High-Caliber Concealer (32 page)

“Do you want to stop at your grandma’s and
um, make sure your mom got home OK?” asked Jane.

“No, not really,” said Nikki. “But we
probably ought to.”

Nikki pulled into the Connelly Farm and
parked behind Jane. Her grandmother’s SUV was already in front of
the house. And for a moment nothing moved. Then the front door
opened and Z’ev slid out, gingerly depressing the latch so as not
to make any noise. He was wearing swim trunks and carrying a small
cooler.

“What the hell did you do?” he whispered,
tip-toeing over to the car. Jane handed him back his keys. “I
haven’t seen this much crying and door slamming since my sister was
fourteen.”

“So you have a sister,” said Jane.
“Interesting.”

Z’ev spared a moment to give Jane a confused
look. Jane smiled broadly and pointed back at Nikki.

“Yeah, Mom and I may have a had a bit of a
moment.” She dialed Donny again, and again it went to
voicemail.

“We’re all hiding down at the pond. I was
sent on a snack retrieval mission.” He hoisted the cooler as
evidence.

Nikki hung up without leaving a message.
“That’s good,” she said, feeling that he was expecting some sort of
reply.

“So are you going inside? Or are you hiding
with us?”

“I actually need to get a hold of
Donny.”

“Donny? Who cares about Donny? What did you
and your mom argue about?”

“I don’t know, how about the fact that
neither of you ever told me that my dad went to prison?”

Z’ev’s face twitched into an expression
usually worn by small game upon catching site of a hawk. “Uh…”

“Seriously, how could you not tell me?”

“What makes you think—”

“Oh, please. I’m sure you did a background
check on me.”

Jane took the cooler out of Z’ev’s hand and
began to back slowly away.

“I had to for work,” he said, in a measured
tone, as if he had practiced this response.

“Of course you had to,” snapped Nikki. “But
once you found out my dad went to prison, why didn’t you tell
me?”

“I thought you knew.”

“What? You thought I was lying about my dad
leaving us?”

“Well, yeah!”

“Why would I even do that?”

“Do you really want to be discussing this
now?”

“No, I want to call Jackson and tell him to
wake Donny up!” She stared blankly at her phone, waiting for it to
magically produce the information she wanted. “Jane! I need
Jackson’s number.”

“I need to go into the house for the wi-fi
to do that,” said Jane who had made it all the way to the top of
the path.

“Damn it!”

“I have Jackson’s number,” said Jenny,
coming up the path with Ellen.

“Why do you have Jackson’s number?” Nikki
felt a sour twist in her stomach.

“He gave it to me,” said Jenny with a shrug.
“I was going to go over later and try out his warped wall.”

“There’s your choice, Nikki,” said Z’ev.
“You can discuss with Jenny how you don’t want her to date your
ex-boyfriend or you can discuss with me why I thought you were
lying about your dad.”

Everyone swiveled to look at Nikki.

“Oh, my God. There are firm work / life
boundaries for a reason, people. This is exactly why I didn’t want
any of you here!”

“Not even me?” Jane looked hurt.

“Hey,” said Ellen. “We’re just here to
help.”

“Help? When are you guys helping? I can’t
leave the three of you alone without epic disaster striking! I am
always on. You get to float in my damn pond, but I have to work.
None of you ever stop to think about consequences because I am
always there to clean up the mess. Once, just once, I’d like to not
have to think about what happens next. But no, Nikki doesn’t get
Cancun because Cancuning is for people who don’t have to be in
charge.”

“She’s referring to herself in the third
person,” said Jenny in a hoarse whisper. “That is not a good
sign.”

“Gah!” Nikki threw her phone in the open
window of her car. “I’m not dealing with any of you right now—I
have a job to do. I’m going to go wake up Donny and make him arrest
the sheriff. I will be back and maybe then I will be able to deal
with all of your issues.”

Nikki slammed the car door, revved the
engine, and backed down the drive, ending with a burn out
one-eighty to emphasize how annoyed she was. And because, let’s
face it, she enjoyed doing it.

She knew she needed to deal with the
Jackson—Jenny situation, but every time she tried to think about
it, her mind seemed to slide to some other thing to think about.
There was no reason Jenny and Jackson shouldn’t date. Other than
the fact that it was weird, damn it! Weird, weird, weird. Damn
weird. Jackson belonged to her. She was used to guarding his memory
as something special in the past. She wasn’t used to having him pop
up and be a real person in the present with real opinions of his
own. The real person he was now was well-suited to Jenny, she could
see that, but at the end of the day it was still weird.

