by M. C. Cerny
“Nope.”
“If you say so, man. I got a hundred bucks that says otherwise.”
“You’ll be a sore loser.” Or I was about to be a broke man with a house to fix if I didn’t get my shit together.
“Yeah, yeah, you keep telling yourself that. Tell Taylor I said hi and I’ll be by soon to do whatever grunt work you got for me.”
I knew I could count on Whit.
* * * * *
I headed over to Taylor Jane’s house. She was out today, picking out more paint colors and then some spa shit with the girls. That honey-do list was getting longer and longer with this girl and it should have bothered me. Heck, any other girl and it would have, but with her it didn’t. So here I was, driving the ten minutes over to her dad’s house to help him hang some stuff on the walls Taylor Jane was afraid might fall on him while he was standing on the ladder.
After all these years, I owed Alan Bryant a lot.
I parked in the driveway and knocked on the front door. No answer, which wasn’t unusual, so I turned the doorknob to find it open. “Hello? Mr. Bryant, it’s Hunter.”
“Out back, son.”
I followed his voice to find him sitting on the back deck, a glass of soda in his hand. This house had been the one Taylor Jane grew up in and the second place I ever called home. Everything remained the same, not a knick-knack moved since Mrs. Bryant’s death. There was an eerie reverence the way her father remained devoted to a woman I’d met a handful of times. The house was a mausoleum to his testament of love for both her and Taylor Jane. Love, I didn’t think I would ever be worthy of experiencing. I joined her dad and watched a group of squirrels jump from tree branches in the backyard.
“Taylor Jane—”
He held his hand up to stop me from what I was about to say.
“I know my daughter, Hunter. She’s worried about me, but I need her to do this. Flip that house and find her dream.” He talked like there was something else on his mind. It was evident in the way he hunched over and held his drink with a shaking hand breathless and pausing between each word. He didn’t look good physically and sounded worse emotionally, but what did I know?
I had been out of town when he had his heart attack and by the time I returned I had missed Taylor Jane returning to school for the semester. It seemed time would be my punishment since that night after the prom. I didn’t know what question to ask him to get the answer I needed.
“She just asked me to help hang some stuff and fix the curtain rod. Nothing more than that.”
Mr. Bryant grunted, and I took it at face value unless he was going to say more.
“You know I’m not well, Hunter.”
I stayed quiet, wondering if he would elaborate, and he did.
“My heart, it’s not good. It hasn’t been the same since my wife died and it’s more than just heartbreak. I’m a sick man.”
Swallowing back the unfairness of it all, I asked, “How bad is it?” But what I was really asking was how long he had because I had to figure out how to pick up the pieces for Taylor Jane when this all fell apart. No good deed ever went unpunished and in a strange twist of events I found myself her unwilling guardian of sorts.
“My heart is a ticking time bomb. There’s medicine I take, but the expense doesn’t seem to justify the means anymore.”
“What do you mean? Taylor Jane would want you to do everything you could to stay well.”
“Hunter, I miss my wife. This wasn’t the life I had planned for us.” Sad lines carved the frown in his face and I’m rendered nearly speechless. Nobody was dealt the perfect set of cards, I could testify to that personally.
“You’re all she has.”
He shook his head; my argument fell on deaf ears.
“No, Hunter. She has you, Kristen, Damien, even Chase. Besides, I gave her all the equity left in the house. When I’m gone, the house will go to the bank and she’ll get a fresh start. I want her to do this. I need her to do this.”
I disagreed. She wouldn’t want her father making these snap decisions for her. He was coming out of left field, and I had no idea what to do with this information.
“Does she know, about any of it? Your heart, the house?”
“No. She found some bills I haven’t paid, and she made some good guesses, but she doesn’t know the rest.”
I scrubbed my hands over my face. I was going to have to be a good actor to keep this up. She could read me like a book. I had things of my own I wasn’t prepared to tell Taylor Jane and now this. It was worse than a sewing circle of gossip.
