Summer by the Lake

by Mandy Baggot

  ‘Do you think Gerry from maintenance came here with Leonora?’ Robyn asked him, taking hold of his hand.

  ‘I know they did,’ he replied, smiling at her.

  ‘Well, we’re driving the car, we’d better not let her memory down. Come on,’ Robyn said.

  She pulled Cole down off the bar stool and led him into the middle of the dance floor.

  ‘Robyn, I don’t dance. What are they all doing?’ Cole exclaimed, looking at the people around them.

  ‘Line dancing. Come on, try it. Just copy everyone else,’ Robyn urged as she put her thumbs into the pockets of her jeans and mimicked the other dancers.

  ‘You tell any of the team about this, I mean any of them, you’re on cooking duty for a month and that doesn’t include barbecue,’ Cole said as he tried to step in time.

  ‘You think they don’t dance? You wait until the roadhouse reopens, you need to practice,’ Robyn shouted over the music to him.

  ‘In Chicago we call this freestyle,’ Cole replied, taking her hand and spinning her around.

  *

  ‘Wait, don’t get out yet,’ Cole said as he turned off Leonora’s engine.

  They’d arrived home, fifty dollars and two turkeys better off and high on the excitement of the night.

  ‘You want me to sing another Reba McEntire number?’

  ‘I really don’t.’

  ‘You know, I know you weren’t keen on the dancing but at the end there, you really had something going on,’ Robyn said, smiling at him.

  ‘I bought you something,’ Cole said, getting the box out of his jeans.

  He held it out to her and she took it.

  ‘I saw it. The jeweller said there isn’t another one like it. I had to get it,’ Cole told her nervously.

  Robyn opened the box to reveal a white gold and diamond ring. The front of it was shaped into a leaping panther, encrusted in diamonds. It was the most unusual and beautiful ring she had ever seen.

  ‘Cole,’ Robyn said, tears pricking her eyes as she took the ring out of its box and held it in her hand.

  ‘I know how much the team means to you. I know how much you love this town, and I also know how much courage it must have taken you to get on that plane and come back. But I’m so glad you did or we would never have met,’ Cole told her.

  ‘It’s so beautiful,’ Robyn said, running her fingers over the panther’s jewels.

  ‘I know you don’t want to tell anyone yet, but let me put it on, just for now,’ Cole said, taking the ring and holding her hand.

  He slid it onto the ring finger of Robyn’s left hand and held it in his.

  ‘Is it too tight? The guy in the store said we could get it sized,’ Cole said.

  ‘It’s perfect Cole. Come on, get out,’ Robyn ordered, squeezing his hand and then pulling the handle of the car door.

  ‘I was going to put her in the garage,’ Cole said, unmoving.

  ‘Get out, Ryan, get up here with me,’ Robyn called, approaching Leonora’s hood.

  Cole watched as Robyn stepped up onto the hood and hauled herself up onto the roof of the vehicle.

  ‘Hey! Are you crazy?’ he yelled, hurrying out from behind the wheel.

  She laid along the length of the roof, her arms folded behind her head, looking up at the sky. She took a deep breath and held it in, soaking up the still of the night.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Cole asked when he got out of the car.

  ‘Are you coming or are you gonna make me pull your ass up here?’

  He heaved himself up onto the hood and followed her path up to the roof of the Mustang, sliding himself alongside her and maneuvering until he was lying on his back.

  ‘What are we looking at?’ he asked in barely more than a whisper.

  ‘I had a pony once. She was named Mitzy. She had an aversion to anything that was good for her and barely moved above a trot. But when we rode out, I was Reba McEntire in my jeans and my Stetson, singing at the top of my voice and not caring who heard or how bad it was. I loved that horse, she gave me somewhere to escape to when Mom and Dad’s fighting got to be too much,’ Robyn said.

  Her eyes were still on the sky and the memory from long ago was jabbing at her. She felt Cole take a deep breath beside her and she let the words come out.

  ‘She died. Got colic and it was too bad to do anything,’ Robyn stated.

  Cole found her hand and squeezed it in his as she continued.

