That Summer

by Joan Wolf

  Liam said, “Someone got them up. We have to be able to get them down.”

  After they had worked for an hour, both men shed their sweatshirts and worked in the T-shirts they had on underneath. Kevin was surprisingly muscular. He looked as if he worked out pretty regularly. I guess he had to keep in good shape for his job. A Hollywood star could not get flabby. Liam's muscles were less obvious than Kevin's. He looked as if he had got them from work, not from working out. He was strong, though. The two men actually did manage to get my mother's triple dresser through the bedroom doorway and down the stairs and into the truck.

  We made three runs with the truck to get the furniture and most of the boxes over to the new house. Then my mother said, “Dinner is on me tonight. Why don't you boys go home and get cleaned up and meet us at the Horse and Hound for dinner at six-thirty?”

  “You don't have to take us out to dinner, Nancy,” Liam said. “We were happy to be able to help you.”

  “Liam's right,” Kevin backed his cousin up. “You must be tired.”

  “I am tired but I have to eat and I would like you boys to join us. Please let me do this. You saved me a fortune by moving me; a moving van would have cost far more than a mere dinner.”

  There was a pause. I sent a silent message to Liam, Say yes.

  “All right,” he said. “We'll accept your gracious invitation.”

  I nodded my approval. “Can I borrow your car, Mom? I want to run out to the farm to see how the day's training went.”

  “Of course. The keys are in my bag.”

  I located her purse and took out the keys.

  Liam said, “I'd better get the truck out of the street.”

  Kevin said, “I'll catch a ride back home with Anne.”

  Liam scowled. Kevin gave him a kind smile. I said, “I can drop you at the house on my way to the barn, Kevin.”

  “Thank you,” Kevin replied.

  Liam gave me a searching look. I looked back innocently. Then, “Oh, all right,” he said.

  I said to my mother, “Don't wear yourself out unpacking. I'll be home in an hour to help you.”

  “Yes, ma'am,” my mother said.

  Liam had already gone out to the truck when I left the house with Kevin. We got into my Mom's Honda, and I pulled out of the parking space and turned onto Washington Avenue. We started back toward Wellington.

  Kevin said, “I haven't worked that hard in years.”

  “Don't be funny,” I said. “You probably work out harder every day in the gym.”

  “I'm flattered.”

  “Seriously, thank you for helping out. I don't think Mom is very flush in the pocket at the moment.”

  “Does she need a loan? I could …”

  “No. It's nothing like that. She has her teacher's salary, after all. It's just that she had the funeral bills to pay and she had to put two months’ security down on the house.”

  “This is so hard for her,” Kevin said sympathetically.

  “It is. They were very close. She told me she feels as if she's had an amputation.”

  “You must miss him too.”

  “I do, but my life wasn't entwined with Daddy's the way Mom's life was. I guess that's the price you pay for having a good marriage.”

  “Your parents had about the only good marriage that I know of,” Kevin remarked.

  I looked at him in surprise. He was looking straight ahead, affording me a view of his perfect profile.

  It was true, I thought. His own parents had not only ditched their marriage, they had ditched their son as well. And nobody in their right mind would call the Wellington marriage a good one. For both Kevin and Liam, my mom and dad were unusual.

  “I was lucky,” I said softly and returned my eyes to the road.

  “If your parents were so great, why did you stay away so much?” Kevin asked.

  I sighed. “I was very upset after Leslie disappeared. I was so afraid the police were going to arrest Liam. Mom and Daddy thought I'd be better off if they sent me away to school. They just wanted to get me away from the whole poisonous atmosphere. Then I went to Virginia Tech, which is a haul from here. Then I was in vet school; then I was doing a residency. There just wasn't time for me to be home very often.”

  He nodded. “I haven't been home all that much myself. It's ironic that I chose this particular time to come for a vacation.”

  “You mean because of Leslie being found?”

  “Yes.”

  “It's a terrible thing,” I said somberly. “To think of someone taking that bat and bashing out Leslie's brains.”

