Kelly's Rules

by Barbara Miller

  Chapter Five

  “Rule 5: Watch for a man’s default position, how he deals with stress. If he blows up, get away from him. He’ll never mature. If he rolls with the punches, then he’s a possibility.” — SMFA

  Kelly and Quinn finished off another side of the porch flooring by noon with Jason acting as gofer. The porch ran around four sides of the house reaching to the back kitchen door and to the deck by the side addition. He’d decided on treated lumber and that had saved all the time it would have taken to prime and paint the boards.

  Then they ordered a pizza for lunch. Jason had actually been a lot of help to them, running for boards and screws. He didn’t even mind being called a gofer. Most important, he did what he was told and nothing more. When Kelly came back from a trip to the bathroom after lunch, she saw Jason drive off in Quinn’s SUV. Since they had to get more wood before they finished the porch, they could either get her Jeep started and hitch the trailer to it or pick another project. They had plenty to choose from and Kelly opted to explore the fireplaces. Kelly had seen some broken fire brick in back and had bought replacements and cement. While she cemented those in place, Quinn worked at gluing the loose ceramic tiles around the mantel. They worked well together and finished up around three.

  “If we have any cold nights I can light a fire,” he said with a smile of relief.

  She choked on her bottle of tea. “Not for at least a week. That could cause an explosion from the water in the cement expanding. Besides, someone has to check out and point that flue and it might as well be me.”

  “You want to go up on the roof again? But you don’t have ladders.”

  She could see the panic start to take over his face. “I rent them and scaffolding when I need to work high. I think I can get to it from the attic window like before. I just have to take some cement with me. Come on, you can hand stuff out to me. Besides, I want to see the attic ceiling on a sunny day and make sure we fix all the leaks.”

  Reluctantly he followed her, carrying the eighty pounds of Top and Bond, and a bucket of water while she took the caulking, rope and tool belt in an empty bucket.

  The sun revealed a few pinholes, which she sealed from inside, but she was more concerned for the watermarks and spent some time measuring their distance from the chimney so she could check the slates from the outside. “Remarkably sound for an eighty-year-old slate roof.”

  Quinn sighed at this good news. “I thought about having it replaced, but I can’t afford it right now.”

  “Slate is the best you can get. Hang onto it as long as you can.”

  He peered out the window at the path she needed to take to get all this stuff to the chimney in the middle of the roof. “I don’t know.”

  “I’m going to tie a rope around me. You hang onto it until I get to the chimney. Once there I’ll pull it to me and lash myself in place. I’ll throw you the end to drag over anything I might need like a bucket of cement. Of course I can carry the first batch with me.”

  His brows drew together and he dipped his head. “Okay. But how will you get back in?”

  “I’ll throw the rope back to you and you can hold it in case I slip.” She now knew his Achilles heel, heights. Not an unreasonable fear. But on a clear summer day, there was no finer place to be than on a breezy roof. She located and patched the leaks with some clear caulk on her way to the chimney. She peered down the flues and saw daylight. But when she pulled the end of the rope to her and passed it around the stack of bricks, the whole pile shifted a bit. Yikes. It would have been as useful to lash herself to a falling tree, but she couldn’t let Quinn know that.

  She’d shown him how to mix the pointing cement and once she used up the first batch, the second batch she dragged over was perfect. She’d have to work fast. “I’m going to need you to go downstairs and bring up another sack of cement. I want to make sure this is all pointed today.”

  She heard a reluctant okay. Really this job was going to be harder on him than her, since he would have to carry all the water up those stairs as well as the cement. She reasoned it would not speed the process if he knew there was no stable point for her to tie off a safety line.

  Kelly worked as quickly as she could, pointing the insides of the flues first and as she worked, the pile of bricks began to take on some stability. She marveled that Quinn never asked where all the cement was going. The simple pointing job she had described would not have required a tenth of what she daubed between the bricks on the inside of the flues. Of course the inside bricks were much worse from years of heating and freezing.

  The tougher part was misting all the brick she was pointing both inside the stack and out to keep it from drying too fast. The really unstable courses, the last four, she just took off and laid with all fresh cement. She actually liked to lay brick though the cement was murder on your hands.

  The chimney had firmed up after two hours. No one would ever know how hazardous it had been. A strong wind from the wrong direction could have toppled it and destroyed the slate roof.

  “How’s it going?” Quinn called.

  She realized he couldn’t see her at all without going outside into the yard, which was just as well.

  “Nearly finished. Another ten minutes. I’ll lower everything to the ground instead of dragging it across the roof.”

  “You’re going to be in danger once you untie the rope from the chimney.”

  “I’ll stay by the chimney until I toss the other end to you. Keep it snug. If I slide, you can keep me from hitting the ground.”

  “I don’t like this at all,” Quinn repeated.

  He’d said that periodically throughout the afternoon, like it was some kind of protective chant. “I don’t like this at all.” Kelly ignored the remark now that the real danger was over and Quinn hadn’t even known about it. Wasn’t that what you did for people you cared about? Shield them from the worst of life’s fears.

