Love Is for the Birds

24. Teddy

AFTER THE CONVERSATION WITH DOT, TEDDY SENT brOOKE home and busied herself around the store. She’d done all she could for Brooke, maybe too much. Dot needed to make the decision for herself.

At seven, Jack picked her up for dinner at Dot’s. Miraculously, the hurricane spared Dot’s, and because the structure stood on stilts, the storm surge didn’t do much damage either. Dot’s bar, patio, dance floor, and dining area remained intact. However, the crumbling wharf made the view from the patio a painful reminder of the hurricane. Inside, with the fairy lights and walls decorated in a nautical theme, the place became the same old Dot’s.

Dot greeted them from the hostess stand. “Do you want to sit at the bar or wait for a table? These construction workers are keeping me busy. But I’m not complaining.”

Teddy exchanged glances with Jack. They agreed on the bar and ordered a couple burgers.

“Teddy!” Pete Stephens shouted from the corner of the bar.

With a button-down shirt, a pair of shorts, and his salt-and-pepper hair slicked back, he looked as if he’d won a makeover on “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.”

They sat on stools next to Pete. With Pete off the oxygen, she saw his face clearly for the first time since he’d returned to Bird Isle. His eyes reminded her of somebody. And something about his smirk felt familiar as well.

“No oxygen. Where’s the beer and cigarettes?” she asked, surprised to see a glass of sparkling water and lime in front of Pete.

“The doctor said if I wanted to see another summer in Bird Isle, I needed to stop smoking and drinking. So here I am.”

She raised her glass to him.

“When you’re staring death in the face, a beer doesn’t seem appetizing.” Pete paused. “Some of my friends have already cashed in.”

“Here’s to your health,” Jack took a long drink of sparkling water as well.

“You look great,” Teddy said.

“You really think so?” Pete straightened the collar of his shirt.

“The best I’ve seen you.” Her mind flashed back to the day she and Walt visited Pete and then to the night they stopped by his trailer after the concert.

She nabbed a free table, cleaning the dishes away herself.

When they settled, Jack elbowed Pete. “What’s the occasion?”

Pete nodded in Dot’s direction.

“You two are together?” Jack asked.

“We were once, a long time ago . . .” Pete’s voice trailed off.

“You’re trying to make another go of it?” She squinted and stared into Pete’s eyes— Brooke. She knew she remembered those eyes from somewhere.

Pete winked at her. “If she’ll have me.”

The server placed two burger baskets on the table.

“Go ahead,” Pete said. “I ate a shrimp salad.”

“You are on a new man, aren’t you?” Jack dipped a fry into ketchup. “I’m feeling guilty, but not guilty enough to stop eating.”

“Enjoy.”

The noise in the bar suddenly swelled to a roar when a group of construction workers toasted with a round of shots.

“I used to be just like them,” Pete said. “Not a care in the world except the next paycheck, the next drink. Not sure I know how to make up for a lost time.”

The music switched to George Strait singing, “You Look so Good in Love.” Three construction workers took advantage of the opportunity by asking three single women to dance. Since the hurricane, men outnumbered women in Bird Isle by ten to one.

“Ask her to dance,” she nudged Pete. “That’d surprise her.”

“Surprise her?” Pete shook his head. “She’d laugh me out of this place.”

“Tell you what,” Jack said. “I will, if you will.” Jack stood and offered Teddy his hand. “Shall we?”

She grabbed Pete by the arm. The three of them linked arms and sashayed toward the hostess table.

“I don’t know about this.” Pete pulled back.

“What’ve you got to lose?” Jack asked.

“My pride.” Pete laughed. “But that ain’t worth much.”

Dot turned from her podium and pushed her glasses onto her head. She stared at him as if in disbelief. Dot placed her glasses back onto her face and gave Pete a once-over. “I didn’t recognize you. You’re better, I see.”

“I wondered . . .” Pete bowed his head slightly. “Dance with me?” Pete practically yelled the invitation.

Dot jerked her head toward Teddy, then back to Jack, then to Pete. “I must be hearing things.”

“Let’s show them how it’s done.” Jack led Teddy onto the dance floor.

She smelled a hint of barbecue smoke over the piney tang of his aftershave. The smell of smoke never left Jack completely, no matter how much aftershave he used. But she found the smell homey and comforting. She allowed her head to sink into the crook of his neck. The pressure of his hand against her waist increased.

