Coming Unglued

by Rebeca Seitz

  “You planning a reenactment?”

  “Something like that. I hear Joe’s is open on Thursday nights now. Want to go hear some moody jazz?”

  “Like you have to ask.”

  “I thought I’d at least pretend you had a life apart from me.”

  “You’re a barrel of laughs today.”

  “I try.”

  “Seriously, I’m not sure I can dance very well yet. My leg still acts up if I stay on it too long.”

  “So sit and listen instead of dancing. Won’t hurt my feelings a bit. Come on, Ken, I need to do something besides work and plan this wedding.”

  “You did do something. You were at Heartland just last Friday.”

  “Where I spent an hour sitting on the hood of my car talking to my fiancé about the wedding.”

  “Oh, wow, you do need a break.”

  “Thank you. So you’ll get Darin on board?”

  “I’ll try. Call you back in a few.”

  “Great. Thanks, Ken.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I’m the best sister in the whole world.”

  “Keep that humility going.”

  “Wouldn’t have it any other way.” Kendra snapped her phone closed, then opened it again and dialed Darin, then grimaced when the call went to voice mail. She waited for the beep. “Hey, Darin, it’s Kendra. Tandy’s having a wedding cow and wants to go out tonight to Joe’s. Call me if you can make it.” She snapped the phone closed and rubbed her thumb across the back of it, thinking.

  “He’s got James Dean pictures in the bathroom!” Lorena sat down hard in her seat and scooted into the booth, everything on her jiggling a little in the process.

  “Yeah, Clay’s a bit of an old movie buff.” Kendra tapped the phone on the table, knowing the idea she was about to voice could end in disaster. And knowing just as much that she’d do it anyway. What’s life without some risk? “Listen, that was my sister on the phone. She wants to go to a little jazz place tonight.”

  “Oh, then I better be moseying along.” Lorena began pushing her way back out of the booth.

  “No, no, that’s not what I meant.” Kendra swallowed. “I wondered if maybe you’d like to join us. You … and your husband.”

  Lorena looked down. “Oh, I couldn’t possibly. I’m sure he’s working or already has an appointment or something.”

  “Never hurts to ask, right?”

  Lorena’s blue eyes met Kendra’s. “Yeah, sometimes it does.”

  Kendra held her gaze for a long moment. Her place should be supporting her newfound friend, but here she sat goading Lorena into a confrontation with her maybe-cheating husband. “Never mind. It was a suggestion. A dumb one at that.”

  Lorena whipped a cell phone out of her purse, pressed two buttons, and held it to her ear. “No, I think you’re right. I don’t have to ask him about the other woman. I can just remind him of the good times we have. Nothing wrong with that, is there?”

  Kendra gave her the thumbs-up. “Not a thing.”

  Lorena held up a hand to stop Kendra as she spoke into the cell. “Honey? I’ve made us plans tonight.”

  * * *

  “I’M SOMEBODY NOBODY loves,” Cassandra crooned from the stage, as Joe tickled the ivories with skilled fingers and a small brass band kept time.

  “I love this place.” Kendra leaned against Darin as they walked into Joe’s Jazz Place. Cassandra’s voice filled the room with its smoky rasp, and the tension that had coiled so tightly in Kendra’s belly as Lorena bemoaned her husband’s infidelity began to loosen.

  Darin patted her hand, which rested in the crook of his arm, and looked down at her. “Good.” The tightness had left his voice as well, and Kendra relaxed further. Despite her admission of seeing someone else, it looked like Darin was ready to forgive and forget.

  “Hey, you two.” Clay’s voice from behind caused Darin and Kendra to turn around.

  “Look at you!” Kendra walked over to Tandy, who stood in the navy dress she’d worn the first time they’d come to Joe’s together. “I swear, that dress was made for you.”

  Tandy executed a quick twirl. “I kind of like it.”

  “And she’s not the only one.” Clay’s grin was only for Tandy.

  “Hmm, looks like these two may want to be alone,” Kendra warned Darin. “Maybe separate tables are in order?”

  “Not on your life.” Tandy tucked her hand through Clay’s arms, mirroring her sister. “I want a night with my fiancé and my sister, and I’m getting it.”

  “I’ll just trail along, if you don’t mind.” Darin’s playful voice cut in.