  ‘I cried for a week, all day and all night. Nothing anyone said could make it better. Until Old Man Harrison came round. He bought a new halter, a whole bag of Hershey’s Kisses, and he told me to get my lazy ass out of bed. He got me riding his new pony, said he needed someone to break her in, and then we ate the chocolate. By the time we’d eaten all the chocolate and named the pony, it was dark and he’d looked up at the sky and told me to pick out the brightest one. I can tell you, for an eight-year-old kid, that took a long time, but I finally settled on it. He said, That’s Mitzy and she’ll be there, every time you look up. He was a crazy old man,’ Robyn said, swallowing a lump in her throat.

  ‘So, where is she? Show me,’ Cole said, looking skywards again.

  ‘She’s right there, and that one, to the left, that’s the star I picked for Old Man Harrison the night Sarah told me he’d died,’ Robyn admitted, pointing to a bright star.

  Cole gave her hand another reassuring squeeze, teasing the engagement ring against her little finger.

  ‘I thought we could choose one for your dad,’ Robyn stated, looking to Cole.

  She saw the tears form in his eyes and he looked away from her, up to the inky blanket above, filled with twinkling stars that all looked as bright as each other.

  ‘My dad loved horses. Do you think we can put him next to Mitzy?’ Cole asked.

  ‘Sure. Look, she’s nuzzling his hand right now.’

  Thirty-Two

  ‘Sarah, this is the fourth voicemail I’ve left for you. Where are you? What’s going on? Please call me,’ Robyn shouted into her phone.

  Today she was meeting Cole’s mother and she’d been panicking about it all morning. Apart from Sarah being completely unresponsive to her calls, Nancy and Milo were fighting. She knew it was because Nancy was anxious about Eddie’s operation, and Robyn had given her the task of making lunch for Mrs Ryan to keep her mind off it. Leaving them unattended at the roadhouse would go one of two ways. She’d either go back to find them bonding over the pool table or Milo would be locked up in the cellar. At the moment, it was the least of her concerns.

  She carefully took the chicken stew out of Leonora and hurried up the path to the front door. Immediately she noticed someone sitting on the doorstep. It was Mickey. He was dressed in overalls and he looked dishevelled, like he hadn’t slept or showered. He had a bottle of lager in his hand.

  ‘Mickey. What are you doing here?’ Robyn asked, stopping in front of him.

  ‘Is Sarah here? I rang the bell, I knocked on the door and I went round back, but there was no sign. I tried to call you, but it kept going to voicemail,’ Mickey stuttered, standing up.

  ‘She isn’t here. I’ve been trying to call her. What’s happened? You look terrible,’ Robyn remarked.

  ‘She left me,’ Mickey stated, tears welling up in his eyes.

  ‘What? But I thought Cole told you what to do. You were supposed to propose to her,’ Robyn exclaimed, putting her key in the door and pushing it open.

  ‘I was gonna, but when I got home, she was packing her stuff.’

  ‘Well, why didn’t you stop her? You should have taken her clothes back out of the case, put them back in the closet and got down on one knee,’ Robyn said, entering the alarm code to stop the beeping.

  ‘She wouldn’t even talk to me. She was crying, and I asked her what was wrong and she just said nothing. Not one word,’ Mickey explained as tears spilled from his eyes.

  ‘And she just left? Didn’t she even tell you where she was going? When did this happen?’ Robyn wanted to k
now.

  She took the container of stew out of the bag and placed it on the side.

  ‘Last night.’

  ‘Last night! And she isn’t at work? Have you called everyone we know?’

  ‘I called her work. I called Diane from her work. I called Brad and Henrik this morning. I didn’t call anyone last night because I thought she’d be here with you, and I wanted to give her some space,’ Mickey tried to explain.

  ‘Okay, right, well, we’re just gonna have to wait until she surfaces,’ Robyn said, looking out of the window and noticing Cole’s car pull into the drive.

  ‘But where is she? Do you think she’s left town?’ Mickey asked.

  ‘No, she won’t have done that,’ Robyn said, distracted.

  She watched as Cole got out of the car and went to open the passenger door.

  ‘I just want a chance to say the right thing. I love her, Robyn, and yeah, maybe I am scared of getting married. But if I’d known how much she really wanted to do it then…’ Mickey wiped his nose with the sleeve of his overalls.

  ‘Look, Mickey, I’ll call Pam. I’ll call everyone else I can think of, and if I find her, I will let you know. You have to go now. Cole’s brought home an important client and I have to do lunch,’ Robyn said quickly, watching as a small, dark-haired lady got out of the car.

