Chapter 5
Somehow, despite my churning emotions—or maybe because of them—I fell asleep on the way home. I woke up once to hear Luke quietly closing the car door, murmuring to Charlie. I thought that I should get up and supervise. Then I fell back asleep.
“Emily? Em?” There was a hand on my shoulder.
“Hm?” I shook myself awake. “I’m up.” I put my hand over my mouth as I yawned.
“We’re home.”
I opened my eyes fully and saw that we were in the driveway of Nana’s house, with Tara’s car still parked there too.
“Why is Tara still here?” I jerked at the door handle. “Cassie—”
“If Tara is a woman with spikey brown hair, she’s asleep on your couch. I saw her when I carried in the bags."
“Oh. Thank you.” I got out of the car and saw the chairs leaned against the house. “Thank you for unloading the car and driving us home.”
He leaned against the garden gate. “Emily, Charlie is pretty upset.”
I sighed. “I’ll talk to him.”
“He was just repeating what he heard at school.” As if it made me feel better to know that was how kids were hearing their parents talk about me. “To him, it was just a word. Like calling you a scientist or something.”
“I wish he had said scientist instead. I’d rather work in a scientist bar.” I sighed. “No, it’s ok. He was worn-out and angry. I understand. I’m just a little…on edge about Roy’s. It was just hard to hear.”
“What’s wrong at Roy’s?” Luke asked me.
I wasn’t going to go there. “Nothing. I’m just a little tired.”
He grimaced. “You said that the other night in the car too. I think you say you’re tired but you’re really saying that you’re upset.”
I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter. I’ve just been having a rough few days.” Or months. “I’ll figure it out.”
“This is a terrible situation, but you’re doing the best you can,” he told me quietly.
It wasn’t enough.
“Annie has been texting me,” Luke continued. “She feels bad and wants to apologize to you for riling Charlie up about staying at the meet.”
I nodded. “Tell her it it’s ok. I know she wasn’t trying to be mean.”
“She’s a thoughtless child sometimes,” he retorted.
“But you’re right, she wasn’t trying to be mean.
She just doesn’t understand. Her life isn’t perfect—” He stopped when I rolled my eyes.
“I’m serious, she has her own problems, and I know she wouldn’t like them paraded around a swim meet for other people to hear.
She’ll apologize in person to you.” He sounded like her father instead of her younger brother.
“It’s ok,” I repeated.
Luke stepped closer. “I have to go to New York on business tomorrow.” He swallowed and looked around. “Will you be all right?”
My heart cracked a little. “Of course we’ll be all right. You don’t need to worry about Charlie or Cassie. I’ll take care of us.”
He opened his mouth, then closed it. “Emily—”
“Emmy?” Charlie called from the porch. “I’m trying to take a shower but the water is really cold.”
“I’m coming, pal.” I looked at Luke. “Have a good trip.”
He nodded. “I’ll see you when I get back.”
Charlie watched me anxiously as I came up the steps on heavy legs. We both walked to the railing to watch Luke back out of the driveway. He raised a hand, and I did too. He hadn’t said when he would be back.
Charlie snuck his hand into mine. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean it. I was mad.”
“I know. I forgive you. And I know you won’t say mean things to me again. Right?” He nodded fervently, and I hugged him tight against me. “Let’s go warm up some water on the stove for a bath for you.”
Tara sat up groggily as I tried to sneak by her to check on Cassie while the water heated. “Hey,” she sighed, rubbing her eyes. “I conked right out. How was the meet?”
“Hang on,” I told her, then padded up the stairs and peeked into Cassie’s room. She was asleep with her back to the door, a tray with the remnants of lunch on the bureau. I silently picked it up, then crept out of the room.
I came back downstairs to Tara. “She ate?” I asked, nodding my head at the tray. I put it in the kitchen and checked the pots of water I had going on the stove. Lukewarm, at best. It was going to need to be boiling to heat up the icy stream coming from the pipes.
“She ate a little. So, how did Charlie do?”
“He swam great.” Behaviorally, a different story. “Darby did too. Did you get my pictures?”
She nodded. “Diego and Darby just texted me that her relay DQ’d on Macdara’s breaststroke leg.”
“Oh, shoot! I guess you were right about the extra butterfly kick.”
Tara nodded again. “Yep, it was her pulldown. Darby said Macdara threw a fit at the side of the pool and Coach Sean didn’t do anything. That relay was probably the first time in her life one of her actions had any consequences and she couldn’t take it.”
Coach Sean had always seemed to be a disciplinarian to me, at least when I had seen him at practice.
I remembered him lighting into Ellis about the shove.
I wondered why he hadn’t intervened with Macdara, but maybe it hadn’t been so bad.
