Wedded to Trouble, page 2
“He came alone, and he said he was Brad Arborough. Shall I let the whole thing blow over?”
“I’ll handle it from here, Lurleen. I’ll let you know.”
I filled Mason in on what had happened.
“The man doesn’t have a leg to stand on,” Mason said. “Lurleen has the rental agreement.”
“I know, but I think I should call Lisa and find out what’s going on.”
I searched my cell for her contact number. She listened as I explained about Lurleen’s encounter. I put her on speaker phone, so Mason could hear the conversation.
“I’m so sorry you’re in the middle of our domestic dispute—especially when you are about to get married. My husband, Brad, can be a bully. We’re negotiating a divorce, and no part of that is going smoothly. I should have known it would be difficult—I was around for his first divorce, and that was a complete fiasco.
“His first divorce?” I asked.
“Long story—everything with Brad is a long story.” Lisa paused. “I’m sorry I’m going on and on. It’s all so aggravating. We own the houses jointly, and it seems to be a major sticking point as to who will get them in the settlement. Don’t worry about whatever Brad said—I’ll take care of it. He won’t be sending any unexpected guests to mar your festivities.”
I sighed with relief. “Thanks. I’m sorry for any extra trouble this might cause you,” I said.
“My husband causes me trouble every day—that’s why we’re getting divorced. But I won’t have him ruining your wedding. You have my word on that. Whatever I need to do to keep him out of your hair I’ll do. Call me immediately if you or Lurleen hear any more from him.”
“We will, thanks.”
Then she said the words I didn’t want to hear.
“I know it’s a small wedding, but will you have security present? You might want to get a local cop to be there just in case. Off duty. They won’t charge much. I can give you some names.”
“Why? Why do you think we might need that?” I asked.
“I don’t think you will. It’s simply that my husband has a short fuse. I want to head off any trouble before it happens.”
Mason nodded at me.
“I’ll take some names,” I said.
She rattled them off with phone numbers, and then we hung up.
“This is not what I want for my wedding,” I said. “Should we see if we can rent a different place?”
“Everything’s booked,” Mason said. “We’re lucky to have these houses next to each other—there won’t be anything else available on Cape Azul. Call a couple of the people on the list, and we’ll play it safe.”
I called the first name and explained the situation.
“I know Brad,” a man named Lenny said. “Can’t say I’m surprised he and his wife are divorcing. They used to spend a lot of the summer on the Cape, but in the last few years they never came at the same time. He likes to stir up trouble, especially after a few drinks, but it’s nothing I can’t handle. Fist fights, that kind of thing.’
“Hire him?” I mouthed to Mason.
“Hi,” Mason said. “I’m the groom. I’m also an Atlanta police detective. Can you give me some references?”
He gave Mason the number of the local police department and the name of the local chief of police, Scott Huxley.
“We’ll get back to you,” Mason said. “You’re available tomorrow?”
“Sure, as early as you want.”
“Any chance you can come tonight?”
“Off work at five. I can do an all nighter if you want to make sure Brad stays clear of the property. I got a friend who could work as well.” He gave us the name of the second man on the list.
“We’ll let you know,” Mason said and hung up.
He called the station, put his cell on speaker phone, and talked to the chief of police.
“Scott Huxley here. I know Lisa and Brad. Brad can be a pain in the neck. Lisa, his wife, she’s fine. I don’t know why she put up with him for as long as she did. She’s the one who made most of the money—top real estate agent in Atlanta, so she didn’t stay around for the money. I think she actually loved the guy.”
“You know her well?” Mason asked.
The chief hesitated a beat too long. “Yeah, I know her well, as well as any of the summer residents. She’s a straight shooter, and I can vouch for the two guys you mentioned.”
We stopped by the side of the road for a picnic I’d packed. Mason made the call to the two police officers. One would come around six tonight and work overnight. He’d be joined by the friend the following morning. Both men would stay through the day.
