Earnest (16 page)

C
HAPTER
31

E
arnest dashed across the muddy terrain, thrilled to get to Anna.
You're here!You're here!
His eyes flashed joy. His tail wagged prestissimo. Though he'd seen her yesterday, anyone would have thought it had been a century ago.
You're here!

“Hi, Sweetie!” Anna hugged him, wiggling, as Jeff strolled toward them. Unlike Earnest, he did not seem glad to be going on the walk today. But as he came closer, his lips turned up into a slight hint of a smile. “Hi,” he said.

“Hi.” Anna turned her own lips up into a slight hint of a smile back. It was a reflex, really. When someone smiled, she couldn't help but respond.

Lately, their walks had been businesslike and civil, though hardly warm. At least Jeff had not recited the Gettysburg Address, and Anna had not resorted to “Rain, Rain, Go Away.” Today, however, a recent
Crier
notice threatened to ratchet up the tension between them and set them to sparring again: The planning commission would meet at city hall on January 29, to approve or disapprove of Cedar Place, and the vote would influence the fate of Grammy's house. Today Anna and Jeff's conflict would simmer with new intensity beneath the surface.

Anna complained, “This is a crummy place to walk. Earnest will get muddy.”

“Mud can be washed off,” Jeff said.

She remembered the Monday morning when she'd picked up Earnest, splotched with mud, his fur stiff with salt water. “If he gets dirty, you need to take care of it. You can't expect me to bathe him every time.”

Jeff 's former slightly upturned lips straightened to a horizontal line. “I don't expect anything, Anna. I suggested this park because I wanted Earnest to see a new place. We've been to the other parks a gazillion times.”

For today's walk, Jeff had chosen Disappointment Park, so named because the scenery offered nothing to be desired. A few scraggly madrona trees struggled to live around the edge of an abandoned quarry, which was a huge pock in the ground. Little grass grew here, so mud ruled when autumn rains began. No one came for picnics.

Jeff patted his thigh. “Here, Earnest. Let's walk.” Without waiting for Anna, Jeff started along the path around the quarry.

Earnest followed, but after a few steps, he stopped. He looked back at Anna, then ahead at Jeff, then back at Anna. His troubled eyes asked,
Aren't you coming? I want us together.

Anna started out, though Jeff's long strides had already taken him a tennis court's length ahead. For Earnest's sake, she dodged boggy places in the dirt and hurried to catch up. When she reached Jeff, she said, “You could have waited for me. It's no good unless we walk Earnest together.”

“I didn't feel like waiting,” Jeff said.

“You'd just leave me here?”

“You can take care of yourself.”

Yes, I certainly can take care of myself. I don't need you
.

Feeling irritated, Anna rested her fist on her hip and dug her heels in the mud. Jeff's walking off and leaving her was rude, but not a big offense. Still, it was a small piece of a larger picture, a microcosm of the macrocosm that had caused her so much grief. He'd left her behind today just as he'd left her behind to work with Mrs. Scroogemore. Both actions boiled down to the same thing: Jeff didn't care about her. He had no regard for her feelings.

Jeff kept walking, but he must have realized that Anna had lagged behind. He turned around and came back with Earnest.

“You're no better than my parents,” Anna mumbled.

“What's that supposed to mean?” Jeff asked.

“Oh, never mind.”

“Really. Why do you say that?” Jeff looked at her with genuine incomprehension.

“It doesn't matter.”

“I don't understand.”

“It's just . . .” Anna's sentence faded away, unfinished.

“Please, explain.” Jeff was frowning. With impatience? Concern?

Without caring which, Anna blurted out, “One morning I found Grammy dead. I was just ten and I was traumatized. I ran to Mrs. Webster, and she called my parents in Lebanon, but they didn't bother to come back for me.” Anna pressed her hand against her heart to protect it from that horrible hurt.

“Mrs. Webster arranged Grammy's burial and enrolled me in boarding school. All that mattered to my parents was filing their next CNN story about the civil war. My mother asked Mrs. Webster to tell me she loved me, but she didn't ask me to come to the phone so she could tell me herself. Her ‘love' meant nothing.”

Anna remembered sitting on Mrs. Webster's sofa while she'd made that call, and Anna had never felt so sad and alone and insecure. She'd squeezed her hands together and bitten her lip till it bled. For all these years, she'd never told anyone what her parents had done. But she'd never forget it.

