Chapter Twenty
Friday, August 13, 1976
Beau Peterson was a man who was comfortable in his own skin. He moved with an easy grace and had a personality to match. His blond hair was a mass of loose curls that hung down the back of his neck. His blue eyes sparkled with an inner light and his features were so fine they almost bordered on feminine prettiness. Adding to his charm, was the fact that he was completely unaware of all of this. He just knew who he was and how to live in himself. Janie took his arm as they walked up the drive and into the backyard of Colin and Ellen McIntyre and were swallowed up in the chaos that was the McIntyres' annual end of summer barbeque.
"Janie! Oh, I'm so glad you could make it!" Ellen greeted her, taking the pan of brownies Beau had made. "These look delicious! Did you make them?"
"No, actually, my brother did. Ellen, this is Beau, my brother. Beau, Ellen McIntyre."
Beau took her hand and smiled warmly, "Nice to meet you, Ellen."
"You too, Beau. Come on, I'll introduce you to my husband Colin."
They followed her to the two large barbeque grills, where Colin stood, holding a spatula in one hand, talking animatedly to Ennis and Jack. Ellen made introductions, then disappeared to greet another guest. Jack put an arm around Janie and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Hi, Janie. How are you doin'?"
"I'm good, Jack. How are you? How's Bobby's arm?" Jack had called Janie the day of Bobby's accident to let her know right away what had happened.
"He's good. He gets kinda crabby that he can't swim fer the rest o' the summer, but folks 'round here keep telling me 'dog days' are startin' an' ain't no one gonna be able t' swim in the lakes." He leaned into her ear and whispered, "I don' know exactly what that means, you got any idea?"
She laughed and whispered back, "It has something to do with the temperature of the lake changing. All the stuff from the bottom comes to the top, so all the muck and weeds and stuff gets churned up and there's a lot more parasites in the water. You really don't want to swim in it."
"Oh, I see. Thanks, Janie. I'll tell Bobby that. Course, knowin' him, he'll wanna get right in there an' see all the parasites."
"Oh no!" she laughed.
"So, Beau, what're you gonna be doin' around here?"
"Well, I'm hoping to find someplace to work, so I can help Janie out with bills and stuff."
"He's an artist." Janie said, a hint of pride in her voice.
"Yeah, well, being an artist don't exactly pay the bills, little sister."
"You do any farm work? Work with horses?" Jack asked.
"A little. I worked on a small ranch a couple of summers ago."
Jack looked at Ennis, a question in his eyes. Ennis gave a barely perceptible shrug back and a tiny nod with his head.
"Two o' our farm hands is leavin' in September. Goin' ta college. We're lookin' t'hire someone t'replace them. Think you'd be interested?"
"Sure," Beau replied.
"Why don'tcha stop by on Monday, take a look around, see if you really want to work fer us."
"Okay, sounds good," he smiled at him, then looked across the yard at a new couple coming into the backyard. Janie watched his face change from mild interest to piqued interest in a heartbeat. She followed his gaze and saw Tyler and Kelly walking behind Ellen to a table that was already full of dishes of food, pans of bars, and plates of cookies.
Jack also saw them enter and glanced at Ennis to note the way his eyes skipped to Tyler and swiftly away again. Ennis had been avoiding Tyler for the past week, either begging off work to spend time with the girls, or only working alone or with Dayle and Dwayne. Tyler also made himself scarce and made sure to go another direction when it even looked like Ennis might be getting close to him. As for Jack and Ennis, they had not yet had a serious talk about the whole situation. Jack was biding his time, wanting Ennis to come to him when he was ready to talk about it. In his deepest heart, he could feel a twinge of fear and felt cowardly for not jumping on Ennis and demanding answers, but he also trusted Ennis and knew that if something terrible had happened, they would have already talked about it, or Ennis would have disappeared. Neither had happened, so Jack was willing to wait. For a while.
Janie grabbed Beau's arm, "Can you guys excuse us?" she asked, glancing back at Jack, Ennis, and Colin, not waiting for an answer. She walked up behind Kelly and touched her shoulder.
