Tim came out with a duffel bag of toys. He didn’t look at Valarie or Brent.
“I just got a text that she’s fifteen minutes away. Are you ready?”
“He can just go potty, and then we’ll go, okay?”
She took Brent’s hand and walked by Tim, standing on tiptoes to kiss him. “Everything will be okay.”
“I know. Thanks, Val. I’m sorry.”
“No need,” she said. “We’ll be right back.”
Back in his bedroom, he got his wallet and comb and stuck them in his pocket, taking a last look in the mirror. A flush took over his face, tears filling his eyes.
Valarie walked in to get her coat. “Aw, honey, he’ll be back soon. It’ll be okay.”
Tim embraced her, his chin on top of her head, and he started to shake, despair filling his heart. But he wasn’t crying about Brent.
Chapter 19
The jungle was a steamy mess, and Marian Cooper likened it to dog days in Manhattan before central air was widely available. She and Gladys Ford had become inseparable in the few days there.
“During the last trip, Violet and I were a team,” Gladys said, drying off with a towel. They’d just gotten in from a swim in the tepid pool and had rinsed off in the outdoor shower. “Then she and my son made eyes at each other, and I was left out in the cold. Or I should say, the heat of Nisyros.”
“Where is that?” Marian asked, sneering. “Awful name.”
“Nisyros is an island in the Aegean Sea. It’s really beautiful,” Gladys said wistfully. “I live there now with an olive farmer on his mother’s land. I share a house with a donkey rescue.”
“I love animals!”
“You need to come back with me,” Gladys said. “Hands off my farmer, though. Boy, he’d like you, too.”
Marian frowned and looked down at her body. “Why? I’m an old bag.”
“You look pretty good,” Gladys said. “No stretch marks and your boobs don’t sag.”
“I never had a child,” she said. “I’d rather look like you. You have a woman’s body. When I was a girl, they used to say I looked like Marilyn Monroe. Now look at me. Flat as a board.”
“What difference does it make? The bigger your parts, the more trouble they cause. I bet it hurts me worse than it does you to have a mammogram.”
“Hey, squeezing is relative. These little bumps are tortured in a vise. Pain is pain.”
“I guess we’d better get out there. I’m sorry I agreed to come on this trip,” Gladys muttered. “I feel like there’s a crisis brewing.”
“Like what? I’m always the last to know,” Marian said. “What is it?”
“Keep an eye on my son and that young girl. Randy’s daughter. I have a feeling they might be messing around behind Violet’s back.”
“Can’t you say anything to him? Violet seems so in love with him.”
“Violet’s tough. I’m not sure what’s going on there, and no, I can’t talk to him. I barely know the man.”
“I thought he’s your son,” Marian said, getting dressed.
“I had him when I was seventeen and gave him up for adoption. We just met last year. He’s a little too conservative for me to have a warm and loving relationship. I normally wouldn’t care, but he’s maniacal.”
“How can Violet stand it?”
“I don’t think she can, but she’s so proud, she won’t say a word about it. She might be waiting for him to make a move.”
“Knock, knock!”
It was Violet at the door.
“We were just talking about you,” Gladys said. “How’s everything going? I get the feeling it’s a little tense.”
“I thought it was going fine, and then red showed up. Dale can’t take his eyes off her, and she’s creamin’ her jeans over him.”
Marian flared her nostrils at the disgusting idiom.
“I’ve already walked in on my husband banging another woman. I don’t think I’ll survive it if Dale does it to me, too.”
“How can I help you?” Gladys asked.
“Let me move in with you two. I’m ready to break up with him. Randy said it’s fine, we just won’t do anything together, and it will get the gossip going and be good for ratings.”
“Honey, that’s awful,” Gladys said. “Did he really say that?”
“He really did. I think Randy is losing it. He’s like a different guy this trip.”
“I didn’t know him before, but he sure is true blue about his wife,” Marian said, speaking from personal experience. “He won’t even look at another woman.”
