Second Time Sweeter

  “I’m impressed,” Gary said.

  “It pays the bills. Also keeps me from needing money from a husband, especially since the only one I wanted is taken.”

  She’d been in love with Trent since kindergarten. The two might have married eventually had Lily Fontaine not showed up at track practice one day after moving to Henry Adams. The moment Trent saw her, he lost his mind and his heart.

  Val sipped her punch. “Fontaine’s my girl, but I hate her. In fact, I call her once a month just to let her know I still do.”

  He laughed.

  Val said, “I heard you and Cruella are divorced.”

  He choked on the appetizer he’d taken a bite of and coughed and laughed. He hadn’t heard Colleen called that in years.

  Val playfully slapped him on the back a few times. “Sorry. She did you dirty, Clark.”

  Gary agreed but didn’t want to talk about it. “Water under the bridge now. I got two amazing daughters out of the deal, though.”

  “Good, because you were way nicer than most guys would’ve been. Everybody knew you were being railroaded.”

  He did too, but had Colleen’s father made good on his threats, Gary would probably be just getting out of prison.

  Val added, “And the question you’ve been dying to ask? Nori’s on her way. Trent picked her up at the airport about an hour ago. They should be arriving shortly.”

  Anticipation did crazy things to his heart rate, so he forced himself to calm down.

  “She just retired after teaching high school algebra. Never married, though.”

  “Lily told me that the other day.”

  “And now that Cruella is no longer in the way, maybe you two can finally find your happily-ever-after.”

  “Val?” he said warningly.

  “Fontaine stole mine, I can root for you and Nori,” she said in defense.

  He chuckled.

  “Don’t look now, but there she is, just coming in the door.”

  “With Colleen behind her,” Gary added. His elation died.

  “Ignore her. Do this right and I’ll have a screenwriter I know turn it into a movie. Let me know who you want to play your part.” She raised herself on her toes and gave him a peck on the cheek. “See you later. Good luck.”

  He nodded but all he could see was Nori. She was, of course, still tall, wearing silky black pants, a top, and a long-sleeved jacket made of the same silky material. There was silver around her neck and matching hoops in her ears. Her hair was worn natural, framing her gorgeous dark brown face with a mass of curls. Numerous people surged forward to greet her, Lily included, but he hung back and watched. He watched Colleen, too. No one surged up to greet her and he saw her cut an irritated look Nori’s way. Colleen spotted him and waved like they were long-lost friends. He didn’t return the wave, but as she moved in his direction, he prepared himself for an encounter he knew wouldn’t go well.

  “Hi, Gary.”

  “Colleen.” As always, she was fashionably dressed in a well-fitting red dress, her favorite color.

  “You could at least act happy to see me.”

  “It’s too late in the day for lying, Colleen. How was your flight?”

  She pouted. “And here I was all excited to tell you I’m taking you back.”

  He froze. “Back where?”

  “As my husband.”

  “Bigamy is against the law.”

  “Brad and I are getting a divorce. He says I’m too high maintenance, but he’s just cheap. I got the papers when he moved out a few days ago.”

  “Sorry to hear that.” All he could think about was her ugly treatment of Leah and it gave him one more reason not to be around her any more than necessary. Watching Nori holding an animated conversation with Jud on the far side of the room, he excused himself to Colleen. “I think Lily needs my help. Have a good time this weekend. Let me know when you want to see the girls.” And he walked away.

  As he did, he shook his head. That Colleen somehow believed he’d agree to marry her a second time was insane. He’d initially thought new husband Brad nuts to marry her too, but now that the man wanted out, after less than two years, Gary guessed Brad was smarter than he’d given him credit for.

  Gary joined Lily and Trent at the front of the room for the official welcome. As Lily spoke and relayed what the committee had in store for the weekend, he discreetly scanned the room and his eyes met Nori’s. She gave him an almost imperceptible nod and turned away. He’d been prepared for that, but still found the impersonal acknowledgment disappointing. Chastising himself for expecting more, he was glad when the lights dimmed for the viewing of the slide show.

