Marriage Seasons 04 - Winter Turns to Spring (25 page)

Brad was still thinking about Miss Shimmy-hips. In a way, Yvonne Ratcliff had the same effect on him. He didn’t love her. Didn’t even care about her much. But he sure had wanted her. He had thought about that woman with her long brown hair, dark eyes, tight jeans, and curvy hips, especially as things got worse with Ashley. His wife began to look irritating and harsh and annoying. Yvonne, on the other hand, appeared warm and welcoming. She was full of admiration for him. Just what he had needed. Or so he thought.

“Do you intend to change, Brad?” Charlie was leaning forward, his elbows on his thighs. “Do you want to make a fresh start of it?”

“Sure.” Brad met the older man’s gaze. “It’s just … hard.”

Charlie stood. “All I can tell you is it took faith and repentance to get Miss Shimmy-hips out of my brain and a bunch of other junk out of my life. God healed my marriage and kept on healing it through nearly fifty years of good and bad times. Because of my faith, I know Esther is in heaven. And I know I’m going to be all right here without her. Most important, I have no doubt that I am loved and forgiven. Now if you can figure out a way to do that for yourself, you just let me know, Brad. Because I do believe we could write ourselves a best seller and go on TV talk shows and make a million bucks or two.”

Reaching for his coat, Charlie took out his cell phone and checked it. “I guess I’d better head on out. Boofer will be wanting to go for a ride on the golf cart, and it looks like Bitty has left me a couple of messages.”

He gave a farewell smile and was out the door before Brad could respond.
Bitty?

“Have you seen Ashley Hanes?”

“No, have you?”

“I heard she took off work the whole week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.”

“I heard she quit.”

Patsy glanced at Pete, who was seated across the table from her at the TLC meeting. Around them, the women were abuzz with gossip about the latest events in their lakeside community.

Pete was talking to Cody. Actually, it was the other way around. These days it was hard to get a word in edgewise with the young man. Patsy recalled the previous spring when Cody had first arrived in Deepwater Cove. No one had been able to get him to say much. He was scared to death, filthy, and barely mumbling anything except how hungry he was.

Now he blabbered about one thing after another. Learning to read—which had shocked everyone at how fast it happened—had opened a whole new world to Cody. When he wasn’t working or painting portraits of Jennifer Hansen, he was at the Camden County Library reading books.

Pete had suggested that Cody might now know too much for his own good. The young man never hesitated to tell anyone what he thought—without the slightest hint of guile. Areas that interested him—painting, the Bible, metaphors, and several other topics—had taken possession of his mind. He was particularly knowledgeable about impressionist art, and he seemed determined to educate Patsy, as well. She’d about had it up to here with Renoir … or, as Cody called him,
Reenor
.

Of course, Cody still could barely add two and two. Jennifer had used Ashley’s beads to try to teach him some basic math, but evidently he had spent more time talking about the merits of square cakes than he had learning to add or subtract.

A voice broke into Patsy’s musings.

“I suspect she’s around here close by,” Miranda Finley observed to her daughter-in-law, Kim. “Ashley has a certain flair, an avant-garde creative side, but she isn’t the type to globe-trot. She may move to Jefferson City or Springfield once the divorce is final, but I doubt it.”

“Divorce?” Patsy couldn’t help but speak out at this. “Where did you get the idea that Ashley and Brad were divorcing? Did he tell you that?”

Miranda self-consciously touched the spikes of bottle-blonde hair on her head. “Well, no. But what else could happen? I saw Brad getting into his car yesterday morning, and he told me he hasn’t spoken to his wife since Christmas. Poor kid. He does nothing but go to work and then come home. I doubt he’s been to the grocery store since she left. I told him I thought he was wasting away, but he just shook his head and drove off. It’s obvious to me, he’s terribly depressed about all this.”

“I thought Mrs. Moore came back to life as Yappy so she could fix all their problems,” Cody said. Laughing, he licked a dollop of chocolate icing off the side of his mouth. “That’s funny!”