  ‘You promise you’ll call me?’ Mickey asked, clutching his beer bottle to his chest like it was a life preserver.

  ‘Yes, I promise. Now give me that and get back to work. If you’re gonna give Sarah this wedding, you’re gonna need every penny you can get,’ Robyn said, snatching the bottle from him and dropping it into the recycling bin.

  ‘You don’t think it’s too late? You think she’ll give me another chance?’ Mickey asked as Robyn hastily shooed him to the door.

  ‘Let’s hope so,’ Robyn said, smiling at Cole as he approached with his mother.

  ‘Hey, Cole. Afternoon, ma’am,’ Mickey greeted in a lackluster voice as he walked past them.

  ‘Is everything okay, man?’ Cole asked.

  ‘Yeah, great. Sarah’s left me and now she’s missing. I’d better go… Brad said he’d check the local hotels,’ Mickey said, waving a hand as he headed back up the drive.

  Robyn smiled at Cole’s mother as they approached the door. She was petite and pretty with olive-colored skin and was wearing a turquoise blue dress that skirted her ankles.

  ‘Mom, this is Robyn. Robyn, this is Martha, my mom,’ Cole introduced.

  ‘It’s so nice to meet you. Cole talks about you all the time. How was your flight? Did they give you the Bombay mix or the pretzels? I prefer the pretzels, they don’t stick in your teeth or repeat on you so much,’ Robyn babbled as she smiled at Martha.

  ‘Unfortunately, we had the Bombay mix, but I didn’t actually eat any,’ Martha informed her with a smile of amusement.

  ‘Robyn eats more than me, Mom,’ Cole informed her as he led the way into the house.

  ‘He’s exaggerating. We went out for dinner last night and Cole didn’t manage to finish his dessert. He’s sore about that,’ Robyn told her.

  ‘I stopped before I felt sick, the way I’ve been raised. And it was the right thing to do.’

  ‘Martha, would you like coffee or something cold? We have apple juice,’ Robyn offered.

  ‘We have?’ Cole asked.

  ‘Yes, we have… in the healthy section of the refrigerator.’

  ‘We have a healthy section?’

  ‘We do now.’

  ‘A coffee would be good,’ Martha accepted, her attention darting between them.

  ‘Great! Well, I’ll make some coffee and Cole can show you around the house. Excuse the mess, I only managed to vacuum once this morning. Usually, when I’m not managing my roadhouse, I do it twice a day, every day,’ Robyn said happily.

  Cole let out a snort of laughter.

  ‘Cole, could you take up the freshly laundered sheets and pop them in the closet,’ Robyn said, and she swung round, a pile of linen in her hands.

  ‘I think I’ve walked into the wrong house,’ Cole remarked.

  ‘He’s making a joke. Usually wash day is tomorrow, but my father’s having an operation and I want to be at the hospital,’ Robyn said quickly.

  ‘I see,’ Martha replied, smiling at Robyn kindly.

  ‘She’s trying to make a good impression,’ Cole whispered to his mom.

  ‘I can see that,’ Martha replied.

  *

  ‘So, how is work going here?’ Martha asked Cole.

  He had given her the grand tour of the house and now they were sitting at the dining table enjoying Nancy’s homemade chicken stew and cornbread.

  ‘Good. It’s a good team. They’re very dedicated and enthusiastic,’ Cole said.

  ‘More enthusiastic than your team in Chicago?’ Martha asked.

  ‘I don’t know, things are different here, slower paced. It’s the Michigan way, isn’t that right, Robyn?’ Cole said, grinning at her.

  ‘That’s right,’ Robyn answered brightly.

  ‘Have you made any more progress with your theory?’ Martha asked him.

  ‘I thought we were going to have a breakthrough the other day. Things looked good, the science said it should work, but it didn’t,’ Cole told her.

  ‘Why not?’ Martha asked.

  ‘I haven’t figured that one out yet. But I will,’ Cole assured her.

  ‘I don’t really know exactly what he does all day, but it sounds very important,’ Robyn said, taking some more bread.

  ‘Doesn’t she know?’ Martha asked, looking at Cole in horror.

  ‘Mom, it isn’t important,’ Cole said dismissively.

