Blissfully Blindsided

by Robin Alexander

  “Sounds like it had something to do with it. What’s her dad like?”

  “He’s a nice man now, but Iona told me she had a lot of trouble with him too when he was young. He was her only child, and she and Tate spoiled him.” Edie stared at Caleigh thoughtfully for a moment. “I guess you could say he started the ball rolling on everything that happened. Frank was working at his dad’s automotive shop, and one day in his early twenties, he just walked off the job without a word and disappeared. Iona said she’d nearly had a nervous breakdown because she thought something terrible had happened to him. A few days later, he called and said he’d gone to Vegas on impulse. He showed up nearly a year later with a woman in her thirties, and he’d married her. She was carrying his child. He fully expected to move back into his parents’ house with her and get his old job back. Tate refused at first, but Iona finally convinced him to let Frank and Chantal stay. She was worried about the well-being of her future grandchild.”

  Caleigh remembered she’d offered Edie a glass of tea and went to the refrigerator. “What did he do after the mother left?”

  “Iona said she was surprised he became a good father to the girls. He wasn’t much of one before Chantal left. When Frank came back home with Chantal, it didn’t take him long to go back to his old ways. He spent most of his time and money in the bars with his friends. Thank you,” Edie said when Caleigh poured her a glass of tea and set it in front of her. “I think everything had been done for Frank all his life, and he just expected Chantal to be like his parents and let him do whatever he wanted without consequence. It’s really so sad. Ronnie and Blaze and Iona and Tate were made to suffer for Frank’s and Chantal’s failings.”

  Caleigh sipped her tea, feeling very conflicted. Her attraction to Blaze had only grown after their brief interaction at the store. After hearing Edie’s story, Caleigh felt to pursue Blaze would be a betrayal to Edie. Her sense of loyalty to her grandmother was at war with the fact Blaze had been a kid wrestling with the effects of trauma when the incident with Edie occurred.

  *******

  “So when’s your granddaughter starting?” Carey asked Dean while he did a safety inspection of a crane.

  “Monday.” Dean pointed at a broken weld on the steps of the crane. “That was on my list of needed repairs, and it hasn’t been taken care of. I can’t release this equipment to go back into service. You need to get somebody on this.”

  Carey, who was responsible for repair and maintenance, bellowed, “I’m about tired of this bullshit,” drawing the attention of her crew working nearby. “Yeah, y’all heard me, and you know why I’m pissed. Everything y’all missed on the inspection list needs to be taken care of. I suggest y’all get on it today, or you can kiss that early completion bonus goodbye.” People scrambled as she and Dean walked away. She grinned. “Look at them lazy poons jumping. Threaten that money and they’ll get off their asses.”

  “Hey, uh…since you mentioned poon, is it okay to talk to you about lesbians?” Dean asked softly as he scrubbed at the sweat on the back of his neck.

  “Old man, are you gonna ask me about lesbian poon?”

  “No!” Dean shook his head so vigorously his hard hat nearly fell off. “You said a word we’re not allowed to say in mixed company, so I thought we could talk about local lesbians. Young ones, from the ages of around thirty to forty.”

  Carey frowned. “You have never weirded me out till now.”

  “Caleigh’s gay, and Edie wants to fix her up with a nice woman, so she’ll be happy and stay here.”

  “You should’ve started the conversation like that, Dean. Damn!” Carey said with a laugh. “You know I’m sixty. I don’t typically hang out with the infants. The few women I do know in that age range are couples. Blaze Sonnier is the only single one in that group.”

  Dean shook his head. “Edie won’t approve.”

  “Why?”

  “Well…it’s her reputation,” Dean said hesitantly.

  “Man, I told you she was attacked by those two women. You watched the full video with me.”

  “I’m not talking about that. Edie’s heard other things, and she’s very protective of Caleigh.” Dean scrubbed at his neck again. “You got anybody else?”

  “No, and I’d have to ask Blaze about women in that age group. What else has Edie heard?”

