Hush

by Nancy Bush

  “Yeah,” Coby said, her jaw tight.

  “You think it was Vic Franzen who left those notes in our lockers. The prick,” Yvette said. “He’s not coming tonight, is he?”

  “You’d have to ask your sister.”

  Gen got sidelined by Big Bob, who started bragging about how well McKenna was doing on the comedy circuit. Coby would have liked to hear more about McKenna, but Jarrod had reached her and Yvette by that time. Behind him, Faith had put her hand on Danner’s arm and moved him toward the far end of the living room, where they were in a conversation with Jean-Claude.

  “Hey, Yvette.” Jarrod greeted her but his eyes were on Coby. “Hi, Coby.”

  “Hi.” She smiled.

  He might have traded his long hair for a trim above his ears, but he still had a lazy way of talking that reminded Coby of his older brother.

  Yvette gave him the once-over. “You married Genevieve Knapp.”

  “Yeah, I did.”

  “Why?”

  Jarrod chose to be amused rather than annoyed. “She held a gun to my head and said she’d take out all my friends and family unless I walked her down the aisle.”

  “Funny.” Yvette drifted away, looking bugged.

  Jarrod looked at Coby and saw the smile she couldn’t contain. “Has she always been such a bitch?” he asked.

  “Yes.” Coby couldn’t contain a small laugh. “How are you, Jarrod?”

  “Can’t complain.” His brown hair and eyes were as she remembered. It was unfair, but Danner’s blue ones slid across the screen of her mind. “Economy’s shit, but I still have a day job,” he went on. “Play guitar at a few places. You should come by sometime.”

  “I will,” she promised automatically. Just like she’d promised to stop by her father’s hotel.

  “Will you?”

  “Yes.” She was emphatic.

  “Okay. We’re at the Cellar in Laurelton for the rest of the month. Friday and Saturday nights.” He gave her a sideways look. “Danner was by last weekend.”

  “Oh?”

  “Is he really here with your sister?”

  “Looks like it,” Coby said.

  “Have you talked to him tonight?”

  “Nope.”

  “You still got a thing for him?”

  “Good God, no,” she assured him quickly. “I just got out of a relationship and I’m not even thinking about that part of my personal life.”

  He looked at her in a way that called her a liar, but what he said was, “Didn’t I see an hors d’oeuvre tray going by? There! Suzette’s got a plate of bruschetta.”

  He tucked his hand around Coby’s elbow and started guiding her toward Suzette, who was moving between people and growing closer to Danner and Faith. Coby’s footsteps dragged. “I think I’ll stay by the table. They’re going to be bringing out the lasagna soon.”

  “I won’t make you talk to Danner.”

  It was Juliet he snagged first, and she gave him a melting look as she held out a tray of stuffed mushrooms. Jarrod grabbed several and handed one to Coby.

  “I’ll talk to him,” Coby assured him. “That’s not a problem. He and I are long over,” she said. “And it wasn’t much to begin with.” Coby tossed the mushroom cap in her mouth. It turned out to be burning hot and she started choking.

  “Really? Well, here he comes,” Jarrod said. “You can tell him that yourself.”

  She glanced up through tearing eyes to see him bearing down on her, sans Faith.

  Chapter 6

  Danner reached Coby as she was fighting something caught in her throat. She held a hand up, half laughing, and he asked, “Water?”

  “No, I’m okay,” she choked out. “Really.”

  “I think Juliet’s trying to kill us,” Jarrod said and Juliet, who overheard, swung around.

  “I can’t help it if they’re hot!” she declared.

  “I was just giving you shit,” he said. “Chill. Kirk’ll be here soon.”

  Juliet moved off, clearly still angry, but Coby’s concentration was focused solely on Danner.

  He looked . . . good. She liked the black sweater and the casual way he pushed the sleeves up his forearms. She liked the way he smelled, lightly citrus from his aftershave, she remembered. She liked the way his hair curled behind his ear; he was wearing it a bit longer now. He was with the Portland police, and she’d heard along the way that he’d had a meteoric rise within the department. She didn’t doubt it. He was just someone who was capable and quietly determined and aware.

