Strangely Normal - By Tess Oliver Page 0,31
candy. And I talked to your dad a minute, but it kind of sounded like he was hyperventilating because I mentioned that he should come out here when my dad was in town. Your mom took the phone back and told him to breathe into a paper bag.”
“Way to keep your cool, Dad,” I muttered. “Does she want me to call her?”
“Nope. She said she’d call you as soon as they got back.”
“Up north? I wonder where?”
“Your mom said something about near Yosemite.”
“Whoa, all the way up there?”
“Hey, I’m just the messenger. Now get out of bed. I’m going to go work out in the gym. Do you want to join me?”
I pulled my legs around to the side of the bed. “I probably should do something in the form of exercise. Jude won’t be there, will he?”
“Nah, I think he’s painting already. I saw a model walking to the pool house.”
I looked over at her. “Those women that visit him, those are models?”
She laughed. “Yes.” She laughed again. “I guess you thought he was entertaining all kinds of women out there. Not that Jude hasn’t had an obscene amount of girlfriends, but a different one every week would be a lot even by his standards.” She shook her head as she walked to the door. “Too funny.”
She closed the door behind her, and I wanted to kick myself for feeling ridiculously relieved that they were only models. Then I wondered just how many an obscene amount would be.
Finley and I hopped up onto two side-by-side exercise bikes, but we did far more gabbing than riding.
“After yesterday’s excursion, I think I’m ready to go a good ten steps past the hedge,” Finley said brightly.
“Let’s make it a place this time and not just a ten steps. Maybe a tree, or something.”
“There are two apricot trees about a third of the way across the lawn. I used to go out there and pick them in summer. But they’re kind of far out there.” For a few seconds her mind seemed to be humming like the gears on the stationary bikes. “Let’s do it. There isn’t any fruit yet, but there will be next month and then maybe I can pick some again. They’re really good apricots and I can never get Jude or Cole out there to pick them.”
“I suppose if there were steaks or hamburgers growing on the tree, you’d have better luck with that.”
“So true. They’re like a couple of cavemen when it comes to food. Me want saber tooth flank steak, no green stuff.”
The door to the gym opened and Cole walked in.
“Hey,” Finley called to him, “it’s ladies’ day at the gym.”
He walked over and hopped up on a treadmill but didn’t turn it on. “Great. I love ladies’ day.”
Finley stopped her bike. “We’re done here, so you can have the place to yourself.”
The door opened again and Jude walked in.
Finley threw her towel over her shoulder. “It’s like you two have radar or something.” She looked over at me. “Trust me, they don’t usually follow me around like this. It all has to do with you.” She glanced toward Jude. “Thought you were painting.”
“That model wasn’t right. I wasn’t inspired.” Jude walked over to the panel on the wall and music blared out of the speakers. Finley and I made a quick escape.
By the time we’d showered and eaten, Finley had talked herself out of the apricot tree excursion, and I decided not to push the point. She seemed distracted and tense at the prospect of seeing Max, so it was probably a mistake to adventure out of her comfort zone.
Tilly, the housekeeper, called to us on the intercom while we rinsed breakfast dishes. “Miss King, there’s a package for you.”
Finley’s eyes rounded. “Your suit is here. Perfect. The morning fog has cleared, and we can get some color before tonight.”
I stood looking in the mirror pulling at the meager amounts of pink fabric and when that didn’t work, I began pushing at my skin to see if I could tuck more of it underneath the skimpy suit. The brief meeting with the lawyer had had me so flustered, I hadn’t really taken a good, critical look at the suit. It was definitely the most revealing suit I’d ever worn or imagined wearing.
Finley knocked and walked in. “I can’t wait to see it.” Her heavily glossed bottom lip dropped. “Uh oh, you’d better wrap up in a towel.”
“Maybe I should put the old one back on.