Authors: Lauren Ash
“Christ!” Jenny stumbled back to the tub, dangling her legs back in. “You’re nuts.”
“It’s great. I love the extremes.” Ron downed the rest of his wine. “Do you want yours?” He touched her glass.
“No, I’m fine. Not in the mood for it. But I do want some of that chocolate.”
At the push of a button, the jets fired up. “As I said before, I want one of these in our bedroom,” Jenny said.
Ron nodded, feeling the wine and wondering why she didn’t get in. Then, with a yawn, he stretched out to fill up the space, the jets warm against his back. “As soon as we get back, I’ll build you one. It’ll be huge, massive. We can invite the neighbors over.”
“Ha! No way. Just us. You and me.”
From outside, Charlie let out a whimper.
“Okay, you too, Charlie. Are you cold?” Jenny squinted at the small black dog, shivering away in the corner. “Oh, look at him.”
Standing and wrapping herself in a towel, Jenny then searched the room. “Here’s a blanket.” She
pulled a crocheted blue-and-white rug from a rocking chair that faced the ocean and tucked it around the dog. “There you are, you poor little sausage dog, you. Can we close the doors?”
Ron swirled the wine in his glass and looked up at her, his eyes heavy-lidded
. “Uh-huh.”
Jenny returned to the hot tub and rested her hand on his strong shoulder. “Do you want to go to bed?”
He didn’t answer.
She nudged him.
“Yes…”
“Where? The bed is wet.”
“The lookout has a fold-out bed.” Ron pointed up, towards the ceiling. That’s where I’d sleep as a kid. The hex room.”
“Hex room?”
“That’s its nickname—for the shape, not because it has a hex on it.”
“Oh, thank goodness for that.” Jenny helped him out of the tub and, arm in arm, they made their way upstairs.
* * *
The sun came out, finally rearing its head at the most inconvenient time.
“Ugh.” Ron pulled the scratchy woolen blanket over his head. “I have a headache.”
“What?” Jenny
rose from the rocking chair and snuck under the covers with him, enjoying the sudden heat.
He grumbled something.
“I can’t understand you from under there.”
Ron pulled the blanket back down regretfully, peeping over the top. “My head hurts. I have a headache.” He retreated back into hiding.
“I’ll go get you something. Don’t worry.”
“Mamma.” A small voice drifted up from below.
Jenny jumped to the call, padding downstairs, leaving her sorry husband behind to wallow.
“Oh my girl, look at you and your rosy little cheeks.” Kip rolled around in her bed, looking as adorable as she always did, with the exception of occasional temper tantrums.
“Do you want some cereal?”
Kip sat up suddenly,
clapped playfully. “Ya.”
“Okay, let’s go. Daddy has a sore head; we have to get him water too. First, I need my robe, though.”
After a long search through her stuffed suitcase, which was still propped against the couch in the living room, Jenny found the robe and returned to the kitchen.
Kip was waiting patiently at the table for her bowl of Surprise. “Hungry, Mamma. Hungry
.” Kip hit the table with a plastic spoon.
“I know, I know. I’m a-hurrying. Here.” She poured some golden flakes into a plastic bowl she’d retrieved from a cupboard.
“Sugar! Sugar!”
“Just a little.”
Kip ate almost as quickly as she poured it, immediately requesting more in that high-pitched, demanding toddler tone.
“Here”—Jenny poured more—“enjoy it while I go give daddy his water.”
The suitcase was way too heavy to haul up to the bedroom, so Jenny just snatched up her toiletry bag and a glass of water and made her way up the three flights of stairs to the hex room.
“I’m outta breath.” She sat next to the lump beneath the covers and held out the glass. “Here. I have painkillers.”
“No, not yet.” Ron drank deeply. “I’m just dehydrated, though I wouldn’t mind my sunglasses.” He squinted and held one hand up to his eyes. “Do you know where they are?”
“In the car.”
He gave her a longing look.
“Okay, okay. I will go get them, but you have to bring my case up; it’s too heavy for me.”
“Yes. I’ll do anything you ask of me … in the shade.”
She laughed. “Anything, hmm?”
“Oh, come on. Help me out here. Throw me a limb.” He clutched at her arm, snuggled against her.
“But you’re not drowning.”
“I am. I am. I’m drowning in misery, in cheap wine. God, cheap wine!” Ron ran a hand over his face and groaned.
“In that case. I’m not sorry I didn’t have any.” She smiled.
“You’re lucky—that’s what.”
“Fine, I’ll get them. And then I’ll make you some pancakes.”
“Oh, God. Oh, GOD!” Ron hurtled up from the bed. “I’m going to be sick.”
“Hold it in. Hold it!” Jenny stared frantically around the hex room, looking for something, anything. “There’s nothing here, Ron. Hold it!”
“I can’t.” Ron leaned over the side of the bed and let loose.
“Oh, Jesus! Are you sure there’s no hex on this room?”
The only response from him was another unpleasant bout of heaving.
Jenny finally noticed that her morning sickness had passed.
The irony.
* * *
The only thing to do was get on with the day. After a few sulky hours, Ron finally got up, showered, and ate some plain toast. Jenny, Kip and Charlie had already been to the beach and back again.
“We’re out of milk.” Ron closed the fridge
.
“I thought there was a full gallon in there? I bought a full gallon.” Jenny sat on the blue sofa in the little living room, her back to
the kitchen, enjoying the warmth of Kip’s body as the child napped on her lap.
“There was a full gallon, but now there isn’t.”
“That’s odd. Did you drink it?”
