Charlie was out of the car before Lin Su could fetch him. And when she got back to the front door with Charlie in tow, Winnie had not taken a seat, nor had she gotten comfortable. She was waiting right there in the foyer, holding Mikhail captive with her arm through his.
“Well, at last,” she said to Charlie. “I don’t think I slept one minute last night!”
“She slept like the dead,” Mikhail said testily. “Snored like a freight train.”
Charlie laughed. It was the first smile Lin Su had seen. “That figures,” he said to Winnie. “You better sit down before you fall down. Go on, then.”
Grumbling something about ingratitude and having no secrets, she turned and hobbled toward the great room where she lowered herself into her favorite chair. Charlie followed. He sat down on the sofa, backpack on the floor.
“Well, you look decent. I guess you’re fine,” Winnie said.
“I’m fine,” he assured her.
“I’m told you were chased by hoodlums,” she said.
“They’re druggies from the neighborhood,” he said.
Lin Su winced. Could their circumstances sound any worse?
“Thing is, they’d rob a nun on Easter Sunday, they’re such lowlifes,” Charlie went on. “I think they rip off houses sometimes—a habit is an expensive hobby and we know they don’t work. But the cops hang around a lot, trying to keep the neighborhood clean. I was looking for a cop—but you can’t ever find ’em when you need ’em.”
“Good Lord,” she said. “Do they live near you?”
“In the area,” Charlie said. “I think they’re from those Section 8 apartments on the other side of the road. I’ve seen them around there. You know—affordable housing for the working poor? It’s a HUD thing.”
“Really,” Winnie said, arching a slim brow.
Lin Su met Troy’s eyes and his eyes laughed. How like Charlie to know all about it and Winnie to not have a clue.
“I’m sure you have some Section 8 housing in Thunder Point,” Charlie said.
“I think I lived in it,” Troy said with a laugh. “I lived in a real crappy apartment complex, old and cheap, right on the edge of town. I added about five dead bolts to my door.” He shrugged. “I’m a schoolteacher. Without a master’s degree.”
“Charlie, did those boys give you a hard time at your old school?” Winnie asked.
Charlie laughed at her. “Winnie, those guys don’t go to school. The guy next door to us, Mr. Chester, used to give me a ride so I wouldn’t have any trouble on the way. School was okay. Once you got there.”
“Have you had breakfast?” Lin Su asked Winnie.
“Yes, of course. Has Charlie?” she asked.
“I ate some sludge they call breakfast at the hospital—it was gross. What have you got?”
“Charlie!” Lin Su admonished.
“Make the boy an egg, Lin Su. I’ll have one, too. Thank God you’re here—everyone is out of sorts without you. We’ll have toast. I’ll have tea and Charlie will have apple juice. Milk will just make him phlegmy, right, Charlie?”
“Right,” he said, pulling his laptop out of his backpack and opening it up. He began clicking away.
“You should try a cup of tea,” Winnie said. “It would be good for you.”
“I’d rather have another asthma attack. Hey, look at this. Average pay for a schoolteacher without a master’s is about forty-two thousand. I don’t think you qualify for Section 8, but if you work at it...”
Troy ruffled Charlie’s hair. “Thanks, bud. Well, now that the first string is on the field, I think I’ll go to the shop and see if Grace needs me. Then set up my classroom for Monday.”
“Is time for walking the town,” Mikhail said. “Thank God!”
Troy headed for the garage to take his Jeep to town while the old Russian went in the direction of the beach to begin his day of wandering. Winnie and Charlie began entertaining themselves with whatever his interest of the day was on his laptop.
With a sigh, Lin Su took to the kitchen.
Ten minutes later she delivered two trays to the living room—each held an egg and toast, on one a cup of Winnie’s favored tea and on Charlie’s tray apple juice. While they ate, Lin Su checked out the bedroom and bathroom. With no nurse or housekeeper to start out the morning, things were a little upside down. She muttered about the lazy men under her breath as she straightened the bedding, folded clothes, cleaned up the bathroom, started a load of wash. Though it only took her ten minutes, she wondered that no one could even attempt order in her absence.