“All right, well, what are we hanging up first? Curtains or pictures?” I stood up and waited for the man who was giving up everything for the girl I loved when I couldn’t give her any part of my heart. I wasn’t sure who the biggest fraud was between the two of us.
“Thank you, Hunter.” Mr. Bryant knew I’d keep this secret to my grave, but I had a few conditions of my own. One being sure that Taylor Jane didn’t lose the house she loved.
6
Taylor Jane
I’d been home for two weeks, busting my hump getting ready to dive into the house flip and scrounge up what I could to pay bills at the house. Dad wouldn’t let me pay rent, but I could at least buy groceries and cook dinner.
However, if one more person in town asked me what was going on at the house whenever I stopped in the grocery store or the post office, I was going to lose my mind. It was time to call my bestie for backup to meet me for drinks. Kristen knew how to let loose and take my mind off pressing matters. As long as she wasn’t looking to drive an hour away to some strip club it would be all right. Okay, I may have been avoiding her since I got back, but I let the excuses pile up, and it was now or never, ripping off the Band-Aid.
Memories surfaced like old movie reels. I would never get over the look Hunter gave me the night he drove to Albany picking us girls up. Kristen hit a curb and popped the wheel off her mother’s vintage car. We weren’t drunk, not even close, but the tongue lashing he gave us both was enough to make me be the designated driver anytime I went out with her again. That was the night I learned how much Hunter Hart hated changing tires. His past was a mystery still, but it was no secret his dad had been a colossal asshole. My heart hurt for him and yet, he still showed up when I called. He never failed to take care of us girls. He never let me down and the last thing I wanted was for him to be hurting. There was a tire wrench somewhere out there in a ditch that had taken the brunt of Hunter’s classic quiet rage.
“There’s my baby bitch!” Kristen smelled like green apples and bright flowers as I hugged her fiercely, getting a face full of her long, dark hair colored an ombre of half fire engine red.
“KC! It’s been forever! I love the new hair! Stunning!” Dropping my purse onto the seat of the booth, I slid in next to the girl who knew me as well as myself. Hugging her hard, I missed her this past year. We had a friendship that time or distance never affected. She greeted me like it had been yesterday and not months since I saw her last.
“Did you just Tim Gund on me?” Winking, she tugged on my long locks. “Go see Louisa. She just bought out the Highlights of My Life Salon and calls it something like Vodka and Wash.”
“That new place on Main Street?” Mentally I drove down the main drag of town, remembering where each little shop was located. I was away at school for four years and even though NYC was close to home, Dad came to visit me, and I rarely made it back to New Paltz. I’m that bad friend. Some days I still feel like running away to the city.
“Yes! She’s the best. I love what she did with the place. Maybe you can redesign the space for her. She just got back from LA and opened the place when it came up for sale. She even talked Tommy into working with her.”
Louisa and her brother, Tommy, went to high school with us, though we didn’t really hang out back then. She was more Kristen’s speed, but I always thought she was a nice person.
“I want something for summer, so yeah, I’ll give her a call.�
� Mentally calculating what a highlights would cost if things worked out flipping the house.
“What have you been up to besides traipsing all over New York and Parsons without me? I see you didn’t hit me up to hang out the hot second you got your skinny ass back up here!” Kristen opted to stay local while I took the opportunity to hit the big city and follow my dreams in interior design.
“Pretty much just that. I auditioned for a TV network for a design show and ended up getting into a contest flipping the house you’ve probably been hearing about.”
“Lucky slut! And here I am slaving away doing the fundraising for the Women’s Club and working part-time accounting for my aunt’s antique shop. Crazy woman has me reupholstering more chaise lounges than I care to think about in between the income and expense columns. I have no idea how she makes a profit each month.”
“KC, I really wish you would start your PR company we talked about. You’ve got some of the best ideas for fund raising and with your degree in accounting you could make it happen. Remember that time you organized that petition for the potato bar in high school?”
“Yeah, those were some kick ass spuds. I’d had enough of those frozen tater tots that never really got warm or crispy. Just that frozen crap once you got through the burning outside.”
