Clara in America (Clara Andrews Series - Book 7)

by Lacey London

  ‘Divorce?’ Oliver yells, taking the words right out of my mouth. 'What the hell are you talking about?’

  His voice is higher than I’ve ever heard it and I start to feel concerned about how he is going to take this. Yes, he is forty years old, but suddenly discovering that your parents are divorcing is tough to take no matter what your age.

  Twirling a straw around her skinny latte, she screws up her nose and sighs. ‘We are very different people and I guess we have just… outgrown each other.’

  ‘Outgrown each other? You have been together for over forty years! You can’t just outgrow someone after all that time!’ Shaking his head angrily, he slides out of the booth and makes a grab for my phone. ‘This is crazy. I’m phoning Dad.’

  ‘You’re wasting your time.’ Janie exhales loudly. ‘Your father feels the same way. Don’t think that he’s at home crying into his cowboy boots because I can assure you, he isn’t.’

  Relenting a little, Oliver raps his knuckles on the table and folds his arms defensively. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

  ‘We both feel the same way about this.’ She reaches across my lap and places a wrinkly hand on his arm. ‘We aren’t parting on bad terms, if that’s what you’re concerned about. I still care about your father, I just don’t want to spend my final years picking up his socks and folding his underpants!’ Janie cackles loudly before releasing that no one else finds this remotely funny. ‘Too soon?’ She whispers, swapping her grin for a grimace.

  ‘I just… I don’t… why is this the first that I’m hearing about this?’ Oliver asks, running a hand through his hair. ‘Is this why you brought us out here? Why didn’t you just pick up a goddamn phone?’

  My heart starts to race as I attempt to send Janie a mental SOS. Don’t tell him about Paulie. Do not tell him about bloody Paulie!

  ‘Actually, the reason I brought you out here is…’ She stops briefly as her face stretches into a smile. ‘Is that I’ve met someone.’

  Oh, God! This is not going to go down well. Not daring to breathe I hold my breath and smile queasily down at Noah, who is too busy trying to get his dinosaur to eat his balloon to notice that a volcano is about to erupt.

  ‘Jesus Christ…’ Resting his head in his hands, he taps his foot impatiently and swears under his breath.

  ‘His name is Paulie.’ Janie continues, clearly not sensing that she should shut the hell up. ‘We met in Los Angeles. You remember me telling you that I went to Hollywood with Dixie, Dolly and Dallas?’

  Oliver peeks at her though his hands and I recall Janie’s recent trip to La La Land. For those of you who don’t already know, Dixie, Dolly and Dallas are Janie’s nieces. Being self-confessed celebrity addicts, the four of them decided to take a trip to Tinseltown and stalk the celebrity haunts. What she failed to tell me about before now, is that a mountain of surgeon’s phone numbers weren’t the only things she brought back with her.

  ‘This is just too much right now.’ Oliver exhales slowly and rubs his face, obviously shocked to the core.

  ‘If you don’t want to meet him yet then I completely understand.’ Trying to keep an upbeat tone to her voice, she leans down and bats Noah’s balloon. ‘Just know that he would like to meet you while you’re here.’

  ‘Wait a minute, I thought you met this loser in Los Angeles?’ The vein on the side of Oliver’s head grows to twice its normal size and I become extremely concerned that it could burst at any moment.

  ‘I did, but he lives right here, in Orlando.’ Janie says, as though we should already know this information.

  ‘What was he doing in California?’ I ask, feeling more confused than Oliver looks.

  ‘Paulie is an actor.’

  I roll my eyes and let out a scoff.

  ‘Trust me, he is going to be huge.’

  ‘Then why is he working at Magic Metropolis?’ The words escape my lips and the second that I hear them out loud, I know that I have made a big mistake.

  Oliver’s eyes widen as I clasp my hands to my mouth. ‘Wait a minute, he’s here?’

  ‘He’s working as a Senior Entertainment Cast Member until Christmas.’ She says this like it’s the most important job in the world. ‘Like I said, he’s an actor, so this is just a stepping stone while he gets his finances in order.’

  Not saying a word, Oliver slides out of the booth and storms across the restaurant. Watching him throw open the door and stride past the window, I look at Janie and shake my head.