When she got back to the living room the trays with dirty dishes were sitting on the coffee table and Charlie and Winnie were gone. She spotted them on the deck, just as Charlie was helping Winnie to her chair. Aeiiiieee! she thought, holding her tongue, her hand against her heart. She tried to remain calm as she followed them. Talk about the blind leading the blind! A weakened asthmatic boy and a woman with ALS whose balance was horrible at best and her strength flimsy.
“Just what are you doing?” she asked her son. “Why didn’t you call me?”
“I told him not to,” Winnie said. “Really, I think I must have one of those atrocious walker things. God, I hate them! But I hate landing on my ass more! Lin Su, I want you to go fix yourself two eggs, toast and maybe some meat—there’s that microwave bacon or turkey sausage in the fridge. Troy eats both like candy. Then I want you to go to the guest room and lie down for an hour. You’re cranky and you have dark circles under your eyes.”
“I’m fine. I...”
“I didn’t ask if you were fine. I told you to eat and rest. I’m not breaking in another nurse and I want life back to normal.”
“I’m not hungry, thank you.”
“Charlie said you haven’t eaten and I know you haven’t slept. Go. Now. We’re going to look up some things.”
“No moving around until I’m back,” she ordered. “Charlie is not trained in assisting patients.”
Lin Su pursed her lips in an angry line, but neither of them bothered to look at her. She went to the kitchen and in exactly four minutes she had scrambled and eaten two eggs and a half slice of toast. Screw the bacon, she thought rebelliously. She went to the guest room, angry at being told what to do. She slipped off her shoes. Her eyes got a little teary as she lay down, flat on her back, hands folded over her waist. I am not tired, she thought furiously.
* * *
Lin Su awoke with a start, heart pounding, the sound of laughter coming from the other room. She jumped up, slipped into her clogs and rushed into the living room. There were Grace, Blake, Scott Grant, Winnie and, on the floor with his laptop balanced on his crossed legs, Charlie. A soiree. While she slept.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Lin Su,” Grace said. “We were being quiet!”
“No, we weren’t,” Scott said. “But we meant to be. I just stopped by to check on Winnie and Charlie, both of whom are well enough.”
“I came over to get the latest on Charlie, but seeing your car...” Blake said.
“And Troy took over at the shop for a couple of hours so I could come home and ask Mother if she needed anything. I’m glad you had a little rest,” Grace said.
“I wasn’t tired,” Lin Su insisted.
They all laughed and she looked at her watch. “Oh, God,” she said, dropping her gaze to the floor. She had slept for three hours! Lunch! She’d missed lunch! “I’m so sorry. You must be starving, Winnie!”
“No, you will be starving. We’ve eaten. Charlie made sandwiches for us. Except for Blake, who eats tree bark, seaweed and unborn animals.”
“It’s not as bad as that,” he said with a laugh.
“What you eat actually sounds worse,” Winnie said. “You had a very good rest, my dear. How you thought you weren’t exhausted is a mystery.”
> “I didn’t realize...”
But her son narrowed his eyes at her. He didn’t like that she never expressed a need or weakness.
“You were right, I was a little tired,” she relented.
“I’m accustomed to being right about everything. Ask my daughter. Now fix yourself something to eat and join us. There’s gossip. Grace can tell you all about her former assistant, Ginger, who fell in love with a Basque farmer and ran away to his farm to marry him.”
“I’m going to get back to the clinic,” Scott said. “I know this story—I married a Basque woman. Same family. Charlie, you have my number. You know you can call me anytime. If your meds run out or aren’t doing the trick...”
“Yeah, thanks, Doc. I got it.”
“Lin Su, when you have some time, let’s have a conversation about running a few routine lung function tests on Charlie as a follow-up,” Scott said. “We should do an assessment of his progress or the lack. Just give me a call.”
“Absolutely,” she said. “Thank you.”
