Stella MacLean - A Child Changes Everything

“Lisa, I can see how this has affected you, but don’t make any decisions right now. You’ve had a long drive and an emotionally exhausting experience. You should get a handle on the situation before you do anything.”

“My sister’s in jail. What other information do I need?”

“You’re not listening,” he said, his voice edgy. “You don’t have any knowledge of Anne Marie Lewis or her past. What if she’s a hardened criminal? What if she doesn’t want to meet you? What if seeing her puts you at risk—”

“After all the times you accused me of not being a risk-taker, now you’re telling me that visiting my sister could be dangerous. What right—”

“Lisa, let’s not bring our past into this.”

“How can I not? Our past is always between us,” she responded, wishing she could ease the anxiety roaring through her.

But his question had made her wonder. Was she actually ready to visit her sister in jail? One minute she was and the next she wasn’t.

“Well, we can’t do anything about it at this hour,” he said, glancing at his watch as he stood. He started for the door, stopped and turned back. “Do you want me to order food now, or what?”

She wanted him to hold her the way he’d done at the nursing home. She wanted to feel safe and secure. Sure in the belief that all of this would work out for the best.

Was she hoping for the impossible? Maybe. “Would you do me a favor? Could you try to find out tonight where she is and when I can see her?”

“Even if she’s in the local jail, it’s unlikely you could get in on such short notice. That is, if she’s willing to see you,” he muttered.

Lisa took a deep breath to ease the tension snapping through her and felt the flush of exhaustion as it laid claim to her limbs.

As much as she hated to admit it, Mason had a point—at least about the timing—but she refused to consider that Anne Marie might not want to see her. “I’d call myself if I thought they’d listen to me.” She gave him a weary smile. “They’ll listen to you, though.”

His expression relaxed as he tapped his fingers on the door. “I’ll order our food, make a couple of inquiries. I’ll be back here as soon as I can,” he said, opening the door.

“Mason, thank you for everything.”

“Including the argument?”

“Yes,” she sighed, relieved to see a real smile on his face.

“I’ll be back,” he said, closing the door behind him as he left.

Even with Mason gone from the room, his scent lingered, sparking memories of their first trip to New York and the carriage ride through Central Park, his arm protectively around her shoulders as the carriage moved beneath the canopy provided by the trees, the kiss they shared as the driver snapped their picture. She had kept that photo to remind her of that unforgettable evening.

He was her first love, and she’d been totally infatuated. After their breakup, she’d dated the new pediatric oncologist at the hospital, which was a disaster.

Since then, she’d concentrated on her career and developing her skills as a pediatric nurse.

Anything but face the very real possibility that she might never get another chance to put things right with Mason—whether that meant getting back together or becoming friends. Either way, she was at least partly responsible for how their relationship had ended.

A COUPLE OF HOURS later after several phone calls—including one to Peter to say goodnight—Mason sat across from Lisa at the tiny table in her room. The sky outside blazed with the golden pink of the setting sun.

Mason noted Lisa’s excited behavior, her animated conversation, her plans for moving her mother to Durham, and all the while he was relieved that she hadn’t asked about his phone call to the Indian River jail.

Worried about what he had to tell her, he’d decided not to say a word unless she brought it up.

Lisa could be very stubborn, and for his money, she was on a wild-goose chase, but he didn’t want her to get hurt. He hadn’t had much opportunity to show how sorry he was for walking out on her—thanks to the way his life and hers had split apart—but he wished he could redo parts of his past.

Sitting so close—the scent of her reaching out to him—triggered an expectation… Of what, he wasn’t certain.

Lisa’s movements, the way she smothered her baked potato in sour cream, the way she chewed every bite attentively and placed her napkin so neatly beside her plate when she finished were all familiar.

Funny how they were so compatible in their everyday lives, but when it came to the big decisions they had little in common.

Carefully placing her fork and knife on the plate, she rose and set it back on the room-service trolley. “So, what about my sister?” she finally asked, returning to her seat.

He sighed. “Anne Marie is in the Indian River jail. It’s not far from here.”

“Has she been charged?”

He attempted to keep his tone neutral. “I’ve arranged an appointment for ten-thirty tomorrow. You can ask Anne Marie then.”

He’d had to pull a few strings to get Lisa in to see her sister. The prisoner usually decided who visited, but the officer had put Lisa’s name on the list at his insistence. It seemed that Anne Marie Lewis had been uncooperative so far, which didn’t bode well for tomorrow.

“What am I going to do when I go in there?” Lisa asked, her voice uneasy, her eyes dark.

What was she asking? Did she expect to be able to walk into the jail and take Anne Marie home? “You’re going to meet her, maybe arrange to visit her again the following day.”

“I don’t mean that.” She began to pace the narrow room. “I mean, what am I going to say to her? How do I explain who I am? We’re complete strangers. How do I begin the conversation? Hello, my name is Lisa and I’m your long-lost sister?” She suddenly spun around, a triumphant smile on her face. “I’ll start with the photo of her and me.”

“What photo?”

“Oh, I forgot to tell you. Carolyn—I mean, my mother—had a photo of Anne Marie and me taken in Myrtle Beach when I was eight. Oh, Mason, you’re not going to believe this…”

As she told him the story, her expression held such joy and hope that Mason felt his heart grow heavy. In all the time he’d known Lisa, he’d never seen her so animated, so happy. Her eagerness to take action pleased him; yet a part of him wished he could have made her this happy.

Beyond any doubt, Lisa Clarke had been waiting for this moment of connection with her birth family. If only he’d realized how important it was to her, back when their love had been an unbreakable tie between them.

“Lisa, let’s not rush this. You don’t know any of the circumstances of your sister’s case, but I’ve seen—”

“So many cases like this, right? People in jail.”

“Yeah, I have.”

“Mason, you still haven’t told me why Anne Marie’s there.”

Damn! He didn’t want to tell her, because the implications were too painful. But her tone of voice told him she wouldn’t be put off. “Drug trafficking.”

She stopped pacing. “Oh. No.” Color drained from her face. “Not that. She couldn’t be mixed up in drugs.”

Mason saw the fear in her eyes and knew what had put it there. “This isn’t like your father’s case.” He hoped that was the truth, but there was no way of being certain of anything at this point.

“I’m sure it’s not,” she said firmly.

Her father had nearly died when a drug trafficker decided to settle the score when Jim Clarke won the case against him. Jim Clarke had been shot getting into his car outside the Durham courthouse. When the hospital called Mrs. Clarke, she’d come to the school to pick up Lisa. On the way to the hospital, her mother had been driving so erratically that the police had stopped her and had to drive her the rest of the way. The next few weeks had been incredibly stressful and emotional for Lisa. Her father held on by a thread and her mother had been a hysterical wreck. Eventually her father had recovered, but he had retired from the D.A.’s office and become a stockbroker—a less dangerous occupation.