The Lure Of White Oak Lake Part 9

"I got the idea from the bottles behind Mom's counter. You could dress like the man on the rum bottle if you don't want to wear a deerskin."

Morgan thought about that for a moment, thinking she'd look cool in the high black boots, then shook her head. "We're Vikings. I'll wear a skin since you cleaned out your savings."

Austin's grin was fixed on his face as he looked at her. "You're cool."

"You are, too. How'd it go at school today?"

"Logan wasn't on the bus, and I didn't see Rylee. Someone said she wasn't at school, either. Everybody was freaking out and deleting the pictures off their phones. We're not supposed to have them at school anyway. We're supposed to check them in before the first bell and check them out before we get on the bus in the afternoon. I always check mine in because if they catch you with it, you can't check it in anymore, and your parents have to come get it at school. They have to sign a form saying they won't allow you to bring it back, but some kids still do anyway." Austin sat back on his haunches. "Did you always follow the rules?"

"I'd like to say yes." Morgan set her paintbrush aside. "We didn't have phones then, but we weren't allowed to leave the campus during school and I did. I left two times and sneaked over to a burger joint. No one caught me when I sneaked back, and I thought I'd gotten away with it. But my dad found out. He knew one of the ladies that worked there. I was grounded and missed two track meets, then I got kicked off the team. That really sucked because I let everyone down. My coach was really mad, but my daddy wouldn't budge an inch."

"Were you mad at your dad?"

Morgan nodded and looked up at the cloudless sky. "I blamed him, but it was really my fault. It took me a while to see that."

"I bet your dad was strict, most dads are."

"He was," Morgan agreed, "but he was fair."

Austin went back to painting. "I think about it sometimes, having a dad. Logan goes hunting with his dad, and they do a lot of stuff together by themselves. I just wonder what it would be like."

"I know exactly what you mean. My mom died when I was six, and I was kind of jealous of kids whose moms did things with them, took them places. I would've been jealous of yours because as moms go, she's pretty awesome."

"I know. Some of my friends want her to be theirs. Logan says she's hot, and it p.i.s.ses me off. I don't want him looking at her like that." Austin stopped painting again and looked at Morgan. "You know she didn't have me, right?"

Morgan nodded.

"She loves me more than Gayle, though. One day, I'm gonna take care of her, so she won't have to work all the time. She can sit on the porch and paint like she always wanted to."

Morgan raised a brow. "She's an artist?"

"No, she just wants to paint the lake the way she sees it. She says she doesn't have the talent, though." Austin looked out at the water. "My other friend David has a new stepdad, and he hates him. He says he's always on him about cleaning his room, and he makes him wash the cars before he can do anything on the weekend. I'm kinda glad Mom doesn't like men because I wouldn't want to have to live with someone I don't like. He wouldn't be my real dad anyway. He kept his gaze averted. "I'd like someone like you. I hope Mom meets someone cool like you."

"I'll take that as a compliment, Austin."

He smiled and nodded and went back to work. Morgan watched him out of the corner of her eye as she resumed painting and thought it would be very easy to love him. Part of her was already beginning to. And his mother, she wouldn't be hard to love, either. Morgan's hand faltered, sending paint down onto the deck as she considered that she'd only been there a week, and her mind had begun to ponder things better left alone.

"Hey, you know what?"

Morgan was almost afraid to reply. "What?"

"The corn maze opens this weekend. Have you ever been to one?"

"No, I haven't."

Austin grinned. "You will, and it's a blast."

Jaclyn's stomach growled as closing time drew near. Through the window near the counter, she could see movement on Morgan's deck in the distance. They were hard at work on Thor. She pulled out her cell phone and sent Austin a text. Do y'all want me to get a couple of pizzas and bring them down?

Apparently, there was a conference because the two stopped moving. Austin's reply came a minute later. M said she'll order it, come when ur ready.

Be there in about thirty. Jaclyn smiled and slipped her phone back into her pocket. The bell on the door caught her attention. She rolled her eyes when Maddie stalked in. "What salacious tidbit are you bringing me today?"

"I know you already know about Rylee and Logan," Maddie said as she made herself something to drink. "I heard that Austin registered for the regatta with Morgan, and I wanted to have a closer look at their craft."

Jaclyn glanced out the window. "It's still just a bookcase. They're painting it brown right now."

"I think it's really sweet that she's willing to do that with him. I know you would rather shoot off one of your toes than get into that water in November."

Jaclyn smiled. "I think Morgan's fooled herself into believing that she's going to somehow remain dry."

