Fifteen #2
Jenn shrugged. “It’s not easy when you’ve been out of the workforce for so long, and you spend summers away. David insists we come for at least a month to get our fair use out of the cottage.”
David would. Everything she learned confirmed for Valerie that David was exactly the type of guy to keep a life-changing secret from his brother. “You’ve been coming up here a long time,” she said.
Jenn gave her a surprisingly perceptive look. “I never knew your mother, I’m afraid. I met David after university, and it took three years for him to invite me up.”
“Were you dating the whole time?” Valerie asked.
“We were but Malcolm had firm beliefs about who counted as family. The cottage was for the chosen, and I wasn’t included until we were married.
Sometimes I’m surprised he didn’t make me wait until I’d borne a grandchild.
” She sighed. “Harriet was a little better, but she would never go against her husband. My mom was a nurse, after all, and my dad was a mechanic. Hardly Badgerton level and Malcolm let me know it.”
Valerie wanted to follow up on this new assholery of Malcolm’s out of nosiness, but Jenn had given her a way in to talk about Yvette and she needed to stay on target. “No wonder Malcolm was the one behind Yvette leaving,” she said, fishing for more information.
Jenn nodded and stepped around a woman holding a child covered in ice cream. “I think that P person Roger is fixating on is a stranger, though. Maybe an old lawyer or friend.”
“Really?” Valerie was getting into some dangerous territory here, but she might as well ask outright. “Not one of his siblings?”
Jenn walked a bit faster. “David was furious Roger thought he was capable of such a thing, and honestly, I can’t see any of them helping him do that to Roger.
They were all desperate for Malcolm’s approval, but Peter had a moral core like diamond, and Penny of course would never.
She adores Roger. Here’s the food bank.” They stopped at a side street and she checked her phone. “Damn, Tracey had to cancel.”
“Tracey?”
Jenn was busy texting. “Tracey Jefferies. She’s the co-lead with me.”
Valerie shared a glance with Nico. This would have been a perfect way to get to Tracey and ask about the photo. Too bad. “Do you need a hand?” asked Valerie, wanting to help anyway.
Jenn touched her arm in thanks. “Another time.”
With a wave, she was gone, leaving Valerie and Nico alone on the sidewalk.
“Did you notice she didn’t mention David when talking about why none of them would have helped out Malcolm?” she asked. “Only that he was upset at the accusation.”
“I did.”
Valerie drew a line in the air. “One point for Team David.”
“Her only defense of Penny was just that she loves Roger,” Nico pointed out. “Hardly a sure thing, seeing as she also loves her family, money, and the Badgerton name.”
“I’ll give you half a point.” Valerie admired a cute floppy hat in the window of the Serenity Boutique. “It doesn’t seem like Malcolm’s family misses him much apart from Penny.”
Nico shrugged. “He was a miserable man and ill for a long time. In some ways they got used to him not being there before he was gone.”
“I saw that sometimes at Ad Astra. Often the family felt guilty to have done so much of their grieving while the person was still alive.”
“It’s hard to know how you’ll react in that situation,” said Nico.
Valerie nodded. “Lots of feelings to navigate.”
They set a meeting time and place; then Nico left Valerie at the bookstore to run his errands. She was poking around the thrillers when she heard her name. It was Dalia, dressed in a retro striped jumpsuit. “I thought that was you! What are you up to?”
“Nothing in particular.” Valerie was happy to see a familiar face. She glanced down at the book in Dalia’s hand, the same one she’d given Blair. “Oh, I read that!”
“Did you like it?”
“I did, but don’t ask me for details. I’m bad at avoiding spoilers.” She generally got overexcited when talking about books she liked, and had learned to preemptively warn people.
“We’ll have a book club of two when I’m done.” Dalia gestured out the window. “I was going to get some ice cream. Want to come?”
“I never turn down ice cream.” They briefly debated soft serve or gelato before deciding the day called for root beer floats. Ten minutes later, they were on a bench breathing in the faint smell of gas from the boats and watching people walking around the marina.
“This is the life, isn’t it?” Dalia asked. “I love the sun. I could be part lizard.”
“How did you decide to move here for the summer?” Valerie scooped root beer slush from the side of the ice cream and let it melt on her tongue.
“I knew the people renting the cottage, and someone backed out,” said Dalia. She fished a visor out of her bag and fixed it over her eyes. “I’d kicked out my roommate at home and that had been messy so I wanted a break from the city. Sublet the place and up I came.”
“You told your roommate to move out?” Valerie could never.
Dalia wiped her mouth. “She was terrible and there were consequences.”
“Wow.”
Dalia laughed. “Not your style?”
Much in the same way darkness let the truth out, so too did the lazy warm sun. “I hate confrontation.”
“God, me too,” said Dalia fervently. “My stomach gets all tight and I get shaky after.”
“Yeah!” Valerie watched a long black bird swoop down. A cormorant, that’s what Nico called it. “You did it though.”
“My mother always says if you can’t do it calm, do it scared. It’s not like avoiding the issue makes it better. Hey, are Blair and them coming up to visit you?”
“I don’t think so.” None of them had reached out since she left, although the group text had bounced around what the others were doing.
“No?”
Valerie shrugged. “Why did you stop coming out with us?” she asked curiously.
Dalia chewed her straw. “Look, obviously I don’t want to talk shit about anyone behind their backs.”
“Obviously.”
With the standard disclaimer out of the way, Dalia sighed. “I didn’t feel like I belonged?” she said hesitantly.
“I feel like that too,” burst out Valerie, relieved someone had put her feelings into words. Sometimes when they were out, she felt more like a background prop than a person.
“I don’t know how to say it, but I felt worse about myself every time I went out with them. It wasn’t until later that I realized what it was. They never seemed happy about good news.”
“What do you mean?”
“If someone had good news, there would be a quick acknowledgment, but otherwise it went ignored, or someone would point out something better that happened to another person they knew. If it was bad, though? They were all in. It’s like they couldn’t bond over being proud of each other.
They weren’t supportive in a way I needed. ”
Valerie thought this over. How odd that she never saw the competitive nature of those relationships. She finished her float with a disturbingly loud slurp that caused Dalia to laugh.
“That could be a me thing, though. They seemed fine with each other,” said Dalia. “How do you know the Badgertons?”
Valerie wanted to tell the truth, desperately. She could see her potential friendship with Dalia disappear like crumbs to a hungry bird, because how can you be friends with a liar? A cloud drifted over the sun and Valerie shivered, hands cold on the icy cup.
“Family,” she said, and left it at that.
“Lucky, I wish my family had a place up here. Oh, hey, if you’re not busy, I’m having a party in a couple days. Cottage Games XIV,” Dalia said. “I’d love if you dropped by. Bring whoever you want.”
“Cottage Games XIV? Fourteen?”
“It’s only the first year we’ve done it but we thought the Roman numerals sounded good.” Dalia texted her the information, then waved goodbye.
Valerie leaned back on the bench and watched her go before spotting Nico’s tall frame in the distance. He was holding what looked like a paper bag from the bakery, and even if it wasn’t a treat for them to share, it had been a good day.
But she thought it might be a cookie, and that made it better.