A Dizzying Balance

  “It’s over there.” She pointed as Luke came in carrying a brown cardboard box. He set it down on the rug in front of Anna with a grin. As she reached to open the flaps, it bumped sideways and she pulled her hands back quickly. The box bumped again, the flaps pushed up and a little black and silver schnauzer blinked in the sudden light.

  “A puppy! Oh, Mommy, is it really mine?”

  Jen smiled down at her. “It’s a he, and he’s really yours.”

  As Anna gently lifted the puppy, Luke brought in another box and the kids crowed over bowls, leashes, chew toys and a cushion-lined wicker bed.

  Timmy asked, “What’ll you call him, Anna?”

  Everyone suggested names, laughing at Rick’s choice of Thondophonus Melusa, but Tony objected. “He’s got whiskers. With a mug like that, his name’s gotta be something manly.”

  “Then how about Mr. Mugs?” Jen grinned, and the puppy gave a little bark. “I think he’s decided for us. What do you think, Anna?”

  She was cradling the little dog in her arms. Looking down, she asked, “Do you like it?” then giggled when he licked her face.

  “Okay, you guys,” said Danni with a laugh, “Mr. Mugs it is. Now straighten things up and take the puppy into the conservatory for a while.”

  “We’ll call you when it’s time for cake,” Jen added.

  When the children were in the other room, David looked at Jen with a frown. “Do you think she’s old enough for a dog, Jennette?”

  Here was the hurdle she knew she’d have to get over. “She’s already used to Danni’s dogs and Ellen and Betsy have both agreed to help.”

  “There were always dogs at Kenting when we were growing up,” Rick reminded him. “You had a spaniel that chewed up every one of my shoes, what was her name? Gladys? Gwendolyn?”

  “Goldie,” smiled David, “and it wasn’t her fault that you never shut your closet door.”

  When Timmy’s mother arrived, they had candles, cake and ice cream. It had been a very successful party. Anna was tired but happy and Jen was very pleased. Most of the guests left soon after, and by the time the kids had taken all the dogs for a short walk, carried Anna’s gifts to her room and settled on a place for the puppy’s bed, they were ready for bed themselves. Jen and Danni came down the stairs together.

  “Lovely party, Jennette.”

  “Thanks. I’m so glad that everything went well.”

  “Let’s get another cup of coffee.”

  They served themselves and, carrying their cups, walked through the living room, following the sound of voices through the sunroom and out onto the terrace. Brad, Roger and Rick were standing together discussing their tennis strategies while farther along the flagstones, Nikki was leaning against the balustrade talking with David.

  Roger put his arm around Danni. “Kids down, honey?”

  “All tucked in and sleeping like angels. Of course, it’s the only time they are angelic, but we take what we can get, right?”

  Brad smiled. “It was a very nice party, Jennette, although I’m not used to having Mrs. Brown serve frankfurters, chicken strips and macaroni and cheese.”

  “Anna chose the menu and you would have gotten corn dogs if I hadn’t been able to talk her into plain ones. The Caesar salads and the fruit plates were the best I could do for the more discerning palates.”

  Rick was grinning. “You know, Brad, it‘s good for you to come down off your gourmet cloud every once in a while. See how the other half lives.”

  “Well, Anna’s menu was a nice place to visit,” he chuckled, “but I wouldn’t want to live there. Jen, I was just waiting for you to come back to say my goodbyes and thank yous.”

  “We’ll see you at the benefit on Thursday?” Danni’s voice was brisk with an undertone of slight menace. “You promised to attend with some of your … artistically interested clients.” She didn’t need to say wealthy. They all knew what she meant.

  “Yes, Danni, we’ll be there. David,” he called, “I’ll say good night.”

  “We’ll walk you out,” he called back, and everyone went down the long room together. Roger and Rick went out to the stairs, but the others had stopped for a moment discussing the benefit and Jen had paused just outside the doorway. She turned to see Nikki’s reflection in the mirror above the fireplace. Standing across the room, she was watching David’s back as he talked with Brad and Danni, and for the first time, Jen saw her with her guard completely down.

