“Oh, Grace,” Eddie said.

“How awful.”

“So, Bonnie called me early this summer and said that she’d found out that Rory Taylor wanted to do an episode on his True Life Stories show about that baby. He was going to look into how she came to be on the beach that morning.”

“So, you contacted him and told him you thought you were the mother?”

Eddie asked.

“No,” Grace said, horrified by the thought.

“I didn’t dare do that.

I.

manipulated a meeting with him to try to find out what he knew.

And what I found out was. the baby had not died. A little girl found her, and her family adopted her. And now she lives in the house right across from the house where Rory Taylor is staying. She lives with her sister. She had some brain damage from that night. It’s mild, but she really does need someone to look out for her. Her sister seems to have done a good job of that. “

Eddie stood up and began to pace, something he always did when he was upset.

“This is unbelievable,” he said.

with one hundred percent certainty, that she is my daughter. It seems crazy that in the middle of a storm, the nurs would take her out to the beach, but”” —How many babies could have been born that night i;

Kill Devil Hills? ” Eddie asked.

“I know, I know. I just can’t make myself tell he] though, Eddie. What if I’m wrong?”

“Does she look like you?”

“Not really. She’s very blond, but then, so was her father.” She said the word other as though it tasted bad i:

her mouth. It did.

“But she’s tall and slender, just like me Just like Pamela was. And she has seizures, Eddie.”

“Marfan.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of. And to make matters worse now she’s pregnant. She’s pregnant, she doesn’t know sh has Marfan’s syndrome, her child might have it, it might go undiagnosed, and” — “You’re being tortured by this.” Eddie sat next to be and took her hand again. He touched her cheek.

“Iwis you could have told me what was going on with you thi summer. I would have been there for you.

Grace. “

“I know,” Grace said.

“I was too angry with you.”

“I loved Pamela, too, you know.”

“I know you did,” she admitted.

“As much as I die And you didn’t know she was sick, just like I didn’t kno^ it. She loved flying—I can’t deny that. You might have encouraged her to do it more than I would have liked, bi it was her choice. You only gave her that choice.”

Eddie lowered his head, and she knew he was strugglin for composure.

“Thanks for saying that,” he said. H leaned back against the sofa.

“The girl,” he said.

“What’ her name?”

“Shelly.”

“Shelly. If you truly believe Shelly is your daughtej and if she and her unborn baby are… at risk, then you have to tell her. Or, at least tell her sister so she can get her evaluated and started on any treatment she might need. You have to do that.

Grace. “

“But what if she’s not my child?” Grace asked.

“She’s a bit fragile. I don’t want to confuse her.”

“Does Shelly have a widow’s peak?” Eddie asked.

Grace shook her head.

“Don’t all the women in your family have one?”

“Most, but not all.”

“Did you ever try to find the nurse?” Eddie asked.

“It seems that she’s the missing link in all of this.”

“There’s no way to find her,” Grace said.

“All I remember about her was that her name was Nancy and she worked in the oncology department of a hospital in Elizabeth City, twenty-two years ago. That’s not much to go on.” Grace was suddenly overwhelmed by the hopelessness of the situation.

“I was using a… friendship with Rory Taylor to stay close to Shelly,” she admitted.

“I can’t believe I did that, but I did. But now he’s involved with Shelly’s sister, so I have no reason to go up there anymore. I want to see Shelly again. I miss her already.”

“Let me help you with this,” Eddie said.

“Let me take on some of the burden you’ve been carrying around all summer, okay?”

She didn’t know what he could do to help, but she was far too tired to fight on her own anymore.

“Okay,” she said.

He gently pulled her closer, lowering her head to his shoulder, and for the first time since before Pamela’s accident, she let her body relax against his.

Uaria rolled onto her back, still trying to catch her breath She stared at the ceiling of her room, while Rory tracec her profile with the tip of his finger.

She had cried out. That was a first. No one had eve:

elicited that from her—surely not Pete—and she’d wondered if that sort of intensity ever truly happened fo:

women outside of books and movies. Now she knew. Shf had never thought of lovemaking as a talent before, bu Rory certainly had it, and she was glad no one else hac been home at the Sea Shanty when he’d revealed it to her “Well,” Rory said, the tip of his finger circling her lips “I think Zack is on to us.”

