Exuberance Is Beauty (Book 1)

Chapter 11

"Eve, you're relationship with Tom is perfectly respectable. I know that. I wouldn't think anything."

"But, it would look..."

"I supposed you're right."

"We'll get him at eight." I said.

"All right, dear."

It was warm out in the garden, but I could see rain clouds in the distance. I turned the soil in preparation for planting the rose bushes. I marked the semi-circles in the rose garden with stones and it took some time arranging them so that they were spaced right to accommodate their eventual size. It took quite some time and I stood and thought about how to select the colors and whether to mix bushes so there was a randomness or to keep them in order. I was leaning towards one color per row. I couldn't decide.

Then I moved to the wildflower garden. The little flowers were coming up, especially the daisies. I loved the random order of them and knew that I would have a pretty swath of land full of bright colors. Poppies, daisies, lupine, cosmos. I stared out at the field for a long time. I was content in my life. It was everything Mary and I had predicted. I smiled when I thought back on those early days. Just getting to know each other. My relationship with Mary was one of those relationships like I had with Carmen, trying to have some restraint but really wanting to talk to each other every minute. Just as with Carmen we gave into it and kept talking. Even after all the time together we still have so much to discuss. I also found it so fulfilling to have people to share in my love for Charlie. To be as proud, sometimes prouder. Like earlier, that morning in the kitchen. He ate it up, and I knew all our love made for a happy baby.

Little raindrops hit my face here and there and so I carried the tools to the shed and put them away. As I walked around the side of the house, I saw Jeff Lambert's car in the driveway. I stood frozen, in shock. He wasn't inside the vehicle so I realized he must have been at the door or walking around the house. I felt as if lighting had burned through my whole body. My urge was to run. I questioned myself. Run to where? Why run, he won't hurt me? It'll just be another fight. It would just force me to do the thing I had avoided. Tell Frank. But, it was time to tell him anyway. Then what could Jeff do?

I walked into the house and I saw him; there on the other side of the front door screen. I went to the door and spoke to him through the screen.

"What do you want?" I said flatly.

"Let me in Eve."

"I don't have to."

"Yes Eve, you do."

"Why are you here?"

"Didn't you read my letters?"

I raised my eyebrows as if I didn't care at all about what he had to say, "No, I ripped them up and threw them in the garbage."

"Just like you hung up when I tried calling you from England?"

"From your mother-in-law's house."

"Yes. As a matter of fact." At that he opened the screen door, pushed me aside and walked in.

I was so shocked by his brazen act that I conceded a little bit. "Tell me what you want. Tell my why you keep threatening to destroy what I have. Why you drove all this way and invaded a town that I've made my home? Tell me and then leave! Don't come back!"

"Eve, why are you so angry? We had a wonderful time in Eugene."

"That's what you think. That's what you say."

"We're at the end of the line here. My offer is about to expire."

I couldn't help but laugh. He seemed so weak to me. Desperate almost. His handsomeness was fading with his confidence.