Bring on the Rain (5 page)

“
Slow day.” Rafael grinned
and waved his tip money.

Rafael had black hair, dark eyes and
was twenty-two. A young man Sunny had met on vacation and hired to
do just about anything.

“
Wait until Saturday. You’ll
pray for a lull.”

“
So, you think Brook would
go out with me?” he asked in accented English. A smooth dresser,
today he wore a white silk shirt, black slacks and nice leather
shoes, an earring that fit his style. He was handsome in a dark,
romantic way.

It was an old joke. At least, she had
always taken it as such. “Maybe in a few years.”

His lips pulled into a smile.
“Twenty-two is not old. She is mature, almost
seventeen.”

She put glasses on a tray from the
corner table. ““I don't know anything about you Rafael.”

“
We work together, of course
you do.”

“
No. Where are you
from?”

He shrugged. “Around, been on my own a
long time.”

“
You serious about dating
Brook?”

He looked away, swallowed, then back at
her. “I guess not.” His whiter than white teeth flashed. “How you
feel about younger men?”

Madeline laughed and set the tray on
the bar. “You'd kill me. I’m an old woman.”

He flicked a towel over his arm. “You
always break my heart, Madeline.” He winked and walked toward the
stained glass divider to the sports bar.

She was still smiling when Sunny
Lightfoot came in. It was an unusual day, Mrs. Dupree, his
sixty-year-old mother, was with him. She was there and in rare
form.

“
Hello.” Madeline nodded to
them.

Sunny was tall and muscular, with long
raven hair he kept braided. His mother was very French: petite,
slim and elegant. She had used her maiden name since
widowhood.

Today she wore a matching beige suit
and heels. Her white hair was styled in a sleek twist; she carried
her age well, had those wonderfully delicate bones younger women
prayed for.

The French woman had married a
full-blooded Cherokee, Sunny’s father, after meeting him in the
oddest place—the middle of the desert—when her expensive sports car
had broken down on her trip back from blowing a couple million in
Vegas. It was a long story, and one Sunny got a kick out of
telling.

His dad had died a few years back and
his mother lost interest in everything until Sunny had pulled her
out of it by dragging her from her desert oasis she and Sunny’s
father had built, a rather isolated mansion, and moving her to his
nice country estate.

He flew her anywhere she wished to go
on his private plane and made her take up the life she’d left off
years ago among her friends.

Trouble was, she was expressive in her
French way. Sunny was more low-key humor. Mrs. Dupree looking out
for Sunny was so visually humorous, considering the man was grown
and built so tall and athletically. It made for some razzing around
the tavern.

She came forward, kissed both
Madeline’s cheeks, and stepped back. “Sunny, look at her eyes,
those dark circles. You’re working her too hard.”

Towering over his mother, the thirty
four-year-old business owner gave her what he called his Indian
look. To the staff, he called it clueless. “What? Did you say
something, Mother?”

She elbowed him. “You heard me, you
should hire more staff.”

“
Whatever you say.” He went
behind the bar, fixed her a dry white wine, and handed it to her.
Winking at Madeline, he said. “I won my case today.”

“
Great.” Madeline laughed.
“But, when don't you?”

He made a comical face and his
chocolate eyes twinkled. “When Mother is in court staring down the
judge.”

“
I do not.”

“
Mother, you do. You used to
do it to my classmates in school. It’s not quite as amusing now
that I’m past thirty.”

Mrs. Dupree got the joke and laughed
saying, “I pity the woman who marries him. Imagine, having to put
up with me. I am too protective.”

“
Which is why I’m not
married,” he said dryly.

“
I’ll marry you.”

They turned to see Patsy Beeker walk
into the Tavern. Fresh off her shift still dressed in her uniform,
she was stout, butch, and the local mail lady. About the only thing
bigger than her combat boots was her muscle. She was the state arm
wrestling champion. Her significant other was so pretty and
feminine that it made them stare whenever Pasty brought her into
the Tavern.

Mrs. Dupree patted her perfect hair.
“Patsy, but you’ll have to spend one year with me getting
polished.”

Patsy snorted and straddled the
barstool, grabbed a fist full of peanuts and cracked them, eyeing
Mrs. Dupree with a sour grin. “On second thought, you’re not worth
wearing a pair of heels for.” She requested around a mouth full of
peanuts, “Give me a high ball.”

They were still chuckling when Mrs.
Dupree complimented Patsy on her bright red crew cut and ear tattoo
as if they were the latest Paris fashion. Patsy was humoring her,
cracking jokes, and so began the usual interplay.

Madeline fixed the high ball while they
joked back and forth. She had gone to school with Patsy and they
had been casual friends for a long time. Patsy made up one of the
few who had never mocked her over her mother.

Several other locals came in, and the
foolishness went on. Eventually Mrs. Dupree departed to keep a
dinner date. Sunny settled into his routine, leaving Madeline to
check on other patrons.

The shift was long, but Sunny paid well
and the company was good. Madeline realized a few years ago, she
was an entirely different persona at work; she knew her friends and
co-workers depended on her to keep everyone’s morale up during
working hours. The public could be rude, and after a few drinks,
the regulars could tax the strongest temper.

She had worked for Sunny nine years,
had seen, and heard it all.

When Madeline arrived home later that
evening, Brook had gone out to a movie with friends. She called in,
left a message, and was due to call back in a half-hour.

Madeline hated keeping her on a short
leash, but the trust issue was iffy right now. After the second
call, she took a long bath.

Brook made it home before
midnight.

“
How was the movie?” she
asked, after Brook took a bath and reclined on her bed, fiddling
with the headphones she usually slipped on to listen to music that
Madeline hated.

