AN: I deleted the other version of this story due to creative differences. A lot of things have changed. Names for one. If you read this before Abbie Reynolds is now Mollie Reynolds. There are a few things about Mollie/Abbie that have changed as well. She is no longer mute but she still signs. The reason will be explained later in this chapter. Derrick Lang is now Casper Lang. The setting of the story has also changed from Virginia to the picturesque landscape of Wyoming. The name of the town is now Hidden Rocks, Wyoming. As other important elements change in each chapter I will alert you to them in notes at the beginning.
Chapter Five: Last Day, Last Chance
It was a tense, somber and quiet morning in the main building for breakfast. Emma hadn't come out of her room since the night before, despite pleadings and begging from Jo and Halle. Jenna was slightly nervous and jittery. The room felt much emptier than it had the night before. Katie had arrived back at the camp only moments before. She had driven Maddie back to Hidden Valley. She hadn't slept but an hour or two at most and was ready to crack skulls. With everyone gathered in the living room of the main building, minus the sullen and pouty Emma, Katie felt it was high time to drive home the point she and Peter had been trying to make all week. They only had one more day to do it. Katie slammed the door to the main building closed and took a count. She turned on her heel and strode across the lawn to the girls' cabin and threw open the door to Emma's room.
"One, it's just hair. It will grow back," Katie began. "Two, if you're going to sit in here and feel sorry for yourself, you can do the same thing at home. Say the word Emma and I'll call your grandmother right now. Make your choice and make it quick because I am sick of you wasting my time."
Katie turned on her heel and left the room. She heard the bed creak and footsteps behind her. Katie couldn't help but smile to herself. She and Emma arrived in the main building together. Emma had rooted through all the guys' stuff the night before and had stolen one of Sebastian's winter ski caps. She tied back what was left of her hair and hid it under the hat. She took the only empty seat next to Becca.
Katie looked over the group, making eye contact with each student. She took a breath and began to speak. "First off, I want to thank those of you who have taken this experience seriously and have actually finished it with high marks and glowing recommendations. I wish you all the best of luck in the future. That being said I am also utterly disgusted by the behavior of the student no longer with us today. Though she did not act alone, she chose not to name her accomplices. You know who you are. She was punished alone. What Maddie did was not only vicious and cruel it was also criminal and she could be charged with several crimes for it. What I want to know is, could this tragic series of events been prevented? Jenna?"
"Yes it could have," Jenna said. "I could have said something when it was in its early stages."
"It's not your fault Jenna," Emma said. "I aggravated Maddie, drove her to do this. It's no ones fault but my own."
"Wow, Emma Ross admitting that something is her fault. We wouldn't be here at all if it wasn't for you," Odette said sarcastically. "This whole thing has been a waste of time."
"I wouldn't say that," Jo said. "Being here has given me a great deal insight into the lives of my friends. I never knew that Mollie had a tattoo or that Matt's parents basically left him on his own this past year. Being here has finally given me the courage to face the things that scares me the most."
"And what is that, Jo?" Katie asked. "What scares you?"
"Dublin, my past. The people in it. My father."
Jo's voice started to tremble as she said the last word. Marc tapped Matt on the shoulder and the two boys switched places so Marc could be next to his girlfriend. He put his strong, protective arm around her, rubbing her shoulder as she spoke. Jo rarely talked about Dublin or anything really about her life in Europe. Jo was very close to both of her moms and to her adopted sisters, Anna and Stacy. However, underneath the bright, shining and sunny exterior lay a dark and haunting secret. A secret that rocks both Jo and her mother Kennedy to their very core.
While in her second year of medical school, Kennedy Constable had been invited to a party off campus by her roommate Glynnis. Her roommate had brought along a few more friends just to have a pack of young, good-looking women arrive at the party. Soon after arrival, the other girls had paired off with various gentlemen and left her to fend for herself. Kennedy was about to leave when she spotted someone she knew. He was in her organic chemistry class. She crossed the room and the pair began to talk. He offered to get her a drink, which she politely accepted.