  “I don’t mind at all,” Tandy joked in return.

  The band broke into “Taking a Chance on Love,” and the foursome made their way into the crowded jazz hall.

  Tandy leaned over to Kendra as they walked to “their” booth in the corner. “Did you say your friend Lorena was coming?”

  Kendra nodded. “Yes. I called her on the way over. She had to drive back up to Franklin to change clothes and pick up her husband.”

  “Do you think he’s cheating?”

  “I don’t know. I told you all she told me this afternoon.” They reached the table and slid into the shadows made by low-hanging Tiffany-style lamps and black leather. “But I don’t see me sitting at a table with a cheater all night long and not saying anything.”

  “Kendra, it’s not your place to go butting into their marriage.”

  “Hey, I’m not the one who unloaded all my personal details to a virtual stranger over lunch. I think she wants someone else to confront him.”

  “I think you want her to want you to confront him.”

  “Well, I think I want you to want to talk to us for a little while.” Clay’s smile took the bite out of his words. “Come on, Tandy, let’s dance.”

  “I thought you’d never ask.”

  Kendra watched her sister, nearly glowing with love, hit the dance floor with Clay. They looked so happy together, joining hands and moving in time to the music. Clay’s face radiated sheer pleasure just for being in Tandy’s company. Kendra sighed.

  “You all right?” Darin brushed her bare shoulder with his knuckles, and she tilted her head to see him better.

  “Yeah, I think so. You?”

  “Yeah.” He dropped a light kiss where his knuckles had brushed. “Yeah.”

  She leaned her back into him, and they sat together, watching Tandy and Clay move across the dance floor as one. “They’re perfect together,” Kendra said.

  “I think that’s how it’s supposed to be right before you get married.”

  “Mmm.” Kendra watched them a moment more, then saw Lorena come in.

  Alone.

  “Oh, no. Look.”

  “What?” Darin moved his eyes from the dance floor and saw Lorena, looking like a chiffon banana in head-to-toe yellow, wobble over to them on chunky white heels. “Uh-oh. I don’t see the mister.”

  “Tell me he didn’t refuse her,” Kendra murmured, then stood to greet Lorena.

  “Hey, girl. Look at you!” She took Lorena’s hands in hers and held her arms out. “All dolled up!”

  Lorena’s smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Thanks, Kendra. I’m afraid it might be just me tonight.”

  “Your husband isn’t coming?”

  Lorena smoothed her hair back and adjusted her upswept do. “I’m not sure. He said he had a work thing tonight but that he’d try to make it.”

  “Well, let’s just hope the man has a sensible bone somewhere in his body,” Darin stood as well and reached a hand out to Lorena, “and sees fit to join his beautiful wife at a swanky jazz club.” He kissed the top of Lorena’s hand, and Kendra shot him a grateful look.

  “Thanks, Darin. You’re right. This place is divine.” Lorena looked around and folded onto the seat—well, folded as well as her tight yellow dress would allow. “Has it been open long?”

  Darin and Kendra resumed their seats, while Darin filled Lorena in on the history of Joe’s. “T
hat’s about it,” he finished.

  “I had no idea you were so multitalented.” Lorena smiled at him. “You develop property by day and play bass by night. A regular Renaissance man.”

  “Careful,” Kendra patted Lorena’s arm, “I’ve got to fit his ego back through that door at the end of the night.”

  They shared a laugh, and Kendra noticed Lorena check the door … again.

  “I’m not the only one with hidden talents,” Darin said. “Kendra here has a voice that’ll make a man stop in his tracks.”

  Lorena turned to her. “Oh, really? Do you ever sing here?”

  “I do occasionally. When I need somewhere easy to perform or when they’re short a voice.”

  “Don’t let her fool you.” Darin clasped Kendra’s hand in his own, and she basked in his look of approval. “They ask her to sing all the time; it’s just that she’s rarely available.”

  “Tom loves jazz,” Lorena said, checking the door again, and Kendra noted that she’d let his name slip. “We went to all kinds of little hole-in-the-wall clubs during our dating years. We scoured The Scene, following new bands all over town, buying up indie CDs just to have something our neighbors didn’t. Those were good times. I wonder whatever happened to those CDs?”