  ‘Now look what you’ve done!’ Contemplating running after him, I rest my head on the table and try to format a plan.

  Maybe I can fix this. Maybe I can put this right before anyone else gets hurt. When Oliver warned me about Orlando being a stressful vacation, I had images of hyperactive children, never-ending queues and greasier food than a backstreet burger van. Not once did I think I was going to be hit with a bombshell like this. I am frantically trying to think of a way to put all this back together again when a thought suddenly hits me.

  ‘Janie, is Ernie really sick?’

  Shaking her head, she looks away guilty before trying to explain, but I cut her off mid-sentence.

  ‘Do you have any idea how bad that is?’ My blood begins to boil and I fight against the overwhelming urge to lose my cool. ‘To pretend that Ernie is sick to cover up your seedy affair. That’s a low blow even for you.’

  ‘Look, Clara. You are blowing this all out of proportion.’ Placing her hands on the table, I notice that she is still wearing her wedding rings. ‘Randy and I still love each other dearly, we just don’t fit together anymore.’

  I look into her eyes and think about just how different the two of them really are. Now that I think of it, I actually can’t believe they made it four years, never mind forty.

  ‘You two have never fit together.’ Noah starts to squirm in his pram so I pull him out and sit him next to me. ‘What’s changed?’

  ‘What’s not changed more like.’ She curls up her lip and twists her wedding rings around her finger. ‘Listen, I don’t want to get into the ins and outs of it. When you have spent four decades with the same man, then you can have an opinion on how to make a marriage work.’

  I bite my lip for a moment, feeling shell shocked at the sudden sharp tone to her voice.

  ‘You don’t realise how easy you have it with Oliver.’

  ‘Excuse me?’

  ‘No money worries. No daily grind of the 9 to 5 running you down… All you had to do was pop out a baby and sit back and enjoy the cash. Anyone could make a marriage work if they had it that easy.’

  Blood rushes to my cheeks and I can’t help but feel mortified. Yes, Oliver brings home a massive pay check so we don’t have to fret over bills and so forth, but that doesn’t mean our relationship is any less real than anyone else’s.

  ‘That’s not fair…’ I start, feeling a strong urge to defend myself. ‘We have our own share of problems just like everyone else.’

  ‘Yada, yada, yada.’ Mumbling under her breath, she throws back her head and refuses to look me in the eye.

  I decide to try a different tact and put my bruised feelings to one side. ‘You and Randy are happy, Janie. You know you are deep down. This is just a blip, a moment of madness, an error of judgement.’

  ‘You aren’t around!’ Throwing her arms in the air, she lets out a sarcastic laugh and flicks back her hair. ‘You see snapshots of our lives through photographs and video calls. You live four thousand miles away, Clara! You don’t know the half of it.’

  A surge of guilt runs through me and I tear my eyes away from hers. With Janie and Randy living in Texas, it’s true that we neglect Oliver’s side of the family ever so slightly. Not intentionally, of course. It’s just that having an ocean between us kind of puts a stop to a lot of family activities.

  ‘You must understand just how unexpected this is for us? Especially for Oliver. One minute everything is fine and you’re flying us out to America and the next you drop this on us. Talk about
out of the blue.’ I wait for her to say something, but she turns away in silence. ‘I better go and find Oliver, I don’t want him to do anything stupid.’

  Reaching out for the pram, she takes Noah and motions for me to leave. ‘Let me keep Noah with me. There’s no point in dragging him around on a wild goose chase.’

  Planting a kiss on his head, I slip out of the booth and squeeze through the tables. The entire coffee shop is filled with happy families enjoying a much needed moment of rest from the festivities going on outside. Oh, how I envy them. Quietly enjoying their caffeine fix, they don’t have any idea how lucky they are that they don’t have Janie for a mother-in-law.

  Pushing my way out onto the street, narrowly avoiding knocking over a wizard in the process, I shake my head in an attempt to clear my mind. OK. If I were a pissed off, middle aged American at Magic Metropolis, where would I go? Scanning my surroundings, I let out an exhausted sigh and decide to retrace our footsteps. My first guess is that Oliver has gone in search of Paulie, so I am either looking for a shaken up dinosaur or the sound of Oliver’s roar. In a park filled with screeching children and booming music, it makes this an almost impossible task.