Kelly turned around and grinned, "Hi, Janie!" Even though there was about a five year gap in their ages, Kelly and Janie were becoming good friends. "Where've you been all week?"
"Hanging out with Beau."
"Oh yes, the infamous brother." Kelly looked up and noticed Beau.
Janie noted, with a hint of amusement and sadness, the flush that came to Kelly's cheeks. Another one bites the dust, she thought. Outwardly, she said, "Kelly, this is Beau. Beau, Kelly Bolduc."
"Hi, Kelly, nice to meet you," Beau sparkled at her.
"You too."
Tyler turned around and Janie was watching as his eyes met Beau's. And another one down, she thought wryly. "Beau, this is Tyler Cloud. He's a friend of Kelly's."
Tyler held his hand out for Beau and when their hands met, he felt a hum of energy run through his hand and up his arm. "Pleasure to meet you, Beau."
Beau's eyes locked on Tyler's and instead of the sparkle they'd given Kelly, they were infused with a slow smouldering that he had no control over. "The pleasure is mine, Tyler."
Janie stepped back, feeling almost like an intruder, "Well, I'll let you boys get acquainted."
Kelly looked from Tyler to Beau and restrained herself from rolling her eyes, before following Janie.
"Why didn't you warn me about your brother before I got sucked into his charms?"
"You saw what happened, too?"
"I think anyone in a ten mile radius sensed what happened. Damn." She was thoughtful for a moment. "Is that why you've been so understanding about Jack and Bobby?"
"It probably has a lot to do with it. It took me a long time to understand about Beau, but he's my brother and I love him. I know he's not a bad person, just because he's attracted to other men, but it isn't easy. If it's this hard for me, I can't even begin to imagine what it's like for him. Or Tyler. Or Jack and Ennis." She was quiet for a while, then added, "My parents still don't know. Well, my mom doesn't officially know, but I think she suspects. You know how moms are. My dad, though, would probably never speak to him again."
"Really?"
Janie nodded.
"Come on, let's go get a soda."
Jack and Ennis were sitting in lawn chairs by the fire talking to Rusty Anderson, owner of the feed store, when Anna, Nancy, and the twins arrived. Anna spotted him right away and motioned for him to come and talk to her.
"'Scuse me, guys," Jack said, standing up. He met her and she led him to the edge of the lawn where there was less chaos. "What's up, Anna?"
"I'm sorry, Jack, I hate to talk about this here. I was going to call you earlier, but I was on the phone for a long time and when I got off, you'd already left."
"What happened?"
"I was on the phone with Rick Lawson, L.D.'s lawyer. Somehow, he found out that Bobby broke his arm. He was all set to file another motion for temporary custody before the trial starts, based on endangerment–saying Bobby isn't safe in your care." Jack's face turned stony and his fists clenched. Anna put her hand on his arm. "Calm down, I got good news. I talked to him for a long time and told him what happened. Told him that Kelly saw what happened and it wasn't anyone's fault. Stuff like that happens everyday to kids. I talked him out of filing the motion."
Jack relaxed a bit, but then a deep frown crossed his face. "Wait a minute. How did he find out about Bobby's broken arm? Bobby hasn't talked to him or Faye all week."
"I don't know, Jack, he didn't say. That's the part that concerns me. L.D. may have hired someone around here to keep an eye on you or he may have even hired a private detective."
"That fuckin' asshole," Jack hissed. "Have you been able t'find anything on him?"
"Just that he treats his employees kind of shitty. We can't find out much about what kind of parent he was because Lureen's gone and any information we could get from when she was a kid would be so old I'm sure the judge wouldn't even take it into consideration. Even so, her old teachers I've talked to haven't said anything bad, anyway. Remember, Jack, what we have on our side is what's going on now. Bobby loves you and wants to stay with you. He's too young to decide where he wants to live, but we can let the judge know how he feels. It helps to have a social worker on our side, too. Don't give up hope. Just keep doing what you do best–be a good father to your son."
"I can do that."
"I know you can, Jack. Now, I need something to drink."
Kelly took a drink of her Pepsi. "Look at those two."
"Maybe we should go help them."
