Dancing Hours (24 page)

“Noah
Bastion
, when you walked in here I was determined to give you a fair shake, but you’ve been about as respectful as a dog pissing on my flower garden.  Would you like to start over?”

Noah looked at her and didn’t respond.
  She poured a little cream and sugar int
o one cup of coffee and stirred, making up her mind.

“Fine then, I’ll do the talking.  I know trouble when I see it and, for the most part, it doesn’t bother me.  A little trouble makes life interesting, but I hear you’ve met my granddaughter, Andrea?”

Noah cocked his head to the side and raised an eyebrow.
  Nessa took a sip of coffee.

“She’s a special girl, that one
,
and I reckon that if she starts getting into any trouble I’ll be the first one to hear about it.  And then do you know what I’m going to do?”
 
She didn’t wait for a response. “I’m goi
ng to come looking for you.
”

“What?” he laughed.
“Did my brother put you up to this? Seriously, you’re like 80 years old.
  Look, I know he’s into her and she’s hot, I totally get it.  But the girl’s going to do whatever the girl’s going to do.  Maybe I should call her up right now, see if she wants to go out with me.”

Nessa chose to ignore the harsh remark about her age.

“You go on ahead and do
that,
she can make decisions for herself.  Let me ask you one thing, though.  Do you really think that she would be interested in you if she knew that you were walking around like you hadn’t a care in the world while your brother takes care of your daughter as if she were his own?”

Noah
froze
and
Nessa
knew her read from David was the right one.

“Where is the young girl’s mother anyway?  Did that woman do whatever she wanted to do, too?  How is that working out?”

At that, Nessa looked at her watch and stood up.  “Well, I need to get back to work.  It’s been very nice chatting with you.  I hope you think about what I said.
  Let’s do this again sometime, okay?
”

Nessa supposed that Noah thought she might be a little psychotic.  It’s not very often a woman old enough to be your grandmother m
akes a vague threat against you.  S
he had thrown out the fact of Jessica’s paternity which must have been a shock.  She would have to remember to double check that information because it might certainly be useful in the future.

Later that afternoon, she called Bitsy Monroe, who was by far the biggest gossip in town.  Not many things managed to get past that woman and it was due, in part, to her husband’s profession as the local law enforcement.  Nessa had a long talk with her about the weather, last week’s sermon and all manner of things.  Then Nessa gently led up to the reason for her call.  She just wanted to know what Noah
Bastion
was doing this evening.

“Nessa
!
  Are you asking me for gossip?
” 
Bitsy
was tickled pink.

“Well, I wouldn’t call it gossip exactly Bitsy.  I just happen to know that he’s talked with my granddaughter and I wanted to know how he spends his time.”

Nessa didn’t think it would be prudent to tell Bitsy that she’d threatened the boy and wanted to know what his response to that sort of thing would be. 
She hoped it wouldn’t lead him to go looking for a date with Andy. 
Whatever the case, it would tell her a lot about him.

“Andy?  Well, I wouldn’t imagine Andy getting mixed up with the likes of him.  He hasn’t been getting himself into any trouble yet, but that motorcycle drives Bill up the wall.  He’s already got it in his head that boy needs keeping an eye on, so I’ll bet he could tell you right now
.  Anyway, I’m sure you could talk Andy out of a summer romance
considering she’s going away to school here pretty soon.  She’s
gotta
be pretty excited about that.”

Bitsy Monroe talked on for several more minutes flitting from topic to topic without any contribution from Nessa, but finally wound her way back to the subject at hand and promised to call Nessa back with the details in the morning.  As an afterthought, she added that she could use a little help setting up for the DAR meeting at the senior center the next day.  Nessa graciously agreed to do so; she understood that information always had a price.

The next day, before breakfast – which for Nessa was cof
fee and
a Danish
from the store -
Bitsy informed her that Noah had spent a long time at the gym working out and then went home for a bit, changed and rode off on his motorcycle out of town. 
Bill hadn’t followed him.  What that told Nessa was that she had gotten to him, but he wasn’t completely in self-destructive territory. 

She would have to make a long distance call for the other information she needed.  Th
e former security manager from The C
lub in Los Angeles was in his 90s, but still kicking.  He said he didn’t do investigative work anymore, but would make a few calls for Nessa.  He only asked the questions he needed answers to and skipped the pleasantries.  He hadn’t changed in 50 years.

7

At the end of June
,
Andrea started talking about the 4
^th
of July party.  For the last 5 years, they had mostly made lemonade and a few picnic foods and camped out as a family on the lawn of Andy’s house because she said she was too old to go to the town square for the fireworks display.  This y
ear she wanted to make a big to-
do of it.  She seemed excited to try out her new skills in the kitchen and Nessa knew who she had to thank for that
so
she figured it was high time she did so. 