Tara’s stories tended toward the dramatic.
“That’s too bad about the DQ, but there will be a lot more races. ”
She shrugged. “Yeah, Darby’s over it already. She and Macdara actually get along, when Macdara isn’t pulling some ‘check out my latest expensive gadget’ crap. The kid has everything.”
“What else did Diego say about the meet?” I asked unconcernedly. Any discussion about whores?
“Nothing much. The motel is ok, kids are getting along ok. Coach Sean is a limp little dick for keeping Macdara in the relay every meet.”
I made a face. “Tara!”
“I mean it. Flaccid.” She drew out the word.
“Yuck!” I squealed, then remembered that Cassie was sleeping. “That word is now banned from my house,” I hissed.
“Diego said that Annie Whitaker cried when Macdara flipped out. What a wench. Crying at a swim meet,” Tara scoffed. “Control your kid, bitch!”
I remembered what Luke had said about Annie having her own problems. “Why do you hate her?”
“Don’t you remember her from when we were kids?
Rolling through town in the summer in some sweet convertible, acting like the people here weren’t worth shit.
” I had no recollection of Annie as a teenager, but clearly Tara did.
“What’s not to hate? Her rock-hard ass, her wardrobe, her buckets of money?
Wait until you see her house. It’s like a fucking magazine shoot. ”
Oh crud, the team dinner at Annie’s house. Well, maybe I would feel able to face the other parents at some point. Maybe.
“Maybe she’s just totally clueless,” I told Tara. “She seems harmless. What’s her husband like? What’s his name, Miles?”
“Milos. Milos Rendic.” Tara considered. “He’s good looking. Quiet. I don’t think I’ve never heard him speak. At all the team stuff he just stands in the corner with a drink in his hand while she runs the show. She’s a real social butterfly, and by that I mean she has the brain of an insect.”
“Tara, she’s not that bad!”
“Whatever. And speaking of Whitakers, how was the ride down?”
I got up from my chair. “I better check the water. Charlie really needs a bath.”
“Avoidance, much? WTF, Em?”
I hurried into the kitchen. “I’m not avoiding anything! There’s just nothing to tell. We took his car, he drove the whole way. He brought coffee.” A dreamy smile started to form on my face and I quickly suppressed it. “He’s nice.”
“‘He’s nice,’” Tara mimicked. “Details, bitch! What was he wearing, what did he say, how big is his—”
“Tara! Please!” I was blushing just thinking about it. “I don’t even remember what he was wearing.”
“Give me details. I’ve been sitting on my ass on your couch all day, and your cable is out.”
“Ok, ok. He was wearing jeans, a navy wool sweater that zipped at the top but not a nerdy one. Have you ever noticed the color of his eyes? Kind of that bluey-grey? The navy really brought out the blue. And a white shirt underneath with blue plaid, and then he took off the sweater and rolled up the shirt sleeves. He has this really cool steel looking watch with all these dials. I think it’s an old pilot’s watch.
Remember he used to fly that Cessna? Man, his wrists are so strong looking.
Not thick, just strong, you know? His hair is a little shorter because he got it cut, but still long on his neck, which would seem so douchey but he can pull it off.
I think because he’s so tall. And broad shouldered.
He asked me all about my research, and he had really good questions.
Like I could tell he was listening to what I was saying, not just waiting to talk.
And he…” I trailed off. Tara was standing in the kitchen door, grinning at me.
“Emmy and Lukie, sitting in a tree,” she chanted.
“Tara, shut up!” I glanced around as if there was a crowd listening. “It’s not like that!”
“Oh yeah? What’s it like then, Miss ‘The Sweater Brought Out the Blue in His Eyes’? You’re a total fangirl.”
“Shut up,” I mumbled again.
“Seriously, babe, you really like him!”
“He’s smart, nice, handsome. What’s not to like?”
“Rich too,” Tara added. “But I’ve heard he has a new girlfriend like every five minutes.”
I feigned total indifference. “Whatever, I’m not looking to be his girlfriend. I just think he’s cute.”
“Suuuuure,” Tara said. “I totally believe you.”
“Believe what you want,” I told her. “Help me carry these pots to the bathtub.”
We got Charlie going on the bath, and came back to the kitchen to heat more water for Cassie.
“I’m on my own tonight with the fam at the meet,” Tara announced. “I feel like pizza. How about I pick one up, and we pig out and watch bad TV? If I can get that wire you have hooked up to your 1920’s TV to work.”
“Um, that sounds fun. But, um, I have something to do.”
“You mean, you have to go to work?” She raised her eyebrows and I had a flashback to many years before when Loretta asked me how I thought I was going to go study in the library when it was closed on Sundays. I couldn’t get anything by Tara either.