Wendy Wax - The House on Mermaid Point

“Look, I know this isn’t the moment to push for any kind of decision. But I love you and I’m pretty sure you love me. And I think it would be very cool to finish growing up together.”

“I do love you. But the rest of it . . . I don’t know. I can’t seem to think all that clearly right now.” Tears welled. She who had faced most of the disasters in her life completely dry-eyed seemed ready to spill a waterfall at the slightest thing. “Who knows how long we even have? Look at what happened to Deirdre.”

Joe squeezed her hand. “I think what happened to Deirdre is a huge sign not to put things off. Because none of us really know how much time we have left. It doesn’t have to be complicated, Nikki. I want to spend my life with you. Exactly how we do it, well, I guess that part is open to negotiation.” Joe leaned across the console and kissed her. “But don’t make me pull out the big guns. Nobody’s more persuasive than Nonna Sofia. I think she gave the Godfather lessons.”

Nicole watched him stride to the counter broad shouldered and confident. He was a man who loved wholeheartedly and was more than strong enough to be leaned on. She on the other hand wasn’t sure she possessed the nerve to risk her heart and had never really learned the art of leaning. She hoped she could learn to do both before he gave up on her.

* * *

The paparazzi were still jostling each other outside the Hardins’ later that afternoon when the UPS truck arrived. Kyra had been staying away from the front of the house, but she and Dustin were alone when the delivery guy carried a package up the front steps and rang the doorbell.

She waited for him to leave it, figuring she’d wait until his back was turned to retrieve the legal-sized envelope. His brown-clad back might hide her and she was afraid to leave anything outside that one of the photographers, frustrated by the lack of photographable activity, might help himself to.

The doorbell rang again.

She peered through the peephole. The UPS man held up the envelope and the electronic signature thingy he carried. She studied him for a long moment. He had a fringe of short dark hair, Clark Kent glasses, and a bit of a paunch straining against his brown uniform jacket.

Kyra opened the door. “I’ll just need your signature, ma’am.” He turned the signature device toward her.

The voice didn’t match the man in the uniform at all. In fact, it was . . . “Daniel?” A smile tugged at her lips.

“Don’t smile,” he said quietly. “And for God’s sake don’t laugh.”

“Sorry.” She’d seen him as an old man, a high-heeled woman, and most recently a pool maintenance man. The last time she’d seen him all he’d been wearing was a smile. “Brown’s a good color for you.”

“Thanks.” He flashed his dimple at her. “Here. Take your time signing.”

“Do you want to come in?”

“Too suspicious, I think. Do you normally invite delivery guys inside?”

“Only if they’re really cute.”

His dark eyes flashed behind the glasses.

“Only joking. Why are you here?”

“I wanted to make sure you’re okay.”

Her heart did that horrible flip-flop that she was still trying to control. “Thanks. It’s awful, but we’re doing all right.”

“Good. Dustin?”

“He’s fine. He’s napping right now. Did you want to see him?”

“Can’t. I think we’ve been talking longer than normal.”

She’d signed for as long as she thought she could get away with. “So what’s in the envelope? Or is it just a prop?”

“It’s the deed and the key to Bella Flora.”

Obviously she’d misheard. She peered again into his eyes. He looked completely serious.

“I don’t understand.”

“I bought it for you and Dustin. I was just waiting for the right time to tell you.”

“You might have brought this up on the Fourth of July, when we could have actually talked about it.”

“I was busy.” He winked at her.

She held the envelope tight against her chest. It was an incredibly sweet and generous gift. As long as it didn’t come with strings attached. “So you’re giving this to us free and clear,” she said carefully. “Even if I never sleep with you again?”

“Never sounds like an awfully long time.”

“Even so?”

“Even so.”

She leaned forward under the guise of asking him a question and placed a kiss on his forehead. “I don’t know if you realize just how much this will mean to all of us, but thank you. You’re much nicer than you sometimes act.”

“Can’t be an asshole all the time.” He smiled his movie star smile at her.

“Can I ask you one last favor?” she asked as he prepared to leave.

Daniel Deranian nodded.

“Give me some time to get an unlisted number before you tell your wife.”

“No problem. I’m in no rush to explain this to Tonja, myself.”

“And when you back the truck out will you see if you can mow down a couple of the paparazzi? Just to even out the playing field a little?”

“I’ll see what I can do,” he said with a UPS-deliveryman-like nod. “Give Dustin a hug from me.”

The following night the four of them climbed into the minivan and drove over the Howard Frankland Bridge to St. Petersburg, ultimately winding their way south on Gulf Boulevard to the tip of Pass-a-Grille. They were headed to Bella Flora to toast the sunset, each other, and especially Deirdre Morgan.

Maddie pulled into the bricked drive of Ten Beach Road. Bella Flora’s white-trimmed pink stucco walls and bell towers contrasted beautifully against the pale blue sky. The low-walled front garden was lush but well maintained. The dolphin fountain at its center gurgled happily. Like the house in Atlanta, it was a place she had poured her heart and hopes into.

“She looks good.” Avery got out of the passenger seat and went around to open the cargo door.

Maddie looked closely at her daughter’s face, unable to read her mood or her expression. The outing had been Kyra’s idea. “I don’t like being here without permission.”

“It’s okay, Mom. We’re just going to be on the back deck for an hour or so. No one will know we were ever here.” She gave Maddie that wide-eyed innocent look that meant something was up. “Come on. We don’t have that long until sunset.”

