Little Gale Gumbo by Erika Marks Page B

that.” Wayne tugged off his baseball cap. “I just needed some air.” He gestured behind her. “Can I come in?”
    â€œSure.”
    Wayne stepped into the foyer, rubbing his hands as if he were cold. “He’s not here yet then?”
    â€œMatthew? No.” Dahlia closed the door, watching her brother-in-law as he looked into the dimly lit rooms that flanked the entry. Wayne walked into the parlor and dropped onto the love seat, cupping the bill of his cap between his hands.
    â€œI didn’t mean to wake you; I just . . .” He paused, sighed. “Rough day, huh?”
    Dahlia walked to the other end of the love seat and sat down, pulling her legs under her. “Yeah. You could say that.” But Dahlia knew he wasn’t just talking about Charles or Ben. Josie’s comment in the car had stuck with her too, finding its way through the fog of Charles’s attack all night.
    Dahlia blinked and felt the prickle of tears.
    â€œSometimes I think I should just tell Josie the truth,” she whispered. “Just get it over with, so she can start hating me for the rest of her life.”
    Wayne looked back at his cap, his hands now practically rolling the bill into a tube. “Hating us , you mean.”
    â€œIt was never your idea, Wayne.”
    â€œIt might as well have been.” Wayne tossed the hat onto the coffee table and dragged a hand down his forehead, along his beard. He stood up, too anxious to stay in one spot. He paced in front of the fireplace, staring at Dahlia’s cluttered mantel, the framed gallery of portraits, all of their young faces looking back at him, smiles and laughter, reminders of an uncomplicated time. One of Matthew and the sisters on Christmas morning, mugging in front of the tree.
    He reached out and slammed it down.
    â€œDon’t do this to yourself, Wayne.” Dahlia looked at him. “It never would have worked. We both know that.”
    Wayne nodded, righting the picture. He stared enviously at Matthew’s teenage face, lips drawn in an exaggerated smile while Josie looked up at Matthew with unveiled infatuation.
    It hadn’t been easy loving a woman who’d always wanted another man, but Wayne had learned to live with his secrets.
    â€œWe sent off the application to the adoption agency last week,” he said. “Jo tell you that?”
    Dahlia nodded. “It’s going to happen for you guys this time. I know it.”
    â€œJeezum, I hope so.” Wayne dragged his sleeve roughly across his wet eyes once, then twice. “Anyway.” He grabbed his cap off the coffee table. “I have to go. I told Jo I was just getting gas. She’ll worry.”
    â€œOkay.”
    Dahlia walked Wayne to the door. She stood on the porch, the sea air brushing her cheeks, and watched her brother-in-law as he took the stairs to the driveway, feeling a fierce surge of pity for him. It hadn’t been easy for him to keep their secret all these years. They both loved Josie more than anything in the world; it was hard to say which of them felt the greater betrayer.
    So many secrets, Dahlia thought to herself, coming back inside, looking around at the rooms of her small house, crowded with twenty-five years of their island life. She never imagined there would have to be so many.

Eleven

    Little Gale Island
    December 1977
    Â 
    Â 
    Â 
    Â 
    Â 
    Â 
    Â 
    Â 
    Â 
    Â 
    Â 
    The sisters’ first day of school came on a bitterly cold Tuesday when the island’s sky was the color of limestone, but Dahlia wasn’t about to let temperature get in the way of making a first impression on the mainland boys of Portland High.
    When she bounded downstairs to meet Matthew and Josie at a quarter to seven, the two already buried under layers of wool in the foyer, they blinked at her bare legs, her hand-me-down jacket flying open to reveal only a thin blouse and a corduroy miniskirt beneath it.
    â€œWhere