West of Nowhere (13 page)

Amber finally smiled but made no move to get up.

“Please come join us. Pop really wants you there.” That was her stupid, stubborn pride talking, and it was unraveling her intended apology. “And I want you there too.”

It was a wrenching few seconds before Amber finally answered. “Okay.”

Joy set another place at the table while Amber helped her pop into his wheelchair and rolled him to the table.

“Did you two kiss and make up?”

Of all the words he might have chosen, that was at the bottom of Joy’s wish list, and she answered it with a vicious glare.

“It was just a figure of speech,” he said, smirking like a mischievous imp.

A wet kiss took Amber by surprise as she stretched out on her bedroom floor.

“What’s up with you, Skippy? I was beginning to think you didn’t love me anymore.” She knew better, since he still slept with her every night, but this time of day he was usually out sharing Shep’s recliner.

She was experimenting with the dark cherry bureau, on the lower part of the leg near the wall, which she’d intentionally wet with a damp cloth until a small white spot appeared. Using a soft dry T-shirt as a buffer to the wood, she pressed a warm iron against it for several minutes until the stain vanished. Then she tiptoed into the living room past a napping Shep and applied the same technique to the two marks she’d made on the credenza.

Enormously proud of herself, she rewarded her good deeds with a cigarette while Skippy wandered around the backyard. The last three days had been the most industrious of her life. In addition to her normal routine of helping Shep in and out of his wheelchair, and with his therapy, she’d taken on the monumental tasks of washing all the windows in the house and cleaning his car inside and out. She’d have done the same for Joy, except Joy never let things get dirty in the first place. Besides, even though she’d ridden across the country in the camper, that was Joy’s bedroom now, and it felt wrong to go in there when she wasn’t home.

What fascinated Amber most about her transformation was the feeling of satisfaction she got from seeing the fruits of her labor, and from knowing Joy and Shep were impressed. It wasn’t as if she’d never worked hard before, but she’d usually done so grudgingly under the watchful eye of a demanding boss. Once she started taking responsibility for the duties Joy had assigned, the urge to go above and beyond was all hers. For that, she couldn’t help but feel proud.

Her cell phone, which she hardly used, rang from her back pocket. It could only be one person on the other end, but she double-checked just to be sure. Joy normally called on the house phone, but since their blowup the other day she had started sending friendly text messages just to check in and see if there was anything she could pick up on her way home. Amber appreciated the gesture, particularly because it eased the anxiety she felt about having screwed up so much.

“Hey, Joy. Everything okay?”

“Yeah, I was just calling to let you guys know I’d be a little late today. I have a union meeting after work and then I have to take my Jeep in for service. I ought to be home by six. You want me to pick up dinner?”

“Nah, we have stuff here. I can throw something together.”

Joy made a sound that was almost a chuckle, but then seemed to think better of it. “I guess I’ll see you then. What’s Pop doing? You guys watching your soaps?”

“He’s snoring like a chain saw right now but I’m taping them for later. He’ll be upset if he misses any good dirt.”

“You guys crack me up.” There was a garbled noise in the background, like an intercom announcement. “Okay, got to go. Text me if you change your mind about dinner.”

Amber smiled to herself as she tucked her phone back into her hip pocket. As bad as she had felt the other day when she overheard Joy’s cruel words to her father, the result was worth it. For the first time since leaving Kentucky, the air between them was clear, and she actually began to think they could be friends.

* * *

Joy drummed her fingers on the steering wheel, waiting for her chance to slide over into the exit lane. If there was one advantage to starting her workday at five a.m., it was missing all this crazy rush-hour traffic. She was glad Amber had declined her offer to pick up dinner since it would have meant waiting in another line.

Still, she smiled to think of Amber’s offer to fix dinner. According to her pop, she’d finally mastered the art of the grilled cheese sandwich but had shown little aptitude for much else. Regardless, Joy would go out of her way to show her appreciation for whatever she fixed if only for the fact that Amber had tried.

The last couple of days had been interesting, to say the least. Still feeling guilty about the hurtful words Amber had overheard, she’d gone out of her way to be friendlier. As a result, there was a lot less tension in the house, so much that she’d hung out with everyone the night before to watch a talent show on TV and cheer for Amber’s favorite, the country music singer.

