A Sticky Situation (18 page)

“Chicken Alfredo pizza pinwheels and a side salad to keep Doc company,” Piper said. “It's something new I'm trying, possibly as a take-out item. Tell me what you think.” I thought about unrolling my napkin and pulling out the fork and knife but I wasn't sure how to attack Piper's latest creation.

“Is this a finger food or not?” I asked.

“I think that depends on your tolerance for mess. I'm hoping it will stay together fairly well, so why don't you
try picking it up and biting it?” Piper pulled out her order pad and held her pen above it.

As relaxed as Piper is about most things, she's meticulous about recipe development and for her that means a lot of notes. If I had to guess, most of them are notes concerning my reaction to her recipes. Piper and I have been friends since before we finished losing our baby teeth. At least two of my loose teeth came out in some of her earliest creative efforts. I'm glad to say her candy making skills have improved over time.

I took a bite and was glad I'd left Piper to decide what to serve me. The bread was light and yeasty with flecks of basil and oregano. Swirled into the center of the roll was velvety Alfredo sauce, shredded chicken, chopped bits of spinach, and more cheese.

“I'll give it five smiley faces,” I said. Piper nodded and scrawled a few notes on her pad. Ever since those first recipes we'd used smiling or frowning faces to evaluate recipes. Five was the highest praise available except for a smiley face with a halo. Which stood for a recipe so good you'd think you'd died and gone to heaven.

“Glad you like it. I've got some other flavors I'm trialing. I'll bring some by for you after work some evening when I come to see your new place.”

“Perfect.” I waved at her as she walked off to serve some customers I didn't recognize. I turned my attention back to Doc and the sad look on his face as he eyed my plate.

“So why are you eating that instead of something
like this?” I asked. Doc and I share a love of all things maple and also all things loaded with too much cholesterol. He prefers to eat the sorts of things a doctor who was interested in setting a good example would consume only in secrecy. Seeing him with a salad in front of him felt like I was sharing a table with a stranger.

“What's wrong with having a salad once in a while? It's exactly the sort of thing I recommend to my patients all the time.”

“Are you feeling okay?”

“I've just been feeling my age lately and figured I ought to take some of my own advice.”

“What brought this on?”

“If I had to guess I'd say it was the realization that Spooner Duffy went missing a full thirty years ago. Having his body turn up makes me feel my own mortality. After all, I've had at least thirty more years than Spooner did.”

“And you think switching to salads might buy you another thirty?” I wasn't sure that was going to work out so well. If Doc's face was any indication of the stress he was putting himself under with every bite there was a good possibility he was drastically shortening his life.

“Only if they are a good thirty. Getting old is not for the fainthearted.”

“So it would seem. Grampa and Grandma always seem so healthy and chipper. Even Hazel, as crazy as she seems, is in command of her faculties. But then there's someone like Frances, who can't remember from moment to moment if she's met you before.”

“That's exactly what I'm talking about. You sound like you've seen Frances lately.” Doc pushed his salad around with as much enthusiasm as a child who can't leave the table until he clears his plate.

“I saw her earlier today. She seems lucid one minute, remembering all the details of the festival and who did what and when. And the next minute she's completely forgotten who you are and why you're there visiting.”

“I knew Frances's memory had gotten pretty bad but I didn't realize it was as far gone as that. They have doctors at Dappled Oaks and I'm not her primary physician anymore.”

“Priscilla said the stairs were the reason Frances moved out of the apartment over Stems and Hems but by the time I had been visiting her for a few minutes it was pretty obvious something wasn't right with her mind.”

“You mean besides the memory?” Doc stopped playing with his salad and gave me his undivided attention.

“She seems paranoid. She told me someone had installed listening devices in her room at Dappled Oaks and then she said the woman who runs bingo worked for the CIA. She asked me if I'd been followed and then later accused me of having been sent to spy on her. It was scary.”

“Poor Frances. She was always a capable woman with a sharp mind. I never knew anyone who was such a stickler for details as she was except possibly Priscilla. Maybe that's why they got along so well for so many years. I'm certain it was one of the reasons she made such a good bank employee.”

“I felt so bad when I left, I thought I would take her over some of the scrapbooks and photo albums she left at Priscilla's. Do you think seeing those might help her connect with reality a bit more?”

“It's impossible to say if they'll do any good and if they do, how long it will last but I don't expect it will do any harm. And another visit will probably be good for her even if she has no idea who you are. Laughter may be the best medicine but kindness goes a long way, too.”

When I heard a knock on the apartment door my heart started thudding hard in my chest. I was still wearing the clothes I'd used at the sugarhouse. I hoped it was Graham paying me a visit and then I realized not only was my clothing filthy, the bed wasn't made and the dishes sat piled in the sink. I don't know if I was more disappointed or relieved when I opened the door to find Jade standing there with a tea towel–lined basket and a bottle of wine in her hands.

“I thought I'd stop by to check on you before I headed out of town. Something told me you might be up for some company.” Jade flashed me one of her pageant-winning smiles and squeezed past me before I could make an excuse and close the door.

