Jennifer Greene - Cupid’s Confederates

Bett, fool that she was, had encouraged them. Bett had the uncanny ability to gather people of all ages together and bring out their spirit of fun. The thought of a formal dinner party would have panicked her-she’d told Zach a thousand times she just wasn’t the type to cope with large groups of people. He let her go on thinking that.

Between the two of them, laughing, they strained the mixture in the kettle, added the yeast and poured it in the big earthenware crocks to cool. Bett disappeared from his sight then, her blond head popping up here and there during the next two hours. The mudpacks were washed off; the washer was started; one crew tackled the floor and another miraculously produced dishes for dinner. Then there were the dinner leavings to clean up.

Zach watched his wife, a very small locomotive in nonstop action. She was humming most of the time. Quick frowns were replaced by quick smiles, her face vibrantly expressive, her body lithe and free in action, totally feminine.

He loved that lady.

Bett was still humming unconsciously as she said goodbye to the last guest at the door. She loved having this gathering every year, but this year had been special. Her mother had joined in, actually joined in. She hadn’t heard Elizabeth laugh so much in well over a year. When Grady had reached out and swatted her mother’s rear end in passing, Bett had thought for a moment that her mom was going to fall over in shock, but she’d recovered. The women had fussed over her like a new hen in the flock. Elizabeth, her pants destroyed, her blouse unrecognizable, her hair flying every which way, had had a very good time.

“The women were so nice,” Elizabeth said from the doorway of Zach’s study.

Bett glanced up from the book in her hand, smiling. “They are, aren’t they, Mom?” She was so tired she could barely see straight, but the steady motion of Zach’s old rocker had soothed that weariness for an hour now. She set the book down, noting with some surprise that Elizabeth was rubbing her hands as if she were cold.

“That Susan Lee asked me over for coffee tomorrow.”

Elizabeth edged into the study, slightly nervous. Bett, perplexed, drew up her jean-clad legs and folded her arms around them. “You’re going to go?” she asked lightly.

“Yes.” Elizabeth sat on the edge of the couch, primly drew her knees together and studied the books on the shelf with an absent frown. “That Grady,” she said disgustedly. “I have never seen a more ill-tempered man. So gruff. I doubt he’s had a woman near him in thirty years.”

“He is a character,” Bett agreed.

“I told him I’d bring him a home-cooked dinner sometime.” Elizabeth adjusted the neck band of her orange blouse. “The old coot. I felt sorry for him.”

Bett nodded, curiosity and amusement reflected in her clear blue eyes. “That was nice of you.”

“He doesn’t deserve it,” Elizabeth said flatly, and then sighed. “I thought I’d do up a pot roast, some of those small new potatoes, maybe an apple pie-”

Bett smothered a grin. “He’ll never recover.”

“The thing is…” Elizabeth stood up and started wringing her hands again. “Grady’s one thing. Of course I’ll take him over a dinner. Brittany, you know I’d do that for anyone. But Grady is not Aaron,” she said nervously. “And Aaron. He actually had the nerve to…”

“What?” Bett asked, perplexed.

“Ask me to dinner. Actually like a date, ” Elizabeth said disgustedly. “Can you believe that? At my age? Married for twenty-five years?” She took a book from the shelves, and started leafing through it. “I think I’ll read tonight. I’m just too tired to work on my afghans.”

Pesticide Management ? “Now just sit down a minute, Mom,” Bett coaxed.

Elizabeth promptly collapsed in a chair. “It’s ridiculous. What would Chet think? Your father would think I encouraged him. I didn’t do a thing, Brittany; I can’t imagine anything more foolish than people our age-”

“I don’t think it’s foolish at all,” Bett said gently. “Why on earth shouldn’t you go out to dinner with him?”

“Because what would your father have thought?” Elizabeth said unhappily.

Bett’s words were measured, very soft. “I think Dad would have been delighted to know that someone cared enough about you to ask. And he would have been happy to know you were having a good time. You think he would have liked the thought of you being alone?”

Tears welled in Elizabeth’s eyes. “I still miss your father.”

“I do, too, Mom.” Matching tears welled in Bett’s eyes.

Elizabeth stared directly at the bookcase. “They were such good years, Brittany, every one. We didn’t always agree, but that never seemed to matter. It’s funny, how little that’s really a measure of anything. And sometimes…sometimes I get terribly frightened at how very many years I have left. Too many-always to be alone, never to have anyone to do for again, to fuss and cook for, to just be with. I wouldn’t want anything the same. I would never expect or even want to love anyone the way I loved your father, but I…and then suddenly I feel so wretchedly disloyal for even considering…because if you think for any minute I could forget your father…”

“Mom.” Bett pushed herself out of the rocker and went to lean over her mother, folding her close, smelling the same faint rosewater scent she could remember from the time she was a baby. “You wouldn’t be disloyal to go out to dinner with someone else. To see someone else. You would be pleasing Dad very much. You think he would want you never to care for someone else just because he’s gone? You just can’t think that, because Dad just wasn’t like that. Now, you love to go out to dinner-”

“Well, I told him no, anyway.” Elizabeth rubbed nervously at her eyes. “I still think it’s halfway foolish.”

“You can call him back. It isn’t foolish.”

“I’ve never called a man in my life, and I’m certainly not about to start now.” Elizabeth stood up, and picked up her book, staring at it blankly. “Besides, I haven’t a thing to wear.”

“So…Brittany.” Elizabeth emerged from the closet, holding first one dress and then a second up to her slip-clad body. “What do you think? The blue or the yellow print?”

Holding on to the tag end of a mile of patience, Bett dutifully surveyed the choices. The navy dress was polka-dotted, simple in line, set off by a crisp red belt. The other was a bright splash of orange and yellow and green. “The blue,” Bett suggested.

“But the blue would need beads. They’re wearing chunky beads this season and I really don’t have any to match the dress,” Elizabeth explained. “You really think the blue?”

“I really think the blue. You don’t have to have beads.”

Elizabeth turned. “What you really think is that I’m worrying too much about going out to this dinner.”

The tag end was running out. “It is just a din-”

“I think the yellow is much…perkier.”

“That it is,” Bett said crisply.

“With orange shoes.”

“Fine, Mom. You’ll look just fine.” Bett rose from the bed and moved swiftly toward the door. Fresh from the shower, she’d just had time to don an old jumpsuit before the questions started. She’d been answering the same questions for days. In the meantime, her hair was wet and she was still barefoot; Zach had come in from the woods more than an hour ago and she knew he was starving.

“Then why did you tell me to wear the blue, if you thought the yellow would do just as well?”