Page 48 of Ten Beach Road

Seventeen

By the end of the next day the way Maddie looked was once again the absolute last thing on her mind. Her shrieking muscles were making so much noise nothing else could sink in.

“Oh, my God.” She looked up the front stairs wondering if she could possibly make it up them and if she did, whether she could force herself back down again. She began to inch her way upward, her hand clutching the banister, but each step produced groans of inner protest. She was apparently far too old to spend close to six hours hunched in an untenable position. The number of times she’d climbed up and down the scaffolding did not bear thinking about.

With Herculean effort and complete concentration, she made it up another step. She knew better than to look up or count how many stairs remained.

“Mom,” Kyra called from behind. “Turn around and give me a smile.”

“No.” Both movements were far beyond her current capabilities. She managed to contain the groan as she took the next step. “You better not have that camera pointed at me right now,” she said as she completed one more step, then took another. This time the groan refused to be contained.

“Are you all right?” Kyra’s voice was, mercifully, farther behind her than it had been.

Madeline took another step. Then one more. She spied the landing just ahead and used what little arm strength remained to hoist herself up to it.

“Mom?”

The landing achieved, she stood beside the dangling effigy of Malcolm Dyer and braced her weight on the banister, careful not to move too suddenly; her sole mission aside from reaching the top, and ultimately the shower, was not to jar her back.

Kyra stood at the bottom, her camera angled upward.

“No, I’m not okay,” Maddie said. “And if you actually shot footage of my Mount Everest climb, I suggest you delete it now.”

Kyra laughed, but she did lower the camera. “You don’t look so good.”

“I’m stunned to hear that,” Maddie said. “No, I’m too tired to be stunned.”

“Aren’t you going to do your sunset toast?” Kyra asked innocently. “Don’t you want to make sure everybody shares their ‘one good thing’?”

Madeline bit back a whimper. “No. Anyone who feels thankful today will have to announce it on their own.” She paused, gathering her strength to tackle the rest of the upward journey. “You’re in charge of dinner tonight, Ky,” she said as she hoisted her weight up another step. “Don’t wait for me to eat. I’m going to take a hot shower and then I’m going to lie down. And I’m not planning to come out anytime soon.”

Avery sat slumped in the oversized chair, munching on a slice of pizza, when Maddie finally hobbled into the salon in her robe and fuzzy slippers and lowered herself into a corner of the sofa.

“Are you okay?” Avery asked as she watched Madeline try to get comfortable. “Today felt especially long to me. My back is very pissed off at what it was put through.”

“I think I’ll survive,” Maddie said. She looked at the slice of pizza in Avery’s hand. “Is there any pizza left?”

“Here, Mom.” Kyra reached into the box on the coffee table, slid a slice onto a napkin and handed it to Maddie. “Do you want something to drink?”

“That would be great.” Maddie nodded her thanks.

“You should know that your daughter not only managed to place the order online, she found a coupon for it,” Nicole said.

“Like mother, like daughter,” Avery said with a smile.

Kyra shrugged. “I didn’t realize coupon clipping was an inherited trait. Can you believe they actually have an early bird discount here for pizza delivery?”

“I’m just glad there’s no senior citizen discount,” Nicole said. She and Maddie exchanged a glance.

The salon was dark, lit only by the flicker of the ancient TV. With its coffered ceiling, floor-to-ceiling arched windows, and cast-stone fireplace surround, the room was meant for more elegant evenings. But all of them, even the ubersophisticated Nicole, were far too tired to care.

Unable to decide or agree on what to watch, they put the remote in the hands of the youngest member of the group, and Kyra wielded it freely. Avery didn’t think she was the only one of them glad to see something other than the video camera in her hands.

Through a full-length window she saw the light in the detached garage go off, and she tensed slightly, waiting to hear the sound of Chase’s truck starting up and leaving. Instead she heard the creak of the outside kitchen door as it opened, then clicked shut. This was followed by the refrigerator door and heavy footsteps crossing the hall. Avery sighed when Chase Hardin appeared in the doorway. Even in the flickering light she could see that his face and T-shirt were streaked with dirt and his jeans had what looked like a new rip in the knee. He held an open beer in one hand.

“You look a little tired, Boss,” Nicole said. “Something get the better of you?”

“Well, it turns out the pipes passing under the former garage have nothing to do with the pool and everything to do with the main house’s original steam heat system. I hit two of them when I was digging and they’re going to have to be replaced by somebody who’s actually worked on a steam heat system. Which we’re unlikely to find down here.”

---