“What's in the basket?” I was still steamed at Jade over the sap disagreement. I wasn't above putting my
stomach before my pride, however. As much as I wasn't thrilled at the prospect of spending any of my evening with Jade, my fridge was as empty as my sink was full. And even as delicious as the pinwheel roll at Piper's had been, it had worn off ages ago.

“Cheese and crackers, bacon maple chutney, and some chocolate bars.” Jade plopped the basket onto the whitewashed trunk that served as a coffee table. Ever a slave to my taste buds I shut the door and fetched wineglasses and a pair of plates.

“Letting you in here doesn't mean I'm not still angry about the sap,” I said.

“I know. I've been thinking things over and realize I was being unreasonable,” Jade said. Settling herself on the small sofa she peeled back the tea towel to reveal the treats inside. Jade expertly removed the beeswax seal from the bottle of wine and pulled the cork. “Let's drink a toast to fresh starts.”

“Are you really prepared to make a fresh start? It feels like things are exactly the same as they were when we were kids. You show up here and expect to be treated just like the rest of us without having to pitch in with the work like everyone else.”

“And you act like I'm an outsider that you're being forced to tolerate.” For just a second I thought I spotted a crack in Jade's perfect veneer. I felt like I'd just keyed a brand-new luxury car. “And that you had to defend yourself against.”

“When you put it that way I can see how I have been defensive,” I said, feeling embarrassed at my lack of
goodwill toward her. “But you always said things that made it sound like Sugar Grove and all of us weren't up to your standards. Like we weren't good enough for you.”

“What did you expect me to do? You know the expression ‘sour grapes.'” Jade let out a sigh and I thought she might cry. “Can you imagine how hard it is to see all of you getting to be Olive and Emerald's grandkids when I have to be Hazel's?” I hadn't ever given that any thought.

“From the way the two of you act I thought you felt she was the world's best grandmother,” I said.

“Hazel and I are both outsiders. It seemed like a good idea to stick together.”

“You know when I was little I just wanted my cool cousin from California to think I was interesting, too,” I said. “But you never seemed to like me at all. I shouldn't have stopped looking to be friends with you.”

“I think we really should try to start over,” Jade said. “Especially since I'm here to stay.”

“What did make you decide to open the winery? I thought your heart belonged to the pageant business.” By all accounts Jade was one of the leading pageant coaches in the country. Why she would have abandoned a thriving business in a field she loved was as baffling as what had happened to the missing festival money.

I spread some of the chutney onto a cracker and popped it into my mouth. The combination was sweet and salty with a hint of apple and onion. I reached for another and then some cheese before I noticed Jade wasn't tucking in along with me.

“Would you believe me if I said I needed a change of pace?” Jade asked.

“Not at all. You were always so passionate about competition and sharing what you knew about winning with younger people. Look how involved you got last year trying to turn Spring into a Little Miss Maple champion,” I said. “I think you wanted her to win far more than she wanted it herself.”

“That's the problem. Sometimes I go a bit overboard,” Jade said.

“But I thought you once said the key to winning was remembering that too much was never enough.”

“Turns out I was wrong about that.” Jade pulled the throw off the back of the sofa and wrapped it around herself like she was trying to hide from something. “My coaching business went kaput.”

“What happened?” I asked.

“There was an incident.” Jade slouched deeper into the sofa and for once she didn't look like she had all the answers. As much as I would have expected to be happy to hear she wasn't perfect I couldn't help but feel sorry for her.

“That doesn't sound good.” I reached into the basket, pulled out a chocolate bar, and handed her a piece.

“Let's just say by the end of it there was no question that I had descended from Hazel's branch of the family instead of your grandmother's.”

“Did you get arrested?” In my mind Hazel incidents and arrests were something that went together like waffles and syrup.

“No, but I was run out of the business by a judge,” Jade said.

“I don't think Hazel has ever gone that far. How did you manage that?”

“I overreached. I pushed too hard. I thought I had finally found a competitor who could end up being Miss America one day.”

“That doesn't sound like something that should involve the legal profession.”

“Not that kind of judge. A pageant judge. She got it into her head to give low marks to every one of my clients.”

“Why would she do a thing like that?” It didn't make sense. People inexplicably liked Jade the way they liked fad purchases like pet rocks and beanbag stuffed toys. No one except Celadon and I ever seemed to dislike her.

“I choreographed a routine involving flaming batons for my very talented young competitor. Unfortunately, I didn't take into account the fact she suffered from severe allergies.”

“Not following you.”

“Congestion in her head threw off her balance. I thought she was ready for four-inch heels but looking back on it I guess her mother was right when she said the child was too young for them.”

“How old was she?”

“Six. But in my defense she looked twelve. Especially in the heels.”

“Did the judge not approve of the heels either?” I thought it best not to weigh in on the subject of heels
and age appropriateness if we were trying to make up. Even with my burning desire to be taller than four foot ten I couldn't attempt such high heels. And I was twenty-seven.