  “Blaze dropped a sack of feed on Earl Thompson because he complained she wasn’t moving fast enough. The whole cutting the back out of her pants when she was in school thing. She ran over Cooper Kassirer and his ten-speed at the drive-thru ATM because he cut in line. She shoved a kid in the lake because he threw a bottle rocket at her. She set her dad’s woodshop on fire because she got tired of cleaning it. That’s some of the things Edie’s talked about over the years.”

  Carey sucked her teeth, held up her pen, and came to an abrupt stop. “All right. She didn’t drop the feed on Earl, she threw the bag to him, and his skinny ass fell over. Throwing to and dropping on are two different things. That shit about the pants needs to die because she was a kid. She fucking did not run over Cooper and his stupid bike, she just dragged him a little bit because he got stuck on her side mirror. It was an accident. She did not set the shop on fire. Blaze and her nephews and one of their friends were shooting off bottle rockets at the lake during Fourth of July. Blaze drew back to throw one, and it flew out of her hand and into the shop where it ignited some old rags. Blaze ran in there to put the fire out, and them rags were soiled with turpentine. The fire flashed, and Blaze thought the place was about to blow. She told her nephews to jump in the lake, they listened, but their friend didn’t.” Carey snorted. “I was there on Frank’s back porch. I watched Blaze barrel toward the lake and do a flying tackle on that boy, and they both flew into the water. Boy in lake was on purpose, shop fire was not. Are we clear on that?”

  “Yeah, so can you ask the lesbians that are a couple if they know any single lesbians their age?”

  Carey glared at Dean. “People in this town make up shit. Blaze was a wild child, but she ain’t no more, and every little thing she does is blown out of proportion or made into a straight-up lie. For all I know, Caleigh might not be Blaze’s type, but I don’t think she should be dismissed as a candidate because of bullshit rumors.”

  “If you want Blaze to be a candidate, then tell Edie you think so and why. I’m not getting into that debate.”

  “I will,” Carey said with a nod. “What’s Caleigh’s type? She like butch, fem, chapstick, emo, western, hippie—”

  “I don’t have a damn clue, and I sure don’t know what an emo is.”

  “That’s the ones who like to wear the thick dark makeup around their eyes and dress in all black.” Carey tilted her head toward a guy with shaggy black hair sticking out from beneath his hard hat and studs in his brow. “Like that.”

  Dean shook his head slowly. “All this time, I thought that was a man.”

  “It is a man. I’m talking about his style.”

  “No, that’s not Caleigh’s type…I don’t think.” Dean blew out a breath. “I don’t know who the wily bastards are any more now that I think Caleigh might be one.”

  “Dean, you’re gonna have to explain that statement because if I don’t like what I hear, I won’t let Blaze be a contender.”

  “When boys used to come to the house to pick up my daughters for a date, I’d think that wily bastard is gonna make a move on my baby. After talking to Caleigh, I think she might be the one who makes the moves, and that makes her a wily…well, just a wily.” Dean frowned. “You expect a boy to do the pawing at a girl because that’s what they do. I was no different. I was ninety-nine percent hormones, one percent brain, and stupid enough to think that was okay. I changed after my girls were born. I felt guilty about lying to girls and making promises I didn’t intend to keep to have sex, so I taught my son to be respectful. I never dreamed I needed to have that talk with Caleigh, the baby sailor with a woman in every port.”

  Carey sliced a hand th
rough the air. “Blaze is officially off the contender list. She’s got shit going on in her life. Her momma just showed up after an accident saying she’s got no place to go, and Blaze took her in. She doesn’t need a woman who’s gonna break her sweet heart on top of that.”

  “Well, I guess that settles that for both of us. Now I’m gonna go in my office and look up an emo on my phone. Edie’s never mentioned one of those, and I’m finally gonna know about something she doesn’t,” Dean said as he walked off.

  Chapter 5

  “I talked to Carey about local lesbians today, and I learned some things,” Dean said that evening when he and Edie climbed into bed. “Blaze Sonnier is gay—”

  “I told you that a long time ago, but you obviously didn’t believe me because she has hair.”

  Dean stretched out and pulled the sheet to his chin. “I don’t recall that.”

  “Well, honey, I believe you because you can’t remember to pick up the things I ask you to get from the store,” Edie said with a laugh and grabbed a tube of lotion from her bedside table. “Who does Carey have for us?”

