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The Tessarae Inn |
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Regrets In Jade Tones
CHAPTER 6 When Blair opened the door and said, “Welcome to the Mannings,” with a grand flourish of her right hand, RJ broke into a wide grin, Toni Reynolds’ eyes widened and both of her eyebrows arched upward, and Jason looked put upon in the way that only a eight-year-old boy can manage. “Well,” said RJ with a chuckle in his voice, “I no longer have to wonder what the price was.” Jason ran past her into the foyer when Starr called to him. Blair stepped back further to make sure there was enough room for Toni and RJ to get past her crinoline supported “puffy dress.” “The pearls are a nice touch,” whispered RJ as he strolled past her pushing an obviously somewhat wary Toni Reynolds. Blair closed the door and turned to face them. She stretched her hand out and said, “I’m Blair Manning.” “Antoinette Reynolds…Toni.” Blair noted that Toni looked like a slightly older version of Keri. The resemblance was amazing. “It’s very nice to meet you. I’m so happy that you accepted our invitation.” “Well, I thought we were going to talk about…” “Can we go up to my room, Mommy?” “Not right now, Sweetheart. We all have to talk.” “Where’s Daddy?” Good question. Todd promised her that he would follow through on every aspect of the dinner, including greeting their guests. Of course, that part of the deal and had been worked out while in the exquisite throes of sexual chicken. She lost and enjoyed every delicious minute of her consequence, but she also had to agree to wear the puffy dress and the pearls. “Maybe he’s still on the phone upstairs.” Blair waited for a second to see if Todd would emerge but he didn’t. Okay, if he insisted on playing king in his castle and she’d have to drag him to the party, she would, but first she would act like the perfect hostess and take care of her guests. Blair stepped close to Starr and the dress knocked Starr back a step or two. “Hey, Mommy, watch the your big skirt.” “Sorry, Sweetheart. Are you okay?” “Yeah. I guess but that thing is weird.” “Being a 50s woman is hard work.” “Huh?” Blair heard Toni chuckle quietly. If only she knew the half of it, thought Blair, then laughed quietly to herself. Once she lost the bet to Todd and ended up agreeing to wear the puffy dress and pearls she decided to go full nelson. She found a retro store and found the perfect dress and even kitchen fashion apparel, in other words, a frilly apron. Then she took it a huge step further. She had the media room decorated in pure 1950s kitsch, including a plaid sofa, coffee table with scroll edges, a recliner, a game table and even a television made up to look like an old floor model and instructed everyone to call it “the den.” No one had been allowed in “the den” all week and now she was ready to spring it on all of them at once. But where was Todd? “Maybe we’ll wait for your father in the den.” “What!” said Starr. “The den? We never go in the den!” Blair noticed that Starr and Jason moved closer to each other automatically. They sure hadn’t forgotten what this get-together was really all about. She tried not to smile but she loved the fact that their automatic response was to lean on each other. She ushered RJ, Toni, Jason and Starr toward the den and then across the threshold. Just as they entered the room, however, they all stopped in their tracks as if stunned. She smiled. Rick would say they had been hit in the face by a big piece of “surreal irony.” That was exactly the effect that she was going for but how could she enjoy their reactions if she couldn’t see their faces. No one moved, though, so she squeezed around RJ and stumbled into the room. She stopped in her tracks. Todd was sitting in the brown plaid recliner, wearing a puce green cardigan sweater and horn-rimmed glasses with a pipe dangling from his mouth while reading The Banner. Blair was speechless. Todd looked at her and smirked then folded the newspaper carefully and stood up. He walked toward RJ, Toni and Jason. “Welcome to our home, RJ, Jason…?” “Toni.” “Nice to meet you.” Blair forced herself not to say anything. She was too amused and way too curious to see how far Todd was willing to take this act in order to rub her face in it. Unfortunately, she didn’t get a chance, Jason spotted the PlayStation let out a whoop and he and Starr rushed into