Chapter Seventeen
The storm left as abruptly as it had come. By seven, the weather had cleared enough to allow their evening barbecue to proceed as planned.
Kit moaned over the heaping spoonful of baked beans she’d just shoved into her mouth, and Lynette grinned. “I told you they tasted like heaven.”
Once Kit swallowed, she smirked. “And you were so right. Val needs to write a cookbook. Man, I’m sure I’ll have gained ten pounds by the time I get home next week. But I might think twice before making these at home for Dean and Isaac.”
“Why?” Lynette asked, not following Kit’s logic. “They’d love ’em!”
“Exactly,” Kit said, scraping another spoonful from her plate. “They’d eat too many beans, and I’d have to put up with their farts for who knows how long.”
Lynette shuddered. Donna would never pass gas around her. Yet another reason to limit the men in her life.
“Any word on your dad, Jackie?” Annie asked.
“Mom was right,” Jackie said. “He’s fine. The fall didn’t cause any serious damage.”
Renee plated the last of the burgers and closed the grill lid. “Thank God for that. Eat up, ladies! There’s plenty.”
After making room for the hamburgers on the still-damp picnic table, Renee squeezed onto the bench between Lynette and Annie. “I’m so glad the storm moved on so we could still have our picnic. Wait until you taste the cherry pie Val baked for us.”
Annie grabbed the ketchup bottle and dumped a big dollop onto her burger. “Speaking of Val, tell us her story about the camper!”
“Or, if you want to wait to let her tell us about that, I remember you mentioning a story you wanted to tell us about squirrels,” Kit said, laughing as she pointed at an industrious squirrel climbing up a nearby tree with a nut in its mouth.
Renee spied the squirrel and shook her head. “Since Val will be out here again before you all go home, ask her about the camper. The squirrel story is cute . . . and then not so cute.”
Lynette was confused. “Cute, then not cute?”
“It starts out funny,” Renee said, helping herself to some beans. “It happened the very first time I came out here again, after I found out Celia left Whispering Pines to me. Winter still had a grip on things. Well, early spring, but the ice wasn’t off the lake yet. So it looked different from the trips I remembered when we came here as kids.”
Lynette understood that. “That’s how I felt when we drove up here last week. It looks so different now versus when we were here for the winter retreat.”
“Right,” Renee said. “I didn’t come alone. Some of my family came, including Jess and my brother, Ethan. Dad and Julie, too. Anyway, we were all looking around the place. This was before I updated the lodge. Most of the pictures you saw on our new wall upstairs were still hanging by the lodge’s front door. In fact, I was checking them out when Jess screamed.”
Annie added more ketchup to her plate. When Lynette grimaced, she shrugged. “What? I like ketchup. Go on, Renee.”
Renee laughed. “As I was saying, Jess screamed. She’d made her way farther back into the lodge. We all just figured she’d found a mouse or something. But it was actually a family of squirrels, living in the sink of an old bathroom that doesn’t even exist anymore since the remodel. We think the little critters crawled through a broken window. We had to keep the bathroom door shut tight until we could move the squirrels and fix the glass. To be honest, I’d have reacted the same way, but we’ll probably keep teasing Jess about that scream of hers for the rest of her life.”
Jackie, always the animal lover, smiled. “I’m just glad you relocated the squirrels.”
“Well, we did, but I’m afraid one of them still met his or her ultimate demise later that year.”
“That sounds ominous,” Lynette said. “I take it this is the not-so-funny part?”
Renee had to use her napkin to shoo away a hovering fly. “It is. But first, that nest of squirrels popped up in my dreams. I remember enjoying a perfectly delicious kissing scene in a dream that morphed into a nightmare when I discovered a nest of them in a cabin. Come to think of it, it was your cabin, and your bed, Lynette.”
Lynette choked on her bite of pickle. “There were squirrels in my bed?”
“There sure were,” Renee confirmed. “But only in my dream.”
“Well, that’s a relief,” Lynette said with a shiver. Her friends probably thought it was an act, but really it was her attempt to banish any thoughts of her own nightmares about her secret attacker.
“There was another actual incident, though, that didn’t have as happy an ending for the squirrel. I joke about it being part of the original family of squirrels, but I suppose it could have been. Who knows?”
Lynette was careful to swallow her next bite of pickle before prodding Renee on. “What was the incident?”
“Something happened later that summer when we had a bunch of people out here. It was actually after a barbecue kind of like tonight. We still aren’t sure how it happened, but I found a dead squirrel in the middle of my kitchen floor in the duplex. I lived in there before Matt and I built our new house.”
Jackie’s face fell. “How did a squirrel end up dead in the middle of your kitchen?”
“We never did figure it out. Someone might have simply left a door open, and it was sick. It could have crawled in there and died,” Renee said, though she didn’t look convinced. “I had more squirrel nightmares after that. It took me a couple years before they didn’t make me nervous anymore, running around here. I try to focus on the funny part of discovering them in the lodge and Jess acting like a sissy, and forget about the other thing.”
Lynette pushed her plate away, deciding she’d eaten enough. All the talk about squirrels may have chased away her appetite. “Well, I’m certainly glad to hear those squirrels never actually infested my cabin.”