  Kendra looked at Darin, but his eyes were focused on Lorena’s face. The pain on Darin’s features stilled her. His sadness, when it broke the surface, consumed whatever other emotion might lie in the room. Clearly Darin’s own failed marriage was rearing its head and lashing out. Kendra felt the blow as sharp as any hand on her face.

  Inviting Lorena, while well-intentioned at the time, seemed wholly insensitive now. Why must Kendra continually remind Darin of his wife’s betrayal?

  She reached out, daring to cross the inches of chasm between them. “Darin?”

  He jerked, looked at her. Blinked. Wiped his hand down a haggard face. “Yeah, sorry. Sorry.”

  Lorena’s puzzled face registered on the periphery as Kendra touched Darin’s mouth and whispered, “Me, too.”

  He could never know she’d spent time with a married man. If any doubt about that existed, the lost look on his face at this moment cleared it away. She would not, so long as it remained under her control, hurt him the way his first wife had.

  He captured her hand in his, pressed his lips to it, then raised those chocolate eyes to hers. “Okay.”

  “Hi, Lorena. Good to see you again.” Clay’s happy voice broke Kendra’s gaze on Darin, and she looked up to see Lorena offering her hand.

  Clay gestured to Tandy. “And this is my fiancée, Tandy. Kendra’s sister.”

  Lorena shook Tandy’s hand and looked from Tandy to Kendra and back again, clearly flustered. Kendra gave Tandy a look of confusion, then it dawned on her.

  “My adopted sister, Lorena.”

  “Oh! Oh, my. Well, of course.” Lorena took back her hand and patted the table. “I wouldn’t have dreamed otherwise. Not that anything otherwise would be bad, I mean. I just wasn’t certain how you two were, um, ah, well, sisters, being—”

  “Different races?” Kendra saved her from a spiel she’d heard all her life. “Yeah, I tend to forget about it sometimes.”

  “Me, too,” Tandy said. “So in case you ever meet our other sisters, be prepared to meet another white girl and a Chinese chick.”

  “Really? I’ll bet you all look like the United Nations when you get together!” Lorena popped a hand over her mouth. “Oh my goodness. Was that insensitive?”

  Tandy laughed. “Nothing we haven’t heard before, let me tell you.”

  Lorena looked to Kendra, her eyes wide. Kendra laid her hand on Lorena’s and offered a smile. “Seriously, we’re used to it.”

  “Oh, well, all right, then. I didn’t mean to offend.”

  “Trust me. You couldn’t.”

  Lorena gave her a grateful smile, then checked the door. “Hmm, it appears as though my husband might not be making it after all.”

  “No worries,” Tandy said. “You can just hang out with us for a while.”

  “Oh, I’d hate to be a fifth wheel. You four look so cute together.”

  “Yeah, but we were missing a blonde. Now we’ve got all the colors covered,” Kendra teased, and Lorena primped her hair.

  “Oh, you.”

  “So, tell us all about you,” Tandy said as Clay signaled for the waitress. “You’re Darin’s realtor?”

  Lorena explained her connection to the Leiper’s Fork property, which led to a discussion of the charm of the little town, which segued into stories of growing up in small Stars Hill, which gave Tandy the opportunity to tell a few stories on Kendra, which left them all shaking with laughter.

  “Heavens to Betsy.” At Lorena’s laughing exclamation, Kendra realized the woman hadn’t checked the door throughout the entirety of Tandy’s story. “Kendra, I can’t believe you jumped on the back of a pig.”

  “You’d be surprised what a girl will do to own her own horse.”

  “That sure was smart of your daddy, seeing if you could stay on a pig before letting you up on a horse.”

  “If you can keep a momma sow from knocking you off her back, you can stay on anything.” Kendra drank her Diet Dr. Pepper and watched Tandy start her nightly fade into dreamland.

  “Words to live by,” Darin deadpanned.

  Lorena checked her watch, and her eyes widened. “Oh my, it’s after ten! I need to head on back. It’s a long drive up to Franklin.”

  “You sure you should drive it tonight?” Kendra asked. “You can crash at my place.”

  “No, no, I wouldn’t want to put you out.”

  “It’s no bother, really. I’ll worry less knowing you’re not out there driving on a dark highway, as tired as you look.”