  She smiled at him and turned back to the last course. “You keep that up, Quinn, and you’re going to give me an aversion for roof work.”

  “I should be up there.”

  “We talked about this. You’re too heavy. You would break a bunch of these slates if you walked on them. Besides I have trouble with those eighty-pound sacks of cement. I need you to do that part.”

  Finally she lowered all the tools and buckets to him. He went back inside and she took one more look at the city as she heard his feet pounding up the stairs to the attic. She just had to get herself down safely. Initially Kelly had walked across the peak in a crouch. Since she was now tired, for the return trip she sat and slid. Even though he had the end of the rope around her waist, her slide down beside the dormer nearly did Quinn in. When he grabbed her and hauled her inside, it was with a sort of embrace that went beyond worker to worker. But she didn’t complain. It was a nice long hug even if it meant nothing except he was glad she was alive.

  Quinn could feel his armpits sweating and his heart racing. He’d watched his kids play contact sports and not been as tense as he had these last few hours. It was because he should have been up there taking the risks, not Kelly. “I don’t want you ever to go back up there again.”

  “Shouldn’t have to. God, look at the time. Is Jason back yet?”

  “No, and I’m getting worried. He was just going out to the campus to register and look around. It shouldn’t have taken that long. He’ll be starting there in the fall.” Quinn wondered if part of his tension had been over Jason, but his son was a good driver and he’d never worried about him before.

  “Ah, hence the move.”

  “Yes, I’m teaching economics there starting in September. Free tuition for him comes with the new job.”

  “Well, I can walk home and get the Beast. It should be ready to start by now. Want me to come back and pick you up? We could drive out that way and look for him.”

  “I’ll come with you. We’ll leave him a note in case he comes back here.”

  “Right. I’m going to phone Earl on
the way, just in case he knows something we don’t.”

  They locked up and strode down the hill toward her house. Kelly talked for awhile on her phone mostly saying “uh huh”. When she signed off, Quinn demanded, “Well?”

  “He says there was an SUV in a ditch near the college but the guy was able to drive it away, was gone by the time he got there. But that was hours ago. He talked to a store clerk who saw it and they said he was run off the road. Hit and run. The other guy didn’t stop.”

  “If Jason—”

  Quinn halted at Kelly’s house and stared at his vehicle, or what was left of it parked near the summer house. She wandered around it tugging on a dangling piece here or there. Almost all the panels were damaged.

  “Jason?” Quinn whispered. He felt his heart thudding and the blood draining from his face. He felt worse than when Kelly had gone to the roof. The door to the summer house opened and Jason limped out with an ice bag pressed to his forehead.

  Quinn ran toward him.

  “Quinn, wait,” she shouted. “This isn’t so bad.”

  What did she think? That he was angry? He was not going to wreak some awful revenge on his son. He hugged Jason, looked under the ice bag and then sat down in the grass.

  “I’m sorry, Dad. I’m so sorry.” Jason knelt and Kelly went to stand near them.

  “It’s not as bad as it looks, but Jason, are you sure you’re okay?”

  “I had my seatbelt on, so I have some bruises from that and I banged my head when I fell out.”

  “Fell out?” Quinn gasped.

  “After I was stopped. A big gray sedan cut me off. It was either the ditch or run into him, and I didn’t think a head-on collision was a good idea.”

  “I imagine the police would like to talk to you,” Kelly said. “No one could give Earl the license of the other car, so all they will have to go on is what damage his vehicle might have.”

  “I never thought of that. I’ll call it in.”

  “First, look at me,” Quinn demanded.

  “Huh?” Jason looked up, but his blue irises and pupils were the same size. He looked shaken but not concussed.

  “Maybe we should take you to the hospital,” Quinn said. “I still have COBRA coverage from my old job.”

  “Dad, I’m fine.”

  Quinn nodded and watched Kelly punch in a phone number.

  “Jason can talk to the desk sergeant but he’ll have to file an accident report later.”

  Jason took the phone and walked away to complete the call. That meant he didn’t want them to know how close he came to being killed. He was a good kid and responsible. By now Quinn felt his breathing return to normal. Two heart-stoppers in one day. He must be in decent shape to be able to come down from stress so quickly. He was used to a different kind of stress at work, but he’d trade this for that any day.

  “Quinn, it could have been worse.” Kelly extended her hand.

  “God, I know it.” He took her hand and pretended to use it to heave himself to his feet. “I’m not normally an alarmist but so much has gone wrong in my life. If I lose Jason…”

  “He’s a tough kid and a smart one. He made the right decision and so did you.”

  “About what?” Quinn rubbed his forehead to clear his brain.

  “Do you realize how many men would have gone into a giant rant about the damage to the vehicle?”

  He stared at her. “You’re kidding. I don’t even like the thing.”

  “I got that impression. So you didn’t pick it out.”

  “No, but when we divided up cars, Brenda chose the sedan. She ordinarily insisted on this one for trips, which we seldom took together, but she doesn’t like to drive it.”

  “Think you can stomach some dinner?” Kelly asked.

  “Yeah, I’ll cook. I need something to do. I’ll be over as soon as I get cleaned up.”