  “Yes, it is.”

  “I hope the police find the bastard who did it.”

  “Do you really hope that, Anne?” There was the faintest touch of pity in his voice.

  I lifted my chin. “Yes, I do. Everyone thinks Liam did it and it's not fair to him.”

  Kevin said reasonably, “What if he did do it? Do you want him caught?”

  “He didn't do it,” I said fiercely.

  “All right, have it your way.”

  We were silent as I drove down the Wellington driveway. Kevin got out. “See you for dinner,” he said cheerfully.

  I nodded and drove off to the yearling barn.

  It wasn't until I was home again that I realized I had promised Michael I would go out to dinner with him. “Damn,” I said, and explained my problem to my mother.

  “Why don't you invite Michael to join us?” Mom said.

  I didn't want to miss having dinner with Liam, so I said, “I'll call him right away.”

  I tried his work number first, but it was his day off, so I looked up his home number and called him there. There was no answer but I got his answering machine and left a message for him to meet us at the Horse and Hound at seven o'clock.

  Kevin and Liam came in separate cars and consequently made separate entrances to the restaurant. Kevin's entrance was an event. All the diners looked up from their meals to stare at the famous movie star as he made his way across the room. When he reached our table and bent down to kiss my cheek I murmured, “I feel as if I should curtsy to you.”

  He laughed, showing his perfect teeth. They were natural. Kevin had never had to have braces.

  Michael came next. He did not look happy to see he was part of a large party, but he politely greeted my mother and Kevin.

  Finally, Liam arrived.

  I looked at him as he stood in the doorway scanning the room for us. I knew him by heart, from his tumbled black hair to the tips of his brown loafers, but I still got that thrill of recognition whenever I saw him.

  My mother shook her head slightly and I tried to dim the radiance that always came to my face whenever Liam was near me.

  He came across the room, stopping to speak to two separate parties before he reached us.

  I smiled at him and said, “Have a seat. Do you know Michael Bates?”

  Liam gave poor Michael an evil look. “Sure,” he said. “How are you, Michael?”

  “Fine, thank you, Liam.”

  “Has your divorce been finalized?”

  Michael looked surprised, as well he might at being questioned so rudely. He narrowed his eyes. “As a matter of fact, it has.”

  At any moment I expected one of them to growl at the other.

  My mother said, “I believe the waiter wants to take our drink order.”

  Liam and Michael left off glaring at each other and told the waiter what they wanted to drink. Then Kevin said, “Is there anything new in the police investigation, Michael?”

  Michael took a quick glance at Liam. “Not really,” he said.

  I didn't like that glance at all, but I didn't want to discuss the case in such a public place. So I smiled and said, “How is Someday Soon's training coming along, Liam?”

  “John is pleased with him. He's not looking to put up the fast training-run numbers that Baffert is; he's building stamina into Buster. He's a good trainer; he knows what he's doing.”

  “Only a
little more than a week till the Derby,” I said.

  Liam said, “I know. Part of me is frantically excited and part of me is scared to death.”

  Michael asked, “You're going to Kentucky to see the race?”

  Liam looked at him as if he had seven heads. “Of course.”

  “Can I come too?” I asked. “I've never been to the Derby.”

  “Sure you can come,” he said. “Nancy, why don't you come too? After all, Buster was one of Pete's babies.”

  My mother shook her head. “I have too much to do here, what with unpacking and everything, but thank you anyway Liam.”

  “Maybe I'd better stay home too,” I said. “I can help you move the furniture, Mom.”

  My mother frowned at me. “It will really annoy me if you stay home for my sake, Anne. Go to the Derby.”

  I hesitated. I really wanted to go to the Derby, but I felt guilty about leaving her.

  “I mean it, Anne.”

  I didn't put up much of a fight. “Well, all right… if you're sure?”

  “I'm sure.”

  “Great!” Liam said. “I'll call the hotel about getting you a room.”

  “Okay.”

