“So you did the deed!” Lloyd strode up and clapped Nate on the shoulder hard. “Welcome to the club, man. Congrats. Why the hell didn’t you say so?”
Dave burst into hearty laughs. “Another one bites the dust. Good job, you two. Finally! This is so great.”
Nate forced a grin. “We haven’t set anything yet. We’ll keep you posted.” He stood behind Kay and rested both hands on her rigid shoulders, stroking tenderly, trying to put his apology into his touch. Would she believe him if he told her this wasn’t how he wanted everyone to find out? Particularly since she hadn’t said yes?
Hugs, backslaps and handshakes started flying, and beers were popped and handed around.
Nate caught Kay back to him and wrapped an arm around her waist. She had a stunned smile on her face. Crap. The beer can crinkled under his grip. Apparently, it was time to start practicing his groveling.
JoAnn raised her 7-Up. “A toast to our friends. May the love you share only grow stronger. And, Nate, remember these two little words and you’ll never go wrong…”
“What?” Three words. Two words. Did they think he was completely incompetent? Hell, friends. Can’t understand them. Can’t strangle them.
JoAnn’s mouth twitched with suppressed laughter before she spoke perfectly deadpan, “Yes, dear.”
****
So, Kay and Nate, have you set a date?
JoAnn’s question kept echoing through her head. Kay wondered if fainting would help. Probably not. She took a long swallow of her beer. Shouting,
No, I didn’t say yes!
wouldn’t go over well. She wanted to curl up and disappear, but she kept a smile pinned on her face.
Nate kissed her cheek and whispered, “This wasn’t how I planned, well…Sorry.”
Everyone finding out wasn’t his fault. Just made everything more complicated. She sighed and squeezed his hand. “I know. I’m not mad at you.” Dazed and confused, but not mad.
The hoopla settled and peace reigned for a few minutes, until Dave stirred everyone up to go skiing.
Turned out Mark had also bet Dave twenty bucks he couldn’t ski barefoot.
Nate took the helm, and Dave skillfully won that bet.
He waded onto the shore, peeling off the rubber glove he’d taped on over his bandaged hand, and, with a piratical grin, slapped a gaping Mark on the shoulder. “Never say never, grasshopper. Want to learn to walk on water and wow the girls?”
“Hell, yeah.” Mark handed over the twenty with open awe. “Where do I sign up?”
Dave grabbed up his towel and scrubbed his head. He paused, towel slung around his neck, and cocked a weighing look at Olivia. “Hey, Olivia, ready to take a run?”
“No, thank you.” She shook her head and didn’t meet his eyes. “And you should be more careful with that hand of yours.”
She spoke softly, her words simple concern, but Dave visibly bristled. “My hand’s fine.”
“If you want it to be fine, you’ll take better care instead of doing hijinks on the water.”
“Hijinks? And what business is it of yours, Ms. Harper?” Dave’s eyes narrowed.
“I was only trying to be nice.” Olivia crossed her arms and slowly raised her chin to give him a surprisingly firm don’t-mess-with-me stare with those soft brown eyes.
Dave glared back at her, his eyes gone hard as topaz. “Well, don’t bother.”
“I won’t.” She heaved an exasperated sigh and set her book aside. “Mercy and a half, carry a little attitude around, do you?” She launched out of her chair, scooped up her cigarettes and lighter, and walked primly to the farthest edge of the beach.
“Hell.” Dave shook his head, slapped his towel over the nearby chair, and stomped off to his boat.
Whoa. What just happened there? Kay glanced at JoAnn.
JoAnn rolled her eyes. “I have no idea. Full moon?”
Over on Dave’s boat, Nate must have asked Dave the same thing, because Dave flipped him the finger as he hopped onboard, and shrugged off whatever Nate said next.
Dave shoved on his sunglasses and snarled over his shoulder, “Okay, who’s next? Shake a leg.”
