Bowled Over (8 page)

She briefly explained about the Coopers’ past association with Johnny Stanko, how the older guy had made Craig his personal punching bag for three years. “One thing Kathy is
not
, is a coward.”

Valetta got up and walked away, and a few minutes later Jaymie saw her down on the dock with Johnny Stanko; the two were talking intently, then Valetta patted his shoulder and turned toward the steps up to Boardwalk Park. What on earth did those two have to talk about?

The sun climbed in the sky, and while Daniel played with Hoppy and Tabitha, Jaymie chatted with Kevin; he seemed like a very nice man. He told PG jokes and mildly amusing stories, and was fascinated by Jaymie’s fondness for vintage kitchenware. He shared some stories of his mother’s kitchen,
in a small village in Dorset county in England, and relayed how sorry he was that he had missed the Tea with the Queen the month before. He’d be there next year, he said. He would love to have a part, but supposed it wouldn’t be appropriate, since he wasn’t really a Queensvillian.

“I’d very much enjoy playing Mr. Brown to the local Queen Victoria!” he said, and in his best Scottish accent, admittedly superior to most, added, “Och, aye, and wearin’ a kilt…I’ve verra good legs, you know!”

Becca watched them chat and beamed with joy, which Jaymie found both sweet and a little unsettling. When her older sister had gotten married for the second time, it had been sudden, a spur-of-the-moment decision that she ended up regretting and that had left her climbing out of a deep pit of debt for years. Kevin seemed like a genuinely nice guy, but Jaymie hoped her sister wouldn’t make any sudden decisions.

When the ball that Daniel was tossing to Tabitha landed close to Kathy and Craig, he strolled over to pick it up and engaged them in conversation. Jaymie watched uneasily while nominally listening to Kevin talk about his childhood and the year that the Christmas pudding blew up. She dutifully laughed, but then excused herself and got up, approaching to hear Daniel saying to Kathy, “You should give her a chance, you know, because she’s a wonderful person.”

Oh crap!
Why did he feel the need to intervene? Kathy, of course, shot her a disgusted look, while Craig responded in a mumble to Daniel’s comment. She stood a ways away, debating how to get Daniel’s attention without ruining the day by engaging with Kathy again, when she saw Connor trot over to his aunt. Relieved that Daniel’s intervention would be ended by Connor’s arrival, she turned away, but was caught up short by the screech of Kathy’s angry voice.
She turned back, and saw Kylie Hofstadter pulling her son away from Kathy as she stood and yelled after her sister, “Kylie, let him stay! It’s up to him, isn’t it?”

“You ruined that, Kath,” Kylie yelled back, as Connor wriggled in his mother’s grasp. “You ruined that when you told him Grandpa Andy doesn’t want to see him.”

Jaymie was reminded of the scene in the Emporium, and how Kathy had said to Connor that his grandfather didn’t want him around.

Craig said to his wife, “Just leave it, Kathy. We’ll sort it out tomorrow. Don’t ruin the day.”

Kathy broke down in tears, watching Connor with Kylie and Andy Walker. Craig awkwardly patted her shoulder, but she moved away from him, her shoulder hunched. “Andy Walker has been deliberately trying to alienate Connor from me for months now,” she sobbed, anger and pain mingled in her voice. “You
know
that’s true, Craig, you
know
it!” She looked up at her husband, watching his face as she said, “If Connor’s going with us, then—” Craig put a finger to her mouth and pulled her away from the group. He spoke to her in a hushed tone.

Hands on her hips, she listened for a moment, but then shook her head and grabbed his arm, furiously talking in his face. He looked about to reply, but instead shrugged and pulled away from her, then strode off, shoulders hunched. Kathy watched him go, then sat down alone, pulling grass and tossing it onto the path. Jaymie was torn. There was so much pain evident in her slumped posture and obvious loneliness, but Jaymie was not going to approach her in public just to be rebuffed. If there was ever going to be a reconciliation between them, it was going to have to be in private where they could hash out their differences.

Jaymie joined Becca and Kevin, who stood at the railing above the river, arms linked, watching for the sailboats to reappear from Fawn Island. Some of their neighbors on Heartbreak Island had boats in the competition, and Jaymie grabbed her binoculars when she saw some sail craft appearing downriver. “That boat in the front is the
Heartbreak Kid
, out of the Heartbreak Island marina,” she told Daniel, who joined her. “It belongs to Ruby and Garnet Redmond, a sister and brother team who sail competitively every summer. Here, look through the binoculars.”