  She’d loved him. That she knew.

  Jarrod said, “When was the last time you two saw each other?”

  “About twenty minutes ago,” Danner drawled. “When I got here Coby was already here. We said hi.”

  “I’m guessing it’s been a few years,” Jarrod said, ignoring him.

  “A few,” Coby agreed. She’d stopped fighting a cough, thank you, God.

  Faith was suddenly there, at Danner’s side. It rattled Coby though Faith didn’t seem fazed in the least. “Got a minute?” she asked Coby. “I’d like to talk to you about something.”

  And she led Coby away.

  Danner watched them head toward a corner by the windows. He stayed back, biding his time. He wanted to be with Coby, but steps had to be taken to ease the path and if Faith wanted to buttonhole her sister for a tête-à-tête, so be it.

  With a strange feeling of déjà vu, he remembered this was the house where they were all staying when Lucas Moore fell to his death. Danner had been out of high school by the time the accident occurred, but Jarrod had been at the scene and therefore interviewed by the sheriff’s department. Danner recalled his own interest in the case and idly wondered now, as he had then, whether Moore’s death was really an accident.

  Faith said to Coby, “I wanted to talk to you about Annette. Have you heard about this whole baby thing?”

  “Well, yeah.”

  It was hard for Coby to get Danner out of her head completely. Her attention was shot and she was having trouble keeping track of any conversation. She knew it would be rude to go off by herself, maybe somewhere to the back of the house—the den, her refuge—but she really didn’t want to talk to Faith. Or anybody.

  But then, dinner was about to be served, so she was kind of stuck.

  “What do you think about it?” Faith demanded. “Doesn’t it make you just want to scream?”

  “I guess.”

  “You guess? Jesus, Coby. Are you listening to me?” Faith snapped her fingers in front of Coby’s face.

  “Don’t do that,” Coby said swiftly. When Faith got on her older-sister high horse it really pissed her off.

  “Annette can’t have a baby. I can’t have a half sibling thirty years younger than I am!”

  “At the risk of sounding like Dad, it isn’t about you.”

  “Yeah, it is. And it’s about you, too. Come on, be on my side for one goddamned time,” Faith demanded. “We’ve got to talk some sense into him. Maybe we can get him away for a few minutes. It’s about the only reason I came tonight.”

  “You brought Danner,” Coby said.

  “I needed a date. Hugh broke up with me, you know. I wasn’t going to come alone.”

  Like I did, Coby thought, but she didn’t say it. And anyway, she heard something in Faith’s tone that caught her attention. “You’re missing Hugh.”

  “Of course I am. I thought I was going to marry the asshole!” Faith looked at Coby as if she were totally dense. “Oh, you think I brought Danner like a date? Well, of course you would,” she said a moment later, as if talking to herself. “It’s not like that. Danner doesn’t even hardly date women, from what I can tell. We’re friends. He lets me bitch about Hugh and that’s it. I’m surprised he accepted my invitation, unless he did it to see you. Maybe you guys can hook up again, at least for some fun, unless you and Joe worked things out?” she asked hopefully.

  “No.”

  She sighed heavily. “I wish one of us was having
something work out in the love department. Hugh is such a . . . bastard.”

  Coby was definitely starting to feel a little more lighthearted. “Why did you two break up?”

  “He’s a commitment-phobe. I want to make plans. Get married. You know, normal stuff? He just freaks out anytime we talk about it, and now it’s over.”

  Coby nodded sympathetically, but she was selfishly jubilant inside. Faith didn’t have any designs on Danner and she doubted he had any on her, either. She looked around the room, seeing Danner talking with Jarrod and Genevieve. She also saw that Annette had put Juliet on table duty and she was currently placing another tray of bruschetta next to a huge Caesar salad in a big silver bowl. The tomato-and-basil-topped crispy baguette slices were disappearing fast, and Coby wondered if Jarrod was going to get his portion before they were gone. Juliet didn’t look too happy about helping her sister; her pretty face was set in a scowl.

  Faith absently picked up a piece of bruschetta and held it. “But it’s the baby thing, Coby. Dad doesn’t want it. You can just tell. But Annette just keeps pushing. She’ll get herself pregnant whether he agrees to it or not.”

