Whitney in Charge (3 page)

“I liked our other house better,” Adam said with a scowl, bouncing the ball off the ground.

Whitney nodded. “It takes time to get used to a new place. I still miss where I used to live.”

“How old are you, Adam?” Regan asked. “I have a daughter Lily and you two might like to play together.”

“I’m six.”

“Lily’s six too,” Regan said. “You’ll have to meet her. Do you go to Clark Elementary?”

Ben ruffled Adam’s hair. “I’m having Adam finish first grade at his old school since it’s close to the end of the year.”

Why didn’t he put a shirt on? The sweat glistened off his strong muscled upper body. She was as bad as her sisters wondering if he had a wife or not. “I guess we better let you get back to your yard work. Maybe sometime we can have you, your wife, and Adam over for a barbecue.”

“That’s a good idea,” Regan said. “Adam can meet Lily so he’ll know someone when he starts the new school next year.”

Adam glanced at his dad and Ben patted his son on the back. “I’m divorced. Adam’s mom lives in Seattle.”

“It must be hard on you and Adam to have her so far away.” Whitney wondered how a mother could move so far away from her son. Obviously, Ben had custody unless Adam would go live with his mom next school year.

“She’s remarried but she’s looking forward to having Adam stay a couple of weeks this summer.”

Adam picked up his ball and held it. “Can I go swimming in your pool?”

Ben frowned. “Besides working on Adam’s vocabulary, I better teach him not to invite himself over to your place.”

“Daddy, you said it first. Remember, you said it’d be nice to go swimming in their pool.”

Ben sighed. “Kids. Would you two like something to drink?”

“Thank you, but we can’t stay any longer.” Regan smiled at Ben and Adam. “It was nice meeting you both.”

Whitney glared at her sister in confusion. First, it was hur
ry up and meet the neighbor…now it was run away back to the house. She wished Regan would make up her mind.

She wasn’t going to leave until she made sure Ben knew they were welcomed to take a dip in the pool. “You two are officially invited to swim as soon as I open it,’ she said before Regan turned and ran off. “It depends on the weather but I’m hoping it’ll stay warm and I’ll open it sometime in May.”

However, she wouldn’t be opening it for Mother’s Day weekend. That was when their mother had always had it ready for swimming. It’d be too painful. All of them loved swimming, but their mother had loved it the most.

“If you need any help,” Ben said smoothly, “I’ll be happy to give you a hand.”

“Thanks. Talk to you later,” Whitney said, then followed Regan back to their house.

Shannon was putting the cups in the dishwasher when they entered the kitchen. “What did you find out? Is he married?”

“He’s divorced,” Whitney said, realizing her obsessed sisters would do everything in their power to hook her up with Ben.

Shannon raised her eyebrows. “You two didn't stay away very long.”

“Yeah, Ben offered us a drink but Regan said we couldn’t stay.” Whitney turned to look at Regan. “You insisted we go meet the neighbors. Then you wanted to leave. What’s going on?”

“I didn’t think you should overdo it.” Regan grabbed a dishcloth and started wiping the table. “You were starting to come on too strong. We don’t want you to scare him away.”

“I was coming on too strong?” Whitney gasped.

Regan ignored her, continuing on. “I think we should go shopping soon.”

Shannon gave an interested glance. “Shopping for what?”

“Whitney invited Ben…oh yeah, his name’s Ben Spencer, and his son’s name is Adam. She invited them over to go swimming. Whit needs a new suit.”

“I thought of a perfect business for you,” Whitney said.

“What is it?” Regan asked.

“A wedding planner or a dating service. Shannon and I won’t have to do much and can just watch you in action.”

Regan shook her head. “It wouldn’t be profitable. I can only handle one
stubborn
person at a time.”

“I’ll admit meeting Ben was a nice interruption,” Whitney said, “but let’s get back to our business.”

Shannon rubbed her chin. “It’s fun to think about having a business and to throw out ideas, but let’s be realistic. It’s not a good time for us to start one with the bad economy.”