  “No, I’m fine.” Lorena waved away her concern, but her eyes were about as heavy as Tandy’s. “I’ll put on NPR and be all caught up on world events by the time I pull into my driveway.”

  “Ugh, that would put anybody to sleep,” Clay said, and Tandy smacked his arm halfheartedly.

  “Hey, don’t hate on NPR. I happen to be a fan of Morning Edition.”

  “Yeah, you tell him, T,” Kendra said.

  “Okay, okay.” Clay put his arm around his sleepy fiancée. “NPR rocks. There, happy?”

  Tandy melted into him with a sloppy grin and a yes, and Kendra realized her sister was getting loopy. Yep, ten o’clock had arrived. Tandy would never be a night owl.

  “How about we all pack it in for the night?” she suggested. “I’m beat anyway, and Miss I-Fall-Asleep-at-Ten-onthe-Nose over there is going to conk out on us any minute.”

  “First NPR, now my sleeping habits. You people aren’t very nice.” Tandy laid her head on the table, her lids heavy. Clay patted her back.

  “Mm-hmm. That’s what I thought.” Kendra chuckled. “Say good night, Gracie.”

  “Good night, Gracie,” Tandy mumbled, her face pointed toward the table.

  “Wow, she’s really tired.” Lorena stood and tugged her dress down.

  “Yeah, she does that. She’ll be up at five, though, more chipper than anybody has a right to be at that hour.” Kendra got out of the booth, too, and the guys followed suit.

  “You’re kidding.”

  “I wish. She and Joy, one of our other sisters, used to come in my bedroom at five in the morning singing at the tops of their lungs to wake me up.”

  Lorena shook her head as they made their way to the door. “You’re so lucky to have sisters.”

  “You tell her.”

  At Tandy’s comment Kendra rolled her eyes. “Hush, Sleeping Beauty.”

  “Bye, Joe!” Darin called over his shoulder as they made their way to the door, and Joe lifted a hand from the piano to wave.

  They spilled out onto the parking lot where Clay and Tandy split off to his car, Tandy’s sleepy good-night drifting back to them.

  Darin and Kendra turned to walk Lorena to her car.

  “Thanks for coming all the way down
here,” Kendra said. “I know it’s a long drive, but it was fun having you here.”

  “Didn’t they tell you? Blondes have all the fun.” Lorena patted her hair and opened the door of her white Lexus, which now sported a thin layer of highway grime.

  “In that case you should come down more often.”

  “I just might do that.” Lorena settled herself on her white leather seat and started the car. “Thanks for a good night.”

  “You’re welcome.” Kendra leaned down so that only Lorena could hear her. “And don’t hesitate to call if you need backup.”

  Lorena winked, then put the car into gear.

  Kendra felt tired to her bones. Her leg ached, and her heart hurt for Lorena, going home to a distant spouse, as Darin must have night after night toward the end of his marriage.

  “Did you know your ex was cheating before she told you?”

  Darin’s steps slowed further, and he waited until they’d reached his car before he said yes.

  “How did you know?”

  “You just know, Kendra. When you’re one with somebody, and they suddenly aren’t sharing the details of their day or looking at you right, you know.”

  “Did you ask her about it?”

  He opened her door and leaned on the window glass. “Not for a long time.”

  “Why? I don’t get that. Lorena won’t ask her husband, either. She just goes to bed with him, every single night, and lies there wondering if he’s cheating on her.”

  “She’s not wondering if he’s cheating. She’s wondering who she will be if he leaves her.”

  Kendra stopped. Oh.

  “Anyway, I need to get you home and get home myself. I’ve got meetings in the morning.”

  Kendra let it go. No, Darin could never know all the details of Harrison. It was over anyway, so what would be accomplished by telling him?

  Sixteen

  Kendra pulled her RAV4 to a stop by the curb and peered out the windshield. Her hair would be a complete disaster by the time she dashed into Sarah’s, but it couldn’t be helped. Tandy was determined to get her bridesmaid dresses ordered today or die trying.

  Kendra cracked open the door and popped an umbrella out. Pushing the button to expand its protective shield, she stepped out of the car and into the deluge. She hopped her way around the various puddles forming on the old pavement of College Street and scampered up to the sidewalk on Lindell. The hem of her long skirt was soaked by the time she escaped through the front door of Something by Sarah.