Now Anna looked down at the muddy path and wished she'd never mentioned any of this. She had no idea what had gotten into her—except that Jeff had pressured her to talk. Without meaning to, she'd slipped back into being open with him like in the old days. But never again. She brought her guard back up.

When she raised her head, he was frowning at her again. “I'm sorry,” he said.

“Never mind. It doesn't matter.”

“That never should have happened. Your parents should have gotten on the next plane to comfort you,” Jeff said.

“It was too much trouble. It might have hurt their precious careers.”

“No wonder you never talk about them.” Jeff reached out as if he were about to put his arm around her, then drew it back. “Anna, I don't understand. Why am I like them?”

Anna widened her eyes, incredulous. “You don't get it? It's so obvious.”

“It's not obvious to me.”

“They abandoned me. So did you when you agreed with Mrs. Scroogemore to tear down Grammy's house. Like you, they cared far more about their work than me. I'd trusted them, and they betrayed me. You don't see yourself in this picture?”

Jeff didn't answer. He just stood there, his hands in his jeans pockets, his gray muffler wrapped too loosely around his neck to offer warmth. His face was frozen somewhere between puzzlement and anguish. He looked at her as if he were meeting her for the first time.

Earnest picked up Anna's feelings, which prickled from her like thistle thorns, and he pressed against her legs. She reached down and stroked his reassuring neck. She could trust
him
.

But she couldn't trust Jeff, and suddenly she felt vulnerable, as if she were in her own bad dream, standing naked in Disappointment Park and a crowd had gathered around to gawk. All these years, she'd kept her parents' rejection to herself. And now
he
knew.

“I'm going to leave. You can walk Earnest by yourself today. I don't want to be with you,” Anna said.

“I wish you wouldn't go,” Jeff said.

Anna said, “Earnest will understand if I don't finish the walk. He understands everything.”
Unlike you.
She bent down and kissed the top of his head. “Good-bye, Sweetie. See you Monday morning.”

Earnest whimpered as she turned around and left. Anna could feel his and Jeff's eyes follow her as she walked toward Vincent. Only when she drove away did she realize that neither she nor Jeff had mentioned the planning commission's meeting. They'd pretended like it wasn't coming in a few weeks, just like, for Earnest's sake, they'd tried to act like they weren't at war with each other. But they were.

 

The Gamble Island History Museum was located in a red one-room schoolhouse that had been moved from a rural area to downtown. Instrumental in the move had been April Pringle, president of the historical society and once Grammy's friend. Miss Pringle knew more about Gamble's past than any other living person, and that was why Anna chose to talk with her first about the planning commission's meeting. Anna found her shuffling through a drawer of the schoolmarm's desk, which now served as her own.

The classroom's walls were dark rough-hewn boards between which strips of muslin had been tacked to keep out winter drafts. Now from the walls in poster-size black-and-white photos, Gamble's early citizens looked down sternly on students' desks, lined up in tidy rows. The school smelled of dust and age. In the air floated memories of rulers whacking knuckles. The floor creaked under Anna's footsteps as she and Earnest walked to the front of the room.

“Got a minute?” Anna asked.

“Sure, Anna. What's going on?” A wisp of a woman, Miss Pringle pulled back her hair into a severe gray bun. She wore a shirtwaist dress and no-nonsense shoes with rubber soles.

“Have you heard about Naomi Blackmore's application to tear down her historic house?” Anna asked.

“Heard!? Girl, I've been complaining to the city for weeks. The planners wouldn't dare let that go through. The very idea.” With indignation, Miss Pringle seemed to spit out the idea and stomp on it.

“The planning commission is meeting about it.”

“So I read in the
Crier . . .
Humph.”

“Will you come and speak for the house?” Anna asked.

“Nothing could keep me away. I'll get our members over there.”

“Perfect.”

“You'll need to call the neighbors and the chamber of commerce. You might try some environmental groups. Ducks and grebes nest in that marsh behind the property.” Miss Pringle's hands fluttered like wings.

“I'll spread the word,” Anna said.

“What is that Naomi Blackmore thinking? Her family's lived in this town for generations. You'd expect her to care about our history.”

“Why, I remember visiting your grandmother in that house when you were a child,” Miss Pringle said. “Imagine Gamble losing that treasure. Those people at city hall should have turned down that application the day it reached their desk. They're ignorant about history. The very idea!”