Her skin tingled beneath her tee. Jack glided into a two-step. Her feet followed his lead. She’d never managed the dance before, but in his arms, they floated in circles around the floor. Despite his protests otherwise, Pete remembered how to dance. He guided Dot expertly around the floor. Who knew he danced like a pro? A smile formed on Dot’s face. Pete grinned like he’d just caught a prize-winning marlin.

The lights of the restaurant dimmed showing off a view of the harbor. Remnants of the old Bird Isle mingled with the new buildings. With Jack holding her, and seeing Dot and Pete, Teddy imagined a renewed Bird Isle and maybe, just maybe, a new life for herself. Jack didn’t seem to be going anywhere. Why not just loosen up and enjoy this one thing, for once? Why did she always hold back? Even with Daniel, before her mother died, she’d kept him at a distance.

“You’re a good dancer.” She squeezed Jack’s hand.

“I’d say you’ve got the hang of it.”

Jack lifted an arm to twirl her, and then spun her up to his chest so that her lips were just inches from his. Squares of light gleamed in his dark eyes.

“What’s next?” They were so close that she felt his warm breath against her cheeks.

“Your move,” she said, keeping her eyes on his.

He touched his lips to hers. Someone knocked up against them.

Pete and Dot laughed as they brushed by. “Sorry about that.”

Jack shook his head and grinned. “Pete acted as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.”

Laughter rose through Teddy with a childish sound of pure joy. “You have a Texas saying for everything.”

“Can’t help myself.”

Meanwhile, Dot and Pete moved around the dance floor like old pros. Pete’s eyes locked onto Dot’s, as if he worried this moment would slip away. He raised an arm, and she pirouetted under it. He spun her away from him, then she rolled back on his arm until she landed against his chest. From the expressions on their faces, Dot and Pete could have been twenty again.

Jack whipped his hand into the air, and Teddy twirled, feeling the brush of wind across her face, and the sheer abandon of letting loose for the first time in months, maybe years. Daniel never let loose—always appearances for appearance’s sake. Are you really wearing that? Don’t you think this would suit the occasion better?

Jack dropped his arm, and she let her back fall into a dip. Above, the disco ball cast diamonds of light across the floor. He moved his face toward her as she gazed up at him. Jack stirred up feelings in her, feelings that never surfaced with Daniel. Teddy rose from his arm and stood as the music stopped.

Dot stepped over to her. “What’s going on here?”

“I have no idea.” She whispered in Dot’s ear. “I think you’re being courted.”

“It’s been a heck of a long time since anyone paid me the time of day,” Dot said, her face flushed from the dancing.

The music switched to a pop tune Teddy didn’t recognize. Jack backed away. “Not my style.”

Apparently, Pete agreed. Jack and Pete returned to their table. She escorted Dot back to the hostess desk.

“If Pete thinks he can march back into our lives—”

“So, he’s Brooke’s father?”

With Teddy’s question, the excited flush on Dot’s face faded. Dot glanced over to the bar where Jack and Pete sat, and then with a firm, resolute expression on her face, she locked eyes with Teddy. “She doesn’t know. He doesn’t know.” Pain dripped off Dot’s words. Teddy hugged her. Tears welled in Dot’s eyes. She fanned them. “I should’ve . . .”

“No shoulds, not between us.”

Dot pointed to the hostess stand. “Back to work.”

Pete leaned forward on his stool to speak to Teddy. “What’d she say?”

“We didn’t talk about you,” Teddy lied.

Pete’s smile vanished, like a balloon deflating. He stared at his glass of soda water. Teddy wished Dot hadn’t told her about Brooke. Though, eventually Teddy would have known. Pete and Brooke had the same eyes. She wanted to tell Jack, but he probably knew. Besides, Dot owned the secret, not Teddy.

Teddy yawned. “I guess I should head home.”

“How about one more dance?”

She shook her head, pulled the keys from his pocket, and said, “Gotta get our entrepreneur a good night’s sleep.”

Jack stood in front of her in his creased Lee jeans and white shirt as if he didn’t have a care in the world. She held his hand as they zigzagged through the maze of chairs and tables to the door. The night breeze blew gently across her face. She raised her eyes to the sky where a crescent moon hung just above the fronds of a palm tree.

