Chapter 20
“Thanks so much for tagging along,” Meredith says, walking beside me as the rest of the group moves slowly through the field. I can smell the faint scent of alcohol permeating through everyone’s sweat as they power through their hangovers.
“It’s no problem,” I lie, kicking my bucket like a child who just got told they have to do their chores before they can go play with their friends.
I should be driving Mira to the park right now, or catching up on sleep since I watched the sunrise from the highway this morning as I made my way to the camera store.
But thanks to Katherine butting in, I’m here, losing the headway I gained last night while Mira spends her afternoon with Grant and his lackeys.
“Are you two doing okay?” Meredith asks, pulling me from my thoughts.
“Who?”
“You and Katherine.”
“Oh yeah. We’re fine,” I reply half-heartedly.
“Does she know that?” she asks sweetly.
“Did she say something?”
“No,” Meredith says, shaking her head. “But she’s been moping around ever since you got here.
I know weddings can be stressful, especially with Susan.
I know she’s been putting stress on you to propose but I’d love it if you could try to put whatever’s going on between you two aside, just until tomorrow.
I don’t want to have my best friend sulking on my wedding day. ”
I give Meredith my best smile, trying to hide my annoyance. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thanks, Hudson,” she says, giving my arm a squeeze and venturing into the field.
I easily catch up with Katherine. She swats at a honeybee flying above her, and when it lands on her shoulder, I watch her pull out a travel-size can of bug spray from her fanny pack.
“Don’t,” I say, taking the can from her.
“Right, because the bees are your priority,” she says, picking up her bucket and moving towards the field.
“Considering a third of our crops rely on them, they should be everyone’s priority.”
“Meredith is deathly allergic so I’m just trying to be prepared,” she says, taking the can from me and putting it back in her pack before bending down and aggressively cutting a flower at its stem.
In front of us the field is covered in native flowers, the orange Indian blanket flowers, blue Rocky Mountain columbine, and purple daisies blending together harmoniously among the tall grass.
“Why did you volunteer me for this?” I ask, following behind her.
“I thought I was saving you,” Katherine argues. “You never want to spend time with Grant.”
“Maybe I’m trying to make an effort.”
“That’s funny,” she scoffs. “You never wanted to do anything with anyone when we were together and the second we break up you’ve become an extrovert, saying yes to hangs with the guys?”
“And I think it’s funny that for someone who wants to pretend we’re still together, you told Meredith that we’re fighting.”
“I needed some excuse to explain why you’ve been hanging out with everyone but me since you got here.”
“Some of these people are my friends too,” I argue back.
“Like the photographer?” Katherine shouts, then lowers her voice. “I swear every time I turn around you’re talking to her. You know how that looks, right?”
“Like I’m trying to be friendly to the person who’s staying in our room.”
Katherine huffs, her stare as sharp as the shears in her hand.
“What do you want from me?”
“I want you to do what you said and pretend that you still like me. I mean, fuck, Hudson, I haven’t seen you in weeks.”
“We live together, Katherine. You’ve seen me.”
“No. I haven’t. You took a second job just to get away from me. You sneak in when I’m asleep and sneak out before I wake up. It’s like you can’t even look at me anymore.”
I pull at the neckline of my shirt, sweat dripping down my sides.
“I’m not stupid. I know that we aren’t together, but I didn’t realize that we couldn’t even be friends.”
“We are friends.”
“No. We aren’t. We used to talk about our days. Check in with one another. Let each other know when the milk was empty. But you’ve completely shut me out.”
There’s pain behind her eyes, the sting of rejection a foreign notion to her. And it’s not fair.
“I guess I thought this trip might give us a chance to reconnect.”
I reach for her bucket, knowing that we need to have a serious conversation, one away from the prying ears and eyes of the party posse.
“Katherine, I think we need to talk,” I say, as Meredith screams from across the field.
“I lost my ring!” she shouts, holding her hand up, her ring finger bare. “I told Grant we should get it resized but we both kept forgetting, and now . . .”
