Four Friends (23 page)

BJ came up alongside them, winding down from her run, all sweaty and looking slightly euphoric. “Hey. What’s up?” she asked breathlessly.

“Well, plenty. I’m starting to like my wayward husband again, sort of, and Andy just confessed she’s seeing Bob, the kitchen carpenter,” Gerri said.

“Just how far do you run every day?” Andy asked.

“You know,” Gerri interrupted. “
Seeing
him.
All
of him.”

“I try to do four miles, but I’m happy with three,” BJ said, ignoring Gerri. “It works for me. I think it’s the endorphins. Listen, I’m supposed to get a painter to do some work on the house for the owners. You think Bob could do it?”

“Want me to ask him?”

“Yeah, please. That would be great.”

“You’re renting that place?” Andy asked.

“Not exactly,” BJ said. “I’m kind of borrowing it. Till I can save a little money. Friends of the family.” Then she looked at Gerri. “You didn’t tell her?”

Gerri shrugged.

“The kids’ father is dead and I’m kind of...not capable of a good income. But my brother, who is my employer right now, had friends with so much money they could actually spare one of their rental houses for a while. Eventually I’ll have to find something else.”

“Wow,” Andy said. “Sure, I’ll check with Bob. He’s a good painter.”

“Thanks. So, is Sonja doing okay?”

“She’s doing well,” Gerri said. “I’m going to visit her this week. That shrink, Dr. Kalay, has been terrific—gives me very positive updates when I call her.” They’d come back to their block. “Well, ladies, I’m out of here. Have a good day.”

Gerri walked to her front door. She shook her head and laughed silently.
Bob,
she thought.
We’re all going a little nuts.

* * *

It was not yet nine in the evening when Bob and Andy sat in her bed, each with a book. Beau was curled up on the end of the bed right between their feet. He wasn’t allowed on any other furniture, but he was welcome on Andy’s bed until he was politely asked to get down, then he curled up on the floor at the foot of the bed. Bob let his book drop to his lap and looked up at the ceiling with a heavy sigh.

“What is it?” Andy asked. “Everything all right?”

He looked at her with a smile. “I don’t even recognize my life,” he said. “I thought I had the perfect attitude to take me into old age in my sister’s guesthouse, alone. Do you know what it’s like to be here with you, like this, sitting in bed relaxing? Reading? Knowing in a little while we’ll turn off the light and I’ll get to lie beside you all night long? Andy, what are you doing with a guy like me? Are you crazy?”

She put her book aside and turned toward him, her shoulder on the pillow. “I feel so lucky to be with a guy like you. You turn me on like gangbusters.”

He patted her thigh. “I’m afraid I’m going to wake up in the psychiatric ward like your friend Sonja. The drugs will finally kick in and they’ll break it to me that it was just a hallucination.”

“She’s coming home this week,” Andy said. “You know what that means? It’s almost a month you and I have been...you and I.”

“Pretty remarkable.” His face took on a startled look. “Is that like an anniversary of some kind or something?”

“Don’t be silly.” She laughed.

“You have to coach me, Andy. You know I’m not experienced with this sort of thing.”

“That’s what you keep saying,” she said.

“There’s something I feel like I have to do pretty soon, if you’re agreeable.”

“What’s that?”

“Well, my sister. She didn’t waste any time looking out her bedroom window and noticing that Beau and I are out all night, a lot of nights. I told her I have a girlfriend. Was that presumptuous?”

“No. You have a girlfriend,” she confirmed.

“Now she’s after me to bring you around to dinner or something.”

“I’d love to meet your sister,” Andy said.

He ran a hand over her curly hair. “She’s gonna just die,” he said. “I’ll try to put her off a while.”

“You don’t have to do that. I’m not going to disappear on you.”

“Seems like we should get together with Noel first,” he said.

“Noel,” she said, turning onto her back. “I told him I’ve been spending a lot of time with you, that I wanted him to have an evening with us, get to know you a little better, and he just brushes me off. He’s way too busy for mother things.”

Bob laughed. “I vaguely remember nineteen. Your family is the last thing on your mind. There are exciting things to do, lots of places to go. He’ll turn up one of these days. I look forward to that.”

There was a distant sound, a key in the front door lock, and Beau lifted his head, then jumped off the bed to go investigate. “Speak of the devil,” Andy said, throwing back the covers and getting off the bed. She was wearing pajamas, but she grabbed her robe off the closet hook while Bob sat on the edge of the bed and pulled on his pants.

