Autumn Spring

by Shelley Thrasher

  Ann drained her cup and jumped up. “Me? Why in the hell would you say something like that?” Now her face looked just a few shades lighter than her lipstick. “I hadn’t seen her in a hundred years until she called me, Sunday. What was that all about?”

  “How should I know?” Linda got up again, turned off the Keurig, and sprayed the bar with Countertop Magic. “I thought you two used to be close, so why shouldn’t she call?”

  Ann handed her empty plate to Linda. “Used to be are the key words there. Besides, she won’t stay in town long enough for you to bother with. You better steer clear of her.”

  “Why?”

  “She’ll break your heart.” Ann patted her on the shoulder and whirled around. “See you in a couple of weeks.”

  “Okay. Have a great honeymoon.”

  “I will, honey. You can bet your life on that.” And then Ann was out the door and gone.

  Linda slowly polished the smooth, cool bar. That was the second time in just three days she’d heard the words broken heart in connection with Bree Principal. First Sandy, and now Ann.

  Maybe she should be more careful. But she’d been careful all her life, and where had it gotten her?

  *

  In the hardware section of Walmart, someone nudged Bree with their shopping cart.

  “Hi, stranger. Fancy meeting you here.”

  Bree turned around. “Oh—hi, Ann.”

  “Twice in one week is a record, after all this time.”

  Ann looked good enough to eat, but Bree restrained herself. “I’m buying some fresh batteries for my flashlight. Never know when you might need them.”

  “That makes sense”—Ann shrugged—“but I never bother with such things. I just call the nearest available man to come take care of whatever goes wrong.” She looked smug.

  “I’m sure you do, but I don’t. I like to at least try to fix things myself before I call for help.”

  “I remember. But like I’ve always said, my way’s faster and usually cheaper. Saves wear and tear on the body too.” She gave Bree an appraising look. “You’re not getting any younger. You might consider it.”

  “Fat chance at this point in my life. The older I get, the more stubborn I am.” Wearing her designer jeans and a beige suede jacket, Ann looked about twenty years younger than she actually was. Maybe getting others to do all your dirty work was the way to go, but Bree had always preferred to be independent. “So, what are you doing out and about this early? Shouldn’t you be home getting your beauty sleep?”

  “I don’t need any more today, or didn’t you notice?” Ann winked flirtatiously.

  “You never stop, do you? I have to agree, though, that you do still look pretty good—”

  “Stop right there. If you say for your age, I’ll cram one of those batteries down your throat.”

  “You and whose troop of Girl Scouts? Besides, I wasn’t planning to say anything.”

  Ann wet two fingers and smoothed an eyebrow. “No?”

  “Cross my heart and hope to die. We women have the cards stacked against us when it comes to age, and I’d never do or say anything to make that situation worse than it already is.”

  Ann ran her tongue over her top teeth, drawing Bree’s attention to her lips for a second. “Thanks. By the way, I just heard that Linda took you to Tyler last night to meet some of her new friends.”

  Bree nodded.

  Ann stared at her. “Well, what did you think about them?”

  She met Ann’s gaze. “I enjoyed myself. They seem like the type of women I’d like to get to know better. You should meet them.”

  “Ha. Over my dead body.”

  Just then two well-dressed women walked by and glanced at them, then hurried away, whispering to each other.

  Ann looked after the two women and frowned. “I’ve probably just been taken off the guest list for several parties in town because someone’s already seen me talking to you. Associating with Linda’s new friends would be social suicide.” She tightened her hands on the blue handle of her shopping cart. “Wait a minute. You two have been spending more time together than I thought, haven’t you? Did Linda send you to check up on me?”

  Bree wasn’t sure what to say. “She’s concerned about you. Told me you’d had…a rough time awhile back. She confided in me because she knew how close we used to be. She thought maybe I could help.”

  “Help, my ass.” Ann looked as if she might race away down some type of shopping-cart speedway. “The best thing you ever did for me was leave town and stay away as long as you have. You almost ruined my life, and I sure don’t intend to let you do it again.”