"Heath can't wait for Caleb to get a little older so they can do it together. I'll leave that father and son bonding to them. Mom called today, they're not coming in until Christmas. They've made plans to have Thanksgiving with some friends they met in Tennessee. Kind of p.i.s.ses me off, we hardly ever see them. They should at least make an exception for family over the holidays."

"It's what retirees do, I suppose," Jaclyn said as she wiped down her counter.

"You don't miss them, do you?"

Jaclyn continued scrubbing. "It's hard to miss someone who can't stand you."

"That's not true, they're just...hardheaded, stuck in their old way of seeing things."

"Grandma was too, and she didn't act like them." Jaclyn put the disinfectant under the counter and tossed the cloth next to it, thinking she should've been over the rotten relations.h.i.+p she had with her folks by then. She didn't look forward to the holidays anymore; it was just a time to get together and rip open old wounds.

"If my house is back in one piece by then, we'll have Christmas dinner there, then you can retreat." Jaclyn followed Maddie's gaze to the pair in the distance who were hard at work. "I was going to suggest that you invite Morgan, but I know you won't."

"I'm not going to subject her to Mom and Dad. If one rude word was spoken, I'd blow my top, and you know one of them would make a snide comment."

Maddie looked Jaclyn in the eye. "One day, you're going to meet someone special. What will you do then-just skip Christmas?"

Subconsciously, Jaclyn glanced out the window. "I'll cross that bridge when and if I come to it."

"You've been spending a lot of time with her, you see her at least once a day. Is there-"

"Absolutely nothing going on, we're friends." Jaclyn waved a hand. "Before you ask, yes, she knows about me."

Maddie shook her head. "That's not what I was going to ask. I wanted to know if maybe...you'd kind of taken an interest in her that wasn't just platonic."

"Morgan's just taking a break here. She's looking for work, and when she finds it, she's gone. Only a fool would allow herself to get attached." Jaclyn smiled sardonically. "I'm not that dumb or desperate."

Maddie sighed. "I had high hopes."

"Why?"

Maddie looked at Jaclyn incredulously. "What do you mean, why? I'd like to see you with someone. I don't care if it's a man, woman, or a..." Maddie pursed her lips. "I was gonna say stuffed bear, but that's just eww. Everybody wants to be in love, to have that special someone to cling to when the nights are cold or laugh at stupid things," Maddie said with a laugh. "The other night, Caleb took the guard off of Heath's trimmer, and he didn't notice. That man shaved off one whole eyebrow before he realized it, then he had to shave the other. I laughed until I cried."

Jaclyn grinned as she imagined what Heath must've looked like. "Are you serious?"

Maddie cackled. "He looks awful, and he won't let me pencil any on. Everybody comes into the store and just stares at him until they figure it out, and I'm rolling on the floor laughing like a fool." Maddie held up her phone and showed Jaclyn a picture of Heath looking forlorn.

"That's hysterical."

Maddie shrugged. "I just want you to have your own misfit."

Morgan had brown paint on her a.s.s, forehead, and chin when Jaclyn arrived, and Austin was spotlessly clean.

"She sat on my paintbrush," Austin said, pointing at Morgan's b.u.t.t. "Then she stuck her hand in the can."

Morgan was surrounded by paint splatters on the deck. "I had kind of planned on refinis.h.i.+ng this anyway," she said nonchalantly, "it's no big deal."

Jaclyn's eyes went round, thinking that she'd heard Heath say that a million times, and usually, it was over something that was a very big deal. Another misfit was in her midst, but against Maddie's wishes, this one did not belong to Jaclyn. "The not-boat is coming along nicely," she said as she admired their paint job.

"I hope the paint will be dry by morning, so we can begin working on your idea."

Austin nodded. "We need empty kegs, Mom."

"I have two old ones. We could ask Gavin Cullum if he has any he'd be willing to part with." Jaclyn stepped away when Morgan began sealing the paint can. "We sometimes rent kegs for festivals, and in the commotion, some of them don't get turned in. Don't get your hopes up too high. Gavin's s.p.a.ce is limited, so he might not have something like that hanging around in storage."

"We've decided to do the decorations in papier-mache," Austin explained. "Anything wooden would make it too heavy. Before the race begins, we'll just take it off." He picked up Morgan's notepad and showed Jaclyn the drawing. The front of Thor would look more like a Viking s.h.i.+p with the back left open. There were several mast sketches with question marks, and Morgan had drawn sad-faced people in the water watching Thor go by.

Jaclyn smiled. "For two people that have never done this, you're both very methodical in your planning."

