by Kenna White
Dana nodded,wondering how she got this far into a discussion about her personal problems with a stranger. She didn’t know if it was her need to talk about it, or Jamie’s understanding and insightful questions.Whatever it was,Jamie was a very intelligent woman and Dana found herself comfortable enough to discuss her inner feelings.
“Shannon and I are separated. That’s why I rented the houseboat. I needed a quiet place where I can do my work and have time to think. I just wasn’t prepared to talk about it with strangers. Does that sound snooty?”
“No. It sounds perfectly natural to me. If I was in your shoes, I probably would have told the girls to mind their own business.”
“But I like them. They’re very sweet. I didn’t want to make them mad at me first crack out of the box.”
“They liked you, too. And of course, Ruth Ann and Connie have adopted you. They may not know everything about your personal life but they’ve taken you in as a lost sheep. Bev and Kathy like schmoozing with a celebrity. Whether you want to admit it or not, Ringlet makes you a celebrity. And Christy,” Jamie said, then smiled slightly. “Christy likes you in the Biblical sense.”
“I noticed.” Dana blushed. “Every time I turned around Christy was staring at me.”
“She’s harmless. She was just testing you.”
“Did I pass?”
“Yes, you did. You were polite but gave no sign of encouragement. I don’t think she’ll be drooling on your welcome mat. Although I’m sure she’ll be glad to amend that if you feel the need for her company.”
“Thank you, no. She’s nice but not my type. She’s a little too direct for me.”
Jamie chuckled.
“That’s Christy’s trouble. She’s too direct for most of the women in Olympia. She’s run through the majority of the available women like a red tide, and all she has to show for it is a terrible pick up line and a well worn little black book.”
“Did she try that pick up line on you?” Dana said curiously.
“No, I’m proud to say. She didn’t. My formaldehyde cologne must have worked.”
“I think she’s intimidated by you. They all are.”
Jamie looked at her with a skeptical frown.
“I don’t think so,” she argued.
“Absolutely they are. All of them. Me too, I guess.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Is it? You are a college professor. You have a PhD in biology. You do research. You use a vocabulary most people can’t pronounce, let alone understand. We lowly drones are easily intimidated by intellectuals like you.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Jamie repeated, adjusting her glasses nervously.
“Did I embarrass you, Dr. Hughes?” Dana thought Jamie’s fidgeting was cute. The intelligent scientist was crawfishing over a compliment and it was adorable.
“Dr. Hughes,” a woman said from the doorway. She was holding an opened shipping carton. “I think the part you ordered is here.”
“The rectifier for the electrophoresis?” Jamie said, looking up as if she was thankful for the distraction.
“Yes, I think so.”
“I’ll need to check the invoice on it. They sent the wrong one last time.”
“I better go, Dr. Hughes,” Dana stood up, smiled, and offered her hand. “Thank you again for solving that little matter successfully.”
“You’re welcome,” Jamie said. She stood up and shook her hand warmly. “If the fiscal responsibility becomes larger than the settlement, please do not hesitate to contact me.”
Dana realized she meant the price of the key and chuckled.
“I’m sure it won’t, but thank you.” Dana started up the hall, leaving Jamie to her visitor.
“Miss Robbins?” Jamie called from the doorway.
“Yes?” She turned around.
“Let me know if I can be of any further assistance. Sometimes discussing a problem with an outside observer can help bring the situation into focus.”
“I’ll remember that.”
Chapter 5
Dana had just snuggled down beneath her comforter when she heard a tapping at the door. At first she thought it was the wind blowing the rigging on a nearby sailboat. She was often awakened by the metal connectors tapping against the mast. But when it got louder and more persistent, she realized it wasn’t a sailboat. She rolled over and squinted at the alarm clock. Six thirty.
“Go away,” she muttered and burrowed deeper.
“Aunt Dana, wake up,” a distraught voice called. “Please.” It changed to a whine.