  “She told me she wants to start trying.”

  Faith gazed at her in horror. “See?”

  “I’m not crazy about the idea, but it’s not our call.”

  “What about Mom?” Faith asked. “Think about her.”

  “It’s not up to Mom, either. Duh,” Coby said to her.

  “It’ll make her crazy. She’ll do something crazy. Mark my words. She’s not over Dad. Certainly not with Barry.” As if recognizing she’d taken the bruschetta, Faith finally bit into it, holding her left hand under her chin to catch any bits of tomato and onion that might drop off. “God, this is good.”

  Jarrod separated from Danner and Genevieve at that moment and rejoined Coby and Faith, who asked him about his band. He told her about the Cellar and invited her to come by, too. He went on to say that his day job, where he actually made his living, was being in charge of inventory at a regional retail store. Faith seemed interested but Coby’s attention drifted. She saw that Danner was now caught in a conversation with Big Bob Forrester, and Genevieve was untangling herself from them both and heading Coby’s way as well.

  “It’s not that much of an intellectual challenge but it lets me stay with the band,” Jarrod was saying as Gen sidled up next to him, tucking her arm through his, giving Coby a long look.

  “Jarrod was just talking about his job,” Coby felt required to say.

  “Yeah, well, I work for a title company and in this economy I’m lucky to still have a job,” Faith said.

  Genevieve looked past them, as if she were waiting for someone better to come through the door. “I used to work for a downtown developer who built office buildings.”

  “Where do you work now?” Faith asked.

  “I don’t.”

  Jarrod said, “Gen’s looking for a job,” to which Gen’s lips pinched together as if she’d bitten into something sour.

  Genevieve’s father, Lawrence Knapp, had been into commercial real estate before his death, and Coby wondered if he was the “downtown developer” she referred to.

  “You have anything to do with Lovejoy’s?” Jarrod asked Coby curiously, bringing her back to the moment.

  “I’m at Jacoby, Jacoby, and Rosenthal. But Annette works at the hotel, and I think both Juliet and Suzette?”

  “Lawrence had some property in the Alphabet District,” he said, mentioning his deceased father-in-law. The Alphabet District was another name for the area where Coby’s father’s and Jean-Claude’s hotel was located. “He wanted to develop some apartments into a hotel like Lovejoy’s but he was all wrapped up in red tape and then the real estate market just went to shit. He managed to sell the property but he took a loss. Maybe that’s what brought on the heart attack.”

  “No,” Gen said coldly. “It was chronic heart disease.”

  “And investments that went bad,” Jarrod kept on.

  Coby said quickly, “It’s kind of the story for practically everyone who’s invested in real estate and needs to sell right away, isn’t it?”

  “You have some property?” Jarrod asked.

  “No, that would be Annette who’s inheriting,” Faith put in, sweeping an arm to encompass the beach house. “I think the bitch’ll get it all.”

  Coby nearly choked on her drink and Gen sucked in a surprised breath.

  “Annette and your father love each other!” Genevieve declared furiously.

  “Yeah, well, she was my friend before she was yours,” Faith pointed out. “I can call her a bitch if I want to.” She turned on her heel and left them, zigzagging through the crowd toward Danner.

  Coby wondered if she should ease away from Gen and Jarrod so she could talk to Danner now that she and Faith were done.

  “I know she’s your sister,” Genevieve said, “but she’s pretty awful.”

  “She says what she thinks,” Coby answered. “Sometimes it comes out as inappropriate oversharing.”

  “Glad I don’t have a sister,” she said heatedly.

  “Just a stepsister,” Coby responded.

  She didn’t know why she said it. Another memory from the campout that wouldn’t go away.

  But Genevieve looked at her blankly. “What do you mean? My parents were still together when my dad died.”

  “She doesn’t have a stepsister,” Jarrod added, frowning at Coby as if she’d let him down somehow.

  “You said you had a stepsister at the campout,” Coby reminded her. “And you stole her boyfriend from her. That’s what you said.”

  Genevieve made a strangled sound that turned into a laugh. “Sorry. Right. That was a lie.”

