A May-September Wedding (4 page)

Now there was
no acerbic banter, no hyper-organized wife with lists pinned to the
fridge with magnets, no shopping lists with coupons stapled to them
on the corkboard by the front door sorted by preferred store, no
strange calming mood music, no odd aromatherapy scents, and no one
to keep his spirits up after a day of dealing with idiots. He
sighed and cleared the hamper in the upstairs hall.

Phyl caught
herself as she reached for her makeup. She was only having supper
with Cal. He'd understand if she showed up with her hair in a
ponytail and dressed in her wash day sweats. But they were walking
over to Mooney's Bay beach to get the kids after supper, so she
decided that she needed to change and brush her hair properly.

"This is very
good, Cal." Phyl's expression was equally appreciative.

"Brenda always
preferred my cooking to hers, but I only had time to do it properly
on the weekends. Mostly we'd have one of her freezer casseroles,
but once a week or so I'd do something quick like this." Cal's eyes
shuttered briefly.

Phyl sat back
and contemplated. "So most of the fancy dinners..."

"Were my
cooking, yes." Cal took a bite. "I let Brenda take credit because
she was the hostess."

"I had no
idea." Phyl took another bite of the fragrant rice and vegetables.
"Maybe I should look pathetic on the weekends and you could cook
for me."

Cal laughed.
But this time he really looked at Phyl. He hadn't done that before
out of respect for their friendship. She'd always been good looking
but the addition of laugh lines and a few subtle soft curves as she
approached thirty-five made her seem more beautiful than he'd
acknowledged before.

Cal shook his
head to clear his thoughts. Phyl was more than twenty years younger
than he was.

Phyl saw Cal
looking at her like a woman and not just a friend. She discovered
that she was flattered and pleased by the attention. She ate
another bite and asked about the canoe trip.

"Tim was
mostly okay. I heard him talking with his friend Jesse from church
about Harry and he seemed relaxed, mostly. There were some moments
that gave him trouble, but he soldiered through."

"I'm glad to
hear it. Our twins kept more to themselves than normal at the
sleepover. But everyone had fun and I'll probably let Lydia do it
again next year if she asks."

They finished
up the meal talking about nothing in particular and just had time
to put the dishes into the dishwasher before walking over to the
park.

On the way,
Phyl studied Cal as they walked. Despite his complaints about old
bones, he was in terrific shape. His hair was still mostly light
brown with some grey showing at his temples and scattered in silver
threads everywhere else. He moved with the languid grace that made
him such a good dancer and put the lie to the canoe trip giving him
trouble. She noticed that his green eyes looked curiously in every
direction like he was trying to spot a ship on the horizon.

As they were
walking along the path next to the river, Cal stopped quickly and
pointed. "Look, I think that's a mink."

Sure enough,
hiding in the weeds next to the water with its beady eyes glued to
a mother duck and her eight ducklings was small dark brown animal.
It jumped into the water without a splash and Phyl could see the
wake as it swam quickly toward the ducklings. Mama duck quacked
loudly to move her little flock along and a pair of drakes came
scuttling over to protect the babies. The mink gave up the hunt and
returned to the weeds.

"I don't think
I've ever seen a mink before."

"They're
pretty sneaky creatures. The ducklings were lucky today, but I
think that mama is going to lose some of her babies if she isn't
more careful."

They edged
closer together as they walked, unconsciously falling into a
couple's rhythm.

Mrs. Anderson
spotted them first and waved. Lydia looked back and said,
"Felicity, your dad and my mum are here."

Felicity
watched them saunter toward them and said, "They look pretty
chummy. I wonder what's going on."

Lydia took a
good look at her mum. "Mum's wearing a skirt. That's weird."

"And dad's
wearing a nice shirt, not one of his awful Hawaiian things."

"You don't
think they've decided they want to go out together, do you?" Lydia
sounded hopeful.

"No, I don't
think so. Mom hasn't been gone very long. My brothers would
throttle him, I think. And David would go through the roof."

