Queen Bee (Lowcountry Tales #12)(64)

The look on his face said that I might have won Tyler a reprieve, but I had inadvertently embarrassed Archie by implying he wasn’t giving enough vigilance to what was going on. He knew that I knew he had simply turned the boys over to Sharon to raise like house plants. He also knew I knew she was doing a terrible disservice to two little boys who deserved one helluva lot more than they were getting.

“I can take them over to Maureen’s if you’d like,” I said.

“Let me talk to Sharon first,” he said. “I’ll call you, okay?”

“Sure,” I said. I went down the stairs into the yard and turned back. “Archie?”

He just stood there looking at me.

“It’s his birthday. Come on. He’s just a little boy.”

“I’ll call you,” he said.

What else could he say?

I went home and called Maureen, telling her every detail.

“So that’s the latest,” I said.

“What do you think?”

“I think that if she doesn’t let this child come to his own birthday party, I’ll be so furious with Sharon, I’ll rip her head off. How’s that?”

“I’ll help you.”

And so, I waited and waited and waited.

I went out to my apiary to check on the girls. Naturally, I told them everything. My cell phone rang in my back pocket. It was Archie. I took off my gloves and answered it.

“Sharon said no,” he said.

“Are you serious? You can’t be serious!”

“She really feels very strongly that Tyler needs to learn a lesson. Holly, he called her a terrible name. He can’t do that.”

“So let me get this straight. Hunter is going to Tyler’s birthday party without him?”

“When she found out there was a party for Tyler and that she had not been told the truth, she was furious. Hunter isn’t going, either.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because she thinks they both knew and didn’t tell her.”

“It’s a surprise party, Archie.”

“She’s got the final word, Holly. She’s coming home at two thirty to talk to him.”

“Y’all are unbelievable.” I hit the end button. I turned back to my hives, told them the story, and said, “What now?”

It didn’t take long for me to get an answer to that question. At precisely two thirty, Sharon pulled up in the driveway. My bees from the pink hive bearded her car, so many of them that all the windows were covered. I could see them leave the hive as they flew over in a swarm. She started blowing her horn over and over.

“Help!” Sharon was screaming bloody murder. “Help! Archie! Help!”

The bees were undeterred. Archie and the boys came running out of the house and stopped dead in their tracks when they saw what was happening.

“Call the police!” she was screaming. “Call them!”

She turned her windshield wipers on and began spraying them with the wiper fluid. This infuriated the bees, who quickly flew away and joined their sisters on the sides of the car.

I saw Archie give Tyler a push to come over to our house, presumably to get me. Maybe he thought I could do something.

I met him at the door.

“What’s going on, Tyler? Happy birthday, by the way.”

“Thanks! There’s a billion bees that have Sharon trapped in her car! Dad says for you to come quick!”

“I’ll be along in a minute. Let me get my suit on.”

He followed me through the house and out the back door to my shed.

“I don’t know why he thinks I can do a thing about it,” I said. “Now, Tyler, I want you to stand way back from her car, okay? Maybe my smoker will help. Maybe it won’t. Let’s hope.”

I pulled my veil down and lit my smoker. When I got to the scene, Sharon was beyond hysterical.

“You’re a menace!” she was screaming at me. “I’m going to sue you for a million dollars!”

“Good luck with that,” I said and started smoking the girls. They began to land on me, and when I had them all, and I estimated ten thousand or so, I simply began walking them back to their hive.

“The bees are all over her!” Sharon screamed. “Oh, my God! She’s a freak!”

“No. I’m not. I’m a beekeeper,” I said calmly.

A few bees, which might have been affected by the windshield washer fluid, hung back.

“Maybe that will teach her a lesson,” I said quietly to them. “I love you, girls!”

They buzzed all around me in a waggle and returned home to their hive.

It goes without saying that Tyler was allowed to go to his party with Hunter and all charges against him were dropped by his jailer. Archie told me that he’d had a chat with Sharon and told her she was being too strict. She was so upset about my bees swarming her car that she relented. I drove them to Maureen’s with the cake tucked away out of their sight in the back of my SUV. Sure enough, it represented the Sullivan’s Island playground, with a tiny marzipan Tyler playing basketball with Matthew and Brian, and Hunter hanging upside down from the monkey bars.

Tyler shrieked with delight when the kids yelled, “Surprise!” There were presents and pizza and cannonballs into the pool. They played Marco Polo until the adults couldn’t stand it for another minute. They dried off and sang “Happy Birthday” loud enough to wake the dead; Tyler blew out the candles and they all ate cake. The parents took pictures of everything. Tyler’s parents weren’t there, but he was absolutely beaming with happiness. That was all I wanted to see. If Carin was watching she’d be pleased.