To this day Dr. Constable can remember talking to the young man. She learned his name; Franklin Peters and where he was from; Kerry. The last thing she can remember about that night was getting dizzy and needing to go lie down. When she woke up in the morning, her clothes were rumpled, her hair a mess and in a strange bed. It wasn't until a month or so later that she realized what had happened. She had been raped. Date raped by Franklin Peters.
"Mom considered for about three weeks having me aborted. It was in those three weeks when she met the woman who would become her life partner. Diana Grantland, or as everyone called her Reed was working at the OB office my mother went to when she discovered that she was pregnant. She and Reed talked for days about what she was going through. Reed was the one to give mom her first ultrasound. When Mom heard my heartbeat she knew then that she couldn't give me up," Jo said, tightly clutching Marc's hand. "She and Reed pressed charges against Franklin and he did spend some time in jail. Like most date rapists, he was released after spending half of his sentence. He's tried to be in my life, but Mom and Reed wouldn't allow it. That was the main reason why we had left Dublin when I was five. We couldn't stand being pursued by him."
"And I thought I had father issues," Emma said. "But of course are mine are just slightly larger than most."
Katie then felt it was time to push Emma to talk about what had happened so many years ago. It was that night that had shaped the rest of her life, up unto this moment. She knew Emma had not fully dealt with the events of her mother's death, her father's arrest and everything else that had transpired.
"Emma, have you ever talked to anyone about what had happened?" Katie asked.
"The DA and my grandparents had me see someone to make sure I was competent enough to testify against my father," Emma responded.
"Have you ever made peace with it? Accepted that it wasn't your fault or whoever it is that you're blaming?"
Emma fidgeted in her seat. She hated talking about her mother's death. No one ever truly understood what her father was and what he had really done to all those women, her mother included. That night still haunted her dreams. She looked across the circle at her classmates. She really didn't want them to know that much about her. That one small piece of control that she still had, like the length of her hair. Not telling anyone what she knew or cutting her hair was her way of keeping just a small piece of her life in her control.
The faces were something else that Emma never wanted to deal with again. She hated the faces that felt sorry for her, pitied her. She hated it. She never wanted to see those faces again. Deep in her soul, she knew that it was now or never. She had a choice and she knew she had to make it.
"My mother married my father when she was eighteen years old. He was a rich man, very charming and wonderful," Emma began. "He treated her like a queen. Gave her everything she could have wanted. Early in their marriage, they traveled all over the world. She wrote in her journals that Nanna found when we cleaned out my childhood home, about their lunches in Italy, dinners the same day in Greece. He was a wonderful man. Something changed when Mom got pregnant. He started becoming controlling and he hit my mother a few times. Then he started disappearing for weeks at a time. The last time I remembered him coming home was the night Mom died."
Anna Blythe-Ross was puttering around in the kitchen getting ready for dinner. Jeffery Blythe always came home from his office in Norfolk every night at 5:30. Dinner was to be on the table, ready to eat the moment he arrived in the door. Emily, Emma's proper name, was coloring at the kitchen table. Anna was busy in the kitchen, finishing off the dinner plates. Jeffery liked his meals presented to him in the same fashion as five star restaurants perfectly plated and presented. While she was setting the plates down on the dining room table, a knock could be heard on the front door of the house.
Anna wiped her hands on the dishtowel and went to the door. The sight before her was one of shock and dismay. Two well-dressed police officers stood in the Blythe Family doorway. Little Emily came out of the kitchen and heard what the two men asked her mother.
"Sorry to disturb you this evening Mrs. Blythe but we were hoping to speak to your husband," the one man said. "Is he home?"
"No. Jeffery should be home any moment though. May I ask what you need to speak to him about?"
"We'd like to ask him a few questions regarding the disappearance of six local young women," the second officer said.
Anna's hands started to shake as the officers spoke to her. "I'm sorry. You'll have to wait until my husband returns home. He won't like you being here. Please leave."