The conversation with
Rosalie
Merchant went differently than she expected.  There was no hint of judgment in her voice. 
Rosali
e seemed genuinely pleased to be invited.  Having her grandchildren and great-granddaughter at home had done wonders for her disposition, it seemed.
  Nessa promised to make some of her famous
kickin
’ ice
d
tea and Mrs. Merchant promised to make a mess of peach cobbler. 

For good measure, Nessa invited a few other ladies that she knew would come and a few others that she knew wouldn’t but would appreciate being asked.  Then she figured she’d better let Josephine know that there was going to be a party at her house.

“I know mom; Andy already told me that she invited Old Lady Merchant’s boys over here. 
Kate
will definitely come and I’m sure a few others from her class are going to be here too.”

“I’ve also invited Mrs. Merchant and a few other ladies.”

“Ugh, mom.
  Old Lady Merchant is coming to my house?  Is
Trixie
coming too?”

“She’s already left town.  She didn’t stay long.”

“Well she’s got some nerve coming to town and acting like we’re buddies after the things she used to say about me in high school.  What a hypocrite!  To be so high and mighty and then go and run away and
do who knows what
.”

“I’m surprised at you dear.  That is all water under the bridge and you are an adult now.  Can’t you let that go?”

“I did let it go, but you know
Andy comes home and starts talking about that David kid.  I mean he seems like a nice boy, but he’s already got a daughter and he’s just a kid himself.  Andy’s such a good girl and I want her to have a simple life with a boyfriend that doesn’t come with extra baggage.”

“She’s talking about David?  What about Noah?”

“Noah comes up every once in a while.  She thinks he’s
“
hot
”
, but I’m pretty sure those feelings are too shallow to go anywhere.  On the other hand, every
other day
I hear about what David said and did.  David this and David that… I reminded her that David can’t date casually anymore, he’s got a daughter to think about.”

“What did she say?”

“She got embarrassed and told me that she was
n’t
into David – I don’t even know what that means.”

“She was saying she’s not interested in him.”

“Is that what that means?”

“Well, it’s not what that means, but that’s what she was telling you.  At any rate, as far as David’s concerned, you should not judge a book by its cover.  I think that particular book may have a surprise ending.”

“You are so cryptic sometimes, mom.  I’m not even going to worry about it.  Pretty soon she’s going to be out there across the country without any supervision and I guess I just have to have faith that we’
ve raised her
well enough to look out for
herself
.”

“You have.  She’s a fantastic young woman and she’s really coming into her own.”

“She is?  You know, she’s so innocent.  We did that; I mean
I
did that.  I didn’t take her on weekend trips to New York or wherever to let her see what the world is like.  I’m pretty sure she hasn’t even seen an R rated movie yet.
  What if she is completely deer-in-headlights out there?”

“She won’t be.  You were fine
at school
, and not just because you had been on trips or because you were somehow more street-savvy than she is.  You were fine because you are smart and so is she.   And she has seen an R rated movie, by the way.”

“Hopefully it was a horror movie and she’s figured out that when the bad guy is after you, you don’t split up and search in different directions.”

“Or have sex.”

“Oh, please don’t make me think about that.  I’m about to have a panic attack as it is.  So what were you calling me about anyway?  Oh yes, we’re having a party.  The whole neighborhood is coming.  I’ll break out the
plasticware
.”

“You’ll be fine, dear.  Take a deep breath.”

8

Nessa got a complete report on Jessica’s parents early on the 4
^th
of July.  The mother was listed as Holly Lewis who was currently living in
Arizona
with her older sister and their cousin.  She bounced around at part time and temporary jobs, but hadn’t gotten into any trouble since she’d turned 18. 
According
to the
MVD
Holly
had gotten a license, but there was no car registered in her name. 
Her credit report revealed very little activity other than an application for a student loan with a community college near her home.  Holly’s parents died in a car accident two years before Jessica was born and her sister, who
was
a few years older, became her legal guardian. 
Jessica’s
father was listed as Noah
Bastion
,
whose
current address was listed as Oran
ge, California.  He had a minor-
in
-
possession charge about six months before
Jessica’s birth, a theft charge
and a
handful of
moving violations.  He had no
formal
credit history
, but the investigator uncovered a
number of unsettled gambling debts.  Noah liked to bet on sports, it seemed.
The rest of the information on Noah was what Nessa already knew from rumors around town.