Julia gave the pamphlet a cursory once-over, squinting as she puzzled it out. “Wait, is this something you actually want todo?”
Christian nodded vigorously. His eyes went big. “Yeah, I want to do it,” he said emphatically. “A surplus of coffins can’t be healthy for the environment. It might even be a good business forusto start.”
Great, another venture to go down the drain.Julia groaned. “So,what you’re telling me is that I have to worry about watering you and keeping you alive evenafteryou’re dead?”
Christian returned an uncertain nod.
“That’s gonna be a hard pass for me,” she said.
Before he could protest, Julia heard the sound of car tires approaching. She and Christian exchanged a knowing glance.It might be David who’d soon be turned into a tree. She led Christian outside through the front door.
Erika and Rick Sullivan emerged from a gleaming silver Audi. They’d arrived from Greenwich, Connecticut, where Erika’s thriving legal practice was based and Rick worked nearby as a hunting and fishing guide. Considering them as a pair, Julia couldn’t help but think of that Donny and Marie song about her being a little bit country and him a little bit rock and roll. Only it was Erika who sparkled with city vibes. Her pale skin reflected the light on account of the copious amounts of sunscreen she’d applied.
Opposites may attract, but they don’t always mix (hello, oil and water). While they had an enduring marriage, Rick and Erika doled out compliments to each other with the stinginess of misers. If you asked Erika, she’d say her husband didn’t really have a job, but rather a modestly paying hunting hobby, and he was too hard on Lucas for trying to do the same with his music. Rick’s biggest gripe about Erika was that she didn’t have an off switch when it came to work. He wasn’t wrong.
No surprise, Erika was on her phone. She and her job were a toxic couple: a relationship built on arguing, combined with an unwillingness to leave. She held a finger up to Julia—done in a second—like she was initiating a countdown to vacation.
She got out of the car, Rick trailing behind her. He was the handsome, outdoorsy, blue-collar type with strong arms and an equally strong jawline. Here was a man who could get a honey-do list done, and done well. But he was still a local yokel who’d grown up on the lake, honing his skills as a fisherman and hunter.
Also, he loved guns. He loved buying them. He loved shootingthem for fun, which never made sense to Julia—not that hunting did, either. Who would shoot a defenseless little deer and call it a sport? Erika’s husband, that’s who. A few years back, he’d killed a buck and brought the frozen meat to their annual vacation, where he roasted venison that everyone felt obliged to sample. It tasted like everything the poor creature ate—mainly leaves, acorns, and grass. Julia preferred having less of a connection to the food she consumed, a stance she understood was full of contradictions.
Rick arrived ready to relax, dressed in ripped jeans and a boxy gray T-shirt. The physique he had honed working outdoors had turned doughy from his softer lifestyle, thanks primarily to Erika’s high salary and his evident love of beer.Middle age gets us all.But he was a loyal, committed family man, which made him more attractive. His tan baseball hat partially covered a receding hairline, which he compensated for with a beard that had become like a tangle of weeds, partly obscuring his best attribute: his charming smile.
In contrast, Erika showed up dressed for a fancy brunch. She wore the cutest navy chambray shirtdress, which deepened the color of her luscious red hair. She opted for comfortable slide-on sandals adorned with gold studs that matched her hoop earrings. Her Hollywood-style sunglasses concealed her green eyes, providing an air of mystery.
When Rick and Erika first had a fling at the lake as teens, nobody expected it to last the summer, let alone nearly twenty-five years of marriage. In contrast, Julia and Christian appeared to be a perfect match. They had met in college, both studying some form of business. Julia yearned to get into nonprofit work—she wanted to make a difference in the world. Christian’s focus was finance, but ultimately he found work in sales using his natural enthusiasm and likability.
They came from similar backgrounds and shared a vision for their future. No one would have doubted their compatibility, yet they were a couple that had survived infidelity, addiction, and more. Their marriage had been on shaky ground for years, whereas Erika and Rick appeared to be a more typical married couple—resigned to a destiny of togetherness, warts and all, without any grand upheavals to shake the foundation.
Erika finished her call with an exasperated exhale, put her phone away (that wouldn’t last long), and breezed over to Julia. As she and Rick approached, Julia was struck with an unwelcome thought about the pair’s intimacy. It would be like a songbird mating with a grizzly bear. She banished the visual from her mind. Despite the odd coupling, they’d had a child, Lucas, whom Taylor dreaded seeing for unknown reasons and who wouldn’t be at the lake this year—or so Erika had said.
But (surprise, surprise) the information Julia had relayed to Taylor proved incorrect. As Rick and Erika approached, Lucas slid his lanky frame out of the car, standing almost as tall as his father. Like his dad, he wore a baggy T-shirt and loose-fitting jeans—“casual cool” was how Julia would describe his style.
He had been shy and introspective as a child, but found his voice when he started playing guitar in middle school. Years later, he was proficient in the instrument and had become a good singer as well. He had that long musician hair that drove girls wild, along with brooding eyes and an inscrutable expression that made him even more intriguing. He gave off artist vibes, and Julia often wondered if he was composing music in his head while everyone else was chitchatting.
Erika had gushed about the kids collaborating on a song during the college tour, with Taylor using her poetry as the lyrics.What happened between then and now to make Taylor so fretful of seeing him?Julia wondered if music could repair their friendship. Perhaps they could create another song together at the lake. It was a nice thought, but one tinged with idealism.
Oh, if only people could sort out this world with clever wordplay and angst-ridden melodies.Julia was aware that Lucas wanted to pursue music full time. It wasn’t her place to say anything. He would learnon his own that mortgage payments, car loans, and dead-end jobs could make every note ring sour. Or maybe not. Christian, the dreamer, seemed to have missed that life memo.
Lucas collected his suitcase and guitar from the car and dragged behind his parents. Julia searched for Taylor, but she was nowhere to be found. Probably for the best—one drama at a time, please.
At least Julia didn’t have to warn Erika that she was in for bad news. David’s new home loomed before them like a giant see-through abomination. Julia expected a full-blown explosion. It was obvious even from a distance that David’s goliath would be blocking Erika’s precious view.
But instead of a fit of rage or the threat of a lawsuit, Erika opened her arms wide and wrapped them around Julia so tightly the embrace momentarily took her breath away.
Erika pulled back, keeping her hands affixed to Julia’s shoulders, a broad smile brightening her celestial face. “Oh my god, it issogood to see you,” she said, still beaming. “I’m ridiculously happy to be here, and I can’t wait to do absolutelynothingfor a couple of weeks.”
She let out a weighty sigh, suggesting Erika had been doing too much of everything for too long. Now it was time for cocktails, sunsets, and lazy paddles in the canoe. But all that should have taken a back seat to the glass house. Erika was petite, but she had the warrior gene, which many prosecutors in Connecticut had come to know firsthand. She could grow ten sizes taller when she was battling injustice, and David’s new showpiece certainly fit the bill.
“Aren’t you freaking out?” Julia asked, casting her thumb over her shoulder.
Erika startled as though she’d been plucked out of a daze. “Oh, well, yeah… it’s a lot bigger than I thought.”
Julie blinked incredulously. “That’s it? That’s your take—bigger than you thought? Erika, he’s blocking your fucking view.”
“Maybe, but we’re always down by the water anyway. That’s all I need, especially after dealing with the worst case of my career.”
Erika wasn’t prone to hyperbole, except when discussing her law practice, where every case was brutal and every judge had it out for her.