When I had finished half my cup of coffee, Molly came stumbling outside in a pair of yoga pants and a long-sleeved T-shirt.
"Hey," Molly mumbled.
"Good morning. You're up early."
"So are you. I thought I might go to the Zumba class at the gym. It starts at seven. You in?"
"Zumba?" I raised one eyebrow.
"Yeah, it's this Latin-based dance workout. It's really fun. You should come."
"I'm not up for fun at seven in the morning."
Molly snorted. "Maybe you're right." She eyed me over her own cup of coffee.
"So are you okay with the garden party Carolyn has planned?"
My mom was planning what she called a very small garden party for a few of her very closest, most trustworthy friends. She had agreed not to call the police just yet, but she was bursting to tell those she loved I was back. I couldn't bring myself to deny her that. I gnawed on my lip for a minute. "It makes me a little nervous," I said. "But I'm trusting Carolyn."
Molly nodded, taking a sip of her coffee.
"I think it'll be fine," she said. She paused. "The party part anyway. You might want to be aware that Carolyn has set-up plans though." She raised her eyebrows.
"Set-up plans?"
Molly nodded. "She has this grand scheme to have you fall in love with her neighbor's son, Bentley."
I raised an eyebrow. "Bentley?"
She nodded, picking up her coffee cup again and furrowing her brow. "Yeah, Bentley Von Dorn—that's a mouthful, right?" She snorted. "He's actually very good looking, but he's completely horrible." She looked away, but before she did, I thought I saw some type of possessiveness in her expression.
I raised an eyebrow. "My mom wants to set me up with someone horrible? Well, that's nice."
She looked back at me and waved her hand around in front of her face. "Oh, well, horrible might be an exaggeration. Distasteful is probably a better word. And I'm sure Carolyn has no idea." She looked down at her fingernails, studying them. "Anyway, heads up. I'd stay away." I kept my eyes on her for a minute, but didn't say anything. I had a feeling there was a lot more to Molly's take on Bentley than she was saying, and that perhaps Molly didn't think he was horrible at all.
As we sat there, under the covered patio, soft raindrops began to fall. I watched them, the sadness approaching me slowly like a hesitant friend. Just the talk of a set-up, dating, the subject of love in general made me melancholy. I'd never have that again. Not ever. Nor did I want it. Calder had been my one true love, the other half of my heart. He was gone now and so was that part of my life.
There's a spring. I'll wait for you.
I felt Molly's eyes on me as I stared out over the raindrop ripples on the surface of the sparkling pool water.
"I wish you'd share it all with us, Eden. Maybe it would help. You've been here for a month now, and I hope you know that we already love you so much."
I looked over at her, surprised she had read my mood so well and nodded. "I know," I said quietly, "and I love you both, too. And just being here, having you, has helped me so much. I can't even tell you." I met her eyes, offering her a small smile. I took a sip of my coffee and put it down on the table in front of me.
"I know, honey, but that's not what I meant. I meant I wish you'd let me help you with your sadness. Perhaps—"
"No one can help with that," I said softly. "I wish you could."
I looked back out at the rain. "I know Felix found you and my mom for me," I said quietly. "But I like to think he guided me to you." I paused. "If that kind of thing is possible."
"He? Who?" Molly asked, grabbing my hand in hers.
I looked at her, not answering her question, just letting the words finally flow. "Sometimes I imagine the rain is him." I laughed softly. "If I'm alone, I turn my face into it," I mimicked raising my face to the heavens, "and I can feel him." I closed my eyes. "I'll never have a place where I can visit him, and so I'm with him in the rain." I looked at Molly again. "But then it brings me back there, too. I never know which I'm going to get."
She looked down at our hands and then up into my eyes. "Acadia," she whispered.
I looked out across the pool again and nodded my head. "I've heard it called a cult so often on the news. And I guess it was." I bit my lip for a minute thinking of all the horror that had taken place there in those final days. "To me it was home though. I loved people there. And that's the hardest part."
"There was a boy," Molly said. It wasn't a question.
"Yes."
"And he—"
"Yes," I said.
Molly looked down, biting her own lip. "Oh, Eden. No wonder. You were in love. Oh, I'm so, so sorry."
I nodded, a single tear escaping my eye.
Molly leaned forward. "Is there any chance that he got out, too? I mean, you didn't go to the police . . ."
I shook my head, wiping the wetness from my cheek. "The whole place was flattened. Underwater. I know you probably saw it on the news, but to be there . . ." I shivered, wrapping my arms around myself. "The water and then the collapse. No."
"Oh God." She stood up and leaned down to hug me, squeezing me tightly to her. When she returned to her chair, there were tears in her eyes, too.