Lily of the Springs (44 page)

I reached for my Coppertone. Feeling Betty’s gaze upon me, I turned to her. “What? You don’t believe Jake’s changed?”

She lifted her gold bug-eye sunglasses, cocking one neatly-plucked brow. “Oh? You mean he hasn’t brought any girlfriends home lately?”

I felt a flash of irritation, but it faded away as fast as it came when I saw the teasing light in my best friend’s eyes. Typical Betty. She couldn’t help but say whatever came to mind. And it wasn’t as if she was going to forget what had happened in Texas.

“Not a one,” I said with a grin. I rubbed Coppertone onto my already tanned legs. “Come on, Betty. You’ve got to admit you see the change in him, don’t you? Wasn’t he nice to you last night?”

“He was a perfect gentleman,” she agreed, taking another draw on her cigarette. “And much more personable than I remember. Maybe you’re right. Maybe he
is
finally growing up.”

“Well, I should hope so,” I said dryly. “After all, he’s 37. So, how is Eddie? I was sorry he couldn’t take leave to come with you.”

Her smile faded. “Well, he
did
take leave, but he went to California to see his parents. When I first planned this trip, he
was
going to come with me, but then…well, the military has a way of changing your plans.” She looked at me. “He has orders for Vietnam, Lil. He ships out two weeks after we get home.”

Fear rippled through me. “Oh, no. I’m sorry, Betty.”

She shrugged and glanced away. “What can you do? It was bound to happen. I’m actually surprised it took them this long to send him there. And it’s not like I haven’t been through this before. You remember.”

I nodded. “Are you staying on at Fort Benning?”

“Oh, yeah. Why uproot Davy for a year? And as busy as I am with the Officer’s Wives Club and all the jock stuff he’s involved in, the year will go by in a flash.”

I reached out and squeezed her hand. “I know you’ll be fine. And I’ll pray that Eddie gets back safely.”

“Thanks. I just hope this stupid war ends soon,” Betty said. “There’s way too many young guys dying over there. But I’m not worried about Eddie. With his rank, he won’t be on the front lines.”

Just then Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Bad Moon Rising,” came on the radio, and I couldn’t help but think it was a bad omen. But that was probably the Irish in me. Apparently, Betty didn’t feel the same way because she started singing along with it, interrupting herself in mid-line to say, “Oh! Here comes Debby and Davy with our hamburgers, and thank God! I’m starving!”

A few minutes later, halfway through her burger, Betty glanced over at me. “So, this barbecue thing is tomorrow night? And where is it?”

I licked a smudge of mayonnaise off my finger. “Near Glasgow. It’s an annual tradition at Jake’s company. The boss opens up his mansion for the peons. Gives us a chance to see how the rich people live. But it’s actually kind of fun. Wait’ll you see Roxanne Dawson. That’s the boss’s wife. Every year the employees take bets on which young stud she’ll set her sights on. It was Jake the first year we went.” I shook my head, reaching for my Fresca. “Funny thing is…she’s not getting any younger. But she still thinks she’s Ann-Margret or something. I almost feel sorry for her. It’s really pathetic to watch her flirt with these young guys.”

“More power to her,” Betty said, crumbling up her hamburger wrapper and tossing it into her beach bag. “It’s probably the highlight of her year. And you said your friend, Jinx, will be there? I can’t wait to meet her.”

“Oh, yeah, she’ll be there. I told you, didn’t I? About her husband getting killed on the job? I guess the boss still feels guilty about it because Jinx is invited every year. Hey, I’ll have one of those, too, if it’s okay?” Betty held out her package of Virginia Slims and I took one. “I think you’ll like Jinx.” I inhaled as Betty lit my cigarette, and then released a stream of smoke. “She’s fun…but not as fun as you, of course.”

“Well, I would think not.” Betty grinned and lit her cigarette. Blue smoke ribboned out of her nostrils. “But hey, how could I
not
like a girl with a name like Jinx?”

***

Midway through the barbecue, I realized I’d been right about one thing and dead wrong about another. It hadn’t taken Roxanne Dawson long to corner one of the new guys in the pool and play her special version of Tic-Tack-Toe on his bare chest, all the while with his pregnant wife looking on, nearly in tears. I wanted to go to the young girl and tell her not to worry, that Mrs. Dawson was just joking around like she always did; it was all in good fun.

