It was a bit odd to be inside an area that was fully enclosed by a tall stone wall. Across the entranceway, she could see Pete’s Tower. It seemed to be empty, but he was sneaky enough to be hiding and watching.
When she remembered that he’d let her know he’d almost caught them so many years ago, she again started to blush. But she stopped herself. Yesterday had been such an extraordinary day! Sliding bare bottomed across the tree branch, scraping her skin on the stone wall, running through a forest naked. Who did those things at her age?
People who’d missed out in their youth, she thought. From the moment she’d walked into Trumbull Appliances so many years ago, it was as though her life had not been her own. Taking care of Alan’s son and trying to figure out how to revamp an old appliance store had taken all her time. And she’d had to look after Alan. He was one of those men who never remembered where he’d put things, who forgot where he was supposed to be when. Olivia had become a human calendar.
And Kevin was just like his father. He had to be checked for homework, reminded of what was due when. She’d tried leaving it up to him, but Kevin’s tears at not being allowed to go on a field trip because he’d forgotten to get the permission slip signed had broken her. In frustration, Olivia had given a huge discount on a major appliance to Kevin’s teacher in exchange for being told directly about her stepson’s assignments. The next year she did the same thing. She’d heard that at the end of each school term the teachers drew papers out of a bowl. All but one was blank and it had Kevin’s name on it. The winner got her stepson, a quiet, rather lazy little boy, and the appliance of their choice from the store.
Olivia never tried to find out if that was true or not.
She walked on the dew-damp grass, trying to stay out of sight of the tower in case Young Pete was up there.
What she’d overheard Kevin say yesterday had hurt more than she wanted to admit.
Parents often made jokes about how ungrateful children were, but Kevin’s statement that Olivia had always “loved money,” had even married for it, hurt deeply. And it was very unfair!
It had been Alan who’d come up with the idea of opening more appliance stores. Olivia had said that they couldn’t compete with the big national franchises. And besides, how could she work more than she did?
But Alan said he would run the new stores. He’d reminded her that it was his family who had started Trumbull Appliances. “It’s in my blood,” he said.
And of course Alan was backed up by his mother. She believed her only child could do anything.
Olivia had done the work to start the first of the new stores, telling herself that Alan would soon be helping. But just after the store opened, Alan said he’d hurt his back while unloading a truck full of Wolf ranges. He said that as soon as he got well, he’d go back to work. He never got well enough to help with the stores. But his mother did. Together, she and Olivia ran the business.
Six months after the grand opening of the first new store, Alan bought a place in the mountains that he said was for him and Olivia. But she only went there once.
She shook her head to clear it. Why had she put up with it all? she wondered. Why hadn’t she...? But the truth was that these questions only came from hindsight. She didn’t like what it said about her, but she’d had no idea that Alan and Kevin were so very unhappy.
While it was true that she and Alan had never had much of a sex life, she hadn’t minded. She’d never felt that raw passion for him that she’d had with Kit, so she didn’t hunger for it.
Maybe she had been too harsh with Kevin. She was always trying to teach him to...to... What? Be less like his father? To not always depend on others to get him out of messes?
Olivia couldn’t help giving a snort at that thought. Like his father, Kevin landed on his feet. He’d married Hildy, a woman who made all their decisions. When the two of them were nearly bankrupt, Olivia had bailed them out. Thanks to her, they’d not lost so much as a teacup. Today, they still had their huge house, two cars and a pickup, their twice-yearly vacations, the country club membership, et cetera.
She knew that now they were again racking up bills, but she had no more money. Did they think that next time they got in debt that Kit would save them? She dreaded when that showdown came. The anger on both sides would—
Olivia broke off her ugly thoughts because Elise was sitting on an old bench behind Camden Hall and smiling at her. She looked so young and so fragilely beautiful that Olivia stopped frowning and smiled back. “Hungover?” she asked as she sat down beside her.
“No, I’m not. I think Ray’s story of his friend’s death sobered me up. And also, what he said about his wife was too much for me.”
“Poor Kathy,” Olivia said.
“Exactly. She sounds like a great wife. She takes care of him, helps with his work, but there’s no sex between them. He ‘can’t’ do it.”
“Not with Kathy anyway, but for Rita he’s damaged the big oak desk.” Olivia sighed. “How I remember those days.”
“And how I wish I had them to remember.”
“So who’s the Adonis of the Delphiniums?” Olivia asked.
“What do you mean?” Elise’s fair skin blushed almost purple.
“You’re going to keep this from me? After what we’ve shared?”
“Okay, so maybe there is a guy who...I’ve spent some time with. Kent knows Carmen because her older brother takes care of our big shared gardens.” When Olivia looked puzzled, she explained. “My parents and Kent’s live next door to each other, and he and I have a house in the back.”
“That sounds dreadful!”
“You have no idea. I have no privacy. Anyway, Carmen does the bookkeeping and runs errands, whatever, for her brother’s landscaping service. They do the gardens for a lot of our neighborhood.”
“And that’s the brother who you, uh...?”
“Heavens no! Diego has three kids. It’s the younger brother, Alejandro, who I got to know. He’s...well, he’s rather nice looking.”
Olivia looked at her. Elise’s face had faded to a lovely shade of pink. “Drop-dead gorgeous, is he?”
Elise gave a great sigh. “Black hair and dark eyes. Skin like honey and a body... Not that I’ve looked, mind you.”
“I see. What binoculars do you use?”
“The kind made for watching eagles from a mile away. I could identify any three square inches of his bare upper body. I could pick out his jeans-clad lower half by centimeters.”
“And was your interest returned?”
“Let’s just say that I spent a lot of last summer in a rather small red bikini.”
Olivia raised an eyebrow.
“Don’t look at me like that! I’ve never broken my marriage vows. Alejandro and I are friends. He helped me with my Spanish, and we planted a garden together.” As she spoke, she didn’t look at Olivia. “Anyway, it’s his sister, Carmen, who is the love of my husband’s life. It’s hard to imagine now, after all I’ve learned, but a few weeks ago, I asked Kent to bawl her out on my behalf.”
Olivia looked at her in question.
“Carmen pushed a huge flowerpot off a low wall and it almost landed on my foot. If the thing had hit me, it would have broken bones. When I told Kent about it, he said it was my imagination and that Carmen certainly hadn’t done it on purpose.” Elise’s voice was rising in anger.
“Unwed mothers can be vicious to their lovers’ wives. There should be laws.”
A bit of a laugh escaped Elise. “I’m going to have to deal with all this soon and I want you with me.”
Olivia took her arm. “Of course. I’ll be there and I’ll bring a garden truck full of my husband’s lawyer relatives.”
“That sounds perfect. Mind if Alejandro drives?”
“With or without his shirt on?”
“Interesting question since I’ve rarely seen him in a shirt. When we went to the nurseries together and that last night...” Her head came up. “I don’t think he owns many shirts.”
“You could buy some for him.”
“That would be like putting a cover over the statue of David. Repainting the Sistine Chapel. Covering—”
Laughing, Olivia said, “I get it.”