One Year (14 page)

A
lexis watched as Mary Bernadette chatted with a woman in a truly awful green gown. PJ's grandmother really was the proverbial social butterfly, flitting from one person to the next, landing delicately, charming the person with her dazzling smile, and then fluttering off to the next. Well, maybe not a butterfly. More like a very impressive archangel descending with a flaming sword.

Mary Bernadette always made a striking appearance, but for this event she had outdone herself. Her dress was a shimmering shade of lilac, simple and elegant, accented by a thin silver belt at the waist. Around her shoulders she had draped a silvery shawl. She looked, Alexis thought, as if she had stepped out of a 1930s period drama, a woman of great wealth and dignity and graciousness. Next to her, even her handsome husband became a mere prop to her magnificence. PJ had paid his grandmother the grandest of compliments. They would have made any other woman blush with embarrassment, but Mary Bernadette had taken them in stride, as if they were only her due.

Alexis sighed and looked around at the mill of chattering people gathered to celebrate Wynston Meadows's arrival in Oliver's Well. She had almost been looking forward to the party after her chat with Maureen, but so far she had detected no interestingly odd behavior, and except for a few of the waiters there seemed to be no one even remotely her own age. And maybe the most disappointing of all, no one had complimented
her
on her appearance. She had spent some time assembling the outfit with the help of Mary Bernadette's friend Anne at The Sophisticated Lady. (Luckily, Anne's shop sold some clothing in colors other than neutrals!) Her dress was a very pale ice blue, form fitting without being clingy or revealing. Her heels and clutch were beaded silver, and in her ears she wore the diamond and platinum studs her parents had given her for college graduation. Alexis knew that she looked pretty spectacular, but not even her own supposedly besotted husband had paid her a compliment.

She spotted PJ across the room now, in conversation with a group of three middle-aged women. He seemed to be having a grand time. He was at his best in a crowd, able to chat with ease about anything from someone's ailing parent to the local softball team's latest win or loss. Alexis had always admired his remarkable social abilities (clearly, he had taken a lesson from his grandmother), but at that moment, as she stood alone watching him laughing with the ladies of Oliver's Well, she felt resentful and left out. She was only vaguely aware that she was reacting childishly.

“Oh, great,” Alexis murmured. Mary Bernadette was heading her way, and Alexis wondered wildly if there was some way she might escape before she descended. But there was none, short of melting into the ground like the Wicked Witch of the West. A convenient trick, that.

“Are you enjoying yourself, dear?” Mary Bernadette asked, with a darting glance at the half-empty glass of champagne Alexis held in her right hand.

“Yes,” Alexis said. “It's a fantastic party.”

Her husband's grandmother briefly laid a hand on her arm. “Because it doesn't look as if you are. You might try to smile a bit more. You
do
represent Fitzgibbon Landscaping. We all do.” Mary Bernadette now looked at Alexis critically, as if seeing her for the first time that evening. “Well, I must say that your dress is very pretty.”

At last,
Alexis thought.
A compliment—and from Mary Bernadette!

“Thank you,” she said.

“Anne is a marvel, isn't she? She has impeccable taste.”

“Yes, she's very stylish.”

“She really knows what works for a woman.” Mary Bernadette gave Alexis the once-over again. “She's very good at hiding a figure's flaws and emphasizing its good points.”

Alexis, who hadn't been aware that her figure had any flaws, simply nodded.

“Ah, there's Father Robert and Reverend McMeans. I should say hello.” Mary Bernadette sailed off, nodding to partygoers as if, Alexis thought, she were Catherine the Great at an affair of state.

Alexis drained the last of the champagne. Well, so much for compliments. And how, she wondered, had she become an ambassador for her husband's business? It wasn't a position she relished, unlike Mary Bernadette, who seemed to thrive on attention. Were all eyes in Oliver's Well really on her every movement? She didn't know how those society wives did it, or the wives of politicians, forcing seemly and proper behavior even when they wanted to scream and stomp and make a scene—or to be left alone.

“Well, hello, young Mrs. Fitzgibbon.”

Alexis turned to see Leonard DeWitt at her side. She had met him a few times in the past year and thought him a genuinely nice person. “Hello, Mr. DeWitt,” she said.

“Leonard, please. Otherwise I feel like an old man!”