  “Ruined your life? Are you crazy? Get ahold of yourself.” Bree looked at her chocolate ice cream. She’d never make it home before it melted.

  Ann took a deep breath, then another one. “You’re right. I’m calmer now. Let’s change the subject. What’s done is done. If we’re both going to live in this town, for a while at least, and keep running into each other, we might as well make the best of a bad situation. ” She glanced around, obviously trying to come up with a safe topic of conversation. “Say, have you ever been to Hawaii?” she asked.

  “A few times. Usually for a day or two on my way to somewhere in Asia to manage a transaction for the museum.”

  “So you haven’t really seen it?” That realization seemed to soothe Ann. “Did Linda tell you that’s where I’m going for my wedding and honeymoon? We’re leaving tomorrow.”

  “No. She didn’t mention it.” Damn. That ice cream had to be beginning to melt by now.

  “That’s why I’m here—picking up some last-minute odds and ends for the trip.”

  “Congratulations. Who’s the lucky guy this time?”

  Ann tapped her shoulder in mock-anger. “Naughty, naughty. I could have done without you saying this time. Are you trying to get under my skin?”

  “Under your skin? Why would I try to do that?”

  “To see if you still can.”

  Bree frowned. “Don’t flatter yourself. I’m here to buy batteries—and ice cream—not try to turn you on.” She pointed to her basket.

  “It’s a good thing, because you don’t have a whisper of a chance.” Ann acted like she didn’t realize ice cream might melt.

  “Did I ever?” As if she didn’t already know the answer to that question.

  “That’s for me to know and you to find out, if you ever want to.”

  “Hmm. I’ll have to think about that.” Maybe Ann did have a few feelings for her after all.

  “Just let me know.”

  “I will, and have a wonderful honeymoon. I’ll think about you while I’m eating my ice cream.”

  “Thanks. I will. Don’t eat too much. It might upset your stomach.”

  Ann pulled her shopping cart away from Bree and turned in the direction of the beauty-and-health section. Then she paused. “Say, Bree. Do me a favor, okay?”

  “Depends.”

  “Don’t confuse my little sister any more than she already is. Associating with those people in Tyler isn’t a good idea. She has to live here, and you don’t.”

  Bree gritted her teeth but managed to grin. “Don’t worry. I’ll be as good as gold. See you around.” How could anyone still irritate yet attract her as much as Ann did?

  *

  Sarah Principal looked more animated than usual when Linda entered her room at Silverado.

  “Carolyn called me first thing this morning,” Sarah blurted out immediately. “You’ll never believe what Bree did last night.”

  “Knowing Bree, I probably won’t.” Linda set down her bag of medical supplies and perched on the low stool she’d dragged over near Sarah’s easy chair. “Tell me.”

  After Sarah described Bree’s attempts to deal with the water-heater leak in the attic, Linda shook her head. “She’s lucky she didn’t break her neck. That was foolish, especially with no one else in the house. If she’d fallen through the ceiling…Has she always taken risks like that?”


  Was Sarah as appalled as she was, or did she admire Bree’s daring stunt?

  Sarah settled back in her chair. “She’s always been adventurous. Why, when they were young, she and Brett used to have contests to see who could climb a tree or swim across the lake the fastest. And after he died she seemed to become even more reckless.”

  “The other night at Sandy’s,” Linda said, “Bree told us all that Brett’s death affected her more than anything she’s ever experienced.”

  Sarah shook her head and slumped forward. “I’m sure that’s true. It devastated all of us.” She stared at Linda, grief and remorse clear in her eyes. “I hate to admit it, but I was so torn apart I wasn’t able to pay much attention to her for a long time after it happened.”

  Linda stroked Sarah’s veined hand. “You had to have been totally distraught. I don’t know how you coped with losing him.”