  Smiling at a passing witch, I accept a handful of fairy dust and throw it over my shoulder. I guess I need all the luck I can get right now, even if that luck does come in the form of arts and crafts glitter. I knew it was strange for Janie to bring us out here like this! Someone like Janie doesn’t just have a complete one eighty and suddenly decide they want to play the role of cookie cutter grandmother. I should have known that she was up to something. I should have worked out something was going on long before now.

  Spotting a baseball cap that looks suspiciously like Oliver’s on a nearby bench, I run over and pick it up. He wouldn’t go very far without this. I don’t think I’ve seen him without his precious Houston Rockets cap this entire holiday. After scanning the area for what feels like an eternity, I collapse into a heap on the bench and let out a groan. This is not how I pictured this holiday going. Tipping back my head to allow the sunshine to beam down onto my face, I let out a laugh as a heavy rain drop lands on my cheek.

  Well, isn’t that just perfect. Within seconds the rain turns heavy and tourists run for cover inside the many shops and restaurants, but I stay firmly put. Unlike the last time I experienced a Florida downpour, I don’t want to escape the rain. I want to sit right here and allow the water to wash over me. The sound of hysterical screaming is drowned out by the patter of rain thrashing against the ground. Enjoying the sensation of cooling droplets on my skin, I am completely lost in the moment when a familiar voice grabs my attention.

  ‘Clara?’ Trying not to laugh, Oliver waves his arms around from beneath a shop canopy. ‘What are you doing?’

  ‘Nothing.’ I reply, shaking the water out of my hair. ‘I just… felt like getting wet.’

  Nodding in response, he squints at me for a moment before stepping out into the rain. ‘Mind if I join you?’

  Smiling up at him, I slide over to make room for him to sit down. People start to stop and stare at the crazy pair taking an impromptu shower in the middle of the theme park. Really not caring, I stretch out my legs and watch Oliver’s clothes quickly become as saturated as my own.

  ‘How do you feel?’ I eventually ask, once the rain has had the decency to calm down an iota.

  ‘Wet.’ He replies, looking down at the stream of water running off his basketball shorts. ‘Very, very wet.’

  Not knowing what else to do, I let out a small giggle that quickly develops into a belly laugh and once I start, I just can’t stop. What are we doing? A passer-by stops to snap a photo of us and I bury my head in Oliver’s soaked t-shirt. Once confident that the spontaneous photographer has moved on, I take off my sandals and squeeze the excess water out of them.

  ‘I just, don’t know what I’m going to do with her.’ Oliver says, shaking his baseball cap and putting it back on. ‘Deep down, I knew this day would come. She always pushes the boundaries, always.’ I nod in response and say nothing, choosing to let him keep talking. ‘We can put this right though. Dad will forgive her and we can put all this behind us and move on. Just like last time.’

  ‘Last time?’ I gasp, not sure that I have heard him correctly. ‘You mean… Janie has done this before?’

  ‘It was a long, long time ago. Years, actually. I was just a boy, but I still remember everything that happened.’ My stomach flips as he fiddles with his watch, avoiding all eye contact. ‘It was with some guy from work. Apparently he showered her with gifts, promised her a life my dad could only ever dream of giving her.’

  ‘What happened?’ I ask, choosing my words carefully so that he doesn’t clam up.

  ‘She came back, eventually. Dad forgave her and things gradually went back to normal.’ He stares down at his own wedding band and sighs. ‘To be honest, I don’t really think they’re aware of just how much I remember.’ Turning away to look down the street, he closes his eyes as he recalls the memory. ‘Things were pretty rough for a while.’

  Reaching out for his hand, I take it in mine and rub his fingers with my thumb. I’m trying not to show it, but this revelation has really shocked me. I am aware that Janie is well known for her wild antics, but I really wouldn’t have had her down as a serial cheat. Poor Randy. Imagine going through the agony of having your spouse betray you like that, just to have it happen all over again many years down the line. I am so lost in my sorrow for Randy that I don’t even notice the rain gradually coming to a stop. Looking up into the sky, I shield my eyes as the sun peeks out from behind the blanket of cloud. People start to creep out from the shelter and within seconds the park is alive and buzzing with the same excitement that it had before.

