The Tao of Pam (12 page)

Pam was flabbergasted, but Gladys Ford was hovering over her, so she kept it short. “Honey, that’s fine. Gladys and Ed are on their way over now.”

Lisa said goodbye this time.
Oh fuck, what am I going to say to Ed’s parents?
Then she thought of Ed.
They’re his parents; he should tell them.
She walked back into the kitchen trying for a kind look on her face, but Ed was wary.

“Oh dear, your folks are on their way over here from my mother’s. I guess we better decide what we need to tell them.”

Ed almost threw up. “Why do we have to tell them anything?” he asked. “Nothing has happened yet.”

“My mother doesn’t want this drama at her house when it’s full of people,” she answered. “This is our problem; we need to deal with it now. I’ll help you.” She went to him and embraced him. “Be patient with me, okay, honey? I love you no matter what happens.”

He reluctantly put his arm up to hold her in return.

What more could happen?

Chapter 7

With the first holiday of the tourist season, the little town where Ted’s cabin was located bustled with excitement. With Saturday arrival at vacation homes around the area, grocery stores in the village overflowed with customers. Ashton just
had
to use fresh porcini mushrooms in his beef stroganoff. Traffic was horrible, and there was no place to park in the lot in the back or along the streets surrounding the store.

“Just drop me off here and circle,” he said to Zach.

“Do you want me to come in with you?” Natalie asked. She was afraid he’d take hours to shop if she didn’t rein him in.

“No, I can manage. I’ll be right back,” he said, opening the door and jumping out of the car. The driver of the car behind Zach beeped his horn, so Zach took off.

“What should I do?” he asked. “I hate to circle with all this traffic.”

Natalie leaned forward to look at the parking situation on the street ahead. “Pull up in the next block, and we can sit there and wait. I’ll text him to call us when he’s done.” Natalie hated that Ashton was already monopolizing her time. She had plans for the first day, and it wasn’t sitting in a car waiting for him. He insisted she go for the ride, “In case we come across a garage sale.”

“This is not the way I wanted to spend my only day up here,” Zach said, echoing her thoughts. “I have to get back by five tomorrow.”

“Tell him no the next time he wants you to chauffeur him. It’s ridiculous; we brought enough food from the city for twenty people.” Natalie was trying to relax. She hated waiting for people, and hated waiting in an overheated car more. Unexpectedly, a pickup truck drove by just as the tourist trolley came from the other direction, and the truck clipped the side of the Hummer. Natalie yelped, and Zach screamed.

“What the hell!” He tried the door, and it opened without difficultly.

The pickup truck stopped just ahead, and a very attractive, fiftyish man hopped out of the car and ran toward them. He was not very tall, probably not more than five-nine and on the stocky side of medium build. He had thick, sandy hair—Ted would hate it, his own hair thinning on top—and dark green eyes.

“I’m so sorry,” he exclaimed. “I saw that trolley coming toward me with all of those human arms flailing, and I couldn’t get past your car fast enough. I’ve got insurance.”

Natalie got out of the car to survey the damage, it was minimal, and saw that Zach was sticking out into the road at least a foot, but the man never placed the blame on him.

He thumbed through his wallet and handed Zach a business card with his information on it.

Natalie glanced over the card and saw that he was the local police chief. “Oh.” She giggled. “I guess we don’t need to call the police.”

“We’d better,” the man said, looking at Natalie. Reaching into his pocket, he got a phone out and punched some numbers in. “You’ll need a report for your insurance company.”

“This is a rental, too,” Zach said.

“All the more reason,” the man said, still looking at Natalie. He stuck his hand out to shake Zach’s while he waited for the phone to pick up. “Ben Lawson.” Then he reached over to Natalie and took her hand, but his call had been answered, and while he held onto her hand, he spoke into the phone and looked up at the building for an address to give the dispatcher. Mumbling his words, his voice sounded like it was underwater to Natalie. She prayed she wouldn’t faint, her hand lingered in his, and they didn’t pull away from each other. His skin was dry and smooth. She was so glad she’d done her nails and just washed her hands in lavender soap before they’d left for the store. He looked into her eyes while he asked for a patrol car to come to the location.

