In every color
Chapter 4. Neon orange
When they finished eating, everyone collaborated to clear the table. Once everything was inside and the dishwasher was on, they went outside again.
"Come, Ty. Let's go for a walk," Jubal said to his son.
The two of them walked slowly around the house.
"Have you thought about whether you're going to talk to... that girl you like?"
Tyler looked at him apprehensively and flushed. He lowered his head and Jubal knew that his son knew that he knew. Well, then there was no need to beat around the bush.
"Have you told her already?" Tyler shook his head. Ugh, thank goodness. "You realize this is not the best time to do it, do you?"
His son seemed very frustrated. "But this morning you said-"
"I know what I said," Jubal interrupted calmly. "But I didn't have all the information either, did I?" Ty reluctantly agreed with him.
"We are Jess's guests," Jubal explained. "Guests at her father's house, Ty. Perhaps it is not the best of circumstances to... try to make progress. I know I don't have to tell you, but this weekend you have to be a real gentleman."
"But-"
"There're no 'buts'. It would be wrong to take advantage of their hospitality. Take advantage of their trust."
Tyler sighed. "You're right."
"It's okay. What were you about to say?"
"I don't know when I'll be able to see her in person again..." Ty complained.
"Don't worry about that. I will chauffeur you as many times as necessary." Tyler's look told him that he was very grateful but that he found it somewhat humiliating. "Or we can think of something you can do meeting halfway," Jubal suggested.
"I don't even know if she likes me, anyway," Tyler muttered dejectedly.
"Find it out. You have the rest of the weekend."
"I do not know how to do it. That is precisely why I wanted to ask her," Ty protested.
"Then just collect information. Be observant. How she reacts to what you say, to what you do. What does she like. What do you have in common..."
A small voice within Jubal jumped out saying that he might as well take his own advice. It caused him such uneasiness that he had to put the thought aside abruptly.
"I'm sure you already know enough, but knowing more will give you advantages later on."
Tyler nodded in understanding. And he began to smile. "And maybe I can ask him just before we go..."
Jess didn't want Tali to start dating boys yet, but maybe Jubal could speak to him on Tyler's behalf... "Maybe. We'll see, okay? And you know, be a gentleman."
"Of course, Dad," Ty replied willingly.
"And do you know what a gentleman does? To be Gallant. And girls fancy that," Jubal said with a wink. Tyler giggled.
·~·~·
As Sarah set out some jarapas on the lawn and Jess brought out glasses and a large pitcher of iced tea, Isobel watched Jubal and Tyler walk away.
She couldn't get out of her head the way Jubal had looked at her earlier. Her heartbeats had shot up at the intensity of his eyes, green in the summer light, at the warm inflection in his voice. 'You bet I do'. She just had been able to conceal it because she focused on serving him more dessert, but there was a hidden part of her that had longed for him to look at her like that once again. No, many more times.
Damn. She couldn't allow that to herself. Besides, all Jubal had done was asking her for more rice pudding, dammit. Isobel forced her eyes away from him and sighed, trying to clear herself, frustrated. She found Jess studying her with his scrutinizing eyes.
She managed to not panic. She smiled at and eluded him by going to her own car.
Isobel took a large bag out of the trunk, and carried it to the table. By then, Tyler and Jubal were already returning, and she was in control of herself again.
"Tali, Abi, Tyler," Isobel called. "I've brought something for you guys."
The kids approached as Isobel extracted the contents of the bag and placed it on the table.
First, one by one, three futuristic-designed bright fluorescent colors water pistols. The faces of the three of them lit up. Finally, she produced a huge water blaster decorated with striking neon orange stripes. The three boys rushed for it with exclamations of admiration and surprise.
"Wait," Isobel stopped them. "The one who carries the big one is drawn by lots. And the other three may go at the same time for him or her. But first of all…" she held the blaster one-handed, pointing its barrel toward the sky with purposeful air, "let's go get ammunition," she told them with a fierce grin that Jubal found absolutely irresistible.