Dana frowned and closed her eyes, wresting one more moment of peace from the night.
“Aunt Dana!” The voice was dripping with mournful pity.
“Shouldn’t you be home sleeping, Juliana?” Dana said, opening the door while she pulled her robe over her shoulders.
Juliana Robbins was twelve and petite for her age. She was a perfect little reproduction of her Aunt Dana from her strawberry blond ponytail to her button nose. Although she didn’t yet have Dana’s pleasing figure, she did have her expressive blue eyes and it was evident Juliana was upset about something so severe that it couldn’t possibly wait until eight o’clock, or even seven.
“What took you so long to answer the door?” she said, pushing her way inside.
“I was in bed, asleep.” Dana closed the door and followed her into the living room. “What is so important it couldn’t wait until a decent hour?”
“Dad is a big fat liar,” Juliana said, enunciating each word for maximum dramatic effect. She crossed her arms and waited for Dana’s reply.
“I’m sure there’s more.” Dana sat down on one of the stools to wait for further information. She blinked herself awake and yawned.
“He told me he would do something, something very important to me. In fact, he promised. And now, when it comes down to the moment of truth, he says no. He won’t do it. It’s not fair!” Juliana’s lip stuck out like a toddler who had just lost a pacifier.
“What is it Steve won’t do?” Dana had to tread carefully. She didn’t want to commit her support until she had all the facts. The last time she blindly took Juliana’s side was over a sleepover on the beach with four other girls without a chaperone. Dana was a seasoned veteran of her niece’s wars. With luck, Juliana would outgrow her dramatics by the time she bloomed into womanhood. If she didn’t, woe to whoever she dated.
“Last Christmas Dad told me to find something we could do together. Just the two of us. He said it could be anything. His dorky idea was going to the zoo. We did that when I was seven.” Juliana made an ugly face.
“What did you pick?” Dana knew where this was going. Juliana undoubtedly chose something absurd like skydiving or being shot out of a circus cannon. The one thing Juliana didn’t seem to have was any of Dana’s practicality. At least not yet. She was impulsive and dramatic, but then again she was twelve.
“Haley Sloan and her mom did it last year and she’s only ten.”
“Did what, Juliana?” Dana demanded, cutting to the chase.
“Sailing. You know, those little boats we see in the harbor. They have a Daddy and Me class. They teach you everything you need to know, and they even provide the life preservers. The classes last a week and it isn’t that expensive. Dad told me to find something to do that cost less than three hundred dollars. The sailing lessons are only two hundred dollars. That’s a whole hundred dollars less.” Each detail seemed important. “And I can swim. That’s the only requirement. You have to be able to swim in case the boat tips over. Dad can swim, right?”
“Right.”
“I did just what he said. I found something for us to do together and it doesn’t cost too much. Now he won’t do it. He chickened out. He’s a big fat liar,” Juliana repeated, concluding her arguments for the prosecution and flopping down on the sofa.
Dana scratched her upper lip, hiding a smile behind her hand. This could probably have waited until later in the day, but since she was here, Dana had
to deal with it. She had been the mother figure in Juliana’s life since she was a baby. Steve, Dana’s older brother, was a single parent, having secured sole custody of Juliana soon after she was born. The pregnancy was an arrangement made to provide Steve, a lifelong gay man, with a child. The mother had no interest in raising a child and happily accepted the ten thousand dollars Steve paid for what he called uterus rental. He was a good parent and a dedicated father. As a trust lawyer handling estates for gay and lesbian couples, he could provide his daughter with a comfortable lifestyle but was wise enough not to spoil her with excesses. Dana suspected this was a conflict over just such an excess.
“Two hundred dollars is a lot of money, Juliana. Maybe you need to find something else you and your father can do together. How about hiking? You like to do that.”
“That isn’t the reason he said no,” she grumbled.
“Sailing could be dangerous.”
“That isn’t the reason either. He said he doesn’t have time to do it.”