“We’re covered, Ditie,” Mason said.
“I don’t want the kids or our guests to be in danger,” I said, “and I don’t want them to worry that we have the place barricaded.”
“I told the guys no guns,” Mason said. “We’ll say they’re here to keep the peace, let us know if we’re making too much noise, that kind of thing.”
“I guess we can live with that,” I said.
“No choice, really, Ditie. I don’t want anything to spoil our day.”
We arrived around four, settled into the smaller house and then joined everyone else next door fifteen minutes later. The kids acted as if they hadn’t seen us in a month.
“Mommy,” Jason said. “Can we get back in the water? Lurleen said we should wait for you, so we did.”
“You read my mind.”
The first thing I always did when I arrived on Cape Azul—if it wasn’t pouring down rain—was jump in the ocean. That first dip was like anointing my soul. If I could get in the water as soon as I arrived, then whatever happened for the rest of the vacation didn’t matter.
Mason and I changed quickly, slathered sunscreen over both our bodies and joined the kids back inside the big house.
Lucie and Hannah were smoothing sunscreen on each of their backs. They stopped long enough to give us a hug. “We have so many surprises for you and Uncle Mason,” Lucie whispered. “Anna let us help her make the wedding cake. You won’t believe what she put inside.”
“What she put inside?” I asked.
“Don’t ask me, Mama, because I won’t tell you,” Lucie said. “You’ll see. Tomorrow will be the most perfect day.”
I took a long look at both girls. “It looks as if you’ve already had some perfect days.” They looked healthy from the sun and had obviously given themselves manicures and pedicures. Hannah’s fingernails were dark blue with moon shaped crescents on each thumb. Her toes were sparkly yellow. Lucie had bright red fingers and toes with what looked like tiny shells added to each fingernail.
“What is all this?” I asked.
“Lurleen helped us,” Lucie said. “She told us that if we were going to be bridesmaids we had to look the part.”
“Well, you certainly do.”
Jason and Noah were waiting for us impatiently near the sliding-glass doors to the veranda. “Can we go now?” Each of them held a boogie board.
“Where’d you get those?” I asked.
“Uncle Danny,” Jason said. “He’s teaching us how to surf.”
I glanced back at Danny who wasn’t dressed to join us in the water. “It’s Mason’s turn,” Danny said with a broad smile.
I looked at Mason.
“How hard can it be?” he asked, “especially on a day like today.”
He was right about that. The water looked as smooth as a plate of glass and almost as clear.
We headed out to the beach while Danny, Lurleen and Anna stayed in the house. I’m sure they needed a break from all the activity with the kids, and Anna was probably working on dinner. Mason’s family was still on the road and due to arrive in an hour or so. Tommy and Josh were in Apalachicola and would be home in time for supper. My boss,Vic, and her husband, Eric, were taking a nap after an earlier arrival.
That meant we had an hour to be in the water with the kids before the evening bustle got underway. I didn’t spot a single stingray, but we all wore our water shoes just in case. The ocean temperature was perfect—by my standards anyway—it had to be near eighty degrees.
It was late July, but Cape Azul never got crowded. It really was part of the Forgotten Coast, and with no big attractions, many people still didn’t know it existed.
A few shade tents dotted the sand on either side of our houses, and we nodded at the dozen people who lounged inside them as we made our way back from the ocean. By the time Mason and I had changed and come back to the big house, his family had arrived. Mason’s mother, Eddy, took care of the introductions.
Brian, whom I’d seen only once before, looked a lot like his dad—same eyes, same smile, solid build. He had more hair, but it was already thinning. Kyle must have taken after his mother—his hair was dark, curly, and he was thin and tall. Neither one seemed to take after their grandmother, Eddie, who was tiny with sparkling blue eyes and a non-stop smile. Both sons hugged their dad warmly and treated me as if I were a welcome addition to the family.
