by KG MacGregor
"Ow! You did that on purpose."
"That'll teach you to make fun of my driving." Their banter was familiar. It was exactly like it was twenty-six years ago when Perry had taught his younger cousin to drive the delivery truck. The time spent apart hadn't changed the genuine affection each felt for the other; nor had it taken the edge off their relentless teasing. "You know, they make these with automatic transmissions. I don't see why you had to get the only three-speed on the lot."
"Because it's…more fun to drive," he said defensively. "Who wants a truck that drives itself?"
"Fun to drive? Perry, a Porsche is fun to drive. Hell, even a Volkswagen Beetle is fun to drive. But a furniture delivery truck?"
"Hey, we have to take our pleasures where we find them."
Carly shrugged in defeat. "Can't argue with that. So what are we taking–"
Perry's cell phone interrupted her question and she settled into the drive while he answered it.
"Hello…hi there yourself." His smile gave away the identity of the woman on the other end. "What'd he do?"
Carly tapped his arm and pointed at the upcoming street, eliciting a nod from her cousin.
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"I tell you what let's do instead. I'll get a movie or two and bring it over…No, not for Kevin, for us. No reason we should be punished because he's being a jerk. He can just stay in his room."
This time, Perry tapped Carly on the arm and pointed to the house they were looking for.
"Yeah, hon…I think that's a pretty good idea. We just can't let him think he's in charge, you know?"
Carly backed the truck into the drive, coming to a stop right next to the sidewalk that led to the front door.
"Okay…I'll see you at seven…yeah, KFC sounds good to me." Perry snapped his phone shut, his mouth already watering at the thought of crispy fried chicken.
"What are we delivering?"
"Just a mattress and box springs. I can get it by myself if you want to wait in the truck."
"I can help."
Between the two of them, they had the new bedding in place and the old bedding loaded for disposal in under ten minutes. Now they just needed to make a quick trip out to the landfill.
"So it sounded like your Friday night plans got torpedoed," Carly started. She didn't want to be nosy, but Perry had told her all about Debbie and Kevin so she didn't feel like her cousin would mind.
"Yeah, we were all going to go see that new James Bond flick, but Debbie got in from work and Kevin sassed her when she told him to turn off the video game and finish his homework. So instead, we're going to watch a couple of videos while Mr. Attitude sits in his room."
"Why don't you just go to the movies without him? He's thirteen, right? That's old enough to be home by himself." No way would Carly blow off a date on account of a bratty kid.
"Well…," Perry drew the word out. "Kevin's not a very mature thirteen. And when he's in a mood, believe me, you don't want to leave him there by himself. He's liable to burn the house down, or call China for a couple of hours…I wouldn't put anything past him."
"Still, it's not fair that he ruins your time with Debbie."
"Well, see, that's the thing. He's not going to ruin our night, because we're still going to be together and have fun. If we went out and left him at home, next thing you know, he starts acting up every time he doesn't want to go with us."
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"Won't he just sulk and make your night miserable?"
"He might. But he's going to have a fit when he comes out of his room and his Play Station's not there. I'm going to keep it at my house for a few days until he shapes up."
That made a lot of sense, Carly thought. Kids needed to learn their place…be seen and not heard…speak when spoken to…all that. She hadn't been around children very much, and frankly, couldn't understand the appeal. "That sounds like a plan. You can't let kids have everything they want. Hey, that means you and Debbie are going to get some time together, doesn't it?" The blonde wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.
"Yeah, a little. But we'll probably let him come out and watch the second movie with us."
"Won't that defeat the purpose? I mean, you're supposed to be punishing him, right?"
"Yeah, but you can't just…I don't know…you can't just be tough all the time. He needs to know that even when he screws up, we still care about him."
"Forgive me, but that doesn't make any sense. I don't know how you're ever going to get him to toe the line if you give in to whatever he wants." Carly noted her cousin's questioning look. "'Course, I don't know anything about kids."
"It's not that he gets everything he wants, Carly. But kids have to get the stuff they need, you know? And if me and Debbie are going to have any kind of future at all, then we need to make him feel good about me being around. The last thing I want is for him to feel like he's being sent to his room because me and her want to be alone, or he's gonna resent the heck out of it...you know what I mean?"
Carly nodded in understanding. When did Perry get to be so smart about kids? "Sure."
They pulled into the landfill and deposited the old mattress and box springs. Perry took over the driving for the trip back to the store.
"You know, Per…I think it's pretty cool, this Debbie thing. I mean, it sounds like you must like her an awful lot to work this hard."
"I do, Carly. If things…well, when things settle down with Kevin, and maybe when he gets just a little bit older…I'm gonna…."
"Pop the question?" she asked excitedly. Her cousin blushed so deeply she could see it through his beard. She'd love to see him happy again. He'd been married in his twenties, but it only lasted a couple of years before his wife decided that she needed her mother more than she needed him.
"I really love her."
