"Hey, be careful with that, Champ!" Melissa Jacobs called out to her eighteen-year-old son. "It's Grandma Katie's china!"
Ben Jacobs paused in the middle of the wide front lawn of the big house with the "SOLD" sign still planted at its curb, nonchalantly balancing two stacked cardboard boxes. "Mom, we eat outta microwave trays."
"It's an heirloom," Melissa chided, striding down from the front steps where she'd been struggling to unlock the door with a newly-cut key. She took one of the boxes from Ben and set it on the grass. "It's precious," She reached up to tousle his dark curls. "Like you."
"Ah, Mom!" Ben ducked his head and looked past her. "I can get it." He grabbed the key from her hand and bounded away up the long front walk. Naturally, the door popped open for him on the first try and he quickly disappeared into their new home.
Greenleaf struck Melissa as the very definition of "sleepy little town." It was an hour and a half from the interstate highway, nestled in a valley by a placid glacial lake. She wondered on the one hand how the village had avoided being overrun by DINKS from downstate looking for vacation homes, and on the other why anyone chose to remain here at all.
Overpriced latte bars or tumbleweeds,
she mused,
those are our choices these days, right?
"Howdy, neighbor!" Startled, Melissa turned and looked down to meet the gaze of an attractive blond woman in Bermuda shorts, woven sandals, and a white, knotted linen shirt. "Sharon Thompson." she offered. "Welcome to Midwood Road."
"Melissa Jacobs." They shook hands. Ben reappeared from the house, jogging back to the U-Haul truck for more boxes. Sharon's eyes followed him curiously. "Just you two?" she asked.
"Oh, no. My husband took the car straight down to Oakmore. Tom's the new resort manager and just couldn't wait to check in and get right to it."
"Really?" Sharon looked intrigued. "What did he tell you about the job?"
"Just that the old manager resigned on a week's notice and there was no time for a transition, and that Oakmore's a big opportunity and a step up for him. Which I frankly don't get. I mean, sure Greenleaf seems...
nice
, but it's, uh..."
"Nowhere," Sharon volunteered. "Centrally located somewhere between 1947 and 1974. Who the hell would know how to find us, much less want to book a room here?"
"Yeah." Melissa relaxed, relieved at Sharon's easy humor and understanding. "It does have a bucolic splendor about it, though. I don't think I've ever seen so many white picket fences on one street in my life."
"Naturally. Us Stepford wives are a house-proud lot," Sharon joked. The women laughed together and Melissa decided, on three minutes acquaintance, that Sharon Thompson would be her friend.
"What about you?" Melissa asked.
"Me? Oh, same deal, different guy: married to the man who's married to the job. Stan travels constantly, so Connor and I are usually on our own." She took her phone from her pocket and spoke into it. "Call C.J."
"Mom?" a deep male voice answered.
"C.J., get up and get your ass next door, will you? We got new neighbors who can use some help."
Connor James Thompson had Sharon's sparkling grey eyes and shared her easy-going manner, but in all other respects was a complete contrast to his mother. He stood six-foot-four and possessed a tautly muscled physique that reminded Melissa of some of the international soccer idols featured in the sports magazines at the supermarket. Despite Sharon's golden summer tan she appeared to be naturally fair; C.J. had a dark, sepia complexion. He wore his tightly curled black hair cropped short.
When he introduced himself, his rumbling baritone sent tremors through Melissa from her scalp to the soles of her feet.
Easy, Mel. This guy's Ben's age.
Between them, C.J. and Ben made short work of the few dozen boxes and sticks of furniture in the truck. The move had been so rushed that Tom's sister back in the city was still packing up most of their belongings for shipment later in the week. Sharon shrugged off Melissa's effusive thanks, saying "Us work widows gotta stick together. Otherwise, it's pretty lonely in these parts. Say, you want to return a favor, take a break and come by for a swim."
"You have a pool?"
"Girl, I live in the goddamn Playboy mansion. Pool, tennis court...last time Stan was here he had 'em install an outdoor jacuzzi. I need a map to find the damn thing."
"Thanks. I could use a coffee."
"Fuck that. I'll make mojitos."
††â€
"This is a lot of house for three people," Ben observed as he and Melissa stacked the last of the heavy boxes labeled 'BOOKS' in the spacious, high-ceilinged den. We'll never see each other."
"Plenty of privacy for whatever it is you do in your room all day. No, no, I don't want to know," Melissa teased. "Hey, Sharon invited me for a swim. Wanna come with?"
"Nah...I'm okay." Melissa looked at Ben in concern. In her eyes, he was the complete package: a bright, good-hearted kid with the chiseled good looks and slim, muscular build of a Calvin Klein model. He'd inherited her espresso-colored hair and hazel eyes. A friend had once remarked that at a glance they looked more like brother and sister than mother and son. Melissa couldn't help but be flattered by that, at her age, but she worried that her son also shared too much of her shyness and solemnity for someone so young. Uprooting him so suddenly from the life he'd known, taking away from his friends and schoolmates, might have been a big mistake.
"You could hang with C.J. You two seemed to hit it off."
"He's cool. But I got to look for a job. School's not gonna pay for itself, and I don't see a lot of 'Help Wanted' signs around here."
Melissa slid her arms around Ben's waist and looked up at him wistfully. "Don't you go and turn into your father, now: all nose to the grindstone, never around. You're all I got, Champ."
Again Ben avoided her eyes. "I wish Dad would just let me work at Oakmore."
"And how would that look? The new boss practicing nepotism, first day on the job? I don't think you'd enjoy that environment much. Now come on, it's not a sin to have a little summer fun."
Ben would not be moved. Melissa gave up and went off to dig through her hastily packed suitcases.
She found an old "mom bikini" that she hadn't worn since Ben was little, a floral print with a camisole top and a bottom that reached up to her navel.
I have to learn to throw things out,
she thought. It fit like a tent; the only place she hadn't lost weight was her big round boobs. She decided it would do, given the circumstances. Sharon seemed cool, but until Melissa got more of a feeling for local mores she didn't want to risk shocking anyone by strutting around in a little black micro.
The walk next door to the Thompsons' place took a good ten minutes. Ben had been right: this was a neighborhood of oversized homes on multi-acre lots. Sharon's front door was wide open. Greenleaf seemed to be the proverbial small town where folks all trusted each other. She wasn't sure she could get used to that.