Untrusting (Troubled) (21 page)

“Take all the time ya need. 
Ya have to be sure in your own mind and heart.  I plan to.”

“Sher, no man has ever made me feel
what Bob does, ya know what I mean.  When he kisses me I can hardly
breathe and I don’t want to stop, but I’m not a tramp.  Shay can’t see
those things.  He’s already said a few things about Bob being his
Dad.  I had to tell him Bob’s only a friend.  I don’t know what I’m
going to tell him about the ring when he notices it.  I don’t want to tell
him about it yet.  Not to hurt Bob, but so as not to hurt Shay if it doesn’t
work out.”

“Will Bob understand that?” 
Maria shrugs.  “Then maybe ya need to talk to him about it, or talk to
Miss Lili about it.  She knows the guys pretty well, maybe she can help
ya.  How about we talk to her tomorrow?”  Maria agrees and we go to
bed.

I hear Maria in the bathroom and
look at the clock, eleven o’clock.  I get up to go to the bathroom. 
When I knock on the door, Maria says I can come in.  She’s going out the
other door as I’m coming in.  We say good morning and I ask her if she’s going
to get a shower.  She’s had her shower, so I can have the bathroom.

After my shower, I dress in shorts
and a tank top, leaving my hair to air dry.  I want to take a look around
the island, if I can.  Maria and I meet in the hallway and head down the stairs
to the living room and on to the kitchen.  Mandy’s there making Miss
Lili’s lunch.  She tells us to help ourselves to coffee, tea, or whatever
we want.  We grab a cup of coffee and follow her to Miss Lili.

Miss Lili’s sitting next to the
pool in a cover up.  “Good morning girls.”  We return her greeting
and join her at the table.  “Why aren’t you girls in your bathing
suits?  When I’m here I, usually, swim every morning.  Then I tend to
business in the afternoon, unless something comes up.  I sleep ‘til eight
at home, but here I sleep ‘til ten as often as possible.”

“It’s so quiet, how could you not
sleep late?”  I sip my coffee and try to keep the glare from the pool
outta my eyes.

“Miss Lili, how much of the island
can we explore?  And how big is it?”  Maria has the same idea I
do.  We want to do some trekking around the island.

“Well girls, you’ll need to take
the cart if you’re going to explore, or would you rather have a guide?  I
can arrange it.”  Miss Lili is eating lunch.  “You girls have lunch and
I’ll have everything ready when you’re finished.  Once ya know the island,
then ya can take off on your own.”

Mandy comes out with our lunch as
Miss Lili gets up to go in to arrange our tour.  When we’re finished
eating, there’s a cart sitting at the end of the veranda.  Maria and I go
over to it.  A man’s standing with Miss Lili, and they’re having a
disagreement.  We come closer and they stop arguing.  “Maria,
Sheralynn, this is Al.  He’ll be taking us around the island, since he
won’t let me drive.”  She’s a little miffed about his insistence that he
drive.

We get in the cart and Al takes us
to the path to the beach.  We ride on a black top path thru trees that
umbrella the path and there’s brush just a few feet away.  White birds fly
up out of the tree tops as we go.  Maria and I are looking up to catch a
glimpse of them when Miss Lili says, “They’re the usual sea birds, cranes, sea
gulls, the occasional pelican, shags, and the usual birds, sparrows, wrens and
black birds.  We don’t get many scissor-tails or orioles.”  We
continue to creep along at five miles an hour and go around a curve to come out
of the trees onto a vacant beach with white sand.  Al stops the cart so we
can get out and stroll along the beach, gather some shells and watch crabs scurrying
along the water’s edge.  Our shoes are on the cart and Al keeps up with
us.  The sand’s hot so we walk in the edge of the water.  Here the
surf ripples onto the beach.  We see a point and continue toward it and
the surf gets rougher as we go.  Al hollers, “Dolphins,” and points out
into the water.

They’re close to shore so we watch
them ‘til they move away.  They’re bigger than I’d imagined.  The sun
reflecting off their gray skin reflects making them shine like silver and give
them a fantasy look.  One second they’re there and shining and the next
they’re gone and then they’re back.  It’s like they’re sea fairies, or
fire flies from the ocean, only much bigger than insects.