Anna closed the door on the officers and made her way back into the house. She couldn't stop shaking. Emily came to stand by her mother. Anna put her hand on her young daughter's shoulder. Jeffery was due home any moment. Thunder could be heard rumbling overhead.
"Emily, go upstairs to your room and stay there," Anna said.
"Yes Mommy," seven-year-old Emily said.
"That was the last time I saw my mother alive," Emma said, her voice cracking. "I had never seen her so scared. My mother wasn't afraid of anything or anyone. In those moments, she was as terrified as a little girl. I went to my room but I didn't close the door all the way. Something was not right."
Anna Blythe-Ross had never been afraid if her husband ever in the ten years they had been married. At this moment she had no idea how to act or what to say what when he arrived home. She had seen the reports of the six missing women and could not believe that her Jeffery could have had anything to do with it. There was no way he could have done what he was being accused of. She met him at the front door moments later. She kissed his cheek gently.
"What has brought this on, my darling?" Jeffery asked, confused. "Where is Emily?"
"The police were here earlier," Anna replied, taking his coat.
"What did they want?"he asked.
"They wanted to ask you a few questions regarding the missing women."
"And what did you tell them, darling?" Jeffery questioned, a fire starting to burn in his eyes. "You didn't tell them anything did you?"
"I told them that you would be home later and to speak to you then," Anna said, walking into the living room. "Jeffery, please tell me you don't know anything. Tell me you know nothing about it."
Jeffery stood in the entry of the living room staring over at his young wife. All the women he killed they all looked just like her. Late twenties, medium length brown hair, brown eyes, about five foot three to five foot five, medium weight. He had a fire in his eyes that Anna had never seen in the ten years they had been married. She began to back away from him.
"Alison Manning, Audrey Nelson, Amanda Hart, Amber Short, Ashley Pagen and Annalee Tyson. Those were their names. There are at least five more that I can't remember. They are all on Mt. Government just waiting to be found. However, you won't be around to tell anyone where they are because you are going to be joining them."
The shattering of glass is what drew little Emily from her room. She peered over the railing into the living room to see her father standing over her mother who was face down on the floor, the glass coffee table in shards around them. Emily couldn't scream or even breathe. She watched as the lightning outside lit up the room as Jeffery Blythe picked his wife up by the back of her head and threw her head first into the saltwater fish tank. Blood and water pooled around the body of Anna Blythe-Ross. To make sure that the job was finished Jeffery took the silver candelabra off the piano and brought it down on her head. Emily was frozen in place. She couldn't move, breathe or even blink. In a matter of moments, she moved from her shocked position at the railing of the stairs and back to her room. She picked up her Minnie Mouse phone and called 911.
"I watched him kill her," Emma said, tears falling from her eyes, her whole body shaking. Jesse and Abbie sat on either side of her. "By the time the cops had arrived he had taken off. It was a three-week nightmare before the cops finally caught him. When they caught him, he had quit speaking. He wouldn't say a word about what had happened and claimed he didn't even know Mom had died."
Emma finally broke down and started to sob. Her whole body shook. "Mom's parents came to the group home where I had been staying. They were the first familiar face I had seen since DCFS took me to the group home. They came and picked me up and we left for six months. The DA used the time to build a strong case against my father."
"Emma, it wasn't your fault that your mother died or that your father chose to murder all those women," Katie said. "You have to let go of what happened and move forward."
"And how am I supposed to do that?" Emma said. "If I had said something or called out to her maybe I could have saved her."
"Or he could have taken you too," Katie said. "Have you considered that part?
"This is my own personal history and I really don't want to talk about it anymore. If you want to know what happened, it's all in the newspaper archives."
"Emma what happened to your family was a great tragedy but you can't allow it to control your life," Katie said. "You need to make peace with what happened and get on with your life. I really believe that if you let it go the rest of your life could be so much better. No anger or hatred. Doesn't that sound nice?"
"No offense Katie but I already have someone preaching at me to live better, to let go of my hatred and anger. I don't listen to her, what makes you believe that I'm going to listen to you?"
