Newton Neighbors (New England Trilogy) (28 page)

Her wine was served in a long-stemmed glass that glistened with moisture. The waiter laid a thick white napkin on the glass table and placed her drink on top of it. To the side, he settled a bowl of cashew nuts. The man moved with the grace of a dancer, and the surroundings were pure opulence, too. After her active morning, it was good to relax, and the Hotel El Convento was one of her favorite places in Puerto Rico. It carried a charm and elegance that only old buildings could, and it was sure old enough.
 

“Leave it to the nuns,” she said as she raised her glass to her lips and tasted the wine. It was perfect. She knew the history of the convent well. It had been built for the Carmelite nuns back in the sixteen hundreds, thanks to King Philip IV of Spain, and the women had only moved out in the early nineteen hundreds. After that, it had been turned into a luxury hotel.
 

Maria knew every square inch of the 350-year-old building. The courtyard, where she now sat, was the same one she’d married Ricky Sanchez in only eleven short years ago. Seemed like she didn’t have the staying power of the nuns, she thought sadly now. It was impossible to sit there and not think of Ricky. She took another sip of wine and forced her husband out of her mind just as the waiter reappeared.

“Is everything to your satisfaction,
señora
?” he asked with all the serenity of a Carmelite nun.

Maria nodded. “This is perfect. Just perfect.”

“Would you like to see our lunch menu?”

She hadn’t thought of food, but hearing the suggestion made her realize she was quite hungry. She glanced at her watch. “Oh, I didn’t realize it was that time. Yes, please,” she said and watched him glide off to fetch a menu.

After he took her order, he gave her time to relax and enjoy the peace, but when he returned to dress the table for lunch, she watched him with fascination. He used the same finesse he had for her wine—like he was performing a ritual. Setting the table was serious business at this hotel. When she did that job back in Boston, she threw the knives and forks down any old way. Her family was lucky if they even got a glass of water. Maria felt guilt begin to swell. Had she stopped trying with Rick and the kids?

“Are you enjoying San Juan,
señora
?” he asked as he finished up.

“Oh, yes. It’s a great city.” She was going to say she was a local, but somehow it seemed too late. When she first came in, he’d spoken to her in English, so she answered in kind. Maybe he assumed she was on vacation. Was that what she was at this stage—a tourist in her hometown? That seemed wrong, and yet she had seen the city from a whole new perspective this time.

He took her order and then took his leave.

She closed her eyes and enjoyed the peace. That was when it hit her. The entire tour she’d taken that morning had followed a distinct path. Without meaning to, she had started in the place of her youth, her teen years, in the Old Town. From there she’d gone pretty close to the pharmacy of her ex-boyfriend and then to the tower where Rick had proposed. Now she was in the hotel where they had married. It was in this ancient and holy courtyard that they’d pledged themselves to each other, sworn undying love and been so very happy, certain in the knowledge that theirs was the forever kind of love.

“Is everything all right,
señora
?” The graceful waiter was back. Maria realized there were tears trickling down her face. She dashed them away.

“Oh, yes. I’m sorry. I was remembering,” she said.
 

He nodded. “Your snapper,” he said and placed the large, fine bone china plate in front of her.

“Black pepper?”

“Hmm . . .” Maria couldn’t focus on pepper, black or otherwise, when she was so focused on her marriage and husband.

“Please.” She waved her hand with indifference.
 

Her subconscious was certainly hard at work. The big question was where would she go next? Was she moving forward with Rick or without him?
 

She took a mouthful of snapper. It was delicious. Before she could analyze what she should do next, her phone rang and she got to it fast, hoping it was her husband.

“Hello?”

“Maria,
guapa
. It’s Mami. I’m just wondering how you are. I will need the car this afternoon because I still have some errands to run for tomorrow’s Thanksgiving party.”

Maria swallowed hard. How could she have been so thoughtless? “
Si
, Mami. I’ll come straight home. I got so absorbed in town, I didn’t think.” She kept the phone call short and caught the server’s attention.

Funny, she thought, before the phone call she’d been wondering where she should go next. “There’s my answer,” she said to no one in particular, and then she paid her bill, adding a generous tip for her lovely waiter. “Real life beckons. My children need me,” she told herself, getting her car keys out of her bag. “Enough daydreaming.”

“That’s some daydream, you’re having.” Ely elbowed her travel companion.

“Hmm?” Jessie snapped out of it. “Oh, sorry. What were you saying?”

Ely looked at her roomie with concern. “How’s the head? Are you sure you don’t want my famous hangover remedy? It’s a surefire cure. I’m telling you, it works.”
 

She had already pushed Jessie to have a drink when she’d woken up first thing in the morning. Then she’d tried again when Jessie got back from the Sanchez house, but Jessie had turned her down. Now they were at thirty-thousand feet, flying to South Carolina to meet up with the Briskin family, but Jessie still didn’t want to drink.
 

She shook her head and winced. “If I drink, I’ll ralph.”

“Ralph? I like that. Is that another English colloquialism? I’m gonna ralph!” Ely tried the word out, but Jessie looked pained.

“I’m thinking of never drinking again.”

“Look on the bright side—at least the airport was still open and our plane got out. Those Bostonians aren’t scared of a little snowfall.”
 

Jessie didn’t respond.

Ely felt for her. It was a real mess. Her best friend had a broken heart, and she’d been given their notice of eviction for throwing a party with alcohol and narcotics on the premises. Ely was pretty mad about the narcotics. Pot? Who knew? She hadn’t seen it, but evidently when she had gone out to the car with Jessie, some of Josh’s friends had lit up.
 