Although he did his best to keep it from being noticed, he thought he saw Jess and Sarah, out of the corner of his eye, look at each other and suppress a laugh. Jubal pretended he hadn't seen them, and sat with Sarah on the jarapas while Jess took possession of the hammock hung between two trees.
They had their teas watching Isobel and the children play with the water guns running through the garden, ambushing and getting wet, between exclamations and laughter. From time to time, the orange blaster would change hands, and one of the pursuers would become pursued.
It was enormously comforting for Jubal to see Tyler play as vital as he had been before starting treatment. That joyful, energetic Ty really fueled Jubal's hopes.
After a while, Isobel left the game and sat down next to Sarah and Jubal, a little breathless but smiling. She sipped her cold tea.
Jubal lay down with one foot crossed on his bent knee, his hands behind his head; he took a deep breath and stared up at the sky, trying to relax from what had caused him to see Isobel running barefoot through the grass in a semi-wet sundress, not to mention having her now sitting next to him, panting and with her cheeks flushed from exercise.
The children passed by, chasing each other.
"The squirt guns have been a great idea, Isobel," Jubal said, his eyes following them. "They're having a great time. Thanks."
Isobel smiled, more pleased than she dared admit.
Ty rolled on the ground nimbly to avoid his sister. "Look at him," Jubal said, simply happy.
Isobel bit her lip, awed by the light from his face. "He looks to be doing well," she commented, cheerful. "I was afraid... he wouldn't feel like even playing."
"The first weeks were- they were tough. He's been so down and he had such a bad time…" Jubal's eyes unintentionally welled up. "The last tests have been positive, but... seeing him like this is what makes me really believe he is going to make a full recovery.
"I'm so glad..." Isobel murmured, her voice so charged with emotion that Jubal had to look at her.
He met black eyes, bright with affection. What they transmitted was so intense that Jubal's heart leaped inside his chest. She looked away, shy? Embarrassed? It did not matter because that look was inserted, inextricably entwined within Jubal. And tugged at him with almost irresistible force. Jubal sat up and searched her eyes, without success. For an instant, he was tempted to force her to look at him again. But then he remembered that Jess and Sarah were present, though suddenly they seemed to be trying to make themselves invisible. Jubal swallowed hard.
"Thank you," he answered hoarsely.
Terrified that she still couldn't quite define what had just happened to her, Isobel struggled to regain control of her emotions. Meanwhile, she put a friendly but generic smile on her face, which left Jubal visibly confused.
An awkward silence grew fat, threatening to become simply monstrous. Fortunately, Sarah knew how to react.
"More tea? Jubal, how did you meet Jess? At work, right?" she changed the subject as she refilled everyone's glasses.
Jubal cleared his throat and made an effort to regain his balance so he could answer. "Yes, that's right. We met nine years ago and worked together for a while," said Jubal, as Jess nodded. "We've helped each other through some tough times..."
"I've had the craziest stories with this guy in my entire career," Jess added.
"Really?" asked Sarah, intrigued. "For example?"
Jess and Jubal looked at each other and smiled. "Brace yourselves", said Jubal.
·~·~·
"And we went to look for this individual at his house," Jubal continued the anecdote he was telling.
Isobel watched him without being able to take her eyes off his dazzling smile, his expression once again full of vivacity. She blessed Sarah for got them out of the awkward moment, a few minutes ago. However, although she was relieved, Isobel would not assume she had slipped up. She continued to refuse to admit that something was going on inside her. She simply didn't want to think about it.
"As we arrived," Jubal continued, diving into the story to put his unease behind him. Talking always calmed him when he was troubled, "for starters, Jess and I already heard, as we crossed the front lawn, that the music was playing very, very loud.
He gestured to Jess who from the hammock confirmed it with laughing eyes. In the background, the joyous racket from Abi, Tali and Tyler could be heard, who continued their water shooting.