the room. Todd walked next to Blair and put his arm around her waist. They all watched the children for a few seconds then RJ leaned over and whispered to Todd, “Can I have some?” “Some what?” “Whatever it is you two are on. It looks like fun.” Todd snorted then took off the glasses, the sweater and took the pipe out of his mouth. “I suspect you couldn’t handle it.” Blair cleared her throat in a pattern, which signaled to both of them not to escalate the verbal play. “Why don’t you two go play with the children, while Toni and I check on dinner.” Todd and RJ both stared at each other. “You two can play nice for a few minutes, can’t you?” RJ grunted. Todd muttered. Blair laughed. Toni looked confused. “Starr and Jason,” called Blair. “You can play with the video game while Mrs. Reynolds and I check on our dinner.” Jason and Starr whooped with pleasure. “We’ll be back in a few minutes, though, and then we can all talk about Mrs. Cole’s class.” Starr and Jason groaned loudly. “Why don’t you play with that football game I got so your father can join in, Starr? Did you know your father was a great football player a few moons ago?” Starr turned around in wide-eyed wonderment. “Daddy, you can play football?” “Llanview U.--All State, two years in a row,” said Todd with a swagger in his voice then looked at RJ. “Louisiana State Penal System--All System, two to five,” said RJ. For a moment Blair held her breath. Fun and games aside. This dinner really would be a disaster if RJ and Todd decided to drag their differences into open battle. She looked at Todd pleadingly then at RJ. RJ looked back at her and his face softened. He looked at Todd. “Care to wager?” “If I can figure out something you have that I want.” For a moment, Todd and RJ eyed each other but RJ finally broke the tension. “Shall, we take it to the field?” “Whatever, Gannon.” Blair exhaled when they walked over to the couch and flopped down on either end with the children between them.
Blair opened the oven and checked on the chicken she was roasting. Toni sat perched on one of the kitchen stools sipping a glass of white wine. “Why are you cooking dinner? I assumed you’d have someone cater the dinner or do takeout.” “Well, normally I don’t cook. Cooking is not high on my list of ways to spend my time but I made a deal.” Toni chortled. “The same deal that has you in that dress?” “Close enough.” “Do I even want to know what the deal was?” “Nope, but I will tell you that it was an awful lot of fun negotiating the terms.” Toni laughed. “You two seem to have fun.” “We have our moments.” “RJ told me you had some hard times, too.” “Been to hell and back more than once. And the bad thing was half of those times we stepped up to the window, bought the tickets ourselves and paid full fare.” “But you’re together.” “The ride down was always so easy. It’s like we’d start tumbling and couldn’t stop, but each trip back was harder than the one before. This last time…” Blair stopped for a moment as she felt herself choking up. Why exactly was she talking about this? “But you did make it back. I can see it when you look at each other.” She nodded her head slowly. “Most of the way, but it wasn’t easy. We had to claw our way inch-by-inch.” “But you were willing to try. You have brave hearts.” Brave hearts? Okay, fine, if that’s the way she wanted to see it, but it was time for a subject change. “What about you and RJ?” “I don’t know if we are heading to hell or on our way back.” Blair waited hoping that Toni would continue but she just sipped her wine. It was obvious that Toni found talking about RJ difficult. Guilt. She recognized the signs. But she couldn’t help being curious. Toni and Jason had arrived in town while she was away in Creedyville and by the time she got back and could concentrate on something other than her family and her new businesses the gossip buzz had died away. Silence hung between them like a drippy faucet. Finally, Toni said, “I make a mean salad. Can I help?” Blair sighed. So much for this opportunity to find out what was going on with RJ and Toni. “I’d love it,” she said and pulled out the salad bowl. She placed the bowl, cutting board et cetera on the counter and pulled the fresh produce out the refrigerator. Toni started working on washing the spinach and escarole. “Toni, if you don’t mind, I’ll be right back. I need to go get out of this dress before we talk to the kids.” “That would be