and first squeezed Luke’s hand, then Heather’s.
“Thank you for sharing your stories today,” May beamed sweetly. “My audience eats up a good love story.”
Luke’s heart swelled as he glanced in Heather’s direction. He half-expected Heather to insist they were “just friends.” Maybe by now, the jig was up. She had to admit the truth of their dynamic. She had to admit that when she’d spotted him in the audience, far and away from their Bar Harbor home, she’d realized the depths of her feelings. Or at least, she’d realized they were in too deep to turn back now.
Luke and Heather headed backstage, where their microphones were removed. Heather continued to beam as though her smile was taken directly from the sun. Kristine and Bella threw their arms around their mother and performed little shrieks of, “You looked so good up there!” and, “My mother’s book is about to become a major movie!” Luke wasn’t sure where to put his hands. On his waist? Crossed over his chest?
“I can’t believe she pulled you up on stage!” Bella remarked to Luke as she drew a strand of hair behind her ear.
“I wasn’t fully ready for that either,” Luke admitted.
“But you did amazing,” Kristine said. “May had a total crush on you after two seconds.”
“I know. I was jealous,” Heather teased.
Kristine, Bella, Luke, and Heather decided to cross the busy intersection nearby to grab some coffees and slices of cake to share at a tiny coffee shop. Luke was surprised and pleased at how comfortable he felt in their midst. He teased Kristine and kept up with Bella’s sarcasm and found his hand brushing Heather’s knee, which made her smile. He and Heather shared a slice of carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, and Heather’s eyes closed at the luxurious flavor as she licked icing from the tongs of her fork.
“Nicole refuses to make anything like this these days,” Heather said. “It always has to be the most intricate and difficult cake recipe. Something as simple as carrot cake doesn’t cut it for her anymore.”
“She’s gotten insanely good, though,” Kristine said warmly.
“She has,” Heather agreed. “I just wouldn’t mind the occasional chocolate chip cookie.”
“You know, you’re talking to a mediocre cook who can whip up some of the best chocolate chip cookies in the land...” Luke quipped, pounding his chest jokingly.
“That’s right,” Heather added as she pointed her fork toward him. “You’re not mediocre. But you’re definitely not trying to prove anything, like my sister.”
“That’s right. I’ll make you junk food any time you like it,” Luke said. “And I’ll make it better than anyone else.”
“It’s a deal,” Heather returned, her eyes alight.
Kristine and Bella exchanged glances. To Luke, and perhaps to everyone else, this conversation seemed to be about something else. Kristine lifted a large morsel of cake to her lips and chewed quickly. Bella grabbed her purse from beneath the table.
“We have to get going,” Kristine announced.
“Where are you two off to?” Heather asked.
“We have a thing,” Bella said flippantly.
“Yeah. A social function,” Kristine affirmed.
“Since when do you two call things ‘social functions’?” Heather asked with a laugh.
“Since we, um...” Kristine began.
“Since we grew up, Mom,” Bella said as she lifted up to place a kiss on her mother’s cheek. “We’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Okay,” Heather said gently. “Love you. Thanks for taking me to my big gig today.”
“I’m sure it’ll be the first of many.” Bella wrapped her coat around her shoulders and headed for the door with Kristine hot on her heels.
With the twins out on the chilly streets of Manhattan once more, Heather and Luke fell into a comfortable silence. Heather took another bite of carrot cake as Luke padded the tops of his thighs.
“I think they left us on purpose, don’t you?” Heather asked finally, her eyes glittering mischievously.
“I have to think they’re always up to something,” Luke affirmed. “They’re your daughters, after all.”
Heather had a small strip of icing on her bottom lip. Luke ached to kiss it off. They hadn’t shared a kiss in what seemed like decades. But he didn’t want to appear too eager. He’d come this far, from Bar Harbor to New York, and still, she hadn’t resisted him. He didn’t want to blow it and scare her off.
“What do you say we walk uptown?” Heather suggested softly. She reached for a napkin and smeared the icing from her lip self-consciously. “I could have a cocktail somewhere dark and secluded. So we could really, you know. Talk.”
Luke’s heart pumped loudly. He wanted to pinch himself.
“That sounds nice,” Luke breathed. “Really nice.”
Moments later, Heather and Luke wound their way northbound along the chaotic Manhattan streets. Luke’s hand hovered just a few inches from Heather’s. He itched to take her small hand in his.