  Outwardly I was composed; inwardly I felt like a kid with Christmas coming.

  After everyone had gone home, and I had my mother alone in the new house, I asked her if she had really meant what she said about my going to the Derby with Liam.

  “Absolutely,” she replied.

  “But why, Mom? You and Daddy spent years helping me to stay away from him. Why this change of heart?”

  “We thought Liam would be a case of out of sight, out of mind,” she replied. “And our strategy seemed to be working. You went out with some nice young men, and we thought you were going to become engaged to John Elliott.”

  I had been helping her to make up the bed in her bedroom, and now I tucked the blanket under the corners and said, “What's different now?”

  “What's different is that you broke up with John and, after years of avoiding Liam, you came home here for a month, where you would be sure to come into contact with him. And maybe it's a good idea. Maybe you can exorcise Liam from your heart by seeing him as he really is, and not as the idol you always thought him.”

  I smoothed down the blanket. “That's exactly why I came back,” I agreed. “That, and I wanted some time with you.”

  The two of us tucked the sides of the blanket in.

  “All my life I have compared the men I met to Liam,” I said soberly. “I don't want to do that anymore. I need to see him clearly, not with the eyes of an adolescent admirer.”

  “I'm glad you see that, honey.”

  We put pillowcases on the pillows.

  “I wonder how long Kevin will be staying,” Mom said.

  I said, “I think he's hiding out from the press. He broke up with the actress he was going with—Julia Monroe—and all the gossip press was after him. He told me he was going to stay until things quieted down.”

  “I read about that split,” Mom said.

  I stared at her in astonishment. “Since when have you been a reader of the tabloid press?”

  “I read about it while I was standing in line in the Safeway. It was the headline in the Enquirer.”

  We collected the rest of our sheets and blankets and moved into what would be my room. The men had set up the bed this afternoon as well and it stood solitary amidst a floorful of boxes. We began to put the bottom sheet on.

  “Why don't you change your mind and come?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “It would be too hard, honey. I don't feel like partying. I'll watch the race on television.”

  “All right.”

  We picked up the top sheet and finished making the bed.

  CHAPTER 8

  Liam and I left for Louisville very early Friday morning. The Virginia newspapers, like the papers around the country, had been full of Derby news all week. During the drive, Liam and I discussed and dismissed almost everything that had been written.

  In the last week the press had reported that Someday Soon had a knee injury; that he had peaked in the Florida Derby and was on a downhill slide; that there was little hope for him to beat Honor Bright, the horse he had finished second to in the Wood.

  “No matter what anyone says about speed, the Derby is an endurance race,” Liam said. “As long as Buster doesn't get caught behind a line of horses, I think we'll be okay. The Derby is such a melee, though. You need some racing luck if you're going to win.”

  The first glitch in our Derby plans came when we got to the hotel and discovered that I didn't have a room.

  Liam was furious. “I called two days ago and was assured there would be a room for Dr. Foster.”

  “I'm so sorry, Mr. Wellington, but your reservation never got entered into the computer.”

  “Damn.” Liam turned to me. “We're never going to get into another hotel. Everything will be booked solid.”

  “Why don't I just share your room? It's only for two nights.”

  Liam turned back to the hotel clerk. “Does my room have one or two beds?”

  “It has one king-sized bed.”

  “King-sized beds are humongous,” I said. “We can keep out of each other's way.”

  Liam glowered. I said, “Most of the men I know would be thrilled to be sharing a room with me. What's the matter? Do you think I'll bite you?”

  His black brows drew even closer. “Don't be silly.”

  I said to the hotel clerk, “We'll take the one room.”

  Once Liam had given his credit card imprint, a bellboy put our luggage on a cart and took us to our room. He opened the door and brought the two suitcases in.

  As Liam tipped the bellboy, I went to the window and looked out. The first things I saw were the twin towers of Churchill Downs, the racetrack. I felt a chill run up and down my spine.

  Liam came over to stand beside me. “There it is,” he said. “One more day and we'll know.”