  It strung together all the photos sent to the committee by the attendees. Juxtaposed with a soundtrack of the music they had listened to, they saw themselves as high schoolers again, much to everyone’s delight. There were pictures of people posing after school, during athletic events, at graduation, and at the proms. With each new reveal, the classmates laughed and commented on the clothing and hairstyles. A picture of the teenage Lily and Trent grinning and seated side by side on the trunk of his car, Black Beauty, drew a loud “Aw.” A shot taken during the fight Lily got into at a track meet after being punched by a girl from another school during a race evoked cheers. Someone yelled, “And the winner! The Fabulous Fontaine!” Laughter rang out. The next picture showed Gary standing at the free-throw line during a basketball game, and he marveled at his skinny legs in his very short shorts. The next slide, taken of the girls’ and boys’ track teams, showed them all huddled together and smiling. Gary picked out himself along with Lily, Trent, and Nori. The pictures flooded him with memories of a more innocent, carefree time, when life had been simpler, and in some ways kinder. The boy in the pictures had no idea of the struggles he’d face in the years ahead.

  When the lights came on again, applause filled the room and people were wiping their eyes. Gary guessed he wasn’t the only one moved by the images and remembrances of their shared past.

  They spent the rest of the evening playing bid whist, dominoes, and spades. They drank, ate, talked smack, and caught up on what everyone had been doing since graduation. As one of the hosts, Gary floated between the tables and booths and even took a beating during a game of whist. He’d forgotten what a terrible player his partner, Val, was. Colleen and Bebe Carter, one of Colleen’s mean-girl friends, were in a booth in the back. He avoided them. At 10:00 p.m., the fun ended. They would reassemble tomorrow morning for a tour and a cookout at the rec. Calling good-byes, some people drifted out to make the drive back to hotel rooms in Franklin, while others stayed to gallantly help put up the chairs and fill trash bags with the discarded plates and cups.

  Gary was clearing a table when he spotted Howie aka Howard talking to Nori. By his unsteady sway, Howie’d had too much to drink, and whatever he was trying to run on Nori, she wasn’t feeling it. Her jaw was tight and her smile fake. Lily appeared at her side, and the encounter ended as the women moved away. Howie watched them go with angry, glassy eyes. Gary suddenly remembered that Howie had taken Nori to their senior prom. She and Gary were supposed to be going as a couple, but Colleen and her outraged father killed that plan. When the dust settled, Gary was forced to take Colleen. Nori, left with no date, had gone with Howie. Prom night was the last time he’d seen her, until this evening. Drawing his mind away from that, he watched Lily and Nori walk to the exit and felt the sadness tug at him again. Throwing it off, he focused on helping Trent and the others finish the cleanup.

  Colleen came up behind him. She had her coat over her arm and Bebe Carter by her side. “How about I have breakfast with you and the girls tomorrow and we can talk about us reuniting as a family?”

  “You’re welcome at breakfast, but we aren’t having a conversation about reuniting.”

  “I think the girls would like it, so—”

  He cut her off. “Listen to me. You and I are not getting remarried. Ever. No discussion needed. Good night, Colleen. Drive safely.?
?? He walked off toward the kitchen doors to dispose of his trash bag and left her and the embarrassed Bebe in his wake.

  Seething, he was leaning against one of the counters, when Trent walked into the quiet kitchen. He took one look at Gary’s angry face and asked. “You okay, man?”

  “No. Colleen is getting divorced and wants to get remarried.”

  “To you?”

  “Yeah.”

  Trent’s jaw dropped.

  Gary quipped, “Insanity is a helluva drug.”

  “Wow. Is she serious?”

  Gary nodded. “Wants to come to breakfast in the morning to talk about it. Thinks the girls would like the idea.”

  “Would they?”

  “No. Leah would run away from home for sure.” He told Trent about Leah’s dealings with her mother over the summer. Trent looked appalled. “That’s awful.”

  “Yeah, it is. So, no, Leah doesn’t want anything to do with her mother, and frankly neither do I.”

  “I’m sorry, man.”

