Back to Square One (Brandon Bay Babes) (8 page)

Blushing like a schoolgirl, Jasmine looked away.
 
“I call ‘em like I see ‘em Kit, nothing more.”
 
Raising her eyes back to her friend, she beamed at her.
 
“So you’re gonna do it?
 
Paint, I mean.”

Kit beamed back at her.
 
Her enthusiasm was contagious.
 
“Yeah, I think I will.
 
In fact, I’m going to go over to Williams Art Store and get some supplies right now!
 
What do think of that?”

Jasmine clapped her hands, which Kit had learned in a very short time was her version of the happy dance.
 
“What will you paint first?”

“Hmm.
 
I think the sea.
 
I really love the sea.”

Looking worried, Jasmine bit her lip.
 
“Shouldn’t you start with something like a fruit bowl or some flowers?”

Kit smiled at her concern.
 
“Don’t worry Jas, I’m not planning on becoming Picasso overnight.
 
Rome wasn’t built in a day!”

“That sounds like something your mother would say”

Throwing her hand over her mouth, Kit was horrified.
 
“Oh God.
 
It did.
 
I sounded just like her.”

“There are worse people you could end up being like than your mother Kit.
 
I’d be Gladys in a minute if the opportunity ever magically presented itself to switch places.” Jasmine told her with a straight face.

“But, but … why?” she asked in bewilderment.

“Spend some time with her and you’ll figure it out.” Jasmine said mysteriously.

“Ya think?”

“Definitely.
 
You and your mother seem to have a difficult relationship, but I think it’s because you’re more alike than you care to admit.
  
I’m positive it will all work out for the two of you.”

“But how, and
when
?
 
It seems we’ve been on tenterhooks for years.”

“It takes time to unload baggage, open the suitcases and air the past.
 
Once you do that, you may just find you don’t want to pack up those suitcases again.
 
By going back to where you came from, you can actually move on.”

“O-kay” Kit answered wide-eyed, looking at Jasmine like she was a pink-haired version of Yoda.

“In other words “Rome wasn’t built in a day” she smiled as Kit rolled her eyes in derision.

Kit got up early the next morning and drove to Craig’s Cliff overlooking Brandon Bay.
 
It was a little overcast and threatening to rain, but she was eager to start on her “project” and had bought the largest professional canvas Williams Art Store carried; four foot by four foot.
 
In retrospect she was probably taking on more than she should, but Jasmine had gotten her so revved up yesterday, she’d all but bought out the store’s supply of brushes and paint.
 
No turning back now!

Standing on the cliff, Kit wondered if it wouldn’t be a better idea to jump off than set up her easel.
 
Doubts started niggling at her and she wished that Jasmine were around to give her another pep talk.

Looking out at the ocean, she willed inspiration to jump out and bite her.
 
The sea was a beautiful shade of blue in the morning, and with that thought, Kit looked again at her palette, her brushes and her canvas.

Nothing quite so scary as a blank canvas, she thought with a grimace.
 
Shrugging, Kit picked up the tube of marine blue paint and squeezed a good sized glob of it on her palette.
 
Well, the sea was blue, so it was as good a place to start as any.

Within minutes, the image easily shifted from her mind, to her hand and onto the canvas.
 
Kit swept the brush over the canvas in great flourishing waves of colour.
 
As if by magic, the swirls of the ocean began to appear.
 
She then started layering deeper blues and blacks to mimic the depths of the sea.
 
Finally she added the white of the surf’s foam as it crashed to the shore.
 

Kit painted until the light began to fade and she could no longer decipher the colours she was mixing on her palette.
 
Looking at what she’d done so far, she nodded her head.
 
Not bad
.
 
She’d come back tomorrow and do some more.
  

Laying the canvas in the back of her Ford hatchback, she felt content.
 
It had been a good day; the first decent one in a long time.
 
It felt good to concentrate on doing something she liked.
 
What was it Jasmine said?
 
“Do what makes you happy and everything else will fall into place.”

Smiling to herself as she drove down the highway, she sang along with the Carpenters’ “Rainy days and Mondays”, thinking how she usually identified so strongly with the words, but for the moment it was just a song.

As she pulled into the driveway, she noticed that her mother had a visitor.
 
A silver BMW was parked out front.
 
Her mother knew someone who drove a beamer?
 
Now that was news.
 
She stroked her hand over the hood as she passed it on the way to the front door.
 
Very nice.

Hanging her lightweight jacket on a hook near the entrance, Kit could hear voices coming from the kitchen.
 
A deep, resonant voice was laughing at something her mother had said.
 