Jack slipped his arm around her. His thumb crept under her waist band and tickled her skin. “Pete doesn’t think he has a chance with Dot. Too much water under the bridge.”

Pete doesn’t know just how much water, she thought.

“I feel sorry for the guy.” Jack opened the truck door. “He feels like he missed out. All those years, he can’t get them back.”

They rode in silence. She wanted to say more, but the words wouldn’t come. She stared out the window wishing for a view of the beach instead of broken windows and busted doors.

Jack cleared his throat. “I don’t want to miss out.”

“Neither do I.”

Both of them said the same things but weren’t willing to spell out their feelings. When they reached her house, Jack helped her from the truck. Pickles barked a greeting. They stood facing each other. She waited for him to kiss her. She wanted him to kiss her more than anything she had ever wished for. More than the horse she had begged for in junior high, more than the car she had saved for in high school. This desire had been buried deep for many years. They had promised to take this slowly, but why?

Still focused on her eyes, Jack pulled her hand to his mouth and kissed her fingers one by one. He bit her thumb gently, slid his other hand about her waist.

“Do you like to dive into cold water, or put your toes in first and then ease your way in?” Jack asked.

What a question. “I always like to jump off the rope swing.”

They laughed. The tension eased.

“What kind of animal are you?” Jack tilted his head, and his brows knitted together. “I’ve never met a woman like you.”

He hadn’t asked if she considered herself like a tiger, or a horse, or a cat, he asked an existential question. “You’re going all philosophical on me.” She stepped back, and he released her hands.

“I want everything to be right with us. No mistakes.”

“We’re human, you know.” She cocked her head and raised an eyebrow. “And this is life. It’s unpredictable.”

“No need to go all negative.”

“My bad.” She needed a new attitude.

“I guess Pete’s story really got to me.”

“I know what you mean.” She spoke in a whisper, staring at the moon. Pickles barked again as if saying, “Hurry up.”

“She’s lonely.” Jack pointed to the door of her house.

At first, Teddy thought he meant Dot. But he meant Pickles. The truth was, they were all lonely.

Promptly at eleven the next day, Brooke appeared at the door of Sweet Somethings without her thick eyeliner and nose ring, resembling an All-American girl without a care in the world. No one would have ever guessed how she looked the day before, or that she’d never met her father, or that her father lived less than a mile down the road. Without all Brooke’s makeup, Teddy couldn’t help but see Pete in her hazel eyes.

“I think a gum-drop forest with a chocolate volcano would be way cool. Do you think we could make that?” Brooke asked.

She inspected her store. Regular stock and Halloween items packed the shelves. She needed customers, not displays.

“May we could make a Candy Land board. The kids roll the dice. Whatever they land on, they get that candy.” Excitement filled Brooke’s voice. “It would bring business. Kids could play the game on Halloween.” Brooke rushed over to a corner of the shop where Teddy kept a table of seashells and sea glass. “Right here.”

Brooke handed her a piece of construction paper with a sketch drawn from colored markers. At the lower left-hand corner a tiny bridge spanned between icy Sno-cone mountains—bubble gum, strawberry, blueberry, banana, and lime—then the path headed up through a meadow of marshmallows and red hots to the gum-drop tree forest. Finally, the path ended with a volcano erupting with chocolate.

She admired the clever layout and thought about adding a peanut brittle road. “I think we can do this.” Teddy high-fived Brooke, thrilled to see Brooke so invested in Sweet Somethings. “I love it. This year we’re going all out.”

The front door slammed in the wind and a voice called out. “Anybody home?” Barb sidled through the aisles to where Teddy and Brooke stood. “Oh, hey, sorry to interrupt.”

“We were just talking about making a Candy Land in this corner,” she said, handing Brooke’s sketch to Barb.

“I love Candy Land!” Barb examined the drawing. “And, you’ve got to make a jellyfish tank and aquarium. Candy Land at the beach needs an aquarium.”

“That would work, instead of the ice cream sea or the ice cream floats,” Brooke said. “I kind of geeked out on this.”

“The geeking out worked.” She imagined transparent globes with trailing tendrils in orange, fuchsia, and aqua. “This could end up a Candy Land empire.” She motioned to Brooke. “Barb, meet Brooke, my new assistant.”

