Savage Love (5 page)

     “Do you think his nephew will mind finding us crashing in on his time with his uncle?” asked Seanna.

     “More likely he’ll be happy that his uncle Daffyd even allowed you to stay overnight, let alone suggested you stay longer. Daffyd has privacy issues and I am sure Bryce will see it as a break through,” said Leal.

     “Well…if the two of you don’t mind and you think Bryce won’t…then I guess we will stay. But, you have to let us help and not treat us like guests! I insist on that or we are just going to have to move on.” Samantha used her ‘teacher voice’ with that last bit.

     “Just out of curiosity, where would you have moved on too,” asked Daffyd with a smile. He had stepped into the kitchen as he spoke and Samantha spun around.

     “I guess we would have had to buy a few sleeping bags and sleep under the stars,” laughed Seanna. “Mom can be pretty stubborn about some things.”

     “I am glad you’re staying. Now, that that is settled, I’d like to go and sit by the pool for a while. It’s a nice warm morning and the sun isn’t too hot. Would you ladies like to take a dip while I soak up some sun?” Daffyd asked.

     “Why don’t we all
go? It will be a great way to start our weekend. You two have suits?” asked Trisha.

     “We do, I talked Mom
into getting one before we left,” said Seanna.

     “While you are all changing, I have some calls to make and I’ll meet you out by the pool,” said Daffyd.

     “I have a few chores to finish before I get to play. I’ll stop back in and see if you need a hand with anything Daffyd,” offered Leal.

     By the time Daffyd had finished with his calls, the three girls had already gotten in the pool.  He decided not to attempt the stairs without Leal’s help. He hated this weakness, but it was better to ask for help th
an to do more damage by stumbling down the stairs. He walked over to the doors that led out onto the balcony overlooking the pool. Sitting on the bench next to the railing, he watched as Seanna splashed and played with Trisha. Samantha sat on the edge of the pool, dangling her legs in the water. She looked like she was trying to get used to the temperature change between the pool and the warm summer air.
Bet she is not the type to just jump into anything. I bet she plans out her day before she gets out of bed.

    
Her suit was a one piece and a little modest. He was used to seeing string bikinis and canned tans. Not that he had hung out with anything in a suit besides his two sidekicks and Bryce for a long time. He continued to watch Samantha from his viewpoint taking advantage of being able to stare without being rude.      She was short and petite, not too skinny. Definitely not tanned, her skin looked like it probably burnt easily. She wasn’t especially beautiful but she was pretty in a simple healthy kind of way. She had brown hair, shoulder length without all the fancy highlighting and fake color that most women sport.

     
She looks good. She looks real. And her daughter is a lot like he, prettier in a more exotic kind of way with her olive skin and darker hair. Someone will snatch Samantha up soon, now that she is alone.
She doesn’t seem heartbroken over the death of her husband. Maybe she is putting up a front, or maybe she didn’t have a good marriage. Why do I even care? They’ll be here for the long weekend and then they will go back to their life in Wisconsin. You’ll have had a mini adventure and will go on with your life, non-existent as it may feel.

     Samantha sat on the edge of the pool and watched her daughter and Trish
a splashing around. The water was a little cool and she was trying to ease her body into it. Seanna and Richard always dove right in, but she preferred to go slow and her family had learned early that she hated to be splashed or rushed. She looked up at the big blue sky and all the lazy clouds hanging above. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed someone sitting on the balcony on the second level of the house. The sun reflecting off of his bald head gave Daffyd away. She had never felt real comfortable in a swim suit. Usually buying what Seanna called an ‘old lady suit’. But this time she had let her daughter talk her into a one piece without the skirt. It was still modest enough for most people. The only real exposed skin was her back. The suit dipped way down to her waste in the back, while the front went almost to her throat. But she felt exposed sitting on the edge of the pool.
The water isn’t getting any warmer so just go for it.
She stood up and jumped in headfirst. When she came up out of the water, the balcony was empty.

     Soon Leal had Daffyd sitting on the side of the pool under a big umbrella, the closes
t he could reasonably get to ‘sunning himself’. He had a tall glass of lemonade next to his chair and a big straw hat on, looking like an elderly tourist. After making sure his boss was situated, Leal made an entrance into the pool with a big cannonball that splashed everyone including Daffyd.

     “You’re so fired!” yelled Daffyd.

     “Fire him and I quit,” Trisha yelled back.

     “Ok, he stays,” smiled Daffyd.

     Samantha and Seanna were getting a kick out the three of them. The way they joked they seemed more like family then employees and employer.  Daffyd made a big deal of drying himself off on Leal’s towel before he settled into the lounge chair. Samantha bobbed around for a bit and even played some water volleyball, she and Seanna teeming up against the husband and wife. After a good hit, Seanna noticed her mom was getting a little pink, and told her to re-sunscreen. Samantha hopped out to dry off and reapply her sun block.

     “Do you want me to get your back?” asked Daffyd, seeing her trying to reach around each shoulder.

     Samantha realized she was just standing there looking foolish, when she finally answered.  “Sure, I guess my arms are just too short.”

     Daffyd put some sunscreen in his palm and rubbed his hands together to warm it up before rubbing some onto her back. Samantha lifted her hair so he could get under. His touch was gentle and felt almost like a caress. She could feel the blush working its way up her face and she tensed up. 
For Pete’s sake, it’s just sunscreen.
She made herself relax as he finished applying to her lower back. She was just getting ready to jump back into the pool, forgetting her aversion to plunging into the cool water when Daffyd spoke up.

     “It says on the bottle that you are supposed to let it soak in for fifteen minutes before swimming.”

     He held up the bottle as if she could read it from where she was at the end of his chair.