  Jarrod said quietly, “Oh, yeah. I forgot that.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Coby said, seeking to change the subject. “Mine was a lie, too.”

  “I know.” Gen looked over at Annette. “The only weird thing Daddy Dave ever did was marry your sister’s best friend.”

  “Where are you living now?” Jarrod asked her, clearly ready to change the subject.

  “I rent a condo in Northwest. Not far from Lovejoy’s, actually,” Coby told him.

  “We’re living with Gen’s mom, Kathy, right now. Took a bath on a house we bought. Couldn’t keep that mortgage up, so we had to let it go. Sometimes you just gotta say ‘what the fuck,’ you know?”

  Coby nodded. Danner looked her way and their gazes caught. He inclined his head toward the back of the house and she nodded.

  “Where are you staying tonight? Here?” Jarrod asked.

  “I’m hoping to go back,” Coby admitted.

  Gen snorted. “In this weather? Forget it.”

  “I know.” Coby glanced down at her empty glass. The Sand Dune Inn, known as the Dunes, was the closest motel. She’d probably crash there.

  “We’re at the Dunes,” Jarrod said, as if reading her mind a second time. He glanced over at Genevieve. “Kind of a delayed anniversary trip. We’ve been married five years already, can you believe it?”

  “It happens to the best of us.”

  “Or the worst of us,” Gen murmured.

  “You said you just got out of a relationship?” Jarrod made it sound like a question and that’s how Coby took it.

  “It was a long, slow decline,” she admitted.

  “How long?”

  “A few weeks.”

  “Wow, that is recent. Who did the breaking up? You?” Jarrod asked.

  “It was a mutual decision,” she said.

  “So he dumped you.” Genevieve was knowing.

  Coby broke into laughter. “Why does everybody say that?”

  “Because that mutual decision stuff is bullshit,” Gen declared.

  “Sometimes,” she agreed.

  “Always,” she countered.

  “I guess I was the one who ended it, then. Not that he’s heartbroken,” she added lightly.

  Jarrod’s gaze was frankly
appreciative. “I don’t know. He might be more heartbroken than you think. I would be.”

  Genevieve scoured him with a look, but the doorbell rang again and Coby chose the distraction as a means to escape. She hurried to the door, but Annette beat her to it and opened it to Hank Sainer, Dana’s father. Dana might be living on the East Coast and unable, and maybe unwilling, to come, but Hank was still one of The Dads. He had a genial smile and though his hair had grayed it was thick and full, and he looked like he worked out. He was tan, too, so he’d either been on a trip or hitting the tanning salons, as the Oregon weather had been dark and gloomy for longer than Coby wanted to remember.

  He looked just like a politician.

  Dave stepped forward and shook his hand, clapping him heartily on the back, and Big Bob and Jean-Claude stepped up, too. As they were greeting each other, the doorbell chimed again and this time Coby answered it. Kirk Grassi and Galen Torres stood in the rain beyond.

  “Hey, Coby,” Kirk said.

  “Hey, Kirk. Galen . . .”

  The two men entered together. Kirk had shaved his head bald and looked harder than he’d been in high school, but he still carried his guitar everywhere. Galen appeared much the same, compact, dark-complected, with a rare smile that was blinding when it appeared, as it did when he spied Suzette. Annette had said they’d been dating a year, and from the way Galen reacted, he seemed to want things to keep on going down that path.

  Juliet practically threw down the empty tray she’d been carrying to the kitchen upon seeing Kirk. She gave him a big hug that he seemed to just tolerate, but she was into it. Her eyes scoured the room while she hugged him, scoping out who was watching. Another “It” couple in the making?

  Right behind Kirk and Galen was Donald Greer. Ex—vice principal Greer. His hair was thinner and the lines across his forehead, tiny impressions twelve years earlier, were now deeply etched lines. His eyes, behind steel-rimmed glasses, seemed to search the room for errant students even yet, and his lips were a straight line without a hint of curvature. Coby realized Annette wasn’t the only one who would have trouble calling him Donald.

  Genevieve had moved to greet them and asked Donald, “Is Wynona coming?”