Over the Fence (15 page)

“He should have thought about that earlier,” her mother pointed out. “You should be going now if you want to go to the village festival tonight.”

Eva looked at her watch. She’d been talking with her mother for over three hours. “I’ll come by tomorrow or Monday, OK?”

“OK. I’m going to rest a little until dinner,” her mother said. She covered her mouth as she yawned. Eva’s visit had clearly taken its toll.

Eva kissed her mother on the cheek and said good-bye.

When she got back home, it wasn’t difficult to steer clear of her father, who remained on the living room sofa. He obviously hadn’t touched the rolled beef. He also hadn’t drunk the remaining bottle of beer, which was still on the kitchen counter. Evidently, their fight had spoiled his appetite as well as his craving for beer.

Eva showered, then got ready for the village festival, slipping on her red minidress. She chose her white Converse low-tops for the walk and headed out to meet Caro. She found Caro waiting for her when she arrived.

“We’re going to meet up soon with two of my girlfriends. You probably remember Romana from school. Sonja moved here about ten years ago.” Caro hooked arms with Eva as they walked.

“Romana is still here? She wanted to travel the world.” Eva definitely remembered the quirky redhead—they’d been in several classes together.

“She did and it went well. She and Sonja are flying to Thailand with me.”

“Romana never got married?”

“She married her best friend’s ex-husband. He has the same travel bug as Romana. At some point, they want to drive all the way along Route 66. But first, she’s coming with me on my honeymoon.” Caro clearly couldn’t wait to get on that flight.

“Who’s taking care of your catering business while you’re away?”

Caro sat down at an empty table and tapped on the seat next to her. “Klaus. He and I are still working together. And since we’ve been divorced, we go out occasionally for drinks.”

Eva was about to ask if she and Klaus were still serious about each other, but Caro waved her off.

“We’re not together, if that’s what you wanted to know. We just go out and that’s all.” Caro called one of the servers over. “Do you want a Radler, too?”

Eva nodded. “I would love one.”

Caro ordered and turned again to Eva. “So, what’s going on with your neighbor?”

Eva didn’t know Caro well enough to share her emotional chaos with her. “Nothing. I don’t get involved with men who are already taken.”

“And here I thought something was going on between you two,” Caro said, then fixed her gaze on her. “Has he at least tried something?”

Eva laughed. “And what would that prove?”

“It’s good for your ego.” Caro paid the waitress for the two mugs of beer. “This one’s on me.”

Eva held her mug in the air, touched Caro’s glass with hers, and took a nice big slug. Even though she normally didn’t like beer, it was delicious in this heat, especially when mixed with fizzy lemonade like Radlers were.

“Uh-oh, speak of the devil.” Caro pointed behind Eva. “Here comes your new neighbor. Alone.”

“His wife is on vacation,” Eva explained.

“I didn’t mean that. He and Stefanie never go anywhere together. I mean he’s here without his friends. But that could change very quickly.” Caro winked. “We should take advantage of this opportunity.” She raised her hand and shouted at David, who turned his head toward them.

Eva noticed his face break into a smile when he saw her. Her stomach started to cramp, and she was burning up with embarrassment. Maybe she should have confided in Caro. Then she could have spared herself this moment.

“Hello, you two! Is this seat taken?” David asked.

“It’s open,” Caro said.

Eva nodded. “Hello,” she said. Her voice sounded croaky. “Have a seat.” Just the sight of him made her feel more confused than ever. As if Caro could sense this, a smile played at her lips that seemed to say
I knew it!

David sat across from Eva, ordered a beer, and turned back to her. “Did you get any feedback about your design? Yesterday was the big presentation.”

“They pushed the date back to Tuesday because they want me to make the presentation, which means I have to fly back to London.” To steady herself, Eva grabbed her beer mug with both hands.

“But you’re coming back, right?” David asked.

Eva nodded, even though she knew she wouldn’t be, unless her mother asked her.

She sensed Caro watching her and felt even more uncomfortable.

The waitress brought David’s beer. “The heat is almost unbearable. There’s probably going to be a storm soon.”

Eva looked up at the steel-blue sky. “You’re kidding.”

“It’s rained at the village festival every year for the last ten years,” Caro said. “If I remember correctly.”

“That’s right. And it always looked as though the weather was going to hold.” David nodded to some acquaintances walking by. She recognized some people from her street, too. She noticed how they looked at her with curiosity. Some probably didn’t know who she was anymore. Since she hadn’t seen some of these people for years, she racked her brain trying to remember exactly who they were. As a teenager, she had only paid attention to her immediate neighbors, and even then, it was only out of common courtesy.

“I hardly recognize anybody anymore,” Eva said.

“You were barely missed by any of them either,” David joked. “What do you think of that?”

Caro pointed at a man and grinned. “You remember your teenage crushes, though, right?” The man turned around, and Eva recognized him immediately. He obviously recognized Eva, too, because his expression brightened.