Did Gladys have a boyfriend?
 
Why wouldn’t she have told her about it?
 
Now here she was intruding on what could be an intimate situation.
 

She speculated on her mothers’ social life.
 
Was she serious with this guy or was he only one of a stream of men she dated.
 
The notion that her mother had more of a social (read sex) life than she had, didn’t sit well with her.
 
How unfair would that be!

Looking in the hallway mirror, Kit was in no way ready to greet company.
 
The sun had made its way out by afternoon and her face was decidedly pink.
 
Added to that, the wind had blown her hair around until it was a mass of tangles that would require a good dose of “Bed Head” conditioner to settle down.
 
Wearing a dirty old t-shirt with “Don’t grow up –it’s a trap” blazoned across it; all in all, she looked like something the cat dragged in.
 
How dare her mother put her in this position?
 
When mentioning dinner, she hadn’t said a word about a guest coming by.
 
All she’d said was dinner was at six.
 

Come to think of it, the idea that her Mom had told her dinner would be on the table at six rankled her independence in no uncertain terms.
 
Should she high-tail it out of there right now?

“Is that you Kit?” she heard Gladys call from the kitchen.

Who else would it be?
 
Oh yeah, maybe some other guy she knew nothing about.
 
“Yes. It’s me” she dutifully yelled back.

As she entered the kitchen, she did a double take.
 
The guy at the kitchen table was about her age, and not at all bad looking.
 
Who would have thunk it?
 
Her Mom was getting it on with a younger man.

“Look who’s come to visit?” Gladys said with a smile.

“Hi Kit” the guy said, standing up and facing her more fully.

“Hi” she replied a little unsurely.
 
Oh my God.
 
“Barnaby?”
 
Kit asked with a stunned expression.

“Kit?” he said back at her mockingly.
 
“Am I that unrecognisable?”

“What are you doing here?” Kit stammered.
 
Ghosts from her past were popping up all over the place, and she was sick and tired of getting the bejesus scared out of her.
 
First Jeremy, now Barnaby.
 
Who next? Mrs. Blake wearing her prom dress?

“I’m in town for my father’s birthday this weekend.
 
Thought I’d stop by and see my favourite Brandon Bay lady” he said putting his arm around Gladys and giving her a squeeze.
 
“I never expected to see you here.”

“Likewise” Kit replied, staring at the arm that was still around her mother.
 
For some reason that bothered her immensely and her chest tightened in response.

“Well,” her mother said, “I’ve made some tea, so help yourselves.
 
I’m sure you two have some catching up to do.
 
I’ll leave you alone for a while.”

“No, wait” they both said in unison.
 
Looking at one another, they both chuckled.
 
Sitting down at the kitchen table, they nervously glanced at each other.

“You look different” Kit stated, not knowing what else to say, so going for the obvious.

“So do you.”

“Well, we’re not sixteen anymore, I guess.”

“Thank God for that.”
 
Barnaby said with a sigh.

“I’ll second, third
and
fourth that.” Kit concurred with a smile.
 
“So Barn, what have you been doing since school?”
 
The BMW outside told her that he was not doing too badly at whatever he did.
 
He didn’t wear glasses anymore and looked incredibly buff.
 
As Jasmine would say “He was a hottie”; a hottie with a beamer, no less.
 
Who knew Barnaby had it in him?

“This and that.
 
I got into Software development right out of school.
 
Now I work in Silicon Valley” he said reticently.

“You always
were
good with computers.”

“Geek to the end, huh?” he said sarcastically.

“No” Kit said softly.
 
“I mean, I know other people thought you were, but I
never
thought of you as a geek.
 
You were my friend.”

“Yeah. I know” he said blowing out a breath. “Friend to many, boyfriend to none.
 
Well, I’m happy to say that I now beat women off with a stick.”

Kit crossed her arms and surveyed him with interest. “Good for you” she replied, a little disappointed for some reason that Barnaby wasn’t holding some huge,
Survivor
sized torch for her.

“Yeah” he stated in a low voice, staring into Kit’s eyes with a meaningful look.
 
“It’s amazing what a couple of hours a day at the gym, a healthy bank account, and a BMW can do”
 
Smirking, he added, “So, what have you been up to?”

“Oh not much” she replied, deciding to forgo her depressing tale of woe; no boyfriend; lost job; hopeless future.
 
“I paint now” she remarked cheerfully, happily mentioning the one current bright spot in her life.
 
“That’s why I’m such a mess at the moment; I’ve been up at Craig’s Cliff painting all day.
 
I must look a sight!”