“I don’t.”
“But she’s really been getting to me lately.” Will hesitated. “I started to pay more attention after I talked to you yesterday, and I think you’re right. I think she wants to get married.” He looked at Jake in bafflement. “Can you believe it?”
Jake closed his eyes in disgust. “Of course, I can believe it. You’ve lived with her for three years. What did you think she wanted?”
“To build the biggest resort in the Midwest,” Will said. “That’s all she ever talks about. If she’d been making noises about kids or something, I’d have caught on sooner. But all she ever talked about was the resort, which was fine by me.” He looked up at Jake. “She’s talking about expanding my suite-which, by the way, she calls our suite-into the one next door. So we’d have two bedrooms. I said, why? It’s not like we don’t have any place to put guests, and she said, ‘I’m not talking about guests.’” He put his head in his hands. “I think she means kids,” he said hollowly. “How did I get into this mess?”
“Not that I’m in favor of you marrying Valerie,” Jake said, “but you have been sleeping with her for quite some time now.”
Will looked at him blankly. “So?”
“So I don’t think all she thinks about is the resort,” Jake said. “I thought you were supposed to be the quick one in the family.”
“I am,” Will said. “What’s your point?”
Jake closed his eyes. “Never mind. Just pray that Donald what’s-his-name gets her out of here before she realizes that you’re never going to marry her, and she decides to kill you.”
“Valerie wouldn’t do anything that emotional,” Will said. “You’re getting her confused with Kate.”
“I will never confuse Kate with Valerie,” Jake said. “They’re completely different.”
Kate went back to the cabin and tried to feel ashamed of what she’d done. It didn’t work.
Maybe she wasn’t meant to be married. A woman who truly wanted to get married would have let Peter win. She shook her head. She’d never want to get married that much.
On the other hand, the afternoon was hardly a sign that she should give up. Lance and Peter were jerks. That didn’t mean the rest of the men here were. In fact, the law of averages said that she had to do better next time.
Maybe she should focus her plan better. What she wanted was somebody distinguished and successful who was also caring and honest. Sort of a cross between her father and Jake. She tried to imagine what that cross would look like and couldn’t. It was like trying to cross a shark with a teddy bear. She gave up and was heading for the shower when the phone rang.
“Kate?” Jessie said. “Are you engaged yet?”
“Of course not,” Kate said. “Why are you calling?”
“You’ve been there twenty-four hours,” Jessie said. “I wanted to know if it was time to start baking the wedding cake.”
“Very funny,” Kate said.
“I have the perfect design,” Jessie said. “A tasteful stack of staggered sheet cakes decorated to look like government bonds, artfully garnished with roses made from folded hundred-dollar bills.”
“Listen, if all I was after was money, I’d have stuck to the first two men I met here,” Kate said.
“Oh, good. Tell me everything.”
“No. It was depressing. What have you been doing?”
“Coating two ring cakes with edible gold powder for the Dershowitzes’ fiftieth anniversary. You should see the cherubs I’ve made to go on top. They look just like the Dershowitzes. Even I’m impressed with how incredible I am.”
Kate bit her lip. “Jessie, do you ever have doubts about what you want? You know, about your goals?”
“What goals?” Jessie said. “Goals are for fascists. Are you having doubts about your goals? Because, if so, it’s about time.”
“Well, not really…”
“Let me guess. You’ve met some distinguished, rich guys, and they’re not much fun, and you’ve seen the error of your ways.”
“No.” Kate hesitated. “Well, I’ve had two dates that were…well…mistakes, I guess.”
“But you behaved beautifully,” Jessie said with obvious disgust. “Even though they were boring and shallow, you smiled and were the perfect lady.”
“No. I pushed one in the pool and gave the other one a heart attack on the golf course.”
“What?”
“He reminded me a lot of the men I was engaged to.”
“A heart attack?”
“Do you think that’s why I tried to kill Peter today on the golf course?”
“Wait a minute. Are we talking actual death, here?”
“No. Jake showed up and helped me give him mouth-to-mouth and then the paramedics came.”
“Who’s Jake?”
“Nobody. Anyway, Peter’s fine now.”
“So, let me get this straight. You tried to kill this guy because he reminded you of the three stooges you were engaged to? This vacation was really a very good idea.”
“Well, I didn’t actually try to kill him. I just beat him at golf.”
“If he’s like the stooges, that would do it.”
“He is. It did. He deserved it. He cheated.”
“And you caught him. Good girl.”
“Well, Jake told me he would. And then-”
“Who’s Jake?”
“Nobody. And then when I cheated, too-”
“You cheated? You?”
“It seemed fair. He was.”
“Excuse me. You are Kate Svenson, right?”
“You know, perhaps it was all the beer I had this morning.”
“You drank beer in the morning?”
“It was all Jake packed, and I was stuck in the middle of the lake in this decaying rowboat-”
“Who’s Jake?”
“Forget Jake. He’s not interesting.”
“The hell he isn’t. I’m interested.”
“He’s some kind of handyman.” Kate stopped to think. “You know, I’m not sure what he does.”
There was a long silence on the other end of the phone.
“Jessie?”
“You spent the morning drinking beer on a lake in a rowboat with a man, and you’re not sure what he does but you think he’s a handyman.”
“Right.”
“Maybe I’d better drive down,” Jessie said. “This is not like you.”
“I’m fine,” Kate said. “In fact, since my last two dates were so awful, things can only get better.”
“Bad deduction,” Jessie said. “If that were true, I’d be dating Harrison Ford by now.”
“I’m still not giving up,” Kate said. “I’m just modifying my plan slightly.”
“Modify all you want,” Jessie said. “The more changes you make in that plan, the better. Just don’t do anything drastic without checking in with me.”
“Because you know so much about men? You forget I know all about your pathetic love life,” Kate said.
“At least I occasionally have one,” Jessie said. “You’re still planning the perfect business merger. A little more love would do you a world of good. Why don’t you forget that plan and just fall in love?”
“Right,” Kate sneered. “And then I’d end up with some loser like…”
“Like?”
“Forget it.”
“Tell me more about Jake,” Jessie said.
“Forget Jake. He’s not a possibility. There are some others who are. This could still work out.” There was Donald what’s-his-name. And Eric. And Rick was very nice. “Jessie?” Kate added, after a pause.
“Yeah?”
“Thanks for sending me down here. I think I’m having a good time.”
“Yeah, well, call me when you’re sure,” Jessie said. “You’re behaving very strangely.”
“I think that’s why I’m having a good time,” Kate said.
Kate found Penny at the pool later that afternoon, barely dressed in a lime-green bikini and surrounded by men. She stretched out next to her on a lounge chair and surveyed the scene with contentment Mark had the bar set up again, and people drifted by, socializing in the lazy Sunday afternoon, smelling of suntan lotion, chlorine, and booze. They were the same people who had annoyed Kate so the day before, but she smiled at them now as they went past, and they smiled back.
Jake and Will sat at the end of the bar, arguing over some papers. Jake was in torn jeans and a white T-shirt with the label sticking up in back. He did nice things for a plain old T-shirt, not to mention the jeans, and she felt a moment’s regret that he didn’t fit her plan. Will looked cool and distinguished in tailored slacks and a well-cut shirt; no wonder Valerie was doing everything she could to hold on to him. Strange men to be friends, so different, although now that she studied them, they did sort of look alike.