Sweet Reunion (3 page)

“Well,” Lauren chimed in, “I
think autographs actually happen after the meet and greet, is that correct? Is
this officially the meet and greet?”

Karina blushed.

“Whoa!” Amanda exclaimed,
“Look at those cheeks, girls. Is that...could it be....is Karina blushing? Not
possible! Or at least I’ve never seen it!”

Karina shook her head
ruefully. “Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. The truth is, I hate all of that ‘pop
princess’ nonsense. I’d much rather be onstage, just me and my guitar or piano,
with a tiny crowd of people that were really into the music for the sake of the
music - than at the center of a giant production with lights and video, and
backup dancers, and electronic tracks.”

Amanda nodded, “You’re
famous, though. Everyone knows you. That’s what you always wanted.”

Karina nodded, “I thought I did.
But now I realize that what I really wanted was for the world to know my music.
I wanted strangers to sing along with my songs. But the watered down,
radio-friendly, bastardized versions of my songs that the record label puts out
are barely recognizable as mine, and when I sign my name onto an eight by ten
glossy that is so made up and touched up that it barely looks like me, it isn’t
even my name I’m signing!”

Lauren said, “Yeah, I did
think that was weird. Why did they make you change your name? I think Karina
Blackstone is a beautiful name.”

“Well, here’s the thing,”
Karina sounded melancholy. “It sounded too Native American. I mean, forget the
fact that I actually am Native American. They didn’t want there to be anything
about me that wasn’t blandly generic, from my name to my face to my music. And
that’s exactly what they’ve got!

“But enough about me. Even
I’m sick of hearing myself whine about being a successful pop star,” Karina
finished ruefully, “I’m going to steal a stereotype from my Native American
brethren and pass the talking stick. What’s going on with your snowboarding
career, Sam?”

Samantha smiled ruefully,
“Well, wanting to turn you into something you’re not must be a disease that’s
going around, with the only people susceptible to it being record label execs
and sports agents!”

Amanda was immediately
concerned, “What do they want to turn you into, Sammi?”

“Oh, they want me to be the
snowboarding Anna Kournikova. They want to play up my sex appeal. Which I don’t
even think I have! I’m sporty, not sexy! They want me to pose for magazine
covers in a bikini next to my snowboard. That’s not me. When I get on a
snowboard, it’s to kick some ass, not to show mine.”

Lauren looked thoughtful,
“How are you handling that?”

“Well, for now, I’m just concentrating
as hard as I can on my training, and drowning out their buzzing to the best of
my ability. They’ve been upping the pressure, slowly but surely though, and I’m
almost afraid they’re wearing me down. Don’t be surprised if you see me
actually competing in a bikini by this time next year, girls!

“But, I’m with Karina.
Enough about me. Laur, you’re the last one. How is the world of high end real
estate on the oh-so-glamorous isle of Manhattan treating you?”

“Oh, you know how real
estate is,” Lauren waffled, “Ups and downs. You’re only as good as your last
deal. Everything’s cyclical. But I can’t tell you how great it feels to be
called ‘Laur’ again. It must have been 10 years since someone’s called me
that!”

Amanda’s nurturing radar was
put on high alert by Lauren’s non-answer, but before she could delve deeper and
find out what was really going on with her friend, the front door opened.

“Really, Amanda,” said a
judgmental voice from the entryway, “You can’t just leave your front door
unlocked like that, who knows what unsavory element could just come waltzing
right in...”

Geoffrey trailed off as he
looked up and saw the room full of women looking back at him.

“Hi!” Karina chirped, “We’re
the unsavory element! And you are?”

Amanda jumped up and rushed to
Geoffrey’s side, giving him a peck on the cheek that he did nothing to
acknowledge, not even bend down to make it easier for her. “Oh, Geoffrey, these
are my absolute best friends from high school! Karina, Lauren, Samantha - this
is my boyfriend, Geoffrey Lancaster.”

“Hey!” Karina said in
greeting, “That’s awfully formal. We were just talking about nicknames. Does
anybody ever call you Jeff, or maybe JJ?”

Geoffrey looked as though he
were smelling something faintly nauseating. “My name is spelled with a G.
G-E-O-F-F-R-E-Y.”

