Cut to the Chaise

by Karen Rose Smith

  His tone was gruff when he asked, “Are you going to invite us in?”

  Not only did she look foolish, but she felt foolish. “Did you text me and I missed it? I would have changed if I’d known you were coming over.”

  There was a hint of a smile as he glanced down at Patches and asked, “We like what Caprice is wearing, don’t we?”

  The dog seemed to check her out too. Then he took a step forward as if they expected to go inside. But Grant said to him, “Wait. We have to be invited.” Patches sat looking up at Caprice with soulful brown eyes.

  Caprice could read Patches’ mind right now, but not Grant’s. She stepped back. “Come on in. Dylan and Lady are watching Animal Planet.”

  Once Grant and Patches were inside, Grant released his dog from his leash. Patches ran over to the other two dogs and they greeted each other, sniffing to make sure they knew these friends. Patches looked up at Mirabelle on the back of the sofa. She looked down at him as if trying to give him a warning—don’t come up here.

  He must have gotten the message because he followed Lady and Dylan into the kitchen. They were probably going to wait there for a snack.

  Grant looked uncomfortable. He hadn’t bothered with a jacket but was wearing a black Henley shirt and jeans. Docksiders were on his feet, but he didn’t have any socks on. That wasn’t like Grant.

  When he saw her looking down at his feet, he blew out a breath and squared his shoulders. “I was in a hurry to get here. When I first saw your text last night, I wasn’t sure how to respond. This morning—I got an idea and executed it. But then I was in court all afternoon. By the time I got home, I realized you might be disappointed because you hadn’t heard from me. So I thought the best thing to do was just to come right over. I don’t like this distance between us, Caprice. I wouldn’t like it even if we weren’t getting married.”

  “You don’t want to get married?” She jumped to that conclusion because it was her worst fear.

  “I didn’t say that,” he responded, frowning. “What about you? What have you been thinking?”

  With her heart beating way too fast, with Grant standing before her, she could hardly think. But she could feel. “I’m afraid. I don’t want anything to come between us. I shouldn’t have been so emotional. I’ve come to the conclusion that our parents might never get along and I’m asking myself if it matters. But mostly I’m just holding onto the fact that I love you, and I hope you still love me.”

  Grant dropped the bag he was carrying onto the sofa. He put his arms around her, brought her close and held her against his chest. “Count on you to be able to put it all into words,” he murmured.

  “You’d rather I didn’t?” she asked, leaning back.

  “That’s not what I meant, either.” He seemed frustrated with himself. “I’d better spruce up on my communication skills. I have trouble with words that come with feelings. You know that. But you don’t have trouble. Everything you just said I’ve been thinking about since I left here. Maybe we should take them one by one.” Lowering himself to the couch, he pulled her down beside him. “Because I’m not so eloquent with words, I brought a few gifts that I’m hoping will tell you exactly how I feel.”

  The words that almost came out of her mouth were—I don’t want any gifts. I just want you. But that would sound like rejection and she certainly didn’t want to reject him. He was handing her the blue bag that had blue tissue paper peeking out.

  He suggested, “Just reach in and pull out the first thing.”

  She felt inside the bag without looking. Her fingers closed over a package, something in cellophane. She pulled it out. She had to laugh. It was catnip.

  “I brought that for Sophia and Mirabelle. I have to stay in their good graces. I was hoping they’d put in a good word for me with you because I was stupid to leave like I did the other night.”

  “Not stupid,” she was quick to say. “My guess is you were hurt and disappointed too.”

  He brought his hand up to her cheek and caressed it. “Sometimes you know my feelings better than I do.”

  “I just knew what I felt and that you might be feeling it too.”

  After a long look into each other’s eyes, Grant suggested, “Open the next packet.”

  When she reached in this time, her fingers closed on a bulkier package. Pulling it out, she saw that it was one of Perky Paws’ special bags filled with dog treats.

  “They’re for Lady,” Grant said. “It’s up to her if she wants to share them with Patches.”