 

All week after work Anna and Joy had been making Christmas wreaths at Anna's counter. Bits of fir, cedar, and red satin ribbon littered the floor. Now on to straw wreath forms, she and Joy were gluing sand dollars, collected on the beach. Once finished with a floppy bow, the wreaths would bring in a nice profit.

“I ran into Mr. Webster at Norm's Drugs. He says he'll support us at the meeting,” Joy said.

“They'll have to listen to him since he lives so close,” Anna said.

“I hate to think who Mrs. Scroogemore is lining up to take her side.”

“They'll be up against April Pringle. This morning I got her on board.”

“She'll show 'em! We'll get 'em!” Joy waved her fist in the air. “Bombs away! I love a good fight.”

Joy's enthusiasm traveled across the room to Earnest, lounging on his lily pad. He opened his eyes and unfolded his body. After a yawn and stretch, he padded over to the counter and stationed himself next to the sand-dollar pile.

Every Christmas Earnest waited for the dollars to rain down, pennies from heaven, because he liked to crunch the dollars in his teeth. Anna had to pry them out of his mouth to keep him from swallowing the sharp-edged pieces. Perhaps he enjoyed the salty flavor, or, heaven forbid, he was calcium deficient.

“How are things going for John and Penelope?” Anna asked.

“They just got auctioned off! John's cruel master is going to whip him half to death in a salt mine outside Tunis, and a wicked overlord bought Penelope. Bad news all the way around.”

“What if the wicked overlord turns Penelope into a used hag, and John won't want her anymore?” Anna asked.

“Not going to happen! They belong together. Their love is the real thing.”

“I'm not sure any love is the real thing.” Anna aimed her glue gun at the straw and left a glop.

“How can you say that?”

“I thought Jeff and I loved each other. Look what happened.” Anna still felt vulnerable for telling him about her parents. She didn't like him having the power of that knowledge, but then,
so what?

“Love wasn't the problem with you and Jeff. The problem was that he acted like the Twit,” Joy said.

“I dread facing him and Mrs. Scroogemore at city hall.”

“I don't. I can hardly wait. Bring 'em on!”

“What if Mrs. Scroogemore hates us forever? She'll never sell us the house,” Anna said

“At least we might save it.” Joy pressed a sand dollar onto a lump of glue. “And don't worry about Jeff at that meeting. He's earned the opposition we're rounding up. He brought it on himself.”

“Yes,” Anna said. “He did.”

C
HAPTER
32

O
n a cold Saturday morning, Jeff thrummed his fingers on a round claw-footed table in the Unicorn, a Gamble coffee house. It was located in a redbrick building that was covered by a Virginia creeper, whose stems grew in odd directions like dead ends on a city map. The Unicorn was the only place that served food and allowed dogs, and Jeff had brought Earnest along for support. Jeff was about to meet Tiffany, his first NorthwestSingles.com date—and his first date in three years with someone besides Anna.

He rubbed his sweaty palms on his jeans legs and petted Earnest, who'd curled up under the table near the fireplace's flames.
Today isn't really a risk,
Jeff insisted to himself. It would cost him just an hour or two and the price of two pastries and coffees. If he and Tiffany liked each other, fine. If not, they could get up and leave. But, then, that would be awkward, and rejection could humiliate him.
Let's be honest. Today is a risk, a flying leap into the unknown.

Jeff checked his watch. In ten minutes Tiffany would fling open the door. And who knew? She could be the love of his life. From her online photo, he'd seen she was a pretty blonde. And from her get-to-know-you e-mails, he'd learned she was a photographer—and he'd assumed they were equally creative. An added plus: She lived on Gamble, so future dating, if it happened, would be easy.

After yesterday Jeff needed something to be easy. Grabowski had called to demand a beefed-up drainage study because of wetlands behind Mrs. Blackmore's property. The request had rankled Jeff because the drainage plan he'd already submitted should have been enough. But what came next maddened him: With overt sadistic pleasure, Grabowski mentioned the planning commission's upcoming meeting, and he snorted, “We really value the commissioners' opinion. It's crucial to our deliberations.” In other words,
If the planning commission votes against Cedar Place, you may as well hang it up, buddy—heh! heh!

When a good-looking blonde opened the door and stepped inside, rubbing her cold hands together, Jeff 's heart thumped.
Beginner's luck!
But she wore a white parka and ski hat with a pompom that bounced as she crossed the room. Tiffany would be in a black down coat.