“Well, people need to be entertained during bad times,” Whitney said, “so we can start a girls’ band.”

Shannon laughed. “You have to be kidding. I think to have a band we might have to be able to play instruments. You’re the only one who used to be in the high school band, and clarinet isn’t exactly a ‘girl band’ kind of instrument.”

“Whitney can sing though,” Regan said. “If you hadn’t been one of my bridesmaids, you could’ve been my soloist for the wedding.”

“Okay, Whitney has a great voice, but I don’t see a group of women in their thirties starting a band,” Shannon said in an irritated voice. “What made you think of a band when Regan and I can’t play any instruments?”

Whitney shrugged. “I’ve always had a secret desire to be a drummer in a band. Crazy, I know. But I picture myself sitting behind these awesome drums. And when there’s a break in the music, the lead guitarist shouts, ‘Take it Whitney.’ And the spotlight’s on me.”

“I’d never have guessed you wanted to be a drummer. But now that you mentioned it, I can see you with drumsticks in your hands.” Regan tossed the empty containers into the wastebasket.

Whitney asked, “What are your secret desires? Come on, don’t be shy. I told you mine.”

“I have one.” Shannon took a breath before continuing. “Don’t laugh at me.”

“I know,” Regan declared, her mouth breaking into a wide, teasing grin. “You want to be a professional clown. You were great when you dressed up as a clown at Lily’s birthday party.”

Shannon shook her head. “Nope, not a clown. After Tim and I saw the movie
Wild Hogs
, we talked about getting a cycle. Tim hated it when I made him sell his when Brandon and Caitlyn were small.”

“Hey, we want to know your secret desire, not Tim’s,” Whitney said, tapping her fingers on the table.

“I’m getting to it,” Shannon said. “I don’t want to ride on Tim’s cycle. I want my own.”

She couldn’t visualize Shannon on a cycle instead of driving her van since she drove the kids to so many places.
Could Shannon handle a cycle? She’s so tiny.
“Cool. I wonder if a cycle shop might be a good business for us.”

“And we can have our girls’ band play for the cyclists,” Regan said, glancing at both sisters. “I’m kidding.”

“What’s your secret desire?” Shannon asked Regan.

“That’s easy. When Whit asked for our secret desires, I immediately thought of sex. Ladies, I want more sex. Don’t worry. I don’t mean with other men. I love Casey but the nights he has to stay at the station are lonely. I hate he works a twenty-four hour shift. So I can only have more sex if Casey quits being a fireman. Then he’ll be home every night.”

Shannon nodded. “I’d like Tim to be home more. A high school principal puts a lot of hours in. At least Casey has four straight days off a week.”

“Not always,” Regan said. “He has overtime sometimes when the department needs him to help cover the shifts.”

“I thought you liked being a firefighter’s wife. You’ve always said how proud you were of Casey saving people’s lives,” Whitney said.

“I am proud of Casey, but that doesn’t mean I want him to continue being a firefighter.”

Shannon raised her eyebrows. “I don’t see him ever quitting. He always wanted to follow in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps.”

Whitney sipped her water. All this talking was making her thirsty. “It does seem to run in the Dunn family. Even his brother, David, is a firefighter.”

Regan frowned. “Well, he has a family now to consider. But the real reason I want him to quit is because what he does is too dangerous. He’s had two recent close calls.”

“I understand.” Whitney squeezed Regan’s shoulder. She knew exactly when Regan started thinking Casey should quit. Six months ago, he’d received second degree burns while leaving a house’s third floor. Casey and other firefighters were between floors when extreme heat caused a backdraft. Flames engulfed the third floor. Casey and other injured firefighters were taken to the hospital. The fire had occurred in an old restored mansion in the rich area of Cornett. Then two months ago, he’d been caught in a warehouse fire.

The three of them sat in silence for a few minutes, each considering in their heads the possibilities.

“I’ve got it,” Shannon looked at Whitney with excitement in her eyes. “We could do a cable show. With your experience as a news producer and Regan’s gift of gab, we can have some kind of a talk show.”

