Scrapping Plans

by Rebeca Seitz

  “Maybe I’ll head on down to Clay’s and get me a BLT. He knows how to make them right, and I’ve had a hankering for one ever since we got home.”

  “I’m sure he’ll be glad to make it for you.”

  “Then that settles it.” Daddy’s work boots clomped on the linoleum floor. “I’ll leave you girls to the scrapbooking and go find me some male conversation.”

  Daddy’s solitary figure looked lonelier than it had in months—probably because he shouldn’t be a solitary figure anymore.

  “I love you, Daddy,” she called.

  Daddy looked over his shoulder and said, “I love you too, honey girl.”

  Tandy stood until she heard the front door open and close, then the rumble of Daddy’s truck motor, before going back through the living room and up the stairs to the scrapping studio. She didn’t trust herself to be around Zelda right now, but if she left, all the sisters would notice and call her cell anyway.

  Though I’ll bet they’re not happy with Zelda right now either. Especially Ms. Fix-a-Three-Course-Meal-Every-Night Joy.

  Tension coiled in the room like a thick electrical cord frayed on its end. One spark and the entire room would go up in flames. Each sister sat with head down, eyes focused on the layouts in front of them. No one appeared to have touched their burger.

  Zelda chattered away, either oblivious or uncaring.

  I’m not sure anymore which. What is with her?

  Tandy sauntered back around to the table, doing a pretty good impression of someone who wasn’t angry, and once again picked up her photos. Zelda prattled on about the beautiful Florida beaches and gorgeous Florida sunsets and fabulous Florida night life and stunning Florida weather until Tandy felt certain that the State of Florida should be paying this one promotional dollars.

  She glanced at the clock on the wall. Only five minutes since she’d sat down. Five minutes wasn’t long enough to claim a headache and go home.

  She tried to focus instead on the layout at her fingertips. With the wedding scrapbook finally done, she had begun her honeymoon scrapbook. Journaling had proven a bit harder because so much of the magical time they had shared wouldn’t be appropriate to write in a scrapbook for familial consumption. Instead, she’d journaled those thoughts and tucked the journal away in the top corner of their bedroom closet. Tandy figured if she and Clay ever got in a huge argument, she could read about those first days of their marriage, of the fun they had, and remember better times.

  A sudden silence filled the room and Tandy looked up. Zelda stood over at the wall of paper racks, running a stubby finger down the columns of color. Guess she couldn’t consider paper choices and prattle at the same time. She should stop these unflattering thoughts, but Zelda’s actions made it too easy. And too justified. Tandy pictured Daddy sitting all alone at a table down at Clay’s and stood up.

  “Look, y’all, I think I’m having an uninspired night. I can’t think through this layout for the life of me. I think I better just call it a night and try again later.”

  “Me too.” Joy pushed her paper cutter away. “I’ve been staring at the same pictures for ten minutes, and no inspiration is coming.”

  Kendra crossed her arms and rested on the table. “Then it’s catching because I’ve got the same problem.”

  Meg sighed, and Tandy knew the sound was more theatrical than anything else. “I’m sorry, Zelda. I think we better try again another night.”

  Zelda brought the papers she’d chosen to the table and set them down. “That’s all right, girls. I’ll just go on downstairs and watch that Lifetime movie that we TiVoed while we were gone. Y’all want to come over after church Sunday?”

  “We’ll see.” Tandy couldn’t get to the stairs fast enough. “Thanks for having us over.” To our own house. Where you’ve invaded.

  “Anytime, hon, anytime.”

  It took all of four seconds for the sisters to get outside and come to a halt between Tandy’s car and Meg’s van.

  “Tandy, what did Daddy say?” Meg opened her passenger door and dropped her purse inside.

  “He’s down at Clay’s getting a BLT. He checked the fridge first. There’s nothing in it.”

  “How did she survive before they got married?” Joy had one small hand on an expanding hip. “Pizza?”

  Meg ran a hand through her hair, tucking it behind her ears. “I don’t know, but it must not have been by preparing her own meals.”

  Kendra leaned against the van. “So what are we going to do about it?”

