No, whatever happened, she needed to be the adult and not let the sight of his beautiful, gorgeous, naked body make her do something that she’d regret.
She remembered when her mother had first seen Kit. She’d dropped by to give Livie a chinois and pestle to make liver pâté and Kit had walked by on his way to the pond. As usual, he had on very little clothing.
Her mother lowered her reading glasses and watched him walk the entire distance, until he disappeared in the trees. “Now I understand.”
Her tone was so suggestive that Olivia was shocked. “Mother!”
“Dear, you may have come late in life to your father and me, but we spent whole years trying to create you.”
Olivia was so stunned that she couldn’t speak.
Mrs. Paget opened her car door. “Actually, young Kit reminds me of your father at that age. Don’t you just love those flat, washboard stomachs?” As her mother started the engine, she said, “Have fun, dear. And I hope you do everything your father and I did.” Laughing at her daughter’s continued silence, she drove away.
After The Great False Alarm, as Letty’s father dubbed Uncle Freddy’s near death, things changed. Bill had a right to be sarcastic. Because of what happened, he got a lot more work dumped on him. In the past, he’d had the whole thirty-five acres to oversee. High school kids were hired to help, but he said that ever since Woodstock happened last year, all the kids wanted to do was smoke grass and grow hair.
Then Kit had arrived and taken over nearly everything. For the first time since their daughter was born, he and Nina’d had time to themselves. Bill smiled. Lots of time to themselves.
But since the near tragedy, Kit spent most of his time giving physical training lessons. He gave two swimming sessions a day to the children, and he spent an hour in the water with the old men. Mr. Gates had never been able to swim, but he needed to help Uncle Freddy, so Kit worked with both of them.
Kit said that Mr. Gates had some muscle on him. After all, he’d been lifting Uncle Freddy for years, but since he hated the water, that caused problems. Kit had to do a lot of coaxing. As for Uncle Freddy, Kit said that marshmallows had more muscle than he did.
Olivia learned to tell the cleaning women when they called in sick that the work would be waiting for them. Every day, she put on a swimsuit and helped Kit with the lessons. And she started a dance class that everyone—kids, old men, Kit, Bill and Nina—participated in. Livie was sure Mr. Gates was recovering when he said he’d do any ridiculous thing she came up with just to see her in a pink leotard.
On Sunday, Kit and Olivia drove Ace to the hospital to see his mother. They’d even taken her a big slice of chocolate cake. She’d been barely coherent but she’d smiled at her son, and Kit had held the boy so he could kiss her cheek.
It was taking a while, but everyone was coming back to life after the near-death experience.
One day when he was on his way to the orchard where he was going to help Kit with the mowing, Bill waved to his wife and Livie. They were sitting at the big picnic table at the side of their little house and snapping and stringing a couple of bushels of green beans. They planned to can them that afternoon and promised that they’d make his favorite dilly beans.
As Bill left, he didn’t see the two girls coming down the old brick path.
“Olivia!” Betty Schneider called.
Olivia was sitting across from Nina, her back to the young woman, and she squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. “What did I do to deserve this?” she muttered. It took all her acting training to get her face under control and put a smile on before she turned around.
Betty and her friend Shirley Williamson were coming toward them. Olivia had gone to high school with the two girls. They’d been quite popular as they were pretty in a cute way and they’d had all the latest clothes. Sweaters with a padded cutout of a horse on the back, kilted skirts with brass buckles, a circle pin on every Peter Pan collar, with matching bows in their hair. They’d headed every committee, had the top athletes for boyfriends, and never did anything wrong. They were perfect!
As for Livie, she was so involved in the theater group that she just tried to get to class with no paint on her face.
“Olivia!” Shirley said. “How wonderful to see you.”
To Livie’s consternation, Shirley leaned forward to kiss Olivia’s cheek, and Betty followed.
“That’s how they do it in New York, isn’t it? Or is that in France? I get those mixed up.” Shirley giggled in a way that said she believed she was still cute.
Olivia stepped back. “This is Nina Tattington. Her husband—”
“Tattington? Do you own this old place?” Betty asked.
“No, my husband and I just work here for the summer.”
As they were scrutinizing Nina, sizing her up, Olivia was looking at them. They were as dressed up and made up as stage performers. Betty’s eyebrows had been plucked until there was little left of them, and Shirley’s hair had been ironed flat. No kinky curls were left in it.
They had on skirts so tight they were like sausage casings and their blouses were open down to their bras. Their legs were encased in panty hose and their feet squashed into the pointed toes of high heels.
What do they want? Olivia wondered. Her mother had kept her filled in on the town gossip so Olivia knew that these two hadn’t had the perfect lives they’d expected. Betty had married her high school football player, but they’d divorced a year later and he’d moved to California. Shirley’s boyfriend broke their engagement after she’d been wearing his ring for four years. Olivia’s mother said the boy had volunteered for Vietnam rather than marry Shirley.
When he got back, he’d immediately married some girl who Shirley had always considered beneath her.