“See! You’re the best social activist I know.” And Kristen was. She could argue an oasis in the desert she was so good. She got that from her mom, the lawyer, but none of us were brave enough to tell her that. I just wished she used her powers for good instead of evil, you know?
“Well, unlike you, Taylor, I didn’t exactly come into a windfall of money. But I love it. Everyone comes and tells me all the gossip while they beg me to review their taxes. God, the tourists are the best.” When Kristen mentioned the money I got I winced, thinking about how much Dad sacrificed all these years without telling me.
Flipping this house was going to hopefully become the windfall of money I needed to pay off my student loans and the second mortgage my dad had taken on the house. It would pay for all the debts incurred by letting me go to New York. My EBay account had seen a lot of traffic this past week selling off whatever I could. All the handbags and fancy shoes I didn’t need barely made a dent in the debts, but it was a start giving me money while I worked on flipping the project house.
“All right, enough reminiscing, tell me all the gossip you’ve got.”
“Ladies, some drinks?” Interrupted by our server, we both looked up at Remi Kennedy, another familiar face, and we ordered strawberry basil martinis to start off the night. Easton’s Pub, our regular hangout, had gone through several upgrades since the Easton brothers had bought out their dad and begun making improvements.
“Damn, this reminds me of that night Hunter came and got us while my mom’s car had a missing wheel.”
Groaning, I gave her a gentle shove. Wasn’t I just thinking about how I didn’t want to have to relive that, like ever? “KC, stop, you’re about to call up some karmic debt here.”
“Well, well, well. If it isn’t the man himself.…” Kristen half jumped up and waved frantically toward the door of the bar restaurant.
My stomach flip-flopped before I turned around to get another mouthwatering look at the man who haunted my dreams most nights back in my college dorm. My fingers itched for a pencil and my drawing pad currently revived on my childhood desk at home. I wished Remi brought that drink now so I could guzzle a brain freezing quantity and get my head sorted out. Considering I did ask him to help me on my little project, I better get used to love unrequited.
“Yeah, if it isn’t good ole Hunter.”
Kristen slapped me in the boob, making me wince, and I rubbed it before he could come over and see me fondling myself. I rolled my eyes and wondered how twisted the night could go from here. I argued with Hunter hours earlier over sandblasting the wood floors to their original surface in the house and saving the fireplace if possible. Needless to say, we argued over almost every decision in the house.
“Pish… don’t be a brat, Taylor, let’s invite them over.”
When Kristen said “them” I got the balls to peer around her shoulder and wild hair to catch a glimpse of my best guy friend and his new lady friend. Huh, that was new-fangled along with the growing knot in my belly. I didn’t think she looked too happy to be seeing us either and I wondered why she looked so familiar.
“Mmm hmm.” Her name escaped me, but the sly dirty look was something I was used to being Hunter’s female acquaintance since high school.
Luckily, Remi returned super quick with our drinks. Blindly I slipped the straw in my mouth, sucking down. Hunter casually sauntered over with the woman clinging to his arm like a spider monkey at the zoo.
“Ladies, evening.” Hunter nodded politely in our direction, and I gulped my sweet drink down, letting the mix of alcohol and cold burn the back of my throat.
“Hi there, stud, whose the broad hanging on your fishing hook?” Leave it to Kristen to get the details on this girl... right in front of her no less. That’s my bestie for you; always using her powers for evil instead of good, and here I thought we annexed the MBHA of 2002.
“I’m Brittany. Hunter’s date.”
Well, if that wasn’t clear as heck like a summer eclipse. She pursed her red lips and whispered something in Hunter’s ear, making him smile that small little crack that let you know he was definitely banging her. Ugh. Sometimes I hated that I knew him that well, just not in the carnal sense. I watched Hunter brush bottle blond hair off with his arm with a grimace, thinking she was a beautiful sea creature with silky strands like octopus tentacles and probably just as deadly.
“Awkward….” Kristen mumbled under her breath, sipping her drink, giving me the side eye. I knew she was thinking along the lines of: do the drapes match the carpets. That was the last thing I wanted to know right up until she waggled her eyebrows suggestively in Brittany’s direction.