  “Is there anything we can do? Would Daddy want us to, even if there was? He had time to talk to me about it in the kitchen and he chose not to.”

  “What exactly could he say?” Kendra tossed her hair over her shoulder. “‘Oops, I married a woman who can’t even put peanut butter and jelly between two slices of bread?’”

  “He could ask one of us to teach her. You, Joy.”

  “Me?” Joy laid a delicate hand on her chest. “I have no intention of standing in that house teaching Zelda how to cook on Momma’s stove. She’d just as likely break the thing as learn how to use it.”

  “But you’d be helping Daddy out,” Meg cajoled. “You could cover the basics. Teach her a few soups, spaghetti, maybe a casserole or two.”

  “Because the stress of dealing with that woman is exactly what I need in my life right now.”

  Tandy instantly understood the dilemma. “You could wait until your second trimester.”

  “I’m in my second trimester. Hit it a week and a half ago, but haven’t had a chance to tell y’all yet.”

  “What?!” all the sisters exclaimed at once.

  “I had intended to tell you tonight, but that woman in there ruined my moment.”

  “Another reason to not like her,” Tandy sniffed.

  “Don’t let her spoil the moment.” Kendra threw an arm around Joy’s slender shoulders. “This is big news and we need to celebrate!”

  “Ooh! What about a fondue party? I’ve got a fondue set somebody gave Clay and me for a wedding present and I have yet to use the thing. Let’s go dip stuff in chocolate!”

  Thirty-Nine

  Somebody remind me why they call pregnancy a blessed time.” Tandy rested a hand on her belly while an October wind blew outside. “I’m only at seven months. This thing is just going to get bigger.”

  Joy rolled her eyes. “At least you’ve got a few inches of height to spread it all out. Being short isn’t helpful when you’re adding a basketball to your midsection. I look like I swallowed a cantaloupe.”

  The sisters sat in side-by-side seats at the A terminal of the Nashville airport. Boarding for their plane to St. Thomas had been set for thirty minutes from now. Tandy shifted in her seat. “They didn’t make these chairs to accommodate pregnant women.”

  “That they didn’t.”

  “Maybe we should have gone with Meg and Kendra to get manicures over in the other terminal.”

  “And walk all that way? Right before sitting on a plane for several hours and then walking all over an island? No, thank you.” Joy sat back and crossed her arms, resting them on her round belly. “I’ll sit right here and watch the world go by, thank you very much.”

  As her belly grew, so did Joy’s ability to speak her mind.

  Woe to the one who comes against you, baby sister. She dared not use the “baby sister” phrase out loud. Between her haywire hormones and Joy’s, no telling what kind of argument that could bring on. And they didn’t need a fight right before Kendra’s wedding. Tandy closed the Fit Pregnancy she’d been reading and let that sink in again. In three days Kendra would be Mrs. Darin Spenser. Wild-and-free Kendra, tethering herself to a man for the rest of her life. Wonders never cease.

  She hoped Darin knew just what he was getting into. Probably not. Who could really know anyone anymore? Not until you’ve spent a lifetime together, and maybe not even then.

  “Ouch!” She pushed in on a section of her belly. “Stop kicking me in there! And I mean
it, obey your mother or you’re grounded as soon as you show your face.” The kicks subsided and she relaxed again.

  “Okay, I’m impressed.”

  “Don’t be. It rarely works, and I doubt it did this time. My command probably just happened to coincide with when he was tired of kicking anyway.”

  “Have you guys settled on the name yet?”

  “Nope. We’ve narrowed it down to a short list, but we go back and forth between them all.”

  “What are the finalists?”

  “Jack—for Daddy, of course. Clay, for obvious reasons. Oliver, which Clay says will label him a geek for life. Seth, just because we both like the name. And Charles, because it’s an old name you don’t hear every day.”

  “I think I’d go with Seth.”

  “Well, see, that’s what we thought. We both like the name, but what if he has a lisp of some sort? He’d be ‘Theth’ and get made fun of by the other kids.”

  “All kids are going to make fun of the other kids no matter what you name them.”

