by Jean Oram
Dan flushed. "Still, it would be good. Thanks, Oz."
When all the gifts were opened, Beth yawned, begging off due to jetlag, saying her goodbyes.
Oz met up with her in the entry. "We rocked that—even though we didn't win. Team Wilkineiter still has it." He gave her a grin.
She nodded, feeling uncertain. "Hey, Oz?" Beth asked, tugging on her knee-height boots she'd bought in Paris. "I was wondering..." How could she put this without hurting his feelings?
Oz's cell rang and he ignored it.
"Aren't you going to get that?" she asked as it began to ring a second time.
He balanced her as she zipped up her last boot. He shrugged and glanced at the screen. His expression changed and he turned away muttering, "Sorry, I think I need to get this."
Beth zipped up her jacket, listening to Oz's end of the conversation. "When? Now? Are you okay?" Pause. "I'll be right over. No, it's okay. Everyone's leaving anyway."
Oz hung up his phone and apologized.
She studied his expression and it hit her. Mandy. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing."
"No, what's wrong with Mandy?"
"She needs help."
Beth put her hands on her hips.
Oz placed a hand on her arm. "I promised I wouldn't tell anyone."
She almost reminded him that it was her that he was talking to before she remembered exactly who she was to him: an ex. She didn't get to hear his secrets any longer. She was no longer his accomplice in life. She was nobody.
Lowering her head, she fiddled with her zipper. "I, um. It's time for me to move out of Katie's."
He let go of her arm, his guard going up.
She looked down at her feet encased in gorgeous leather. "And I, um, was wondering if maybe there was a way to get some of the equity out of the trailer?" Her voice rose and cracked.
"When?" he asked.
"I kind of don't have money..."
"You did last month," he said, opening the door and stepping into the crisp October night. There was a rigidness in his shoulders that made her nervous.
She called after him, "What? I lose everything?" She stood on the front step and he turned, his eyes flecked with amber from the entry light.
"Is this what you want?" he asked, his voice quiet.
Beth shifted on the step. "Well, I can't stay with Katie forever."
"Fine, I'll put our place up for sale." He turned on his heel and strode off, his hands buried deep in his pockets, shoulders hunched like he was pushing against a snow storm rather than the odd falling leaf.
Beth swallowed hard, struggling to find her voice. To shout out not to sell the place. To ask if they could try again. Instead she watched as the darkness slowly closed around his form.
Chapter 13
"So, tell me, what were the men in Paris like?" Mary Alice asked Beth, her eyes glittering with excitement.
"Mary Alice, you're married. Not to mention, have kids my age." Beth placed breath mints and a carton of milk by the register.
"So what?" She waved a hand and gave an impish grin. "I've heard about the Italian men and even met a few here and there, but the French? No such luck. Are they smooth and stuck up? Are they good lovers? I've heard they're short." She raised her brows. "In more ways than one."
"Mary Alice!" Beth scolded with an embarrassed laugh.
Mary Alice guffawed and leaned against the counter, arms crossed. She pressed her body forward, pushing her breasts up, creating a deep gulch that hid great treasures of Kleenex, cash, cigarettes, and anything else Mary Alice wanted close at hand. "You can't convince me you didn't see the undercarriage of a man while in France."
"Mary Alice!" Beth gasped, her face on fire.
"Look at you glow. You may as well take out a flashing billboard saying you got some in France." Mary Alice raised her eyebrows. "So? What are the French men like?" She paused, her eyes boring into Beth. "Or was it a more local man?"
Beth let out a snort and tried to look unimpressed. There was no way she was revealing to anyone in town what had happened between her and Nash. It was their little secret, not fodder for the town's gossip fest. In fact, to help curb any suggestion of them being more than friends they'd gone as far as avoid each other for the past week and a half. At first, with the excitement of everyone asking about the trip she hadn't really missed him, but now his absence was starting to nag at her. In France, and even before, she had gotten used to leaning over to whisper her thoughts in his ear or to point out something unusual. Now, she had to sneak off to text him. And it wasn't the same. Going back to friends sucked. She missed Nash like an amputee missed their lost limb. It probably didn't help how her feelings about Oz had been stirred up at Cynthia's party last week.
