He texted me on Wednesday morning to say that he had just interviewed a replacement, and he was hopeful. I texted back that I was praying for him and that I loved him.
That afternoon Joel’s parents came over to watch the kids so I could go to the movies with the Haven Makers. Poppy had a lot of questions for me about Joel and the state of the restaurant. My reply to almost all of them was, “Good question. I don’t know.”
“We think something needs to change,” GiGi said. “Have you and Joel discussed the possibility of his leaving the Blue Ginger and no longer being a part owner as well as chef? It’s turned into two full-time jobs. That’s too much for anyone, especially a perfectionist like Joel.”
“We have a lot to talk about,” I said. “As soon as he gets some time off, I’m sure we’ll look at all the options and try to figure out the best way to go.”
“You seem remarkably calm, Jennalyn,” my mother-in-law said.
“I do feel a little more relaxed knowing that he interviewed someone this morning. But believe me, I’ve been riding the roller coaster for days. Months, actually. No, make that a year or more.”
She was holding Alex and walked over to the kitchen sink to wash something off his hands. I knew where my husband’s leaning toward perfection came from. His parents were great models of how to live an energetic, productive, do-it-all life and do it in an orderly, tidy way. I knew I would never match their level in all those areas, but the good thing was that I rarely felt inferior to any of the highly motivated Marinos. I felt more reserved and private about the way I dealt with things. I think that frustrated them sometimes. My choice not to discover the gender of our second child or to reveal our name options to the clan was something none of them understood.
“You keep us updated, okay?” Poppy said.
“And if there’s anything we can do for you,” GiGi added, “anything at all, you let us know.”
“I will. Thank you. It’s helping a lot for you to be here tonight so I can spend some time with my friends.”
“We’re happy to do it.” Poppy opened the dishwasher to unload it.
“Those haven’t been washed yet,” I told him.
“You need one of those magnets,” he said. “We have one. It says ‘clean’ on one side and ‘dirty’ on the other. We’ll get you one.”
“Great. Thanks.” I slid over to where Eden was seated at the counter, eagerly turning the pages in a new coloring book GiGi had brought her. I gave my little girl a kiss and said, “Have fun with Poppy and GiGi, and do what they tell you.”
“I will. Bye, Mommy.”
Alex seemed to catch on that I was leaving. He reached out his freshly washed hands and said, “Mama. Mama.”
“Someone is learning new words!” Poppy made a funny face, distracting Alex long enough for me to make an exit. Just before I opened the front door, I heard my father-in-law say, “Now say ‘Poppy.’ You can do it. Paaa-pee.”
The night was beautiful and clear. I drove to the theater thinking about how blessed I was to have such great in-laws and to live only ten minutes from them. The Bible verse in Job about how “The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away” flipped itself in my thoughts.
“The Lord takes away, and the Lord has given,” I said to myself. I pulled out of our driveway thinking how God had taken away my mother, but He had given me GiGi and Poppy.
It wasn’t nearly the same by any means. However, having them in our lives softened the pain of the loss and added a new relationship that I hadn’t experienced with anyone else. GiGi never felt like a substitute mother to me. She was more like a combination of a special aunt and a favorite teacher.
I was grateful. I didn’t express that often enough.
I want to do a better job of letting them both know how much they mean to me.
That thought initiated ideas on the ways I wanted to do a better job of being intentional about showing love to others. The list was growing when I parked and made my way to the entrance of the large movie theater.
Sierra was in the lobby, waving at me. Emily was there, too, and as soon as I came in, I saw Christy headed our way from the restrooms.
We did our usual round of hugs, and Sierra pulled out her phone. “Has anyone heard from Tess? Maybe we should go in and save her a seat.”
“We’re early,” Emily noted. “Let’s wait for her here. We have time.”
“Did we ever decide if we want to go somewhere after the movie?” I asked.
No one answered because we saw Christy waving. “There’s Tess.”
Tess looked stunning, as usual. I couldn’t tell if she was wearing a long skirt with a fold down the center or if they were wide pants. She had on a crisp white blouse, and a long gaucho-style coat completed the outfit. She strode toward us looking like a model.
“I’m so upset.” Tess hugged each of us. “I was determined to be the first one here this time. I allowed extra time for traffic, but it still took me almost an hour. One of these times I will be early. Just wait. You’ll all be shocked, I know.”
“Don’t worry,” Emily said. “We’ve only been here a few minutes.”
“Shame off, grace on.” Christy seemed to still be admiring Tess’s outfit. “I love this.”
“Thanks.”
Something or someone behind Tess distracted Christy’s attention. She tilted her head, and her mouth opened, but no words came out.
A tall, dark-haired, very handsome guy was coming toward us. He seemed to recognize Christy. His smile was irresistible, and he looked vaguely familiar, but I wasn’t sure why. I noticed that Christy seemed stunned to see him.
He was only a few feet away when Tess turned her head to see what Christy was looking at. As soon as the guy saw Tess, he stopped.
Tess froze in place.
That’s when I knew. It’s Guy. He’s Tess’s “Guy.” And he knows Christy.