"Perry, that's great! Now I really can't wait to meet this lady."
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"I tell you what. Why don't we go out to the steak house tomorrow night…all four of us?"
Carly hesitated for just a second, realizing that she had no other commitments. She really did want to meet Debbie, and she wanted a look at what this terror Kevin was like. The steak house would be good, because dinner would only last an hour, two at the most. That would get her out of having to stick around too long in case the kids turned out to be a brat.
"Sure. Let's do it. Why don't I meet you guys there at, say…six-thirty?"
"Good deal. Let me talk to Debbie tonight and I can let you know for sure tomorrow."
Perry cut through the alley to pull up to the back of the store. "I'm going to head on home.
Thanks for your help."
They parked and Perry hopped into his pickup, waving to his cousin as he disappeared down the alley on his way home. She entered Griffin Home Furnishings from the back door and went straight to the office to see if her mom was ready to head home a few minutes early. But the elder Griffin was with a customer. A customer with an achingly familiar voice.
"Which one would you get, Mrs. Griffin? The leather or the fabric?"
"Well, I like the leather one, because a lot of people spill things when they're trying to get used to going up and down. Of course, it's more expensive. But I think your mother would like the leather one more." Nadine looked over her shoulder to see the source of the footsteps. "Carly, look who's here."
Carly wanted to be angry and cold, but the nervous smile on the redhead's face wouldn't let her. Hell, just seeing Justine softened her heart; there wasn't anything Carly could do about it.
"Hey." She ambled over to where they were looking at the automatic lift recliners, the ones Justine had mentioned to her mom the night they'd had dinner in Lexington.
"Finding what you need?"
"I think so. I sort of wish I could find one that would stand her up with a little more force," she snickered.
Carly chuckled knowingly, remembering that Ju
stine and her mom had their issues.
"Better yet, maybe there's one you can control from across the room…one that sits her down and stands her up whenever you want."
"Now you're talking."
Nadine fought hard to suppress her own laugh. She remembered Marian Hall's temper, and knew the lady could be a pain in the patoot. But as a mother herself, she felt 82
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obligated to stick up for the absent woman. "You're both wicked. Carly, I better not hear you talking about me like that."
"Don't worry, Mama." She leaned in close and lowered her voice, but it was still loud enough for Justine to hear. "I'm very careful to keep my scheming ways quiet."
Nadine smacked at her daughter and turned back to her customer. "Do you want me to write this up, or would you like some more time to decide?"
"I'll take this one. Go ahead and write it up and I'll let Mom know how much it is. If it works out, I'll even be there when it's delivered so you won't have to listen to her complain."
The older woman chuckled and disappeared into the office to write up the order, leaving Carly and Justine alone in the showroom. Awkward silence followed as they studied one another for a clue about what had changed since Carly had left the house on Sandstone, angry and frustrated.
"Forgive me…one more time…please." Justine finally found her voice.
"Why should I?" Carly had to put up at least some semblance of a fight.
The redhead sighed deeply. "You shouldn't. I'm such an ass, Carly." She shook her head.
"Okay, you're forgiven."
"I am?"
Carly nodded. No matter how hurt she was, she had no defenses against Justine Hall. It had always been that way. "But I have to warn you, next time, I'm not going to be so easy."
Justine couldn't believe the way her apology had been so readily accepted. But then again, this was Carly Griffin, and she'd always been just about the nicest person Justine had ever known. "I hope there isn't–"
"No, next time, buying a recliner from my mom isn't going to do it. You're going to have to buy a dining set or something. And after that…a whole living room suit. And the time after that–"
"Carly…I promise I'm going to stop…acting crazy one of these days. I've been working on it for awhile–you know, I told you I was seeing a therapist. I know it's hard to believe sometimes, but it really is helping me." She whispered the last part and looked toward the office door. "Anyway, I'm my own worst enemy sometimes when it comes to making mountains out of molehills."
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Carly didn't need any explanations. Justine really was forgiven, and she already felt giddy at the thought that they were okay again…whatever okay was. At the very least, they were talking again.
"I really am sorry," she said again sheepishly.
"It's over," Carly assured. "So listen, I need to run my mom home when she finishes with your order. You want to meet for a coffee or something after that? I wouldn't mind trying out the new coffeehouse up the street."
Justine scrunched her face.
"Don't tell me you don't like coffee! Everybody likes coffee."
"No, that's not it. I love coffee. It's just that…well, it's Friday, and I have to go to the Wellness Center and do my workout." She didn't miss the disappointment in Carly's face, and she didn't want Carly to think she was just blowing her off. "But what about tomorrow?"
"I can't. I just made plans to meet my cousin and his new girlfriend for dinner."
Nadine came out of the office with the paperwork for Justine to sign. "We can deliver this tomorrow if there's going to be someone at home."
"If you can give me some idea what time, I'll be there myself."
Carly hadn't decided until right that minute that she would ride along with her cousin on Saturday. "What about afternoon…say around three o'clock?"