“How long are the lessons?”
“Three hours a day for just a week. Five days.” She held up five fingers.
Dana had to admit it didn’t sound like a terribly long commitment. Three hours a day wasn’t much longer than a movie on HBO. There had to be more.
“What exactly did Steve say?”
“He said forget it. No way.”
“Juliana, why did your father say no?”
“He said he couldn’t justify the time off. Those were his very words, justify the time off. Can you believe it? He couldn’t justify the time off for his own daughter.”
“What time of day are these lessons?”
“One to four, Monday through Friday.”
“One o’clock in the afternoon?” Dana had just found the chink in Juliana’s defense.
“Yes. It’s not as if it’s all day. Just the afternoon.”
“Juliana, your father works. He spends every afternoon at his office, in meetings or in court. You can’t very well ask him to take off five days to go sailing.”
“Half day. Not all day.”
The telephone rang before Dana could reply.
“Hello,” she said, suspecting it was Steve.
“Is she there?” he said with an understanding tone.
“Yes.”
“Is she still pissed at me?”
“Yes.”
“Did she tell you why?”
“We were just getting to that.”
“Tell her I’m sorry. I wish I could take this week off but I’ve got meetings every afternoon and I can’t get out of them. If she had given me a little notice, maybe I could have juggled things around but she just sprang this on me last night.”
Dana looked over at Juliana. She was sinking down on the sofa, smirking as if she knew the truth was coming out.
“Dana, tell Juliana I’m sorry. I really am. I don’t want her mad at me.”
“I will, Steve. Don’t worry about it. She’ll be fine. She knows you love her.”
“God, yes. Tell her daddy loves the heck out of her.”
“Let me talk with her.”
“Thanks Dana. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“You’ll owe me one, brother.”
“Yeah, well, I’ll owe you a lot more. I have no idea how I’m going to handle it when she’s old enough to date.”
“One crisis at a time,” she said with a chuckle.
“I’ll come pick her up in thirty minutes. Is that long enough?”
“Don’t bother. I’ll fix her some breakfast then bring her home. Do you have your house key, Juliana?”
She nodded.
“Thanks sis. You’re a sweetheart.”
“Talk with you later,” Dana said and hung up.
“He isn’t going to do it, is he?” Juliana said in full-blown pout.
“No, he isn’t. And I think you know why, don’t you?”
“Yeah, he’s a big fat liar.”
“Juliana Robbins, that isn’t the reason and you know it.” Dana sat down next to her on the sofa and gave her a disapproving stare. She swept a lock of hair from Juliana’s face and tucked it behind her ear. “Your father loves you very much. He wishes he could do fun things with you but he can’t take off that much time from work on such short notice. He has responsibilities. Tell me what would happen if you skipped a whole week of school?”
“Dad would kill me.”
“Besides that.” Dana smiled. “What would happen in the classroom?”
“I’d miss a lot of stuff but that’s different. It’s summer. I won’t miss anything.”
“What do you think would happen to your grades if you missed a whole week of classes?”
Juliana lowered her gaze and didn’t answer.
“You’d have trouble catching up, wouldn’t you? You’d be so far behind you couldn’t keep up with the rest of the class. It could take you weeks and weeks to learn everything you missed. If you didn’t catch up you might even flunk a class or two. A week’s worth is a lot of time to be away from your work.”
“I’ve never been absent a whole week,” Juliana complained.
“I know, sweetie. You’re a very good student. You’re very responsible. And your father is just as devoted to his job as you are to school. Being a student is your job. Being a lawyer is his job. A week away from the office could put your father so far behind it would take him months to catch up. In fact, he might lose some of his clients altogether. If he didn’t keep his appointments they might think he isn’t responsible enough to be their lawyer.” Dana took Juliana’s chin in her hand. “I know you wouldn’t want him to lose a week’s worth of clients, would you?”