They carried a small cooler with chilled white wine and hors d’oeuvres around to the loggia. A grocery bag held crusty French bread and an industrial-sized bag of Cheez Doodles. Nicole had brought four wine goblets.

“Everything’s just like we left it.” Maddie took in the outdoor furniture, flipped on the fans over the table and chairs on the loggia, and watched them turn lazily. Even Dustin’s playhouse sat in the corner with its back to the brief strip of no-man’s-land between the house and the jetty.

“Do you remember how awful she looked and smelled the first time we saw her?” Nicole shuddered.

Bella Flora had come complete with birds’ nests, holes in the roof, and a gag-worthy rolled-up bathing suit smell. They fell silent as they remembered what it had taken to bring back Bella Flora to her former elegance.

“Do you remember when Deirdre first showed up and we thought she was an intruder?” Kyra asked.

“Yeah, an intruder with matching designer luggage who’d taken over the master suite before she’d even said hello.” Maddie smiled at the memory.

They settled around the wrought-iron table, spreading their food and drink across its top.

“I brought the caviar and fixings in Deirdre’s honor,” Nicole said. She passed out plastic plates and poured them each a glass of Chardonnay.

Avery opened the Cheez Doodles. “I’ll never be able to eat one of these again without remembering how much they annoyed her.” Her smile was crooked. “That was half the fun.”

Sea oats swayed slightly and a parasailer floated in the air down the stretch of white sand beach.

“To Deirdre Morgan. Who transformed every house we touched into something uniquely beautiful.” Avery toasted.

“To Deirdre. Who always looked ready for her close-up.” Kyra raised her glass.

“To Deirdre,” Maddie added. “Who loved her daughter and who finally managed to let that daughter know just how much she meant to her.”

They tipped their glasses to Avery.

“To my mother.” Avery smiled, but her voice broke on the word.

“To Deirdre, who told the network to shove Do Over up its ass.” Nicole touched her glass to theirs.

“She did go out in style, didn’t she?” Kyra mused. “I got a text today from Troy that Lisa Hogan has been fired.”

“I’ll drink to that!” Nicole sipped on her wine and the others followed suit. “What happened?”

“Apparently her bosses were not impressed with her vulgarity or her demands that their crew shoot Deirdre’s collapse.” Kyra reached for a Cheez Doodle.

“How did her bosses know?” Maddie asked.

“Troy refused to film Deirdre, but he did shoot every ugly minute of Lisa Hogan’s tirade. Then he sent the footage to her boss at the network.” Kyra’s voice was filled with pleasure.

They fell quiet as they sipped and ate and watched the sun begin to turn from gold to red as it hovered over the Gulf, its reflected brilliance shimmering beneath it. Maddie knew they could all feel Deirdre’s absence. But they could feel her presence, too.

There was comfort here in Bella Flora’s warm plaster walls and the way she seemed to hunker almost protectively behind them. “I thought the Millicent was a fabulous house and Mermaid Point was pretty spectacular—”

“We all know what you liked most about Mermaid Point, Maddie,” Nicole teased.

Maddie blushed but continued. “But, I was going to say before I was so rudely interrupted, there’s only one Bella Flora.”

They raised their glasses as the puddle of red sun oozed into the Gulf. “To Bella Flora.”

“No matter who she belongs to, she’ll always be ours. Because we’re the ones who brought her back and we know she did the same for us. We’re the ones who know and love her best.” Maddie put down her glass, afraid she was going to cry.

“Maybe Do Over’s not over.” Kyra took a sip of her drink and stared at the sky. “Lisa Hogan kept downplaying the size of our audience, but Do Over must have some kind of following. With her gone maybe they’ll assign someone a little less . . .”

“. . . crass and mean-spirited?” Nicole prompted.

“Exactly. Maybe her replacement will be open to what we had in mind in the first place—more renovation, less reality.” Kyra smiled. “Troy gave me the name of the new production head. I left a message for him this morning.”

“And if they’re not interested we could approach another network,” Maddie said, realizing just how freeing Lisa Hogan’s removal could be. “Or if it came down to it and we wanted to, we could probably shoot and produce it ourselves and then sell it to another network. That would allow us to maintain control.”

“We could,” Nicole enthused. “I could handle the sales. I still know people in the movie and television business.”

“I love working with Chase in the business our fathers founded, but I’d really like to continue with Do Over, too.” Avery seemed to have shrugged off her sadness at least temporarily. “If we produced it ourselves we could control what projects we undertook and where.”

There was a buzz of excitement around the table. Maddie watched their faces; all of them reflected the same sense of possibility that simmered inside her. She, Madeline Singer, was fifty-one and single. The rest of her life, however long it might be, lay spread before her, infinite in possibility.

Because of all they’d been through she was a far different person than she’d ever imagined: stronger, more competent, definitely more resilient. She could do things she’d never even dreamed about; her life could be anything she wanted it to be. And if Deirdre’s unexpected death had taught her anything it was not to squander time or feelings.

She looked down at her phone. Her thumbs moved of their own volition. When the message was finished she didn’t hesitate or reread it; she just pressed “send.”

“Who are you texting, Mom?” Kyra asked. “You know your thumbs tend to get you in trouble.”

“No one special.” She could feel herself grinning like a goon.

They laughed at her knowingly and she took a long sip of her drink. Before she could swallow it there was the ding of an incoming text. She looked down at the screen and blushed with pleasure, which faded only slightly when she read the message from William. Not sure whose “dick” you’re watching sunset on right now, but wish you’d come back and do that here.