Lin Su went to the kitchen to make herself a half sandwich. Because the house had an open floor plan, she had no trouble hearing the story. She knew most of it, anyway, if not the finer details. She’d been on the scene since June. That’s when Grace and Troy got married; Grace had a little bun in the oven already and her assistant, Ginger, helped set up all the flowers for the wedding. The person who hadn’t gotten all the details was Winnie, who was lapping them up.
“When Ginger thought Matt was taking her for granted, not calling her back when he said he would, she just changed her number. That got his attention. After that it was almost smooth sailing until Ginger insisted that Matt confront his own failed marriage and make peace with his ex-wife, who he hated.”
“Your father had an ex-wife he hated,” Winnie said. “We had no conflict with that. I hated her, too.”
“Well, we’re talking about different people and it all worked. Matt made peace. Ginger was so proud of him and so touched. I caught her crying in the workroom. So I told her to pack a bag and go! Matt’s the man she’s been waiting for all her life. She wants nothing more than to make a home for a family, and boy, does he have family. He’s one of eight—Peyton’s younger brother and a partner in the Lacoumette farm with his father and brother. It’s a match made in heaven. I offered to do the flowers.”
“Grace, I had no idea you were such a romantic,” Winnie said.
“I had no idea I was romantic, either, till I met Troy,” she said.
“Gag,” Charlie said.
“You wait, little man,” Grace said. “Some girl is going to come along someday and twist your tail good!”
That made Lin Su smile. Then she saw Blake coming to the kitchen. He stood beside her and looked at her with kind eyes. Bedroom eyes. His thick lashes hooded his striking blue eyes.
“I think you’re feeling better today,” he said softly.
“Considerably,” she said. Then she sighed, looked down and shook her head sadly. “My apologies. Winnie was right. I was out of sorts.”
“Who wouldn’t be?” he returned.
“I had the lock repaired, so you needn’t worry that we’re not safe,” she whispered to him.
She could see a troubled look cross his face. That lock was the least of it and they both knew it. If those creeps could chase a defenseless kid in broad daylight they could assault a small woman as she walked from her car to the door. For that matter, they could grab a crowbar and pop open that door.
“My offer stands,” he said. “You wouldn’t be in the way. In fact, I might not notice you’re there.”
Oh, she would never! “That’s so kind of you,” she said. “I am grateful. We’ll be fine.”
“I’ve offended you,” he said. “I’m sorry. Maybe someday when you know me better... Well, let’s just say I would never criticize your choices. Clearly, you’re a survivor. But I apologize if my offer...”
“No, think nothing of it.” She cut the sandwich in half and transferred it to a plate. “Let’s join the party.” And carrying the plate, she went to the living room.
* * *
Lin Su did consider Blake’s offer of housing in spite of herself. In fact, her pride came so hard. She wanted to be safe, comfortable and warm; she wanted the best for her son. There was some ingrained part of her that fought so hard for the pride that made accepting charity a last resort.
On the weekend, the last weekend before the start of school, there seemed to be a lot of socializing on the beach and around Cooper’s bar. Families were getting ready to be free of the kids, teachers were preparing for the first week of school. A group of cheerleaders were practicing on the beach and Spencer told Lin Su that the nights of fall were filled with fires on the beach, cheers and laughter from the teens, usually following the football games.
On Sunday while she was sitting on the deck with Winnie and Troy, three familiar women came walking down the beach toward the house.
“There they are,” Troy said with a grin. “The belly brigade. I thought they were having lunch with Iris.”
“And dessert with Winnie and Mom,” Charlie said. He was sitting on the chaise, laptop open.
Lin Su just looked down shyly, but Grace had told her that morning. In fact, Lin Su was invited to Iris’s for lunch, but she respectfully declined, saying Winnie might need her. And so Grace had told her to catch up on whatever chores there were so she could join them. It was a beautiful, sunny day and they’d sit out on the deck, so Lin Su went inside to find place mats for the table.