"Now see that just pisses me off," Casper piped up. "You claim to be Mollie's best friend but you dismiss her beliefs and her attempts to help you ease the pain? What the hell is wrong with you?"
"I don't see you joining her small group or coming with her to all her concerts and festivals and conferences," Emma snapped back.
"How little you really know, Emma!" Casper shot back. "While you and Jesse have been spending so much time together who do you think has been with Mollie, helping her, talking to her, becoming the friend she's needed?"
"Casper don't," Mollie begged. "Not now."
"Mollie what's he talking about?" Emma said, turning to her best friend, her only friend worth anything to her. "Mollie you know you can tell me anything. You know that!"
Mollie looked over at her brother. He nodded softly, giving his okay to release family information that the entire Reynolds clan had kept secret for months now. "It's okay Mollie. I'm shocked you hadn't told Emma sooner."
"Told me what?"
"Mom's sick. She's been diagnosed with cancer. Breast cancer. Her doctors think it has speard," Abbie said softly, tears filling her eyes.
Everyone in the room went silent. Katherine Reynolds was the most active and influential woman in Hidden Rocks. She was a member of practically every board and committee in town. She was a football mom for Sebastian, a cheerleader mom for Mollie, den mother for the local Brownies troop, part time grief counselor at the hospital. There was nothing that this woman didn't do. To have her life ripped away be a progressive, degenerative disease was a devastating blow.
"Is that what you meant last Tuesday? When you told me that Mollie needed me more than I knew?"
"Yes it was." Casper said. "And while you and Maddie have been fighting and carrying on, I have been there for her."
Emma turned to her left, looking Mollie in the eyes. "Have I really been that horrible of a friend and person?"
It was against Mollie's programming to lie. Mollie was incapable of being dishonest, untruthful, or insincere. She looked down at her hands, not sure of what to say. Therefore, instead of saying anything she looked back up and nodded slightly. With that simple gesture Emma broke. The fragile state she had been in after telling the story of the night her mother died cracked and fell to shards, too small for anyone to pick back up.
Jesse tried to comfort her but she pushed him away. Emma slid out of her seat and dropped to her knees in front of her best friend in the entire world. The pair had been through so much in the last five years. Mollie went with Emma the last time she went to see her father in prison. Emma was there when Mollie's father Jack left on assignment two years ago. The pair had been inseparable for the longest time. They told each other everything. Or at least they had.
"Mollie, you're my best friend. You're the closet thing to a sister as I'm ever going to get. I am so sorry that I've pushed you away, made you feel like I haven't been there enough for you. That all changes today. If these last four days have taught me anything, it's that anyone has the power within themselves to change."
The two girls shared a tight hug and Emma took her seat again. Katie smiled in relief that she had gotten through to someone. "All right guys, remember those quotes you all read on the first day? Like everything else that's changed, I want you each to read your quote and re-define it for yourself. Jenna you start again."
"'A person's a person, no matter how small.' From Dr. Suess's Horton Hears a Who. We are all unique and extraordinary people. But inside we each have a heart, lungs, kidneys, a liver. Despite what we look like on the outside, we're all the same inside."
"Odette?"
"'Tomorrow is another day.' Scarlett O'Hara from Gone With the Wind. Tomorrow can be better or worse than the day before."
"Becca?"
"'We must be the change we wish to see in the world.' Mahatma Ghandi. We complain a lot about things that we can't change. So instead of griping and whining about them, we should use that energy to be the change in the things we can."
"That's really good, Becca," Katie said. "Jesse you're next."
"'Tis a strange fate that we all should suffer so much fear and doubt over so small a thing.' Boromir from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. The average person lives to be eighty maybe ninety years. The earth has been growing and changing for millions of years before us and will continue to grow and change for millions after us. Our lives are such a small insignificant portion of that. We shouldn't live in worry or fear or hatred when there are so many more valuable things we could be doing."
"Like I said, you are far too insightful and sensitive for a guy," Emma teased.