"Well?" Mary Alice asked. "The French men...?"
"It's hard to tell with the language barrier and all," Beth admitted truthfully. "Although, they do seem better dressed than the ones around here."
"Honey," Mary Alice wheezed with her smoker's voice, "that don't take much."
"The sights were amazing. We went to the Louvre, which is massive. I got lost trying to find the ladies room. There was more than one."
"You already told me about the stuffy art. I wanna know if you and that Nash fellow finally fit it together."
Beth gasped and took a step back. "Mary Alice! Really." Beth gave her head an indignant shake. "I honestly can't believe you would ask such a thing!"
"Ha! And peanut butter is pink. You know the whole town is speculating and I'm the only one with the courage to ask."
"The word you're looking for isn't courage, Mary Alice."
Mary Alice laughed. "Look at you with your spunk. You've been mooning about since you got back. Something happened to you, girl." She gave another laugh and reached over the counter to give Beth's cheek a light pat, enveloping her in a familiar and strangely comforting waft of stale cigarette smoke. "You are so cute when you act all confident."
Beth slapped the latest edition of In Style on the counter. She gave Mary Alice a firm don't-mess-with-me look. "Ring me up."
"That all?" Mary Alice looked at the pile, then up at Beth. "I don't want you getting all the way home and finding you need yet more milk. Whacha makin' that you need milk every night after the grocery store closes, anyway? You didn't get yourself a French baby did you?" Mary Alice raised an eyebrow and eyed Beth's midriff.
"Very funny. You missed your calling as a stand-up comedian."
Mary Alice smirked and calculated Beth's small pile of purchases. "You know," Mary Alice said as she rang up the items, which she claimed was strictly for accounting purposes, "it's good to see the life back in you."
Beth was taken aback. "Sorry?"
"That Nash fellow. I had my doubts about him, being all slick and citified, but he's brought you right back alive again and that's good to see."
"Oh," Beth managed to muster before scooping up her items. "Um, we're not together." She retreated to the safety of the street before Mary Alice could pull any meaningful information out of her.
Mary Alice called after her, "I hear you're moving out of Katie's; if you need a place our guest room is still available!"
Not on your big, fat life.
God, was her life that easy to read? Could they really tell that she and Nash had been an item? And did it matter if they did?
Being back in Blueberry Springs was a cold splash of reality. Refreshing, because everyone spoke the same language, but also shockingly abrasive because everyone used that same language to interfere. How quickly she had gotten used to being anonymous.
"Beth, wait up," called Katie, scurrying down the street in a wooly, fashionable hat. It wasn't warm enough for the light jacket Beth was wearing and she hugged herself. Since being away, the air had lost the heady scent of decomposing leaves and the first light snowfall had occurred making her disappointed she'd missed it. Thin patches of snow hung on the odd clumps of leaves still clinging to the trees in the square across the street. Winter w
as coming.
"Hey." She whacked Katie in the chest with In Style.
"Sweet! Thanks for the ones from France, too. C'est inçroyable! The pictures are lovely, unfortunately the text is really hard to understand."
"I thought you knew French?"
"Yeah, but this season they're talking about things... differently. I don't know. It's their frame of reference or something. I ended up ordering a French-English dictionary because Nash stopped translating for me. He claims it takes up too much patient time. Truthfully, I think his French isn't so hot." She rolled her eyes. "He doesn't even pronounce Christian Louboutin properly."
"His French is just fine, Katie."
"Ooh. Look at you sticking up for Doctor Boy." Katie nudged her with an elbow and a grin.
Beth rolled her eyes and opened her car door, vowing to never, ever hint about her Parisian fling to Katie. The really, really good Parisian fling. The one she would repeat in an instant. The one that kept bursting into her thoughts and dreams and was likely to have her panting and calling out in the night. Hello, embarrassing! Especially with Katie just one room over. The very definition of awk-warrrrd.
