Chapter Thirteen #2
“To be clear,” she said, projecting her sportscaster voice to command the attention of the group, “Tyler Demming and I are no longer married and haven’t been for more than two years.
We are friends, that’s all, and I popped by because I am working nearby and thought it would be nice to see my friend,” she said, emphasizing the word friend.
The stunned group continued to stare, mouths open. “And for the record, I was never here.”
Sapphire’s pronouncement did not deter her audience from gawking. Meanwhile, Lulu’s heartbeat still followed some invisible drum major in a one-woman marching band. Sapphire’s full attention pegged Lulu in place.
With deliberate scrutiny, Sapphire assessed Lulu up and down. “Hmm,” the celebrity concluded. “Interesting.”
Then, with a farewell nod, Sapphire said, “Lulu.” That was all, but the word was laced with meaning. Lulu couldn’t decipher exactly what Sapphire’s tone meant, but if she had to put a name to it, she might call it…permission.
Then the striking sportscaster’s attention flitted to Ariana, where her gaze hit on the young woman’s camera. In a scuffle of obviousness, Ariana fumbled to shut it off, but it was too late. Sapphire was going to speak her mind.
“Listen to me and listen good,” Sapphire said, stepping not inches from Ariana’s face. “If you post anything you took here, I will find you. And I will make you regret it.”
Ariana pinched her lips together with her fingers and gave a single nod. Satisfied, Sapphire strutted back to Tyler, pecked him on the cheek, and made her exit.
“Wow,” Ariana said to no one. “She is so hot.”
Lulu scurried into her thatched hut to retrieve her belongings from Moe’s lair, relieved to find no trace of the spider.
For about one second, her mind set up a montage of finding Moe nestled in her panties, a thought that had her dumping out her entire pack on the grass outside the door.
An hour later, the crew piled into the van, all of them reeling with the public-private revelation of Sapphire Roe.
As they left the Caribbean coast and headed to La Fortuna, near Arenal Volcano, there was a palpable drop in the temperature.
A light rain started up, and Lulu was content to watch the droplets sprinkle against the windows.
“Probably not,” Alejandro commented when Gwendy asked if the drizzle was a precursor to the predicted storm. “This area gets a lot of rain.”
Lulu didn’t mind the rain. She might even say the rain made her feel very good; it relaxed her.
She could think when it rained, and after, when the world was washed clean, she often felt renewed herself.
Which was an excellent thing. Because she lived in the Pacific Northwest, where rain was a houseguest who stayed eight months a year.
Gazing out the window, Lulu stewed over the events of last night and simmered with disappointment.
It was for the best that Sapphire had shown up, even if the pair was no longer married.
His inability to remember her name when face-to-face with Sapphire Roe had only proven to her that Lulu Gardner did not rank in Tyler Demming’s playbook.
And then, to not even make the effort to do some perfunctory begging and pleading before deserting her for AC, and probably hot running water, and leaving her to the likes of hirsute Moe, legs up on her pillow?
How rude. She gritted her teeth at the memory of the unfortunate outcome.
How could he leave her to lie alone in a Tyler-scented bed with nothing but her horndog imagination? ! That was unconscionable.
But here she was, once again just two feet away from that scoundrel.
Despite the appeal of returning to her family as soon as possible, logic and practicality pushed her to stick out the tour.
It was safer to stay with the group than to try to make her way back to the resort alone with dangerous weather on the horizon.
Besides, there were only three days left in their journey.
At least Sapphire’s presence and Tyler’s reaction to her set Lulu’s mind straight again. Tyler was not a responsible choice. And she already had one toddler to deal with.
So she tried to focus instead on the promise of the day’s plan: running a sports event for the local high school.
When Alejandro explained the day’s itinerary, the idea of stepping into a school awakened her nerves and pitched her back into a stream of apprehension about losing her teaching job.
Her vow to use this time to reset and save her worries for her return had never been a reasonable plan.
For a brain like Lulu’s, anxiety was part of the basic programming.
As was her habit of planning ahead. Lulu checked her phone to see if the few feelers she had sent out into the universe had met their marks and was surprised to feel relief when she found that not a drop of data made its way to this rural town.
If she couldn’t get service, she could get out of her head.
It was impossible to be rejected when no rejections could come through.
