The Summer of Our Discontent (21 page)

“Yes, just because I realize now that I could’ve been there for you, but I was too busy being a dick.”

Faith smiled. “We were both dicks. I could’ve been there for you when
Cyn
left.” Faith raised her fist. “But we’re here now, right?”

Rachel bumped it. “Right.”

Chapter Twenty-five

Faith held up a mangled wad of tissue paper. “What’s wrong with my flower?”

“You suck.” Rachel held hers at arm’s length. “This is a rose-sunflower, a hybrid bloom found only in the deepest reaches of the Amazon.”

“It’s a ball of yellow and black paper on a stick. You suck at this, too.” Faith looked at the rest of the girls sitting at a picnic table beneath a stand of trees. She saw daisies and lilies, and one child had fashioned a reasonable replica of a rose. “They’re all what—six, seven, or eight?—and they are picking this up so much faster,” she said in frustration. “I should’ve gone to pottery. I can make a bowl.”

Rachel held up her ball. “It’s a hydrangea flower, that’s what it is.”

Faith waved hers. “And this is an orchid.”

“If you say so.” Rachel smiled at the flower Sophie held up. “Now that is really pretty.”

“Thank you, Aunt Rachel,” Sophie said, looking pleased with the praise.

One of Rachel’s brows shot up, and she looked at Faith, who shrugged and smiled. On the other side of Kaycee sat Kelsey Parker, who was working on an impressive purple lily. Unwilling to allow tissue paper to beat her, Faith moved to the empty spot on the other side of Kelsey and picked up two fresh pieces of paper.

“How’re you doing that?” she asked, trying to mimic Kelsey’s actions.

Kelsey set her lily aside and picked up a new piece. “You do it like this.” She began carefully rolling the paper, then made small tears to form the petals. Faith tried to copy the procedure albeit heavy-handed. By the time she finished, her paper looked nothing like a lily but favored a poorly rolled joint.

Kelsey stared at it with disdain. “You’re
kinda
slow, aren’t you?”

Rachel released a cackle laugh that echoed off the trees.

*******

The next craft station was friendship bracelets. The girls, including Faith and Rachel, paired off to make bracelets for their friends. Spools of heavy-gauge thread sat in the middle of the table, and each person picked two colors she liked and handed them over to the friend. Rachel chose green and blue. Faith laughed when she handed them to her.

“I’m amused and
kinda
freaked out that our favorite colors are the same,” she said as she handed the same two choices to Rachel.

Rachel grinned. “I hope you’re better at tying knots than you are at flower making.”

“Again, you had a wad of paper on a stick. You stunk just as bad at it.”

June sat nearby with her buddy and smiled at Faith. “Y’all are fun. I like when y’all do the stuff with us. The other old ladies just watch.”

Rachel chuckled, but Faith’s nostrils flared. “We aren’t that old.”

“Uh-huh, you got a gray hair.” Sophie pointed at Faith’s head.

Faith turned to Rachel. “Where? Get it!”

“You really want me to pull all your hair out?”

“Sophie said one.” Faith looked at her niece. “You see one, right?”

“Did you know that gingers gray later than any other hair color?” Rachel asked with a grin.

“How nice for you,” Faith shot back sarcastically.

“Focus, Faith, I want my bracelet to be cute.”

Faith went back to tying her knots. “I’m gonna weave a bee into this thing. It’ll sting you anytime you’re mean to me.”

June giggled and smiled at Rachel when she made a face.

“Pass this box around, and everyone pick one charm for your bracelets.”
Ashlyn
handed the box to the girl closest to her. “Don’t freak out if someone picks the charm you want. There are plenty of the same kinds in the box.”

Kaycee and Sophie were totally distracted by the charms and had forsaken their knots in anticipation of receiving the box. When Kaycee finally got her hands on it, she and Sophie began digging. “Oh, Momma, look,” Kaycee pulled out a sunflower, “your favorite.”

“Coolies,” Rachel said with a grin and set it beside the bracelet Faith was working on.

Sophie and Kaycee chose sailboats and turned the box over to Faith. She grinned as she pulled out a baseball glove and set it beside Rachel’s flower. June took the box next and also took a glove. Faith put out her fist, and June bumped it with a giggle.

A late afternoon breeze blew over them as they worked. Faith felt content and peaceful, and when Rachel would brush up against her when she reached for something, the sensation filled Faith with warmth. She knew attraction, lust, and desire, but this was something new, sweet. She didn’t want it to end. Later, when she tied the bracelet onto Rachel’s arm, it signified so much more than simple friendship. When Rachel tied
hers on
, Faith felt like there was an unspoken commitment made between them.

In that profound moment, Rachel met her eye, and Faith saw affection. Rachel tilted her head back and closed her eyes, then she sniffed. “Hamburgers,” she said. “Yummy. I like camp today.”

And the moment was gone.

*******

At the campfire, Rachel batted at the sunflower hanging from the bracelet on her arm like a cat. “I enjoyed our run this morning. It gave me more energy.”

“Let’s do it again tomorrow.”

Rachel nodded. “Sure.”