“Oh my god, Eva! What are you doing here?” Martin asked. “You’ve hardly changed at all!”

“Hello, Martin,” Eva said to her ex-boyfriend. “How are you?”

“After seeing you, superbly well,” he said. “You look fantastic.”

“Thanks. You look good, too. The same old Martin,” Eva replied.

“If you overlook the wrinkles,” he said.

Eva offered him a seat, and Martin sat across from her after David moved down the bench so that he sat across from Caro.

“You’ve moved back here now?” Martin asked.

Eva shook her head and explained the situation that had brought her back to Holzhausen. “Next week, I fly back to London.” She told him about her job at the agency.

“Eva had a really great idea. She just had a problem with the prototype,” David said with a laugh. “But then we built it together.”

“You could have asked me,” Martin said. “You were never very good with your hands in school. Do you remember how I had to take over your jigsaw project? Mr. Fassmeier was quite surprised when he found out you’d destroyed one blade after another in the woodshop.”

Eva recalled the incident with horror. “I hated that class.”

“We can now officially expand our class reunion.” Caro waved over Romana and Sonja, who were maneuvering through the crowd.

David emptied his beer mug. “I have to go now. Maybe we’ll see each other at the bar later?” he said to Eva.

“Of course,” Caro said. “I’m volunteering there, and after not seeing Eva for so long, I’ll make sure to chain her up there with me. Besides, she can help with the stampede of customers.”

“OK, I’ll see you later then.” David waved good-bye.

Eva watched him walk away. If it weren’t for her former classmates showing up, he wouldn’t have left. It was probably boring for him to listen to their old school stories.

David was thrilled to see Eva at the festival. He had hoped to run into her there but hadn’t been sure he would. The brass band playing traditional German songs probably wasn’t her idea of an exciting Saturday evening.

She had seemed to be avoiding him since the night they had worked together and he had kissed her good-bye. He had wanted to explain his personal situation to her, but it would have been uncomfortable to ring her doorbell and have a conversation about it in front of her father. Eva probably thought he was a womanizer.

He had thought a lot about her over the last few days. He had to find a way to speak with her before she went back to London. Now, though, he had to force himself to leave the table. He would have enjoyed listening to stories about her youth, but he didn’t want to hear Eva and her ex-boyfriend reminisce about their former relationship. It would have been too much for him. Maybe the opportunity to talk to her would present itself later in the evening.

David wandered around looking for his friends. He spotted Jonas when he walked past the shooting gallery. His son held the weapon, leaned forward, and shot down the little white ducks before reloading and firing again. David stopped and watched as Jonas ended up with five hits. The shooting gallery owner gave him some artificial flowers for his efforts, which he then passed to Leonie. She sniffed them and beamed even though they were probably scented with cheap perfume. In front of everybody, Leonie kissed his son on the lips. Some teenagers standing nearby put their fingers in their mouths and whistled wildly.

Jonas had his first official girlfriend. Emboldened by the whistles, he kissed Leonie again.

David sighed because he knew a conversation about sex and contraception was in order. Leonie was coming by more often now. He had already bought condoms for his son, but he’d been procrastinating about having the actual birds-and-bees conversation. Apparently, it was high time.

David turned and saw two of his friends near the bar. As he walked by the brass band, they were playing a lively march. He put his hands over his ears and rushed by until he was far enough away that the volume became more bearable. After a brief exchange with his friends, David sat down near the entrance to the tent. He didn’t want to miss Eva.

Caro glanced at her watch. “Oh, wow, I’ve got to go! I still need to prepare the bar.”

“I’ll help you,” Eva offered. Romana and Sonja were long gone because they’d needed to help at the food stalls.

“You know what? You two haven’t seen each other in such a long time,” Caro said. “Stay here. I can do it by myself.”

Eva gave her a pointed look. “But I want to help you.”

“I know,” Caro said as she stood. “Just come by later because I’ll probably need your help a lot more then.” She had hardly said the last words before she disappeared into the crowd.

Martin looked at Eva. “If you’d rather go and help her . . .”

“A little movement wouldn’t hurt me after sitting for so long on this bench.” Eva rubbed her thighs.

“Then go with Caro,” Martin said. “We can meet tomorrow for some coffee. How does that sound?”

“Done!” Eva said. “Where should we meet?”

“How about at my place since everything in town is closed for the festival. Unless you want to hang out at the festival some more; then we can meet here.”

Eva thought about it briefly. Would it be a mistake to go to his house? What could possibly happen? “I’ll be at your place at three.”

Eva kissed Martin good-bye on the cheek. He hadn’t changed much at all. He’d always been charming and funny and told interesting stories that made her laugh.

When Eva ran into Caro in the beer tent, she was pulling glasses out of boxes. “What are you doing here already? You and Martin were having such a nice conversation.”