  ‘So, how are we going to handle this?’ I whisper, strategically placing myself under the sunlight in the hope that I dry out.

  ‘We just have to bring them back together, like last time.’ Pushing himself to his feet, he shakes his wet shirt and attempts a small smile.

  ‘And how do you suggest we do that?’ I slide off the bench and start walking back towards Starbucks.

  Shrugging his shoulders, he stands still for a moment, seemingly lost in thought. ‘I guess we just have to make her see sense.’ He gives my hand a squeeze and I squeeze it back. ‘I just hope we can paper over the cracks before it’s too late…’

  Trust is like a mirror.

  You can fix it if it’s broken,

  but you will always see the cracks in your reflection.

  Chapter 11

  This could not have gone any worse if I tried. I had one job. One. Think, Clara! Think! After Oliver’s mini meltdown this afternoon, we put our minds together and came up with a plan to get Janie and Randy back in martial matrimony. Well, when I say a plan, I mean we decided that I would tell Janie how stupid she has been and Oliver, well, Oliver would tell Randy just how stupid she has been. So far I can safely say that I’ve failed miserably at my end.

  When I arrived at her room two hours ago, my tactic was to convince Janie that Paulie is bad news, but I haven’t managed to get a single word in sideways. Between listening to her gush over how tight Paulie’s six-pack is and covering my ears while she rambled on about his moves between the sheets, things have gone from bad to worse. This is not good. Glancing at the clock on the wall, I take a slug of my whisky and go for it.

  ‘Do you think there’s any slight, little, tiny chance that this is just a… a phase?’

  ‘A phase?’ Janie laughs and throws back the contents of her glass before reaching for another from the mini bar. ‘No.’

  ‘OK, maybe not a phase.’ Looking around the messy hotel room, I rack my brains for another way to put it. ‘Maybe it’s a temporary thing that you just need to get out of your system? One final blowout to tick off your bucket list?’

  Cocking her head to one side, she swirls whisky around her glass before nodding slowly. ‘I see where you’re going with this and maybe you’re right.’<
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  Yes! Feeling like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders, I give myself an inward high five and take a sip of my drink. The golden liquid burns down my windpipe before crashing into my empty stomach with a sizzle. Bleurgh! How do people drink this stuff?

  ‘I’m not saying that Paulie is definitely forever.’ I nod enthusiastically and rest my chin in my hand, relieved to finally have made a breakthrough. ‘I just know that Randy definitely is not. Paulie is just what I need right now.’

  No! No! No! No! That is not what I meant! I’m going to be taking back divorce papers at this rate. How am I going to get it through to her that she’s throwing her entire life away for a quick fling with a no-hoper. Come on, Clara! If Oliver has managed to talk Randy into taking her back, he will lose his mind if Janie is sticking to her guns. Deciding to try some reverse psychology, I take a seat on the bed and roll onto my stomach.

  ‘On second thoughts, perhaps you’re right. I mean, you only get one life. If Paulie is what makes you happy, maybe you should go for it.’ Draping her legs over the headboard, she squints her eyes at me suspiciously. ‘I’m being serious! If you want to spend the rest of your days with a twenty-six-year-old aspiring actor who has zero prospects and is financially unstable, who am I to judge?’

  ‘Exactly…’ She murmurs uncertainly, obviously not quite trusting my words.

  ‘And so what if some people think the age difference is weird. As long as he is cool with wiping your backside when you’re eighty and he’s forty, what the hell.’

  ‘Oh, OK.’ Putting down her glass, she wags her bony finger in my face and scoffs. ‘I see what you’re doing here and let me tell ya, it’s not going to work.’

  ‘Oh, come on, Janie!’ Thrashing my legs around in frustration, I bang my hands down on the mattress. ‘This is insane! You know that you’re going to go back to Randy in the end, so can we just cut all this Paulie crap out and jump to the finish line?’