"But in a sense he's right. Sixty years ago, it would take all day just to make a call from one side of the country to the other. Now it's just a satellite ping away. Mollie?"
"'No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.' Eleanor Roosevelt. A certain person has tried me make feel less than I am for the good majority of this camp. I chose to rise above it and let it not bother me. You can say what you want about me, but you will never steal the joy that I have, deep inside me," Mollie said.
Katie had to wipe a tear from her eye. "Marc?"
"'You'll find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.' Obi-Wan Kenobi, from Return of the Jedi. A lot of what I thought was truth has been shaken. I grew up in Hidden Rocks. I was seven when Emily Blythe left second grade and came back for third as Emma Ross. My aunt and a lot of the teachers gave us a point of view to cling to. Emma herself gave us a point of view to believe. Each were different but each had a sense of truth to them."
"Leah?"
"'And while Cinderella and her prince did live happily ever after, the point, gentlemen, is that they lived.' The Grand Dame from Ever After. Live, grow, change. It's all we can do."
"Matt?"
"'A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins. Nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.' Gandalf also from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. No one is here by accident. Be it bad choices, right choices, planning or not, we are all here on the planet for a reason. If we're lucky enough to find that reason, hold on to it. Make each day a testament to that truth."
"Wow. That's going on a plaque," Katie said. "Pete, I think we just found our new mission statement. Jo, let's rehear what Mr. Barrie has to say."
"'The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story and writes another; and in his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he hoped to make it.' J. M. Barrie. We are human. We make plans and plans fail. My moms never planned on adopting or having any other children besides me. My little sisters Anna and Stacy came into our lives when their mother, Reed's sister, was diagnosed with cancer two years ago. She lost that battle. Nothing is ever going to turn out they way we want it to. Fate has a way of stepping in and having her way on things."
"Emma? Anything about your quote change?"
"'Happy is what happens when all your dreams come true.' Glinda from the Broadway musical Wicked. I've read that just because something turns out the way you want it to doesn't mean you're happy about it. I wanted Maddie to fail. I wanted her to fall so hard that she would have to pick herself back up and reinvent herself. I got part of it, but I'm not happy about it. Maddie's a good cheerleader. She will be missed on the squad."
"Casper?"
"'We all can't be heroes because someone has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by.' Will Rogers. I stand by what I said before. We are all heroes to someone. Whether we know it or not."
"Halle?"
"'A team is two or more people with two things in common: A shared goal and good communication.' Chuck Bowman. We almost made it."
"Sebastian?"
"'That's one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind.' Neil Armstrong. I'm with Halle we almost reached the goal of all of us coming together."
"I called each of your families a few days ago to ask them to write you a letter of encouragement or anything else they wanted. They brought them to the school Saturday and Peter picked them up yesterday."
Peter handed a large manila envelope to Katie. She opened it and passed out the letters. "I want each of you to read what your parents had to say. If it's private, you don't have to. Jo, you read yours first. Then pick whoever you want to go next."
"Dearest Joella, Mrs. Evans had her baby on Friday night. She had a little girl. She and her husband had been expecting a boy to call Joseph. Dear, sweet Mrs. Evans remembered that my daughter's name was Joella, so my dear you have a Mini-You. I thought you would like to know that. I know you and I had an argument Wednesday night and we both said things we wish we could take back. But Jo, there is nothing either of us can say that would change the way I feel about you. You are my beautiful, smart, talented, amazing daughter that I wouldn't trade for the dozens of babies I help bring into the world everyday. Continue to be you and never let anyone tell you otherwise. I love you. Love Mommy."
Jo folded up her letter and wiped a tear from her eye. She pointed across the circle to Odette. Odette shook her head after opening her letter. She then pointed to Marc. He nodded as he started to read his letter.