Al has us get back on the cart for
the ride to the point.  The surf is hitting harder, throwing up spray off
the rocks that make up the point.  There’s a lookout built there so we
stand on it to look out over the Gulf of Mexico.  We’re getting wet, but
watching the boats and barges creep by is fascinating.  Al has to call us
back so we can continue our tour.  On around the coast of the island we
see boats moored in inlets, Al says are all natural.  The island is
occupied, but kept natural, except for the houses and yards to keep the
critters back a ways.  We go by a house that’s bigger than Miss Lili’s and
she tells us a New York real estate mogul built the house ten years ago,
against the island’s building codes.  It’s almost three thousand square
feet bigger than is legally allowed on the island.  We’re on the beach
down from the house and it’s not as nice as the first one we were on. 
This beach has a lot of debris washed up on it and has rock showing through the
sand.  We putt-putt on around the island and with information from Miss
Lili and Al we find out the differences of the surf and beaches on the
island.  The east side of the island faces the Gulf and has rougher surf
and more debris, while the west side of the island is more protected since it
faces Texas.  We notice the differences in the vegetation, too.  The
west side is more lush than the east side, because the east side gets more wind
and salt spray.  We notice the brush and trees tilt inland from the beach
there and is less lush.

Then Al cuts inland to get us outta
the sun.  Miss Lili, even with her huge brimmed hat, is starting to show
signs of being pink.  When I look at Maria I notice she’s showing signs of
sunburn.  That makes me wonder what I look like since Maria’s darker than
I am.  Miss Lili made us wear a hat like hers and we still didn’t dodge the
burn.  In the shade of the trees I notice a stinging on my skin and Maria
seems to be stinging, too.  She’s wiping at her shoulders like there’s
bugs on them.  Miss Lili says we didn’t miss much, just a bluff on the
northeast end of the island.  The sun bouncing off the water intensifies
the sun and will have us in tea baths tonight.  Maria and I look at each
other.  “Tea baths, Miss Lili?”  Maria likes homeopathic cures.

“Mandy has the greatest sunburn
cure.  It’s some kinda tea or teas with other things in it.  She fills
the tub with it and ya soak in it for about an hour.  When ya get out the
stingin’ and burnin’ is gone.  She won’t tell me what’s in it, so I can’t
tell ya.”

Al lets us off at the veranda and
we go in to find Mandy waiting for us.  “Did ya enjoy the tour?”

“Yes, the island is beautiful,
jungle like.”  I say.

“Well, your tubs are ready for
ya.  The sooner ya soak those sunburns the sooner they’ll clear up. 
One of you young ladies will have to soak in Bob’s and Steve’s tub. 
They’re all set up and they’re tepid, so by the time ya get out it’ll be
cold.  It’s good for the heat of the burn.”

Maria took the guys bathroom and
after the soak and the rinse, she came over to get me.  “Sher, come look
at this.”  I go with her and we explore the bathroom that’s set up with
the guys’ soaps, colognes and after shaves.  We look through the drawers
and then go into the bedrooms to explore.  We don’t find anything unusual,
except tuxedos in the closet.  Miss Lili finds us in the rooms and we’re
embarrassed.  “Curious about the guys?  Well, let’s look around, but
it’ll have to be our secret.”  Miss Lili is the best.  She looks with
us.  We find pictures and Miss Lili explains them.  We find shells,
rocks, string, fish hooks, marbles and a lotta other “boy” stuff.  We look
in their jewelry boxes and find crosses, watches, rings, a few strange coins
and belt buckles.  The drawers are full of clothes to be worn here. 
Bob likes briefs and Steve likes boxers and they both like shorts and tee
shirts.  They have five pair of sandals, two pair of dress shoes and two
pair of sneakers.  We didn’t really discover anything unusual or unique
about them.  They’re just regular guys, doing regular things and liking
regular things.

Al comes around the stair banister,
looking for us, as we step out into the hall.  Miss Lili is the only one
dressed, Maria and I are in robes.  “Lili, dinner’s ready when you ladies
are.”  Maria and I run into our rooms and quickly put on slacks and a
blouse.  We’re in a hurry so we don’t really look at what we’re putting
on.  We step out into the hallway and Miss Lili is standing there waiting
for us.  She has us go back and open the second garment bag and put
something on from it and shoes to match.  We have to do our hair to match
the outfit.  When we step out into the hallway again, Miss Lili nods,
turns and walks away.  She stops at the stairs so we can catch up and we
talk as we go down the stairs.