  “Sue’s car is gone,” Kelly said. “I wonder where she and the kids are.”

  “Maybe her place?”

  “Unlikely. The images are still too fresh according to her. Besides she wouldn’t want to be interrogated by Mom about what happened there.”

  He laughed on the way to the shower. At least Kelly had a sense of humor about her mother. About Brenda he could never see any humor. She wasn’t at all witty and the world needed to revolve around her or she wasn’t happy. Her beauty was artificial and achieved at great expense, whereas Kelly could probably just walk out of a shower and be good to go. Wow, he probably shouldn’t think of her that way. In his mind he dressed her in her usual jeans and flannel shirt but the damage of imagining her naked was done and he would never forget how much he enjoyed that fantasy.

  Kelly was glad Quinn had been able to survive both stressful incidents. She had never before met a man who simply did not get angry. Which spoke well for him as a prospect if he could hold his composure through the divorce.

  By the time the impromptu meal, including a tasty vegetable stir-fry, was on the table, Sue was back with the kids and Bea. They all applied themselves to the food, which included leftovers from the day before. Kelly avoided asking where they had been together. Something was brewing between Sue and Bea. Kelly wanted to enjoy dinner before the storm broke. Finally she pushed back from the table with a sigh. Maybe it was just her imagination.

  “I saw your car in the driveway,” Bea said to Quinn. “You should be more careful.”

  Her timing was perfect. Both Quinn and Jason had just taken a bite.

  Kelly glared at her. “This from the queen of totaling. You’re a fine one to talk, Bea. You don’t have a license anymore, do you?”

  “None of your business and I never mangled anything like that.”

  “It’s insured,” Quinn said. “Jason’s alive. End of conversation.”

  “Well!” Bea looked offended for a moment, then grabbed a piece of yesterday’s chicken and started cutting it on her plate.

  Kelly was surprised Quinn had silenced her so effectively. Had she been playing into her mother’s hands all these years by arguing with her? Sue passed the salad as Kelly reviewed her track record with her mom. No matter what disaster she was trying to prevent her from causing, Bea was always a step ahead of her. So Bea deliberately ran counter to Kelly’s wishes, common sense and the laws of safety to…what? Get attention? She had it. Of late Kelly just wanted to be in a different state from her.

  Sue pulled out a decorating magazine and plopped it in front of her, giving Kelly a queasy feeling. “I want to hold off on the paint,” she said. “I may want to change some other things.”

  “You don’t want me to paint?” Kelly felt offended, maybe even hurt.

  “I may do it myself.”

  “I’ll do it for free,” Kelly pleaded, imagining paint drips on woodwork and even the floor.

  Sue flipped to a page with white woodwork and studied it.

  “Not the woodwork! Sue, I’m begging you. I just spent months stripping the wood down to its natural color before I sold you that house. You cannot be thinking of painting it.”

  “White is in,” Bea said.

  Now that was vicious. “Don’t you see what she’s doing, Sue? She’s using you and your woodwork to get at me. Please don’t take matters into your own hands.”

  Sue leveled her penetrating gaze at her. “You mean like cutting your own hair?”

  Kelly smacked herself in the forehead. “Haven’t I ice-creamed my way out of that mistake? What would it take for you not to destroy that house?”

  “I think you need to reconcile with your mother.”

  Kelly choked on her next argument. Wow, Sue didn’t pull any punches. “Why don’t you just ask me to part the Red Sea? It would be easier.”

  “Is that any way for a daughter to talk?” Bea asked.

  “I can’t take this. I’m leaving,” Kelly said. “I’m staying at Quinn’s house tonight.” Skipping out was so much easier than arguing. The mood she was in, she didn’t care if Sue painted her woodwork orange. She would not be h
eld hostage by fine oak trim.

  Quinn was waiting for Kelly at the bottom of the steps when she came down with her tote.

  “You’re not really leaving because of me, are you?” He looked sad and desperate.

  “No, but someone has to guard your house at night.”

  “I’ll be there. You don’t have to sleep on a hard floor because of me.”

  Kelly dropped her bag and sighed. “No, you will be staying awake in the summer house with your son to keep him awake just in case he does have a concussion. In his condition he cannot be nodding off into a coma.”

  Quinn blew out a sigh of relief. “So that’s what this is about. You’re not leaving.”

  “Twenty-eight years’ experience with my mother tells me not to lay all my cards on the table and to get away from her when she tries to pull a coup.”

  “Do you think Sue could be right?” he asked.

  “Quinn, get real. I am the mouse. My mother’s the cat. When I finally escaped her I vowed never to let her get hold of me again.”

  “But she’s your mother.” He still seemed puzzled that they couldn’t just fight and forget it the way guys do.

  “At least she says so. I hold out the hope that I was abducted as an infant. Being found under a cabbage leaf would have been better than a direct line to her genes.”

  “Kelly, she can’t be that bad.” He glanced toward the dining room.

  “We’re talking about a woman who took my Brownie troop to an art film. She was almost lynched in this town.”

  “You have a sense of humor about everything else.” He picked up her bag but didn’t make a move toward the door.