  She’s in love with him!

  The truth was there on Nikki’s face. It had softened into helpless vulnerability and her eyes were gentle, even adoring. Then the look was gone as David shifted his weight to set his coffee cup down. Jen waited a moment before joining her in the living room.

  “Jennette, marvelous party! Thanks so much for letting me barge in.” Nikki gathered up her things and Jen walked her to the door asking casually, “What were you and David talking about for so long?”

  “Oh, he talked construction until I was simply bored to tears, but I had to be polite, of course, and pretend I was interested. How can you stand all that mumbo-jumbo day in and day out? Thanks for a lovely evening.”

  Jen closed the door behind her with a sigh. She now knew how Nikki felt about David – but not how David felt about Nikki.

  * * *

  The sun was high and the sparkling blue water warm in the pool. All four children were jumping, diving, splashing and hollering when Jen came out onto the back terrace carrying two sodas. She walked through the garden to her chair beside Danni. Tony had stopped by and was in the pool splashing and hollering but Danni had a towel wrapped down over her ears.

  “He’s the biggest kid here,” she said with a laugh, “and he is simply encouraging them to make as much noise as they possibly can.”

  “Come out from under there and drink your drink. You know very well that if your kids weren’t being loud and boisterous, you’d reach for aspirin and a thermometer.”

  Danni threw the towel aside to hold the cold can against her cheek. “You’re right. A mother’s lot is not a happy one.”

  “Said she, with abject apologies to Gilbert and Sullivan.” Jen was grinning at her. “Drink your drink.”

  They sat for a while watching the game of keep-away in the pool. Anna was on Trey’s shoulders, Beth up on Tony’s and Dan was trying to jump for the beach ball that the girls were batting back and forth. Dan made a wild leap, knocking Trey off balance. Tony grabbed for Anna, lost his footing and all five went down laughing as the ball rode the tidal wave to the other end of the pool.

  Jen noticed that the court was empty. “I thought the men were going to play tennis today.”

  “They’ll be out as soon as David gets off the phone.”

  “One of these days, I’m going to put every phone in the house in a box and hide the box in the woods for at least a weekend.”

  “Don’t try it,” Danni warned. “I did something like that to Roger once and it just happened to be a day when his boss tried to reach him at home.”

  “But David’s his own boss.”

  “Doesn’t matter. Take away his connection to the world, you’ll be in the doghouse, for sure. And speaking of dogs, mine have been bullying Mugsy.”

  “Mugsy?”

  Danni laughed. “David said that Mr. Mugs will be fine when he gets bigger, but couldn’t they think of a name more suited to a puppy, so the kids came up with Mugsy.”

  “Well it makes him sound like an over-the-hill prizefighter but if Anna’s happy, so am I. And I’m not worried about any bullying. He’ll soon discover that this is his territory so the next time your dogs are here, the shoe will be on the other paw.”

  The men came around the curved terrace carrying their rackets and sports bags. Jen saw that Tony and the kids had quieted down and were lined up hanging onto the edge of the pool. She watched a grinning Dan nudge his brother, but Trey shushed him.

  Danni’s voice was simply innocence itself as she pointed. “Sweetheart, I brought
your bag out for you. David, I hope you have enough tennis balls to play with because I’m afraid I forgot to pack any.”

  Roger glanced at her. “What do you mean? I know I’ve got two, and I put three new cans in here myself.” Sitting on his heels to unzip his bag, he reached in, jerked with surprise, and the look on his face was priceless as all eleven tennis balls came out in one glued-together bumpy yellow mass. The kids swarmed out of the pool, whooping with delight, and ran across the concrete, dripping water all over Roger, his bag and their prank. Danni smirked at him with satisfaction.

  “Gotcha!”

  Roger stood to smile down at his family, then shaking his head, he looked over at David. “If you have any extra, may I please use them? It seems I have far fewer than I thought.”

  Trey said, “Well, you do have one.”

  “But it’s a little big,” added Dan.

