“Sorry, dude,” Lily spoke first, to Bob. At least Eva assumed Lily spoke to Bob. She had her head down and wasn’t meeting anyone’s eyes. Bob looked from Daniel to Lily. Since she couldn’t see Lily through the curtain of her hair, Eva tried to read the expression on Bob’s face. Confused? Guilty? Sad for sure.
“S’okay,” Bob said. “Me too.”
Bob and Lily sat down on the bench, carefully keeping space between their bodies, both looking out at the water and not at each other.
Eva met Daniel’s eyes over the kids’ heads. It had been obvious to everyone in Blue Lake for a while now that Bob had a crush on Lily. Sometimes Lily flirted with Bob, other times she pushed him away. This seemed like something else. Something more serious than two teenagers navigating an attraction.
“Do you want to talk about what happened?” Eva suggested.
“NO!” Bob and Lily said together. Then they looked at each other and smiled.
“Friends?” Bob asked Lily.
“Friends,” Lily confirmed.
“You sure you’re okay?” Eva asked Lily.
“Stop being a mom. I just get a little crazy sometimes. No big. Sorry to scare you.”
“Bob didn’t hurt you?” Daniel asked. But he put his hand back on Bob’s shoulder when he said it.
Lily shook her head.
“Can we please just drop it?”
“If you’re sure—”
Lily looked out over the big water. Bob, next to her, seemed to be holding his breath.
Eva wondered where this left her video ride with Daniel. Should they continue with the day as planned? She glanced at him, the question in her eyes.
Daniel shrugged.
“Well,” he said, “if we’re done here…”
“You guys want to come with us?” Eva said, before Daniel had a chance to finish his thought.
“I gotta finish the plaster job in the green cottage,” Bob said.
“Kiwi,” Lily corrected him. “Kiwi Cottage.”
“Right.”
“I’ve got laundry to do,” Lily admitted. “Where were you guys going, anyway?”
Daniel told them about the video shoot.
“You’re going to put the top down, right?” Lily said. It wasn’t a question as much as a plea. “Where’s your video camera? You don’t want to load a phone video for marketing.”
Lily looked at Eva. Eva wondered how Lily knew so much about cameras and marketing.
“Laundry can wait,” Eva said.
“You can knock off for the day if you like,” Daniel told Bob.
Bob and Lily sprung up and headed toward the break of tall pines that separated Blue Heaven from the park.
“Hope that was okay,” Eva said to Daniel after the kids were out of earshot.
“That girl has issues,” Daniel said. “But yeah, it’s fine.”
Later, Eva thought, maybe Lily would tell her what had happened. It probably had to do with Bob innocently taking things to a physical level Lily wasn’t comfortable with—that seemed like the obvious thing. Bob was a good kid, but he was a teenaged boy. At least whatever happened seemed to have stopped before they’d gone too far.
The top on her Mustang was already down when they got to the car. Lily and Bob sat in the back seat.
“This is so cool!” Lily said, as if nothing had happened. “I
love
convertibles! Daniel, can I see your camera?”
****
Daniel felt happy and sad. Relieved that the neurotic chick had simmered down and was not, according to Bob, on any drugs. “She doesn’t even smoke pot,” Bob had said when Daniel asked. So that part was all good. The not so good part was that since they had the kids along, there was no way he was going to get a chance to change Eva’s mind about the moratorium on kissing. He’d been thinking about it all week, and he had a sort of plan that would get her at least into his arms. If she said yes. Big if. But he had to try.
For now, he pointed to the just-opened Very Blue ice cream stand. It was like the ice cream people had a direct line to the weather, because every spring, on the warmest day of May, they miraculously opened, giving locals a chance to enjoy their downtown before the tourists took over.
The four of them sat at a picnic table, licking their cones, while Daniel plotted ways to get more of Eva’s attention. She was pretty much ignoring him and focusing on Lily, asking her what she thought were subtle questions about where she was from and why she’d left home in the first place.
Lily might be a bit high maintenance for Daniel’s tastes, but he had to hand it to the girl—she could handle Eva better than he ever had.
“All the towns up here are alike,” Lily said, avoiding the question. “What I want to know is how it feels to work in a big city like Detroit.”
“Honey, I worked in Bloomfield Hills.”
