After dinner that night, Jake escaped to the fire-pit alcove down at the lake. When he arrived at the chairs that looked out on the water, he spotted an old tin can half-hidden behind a clump of grass and plucked it off the ground. He set it eight or nine feet in front of his chair, picked up a handful of tiny pebbles, and slumped into the chair. First toss a miss. Same the second. Third hit the side of the can. Fourth? A complete miss. Fifth, the tiny stone hit the back of the can and dropped in.
A moment after Jake sank his third stone, the rustle of leaves and branches lifted his head. He squinted into the fading light to see who was coming to shatter his solitude. Ari. Not again. Wasn’t there anyone else this woman could talk to?
“It looks like we both like the same spot.”
“Apparently.” Jake tossed another stone toward the can. Didn’t come close.
“Nice throw.”
Jake nodded and plastered a thin smile on his face.
“You don’t have to worry. I’m only here because the couples are getting couplely. I’m not interested in a relationship.”
Jake puffed out a laugh. “Stop reading my mind, it’s disturbing.”
“No, not a mind reader.” Ari smiled and sat on the arm of the chair next to him. “Just somewhat astute at reading the extremely obvious. How could anyone miss it, the expressions that fly off your face every moment I’m around you? The way you often find something you have to do when I walk into the room?”
He scrunched up his face. “That bad?”
“Worse.”
“I thought my Switzerland impression was YouTube-worthy. Viral potential, you know?”
“Not quite. It’s more like the North Pole.” She smiled. “I’m not taking it personally. Should I?”
“Nope. Not for a second. I’m just in the same spot it sounds like you are. Not really interested in getting involved with anyone right now. That’s all.”
“I won’t take much of your time.”
“Good.”
Ari laughed and Jake joined her. Did she know he was only half-kidding, that half of him wanted her to leave immediately and the other half wished she’d stay forever?
“I just wanted to tell you a couple of things,” Ari said. “First, I’ve decided I’m going to stay at least a few more days. Maybe the whole time.”
“Oh?”
“I can tell you’re excited.”
Jake’s face heated up. “No, I’m just . . . it’s just that—”
“It’s okay, Jake. I get it. Like I said, I know it’s not personal. The other thing is, I simply wanted to say thanks for today out on the water. You made it easier to handle.”
“It wasn’t anything.” Jake leaned forward and picked up another handful of pebbles. “Camille and I aren’t the best of friends, so when she starts doing her ‘I’m better than you so let me put you in your place’ thing, it doesn’t take much to get me going.”
Ari held out her hand palm up, and Jake stared at it. Five seconds. Ten. She didn’t move, and he finally spilled half his tiny stones into her palm.
“Thank you.” She tossed her first rock and it pinged off the side of the can. The second one went in. So did the third. “Do you mind me asking why you’re not friends? I thought all of you were lifelong buddies.”
Jake sighed. Did he really want to get into this with a complete stranger? Yes. No. He looked into Ari’s inviting eyes, found himself slipping into them, and yanked himself back out.
“No. We’re not.” Jake turned back to tossing pebbles at the can.
“Okay.” Ari stood and started to shuffle away.
“Camille was, is, one of my ex’s best friends. I never thought Peter should marry her in the first place, but he did. When the four of us started hanging out, she and my ex-wife took to each other immediately.”
“Which makes having her here extremely awkward.”
“Yes.” Jake motioned toward the chair and Ari returned to it. “And last year when we were here, she defended Sienna’s decision to divorce me, said some things to me that would even shock people on those smutty relationship TV shows. That did nothing to make me feel more chummy toward her.”
“I see.”
“You want to sit?”
Ari sat again on the arm of the chair. She watched Jake toss his pebbles at the can and occasionally threw one of her own. She was better, but he didn’t care. The part of him that liked having her there was winning.
“I know Camille,” Ari said in a voice so soft Jake almost missed it.
“What?” He frowned at her.
“Not like you think I mean. Not the Camille up there at the house, the Camille I lived with growing up.”
“Sister?”
“Mom.” Ari shifted on the armrest and stared at the ground in front of the chair. “My mom always had to win. Everything. I’ve been competing with her my whole life, so when Camille got out there on that board today, a lot of the old feelings came back.”
“I see.”
“You know how girls are supposed to subconsciously marry their dads?”
