Gold Hill (53 page)

Charlie reached for her
hand. He felt a kind of shock.

Tink shot him a quick
glance. She must have felt it too.

He took her
hand.

Blane cleared his throat.
Charlie looked up at him. Blane gave him a “Watch yourself look”
and Charlie nodded. Aden noticed Blane scowl at Charlie and looked
over. Charlie gave Aden a guilty smile. Aden gave Charlie his
“Don’t fuck up” look and went back to talking to Sandy. When all
the scowling was over, Charlie was still holding Tink’s hand, which
made him smile.

“
Oh look,” Tink
said.

Charlie couldn’t see
because everyone stood. He stood up and saw Rodney kiss Yvonne.
Everyone applauded. When Rodney stepped back, he saw Yvonne.
Tanesha’s mother was the most beautiful woman Charlie had ever
seen, even more beautiful than Valerie and she was a movie
star.

“
Heather says this dress
is not her celebration dress,” Tink said in his ear. “It’s just her
dinner dress. I think she’s very beautiful. You?”

Charlie nodded. Yvonne and
Rodney hugged everyone as they came around the table. When they
reached their chair, they hugged and kissed Tanesha and sat down.
Everyone sat down.

Charlie reached his hand
out and found Tink’s hand waiting for him. He smiled.

“
Would you serve dinner?”
Delphie asked the caterer.

The woman nodded and went
to the back. Soon people appeared with plates full of really good
food.

“
Please everyone,” Delphie
said. “Let’s share a toast.”

Everyone stood again.
Charlie raised his glass of lemon fizzy water. He glanced at Tink
and realized she had the same thing. Sissy whispered something to
Tink behind his back. Nash told them to shush.

“
To love!” Delphie
said.

“
To love!” they
repeated.

Valerie and Mike were
sitting across the table from him. They kissed. Mike stroked
Valerie’s face and kissed her again.

“
What’s with you two?”
Sissy whispered to him as they were sitting down. “You and Tink
look like you’re . . . ”

Charlie blushed. In her
very Sissy way, his little sister’s eyes raked over Charlie’s
face.

“
You better not hurt her,”
Sissy whispered.

Everyone started to sit
down.

“
I won’t,” Charlie
said.

Sissy’s face broke into a
huge smile. She clapped her hands and sat down. Charlie scowled at
her to get her not to tell, but as soon as Sissy sat down she was
whispering to Noelle. Charlie was about to reach for his fork when
he felt Tink’s fingers. He smiled to himself.

He’d have to eat with his
left hand. He glanced at Tink. She smiled at him.

It was worth it.

Chapter Two Hundred and
Twenty
.
 
.
 
.
 
love
 
.
 
.
 
.
 

Friday afternoon — 9:25
p.m.

Ava looked up to see
Tanesha’s grandmother standing in the doorway to the dining room.
Behind her, the rest of the guests were arriving for dessert.
Yvonne got up from her seat to greet her mother. Not needing an
invitation, Teddy Jakkman ran around the women and into the room.
He plopped down at the empty seat next to Noelle. She whispered to
him and they both looked over at Charlie and the girl he called
Tink.

Seth put his arm around Ava
and kissed her cheek before getting up to welcome Colin, Alex and
Max’s father and mother, General and Mrs. Hargreaves. Ava watched
him greet the cluster of people at the doorway to the dining room
before she looked across the table.

Claire Martins and her
husband had been seated right across from them. Benjamin, Claire’s
husband, was at least twenty years older than Claire and they
looked so happy.

When she was trying on the
dress, Ava had made a vague comment about Seth’s age. Claire had
smiled and told her about meeting her own husband when she was
sixteen. She had married him when she was eighteen. They’d been
married for a little more than twenty years. Sitting across the
table, they looked like newlyweds. The best thing about being so
much younger than her husband, Claire had said, was being able to
have small children when he’d retired and was home.

Somehow, Ava couldn’t
imagine Seth ever retiring.

Ava looked from happy
couple to happy couple. Most of the formal parties she’d attended
were stiff occasions put on by her mother. Older men brought young
buxom women wrapped in tight dresses. Outside of lewd jokes at the
end of the night, her father’s friends had ignored their dates and
spent the entire evening tucked away with her father.

As a young girl, Ava knew
she could either be a tight-dressed mistress to a wealthy man or
the first-wife veteran of a nasty divorce burdened with heartbroken
children. Neither option had much appeal. She’d never considered
that she could marry and be happy for twenty or more years. The
thought had never crossed her mind until she met Seth and he’d
introduced her to this bounty of happiness.

Benjamin stood up to greet
the Hargreaves. She’d never seen her father give her mother even a
moment of the attention Benjamin gave Claire just before he stood.
Prior to all of this, she’d never seen two men greet each other
with such trust and fondness.

No, her father’s so called
“friends” were much more interested in what they could get from
every interaction. Sharing a laugh? Love? That just wasn’t a
priority.

Ava heard her name and saw
Alex Hargreaves waving her over to say hello. Excited to have been
picked by Alex, Ava went to the doorway. Before Ava could react,
Alex hugged her. Alex’s gorgeous husband hugged her and even kissed
her cheek. She was overcome with the feeling that she might never
wash her cheek when she was passed to Raz who also hugged and
kissed her other cheek. Ava blushed. She was about to say something
awkward to Samantha, Raz’s girlfriend and Alex’s sister, when
Samantha hugged her.

Seth appeared at her
side.

“
Slow down,” Seth put his
arm around her. “This one’s taken.”

They laughed and more
people came in. From her vantage at the door, Ava watched everyone
talk and laugh.