     “Oh
… Well then I think I’ll sit here in the shade for a bit.”

      Samantha pulled a chair over to be included in the umbrella’s shade.

      “You don’t mind sharing?” she asked. “Now that was a stupid question. If you minded, we wouldn’t be here staying in your house and swimming in your pool. Forget I asked.”

     “So what do you usually do on the Fourth of July?” asked Daffyd
trying to make her less self conscious.

     “Depending on how it landed during the week, we usually go to a big fireworks display out at the fairgrounds. They would have popcorn and snacks, play all that patriotic music and we’d lay on blankets with all our neighbors. Sometimes when it landed on the weekend, we’d take a little
trip up to Door County by the Great Lakes. Richard would leave one of the employees in charge of the store.”

     “Was he able to get away from the store very often?”

     “He closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, New Years and the Fourth of July. Other than that he only took Sundays and Mondays off. He pretty much lived there.”

     “You sound a little bitter about that,” said Daffyd.

     “Do I? I suppose I am. Richard was a good man. There are just some things I wish could have been different. I don’t want to be bitter but some of the information I just got from his mother is still too fresh. I guess I am still trying to process it all. Trying to deal with this whole car thing and trying to keep a good attitude for Seanna makes it hard to figure out exactly how I feel,” said Samantha.

     “I am not trying to be nosy, but if you feel like talking about it…” Daffyd picked at some lint on his lounge pants.

     Samantha looked out over the mountains and thought about sharing her thoughts with this strange man beside her.
Would it help to talk about it? Or would she just get all worked up again?
She had decided it couldn’t hurt to tell him part of her story. Maybe it would do her good to talk to another adult about it, someone who was not too close to the whole mess.

     “Well to begin with Richard kind of rescued me from a lonely life of being a teenage mother. He isn’t Seanna’s birth Father. She was two when I met Richard in his little grocery
store. I was on my own and in college. He was really nice to us and before I really knew it we were a couple. I so much needed someone to talk to. He was a good listener. I didn’t realize until years later that he never shared much about himself, his life or his past, but he would listen for hours to my problems and worries. We married pretty quickly. Richard was thirty-eight when we got married. I had just had my twentieth birthday.”

     “What did your family think about him being so much older?” Daffyd asked.

     “By that time my parents wouldn’t have anything to do with me. When their good Christian daughter got pregnant by her good Christian boyfriend in high school, they were mortified. They shipped me off to a girl’s school to get my diploma, and once I graduated I got a check for five hundred dollars, and a note asking me not to come back.”

     “Wow, that’s crazy. What about
‘Mr. Christian Boyfriend’? What happened to him?”

     “He denied it all. Said the baby wasn’t his. I think I realized then that he was just a jerk, a handsome jerk, but still a jerk.”

     “You could have done a paternity test,” said Daffyd.

     “I kind of figured there was no point in doing that. I’d have to deal with him in our lives, and what kind of a Dad has to be forced to take responsibility for his child? I decided we would be fine on our own. Only I wasn’t. By the time Richard came along I had lost all faith in God and myself. I was barely making it financially and mentally. He rescued me.”

     “But now you regret it?” asked Daffyd. Before Samantha could answer, a young man came bounding down the stairs to the pool.

    
It was Daffyd’s nephew, Bryce. He was exactly what you would expect a college student to look like. He was tall and athletic with a messy hair style that kids his age loved. His hair was a sandy brown with a few blonde tips that looked like they were from the sun and not a salon. He had green eyes and the beginning of a summer tan.

     “There you are!” He said as
he bent down and hugged Daffyd. “You must be feeling better.”

     “We didn’t expect you until tomorrow,” said Daffyd.

     “You know Grandma, she was worried about me traveling over the weekend. So I left last night.”

     Bryce sat on the edge of Daffyd’s lounge chair and
nodded towards Samantha sitting right next to his uncle.

     “You have company…”
he said wiggling his eyebrows.

     “Oh, sorry…Samantha this is my nephew, Bryce. Bryce, this is Samantha Shepperd, and that is her daughter in the pool.” By that time Leal and Trish
a were out of the pool and on their way over.

     “Hey,
where’s our hugs?” asked Trisha.

     Bryce got up and hugged them both, even though they got his clothes wet. They all just laughed and grabbed some towels. Seanna, feeling like the odd man out, also came out of the pool and grabbed a towel. While she was drying her hair, Bryce walked over and stuck out his hand.

     “I am Bryce.”

     “He
y Bryce, it’s nice to finally meet you. We’ve been hearing a lot about you,” replied Seanna. “I am Seanna.”

     “So you’ve been bragging
about me again.” Joked Bryce as he turned back to the others.

     “I have to be able to brag about something,” teased Daffyd.

     “Are you hungry? I can fix you something to eat,” Trisha asked.

     “No, I grabbed a burger about an hour ago. To be honest, the pool looks pretty inviting. Were you guys getting out?”

     “I think I am done,” said Trisha. “I have some work to do inside.”

     “I’ll give you a hand,” Samantha offered.

     “I’ll stay out here and supervise,” said Leal.

     “I am good
right where I am. I may even take a little nap out here,” from Daffyd.

     “I’ll run and put on some swim trunks and be right back,” said Bryce as he literally sprinted up the stairs.

     Leal pushed Seanna into the pool and dove in after, while Samantha and Trisha followed Bryce back to the house. Daffyd snuggled into his lounge chair happy and for the first time in a long time feeling pretty content. He was glad that Bryce was here early. He always enjoyed having him around. His nephew was the only real family he had left. Of course there were his parents, but he only sent cards at holidays. They pretty much stopped calling after he was ‘too busy’ to talk time after time. It did him good to see him.