Dance Away with Me(74)

“Stop right there!”

Tess rushed after her, but Kelly kept moving. “This . . . this cabin has had problems over the years. It was built before World War II, so it’s quite old.” She hurried toward the front door, her rumpled silk blouse hanging loose from one side of her slacks. “The second floor was unfinished until—”

“I know you’ve been sneaking in here.” Tess closed the distance between them.

Kelly faltered. “I haven’t—”

“I’ve seen you. A week and a half ago. You were asleep on the couch.”

Kelly had nearly reached the door. “I— Well, then . . . I apologize.”

“I don’t want an apology. I want to know why you keep showing up.” She pushed in front of Kelly and saw what her intruder didn’t want her to see. That she’d been crying. Her hair was flattened against the side of her head, her makeup had worn off, and her eyes were red-rimmed.

Kelly looked away. “This was my grandmother’s place. I—I have happy memories of the time I spent here growing up. When I get stressed . . .” She curled her hands into fists at her sides. “It won’t happen again.”

Tess wrapped her arms protectively around Wren and thought of Ava and her worrisome boyfriend, Connor. Was that what had Kelly so worried, or could it be the pressure of being the wife of the town’s most important citizen?

Kelly ducked around her. “I have to go.”

“Wait. My shoulders are killing me. Hold Wren.” Tess took her baby from the sling and placed her in Kelly’s arms. Tess’s shoulders were fine, but something about the woman’s vulnerability tugged at her.

Only the most callous could resist a newborn, and Kelly wasn’t callous. Her arms instinctively closed around Wren, who didn’t look happy with the transfer. Tess told herself this woman’s pain wasn’t her business—a woman she didn’t even like—but butting into other people’s lives seemed to be her obsession these days. Besides, it was easier to be clearheaded about other people’s troubles than about her own. “I’ll make some coffee. Or tea. Tea is supposed to make everything better. And I need some advice.”

Kelly moved away from the door. “You want advice from me?”

Kelly would eventually hear about the boys’ visit last night, so why not broach it now? Maybe it would mediate the fallout. She lifted the teapot from the stove and gestured toward the kitchen table. “You know the town a lot better than I do, and I seem to have stepped into it again.”

“How?”

“Four teenagers showed up at the schoolhouse last night. Boys this time.” The teakettle had a dusty film, and Tess rinsed it off at the sink. “And before you say anything—I told them to talk to their parents.” One of the kitchen chairs squeaked on the floorboards as Kelly sat at the table. “They weren’t having it.”

“Who were they?”

“Local boys. Nice kids. Or at least three of them seemed that way.” If she called out Connor by name, she’d be breaking the teens’ trust. She set the teakettle on the stove and turned to the table.

Kelly held Wren to her shoulder. Tess couldn’t see from here if Wren’s eyes were open, but the baby didn’t appear to be squirming. “If you’d been me,” Tess said, “and you suspected at least one of the boys might be ready to have unprotected sex, what would you have done?”

Kelly’s expression hardened. “I would have told them to stop. Teens shouldn’t be having sex.”

“I doubt that would have been effective.” Tess couldn’t keep the edge out of her voice, but Kelly was too wrapped up in her own misery to notice.

“They have no concept of how sex can ruin their lives.” Kelly blinked, fighting tears. “They’re too young. They think love will last forever. They don’t understand the consequences. They think they know everything, but they know nothing.” She lost her battle, and Tess watched the woman whom she’d disliked so thoroughly fall apart. “You have to make them understand how hard life can be. They think they’re in love, but they have no concept of what love is. They don’t see what a trap sex can be. How it can destroy their lives. You have to . . . They have to stop before that happens. You have to tell them.”

Wren began to cry. Tess picked her up and tucked her back in the sling. Kelly buried her face in her hands, and Tess put it all together. “That’s what happened to you.”

“The town scandal,” Kelly said bitterly.

“You were trapped.”

“People still haven’t forgotten. After all this time. All my charity work. The women’s alliance. The school board. All of it.”

“And yet you wouldn’t give Ava back for anything.”

Kelly swiped at her running nose with the back of her hand. “She’s the most important thing in my life.”

Tess handed her a tissue. Now she understood Kelly’s strident support of abstinence sex education. She’d been a pregnant teenager. Tess did the math in her head. Ava was only fifteen, so Kelly was only a few years younger than Tess, although she looked older.

Kelly stared across the room. “I was the most popular girl in high school. I wasn’t one of those mean girls, either. I was nice to everybody. I was happy. And then I wasn’t.” The mass of diamonds on her wedding band caught the light as she blew her nose. “I was home with a baby while Brad went to college. I don’t want that life for my daughter. I want her to get an education and find a career so she learns how to be her own person.”