Christy found her voice and said the name that Tess never had shared with us. “Rick Doyle!?”
Chapter 17
When Christy said Rick’s name, Sierra spun around and made it clear that she knew him too. Sierra gave him a hug. He then leaned over and gave Christy an awkward, sort of nontouching Hollywood-kiss-on-the-cheek gesture.
Before he could greet Tess with any kind of familiarity, she mumbled “Excuse me” and turned with a quick flip of her long coat. I watched as she took brisk strides toward the bathroom.
Sierra introduced Emily and me to Rick, saying, “You guys have seen the show Diner Do-Overs, haven’t you?”
“That’s why you look familiar,” Emily said. “I loved the episode where you helped that couple who had a daughter who needed an operation.”
“Our most popular episode.” Rick nodded, turning his head to watch as Tess disappeared inside the restroom.
“Is that the one where you pulled up the floorboards?” Sierra asked. “And then you found the old cashboxes with all the money?”
Rick nodded again.
“Did the producer plant the money?” Sierra speculated. “They set it up, didn’t they? Since the little girl needed the operation.”
“No, it was real.”
“That’s amazing. I was so sad when your show was cancelled.”
When Rick didn’t reply, Sierra tried to follow his gaze. “Is Nicole here?”
“No.” Rick turned his attention back to Sierra. “She’s at her mom’s.”
“Are you guys visiting?” Christy asked. “Or working? Or…”
“I live here now.”
Christy’s expression suggested to me that she was putting the pieces together and coming to the same conclusion I already had reached when I saw Rick’s reaction to Tess.
“I’ll tell Todd I saw you,” Christy said. “If you have any free time, I’m sure he would like to see you. We’re in the same place; so just stop
by or let us know if you’re free for dinner sometime.”
“Thanks. I should get going.” Rick nodded at each of us, repeating our names like a charmer. “Enjoy your movie.” He gave us an open-palm wave as he walked toward the concession line.
Sierra returned to her troop leader voice. “That was a surprise. A blast from the past, right, Christy?”
She nodded but didn’t say anything.
“How do you guys know each other?” I asked.
“We all went to the same college and…” Sierra looked around. “Where’s Tess?”
“Restroom,” Emily said.
“Good idea. I’ll be right back,” Sierra said. “Do you guys want to save us seats?”
Reaching over and resting my hand on Sierra’s arm, I said, “I have an idea.”
“Can it wait till I get back from the bathroom?”
“Actually, I think we should all go to the bathroom,” I said.
“I’m okay,” Emily said.
“For Tess,” I said quietly. “I think we should all go check on her.”
Emily looked confused but came along. I caught a last glimpse of Rick in the concession line. Some fans apparently recognized him and were posing with him for pictures.
Reaching for Sierra’s arm again, I pulled her to the side right before we entered the restroom. “Sierra, I think he’s the man Tess told us about. That’s why she left so suddenly.”
Sierra glanced at him and back at me. Her eyes widened. “You think Rick is ‘Guy’?”
“I don’t know for sure, but I think so. I wanted you to know what I was thinking before any of us said anything to Tess.”
Sierra’s expression softened. “Oh, wow. It makes sense. Especially when he said Nicole was at her mom’s. It sounded odd the way he said it.”
“I thought so too.”
“You know what?” Sierra said. “We can go. We don’t need to see the movie if she feels uncomfortable.”
“Knowing Tess, she’ll probably say she’s fine. But I was thinking maybe we could all find a little haven where we can talk.”
“That’s a great idea, Jennalyn. I mean, if Rick is Guy, this is significant.” Sierra leaned in. “Christy dated him in high school.”
Now I was the one who was stunned. “She did?”
Sierra nodded. “He and Todd ended up being roommates in college and then Rick ran a café near Rancho Corona University.” Lowering her voice, Sierra said, “Katie worked at the café and seriously dated Rick during her senior year at Rancho Corona.”
“Are you making this up?”
“No!”
“That’s a lot of overlapping relationships,” I said.
“I know. It didn’t seem strange back then because we were all in a small circle of friends. But it’s true that Rick got around. Katie used to call him ‘Slick Rick’ before she fell for him.” Sierra pointed to the women’s restroom door. “I think we should get Tess outta here.”
We found Tess, Christy, and Emily standing in the corner by the last sink. It appeared that Christy had just brought Tess and Emily up to speed on her high school connection with Rick. They both appeared as incredulous as I had been when Sierra told me.
“How long did you date him?” Emily asked Christy in a hushed voice.
“Just a few months. During my junior year.”
I suddenly felt uncomfortable. Not just for Tess but also for Christy. I knew what it felt like when I had the unexpected encounter with Garrett. Even though Christy had been gracious about inviting Rick to stop by and now seemed to be downplaying her dating relationship with him, I recognized the flicker of surprise in her expression when she saw him.
“Do you guys want to skip the movie and go somewhere to talk?” I suggested.
“Yes,” Christy said. “I like that idea.”
“We don’t have to leave.” Tess sounded annoyed.