  “Can we go and see him?” I asked.

  “Sure. He is my horse, after all.”

  I hugged myself as if I were trying to keep my exuberance under wraps. “This is so exciting,” I said.

  He grinned. “It is, isn't it? Do you want to change before we go to the track?”

  I looked down at my jeans and pink knit shirt. “This will do.”

  Liam, who was dressed almost identically except that his shirt was blue, said, “Great. Let's go.”

  “Do you have the key?” I asked as we left the room.

  He felt in his pocket. “Yep.”

  Even though it was late afternoon, the stable area at Churchill Downs was filled with people. I kept close beside Liam as he pushed through the crowd. A photographer caught sight of him and called, “Mr. Wellington, look this way.” Involuntarily, Liam and I looked toward the man who had yelled and a flash went off.

  The photographer came up to us. “Who is the girl?” he asked Liam.

  “She's my vet,” he said shortly.

  The photographer gave me a skeptical look.

  “It's perfectly true,” I said. “I am Dr. Anne Foster.”

  “Come along, Annie,” Liam said, taking me by the hand. “I want to see Buster.”

  I let him lead me down a shedrow and we stopped in front of the Dutch door of the stall at the far end. We looked inside and had a wonderful view of a bright chestnut rear end.

  “Buster,” Liam called. “How are you, boy?”

  The horse turned at the sound of his voice and came toward the door, ears pricked forward.

  Someday Soon was a beautiful horse, with a glowing chestnut coat, the sloping shoulders and muscular haunches of his father, and his mother's lovely head. Liam reached in his pocket and produced a lump of sugar, which he tossed into Someday Soon's feed dish.

  The colt immediately stuck his nose in the dish and ate the sugar.

  “He looks fabulous, Liam,” I said.

  Liam nodded. “He looks great, heal
thy and ready.”

  A thin young man dressed in jeans came over to us. “Don't git too close to the horse,” he said.

  Liam smiled. “It's all right. I'm Liam Wellington, the owner.”

  “Oh.” The young man nodded. “Well, just be careful of where you a stick your fingers. Red is okay but there's one or two of ‘em here that would take your hand off if they got a chance.”

  “I presume ‘Red’ is Someday Soon,” Liam said.

  “Yessir. That's our name for him. Red.”

  “He looks wonderful,” I said. “Are you his groom?”

  “Yes, ma'am. I'm Henry.”

  Someday Soon returned to the front of his box and nickered. I have always thought that a horse's nicker is the sweetest sound in the world.

  “Hello darling,” I said softly. “How handsome you are.”

  Someday Soon graciously allowed me to scratch his forehead.

  I said to Liam, “Well, if looks could win, he'd be a shoo-in.”

  “He's a credit to John—and to Henry,” Liam said.

  We stayed around the barn for about an hour, then we went back to the hotel. There was a message on our voice-mail to call John Ford, Someday Soon's trainer.

  While the two men talked, I opened up my suitcase and hung up the suit I was going to wear to the Derby tomorrow. I hadn't had time to buy a hat, something which all women wore on Derby Day, but my shell pink suit was dressy enough. I had also brought a non-crushable black dress, the kind that you can dress up with jewelry and heels.

  Liam hung up and said, “John wants us to go to a bash someone is having in our hotel tonight. I think I ought to go. There will be lots of owners and trainers there and I might have a chance to talk up Thunderhead as a sire.”

  “Great. What time does it start and will there be food?”

  “It starts at seven. There's probably going to be hors d'oeuvres, but not dinner.”

  “Do you want to get something to eat first?”

  “I do. There was a coffee shop downstairs, or we can order from room service.”

  “Let's order in.”

  “Okay. There must be a menu around here someplace.” He picked up a folder from the dresser. “Here it is.”

  We called room service and Liam ordered a hamburger while I got a turkey sandwich. We were both hungry so it was pretty quiet as we wolfed the food down. Then Liam put on the TV to watch the news.