  “I’m sure she will. Sharing is the best part of being together.”

  Tenderly taking her hand in his, he squeezed it. “The final gift in the bag is for you.”

  Caprice slowly pulled out a yellow box like any gift shop might use. She just stared at it for a while.

  “Open it,” Grant encouraged her.

  After she took off the lid and pushed back tissue paper, she felt tears rush into her eyes. Inside the box was a wooden heart with their names burned into the wood.

  When her gaze met his, he said, “I thought about giving you flowers or jewelry, but that wouldn’t tell you what I was really feeling. I found the heart and a wood-burning iron at a craft store. My dad once did woodwork with engraving on it. It was just a side hobby, and he always said his pieces weren’t good enough to give away. But I thought he was wrong. I inscribed our names on there and stained it because I wanted you to have something . . . for you . . . something that I meant just for you . . . something that would tell you I was sorry.”

  “Oh, Grant.” She wrapped her arms around his neck. “It’s perfect. I’m so sorry too. I never should have said what I did.”

  “You were speaking the truth that night and so was I. And the fact that it is the truth means we have to deal with it. But I think we’ll be a lot better dealing with it together than separately, don’t you think?”

  “Oh, yes, I think that’s true. I was so worried you didn’t want to marry me anymore . . . marry me and my family.”

  He cupped her face in his hands. “Not anything will keep me from marrying you. You can’t still be insecure about how I feel, can you?”

  “When something like this happens, I think about how much easier it would have been for you to marry someone else, not to have to go through the whole annulment process, not to have to deal with the expectations from my family.”

  “But don’t you realize what you’re saying is true for me too? We’ve gone through it together. We’ve gone through everything together—my grief over losing Sally, my letting go of enough of it to move forward. You trusted me during the time I needed to find closure with Naomi, and I did. I am who I am because of you. Something my mother said when we visited them hit home as the truth.” He dropped his hands from her face.

  Her heart was still beating rapidly. “What?”

  “She said all those times I came home with Vince when we were in law school, I started to have feelings for you then but denied them. I was four years older. You were seventeen and I was twenty-one. And you were my best friend’s sister. I absolutely denied anything I felt. But my mother said it could have been one of the reasons why my marriage with Naomi didn’t work out.”

  “Is that true?” Caprice asked in almost a whisper.

  He took her hand in his once more. “I don’t think it’s true, per se. I think when we met, I liked you a lot. By the time Vince and I graduated from law school, you and I had gotten to know each other better, and I think there were feelings there. But you were ready to embark on your adult life and so was I. After I moved to Pittsburgh, took a job with a big firm and met Naomi, I headed in another direction.”

  Now he stared at their clasped hands a few moments before he went on. “I didn’t know Naomi had stopped taking birth control on purpose so she could trap me into marriage. That’s what I always felt—trapped. I still have no doubt marrying her because of our baby was the right thing to do. I told myself that over and over. But Naomi and I . . . We never had the c
loseness you and I have. We never laughed the way you and I do. You and I began a friendship base way back then that grew. When Naomi and I lost Sally, we blamed each other. Our marriage, not the best to begin with, began tearing apart. When I found out Naomi had an affair while we were both grieving, that was the end of it. We didn’t fit together.”

  He blew out a breath. “I didn’t mean to talk about my marriage. I just want you to remember that I chose you. I chose to be your friend when Vince was in law school with me. When I came back to Kismet, I told myself I wasn’t interested in anyone. But when we had those De Luca family dinners, I couldn’t keep denying that I enjoyed being with you. Letting go of the past was hard. Loving you was easy.”

  She was openly crying now instead of trying to blink the tears away. She didn’t know how she was going to stop crying. Of course, her tears were joyful because Grant had given her an even better understanding of him than she’d had before.

  Once she had caught her breath and he was holding her close against him on the sofa, she asked, “Do you want to change the venue for the reception?”

  He shook his head. “No. Not after all the plans we’ve made. As you said, the tasting room is in another building. Our parents will just have to accept that. For all we know, it will give them common ground to get along.”

