"The first time we ignored it, but after a month, Steve went over there, and the crazy bat laughed and slammed the door in his face." Caroline took a bottle of kitchen cleaner and sprayed her already spotless counter, then picked up the rag and began scrubbing with a vengeance.
"Now"—Caroline sighed—"she's complaining about the property line. She's probably out there pulling up markers even as we speak. Forty-seven empty houses in this place, and the only other occupied one is next to us. Is it a nice young family with kids the same age as ours? No. It's the crazy mother of the crazy contractor who went bankrupt and is now trying to drive me completely crazy." She turned to her husband. "I swear, if she so much as crosses a toe over our property line during Cassie's party, I'll—"
"Call the police!" Steve supplied.
"No, Steve, our daughter is not going to be the only child in preschool to have the cops bust up her birthday party. "
Madelyn tossed her hands into the air. "Lance, don't look at us," she said. "Turn away. This is not a proud moment for the James family. I am so ashamed." She turned and went through the French doors and out onto the patio.
Julia watched her mother leave, and then she wondered where her normally docile sister had gone. Caroline must have read Julia's mind, because she held her hands out to her side and said, "Myrtle makes me crazy."
"I hope my being here didn't embarrass your mother too much," Lance said.
"Don't worry about it. There's dip out there. That's all she really needs," Caroline said and threw the rag into the sink.
"Where are the munchkins?" Julia asked, looking around for her niece and nephew.
"Oh, no," Caroline said. "You need a shower and a nap first. Trust me." She pushed Julia toward the stairs. "Steve, get Nina's keys and bring Julia's bags in. Lance's, too. They've got to clean up. And then I want you to go get the spray paint in the garage and mark the ground between the stakes so that we'll know where the line is when the fence people show up."
"But, honey—" Steve started. One look at Caroline changed his tune to "Yes, dear," and the Hello Kitty hat was out the door.
"There you are, sleepyhead," Julia's father said.
"Hi Daddy," Julia said, and leaned down to kiss the top of his head. After a long shower and a quick nap, the only thing she needed to feel completely renewed was the sight of her father sitting in the formal living room, reading the newspaper, his bifocals low on his nose. "It's good to see you, honey."
"You, too," she said, taking a seat on the edge of the table in front of him.
He folded his paper and said, "You almost missed the party."
Julia grinned. "Isn't that what you're doing?" He smiled and adjusted his grip on the paper and said, "If I lay quiet enough, they'll forget about me, and I might just get ii done."
She watched her father shift in the tasteful furniture, and she could tell that even here, in his youngest daughter's enormous house, he felt fenced in. Bill James was a man for whom ax thousand square feet would never be enough room. And as Julia sat there, studying him, she realized that the older, the more she became her father's daughter.
"Have we had any rain?" she asked him.
He nodded his head and said, "Enough."
"How are we for hay?"
"Good shape. Good shape. I think we're going to get that bull bought."
"That's great," she said, feigning normalcy, but her breaking throat betrayed her. "Daddy ..."
"It's okay, sweetie," he said. His big hands fell over both of hers, the universal father signal for you're still my little girl. "It's gonna be okay," he told her. "Now, go, enjoy the party."
She hugged him, then moved toward the noise.
"But I'd watch out for Ro-Ro," he called after her.
Through the French doors of the family room, Julia saw that Cassie and her friends were engaged in a fiery game o duck-duck-goose on the back lawn. Ro-Ro was settled on a wicker chair, with Steve waiting dutifully at her side. A number of parents stood around, playing referee. But Julia didn’t' follow the action; she followed the voices.
"I like him," Nina said as Julia neared the kitchen. "He laughs when he's supposed to, and he wears good shoes. You can tell a lot about a man by his shoes."
"I don't think it matters what we think. Julia doesn't like him," Caroline stated flatly.
"How can you tell?" Nina asked.
"Because men make Julia uncomfortable."