“I remember when you were just a baby,” Barb said. “Welcome to Bird Isle.”

The bell rang again. “Lunch delivery.”

“Who ordered lunch?” She asked.

Brooke pointed to her chest. “It’s a thank you for hiring me.”

Barb said, “I’m just in time.”

“Fish tacos and coleslaw just like you ordered.” Dot walked directly to the back room and began unpacking lunch. “I can’t stay long.”

Teddy poured coffee for the four of them. “To Candy Land.”

“To Halloween,” Dot clinked her cup against Teddy’s mug.

“Girls, this town wouldn’t be the same without you.” She extended her arms to her friends.

Surrounded by her good friends, her worries fell away. She piled a spoonful of coleslaw onto her taco and took a bite. The sweet sauce on the slaw, and the crunch of the beer-battered fish reminded her about normal things like lunch with friends. Maybe her nightmare was almost over.

“Since it’s just the girls, tell us about Jack and Daniel,” Barb said. “Which one will you choose? Just like an episode of Bachelorette.”

“Without the designer clothes,” she said.

“The Bird Isle version is good enough for me,” Barb said.

“Daniel is history.” She wiped a spot of dressing from her mouth.

“What is the female equivalent of a womanizer? A manizer?” Barb asked.

“A man-chaser.” Dot squirted a taco with lemon.

“You’re one to talk,” Barb said. “Word around town is that you and Pete are back together.”

Dot glared at Barb.

Brooke stared at Dot. “Who’s Pete?”

Dot stiffened. “No one.”

“C’mon, Dot. Don’t give me that. Pete is not no one.”

Barb never knew when to keep her mouth shut. The tension in the room turned thick as caramel. Barb knew Dot’s history with Pete, just not all of it.

“He’s just a man I knew a long time ago,” Dot said.

“How long ago?” Brooke raised her voice.

“He’s just a friend.” Dot quickly turned away.

Teddy cringed, wishing that she didn’t know the answer to the question. As the days passed, keeping a secret would become more and more difficult. She didn’t envy Dot one bit.

Dot put a hand on Brooke. She jerked away. “Don’t.” Brooke slapped her mother’s hand.

“I’m sorry,” Dot said, directing her eyes to Teddy and Barb.

“You’re saying you’re sorry to them when I’m the one who is sixteen and doesn’t know who her father is.” A tear rolled onto Brooke’s cheek, but her face remained stern and fixed.

Teddy inhaled a deep breath. The girl had a right to know. She would tell Dot herself. Not today, of course. She would find a way to tell Dot why a girl needed to know the truth about her father. She knew about the loneliness of growing up without one.

Brooke’s hands trembled as she picked up the coffee cup, took a sip, and then placed the cup back onto its saucer. “What’s his name?” she asked again, this time with tear-stained eyes.

“He doesn’t know about you.” Dot told Brooke.

“He didn’t leave me?” Brooke’s jaw trembled when she spoke.

“No, baby, he never would’ve left you.”

Dot had a different voice when she talked to Brooke. At the restaurant, she played the crusty boss snapping off orders with a crisp tongue. Now, with Brooke, she had turned into a desperate mom at a loss for words.

“I need answers, Mom.”

“You’re precious. You know you mean everything to me.”

“You promised.”

Whoa , Teddy thought. She kept her eyes on her plate.

“Do you know who my father is?” Brooke reached a hand over to Teddy.

Teddy lifted her head to see Brooke’s pleading eyes. She had a way of seeing right through Teddy to the truth.

Teddy squirmed, pushed her coleslaw into a pile, and then carefully tucked some of the salad between the strips of fried redfish, hoping Brooke would give up. Except for the crunching of cabbage and lip smacking, silence filled the room.

“Someone please talk to me,” Brooke pleaded.

“You don’t know me,” Barb said. “But usually I stick my nose into other people’s business without being invited. This situation is new to me. I’ve got nothing.” Barb shifted to Dot who sat still as a statue. Only a tinge of color on her tanned and weathered skin betrayed her feelings.

“This is not the place to talk about this, baby. These women are my friends.” Dot’s voice cracked.

