Back to Square One (Brandon Bay Babes) (12 page)

 
“What?” Jasmine grinned, not understanding the half of it, but glad to be along for the ride.

“I’m gonna paint Jasmine.
 
I’m gonna paint everything I see.
 
I’m going be an artist and a darn good one.
 
You said that I should do what makes me happy, be around people that make me happy.
 
Well
painting
makes me happy;
you
make me happy.”
 
Kit paused for a breath.
 
“But first things first…,”

“Yes?”

Kit held up the envelope with a smile.
 
“First we’re going to celebrate.”

Kit decided that Fred’s diner would be the perfect locale for their celebratory dinner.
 
No need to dress up and no way of spending too much money.
 

It was wonderful to have such a windfall, but Kit was nothing if not practical; the term “starving artists” existed for a reason.
 
The sale of her first painting could be a gigantic fluke that may not be repeated any time soon; so it was best to be a penny-pincher for a while and only spend money when she really had to.

Arriving at Fred’s, Kit noticed that Jasmine was already there and sitting with … her mom.
 
She looked from one to the other; it seemed her mother was joining them for dinner.
 
Oh joy!

Jasmine observed Kit’s unimpressed face concerning Gladys and explained, “Your mom was just getting off work, so I invited her along.
 
Who better to celebrate good things with, than family and friends?”

“Yeah, who better?” Kit smiled morosely.

Gladys spoke up.
 
“Jasmine was telling me about you selling your first painting.
 
Why didn’t you tell me you started painting again?”

Kit shrugged.
 
“I guess I didn’t think you’d be interested”

“I don’t see why not” she said, then turned to Jasmine “I used to paint myself, but of course, quite a while ago”

“Yeah, you painted mom” Kit said, unimpressed. “You also did macramé, yoga, photography and what else was there, oh, the infamous copper enamelling.
 
You almost burnt the house down with a Bunsen burner with that one, if I recall correctly” Kit sarcastically commented.

Her mother was visibly hurt and Kit cringed.
 
Gladys’ eyes quickly filled and she looked down at the table.
 
“I don’t know what I did to deserve that, although I know you weren’t happy that I wasn’t a mother like Mary Calder.”
 
She raised her eyes to her daughter.
 
“But I did my best Kit.
 
Life’s not always a bed of roses, but you have to deal with it as best you can.
 
I’ll have you know, that maybe you were embarrassed by my peculiar hobbies, but by selling them I managed to put food on our table after your father up and left us”

Kit was well and truly chastened.
 
She had no idea that her mother had sold her crafts to support them.
 
Where was she, when all this was going on?
 
Oh yeah, she was escaping to Barnaby’s sitcom of a house reliving “Father knows best” and in later years, mooning over Jeremy.
 

Kit suddenly felt incredibly ungrateful and a complete brat.
 
Her mother was not highly educated having gone straight from high school to wedded non-bliss.
 
She’d done what she had to, to make ends meet.
 
It wasn’t her fault the ends kept getting further apart.
 
She may have not been there all the time in body or in mind, but she was always there.
 
Even now, she had taken Kit in without complaint, in fact in all her twenty-seven years Kit had never heard a word of complaint from her mother.
 
That must be some sort of record!

Putting her hand over her mother’s she squeezed it hard.
 
“I’m sorry mom; I didn’t know you sold all that stuff you made.
 
I guess I didn’t realise how tough it was for you.
 
And I certainly didn’t help any by ignoring what was going on.
 
I’m really sorry”

Gladys gave Kit a small smile and Jasmine looked on, pleased as punch.

Kit perked up a little.
 
“Well it seems I’m just following in the family tradition of selling my artistic vision, doesn’t it?” she said returning her mother’s smile with glistening eyes.
 

Gladys chipped in, “I must say, I never got anything close to eight-hundred dollars for anything
I
did”

“Well, I want you to have some of the money.
 
I may have moved back home, but I still want to pay my own way.
 
Now that I have a Gallery contact in the city, who knows, this could be the beginning of something big for me” Kit grinned.

“Tell me Miss Davidson” Jasmine asked in what Kit guessed was a pseudo English accent, “will you still remember us little people when you’re a rich and famous
artiste
?”

“Oh no my dear” Kit replied in the same manner, “I’ll have no time for you
peons
when that happens”

Gladys cut in.
 
“When you two are quite finished, can we order, I’m starved”

 
“Lobster and caviar for me” Jasmine said regally.