Unaware that no one else was joining in his mirth, Cody stood and rapped his spoon on the side of his teacup. “Time to start the meeting of the Tea Lovers’ Club,” he called out. “There’s no old business to report. How about new business, because if not, I am planning to get another one of those brownies with frosting on top. That’s why I’m skipping most of the parts of
Robert’s Rules of Order
, in case you were wondering. Those brownies are good, and there are only two left in the dessert case. I would like one of them to be mine.”

“I have some new business,” Brenda Hansen announced. “First, I’d like to thank everyone for making the opening of Bless Your Hearth a success. It was touch and go getting ready for the ribbon cutting, but we’re off to a strong start and we look forward to playing an important part in our community. In order to help with that—”

“Okay, Brenda, but what about new business?” Cody cut in. Seeing the expression on Brenda’s face, he dropped back down in his chair. “Sorry. Bad social skills.”

Patsy couldn’t hold back a smile. If anyone had been a mother to Cody over the past year, it was Brenda. Of course, the love between them was mutual. Though Cody had his eyes fixed on the glass case holding the last two brownies, he kept his mouth shut while Brenda continued to speak.

“I want you all to know,” she said, “Bless Your Hearth is planning a very special celebration.”

The announcement was met with a hubbub of excitement among the group. Opal Jones leaned over to hear Kim Finley explain the news. Even Miranda, who had been looking bored, perked up.

Brenda took a breath. “Steve and I are coming up on our twenty-fifth anniversary, and we think spring is a great time to celebrate life and love, new birth and weddings, hope and joy—everything good in this world. So the weekend of the Camdenton Dogwood Festival, we’re going to rent a large tent and set it up in the parking lot. Pastor Andrew has agreed to perform marriage vow renewal ceremonies and baby dedications. The feed store will bring in chicks for the kids to watch. The conservation department will be giving out dogwoods and redbud seedlings like they always do. And to top it off, Color of Mercy is going to sing.”

Patsy felt the urge to raise a cheer. Her favorite group. She played their music almost nonstop in the salon. Though the women of Color of Mercy lived at the lake, they traveled so much she rarely got to hear them in person. What a treat!

Brenda continued. “After the vow renewals and baby dedications—which we’ll do in small groups—families can pose for a picture. Charlie Moore has agreed to photograph everyone, and we’ll give the portraits away free. We plan to have an arch with ivy and roses twined through it for the background, and there will be punch and cake, too.”

“Chocolate cake?” Cody asked.

Brenda pursed her lips for a moment. “We’ll see.”

“I think it’s a wonderful idea,” Miranda spoke up. “I’ll head the decorating committee. Kim and I will do it together.”

Everyone looked at Kim, whose middle was beginning to pop out in a big way. Patsy could see that those twin boys she was carrying had decided to strut their stuff. Their poor mother seemed to be having a hard time of it.

“I’d be glad to take Kim’s place,” Jennifer offered. “I think it would be fun.”

“Wonderful,” Brenda said, smiling at her beautiful daughter. “Does anyone have a question? We’d love to take ideas from—”

A sudden murmuring among the TLC members silenced her. Ashley Hanes had entered the salon.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

H
er face pale and her neck bare of jewelry, Ashley walked steadily toward the group. Patsy hardly knew how to react. For nearly three weeks, the young woman had remained holed up in her spare room, hiding from the world. She had quit her job, and she refused to step outside in case someone saw her. She wouldn’t hear of going to church or venturing out to eat with Pete and Patsy. Thus far, she had not even summoned the energy to visit the apartment she’d rented or start working on her big bead order.

Poor Yappy clearly had been confused. But the puppy soon learned to sneak out the back door with Patsy and scurry into the woods to do his business. The rest of the time, he stayed with his grieving owner. Patsy knew Ashley clung to the dog for comfort.

But now here she came, striding straight into the midst of the TLC just as she always had. Though the women in the group had good intentions, Patsy couldn’t deny how often their chitchat turned to gossip and even criticism. As Ashley stepped into the tea area, Patsy flashed on the biblical image of Daniel entering the lion’s den.
Oh, Lord, please shut their mouths
, she prayed silently. But then Cody stood.