“If you’d seen the shape of your cabin before we fixed it up, you might not be so confident in that statement,” Renee said with a twinkle in her eye.
Lynette maneuvered her legs out from under the picnic bench and stood. “Speaking of my cabin, I have a little surprise in my suitcase. Sit tight while I go grab it, all right?”
“Let me guess,” Kit said with a grin as she scooped out another helping of beans. “You have the letters Renee sent you when we were kids.”
Lynette snorted. “I wish! All I have from my childhood is that little teddy bear I used to bring to camp. And now that I think about it, I don’t even have that anymore. Ebony ripped its head off. But don’t tell Donna. It would crush her.”
“That’ll be fun for them,” Annie was saying as Lynette rejoined her friends at the picnic table a few minutes later.
“Who is going to have fun doing what?” Lynette asked as she placed the vintage box of tarot cards on the picnic table and sat down again.
Annie reached for the box. “Renee just told me that Matt got a call from Henry. Something about coming out here to fish with him and Robbie. I guess Matt mentioned Robbie’s fledgling guide business when they visited at Kit and Dean’s wedding. I think Relic wanted to come, too, but he won’t be able to this time.”
“He also mentioned maybe bringing Owen,” Renee added.
“Owen always loved to fish,” Jackie added.
“The guys are coming here? To Whispering Pines?” Lynette asked. “No men are allowed on our girls’ trips!”
Lynette’s mind raced back to the scene in Owen’s yard. Storm used to like to fish, too. If he was still in Ruby Shores, would Owen dare bring him on their impromptu fishing trip? That would be the fastest way to ruin her time at Whispering Pines. But she couldn’t check. She didn’t want to even mention the man’s name—either of his names—to her girlfriends.
Renee laughed. “Don’t worry. I made that abundantly clear to Matt. He agreed. If they can line up their schedules, he promised that we won’t even know they’re on the lake. They’d meet at the boat landing. It’ll be like they aren’t even around. They’d tent at the public campground on the other side of the lake.”
“Just as long as my husband doesn’t think it’s all right to show up here. I love him dearly, but this is our time,” Annie said, turning the box Lynette had brought over in her hands. “What the heck are these, Lynette?”
Lynette wriggled her fingers at her. “I’ll show you.” When Annie handed the box of cards back, she pulled the first few cards out and fanned them in her hand. “They’re tarot cards.”
Kit set down her spoon, finally giving up on the beans. “Tarot? Come on, Lynette. Don’t tell me you’re getting into that nonsense now?”
Lynette didn’t appreciate her friend’s condescending tone. “God, Kit, for once in your life, could you set aside your snooty scientific attitude and live a little? Why don’t I pull a card and see what the spirits want to tell you?”
“Nope. Not interested. And I live plenty, thank you. That stuff is just silly.”
Unlike Kit, Annie and Jackie looked curious about the cards.
Renee’s expression was harder to read. “Where did those come from? They look really old.”
“Where they came from is actually part of why I brought them. Believe it or not, I found them.”
“You found them?” Kit repeated.
“What, did you think I conjured them up out of thin air?” Lynette said, half kidding but still annoyed with the skeptic in their group.
“Sure, that’s what I thought, Lynette,” Kit said. Her sarcasm wasn’t hard to miss.
“Knock it off, you two,” Renee said. “You are worse than Julie and Robbie when they get going.”
Lynette took a deep breath. Renee was right, of course. “I’m sorry, Kit. I found these in a locked box in the garden shed I’m converting.”
“Was there anything else in the box?” Kit asked. By her tone, Lynette thought she was probably sorry to have argued, too.
More flies were landing on the leftovers of the meal, despite Renee’s ongoing efforts to ward them off. A rumble of thunder, far off in the distance, warned that the stormy weather wasn’t over yet.
Lynette put the loose cards in the box, shoved them into the large pocket of the raincoat she’d grabbed from her cabin, and stood. “I really thought it would be fun to play with these cards a little. Why don’t we put all the food away first, and then head up to the library before we mess around with them? Kit, I promise not to be offended if you decide to turn in early instead of joining us.”
With a deep sigh, Kit rose, too, and replaced the cover on the bean pot. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to miss anything. If I promise to behave, can I come, too?”
Lynette doubted Kit could hold her tongue, but she didn’t want her to miss out either. “Fine. But if you’re a smart aleck, don’t be surprised when you wake up with a fresh wart on the end of your nose tomorrow morning.”
“Many hands make light work,” Renee said. She hung the rag she’d used to dry the last of the dishes on a hook at the end of the large kitchen island in the lodge. “Thank you, ladies. Now, let’s have some fun! I’ll admit, the sight of those cards freaked me out for a minute, Lynette. I guess I’m overly superstitious. But it’ll be fun. What if we dim the lights, light some candles in the library, and turn on some music? You know, set the stage.”
Kit shook her head, but when she caught Lynette’s eye, she held her index finger up to her lips.
Lynette laughed. “That’s right. Hush.”
