Page 14 of Lost Dreams

“Yes. It’s like time travel,” Lorelei offered meekly.

Francesca and Benjamin remained standing over their table, smiling down at them. Lorelei felt on the spot, as though she were meant to perform.

“Why don’t we take a break for the day?” Francesca suggested. “Your father and I wanted to try out that new wine bar by Madaket Beach. Alexander and Jack can’t come, but Charlotte and Nina are on their way over there. Please, join us!”

Twenty minutes later, Lorelei found herself seated on a beachside table overlooking the shining Nantucket Sound. Charlotte and Nina chatted happily about the menu, while Francesca and Benjamin spoke in low tones, holding hands under the table. Lorelei looked at Allegra, wondering how Mama and Dad were more in love than ever. How was it possible? Allegra shrugged, as though she understood exactly what Lorelei meant.

She and her sister had been as thick as thieves for years. Maybe they could read each other’s minds.

They ordered two bottles of wine, one natural orange and another classic Austrian white. When their glasses were filled, Benjamin suggested a toast and beamed out at all of them.

“I can’t believe I’m here with all four of our daughters,” he said. “I’m the luckiest man in the world.”

For a little while, Lorelei was quiet, sipping her wine and analyzing her parents. It was fascinating how eager they were to laugh at one another’s jokes and finish one another’s sentences. It reminded Lorelei of that first night she’d spent with Roberto in Rome and how they’d wanted to swallow each other up. From the looks of things, Charlotte, Nina, and Allegra were just as captivated with their parents as she was. Where had all this love come from?

Were they performing, just as she felt she had to perform? Or was this love a pure, beautiful, natural thing?

When a platter of cheese, meats, pickled vegetables, and fruits came out with a bowl of sourdough bread, and when Benjamin stood to refill everyone’s glasses, Lorelei couldn’t help herself. Rather than allow herself to go completely insane, she had to ask.

“Mama? Dad?”

Francesca stopped laughing abruptly and turned her attention to Lorelei. “What is it, sweetheart?”

Lorelei felt her sisters’ and her father’s eyes upon her, as well, waiting.

In the intense silence, Lorelei realized that she couldn’t ask what she really wanted to ask, that she was too frightened. So she asked, “How are you feeling?”

Francesca’s smile widened. “I feel better than I have in ages. I’m still waiting for my hair to grow back, of course. But in the meantime, these wigs are really something, aren’t they? And it’s nice not to have to deal with dyeing my hair over and over again. Maybe I’m a wig convert for life. And I’m happy! Goodness, I’m happy. I never imagined that having the answers to all our family’s questions would clear up so much space in my heart. But now, all our cards are on the table. All the secrets are out.”

Charlotte and Nina shifted in their chairs, as though heavy with questions of their own. Without meaning to, Lorelei considered Tio Angelo, sitting in a prison cell somewhere. What a strange family this was, she thought. Yet for the thousandth time since returning, she felt the urgent desire to stay here in Nantucket, not to abandon them again.

If she left, what would she miss?

“I think your mother is more beautiful than the day I met her,” Benjamin said, breaking the silence.

Francesca swatted him on the shoulder. “He’s saying his pretty lines again. Oh, but even if they’re lies, how can I resist them?” She put her head on Benjamin’s shoulder.

Just then, Lorelei’s phone buzzed in her pocket. It was a call from Roberto, one that she knew better than to ignore. Ignoring his calls usually made him more irate and difficult to deal with later on.

“I have to take this,” she said, standing up and hurrying down the beach, away from the tables of white cloth and glinting wineglasses. “Ciao?” she answered the phone, sounding breathless.

“You won’t believe this,” Roberto started in without saying hello. “Apparently our daughter wants to stay in Nantucket all summer long.”

Lorelei grimaced. She knew he was talking about Aurora again. They never spoke about their daughter Nadia in these terms.

“We can’t let her stay here, Lorelei,” Roberto said. “She’s so close to graduating from business school. She’s so close to being on the right track.”

Lorelei closed her eyes, thinking back to that day three years ago when they’d discovered that their daughter’s life was different from their other children’s. Roberto and Lorelei had promised one another to do everything in their power to “save her.” But what did saving Aurora even mean?

“We need to take her with us to the airport next week and physically put her on the plane,” Roberto continued. “It’s the only way.”

“I don’t want to force my twenty-two-year-old daughter to get on a plane,” Lorelei said.

At this, Roberto scoffed. “Do you hear yourself?”

Lorelei watched as, out across the water, seagulls drifted forward and scooped through the air. “Roberto, Aurora is old enough to make her own decisions. We can’t always step in.”

“She’s obviously not old enough to make her own decisions,” Roberto shot back. “If you were paying attention at all, you’d see that our daughter is fumbling. She’s a lost lamb.”