  “She screwed up my life enough. The only good thing that came out of our marriage was Lee and Tiff.” Gary wanted to punch a wall. Sunday night, when Colleen flew back to Atlanta, couldn’t arrive soon enough.

  “Are you going to let her come for breakfast?”

  “Yes. No choice really. I don’t want her accusing me of keeping the girls from her and wind up in court. I’ll let them know when I get home so they’ll be prepared.” He wondered if NASA needed volunteers for a Mars mission. He had a candidate named Colleen Ewing. “And in other news, I got nothing but a cold shoulder from Nori. Wasn’t this reunion supposed to be fun? I want a refund. Who do I see about that?”

  Trent chuckled. “At least you still have your sense of humor.”

  “Beats cussing and crying. As long as Colleen goes home on Sunday, I can put up with her for a weekend.”

  “That’s the spirit.”

  Gary pushed off from the counter. “Let’s get this place cleaned up so we can go home.”

  As Trent went out the door, he tossed out casually, “Just so you know, on the ride from the airport, Nori did ask if you were here.”

  Gary stopped. His eyes widened. He viewed the grin on Trent’s face and responded with a grin of his own.

  After the cleanup, Gary drove home thinking about Trent’s revelation. He’d been ecstatic at first, but the more he thought it over, the more he wondered what it meant. Had Nori asked because she was interested, or so she could avoid him? From the brush-off she’d given him this evening, the latter seemed a likelier answer, but was it? Like most of his gender, he found women hard to read, and now, with Nori, he felt as clueless as the guy in the old Switch tune who wanted to know if the girl liked him, could he call her, and if it was her real phone number. Rather than make himself crazy wondering about it, he set the issue of Nori aside. The reunion would continue tomorrow and hopefully he’d have answers by the time everyone went home on Sunday. The more immediate problem lay with Colleen. As he drove up the driveway and into the garage, it was a bit past eleven thirty. He hoped the girls were still awake. They needed to know their mother was coming for breakfast.

  He found them in the spare bedroom they’d converted into their media room. It held gaming equipment, beanbag chairs, a pair of old but reupholstered recliners, wireless speakers, and a huge fifty-five-inch flat screen he’d gotten for a song from a former employee who was moving out of state. Each girl claimed two walls. On one of Leah’s were the planets of the solar system laid out against a blue-black background representing space. Using stencils and poster paint, she had needed nearly a month to get the proportions and colors of each planet the way she wanted, and it turned out magnificently. On her other wall were pictures of her heroes and sheroes: Einstein, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, Mae Jemison. In the center was the woman who most held her heart, the late Claudia Alexander. She was the last project manager for NASA’s Galileo Project to Jupiter, and a force of nature in planetary physics and space exploration. Ms. Alexander passed away in 2015, and Leah had been inconsolable for days knowing they’d never meet.

  Tiff’s walls were a tribute to popular culture. One was covered with pictures and posters of her queens: Serena and Beyoncé. The other was devoted to her king: Chance the Rapper.

  Both girls had their earbuds in. When they finally noticed Gary standing in the doorway, their warm smiles made his heart swell. They were the only thing he and Colleen had gotten right.

  Leah removed her buds. “Hey, Dad. How’d it go?”

  “I had fun.”

  Tiff asked, “Did you see your old girlfriend?”

  He nodded. “I did. She basically ignored me, though.”

  “No!” Tiff cried, eyes filled with concern.

  Leah added, “Then forget her. She’s not worth your time.”

  He didn’t respond to that, but instead said, “I saw your mom, too. She’s coming to breakfast in the morning.”

  Tiffany fell back against her beanbag and threw up her hands while Leah asked, voice cool, “Why?”

  “She wants to see you.”

  “Did you tell her it wasn’t necessary?”

  “Lee . . .” he said with a warning tone.

  “I’m serious, Dad. Her seeing us is unnecessary.”

  “She’s coming anyway. And you may as well know, she wants us to get married again.”

  Tiff’s face creased with confusion. “She can’t have two husbands, can she?”

  Leah answered: “No. It’s called bigamy. She could go to jail. Is she divorcing Brad already?”