“How far is that from Detroit? Did you ever go to Red Wings games? You know, live?”
Daniel stopped listening. It wasn’t that he didn’t care about Eva’s life before Blue Lake. More that he wanted it to be him asking the questions.
When he finished his cone, he laid out his plan.
“Eva, if you wouldn’t mind, I’ll drive, and Bob can shoot the video of the town.”
“Can I? Please?” Lily asked. “I took a videography class last year,” she said. “It was cool.”
“Sure,” Bob said.
Eva clutched her car keys with one hand, her half eaten cone with the other. She didn’t seem ready to hand him over her keys.
“If I drive, then we don’t have all the directions
, Turn here, go here, stop there
on the video. I can give you and the internet the Bryman tour. It will flow better. Trust me.”
When Eva still didn’t give him her keys, even after he’d handed his top-of-the-line video camera over to Lily, he started to get irritated. He had to tamp down his annoyance. Women! What exactly was the problem?
“I haven’t had a traffic ticket. Ever.” He tried to smile sweetly, hiding his disappointment with how the day was turning out. Earlier, he’d had such high hopes for this day. But it was fine. He could initiate Mission: Fast Eddie later.
Finally, she gave him the keys.
Score one for me
, Daniel thought.
“Do you need to sit up front, Lily?” Eva asked.
And it’s a tie. Again.
“No. It’s actually better back here—” Lily was already back in the car, pointing the camera here and there, checking the shots. “No windshield or mirrors to get in the way.”
Eva sat in the front seat, next to him.
Nice save.
Now if they could just lose the junior adults. Daniel didn’t mean that. He loved Bob. The kids had spring fever, obviously needed a diversion. He’d work on getting closer to Eva another day. Or maybe tonight.
Daniel’s mood improved as he took Eva through town, showing off all the Bryman homes he’d helped restore. He wanted to take her inside every single place, show her what he could do with cracked plaster and worn wood.
“I’d love you to see the built-ins Bryman crafted himself,” Daniel said. He was thinking maybe some of the owners would be willing to open their homes to a tour at some point.
“How do you know which parts of the house he did himself?”
“He carved his initials, VB, very tiny on the back or the bottom of the wood.”
“Like a silver hallmark.”
Daniel didn’t know from silver, but he nodded, just happy to be with her.
“Show them the museum, bro,” Bob said. “And then let’s go grab some Mexican. I think Sanchez’s is open.”
Daniel took a left. He pulled into the museum’s driveway and put Eva’s car in park. He turned off the ignition.
“Maybe the ladies don’t like Mexican food,” he said.
“I love it,” Lily said, piling out of the car, the camera firmly in her grip. “Are we going inside this one?”
****
After they’d toured the museum and found seats on the sidewalk tables of Sanchez’s, Eva ordered a margarita. Mr. and Mrs. Sanchez both knew Daniel and Bob and treated them like family, making a fuss over them, wiping off the already spotless plastic seating, bringing them extra tortilla chips.
“They’re really Mexican, then?” Lily said. “I’m going to get authentic enchiladas instead of the Taco Bell version?”
“Yep. Their parents were migrant workers who settled in the area, so we lucked out and have a true taste of Mexico in Michigan.”
“Lucked out?” Bob said. “Did you forget that you loaned them the money to open this place?”
Daniel didn’t say anything, just studied the menu.
“Don’t you mean the bank loaned them the money?” Eva crunched one of the fresh chips dipped in salsa after she asked the question.
“Nope. Daniel always loans people money when the bank won’t. Out of his own pocket. With no interest.”
That was the same thing he’d offered her, Eva realized.
“Only when I think they deserve a chance, like the Sanchez family.”
Now their utter devotion to Daniel made more sense. As Eva tried the guacamole, she had to admit that Daniel had been right about the food. She licked the salt on the rim of her cocktail and sipped the icy drink. Divine.
“So, what did you think of the museum?” Daniel asked her.
She thought the barter was fair. The place was in even worse shape than Blue Heaven had been when she’d taken occupancy. But it would be fun, too. The best part is that she had an unlimited budget, free reign to do what she wanted, and six months instead of two to complete her winter project.
“It’ll be a blast,” she said, editing her thoughts down to their essence.