"I think you're right." Kelly and Janie walked over to Dayle and Dwayne, who had gathered all the kids into a group and were attempting to play Simon Says. "Hey, can we play?"
Bobby hugged her around the waist, "Yes! Stand by me, Kelly, please?"
She laughed and pinched his nose lightly, "Okay, but you keep that cast under control. I don't want you knocking me out with it!" Earlier in the day she'd been helping him change his shirt and he'd accidentally hit her in the nose. Nothing was broken, but she definitely saw stars for a few minutes.
"I will."
"Maybe we should start over," Dayle said. It was met with a chorus of agreement. "Okay, everyone get back in the group!" All the kids got into a loose group, giggling and pushing each other. "Settle down, settle down! Ready? Okay, Simon Says . . . raise your hands!" A wave of hands went up in the air. "Okay, put your hands down!" Three or four sets of hands went down. "Uh-oh, Simon didn't say to put your hands down." There was some groaning while the ones who put their hands down left the group. "All right, Simon Says . . . jump up and down." Dayle met Janie's eyes with a mischievous twinkle in his. "Simon Says stop jumping!" and so on, until Junior and Emma McIntyre were the last ones standing and agreed they won by a tie.
Janie stood by Dayle as the kids all scattered, "You're a naughty, naughty boy, Dayle."
His green eyes twinkled back at her, "I'm a young man. It's not my fault two beautiful young ladies joined the game and made it more interesting."
Janie blushed prettily while Kelly and Dwayne exchanged amused glances. Dwayne looked at her, "Have you thought anymore about going to the community college, Kelly?" They started walking towards the soda cooler together.
"I think I'm going to do it. I started the paperwork today."
"I'm glad."
"When are you guys leaving for St. Scholastica?"
"August 31. We have a couple of days of orientation and then classes start on Thursday."
"Are you nervous?"
"No. I think it'll be fun. And it's close enough we can drive home whenever we get lonely or miss mom and Anna. Or have dirty laundry!"
"I bet your mom is happy you'll be close."
"She is and she keeps reminding us about it," he smiled and looked at his mom fondly. She wasn't close enough to hear their conversation, but she had that sixth sense that mothers seem to have and met his eyes, a smile on her own lips.
"Dwayne, can I ask you something?" They'd gotten a soda and found a couple of chairs near the fire, but far enough away to provide some privacy. "Was it hard for you, growing up, with your mom and Anna? You know, living together?"
He hesitated before answering.
"I'm sorry, if you don't want to talk about it, that's fine. It's just . . . you and Dayle always seemed so cool about it, but lately I've found myself wondering how it really was for you."
"It's fine–I don't mind talking about it. It was hard sometimes, knowing we weren't like other families. Dayle and I always made a point to be involved in school stuff, sports and clubs, you know that. I think it helped. Mom and Anna being pretty prominent citizens helped, too. They did what they could to protect us, but they lived by their own terms. I admire them for that."
Kelly looked at him with new eyes. The twins had always seemed to exude an aura of being playboys, but she realized suddenly, that it was on purpose.
"You really like Jack and Ennis, don't you? And Bobby, of course."
"I do. They're becoming like family to me. Junior and Franny, too. I think it's terrible that Jack has to fight to keep his own son. It's wearing him down. It's wearing them all down, actually." Kelly had picked up on the tension in the house, even though Jack and Ennis had tried to hide it, for the kids' sake. "I know they want the whole thing to be over, but at the same time, they're so afraid of Bobby being taken away." They were silent for a while, watching the fire dance and weave in the growing darkness.
"So, are you seeing anyone?" Dwayne finally asked, already knowing the answer.
"No."
"Maybe we could catch a movie sometime."
Kelly looked at him sideways, a small smile on her lips, "I'd like that."
"I like to paint, but mostly I draw and sketch." Beau was saying. "I travel around a lot and it's too hard to take all my painting stuff with me. I leave it at my parents house."
"You travel a lot? Where've you been?"
"All over. My dad was in the army, so he dragged us all over the country and even over to Germany for a couple of years. I guess it got in my blood, that need to see what's out there," he waved his arms in a large, vague gesture. "Janie's been after me to come out here. I think she gets homesick."
