The Fourteen Day Soul Detox, Volume Two (7 page)

“Jacuzzi,” she bellowed as
she walked away. I watched her as she walked toward Susan and Beza,
but turned around when she sat beside them.

“Your daughter is too cute for
words,” Carrie said.

“She’s a handful,” I
said.

“One day I want to have a little
girl just like her. One like her and one just like Kay, and they’ll
be best friends,” Carrie said.

“You can borrow Kay whenever you
want,” Patrick smirked.

“Speaking of Kay, you have to
teach me how to do those braids. I’m afraid I’m rather
useless on all those mommy things, but you just made her so happy,”
Carrie said.

“Sure, I’ll teach you. It’s
actually really easy. It just takes practice,” I said.

“I never had any sisters—or
girls really—in my life at all until Kay,” Carrie said.

“There’s Emily,”
Patrick said, then to me he added, “My sister’s
daughter.”

“Yeah, but Emily always has short
hair. Besides, she’s awful and she hates me,” Carrie
said, shaking her head.

“Sorry to change the subject, but
I just have to tell you that this is
the
most beautiful spot
for a house I’ve ever seen. I didn’t even know that this
part of Coral Beach existed. How long have you lived here?” I
asked Patrick.

“See, isn’t it beautiful?
It’s the best house in town. But Patrick hates it,”
Carrie said, tsk-tsk-ing under her breath.

“I don’t hate it, Carrie. I
actually love it here…” He shook his head and exhaled
heavily. “You’re always stirring the pot.”

“On that note, I’m going to
get another drink,” she grinned and winked at me.

Patrick gave me a small smile. “It’s
complicated… because of my father.”

“You don’t need to talk
about it if you don’t want to.” I took another bite of
steak, filling my mouth with the juicy, spicy meat.

“I don’t really mind. I
mean… it’s fine. My father is just very patriarchal, and
I spent, well, pretty much my entire adult life trying to rebel
against that. Which sounds way cooler than what I did. Basically, I
just refused to work for him, or anyone he was friends with. When
Shelly and I split, the firm I was working for started complaining
about the amount of hours I needed to take off. They weren’t
happy that I could no longer work late nights or weekends—even
if there was a big international client coming in. They asked me to
take a look at my priorities, and I did. So I quit.”

“Good job,” I said.

“Thanks,” he grinned. “In
the three months of furious job searching that followed, I received
only one job offer that would both provide for us and be flexible
with my hours.” He gave me a meaningful look.

“Your dad,” I said.

“You probably think I’m a
joke now, huh?”

“No, I work for my dad. Mike’s
Saloon… my dad is Mike. My dad gave me a similar job offer
after Logan died. We weren’t making it, and I wasn’t
about to take on loans I couldn’t possibly pay back, so I made
the same choice you made,” I said.

“You and your dad get along?”

“Yeah,” I said.

“There’s the difference. My
father is a cold front, and I’m the warm front and whenever we
come together, it’s like there’s a tornado,” he
said.

“I didn’t know tornados
formed like that,” I teased.

“Well, I think there also has to
be a thunderstorm. The rest of my family is the thunderstorm,”
he said.

“Alright, I get it. But, if you
don’t mind me asking, how does any of this make you hate where
you live?”

“Sorry, I got a sidetracked with
analogies. After I decided to work for him, my father threw me a
surprise ‘I finally own you’ party at this house.”

“Did he put ‘you are my
slave’ on the cake?” I asked.

He chuckled. “I think it was,
‘Welcome to the Company,’ but the meaning was the same.
At first I thought this house was just an event rental, but at the
end of the party, he gathered the hundred or so people around and
announced that this house was a gift for me and Kay. Then he took Kay
and the rest of the party to her new bedroom, which is basically a
princess castle room. It had everything she could ever want in
there.”

“Oh, I get it. That does suck,”
I said before taking another bite.

“Yeah. The house we used to live
in was much smaller. It didn’t have a pool or the beach, but I
bought it, and paid it off entirely on my own. Most of the furniture
had been bought in pieces from online stores, but Kay and I had put
them together and she’d added bits of art to all of them.”

“What happened to the house and
stuff?” I asked.

“I’ve been renting it out
furnished,” he said.