She should get out into the countryside more often, she mused. More effective than simply setting aside her phone.
The van pulled down the road and into the lot for Liceo San Carlos, and the crew jumped out into a light rain to help unload the equipment. Lulu stood dazed beside the van, oblivious to the drizzle. Ariana sidled up to her. “How’re you doing?”
Lulu shrugged, her brain still a post-Tyler jumble, and unsettled by the bittersweet emotions that cropped up the moment she saw the schoolyard.
Ariana grabbed her hand and pulled her aside. “The school? Is that it?” Ariana asked, meeting her eyes. “Listen,” she said. “This school day is different. This is your vacation. You’re not here to help these kids review for a test. Today is all about fun.”
Ariana’s empathy sank in, and Lulu was glad that there was at least one person on this trip who had her back.
And her friend was right. Working with students on a business plan, creating lessons, and doling out grades had ups and downs.
But playing pickleball with students for the sake of fun…
now that was an opportunity to stretch herself.
She rounded the back of the van to help Alejandro unload, and there was Tyler. Seeing her, his face lit up. “Hey!” he said, his voice lifting with his smile.
She didn’t know what to make of it. Like he hadn’t just spent the night double-dipping: first in bed with her and then snuggling up with his ex-wife.
No “Hey, sorry about the way that went down.” No “I feel terrible that I put you in such an awkward situation.” Just “Hey!” like they were reconnecting at a high school reunion.
Either he was such a player that this sort of behavior was common for him, or he was clueless about the effect his actions had on her.
Neither bode well for her. But as soon as she could get Tyler alone, she would be very interested to hear his take on the night’s events. He owed her that, at least.
Oblivious to her churning internal conversation, Tyler continued to unload equipment. Pausing to look up at the sky, he asked, “The courts’ll be slippery from the rain. Do you think it’ll let up?”
Alejandro frowned at the cloud cover. “I think it’s gonna be like this for the day.
Usually, you’d see Arenal Volcano right here behind the school, but the clouds have it completely hidden.
Let’s set the nets up in the gym. You all get warmed up, and then we’ll bring the students in to join.
” He and the others hauled several nets and a box of paddles toward the gym, leaving Lulu and Tyler together at the back of the van.
Tyler continued to unload nets onto the pavement. “Hey. I wanted to say sorry about all the confusion last night. Did you sleep okay?”
Really? Enough was enough. Taking a quick glance to be sure the rest of the crew were already inside, she turned to him.
She should have asked him point-blank about his marriage way back on those Tres Equis courts when he first started making overtures to tap paddles with her.
Now she would get last night’s debacle out in the open.
“Did I sleep okay? You mean after your ex-wife showed up right as we were rolling around on a mattress and ripping each other’s clothes off?”
Right behind them, Alejandro cleared his throat. “Sorry. Excuse me a sec. I’m just…getting the last of the nets. Okay. And here they are. Carry on.” He grabbed the two bags and shuffled away faster than Lulu had ever seen him move.
Lulu sucked some air in through her nostrils. “When I said, ‘I’ll just go back to my room,’ and you knew there was a big, hairy spider on my pillow, you were like”—and here she imitated him, making her voice as low as it would go—“ ‘Are you sure?’ ”
“I didn’t say that.”
“That is exactly what you said.” She crossed her arms and stared at Tyler.
“Yes. But I didn’t say it like that. That sounded like a polar bear with a salmon stuck in his throat.”
Her voice ticked up a notch. “Tyler—”
“Lu,” Tyler interrupted.
“What?” she seethed.
“Can you just listen a second?”
She paused, glaring at him. “You have one second.”
“Actually, I might need, like, forty-five seconds. Maybe a minute.”
The intensity of Lulu’s glowering did not falter.
He pushed a powerful breath through his lips. “Look. That was dumb. I didn’t step in and go to bat for you because, in the moment, I panicked. Because the truth is…” She waited. What was the truth? “The truth is I was married to her for three years. Of course I still care about her.”
Something like envy twinged in Lulu’s chest.
“I care about sparing her feelings. I didn’t want her to see me, for the first time since our divorce, with another woman. Especially not…” His words trailed off, a flush washing his cheeks.
“Especially not…?” she prodded.
“Especially not you.” His eyes held hers. Dammit.