She’d never really been to
a party where everyone laughed, hugged each other, and joked about
their own foibles. Delphie had clearly been off her rocker today,
but no one held it against her. Everyone hugged her and laughed at
her overwhelm as if it was normal and expected.

Ava felt like an
anthropologist studying a hidden tribe. She had no idea what was
going to happen next.

Katy and her friend Paddie
rushed around them. The children skid to a stop at Jill’s chair.
Katy had a long, long story to tell. When it was over, Jill had
laughed, looked at Jacob, and given the girl a bite of her
chocolate cake. Ava smiled at Jill’s generosity.

Then Katy did something
weird. The child took only half the cake before sharing the fork
with her friend Paddie. The children jumped in place with
excitement and gave the fork back to Jill for more. Jill
laughed.

Friends.

Lovers.

Couples.

Kids.

Family.

Ava was witnessing
something so foreign and strange that she felt the urge to document
it like Darwin on the Galapagos Islands.

“
You okay?” Seth whispered
in her ear.

“
Just feel weird,” Ava
said.

“
Weird?”

“
Just not how I’m used to
people behaving at . . . parties.”

“
Not your parents’ scene,”
Seth said.

Ava nodded and looked at
him.

“
I guess you have to
wonder if it’s your scene,” Seth said.

“
I . . . ” Unsure of what to say, Ava
shook her head.

“
I try to draw it all in,”
Seth said. “I see so much death, despair, troubles, and petty
competition over power or money. I try to remember every moment I’m
surrounded by people who love each other. It sustains me when I’m
around those who don’t get it.”

“
I guess I don’t get it,”
Ava said.

“
What do you mean?” Seth
asked.

“
I guess I don’t know what
I mean,” Ava gave a little sad shrug. “I mean Yvonne doesn’t like
her mother, says she’s ‘mean’, but there they are laughing and
talking. When I say it, it sounds like Yvonne is fake, but there’s
nothing fake about Yvonne.”

Seth looked into her
face.

“
You feel bad about your
father,” Seth said.

“
My life,” Ava said. “I
can’t let go of the feeling that I don’t belong here. I should
be . . . suffering . . .
striving . . . getting ahead like he and Mom
and . . . ”

“
I know what you mean,”
Seth said.

“
You do?” Ava
asked.

“
I do,” Seth pulled her
into his arms and kissed her. “Your whole life has changed in a
matter of days.”

“
My life has been
destroyed,” Ava whispered.

“
Changed,” Seth kissed her
nose. “It’s a lot to adjust to in a short amount of time. You’ll
find your feet again.”

“
How can you be so sure?”
Ava whispered.

“
Because I know you,” Seth
smiled. “Look around the room.”

Seth turned her around so
that he could hold her from behind. She looked around the
room.

“
Is there anyone here
whose life hasn’t been turned upside down by . . .
fate?” Seth asked in her ear.

“
Um,” Ava looked around
the room.

“
The kids have all had
their lives torn apart,” Seth whispered in her ear. “The General
and Mrs. Hargreaves just left their life in Washington; Delphie and
Sam lost Celia; you know about Yvonne and
Rodney . . . ”

“
Do you think that’s why
they’re . . . like this?” Ava asked.

“
I can’t really say for
everyone. For me, I think it’s about acknowledging how hard and
fragile life can be and not pretending that the hard times don’t
exist,” Seth said. “Once you know life can change on a dime, you
tend to enjoy the happy moments while you can.”

“
My Mom pretends that
won’t happen to her,” Ava said. “They all pretend it won’t happen
to them. They have enough money, enough power, enough big gates to
keep the bad out . . . It won’t happen to
them.”

“
How’s that worked out for
them?”

“
Everything went to shit
anyway,” Ava said.

“
You can’t stop the storms
of life,” Seth said. “So you may as well enjoy the joy while it’s
here.”

He nuzzled her
neck.

“
You just have to decide
if you want pretend life is some way it’s not or just be here,”
Seth said.

“
How do you know all of
this?”

“
Mitch,” Seth said. “He
took it upon himself to instruct his much too severe and somber
best friend in the finer arts of living. He used to tell me I had
to choose between living life and trying to control
everything.”

“
What did you
decide?”

“
What do you think?” He
nipped her ear and she laughed. “Come on.”

He took her hand and led
her down the hallway by Honey and MJ’s apartment. He used a key and
they slipped down a half flight of stairs into a small room. There
was an old grand piano in the corner, a big fireplace, and a couple
of chairs.

“
What is this place?” Ava
asked.

“
It’s the chapel’s piano
room,” Seth said. “Jake found it in the rehab. The room was walled
off in the late ‘30s, we think. You remember when I told you that I
had a new love?”

“
A new piano,” Ava smiled.
“Maresol teased you mercilessly about it for a week.”

Seth stroked the
piano.

“
Here she is,” he said.
“Steinway, 1890s or so. Gorgeous sound. It took a bit but we were
able to restore her.”

He gave Ava a long
suggestive kiss.

“
She’s beautiful, gorgeous
sound, and wonderful to play,” Seth said. “Someone at some time
played this piano a lot; loved this piano a lot. She’s the kind of
joy that has to be savored and loved. Like you.”

He kissed her
again.

“
What did you decide?” he
asked with his face only an inch in front of hers. “Do you want a
life of striving for control or would you like to live a
little?”

She unbuttoned his
pants.

“
Good choice.”

~~~~~~~~

Friday afternoon — 9:35
p.m.

“
So, I have to ask you,”
Tink said.

Charlie was in the middle
of hoping he hadn’t spilled food on his shirt and his “private
business,” as Aden called it, wasn’t as obvious as it seemed to
him. He looked at her and hoped she wasn’t going to ask him about
something sexy because then his “private business” might not be so
private any more.