“They’re raising the spinnaker!” Becca cried. “Go, Redmonds!”

Hundreds had surged to the walkway overlooking the St. Clair to watch the end of the race, and applause broke out at the swift use by the frontrunners of their blooming spinnaker sails, fuller sails that caught the wind dramatically as the boats sailed downwind. They made the river a garden of gaudy delights.

Jaymie jumped up and down. “I love this part of the race,” she cried, and took the binoculars back. Through them she could see Ruby leaning way out over the water, providing much needed balance, while Garnet steered. It was tricky to raise the spinnaker in a race, and some boats were too close to each other to do it, but the
Heartbreak Kid
was out in front, followed by the
Sea Urchin
, and both had room to hoist the ballooning sails. The wind was right, and the added pull made both surge ahead, but the
Heartbreak Kid
sailed to a clear victory, the Redmonds’ third win in a row.

“That was exciting!” Jaymie said.

“The Redmonds win again!” Valetta said. They discussed for a few minutes who would be put out by the third win, and who, among those who belonged to the sailing club on
the island, would demand that the Redmonds be disqualified next year to give others a chance. The owners of the
Sea Urchin
were sure to be fuming.

Daniel listened for a while, and said, “Do you like to sail, Jaymie?”

“Only as a passenger.”

Valetta raised her eyebrows and looked from one to the other. “Do
you
like sailing, Daniel?” she asked.

He shrugged. “Not much sailing where I’m from. Bakersfield is kinda deserty; more cowboy boots and rodeos than sailing and tea parties. And Phoenix, my company headquarters, is the same.”

So why had he come to Queensville and bought Stowe House? That was still a mystery to Jaymie. He never had explained how he found Stowe House and why he wanted to live there.

As folks drifted away from the railing, Jaymie noticed Ella Douglas in her motorized wheelchair trundling down the walkway, accompanied by a man who must be her husband. Her guess was confirmed when Valetta went to talk to them and then beckoned Jaymie.

The tall, slightly stooped man, his head showing a faint corona of bristle where his receding hairline had encouraged him to shave it bald, smiled. He shoved his hand out to her, clasped hers in his and pumped vigorously. “Hey there, Jaymie. I’m Bob Douglas. My wife told me how you stuck up for her when
that
woman,” he said, shooting an annoyed look at Kathy Cooper, who was moving her blanket yet again, “had the audacity to accuse her of running over her nephew on purpose.”

Kathy looked over, as if she’d heard her name, and regarded Bob with a pinched expression. She shifted her gaze to stare at Ella.

Hoping Kathy wasn’t going to make trouble and confront Ella, Jaymie said, “It’s nothing.” She turned to Ella. “I’m glad you came out for the festivities. I know you’re not feeling well.”

Ella shrugged, her knitted shawl slipping off her thin shoulders. Her husband retrieved it and tucked it in around her again as she pulled up the fluffy gray blanket that covered her thin legs. “It’s a good day today,” she said, with a faint smile. “Can’t let life pass you by!”

Matt Laskan approached Kathy, shooting a curious look at Jaymie and the others on the walkway. “Where’s Craig?” he asked Kathy.

“Gone to the office,” she said, with a disgusted shake of her head. “Can you believe it? Work on the Fourth of July. You really need to pull your weight, Matt. Craig’s been working a lot of weekends and holidays. I know you’ve been distracted, but really!”

Matt frowned, then shook his head. “He can’t have gone to the office, or at least I hope not. Maybe he went home to work?”

She regarded him steadily, as if daring him to contradict her. “No, he
said
he was going in to the office.”

Jaymie turned back to the Douglases, wondering if she should bring up knowing Ella was Eleanor Grimshaw, but decided against it. “Are you both staying to picnic and watch the fireworks?” she asked them.

Bob met his wife’s eyes, then shrugged. “We’re not sure,” he said. “Depends on how she feels.”

“If you want to stay but haven’t brought dinner, you can join us,” Jaymie said. She indicated the low table Brock had set up and the bowls and dishes that were being put out.

Ella looked undecided. “I don’t know. My diet…I’m such a picky eater.”

“I’m trying to do more homemade stuff,” Bob said.

“He’s even trying his hand at home preserving,” Ella said with a proud smile.

“We’ve got lots of variety,” Jaymie said. Just then, Becca lifted out the lime jelly mold and gave Jaymie a quizzical look as she peeled back the plastic wrap. Jaymie bit her lip to keep from laughing; it looked even worse in the light of day, an acid green nightmare.