“Ben Lawson,” he said again when he’d hung up from his call, pressing the off button and putting his phone in a pocket with one hand. He still had Natalie’s hand in his grip. “And you are?”

“Hi, my name’s Natalie Borg.” When she said it, she realized how stupid it sounded and burst out laughing, her loudest, most guttural laugh.

“Natalie? Beautiful name.” He smiled at her, and his sincerity mixed with teasing shone through. “What are you doing here today?” He glanced at Zach to include him. “Besides getting your car sideswiped.”

“We just got in from the city and needed to pick up a few things, but there’s no place to park by the store.” Natalie felt like a gauche, fumbling fool. It was obvious there was no place to park.

“I’ll let Ashton know what happened,” Zach said, leaving so they could be alone. It was obvious the man was interested.

“Do you live in the city?” Ben Lawson asked.

“Yes, born and bred,” Natalie answered. “I’ve worked there all my life. This is the first time I’ve ever been out of the city.”

“I’ve heard real New Yorkers never leave.”

“I’ve just never had the opportunity,” she said softly. “Have you always lived here?”

“I have. A true local.”

“I’ve read about your type,” Natalie said. “But thought it must be an urban legend.”

They laughed together, and that was when Natalie realized he was still holding her hand. She had to fight not to pull it up to her chest to hold there. But she didn’t let go. She prayed Ashton would stay in the store for another hour.

“Will you have coffee with me after we do the report? I mean unless the Ashton you’re waiting for is your husband.”

Boom, boom, boom, Natalie’s heart was doing weird things in her chest as the adrenaline surged.

“Ashton is not my husband, not possible. And I would love to have coffee with you. But then I’d need a ride home.”

“I’ll take you home.” He looked up, and a white patrol car pulled up, double-parking and blocking traffic. “Traffic can go around,” he said, answering her concerned look. He gave her hand a squeeze and let go of it. She immediately held on to it with her other hand, resisting the urge to put it to her face and smell it.

He spoke to the officer and gave him information, and then luckily Zach returned and provided his license and documentation. The officer left when he had everything he needed to file a report, telling Zach it would be ready in the morning at the station.

“Shall we go?” Ben asked.

Natalie looked at Zach, who was fighting not to smile at her, remembering the conversation they’d had less than three hours ago about what her goal was for the summer. It looked like she might be reaching it sooner than she thought.

She turned to Zach. “Ben’s asked me to go for coffee. Will you be okay getting Ashton?” Zach nodded yes, leaning forward to kiss his future mother-in-law on the cheek.

“Love you, Nats,” he replied as Ben Lawson put his hand up on her back, a gesture of possession after a ten-minute meeting.

“Love you, too, Zachary,” she said as they walked up to the pickup truck. Ben opened her door, and as she sat down, she explained. “My daughter’s boyfriend.”

“Oh, okay,” Ben said. “He seems like a great kid.”

“He is.” She wondered if she needed to launch right into the story about the unwed birth and the entangled relationship with Ted and Ashton and decided it wouldn’t be necessary for a long time. She wanted to know about him first.

“So, tell me, Chief Ben. Did you work your way up the ladder to chief of police?”

He laughed, but shook his head. “No, I really didn’t. I actually left here right after college and taught elementary school in Boston for ten years. When my father got ill, there was nothing keeping me in Boston, so I came back home to help. I went to the police academy, the oldest guy in the class by the way, and that brought me to this place twenty years later.”

“I’m impressed!” she said sincerely.

“Well, you don’t need to be. It’s more a managerial position. The captain does the real police work.” He looked over at her. “What do you do?”

“Teach,” she said. “Anthropology.”

“Wow! College? Well, of course, it must be college.”

“NYU,” she said. “‘The destroyer of Greenwich Village’.”

“I’ve read about it in the paper,” he said.

“They need the expansion, and the buildings are practically there for the taking. I feel sorry for anyone who lives nearby and tries to get any sleep at night. It’s living next to a college campus, I guess.”

“Divorced? Widowed?”