  “And kind of heavy, Daddy.” Beth finished.

  Roger turned to Anna. “What do you think?”

  She stared at it for a moment, then looked up at him and said very seriously, “I don’t think it will bounce, Uncle Roger.”

  Roger’s attempt at dignity was done. He threw back his head and laughed along with everyone else.

  Danni was still chuckling when the men had finally walked on to the court and the kids were back in the pool with Tony.

  “You had to have been in on it,” Jen smiled.

  “In on it? I thought of it, last night, and got the kids up early this morning so the glue would have time to dry. They were giggling so much at breakfast that I was sure he’d be suspecting something.”

  “I wondered what the big secret was, but he was too busy talking with David to notice. It was a good prank.”

  Danni nodded. “We only have one rule, and Roger made it himself. We can’t pull anything where someone could get hurt. It’s usually the kids and I against him so I have veto power over any of their wilder ideas.”

  Jen was watching across the pool as the tennis match began – David and Brad against Rick and Roger. Both David and Brad were wearing pressed white shirts and shorts. Roger’s outfit was also neat, but he had chosen navy shorts with a light blue shirt. Rick, however, had pulled his shirt off and was playing in cut-off jeans. His forehand was deadly, but his backhand erratic and Brad and David hit to that backhand as often as they could, moving as a team that had clearly played together often and well. Roger’s steady game saved the shot more than once.

  “Rick and David are cousins but so different,” she said. “What’s Rick’s brother like?”

  “Rob? Serious, intense, reserved. We’ve often joked that he and I must have been switched at birth because he is much more like David than I am.”

  “And you resemble Rick in so many ways.”

  “That’s true. You’ll get the chance to meet Rob, I mean see him again,” she smiled, “when he comes home for the board meeting, but Rick has his power of attorney if he can’t get back in time.”

  “A power of attorney … yes. That’s a good idea.”

  “It’s a limited one but it gives Rick the legal right to sign for him or to vote on his behalf on issues relating to Kenting Industries. Most of the time, the two of them have discussed the decisions in advance but a few times, things have come up unexpectedly and Rick has had to vote on the basis of how he thinks Rob would have voted himself. One time, Rick had to vote nay for himself and aye for Rob. I think David was more pleased about that vote than any other.”

  “There is a certain level of competition between them.” She was watching as a quick exchange of shots ended with an overhand slam from Rick that bounced and flew past David just out of his reach. Roger answered Rick’s elated grin with a thumbs-up and from the stiff set of David’s shoulders, Jen knew he had to be scowling.

  Tony left after lunch and Danni, Roger and the kids not long after that. With Anna down for a much-needed nap, Jen walked out to the parking area by the garage where Luke was washing one of the cars.

  “Luke, I want to thank you again for helping me surprise Anna with Mugsy.”

  “It was fun. He’s a cute little thing, that’s for sure.”

  They stood for a few minutes talking.

  “And it was a wonderful party. She’s so happy to have a dog of her own.”

  Luke smiled. “I’m always glad to help, ma’am.”

  Jen spent several hours working in her office, made a few phone calls, then climbed the hill to skirt the remains of the cabin and move upward through the trees. Rick had said that the path along the saddle followed the tree line behind the house but before she reached it, she came upon a little stream that angled down across the hillside.

  “It must end at the pond, but where does it start? At least this is one question that I can find an answer for.”

  She walked along the bank until well above the garage and a distance beyond it, the stream ended, or rather began, at the tiny pool of an underground spring. Mystery solved, she stepped around it and continued up to the path thinking that without the rains they’d been having this season, the creek wouldn’t be much of a stream.

  When she reached the studio, she saw a man sitting on the bench, his motorcycle helmet perched on his knee. She sat beside him. “Did anyone see you?”

  “No, I found a way around the wall, so I didn’t have to walk up. My bike’s at the overlook.”

  She reached behind her, under her sweater, and pulled a long envelope from the waistband of her slacks. “Here, put this away for now and let me explain.”