“I made tomato cucumber salad,” Valetta said. “And Violet and Dee both brought fried chicken.”

“I made potato salad!” Jaymie added. She pointed to her bowl, the square-based vintage Depression glass bowl she had just bought and couldn’t resist using. “I can tell you exactly what’s in it, if you need to know.”

Ella shrugged. “I don’t eat tomatoes
or
potatoes. I think we’ll probably go home anyway, at least for dinner. We might come back for the fireworks, if it doesn’t get too cold. Or I’ll send Bob back alone to watch.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t come back here without you, my dear,” he said. “I wouldn’t enjoy myself!”

Raised voices near them made Jaymie look toward Matt Laskan and Kathy Cooper. That woman was having a banner day when it came to arguments. She and Matt were standing face-to-face. “I don’t care what you say, Craig and I are moving to Toledo,” Kathy said. “I think I know slightly more about that than you do.”

Matt gazed at her steadily. “I don’t think
you
even really believe that anymore, Kathy.”

“I have been planning this for too long to not do it,” she said, her voice trembling with intensity.

Jaymie was riveted by the conversation, even though it was clearly private.

“Connor, Craig and I are moving to Toledo, and Laskan
Cooper is opening a branch office.” There was a sob in her voice, and she darted a look over at Kylie. Her chin went up and she squared her shoulders. “That is that, and I won’t back down on this, Matt. I know this company can afford it, and we’re doing it.”

“You are
not
doing it.” Matt stared at her in puzzlement. “You’re crazy, Kathy! You are just Craig’s wife, not his damn boss!”

There were tears on Kathy’s cheeks as she said with an ugly tone, “We’re going, or
you’ll
be the sorry one. You know what I mean, Matt. I’ll
make
you sorry, and you know I can do it.”

As Matt stormed off, Jaymie was left feeling disturbed and on edge. Kathy was so clearly unhappy, and if she could just reach out to her…but she was not going to go over there and risk another public harangue. She noticed that Kylie was watching her sister too and hoped that the two of them would find a way to solve their differences. The bond between sisters was far deeper, in her experience, than any between mere friends. She turned back to Becca, Daniel and Kevin with a lingering sense of sadness and a renewed determination to begin to fix her long-broken friendship with Kathy the very next day.

*   *   *

T
HE
D
OUGLASES
DIDN’T
stay to eat. There was far too much food, as was always true at every Fourth of July picnic Jaymie had ever been to. The one uneaten item was the weird green jelly mold that devolved into slime by the end of the meal, a victim of the heat, and had to be put out of its misery, dumped in the trash by a laughing Daniel.

But everything else was good, and despite the temptation to stretch out on the blanket after dinner for a nap, Daniel
and Jaymie took Hoppy for a walk as the sun sank in the sky behind them. It took longer than expected because there were dozens of dogs, and of course Hoppy had to greet and sniff butts with each and every one of them, including a dachshund dressed as a hot dog and a border collie in an Uncle Sam outfit. Hoppy even had a play-scrap with Junk Junior, a bichon mix who was his best friend. When they got back, all of the dinner stuff had already been cleared away by Becca and Valetta, who had walked it back to their respective houses and the safety of refrigerators.

“I should have been here to help!” Jaymie protested.

“You had better things to do,” Valetta said with a wink at Daniel, who grinned self-consciously.

Cushions and blankets for lounging were brought out of totes, while the fireworks display was readied on the island. Brock, Violet, Valetta and Kevin—who the three Nibleys roped in once they found out he was an excellent card player—played bridge on Brock’s abbreviated card table, while Becca and Dee played dummy euchre on the top of a cooler. Jaymie and Daniel sat together. She petted Hoppy’s head as the little dog draped himself across her lap.

Brock Nibley called Daniel over to referee and lend his expert opinion to a dispute he was having with Valetta over some computer issue, and Jaymie chose that moment to announce that she was taking Hoppy home before the fireworks and would refill the Thermos with tea at the same time. She walked through the village with Anna and little Tabitha, who was almost asleep after such an exciting day, tripping and lagging behind until her mom lifted her up to carry her while Jaymie carried their basket for Anna. Jaymie fed Hoppy and Denver, made a pot of tea and filled the Thermos, made sure the house was securely locked and
walked back to the park, finding everyone just as she had left them, except that Kathy Cooper was now over sitting with and talking to her sister, Kylie, and Andy Walker.