“He’s crazy about Pam, alright,” Gladys said, looking curiously at Marian. “I might call her and tell her we think he’s having a breakdown. She should know.”
“Tell her about Dale,” Violet said. “Not that he’s, you know, sniffing around a twenty-two-year-old or however old she is, but that he’s wearing that red cap all the time now.”
“It’s just to protect his bald head, right?” Gladys said, looking as innocent as she could.
“Can’t you do something?” Violet said in frustration. “He’ll listen to you.”
“No, he will not. He’s an adult man. Just let him be, and he’ll either come to his senses or get worse, in which case you’ll move back to Long Island.”
“I’m definitely moving back there whether we stay together or not. He can follow me there.”
“Honey, I think he’ll stay put,” Gladys said, pointing out the window.
In side-by-side lounge chairs, Laura lay on her stomach with her bikini top undone, and Dale, in all his hunkiness, sat next to her, rubbing suntan lotion onto her back. The three women watched him smoothing it over the back of her long, toned legs, and looking around to make sure he was unobserved, his fingers crawled up under her bathing suit bottoms.
As expected, she flipped over to admonish him, and her bathing suit top was left behind on the chair. Her arm flew across her chest but not before Dale and the three women got a good look at two nubile breasts.
“Would you look at those things?” Gladys said.
“Mine never looked like that, even when I was five,” Violet said.
“Wait, she’s pissed,” Marian said. “Look!”
They saw Laura haul off and smack Dale across the face as hard as she could. It appeared that she was crying, too.
“Maybe I should go out there,” Violet said.
“No, don’t. You can’t protect him,” Gladys said. “Look, she’s leaving. I hope she’s going to tell her father.”
“I really wanted to protect her,” Violet said. “I’m going out.”
They watched Violet leave the apartment and walk out to where Dale was sitting. By now he was on his back with his cap over his eyes. Violet walked over to the side of the chair and nudged him with her finger.
“Dale, it’s Vi.”
“Hey, beautiful, sit down.”
He moved to the edge of the chair for her, so she sat.
“I was in Gladys’s room just now. We saw you get fresh with Laura, saw her slap you. I was embarrassed for you because I know you like her.”
“She’s too young for me,” he said, pulling his cap down over his eyes again.
Snatching it off his head, she flung it into the landscaping.
“Violet, for God’s sake! What’d you go do a thing like that for?”
“As good as Greece was is as bad as Bali is,” she said. “OMG! I made a rhyme!” She got up to move to Laura’s chair. “If Laura tells her father, you’re probably going to get thrown off the show.”
“She won’t have to tell him,” Dale said. “There are cameras all over the place.” He pointed to an obvious one up in a banana tree. “That little slap you saw will probably be on the show.”
“We saw her breasts from the room,” Violet said, pointing to the window.
“Are you going to make a big deal over her little tits?”
“Dale, what on earth is wrong with you? A year ago, you wouldn’t date Lisa Chua b
ecause she’d slept with a girl. Now you’re groping a twenty-year-old who also happens to be the daughter of the guy in charge.”
“Hell, here he comes.”
Violet looked up as Randy, flanked by Clint and Frank, approached. It was hard to say by looking at him whether he was angry or not. But then he spoke, and there was no mistaking it.
“Dale, quietly get up and get your room packed. My boys will make sure you get on a plane for New York.”
Dale didn’t move right away, seemingly contemplating whether he should make a scene to stay or just get it over with and leave.
“It’s up to you. Go quietly, or they’ll help you go.”
Suddenly, other scary-looking men seemed to appear out of nowhere. Dale got up.
“Are you coming?” he asked, holding out his hand.
“No,” Violet answered.
“Figures you’d only think of yourself when I need you.” Dale flashed her a dirty look and then walked away, followed by Frank and Clint.
“I’m sorry, honey,” Randy said, offering his hand. “Have lunch with me if you can get it down. I don’t know what’s gotten into everyone on this trip.”
