Summer Breeze (13 page)

“But I think …” Kim picked up her napkin and unfolded it again. “I think Miranda might be taking over.”

Her voice was low when she said the words, and Patsy knew this would be a good time for her to grab Opal by the arm and make an exit. Clearly Kim was burdened, and she had chosen to share her heart with Brenda. But Patsy was sitting right there, and by golly, after being on her feet all day, she didn’t feel like getting up. She would do her best to keep her mouth shut and concentrate on the song Color of Mercy was singing. It happened to be one of her favorites, and she might even hum along. Opal, of course, wouldn’t hear anything.

“The family unit consists of you, Derek, and the twins,” Brenda was saying as Patsy tried not to listen. “Miranda is not part of your immediate family. She can’t take over.”

“But Derek won’t discuss it with me. I tried the other night. I was upset about the curtains—”

“Oh, Kim, I’m so sorry!”

“It’s not your fault, Brenda. Miranda instigated the whole issue about the curtains, and then she even had the gall to take one of them down from the window. When Derek got home that night, I did my best to tell him the things that have been on my mind—like how I try to do things for him so that he’ll know I love him and how much I want him to tell me about his work. He keeps it all inside and won’t share anything with me. Derek actually got upset with me that night. I know he was angry, even though he didn’t let on. You know what he did? He walked away and took a shower.”

“Who’s having a shower?” Opal asked, blinking at Patsy. “I’m not too old to celebrate with everyone else, and I don’t want to be left out this time. You make sure my name is on the list, Patsy. I love to shop for babies.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

A
s dearly as Kim loved Patsy Pringle, she was grateful when the salon owner gathered Opal Jones and led the widow away to pay for her pedicure. Kim didn’t mind Patsy’s knowing about the trouble over her lace curtains. If anyone could be trusted to keep her mouth shut, it was Patsy.

But right now, Kim felt as though Brenda Hansen would truly understand her problems. Like Kim, Brenda had struggled with depression, marital troubles, and the challenges of raising children. Maybe she even had a meddling mother-in-law.

“Men can be so confusing,” Brenda commented as she returned to the table with two more cups of tea and a couple of plain butter cookies. “They think
we’re
temperamental! At least we know we have feelings, and we’re pretty sure what they are. It sounds like Derek is bottling things inside. That’s typical, isn’t it? Steve used to stare at me while I talked, and I finally realized he wasn’t listening at all. If I got the least bit upset, he would walk away.”

“Derek told me confrontation wasn’t his style,” Kim confessed.

“Yeah, right, and he works for the Water Patrol. Officer Derek Finley confronts people every day. He just doesn’t want to argue with
you
.”

“But I need to tell him some things he might not want to hear.”

“First you have to get him to listen,” Brenda said. “Steve is only now catching on to that concept. Somehow you need to get some time alone with Derek, away from his mom and the kids. Make sure he’s not too tired or hungry. If Steve is hungry, forget about talking. He’s like a grouchy old grizzly, and he won’t hear a word. Once you’ve fed Derek, you can tell him everything.”

Kim wished she felt like Brenda’s idea would work. “Derek doesn’t want to hear anything negative. He focuses on the positive. But for me, life isn’t always sunny. Derek throws out compliments and encouragement all day long. That’s what I first loved about him. But when things aren’t perfect, he wants to run and hide. Brenda, I’ve been through a lot, and very little of it was good. My life is better right now than it’s ever been, but I’m so … I’m just so scared. I’m afraid I’ll lose him if I can’t feel wonderful about everything.”

“It’s okay that you and Derek are different, isn’t it? You don’t have to both be Little Merry Sunshine. Let Derek have that role. Someone needs to deal with the fact that Luke has a serious health condition. And someone has to keep the house running and the family fed and the laundry done. If Derek walks around glowing with happiness and showering you with compliments, that’s fine. Let him be who he is. You be you. Derek loves you, Kim. He’s not going to leave you just because things get rough sometimes.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“Listen, Steve still loves me after all I put him through. And I love him back. Let me tell you; that’s a miracle. Based on what we’ve gone through, I can assure you that Derek will stick it out too. No one’s marriage is a fairy tale with a guaranteed happily-ever-after ending. It’s hard work.”