The road up to Jackson’s ranch, or vineyard,
or whatever he was calling it, was well graveled and freshly oiled
and she slalomed up the road with a little bit of glee, putting the
Impala through its paces. The house was a log cabin. Or at least
one of the modern log cabins. Luxury living in a woodsy exterior,
built on a grade so it appeared to be one story from the front, but
opening into a daylight basement in the back.

Jackson and Captain Beaumont were sitting on
the porch. Jackson was wrapped in a blanket and looked hung-over as
a cliff, bleary-eyed and hair sticking straight up.

“It’s weird!” said Nikki getting out of the
car.

“OK,” said Jackson. Captain Beaumont jumped
the stairs to bounce around Nikki, interrupting her view of Jackson
periodically with a flopping dog head. “Are we arguing about
something that I don’t remember? Can I get a definition of what
‘it’ is or am I guessing?”

“The idea of you dating Jenny is weird.”

“It’s a little weird,” he agreed,
nodding.

“Yes! Thank you. Why does no one else see
it?”

“Well, I think we all see it. I’m just
thinking about doing it anyway.”

“Yes, Captain. Yes, I see you too.” She
paused to pat Captain Beaumont and then climbed onto the porch and
flopped down in the chair next to Jackson. “That’s probably fair. I
mean, you guys do have a lot in common with your rodeo obsessions.
But you know, it’s weird. And besides, I thought you were going to
try and win me back, etc.”

“Yeah, but that was when I thought you were
dating a douchebag IRS guy or something. Then I met Z’ev. You’re
right. He’s definitely not a cubicle guy. And I may be stubborn,
but I know when I’m beat. I don’t stand a chance while he’s
around.” There was a pause while they stared at the view.

“Except that I shouldn’t let him be around,”
said Nikki sadly.

“He’s not stupid,” said Jackson. “He
probably already knows that something isn’t right. Why not tell
him?”

“It’s not just me,” said Nikki, shaking her
head. “I have the team to consider.”

“Well, I don’t know everything that’s going
on with you and your ‘team,’ but that doesn’t seem fair to
you.”

Nikki sighed. “Since when is life fair? I
need to ovary up, as Jane says, and just do it. He loves me and
keeping him in a relationship based on lies is unfair to him. I
love him, but I can’t be a good partner to him and I should set him
free to find someone who can.”

“I understand that,” said Jackson. “But I
thought that about you and in retrospect it’s pretty clear that I
underestimated you. Don’t underestimate Z’ev.”

“You didn’t underestimate me, though,” said
Nikki. “Everything you’ve said about that point in our lives was
true. If you had stayed, I would have clung to you and insisted you
stay in school. We would have moved in together after college and
you’d be miserable in some nine-to-five job you hate and I would
have probably made us move across the country so I could pursue a
career in linguistics that I would have ended up hating, but would
be too scared to leave. I never would have joined Carrie Mae or met
the girls. That’s what changed me. I’m a better human being because
you left. You made the right decision.”

Jackson shook his head, looking like he
wanted to argue, but he didn’t. When he finally met her eye, he
smiled. “We really are OK, you and me?”

“Yeah,” said Nikki. “We really are.” He
nodded and they were both silent for a long while. “The grapes look
nice. I haven’t been up here since I was a kid and who was it that
lived here? The Kramer’s?”

“Yeah. I won’t ask Jenny out if you think
it’s too weird,” he said.

“Nah. She’s awesome, you’re awesome. Why
shouldn’t the two of you at least go on a date?” Nikki scratched
her head and then redid her pony tail. “It has been a long-ass day
and it’s barely three. I really thought this trip was going to be
more of a vacation.”

“There’s coffee in the kitchen.”

“No thanks. I need to wake Donny up and put
him to work.”

“I think,” said Jackson and then squinted
toward the road. “Are we expecting your boyfriend? I think that’s
his rental car.”

“I wasn’t expecting my boyfriend the first
time, so sure, why not? He’s full of surprises. Jackson, did you
know my dad went to jail?”

“Your dad went to jail?” Jackson looked
surprised. “When?”