After the skiing finished, folks drifted off, each to their own pre-lunch relaxation, mostly napping and reading. Olivia hovered about, smoking in fits and starts, and after JoAnn had a quiet talk with her, she grabbed her beach bag and left for a walk. JoAnn curled up for a nap in the shade. Kay flaked out on a perfect opportunity to talk with Nate alone when he moved the Whisper around to her camp, and instead leapt at his suggestion to kick back and hang with Patti and Margie. She told herself she just didn’t want to rush into saying anything stupid.
When Olivia hadn’t returned by lunch, Mark voiced his concern. “Shouldn’t we make sure she’s okay?”
JoAnn tossed him the head of lettuce. “She’s over at High Water resting. Just leave her be for a while. Chop that up for me.” She gave a pointed frown at Dave.
Dave had the grace to flush, and then scowled sulkily and buried his head in the nearest cooler to pull out condiments for lunch.
Nate tugged Kay into his arms while they set the table and whispered into her ear, “Any clue what his problem is?”
“No idea.”
R.J. arrived back at camp after lunch was finished and the food cleared away.
“Hey, where’s lunch?”
“Done and over.”
“Where’s Olivia?”
JoAnn set her book on the table and fixed him with a cool stare over the rim of her sunglasses. “Like you care.” She picked up her book and resumed reading.
Kay waved a hand in the direction of the cooler. “You can go ahead and fix a sandwich yourself. Stuff’s in the cooler.”
R.J. stared as if shocked she hadn’t leapt right up to serve him. Then, after she settled more comfortably into her seat, he shot her a pissy look and stomped off to the cooler without a word. He built his sandwich, piled chips on the paper plate, and popped a beer. He dropped into the chair opposite JoAnn and Kay and plowed into his sandwich.
As soon as he finished eating, he took off in his boat again, leaving his dirty plate and half-finished beer on the table.
By one o’clock, most everyone headed out for fishing or cruising. Mark stayed behind to catch up on reading for a course he was taking. Nate volunteered to tag along with Chuck to fetch Pippa and April, and he promised to hit the store for Kay and grab her ski out of her truck so she could stay behind to get some painting done in peace and quiet.
Nate kissed her. “Love ya. Be good.”
They were simple words, ones he said all the time online, but this time a bubbly feeling, strange, strong and potent, welled up in her, and she cupped his cheek and kissed him back.
Whoops and catcalls broke out. Nate grinned, proud and happy.
Why couldn’t she feel like that, sure and happy, instead of this confusion? She didn’t recognize herself anymore.
Love ya
. Had his casual, flip phrase been him saying
I love you
all these years?
Kay headed back to her own camp, determined to conquer the Coyote Point painting.
The Morning Whisper now bobbed beside her little Duckling. Her camp now felt complete, but the tranquil quiet was oddly dull after the chaotic morning.
Geez. Never happy, are you
?
Before she headed up, she slathered on more sunscreen, slipped on a long-sleeved shirt and long pants over her swimsuit, and exchanged sandals for sneakers. She braided her hair back and tied her floppy wide-brimmed sun hat on her head.
Her battered beach umbrella marked her spot a good distance upslope from camp. The high whirring of cicadas in dried-out brittlebushes stopped as she neared and resumed when she was past. When she was little, she’d called them rattlesnake bugs.
She had to admit this was the craziest time imaginable to work up on the hilltop. The heat from the ground slammed at you—but she wanted the light, so she came up.
The Coyote Point version four began well—she could draw the scene now in her sleep, and the layout on the larger block pleased her—but her focus was shot, and the washes fought her, drying fast, and pooling the colors in frustrating ways. She stifled the urge to rip the painting from the block and shred it. The result wasn’t half-bad, but far from what she held in her mind’s eye. She wanted to catch the intense light of this land of stone and water. All she had captured was desolation.
Clearly time for a well-needed break to step away and to keep from ruining the painting.