  “Just Blaze in the thirty-to-forty age range. Carey says most everything you’ve heard about Blaze is a rumor. You should watch them bunny videos, they do tell a different story. Edie, people like to make a mountain out of an anthill around here, especially if they don’t like someone. I figure there’s some who like to make Blaze look bad because she’s gay.”

  “So is Carey, and not only that, she’s married to a black woman. I never hear anyone talk negative about her and TJ.”

  “Are you kidding me? I’ve heard everything from Carey is cheating on TJ with Bigfoot to Carey being a shaved Bigfoot. People aren’t as open when they talk about Carey because she’s every bit as tall as I am, and her shoulders are just as broad. People are scared of her, and they still make up shit about her. Then there’s little ol’ TJ, sweet as she can be, and someone accused her of stealing a boat. She wasn’t even in town. Hell, she’s not here half the time because she’s driving a truck cross country, and people still say shit about her.”

  Edie glanced at Dean as she rubbed lotion into her hands. “You sound as though you approve of Blaze for Caleigh.”

  “I’ve always liked the kid. Sure, she did some stupid things, but who hasn’t? With all the rumors going around about her, do you realize we’ve never heard anything like she drinks too much? No one has ever accused her of being a homewrecker or sleeping around.”

  “Don’t judge me,” Edie snapped.

  Dean gazed at her with concern. “I ain’t. Why’re you so mad?”

  “I—” Edie squirted more lotion into her hand and rubbed furiously. “All this talk is just bringing back things.” She exhaled loudly. “Blaze once told me to keep my nose out of her f’ing business and that I wasn’t her family.”

  “When?” Dean asked as he sat up.

  “A long time ago when she was a teen. It hurt my feelings because I was only trying to help her. I loved her like one of our kids, and to hear her say those words was like a stab to the heart.” Edie sighed. “Caleigh told me today that movie we saw with Chantal in it with the sex scene that caused a fight over the remote—remember that?”

  Dean averted his gaze. “No, not at all.”

  “It’s sweet of you to lie, but I know you do,” Edie said with an edge. “That movie made its rounds through the high school kids, and that was about the time Blaze changed. Can you imagine how it made her and Ronnie feel knowing their friends had seen that? That’s all I’ve been able to think about today. How humiliated Blaze must’ve felt. No wonder she started acting out. Had I known that when I tried to talk to Blaze, I think I would’ve been able to understand her anger. I could’ve put my feelings in their proper place.”

  “Don’t blame yourself for being human, honey.” Dean took one of Edie’s hands. “I would’ve gotten my feelings hurt too if she’d talked to me that way.”

  “Yes, but I resented her for it, and she was just a hurting child. I let all those years pass without trying to talk to her. It’s as though I wrote off one of my own children. Now I don’t even know her.” Edie sounded heartbroken. “She was such a sweet girl, and I adored her, then I let hurt turn me against her. I chose to believe all the negative things about her.” Edie looked tormented as she gazed at Dean. “Were any of them true?”

  “Not according to Carey, discounting her mooning everyone in the stadium when she was in the marching band.”

  Edie released a heavy breath. “Caleigh has already met her. She said she thought Blaze was attractive and interesting. I think I may’ve ruined that today when I told her what happened.”

  “I make mistakes too. I accidentally led Carey to believe Caleigh is a heartbreaker.”

  “How did you do that?” Edie asked with a frown.

  “I told her Caleigh had a woman in every port, and Carey took that to mean she’d end up breaking Blaze’s heart.”

  Edie’s jaw sagged as she stared at Dean. “You gave Carey the impression our granddaughter is a slut?”

  “Now wait a minute. You lectured me about how wrong it was to call a sexually free woman a slut when the same standards don’t apply to a man after you read one of your magazines. I would never call Caleigh that.”

  “That’s what you led Carey to believe. You call Carey and straighten this out right now before she tells Blaze what you said.”

  “I’m so damn confused. I thought you didn’t want her to like Blaze.”

  “You just told me everything that’s been said about her isn’t true. That means she’s still the sweet girl we knew, despite what happened between me and her. She could turn out to be good for Caleigh. Plus, I don’t want anybody thinking our baby is a womanizer. You get your phone and call Carey.”