“No,” she mumbled softly. “But why did he tell me he’d do something with me if he never intended to do it?”
“Sweetheart, your father would have loved to go sailing with you. He said so. But you sprang it on him at the last moment. If it had been evening classes or weekends he’d love to do it with you. You just have to give him some notice so he can plan for it.”
“This is the only Daddy and Me class they have open. All the night classes are full. They don’t have classes on weekends.”
“But you do understand why he had to say no?”
“Yes. Daddy explained all that stuff, too.”
“Why didn’t you believe him? He never lies to you.”
“Because I want to take sailing lessons,” Juliana said, her eyes welling up with tears.
“Can’t you take them by yourself? I’ve seen kids your age going out in those little boats all by themselves. He’d probably let you do that.”
“I want someone to go with me. I don’t want to do it by myself.” She looked up at Dana woefully. “Would you go with me?”
“Honey, I’m not your daddy.” Dana brushed away the tears trickling down Juliana’s cheeks.
Juliana suddenly brightened.
“It doesn’t have to be Daddy and Me. It could be Mommy and Me! You could be my mom. Dad always said you’re like a bonus mom to me. You can tell them you’re my mom and they’d let you in. Dad can tell them it’s okay. Please, Aunt Dana. Please. It starts today. Please, please, please.” Juliana grabbed Dana’s hands and squeezed. “You know how to swim. I saw you at the beach last summer.”
“Honey,” Dana started.
“Dad will pay for it. I’m sure he will. You and I can take the lessons together. It’ll be fun. And it’ll be right here in the harbor by your houseboat. Convenient, huh, Aunt Dana?”
“Juliana.” Dana chuckled, trying to find room to work in a word or two.
“Dad won’t mind. He trusts you. I heard him say so.”
Dana laughed out loud.
“That’s good to know, but Juliana.”
“You don’t have an office to go to. You work right at home and I heard you say sometimes you work at night so this won’t interfere.” With puppy dog eyes so big and vulnerable and the expectations of youth so innocent, how could Dana possibl
y say no? And Juliana was right. Dana worked odd hours. She worked every day but never on a set schedule.
“They start today?” Dana asked with a furrowed brow.
“Yes. Monday through Friday. One o’clock to four o’clock. Right over there at the Yacht Club dock.” Juliana pointed out the window. “You could walk,” she added as if that was the clincher.
Dana made little puff noises through puckered lips as she thought about it.
“Please,” Juliana begged, jumping up and down anxiously. “It’ll be fun. You and me on a sailboat. I’ll let you drive the boat.”
“Are you sure you call it ‘driving a boat’?”
“What else could it be?”
“I don’t know but I think we are about to find out,” Dana said. Juliana immediately squealed with joy and threw her arms around Dana.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
“But remember, we have to run it past your father and the instructors. If anybody says no, you promise to accept it without a big fit. Promise?”
“Oh, I promise. But it’ll be great. You’ll see.” She grabbed the telephone and punched in her home number. “Dad! Guess what? Aunt Dana is going to take the sailing lessons with me. She said so. It was her idea.”
Dana rolled her eyes and then went to get dressed. From Juliana’s end of the conversation it sounded like Steve approved but wanted assurances she hadn’t pressured Dana into something she didn’t want to do. At this point, it didn’t matter. Juliana was ecstatic. Steve was off the hook as a big fat liar and Dana was about to learn which end of a sailboat was which.
“Dad said that was great. He said to tell you thank you from him,” Juliana said, watching Dana comb her hair in the bathroom mirror.
“No problem, honey. Like you said, it will be fun.” Dana took a deep breath, trying to suppress her fears. “Do we have to go over there and sign up ahead of time?”
“No. Dad said he would do that. He can call them and pay for it over the phone.”
“I’ll pay for it, Juliana. Your father isn’t paying for my sailing lessons. It’ll be my treat.”
“Dad said you’d say that.”
“Well, I’m going to. He’s not paying.”