  “That’s true, but shouldn’t I do whatever I can to prevent it, if possible?”

  “I suppose.”

  “Have you and Scott thought through names?”

  “We’re leaning toward Madeline. I’ve always loved that name. Or Marian, after Momma.”

  “Must be nice to have it narrowed down to two.”

  Joy nodded. “It is.”

  “Hey, preggos!” Kendra had her arm linked through Meg’s as they bopped down the concourse. “You ready for an island adventure?”

  “I’m ready for a nice, long nap.”

  “You pregnant ladies, always needing naps.” Meg plopped down into the seat beside Joy. “You’d think you were growing a human or something.”

  “Ha ha. Very funny.” Tandy tilted her head back and let her hair fall down. The weight of it gave her a headache, but Joy hadn’t felt like giving hair cuts the last couple of weeks. “You’d think you would show a little sympathy, having done this a few times yourself.”

  “This is the voice of a smug, satisfied woman happy in the knowledge that I never have to go through childbirth again and have three wonderful children.”

  “Speaking of which, where are they?”

  “Clay and Jamison have them running up and down the concourse, trying to burn energy and wear them out before we get on the plane.”

  “Brilliant man I married.” Tandy closed her eyes. “He’ll make a good daddy someday.”

  “Yeah, I’d say in about two months.”

  “Where’s Scott?” Joy looked around. “Oh.” Scott sat in the corner of the terminal, his laptop plugged in and his head down, focused on the screen. “That man never stops working.”

  “Cut him some slack,” Meg advised. “He knows in about two and a half months, he’s not going to be able to work because that little girl will keep him up all night. Let him get ahead for now.”

  “I suppose you’re right.”

  “Having endured three kiddos myself, trust me, sis. I’m right.”

  “How long until we board?”

  Kendra checked her watch. “Twenty minutes. Anybody need a last-minute bathroom break?”

  “Always.” Tandy pushed up from her seat. “Let’s go.”

  “Wait for me.” Joy followed along behind.

  Kendra clapped. “Look, it’s the preggo parade!”

  “Oh, shut up.” Tandy put a hand at the small of her back, which felt as if someone had sat an anvil on it. “Just you wait. First comes love, then comes marriage …”

  Forty

  Meg hopped out of the hotel shuttle and led the group to the edge of Megan’s Bay. “Wow, would you look at that ocean? I thought the postcard pictures were only from someone with a great imagination and a talent with PhotoShop, but that’ll take your breath.”

  “It does look like a postcard.” Tandy set her beach basket down in the powdery sand.

  Kendra took in the beauty all around them, catching her breath on its perfection. Above the crystal-blue waters, hills covered in green rose on either side. The water’s translucent quality was such that little fish could be seen as far as six feet beneath the surface. Yellow, blue, red, orange, bearing black stripes and white stripes, large fins and small, they darted about in small schools.

  Kendra smiled. A fairy-tale place for a fairy-tale wedding.

  “I feel like I just walked into a fairy tale,” Joy breathed, echoing Kendra’s thoughts. “Look at this place, Scott.”

  Early morning sun lit the water, sprinkling it with dancing points of light that played upon the waves created by a gentle breeze. Scott sat down the gear he’d carried and unfolded a chaise lounge. “No wonder it’s one of the top five beaches in the world.”

  “Anybody want to snorkel?” Clay held up rubber snorkel hoses and face masks.

  “I’m in.” Darin snagged a face mask.

  “Me too.” Scott caught the mask Clay tossed his way.

  “Jack?”

  “No, no, you boys go on ahead. I’ll sit here and keep the girls safe from beach bums.”

  Kendra slathered sunblock along her arms. “Make sure you put on lots of sunscreen. I can’t have my bridesmaids looking like lobsters tomorrow.”

  “Yes, your majesty.” Tandy pulled a bottle of SPF 30 from her beach bag.

  “Daddy, I hope Zelda’s feeling better when we get back to the hotel.”

  “She’ll be fine, Meggy. Just a little tired, I’m sure.”

  Yeah, tired of us. And the feeling’s mutual. Kendra kept her thoughts inside. “I hate that she’s missing out on this beautiful beach. Her being such a beach lover and all.”

