by R A Wallace
Barry placed Tess’s suitcase next to his on the closet floor then closed the door behind him and joined his wife in the middle of the room.
“I thought so too. This is a nice place they have here. It beats staying in some hotel, that’s for sure. Your dad said he really liked staying here before he married Barbara.”
Tess smiled. She’d hoped he’d feel that way. She reached up and pulled a piece of lint from his hair. He must have gotten it from the clothes he was hanging up. He wore his dark hair cropped close. Tess thought that the hints of gray showing now that he was forty made him look dashing. It was so unfair. Although she hadn’t yet seen a lot of gray in her own hair, she knew that it was only a matter of time.
“It’s close to Dad and Barbara’s place. And it will be nice having the chance to spend more time with Lou and Anita. With them staying here also, we should be able to spend a little quiet time to get to know them better.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s the good part about our kids not coming with us this time. It’ll be adults only here.” Barry helped Tess put on a light sweater.
She pulled her mid-length blonde hair free from the sweater and let it drop between her shoulder blades before turning around to face him again.
“I still wish they could have taken the time from college to join us for the holiday. Barbara’s idea to meet the weekend after Thanksgiving was very thoughtful.”
Barry opened the door and stepped back to let his wife pass through first, then followed her out into the hallway of the second floor.
After descending the stairs trimmed with pine garland and ribbons, they met everyone else in the living room. It looked like Lou and Anita were also ready to go. Barry assured Megan and Dan that their room was great.
“Do you guys want to take just one car?” Tess asked as she entered the living room.
Anita glanced over at her husband to see his reaction before turning back to Tess.
“Sounds good to me. No sense taking two cars when we’re going to the same place.” Anita turned to Lou. “Do you want to drive? We grew up here so we know our way around Teaberry better than Tess and Barry.”
Barry looked over at Lou. “I can be the designated driver tomorrow if you’d like.”
Lou walked over to Barry and patted him on the back. “Deal.”
“Megan, Dan, we’ll see you both later,” Tess said as she followed Barry to get their coats from the hall closet near the front door.
“At least there isn’t much snow on the ground,” Anita said as she covered her dark hair with a brightly colored silk scarf.
Lou reached for his hat and slid it easily onto his mostly bald head. Tiny curls fringed around the edges of the hat.
“Barry, you want to call shotgun?” Lou asked as they walked out to the car.
Anita turned to Tess with a grin. “Us girls can sit in the back.”
“Tell me what it was like growing up in Teaberry,” Tess said to Anita as they drove toward town.
“Well, keep in mind that my mom has been the mayor for a long time. And, before that, she volunteered for a lot of different things,” Anita said.
“So you couldn’t get into any trouble because everyone in town knew who you were?” Tess guessed.
“Exactly. If I so much as sneezed wrong, my mom knew about it before I got home.”
Tess chuckled. “I can believe it. Hey, isn’t that your brother?”
Anita looked out the window of the car. She saw Thomas leaving one of the businesses and wondered what he was doing in town with Jennifer Parker. She couldn’t think of any reason he’d need to see a lawyer the day after Thanksgiving.
“Yeah, it is.” Anita frowned, then shrugged. She’d ask him about it later. “You remember his wife, Sarah?”
Tess nodded her agreement and wrinkled her forehead in thought. It was tough keeping everyone straight. “They have a son and a daughter, right?”
“That’s right. Kaylee is twenty and Nate is seventeen. They’re all staying with my mom,” Anita said.
Tess nodded. “My brother, Marc, his wife, Melinda, and their son, Trevor, is staying there too. Trevor is also seventeen.”
“That’s nice. Hopefully, Trevor and Nate will find they have some things in common,” Anita said as the car slowed to a stop in front of Barbara and Matthias Reynolds’s large Queen Anne at the edge of town.
“This was such a nice idea,” Tess said as they got out of the car. “Everyone should make the time to be with family at the holidays.”
***
Cathy wiped the bar counter at the Station Pub & Grill. She’d known it would be a little slow for a Friday night given that it was the day after Thanksgiving. She also didn’t recognize some of the people who were at the bar. She assumed they must be out-of-towners who were here visiting family for the holiday. She knew that some families liked the idea of spending the holiday together more than the reality of it. That kind usually ended up at her bar on or near a holiday.
The older guy at the end of the bar signaled to her that he wanted another drink. Cathy turned away to fill the order then plastered a professional smile on her face before turning back to bring the drink to him. He’d been hitting on her non-stop all night. He had to be, like, twenty years older than she was at the very least. It didn’t make her feel particularly special. He’d also indiscriminately been hitting on every other female in the bar.
Although he may have been good looking in his youth, his face was now a little on the bloated side from carrying a little extra weight. He had bags under his eyes which didn’t surprise her considering how much he was drinking now, though he seemed to be holding it well. She assumed that meant that he had a lot of experience doing so.
Cathy smiled at something he said, then disengaged from the conversation as quickly as possible and moved back to the other end of the bar. She looked around the room to see if anyone else needed her.