She was a little taken aback by his questions, but then decided it was perfectly reasonable; he was interested enough in her to ask her to coffee, so the next step would be to determine her marital status. She’d mentioned she had a daughter; now the question would be “where was the father?”

“Neither. Never married. I was wondering back at the car how quickly I’d be doing any explaining, and I guess it doesn’t take long.” She smiled at him, hoping she didn’t sound too defensive.

“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be nosey.”

“No, you aren’t at all. I’m sort of flattered you want to know. I had Deborah when I was young and unmarried and gave her up for adoption. Her father, Ted, and I didn’t have a relationship to speak of, but we are good friends now. Ashton is his husband.”

Ben slowly nodded his head, but didn’t say anything sarcastic or politically incorrect or ask how the reconciliation came about.

“What about you?”

“Divorced. Part of the escape from Boston was getting away from my ex-wife. We didn’t have kids, so there was no reason to stay in touch at all. I haven’t heard from her for almost fifteen years. She remarried and has a houseful of children, rumor has it.”

“Yes, well, I’ve never been married. Sort of pathetic, I think.”

Ben looked at her and smiled. “I don’t think so. It’s nice to be baggage free, one of the reasons I left Boston. Here in New York, I had a clean slate.”

She didn’t want to ask too many questions, afraid he’d go into too much detail about his ex.

“So where do you go on vacation?” she asked. “I’m afraid I’d never leave here if I was a resident.”

“Never leave it,” he said, smiling. “I was going to say the same thing about living in New York. Where do you live in Manhattan?”

“Greenwich Village. In the same apartment I was raised in.”

“Are your parents still alive?”

“They are, but in a retirement home in Queens. They’re doing well. How about yours?”

“My dad is alive, but my mom died shortly after I moved back. It was ironic; I moved here to help my mother take care of my father, and then she’s the one who died.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said. “I can’t even think about my parents dying.”

He pulled the pickup in front of a café with tables and chairs arranged on the sidewalk.

She smiled. “Oh, how cute.”

“They have good coffee and baked goods. You’re not one of those women who won’t eat a donut, are you?”

“Do I look like it?” she asked, astonished.

“You’re gorgeous,” he said, grabbing her hand. “If I may say so.”

“Thank you,” she said, hoping he’d drop it, thinking,
He’s either blind or insane
.

He pulled a chair out for her. “Do you mind sitting out here?”

“This is great,” she said. “I walk past open-air cafés in the city everyday and wonder what it’s like to sit in one and never have anyone to go with because I’m always alone.” She blushed, aware that her words revealed more than she wanted. Giggling embarrassedly, she said a silent prayer that he wouldn’t ask her to elaborate. The gentleman that he was trying to project ignored the comment, but saved it for later use.

Chapter 8

Big Ed and Gladys left the beach and drove to Ed and Lisa’s house in silence. Something bad had happened the night before; it was obvious. When Pam told them they needed to go to the kids’ house, the first thing Gladys asked was, “What’s wrong?” Pam put her hand on her shoulder and said there had been a misunderstanding, and the kids wanted to explain everything to them in private, away from the crowd. Gladys understood from Pam’s demeanor that it was going to be something embarrassing. She took a deep breath. Admitting her children had been a source of continuous disappointment and stress ever since she’d had them was difficult. Was every family like this?

“Do you want to do all the talking?” Gladys asked Big Ed. It was a normal question; they liked showing a united front, and whoever did the talking could be assured of receiving the support they needed from the other person.

“Okay, but let those two take the lead. I have no idea what they’re going to tell us, unless it’s that they’re expecting again. And if that’s the case, we’ll just have to move in to help them because I don’t see Miss Priss taking care of the one kid, let alone two.

“She does okay,” Gladys said loyally. She wouldn’t let anyone, even Big Ed, bash their only daughter-in-law. “It’s our son who concerns me. Will he be able to support another child?”

“I don’t see it, frankly. But a pregnancy might not be what the problem is. Let’s wait until we get there to speculate, okay? We should’ve stayed in New Jersey for the weekend.”

Gladys snickered. “You’re not kidding. As much as I love going to Pam’s, I can’t stand the drama we usually find there. And it seems like where Ed goes, drama follows close behind.”