  Caprice smiled, but then she became serious again. “What are we going to do so they do get along? Under my parents’ roof, they probably won’t be able to avoid controversy.”

  “We’ll let them hash it out. We’ll be on our honeymoon. When we get back, your parents will be in Pennsylvania and mine will be back in Vermont.”

  “But if we want to have a holiday together—”

  “My parents love me and your parents love you. They’ll work it out, Caprice. I know you’re worried that they won’t. If we have to, we’ll celebrate every other holiday with the two families. We’ll do that. But they are not going to come between us.”

  Caprice’s cell phone played. “I’ll let it go to voicemail.”

  “You’re in the middle of a murder investigation. Maybe you should at least see who’s calling.”

  She kissed Grant lightly on the lips. “More of that later,” she assured him with a smile and picked up her phone. “It’s Brett,” she said. “I’d better take it. But there’s no reason why you can’t listen in.”

  She swiped the screen to accept the call. “Hi, Brett. I’m going to put you on speaker phone because Grant’s here.”

  “That sounds good. Then I don’t have to explain this to both of you separately. Grant, do you know about the virus on Caprice’s computer?”

  “No, I don’t.” He turned questioning eyes to her.

  “Someone got to her hard drive, either by phishing or a Trojan horse. Anyway, the virus originated from a burner phone. There’s no way to really trace it. We’re investigating the point of sale and then we’ll see if we can get video footage. It’s a long shot but I think it’s worth a try. I just wanted to keep you informed.”

  “Do I need to buy a new computer?” Caprice asked.

  “It might be a good idea. We’re going to hold onto this one for a while longer.”

  “Maybe I’ll just look into a laptop for the time being. It would be good to have a backup.”

  “That would suit us just fine,” Brett said. “My techs can put excellent security on it for you. After all, I owe you for the leads you’ve come up with for me.”

  “I’d appreciate that, Brett. I really would. I’ll give you a call when I get one.”

  “Sounds good. You and Grant have a nice evening.”

  After she ended the call and laid her phone on the coffee table, Grant took her into his arms again. “You didn’t tell me about the virus.”

  “I didn’t think you wanted to talk to me,” she said.

  “And I didn’t think you wanted to talk to me. Never again, right?”

  “Never again,” she vowed.

  He bent his head closer to hers. “And we are going to have a very nice evening.”

  “At least until Roz comes home.”

  “Then we better get started.” He bent his head and kissed her.

  * * *

  The following Tuesday, Caprice drove to Baltimore-Washington International Airport, also known as Thurgood Marshall Airport, to pick up her Aunt Marie. She admired her aunt and was eager to see her. She pulled off the road in the area for communicating with a cell phone. As soon as she tapped her phone open, the message signal popped up. Her aunt had texted.

  I’ll wait for you outside at Southwest Airlines, door number 4.

  Caprice quickly texted back with a thumbs-up emoji then pulled back into the stream of traffic ready to pick up her aunt.

  Her aunt was unique and didn’t quite fit in with the rest of the family. An artist, she created sterling silver jewelry in her studio in Taos.

  Aunt Marie was easy to spot at the curb where she’d crossed the traffic lanes at door four. She wore a gauzy maxi-dress in shades of green and blue in an ombré effect. On her feet, she’d slipped on Birkenstocks and she wore a yellow shawl draped around her shoulders. Her hair was black like Caprice’s dad’s. It was as straight as Caprice’s and even longer. Every time she’d seen her aunt over the years and in pictures, Marie was usually wearing her hair in a long braid. Today was no exception.

  They’d spoken on the phone over the weekend so Caprice could catch up her aunt on what was happening and the fact that Roz would be staying with them too, at least for now.

  “You didn’t bring Lady along,” Aunt Marie said, sounding disappointed. “I was hoping you would so I could meet her.”

  “She’s at my house with Roz and Dylan. Roz needs a distraction right now, and the dogs will help with that. You’ll meet Lady as soon as we get home.”