That was when she noticed the other woman standing near the entrance to the bar side. Whoever she was, she was scanning the room, apparently looking for someone. Her face brightened when she saw the old guy at the end. Cathy took a closer look at the woman. Although she hid it fairly well with some expertly applied makeup, she looked to be around the same age as the old guy. Her clothes were a little tighter than they needed to be, but the woman obviously made an effort to stay in shape.
Cathy hoped the new arrival would convince the old guy that he’d already had enough to drink, and he’d leave. She watched as the new arrival walked up behind the old guy and put her hands over his eyes.
“Guess who,” Becky Maris asked.
Clay Freemont tried running some possible names through his brain but there had been too many women over the years. He didn’t want to guess wrong, so he let out a chuckle and grabbed the hands, tugging on them to pull the woman around where he could see her.
He was surprised when he did. “Becky, is that you?”
Becky hitched up a leg and climbed onto the stool next to him. “Are you buying?”
Clay’s smile widened as he met Becky’s eyes. He waved at the bartender without taking his gaze from Becky’s and leaned in closer to her.
Chapter Nine
It was warm and loud in the kitchen on Saturday. With all of the different conversations going on at once, it was difficult to follow what was being said sometimes but it was definitely fun to tackle the work of producing a holiday dinner together. Anita leaned over the stove to examine the gravy she was stirring. She turned around and called to Melinda for a second opinion.
“Do you think this gravy is thick enough?” Anita asked.
Melinda made a face as she considered it. Like the other women in the kitchen, she was wearing a borrowed apron over her dress clothes. Of the four women in the room, only Tess was a blonde. The three others had dark hair. None of the women were related directly. Anita was a Vance and Barbara’s daughter.
“Maybe it needs just a little more flour to thicken it,” Melinda suggested. Wearing a f
lowing long skirt with a colorful tunic over it and matching hand-crafted jewelry, Melinda looked very much like the art professor that she was. Her facial features made her lineage obvious. She closely resembled her father, Matthias Reynolds. She glanced around for the next closest person to give an opinion.
“Tess, what do you think?” Melinda asked her sister-in-law.
Tess nodded agreement about the consistency. Knowing that she would be working in the kitchen, she wore her blonde hair pulled up today. “Could be thicker, but I use cornstarch for my gravy.”
“That’s funny. We should take a poll in the room and see what everyone uses,” Melinda said looking around at the others. “I want to know if we’re split based on family.”
Tess laughed. “Okay, let’s see. On the Reynolds side, my brother Marc and I were raised on our mother’s recipe. She used cornstarch.”
Anita set the whisk down on a spoon rest and joined the debate. “On the Vance side, Thomas and I grew up with cornstarch also.”
Melinda looked over at Sarah because, like Melinda, Sarah had also married into the family. “I married into the Reynolds side, but I use flour because that’s what my mom did. Marc never complained,” Melinda said with a shrug.
Sarah finished transferring the mashed potatoes to a tureen and covered it with a lid to keep it warm. “I married into the Vance side, which is staunchly on the cornstarch side of the debate. I used to use flour, but Thomas said he didn’t like the taste because that wasn’t what Barbara did, so I switched.”
“Did you notice a difference?” Melinda asked after removing a large casserole dish from the oven.
“I did actually. I liked the fact that gravy made with flour reheats better. It seems to go back to a liquid state a little better than cornstarch even if you’re reheating it in the microwave.” Sarah opened a drawer and took out more serving spoons.
“Do I hear a but in there?” Tess asked.
Sarah nodded. “I discovered that I liked the taste of the cornstarch recipe better.”
“Huh.” Melinda carried the casserole dish toward the dining room. “Maybe I’ll give it a try.”
Melinda joined Barbara in the dining room. “Where do you want the vegetables?”
Barbara waved vaguely at the long table. “Wherever they fit. Are we getting close in there?”
“As soon as we finish the debate on flour or cornstarch in the gravy, we’ll be ready to eat.” Melinda set the casserole dish down.
“I can’t help with that one. I used to use flour because that’s what my mom did,” Barbara said. “But I switched to cornstarch when I married my first husband because that’s what his mother did. I discovered they both do the job.”
Melinda smiled at her pragmatism. “Do you want me to see if the men can be pried from the football game?”
“If they can’t, they’re missing out on a great meal,” Barbara said as she surveyed the table. She began rearranging things when Sarah emerged from the kitchen carrying the tureen of mashed potatoes.
The others followed her out of the kitchen carrying other items and Melinda headed for the living room to get the men.
“Where are the kids?” Sarah asked. She suspected her daughter, Kaylee, was avoiding her in the hopes that she wouldn’t have to explain why she was living with her grandmother instead of in the dorm at her college.
Barbara looked up as they entered the room. “It looks like they figured out the food was ready.”
Seventeen-year-old Nate shot a grin at Trevor. While sharing a room for the weekend, they’d had a lot of time to get to know each other and had discovered that they had a lot in common. In addition to liking all the same video games, they both liked to watch the same shows. It turned out that they also both loved mysteries.
Kaylee immediately busied herself offering drinks to everyone as they found a place at the table to sit. Once they began eating, the conversations around the table helped to keep the focus away from Kaylee. She was happy about that but knew the respite wouldn’t last. Eventually, her parents would corner her and grill her about what had happened at school.