  They talked for almost half an hour and when they’d finished and he had buckled the helmet strap under his chin, she walked with him back to the head of the trail.

  “I like your new nose,” he said.

  “Thanks, Jake. Is it as good as the old one?”

  “From what I saw of the broken one, better.”

  “You know, it never occurred to me how hard it would be to fake amnesia. I’m forever catching myself just before I put my foot into it. I keep forgetting to forget.”

  “You’re a far better actress than that and you’ve got them eating out of your hand.”

  “I certainly hope you’re right. I don’t think anyone suspects and as long as I can keep pretending, if I can see it through … there’s everything to gain.”

  “I can’t get used to thinking of you as Jennette. You’re just Jen to me and still as crazy as ever.”

  “I may be Jen to you and to myself, but I’ll be Jennette Colson when I sign those papers, so don’t forget what we talked about.”

  “‘I gotta go. It’s a dangerous game you’re playing so be careful.”

  “I will,” she nodded and kissed what she could see of his chin beneath the visor. As he started down the trail, she called after him. “Tell my sister to take care of herself. She has to get well for the baby’s sake.”

  He grinned and waved. “Don’t you worry. Mom will stay with her.”

  The sound of his cycle was fading in the distance as she started back to the house. With a little luck and a lot of cautious work, they’d succeed. It was a dangerous game.

  But she hadn’t taken more than ten steps when Rick walked out of the shadows, grabbed her by the arm and shook her. “You liar, you little liar! Just who the hell are you?”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Rick, what are you talking about? Let go.” She tried to pull her arm away. “You’re hurting me.”

  “I’ll do worse than that if you don’t tell me who you are.”

  “Don’t be silly! You know who I am. I’m Jennette Col–” But he cut her off with a harsh laugh.

  “Nice try but it won’t wash. Jennette doesn’t have a sister. Her sister was killed with their parents in a plane crash when Jennette was a teenager.”

  Jen stood very still, her mind a blur. “How much did you hear?”

  “I heard enough to know that you’re not Jennette. I heard enough to know that you’re in it for whatever you can get. And I saw enough to know that yo
u’re pretty chummy with that Jake guy in the helmet. Now start talking.”

  Jen hesitated. Rick had been in Santa Barbara near the boat. She couldn’t trust him entirely, but she wanted very much to confide in him. And trust aside, she needed help. She couldn’t tell him all of it, but she had to tell him some of it. Somehow, she had to convince him to keep her secret.

  “All right,” she said. “I’ll tell you. Just let me go.” She saw his skeptical look and added, “I won’t run away if that’s what you’re thinking. It’s too late for that. I’ll tell you but it’s a long story and it’s complicated so we might as well get comfortable.” She pointed down the path. “Please?”

  Rick eyed her angrily, then dropped his hand from her arm but stayed within reach. They walked in silence back around the curve to sit on the bench. “All right, I’m listening. Who are you?”

  She sighed. “My name is Jenet Croft. Well, actually, it’s Janet, but I’ve called myself Jenet ever since I saw Jennette Colson in Regatta when it first came out. She looked so much like me and what an actress! I’d always wanted to be an actress – still do, I guess – but I knew right then and there that I wouldn’t ever be in her class. She was fantastic. I went out and found a magazine photo of her, then I went home, looked at my face in the mirror and compared it with the picture. My nose was different, but the shape of my face was almost the same, just a bit thinner. I had the same color hair and the same eyes, even the freckles. My teeth were crooked though. And I thought my mouth was wider but not so you could really tell. Of course, she was a little older and much more sophisticated, but I didn’t care.”

  She got up from the bench to sit cross-legged on the grass. “I decided that it would be fun and wouldn’t hurt anybody if I played it up a little. So, I got my hair cut in a pageboy and bought a cape to wear and went and took out a loan and got braces. Then I saw Regatta about ten times, watching her move and listening to her voice. And I read absolutely everything I could find about her. My friends thought I was nuts when I wanted them to call me Jenet or Jen, but all my friends are a bit weird themselves. It was okay with them and it’s been so many years now that Jen just seems natural.”