  Her aunt buckled her seatbelt and Caprice pulled away from the curb.

  Aunt Marie sighed and leaned her head against the seatback. “I’m definitely not a world traveler. Flying messes up my body rhythm. My yoga teacher once said the human body is created for a horse and buggy, not for breaking the sound barrier.”

  “You’ll have a couple of days to rest. At the rehearsal dinner Friday night, you’ll meet Grant’s family.”

  She was so glad she and Grant had talked about everything. It was like a weight had been lifted from around her heart. She supposed that each time they argued and made up—and there would be arguments—their relationship would grow stronger.

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to stay somewhere else if Roz is there with you?”

  “Roz asked me the same thing before I left. I have two spare bedrooms. I’m sure you met Roz when we were in high school and you were still around Kismet. And I’m even more sure you’ll like the adult version. She’s my best friend, other than Bella and Nikki, of course.”

  “Of course,” Aunt Marie said with a smile, sitting up straight again. “I’m going to love taking care of your animals while you and Grant are on your honeymoon. I can’t wait to meet him as well as Lady.”

  Caprice laughed. “I’ll tell him that. I bet your two cats are going to miss you.”

  “Maybe. My next-door neighbor will take good care of Midnight and Bianca. She’ll check on them a few times a day and feed them, and maybe stay overnight at my place a couple of nights.”

  “It’s good you have someone you can trust.” Her aunt often e-mailed Caprice photos of her cats. Midnight was an ebony black cat and Bianca was white with blue eyes. Yin and yang. Her aunt had moved to New Mexico, and Taos in particular, because she wanted to be in a more spiritual atmosphere. Spiritual, not religious. Her aunt had a different take on the world than her traditional family did. She was the one who’d convinced Caprice to do affirmations each day. As far as Caprice was concerned, those affirmations worked, or at least kept her thinking in a positive mode.

  Caprice concentrated on driving on the Beltway, and her aunt rested until they veered onto I-83.

  Her aunt asked, “Has
anything changed about the murder investigation since we spoke?”

  “Not exactly. Brett could use a little more information about a rival winery.” She told her aunt about Black Horse Winery.

  “Anything else?”

  Caprice hesitated.

  “A confidential matter?”

  “Possibly. But I know you know how to keep secrets.” Her aunt had been around during her school years and Caprice had often confided in her. “I also visited another winery, Oak Grove Vineyard. I’d heard from someone that Michelle had been having an affair, so I went to the source.”

  “The man himself?”

  “Yes.”

  “Wasn’t that dangerous?”

  “I didn’t feel it was. And from what he said, I think he truly cares for Michelle, and she for him. Unless she was just trying to escape the loneliness of her marriage and using Dion. If so . . .”

  “Are you thinking if so, maybe he resented it and killed her husband?”

  “I really don’t know. Like Brett, I need more information.”

  “I doubt if you should talk to Michelle directly. Is there anyone else you can discuss it with?”

  “Travis’s brother lived at the winery for a year. It’s possible he might know something about it.”

  “Is it safe to talk to him?”

  “I don’t know who’s safe and who isn’t anymore. The plans for the wedding have been swirling around me like a cloud, and maybe that’s tilting my reasoning. But I think it would be safe enough to ask Jarrett. He seems to be pretty straightforward. Maybe I can get back to the winery tomorrow.”

  “I could always go with you,” Marie suggested. “A little adventure is good for the soul. Besides . . . Resting is overrated.”

  Caprice laughed. “Tell you what, I’ll think about that.”

  Her aunt patted her hand.

  Caprice felt it might be a kind of insurance to have her aunt along. Insurance in the middle of a murder investigation could be a very good thing.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Since Roz wasn’t going into her shop until later in the day, she stayed with the animals while Caprice and Marie drove to the Rambling Vines Winery on Wednesday. After they parked, Caprice took a look around from the house to the tasting room to the events room. She pointed out each to Marie.