"Well, they
look very chummy."

"They have
been friends for a long time, just like us."

"I
suppose."

Phyl and Cal
reached their daughters. "Are you ready to go?"

Felicity and
Lydia looked at each other and shrugged. "I guess."

Cal said,
"Then go say thank you to Mrs. Anderson, Felicity, and gather your
stuff."

Lydia raced
over to say thank you then came back to her beach towel and began
to meticulously fold everything and put it carefully into her bag.
Felicity came sauntering back and shoved everything into her bag
like she was stuffing a sausage. Phyl went over to embarrass Tim
with a motherly hug and began to help him get his things
together.

Lydia grumped.
"How come he gets help from Mum?"

Felicity
grinned. "Because he's clueless. He only came back with one sock
the last two times we came here."

Lydia sighed
but grinned back. "You're right. He is clueless."

Tim heard that
exchange and charged over to tackle his sister, but she sidestepped
and gave him a poke in the ribs as he went by.

The kids
bantered and made lots of noise on the way back to the house. Cal
spotted the mink again and everyone stopped to watch quietly for a
short while.

As they said
goodnight, Cal took another good look at Phyl, with her long ash
blonde hair in a ponytail, her sparkling blue eyes and her long
legs with their clean athletic lines, and decided to put aside any
thoughts in that direction.

As Phyl was
getting ready for bed, she replayed the supper and their walk to
and from the beach. She was certain that she had not imagined Cal's
interest in her. What she definitely had not imagined was her
response. Except for the long hug at Brenda's funeral she had not
been held by a man in more than five months.

She needed a
hug. That was all. Cal was not going to ever really be interested
in someone who could be his daughter. Was he?

As she brushed
her hair she tried, without success, to put away the memory of the
last time she and Cal had danced together. Feeling disloyal to
Harry, she eventually drove Cal out of her thoughts and went to
sleep.

"I don't know
why I didn't cancel this." Phyl looked around the small half cabin
she was going to share with Felicity and Lydia.

"Because we
were too busy with Brenda's funeral. And both of us are too cheap
to forfeit good money." Cal moved to grab Tim's backpack.

"Are you
saying that Dutchmen are cheap again? I'll have you know that I'm
not Dutch, Harry was. My side is Norwegian."

"You married
in. That makes you sort of Dutch. But I was referring to the frugal
habits of my Scottish ancestors...although... I have heard that the
Dutch can teach lessons to the Scots on how to pinch pennies." Cal
smirked.

Phyl took a
backhand swing at Cal which he dodged nimbly. "So where are the
kids?"

Cal took a
look out the window. "Tim's playing tetherball with some of the
guys he met last year. Lydia and Felicity are reintroducing
themselves to the Scotchmer twins, you know, the girls who are
twenty minutes older and younger than they are. But you should see
this."

Phyl looked
over Cal's shoulder to see a small group of boys trying their best
to make small talk with the girls. "Oh, my. Well, they're teenagers
now. I suppose it was inevitable. I can see it's time for that talk
with Lydia."

"Maybe you can
do the same with Felicity. I'll give the same message to both of
them from the overprotective dad perspective, if you want." Cal
turned and found himself far too close to Phyl. Swallowing, he
said, "I should get this over to our side of the cabin."

Phyl hesitated
before she stepped back. It had been a long while since she'd been
this close to a man. She looked up slightly into Cal's face. She
could see the widening green eyes and hear the hitch in his breath
that told her he was interested. But she also saw his determination
to not respond. So she stepped back and let him leave.

The week was
bittersweet for both of them. With Brenda and Harry gone neither of
them could quite get settled. Fortunately the kids were able to
reconnect with their friends and were able to have fun, although
they had a few moments here and there that would remind them of
their missing parent. Because it was their tenth year at the camp
there were lots of people who knew both Harry and Brenda.