Since half the women on Gamble wore black down coats, Jeff had e-mailed Tiffany to ask how else he'd recognize her. She'd answered that a python would be curled around her neck.
So she has a sense of humor!
Jeff replied that she'd easily spot his Prussian-blue hair. She said he'd hear her coming because of her chronic hiccups. He pointed out that he'd be recovering from unsuccessful plastic surgery and she couldn't miss his bandages. Finally, Jeff and Tiffany had agreed on a red muffler for her and a green one for him so together they'd make Christmas, which was coming soon.

Jeff stared at the door and waited for a red muffler, as Earnest basked innocently in the fireplace warmth. Jeff had not discussed with him the purpose here today—perhaps that had been a mistake when harmony between Earnest and Tiffany would be essential. To prepare for their meeting, all week Jeff had read online about introducing dates and pets. One article had warned that if something went wrong, it could take months to undo. Others had suggested slipping your date a treat to offer in friendship, or letting your date know where your dog liked to be petted. Most important was keeping your dog under control so no atrocity got committed.

Easygoing, friendly Earnest would never commit an atrocity,
Jeff believed.

 

At last, in walked Tiffany in her black down coat and red muffler. She'd clearly posted a younger photo of herself on NorthwestSingles, but she looked pretty good. Before Jeff could ponder the ruse, he stood up in his green muffler and grinned, then warned himself,
Don't try too hard.
He waved to her and pulled out her chair at the table.

The scrape of chair legs on oak brought Earnest out from his hiding place. As Tiffany approached, he took one look at her and planted his paws firmly apart as if he were standing his ground. He pressed his body against Jeff 's legs and with a wary expression watched Tiffany advance like an enemy squadron over the crest of a hill. Earnest acted as though he were bracing himself for rocks hurled from a catapult.

“Tiffany. Happy to meet you.” Jeff held out his hand.

Hers brushed his palm, more a swipe than a shake. “Nice to meet you too.”

“This is Earnest.” With pride, Jeff nodded toward his best friend.

Tiffany looked at him as she might have looked at a
Tyrannosaurus rex
. “He's so big.”

“He's just your normal Lab.”

“He's scary.”

“You said on NorthwestSingles that you liked dogs.”

“Little fluffy ones. He's a thug.”

“Earnest is
not
a thug.”

Don't get defensive. Maybe she meant that as a joke, like the python around her neck.
Apropos of nothing, Jeff chuckled like an idiot.

Earnest apparently did not think any more highly of Tiffany than she did of him. His hooded eyes seemed to say that looking at her full force might send him into apoplexy. When Jeff lamely pointed out, “He likes to be petted on the chest,” Earnest retreated out of Tiffany's reach. His disapproving squint said,
I'd rather singe my tail in the fire than let you touch me, you vile interloper. You have woolly mammoth breath!

“I don't know what's gotten into him. He usually likes people,” Jeff said.

“He doesn't like me,” Tiffany said, flat as a tortilla. She sat down and shrugged out of her coat, but left her muffler around her neck. The red wool clashed with her cable-knit sweater, which was the color of a sour, underripe persimmon.

“Give Earnest time. He'll love you.” Less than half Jeff's heart was in that declaration, however, because Earnest drew highly trustworthy conclusions about people and he rarely changed his opinion.

Jeff asked Tiffany if she'd like a cup of coffee. She preferred tea. He suggested that they have the Unicorn's specialty, raspberry scones. She was gluten-free, she said, and she didn't like the food here anyway. When Jeff went to the counter for her tea and his coffee, Earnest followed as if he refused to be alone with someone he suspected might be rabid. He seemed to ask,
What would happen if that woman
bit
me?!

From a blue plastic tray, Jeff set cups on the table and reclaimed his seat. Earnest plopped down as far as he could get from Tiffany. He groaned like he was auditioning for next Halloween's recording of scary sounds. He turned his head away and watched the flames.

Jeff said, “So tell me about your photos. Are they portraits? Nature?”

“Autopsied bodies. Tumors and moles.”

“Oh, right. Moles,” Jeff said vaguely, feigning interest. “They'd make an unusual artistic statement.”

“My pictures are for documentation. I'm a medical photographer at Mountain View Hospital's pathology lab.”

So much for creativity.
“Do you like the work?”

“Yeah. I really get off on all that blood.”

Tiffany's amused expression told Jeff that it was again python-around-the-neck time. But the joke came too close to sarcasm, a cousin of contempt. Jeff forgot to laugh.

