Mending Fences

“Forget about him, Dani,” she said with surprising urgency. “He’s not good enough for you.”

Dani regarded her with a puzzled expression. “How can you say something like that about your own brother?”

“Because I know him better than you do,” Caitlyn said. “He’s not always this nice guy, superjock, the way he pretends to be around your house.”

“You’re just saying that because he thinks you’re a pest,” Dani accused.

“No,” Caitlyn said emphatically. “Besides, it would be weird if you were dating my brother. Find some other guy to date and forget about Evan. Please.”

But of course, all those warnings accomplished was to make Evan more intriguing than ever. And luckily, because Evan and her brother still hung out together almost every day, there were plenty of opportunities for Dani to spend some time with him and find out for herself if he was the terrific guy she thought he was. Getting time alone with him was trickier, but one of these days she’d accomplish that, too.

It was the final football game of the season and the last of Evan’s high school career. Everyone at school was speculating that he’d have offers from the University of Miami, Florida and Florida State, but the coach had predicted he’d also be sought after by some top-notch out-of-state schools.

“Are you going to the game tonight?” Paula asked Emily that afternoon.

“Of course. I’d probably go anyway, but the fact that it’s Evan’s last game means that the Carters are making a big deal out of it. They’re having a party for the team afterward at their house. Marcie’s in her element. She’s been planning it for weeks. She went over the menu with Evan so many times, he finally told her to just order pizza, because she was making him nuts.”

Paula winced. “How’d she take that?”

“Oh, she brushed it off, and just made the next five versions of the menu on her own with a little input from Josh. He came home scratching his head one day and asked me what the hell pâté is. When I told him, he made a gagging sound and told me to call Marcie and tell her absolutely not, no way was she to serve anything that disgusting, to stick to chips and dip. I think she’s concluded that both our sons have no class whatsoever.”

Paula laughed. “It ought to be an interesting party.”

“I’m just glad that Marcie found a good excuse to throw one. She was really down there for a while, thinking that no one needed her anymore.”

“Doesn’t she get how much everyone counts on her, me included?” Paula said. “I will never forget how good she was to me when I was going through all those chemo and radiation treatments. And it wasn’t even that we were best friends, the way the two of you are. She just saw something she could do and she did it.”

“Well, if you ask me, one reason Marcie doesn’t value her own worth nearly enough is because of Ken,” Emily said, breaking the vow of silence she’d always taken on the subject of Marcie’s husband. Maybe it was because she’d overheard him snapping at her over nothing last night while she and Marcie had been on the phone. Her patience with his behavior had worn thin through the years and suddenly she couldn’t keep her low opinion to herself a second longer.

“How so?” Paula asked.

“He’s always dismissed what she does as if it were of no consequence,” Emily explained. “But I know he’d be the first to blow a gasket if she stopped doing it.”

Paula gave her an odd look. “You don’t like him much, do you?”

Emily hesitated, then shook her head. “No, mainly because of how he treats Marcie. She’s this wonderful, totally devoted wife and he demeans her every chance he gets. It’s taken everything in me over the years to bite my tongue and not call him on it.”

“Obviously he must have some good qualities for a woman like Marcie to stay with him all this time,” Paula suggested.

“I suppose,” Emily said, not even trying to hide her doubts.

One of the best things about her divorce was that for the past two years she’d hardly spent any time around Ken. Without Derek in the picture, Ken saw no need to waste his time trying to impress some high school teacher and they’d all but stopped doing things together as families. Tonight she was going to have to put aside her distaste and tolerate him, but with any luck she could escape from the Carters’ after an hour or so. The party was really for the kids, anyway, and her presence there—as Josh’s mom and a teacher from their school—would be a damper. She figured it was the perfect excuse to sneak away the second she’d had her fill of Ken’s bluster and ego.

Emily had done her best to steer clear of Ken all evening. To his son’s embarrassment, he was busy boasting about Evan’s game-winning touchdown in an increasingly boisterous way. Evan had repeatedly begged him to stop, but Ken had had a few drinks and was past listening.

Emily had retreated to the kitchen, planning to tell Marcie she was going home, when she overheard crying coming from the downstairs bathroom. Her instincts as a mom had her moving in that direction. She tapped on the door.

“It’s Mrs. Dobbs. Is everything okay?”

Her question was met with a loud sniff, but no response.

“If there’s anything I can do to help, I will,” she said. “Please talk to me.”

“Go away,” a girl murmured, her voice too thick with tears for Emily to be able to recognize it. “There’s nothing you can do.”

“I can listen,” she said.

“Just go away,” the girl pleaded. “I’ll be okay.”

Emily finally retreated and went in search of Dani. She found her by the pool, her adoring gaze locked on Evan. She shook her head. She’d figured that sooner or later Dani was going to develop a crush on their neighbor. Thank goodness it hadn’t happened till he was almost ready to leave for college. She was doubly thankful that Evan seemed to be oblivious to Dani’s infatuation. Though Evan had always been polite to her and was well liked in school, for some reason she didn’t think he’d be a good match for her daughter. She’d never been able to put her finger on why, other than those rare instances when she’d heard him being disrespectful to his mother. He’d sounded a little too much like his dad. Fortunately, he’d shelved the attitude at home and was always on his best behavior at school. Apparently he was wise enough to understand that teacher evaluations and good grades might be as important as athletic prowess when it came time for him to get into college. He made it a point to turn on the charm for most adults, in fact.

When Emily finally located Dani, she pulled her aside. “I need to speak to you for a second.”

Dani tore her attention away from Evan and followed Emily through the hedge to their backyard. “What’s going on?”

“Have you noticed anything happening tonight that might upset someone?”

“Like what? Who’s upset?”

“To be honest, I don’t know, but I overheard a girl sobbing in the downstairs bathroom. I tried to get her to talk to me, but she wouldn’t.”

Dani looked horrified. “Well, Mom, what did you expect? You probably freaked her out. What did you do, stand outside the bathroom door and interrogate her?”

Emily winced. “Something like that.”

“Jeez, Mom. How humiliating!”

“Okay, I get that it wasn’t the coolest thing in the world to do, but I’m still concerned.”

“Maybe one of the couples just broke up or something. We’re all practically grown-up. We don’t need our mommies trying to fix things.”

Duly chastised, Emily backed down. “Okay, I’ll let it drop, but keep your eyes open. There may be somebody over there who could use a friend, that’s all I’m saying.”

“If I see anybody bawling their eyes out, I’ll give them a tissue,” Dani promised, then hugged her. “You can’t be a mom to the whole world, you know.”

“I suppose not,” she agreed. “Just as long as you know that you can always come to me, no matter what.”

“Like I have any big problems,” Dani said, her expression lighthearted.

Emily cupped her daughter’s face in her hands. “Make sure it stays that way.” She pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Go on back to the party. Have fun and don’t stay too late. You still have curfew, even though the party’s at the Carters’.”

“Couldn’t I spend the night with Caitlyn?”

“Not when there are likely to be football players sprawled all over the place for most of the night.”

“But that’s why it would be so cool,” Dani said.

“And so out of the question,” Emily said. “Be home at midnight and not one second later.”