“Yeah, I’ve heard that.”
“I did the opposite.” Ari flipped her hand over. “I married my mom.”
“Oh?”
“I loved Tony, but he had to win. In everything. I was a decent golfer in high school. I played on the team for three years and even came in second my senior year in district championships. When Tony and I got married we started playing together and I beat him easily, but soon after that he became obsessed with the game till he could beat me.”
“And he gloated.”
“No. It would almost have been better if he had. He pretended that wasn’t what he was doing. Said he only played so we’d have a sport to do together. Of course when I suggested we learn how to cross-country ski together, he had no interest.”
“Wasn’t something he could get better at than you. No winner and loser.”
“Exactly.” Another toss at the can, another swish. “At dinner parties he always had to top a story I told with one of his own that was more entertaining.”
“He was always onstage.”
“Yeah.” Ari tossed another stone at the can. Again dead center. Nothing but net. “There’s an old quote about Teddy Roosevelt from his daughter Alice that goes, ‘He wants to be the corpse at every funeral and the bride at every wedding.’ That was Tony.”
“And your mom.”
“Yes.” Ari gave a sad smile. “What about you? Who did you marry?”
It was the question he’d known the answer to the moment Sienna left him. Deeper down, the answer had been there from the early days of their dating. Too deep to stop him from promising to make her happy. Jake stared at Ari. Should he tell her? The truth he’d never spoken out loud?
Ari gave her head a slight tilt. “Please don’t tell me if you’d rather not.”
Jake rubbed his eyes. “She was beautiful and always into looking good.”
His mind flashed back to a moment with Sienna six months before his legs were destroyed. They’d been scanning through photos on Jake’s laptop to find a series of shots to enlarge and put on their kitchen wall. When a photo of them in the Bahamas during their fourth year of marriage flashed on-screen, Sienna pointed at it and said, “That one for sure.”
The two of them stood up to their ankles in azure-colored water. Sienna wore a black bikini and Jake had on his navy blue swimsuit.
“I love that shot.” She snuggled closer to him on the couch. “It’s perfect.”
“For the kitchen? Isn’t that a little weird to have a shot with us in our bathing suits up in the kitchen? How ’bout we put this one in your project room or the master bathroom?”
“No, it needs to go in the kitchen. I love that shot. It’s not a poster, you silly, it’s just four by six. Small. No one will even notice it.”
“Why that one?”
“You know why.”
“You want people to notice it.”
“Fine. I admit it.” Sienna smiled. “I was the ugly duckling—”
“Who turned into a princess and—”
“Married the prince.” Sienna waved her finger over the shot. “You and me. Royalty. I just want people to see us for who we are.”
“I’m not a prince,” Jake said. “Talk about the ugly duckling. I was the ugly frog.”
“Maybe.” Sienna laughed.
“Maybe? You’ve seen pictures of my bulbous form and my pimpled face. Maybe?”
“That’s the point! That was then, this is now. Someone kissed you and you turned into the perfect prince. Handsome, smart, athletic . . .”
“Are you trying to say you love me?”
“Maybe I am.” She giggled and kissed him. “Look at you. You’re Adonis. Tan. Six-pack. Muscles. Gorgeous face.”
“I don’t work out to look like Adonis and the only reason I’m tan is because—”
“But it is a nice side benefit.” She kissed him again, this time on his abs. “Let’s never grow old, okay?”
“Might have a tough time keeping that from happening.”
“Doesn’t mean we can’t try.”
Jake rubbed his face again and glanced at Ari. “I stopped being enough for her. I couldn’t be what she needed any longer.”
Ari’s only response was to toss another stone at the can. Dead center yet again. Jake motioned toward her chair.
“Listen, if you’re going to force me to keep talking to you, you might as well get comfortable.”
“I’d never force you to do anything.” She stood, smiled, and strode away.
Jake rose and called after her, “I was kidding.”
She waved without turning around and kept going. He watched her till she turned at the end of the path, stepped onto the stairs leading up to the house, and disappeared. Jake sank back into his chair and considered whacking himself on the head. Idiot. Embarrassment turned his face hot. But the stronger emotion vying for attention was one he refused to acknowledge. He couldn’t think of anything he wanted more at the moment than for her to turn around and come back.