“Apparently, that’s why Mom moved us to
Seattle. Dad didn’t just up and leave us.”

“That does make more sense,” said Jackson.
“He always seemed devoted to you guys. Or at least you, anyway.
What did he get arrested for?”

“Holding with intent to distribute. Pot. He
was extradited to Canada. But you didn’t know before now?”

“No, my dad got transferred, remember? We
left the year before you did. Although, now something Donny said
makes way more sense. Something about undercover life running in
the family. We were like twelve beers in, so I never circled back
to that. You know, I have to say that having you guys back in town
is the first time that it’s felt like I moved home.”

Nikki laughed. “I know what you mean. At
some point last night while I was chasing you, and Donny was
whining, it felt like we were twelve again. Living in LA is great,
and of course, I have the girls, but there’s that feeling that
everyone in the whole city is from somewhere else. There’re no
roots. There’s no one who’s known me since I was five.”

“You mean, there’s no one who can call you
on your bullshit?”

Z’ev’s rental car bumped to a stop next to
Val’s Impala. Nikki wondered if the Impala would ever stop being
Val’s.

“Oh, I think I’m about to get called on my
bullshit,” said Nikki. “And look, you’ve got a front row seat.”

But it wasn’t just Z’ev. The entire team
spilled out of the car.

“It’s Beach Blanket Bingo,” said Jackson,
surveying the array of swimsuits.

“And I’m Annette Funicello,” said Nikki.

“I am not Frankie Avalon,” said Z’ev.

“Nikki, what the hell was that?” demanded
Ellen, planting her feet and putting her hands on her hips. “Do you
really think that we’re not pulling our own weight and we’re
horning in on your vacation? We came to help you. If you need more
help, you just have to ask. You know that.”

“And I can date whoever I want!” said Jenny,
who waved at Jackson.

“I’m here because everyone else was going,”
said Jane. “And I thought I should come and support you since we
already settled our issue.”

Nikki looked at her team with affection and
wished she hadn’t talked to Mrs. M. Looking at them now, it was as
if they each had little Google location pins over their heads,
giving off their future on the hover-over. Nikki wondered if Mrs. M
was hoping that she and Jenny would end up as Division Leaders for
the East and West Coasts at the same time. That would certainly
make policy changes easier. Ellen and Jane, would they have their
own teams? Would they go on to be branch leaders? Did they even
want that? Or, like Nikki, were they dreading the day they’d be
pushed out of the team? It occurred to Nikki to wonder if she was
standing in the way of their ambitions.

“I know you’re here to help,” said Nikki,
and Ellen looked surprised, while Z’ev looked suspicious. “But
sometimes it feels like the decisions are always up to me. It’s
hard to relax when I always have to be keeping track of everyone,
and today has been a bit of a hard day.”

“She found out her dad didn’t leave her and
that, really, he went to prison for smuggling pot,” interjected
Jane.

“What?” said Ellen. “When did that happen?
Honey, why didn’t you say? That’s terrible!”

“It’s not that big a deal,” said Jenny,
kindly. “I’ve got, like, three cousins in prison for moonshining.
Even the really good families have a few rats in the woodpile.”

“It doesn’t matter. I shouldn’t have yelled
at you. It’s just, you know, Grandma and Jorge, Mom lying about my
dad for years, and then Ylina and the sheriff on top of it. I
snapped. I’m sorry. I feel like I’ve been wrong about everything
since I got here.”

“Peg finally told you about Jorge?” Jackson
looked pleased. “I told her it wouldn’t be that big of a deal.”

“Well, I wouldn’t say told, exactly,” said
Nikki. “But let’s just say I know.”

“Nikki,” said Z’ev. He said it quietly,
which is what made Nikki look at him. She hated it when he was
quiet. It meant he had been thinking. He was far too smart to let
him think. “Nikki, what about the sheriff? What’s going on with
him?”

“Ah. Yes, the sheriff. Jackson, where’s
Donny? I need to talk to him about the sheriff.”

“He’s not here,” said Jackson. “The sheriff
finally called him back and he went out to the sheriff’s house to
talk to him. Don’t ask me how, because I’m kind of missing that
portion of the evening in my memory, but Donny knows there’s a
smuggling ring in town and he wants to talk strategy with the
sheriff. He even knows about Milt and Pedro and Bill Pims.”