"I have to have a visual." Morgan pulled out her wallet when she saw the pizza guy coming down the road. "Be right back."

"We're gonna win this, Momma, and look cool doing it. Morgan ordered our hats today right off her phone, and she's gonna wear a deerskin. She freakin' rocks." Austin tugged on Jaclyn's arm. "Tell her she has to come to the corn maze with us."

Jaclyn made a face. "You never want me to go to the maze with you." She imitated Austin by lowering her voice and squaring her shoulders, "It's so not cool to have your mom in the maze with you."

"But I want us to do it with Morgan. She's never been, and it would be fun. Can we go tomorrow night?"

"I'll have to think about getting lost in a cornfield for a while before I commit."

"There's funnel cakes," Austin said, raising a brow.

"I'm warming."

"Caramel apples."

"Hush, boy."

"Y'all want to come inside or eat on the deck?" Morgan asked as she rounded the house with the pizzas.

"Mom wants you to come to the corn maze with us tomorrow night because she wants funnel cake," Austin said with a grin. "Say yes."

"Funnel cakes?" Morgan replied with a growl. "h.e.l.l yeah!"

"No, absolutely not." Betsy shook her head furiously. "I am not taking off my clothes to dance beneath the moon." She looked at Ida, who was obviously staring at the hibiscus flowers floating around in her drug-addled brain. "I can't believe you'd agree to this."

Ida chuckled. "I think it would be fun to let my moon join the one in the sky. Mine's probably brighter."

"A moonlight dance clarifies the mind," Clarice said, tapping her temple.

Betsy rolled her eyes. "Detox would be the only thing that would clear your minds. Is that potion ready yet?"

"So impatient, let it flow, Betsy." Ida threw her head back and howled with laughter.

Clarice stretched out her arms. "Flow, negative energy, leave my body and this place."

Ida did the same, laughing hysterically. "I'm so flowing."

Betsy grabbed the teakettle off the stove and poured the water into the potion cup. "Can I say the...the thing tonight, the spell?"

Clarice shrugged with her arms still outstretched. "I don't see why not."

Betsy was in no mood to wait for the tea to steep. She grabbed Clarice by the hand and shoved her down into a chair, then took the first sip. "Drink, Ida," she said as she put the cup in her hand.

"I swear that's cat p.i.s.s." Ida wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "Your cats are p.i.s.sing on your special herbs."

Clarice seemed to enjoy the brew, and she drank every last drop.

Betsy took their hands. "Now, dear Lord, I must apologize for our folly." She glared at Clarice when she opened one eye and looked at her. "We are not consorting with demons or calling upon them. We're just asking for love to find Jaclyn and Morgan, too. And if I may, I'd like to ask forgiveness on behalf of Clarice and Ida for pickling their brains on a regular basis. Also if they choose to run naked tonight, I hope you won't let anyone notice two stupid old women acting like complete fools. Hide their wrinkles and cellulite, O Lord, from those eyes that may be offended by the spectacle. And, Lord, Jaclyn's a good woman, her grandmother Augie is the one standing next to you right now probably pointing her out to you. Augie was my best friend, and I just want her granddaughter to have a good life. I've been looking out for her just as I promised, but, Lord, you know my weaknesses. I want so much to just grab those girls and slam them together, so I ask you to do the same...without lightning bolts and-"

"Amen, for Pete's sake," Ida said. "I'm totally losing my buzz right now."

Betsy looked skyward. "And, Lord, please forgive Ida's impatience, it's just the hibiscus talking." She stood up feeling pleased with herself. "I'm going home now."

Chet stood on his back porch with a cigar in one hand and a cup of his special blend moons.h.i.+ne in the other. Laughter drew his attention to the woods behind his house. The vision that met his eyes caused him to drop the cigar. Ida Pochet and Clarice Minden wearing only sneakers tore by in a naked flash, laughter following them as they dashed deeper into the woods. He blinked, then looked down at his cup. "Good stuff," he muttered as he clenched it with both hands and raised it to his lips, unwilling to spill a single drop.

Chapter Fifteen.

By the following evening, the vessel Thor was sporting two beer kegs on the port and starboard sides. Morgan and Austin took it for a test spin, and it supported their weight with ease. Jaclyn observed the victory dance from the window of the store when she'd gone to check on Bailey. She was nearly as giddy as the two dancing arm in arm in a circle on the pier.

"Bailey, I know you know everyone in town, but you still have to ID for cigarette, beer, and liquor sales, so don't forget."

"Got it, Ms. Wyatt."