Silence crawled on wounded knees across the table. As Jeff rotated his coffee cup for something to do with his hands, he searched his mind for a neutral topic that might stake out common ground.
But maybe there is none.
“Did you grow up in Seattle?”

“Yeah. What about you?”

“Born and bred there,” Jeff said. “How'd you get to Gamble?”

“Cheap rent,” she said. “You too?”

“No. I visited a friend here, and I liked the forests and small town. In my book, the rural always beats the urban.”

“Not for me. I miss the city. I may move back.”

As if to encourage Tiffany to do just that, Earnest rose to his feet. He yawned as if his boredom had become intolerable, and to put a little spice in Tiffany's day, he intended to show her his incisors.

“Wow. Look at that dog's teeth.” Tiffany shrank back at their ferocity. “Are you
sure
he's safe?”

“Absolutely sure. Earnest would never hurt anybody.”

Earnest, however, seemed bent on proving he was more than a muffin. He stepped between Jeff and Tiffany, raised his head, and barked. The bark did not cross the line to vicious, as in,
Prepare to meet your maker because I'm going to shred you to ribbons.
It was more a bark of impatience:
You are a positively soporific and tedious drag. Now shoo. I want Jeff to myself.

“Earnest, quiet!” Jeff ordered.

Earnest barked at Tiffany again.
We don't want you here. Why don't you go sidle up to an asp?

“He never barks at people,” Jeff said.

“He just barked at me. I'm a ‘people.' He must not like my smell.”

You, you horrid woman, are what I don't like!
Earnest underscored his view by barking again. He reared on his hind legs and set his paws on Tiffany's shoulder so she almost toppled out of her chair.

As Unicorn customers gaped with open mouths, Jeff jumped up and helped Tiffany sit straight again. “I'm sorry. He's always well behaved.”

“You've got to be kidding. He's awful.” Tiffany got to her feet and yanked her coat off the chair. “This match is not working.” One end of her red muffler dragged behind her as she hustled herself—and her tumors and moles—out the door.

Jeff slumped.
Great start to your dating career
. He sat back down and patted Earnest. “I can't be mad at you. You're right.”

Earnest rested his head in Jeff 's lap as if to say,
Indeed, she was horrid beyond measure.
As Jeff scratched Earnest's triangle ears, Earnest's sad eyes added as forthrightly as anyone ever added anything to a conversation,
She was unworthy.
In other words, Jeff knew, Earnest's sad eyes were saying,
I want Anna.

Jeff thought about Anna as he sipped his coffee.
Their
first date had started on a morning like this one after she and her gladioli had washed up on his condo's shore. Jeff had taken her to a tyke soccer game, and Anna had cheered right along with the parents: “Good job!” “You can make that goal!” “Keep going!”

Afterward, they'd intended to rent kayaks and look for the otters' lair that everybody knew about in Heron Harbor, but on the way to the marina, Jeff stopped to show Anna his latest house. Only the foundation, subfloor, studs, and roof were finished, but she could see where Jeff had planned the doors, windows, and fireplaces. He walked her through and explained the purpose of each room. Soon they were discussing exterior colors, the master bath's tiles, and the den's furniture arrangement.

“A sofa should go against this wall so your clients can look at Mount Rainier,” she said.

Jeff walked across the room and stood under the windows. “It'd be better over here.”

“Look how much cozier it would be if you could see the mountain and fireplace at the same time. And you could feel the sun shining through the skylight.” Anna pointed to the roof opening where it would be installed.

Jeff had to hand it to her. She was right. But he didn't feel threatened. He liked that he could share his work with her and she would understand.

They went to Plant Parenthood, then stopped at the Chat 'n' Chew for a late lunch, after which they paddled around Heron Harbor and went for dinner at Sawyer's. Since Jeff didn't want the day to end—and Anna seemed to concur—he took her to see the movie
Take Me Home
and for ice cream at the Creamery. When he kissed her on the sidewalk, she tasted like toffee. That had done it. Never before had Jeff been smitten. What more could he ever want than Anna Sullivan?

As Jeff stared at the Unicorn's fire, he admitted that Anna had been a swan, and Tiffany, a mud hen. Anna, gold, and Tiffany, lead. The two women were as far apart as a star and a mole. But he couldn't recross his and Anna's burned bridge, not after she'd compared him to her cold, ambitious parents—and she surely hated him. All he could do was move forward.
Somewhere out there in the ether there has to be another woman
.