Kim sighed. “Nobody knows that better than I do.”

“You’re doing great,” Brenda said, squeezing Kim’s hand. “I mean that.”

“I wish he would tell me more about his job,” Kim told her friend. “I’d really like to know—”

“Did we miss the meeting of the TLC?” Cody Goss blurted out as he stepped in front of the table where the two women were talking. “Because I wanted to come, but
she
said we had to go to the library, and that place is full to the brim of books.”

“Cody, did you interrupt us?” Brenda asked gently. “Kim and I were talking.”

“Yes, I did interrupt, but I don’t want to miss the meeting.”

“Well, I’m sorry, but it’s over. And that’s no excuse for bad manners.”

Cody hung his head. “Okay. I’m sorry too.”

“There you are!” Miranda materialized at Cody’s side, while Luke and Lydia made a dash for the counter that held the tea goodies. “Kim, I called home and your cell phone and didn’t get you, and I couldn’t imagine where you’d gone. Cody kept talking about a meeting, and I had no idea when it was or which day or anything. You know how he is. Of course, if I’d known it was the Little Tea Committee—”

“The Tea Lovers’ Club,” Cody interrupted, then clapped his hand over his mouth.

“We were at the library, and we got so immersed in our research, and—” Miranda glanced over her shoulder. “Where have those kids gone now? I swear, I could wring their necks. Do you know what they did? They left Cody and me at the library and walked down the street to Lydia’s friend’s house. I nearly had a panic attack when I couldn’t find them.”

“Which friend?” Kim asked, rising. “And, Luke, when did you last check your blood?”

“They went to Tiffany’s house,” Miranda said. “That little tramp in all her eye makeup. I’m going to have to really work with her and Lydia both.”

“No makeup, Miranda,” Kim said firmly. “We told you that. Luke—what are you eating? Have you saved up enough carbs for that?”

“Lydia is almost eleven and certainly old enough to be taught correctly. You can make cosmetics look natural if you do them right. But how can I be expected to corral both twins when they won’t stay where I put them? I had them settled in the children’s section when Cody and I went to work on the name
Goss
. It’s not a common surname, you know, but that’s actually a benefit in situations like this.”

Kim barely heard her mother-in-law as she hurried to the display of confections to supervise her children’s snack selections. And what was this about leaving the library without telling Miranda? Going to Tiffany’s house, of all places!

A touch on Kim’s arm startled her as she reached for the brownie in Luke’s hand. She turned to find Brenda smiling at her.

“You’ll be okay.” Brenda leaned close and whispered in her ear. “I promise.”

When his wife invited him to have lunch with her at the new fast-food restaurant in Tranquility, Derek jumped at the chance. First of all, he liked the meals served at the Pop-In. Other officers called it girl food. They complained that one omelet or a sandwich wrapped in parchment paper couldn’t fill a man, but Derek disagreed. He didn’t like to eat too much when he was working, and besides, he always carried snacks on his boat in case he got hungry.

Derek also really liked Bitty Sondheim, the owner of the little restaurant. He had grown up in St. Louis, and he felt that the Californian had a certain quality to her that he understood. She had a larger perspective on life. She had gone places and done things. And she wasn’t afraid to wear whatever appealed to her, even if it didn’t quite fit the local scene. Her long skirts, thick braid, dangly earrings, and sandals added a little sass to go along with her attitude.

“Well, make up your mind, Officer Finley,” Bitty commanded from behind the counter that Friday afternoon when Derek and Kim met at the Pop-In. “We don’t have all day, you know. Gotta keep the line moving.”