By the time Lin Su was wiping down the table before the place mats were set down, it was obvious that Grace was carrying a pie and Peyton was carrying a grocery bag that probably held ice cream.
“We’re gonna want to get out of here, Charlie,” Troy said.
“They have pie!” Charlie said.
“Winnie will save you some,” Troy said. “Let’s go throw the Frisbee around while they talk about stretch marks, due dates, birthing plans and other boring stuff.”
“Will you save me pie, Winnie?” he implored.
“You know you don’t even have to ask!”
Before they could make a getaway, the women stopped them on the beach. Iris spent a lot of time talking to Charlie while Grace and Peyton were laughing with Troy. And finally they were on the deck.
“Look at this,” Grace said. Lin Su had the table set with dessert plates, napkins, forks and cups. She had brewed two pots of tea and added cream and sugar to the table. “This is so perfect. We’re having a tea party!”
While Lin Su was loath to admit it, the time she spent with these women was wonderful fun. They laughed so hard they had to pee. For the pregnant ones, this was an issue—one at a time they were skittering off to the bathroom. Winnie laughed as hard as the others.
They had due date issues—it seemed they were all due within a few days of one another, all planned to go to Pacific Birthing Center, had the same OB and midwife. They described scenarios in which they were all in labor at the same time, ready to give birth simultaneously. Grace confessed she didn’t know the gender of their baby—she had a bet with Troy. Iris was having a girl—the Sileskis were famous for making boys so the baby girl would be so welcome. Peyton said she and Scott knew but weren’t ready to tell. She wouldn’t even divulge the colors of the nursery.
They talked a bit about Ginger and Matt. Peyton had the inside scoop being both close to Matt and her mother. “She’s living on the farm in an RV. A swanky RV that Matt says is a rental and he’s going to upgrade that to an even nicer model. They’ll be in it for a year while they’re building their house near the orchard.”
“God, what an awesome place to live!” Grace said. “Lin Su, someday we’ll take you and Mother to the Lacoumette farm—in the spring when the orchard is in bloom.”
r /> “Late spring,” Peyton said. “When the planting is in full swing, when they’re shearing and lambing and Mama’s garden is ripening. When the pear trees are in full bloom. Winnie, you will be amazed by the beauty!”
“Is it handicap accessible?” she asked wryly.
“There are so many big men,” Grace said. “You’ll think you’ve died and gone to heaven. Mikhail will be so jealous.”
“Lin Su, we’ll bring Charlie—and his EpiPen! There are insects. And we’ll bring Scott—he’s almost as good as an EpiPen. We’ll have a caravan,” Peyton said.
“Ginger came to get the rest of her clothes last week. We had a dinner out to say a proper goodbye to the girls. It was not sad,” Grace said. “I’ve never seen anyone more in love, more ready for the next phase of her life. Hey!” she suddenly exclaimed. “She came to gather up the last of her things! The loft is empty again!”
Everyone just looked at her, not understanding.
“Lin Su, didn’t you want to get closer to town? Well, it’s there if you want it.” Grace bit on her lower lip. “It’s very small, probably much smaller than you’re used to. There’s only one bedroom, but it’s a pretty big bedroom, and the couch is a pullout. Oh, and the kitchen is hardly anything—tiny—but if you and Charlie are having a lot of meals here, maybe that wouldn’t be too inconvenient. I lived in it for over a year. It’s kind of great actually.”
“I wouldn’t want to impose...”
“Impose?” Winnie asked. “If someone doesn’t live in it, it will sit and mold. Troy and Grace put the furniture and TV from his apartment downstairs. That loft is like an adorable little tree house. I’ve seen it exactly once—I was charmed.”
“Well, Mother. You never said that!” Grace said.
“I think we weren’t getting on at the time. But it is darling, Grace. Lin Su, you should consider it. At least look at it. Small but comfortable.”
Lin Su smiled and nodded. They thought she couldn’t live in a small space? That made her happy—they didn’t know how little it took to make her happy. “I have a very tight budget. Single mothers all do,” she said. “But I’d love to see it.”