Ch 125 Even better

   

          “Tell me, Janet, is Luke Tramaine as good looking as I’ve heard?” asked Lydia, Troy’s mother.

          Janet laughed. “Definitely,” she said. “He’s very cute, but he’s super nice, too, so that makes him even better.”

          “Nice!” Lydia said turning onto the road the GPS indicated. “And you get to sing with him, huh? And possibly do other things?”

          “Mrs. Wellington, hasn’t Troy told you I’m dating his friend Wes?” Janet said pointing to the fifth house on the right. “The one with the red beech tree in front is Luke’s.”

          “Yes, he told me, but…I remember how it was in high school with gorgeous bad boys all over the place. Nice boyfriends take a backseat to them.”

          “That’s just it. Luke is gorgeous, but he’s not a bad boy. He’s got a girlfriend—a very nice girlfriend. Alana and I have become good friends, so even if I did have the hots for Luke—which I don’t—I would never move in on my friend’s guy.”

          “Wish I had friends like you in high school! Can’t even count how many friends of mine stole my boyfriends,” Lydia said, pulling in front of the house.

          “You needed better friends, I think,” Janet replied. “Anyway, thanks for the ride here. I really appreciate it.”

“You sure you don’t want me to pick you up after your rehearsal? I have some shopping to do after the dentist appointment…give me a chance to see this stud.”

Ch 124 Prom gowns and dancing

            Wes stepped into the unusually quiet house, put his car keys down on the half-moon accent table his mother bought expressly for the purpose and frowned.

          “Dad? Tristan?” he spoke into the apparently empty house. His father’s car was in the driveway, however, so they had to be here somewhere. It was just a matter of finding them. He walked through the house eventually stopping in the kitchen for a drink. As he popped the top on a can of ginger ale, he heard a shout coming from the backyard.

          He grinned. “Shoulda known,” he muttered, leaving through the back door and stepping onto the patio. He looked around and saw no one, so he walked down the gravel path, skirting the perennial bed full of buzzing bees taking advantage of the sprawling, late-blooming asters, short, compact mums and tall, dark purplish-blue monkshoods. Here Wes could hear more distinctly his father’s low baritone and Tristan’s infectious laughter. He finished his drink, set down the can and climbed up the ladder to his old, no-longer abandoned tree house.

Ch 123 Come on, Janet

          “Oh, come on, Janet!” Wes pleaded. “Let me take you over to Luke’s today.”

          Janet shook her head. “No, Troy’s mom is giving me a ride. She has a dentist appointment in town so she doesn’t mind, and Luke said he’d bring me back home,” she said, before turning serious. “You have to finish up that project proposal so you can come to the gala. You promised. You are working on it, aren’t you?”

          “Yes, of course, but…we’ve hardly spent any time together this week,” he whined as he put his arms around her waist and pulled her close to nestle into his chest. “I miss my yenta.”

          “You make me laugh, Wes! We see each other all day long at school,” she said, her voice muffled as he hugged her tighter.

          “Two minutes here and there isn’t enough,” Wes said.

“You forget English class and we even spend lunch together, and now you’ve brought me home, which, come to think of it, is a waste of precious time…time you should be spending at your computer getting some work done!” she said poking her finger into his chest. “If I didn’t know better I’d say you don’t want to come to the gala with me.”

Ch 122 Don’t judge me

    

      May Lyn popped into Wendy’s kitchen, expecting it to be empty, but found her sister baking.

“Hey, I thought you were going to work,” she said, setting her jacket onto the back of a chair.

          “Yeah, well, no use going if Alec doesn’t get up til noon. It’s not like I can do anything without his approval,” Wendy replied.  She smiled at her sister as she scooped cookies off a baking sheet and set them to cool. “Soooo?”

          “Don’t judge me,” May Lyn said, staring hungrily at the cookies.

          Wendy paused with the cookie-laden spatula halfway to a colorful storage tin. “I’ll have you know my cookies are the most non-judgemental, unbiased and unprejudiced baked goods around. See for yourself,” she said putting the cookie temptingly under her sister’s nose. She smiled as May grabbed the cookie, taking a bite, moaning in delight and closing her eyes as she ate it.

          “You make the most wonderful cookies,” she moaned, taking another bite. “Always have.”

Ch 121 Who is that man?

        

  One thing popped into Donny’s head after he and Tristan left the gift shop and he glanced across the street to where May Lyn stood. Who is that man talking with her?

           He unwittingly felt a twinge of jealousy when the man hugged May Lyn and she kissed his cheek. Just great, he sarcastically thought. Would every woman he became even remotely interested in belong to someone else?