"Marcus Gregory O'Ryan, What an amazing young man you have become. Your father would be proud of all that you have accomplished. Your aunt and I have never regretted for a day about taking you and your brother in when your Pop went to heaven. Sure, you and Zach have tested our patience to its very last inch. Carla likes to say that you two turned her hair grey and mine loose. But I wouldn't trade you boys for anything. I wanted to sell you both to the circus a few time, like the time you set the living room rug on fire when you were eight. All in all, you have been the best son I could have ever asked for. This isn't how I wanted to tell you boys this but your Pop's will finally was found. You want to know where it was? Rolled up inside the grip of his lucky putter!" The group laughed as Marc read that. "I know he said when he was dying that he wanted your aunt and I to raise you but we finally found the document that says that if anything was to happen to him he wanted Carla and I to legally adopt you. As of Monday, you and Zach are our sons. Love you boy and we'll see you when you get back. Uncle Dad Robin."
"The putter Pop?" Marc questioned. "Seriously why can't people leave their wills in normal places like a safe deposit box or with a lawyer? But hidden in the grip of your lucky putter?" He laughed to himself and pointed over to Jesse.
"This is from Mom to both Halle and I. 'Dearest Jesse and Hallelujah, Three years ago we moved America from England to start our lives over. We left behind friends and family and you two have done an amazing job creating a wonderful life for yourself. Jesse and Halle I may not always approve of the choices you have made. I am proud of the accomplishments you have made and will continue to make. As a mother, as your mother I could not have asked for better children than the eight that I have. I love you both very much and can't wait for you to get home. And by the way, I heard from Julie. She and Austin Harmon are engaged and are to be married this Christmas in Ireland.'"
"It's about time!" Halle exclaimed. "Julie and Austin have been together forever."
Jesse pointed to Matt, who declined, as did Becca, Leah, Jenna and Sebastian. Halle pointed to Mollie who smiled and nodded. She began to read the elegant, loopy handwriting that was their mother's.
"My sweet baby girl Mollie Marie Reynolds. It took thirteen years and eight boys but I finally got my little girl. I didn't have the time to spoil you like I wanted to. I had eight rambunctious boys and a newborn baby girl. The entire family kept telling me that I wouldn't stop having babies until I had my little girl. You Mollie are more precious to me than anything else in the world. You are my precious angel and I rejoice everyday that you have made such wonderful friends in Emma, Becca, Jo and Halle. Worry not about the strife and hostility between yourself and Maddie. God has a plan for both your lives. I am overjoyed to let both you and your brother Sebastian know that by the time summer arrives so shall-so shall,'" Mollie paused a huge grin filled her face. "Your father."
Mollie couldn't speak. Her face lit up more brightly than anyone had ever seen. She flew into Casper's arms, hugging him tightly. Her right hand shakily held at her forehead, signing the word "father".
"I know baby," Casper said. "I know it's great. It's wonderful. I'm so happy for you."
Sebastian picked up the forgotten letter and finishes off the rest. "Mom finishes the letter saying that Dad should be home by the end of June," Sebastian said. No one was listening anymore. The girls gathered around Casper, pulling her into hugs and congratulating her. The boys exchanged handshakes, trying to remain as manly as possible. Katie and Peter looked at each other, royally confused.
"Are we missing something?" Peter asked his wife.
"Dad's an undercover agent in the FBI," Sebastian explained. "His been on assignment for the past two years. According to the letter Mom wrote to me, they finally got enough to make an arrest and once they finish the paperwork and the initial questioning completed Dad will get to come home for an extended stay. He even thinks that this may be his last undercover case. He said that if this case goes the way he wants, he'll be promoted and may even be moving to Director of Undercover Operations. It's the job he has wanted his entire career."
"That is a big deal," Peter commented. "Congratulations to your father."
"Thank you."
"I'm sure you all have seen the beautiful lake behind the girl's cabin. The rest of the day is yours. There is a speedboat with skis, an inner tube and I think a kneeboard as well," Katie said. "There are paddleboats and a nice beach. Enjoy your last day of camp. Emma, could you stay behind for a moment?"
The others left the main building running for their cabins to get changed for the lake. Emma sighed and waited in the main building with Katie.
"Let's see if I can't salvage what's left of your hair," Katie said. "Lucky for you, I used to be a stylist."
