“Nothing to worry about,” Doctor Diaz assured Abby and John after he had examined Sean for any signs of injury. “Why, I’ve done a lot worse to myself just putting the cat out for the night.”
“Somehow the idea of our family physician falling off his porch doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence,” Abby remarked.
Diaz chuckled. “Yes, but I’m the last of a breed that still makes house calls,” he reminded her.
In fact, José Diaz, Avalon Bay’s premier physician, was too busy to make housecalls, Abby knew. But he lived just down the street from the Neals and had grown up with Sean. She knew José would have been livid if he found out that Sean had fallen and Abby hadn’t called on him to check on his oldest and dearest friend.
Abby asked him if he wanted a cup of coffee to go.
“Don’t mind if I do,” replied José as he snapped his medical bag shut and issued a good-natured warning to his patient not to go causing them all any more panic.
Sean, comfortably propped up against the pillows, managed a lopsided smile but said nothing as his wife and close friend started to leave the room.
“Oh, by the way,” José said, turning to John. “Mind running by the house one day next week? The wife needs you to look at a couple of her elms.”
“Are they sick?” John asked in concern.
The doctor shook his head. “Nope. She just wants ‘em moved.”
“Moved or removed? There’s a big difference.”
José informed him they were in the process of enlarging their back deck and his spouse had determined that the two trees closest to it would look better if they were transplanted to the other side of the yard.
“Always iffy,” John cautioned. “Sure you guys want to do that?” Even immature trees, he explained, have a hard time handling the physical stress of a relocation. Whenever it was strictly for cosmetic purposes, of course, it rankled him even more.
“You’re the tree doc,” José replied. “I get five feet from ‘em and they tell me to “leaf’ ‘em alone.” He punctuated it with a hearty laugh and made his exit with the panache of a stand-up comedian on improv night. Abby groaned and rolled her eyes as she followed him out.
“The doc’s a pretty funny guy, isn’t he?” John remarked, hoping to nudge his father into a conversation. “Remember how you always used to ask him if he’d take us back if we didn’t turn out okay when we grew up?”
With the exception of Mitch, all three of the Neal boys had been brought into the world by José Diaz, a second-generation Cuban immigrant. The impatient Mitch, who still refused to follow any timeline other than his own, had debuted two weeks early on the front seat of Sean’s truck, an incident that prompted Sean to keep reminding him for the next 18 years what it had cost to clean the upholstery.
Abby, as the story had been related to them, remained remarkably calm during the frantic drive to the hospital after her water broke. Six blocks short of their destination, her firstborn decided not to wait any longer. In his realization of what was happening in the seat next to him, Sean had slammed on the brakes, narrowly missing a collision with a police car. Yet another story that got retold at family gatherings.
John couldn’t tell if any of these reminiscences were registering with his father but for the moment he was in no hurry to leave the older man’s side. “So earlier you started to tell me something,” he continued. “Do you remember what it was?”
Sean’s brow had relaxed and he was gazing off into space, seemingly oblivious to his son’s presence or voice.
The reference to “Lid…die” had struck John as strange but he assumed that his father was only parroting a piece of their earlier conversation about him taking Kate to the airport. He’d thought about mentioning it to his mother to see if maybe she could decipher what it meant but then decided it probably wasn’t anything for either of them to be concerned about.
If Lid…die was something important, John wondered, he’d no doubt bring it up again when the spirit moved him.
“Well, aren’t you just the cutest little bundle of yumminess!” Dee declared in delight when she first caught sight of Jimmy. The latter had followed Kate to the front door but quickly ducked out of sight behind Kate’s legs as soon as he saw the stranger who had dramatically arrived with a bottle of wine in one hand and a Trader Joe’s bag in the other. Dee promptly set down the bag to reach out and tousle his mop of hair but Jimmy was too quick for her.
“Zippy little fellow, isn’t he?” she fondly observed, now using her free arm to give Kate a hug.
“Looks like you bought enough snacks for an army,” Kate commented as Dee handed the bag over to her. Gourmet cheeses, cold cuts, and a box of designer crackers comprised the top layer alone.
“Well, I don’t know about you but I for one am really, really ravenous. You wouldn’t believe the kind of day I’ve had.”
As she followed Kate into the kitchen, she slipped off her four-inch pink stiletto heels, a maneuver that still left her a couple of inches taller than Kate. Willowy thin and fashion model gorgeous, Dee had the looks for 1920’s haute couture and all the baubles, bangles and beads that went with it. Her only concessions to the 21 century were her hair and makeup which she routinely varied from week to week depending on her mood. “There are some cookies in there, too,” Dee pointed out. “Does your little man like cookies?”
“I’ve yet to meet a child who didn’t,” Kate replied, even though she didn’t think giving sugary snacks to one who already had boundless energy was such good an idea. “That was nice of you,” she said in thanks to Dee nonetheless.