  “She knows where we are and can catch the hotel shuttle if she wakes up and feels like getting out.”

  “How’s married life?” Kendra couldn’t help but ask. “Is it different from the first time?” As if we don’t all know.

  “It is, but different isn’t necessarily bad.” Daddy gazed across the water. “It’s just … different.”

  “So long as different makes you happy, then different is fine. But if you decide you don’t like different—”

  “I’ll decide to be happy with different. Marriage is no less sacred when it’s your second, Tandy. I made vows to Zelda, and she made vows to me. Don’t any of you daughters be thinking either of us is about to break a vow just because this start is a little rockier than we’d planned.”

  “We wouldn’t want you to break your vows, Daddy.” Joy laid a hand on his arm. “We simply want to be sure you’re happy.”

  “I suspect I’m like a lot of married folks, Joy. Some days I’m happy, others I wonder what in the world I’ve gotten myself into.”

  “Did you ever wonder that with Momma?” You’ve got to learn to shut your mouth, Kendra.

  “Sure I did. I’m certain your momma had her doubts about me too. Like I said, most married couples, if they stay married long enough, are going to wonder if it would be easier to be single. And it might be for a while. But if you’ve made a vow to somebody, then an honorable person sticks to that vow.”

  “It’s hard though, Daddy.” Tandy piped up. “We want you to be loved and taken care of, and we don’t see her doing that.”

  “Y’all don’t see everything that goes on between Zelda and me. It’s been a little rough, adjusting to each other’s habits, living in the same house. We’re old and set in our ways. That’s to be expected. But I can learn to cook my own bacon, and Zelda can figure out the washing machine. So we’ll be fine in the long run. It’d help a lot if she didn’t have to worry about you girls so much.”

  “She doesn’t have to worry about me at all.” Kendra shook her head. “I’m a grown woman who ain’t in need of a step-momma to make my decisions.”

  “That isn’t what I meant, and you watch the attitude, missy. She’s worried you girls don’t like her or accept her, and she spends a lot of time fretting over it. If you could give her the benefit of the doubt, help her learn some new things, th
en this would be a little easier on everyone involved.”

  Joy sighed. “I suppose I can help her learn a few dishes in the kitchen.”

  “That’s my girl. Thank you. That’d be a good start.”

  Tandy bit her lip. “Did she skip the beach today because of us?”

  “I think so, but she didn’t say that out loud. She wants this trip to be about Kendra and Darin’s wedding, not her relationship with the four of you. She thought her being here might add tension to the day and y’all wouldn’t have as much fun. Again, she didn’t say it in those words exactly, but that’s what I think kept her back at the hotel.”

  “We should call and see if she wants to come.”

  “I think that’d be a good idea, Tandy.”

  Tandy dialed Zelda’s number on her cell, and Kendra listened to her invite Zelda to join them. The thing was, this trip should be about her and Darin, not Zelda. And yet here they sat, discussing Zelda and her absence. As though, by her absence, Zelda had made the day about her.

  Kendra closed her eyes and let the sea breeze wash over her face. No more Zelda thoughts. In less than twenty-four hours, she’d be walking down the aisle to become Mrs. Darin Spenser. A grin spread across her face. Now there was something worth thinking about. She ran through the checklist in her mind. Flowers were confirmed—the bougainvillea and wildflower bouquets were explosions of purple and red color. The organist had confirmed. Reverend was ready and waiting. Limo service hired. Airplane from St. Thomas over to Virgin Gorda booked. Everything she could think of had been taken care of and confirmed. Only an early morning wake-up and trip to the church stood between her and marital bliss.

  Kendra breathed deeply of the salt air. Coming to the islands had been the perfect decision for her and Darin. His parents hadn’t wanted to come over to Megan’s Bay either this morning, but they’d be at the service. She couldn’t decide if they disapproved of the marriage or simply weren’t beach people. Not that it mattered. Nothing would stop this wedding, short of Tandy or Joy going into labor. And since that shouldn’t happen for two months, all should be fine.