  “She goes to bed right after sundown when she has to work. I learned that when I called her one night, and the next day, she was like a prickly cactus I kept running into. Caleigh did tell us she had a woman in every town.”

  “No, she did not! She said she had acquaintances in the towns she frequented, and they did things together. I didn’t take that to mean the same thing your dirty mind did,” Edie said testily.

  “You were cooking, you didn’t see that twinkle in her eye. She’s a wily bastard.”

  Edie gasped as her eyes went wide. “What did you just call her?”

  “That’s what I called the boys in my mind who dated our girls because I knew they were gonna be making a wily move on them. I should drop the bastard part when talking about Caleigh, but if she had a stash of women, the things she was doing with them was wily.”

  “Hand me your phone,” Edie said firmly.

  Dean sighed. “I’ll call her.” He unplugged his phone from the charger on his bedside table and held it at arm’s length.

  “Honey, your glasses are right there on that table.”

  “I know. I’m trying not to spoil my eyes. They get used to being babied by my glasses, and my eyesight gets worse. There’s Carey.” Dean pressed a button and held the phone to his ear. “Cory, how’re you doing tonight? That’s good, I’m glad. Look, I’m an idiot and called you by mistake, and now I have to make another call. I’ll see you in the morning.” Dean pulled the phone from his ear, grabbed his glasses, and put them on. “Don’t say a word.”

  “Put this call on speaker, so you won’t have to tell me everything Carey says.”

  “All right.” Dean pressed a couple of buttons, and they heard ringing.

  “Wrong button again?” Cory asked with a laugh.

  “Yep, and I sure am glad you’re good-natured. Good night again.” Dean looked at Edie when the call ended. “I told you my eyes were getting spoiled.”

  Edie took the phone from Dean and put her glasses on. “Just about everybody in your contacts has a name that starts with C.” She chuckled. “I hope I don’t call Caleigh by mistake. Wait, here’s Carey.” Edie held the phone between them as it rang.

  “Dean, you better not be calli
ng to tell me you ain’t coming in tomorrow. Every berth on the dock has a boat or a barge in it, and I need you to clear some equipment,” Carey warned when she answered.

  “I’m gonna be there. You didn’t tell Blaze Caleigh was a wily bastard, did you?”

  “Who do you think I am? I ain’t gonna call her up and tell her something like that, then follow it with ‘Don’t worry about it, Dean and Edie weren’t gonna let you date Caleigh anyway because they don’t like you.’”

  “Carey, hi, Edie here. Look, I don’t dislike Blaze. I’ve judged her harshly based on something that happened when she was a kid. I realize now I haven’t been fair. Caleigh is not a slut.”

  “Are you two taking them sleeping pills that make people run down the road naked at night?” Carey asked.

  “Nope, but I’d like to try them,” Dean said with a laugh. “I ain’t run in years.”

  Carey snorted. “I know. When that valve blew the other day, you kinda leaned forward and walked fast.”

  “I was trying not to shit my pants ’cause I thought the damn thing had exploded.” Dean burst out laughing. “Now look here, Carey. Are we square? Can Blaze be a contender again?”

  “Well, you made Caleigh sound like a bee hitting every flower in the field.”

  “He got confused. She does not hit all the flowers. She simply mentioned she had some acquaintances in the cities she went to a lot when she traveled all the time for her old job,” Edie clarified. “Dirty Dean took that to mean something else.”

  “Well, what does that mean?” Carey asked. “Was she using acquaintance as a nice word for booty call?”

  Dean and Edie exchanged looks. “Booty call?” Dean asked.

  “We don’t know,” Edie said at the same time.

  “I’m not trying to be a dick, but I look out for my buddy. Edie, I don’t know if Dean told you, but Chantal showed up on Blaze’s doorstep begging for a place to stay because she’s broke and busted up in an accident. Blaze couldn’t turn her away. She ain’t saying much, but her face let me know she’s got a lot on her mind. I’d love to see her date again, but if Caleigh is just looking for a good time, I don’t think it’d be a good thing for her and Blaze to get together.”