Whitney got a pen and pad out of her Mom’s junk drawer. “Okay, I’ll jot that down.”

“You know, Whitney,” Shannon said, “Mom bragged all the time to her friends about you being a big New York news producer. But then you were always her favorite daughter. And Regan was Dad’s.”

Not this again, Whitney thought. Shannon hadn’t mentioned it recently, but still she’d heard it enough throughout the years. “That’s not true. They didn’t have favorites.”

Regan shrugged. “Well, I told everyone about Whit’s news show. I loved watching the credits and seeing her name on the screen. This is just my opinion but Whitney shouldn’t be behind the scenes if we have a local cable show. She can sing.”

Whitney poised her pen over the pad. “Shannon, you could do a cooking segment, Regan could interview local people with interesting jobs or whatever, and I guess I could sing occasionally.”

“I wish we could do a trial show in front of a small audience to see how it goes,” Shannon said.

Regan laughed. “I’m sure we’d have a small audience. What about a roofing company?”

Whitney rolled her eyes. “And you gave me a bad time about a band. We don’t know how to do a roof. We’d have to hire some guys to teach us or pay them to do the roofs.”

“Exactly. Some hunks, of course,” Regan said. “I bet Casey might want to quit his job to work for us instead.”

Shannon smiled. “He is the jealous type.”

“I’ll put it down with a big question mark next to it.” Whitney shifted her gaze away from the pad to look at Shannon. “You make the best cheesecakes and carrot cakes. Maybe we could do catering for weddings, sport banquets, and other events. You do the desserts. Regan and I can handle the rest of the cooking.”

“I do like to bake. What do you think, Regan?” Shannon asked.

“To be honest, I’m not too interested in cooking big quantities of food. But if we can’t think of anything better, we can consider doing catering.” Regan walked to the side of the island where their mother’s cookbooks were shelved. She flipped open a book with a teapot on the cover. “Talking about baking reminds me that I need the recipe for the cake Mom used to bake for Casey. He loved it. I’ll just take the whole cookbook home with me. Mom wrote down all her favorite recipes in here.”

Shannon frowned at Regan. “Not to keep, I hope. I was thinking of asking for her recipe book.”

When they divvied up stuff, Whitney didn’t want any disagreements. She knew that as the oldest Shannon might feel certain things belonging to their mother should go to her, but Regan wasn’t going to stay quiet if she also wanted the same things. “One of you can eventually have it to keep, but before we start dividing everything up, I’ll make two copies of Mom’s recipes. I know I loved the granola cereal she made for us.”

Shannon said, “I’ve always meant to try and make it.”

“It was the best cereal ever.” With the book in her hands, Regan asked, “So is it okay if I borrow this?”

Whitney grinned. “Sure, if you promise to give me a piece of the cake when you bake it.”

“I will. Hopefully, it’ll be as good as Mom’s.”

“You two always dress so cute,” Whitney said, observing Regan’s black jean jacket worn with a white top and pants while Shannon was clad in light beige capri pants and a light blue blouse. Her sister looked good in that shade of blue with her fair skin and light brown hair with blonde highlights. “Maybe we could have a clothing shop.”

“Might be a bad idea. Instead of selling clothes, we’d be buying them,” Shannon said. “I know we’re just talking at this point, but maybe we should decide how we’re going to get money to start a business.”

“We’ll get a sizable sum from our inheritance,” Whitney said, “but I know you both might need that money for other things so we could sell this house.”

Regan shook her head. “Casey and I are still talking about buying the house. I’d like to get out of our tiny house, but we aren’t ready to move.”

Whitney thought about mentioning that Regan didn’t need to pay for her portion of the house. She didn’t need the money, but knew that might upset Shannon. All three inherited the house equally. She remembered they’d bought the smaller house, so Regan could quit her paralegal job and stay home with baby Lily. “I have money to invest if we do our own business.”

Shannon exhaled a deep breath. “Before we make any decisions, I’ll need to talk to Tim. I want to put money into it too. Sometimes I wish I hadn’t quit teaching full-time so I had some leverage. And by that, I mean money.”