“Mom?” Noel called into the house. “Hey, Mom?”

“Just a minute,” she yelled back. But before she could move, he stuck his head right in the bedroom door. Bob had his pants up but not buttoned or zipped and he was just pulling on his shirt. Andy was tying her robe closed.

“Mom?” Noel said. “Mom, there’s a dog in the... Mom?” he said, clearly flabbergasted. “Jesus, Mom, what are you
doing?
”

She glanced over her shoulder at Bob who was stuffing his shirt into his pants as quickly as he could. “To tell the honest truth, we were reading in bed,” Andy said. “You might’ve called.”

“Aw,
Jesus,
Mom,” he said, whirling out of the room.

“Bob, give us a minute, please.”

“Sure,” Bob said.

Andy followed Noel down the hall and into the family room. When she got there, she faced his back. “That wasn’t very nice,” she said. “First you barge in and then you act like an ass.”

Noel whirled on her. “Are you out of your
mind?
” he asked in a whisper that was not nearly quiet enough. “What are you doing with that old guy?”

“What’s the matter with you?” she asked angrily. “Who the hell raised you? You come barging in here and then say something as mean as that?”

He took a step toward her. “Jesus, he’s just a fat old guy, Mom. What’s up with
that?
”

“He’s the most beautiful man I’ve ever
known!
” Andy said, stepping toward him. “If you’d even bothered to keep one date with me to get to know him better, you’d understand—he’s the best man in the world.”

“I think Bryce leaving made you completely nuts!”

“Bryce didn’t leave—I
threw
him out. He was unfaithful, abusive and immature. Getting him out of here made me
sane!
For once I’m happy! Bob is the most wonderful, genuine, loving—”

“Andy,” Bob said from behind her. “I think Beau and I will just go—give you and your son some time.”

She turned. “No!” she said. “Please, don’t go!” Then she turned to Noel. “Why are you here?” she asked, folding her arms over her chest.

He hung his head, suddenly a little embarrassed to face Bob. “I wanted to tell you—I got off with a fine for the pot, and I’m finishing up with a three-point-six at school.”

She looked at her watch. “It’s nine o’clock. Did you just get the news?”

“I just got the time to—”

“You know, I wouldn’t do this to you. I know where that apartment is that you like to hang out inland. I wouldn’t ever drop in on you like this, then humiliate you in front of your friends. I’m over twenty-one, Noel. I’m self-supporting. From now on, try to accept an invitation from me if you can, and you’re welcome anytime but for God’s sake, call me before you use your key to walk in and then embarrass me in front of someone who—” She turned and glanced at Bob. “Someone who means very much to me.”

Noel lifted his head and his eyes might’ve been a little glossy. “I just didn’t expect anything like... Um, sorry, Bob.”

“Hey,” Bob said. “Not a problem. I think she’s crazy, too—but, son, I didn’t trick her, honest to God. Your mom is pretty smart.”

“Yeah,” Noel said. “So. Sorry, man,” he said. Then he turned to Andy. “Look, sorry. I’m going to take off now. Before I piss you off any more.”

“I want you back here,” Andy said firmly. “Soon. Tomorrow. Or in two or three days, tops. I’ve been asking and you’ve been blowing me off for weeks. I want you to have dinner with us. It’s not too much to ask, I don’t think. Bob is going to be around for a long time, but I want you to make an effort to get to know him now. Before he’s been here a year.”

“Sure,” Noel said, sticking his hands in his pockets and staring at his feet. “Sure.”

He turned to go, then turned back abruptly and gave his mother a kiss on the cheek, then got out of the house quickly.

For a moment, Andy just stared after the path of his departure. Momentarily she felt Bob’s hands squeezing her upper arms. He turned her around to face him and there were tears on her cheeks.

“Aw, honey,” he said, pulling her closer. “He’s just a kid.”

She leaned against his chest and sobbed.

“Listen,” he said, stroking her hair. “It’s your duty as a parent to forget a lot of things, all right? You have to let it go. He’ll start thinking and eventually...” He lifted her chin and looked into her eyes. “Let it go. Kids are dumb. It’s a rite of passage. Besides—” he shrugged “—he caught us in our undies. He’ll have to be fifty years old to really understand what a trip that is for us.”