“It wasn't the heels so much as the tripping and the flaming batons. What I don't understand is why she had to be so spiteful about it. After the judge's surgery you could barely notice the scarring at all.” Jade shook her head and sighed deeply. “She gave such low marks to each one of my clients once she was back on the judging circuit that having me as a coach became a total liability. Before a year was out my business had gone completely under.”

“So naturally, you decided to open a winery?” I asked.

“Why not? I'm just following in my parents' footsteps.”

“But why would you come to Sugar Grove if you wanted to follow your parents into the wine business? Wouldn't it have been far better to stay in California and to stick to wines made from grapes?” Not that I would ever have anything bad to say about what might be made from sap but it was an obvious question.

“Because I was inspired by you. You're making a success of your business and you've made working in Sugar Grove seem like such fun I thought I would give it a go myself. Besides, sap wine is not exactly a household name and I decided I would enjoy the challenge of trying to make it one.”

“I won't argue with you about the merits of all things maple.” I bit into a piece of maple bacon cheddar.

*   *   *

“But you will argue with me about the sap. I know I shouldn't have sent Knowlton over to get it without talking to you about it first but I didn't do it for the reasons you think.” Jade took a long sip of her wine and then sagged back against the sofa.

“You didn't hijack my sap in order to produce wine for your own business? What other reason could you possibly have had?”

“I had to get rid of Knowlton.” That explained it. Knowlton's passion for any of the Greene girls was like a chronic illness.

The only real relief we seemed to get from his fervent pursuit was when Jade came to town. It was the one thing I had always enjoyed about her visits. Now with her moving to Sugar Grove full-time surely his attention to me would be lessened.

“He can be hard to take.”

“‘Hard to take' doesn't begin to describe it. Do you know he's started waiting for me on the front steps of the winery every morning when I arrive?” That explained why he wasn't skulking around the sugar bush waiting to pounce on me each morning as I checked how the sap was flowing.

“It's nice to see a friendly face.”

“He stays all day. I can't seem to get rid of him. He
parks himself at the tasting counter and yaks my ear off all day long about taxidermy.” Jade plucked an apricot from the basket and bit down on it with enough force to snap a perfectly whitened tooth.

“So you decided if you couldn't get rid of him you could put him to work? There must be something else you could have had him do to be helpful. Running errands, that sort of thing.”

“I tried but he wasn't taking the hint, wouldn't consider budging until I mentioned visiting Greener Pastures.” Jade threw off the blanket she'd cocooned herself in and stood.

“So you sent him to me?” I paused, a bit of chocolate halfway to my lips. “That wasn't a great way to get on my good side.”

“I was desperate. Yesterday morning he told me how he would pose me if I were stuffed.”

“I'm sure he meant it as a compliment,” I said.

“I don't see how.”

“I expect he wanted to preserve your lifelike beauty.”

I had to agree with her about the creepiness. I had often suspected some of Knowlton's daydreams involved posing Celadon and me in cheerful domestic scenes neither of us would have participated in while alive. I wondered if he was just so enraptured with Jade that he completely forgot himself or if the situation with Tansey had sent him over the edge.

“He's driving me batty. It's almost enough to make me regret opening the winery.” Jade poured herself
another glass of wine and looked like she was prepared to drown her sorrows.

“So you hadn't factored him into your business plan?”

“No. He was not any part of any of my plans. With the way he has been talking taxidermy at the winery I'm afraid he is going to drive off business. Roadkill is hardly the sort of pairing I had in mind for my wines.”

“So what you really want is to be able to send Knowlton on a sap-collecting run to Greener Pastures any time you want to get him out of your hair?”

“That's right. I just need him off my premises for a few hours each day.” Jade's eyes were taking on a feverish sheen. I hated to be the one to burst her bubble.

“But how will that get him out of your hair? With one trip I can supply you with enough sap to more than meet your needs.”

“He doesn't know that though, does he? I'll send him every day for a bit at a time. He won't know any better if I tell him the sap has to be harvested fresh daily to make the best wine.”

“I'll agree under one condition.”

“I'm desperate enough to agree to almost anything.”

“We sit down and calmly discuss how much sap each of us needs for our businesses and how much there is available.”

“Okay. Done.”

“Not quite. You are going to have to put in some time
in the sugar bush learning what goes into making the sap ready for Knowlton to pick up.”

“Agreed.”

“I'm still not done. I also want to pick your brain for some tips for the sugarhouse retail shop and I want to brainstorm some crossover marketing between our two businesses.”

“That's a great idea. I can just see it all now. Gift baskets, tastings at both shops, really highlighting the close-knit family angle.” Jade jumped up off the couch and grabbed her jacket. “I'm going to go home and get thinking about this right away.” Before I could say another word she was gone, leaving her basket of goodies on the table.

I helped myself to another cracker with chutney and wondered about how in the world the problem of Knowlton could possibly have set my relationship with Jade on a new and better path.