Harry had
always looked forward to the outdoor activities at family camp but
the early morning swim where the two of them could play in the
water and touch and tease was what Phyl missed the most. She went
down to the water early each morning and thought about swimming out
to the floating dock and back, but there was no one waiting on the
far side to steal a kiss so she did laps for exercise and finished
early.

Cal missed the
afternoon canoe trips with Brenda. In their second year at the
camp, Brenda had arranged to look after the kids during the morning
swim so that Phyl and Harry could have their private time. In
return, Harry and Phyl took care of Felicity in the afternoon so
that Cal and Brenda could be alone. Brenda had found a small island
that was just out of sight of the camp's beach with a secluded
wildflower meadow where they could steal kisses without being spied
on. But he had no reason to go now.

Tim took Cal
around to some of the special spots where his father shared time
with him. The walk through the frog marsh was difficult for Tim,
but he showed Cal how to find the frogs. They built some new
memories by spotting several elusive five lined skinks including a
juvenile with a blue tail. By the end of the week Tim was able to
talk about his father most of the time without either anger or
tears.

The girls
would spend their time between curfew and sleep talking about their
days. Felicity had one bad evening when a well meaning woman who
knew Brenda cornered her and offered a boatload of saccharine
platitudes that were probably intended to comfort her. Instead,
Felicity felt like the offered comfort was insincere and she got
both tearful and angry.

Phyl was able
to turn Felicity's anger at the woman into a teaching point. She
reminded the girls that death is a very uncomfortable subject for
most people and there are not very many words you can say. A
sincere "I'm sorry for your loss" followed by a sincere "Is there
anything I can do to help?" was the most effective way to
communicate your sympathy.

The worst part
of the experience for Cal and Phyl was the theme for the Bible
study. This year's program was designed to facilitate communication
with your partner, which would have been fine the previous year,
but this year Cal and Phyl were the only single parents, something
neither had been when they paid to attend.

With the two
families so close in other respects, the rest of the camp were
treating Cal and Phyl as if they were a couple. They ate all their
meals together, ended up on the same teams and in the breakout
sessions where there was supposed to be one on one communication
they were paired together.

The first day
was awkward but as the week progressed they used the morning time
to try to answer the questions the way that they would have had
their late spouses been their partner.

Cal learned
that Phyl was still unhappy with having stopped at two children. As
an only child she'd always dreamed of a large family, but Harry
only wanted the new American dream of one boy and one girl. Cal
passed on some of the frustrations that Harry had with Phyl's penny
pinching ways which Phyl responded to with a wry smile.

Phyl learned
that Cal was often frustrated with Brenda's meticulous planning
which never seemed to allow for much spontaneity in the marriage.
Phyl let Cal know that Brenda had long ago reconciled herself to
the fact that Cal couldn't seem to remember important dates like
Valentines Day except for the last one when she was in the
hospital.

They used some
of the time to tell stories of the good times with their late
spouses. Cal had arranged for the company to pay for the family to
spend the summer with him in Portsmouth, England a couple of years
before Felicity was born. He had to be there to supervise the
creation of a full set of drawings for a older submarine the
Canadian Navy wanted to buy. By working too much overtime before
and after they were there, he was able to work three days a week
and spend the rest of the time that summer touring the British
Isles and France with the family.

Phyl
remembered the reward trips that Harry had earned as the top sales
rep in Ontario. In successive years they had gone to Aruba, Disney
World, Hawaii, Portugal and Disneyland. The resorts all had child
care so that she and Harry could spend time alone.

The growing
attraction between them was firmly ignored by both. One morning Cal
spotted Phyl's ponytail out the window of the cabin and leaned over
to watch as her fascinating form headed down to the beach for her
morning swim. The competition swimsuit was not designed to flatter
her figure, but because she was trim and fit the effect was much
the same as if it had been designed with that in mind. Cal wondered
if he wanted to get closer, then he saw his reflection in the
mirror with all of the grey stubble and put his attraction firmly
out of his mind.
Phyl deserves a man her own age,
he told himself.