  Sarah sat still, seeming to appreciate Linda’s slow touches, then withdrew her hand and looked up. “I was devastated. But I should have spent more time with Bree, helped her through the aftermath more than I did.” She straightened her spine. “Time flew, she left home before I knew it, and it was too late.” Sarah turned and stared at her easel, which stood near a large sliding glass door. “I had my teaching and my painting, but she had to rely on her own resources. As a teenager, she must have had a hard time.” She sighed as she stared out at the parklike grounds.

  “I’m sure she did. We all did, but look how well she’s turned out.” Linda grasped Sarah’s leg and propped it up on the stool next to her. “You must be proud of her.”

  Sarah beamed. “Of course I am. She’s been a grand success in her profession. And sometimes I envy all the adventures she’s had. Why, when she used to come visit us at our condo in Colorado, she always had tales to tell and the pictures to prove them. Siberia, Kenya, China—she was always going somewhere on business and doing things most people wouldn’t dare.”

  Linda eased off the bloodstained netting that secured the bandage on Sarah’s leg. “You make me almost wish I could have been with her on some of those trips.”

  “Almost is the key word. I worried about her when I didn’t hear from her for weeks, especially when she was younger.” Sarah’s smile lit up her face. “But when she finally got in touch, she was always so excited about whatever she’d been up to, I didn’t have the heart to dampen her high spirits.” The smile turned wistful. “I just listened and encouraged her to keep on doing whatever seemed to make her happy.”

  Linda finished unwrapping the gauze bandage over the sterile pad on Sarah’s leg and carefully lifted the bloody pad off the still-raw wound. “Your leg’s looking better today,” she said. Then she ventured a question she’d wanted to ask ever since she first saw Bree last week. “Did Bree ever bring anybody with her when she visited you and Mr. Principal in Colorado?”

  “No. Never. And I wondered about that.”

  Linda wadded up the soiled bandaging and tossed it into a medical-waste bag, then cleaned the wound gently and applied a fresh coating of Bactroban.

  “After Bree confided in us about her preference for women instead of men—she was in college then—I had a hard time resigning myself to never having any natural grandchildren. Especially having lost Brett not that many years earlier…”

  Linda took out a fresh pad and positioned it over Sarah’s wound. “That must have taken a while to come to terms with,” she murmured.

  “Yes. I never will.” Sarah took a deep breath. “But I’m not the grandmotherly type, so I didn’t fuss too much about Bree. When she never brought any women to visit us, I finally became concerned, though. I enjoyed being married to my husband so much that I wanted the same for Bree.”

  Linda took a long strip of gauze from her bag and began to wrap it around Sarah’s leg, stabilizing the fresh pad.

  “I didn’t care if Bree wanted a woman,” Sarah said. “I just wanted her to have a companion, someone to share her adventures…and her life. But it’s her choice, and I don’t have any right to interfere.” She closed her eyes and seemed to drift off to sleep.

  After Linda secured the gauze with a fresh piece of netting, she lowered Sarah’s leg to the floor, stood, and gazed down at her. She looked so frail and vulnerable sitting there that Linda quickly kissed her forehead.

  “Thank you, dear,” Sarah murmured, and Linda swiped away a sudden tear as she picked up her bag and slipped out of the room.

  Chapter Eleven

  At one o’clock, after visiting her mother, Bree stopped by the local Whataburger for a burger and a free senior drink. She sat in a booth alone, pondering her recent conversation with Ann at Walmart and her encounter Sunday with Linda at the DQ.

  She idly stirred her large cardboard container of Diet Coke with a plastic straw. How differently the two sisters affected her. Ann made her feel like lashing out at the people close to her. Linda made her want to understand and come to terms with whatever bothered her.

  So Ann was getting married again. She needed to resolve these conflicting feelings once and for all, and maybe Linda could help.

  Not that she’d just blurt out her dilemma. No, she’d merely hang out with Linda as much as possible, and surely they’d discuss Ann. She took out her cell phone and located Linda’s number.

  As she heard the now-familiar voice, her reaction surprised her. She was truly looking forward to spending more time with Linda.

  *

  Linda sat on a low stool in the flower bed that surrounded her saltwater pool. She hadn’t wanted such an extravagant addition to their home, but Mike had insisted, saying it would keep the children occupied and provide a great place for entertaining their own friends and his clients.