Needless to say, the Wiswall police hadn’t been too thrilled. The party had been broken up, and she’d been tracked down pretty fast. At least she hadn’t been arrested, which could have happened. But the powers-that-be had arrived and told them on the spot they were to vacate the premises within a week.
 

Oh joy.

Jessie didn’t even know they had lost their college accommodation yet. The night before, Ely had left her friend in the car while she sorted everything out. She’d gotten their beds back in, and then Josh had carried Jessie from his car to her bed. Ely hoped she could figure out a solution over Thanksgiving. Maybe she could talk her father into bankrolling an apartment for them. Ely was racked with guilt. She knew Jessie needed this postgrad, and now her stupid party might have blown that. And she had to fix it—fast.

“So what were you dreaming about?” Ely sounded more upbeat than she felt. “Please don’t tell me you were thinking about
Dan the Pan
?”

“The Pan?”

“Yeah, it means toilet. It’s all I could come up that rhymes with Dan.” Ely smiled.

Jessie nodded but didn’t look happy. “I’m doing my best not to think about him. God, I feel rotten.”

“You weren’t this bad this morning when you went to the Sanchez house.”

“Maybe I was still a bit drunk then?”

Ely pulled a small bottle from her bag. “Here, take a mouthful of this. It’ll make you feel a whole lot better.” She thrust it toward Jessie.

Jessie looked worried. “Is it alcohol?”

“It’s medicine.”

Jessie sniffed it. “Doesn’t smell like booze.”

“Drink!”

Jessie looked like she was all out of fight and took a large gulp, and then she winced and shivered. “Oh, Ely, what was that?”

“You’re gonna feel better soon. Now, tell me about this morning again.”

Jessie wiped her mouth with the airline napkin. “It’s so odd. Maria never mentioned leaving town, but she was gone this morning with the kids. Rick seemed cool with it. He’s going to work all across Thanksgiving while she has fun in the sun.”

Ely shrugged. “Sounds like a smart woman to me. Why stay in all that snow if he’s out workin’ when she can be on a beach in the Caribbean?” Then she looked out the airplane window. “I wonder if they have any good colleges in Puerto Rico.”

“Rick couldn’t get out to work after all that. He was snowed in.”

Ely gave her friend a sideways glance. “You like that guy? You’ve been talking about him for a long time now.”

“He’s too old and he’s married.”

“Maybe not.” Ely smiled. “Darn it, his wife is a couple of thousand miles away. I reckon you need a cure to
Dan the Pan
.”

“Can you please stop calling him that?”

Ely held her hands up. “Sorry, just sayin’.”

“You’re saying I should have an affair with a married man, after I’ve just experienced firsthand the pain that can cause. Seriously?” Jessie looked mad.

“Aw, shucks, J. I’m just trying to find you some happy. Sorry.”

“Well, thanks, but leave me out of your plans. Yes, Rick is nice, but I happen to like Maria and I wouldn’t dream of doing that to her.”

“But I can see a glint in your eye. You
fancy
him.”

Jessie rolled her eyes. “You know it’s possible to
fancy
a guy and do nothing about it.”

“Is it?” Ely arched an eyebrow.

“Changing the subject, I met Mrs. Palmer again this morning.”

“Who’s she? Remind me,” Ely said.

“The old lady who lives next door. She’s going a bit senile, but I love her. We were both out with the dogs in the snow.”

Ely nodded and tried to look interested—which she really wasn’t.
 

“Remember I told you, she’s the one who had Mick Wolf at her parties in the sixties?”

“Jeez, how old is she?”

“Very. Anyway, she seems so nice. I like her, and I told her we got into trouble last night with our party because the school has a no parties rule. She was horrified and said we could throw our parties at her house in the future.”

“For real?” Ely felt a tiny flicker of hope, but Jessie looked impatient.
 

“We’re not taking her up on the offer, Elyse Briskin. She’s a very nice old lady. We’re not going to ransack her house. But she did also say if we ever need a place to stay, we could have a room in her house. Wasn’t that nice?”

Ely’s heart stopped. “She’d let us live with her? Are you serious?” Had Jessie solved their housing problem, all the while oblivious to the situation?

Jessie laughed. “Well, clearly we’re not going to take her up on the offer, but that’s just the kind of woman she is. Isn’t she kind to offer us accommodation? I like her so much, so—to answer your question, Ely—that’s what I was daydreaming about.”

Ely smiled. “Well, as daydreams go, Jessie, that’s a pretty good one.” She stared out the window and sent up a quick prayer of thanks. “It really doesn’t get better than this.”

Chapter Twenty

Thanksgiving

“Could it be any better than this?” Cathi gushed when she showed her husband the Thanksgiving table. She thought it was a work of art. Five place settings were furnished, each with three different glasses—fifteen glasses in all—just as
Festive Living
, her new favorite magazine, suggested. It was insane, but it looked wonderful. There was a dazzling array of knives and forks at each placemat, too, and the napkins were folded to stand upright. They looked like bishops’ hats.

“Cathi, you went to a serious amount of work this year. Should you be pushing yourself so hard?” Michael’s eyes were soft with concern.

It made Cathi feel good. He was such a caring husband.
 

“I like to do this, Michael. You know how much a pretty home means to me.” She adjusted one of the glasses by a quarter inch, so it was aligned with the others.