Emma and Katie laughed as Emma pulled off the hat. She pulled her hair out of the rubber band. It wasn't as bad as Katie thought it was going to be. It was longer in places than others but it was fixable. Katie nipped and tucked until Emma's hair rested neatly at chin length. She had bangs for the first time in ten years, something she would have to get used to it. The more Emma thought about it the more she began to realize that it was time for a change anyway.
"Thank you Katie," Emma said.
"It's okay to let people in Emma," Katie replied. "You never know when you could need a new friend."
The pair shared a hug. "Now get out there and have some fun with your friends."
The morning and well into the afternoon was spent on the beach of the lake. The water was cold, as it always is in the mountains. Matt had been elected the sea captain and was making loops around the lake with someone attached to the back. Jesse had been kneeboarding with Casper next to him on a wakeboard. Becca, Jo and Mollie watched from the shade of the willow waving and laughing at the boys on the water. Emma, Halle and Jenna were baking with Leah and Odette.
Sebastian and Marc came running by the tanners and poured buckets of cold lake water on them, eliciting screams and threats. After a few hours of being on the boat, Casper came and sat in the shade of the willow with Abbie. He took her book away, or tired to anyway. Mollie had never been one to really embrace being outside, getting tan. She preferred the shade of the trees and watching everyone and taking pictures. She would occasionally walk in the surf, but mostly she stayed out of the water.
"Come out on the boat with me," Casper asked, moving behind Mollie, to let her lean against him. "Just you and me?"
Mollie shook her head. She was happy being just where she was. Mollie found it ironic that every place they had moved to had been on the water. Their house in Seattle had been on the Puget Sound. Before Seattle, it had been on the coast of San Francisco. Everywhere they moved in her seventeen years of life had been somewhere near water. The reason Mollie found it ironic is that she couldn't swim. Her mother had told her that she had tried to enroll Mollie in swim classes as a little girl but Mollie didn't take to it. Somehow, Mollie had it ingrained in her that she couldn't have water come any higher than her ankle. Her baptism the year before had been the most terrifying experience in her life.
"You don't have to ski or even go on the tube," Casper said. "We'll just take a spin around the lake."
"Casper, I don't like water," Mollie said, plainly.
"What do you mean you don't like water? You have lakefront property."
Mollie sighed and turned to face him. "I have a natural fear of water. I can't have it go past my ankles or have it poured directly on my head for any longer than maybe ten minutes."
Casper had never met anyone who was truly afraid of water. He looked over at Sebastian for explanation.
"It's true. Mollie's always hated water. Mom said she would cry and scream her head off when she ever went near it," Sebastian said. "As long as she doesn't have to go in water she's fine."
Still amazed, Casper sat back against the tree, Mollie settling into his chest. She went back to reading her book. He kissed the top of her head, resting his chin gently on her head as she read. Out on the water, Matt was having a blast just driving around the lake. In contrast to Mollie's fear of water, Matt was part fish.
When he was just a little guy his parents decided to sail around the world. He grew up on his dad's fifty foot scooner. The Montgomery's had three sailboats and a speedboat. Matt was certified to drive a boat before he ever took driver's ed. If Matt could get to school in his boat he would. The boy could pass a navy level map reading class, but he failed his driver's test seven times.
Around two-thirty or so Katie and Peter brought down large platters of hot dogs and hamburgers. Everyone gathered around the picnic table. Katie could still feel the hostility between Emma, Leah and Odette, but chose not to say anything. She had done her job and now it was up to the rest of them to make it work.
After they ate, they brought their stuff back up to the cabins. It was time to pack. They all would be heading home in a few hours. No one really wanted to leave. Abbie liked the quiet and the willow. She had taken to having her quiet prayer time there in the morning. Halle liked being away from her overbearing mother. Going home would be a challenge. A challenge they were all willing to face.
The only worry Emma had was facing Maddie the next day at school. Somehow she knew that it wasn't going to be pretty. Be that as it may, it was still going to happen. Emma would be prepared. Things were going to be different.