“Things happen,” he said.
“Other women happen.” She felt her cheeks heating. “Sorry. I guess I’m still working through things.”
“I guess that’s all right,” he said, giving her a sympathetic nod.
Tyrella was putting food on the table now, and the aroma of chicken wafted over to Jenna. “That smells great,” she said, drifting over to the table. Paul, too, followed his nose, and smiled appreciatively at the large platter. A huge bowl of macaroni salad enhanced with crab and shrimp followed, along with French bread, green beans and a spinach salad.
“This was Leroy’s favorite Sunday dinner,” Tyrella told everyone after she’d had Paul say grace and the food had been passed around. “The only thing he liked better than having company was eating.”
“It helps when you’re married to a good cook,” Paul said to her.
She pointed a chicken leg at him. “You need to find yourself a good cook.” Subtle. Very subtle.
They had just started their pie when he got a call. “I’d better take this,” he said after checking his phone’s caller ID. “It’s Janice Walters.”
“Of course. Her mother’s in the hospital, not doing well,” Tyrella explained as Paul left the table, phone to his ear.
“He seems like a nice young man,” Aunt Edie said.
“He is,” Tyrella assured her, and they both looked expectantly at Jenna.
She smiled and kept her mouth shut. Except to insert more key lime pie.
“This is really good,” Sabrina said.
“It’s real easy to make,” Tyrella said. “I’ll give you all the recipe.”
Paul was off the phone now. “Sorry, I’m going to have to leave. Janice’s mom just passed, and I need to get to the Aberdeen hospital.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” said Tyrella. “You want me to call around and start arranging for meals?”
“That would be great. Good to meet you all,” he said, not singling Jenna out in any way.
Which was fine with her. She didn’t need to add any more men to her collection.
The women passed the rest of the afternoon teaching Sabrina how to play Triominos, and she was in a happy mood when they finally left. And that made Jenna happy.
Sabrina got even happier when they arrived home and Aunt Edie proposed a movie marathon. “I think every girl should get to watch the Alfred Hitchcock classics,” Aunt Edie said, pulling out an old video cassette of Rear Window. “This movie had me on the edge of my seat when I first watched it. But that was nothing compared to The Birds.”
“A movie about birds?” Sabrina asked dubiously.
“A horror movie about birds.”
Horror movie, the magic words. “Let’s watch that one!” Sabrina said.
“Oh, I don’t know if your mother would want you watching that,” Aunt Edie said, looking to Jenna.
“Her father’s let her watch worse, believe me,” Jenna said.
“Well, all right, then,” Aunt Edie said, digging around in the cabinet where she kept her outdated technology. “That will be our encore movie. You know, I have almost every movie Alfred Hitchcock ever did. He was a genius.”
They settled in with popcorn and root beer and watched Jimmy Stewart spy on his neighbors. “That was pretty good,” Sabrina said when it was done. “Grace Kelly sure was pretty.”
“No prettier than your own lovely mother,” Aunt Edie said. “She could have been a movie star.”
“The one who could have done that was Celeste. She was the ham,” said Jenna.
“You could totally have been a movie star, Mom,” Sabrina said, and Jenna was touched by the compliment.
They were about to move on to the invasion of the birds and Jenna was in the kitchen in search of a pop refill when Courtney called the house, looking for her.
“You up for going to the Drunken Sailor for some line dancing?” she asked.
“Oh, I don’t know,” said Jenna. “I’m not too into country music.” Although the idea of line dancing appealed to her.
“But do you like to dance?”
“Who doesn’t like to dance?” Jenna replied.
“If you have a chance to go out, don’t feel you have to stay here with us,” said Aunt Edie, who’d come to the kitchen in search of cookies for the next movie course.
“They have a lesson at seven where they teach you a couple of dances before it starts,” Courtney said. “And besides, unless you’re into playing pool this is about as good as the nightlife down here gets.”
Why not? Jenna put on some jeans and a pair of flats and slipped away, leaving Aunt Edie and Sabrina to watch the birds peck out people’s eyes. At least after that Sabrina couldn’t complain about not getting to watch any horror films.
The Drunken Sailor had a good crowd of landlubbers perched on bar stools, playing darts or pool and hanging out at the edge of the small dance floor. In fact, it looked like just about every single person in town under the age of fifty was there, including Brody, who sauntered over to say hi as soon as he caught sight of her.
He was wearing jeans and a black T-shirt that showed off well-toned pecs and biceps. Brody Green sauntered well.
Not that she was interested. It was just an observation.
“I see you decided to give line dancing a try,” he said.
“Aunt Edie and Sabrina are watching The Birds. I decided this was better for my psyche. I want to be able to walk on the beach without fearing a seagull attack.”
“They will dive-bomb you when they’re nesting,” he warned.
“Just so they don’t peck out my eyes. Anyway, nothing’s going to happen to me in here.”
“Sprained ankle,” he teased.
“You going to risk spraining your ankle?”
“Not me. I’m here to watch.” He held up a bottle of Hale’s ale. “And drink.”