Karina nodded. “Does anyone
call you Go Free?”

Amanda jumped in, “She’s
only kidding. Karina likes to joke.”

Geoffrey gave Amanda a look
which let her know that he was not amused.

“Amanda,” he said to her
sternly, “I was merely coming by to make sure that you are prepared for the
reading of the will tomorrow. You really should be resting, not carousing.”

“Geoffrey, really, all I’m
going to do is sit and listen while Uncle Henry explains the terms of the will
to me. He’s not only Daddy’s lawyer, he’s also his best friend of over 50
years, and my Godfather. I’m sure there won’t be anything shocking in it. He
would have warned me. It’s hardly something I need to be well-rested for.”

Geoffrey looked
disapproving. Amanda rushed to explain more fully.

“Plus, Geoffrey, now that my
friends are here, they’ll be coming to help me and support me, so that’s even
more...”

Geoffrey looked shocked as
he cut her off, “That’s hardly necessary.”  He turned toward the group of women
on the couch eying him suspiciously. “Really, ladies, it was good of you to
come to honor Mr. Jacobs, and you are more than welcome at the memorial service
in two days. But your presence will not be required at the reading of the will,
which I would think is obvious. Not to mention which, I’m sure you are tired
from your travels and would welcome the opportunity to rest.”

Lauren smiled tightly, “How
good of you to concern yourself with our well-being, Geoffrey,” she responded
to him in the same formal language and tone with which he was addressing them,
“However, we will be attending the reading of the will, as we will be attending
any function this week at which Amanda may need our support. But again, it’s
quite good of you to be concerned.”

Geoffrey returned her tight
smile, “Perhaps I wasn’t clear. The truth is, the reading of the will is
restricted to family only. So while I said that your presence wasn’t required,
out of tact and courtesy, the truth of the matter is that your presence is not
welcomed.”

Amanda turned to him, shocked,
“Geoffrey! What are you saying?”  She spun to face her friends, “Of course
you’re welcome there. Of course I want you there!”

Geoffrey glowered at her.
“As you wish, Amanda. I was only trying to protect you. People of a certain
moral persuasion do tend to come out of the woodwork, you know.”  He spun and
walked back down the hall.

“Oh, they sure do!”  Karina
called after him in mock cheerfulness, “Bye, Go Free! See you tomorrow!”  Her
only answer was the solid resonance of the front door closing.

--- ~ ---

Amanda made her way back to
her seat on the couch, humiliated. “You guys, I’m so sorry! I’m sure he didn’t
mean it the way it sounded. He really does try to protect me, you know.”

Sam snorted, “Or something.”

Amanda sighed, “And you
know, the will reading probably is going to be so boring. You don’t actually
have to come if you don’t want to.”

Lauren said, “Oh, no, we’re
going to be there. Something tells me that anywhere that man doesn’t want me to
be is a place that I genuinely need to be.”

They all murmured in
agreement. “Not to mention,” Karina added with a devilish grin, “It will give
me one more opportunity to goad him about his name. I don’t think I’ve ever
seen anyone so sensitive! Talk about no sense of humor.”  In Karina’s world,
there was no greater sin than having - GASP - no sense of humor.

Lauren asked with
trepidation, “Is Geoffrey staying here as well?”

Amanda shook her head
ruefully and looked around, “No, he doesn't think much of my house. It's much
too rustic for him. He's staying down in Lake Tahoe and commuting up during the
day.”

Amanda gazed around her home
along with her friends, trying to see it through Geoffrey's eyes, and through
their eyes. It was a cozy two-story, four bedroom cottage, with rough-hewn wood
paneling on the walls, inviting overstuffed furniture in the rooms, quilts on
every bed and family photos on every wall. Yes, it was “rustic” as Geoffrey
called it, but it was her home, and she loved it.

“He's nuts,” Karina
pronounced, “This place is great. I've always loved coming over here, ever
since I was a kid. This house feels like it's opening up its arms to me and
giving me a big hug.”

“Exactly!” Sam agreed,
“That's what I've always loved about your place, Amanda. You walk in and want
to let out a sigh of relief. It's like...ahhh....HOME.”