“He was cruel,” she said with a sob. “I couldn’t bear for you to be hurt.”

“I don’t hurt that easy, Andy. It’s all right. I’m sure not going to hold it against him.”

“I didn’t raise him that way.”

“Yeah, but he was unprepared for what he was going to see.”

“He’s walked in on me and Bryce practically swinging from the light fixtures,” she said with a hiccup of emotion.

“Well, now, they sure wouldn’t hold us,” he said with a chuckle.

“We don’t even need anything like that,” she said, smiling through her tears. “I’m sorry, Bob. He had no right—”

“Aw, he’s right. I’m just a fat old guy. The luckiest fat old guy in the state.” He hugged her tight. “That was so nice, what you said about me.”

She pulled back and looked up at him. “It’s just the truth. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

He pulled her against him again, hugging her. “Andy, I’m a flexible guy but I hope you don’t come to your senses. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me, too. Now, is he the only one with a key?”

“Uh-huh. Well, there’s Gerri, but she’d never...”

“Good. Let’s get back to our undies. I’m so happy when we’re in our skivvies.”

She laughed. “How can you joke? That was kind of traumatic.”

“No, it wasn’t, not really. Hardly anyone would put you and me together, if you think about it. So, like you said a while ago, we’re going to have to make sense to no one but us. That okay with you?”

She smiled. “Oh, yes. Very okay.”

* * *

Gerri had arranged with Phil that he be at the house around dinnertime so she could work late. When she came into the kitchen, she saw his back as he sat in the dark out on the deck, feet up on the rail, a steaming cup of coffee on the table. He was the only person she knew who could drink coffee late in the evening and fall asleep, snoring like a tugboat within ten minutes. Caffeine didn’t bother him. During law school he’d trained himself to take sleep when it was available and manage on little when the pressure was on.

She poured herself a small brandy. Sleep had never come easy for her, but the past couple of weeks she’d been resting pretty well thanks to hormonal intervention.

She took her brandy outside. “Feel like company?” she asked.

He turned toward her, sitting up. “Yeah. Sure.”

“It’s beautiful out here,” she said. “There probably isn’t any better time of the year.” She nodded at the coffee. “That won’t keep you up?”

He chuckled. “You’ve asked me that same question for twenty-five years. I have some work to do tonight.”

“Are you working here? In the office?”

“Nah, it’s just writing. I’ll shove off in a minute.”

“Is that place okay? The guesthouse?”

He shrugged. “Gets me by. The landlady is a stalker, the showerhead is for a woman—a short woman—and the bed could use a new mattress. Not as bad as our first apartment.”

“I never asked, what kind of commitment did you make? As in lease?”

“Cash up front,” he said. “I don’t want to have a lease. I want to be flexible.”

She smiled at him, took a sip of her brandy. “You sound like a man who wants to come home.”

He laughed and shook his head. “You have no idea.”

“You think a couple of months mends the tear?”

“Jesus, Gerri, I don’t know. How are you feeling about things? Because since I got back to Mill Valley, you seem to be doing a lot better. Generally.”

She swirled her drink and laughed. “Well, I have a secret. I guess you deserve to be in on it. Not a panacea for things like affairs—that comes harder. But a big help for things like hot flashes, insomnia and mood swings. I’m trying out some hormones.”

His eyebrows shot up. “You were always pretty stubborn about taking the cure.”

“It’s a low dose, just to test it,” she said. “And there’s another thing—Jessie’s on the pill now. It could do a lot for her PMS, which in combination with my menopause gets us pretty ugly at times. You’re relatively safe from the women in your life.”

“On the pill,” he said, sounding melancholy.

“That’s probably hard for a father to accept.”

“I have one baby girl,” he said. “I don’t want anyone to touch her. Ever. And yet the thought of her going forever untouched makes me want to cry. I can’t find a happy place. I wouldn’t trade her for anything, but we should’ve had three boys. They get out of line, you just swat ’em and don’t lose any sleep over it.”

“We should’ve had one boy and one girl, but you lost your head.”

He grinned at the memory. “I don’t remember the other two feeling as good to make as Matt did. I’m sure that’s why he’s so good-natured.”

“How’s your counseling going?” she asked.

“I hate it, but it’s probably the right thing to do. After I spend a few hours getting over the urge to just smack the little prick, I find myself thinking about things. But when I tell him that, he gets uppity and I want to hit him all over again.”