"Fluffy's up the tree again," Katie said. "And Oz is a bit... preoccupied."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Beth said tightly, imagining his arms wrapped around Mandy's naked frame. She slung her purchases onto her Volvo's passenger seat. She didn't need Oz and he didn't need her. And she really needed to stop torturing herself about what might or might not be happening between Oz and his ex.
She had moved on, right? Right.
Well, mostly. It still burned to think that he'd chosen Mandy again over her. His fiancée.
Katie looked up and down the street then leaned in and whispered, "He's drunk."
Beth frowned at Katie and checked her watch. It wasn't even suppertime. "Drunk?"
"He's been having some... issues."
"Did he and Mandy break up?"
"He says they were never together."
"Yeah, right." Something was up between the two of them. You didn't start rumors in town by doing nothing.
Katie shrugged and fiddled with her ponytail. "I don't know. He and Mandy are telling two different stories."
Beth nodded, thinking.
Katie lowered her voice. "I think maybe he's having troubles with the rumors about you and Nash."
Beth's breathing stilled. "What rumors?" Crap. Of course it wasn't just Mary Alice and a few others thinking that.
Katie looked away. "You guys are an item."
Beth laughed despite herself. How could she be so stupid as to think she'd get off scott free and without Oz having some sort of fit about it?
"Yeah, I know." Katie shot her a relieved look. "Nash? Like, come on."
Beth climbed into her car. "He seemed fine at Cynthia's party." Although the rumor she'd overheard at work this morning was that he'd been best friends with the bottle since then. Question was: who drove him to drink? Her or Mandy?
She stared out her windshield, blocking out Katie's ramblings about how impersonal Nash was at work and the new protocols he'd put in place to prevent nurses from eating at their stations and how Beth would never go for someone like that and how she was silly to have believed the rumors even for just a minute.
"What about Fluffy?" Katie asked as Beth started up her car.
"Call the goddamn fire department," Beth snapped. Beth glanced at Katie's shocked expression. "What?"
"Mrs. Everett is going berserk."
Beth sighed. She pushed herself out of the car. "Oh, fine. It's not like I haven't seen it done enough times."
They crossed the street and stopped under the large oak that grew near the sidewalk in the town square. Sure enough, Fluffy was perched among the snowy branches, yowling her little lungs out.
And just below the tree was Oz's groupie, Mandy. She adjusted the neckline of her tight, wooly sweater, a bright scarf obscuring most of her cleavage. "Where's Ozzie?"
"Why the hell should I know? You're the one supposedly sticking your tongue down his throat."
Mandy backed up a step and opened her mouth a few times before saying, "Hostile much?"
Beth snorted.
"Oh, Beth," breathed Mrs. Everett, her mittened hand clamped on Beth's arm. "Poor Fluffy. She's been up there for twenty minutes!"
"I'm sure she's fine. I'll get her down for you," Beth said. She slipped from the woman's grasp and tossed her fitted corduroy coat to the ground. She shivered as she sized up the oak. Why on earth had she agreed to this? Tree climbing—both up and down—was supposed to come naturally to cats, and an activity she should have left firmly in childhood.
Beth hoisted herself into the tree's branches, sending bits of snow and the odd stubborn leaf onto Katie. She was halfway to Fluffy when a familiar voice yelled, "Hey, Beth!"
Instinctively, she looked down and just about fell out of the tree. Oz was gazing up through the branches, his brown eyes filled with concern.
Beth stepped further out and stretched to get a grip on the branch above her. She walked her feet up the trunk and, with a soft grunt, hooked a leg over the branch. Sucking in a deep breath, she concentrated on not falling. In a feat of gravity-defying stupidity, she got herself on top of the branch before realizing that what goes up must come down.
No wonder Fluffy always asked to get rescued. Climbing down was going to be a real bitch.
Lovely. Lovely as poo pudding.
She tried to coax the cat closer as she risked a glance at the people below. She swayed dangerously and cursed under her breath. The ground was a long way down. Falling would definitely make the paper. It would also make her a laughingstock, get her a new nickname, as well as hit the rumor mill's frontline.