“Hey, sweetie,” Dee cooed. “Come see what your Auntie Dee brought you.”
“‘Auntie Dee’?” Kate echoed.
Dee shrugged. “Kids always feel more comfortable when they think they’re related to you,” she said. “I read that somewhere.”
And Mom thinks my ideas of child-rearing are weird, Kate thought.
To Dee’s disappointment, Jimmy had run off to a far corner of the living room and, by the look on his face, had no intention of rejoining them any time soon. “He’s just a little shy when he meets new people,” Kate told her boss, not wanting to digress into details that Dee clearly hadn’t dropped by to hear.
“Soooooo,” Dee mysteriously said as she withdrew a corkscrew from the drawer and began opening the wine. “You’ll never guess who Ashley told me asked her to go out clubbing with him.”
Gossip first, business later. In a way, Kate was relieved that Dee hadn’t started the evening with a long list of assignments that she really, really, really needed to get done.
“Who?” Kate absently inquired, trying to remember whether Ashley was the newest marketing associate to join the staff or one of the prior ones who had just been promoted to corporate sales. The growth of the magazine in recent months had brought such a wave of fresh faces that, working offsite on features as often as she did, Kate had troubling keeping them straight.
Dee drew out the excitement until she had wriggled the cork free and given it a deep whiff of approval. “DJ,” she announced.
Certainly didn’t waste any time moving on, Kate thought. “That’s nice,” she replied, indifferently.
Dee shook her head. “I just can’t see it. I’d have thought you two would be the next ‘It’ couple.”
‘It’ couple? “It couple?” Kate repeated.
“Well, I mean ‘cuz you’ve got so much in common.”
Kate tilted her head and arched a brow.
“You could’ve had a lot in common if you’d given him a chance,” Dee continued. “You’ve got to admit he’s really, really cute.”
Kate was quick to counter that she had no time right now to embark on a new relationship.
Her listener was skeptical. “Oh, come on! You’re saying that if some handsome, eligible bachelor walked through that door and wanted to take you out on the town, you’d tell him ‘no’?”
“And then I’d introduce him to you and you could go out with him and then I’d have all this great salami and cheese to myself.”
With the lithe grace of an athlete, Dee hoisted herself up on the counter and, with slender legs crossed at the knees, sipped the glass of wine she had just poured. “Still not over the cutie homeboy, are you?” she teased.
Why do I ever tell her anything? Kate silently chided herself. “Water under the bridge,” she said, handing Dee a generous slice of Cotswold to quiet her.
“Methinks thou doth protest too much,” Dee replied.
That her boss could quote Shakespeare was surprising enough, Kate marveled. “Look, it was a long time ago.”
“So how come you two didn’t make it work?” Dee asked bluntly.
“Bad timing, I guess. I don’t know.” That wasn’t entirely true, of course. In retrospect, John Neal had swept her off her feet fairly fast without even seeming to try. Nor had he pushed her into telling her parents when they first started spending time together.
Dee wanted to know how long they had dated.
Kate corrected her that sharing pizzas and hanging out with mutual friends at the Boardwalk on weekends didn’t exactly fit the “dating” definition. It wasn’t until the afternoon John asked her if she’d like to go to the homecoming dance with him that she realized it was finally time to broach the subject at home. Lydia had gone ballistic. Kate’s father, in contrast, had seen nothing wrong with the idea and even commented that he’d worked with Sean at the factory when they were both younger.
“Well, at least you had an ally in your dad,” Dee reflected as she plucked a piece of salami off the platter. “That’s cool.”
A lump of sadness always came into Kate’s throat whenever she thought of her father, dead from a sudden heart attack less than a week after he had championed her choice of a date for the dance. The last thing she wanted or needed right now was to dredge up all the memories again of what the Toscano household had been like in the months that followed his funeral. “I guess some relationships just aren’t meant to work out,” she opined, a preemptive strike to turn the conversation away from the family sorrow that still lingered. “John and I just went our separate ways. End of story.”
Dee wasn’t buying an explanation that simplistic. “Yeah, but, don’t you think it’s just the teensiest bit strange that you just happen to go back home and that he just happens to be driving the cab.”
“What’s your point?” Kate asked, cutting her off.
“My point,” Dee continued, “is that it is karma. You’ve obviously got some majorly unresolved stuff with this guy and the universe is throwing you together to, well, to get it all resolved.”
“You didn’t come over here just to lecture me, did you?” Kate said.
“Actually,” Dee said, “there’s something really, really—” She took a deep breath and raked a beautifully manicured hand through her hair. “Oh, I probably should have just told you on the phone and been done with it.”
Kate’s relief in finally welcoming a change of subject that didn’t involve her love life altered instantly into a state of panic. She’s going to fire me, she thought. I’ve been dilly-dallying around so much on getting those assignments done and not coming into the office since I got back that.
She took a deep breath and tried to stay calm.
