“And you know this how?” Matt asked.
“Anne,” Skye said smugly, as she whirled away to wait on more customers.
Sean groaned. “Oh yeah, guess we forgot that the chain of female cousins in the McCullough family is at least as strong as the male.”
“And since Anne goes up to San Francisco to dance—”
“It’s highly likely that she’s met some of the women in her brother’s life.”
“Come on, let’s get a table.” Matt grabbed the glass Skye had refilled.
“Away from my sister’s prying eyes,” Sean said.
“And ears.”
Once settled, Sean looked over at Matt, waiting for him to say what was on his mind as he knew he would. This time it only took about five minutes. “I worry about him.”
“Yeah?”
“His trips home are shorter and further apart.”
“He likes city life.” But Sean knew that wasn’t it. He just wasn’t sure he wanted to open old wounds.
“Yeah, he’s taken to it like a McCullough to Belhaven.”
Sean laughed. He had to admit that with Alex gone, he liked being Matt’s closest cousin.
“Do you want to tell Cassie or should I?” Sean asked, knowing it should come from one of them.
Matt’s glance in his direction said enough.
“Right. I’ll tell her first thing tomorrow. Before she hears it from someone else.”
“You’re a good man, Sean McCullough.” Matt patted him on the back.
“So are you, Matt McCullough.” Sean worried about this cousin as much as he did about the other. “You might want to crash at my place tonight instead of driving back to Winslow.”
“It’s only twelve miles.”
“On a dark and winding road.”
“Dark maybe but not winding. The kids.”
“You can call and tell them good-night. They’re in good hands with your folks.”
Matt nodded and shoved his car keys toward Sean who scooped them up before he could change his mind.
“It’s kind of strange, don’t you think?” Matt said as if expecting Sean to read his mind. Why not? He did it often enough.
“What is?”
“Things that should have affected you and me more seem to have taken a bigger toll on Alex.”
Sean looked over at him. Matt could try to convince himself of that all he wanted, but Sean knew he was still licking his wounds from the day Cassie Callahan’s older sister, Charlotte, had walked out on him and their two kids eight years ago. It was not long after Sean’s best friend, Jeff Callahan, had died that Charlotte had taken off. Apparently her little brother’s death had made her realize that life was too short to be stuck doing something you didn’t want to do—like being a wife and mother.
Sean still felt bad for Matt. He had to admit that he too was still in pain over the loss of his best friend. But Matt had not only lost his wife in the bargain, he had pretty much lost his best friend too. Actually the whole family had lost Alex.
Chapter 2
“Congratulations!” Barbara Weldon ushered the newly-engaged couple into her living room where she sat them down on the couch. “Let me see it!”
Sophie held out her hand as if on auto pilot for her mother’s approval.
Barbara grasped her daughter’s hand and pulled it into the sunlight so she could study the diamond ring. “It’s lovely. You have excellent taste.” She gave Alex a look of approval.
“Sophie chose it,” he told his future mother-in-law. It wasn’t the ring he had selected for her. She had returned that one, opting for a more old-fashioned antique setting and a diamond half the size, claiming that the two and a half caret emerald cut ring was way too big for her hand. And laughingly she had pointed out that she did not want to distract her students when she was helping them with school work.
No doubt, she was right about all of it. And although his ego had been wounded just a little bit, how could he object when she had saved him a few thousand dollars? But it had surprised him. Sophie always loved every gift he gave her. She teared up every time he brought her long-stem red roses. When he gave her the Gucci purse for her birthday and the Yves Saint Laurent boots for their three month anniversary, she had thanked him profusely. She genuinely seemed ecstatic when he had surprised her with a bottle of Chanel perfume and the pearl earrings. She had especially loved the sneakers he had brought home one evening, although he was relatively certain she hadn’t realized they were Lanvin. And when he’d brought her a new French cookbook, she had immediately gone out and bought the ingredients for the first three recipes so she could prepare them for him.
But he understood that an engagement ring was forever. And she did have very small and delicate fingers. And she was a second grade teacher.
Come to think of it, she had turned down the Mercedes he’d taken her to test drive.
“My Volvo is great,” she protested.