“Well, at least you can always go
back,” I said.

“Maybe,” he said. “But,
to be honest, this place is growing on me. We’ve been here for
a while now, and it’s feeling more like our place than my
father’s gift. He still has a key and feels no need to knock,
but he’s too busy to just show up, so it works out.”

“Well, there are definitely worse
places to be forced into,” I said with a smile.

“Very true,” he said.

I set my fork down on my now empty
plate. “By the way, this food could not have been better; I
can’t believe I ate all of that.”

He grinned. “I’m glad you
liked it. I love to cook, but I rarely do.”

I glanced over my shoulder. “I
want to talk more, but I have a feeling if I don’t get Sarah
into that bathing suit, she’ll just go in in her clothes.”

Patrick stood, grabbing our plates.
“Yeah, of course. Here, follow me.”

“Thank you. Do you want some help
washing the dishes?” I asked.

“No,” he chuckled. “I’d
much rather you just have fun.”

I cupped my hands around my mouth. “Hey
Sarah!” I called over.

When she looked up, I gestured her
over.

She bounded over to me, and we followed
Patrick.

Patrick grabbed a swimsuit and towel
from where it was stacked on a pillar. “The bathroom is just in
the house, want me to show you?”

“Do you mind if I show them? I
was just in there.” Amy said from my side, startling me.

“Oh, of course, go ahead,”
Patrick said with a smile. He set the towel and bathing suit in Amy’s
outstretched arms.

“Thanks Amy,” I said,
taking Sarah’s hand.

“You’re welcome.”

Upon reentering the house, Amy gestured
for us to turn left down a hallway, and then pointed to a door on the
right. “It’s through there, baby,” she said,
handing Sarah the bathing suit.

When Sarah had disappeared inside the
restroom, Amy turned a glare on me, her arms crossing over her chest.

“What did I do now?”

“Will you stop saying
embarrassing stuff?” she hissed.

“What did I say that was
embarrassing?” I asked.

She hushed me and glanced around. “The
beer pong story, the hot dog eating contest… stuff like that.”

I rolled my eyes. “Why is that
embarrassing? Derek thought it was funny.”

“Do you even realize who these
people are? They’re not laughing with you; they’re
laughing at you.”

“No, they’re not. And even
if they are, why would I care? I have enough to worry about without
caring what random people I don’t even know think about me.”

“That’s easy for you to
say. You don’t have to see them all the time. You don’t
have to be known as the beer pong champion. I have spent a lot of
time and energy on my image. I do not want to be known as the trashy
daughter of a guy who owns a bar downtown. And with one comment, you
undid all of that to the people who own this town.”

“You might have been a beer pong
champion, Amy, but you were never trashy. You competed with grace and
decorum, and you never once slurped your beer. Not once,” I
told her.

“You don’t even feel bad at
all,” she huffed and walked away.

“What did you think, Amy?”
I called after her. She paused and looked over her shoulder at me.
“Did you think you were going to come here tonight and I was
going to be someone other than me?”

She closed her eyes and exhaled through
her nose. Her hands came up to her forehead, and she rubbed her
temples. “I’m sorry, Jamie. You’re right; I
shouldn’t expect you to not be yourself. I’m just used to
these two parts of my life being separate.”

“Honestly, Amy, I think these
people would prefer the beer pong champion,” I said.

She dropped her hands from her face.
“Maybe they would, but they wouldn’t respect the beer
pong champion. It’s complicated, okay? Be yourself, fine, just
leave me out of it.”

“Alright, fair enough,” I
said. “I love you, I wasn’t trying to embarrass you.”

“Yeah, I know,” she sighed,
“I love you too, Jamie,” she said before turning away.

A moment later, Sarah came out of the
bathroom in a bright pink bathing suit. “Bye Mom, I’m
going to the pool,” she told me.

Laughing, I said, “Wait for me.
I’m coming too, goofball.” Walking into the bathroom, I
grabbed her gymnastics leotard and clothing, before following Sarah.

Sarah walked up to the pool and jumped
in right beside where Susan was sitting.

“Hey!” Susan laughed. “You
splashed me, you little stinker.”

Sarah broke into a fit of giggles as
she treaded water. Susan kicked a little water toward Sarah, which
made her giggle even more.