“If they’re your friends, they won’t care.” Brooke talked with the authority of a seasoned therapist.

“I’ll tell you,” Dot said, her voice soft.

Teddy swallowed hard. Thank gawd. Her eyes widened as she thought about the pain Dot must be going through. Did she mean it? Teddy pictured Pete when he heard the news. Would he be happy?

“I need to talk to him first.” Dot tore bits of paper from napkin on the table.

“I can’t believe he doesn’t know about me.”

“He doesn’t.”

What might Brooke be imagining right now? Did she picture a man in a business suit, a construction worker, or a fisherman like Pete? Dot should not have kept this news from Pete all these years. Though hardly All-American Dad material, he’d survived and wanted a second chance.

“When will you talk to him?” Brooke asked.

Dot avoided Brooke’s gaze. “Just give me time.”

“You’ve had sixteen years.” Brooke stared at Dot, her eyes—and Pete’s eyes—boring into Dot’s, her lips tight. “Sixteen years.”

“Males are unpredictable, Brooke. It’s the mother’s job to protect her children from pain and suffering,” Barb said. “Sometimes the male species wanders off . . .”

“I happen to know that Whooping Cranes mate for life,” Brooke said.

“That’s a rare exception,” Barb said.

“But other animals mate for life, too.”

Teddy heard desperation in Brooke’s voice.

“Adult males are solitary in nature.” Barb cleared her throat and added, “The male grizzly—”

“Can we stop speaking about animal behavior?” Brooke raised her voice. “I am not a bear. This is my life we’re talking about.”

“Brooke’s right. It’s been sixteen years. She’s old enough to handle it.” Dot’s expression betrayed her worry.

Teddy squirmed in her chair. She needed to support her friend. Instead, Dot sat on a witness stand as if defending herself against a hotshot prosecutor.

“You promise you’ll talk to him?” Brooke asked.

“I promise.” Dot raised a hand into a boy-scout pledge.

Brooke hugged her mother. “Thanks, Mom.” She locked eyes with Dot and then turned to Teddy. “May I take a walk on the beach?”

Dot paced back and forth from the table to the window watching Brooke walk down to the beach. When she disappeared behind a dune, Dot said, “You think I’m horrible, don’t you?”

“I could never think that.” Teddy touched Dot’s arm.

“See that you don’t ever end up here—forty-five years old and raising a daughter alone.”

“It happens all the time,” Barb said.

“I first met Pete in my twenties,” Dot said, a wistful expression on her face.

“Pete!” Barb shouted. “All this time we’ve been talking about Pete?”

“Being an expert in male behavior, I thought you’d figured the whole thing out.” Dot smirked for the first time in a half hour.

Barb twisted her head from side to side. “I don’t know how you’re going to handle this, but I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes.”

“I think that health scare turned him into a new man.” Teddy gave Dot her best version of a reassuring smile.

“I’ve heard that story before,” Dot murmured.

“Is that why you never told him about Brooke?” Teddy asked.

“He left.” Dot shrugged. “I didn’t know where he lived. For all I knew, he had another family.”

“I oughta go over to his house and give him a piece of my mind.” Barb scowled.

“I messed up, and now Brooke is a mess.” Tears streamed down Dot’s face. “Will she ever forgive me?”

“She’ll calm down.” Teddy said, not having any facts to back up that statement. “Whatever I can do.”

“I loved that man.” Dot knocked a pinkie against her coffee cup, sloshing its contents onto the saucer.

“Group hug.” Teddy opened her arms. Dot put an arm on each of them, and they hugged a long while. “I have to tell Pete before I tell Brooke.”

The statement sounded like a half-question, half-statement.

“Yes,” Barb said. “You don’t want him running off again.”

Dot’s lips trembled.

“I shouldn’t have said that.” Barb waved her hand as if erasing a blackboard.

“I think it’s different this time.” Teddy placed her hands in prayer position. “A man who stares death in the face can settle down quickly.”

They dropped back to the table. Dot rested her chin on her elbows. “I don’t know if I can do it.”

“We’ll be right beside you, if you want. Whatever you want.”

Dot managed a smile.

Teddy touched Dot’s arm. “We’ve got this.”

Barb launched into the song, “That’s What Friends Are For.” The three women locked arms and rocked back and forth as they sang the chorus again, louder.