My One and Only(26)

I took a hard look at myself in the mirror, almost expecting to see some middle-aged harbinger of doom, Ebenezer Scrooge in drag. Instead, it was just me, the face deemed striking by just about everyone. I stuck my tongue out at my reflection. A few wisps of hair had escaped my clip and were curling, not unattractively, around my face.

My hair was probably my best feature, certainly the one that garnered the most attention. Rich auburn hair shot with coppery highlights from the sun, curling without frizzing, one-in-a-million, pre-Raphaelite hair of an angel which I straightened every day for work. I subdued it once more, secured the clip more tightly and made sure that not one curl escaped.

“Harper, baby doll? You comin’?” BeverLee opened the door. “Oh, sweetie, here. You need a little spray?” She fumbled in her huge vinyl purse for her industrial-sized can of Jhirmack. “Want me to puff you up?”

“I’m good, Bev. Thanks anyway.” With my stepmother chattering away, we went back to join the others.

An eternity later, dinner was over. Dad and BeverLee headed upstairs where, please God, they would have sex and thus relieve me of hearing about their marital woes. The rest of the gang drifted toward the bar. Dennis approached me. “Hey, I’m kinda whipped,” he said. “I’m gonna go upstairs and ice my back, take a few Motrin. We’re going horseback riding tomorrow, I don’t want to miss that.”

“Horseback riding?”

“That’s what they said.”

My stony heart sank a bit more. I was actually a little scared of horses. So dang big, you know? “Well. Do you need anything, Den? Want me to come up, get you settled?”

“Nah, I’m fine. Oh, hey, how you doing?”

I turned to look at the party he was addressing. Great. Some pretty woman giving him the eye.

“Harp, this is Bonnie, she’s a waitress here.”

“Hi, Dennis,” she sighed, practically melting on the spot.

I rolled my eyes. “Lovely to meet you.” I turned back to Dennis. “Feel better, snooky-bear,” I said. “I’ll be up in a little while.”

Dennis grinned. “’Night, Harp.”

“Er. Harp-er. You can say it. It’s only two syllables.”

To my surprise, he gave me a rather lovely kiss. “Good night, Harper,” he said. Then he winked at Bonnie and headed up the stairs. I turned around and bumped right into my ex-husband.

CHAPTER SIX

NICK SMILED. “WANT TO get that drink now, snooky-bear?” he asked.

I took a deep breath. “You bet, poopyhead.”

“You still like those sickening cosmos?”

“Sue me. I came of age during Sex and the City.”

“There are tables out there,” Nick said, indicating the patio. “Back in a flash.”

I went outside. The sun was setting behind the mountains, and the shadows hung long and blue over the lake, turning the water almost black. The wind had died down, and the flagstones held the moderate warmth of the day. I picked a table—the patio was mostly deserted—wrapped my pashmina a little more tightly around me and stared off at the mountains.

It was so beautiful here, so remote. The quiet was like a palpable force, and I felt my soul unfurl a little. Surely Martha’s Vineyard was one of the loveliest places on earth, but it wasn’t like this—majestic, endless and harsh, a place where you could be killed by nature in a hundred different ways at any given moment. For some reason, the thought was oddly soothing. Out here, you were just part of a bigger plan, one you didn’t get to control. Be eaten by a grizzly, have a glacier fall on your head, drown in an icy river—it wasn’t up to you.

“Makes you feel a little…irrelevant, doesn’t it?” Nick asked, indicating the view as he set down my pink drink. “In a nice way.”

“Speak for yourself,” I said, a little disturbed that he’d just about read my mind.

“So you found out Willa’s working for me.” He took a sip of his beer.

“Yes, I did.”

“She asked me not to tell you.”

“And when would you tell me? During our weekly chats? Don’t worry, I’m not mad.”

“Sure you are.” He flashed his lightning smile.

I looked away. “So Jason’s here, huh? I didn’t picture that.”

“Yeah. Me neither.”

“How about your father and Lila? Coming in tomorrow?”

Nick’s dark gaze dropped to the table. “No. Dad’s got early onset dementia. He’s pretty out of it.” He began folding the corners of his cocktail napkin.

“Oh, Nick. I’m sorry to hear it.” Without thinking, I reached over and put my hand over his.

“Thanks.” He didn’t look up.

“What about Lila? I can’t imagine she’d want to miss her son’s wedding.”

“Actually, she planned a cruise a while back and didn’t want to cancel.”

That summed up the memory I had of her pretty well. I didn’t know the woman, but I always had the impression there wasn’t a lot to discover.

“So does your dad live near you?”

Nick nodded. “I got him into this pretty nice assisted-living place on the East Side. I can check on him that way.”

“That’s…that’s good.”