“No. That’s why I’m asking you?”
“You didn’t ask me anything. You just told me there’s no milk. And I didn’t have any today, so…”
“What happened to it then?”
She could tell by Ron’s tone that his level of annoyance was ratcheting up again.
“I don’t know. How am I supposed to know? I’ve been out.
”
“But I thought I heard you downstairs earlier. You’ve been gone this whole time?”
“Yes, I have. It must have been a ghost.”
“That’s weird. I know I heard someone.”
“You have a hangover. You must have dreamt it. You’re the one who’s been here, lying about like a big heifer.”
“Heifer? Are you kidding me? I’m a
heifer
now. I took you out last night, and that’s what you have to say.” He raised his voice. “
Heifer
!”
“And you soaked two beds and puked all over the place, and I have to clean it all up.”
“Oh, Christ!”
“Shhhh.”
“No I won’t shhhh. I can’t believe you,” Ron snapped.
“I’m on vacation! What do you not get? I’m on vacation, and you have created work for me—more work than I do at home.”
“Oh, here we go.” Ron sat down in the rocking chair, facing her.
“Yes.” Jenny looked away and said under her breath, “Here we go.”
“Why don’t
you
get a job then? Then we’ll see how much
you
complain.”
“God, Ron! Why does it always have to come back to that? I have to get a job, now? You’re the one getting such a big promotion
that I don’t need to work.”
“Exactly, you don’t need to, but you’re not grateful for it either.”
“Whatever! Screw you.” Jenny eased out from under their sleeping daughter and stormed off.
* * *
“So tell me? What are you majoring in?”
It was summer and it was hot. Jenny casually wiped a bead of sweat from her neck. “I’m going to be a CPA.”
Trees encircled them, the hot pine smell perfumed the air, the chirp of grasshoppers and birds was their background music.
“Nice.” Ron, in khaki shorts and a white polo shirt, lay
prone on the tiny blanket they shared. His feet dangled off into the underbrush and his absent-minded kicking had worn a small trench beneath them.
Jenny looked over at him, examining him. His skin was perfect. His body well built, although still slight. She wondered what he would look like older—more muscled, perhaps.
“What are you thinking?” he asked.
She hesitated, trying to think of something less personal—after all, this was their first date. Nothing came forth. “Nothing. You?”
He couldn’t help but smile. His eyes skimmed her tight pink summer dress and then flickered back up to meet her gaze. “Me?” He paused.
“I was thinking about what you’d look like older,” she confessed.
“Now why would you want me to be older? Didn’t you come out with me here because I’m younger?”
She flipped over, moved her elbows up to block the sun, or to cover her face—to cover embarrassment she couldn’t hide.
Ron took the cue. Rolled up next to her on his side, he put his arm over her waist.
“You’re too hot,” she whispered.
With that, he tried to kiss her, but she moved away.
“I don’t kiss on the first date.” Jenny propped herself on one elbow, on her side, and they both faced each other, inches apart.
“Can I be the exception?”
He looked so fresh, but he acted older. Jenny couldn’t fathom where it came from. She raised one brow. Ron moved his head in closer, holding his lips close to hers, but he didn’t do anything. She tilted her head just a little as he pressed his lips to hers. She had kissed many others, but it still felt like a first kiss—still tied her stomach in knots. He pulled back a little, still keeping his face close.
“I want you,” he whispered, and stroked her cheek.
They kissed again, this time longer.
The rest of their time in the woods, out in the middle of nowhere in the Cascade Forest, was innocent, although spent not saying much at all.
* * *
“I knew I’d find you up here.” Ron stood all the way back in the hex room as Jenny leaned up against the glass and regarded the view. “Careful on the glass there; don’t lean all your weight on it.”
She stayed put. “I love it up here. It’s like I’m all alone, and there’s nothing else whatsoever. I haven’t felt this way about a place in ages. I mean, I love our home, but you know—it’s just so much better out here.”
“You and Nana would get along very well.” Ron stayed where he was, knowing better, still hearing the undercurrent of anger in her tone.
“Look at all the people out there, walking along. I wonder if they all live here? Or are they just visiting? It’s impossible to tell; they’re all so pale. It must be hard to manage a tan in this weather.” She rubbed her arms. “I need to work on mine, badly.”
“You can go sunbathe. It’s not always so bad. When the weather’s good, it’s really good. You could be as dark as you want.”
“I don’t want to be too dark
, just a bit of color.” Her tone eased a little.
“Come here.” Ron put his arms out. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to fight anymore.”
Jenny hurried to him, snuggled in to him. “Me neither. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
“Oh, honey. Come on, I’ll help you clean. We’ll get it all done, then we’ll go pay a visit to Nana.”
* * *
Busy Bee Meadows was a pale peach stretch of a buildin
g on the non-ocean side of Rocky Shores’ spit. It had water views, but only of an expanse the width of a medium-sized freeway. It overlooked more homes on the other side of the narrow inlet. Still, it had a better view than most, and it was always full, with low patient rotation.
“She’s been here how long?” Jenny asked as she parked the car.
“Years now. Maybe like five years or something.”
“But who takes care of the beach house?”
“Oh man—that’s right. I forgot about her. We didn’t have to break in.” Ron slapped his knee. “She has a good friend in town somewhere who has a set of keys. Her name is … hmmm ... it’s not coming to me. I’ll ask Nana. We’ll need to get the keys from her.”
“
Well it’s too late for that. I barely slept last night with just some boards on the front door. I ended up in bed with Kip. Now, this woman, she can come in at any time?” Jenny asked, concerned.