“I just told Gladys we should call Pam and tell her you’re losing it,” Violet said, looking at him. “You’re not immune.”
“I know. I’m having an existential crisis. I had a plan that was expensive to put into place, but it failed. I tried to control a bunch of people so I could get something I really wanted, and it blew up. Pam’s mad at me, I lost a chance to do something I really wanted to do, and now I feel aimless.”
“Was it the old New York architecture thing? Nelda told me about it.”
“Yes. I really wanted to do it.”
“Randy, Jesus Christ! You’re so fucking rich, go do it! Why do you have to have that particular group behind you? If they want Sandra, tough shit. You do it. You host it. You have the business now; that Dutch house was boring. All the houses Jack saved over the years, you could go back into the archives and have a field day. I’m getting goose bumps just thinking about it!”
“Violet, you’re wonderful.” Grabbing her to hug, Randy nodded, emotionally spent. “The problem with being older is that your vision becomes so focused, it’s almost tunnel vision. That’s why the most successful companies have the youngest, brightest people. I’m going to look into it. I felt stupid that everything went south so quickly.”
“Of course it went south! You let Sandra back in,” Violet said. “The minute she comes on board, everything turns to shit.”
“Who said that?” Randy asked, frowning.
“I think Pam did.”
Randy slapped his thigh and roared with laughter. “If you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go call my wife.”
“It’s almost noon here, so it’s thirteen hours behind us in New York.”
“So it’s almost eleven last night there,” Randy said. “She’ll still be up.”
Looking confused, Violet counted on her fingers. “Right.”
He left her at the side of the pool, keying in the house number as he walked. She answered on the first ring.
“Wow, I am so glad you answered,” he said. “You have every reason to shut me out.”
“Randy, why on earth would I shut you out? Besides Lisa, I love you more than anything on earth.”
“Can you forgive me? I’m so sorry I’ve been such an asshole.” He went on to explain his conversation with Violet and her insight.
“Wow, so you think you’ll produce it yourself?”
“Yes, sort of like I was going to do in the beginning before it got out of hand. Violet reminded me there’s an archive of material that Jack did, of all the buildings he restored over the years. She suggested we go back in time, and that really appeals to me.”
“Randy, I’m just thrilled. What a legacy for my children, too. I hardly know what to say.”
The negative knowledge of Jack was the current assessment of him. This would put his achievements out in front instead of his failures.
“I’ll call Peter in the morning. Now let me tell you about Dale.”
They commiserated about Dale’s behavior to Laura and how Violet was there alone now.
“I feel so bad for her,” Pam said. “I thought Dale had changed so much.”
“Evidently not,” Randy said. “You know what I just thought of? We could get Ryan to be the host! He’s so hot, a young stud of a guy, and the woman would flock to the television to watch him. I might pass out from excitement.”
“Randy, what a fabulous idea! No one needs to know that he impregnated both his sisters!”
“Yikes, I guess you talked to Lisa finally?”
“Yes. She was unapologetic and didn’t say who the father was. Her young man is smitten. Then there’s the news about Tim.”
She relayed the information, including the conjecture that Tim was in love with Lisa. Nelda said it on the way home, the girls running ahead in the icy sand. “Boy, that was a blindside: Tim in love with Lisa.”
“It’s understandable,” Randy said. “After having a witch like Sandra for a wife—and then being rescued by a sweet kid like Lisa. Sandra aborts his child—and Lisa is pregnant with Ryan’s baby. I can see in the transition from one to the other that falling in love with Lisa would be inevitable.”
The clock ticked closer to midnight. “We’ve talked for almost an hour,” Pam said. “I really needed it. I was beginning to have doubts about your love for me.”
“I’m so sorry. I’ll cut this trip short. We’re taking a break in a week, and I’ll come home for a long weekend.”
“Are you sure? That’s a long trip for a long weekend.”
“I want you to feel loved, and if I have to fly halfway around the world to prove it, I will,” Randy said.
“And I’ll allow you to,” she said. There would be no more self-denial in Pam’s life.
