MARY CLARK: Piece of My Heart

Now that they were at the hotel, Emily and Chloe had shifted whatever focus two four-year-olds could muster from their big brother to Alex’s fiancée, Laurie. Laurie had accompanied Marcy to take a quick look at the beach with the kids while Andrew and Alex handled the check-in process. The twins tugged at the linen of Laurie’s white wide-legged pants, eager to tell her the mystery story they had made up the previous night for her benefit, about a puppy who gets left home when the family goes on vacation. The girls had always been enthralled by their Uncle Alex, a well-known criminal defense attorney who was regularly in the news and on TV. When he had agreed to become the host of a series called Under Suspicion , oh, how they had begged to watch.

They were even more excited once they met Laurie, who explained that she also worked on the show, not to mention her NYPD-honcho father. Marcy knew it was normal for children to think other adults were more exciting than their boring old parents, but sometimes Marcy wanted to point out that she and Andrew weren’t exactly chopped liver. Andrew was a sought-after commercial litigator in D.C., and Marcy had been a successful actress for five years after she graduated from college in California. But to Johnny and the girls, she was always Mommy , and, after everything they had gone through to have a family, that was perfectly fine with Marcy.

While the girls were fawning over Laurie, Johnny was riveted by Laurie’s ten-year-old son, Timmy. Three years younger, Johnny had been referring to Timmy as his “cool cousin” since the moment he had heard about the engagement. Now she watched as the two boys threw a Nerf football back and forth near the shoreline. Although they were about to become cousins by marriage, they could easily have passed as siblings. Like Laurie, Timmy and Johnny had straight honey-colored hair and fair skin, whereas she, Andrew, and the twins were all dark waves and olive tones. It made Marcy happy that Johnny would finally have some family members who looked more like him.

“We want to play, too,” Chloe squealed. Emily looked up at Marcy with pleading dark brown eyes. The two of them had always charged ahead as a single unit, but of the twins it was easier to get Emily to calm down. Marcy scanned the beach, searching for ways her risk-taking girls could find danger. Most of the other people on the beach were couples, families, and groups. She noticed one woman alone in a billowing maxi dress, taking photographs of the water while smoking a cigarette. The only other person who appeared to be solo wore shorts, a T-shirt, and a light blue hat that reminded her of the one her mother used to wear on their boat.

She nodded her assent. “Not too close to the water, though.”

She noticed Laurie smile as the girls kicked off their sandals at the edge of the deck and ran toward the boys.

“The twins are over the moon about being flower girls on Sunday,” Marcy said. “They’ve been practicing their steps, but be warned: for all I know, Chloe will go running down the aisle screaming like a maniac with Emily not far behind.”

“And all of that would be just fine,” Laurie said. “You know, it’s funny, I can’t believe I ever got them confused. They look completely different to me now that I know them.”

“That’s a sign you’re officially family now.” And Marcy meant it. She could see that Alex was serious about Laurie when he made a point of inviting them to New York to meet her. She was the first woman Alex had ever introduced to them who seemed to have other priorities besides landing one of the most eligible bachelors in the city. Over the past two years, it had become clear how much Laurie and Alex cared about each other.

“Laurie!”

Marcy turned to see a young woman—she looked like a teenager—behind them, heading to Laurie with her arms outstretched. Her long blond hair was pulled into a ponytail and she lugged a black backpack over her white sundress. Laurie gave the girl a warm hug.

“You must be Mrs. Buckley.” The girl held out her hand for a quick shake.

“Marcy,” she urged. “And you must be the famous Kara. Your chocolate-chip pancakes are legendary.”

Marcy knew that Kara was Timmy’s favorite babysitter and a mainstay at the Moran household until she had left for college last fall at SUNY Buffalo. Their introductions were interrupted by a sand-covered ten-year-old rushing to greet Kara. Before Marcy’s kids made it to the deck, Timmy was already telling Kara all about the new video game he wanted to play with her.

“Mom,” Emily whined, “ Jonathan isn’t throwing the ball to us .”

“Jonathan?” Laurie inquired. “Since when?”

Marcy chuckled. “A new student in his school is named Bartholomew, and he insists on being called by his full name. Now all the kids think it’s cool to use proper names.”

“Small world,” Laurie replied. “Just last week Timmy told me he thought ‘Timmy’ is a little kid’s name. At his request I sometimes call him ‘Timothy.’ ”

“I’m sure for both it’s a passing fad,” Marcy said.

They were interrupted by the sound of male voices emerging from the breezeway. It was Alex, Andrew, and Ramon. Andrew dangled a set of hotel key cards over his head.

“We have the honeymoon suite,” he boasted. “Courtesy of my big brother.”

“Crossed signals with the reservations desk,” Alex explained. “My betrothed and I will be keeping everything on the up and up this week. The honeymoon suite was the only one big enough for your whole brood.”

“Lucky us,” Marcy said, accepting one of the keys.

“So…” Marcy could tell that her husband was eager to say whatever would come next. “How do you ladies feel about an afternoon of golf?”

“Seriously?” She gave a playful swat in his direction. “I thought you were going to announce a spa day.”

“These are Alex’s last few hours of being in his thirties, and a little bird named Ramon told me golf was on the wish list.”

Ramon placed a guilty palm over his heart. “It’s my fault indeed. Leo won’t be here until close to dinner, so this would be the best time for the four of you to hit the links.”

“And what about you, Ramon?” Marcy asked. “We don’t want to leave you out.”

“I have a hidden agenda of my own.”

“Top secret,” Timmy added with a sly smile.

Marcy already knew that Ramon had promised to find a way to take Timmy shopping alone so he could select a special present for Alex, separate from the gift Laurie had chosen for both of them.

Laurie looked to Marcy, assessing her opinion. “I’m a terrible golfer, but Alex keeps telling me that we should play together like you and Andrew do.”

“Lunch at the clubhouse and then just nine holes,” Andrew promised.

Marcy would be leaving her three kids with a nineteen-year-old she had met only moments earlier. On the other hand, Laurie was understandably the most protective mother she knew, and Laurie trusted Kara implicitly. What could possibly go wrong in this ocean paradise? she asked herself.

“Fore!” she said, acting out a full swing of the club.

The two couples entered the breezeway toward their rooms. As they walked—beneath the rim of a blue cotton hat, behind the darkened lenses of a pair of sunglasses—a stranger continued to watch the beach.

Chapter 3

Kara Sumner was having so much fun on the beach that she nearly forgot she was getting paid for the so-called work of helping to watch Timmy and his future cousins for a few days. She already knew that spending time with Timmy would be a piece of cake. She’d been babysitting him since she was in the ninth grade. But this trip involved three other, younger children she’d never met before, and Laurie had warned her that the twin girls could be “spirited.” Now that she was here, she couldn’t believe she had ever worried. The kids were super-sweet and managed to keep one another entertained with little effort on her part.