Alexis laughed. “Leonard, then. Are you enjoying the party?”

“Magnificent party! Magnificent occasion! You know, I'm convinced it was Mary Bernadette's leadership of the OWHA that brought Mr. Meadows to our organization. Yes, she's the one who's really responsible for this great gift we've been given. She's a remarkable woman.”

Leonard looked expectantly at Alexis, and dutifully she replied, “Yes, remarkable.”

“Oh, there go the cheese puffs!” Leonard hurried off after the waiter, and Alexis contemplated going over to the bar.

“Alexis.” The voice came from just behind her, close enough to make her jump.

She turned to find another member of the OWHA's board. “Hello, Mr. Chadbourne,” she said, moving away an inch or two from the tiny man.

“Fine speech Meadows gave, wasn't it?” he asked.

Alexis nodded. In truth, she had hardly heard a word, except, of course, for the mention of twenty-five million dollars.
That
had gotten her attention.

“Meadows was absolutely right,” Mr. Chadbourne was saying. “The board is now on a new path. And it
does
need a breath of fresh air. Things get stale, don't they, everything from bread to people. Yes, it's definitely time for a change.”

Alexis wondered what she had missed by tuning out when the illustrious Wynston Meadows had taken the microphone. “Well, I—” she began.

“Yes, a change is long overdue, that's what I say.”

Before Alexis could attempt another thwarted response, Wallace Chadbourne wandered off without a farewell.

Alexis spotted her husband again, this time talking to a man she recognized as the chief of police, and made her way over to him. By the time she reached him, the man had moved off.

“There you are,” PJ said. He put his arm around her waist and planted a kiss on her cheek. “Did I tell you how beautiful you look tonight?”

“No,” Alexis said. “You didn't.”

“Well, you look beautiful. Are you having a good time?”

“Yes. It's—fun. But can we go home now?” she asked.

PJ took his arm from around her and looked at his watch. “I'll have to check with Grandmother,” he said. “She might need to stick around for a bit longer. It's only nine o'clock.”

Alexis sighed. “I told you we should have taken two cars so we could leave when we want to.”

PJ frowned. “You know my grandparents don't like to drive after dark.”

Alexis immediately felt chastened. “Right,” she said. “Sorry. I forgot.”

“Look, I'll go have a chat with Grandmother and see what she wants to do. Why don't you find my grandfather?”

Alexis nodded and watched as PJ, incredibly handsome in his navy suit, made his way through the throng of chattering guests.

A
lexis was sitting on the little step outside the cottage when she spotted David, a soccer ball under his arm, making his way toward her from the house.

“I saw your mom's car,” Alexis called. “But I didn't know that you were with her.”

Megan and her family had been visiting Oliver's Well more frequently lately. Alexis certainly didn't mind. Nine times out of ten she would take PJ's mother over his grandmother. Well, to be honest, ten times out of ten. And the twins were always fun.

Danica, David explained to her now, was playing in a soccer tournament and her father was on transportation duty. David figured he would rather go on a road trip with his mom than stay at home alone.

“Is your sister a good player?” Alexis asked.

David shrugged. “She's won a few trophies. Hey, want to practice with me?”

Alexis eyed the soccer ball under David's arm with trepidation.

“I have to warn you,” she said. “I stink at sports. I just can't do them. Something about my coordination, I guess.”

“Don't use bad coordination as an excuse.”

Alexis blushed. “Oh. I'm sorry.”

“Don't be. Anyway, it's just for fun. I kind of stink too. My feet are, like, totally turned in. They weren't always that way.”

“All right. But don't say I didn't warn you.”

They kicked around the ball for about twenty minutes before Alexis called it quits. “I'm sorry, David,” she said, dropping back onto the little step outside the cottage. “I didn't realize how out of shape I am.”

With some difficulty, David joined her. Alexis resisted the impulse to help him without being asked to. She had learned so much about being with someone with a physical challenge since knowing David. For example, when she had first met him she had trouble understanding his speech. She had felt terribly embarrassed asking him to repeat himself, though David had been patient with her. And then one day it occurred to her that understanding David was simply a matter of learning to listen in a new way. It was a lot like becoming accustomed to a foreigner's accent. The foreigner's pronunciation wasn't the problem. The problem was that you were listening for your own pronunciation and rhythms instead of listening for his. Once Alexis had figured that out, understanding David's speech was simple.

