Chapter Four
I have the grill lit and the coals heating by seven o’clock. Sam shows up right on time and after stowing her beer in my fridge, comes out onto the deck to greet me.
“Hey-o!”
“Dude.” I give her a hard, one-arm hug. Sliding onto a stool at the outside bar, she props her feet up and leans back.
“So. How much do you love me?”
Wary, I shake my head. “A lot. Why? What did you do?”
“It’s just I saw your sister at the Stop and Save and...”
“You invited her for dinner. Because I just don’t see her enough.”
Sam is saved from answering by the familiar whine of my sister’s transmission making the last stretch of hill to my house. Within minutes, Susannah is trampling through my house with Olivia in tow. Sam looks stricken.
“I swear, Olivia was not with her when I saw her.”
That’s obvious. If Olivia had been with Susannah, Sam would have sprinted in the other direction. The two women come through the house. Susannah hands Sam a beer and keeps one for herself. Olivia throws herself onto one of my lounge chairs. With one arm draped dramatically over her eyes, she lets out a deep sigh.
Susannah gives me a kiss on the cheek and perches on a bar stool. “Where are the peacocks? Olivia wanted to see them.”
“Well, I don’t invite them to dinner most days. Then again, I didn’t invite you and Olivia, yet here you are.”
“I’m your blood. And I’m a terrible cook. It’s your obligation to feed me.”
Sam studiously ignores the sighing coming from the lounge chair.
“So Susannah.”
I chime in.“Or should she say ‘Oh Susannah...”
“Oh, don’t you cry for me,” Sam sings off-key.
“I’ve never heard that one before in my life.” Susannah gives us both a dirty look and pops open her beer.
“How come you’re not out with what’s his name tonight?”
Sam perks up. “Who’s what’s his name?”
Looking up from the grill, I wink at Sam. “He’s Susannah’s new beau. He’s dreamy.”
“Oh, McDreamy,” Sam grins. She flutters her eyelashes and holds her hands up to her cheek. “Is he a doctor?”
“The important question should be is he married,” I add.
Susannah flips me off. “He is not married, his name is Thomas, and he’s very sweet.”
Sam nods. “Is he a felon?”
“Rex was not a felon.” Susannah is irritated. “He had a bit of a run in with the law. It wasn’t his fault.”
“It never is,” I say.
Olivia lets out another dramatic sigh from the lounge chair and Susannah turns to her sympathetically. “Poor Olivia has had a terrible day.”
Sam takes a swig of beer so I am forced to respond. “Oh? In what way?”
Olivia sits up, happy for an audience. “Well, of course, first I had the tire blow out. Then it turns out there was a ginormous screw in my tire. They had to patch it and put it back on.”
“Wow,” Sam mouths at me from behind her beer.
Smirking, I say, “Sounds traumatic. My day was rough, too. Instead of working, which is how I pay my bills and continue to do things such as... oh, I don’t know... eat, I had to go change someone’s tire out because she didn’t know how to do it herself.”
Glaring, Olivia tosses her head. “This isn’t a game of who had the hardest day,” she sniffs.
Sam snorts. “No, we all know who would win every time, Olivia.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Susannah interrupts. “Come on, everyone. Let’s just agree that we’re here now, the weather is beautiful, and Dana is cooking an amazing dinner.”
“Yes, a free meal at someone else’s house is bound to cheer you up, Olivia,” Sam grins.
“You’re one to talk,” she replies.
Grunting, Sam takes another sip of her beer and hooks her feet under the stool.
I can just hear the shrill screeching of a couple of peacocks off on the woods side of the house. Sam lifts her head. “Are they nocturnal or diurnal?”
“As far as I can tell they’re all-urnal. I swear to God they wake me up at two AM having screaming fights with their reflections in my front windows.”
Susannah laughs. “I still think they’re beautiful.”
“I’m more than half tempted to find out how they taste on the grill.”
Olivia purses her lips at me in distaste. I don’t know what she’s so upset about. She’s more annoying than the peacocks and I haven’t thrown her on the grill.
After throwing the kebobs on the grill, I send Susannah into the house to get the side dishes, including the bags of potato chips that Sam bought at the quickie mart. Olivia wrinkles her nose as we set out the sides. “I guess we don’t have to ask who brought the chips.”