I grabbed a couple sodas from the
cooler, then stepped up next to Susan.

“Watch out, I think this is the
blast zone,” Susan said.

I glanced back to the Jacuzzi where it
looked like Beza was napping. “You think Beza is okay in there?
Should I check on her?”

“Yeah, she’s fine; I
checked on her a few minutes ago. She’s not sleeping, just
taking a break,” she said.

“I get that.” I kicked off
my shoes and rolled up my jeans before taking a seat beside her. “Got
you a decaffeinated soda. Did you get anything to eat?”

“Are you kidding me? I’m
pretty sure I ate an entire cow,” she said, accepting the soda.
“How about you? You having fun over there with your caffeinated
soda?”

I shrugged. “Sure,” I said.

“Uh, huh. I saw Amy follow you
into the house, and now you look unhappy. Two and two equals your
sister’s lame.”

“She just cares a lot about what
people think about her.”

“Peter completely ruined her,”
Susan said.

“Don’t say that,” I
said, splashing my feet into the water and watching as all the kids
flipped into underwater handstands.

“Fine, I’ll think it and
you’ll think it, but we won’t say it,” she said. “I
just remember when she was like this glowing vibrant human and now
it’s as if she’s fused into his shadow.”

“Seriously, Susan, let’s
talk about something else,” I said.

“Okay, okay. I wanted to tell you
something… oh, yeah, the yoga class. It’s at three
o’clock tomorrow,” she said.

“Oh no, I can’t go,”
I said.

“Unless Beza picks up both the
kids from school and you leave straight from work in workout
clothes—and Beza says that’s totally fine with her,”
she said.

“Well, Beza is on the list of
people allowed to pick Sarah up. I just feel bad for depending on her
so much.”

“That’s what family is for,
we’re both going to help you through all of this,” Susan
said, gesturing widely with her hands.

“Well, I’ll have to go over
the plan with Sarah so she’s not—Shit!”

“What?”

“Oh, I screwed up.” I put
my head in my hands.

“What’s wrong?”

I looked up. “I totally forgot I
was going to ask if Sarah and I could spend a couple nights over at
your house. I completely forgot until right now.”

“Of course you can,” she
said.

“Thanks, but I don’t have
any of Sarah’s clothes or her backpack, and it’s already
almost her bedtime… and I would need to tell her in advance or
she’ll be super dysregulated
at school.”

“What’s going on? Why do
you have to be out of your apartment?” Susan asked, leaning in,
her gaze serious.

“They’re, uh, spraying…
for bugs,” I said.

“Bugs? What kind of bugs?”

“Um… cockroaches.”

“Cockroaches?” She made a
face. “You seriously need to move out of that place. It has
cockroaches?”

“Not my apartment, but they spray
the whole building tomorrow. You know what, they’re not
spraying until tomorrow… so we’ll be fine there tonight.
But, can we stay with you tomorrow night and for a couple nights
after?”

“Of course. But is that really
what’s going on?” Susan’s eyes narrowed.

“Yeah… why would I lie?”
I scoffed.

“I don’t know, but you’re
making that expression you do when you’re lying,’”
she said.

“I don’t have a lying
expression. You’re crazy,” I told her.

“Fine, whatever. And yes, you can
stay whenever and for however long you need, you know that,”
she said.

My gaze drifted over the sand dunes to
where the blue of the sky had ripened to a deep purple. A few
tenacious stars broke through the lingering remains of the daylight.
The last sliver of sunlight slipped over the horizon, leaving
lingering rays of its light. Recessed lights in the pool and lanterns
all around the patio all lit up at once, as if the lights knew to
perform along with the sunset.

Susan whistled. “I need to get me
one of these beach houses.”

“I know, right?” I
chuckled.

“Mind if I join you?”

I looked up to see Carrie smiling down
at us.

“Please do,” Susan said,
while I nodded.

“So can I ask you ladies a
question?” Carrie asked, sitting down beside us and kicking her
feet into the pool.

Susan stiffened, but she said, “Sure,
go ahead.”

“Jamie called you and Beza
Sarah’s aunts, are you two sisters?”

Both Susan and I relaxed.

“Oh, no, we’re not sisters.
Susan is Sarah’s aunt from Logan’s side,” I said.