“Stop that.” I elbowed her sharply.
Kristen’s voice carried over to me in a sarcastic sing-song, saying, “I bet they don’t match….” It was disturbing how well I knew her thinking.
Glancing at Hunter, who shifted on his feet almost nervously, I felt sick to my stomach. Did he not want me to see him with this Brittany girl? Oh, the hell with it, we were adults and I’d known for years he would screw anything with a heartbeat. Anything except me, drunk me, prom me, just me in general. The only difference was that he rarely brought a girl over to meet me. Was this the part where he’s moved on because I get to meet the girls? He wasn’t getting my approval or disapproval. After all, I was the perfect Switzerland.
“Hey, why don’t you two join us? Kristen and I were just catching up and getting drinks. We can order appetizers if you like.”
He didn’t mention he was seeing anyone when he drove over to look at the house with me a week ago. I was kind of hurt he didn’t think he could tell me something like this, but here we were almost a week later, and I had to pull out the ‘I’m just the friend’ card.
“Sounds great, come on, Hunt.” Brittany pushed Hunter into the booth before parking her twiggy ass on the seat across from us.
Hunter slid over and sat right in front of me, stretching his legs out under the table. I felt the heat coming off his dark jean clad legs that he rested against my own.
Play it cool. Don’t be a dork.
Sure enough Hunter lounged out his long legs, which touched mine, boxing me in on either side. It was something he had always done with me and it didn’t mean anything a decade later into our friendship. The temptation to be fourteen again and kick him was strong until I looked up from the straw of my drink and saw him with a shit eating grin on his face. Jerk knew what he was doing and with polite company, Kristen excluded, I tried my best to behave. Matching his smile back, I raised my heeled foot and nudged his leg closest to the wall. Getting caught by his date would be a bad move and highly embarrassing for both of us. Besides, this was something Hunter and I di
d just to mess around with each other, date or no date. It was the Code of Besties.
“Taylor. Taylor Jane!”
“Huh?” I looked at Kristen, who plopped the appetizer side of the menu in front of me with an expectant look on my face.
A nasally voice cut through our bestie telepathy. “I already know what I want. The coconut shrimp.” Brittany called over Remi, snapping her bitchy fingertips to order before I said anything.
“No, Brit. Not that one.” Hunter handed her the menu with a look that said pick something else, pronto.
“No!” Kristen yelled, ready to throw her body over mine.
“Hunter….”
Pushing Kristen off me with a giggle, I sat back up. God, his date even whined like I expected her to, high-pitched and annoying.
“Why not?” Brittany asked.
“Because, Taylor Jane is allergic to seafood, that’s why.” Hunter glanced over the menu. “Let’s get the sampler platter minus the shrimp. Everybody likes that.”
“Phew, that was a close one,” Kristen agreed approvingly.
“Oh, everybody knows those allergies are so fake. It’s like that gluten thing people make up.” Brittany swirled her drink taking a sip, and the table lapsed into that uncomfortable silence.
For a second, I thought she might even twirl her fake hair and wondered if Kristen would try to shank her like a convict from Orange is the New Black. Minus the hair, Kristen could have been a dead ringer for Piper.
“Actually, it’s not fake. I remember one time Taylor Jane wanted to impress her date. What was that kid’s name?”
“Oh shit, Hunter. You can’t let me live that down, can you?” My face burned, remembering that humiliating awkward time in my life.
“Well, what was his name, Narty-Pa?” He winked, and everyone at the table rolled their eyes. Brittany looked like she was sounding out the nickname Hunter called me, her red lips made an obscene shape as her eyes rolled upward. I wasn’t about to tell her that it was from an old shirt that used to say, ‘smarty-pants’ but most of the letters washed off, including half of the ‘m’ leaving my undersized chest bearing ‘Narty-Pa’ instead. It had become a long-standing joke between us, eliciting secret grins for years. Brittany wasn’t in the circle of trust to know this and I wasn’t in a particularly inviting mood.