"Are you planning on staying for a while?" Tyler asked.
"I don't know. Probably, if I can find a job. Doesn't seem to be a lot of them around here. Though, I did get a job offer today. Farm work. Jack Twist said a couple of their farmhands are leaving, going to college. He asked if I was interested."
Tyler's eyes widened and he looked down, then up again. "That's where I work. Been there for about six years now."
"Do you like it? They good to work for?"
"Actually, they've only owned it for the last five months. Ennis inherited it from his uncle. Yeah, they're good guys," he added softly, looking down again.
A speculative look came over Beau's face as he watched Tyler's. He found the dark eyes and sensitive mouth set in the bronze-brown skin and long, dark hair a little foreign and intriguing. He was watching closely and didn't miss it when Tyler's eyes darted to Ennis, like a bullet to a target, before dropping again. Beau took another long look at Jack and Ennis, across the fire. They were seated next to each other, not touching, nothing conspicuous, until . . . Ennis looked up and met Jack's eyes and there was no mistaking the intimacy in them. He glanced back to Tyler and saw he'd seen the look between them, also, and had a closed, unhappy look on his face.
Beau cleared his throat, breaking the silence between them. "So, what's the story, are you gonna work there forever?"
"No. I'm already kind of looking for something different."
Beau didn't ask why; the answer was plain enough. "I hope you'll stay for a while. It'd be nice to work with someone I already know. Maybe we could get to know each other better."
Tyler raised his eyes to Beau's, sensing the deeper meaning in the words. "Sure, no, I'm not leaving for a while. Ennis's daughters are here visiting from Wyoming, so he's been real busy with them."
"Cool," Beau flashed him a smile, bright and beautiful, and was rewarded with a shy smile in return.
Dayle grabbed Janie's hand and dragged her with him to an area where the kids were playing music and dancing. "Dance with me."
"No!" she giggled, "This is just for the kids."
"Who cares? I feel like dancing." He pulled her into his arms and began an exaggerated two-step around the children, who were whirling and jumping around. She threw her head back and laughed, but followed along.
The fast song ended and a slower one began. Janie stopped, intending to step back, but Dayle pulled her close. "Dance with me?" his green eyes pleaded with her, a change in the mood and the air evident.
"O . . . okay," she stammered, as he took her hand in his and held it between them, his other hand around her waist. She looked into his eyes for a moment, before looking away, noticing as she did, that the children had all lost interest in dancing to a slow song and had moved away. They were alone, which she pointed out, adding, "Maybe we should join the rest of the group."
"I'd rather dance with you." She didn't know whether it was because of the two glasses of wine she'd had or because it was a full moon on Friday the thirteenth, but when he leaned forward and kissed her, she didn't resist. In fact, she leaned in and kissed him right back, before pulling away, breathing hard. She could barely see the emeralds of his eyes before he pulled her close and brushed her lips again. Soft at first, then with more urgency. And when his tongue touched her lips, instead of breaking away, like a minute corner of her mind was screaming at her to do, she parted her lips and drew his tongue into her mouth.
The kiss went on until, through the pounding of her heart, she heard very distinctly, "Dayle and Janie, sittin' in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" They broke apart to find themselves surrounded by a group of the younger children, who were pointing and giggling and singing that damn rhyme, " . . . first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Janie with a BABY CARRIAGE!"
Dayle grinned at them all, then made shooing motions with his hands, "All right, you little hoodlums, get out of here. Isn't it past all your bedtimes?"
"No!" He started to chase them and they scattered, leaving giggles in their wake.
Dayle came back to her, "Sorry about that. Let's find somewhere a little more private."
"Let's just go back to the fire. I don't know what came over me." Janie started back towards the rest of the adults, but looked back with an encouraging smile, noting as she did that his face lit up.
Jack crawled in bed next to Ennis, who was almost asleep. "That was fun. It was nice. Not too much excitement."
"Hmm . . . guess we could do with a little less excitement in our lives, don'cha think, Jack?"
"Yeah," Jack agreed softly, curling around Ennis.