“You should try it, Brody,” Courtney said. “I bet you’d be great.”
“That’s okay. I’d rather watch you girls, anyway,” he said with a grin.
More people were drifting over to the dance floor, including one of the cops who’d come to rescue Jenna from her faux burglar. He came over to say hi to Jenna.
“You know Vic?” Courtney asked, looking from one to another.
“Not really,” he said. “Victor King.”
“King of my heart,” teased Courtney, making him blush. “So how do you guys know each other?”
“I thought we had a burglar. He came to check it out,” Jenna explained. “So embarrassing,” she said with a shake of her head. “It turned out to be Aunt Edie’s handyman, Pete. He’d sneaked into the house to make himself a sandwich.”
Courtney snickered. “Still, you’d rather have that than the real thing. Not that we have that many burglars down here,” she quickly added.
“Nope,” Vic said. “It gets a little boring.”
“I’d rather have you bored than me scared,” Courtney told him.
Jenna caught sight of Austin Banks in the corner, talking with a man in his fifties who had long hair, a beard and a beer belly. He was setting up their sound system for the night.
“If you haven’t met her yet, that’s Austin Banks,” Courtney explained. “Her husband, Roy, runs the music for us.”
A moment later Austin was taking the floor, calling, “Come on, y’all. Let’s get goin’.”
The dancers began to form lines in back of her and Jenna followed Courtney onto the floor and placed herself next to her. Vic placed himself next to Jenna.
Austin pointed at her. “Well, you came out! Good for you. Hey, ya’ll, this is Jenna Jones. She’s runnin’ the Driftwood Inn now.”
Several women murmured hello, and a couple of men looked her way eagerly.
“I got a new dance to teach you tonight. It’s called the Twisted Pony.”
>
More like twisted feet, Jenna thought as she tried to keep up with the various step patterns.
“And a grapevine and a hitch,” Austin said, and demonstrated.
“I thought you said this was easy,” Jenna said to Courtney.
“You’ll catch on,” Courtney assured her.
They went through the whole song without music and then, just as Jenna thought she had the steps down, Austin called to her husband, “Okay, Roy, give us some music,” and everything went into fast motion.
Half the time Jenna found herself either doing the wrong step or facing the wrong way.
Great. And she’d thought it would be fun to do this? She hated looking stupid and she could feel her cheeks sizzling.
But nobody seemed to care. A couple of times Vic caught her by the shoulders and gently turned her the right direction. “You’ll catch on,” he said after the dance ended. Then he called to Austin. “Hey, Austin, how about something easy for the newcomer?”
“Sure,” Austin said.
“Let’s do ‘Footloose,’” somebody called.
A fast song? “Oh, boy,” Jenna said under her breath.
“No, let’s give her something real easy,” said Vic.
Austin nodded. “We’ll do the Electric Slide.”
“That old song?” groaned a twentysomething redhead.
“Just to get her started. Then we’ll do ‘Footloose’ and ‘Drunken Dreams.’”
Jenna was beginning to think she needed a drink.
But the Electric Slide turned out to be easy, and it gave her enough confidence to stick around for another dance. Pretty soon she was kicking and flicking with the best of them.
“Okay, that is fun,” she said to Courtney as they went to the bar to order soft drinks.
“You looked good out there,” Brody told her as they joined him.
“You should come dance with us, you big chicken,” she teased.
“Maybe next time.”
“Right. That’s what he says every Sunday night,” Courtney said.
Jenna laughed, took a sip of her drink and looked around, checking out the rest of the patrons. That was when she saw Seth Waters. He was standing at a pool table in the corner, leaning on his pool cue and watching a blonde in tight jeans and a low-cut top take a shot.
It looked like Seth Waters was making new friends. Well, good for him.
Jenna left after a couple more dances. Nothing to do with Seth, of course. She had to get up in the morning.
* * *
Sabrina was still in a good mood the next morning. Jenna came in from a beach walk to find her in the kitchen, helping Aunt Edie make oatmeal muffins. Her expression wasn’t quite so sunny when Jenna mentioned their painting job. Obviously, painting didn’t hold the same excitement as walking around on a roof.
It only took one word to motivate her: hair.
“Okay,” she said with a sigh.
Pete was no more excited than Sabrina, and, as they worked, he groaned every time he bent to dip his roller in the paint tray. They were covering the walls a light brown shade, aptly named Sandy Beach. She only hoped the tarp would keep the roof dry enough to save them from getting a river running down her sandy beach wall.
Finally, by noon, Pete was done groaning. He was done. Period. “That’s enough for one day,” he informed Jenna.
“Can I quit, too, Mom?” Sabrina asked.
“Yes. You worked hard. Good job,” Jenna said, making her smile. “How about you go help Aunt Edie make lunch? Bring me back a tuna sandwich.”
Sabrina nodded and was gone. Then it was just Jenna and her paint roller, singing “Stand by You” along with Rachel Platten, who was serenading her from her iPad. The song had such a great beat, before she knew it she was dancing as well as singing.