“We’ll find it,” Katherine assures her, bending down to start searching. “Which direction were you coming from?”
Meredith points to the section of stomped-down grass behind her.
“I bet they have a metal detector back at the Activity Center,” Adrian says. “I can run down and check.”
“Does that work on white gold?” Meredith asks, her face pale.
“That’s still a metal,” Vanessa quips, setting down her own bucket with a heavy sigh, bending down to aid in the search.
“It has to be in this area,” Meredith explains, extending her arm to indicate the search ratio.
“And you checked the bucket?” I ask.
Meredith peeks inside, handing the flowers to Katherine as she dumps out a smattering of leaves from the bottom. “It’s not there.”
“Let’s divide into sections,” Katherine says, instructing Angie. “We’ll each go to our left, and then after five minutes we’ll switch. Sound good?”
Angie nods, before they slink through the tall grass on their hands and knees, almost indistinguishable beside the movement of the stalks.
“Are you going in?” I ask Vanessa, who’s standing next to me, sans bucket.
“What’s the expression about too many cooks . . .” she replies. “I’m sure it’s like right under their feet.”
“That’s what I’m worried about. They’re probably digging it further into the dirt.”
The grass sways frantically as they crawl through.
“You should wait for the metal detector,” I call out, but they ignore me.
“Oh my God!” Meredith shrieks, jumping up and down. “I Found it!”
Meredith and Angie both stand, their brows sweat-stained as Katherine places the ring back on her finger, clutching her hand to her chest.
“Mere,” Katherine says, her voice panicked. “I need you to stay still, okay.”
“Why?” Meredith asks, her eyes wide.
“There’s a bee.”
“Get rid of it,” Meredith shouts, freaking out.
“I’m going to,” her friend assures her, digging in her fanny pack.
“Kat, for real, I can’t find my EpiPen, I thought I packed it. You have to do something.”
Pressing down on the nozzle, the aerosol shoots out. But when Meredith lets out a blood-curdling scream, I know something is very wrong. I’m certain she’s been stung, that she’s going into anaphylaxis, until Katherine falls to the ground behind her, dry-heaving.
“What’s happening?” Vanessa asks as Meredith runs in circles, her hands over her eyes. It isn’t until the wind blows the faintest scent of pepper and toxins towards me that I understand what’s happened.
“Bear spray,” I say, running over to help them.
Vanessa and Angie follow behind me as we rush to help them up, only to be intercepted by Tonya and Adrian.
“What the hell is going on here?” Tonya asks, dropping the metal detector.
I hand Tonya the bottle, and her eyes go wide. We both know that between the bear sighting yesterday and her informational pamphlets, this mishap is partly her fault. But neither of us mention it as we move the girls down the path towards the Activity Center.
“There’s an eye-washing station over here,” she instructs, as we guide Meredith towards the industrial spray unit.
“What about me?” Katherine wails, her eyes inflamed and puffy from the blowback as she cries.
“We only have one station,” Tonya says as she helps Meredith wash out her eyes.
“I got you,” Adrian says, running into the café. I expect him to come back with a bottle of water but instead he holds out a pint of vanilla ice cream. Scooping it out with his hands, he slathers it on Katherine’s eyes.
“Better?”
“No,” she cries, kneeling over and retching on the lawn, as milky liquid pools down her face.
“She needs to get in the shower, to get the oil off her skin,” I explain to Vanessa, hoping she can take her off my hands.
“Can you take me?” Katherine cries. And as much as I don’t want to see her in pain, I know that taking care of her like this will only blur the lines further.
“I’ve got her,” Vanessa offers, taking pity on me.
“Make sure to use cold water,” I say, remembering that’s all there is in our cabin. “If things don’t improve in an hour, then it might be a good idea to head to Urgent Care.”
Katherine wails again as Vanessa guides her down the path towards the Big Barn.
I consider going with them, but worry gnaws in my stomach. If wildflower-picking could go so haywire, could something worse be happening to Mira at rock climbing?
Grabbing my keys, I head to my Jeep and speed off the property.