“You mean … that we’re lovers?” Zack certainly knew she and Rory had been seeing each other for the past tw( weeks, but Rory had been careful about concealing th physical side of their relationship from his son.

“Uh-huh. This morning he asked me if I’d been sure t( use a condom when I was out with you last night.”

She laughed.

“Touche, huh? What did you say?”

“I said I’m an adult in an adult relationship and that i wasn’t appropriate for him to ask me a question like that Then he called me a hypocrite and went out to the beach Not sure I handled it the right way.”

“I think you did,” she said.

“He needs to know then are some boundaries between you and him.”

The past two weeks had been a mixture of joy an worry. Being with Rory, being able to openly acknowledge her feelings for him, had been glorious. Everyone on the cul-de-sac knew about them and approved. Shelly was delighted. Only Chloe seemed less than enthusiastic.

“He’ll be leaving in a few weeks,” she’d say to Daria.

“Don’t throw yourself into this so freely.” Chloe was only trying to protect her from being hurt, Daria told herself. Yet she felt as though there was something less noble in Chloe’s admonitions, and she wondered at times if Chloe was simply jealous. After all, Chloe’s lover was dead, her life in a serious state of disarray.

And that’s where the worry came in. Chloe’s silence and irritability were evidence of the war going on inside her, and although Daria could think of no way to ease her sister’s suffering, that didn’t stop her from worrying about her. Then there was Shelly, who grew more attached to her unborn baby with each passing minute. Daria would never be able to persuade her to have an abortion, that much was clear, so some other arrangements would have to be made. She felt no rush to do that.

Right now, she wanted to focus her time and attention on Rory. With her sisters’ turmoil swirling around her, she had found a safe harbor in his arms.

“So, when do Ellen and Ted get here?” Rory asked her.

She rolled onto her side, resting her head against his shoulder.

“Early tomorrow morning,” she said, then added sarcastically, “I can hardly wait. They hadn’t planned to be here this weekend, but when I stupidly mentioned that the bonfire was scheduled for tomorrow night, they changed their minds.”

“I’m not going to be able to look at Ellen the same way now,” Rory said. “Well, I don’t think she was one of your favorite people to begin with.”

“Shelly was really lucky that you were the one to raise | her, and not Ellen.” | “I’ve thought of that,” Daria said.

“And I was lucky, 4 too. I can’t imagine my life without Shelly.” | “She hasn’t asked me if I’ve uncovered any more in| formation about who left her on the beach,” Rory said. |”How have you explained to Zack or the neighbors why * you suddenly stopped researching Shelly’s background?” she asked. ^ “No one’s asked me yet,” he said.

“When and if they ‘|| do, I’ll tell them I wasn’t able to come up with enough information to make it worthwhile. The person I worry about telling that I failed in my research is Shelly.”

“I know.”

“Have you thought about whether Shelly should know i the truth?” Rory asked.

“I think I would want to know the truth if I were in her shoes, no matter how hard it might be to hear.”

Daria smoothed her hand across his chest.

“Well,” she I said, “I’d have to confront Ellen with it first, and I have no desire to do that.

I hoped that someday she would come forward herself, but that’s never going to happen. It’s not Ellen’s style. Ellen has one person on her mind, and that’s . Ellen. I sometimes think she’s in denial about Shelly being her daughter. In a different sort of world with a different sort of mother, I would say that Shelly should be told the troth. But Ellen is such a bitch to her, that I can’t see how it would do Shelly any good to know. ” :” Maybe Ellen is a bitch to her, as you say, because she i resents her. Shelly was unwanted. The pregnancy got in Ellen’s way. “

“K

“I don’t know, Rory,” Daria said.

“I’ve tried analyzing Ellen over the years, and I’ve never come up with any very charitable perspective on her. I try to remind myself that

she was only fifteen. If something like that had happened to me when I was fifteen, I might have done the same thing.”

“I doubt that very much.” Rory rolled over and leaned on his elbows.

He smiled down at her.

“Not my Daria,” he said.

“You would have been too smart to get pregnant in the first place. But if you did, you would have probably delivered the baby yourself, cut the cord with your teeth and breast-fed her while saving three swimmers caught in an undertow.”