  ‘Cole! How can you say that?’ Martha exclaimed.

  ‘Because my life here isn’t just about the job, that’s why. There is more to me than work, Mom.’

  ‘Robyn, Cole is the closest anyone’s been to creating a revolutionary cancer drug. He’s a formula away—a formula,’ Martha said firmly.

  ‘It’s more than a formula, Mom. It’s a long process and there are a number of factors to take into consideration,’ Cole told her. ‘And that isn’t all I do. The vaccines I’m working with right now are all gonna save many lives.’

  ‘I didn’t realize. I should have realized,’ Robyn said, swallowing a feeling of stupidity. ‘You told me when we first met. But when you said it I thought you meant it was… a wish… or like every scientist’s dream… not a real possibility.’ She felt so stupid.

  ‘What Cole’s going to achieve is nothing short of miraculous,’ Martha continued.

  ‘Mom, don’t do this. You always do this and it’s embarrassing,’ Cole said, laying his napkin down on the table and toying with his water glass.

  ‘You should be proud of what you do.’

  ‘I am proud of what I do, but it isn’t everything.’

  ‘Did you know Cole’s my best player on the ice hockey team?’ Robyn asked.

  ‘I hardly think ice hockey’s as relevant to the world as finding a cure for cancer,’ Martha mocked.

  ‘Here in Portage, we take ice hockey very seriously. My Uncle Bob always says hockey isn’t life and death—it’s far more important than that. I’ve never really known whether he’s serious or not,’ she replied with a smile

  ‘What a ridiculous statement to make. I can’t believe you don’t discuss your work with your girlfriend. Is she your girlfriend? Because you haven’t really said,’ Martha said, wiping her mouth with the napkin and looking at Cole.

  ‘Why don’t I get dessert?’ Robyn offered, standing up.

  ‘Mom, Robyn and I are getting married,’ Cole told her bluntly.

  Robyn sat back down and stared at her half-eaten bowl of chicken stew. Her ring was in the pocket of her jeans and she slipped her fingers inside to touch it.

  ‘Getting married,’ Martha repeated, pursing her lips and putting down her soup spoon.

  ‘Yes, October second. Can you come?’ Cole asked her.

/>   ‘Cole, is this some sort of joke?’

  ‘No. I know we haven’t known each other very long, but we know it’s what we want. When we met, we just gelled and—’

  ‘Gelled,’ Martha said as if the very word was too ugly for her mouth.

  ‘We connected… like you and Dad did when you first met. Remember when you first met each other, under the cherry blossom, both holding a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird. You’ve told me that story so many times. You said you knew right then that there would be no one else. He was your Mr Right and you were right for him. That’s how I feel about Robyn,’ Cole said.

  ‘Cole, I know how scarred you feel from what Bryn and Veronica did to you, but this isn’t the way to make things better. We’ve been there with you making inappropriate decisions before,’ Martha reminded him.

  ‘This has nothing to do with Bryn and Veronica—or Dad. It has nothing to do with any of them. It has to do with me and Robyn and how we feel about each other,’ Cole insisted.

  ‘I know they hurt you, more than you will ever let on, but jumping feet first into a relationship won’t lessen the pain. It’s something that will ease with time, moving on too quickly will only make things worse,’ Martha said.

  ‘Mom, you’re not listening to me. I didn’t love Veronica. When she did what she did with Bryn, I wasn’t hurt because she was the love of my life, I was hurt because neither of them could tell me how they felt. They went behind my back instead of being honest with me. It was the lies and the deceit, not the depth of my feelings. Robyn and I, we tell each other everything, good and bad. The way I feel about her… it’s much more than anything I’ve ever felt before,’ Cole tried to explain.

  Robyn blinked back tears as he spoke. The truth hit her full force. He loved her. He really loved her, just how she was. Flawed, crazy and a little bit damaged.

  ‘I don’t want you to do something now that you might regret a little while down the line,’ Martha said.

  ‘Is that what your mom said to you when you told her about Dad?’ Cole asked.

  ‘Yes,’ Martha said with a laugh as she wiped at her eyes with her fingers.

  ‘Please, come to the wedding, Mom. You can stay here, we’re getting married by the lake. It’s going to be a special day,’ Cole said, taking her hand.