Apparently so!

          Tristan, on the other hand, couldn’t care less what his mother was doing. He, after all, was enthralled with the collection of vintage cars Donny just bought for him. He carried the bag as if it held all the precious jewels of the world, instead of small metal and plastic cars.

“Thanks for da present, Mr. Bashan. Can you tell me da name of all da old time cars?” Tristan asked as he placed each one on the hood of Donny’s car.

          “Gees, kid, you make me feel old when you call them that. They’re classics, okay?” Donny said, as he watched May Lyn and the unknown man while pretending not to be doing so. His curiosity, however, got the better of him and he casually asked, “Tristan, do you know that man talking with your mom?”

Ch 120 How long has it been

       

When we were young

   “How long has it been since you’ve been back home?” Donny asked.

          May Lyn sighed. “Too long. Since Chad and I got married and we went to Texas…almost ten years ago.”

          “So…glad to be back?” Donny asked, as he pulled in front of Wendy’s house.

          “Oh, yes!” May Lyn said, gazing up at the house, noting any differences, but it was too dark to see much. “I’ve forgotten how much I love it here.”

          “Go on inside,” Donny said, smiling at the eager look on her face. “I’m sure they’re waiting on pins and needles for you. I’ll get Tristan and put him straight to bed.”

          “Are you sure?” she asked, getting out of the car and turning to see him tenderly scoop up her son, not even awakening him.

          “I’ve done this before…just this week, in fact, several times,” he said, motion her to lead the way to the front door. The door opened before they even set foot on the first step.

Ch 119 Stuck at the airport

        

  Being stuck at the airport was not for the faint of heart. Neither was it for a little boy waiting for his mother to come home, especially when his mother’s plane was delayed because of unknown reasons and he simply couldn’t be appeased—no matter how many times and different ways you tried to explain it to him.

          “When is Mommy gonna get here?” Tristan whined for the umpteenth time.

          Donny sighed wishing he knew. They had been stuck at the airport now for three hours and even his patience was wearing thin. “Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea for you to come with me. I’m sorry you’re so bored, Tristan, but they said it was on time when it left Dallas, so it must have been delayed somewhere along the way.”

“Why?” Tristan asked petulantly.

“Oh, I don’t know…maybe there was a storm or a tornado or something like that and they...”

“Did da plane get sucked into a tornado and went to da Wizard of Oz?” he shrieked.

Ch 118 Just perfect

          “Just perfect,” Wendy muttered, slamming down the phone.

It never failed. Without so much as consulting her, May Lyn decides to hop a flight tomorrow and expect Wendy to drop everything to go get her at one of the busiest airports on the east coast and during rush hour. Oh yeah, it’ll be fun and games!

She had so much to do even without this bit of bother. She had to help Alec get the restaurant ready to open next week. She wanted—no, needed—to hear what Janet had to add to the Jeffery/Karen Harris situation, and then there was Jasmine’s thing and having to tell Jeffery about that and… oh, what a complicated mess her life had become! It was as if her sister was intent on causing her as much disruption of her already kooky life as possible.

Ch 117 Crying

          Because Wendy spent the bulk of the night crying  her eyes out, she had only dropped off to sleep just before dawn. So, you will forgive her for imagining she was dreaming of leisurely Sunday breakfast with Jeffery and the kids laughing and joking together, when the heavenly scent of her favorite muffins drifted into her bedroom from downstairs.

It took some time for her olfactory sense to fully awaken her. After all, she never remembered smelling anything in her dreams, so she couldn’t be actually dreaming, right? She lifted her sleepy head from the pillow and sniffed the air. She wasn’t imagining that! It smelled too good. But how was it possible? No one had that recipe except for her…that she knew.

Ch 116 Breathe again

“Thank God he’s gone. Now I can breathe again.” Wendy sighed and placed the last of the dessert dishes into the dishwasher.

“Who? Mr. Sebastian?” Janet said, coming noiselessly back into the kitchen, making her mother jump.

“Janet! I wish you wouldn’t do that,” Wendy snapped.

“Sorry,” Janet replied, frowning.

“Thought you went up to bed. Is everyone gone now?”

“Yes, Wes, Cindy and Mr. Sebastian went home,” Janet said. “Mom, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing…just tired,” Wendy answered, avoiding meeting Janet’s eyes while drying her hands. She hung the towel on the oven handle and forced a smile. “I’m going to bed.”

“Mom, we have to talk…about Dad and...”

“Not now, Janet. I can’t handle anything else tonight,” Wendy said, leaving the kitchen after turning out the lights.

Janet followed her upstairs. “What do you mean handle anything else? What happened?”