"We knocked on the door," he continued. "And open it for us... a guy in a chicken costume. Yes, yellow, crest and all," he added to the surprised faces of Sarah and Isobel, and held up his hand for them to wait, cause there was still more. Jess was biting his lips. "Behind him," Jubal gestured with his hands, "a monumental rumpus, because there's a party going on inside the house that, if it hasn't already, is about to reach its highest degree of rampage." Isobel and Sarah giggled as he continued. "We ask for the house's owner, but chicken-guy does not hear us because the music is at such volume that could bring the house down. Jess and I went in and show our badges, we keep asking but there must have been like two hundred people there." He paused dramatically. "All of them in disguise. So everyone gives us the thumbs up and congratulates us on our costumes, but they really don't pay any attention to us, because they are drunk and don't hear what we say anyway."
Isobel laughed out loud, and heard Sarah do the same. Jess's body was shaking because he was laughing silently. But the story did not end there.
"We shoved our way through, trying to reach for the stereo to turn it down. And as we move forward, people begin to give us drinking; a girl hangs herself on Jess' neck trying to get him to make out with her... Someone groped me and I swear I don't know if it was a she or a he."
Isobel covered her mouth with her hand, trying to control her laughs. Sarah didn't even try: she laughed out even louder, leaning on Isobel for support.
"So Jess walks past a guy who was chanting the song that was playing through a megaphone. He rips it out of his hand and yells, 'FBI! The party is over!' And people there... just went nuts. They began to scream as if we were the star number of the night."
By then Sarah was rolling on the floor and Isobel couldn't stop laughing.
"I almost draw and shoot into the air. Fortunately, Jess got me out of there before. It took four patrol cars to break up the party.
"Fuf, now I'm laughing but at the time I had a hard time," Jess said, wiping the tears from his eyes.
"And in the end the guy wasn't even home!" Jubal exclaimed.
They all roared with laughter.
·~·~·
"So I hear Jubal say the safe word to intervene, right?" Jess was telling. He had left the hammock to sit with them, and this time it was he who recalled a tale. Jubal had tried to stop him from doing so, but his reluctance had only further piqued Isobel's curiosity, and especially Sarah's, who insisted Jess tell them about it until he agreed.
The laughs from earlier had finally managed to ease the tension. Meanwhile, they continued to watch the children play. Jubal used the spare squirt gun to shoot them, indolent but malicious, some treacherous squirts of water when they came within range.
"We run out," Jess continued, "and break into the hotel suite. When I enter the bedroom... I find him lying on the bed with his shirt open and the suspect woman on top him. Quite an attractive woman, by the way. And she..." he shrugged, raising expressive eyebrows, "is eating him alive."
Jess, Isobel, and Sarah both laughed. Jubal slumped back, covering his face with his hand, embarrassed, but laughed with the others.
"My friend here," Jess added, "didn't look like he was resisting at all, I don't know if I'm making myself clear..."
"Easy for you to say. You weren't the one with a knife pointed to your groin!" Jubal protested, laughing. "I did what I had to do to protect my… physical integrity," he justified himself, causing more laughter.
To her own shame, Isobel couldn't help but find the story… suggestive. She blinked, trying not to get carried away and not think of Jubal with his shirt open or, specifically, of his 'physical integrity'.
"Hey, I offered you to come back a bit later," Jess defended himself, making Sarah and Isobel laugh even more.
"Yes, you did. You bastard…" Jubal complained falsely bitter, and shot Tyler, who was passing by at the moment, right in the face.
Fed up with his father's offside, Ty whirled around and began to riddle him with the orange rifle. Abi and Tali immediately joined in with enthusiasm, also eager for revenge, and suddenly, all three of them were wetting him at the same time. Jubal roared in mock anger, while Jess, Isobel, and Sarah, laughing out loud, scrambled to avoid becoming collateral victims.
~.~.~.~