Lauren nodded, “I think
Geoffrey is a little too highbrow for his own good. He ought to be focused on
supporting you at a time like this, not creature comforts.”

Amanda chuckled, “Look, you
guys have him all wrong. This is a very stressful time. You’re not seeing him
at his best.”

“That’s true,” Sam relented,
“I for one will agree to go forward with an open mind where Geoffrey is
concerned. But, I gotta say, it really seemed like you guys had no real
connection. Not like a connection that everyone in the room could sense. Not
like with you and..”

Karina and Lauren cut Sam
off with a look. But they all knew who she was talking about.

“No, you guys, it’s OK.”
Amanda said, “I’m tired of tiptoeing around it. It happened. I loved Justin. He
broke my heart. It was 10 years ago. Time to move on.”

“Well, OK, then!” Karina
exclaimed, “Let’s hear the story now, since you’re not mum on the subject
anymore.

“I mean, come on. You’re in
love with Justin Barnes, Hope Falls’ resident hottie, since elementary school.
When he’s 15, he actually comes to live here in the bunkhouse and work at
Mountain Ridge Outdoor Adventures as your Dad’s right hand man. Your love for
him continues to grow, and the Greatest Romance the Sierra Nevadas Has Ever
Known seems to be written in the stars!

“Then, suddenly, right after
your 17th birthday...WHOOSH! He vanishes. Never to be heard from again. And
you’re, what? Too heartbroken to talk about it! No way! I’ve been dying of
curiosity for 10 solid years!”

Amanda laughed sadly. “Well,
Kar, you basically just told the story. Except for one little, tiny, gigantic,
significant, humiliating detail. On my 17th birthday, I threw myself at him.”

The other three looked at
her in amazement.

Amanda nodded. “Yep. I sure
did. He was 21. I was 17. In my eyes, I was a woman. We were equals. I went out
to the bunkhouse. I spilled everything. I told him that I loved him, that I’d
always loved him, that I thought he felt the same way. Then I kissed him. Hard.
He grabbed my arms, and pushed me away. He said no, I was too young.”

Amanda sighed and looked
down at the ground, “Then comes the humiliating part.”

“That wasn’t the humiliating
part?”  Karina blurted out, and Sam and Lauren hit her with the couch pillows.

Amanda barked out a rueful
laugh. “No, although you would think it would qualify. No, what I did next was
so much worse. I mean, you know how it is when you’re a teenager. All you read
are romance novels, you watch soap operas and romantic comedies. You
think...one glimpse of my body, and he’ll be overcome! He’ll stop thinking
about how wrong it is, and just be overwhelmed by desire! So I ripped off my
shirt, and then - wearing only my bra on top, mind you - actually jumped up
into his arms, wrapped my legs around his waist and started kissing him again.”

“Are you sure you hadn’t
been watching porn?” Karina asked, and was hit with the couch pillows again.
“What? I’m just saying. That sounds more like porn than rom coms.”

Amanda shook her head at her
friend’s wit. “Well, here’s where the story begins to diverge from both of
those...um...art forms. Instead of being overcome by my loveliness, he acted
like he was being wrapped up by a poisonous snake. He disentangled himself,
grabbed my upper arms, pushed me away to arms length and yelled. Yelled at me,
at the top of his lungs. He had never raised his voice to me before.”

“What did he yell?” asked
Sam, fascinated.

“That I was too young, and
it was never going to happen. Never. God, I was so humiliated. I grabbed my
shirt up and held it to my chest, and burst into tears. I ran all the way back
to the house like that, crying and holding my shirt.”

“What happened next?” Lauren
inquired gently.

“Well, by the next morning,
I had come to my senses. I realized that Justin was the only boy I’d ever loved.
In my 17 year old mind, he seemed like the only boy I ever would love. I
realized that if we could only ever be the best of friends, I would have to
content myself with that. It would have to be enough. I couldn’t lose him like
that.”  Amanda felt herself starting to tear up, but she pressed on.“I went
down to the bunkhouse to apologize. To tell him that I was an idiot, and to beg
him to forget that the night before had ever happened.”