  “He’s divorcing her, apparently. She just got the paperwork recently.”

  Leah said, “I’d divorce her too if she yelled at me the way she does him.”

  “She thinks reuniting the family is something you girls would like.”

  “Was she drunk, Daddy?” Tiff asked.

  He hid his smile. “I don’t think so, babe.”

  Leah said, “She had to be. You didn’t agree with her, did you?”

  “No.”

  “Good, because that’s a totally messed-up idea. We like our family just the way it is now.”

  He agreed. “I expect you to be respectful to her while she’s here.”

  Tiff said, “Okay.”

  He looked over at his oldest. “Lee?”

  “I always am, Dad, but someone needs to tell her the same thing. Just because I’m her daughter doesn’t mean she can be nasty to me whenever she feels like it.”

  “I’ll have your back. Promise.”

  Tiff turned to her sister. “Can we have waffles?”

  “If you fry the bacon.”

  “Deal.”

  He enjoyed their sisterly camaraderie, and for the hundredth time wondered what it might have been like to have a sibling of his own. “I’m going to my room. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  They called out good night, went back to their earbuds, and he walked down the hallway to his bedroom.

  The next morning he came down to a kitchen fragrant with the sweet scent of bacon. Tiff was standing over a skillet filled with it, and Leah was giving a bowl of batter a last few stirs with a wooden spoon.

  “Morning, ladies.”

  “Morning.”

  He sat down at one of the counter stools. “Did you sleep well?”

  They nodded.

  “How about you?” Tiff asked

  “I did.” Truthfully, he’d flipped and flopped all night long. He didn’t really fall asleep until a few hours before dawn. He wasn’t sure why but guessed it might have stemmed from the uncertainty surrounding Nori and the certainty of Colleen. As a result, he was dragging and wanted to go back to bed.

  Leah asked, “Are you going to the reunion dance tonight?”

  “I am.”

  “Too bad you and your old girlfriend didn’t hook up. You could go together on a date.”

  He agreed. Not that he knew a thing about dating at his age.

  The doorbell rang.

  ??
?I’ll get it,” he said.

  He opened it to find Colleen on the doorstep. “Good morning.”

  “Good morning,” she replied. She was wearing jeans, a black turtleneck, and a leather jacket. Looking past her at the driveway, he didn’t see a vehicle. “How’d you get here? Someone drop you off?”

  “Uber. I was floored that I could get a driver in Franklin,” she replied, coming in. “I figured we could go to the tour together and then to the dance tonight.”

  “Did it occur to you that I might have other plans?”

  She smacked him playfully on the arm. “What else would you have to do?” She removed her coat, handed it to him, and walked into the living room. Fuming that she always made plans for him without asking him first, he hung her coat in the closet and followed.

  “Ah, here are my girls,” she said cheerily. “How are you?”

  “We’re fine,” Tiff said.

  Leah said, “Hi.” She then poured some batter onto the opened waffle iron.

  “Why are you cooking?” Colleen asked her.

  “It’s what I do.”

  Colleen turned to Gary. “Why aren’t you doing the cooking?”

  “Because Leah enjoys it and is way better at it than I am.”

  “But you’re the parent.”

  He didn’t respond.

  Leah said, “You’re a parent, but you never cooked breakfast for us in Atlanta.”

  Colleen glared. “I have a maid.”

  “And Dad has me.”

  Tiff took the last of the bacon from the skillet. “And me.”

  Colleen’s lips tightened. “So, how’s school?”

  “Fine,” they replied in unison, but didn’t respond further.

  Visibly irritated by their brevity, Colleen nonetheless pasted on a smile and said sweetly, “Tiff, I love your hair.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Where are you getting it done?”

  “In town.” Her hair was elaborately braided in a way that took shop owner Kelly Douglas hours to do.

  Colleen eyed Leah critically and asked, “Is someone doing yours, Leah?”

  “Yes. Me.” Leah wore her hair in a loose curly ’fro that reminded her father of Nori’s. He wondered what Nori was doing this morning.