Kit nudged her.
 
“
Can it
Queen Elizabeth, you’ll get burger and fries and like it”

“Oh, yummy” Jasmine clapped her hands.

*****

On the drive home, Kit was pensive.
 
Having dinner with her mom and Jasmine had been an enlightening experience.
 
She found that her mom was relaxed and talkative with Jasmine in a way that frankly, made Kit a little jealous.
 

When the subject of Barnaby and Jeremy came up, Kit had tried to tell Jasmine to pipe down with her mother there, but Jasmine went relentlessly ahead discussing and filling Gladys in on everything that had transpired between Kit and her menfolk.
 
Feeling very exposed and little embarrassed, Kit was unsure of what to say now that she no longer had Jasmine as a buffer.

“Thanks for dinner” Gladys said, as they entered the house.

“No problem,” Kit replied, adding, “thanks for coming.”

“I was glad to be a part of it”

As Kit walked towards her bedroom Gladys stopped her. “Sweetie?”

“Yeah?”

“I know that Jasmine’s a little over the top, but she means well” she said kindly.
 
“I could tell you were a little uncomfortable with all the talk about your love life”

“You
could
say that.
 
But I’m quickly learning that Jasmine Peabody is a force to be reckoned with; and I, for one, actually like her very much just the way she is; big mouth and all.” Turning to enter her room, she stopped and asked, “Mom, how exactly did you two become so close?” It was something she’d been dying to know.

Gladys hesitated, unsure if she should tell the story, but evidently deciding that Jasmine wouldn’t mind.
 
“Well Jasmine’s a little different now to when she arrived in Brandon Bay two years ago.
 
You see, she was involved with a boy that, shall we say, didn’t treat her as well as he should have.
 
I found her in Fred’s diner, her car had run out of gas and she was crying.
 
She’d run away from him, and she ended up in Brandon Bay all alone with no-one to call on to help her out”

“No-one?” Kit asked with a frown.

“Her parents are pretty wealthy, hence all the clothes she has, but they disowned her when she got involved with the wrong guy”

“So you helped her out?”

“I guess you could say I did.
 
I took her in and after much cajoling managed to convince her to call her parents.
 
They needed to know she was okay.”

“But why is she still here; how did she get the store?”

“Her parents gave her the money to start up the store.
 
They were so happy she’d gotten away from the guy who’d almost ruined her life, that when she said she wanted to stay; they just wanted her to be happy”

“Well, she’s now the happiest person I think I know” Kit said with a grin.

“Yeah, but back then Jasmine wasn’t the girl you see today.
 
It took a while.
 
I remember one day she asked me how to be happy; at first I was little stumped, but you know what I told her?”

“What?”

“I told her, do things that make you happy and be around people that make you happy.
 
Happy goes where happy is”

Kit lips parted in astonishment.
 
“
You
said that?”

“Why, doesn’t it sound like something I’d say?
 
Not quite a proverb, but close, don’t you think?”

“Happy goes where happy is” Kit repeated. “That’s good mom,
really
good”

“Glad you like it”

“I like it.
 
I like it a whole lot more than I used to.” Kit smiled and her mother smiled back.
 
It was a little fuzzy, but they’d finally connected a little.
 

“Well, it’s been a long night. Time to “hit the hay”.
  
Um, Kit?”

“Yeah mom?”

Gladys gave her a warning look.
 
“You be careful with those two boys huh?
 
Don’t go getting yourself into trouble”

“Mom!” Kit rolled her eyes.

“Hey I’m still your mother remember”

“I’m sure you’ll never let me forget it.
 
Night Mom”

“Night baby”

Jeremy Atwell was staring at her intensely and she didn’t like it.
 
Not one bit. Damn those eyes, the second they were aimed at her they had the precision of an MK17 and were almost as deadly.
 

Grocery shopping had never been this dangerous before, Kit thought to herself, picking up a cantaloupe and inspecting it like there was no tomorrow.
 
Why on earth Jeremy was so interested, she had no idea.
 
Sure, she’d had a makeover and was now a true Californian blonde.
 
Well, as true as most of them were.
 
But she was still the same girl from high school; snub nose, wide lips and a sprinkling of freckle across her cheeks.
 
Nothing to write home about, certainly nothing that would, could or should attract the attention of one, Jeremy Atwell.
 
Raising her eyes to meet his, he waved.
 
When she smiled shyly back, he took that as an invitation to forge ahead and determinedly made his way over.