“He doesn’t like me. You don’t have to worry about that.”
Eva studied her carefully. Lexi wondered what she saw. “You just be careful around him.”
Four
Jude loved her garden in October. It was a time of organization, of planning for the future. She lost herself in the work of planting bulbs, imagining how each choice would alter the garden next spring. And she needed that now, to find a kind of peace.
The past five days had been stressful for her, although she couldn’t exactly say why. She hadn’t wanted the kids to go to the party, but they had, and it had gone uneventfully. Zach had come home right on time, and she’d hugged him tightly (smelling his breath) and sent him to bed. She’d seen no evidence of drinking, and Mia had spent the night with Lexi and come home smiling the next day. Apparently, nothing had gone wrong. So why did she think something had? Maybe Miles was right, and she was seeing problems where none existed.
She sat back on her heels and clapped her hands together to release the dirt clinging to her gloves. Tiny black particles rained down, creating a lacy pattern on her thighs.
She was just about to reach for the clippers lying in the dirt beside her when she heard a car. She looked up, tented a gloved hand across her eyes, and saw sunlight glint off the silver hood of a brand new Mercedes.
“Crap,” she muttered. She’d forgotten about the time.
The car pulled up in front of the low stone wall that outlined her front garden.
Jude pulled off her dirt-caked gloves and stood up as her mother got out of the car. “Hello, Mother.”
Caroline Everson walked around her bullet car and into the vibrant garden with the bearing of an ice pick. She was dressed, as always, winter or summer, in a pair of black wool pants and a fitted blouse that showcased her toned, fit body. Her white hair was drawn back from her angular face; the severity of the style offset her bottle-green eyes to perfection. At seventy, she was still a beautiful woman. And successful; that was what mattered to Caro. Success. “Have you agreed to be on the garden tour yet?”
Jude wished she’d never revealed that little dream to her mother. “It’s not ready yet. Soon, though.”
“Not ready? It’s beautiful.”
Jude heard the derisiveness in her mother’s tone and tried not to let it wound her. Caroline saw no point in hobbies. The end game was what mattered to her mother, and until Jude showed this garden on the island tour, she would somehow be a failure. “Come inside, Mother. Lunch is ready.” Without waiting for a response, Jude led the way toward the front door. On the porch, she slipped out of her gardening clogs, brushed the dirt off her pants, and then went inside.
Sunlight poured through the home’s twenty-foot-tall windows, made the exotic wood floors glow like burnished copper. An immense granite fireplace dominated the great room, which was decorated in soothing neutrals. The real star of this room was the view: soaring glass panels captured a swatch of emerald grass, a layer of steel blue Sound, and the distant Olympic Mountains.
“Can I get you a glass of wine?” Jude asked.
Her mother set down her purse so carefully it might have held explosives. “Of course. Chardonnay, if you have it.”
Jude was glad for the excuse to leave the room. She passed through the dining area, created by a long bird’s-eye maple table and ten chairs, to the open kitchen beyond. The only time she couldn’t see her mother was when she opened the wood-paneled door of the Sub-Zero refrigerator.