“
Fine.”

After the chat with Gee Gee, Madeline
wanted to jump on the bed and hug her. Instead, she said, “I’m glad
you had a good time with your friends.”

Brook’s gaze scanned her visually, and
then she shrugged.

“
Goodnight,” Madeline said
finally, feeling a wave of hurt that she couldn’t reach her
daughter anymore. Hell, she felt a failure all the sudden. The
hostility made her stomach ache.

She had waited for Brook to get to this
age so they could do more together. She had so looked forward to
her upper teen years, so that she could stop being so much the
disciplinarian and build a friendship that would grow, as they got
older. It didn’t look too promising.

“
Night.” Brook slid the
headphones on and switched off the lamp.

~*~

Madeline lay awake for hours, then
cried it out near daybreak, sleeping until Brook awoke her before
leaving with friends to go to the carnival.

After muttering the usual groggy
admonitions, Madeline arose, took a shower, and then carried her
coffee out on the small porch. She had thrown on a pair of capris,
a lose shirt with short sleeves, and a pair of shoes Brook said
needed to be trashed years ago.

On these rare days off, she was lucky
if she bothered to get out of her sleepwear.

When the big custom van pulled in,
Madeline smiled and waved at Ruby Peyton. With curly brown hair and
silver gray eyes, the thirty-two year old artist was one of the
hand-full who had lived away for many years, before coming back
home to roost.

Ruby still had a touch of California
hippie in her. She was one of Madeline’s close friends. Not to
mention, someone who knew her secrets. Ruby was someone she counted
on to shoot straight and knock her on her ass, or off it, when she
needed it.

Ruby came up the steps, an answering
smile on her face. Madeline noted how the crocheted dress with silk
under-slip complemented her almond skin. She had a big scarf around
her waist. Only a woman as tall as Ruby would dare put layers
around her middle.

“
Coffee?”

“
Yep.” Ruby sat down in a
wicker chair and kicked off her toe sandals. “Got any
food?”

Madeline spied a toe ring on the left
second toe Ruby’d made from silver. She wished she could look as
natural wearing something like that, as Ruby did, but Ruby had that
artsy look that could pull anything off.

“
Doughnuts?”

“
Bring the whole box.
“

She laughed. “What’s up?”

“
Besides the period from
hell? I think I’ll tell you later.”

Madeline couldn’t wait. She hurried and
brought the coffee and doughnuts.

The street was quiet. Her house sat on
the corner lot, near the woods. March remained cool, but the birds
sang, and after a hard winter, any sun was welcome. For a moment,
they simply exchanged a smile as the melodious sounds and
earth-tinged breeze wafted across the porch.

Half way through the box, Ruby glanced
at Madeline. “Did I ever tell you why I left here?”

Madeline grinned, remembering what Ruby
had first told her years ago about leaving Diamond Back. “To live
in a commune, in the desert?”

Ruby snorted and took a drink of
coffee. She cleared her throat, an action that always preceded a
discerning confession. “It sounds good. But, no. I left over them
Copper Creek men. “

“
Not Mitch,” Madeline
blurted before she could stop herself.

“
Oh, hell, no.” Ruby
laughed. Then frowned. “It was that hard-assed brother of
his.”

That was just— shocking. “Jude? I can’t
believe you never told me. Why? I told you about Mitch.”

“
I don't know. Who wants to
admit they were young and stupid?”

“
Not me.”

“
Anyway, Nick doesn’t care
to be reminded of it either.”

“
Your brother knew?” She
watched Ruby swat a bee away from the doughnut box, then shift in
the chair. Somewhere down the street, someone was annoyingly trying
to start a chain saw.

“
He had to get me out of
here,” Ruby confessed under the dull sound that finally flubbed
out. “I was going a bit crazy. These days they call people like
that stalkers. I was a kid. What did I know?”

“
Seriously. You followed
him, spied, what?”

“
I was sixteen. I all but
lay down in front of his car,” Ruby said mockingly. “I offered to
become his mistress, his love slave.”

Madeline laughed, thinking she was
joking. Then she realized Ruby wasn’t. “Oh, my. God. I can’t see
you that way. You’re free, independent, and
emotionally…healthy.”

“
Years of living in the
desert, with a bunch of pseudo-therapists will do that for you. You
realize they’re the nuts, and you’re the healthy one.”

She shook her head, blinking, still
stunned. “I’m sorry. What happened?”

“
First, I want to say, I’m
only admitting this because I happened to see Brook in Copper Creek
the other day.”

“
Oh, Hell. You’re not still
following Jude?”

“
No, I had a commission
there. A church order for stained glass art I’d finished
up.”

“
Well, good.”

“
Knowing you the way I do, I
figured you were freaking out about Brook and all.”

“
That’s putting it
mildly.”

“
Actually, I think your kid
has more brains than we did. A strong woman raised Brook. You.
She‘s been exposed to women who know it takes more than a man to
exist in the world, she’s been educated about sex the way we
weren‘t. Hell, Brook is more savvy and mature than I am. We didn‘t
dare read the kind of stuff kids do these days. We didn‘t have her
pluck and self-esteem. Brook‘s a born leader, not a
follower.”

Madeline relished that assurance, but
she knew the heart could be blind. Instead, she inquired, “Was he
ever in love with you?”

“
No. He told me things he
hadn’t told anyone. He couldn’t seem to get enough of me sexually.
In those days, I was pretty much the same. I am nothing if not
dramatic though. I couldn’t live another day without him, didn’t
care or think about anything else.” Ruby’s harsh laugh was
self-mocking.

“
That was before the Brown
woman?”

“
Yea, but it lasted for
years. Our so-called affair.”