"You're going to bring it?"
"Sure. That's what I do for fun when I'm in Leland." Carly grinned.
"Okay. Three o'clock is good."
Nadine disappeared again to take care of the delivery paperwork.
"So…do you have plans for Sunday?" Justine wanted something firm to plan for, and once they'd made a date, she could stop worrying about it…making the date, that is. Then she would start worrying about actually going, obsessing over what to wear, how to act, and what to talk about.
"I hear the new James Bond movie is worth seeing."
A movie is a great idea, Justine concluded. She wouldn't have to worry about a lot of conversation. "Or there's that new romantic comedy with Sandra Whatzername."
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"So how about a double feature? You can watch my thrilling spy movie with me and I'll watch your silly comedy with you."
Justine smirked at Carly's assessment of her tastes, but all in all, it sounded like a good plan. "Why don't I check the movie times and call you?"
"So does a double feature mean we have to go to Lexington?" It didn't matter to Carly one whit, but she knew from Perry that the Bond movie was at the theater here in Leland.
But if Justine wanted to keep their friendship out of the public eye, it would say a lot about the course she wanted things between them to take.
"Leland has a new eight-screen cinema-plex. We can go there…unless you want to go to Lexington."
"No, Leland is fine. I was just thinking that you might...you know…rather be somewhere else."
Carly understands and she's trying to help. The recognition almost brought tears to her eyes. "No, we're going to stay here in town. It's a movie, for goodness sake. Two friends ought to be able to go to a movie without stirring up a hornet's nest. And besides, it's time I started dealing with…that other stuff, too."
Two friends…That's what Justine wanted. The blonde woman smiled. "So it's a date, then. And you'll call me about the time."
Justine cringed inwardly about the word date, but she wasn't going to make a big deal out of it. "I'll look up the movie times in the paper when I get home and I can tell you when you bring the chair tomorrow."
"That'll work." Carly walked her to the front door and flipped the sign over to say that Griffin Home Furnishings was now closed. "You know, it means a lot to me that you came by today."
"And it means a lot to me that you were so…well, you're always…" Justine stumbled for the words, finally just leaning forward to place a grateful kiss on the startled woman's cheek.
**********
Justine clicked the dial down to 6.2 miles per hour. She usually tried to run at 7.5, a nice clip for her long legs; but she and her son had another date tomorrow morning to do the logging trail, and she wanted to save something for that.
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Valerie was right about what running with her son did for her self-esteem. It wasn't just the affirmation that she had lost all that extra weight and gotten into shape. It was the pride she'd picked up in Trey's voice that time she'd heard him tell his friends that they ran together, and that she pushed him harder than any of those guys on the track team did.
That probably wasn't true, but it was nice that her son was saying such nice things about her to his friends. In a lot of ways, she felt like the damage from three years ago had been mostly undone…except, of course, that she'd missed having him at home all this time.
She was taking a big chance getting close to Carly Griffin again, but she'd thought about it a lot– okay, obsessed about it–and she felt sure that her new friendship could be easily rationalized.
If either one of her children had a problem with Carly, she'd say that the woman was a high school friend, home only for a short while. Heck, Christmas was such a busy time for everybody, they might not even know that their mom was spending a lot of time with someone. And if they did notice, she'd say…that they didn't get to see each other a lot because of Carly's job, so they wanted to spend as much time together as possible.
It wouldn't be like the thing with Petra, because that wasn't going to happen again. The night she'd spent with Carly was a mistake. They were both drunk and things got out of hand.
Justine reddened as thoughts of that night rushed to the surface. She was still fuzzy on all the details, but bits and pieces came back at the oddest moments. Like now, she had a sudden flash of pulling one of Carly's hard, pink nipples into her mouth. And she remembered what it felt like when the woman had slipped inside her…and how frustrated she'd been that she hadn't had the chance to reciprocate.
The runner nearly stumbled off her treadmill as her concentration wandered. Getting a grip on the vivid images that invaded her head, she remembered her resolve. What she and Carly had shared that night wasn't real; they were drunk.
Even Carly had admitted that they lost control that night. Of course, she said other things too–that she'd enjoyed it and that she'd always wanted to be with her that way. Though Justine didn't want to dwell on it, she too had felt more than just drunken lust that night, and the aftereffects of pushing Carly away had left her feeling like she'd given up more than a friend. But after they talked a few days later and she explained everything that had happened, Carly said she understood. She was willing to keep things on a friendship level, and that was something else that Justine could feel good about.
For several years now, the redhead hadn't enjoyed a close friendship with any of her old classmates, or the mothers in her own neighborhood with whom she'd shared the child-rearing experience. After the incident at the country club, even her three best friends–
Charlene, Vicki, and Sharon–began to decline her invitations. It was Char who spelled it out for her. No one wanted to become fodder for the rumor mill; no one wanted to run the risk of being linked to Justine Hall "that way".