Amber also had responded to the shift, or so it seemed. Not only had she stepped up and taken charge of all the household duties, she’d done it with a dose of humor, berating them during last night’s show for spilling popcorn on her floor after she’d worked her fingers to the bone to clean it. The whole incident had led to a hilarious popcorn fight, after which Joy had graciously swept up.

Traffic thinned out when she pulled off the freeway, and she was glad to find the gate open so she could drive all the way through to the carport. The next thing she noticed was the shine on her father’s sedan. A peek inside revealed that it had been vacuumed and wiped down as well. She didn’t know whether to feel grateful or guilty. It was nice that Amber was doing a few jobs that needed to be done, but Joy had never meant to make her feel that all those extras were expected.

At the kitchen door, she was greeted by the savory smell of dinner, and she caught herself hoping Barbara had brought pot roast over for everyone. The table was set for three but there was no one in sight.

“Anyone home?”

Her father’s wheels thumped along the wooden floor as he emerged from his room with Amber pushing his chair. “Madison called,” he said gruffly. “She’s in some kind of trouble at school.”

“What?” Joy looked at her watch—a quarter after six, which was nine fifteen on the East Coast, past Madison’s bedtime. “Why didn’t she call me on my cell phone?”

“Wouldn’t have made any difference. You were in that union meeting.”

“What kind of trouble is it?”

“Homework. She says it’s too hard and her teacher’s mean.”

Madison had grumbled last week that Syd hardly ever helped her with her homework anymore now that Mitch was there all the time. “God, I wish I could talk to Syd about this. She needs to give Madison more help at home.”

“Why can’t you?” Amber asked.

Joy sighed. “Because I have to walk on eggshells around her. If I make waves, she might not let Madison come out to visit.”

“What a bitch!”

That summed it up perfectly as far as Joy was concerned, but she didn’t have the luxury of getting worked up like that. The last time she’d called Syd out—over letting Madison watch an R-rated movie that gave her nightmares—the poor girl had lost her phone privileges for two weeks. Syd never said it was because of Joy complaining, but she knew it had to be more than coincidence.

“I’ll call her in the morning. If she’s having trouble with her schoolwork, maybe I can help her in the afternoons when I get home.”

“Wow, look at this!” her pop said, licking his lips as Amber set a steaming bowl on the table.

Joy lunged toward the kitchen counter for a trivet and slid it underneath the hot dish, which appeared to be a concoction of ground beef, rice and peas. “Looks great! What is it?”

“I did what you said,” Amber answered proudly. “Took the recipe right off the side of the mushroom soup can. It was easy.”

“Good for you.” Joy bit down on something crunchy…the rice, unfortunately. On her second bite, she realized the peas were still cold, and looked up to find her father eyeing her warily from across the table.

“What do you think?” Amber asked. She had yet to taste it.

“These ingredients…they go together really well.”

“Yep, tasty,” her pop said, setting down his fork to take a gulp of water.

Amber took a bite, paused mid-chew and pronounced, “It’s not done. My peas are still frozen.”

Joy guessed she missed the part where it said thaw before cooking. She may also have overlooked the line that instructed her to cook the rice before stirring it into the pot. She sprang to her feet and collected her father’s plate. “I know how to fix this.”

By stirring in water and zapping the mixture in the microwave, she made dinner edible.

“I probably should be barred from future dinner details,” Amber said sullenly.

Joy bit her tongue, and so did her pop, which caused all three to burst out laughing.

“You should have seen Joy the first time she made pancakes.”

“Oh, give me a break. I was ten years old!”

He held up his hand in the shape of a C. “They were like giant round sponges, burned to a crisp but soupy on the inside. And this one”—he pointed to Joy—“was covered with flour from head to toe, and she tracked it all through the house.”

Joy huffed with feigned annoyance. “That’s what you get for leaving a ten-year-old unsupervised.”

“Like it would have made any difference. You always did whatever the hell you wanted. Your mother too. I’ve been at the mercy of one or the other for almost forty years.”

Joy looked at Amber and rolled her eyes. “Do you believe any of that?”

“Not a word.”