In the living room Al and two men
are waiting for us to have dinner.  Miss Lili introduces the other men as
Charles and James.  One is her accountant and one is her attorney. 
She hasn’t explained exactly who Al is yet.  We go in to dinner and the
men pull out our chairs and seat us, like gentlemen do.  During dinner
there’s polite conversation.  How do we like the island?  Did we
enjoy the tour?  Did we find any shells we liked?  And blab, blab,
blab.  All polite, all bland and uninteresting.  Dessert and coffee
will be served on the veranda in about an hour.

We go out to the veranda and they
start talking business.  Maria and I start to wonder off, but Miss Lili
calls us back.  She wants us to be there for the business
discussion.  Then she introduces us as her partners in the business
they’re discussing.  Now we’re interested.  We talk around a few
things and at the end, since Charles and James seem to think Miss Lili is being
irresponsible with her help within the town, Miss Lili says, “It’s my money and
my great, great grandfather’s town and I won’t see it go to ruin.  I will
keep it goin’ and my partners’ will aide me in doing that, so, while I
appreciate ya lookin’ after my interests, financially and legally, my main
interest is the town.  Now, I see Mandy is bringing the coffee and dessert
so we won’t dismiss any further business tonight.”  We chat about Bob and
Steve’s injuries over dessert and the men leave in the cart for the heliport.

When the men are gone Maria and I
talk to Miss Lili.  “Miss Lili, if your advisors don’t believe ya should
be doing things to help the town, maybe ya should ease up a little.  Spend
or do a little less than ya have been.”

“Sher, the town is my family’s
legacy and I can’t see it go to ruin.  It’s something every generation of
Bainyers’, now Williams has been charged with since the town was founded. 
I hope Bob and Steve will continue the legacy, and their wives and
children.  The money is managed by Charles, meaning he sees to investing
the money so it continues to make money for the family and the town. 
James oversees the legal points of the money management.  I have nice
things, but not because of the Bainyer money.  My husband left all the
nice things and a goodly sum to me for my use.  That’s how I can live
well.  I can’t use the Bainyer funds for anything but bettering the
town.  Buckley was in oil, I’m not sure exactly how it worked, but he
owned several oil fields, now I own them and they’re being managed by someone
he trusted.  Now that’s enough business talk for tonight.  You’re
supposed to be resting as much as possible.  There will be business and I
want y’all involved so you’ll know what it’s like since we’re partners.”

Miss Lili, I don’t understand where
this involves us.  We’re partners only in the pet resort.”  Maria is
afraid Miss Lili is involving us in more than we’d expected to be involved in.

“Actually, Maria, if Bob and Steve
could have traveled, you wouldn’t be here.  But this involves you and
Sher, because of the very reasons I explained to ya when I suggested the animal
shelter and the pet resort.  Because certain improvements in the town will
bring in more revenue and county and state services that will help the town
prosper and take less work by me to keep the town from ruin.”

Maria and I tell her we understand
and talk about some of the things we saw today and let her explain more about
the island.  Then we go to our rooms.

Maria and I meet in the bathroom to
discuss what we heard tonight and what the guys had told us about Miss Lili
doing what she wanted to.  We, also, discuss the tea soak.  Maria
wonders if she’ll be able to get the recipe for the soak from Mandy.  We
haven’t had any problems with the sunburns.  Then we go to bed.

The next morning Miss Lili wakes us
up at nine with a knock on the door telling us we’ll be having company for
lunch and to dress from the second garment bag again.  We take turns showering
and we go thru the garment bags to find something to wear.  I notice some
of the labels, these aren’t cheap clothes, not even moderately priced.  I
go to Maria’s room and ask her if she’d noticed the labels.  She hadn’t
but she looks now.  She’s stunned at the amount the clothes must’ve
cost.  We decide we’re gonna have to talk to Miss Lili about the
clothes.  We’re dressed in skirts and blouses that must’ve cost a few
hundred dollars.  We’ll be sure to be careful of them now we know.

Miss Lili is waiting in the hallway
again to inspect us.  She says, “Today we’ll be meeting with the manager
of my company for lunch.  He wasn’t supposed to be here ‘til dinner, but
he has some inspectors coming tomorrow morning so he needs to be home tonight. 
So I agreed to meet with him.  I wasn’t supposed to have any luncheon
meetings ‘til Friday.”