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Elizabeth followed the sound to a wide kitchen with a broad bank of windows and what seemed like acres of granite glimmering under recessed lighting. Through the windows, she viewed flagstones that led to a shimmering pool and the tended grounds surrounding it. Deirdre and Les Czursky were seated at one of the tables scattered around the patio, their son, Chad, a classmate of Chloe’s, occupying one of the chairs and the younger son, Bryan, on his mother’s lap.
“So glad you could come,” Bill said from the bar where he was pouring ice from a plastic bag into a bucket. Tall and lean, with dark hair and eyes, he stopped filling an ice bucket to round the end of the counter and gave Elizabeth a friendly kiss on the cheek. “Sorry about Court. I . . . I just don’t know what to say.”
Neither do I. “It’s okay,” she said, forcing a smile she didn’t feel as he stepped away. “Here.” She handed him a bottle of red wine. “Thanks for inviting me . . . er . . . us.”
“Anytime!” Vivian pulled a bake-your-own pizza from one of the double ovens and slid it onto the counter. “Glad you made it,” she added as her husband Bill added the merlot to a grouping of about six other bottles already situated on the bar. The hot pizza smelled like heaven. Curling rounds of pepperoni floated on a sea of melting cheese.
“Have an hors d’oeuvre.” Vivian gestured to the tray of cheese, grapes, crackers, and what looked like fig jam positioned on one counter while an array of salads had already been positioned on the island.
“Deirdre and Les are outside,” Vivian said as she searched in one of the drawers and scowled as she came up with a plastic pizza wheel. “With their boys. I guess Chad and Bryan don’t want to mingle with the girls.” She started working with the pizza wheel. “Geez, is this the best we can do? Bill, don’t we have another cutter somewhere? I’ve got to start in on the steak.”
He shrugged and Vivian shot Elizabeth a look. One that suggested all husbands were useless in the kitchen. “You’d think we could afford a real pizza wheel, something stainless steel, you know, one that didn’t come as a freebie the last time we ordered from Domino’s or something.” Frowning, she added, “Oh well, this will just have to do.” She worked the plastic wheel, dragging it through the oozing cheese, long strings of mozzarella trailing after it. “God, what a mess.” She looked up at her husband once more and sent him another look. “Maybe Elizabeth would like a glass of wine.”
“I would,” Elizabeth said and walked to the bar.
“Sorry. I was just about to offer you one,” Bill said. “Red?”
“Sure.” As soon as the stemmed glass was full, she plucked it from his fingers and stepped outside.
Elizabeth had never met Deirdre’s husband before, and when she was introduced to the short man with the receding blond hair, she was surprised by the warm hug he gave her.
“Sorry about your loss,” he said, sounding like he meant it.
“Thank you.”
“Can we go in the pool?” Chad asked.
Standing, Deirdre placed her younger son onto the patio and said to Chad, “No, honey. It’s not that kind of party.”
Lower lip protruding, Chad hung his head, but Deirdre ignored him as Bryan stayed close to her. “So, glad you decided to come,” she said, and like her husband
before her, gave Elizabeth a hug.
“It’s good to get out,” Elizabeth lied, once disentangled. The truth was she was counting the minutes until she could politely collect Chloe, return home, and collapse.
The doorbell rang again, dulcet chimes pealing just as they were heading inside.
Lissa called from upstairs, “I’ll get it!” With a clamber of footsteps and flashing legs, Lissa and Chloe raced madly down the steps to the front door. “It’s my house!” Lissa shrieked.
“I’m here first!” Chloe yelled back.
“You can both open the door,” Vivian called, rolling her eyes.
Bill said drily, “Like Lissa’s going to let that happen.”
“They’re so competitive,” Elizabeth said and glanced at a clock mounted high over the bar. If she could just go home. Everyone was nice, but she was just overwhelmed, and she didn’t want to spend her energy trying to keep Lissa and Chloe in their separate corners.
Nadia Vandell. Elizabeth suddenly remembered Vivian’s friend’s last name as she entered the foyer. She was the last member to join their Moms Group as she hadn’t been around when they first formed and she didn’t have any children. Vivian had asked if she could join and everyone agreed as there was no exclusivity. Their common interests had been their children in the beginning, but as the years past they were simply friends. Nadia’s husband, Kurt, another spouse Elizabeth had yet to meet, was out of town, Nadia explained, so, for the night, she was a single, too. “We can stick together,” Nadia said, flashing a smile as she plucked a glass of wine from Bill.
Within seconds, before the door could close again and there was another fight about who would answer it, Tara arrived with her daughter Bibi, and her husband, Dave. Elizabeth remembered Dave as she’d met him a couple of times before, once when he popped in on one of their Moms Group Happy Hours, and another time when Tara and Bibi had stopped by after a dance class that Chloe and Bibi had taken. When Tara’s car had refused to start, Dave came to pick them up.
An impromptu barbecue had ensued, where Dave went to the store for all the fixings for hot dogs and hamburgers, and Elizabeth served gin and tonics to the adults and lemonade to the girls while they waited for Triple A to come and recharge the battery in Tara’s car.
Though she’d called to warn Court that they had company for dinner, he’d come home in a dark mood, turning down offers of all the food and sipping his gin and tonic with a tight, angry look on his face. After the Hofstetters had left, Elizabeth had braced herself for a lecture, but Court simply said he wanted more notice next time and had gone to the bedroom and shut the door while she cleaned the kitchen. As bad as things had been between them, Elizabeth figured she’d gotten off easy.
No, she thought, sipping her wine in Vivian’s grand kitchen, I really don’t miss my husband, at least not his bad moods and sharp comments.
As Bibi zipped upstairs to join the other girls, Dave greeted Elizabeth with a hug, too. “I wish there was something I could do.” A gym rat, he had a compact, athletic body, kind face, and hair that was turning prematurely gray.