Her pop had a treasure trove of stories, mostly lies and exaggerations about how she and her mother had persecuted him his whole life, and he launched into one after another while she cleaned up the kitchen and Amber listened. The laughter and silliness was reminiscent of their times with Madison, so much that it made her wish she were there too. Tonight, Amber’s laugh was the one that was infectious.

* * *

Amber held the screen door so that it closed quietly behind her and whispered to Skippy to be still while she fastened his leash. It was almost ten o’clock, which meant Joy was probably sound asleep.

“You don’t need the leash. I closed the gate.” The voice from the dark startled her.

“I thought you’d be asleep.”

“Tomorrow’s Saturday. I plan to sleep late, probably till seven thirty.”

“I don’t know how you do it, getting up at four in the morning.” As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she made out Joy lying in a lawn chair beside the camper. “You look relaxed. Can I bring you a beer?”

“I’ve got some out here in the fridge. You want one?”

“Sure.”

Joy fetched a bottle and reached under the deck for another lounge chair like hers. “Is Pop watching the A’s game?”

“Yeah, from bed. He thought all those stories at dinner would make me forget about his exercises but he was wrong. Now he’s complaining that I wore him out.”

“That’s Pop. He always has to complain about something.” She clinked her bottle to Amber’s. “Cheers.”

“Back atcha.” Amber lit a cigarette and shifted her chair so the smoke wouldn’t blow toward Joy. “It’s pretty quiet out here. Back in Tennessee, all you ever hear at night are crickets and frogs.”

“We usually hear the freeway.” Joy chuckled. “Speaking of freeways…now that you’ve been out here a couple of weeks, what do you think of California?”

“Well, I’m not too crazy about the lack of road signs.” Amber hugged herself and rubbed her arms briskly. “Or the fact that it gets so cold after the sun goes down. It’s just September and I’m freezing already.”

“Maybe you should think about wearing more clothes.” Joy, who had on jeans and a fleece pullover, disappeared inside the camper. When she returned, she draped a fuzzy blanket over Amber in her chair. “Sweaters are a lot like shoes. Around here, you should never go anywhere without them.”

“Thanks, I learned my lesson on the shoes. You know, I didn’t say it at the time—mostly because I was too scared to speak—but I really appreciate that you didn’t just leave me hanging out there all afternoon until you got off work. I was already getting freaked out about that neighborhood. The buildings all had iron gates around them and most of the cars had those steering wheel locks.” She almost said she’d never been so glad to see someone, but then she thought of the night the two guys had grabbed her in the campground. “Just curious…what would you have done that day if you’d been me?”

“Under those circumstances, probably the same thing you did—call for help.”

“But the difference is you wouldn’t have run out of gas in the first place.”

“Probably not, but I could have broken down or had a flat tire. We all get jammed up sometimes.”

“Yeah, right. When was the last time you did?”

“Let’s see, Pop already told you the pancakes story.”

“You were ten freaking years old. Are you telling me you haven’t screwed up since then?”

Joy laughed evilly and finally confessed, “Well, there was one time at Dulles Airport in Washington where I made a little boo-boo.”

“Go on.” Skippy climbed into Amber’s lap and nosed his way under the blanket.

“Syd and I managed to get leave at the same time around Thanksgiving one year and I talked her into flying out here to meet Mom and Pop. She didn’t really want to, to put it mildly. Her way of punishing me was not to lift a finger to help, and when we went to get on the plane, I accidentally grabbed somebody else’s bag instead of hers. She got out here with nothing to wear but some guy’s neckties and boxer shorts.”

Amber loved hearing Joy laugh, especially since it was coming at Syd’s expense. “You know, from everything you’ve said about that woman, I have a hard time picturing you with a crab like that.”

Joy shrugged. “I find it kind of hard to picture too, but there were some good times. We met in boot camp at Great Lakes and got to be friends. Then I went to aviation A-school down in Pensacola and she went to Georgia for supply corps. Both of us ended up in Norfolk a few months later, me on the
TR
and her at the base. We started hanging out because we didn’t know anybody else. I think if we’d both waited a while, we might have met people we liked better. Syd told me right up front she wasn’t even sure she was gay. That should have been a big red flag, but I was sure I could sway her with my charm.”