At that, Bitty threw back her head and laughed heartily at her joke, because, in fact, Kim and Derek were her only customers. Unfortunately, not too many people knew what to make of eggs wrapped in paper or tortillas wrapped around alfalfa sprouts and wedges of avocado or eggplant. Derek had considered suggesting that Bitty change her menu just a little to accommodate the Missouri appetite for “home-style cookin’.” That meant foods like ham, roast beef, and chicken strips. Vegetables cooked until they were good and limp. And sweet, fluffy white bread.

“I’ll take the whole wheat fajita wrap, Bitty,” Derek said finally. If there was one thing you could always count on for savory taste, it was fajitas.

“The same for me,” Kim added.

Derek smiled at his wife. “You sure look pretty this afternoon, Mrs. Finley,” he told her. It was true. Kim’s brown eyes glowed as she gazed back at him.

“And you, too, Officer Finley.” She elbowed him teasingly. “Hey, guess what good news I have. This morning I put the last load of clothes in the dryer. That means I’ve got the whole weekend free from laundry duty.”

“Well, aren’t you something else!” Derek chuckled as he leaned against the counter and studied Kim. Sometimes his wife utterly mystified him. Was getting the laundry done really cause for celebration? Laundry was a never-ending chore. But such small victories meant a lot to her, and he wanted to be supportive.

Especially after the trouble they’d had the other night. He didn’t even like to think about how upset they had been.

Derek could honestly say he thought he and his wife made the perfect match. He couldn’t find a fault in the woman. They rarely had sharp words with each other—in fact, he could count on one hand the times they had disagreed.

Before they married, his biggest fear had been parenting the twins. That turned out to be pretty easy too. Luke enjoyed fishing and swimming with Derek, and until recently, Lydia had been a peach.

“I’m surprised you didn’t bring the kids along,” he told Kim. “I’d enjoy hearing what they’ve been up to today.”

“I would have needed to drive home and pick them up … or ask your mom to meet us here. And I thought it would be nice for just the two of us to have lunch. There are some things I’d like to talk about.”

Uh-oh
. Derek tried to keep the smile on his face. He did not want to talk about
things
. That could only mean tension. Meeting each other at a restaurant far away from everyone signaled something potentially grim.

“There you go,” Bitty said as she returned to the counter with their orders in two to-go sacks. “Fajita wraps, sodas, and tortilla chips. Get your napkins over there by the door, and you two have a good afternoon.”

Derek looked at the woman across the counter. Bright blue eyes set off by sunbaked skin bore testimony to many hours on Southern California beaches. He wondered how Bitty was adjusting to small-town Missouri. Had she gotten used to the country ways of folks around Tranquility? Most of all, he wondered if she might sit down with them for lunch to prevent Kim from talking about those
things
she wanted to discuss with her husband.

Too late. Kim looped her arm around Derek’s and led him toward the door. “Let’s eat in that little clearing down the way,” she suggested. “I brought a blanket.”

As they strolled past the other shops along the row, Derek wasn’t sure whether to enjoy the sudden cool air that had moved in overnight, bringing the promise of rain. If it weren’t for Kim’s desire to talk, he would be grinning like a skunk in a cabbage patch. Time alone with his wife was rare, and often it occurred only at night, when one or both were on the brink of exhaustion. His fluctuating schedule, along with her job and the twins’ needs, kept them apart too much for Derek’s liking. He had hoped his mother’s arrival would ease the situation, but based on the other night’s conflict, he was beginning to suspect that Miranda Finley’s presence in their home might be part of this discussion Kim wanted to have.

“Here we go,” she said, shaking out the blanket she had brought along. “This is shady and out of the path of traffic. Someone ought to put a table and benches in here. Maybe it would help Bitty Sondheim’s business.”

“A lack of tables and chairs might be part of her problem,” Derek said as he hunkered down on the blanket. “But I think she needs to serve something a little more hearty. Blue-collar people work hard, and they want to eat big.”

“You may be right,” Kim said.

Derek was lifting his fajita wrap to his mouth when he realized that Kim intended for them to pray right out in the open. He quickly bowed his head, hoping against hope that none of the other officers had decided to visit the Pop-In today.