She pulled a water bottle from her little cooler and drank down half in a long, chill swallow. Her eyes needed a rest from the glare, as well. She slipped on her sunglasses, leaned back, and looked up inside the interior of the umbrella. The once-forest green had faded to a mottled olive, the seams giving way, the fringe frayed. She frowned. How had she not noticed something that had been with her so long was falling apart?
Falling apart. Everything she’d thought so set in her life was unraveling and shifting. She needed to pull and patch everything back together, and that meant giving Nate a straight answer.
But which one?
She played with the idea of accepting. Honestly, thinking of the men she had met in her life, she couldn’t imagine marrying or living with any man other than Nate. Nate was the perfect one to see Oregon with. So many things to paint there in the Northwest. The temperate rainforests there were an amazing ecosystem. The mountains were gorgeous.
She chuckled uneasily. Plenty of rocks to paint.
If any man might be worth risking her heart on, Nate was the one. But could she? She almost believed in the possibilities of yes and Nate. Well, she believed in Nate, but hadn’t she seen time after time that happily ever after only came true in fairytales?
Is that entirely true? Stop looking at your messed-up family and look at your friends. Look at JoAnn and Lloyd…
Maybe…As long as she thought only of Nate, only of the heat and emotion and happiness in his eyes, she could say yes, would say yes. But—
“Mad dogs and Englishmen.” Olivia’s voice behind her made Kay jump.
Chapter Seven
“Wow, I so did not hear you coming.” Kay laughed and shook her head at the startled rush of her heart.
Olivia ducked under the straggling fringe into the umbrella’s shade. “Sorry about that. How can you stand it up here? And in long sleeves and pants. You must be baked to a crisp.” She wore a black cover-up more suited to a resort poolside over her bikini, but at least she wore sneakers for the hike up, and for a change, no cigarette lay pinched in her fingers.
Kay set aside her empty water bottle. “Cotton, light, and all in white. Better than burnt.”
“That’s true.” Olivia gave a half laugh. “Poor Mark. I just came from camp. He fell asleep and no one was there to wake him. He’s going to be very sore.”
Kay sighed. “Dork. I told him to move into the shade.”
“He said that.” She stood quietly for a moment. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
Olivia’s words tumbled out in a hurt rush. “What’s with your friend, Dave? If I’ve done something wrong, I’d like to know, and I’ll apologize. The way he jumped down my throat earlier. Does he always have such a burr up his hindquarters?”
“Dave? No! He can be hyper sometimes, but he’d give you the shirt off his back. He’s been Nate’s best friend since they were kids, and I’ve known him for years. That was so not him. Honestly, he’s a really good guy.”
Olivia pursed her mouth, looking doubtful. She studied Kay’s painting during the dragging silence. “I like this. You’re very good. I like the way you see the rocks reflected in the water. Life’s like that, you know, kind of inverted.”
“Inverted?” Life?
“Yeah.” Olivia folded her arms over her chest, tapping one finger thoughtfully against her chin, and a dreamy expression slowly bloomed on her face, erasing her brittle, polished mask and revealing a gentle, sweet beauty.
Kay frowned at her painting. “I don’t know. It’s come out too stark.”
“It’s very stark, but that’s what’s right about it. I get a feeling from this painting. I think you should get feelings from paintings, don’t you?”
“What kind of feeling do you get from this one?” Kay found herself asking.
“Solitude and distance, but not loneliness. That sounds weird, I know. Maybe it’s nonsense. The picture’s so bleak. You probably meant to do that, and the rocks are so empty of, of—not color—just empty, but in the reflection in the water they come alive, beautiful. Like here. The real thing—” She swept her arm around. “Is naked enough, but…well, your picture just gives me the shivers, in a good way. You know, I’ve never been in the desert before, unless you count Vegas. It really is beautiful here. What I think is so weird is how all the bushes are spaced, as if someone arranged them.”
“Someone once told me creosote bush roots give off an enzyme or something to keep them from growing too close together, so they can have enough water. You know to be careful of the cholla, right? That fuzzy cactus over there?”