They didn’t say a single word to one another for ten blocks. Heather then mentioned that there was a great cocktail bar not far from there. “Kristine and Bella always show me the best spots in town,” she told him. “They keep me young.”
The cocktail bar was reminiscent of a cocktail bar from the roaring twenties, with flapper girls as waitresses and a man in a top hat behind the bar.
“It’s wild that we still celebrate the 1920s like this, isn’t it?” Heather said softly as they sat in a corner booth. “It’s the twenties all over again.”
“I wonder if they’ll be celebrating the 2020s in one hundred years,” Luke said.
Heather laughed. “I doubt it, although I don’t know. We can never feel the magic of our own time, can we?”
“I don’t know,” Luke joked. “I was pretty sure it couldn’t get more magical than the eighties.”
“You were just a kid,” Heather pointed out.
“I know,” Luke affirmed. “But all those hairstyles? The brightly colored clothing? There was nothing normal about it.”
Heather shook with laughter. “I think you’re right about that.”
They ordered two cocktails— a Boulevardier and something called a Grasshopper. The waitress arrived back with two beautiful cocktail glasses and a little bowl of peanuts.
“Are these peanuts also from the twenties?” Luke joked.
“Yes. Antique peanuts,” Heather joined in. “Nothing better.”
Again, they fell back into silence and studied one another. Luke’s throat was parched. He sipped the cocktail to coat it.
“I was so worried that you never wanted to see me again,” Luke finally admitted what weighed heavily on his heart.
Heather’s eyes widened. “I thought the same about you.”
“Heather...” Luke shook his head tentatively. “You know how I feel about you.”
This shut Heather up for nearly thirty seconds. She sipped her drink; as her eyes glowed with tears she refused to let fall.
“Why did you do it, Heather?” Luke breathed then. His tone wasn’t accusatory. It was soft, loving. “You knew I wanted to tell you how I felt that night.”
Heather closed her eyes. She placed her hands on her cheeks and seemed to focus on her breathing.
“I still feel confused. I still feel like such a fool sometimes, Luke,” Heather whispered. “Sometimes, I still wake up and think that Max is alive and well. I think we’re still in Portland— that the girls are preparing for their piano recitals or headed to soccer practice or studying for their SATs. And then I have to relive the nightmare of what happened. I have to remember that Max is dead, that my mother wasn’t really my mother. That my mother was a cruel and calculating woman who used the man I thought was my father for her own capitalistic gain.”
Heather heaved a sigh. Luke wanted to reach out and take her hand, but he held himself back.
“And then I have to remember how I’ve treated you,” Heather whispered. “We had such an immediate connection last year. When I looked at you, I recognized a kindred spirit. You were someone who could sit beside me during my darkest hour and know exactly what to say— or when not to speak. I found myself falling for you. And it felt like such a betrayal of my old life. After that, I feel that I yanked you around. I was so into you one moment and then willing to weasel out of your arms the next. It was cruel, Luke. Especially after everything you’ve been through.”
Luke’s heart banged. He hadn’t imagined such an elaborate apology.
“The fact is, Luke, I do care for you,” Heather whispered. She finally forced herself to lift her eyes to his. “I want to be something to you. I want to be loved by you, and I want to love you in return.”
Luke’s voice crackled as he spoke. “But you can’t?”
“I didn’t think I could,” Heather whispered. “But every moment since I left your place a few nights ago, I’ve ached with regret. I know that the only thing worse than betraying my former self is betraying my current and future self. This version of me needs happiness, just as much as the past version of me needed happiness. And Luke, May the talk show host saw it clear as day. We’re in love with each other. It’s time that I allow myself to admit it. It’s time that I live in the here-and-now.”
Luke nearly toppled the table over after that. He embraced her, pulling her against him, and kissed her frantically like he would never see her again. Her arms wrapped tightly around his broad shoulders, trying to hold onto all of him at once.
“I love you, Heather,” Luke whispered, his eyes clenched. “I love you. And I want to protect you. To help you experience joy and happiness, all the days of your life.”
Heather shook tenderly against him. “I love you, Luke. I’m so glad we found one another. And I’m so glad that I can finally face my feelings and uphold them for what they are. I’m sorry it took me so long.”
**
THE FOLLOWING MORNING, Luke awoke beneath white satin sheets in the hotel room Heather’s agent had booked for her on the Upper West Side. Memories of the night before flicked around his mind. He made a mental note to make them “permanent” memories, “never to be lost.” He wanted to keep them forever.
