No Sensible People Chapter Fifiteen (part 1)

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I double checked the temperature of Jennie's bathwater while Stuart waited for me in the living room. I appreciated how understanding he was about what I had gone through, and how he helped Jennie handle all of it, but I knew he wasn't going to let me off the hook as far as his brother was concerned.

Jennie's turnaround from the morning had been incredible, and I was thankful she was giving me the opportunity to talk to Stuart. I hadn't even asked for it, she just offered. "Stuart's really worried about Uncle Frank," she told me as I adjusted
the knobs of the bathtub. "I know," I said. "Thank you for recognizing that. I hope I can make him feel better."

"Me too," she said.

"I hope Uncle Frank feels better too, and Taffy."

"One at a time Jen," I said as I dried my hands on the corner of her bath towel. "Temperature's perfect, you can turn off the water when the tub's full. Call if you need help."

I squeezed her shoulders, and kissed her on the cheek. "I'm sorry I messed up your Christmas."

Jennie didn't say anything, but instead focused on the water filling the tub. I knew what the silence meant. Apologies didn't mean anything. I needed to go fix it.

Everyone wanted an explanation, but I still couldn't figure what that was. I had lost myself in that moment with Denny. There had been no past, no future, not even a present. There was nothing besides the two of us. He had wanted to know everything, needed to know everything, and the last bit had broken him.

The pieces of my marriage were shattered like the glass Christmas ornaments Stuart and Jennie had gathered in the brown paper sack now under my sink. There would be no hiding this. I had been focused on Jennie's recovery, trying to preserve Denny's presence in her life, until Stuart once again repeated his question.

"Lucykins," he said. "What are you going to do about Frank?"

I tried to dismiss it, made it sound like any other hurdle our marriage had encountered.

"You know how we are. I told you, we'll work it out. He'll forgive me."

"You can't tell me that you'll carry on as if nothing's happened. You forget that I sat here a few weeks ago and listened to you tell my brother that your marriage didn't mean anything. That it was all for show."

"I'm sorry, Stuart. You shouldn't have had to hear that."

"You know, Lucy," Stuart said. "You were like a sister to me long before you ever married my brother. I can't mediate on this one. I'll take Jennie out somewhere for awhile so you and Frank can talk, but the two of you are going to have to work this out yourselves."

"Thanks for the offer," I told him. "I'll probably take you up on it."

"No," Stuart told me. "You better take me up on it."

"I will," I said. "I promise. You're right, and I think it's probably best I bring everything out in the open right away. Can you take Jennie while I pick Frank up at the airport?"

"He's expecting me," Stuart told me.

"I think he'll still recognize me." I said.

"Okay," Stuart told her. "I'll do it."

The next day was quiet. Jennie and I took down the tree, and we didn't talk the way we had when we were putting it up. We had to get up really early on the 27th so that I could drop Jennie off at Stuart's on the way to the airport.

"Hey, Kiddo," Stuart said when we arrived at his apartment. I had tried to brace myself for Jennie's possible complaints. Stuart lived in a small efficiency, which most of the time wasn't big enough for one person, let alone
company. But Jennie was surprisingly compliant, and even took a sketch out of her sketchbook and gave it to Stuart. I hadn't even been aware that she drew it.

"How are you?" he asked me.

"Terrified," I said.

"Me too," he said. "I know it sounds childish, but I always feel lost when you and Frank aren't getting along. I really wanted you two to be together always. Corny, huh?"

I kissed him on the cheek and gave him a hug.

"You know, I don't know where I'd be without you," I told him.

"You've been a wonderful friend. No matter what happens with Frank you're stuck with me, got it?"

Stuart found me a travel mug and poured me a cup of coffee. "Count on it, Sister," he said.

Frank's plane came in twenty minutes late, and he almost missed me as he walked into the gate lobby.

"Where's Stuart?" he asked me.

"He's watching Jennie," I told him.

"Really?" he said. "And she's okay with that?"

"He came over on Christmas. I think the two of them have come to a certain understanding."

"I'm glad she's starting to accept him," he said.

"So am I," I said. "But that's not why I came."

"For someone who fought so hard to keep me from going to Denver, you don't look too happy to have me back," Frank said.

"I have a lot to talk to you about," I told him. "And most of it can't be covered while you're looking for your suitcase.

Stuart says he can keep Jennie as long as we need him to. We need to talk at home."

I tried my best to keep the conversation to pleasant things between the gaps of silence. I asked him how his son had looked, how much he had grown. I asked if he had been able to get as much work done as he hoped.

"Pretty much," he said. "But no, not what I hoped. There always seems to be one more thing. You know how it is."

"Yeah," I said. I remembered those dance routines I had wanted to run through on Christmas Eve night, before I had been sidetracked with Denny and the revelation.

"We had a nice Christmas, Ryan and me," Frank said. "His mother brought him back to my hotel first thing Christmas morning. I'd been working pretty hard the night before on the e-card project, so I was barely waking up when she got there.

"Well, that explains it, I guess," I said.

"What?"

"When I called your hotel, Christmas morning. A woman answered."

"Oh," Frank said. "With what you think of our marriage, I'm surprised that concerns you."

"I hadn't planned to lecture you. Jennie was having a tantrum. I didn't know what to do."

"So you called me? In Denver?"

"She likes you," I told him. "You've got that kindred artist spirit thing going. Anyway, Stuart came and he was wonderful.

Jennie really seems to be taking to him-despite herself."

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