“What brought you and your mom down to Oliver's Well today?” she asked.

“Mom's checking up on Grandma,” David told her. “But we don't tell Grandma that's why we visit a lot lately.”

“Oh. Is she sick?”

“No. But Mom and Dad think that since Grandma and Grandpa are, like, almost eighty, they should make sure they're okay, you know, not getting senile or anything.”

Alexis wondered why Megan and Pat hadn't just asked her or PJ to keep an eye on the grandparents. Then again, the last thing she wanted was to become Mary Bernadette's secret caretaker! “Your grandmother is an interesting person,” she said carefully.

“Yeah. I know.”

“Sometimes I feel kind of, I don't know, insignificant when I'm around her.”

David looked at Alexis and laughed. “Of course you do,” he said. “That's what you're supposed to feel.”

Alexis was taken aback. “What do you mean?” she asked.

“Grandma's the queen of the family. Everyone knows that. She likes it that way. Anyway, like my mom says, there's no point in pretending that she's not in charge or that she's going to change. It'll only make you unhappy.”

“Oh.”

David gave her a distinctly conspiratorial smile. “Don't tell anyone I told you this, okay?”

“Okay.”

“My dad says Grandma is a pain in the butt.”

Alexis put her hand to her mouth in a vain attempt to stifle a shout of laughter.

“I don't let her get to me like she gets to my parents,” he said. “Grandma's just the way she is.”

Well, Alexis thought, it was easy for David to be so nonchalant. He didn't live in Mary Bernadette's backyard! Still, he had a point.

“You're pretty smart, you know,” she told him.

“Some people think I'm stupid because of the way I talk, but I know that I'm not.”

“That's awful. Doesn't it make you angry when people make ridiculous assumptions based on appearances?”

“Mostly I ignore it, but it makes my sister furious. She's the one with the ‘famous Irish temper.' That's what Grandma calls it.”

“I don't think I've ever seen your sister angry,” Alexis said.

“Just wait. She puffs up like a cat about to attack. Well, not really, but it feels that way. It's like, you feel the air around you crackling.”

Alexis pretended to shudder. “Yikes. I'd better stay on her good side.”

“Well, mostly she gets angry when someone does something bad to someone else. She doesn't blow up just for nothing. She's like an avenger or something.”

“That's a relief, that she doesn't just go around kicking butt for no reason!”

“Does my brother have a temper?” David asked.

Alexis laughed. “PJ's one of the most laid-back, easygoing people I've ever met.”

“Sometimes I can hardly remember what it was like when he lived with us.”

“Right. You and your sister were, what, six or so when he went away to college?”

“Yeah. Here comes Mom.”

Alexis noted, not for the first time, that her mother-in-law really was an attractive woman. It didn't hit you over the head like it did with some people. Still, she made an impression. Alexis hoped that when she was her mother-in-law's age she would have attained at least a bit of her easy poise.

“Has David been behaving?” Megan asked, with the ghost of a smile.

“No,” Alexis replied promptly, causing David to guffaw. “He's been awful and rotten.”

Megan laughed. “Come on, kiddo. Time to head back home.”

Alexis stood with a little groan.

“Give me your hand?” David asked.

Alexis did, and David rose from the little step.

“Can't you stay for dinner?” Alexis's reason for asking was almost entirely selfish. It was so much easier to be with Mary Bernadette when Megan and her family were around.

But her mother-in-law shook her head. “Sorry, but no. We're going to an event at David and Danica's school this evening. In fact, if we don't leave now we're going to be late.”

“Okay. Well, tell everyone I said hi.”

“And give my love to PJ.”

“Sure,” Alexis promised. “And David? Thanks.”

“For what?” he asked.

Alexis smiled at the boy. “Just, thanks.”

She watched as David and his mother walked to her car, parked behind Mary Bernadette's in the driveway. David was right; his legs and feet were turned in so that the toes were almost facing each other. It had to be painful, let alone annoying for him. But there was no point in Alexis worrying about it, not with Megan and Pat in charge. They were fantastic parents.

Alexis watched Megan and David drive off and vowed to keep in mind David's advice about how to handle Mary Bernadette.
Out of the mouths of babes,
she thought, turning back to the cottage.