Jackie rolled her eyes, grabbed Annie by the hand, and pulled her toward the stairs. “Come on. We’ll leave these children to their antics and go find a decent playlist for the evening’s festivities.”
Annie, allowing herself to be pulled, grabbed an open bottle of wine left over from dinner on the way out the door. “Someone should bring glasses! Unless you want to just pass the bottle.”
Ten minutes later, all five of them sat in a semicircle of chairs and love seats they’d rearranged in the upstairs library. Soft candlelight cast the only light in the room, and piano music added the ambiance Renee had suggested.
Lynette pulled the entire stack of cards out of the box, shuffled it a few times, and fanned them out on the table between them. “True confession time. I have no idea how to read tarot cards. But I’ll wing it. I’ll pull one card for whoever wants to go first. Then we can use our phones to look up what it might mean. Just some harmless fun.” She glanced at Kit. “I think I see a little blood on your lip.”
Kit’s hand flew to the corner of her mouth, then a knowing smile bloomed. “Cute. You got me. Yes, I’m biting my tongue. But I won’t break my promise to behave.”
Lynette winked at her over the cards, then clapped her hands. “Who’s first?”
Jackie and Annie both raised their hands. Renee did, too, but much more tentatively.
“Why don’t I pull one for Annie first? Or else she’ll find some way to complain that I’m not being fair,” Lynette said. “Then we’ll see what the spirits have up their sleeve for you, Renee.”
Annie bounced in her chair. “You know me so well, Lynette!”
Everyone laughed, then Lynette waved the palms of her hands over the cards and mumbled something, trying desperately not to laugh. Then she swayed.
“Pick a damn card already,” Kit insisted, drawing laughs all around.
“Fine,” Lynette said. She picked one at random from the far right side of the fan and held it up for all to see. “Let’s see what the Universe wants to tell Annie. I pulled the Queen of Pentacles card for you. Well, I suppose that could mean they recognize you as a queen in your world. Probably appropriate for someone in charge of a whole high school. See, Kit, do you believe now?”
Kit pulled her phone out of her shorts pocket. “Oh, shut up, Lynette. Why don’t we see what the so-called experts say the card really means?”
As she scrolled on her phone, Lynette leaned toward Jackie. “See, Jack, I told you we’d convert her to the dark side.”
Jackie hunched her shoulders and let out a cackle that would make any self-respecting witch proud.
“You’re all nuts, you know that, right?” Kit said, never looking up from her phone. “Huh. Well, that’s interesting.”
Annie leaned toward her. “What? What does it say?”
“It says that if this card appears in a reading, it may mean you need to pay particular care to your own needs and indulge your sexual desires right now.”
Jackie’s cackle turned into a deep belly laugh, and she threw herself back against the love seat.
“It really says that?” Annie asked. She wriggled her eyebrows. “Interesting. Maybe I’ll have to tell Henry to swing by if he comes to the lake to fish.”
“Or you could text that sexy ex-husband of yours—you know, the pilot—and have him fly over tonight. He might be better equipped to satisfy you.” Lynette kept her face as neutral as possible as she teased Annie. “You know what I always say. I’m sure that little love triangle the three of you kicked off years ago is still smoldering. And while Henry is a nice guy and all . . .”
Annie smacked her over the head with a throw pillow. “That’s an awful thing to say, Lynette!”
Jackie wiped tears off her face, still hiccupping, but the laughter was under control. “I’ve always wondered—hic—what Michael was like in bed.”
Annie’s swing missed its mark this time. Jackie was too quick for her.
“Guys!” Renee jumped to her feet and yanked the pillow out of Annie’s hands. “You’re going to knock a candle over and burn the lodge down, and then the spirit of my dear Celia will haunt your asses for the rest of your lives. Knock it off! You really should take this all a little more seriously. Now that we know Annie has a libido issue, pull one for me.”
Annie denied the accusation.
Once everyone settled down again, Lynette pulled another card.
“It better be a good one,” Renee warned.
Lynette kept the card face-down. “Should we go with this one, or do you want me to pull a different one?”
Renee looked from the mystery card in Lynette’s hand to the slightly mussed fan of the remaining cards. “I’ll pick one for myself. I’ve learned that I’m in charge of my own destiny.”
“Boom!” Annie said, smacking her hands against the coffee table like she was playing the drums.
Renee pulled a different card, keeping it face-down, and handed it to Lynette.
Lynette shook her head. Something didn’t feel right. “I don’t think that’s how this is supposed to work . . .”
“Lynette, you just said you don’t really know what you’re doing. I think that card I just gave you is the one I’m meant to see.”
Against her better judgment, Lynette took Renee’s lead. “Fine, if that’s what you want.”
“It’s what I want.”
Lynette turned the card over. Someone gasped, but no one said a word.
Candlelight danced across the image of a skeleton holding a large scythe, riding atop a black horse.
Even in the dim light, Lynette could see the blood drain from Renee’s face.
“I don’t want to play anymore,” Renee said. Her voice was little more than a whisper.
A flash of lightning overpowered the glow from the candles, and Lynette had to agree with her friend.
When someone flipped the lights back on, even Kit looked a little pale.