“I know we don’t have to,” I said. “But since we’re women of options, I would prefer the option of going somewhere to talk.”
Sierra and Emily agreed. We opted for a nearby Mexican restaurant that had large private booths. I was glad we were doing this. It felt more like we were being “us.” We weren’t the shopping or moviegoing kind of friends. We were talkers. Tonight we had several items to discuss.
Tess ended up in the center of the booth, and we slid in beside her, two on each side. As soon as we were settled, she said, “Look, I appreciate the whole solidarity sisters’ gesture, but we really didn’t have to leave. We could have gone to the movie. It was not a big deal for me to see him.”
“It didn’t seem that way when you bolted to the bathroom,” Sierra said.
“I just preferred not to have a conversation with him right then.” Tess looked down at the menu.
The waiter arrived with two baskets of warm tortilla chips and a bowl of salsa.
“Could we get some guacamole?” I asked. “And a pitcher of your house lemonade?” I looked at the others. “What does everyone else want?”
We ended up ordering an assortment of appetizers and a few items from the dessert menu, including flan and churros with hot chocolate dipping sauce.
As soon as the waiter left, Christy said, “Tess, I have to say something. Todd and Rick are pretty good friends. I knew that Rick and Nicole weren’t doing well since their show was cancelled because Todd told me he had reached out to Rick. They’ve talked a few times. I don’t know how recently, or what they discussed, but I wanted you to know that.”
“I obviously had no idea you guys were connected,” Tess said.
Christy looked concerned. “You said before that you were one of the only people he could talk to. That’s just not the truth.”
Tess nodded. She stared at her hands and repeated Christy’s last word. “Truth.”
I felt a little zing, knowing I had written that on a card as her word for the year. The cards for the DOEs were in my purse. I was glad I had brought them. Maybe tonight was going to be a good time to give them to everyone.
Tess looked at Christy. “Thanks for letting me know.”
“This might not have anything to do with anything,” Sierra said, “but do you think Rick knew you were going to be at the theater tonight?”
“No. How could he?”
“I don’t know. Technology is crazy. Maybe you have something connected on your phone that links to his phone. It’s so easy to track people and get personal information.”
“He’s not stalking me, if that’s what you’re suggesting.”
Our young waiter arrived with the pitcher of lemonade and filled our glasses.
“Can we talk about something else?” Tess reached for her glass, her crystal blue eyes peering at us as she took a sip and lowered her glass. “It’s still kind of freaking me out that Christy and Sierra know him.”
We all reached for our lemonades and caught each other’s glances around the table as if trying to see who was going to speak up first.
“I wanted to tell you earlier, Tess, that your outfit is really adorable.” Emily’s calm voice had an immediate normalizing effect on us.
“Thanks. Oh! And that reminds me. I have something for each of you. They’re in my car, so remind me that we need to go to my car first when we leave.” Tess reached for a tortilla chip and dipped the corner of the triangle into the bowl of salsa.
“I have something for everyone too,” I said.
Emily gave me an expectant look as I reached into my purse and pulled out the four handmade envelopes that I’d embellished with the names of each of the DOEs.
“I hope this is what I think it is,” Emily said.
“What do you think it is?” I asked.
“Is it one of your beautiful invitations for our spring picnic?”
Sierra looked up. “Did we decide on a time and p
lace yet? Because I know the perfect cove at the beach where we could set up our soiree.”
“I don’t think we’ve decided yet,” I said. “At least, not that I know of. This is something different. Go ahead; open them.”
Christy was the first to look at hers. “I love it! Thank you, Jennalyn!”
“I still have the one you made the first time we met,” Emily said. “Thank you. I’m going to frame this one too.”
“It’s perfect,” Sierra said.
I caught Tess’s eye and said, “I know you said you didn’t have a word for the year, but I think you do. You said it again tonight.”
Tess held up her card and read the verse aloud. ‘ “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’ ” She looked at me incredulously. “How did you know?”
I shrugged. “Would it sound weird if I said that God’s Spirit whispered it to me?”
Tess looked at us with tears in her eyes.
“Tess, what is it?” Christy asked.
“I need to say something.” Her expression made her look young and vulnerable.
“You guys know how much I value truth. When I was going through counseling, truth had to become the new foundation for my life. No more lies. That’s what my whole childhood was about. My counselor told me I was an expert at giving guarded confessions. I learned from the best, you know. My mom was famous for her partial disclosures. She only told people enough details to make herself look good. I don’t want to live that way.”
Tess sat up straighter. “I know I asked if we could change the subject, but I need to tell you the truth. I made it sound like I hadn’t spent much time with Rick. It’s true. I didn’t. We only met face to face a few times. But we talked on the phone. A lot.”
She caught my eye, and I gave her an encouraging smile. I was glad she was telling the others.
“Many of our conversations lasted for hours. I told him so much about my life. He told me more than I should have heard about his marriage, career, his family, and the things he struggles with. We both cried a couple of times, and we had our inside jokes. It was addicting to have someone phone me all the time. Someone who was coming to know me well. I never had a relationship with a guy in which I felt so close so fast.”
Being Known Page 16