“Hey, Ashley,” he said loudly. “Sit down at our table. Oh yes, everybody—I declare that this meeting of the TLC is hereby over. Amen.”

Before anyone could move, he made a beeline to the dessert case. Miranda rose as well, and Patsy scooted her chair over to make room for another at the round table. Ashley slipped into Cody’s empty place. Like deep pots of coffee, her brown eyes looked around the silent group.

“Hey,” she said in greeting.

“It’s good to see you, Ash,” Jennifer responded. There was another awkward moment before Jennifer spoke again. “Cody told me the payments for your necklaces have started coming in.”

A wan smile crossed Ashley’s face. “Yeah. I need to talk to you about that.”

Patsy cleared her throat as she tried to think of something to ease the tension at the table. “Charlie Moore said he had a wonderful time in California,” she said. “It’s good to have him back home, though.”

Pete nodded. “Deepwater Cove didn’t seem right without Charlie cruising around in his golf cart.”

“Not to mention Bitty Sondheim.” Patsy reflected on her friend. “I don’t think this community could survive without the Pop-In. If I don’t eat one of Bitty’s turkey, gravy, and biscuit wraps once a week, I get downright cranky.”

Falling silent, she looked around the table in hopes that someone else would take up the thread of conversation. If nobody spoke soon, she and Pete might have to carry the ball for the rest of the afternoon. As much as she loved talking to her fiancé, that didn’t sound like fun.

“I got it!” Cody exclaimed. He pulled up another chair and sat down, his eyes focused on his treat. As usual, he seemed mostly unaware of those around him, oblivious to the fact that the composition of their group had changed.

“Mrs. Miranda Finley acted like she was going to take both of the brownies, but it was a trick. I don’t think tricks like that are funny, and I told her so. She said ‘Well, Cody, if you can’t take a joke, I don’t know what will become of you.’”

With that, he bit into the brownie. Jennifer eyed him, a grin tugging at her lips. “Cody has abandoned his watercolor efforts for the time being,” she told the group. “He says the paper gets too wet.”

“And besides that, Pierre-Auguste Reenor painted mostly in oil.” Cody chewed his brownie as he spoke. “He started out painting on china, but he didn’t have to do that long.”

“The artist’s name is
Ren-wah
,” Jennifer corrected him gently. “Not
Reenor
.”

“My books said that even when Reenor didn’t have enough money to buy paint, he was a happy man.” Cody clearly was so enthralled with his topic that he continued to pronounce Renoir’s name as he’d first read it in a book in the library. “Reenor got arthritis and had to learn how to paint by strapping a brush to his arm, but he still thought everything he saw was amazing. People made fun of him for painting beautiful things all the time, but Reenor said,
Why shouldn’t art be pretty? There are enough unpleasant things in the world
. And that is very true, which is why I always paint pictures of Jennifer. She’s the prettiest person I have ever met.”

“Okay, Cody.” Jennifer rolled her eyes. “That’s enough about Renoir—and me.”

Cody stared at her for a moment. Chocolate brownie crumbs had collected in the corners of his mouth, as usual. For once he had nothing to say.

“I’d like to hear Pete and Patsy’s wedding plans.” Jennifer pointedly avoided Cody’s confused stare. “Have you two chosen a date?”

Now it was Patsy’s turn to get uncomfortable. Pete had told her he’d had two fancy weddings already, and neither marriage had gone well. He confessed that he was scared to death about having a big ceremony and all the hoopla that went with it. On the other hand, he didn’t want to run away to some quickie wedding chapel either. He hoped to have a real ceremony that would signify God’s blessing on the couple.

“We’re still discussing it,” Patsy told Jennifer. “It’s hard to find time in our schedule.”

“The one thing I don’t like about Reenor is that he had a mistress.” Cody took another bite of brownie as he spoke. “I looked up
mistress
in the dictionary, and it’s when you are married and you have a girlfriend who is not your wife. Reenor had a mistress. That is bad. Brad Hanes and I were discussing that very sin on New Year’s Day when he threw all his full beer cans into the lake. Okay, I know it was littering, but I threw one in too. We did it because we felt like it.”