“We need to get you a webcam laptop so I can see the progress in real time.”
“Okay, Big Brother,” Eva said, not comfortable with the idea that Daniel would be so far away, but teasing him in order to avoid thinking about why she wanted him here, with her.
Lily chatted to Bob about her video class; it was as if the earlier upset this afternoon had never happened. Bob was as smitten as ever, obvious because he hung on Lily’s every word.
“You should do something with that,” Eva told Lily.
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. What do people who love video do? Go to film school? Try to meet Michael Moore?”
“You could set up a Vlog,” Bob said.
Eva had no idea what that even was. Sounded like something from Star Trek.
Lily looked pensive.
“I haven’t really thought about it,” she finally said, right before their dinners arrived, fragrant and steaming.
The last of the sun lowered in the sky, the last of the meals had been scraped from the plates, when Bob said “Aunt Jane!” the pleasure in his voice evident on his face.
Chapter Fourteen
As it had been for most of the day, downtown was alive with locals. Eva looked to where Bob was directing his beams of happiness and easily picked out Jane, just turning the key on a building next door to Sanchez’s. Jane looked up, saw them, and smiled. She threw her keys into her purse and came over to where they sat.
Their waiter quickly found another chair while Daniel ordered Spanish coffees for himself and Eva and Mexican hot chocolate for the kids. Daniel was sweet and thoughtful. As the sun went down, the day had cooled a bit, and he didn’t want her to catch a chill. He eyed Jane, who kissed Bob, then directed the waiter to place the extra chair between Daniel and Eva.
“I’ll have a Chardonnay,” Jane said. “Stocked my brand yet?”
The waiter nodded and went to fill their drink order.
“You might as well just bring the bottle,” Jane called after him.
Eva worried about Jane’s liver, but admired how she handled her liquor. She herself was glad Daniel was driving her car. Just the one potent margarita had given her a glow that was probably over the legal limit, and she was sure the Spanish coffee would do nothing to sober her up. “What have you people been up to, besides eating everything in Sanchez’s kitchen?” Jane sipped the wine the waiter had rushed over to her.
As Bob recapped the day, Eva realized the building Jane had just locked up was her office. She was so glad she didn’t have to be cooped up all day anymore at the agency, but could make her own schedule. Of course, Jane did that too. She showed houses and made deals. Not that there were many real estate deals to be made in Michigan right now.
“I hope you’re not slowing down on your renovations,” Jane said to Eva.
“Heck no,” Bob answered for her. “We’ve got every skilled laborer in town on one job or the other.”
This was news to Eva, as no workers had been present at the museum when they’d toured it, although she was relieved that her crew was not being overworked.
“I’m sure their families appreciate the paychecks,” Jane said, turning toward Daniel as she spoke.
Eva tried, but she couldn’t feel any special vibe between Daniel and Jane. Nothing more than old friendship. Jane didn’t spend any extra time talking to Daniel, but asked Lily about film, Bob about college, and Eva about the progress on the cottages.
Eva asked Jane about her job and this was the only time Jane’s easy smile faltered. She poured another glass of wine and said “Things are slow.” Then she drank a hefty swallow and stared into her glass.
Obviously the wrong topic, Eva thought.
But then Daniel told a funny story about the previous owners of the museum and how they’d had all these bizarre requirements for selling, and how Jane had humored their every whim, including the one that said the new owner had to leave a certain rocking chair in the room at the top of the stairs for the ghost.
Eva remembered seeing the rocking chair and finding it charming but empty of any ghost. She laughed with everyone else, including Jane. Was Jane glowing a little more than usual? Was it from the wine or Daniel’s bragging about her patience and expertise? Eva couldn’t tell, but since Jane’s body language didn’t betray any special interest in Daniel, not even in the flutter of a lash, she relaxed. They were just old pals, they enjoyed each other’s company, and that was it. Not that it mattered. Not that she cared.
As they drove home, the kids opting to hang out downtown and then walk back to Blue Heaven later, Eva asked Daniel about Jane. She was pretty sure there was nothing but friendship, but still wanted to get Daniel’s side of the story. Jane’s depiction of their affair and Daniel’s morals were a little darker than Eva’s read. She was simply curious, she told herself. Nothing personal.