a relief. I felt for a while there like I was invited to a custom party and nobody told me to dress for the occasion.” “Sorry about that, I guess we seem a little unusual. We really are serious about Starr, though, and this Mrs. Cole business. We just don’t do typical very well.” “Maybe, not, but I think you do a bang up job at atypical. That den was a sight to behold.” “Hey,” said Blair and laughed. “That was business.” “Business?” “Well, all of this started as a bet with Todd but then as I got into it I started having ideas for the launch campaign for my new company.” “JStarr, Inc.” “Starr’s my best word of mouth, isn’t she?” “She is so proud of you.” Blair shifted her eyes downward for a second. She was slightly embarrassed by how good hearing that made her feel. “Thanks. Anyway, my marketing guy—Rick… Rick St. Jean… Do you know him by any chance?” Toni shook her head slowly. “Should I?” “Not necessarily but he’s been interviewing photographers to work on the campaign and I thought you might have crossed paths. Anyway, he flipped over some of the ideas so we started working on this whole retro 1950s theme.” Toni sat up straight. “You’re looking for a photographer?” “Yes, we are,” said Blair getting Toni’s drift immediately. “Would you like to be considered? I’ve heard wonderful things about your work. I didn’t know if you would be interested in commercial work, though, so I never mentioned it to RJ.” “I’ve done several fashion shoots and other commercial work. I have a portfolio of things you could see.” For a moment Blair just smiled at Toni, who smiled back at her. Synergy? It would just be great if this worked out. “Let’s meet next week. Monday?” “That’s good for me. RJ said he would go to see Mrs. Cole again on Monday for me. So I’m free for most of the day. He’s being really responsible about all of this.” Blair nodded her head and grinned. Responsible about his child and about paying off debts he incurred. “Are you sure this is what both of you want?” asked RJ. The speed at which this agreement was reached was making Blair suspicious, too. Starr and Jason probably planned this from the moment they heard about the dinner. “You understand the terms of this deal?” she asked. Starr frowned. “Terms?” “Conditions.” “We get it,” said Jason. “We have to be good for the rest of the year.” “Yes. No reports from Mrs. Cole about misbehavior.” “And,” said Toni, “your grades must stay at the top of the class.” “But, Mommy,” whined Starr. “Don’t ‘But Mommy’ me. Mrs. Cole said you two are the best students in her class.” She noticed that both Starr and Jason grinned at that statement. “And we expect you to show it.” “Okay,” said Starr, “but you have to do what you promised.” “Starr, are you sure about this?” asked Todd. “Yes! I want us to go to Disney World. All of us. Together.” Blair could see Todd and RJ frown in unison. “It’s a real big world, Starr,” said Todd. “We could go to Madrid or Rome or Paris…” Blair winced and looked at Todd but he did not meet her eye. “No. I want to go to Disney World.” “Florida? The whole state is a swamp.” “Is not. I’ve been before. Disney World is cool but this time I want all of us together.” “Your baby brother is awfully small.” “He can stay home with Keri, but you AND Mommy have to come. And Jason and his parents. All of us together.” “Yeah,” said Jason and crossed him arms over his chest. Starr followed suit. “That’s our price.” Blair looked over at RJ and Toni. Toni shrugged and gestured ‘Why not?’ with her hands. RJ tightened his mouth into a grimace. Todd whispered in her ear. “Blair, you know I don’t do happy. I’ll probably have a stroke in the happiest place on earth.” Blair smiled and then said, “Sounds like a good deal to me. And, Starr, your father is thrilled at the possibility.” Toni caught her eye and then smiled. She could obviously read Todd’s face. “We’re in,” said Toni. Blair smiled at her and tried not to laugh at RJ who thought he was smiling but looked like his was battling a bad case of gas. Jason and Starr jumped up and did a victory dance. “Now that’s settled,” said Blair, “let’s eat.” Everyone seemed relieved. They all moved toward the dining room. Todd slipped beside her and said, “Disney World? With RJ Gannon? We are going to have to do some major negotiating tonight.” She brushed her lips across his cheek and whispered, “I’m counting on it.”
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