Their wives, Heather and Megan, were equally warm although preoccupied with their tired children. They whisked them away for a nap before dinner.
Vic and her husband came downstairs in time to meet everyone. I’d never seen her look so relaxed. “This is wonderful,” she whispered to me when we were briefly alone. “You know what a workaholic Eric is. Only your wedding could drag him away from his research. Eric was a scientist in biomedical research at the local university in Atlanta.
“That might be the pot calling the kettle black,” I said to Vic.
She laughed. “This break is good for both of us.”
Anna prepared a buffet meant to be eaten when people arrived and were hungry. Mason and I settled on the veranda with the kids and helped ourselves to pasta, salad, cold shrimp, and a glass of white wine. People came and went as they wished. Every one of them told us how happy they were about our upcoming marriage.
We were seated on the veranda with ice cream sundaes when the sun began to set. Spectacular sunsets were a feature of Cape Azul. The peninsula faced west, and we all grew quiet as the sun began its descent. I’d always wanted to see the green light some people claimed to see when the sun dipped below the horizon. I never had before. This time I saw it—a single flash of green as the sun disappeared. Gone in a second.
“A good omen,” I said to Mason.
“A very good omen,” he agreed.
3
I woke early the next morning and left Mason to get his beauty rest. He was a lounging-in-bed kind of guy when he wasn’t working. I put on my walking shoes, a little sunscreen for when the sun came up and headed out the door.
A police officer stood at the foot of the stairs. He looked good in his uniform but far too young to be a real police officer, more like a teenager dressed for a Halloween party with longish blond hair appearing beneath his cap.
“You’re Lenny, right?” I asked.
He nodded and straightened his jacket. “The Chief thought I should wear this, so anyone who saw me wouldn’t think I was casing the joint.
“Any problems last night?” I asked.
“None. I’ll wait for my partner to arrive and then I’ll take a nap. We’ll both be on duty before the wedding.”
“Thanks.”
The sky was clear and the waves broke gently on the shore line. It looked to be high tide. No one else was around for the first part of my walk. As always I scanned the horizon for dolphins. Nothing this morning.
I let my mind drift. We could have the wedding on the beach as planned. I hoped our marriage would be as care-free, but I knew we’d run into problems. Every marriage did and we’d have to sort them out. Mason and I understood our quirks, our stubborn points and our commitment to always have each other’s back, to always love and care for Jason and Lucie.
The world brightened suddenly, the way it usually did when the sun popped up from behind the dunes. I inhaled the fresh salty air, perfect for the start of our new life. Sandpipers scurried along the water’s edge. A few plovers hopped about higher up on the beach and laughing gulls cawed overhead. I needed Lucie with her notebook to teach me about all the birds on the gulf not to mention the shells. I knew this would happen over the years to come.
So many wonderful adventures lay ahead of us.
I glanced back toward our rental house and saw a figure approaching. Not Mason. This figure wasn’t male, and it wasn’t anyone I recognized.
I waited for the person to catch up with me. She was a woman in her late forties I’d guess with platinum hair, a trim figure, and a broad smile full of straight white teeth.
“Hi,” the woman said. “I’m Lisa, Lisa Arborough. We spoke yesterday—you and your friends are staying in my houses. Lenny said I might find you here.”
“The houses are beautiful,” I said. “What brings you out so early in the morning?”
“I needed to walk off some nervous energy, and I wanted to make sure you had everything you needed for your big day. I hope you stay happily married—divorce proceedings are not for the faint of heart. It feels as if we’re relitigating the first divorce, the one that really destroyed the Arborough fortunes. Brad’s ex-wife, Shannon, and his younger brother, Howie, are in town and seem to be determined to get some money out of our divorce. I’m not sure how they expect to do that. There isn’t much money to get, but Shannon is still furious with me—just because Brad and I were involved when that divorce finally happened.”
Lisa stopped talking and turned towards me.
