Page 91 of A Vineyard Crossing
He reached over and took Taylor’s hand. She hesitated at first; she wasn’t one for displays of affection. Perhaps she simply wasn’t accustomed to someone loving her that much. “My wife and I . . .” he began, but then he got choked up because he was an old softie just like Earl. “My wife and I are going to be grandparents,” Kevin said. “There’ll be a brand-new baby in our family.” Then he cried because he couldn’t help himself. Earl said it must be because of all those narcotics Doctor Mike was giving him.
Everyone laughed, and everything was good.
Then Francine said, “Stop all this nonsense! Before the baby comes, I’m going back to school. Jonas is coming with me. My aunt and uncle insisted that he’ll stay with them, too. Jonas will paint and look after Bella; I think I can finish classes before the baby’s born in the spring. Then we’ll be back. This is our home.”
Annie had a hard time holding back her happiness. She looked at Kevin and wondered if he’d told Taylor about the baby Meghan lost, but Annie supposed she needed to stay out of that, too.
“I have one question,” Earl said. “Kevin, if you and Taylor are going to be grandparents, how’re you going to do that from Hawaii? All this internet stuff is fine, but a baby needs his family.”
Kevin looked back at Taylor, who shook her head a little, as if she were resigned. “Every time I try to leave this island, something drags me back,” she said. “I’m afraid it’s karma; maybe it’s time I stopped trying to fight it.”
“We can spend time in Hawaii in winters,” Kevin said. “Now that I’m no longer afraid to fly.” As usual, he was trying to make someone he cared about happy. It wasn’t a bad trait to have.
“But you can’t go until after the holidays,” Claire said. “We need family here for the holidays.”
Sometimes Annie wondered if anyone actually remembered who were the blood relatives and who were not, though by now she knew none of that mattered.
She looked at Simon—a newcomer to the group, but she had a feeling he might be back, too. Maybe he’d bring his family; she thought that would be nice. Then Annie glanced back to Francine, who was beaming, and wanted to tell her to hold on tightly to the happiness that she felt now, to savor every second of her time with Jonas and their bewitching young love.
Then Earl signaled Annie to join him in the hall.
“I told him Meghan left,” he said. “Francine called me from the boat after she dropped her off. She also told me about Kevin and Taylor being married.” He lowered his head and let out a low whistle. “I did not see that one coming. Anyway, Meghan told Francine it was for the best. Who are we to say otherwise, right?”
Annie agreed. The sad part was, it was clear that everyone liked Meghan. Of course, they did not know the whole story—and they’d never hear it from Annie.
“Sometimes things happen for a reason,” Annie said. “Even if it’s years before we understand what the reason was.” Her dad had said that the night Brian had been killed. She thought of her dad now: he would have loved Kevin; he would have loved John. He would have thought Taylor was curious, but he’d never judged anyone, the way he hadn’t judged Aunt Sally. “If you’ll excuse me, Earl, I think I want to go up to the garden for a few minutes alone, okay?”
Because he was Earl, he simply nodded and didn’t ask questions.
* * *
It was called the Healing Rooftop Garden. And though Annie had no physical pain, she realized she’d kept her emotional hurt buried inside for too long. Now that it had been lifted, she was able to see that the trauma from Brian’s accident had stopped her from doing so many things, mostly from trusting that life could be, would be, good again.
She sat on a bench and gazed past the pots of beach grass, out to the harbor. TheIsland Homewas making its way back to Woods Hole, crossing Vineyard Sound to that other world, “the mainland,” some islanders called it, “America,” others said.
Letting her thoughts drift back to Brian, she wondered how things would have been different if he hadn’t died, if they’d moved to California, if he had become a principal. She imagined they would have had a family, children of their own to share their love. She would have kept teaching third-graders, because she’d loved that, too. But Brian was gone before any of that had happened.
As the air stirred, softening the heat of the August sun, Annie supposed that maybe sometimes things really did happen for a reason—even if we could never be sure what that reason had been. All she knew was that she now had wonderful people and wonderful things all around her. Regardless of what Simon’s brother had taken away, she would have missed out on more than she could have imagined.
Getting to know Donna.
Meeting Kevin.
If Annie had gone to California with Brian, she would not have been able to be with Murphy at the end of her life.
She would have missed out on knowing Winnie, which Murphy must have arranged so Annie could have a living, breathing version of her to lean on.
Nor would Annie have had Earl, Claire, Francine, and precious Bella. Or Jonas, and the new life that he and Francine were expecting.
And Meghan. Annie would never have known her, nor would she have met Simon. But with them had come unforeseen challenges that ultimately helped shape Annie’s vow to embrace Kevin and Taylor’s marriage. Challenges, after all, would always be part of living.
If things had turned out differently, Annie would not have had the chance to love John. She would not have met Lucy. Or Abigail, who would always be in John’s world. Annie would try hard not to judge her.
But perhaps as significant as the new people and all the love now in her life, was that if Annie had gone to California with Brian, she might never have written a book. She would not have moved to Martha’s Vineyard, this magical island that had taken hold of her heart. And there be no Vineyard Inn.
It was because of both the good and the bad that Annie had finally found harmony—that she’d learned the real meaning of gratitude, and the importance of having hope for whatever would come next.
Surprisingly, Murphy did not toss down her opinion from high in the crystal blue summer sky. But then Annie felt her old friend’s hand rest gently upon her shoulder, and together they sat in silence, looking out to the sea.