Actually, her father would probably try to coax the information from her but would respect her wishes if she told him she wasn’t ready to discuss it. Her mom would be the one to insist on knowing what was going on. She knew that her mother, in particular, would want to know if Kaylee planned to continue with her degree. Her mother had told Kaylee all of her life that she should never give up fighting for what she wanted. Although Kaylee understood that that kind of mentality no doubt explained why her mother was so successful as a mechanical engineer, Kaylee knew that she still wasn’t ready to talk about it.
After finishing his second helping of everything, Thomas leaned back in his chair and groaned. He looked over at his mother and shook his head. “It’s going to take everyone at the table to pull me out of my chair.”
Barbara looked over at the side table covered with desserts. “Maybe instead of watching more football this afternoon, you guys should run around the back yard and get some exercise so you’re ready to tackle more food.”
Matthias laughed as he patted his stomach. “I’ll watch from the sidelines.”
The other men shared a look and shook their heads.
“A nap sounds good,” Lou said. He ran his hand over his bald head and turned to his wife. “Do you need help in the kitchen?”
Anita looked across the table to consider the damage. “If everyone brings their plates to the kitchen, we can get done more quickly.”
Kaylee shot up from her chair. “Oh, I can do that. I need to work off my meal. You all can stay where you are and keep talking.”
Thomas shared a look with Sarah. His wife was right. Kaylee was avoiding them. He turned to the others.
“The rest of you are planning to leave Sunday afternoon?” Thomas asked.
Marc nodded in agreement and looked over at his dad. “We’d like to stay longer, but both Melinda and I need to get back to work, and Trevor has to get back to school.”
Matthias made a face showing that he understood. “We’re just glad that you were able to make it for the weekend.”
“How about you guys?” Lou asked Thomas as Kaylee reached around him to take his plate and add it to the pile she was already carrying.
Thomas and Sarah shared another look. “We’re going to stay here a little longer.”
Kaylee turned quickly and headed for the kitchen. She could feel her heart beating a little faster and she knew why. There was no way she was going to be able to avoid talking with her parents if they remained past the weekend.
Chapter Ten
Vince dropped Bev off at the front door of the hall where the class reunion was being held Saturday evening then went to find a parking space. He had plenty of options to choose from. As Bev had recently teased him about, Vince was always one of the first to arrive. He waved to others pulling into the parking lot as he walked back to the building. He found that Bev hadn’t made it farther than the inside entrance to the hall. She was standing there talking with others and was still wearing her coat.
He slid her coat from her shoulders and took it over to the large closet near the entry. When he returned, he offered to take Brenda John’s coat also.
“Oh, that’s so nice of you, Vince,” Brenda said with a smile. “Bev sure has you trained well.”
“Speaking of which, how is that daughter of yours liking married life,” Vince asked politely as he helped Brenda out of her coat.
“She loves it. Don’t remind me of that wedding though. It was here in this hall, you know. I haven’t been back since.” Brenda looked around and shivered. “It’s not every day you have someone murdered at your wedding.”
The entrance door opened as more people arrived, bringing with it a rush of cold air. They greeted Stan Jiblonski and his wife, Carol.
Vince rested his hand briefly on the small of Bev’s back. They were taking up space where everyone needed to remove their coats.
> “Shall we go into the dining hall?”
Bev nodded and went ahead of him, still talking with Brenda. Vince hung back a little and waited for the new arrivals to divest themselves of their coats. He joined Stan and Carol as they entered the hall and spoke briefly to them before rejoining Bev.
“There’s a cash bar in one corner. What sounds good?” Vince asked Bev.
“Wine sounds great.” She looked around the room. “It’s a little warm in here, isn’t it?” She slipped her sweater from her shoulders. It looked like she wouldn’t need it after all.
Vince glanced down at the table next to them and read the names next to each seat. “This isn’t us. I’ll find our table and put your sweater on the back of the chair. If you need it, I can always get it for you again.”
Vince left Bev talking with a group of friends and worked his way around the room until he found the right table. After leaving the sweater, he headed for the bar. He passed Libby on the way.
“I’ll bet you’re happy tonight,” Vince commented.
Libby didn’t try to pretend she didn’t understand him. By the end of the night, her duties would officially be done. “I’m never doing this again,” she said with a smile as she kept moving. She heard Vince chuckle as he continued on his way to the bar.
Libby stopped at a group of people to greet them. “Hello everyone. Is anyone else amazed that we’ve been out of school for so long? I keep wondering who the old lady in the mirror is.”
Susan laughed with everyone else as she and Ross joined the group. After making the introductions to those who hadn’t yet met Ross, she turned to Libby.
“What was the response rate for the invitations?” Susan asked.
“I was surprised, actually. I think most of the graduating class will be here.” Libby looked around the group. “Of course, we’ve lost a few over the years. There’s a section in the pamphlet you’ll find at each place sitting to commemorate them.”
“That was very thoughtful,” Vince said as he returned with Bev’s wine.