But I’d be lying, and I just couldn’t do it. To this day, I still wondered if Jake had had a little fling with Roxanne. If not, it wasn’t because he hadn’t wanted to. The memory of what had happened on the way home the night of that first barbecue was lodged in my mouth where a permanent bridge now took the place of three teeth.

I have
you
to thank for that, Roxanne.
I glared at the woman, and then looked back at Jinx and Betty, sitting at the poolside table with me.

And here
, I thought,
is what I was dead wrong about
.

Jinx and Betty couldn’t stand each other. That had been obvious almost as soon as I’d introduced them. Just after I arrived at the Dawson mansion with Jake, Betty and all the kids, Debby Ann and David had headed straight for the buffet table. So the teens weren’t with us when I saw Jinx and led Betty over to introduce her. The three of us were engaged in small talk when a scruffy-looking young man with waist-length blond hair, a handlebar moustache and a goatee ambled by us with a brimming plate of barbecued pork and potato salad.

Jinx, who’d grown more politically conservative with each passing year, gave him a dirty look and said loud enough for everyone nearby to hear, “Who let the damn hippies in?”

“Shhhh!” I hissed. “That’s the Dawson boy. Home from UK for the summer.”

The Dawson kid either hadn’t heard or was used to his appearance causing a negative reaction in the older generation. He’d moved on, oblivious.

Jinx looked mildly embarrassed, but barely lowering her voice, added, “I don’t care. He’s still
disgusting
! Those long-haired beatniks make me sick. Only reason he’s in college in the first place is to dodge the draft, I’ll bet. He’s probably majoring in how to overthrow the country and burn American flags.”

A strained silence followed Jinx’s outburst. My cheeks burning, I tried to think of a way to fill it, but before I could say a word, Betty turned to Jinx with a cool smile. “Well, you surely don’t expect the
rich people
to send their sons to Vietnam, do you? Not when we have blue collar boys and blacks to go fight for us. Why, that wouldn’t be the American way, would it?”

Confusion crossed Jinx’s face, and I could see she was wondering whether to take Betty serious or not. But just then David and Debby Ann walked up with their filled plates.

Betty smiled and put an arm around her son. “Jinx, I’d like to introduce you to my son, David.”

Jinx, taking in David’s long dark hair, stiffened, and a blush spread across her cheekbones. Seeing her discomfort, Betty widened her smile, but her blue eyes remained chilly. “He’s a little too young to be a draft-dodger, but give him a couple of years. If this damn war is still going on, and he’s made up his mind not to fight, I’ll drive him to Canada myself.”

Oh, God, I thought, taking a hurried sip of rum-spiked tropical punch.
Let the fireworks begin
.

“
Mom
!” David shrugged off her arm and gave her a disgusted look. “I
want
to fight for my country!”

Jinx’s face had paled at Betty’s statement. She gave David a tight smile. “Good for you. I guess you’re more like your daddy than your mama.” She gave Betty a scornful look, then turned back to David. “You might want to think about getting a hair-cut, though, young man. If you want people to take you seriously.”

“I
like
his long hair!” Debby Ann said hotly, glaring at Jinx. “Come on, David.” She grabbed his arm. “I don’t want to talk about that stupid war! That’s all grown ups talk about anymore.” She led him away.

I watched her go, torn between calling her back to reprimand her for sassing Jinx or to try to defuse the tension between my two friends. I decided on the latter. “Well, I’m starving!” I said brightly. “Who wants to go with me to the buffet table?”

Both women ignored me. Jinx, her jaw tight, locked gazes with Betty. “Lily tells me your husband is a lieutenant colonel in the Army. What does
he
think when you talk all that anti-war stuff?”

I held my breath. If Jinx wasn’t careful, Betty just might knock her block off. Jeez, they’d just met! How could things have gone downhill so quickly?

But Betty maintained her cool, giving Jinx a brittle smile. “You don’t know my Eddie. He’s a breed apart from most men. He actually
encourages
me to have my own opinions and speak my mind about them.”

“Even if your opinions are anti-American?” Jinx shot back.

Betty’s eyes narrowed. “Is it
anti-American
to be against American teenagers dying in rice fields while rich politicians play their power games in Washington? I don’t think so.”