After they said goodnight, Pam got ready for bed. She looked out the window over to Ted’s dark house. He was annoyed that Marian had left, but since she’d paid her rent in advance for months, it really wasn’t his business. Pam thought about asking him to let Tim and Valarie live there if it was okay with Marian, but now that Brent wouldn’t be there all the time, she didn’t know if she should get involved. She’d think about it in the morning.
Nestling into the sheets, she closed her eyes, smiling, the bed providing the comfort she counted on no matter what man was next to her.
***
After Sandra called on Saturday and dropped the bomb about picking up Brent, the day went steadily downhill for Tim and Valarie. In silence, they loaded the car with some of his toys and clothes and drove to the park to wait. The couple didn’t speak to each other until the limo pulled in.
“Figures,” Tim growled.
“Look, Brent! Mommy is in a fancy car!” Valarie shouted. “Do you want me to take him to her?”
Tim looked at her, feeling awful about his behavior at Lisa’s, but it was too late. “You’d do that for me?”
“Tim, of course.”
“No, that’s okay,” he said, opening the door. “Unbuckle, buddy. I wonder if dumb ass remembered to bring a car seat.” He stood up and shouted across the lot, “Do you have a seat for him?”
Damon turned in his seat and spoke to Sandra, then rolled down his window. “We need the seat, please.”
“Great. I’ll never get this back,” he said, lifting Brent out and unbuckling his seat.
“He’ll only need a booster soon,” Valarie said. “We can pick one up cheap.”
“Bye-bye,” Valarie called out, her eyes filling with tears.
Tim brought him around to the passenger side so they could hug, and she broke down crying. Realizing his family was saddened by his departure did not make it easier for Brent, but he was happy to see Sandra, unlike the Sunday before.
“Am I coming back home?” he asked.
“Let’s ask Mommy,” Tim said, breaking down again.
He wiped th
e arm of his coat across his face, but it was clear to Sandra that she’d succeeded in what she wanted, and that was revenge. She’d broken his heart yet again.
“I want to go home,” Brent cried, now that he could see inside the limousine.
There was a strange man sitting in the backseat, but he was looking at Tim with compassion.
“Tim, Michael Bennett,” Sandra said, but Tim didn’t acknowledge him, handing the car seat to Sandra to figure out. While she and Michael struggled to install it, Tim crouched down to say goodbye.
“I’ll see you soon,” Tim said, kissing Brent.
“When am I coming back?” he asked Sandra again.
She backed out of the car. “I’ll bring him back tomorrow night,” she said. “I need to get a nanny lined up.”
“You’ll be back tomorrow!” Tim said, relieved, hugging him.
“Do I have school?”
“Yes, you’ll see all your little friends.”
“You go to school?” Sandra asked, forgetting the PI had already told her.
“I go to preschool with Dan Junior,” Brent said.
“Okay, get in,” Tim said, standing up.
They watched him climb into the seat, and Sandra tried to buckle him in.
“I’ll call you when we’re on our way tomorrow afternoon,” she said. “Since he has school, I won’t let it be too late.”
“Okay,” Tim said. “Have a good trip.”
He waited to watch the car pull away, and then broke down again on his way back to the car.
“She’s bringing him back tomorrow night,” he said tearfully as he climbed in.
Valarie reached over the console to hug him, and he grabbed her, sobbing. “I’m so sorry about today. I didn’t mean to be so disrespectful. I hope you can forgive me.”
“There’s nothing to forgive,” she said. “But she’s bringing him back tomorrow night? I’m shocked.”
“She doesn’t have a nanny, and now that she’s a TV star and all…”
They roared laughing, Tim wiping his tears on his coat again. “Let’s go get something to eat. I’m ready to get wasted, too.”
“Barbeque at the roadhouse?” Valarie offered. “Then we can dance the calories off.”
“I’m ready! The day sure didn’t end up as bad as I thought it would.” He pulled her over. “Sit next to me, like we’re in high school.”
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