Err on the Side of Violence: Terribly Acronymed Detective Club Series (Book 3)

Chapter Forty-Seven: Joe, Saturday

The sand sculptures were really quite remarkable. Not only were they works of art, transcending the typical castle trope (although there were plenty of splendid examples of those,) but many of them were actually whimsical and funny; figures were rendered with recognizable facial expressions in a medium generally believed to be one colour, and many times their arrangement told a story that made Joe smile in delight. 

He smiled more at Tosh, though. The boy was hypnotized. He examined each sculpture from every angle, finding details that eluded Joe's cursory glance. He'd spend fifteen minutes sometimes on one sculpture, taking photographs on his phone (they had broken down and gotten him one,) and captioning them with the title of the piece as well as the name and nationality of the creator (most of the sculptors were Canadian, but some came from the United States and as far as halfway around the world, to his surprise.) Ajit wrote the same details down in a notebook he'd brought for the trip; his parents seemed better able to say no. Tosh promised to send him the photos later.

Naomi and Emma, on the other hand, flitted from sculpture to sculpture, untroubled by the fact that they were getting in the way of other people viewing them. Joe had to remind them to be courteous, especially to any seniors trying to get a good place to view them.

Where were the others? He looked around and saw Al, Rachel and Lauren talking over at one of the sculptures, and Sunny and Tej looking like they were on their second honeymoon at another, Tej wearing a filmy orange sundress that blew in the slight breeze, Sunny smartly dressed in a linen button-down with the sleeves rolled up and khakis, wearing a pink turban today, which seemed to suit this beach weather. It was a gorgeous day, just hot enough to be comfortable in light clothing; sometimes the B.C. Day long weekend in August was sweltering, and he didn't do well when it was too hot.

Lauren informed him, when she deigned to speak with him, that the women had arranged among themselves to give each other a chunk of time this weekend to spend with their husbands while the others helped look after their children. Joe got his hopes up when he heard that, even though they didn't really need a section of time because they had two rooms. He thought this meant Lauren might be planning her own time with him. She quickly disabused him of this notion. 

"You brought her up here, and that makes it like the times you spend with her back home," she said. "Those evenings you spend with her, you don't touch me."

"Again, I didn't bring her up here," Joe said.

"Regardless. It's the same deal."

"If we're going to work on our marriage, don't you think we need to have some physical intimacy as well as conversation?"

She barked a laugh at that. "Nice try. Where are you getting all this energy from, all of a sudden, to be able to hop between beds?"

"Lauren, if it would make you happy, I'll ignore Joanie for the rest of the weekend to have you."

She grunted in disgust. "This is just too much. I can't do this."

Now she was talking with Al and Rachel. Was she talking about his fumbling attempt to win his wife back? He flushed with embarrassment thinking about that, and felt a little resentful too.

Of course Joanie would choose that moment to show up, having the worst sense of timing imaginable. Al, Rachel and Lauren watched her as she approached them wearing a pale green sundress with spaghetti straps that showed off her fabulous shoulders, and cute white sneakers with no socks. They chatted for a while, and then Joanie strolled over to him. What was she doing? They weren't supposed to be seen alone together, not while Sunny and Tej were watching.