Her performance ended to applause, and she whirled around to see Seth Waters leaning against the door. “You missed your calling.”
She was blushing; she knew it. “You have a way of sneaking up on people. You know that?”
He smiled and pushed away from the door. “All your helpers on lunch break?”
“No, done for the day.”
“Not you, though, huh?”
“It has to get finished.”
At that moment, Sabrina returned with a sandwich on paper plate and a glass of lavender lemonade.
“Do you want a sandwich?” Jenna offered. The calico cat that Jenna had seen hanging around before approached, lured by the smell of tuna. She broke off a piece and absently handed it over and the cat took it, dropped it on the ground and hunkered down to enjoy its snack.
Seth wasn’t interested. He shook his head and picked up an abandoned paint roller. “I’m good.”
She’d just bet he was.
“Can I go get an ice cream?” Sabrina asked.
“Yes. But don’t go anywhere else without letting us know where you are. Got it?”
Sabrina nodded vigorously and vanished.
“She seems like a good kid,” Seth said as he began work on the wall opposite Jenna’s.
“She is, for the most part.”
“Reminds me of my little sister,” he said.
“Where does she live?”
“California. Both my sisters are there, and my mom.”
“You wound up a long way from home.”
“Guess so, but so did my brother.”
“How come you didn’t wind up in Tacoma with him?”
“I like the beach.”
She’d buy that. “Me, too,” she said. Still, she didn’t think she’d want to wind up someplace by herself. “So, you don’t know anybody around here?”
He shrugged. “You.”
“I mean anybody else?”
“Nope.”
“You just came here without knowing anyone?”
“I came here because it looked like a good place to start a business.”
“Especially the business you’re starting. Looked like you made a new friend at the Drunken Sailor,” she couldn’t resist adding, and looked out of the corner of her eye to see his reaction.
His smile was downright cocky. “Were you watching me?”
“No,” she insisted, wishing she didn’t blush so easily.
He chuckled. “I was watching you. You looked pretty good out there on the dance floor.”
“How come you weren’t out there?”
“I was later. You and the house peddler had both left by then.”
“We didn’t come together,” she said. Somehow, it seemed important for Seth to know that. “There were plenty of women left to keep you company,” she added, shifting the spotlight back on Seth.
“Yeah,” he agreed, not offering any further information.
She frowned. “I can’t believe there’s no one special in your life.”
“No chance to find someone,” he said.
“Been too busy?”
“Something like that.”
“Well, there seem to be plenty of women around here,” Jenna said casually.
“Are you a matchmaker in your spare time?” he teased.
“All women are matchmakers in their spare time.”
“You’re probably right about that. So, what about you? There’s plenty of guys in this town. Looks like the house peddler’s already found you.”
“We’re just friends.”
He grunted. “The F word.”
“I know, guys hate that. Almost as much as women hate hearing, ‘It didn’t mean a thing.’”
If only Damien had said that to her. But he hadn’t. His affair with Aurora had meant something. Jenna scowled at her Sandy Beach. “Why can’t men be faithful?”
“Some can.”
“You ought to wear badges or something. That way we’d know.”<
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“Love’s a crap shoot,” he said. “Hell, all of life’s a crap shoot.”
Jenna wished he’d say more on that topic. What roll of the dice had affected his life? Who was Seth Waters, really?
Even though they spent three hours together painting, she didn’t learn much more beyond the fact that he liked nachos, thought boy bands were stupid and loved a good cage fight. She tried to pry more information out of him about his family, but failed. Instead, he would turn the table on her, asking about her family.
“I think you know my whole life history now,” she said as they cleaned up the brushes and rollers, “but I hardly know anything about you.”
“My life’s not that interesting,” he said.
Which, she strongly suspected, was a big, fat lie.
What was the story with Seth Waters? “I’ll find out,” she murmured as he drove off in his truck, headed for who knew where. I’ll find out.
Chapter Twelve
To Do:
Paint
Paint
Paint
Try to be a good mother
Tuesday brought more painting, and while Sabrina didn’t complain, she didn’t exactly smile over the prospect.
“Remember, attitude,” Jenna prompted.
“I’m doing it, Mom, that should count for something,” Sabrina said.
Jenna let the pissy tone of voice slide, deciding to blame it on those aliens Nora had talked about at the women’s gathering the Friday before.
Once they got started on the painting, the alien took a rest. Pete was working in the next room, so it gave Jenna and Sabrina time for some mother-daughter visiting. Although the visiting appeared to have a hidden agenda.
“A new boy moved in next door to Marigold,” Sabrina informed Jenna, filling her in on the perfect world of home.
“Lucky her. Is he cute?”
“Yeah.” Said with a tinge of jealousy.
“You’ll meet cute boys down here.”
“I’m never going to meet anybody down here,” said the little prophetess of doom. Then she slid into a new topic. “Marigold’s dad is taking them to a Mariners game.”
Marigold’s dad was very involved with his kids. Marigold’s mommy had chosen more wisely than Sabrina’s mommy.
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