“I am so sorry,” she said. “All this on your wedding day. When I get angry, I talk too much. Really, I only wanted to make sure Brad hadn’t bothered you again. Lenny said he hadn’t seen Brad, but I wanted to check with you in case he’d called.”
“No,” I said. “He hasn’t called.”
“I’m delighted to hear that. I couldn’t reach him yesterday, and that worried me a bit.”
She seemed reluctant to leave. “Do you mind if I walk with you?”
“Not at all.”
“I love walking on the beach in the early morning,” she said. “I also love the house you’re staying in. I may decide to live there permanently once Brad and I divorce. Anyway, my attorney spoke to his attorney and convinced Brad to stay away if he wanted me to negotiate in good faith. I guess he’s living up to that agreement.”
“You must be happy about that,” I said.
“Hmm, I should be.”
She didn’t sound happy. I looked at her.
“I don’t know what will happen next,” Lisa said. “Brad and I have had a complicated relationship for the ten years of our marriage. I ought to be happy it’s finally ending, but we really did love each other in the beginning. He claims he never loved me, but that’s what men always say when they’re ready to move on.”
“I thought you were the one moving on,” I said. “The chief of police said you’d finally had enough.”
“Scott Huxley? Scott is a sweetheart. His wife divorced him a couple of years ago, and I think he hopes . . . well, he hopes I’ve finally had enough and might soon be available. But you should know gossip around here spreads like wild fires in California. People get bored and have to invent a story. Brad was the one who wanted out.”
She stopped and stared out at the ocean. “I’m almost fifty years old and I don’t want to start over.”
“Are you hoping for a reconciliation?” I asked.
“I’m afraid it might be too late for that.”
I couldn’t think of anything encouraging to say.
“I’ve taken up too much of your time,” Lisa said, “and on the day of your wedding. I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry this is a hard time for you,” I said.
“I’ll get over it. I’ll leave you here.” She turned and headed back the way she’d come. I looked at my watch. Time for me to head back as well.
Lisa Arborough strode across the sand. She spoke as if she were a broken woman, but she walked as if she were very much in charge of the situation. The story made me curious, but not for long—not on my wedding day.
I came home to find Mason on the lower deck, watching out for me. Beside him was a table with what looked like mimosas and some of Anna’s pastries.
He kissed me. “You look radiant. Anna brought these over for us. Rugelach. She said it’s never too early for something sweet and a little champagne on a person’s wedding day.”
I told him about my conversation with Lisa.
“She seems sad about the divorce,” I said. “It’s confusing. I can’t tell if she wants to go through with it or wishes she could stay married to him. She said she hadn’t been able to reach Brad yesterday and was glad he hasn’t caused any more trouble.”
Mason and I sat side by side sipping mimosas, eating Anna’s spectacular rugelach and discussing details for the upcoming ceremony. Lurleen promised that she and Eddy would take care of everything including making sure the kids were dressed appropriately. All we had to do was take care of ourselves.
“Ready?” I asked, glancing at my watch. “Nine-thirty.”
Mason and I went upstairs to separate bedrooms to change. Lurleen popped over at nine forty-five. She looked beautiful in a simple sleeveless summer dress of periwinkle blue. It hugged her slim figure and complemented her copper curls.
“Eddy has everything under control at the big house, and I couldn’t let you get dressed without my help,” she said.
“Thank you,” I said.
Lurleen zipped up the back of my A-line wedding dress. It was covered in lace that made me feel beautiful with a white shimmering chiffon cape that draped over the dress.
“Now for your hair,” Lurleen said.
“You can’t do anything with my hair,” I said. “You have to let it be. I keep it short because that’s the only way it will remotely behave.”
“I’d never do anything to your hair,” Lurleen said, “except to add a band of flowers—snapdragons and freesia.”
“My favorites,” I said.
“I know! The florist attached them to this silver band,” Lurleen said. “Look at yourself in the mirror.”