  He’d maintained it—backwashed it weekly and kept the salt and chemical levels properly balanced. And he’d taught their sons to gradually take over these routine tasks. But now Linda had to do that chore herself.

  She’d always tended to the flower beds and loved the task. The windmill palms she’d planted at each end of the pool now shaded swimmers from the summer sun. Some parts of the large bed received lots of morning sun, though, and she usually filled those areas with pansies. She loved their various colors and cheerful little faces.

  When she suddenly heard a passage from Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus,” she pulled off a filthy glove and slid her phone from her pocket. “Hello.”

  “Sorry to bother you. Taking a nap?”

  That voice—throaty, with a Northern accent covering the Southern twang lurking underneath it—made her inhale sharply. It was Bree.

  “No. I’m out by the pool getting a little sun and exercise. What’s up?” Her heart rate increased a bit. Carrying several flats of pansies probably hadn’t caused the reaction. Or maybe it had.

  It excited her to have a real live lesbian in town. Others might live here, but if so, they were hiding. And with her busy schedule she couldn’t drive two hours to and from Tyler every time she wanted to talk to someone who felt the same way she did about women. Besides, almost all the lesbians she’d met in Tyler were coupled, whereas Bree surprisingly wasn’t.

  “Just grabbed a burger and wondered if you wanted some company.”

  “If you don’t mind sitting out here and watching me work, I’d love some.” Linda refused to let Bree take over her life, but she would enjoy spending more time with her. No telling how long she’d be in town.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Of course. All my grandkids are in school so it’s pretty quiet for a change. I’d love to see you. Maybe you can give me some pointers on the care and feeding of water heaters.” She chuckled.

  Bree laughed good-naturedly. “I should have known Carolyn would blab to Sarah and she’d tell you about my experience. If I have to live in that old house for a while, I need to either get on a first-name basis with some of the local handymen or break out a few of my dad’s old do-it-yourself books. He occasionally loved to tinker with our various electrical and mechanic
al problems, but most of the time he finally called an expert.”

  “You probably should tinker less and call more, but suit yourself.” Linda enjoyed teasing Bree. Awed, she’d always stayed in the shadows and watched her and Ann banter. Finally joining the game made her realize how much fun she’d missed.

  “If you’re coming over here, you better get a move on,” she told Bree.

  “Why? Do you have plans for later?” Bree sounded like she might back off.

  “No. Not right now. But I never know when I may have to go pick up someone from school or cart them to football practice or dance lessons. Having four grandchildren who can’t drive puts me in rather high demand.”

  Bree made a grumbling sound. “Like getting an appointment with the president, eh? I didn’t realize grandmothers were such a hot commodity.”

  Linda laughed. “You better believe it.”

  She paused, amazed. She’d just flirted with Bree Principal, and it felt damn good.

  *

  Bree stretched out on an old-fashioned webbed recliner and absorbed the sight of the sparkling water and Linda digging in the dirt like a child in a sandbox. The sun warmed Bree’s legs through her jeans, and her windbreaker kept the soft breeze from chilling her. It was a perfect November day.

  The water hypnotized her, and the next thing she knew, someone was gently shaking her shoulder. “It’s almost three thirty. You better wake up or you won’t sleep tonight.”

  Linda stood over her, her soft white hair windblown and one freckled cheek streaked with dirt. The old white T-shirt she was wearing looked like she’d used it as a rag, and her faded jeans were crusty with mud and mulch.

  “Did you finish whatever you were doing?” Bree wanted to fall back into the most peaceful sleep she could remember having in years.

  “Yeah, no thanks to you.” Linda put her hands on her hips, acting like she was exasperated.

  But judging by the smile twinkling in Linda’s eyes, she wasn’t irritated. What color were those eyes exactly? Strange that she’d never noticed. She stared at them—as shining and clear and green as the reflection of the pine trees in the pool, the sun dancing off them as Linda gazed at her. How could she have never really seen them before right now?