Fluffy danced daintily toward Beth, gliding her tail across Beth's face as she strutted away. Beth rubbed her nose and waited for the cat to make a second flaunty pass, before grabbing the squirming body and tucking it under her arm. Fluffy wiggled and twisted until she was clutching Beth's shoulder with every single one of her dagger-like front claws. Beth slowly scooted her way back toward the trunk, resisting the urge to pull Fluffy's nails out of her skin and leave the cat to her own devices. How had Oz always made this look so easy?
"Here," came a voice directly behind her ear, just about causing her to toss the cat out of the tree.
"What the hell are you doing?" Beth accused Oz.
"Everyone knows it's my job to rescue Fluffy." He wiggled his fingers at her. "Come on. I have to get back to helping Benny with his cabinets."
"Are you sure? Katie said..." She scrutinized Oz. He seemed sober. Shaven. Handsome.
"Just give me the cat." He stretched out his hand, refusing to meet Beth's eye.
"Fine." Beth thrust the cat at him, trying not to appear anywhere near as thankful as she felt. "Your funeral."
Oz placed Fluffy on his shoulder and was rewarded by a loud purr. Stupid cat.
In several quick moves the man and cat were safely on the ground. He had to be sober to do that, didn't he? Or maybe it helped to be drunk—you didn't stop to think, you just moved.
Beth dangled both legs off the same side of her branch. She was still several feet from the branch below.
"This is so not good."
She flipped onto her stomach, her legs still a hopeless distance from the next branch. She shuffled closer to the thick trunk and carefully reached out to hug it. Slowly, she slipped off the branch and allowed herself to slide down, as if hugging a rough, oversized firemen's pole. The bark lifted her shirt, scraping her stomach and arms as she slid to what she hoped was safety.
Her eyes watered as the bark stung her skin. "Ow, ow, ow!"
She loosened her grip as the scraping continued and plunged out of control, her left foot making flimsy contact with a young branch. She scrambled like an uncoordinated squirrel, grabbing a handful of withered leaves.
An "ooooh!" came from the crowd below and Beth bit back a curse. If she hadn't been blessed with s
uch a curvy figure, i.e. big boobs, she was certain she could have climbed down with grace.
"Are you coming, Beth?" Mandy called. "Ozzie is already down!" She caught the brightness of Mandy's scarf and she fumbled to get out of the tree fast enough to gauge what was truly going on between the two of them.
"Enjoying the view!" Beth chirped. Her arms were now covered with long, red scratches, stung like hell, and felt completely useless. When she finally hit the ground she was not going to look good. She climbed down a few feet and ignored Oz's offer of help.
Peering through the branches she saw the glint of a can as it met Oz's lips. If she was around he had to drink. It was that simple, wasn't it? By the time her feet touched the ground, she was pissed off and damp under the arms. Fluffy and Mrs. Everett had wandered off, as had most of the crowd. Oz rocked back on his heels and smiled at Beth.
"Best entertainment in town."
"Bite me." Beth dusted herself off and grabbed her jacket, hoping nobody would notice the sweat on her brow. Some hurry he was to get back to Benny. His pants must be rather uncomfortable considering they must be on fire. The liar.
"Aw, come on, Beth," Mandy cooed, hanging off Oz's arm. "Everyone knows Oz rescues Fluffy because he's the best climber in town."
Beth turned away, sick at how at home Mandy looked on Oz's arm. She spotted Nash crossing the street, striding toward the action with determined purpose. Beth moved to head him off. In her current mood, she might find herself making out with her former fling in the center of town just to spite everyone.
"Hang on there, Beth," Oz drawled. She stopped and turned, hand on her hip, jacket slung over her shoulder.
Oz, a casual jumble of limbs, the can of beer hanging from his hand as though it had always been a part of him, stepped forward, slipping Mandy off his arm like he had so many times in the past.
"What?" Beth asked sharply, her eyes catching the amber glint in Oz's dark eyes.
He reached out and touched Beth's shirt above her left breast. She reached out to slap Oz, but a fist flew past her, knocking Oz to the ground before she could make contact.
Beth stumbled forward, turning to see who had come up behind her. Nash gave a primal huff, his blue eyes flashing like frozen blades.