Faith watched the charm dangle back and forth. “The sunflower is your favorite?”

“Yes, it’s the only thing I can grow. I don’t have the green thumb you have.”

“You noticed?” Faith asked softly.

“How could anyone in Michaud not notice?” Rachel answered with a laugh. “You have the most beautiful yard in town. There’s color over there every season.”

“I never grew out of digging in the dirt.” Faith stretched out her legs and yawned. “Gardening is just an excuse adults use to root around with little trowels and get filthy. It’s my excuse anyway.”

“Your mom would be proud of what you’ve done. I used to see her in the yard all the time watering or weeding.”

Faith smiled and nodded. “I feel close to her when I’m out in the yard. Sometimes, I hear her voice with that heavy Cajun accent, ‘Oh, Fate, you cut that back too far,
cher
.’ It makes me laugh. Tell me about your dad. Is he as gruff at home as he is in public? He used to scare the crap out of me.”

“He’s worse at home. You were seeing his good side,” Rachel said with a frown. “He’s such a jerk that my brothers stay at a hotel on the rare occasions when they visit. They both beg Mom all the time to come out to Sacramento to see them. Dad won’t let her go. He says the airfare is too expensive, but he’ll drop thousands on old clunkers he wants to rebuild. He wants her under his thumb at all times. I have no idea why she stays with him. He definitely disapproves of me.”

“Because you’re gay?”

“Because I’m a woman and probably because I’m gay, too. He hasn’t spoken to Chief Prejean since he let me become a full-fledged officer. That’s okay, though, I don’t approve of him, either. Long ago, I stopped wanting his approval. I knew I’d never get it, I’d never be able to be what he wanted me to be.”

Faith toyed with her own bracelet. “Your mom was always nice to me even when we fought. It’s sad to know she lives like that. It’s strange how people just settle into relationships that aren’t healthy. I think if it had not been for Sophie and me harping on her, Patty would probably still be with Luke. He was totally devoted to his mistress, the one in the bottle. He drank away everything they had. Patty couldn’t let him take Sophie anywhere because he had a string of DUIs, and she was never really sure when he was sober. It just dawned on her one day that she’d been doing everything by herself. It made no sense to stay and let him drag her and Sophie down with him.”

“That took a lot of courage and strength, I’m sure,” Rachel said with a nod. “She’s very fortunate to have you. I know you’ve helped her a lot.”

“I’m lucky to have her, too, but don’t you dare tell her I said that.” Faith grinned. “She doesn’t need to know that, it’ll make her harder to manage.”

Rachel smiled as she watched Sophie put a roasted marshmallow between two crackers and hand it to Kaycee. “Your niece is a little sweetheart. Kaycee absolutely adores her.”

“Oh, the feeling is mutual, for sure. They bonded immediately. They’re two little peas in a perfect pod.”

“Why didn’t we?”

“I think we did, we just had a different way of expressing it.” Faith pointed at the girls. “Those two are just smarter than we were. It took us nearly forty years to figure out what they understood the day they met.”

“And what is that?”

Faith looked at Rachel. “We have a special connection. We fought it, they embraced it.”

Rachel agreed but couldn’t voice it for fear that everything that had been running through her mind would come tumbling out. Instead, she simply nodded and smiled.

*******

“You smell better,” Rachel whispered when she heard Faith creep into her cabin.

“I used soap in the shower. You should try it sometime.”

“Ass,” Rachel said with a laugh.

“You deserved it.”

“Yes, I did. So what is the bedtime topic for tonight—UFOs, Bigfoot, the lost city of Atlantis?”

“Flowers.”

Rachel threw an arm over her forehead. “I think we’ve established that I know as much about those as I do Bigfoot.”

“Did
Cyn
give you flowers?”

Rachel’s brow furrowed. “No, I was the bearer of gifts like that.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know, it was the dynamic of our relationship, I guess.”

Faith was quiet for a moment, then finally said, “The next woman who comes into your life should give you flowers just because. Don’t accept anything less.”

Rachel rolled over and touched the wall between them. “Why?”

“Because you’re special, and your partner should acknowledge it. If she doesn’t, then she’s a fool.”

“I wish the same for you, Faith.”

“Good night, Rachel, I hate you.”

“Yeah, I hate you, too.”

Faith ran her fingers lightly over the wall that divided them. There were two actually—the one that protected Rachel and the one that shielded Faith. They lay facing each other hidden by barriers they were both afraid to breach.

Chapter Twenty-six

“Why did you choose firefighting?” Rachel asked as she ran alongside Faith. “Was it just in your blood because of your father?”

“That’s part of it. I liked the camaraderie. I visited Dad at the station a lot. There was a den where everyone hung out, and we ate together. It felt like a home, too. And then that old feed store down near the railroad tracks caught on fire. I was only ten and I wasn’t supposed to be there, but I rode my bike and hid behind a tree across the street. I’d never seen anything that big burn.” Faith stopped running and walked along, her gaze far away. “It horrified me. The fire looked like it was alive, a monster eating everything up. I was a good distance away, but I could feel the heat. It was like a giant demon dancing above them daring them to take it on.”