That did it. I knew I had to do something or it was very possible one of my friends would end up in the pool, fully-dressed. I grabbed Betty’s arm. “Jinx, why don’t you find us a table while we go scout out the food?” And I practically dragged Betty away.

“Why didn’t you tell me she’s a goddamn Republican?” Betty hissed. “God! You’d think she’s got a cattle prod stuck up her ass.”

I sighed. “So much for you two liking each other.”

***

It was a beautiful summer night. At least, Betty and Jinx could agree on
that
, I thought, gazing up at the millions of stars glimmering like diamonds on a black velvet tablecloth. Nowhere else in the world could compete with Kentucky when it came to a star-lit night. Even Texas, as open and barren as it was, couldn’t produce a star show like the Blue Grass state could. And somewhere up there…

My gaze turned to the crescent moon hanging over the lake, looking like one of those whimsical photo sets at the county fair. Somewhere up there, Astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins were rocketing their way toward that moon, and if everything went according to plan, would be landing on it. Somehow, that thought made me feel very small, just a spec of inconsequential life on this planet in the middle of a vast universe.

Uneasiness filled me. What on earth did I think I could offer this world with my silly little love story? Who did I think I was for even
trying
to get a book published? Maybe Jake was right. Maybe I was reaching in vain for those stars.

Betty, at the table next to me, must’ve sensed my thoughts. “Why so quiet, Lil? Are you plotting a sequel to ‘Swede’s Passion?’”

Before I could answer, Jinx, on my left, leaned toward me, grinning. “Oh, did you finish it, Lily Rae? I remember you were close. When do I get to read it?”

“Well, I…” I didn’t remembering offering to let Jinx read it. And I wasn’t sure I wanted to. Much as I considered her a good friend, Jinx had a tendency to always try to “one up” me, and something told me if I got the book published, she wouldn’t be able to contain her envy. So, if she read the novel before I sent it off, she’d probably find all kinds of things “wrong” with it.

“I read it,” Betty said, and even to my ears, she sounded smug. “And it’s wonderful.”

Uh oh
.
Here we go again
. The last hour had been tolerable, with only a slight undercurrent of tension between my two friends. A pop band had begun to play on the upper terrace, and couples were dancing on a plywood floor that had been set up on the other side of the pool. Jake and many of the other men had excused themselves at nine o’clock to head into the house for the annual poker game. Of course, the young man Roxanne Dawson had set her sights on tonight wasn’t one of them; he was dancing with her to a cover of Deep Purple’s “Hush” as his wife sat at a table with several other young wives, wearing a stiff smile and pained eyes.

The pool had been taken over by teens and the younger kids, among them all of our kids. It was just past ten o’clock. The poker game would probably go until well past midnight, so that meant at least two more hours left to referee between Betty and Jinx.

“Well, if you let
her
read it, you’ve got to let me read it, Lily,” Jinx said, trying to inflect a teasing note in her voice. But it didn’t come across that way at all.

“I’m sure she would, Jinx,” Betty cut in before I could respond, “…if it wouldn’t be terribly bad luck. I know a thing or two about the publishing industry, and it’s a well-known fact that if you let more than one friend read an unpublished manuscript, it’ll never get published.”

I stared at her. “What?”

Betty gave me a look that screamed out
shut up and go along with me on this, birdbrain!
“You remember, Lil. It was in that writer’s magazine I gave you. The interview with Philip Roth. Or was it Kurt Vonnegut? I forget. Anyway, it was one of those big name writers who said it.”

I looked at her, impressed, almost believing her myself. “Yeah, I forgot about that.” I turned to Jinx with a contrite look. “I’m sorry, Jinx. It might be a stupid superstition, but…well…” I shrugged. “I need all the good luck I can get. But when the book comes out, I promise, you’ll be the first to get a free autographed copy.”

“Oh, great.” Jinx rolled her eyes. “And if it
doesn’t
come out, I just don’t get to read it, right?”

Fear rippled through me. Jinx obviously didn’t believe I’d get the book published.

“Have a little faith, Jinx,” Betty said, her eyes shooting daggers. “She’ll get the book published. Like I said, it’s wonderful. It’s as good as anything Jacqueline Susann puts out.”

Jinx’s mouth gaped. “Oh, Lord! It’s
that
steamy?”