“I realize this is probably the very worst timing in the world,” Dee was apologizing, “and, believe me, hon, if there were any other possible way around it.”
I should have known it was going to come to this, Kate chided herself, conscious that the blood was now beginning to furiously pound in her temples. When you try to juggle too many balls in the air, it shouldn’t be that big a surprise when they start falling and smacking you in the middle of the forehead. A part of her wondered whether she should plead her case that she was trying to function under extenuating circumstances and hope that Dee had a change of heart. Then again, the likelihood was pretty high that her go-getter boss had already hired her replacement.
“It may not be as bad as it sounds,” Dee was saying. “I know I always feel different after a change of scenery.”
Not exactly my choice of words for the interior of an unemployment office, Kate thought. At least I’ve got some money in reserve, she remembered. Not quite as much as I’d like but at least until I get another.
Alarm bells were suddenly ringing in her head. Up until a week ago, the unbidden prospect of dusting off her resume and making the rounds for new employment would have been labor-intensive and annoying but not impossible. Goodness knew that she’d had plenty of practice at polished interviews during her climb up the career ladder. The realization that she couldn’t go anywhere now – much less land a comparable work-at-home scenario - unless she arranged child care for her nephew made Dee’s news a bombshell she wasn’t prepared to deal with.
Across the room, she noticed that Jimmy had appropriated one of Dee’s stilettos and was scrutinizing it intently as if it had just landed from another planet. Her first impulse was to rush over and retrieve it. Her second impulse was to just leave him be. When someone is in the middle of telling you that you’re fired, she decided, there’s not a lot of motivation to do them the favor of rescuing their footwear from an inquisitive and possibly destructive five-year-old.
There was no point in postponing the inevitable question that hovered in her brain. “So how much time do I have?” she asked.
Dee laughed. “You make it sound like you’ve got a terminal disease or something,” she said. “Honestly, it’s only for two weeks, maybe three weeks max.”
She doesn’t have to sound so cheerful about it, Kate thought.
“And you don’t have to lift a finger to pack,” Dee assured her. “I’ve already arranged for someone to do it for you.”
Kate forced a smile that she didn’t feel. “Can’t wait to get rid of me, huh?” The uncertainty of the immediate future made her remark come out more sarcastic than was perhaps sensible.
“Listen, I promise to make it up to you just as soon as he’s gone.”
He? “He?” she echoed.
Dee gave her a puzzled look. “My father,” she replied. “Haven’t you been paying attention to anything I’ve been saying?”
“Apparently, I must have missed something. What does your father have to do with my being fired?”
It was Dee’s turn to look baffled. “I said he was coming out to visit me for a couple of weeks and I needed to stay here in the condo while he’s visiting. What did you think I was talking about?”
Kate’s deflated ego suddenly became buoyant again. “Sorry,” she stammered, “I guess I must’ve zoned out a sec.”
Dee quickly recapped that she needed to temporarily move back in during his stay so as to deflect any suspicion about her actual living arrangements with Anton. “I suppose you missed what I said about The Grand Suites too?”
The Grand Suites? “What about it?”
“Well, since I’m putting you out ‘n’ all I’ve already booked you a penthouse to use ‘til he leaves. Really, really posh. All the amenities. Anything you need, just put it on my tab.”
While she couldn’t fault Dee’s generosity, the judgment behind it wasn’t particularly sound. “Aren’t you forgetting someone?” Kate asked.
Dee shrugged. “Who?”
“I can’t take a five-year-old to a casino, Dee.”
“I’m talking about the hotel, honey.”
“I know,” Kate said. “I’m not sure it’s best for Jeremy right now.”
“So, stay in the suite the whole time,” Dee countered, deeming this a perfectly reasonable solution. “It’s big enough to have its own zip code.”
“It’s not the hotel, Dee. I need to think about the long term for Jeremy.”
“Look, it’s only for a couple of weeks, maybe a month at the total worst.”
“A minute ago it was three weeks max,” a skeptical Kate reminded her.
“At the moment,” Dee reluctantly confessed, “it’s open-ended. He’s got some political wing-ding stuff going with the upcoming election.”
“In other words, you don’t know?”
Dee sighed in resignation. “I really don’t. Hey, I don’t know what to tell you, hon. I can’t very well call and tell him not to come ‘cuz if I make too big a deal of it.”
“No, no, it’s your place,” Kate said, taking solace in the fact that at least she hadn’t been fired in addition to being sent packing on short notice. “It’ll all work out.” Just don’t ask me how.
The solution, when it finally came to her in the wee hours of the following morning, was the last one she would have expected herself to make. Was this how her sister felt, she wondered, every time a door closed and there were no immediate signs of a new one opening? The difference, of course, was that the one choice Cassy could have made in the best interests of her son’s emotional stability was the only one she repeatedly ran away from.
Lydia answered on the third ring and immediately wanted to know why Kate was calling her so early.
“I need your help, Mom,” Kate declared. “I’m coming home.”