Heather sat cross-legged in a robe at the far end of the bed. Her skin glowed beautifully with the light that streamed in from the window. The hotel room was located on the twenty-first floor, far above the chaos of traffic. It was like their own little world.
“How did you sleep?” Heather whispered as she placed a hand across his ankle gently.
“It was the best sleep I’ve had in ages,” Luke told her.
“Me too.”
They locked eyes for a long, tender moment. Heather drew herself closer to him. He took in the beautiful delicateness of her unique smell, something that seemed perfectly in-tune with his body. “Sometimes, you can’t get past someone’s smell,” a buddy had told him once as they’d discussed dating. “She could be the most beautiful woman in the world, but if she doesn’t smell right to you... It wasn’t meant to be.”
“I’ve thought about it, Heather,” Luke whispered as he drew his fingers through her dark curls.
“Thought about what?”
“About living in truth with you,” Luke answered. “About facing the truth. I’m facing how much I love you. I’m facing that I want to build a life with you. And I’m so grateful you want to do that with me, too.”
Heather’s ocean-blue eyes widened with hope.
“But on top of that, I think I do want to track down my birth parents,” Luke breathed.
Heather arched an eyebrow. “Are you sure, Luke? I don’t want you to feel pressured to do anything you don’t want to do.”
“Why wouldn’t I want to know the truth? Why wouldn’t I want to know where I came from, especially now that I found you?”
Heather’s lips parted in surprise. Luke tipped himself forward and took both of her hands gently.
“What if we called the Ohio office this morning? Get it out of the way,” Luke whispered. “Just bite the bullet and then go out and have a beautiful breakfast to celebrate.”
“Are you sure about this, Luke?”
“I’m pretty sure about everything today,” Luke assured her, his grin widening. “With you by my side, of course.”
Heather searched through her online documents to find the phone number for the records office in Cincinnati. The phone rang just twice before a woman answered.
“Hi, there. You’ve reached the downtown Cincinnati records office. How may I help you?”
Heather explained that she’d spoken with the woman about a week before about finding the adoption paperwork for a baby who’d been dropped off at an orphanage nearly forty-four years before. Through the speaker, the woman said, “I remember you, Heather. Of course. I’ll head back and find the documents we discussed right now. Give me a minute?”
Luke waited with bated breath. Heather slipped her fingers through his and gave him a tentative smile.
“She shouldn’t be long,” Heather told him.
A few minutes later, the woman’s voice rang through the speakerphone once again, this time sharper and lighter than before. “Hi! I have um, rather strange news.”
Heather’s face fell. “What’s that?”
“It’s just that the files we discussed last week. They appear to have been... misplaced.”
“Misplaced?” Heather repeated.
“Heather. It’s okay,” Luke said immediately, as relief fell over him.
“That’s ridiculous,” Heather interjected.
“I’m terribly sorry, Mrs. Talbot,” the woman said. “I can give you a call when they turn up. I’ll tear this office up over the next few hours looking.”
“Do call me,” Heather said firmly.
“Heather...” Luke warned.
“What?” Heather mouthed toward Luke.
“It isn’t a big deal,” Luke told her again.
“It is! It is a big deal!” Heather returned, her eyes widening.
“I know it’s a big deal,” the woman on the speakerphone said. “And I’ll give you a call first thing when they turn up. Okay?”
“Okay. Thank you,” Luke called toward the phone to allow the woman to hear. He then took the phone from Heather’s hand and pressed END.
Heather gaped at him, flabbergasted. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I thought it would be easy. I thought we could figure everything out together.”
Luke drew closer to her on the bed and wrapped his arms around her. “We are figuring everything out together,” he told her. “All that was in the past. There’s no figuring that out. It’s like reading about old characters in some fictional book anyway. The only life I need to worry about is the one I have right here with me. Okay?”
Heather nodded. “I just hope I didn’t get your hopes up.”
“I’m just relieved that we can go get breakfast now,” Luke joked. “I’m starving.”
“Why didn’t you say something?” Heather laughed.
“Heather, I’m always starving,” Luke told her. “Society just forces me to eat only three meals per day.”
“That’s awful,” Heather returned, her voice turning sultry and flirtatious.
Luke kissed her cheek, the tip of her nose, and the beautiful butterfly of her lips. They fell into one another again, there upon the heaven-like white sheets. Luke shoved away all thoughts of disappointment as they curled themselves around one another. This was all the family he needed.