“It’s fifteen years old.”
“Just goes to show you. Volvos are great cars. And mine gets really good gas mileage.”
Maybe after they were married, she’d let him give her a new car. But it might have to be a hybrid to satisfy her environmentalist nature.
“It’s far more sensible than the one I had selected,” Alex told Barbara.
“Yes, well Sophie has always been very sensible. And she has very good judgment. It’s a beautiful ring,” Barbara sat down in the chair across from them. “So tell me everything. Where and when did you propose, Alex? Have you set a date? Where do you want the wedding? What would you like me to do? I’m at your disposal. Whatever you need.”
Sophie’s heart did a flip flop. As much as she had fought the need for her mother’s approval and support, apparently she hadn’t yet won the battle.
“I took Sophie to Chez Morin,” Alex answered. “Last weekend. No, I didn’t get down on one knee. I proposed across the candlelit table.”
“Still very romantic,” Barbara said. “And more dignified.”
“No date set yet. We haven’t discussed where or when for that matter, and anything you want to be involved in, I’m sure Sophie would appreciate.”
Sophie clasped Alex’s hand in gratitude. He couldn’t have answered his mother’s questions more accurately.
“You’re more than welcome to have it here.” Barbara motioned toward her luxurious living room.
Sophie appreciated the gesture, but it wasn’t where she wanted to get married. She wanted something homier, outside under the trees or in a beautiful rose garden or overlooking the ocean. “Thank you, Mom. We’ll discuss it. We’re actually on our way down to Canden Valley to visit Alex’s family and tell them the news.”
“Do you have a large family? Brothers and sisters?”
Two parents? Sophie could hear the unspoken question. This time she answered for him. “Alex’s parents still live on the ranch where he grew up. He has two sisters and a brother.”
“And lots of cousins,” Alex added.
“For the most part they live in the same area.”
“Ahh, so you’ll probably want to have the wedding there?” Barbara asked, and Sophie dismissed her suspicion that her mother was relieved.
“No, I don’t think so,” Alex said.
“But the ranch sounds perfect,” Sophie blurted out. “We could get married in the garden.”
Alex shook his head. “You want a potluck for a wedding? Knowing my family, they’d turn it in to one.”
It sounded good to her. Everyone pitching in.
Her mother’s cringe nearly vibrated. She had always referred to potlucks as a poor man’s party.
“I was thinking one of the hotels in San Francisco,” Alex said.
“Now that would be lovely. Just let me know how I can help,” Barbara said, standing up. “Now, are you two hungry? Dinner should be ready any minute.”
Sophie and Alex followed her into a California dream kitchen. When had her mother started cooking? But when Sophie looked
across the granite countertop, she spotted the take-out containers beside the sink.
“Sorry. I’ve been too busy to cook,” Barbara said as if reading her daughter’s mind.
Alex took the plate Barbara handed him. “It smells delicious.”
She grabbed her ringing cell phone and glanced down at it. “Oh dear, I was hoping this call wouldn’t come during dinner. Sophie, can you get the food out of the oven. I wanted to keep it warm until you arrived. This will only take a minute.”
They served themselves generous helpings of the chicken parmesan and sat down at the dining room table. While Alex opened the bottle of Merlot that he had brought with them, Sophie found the Caesar salad in the refrigerator where she knew it would be,
He handed Sophie her glass. “Should we wait for your mom?”
“No. It could take a while.”
“But she said it would only take a minute.”
“A real estate minute,” Sophie explained.
“Oh.” He lifted his glass and clinked it gently against hers. “To us.”
“To us.”
“She seems happy for us.”
“Yes.”
“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?”
“Of course.”
He stopped himself from asking, “But?” He wasn’t sure he wanted to know what was bothering her, especially if it was something other than that her mother was on a business call instead of sitting at the table enjoying their company.
Twenty minutes later, Barbara appeared. “Oh, good, you’ve served yourselves.”
Sophie’s eyebrows rose at the comment. They had finished eating.
“There’s tiramisu in the refrigerator,” she said to Alex. “Your favorite.”
Sophie smiled. She had remembered. “I’ll get you a slice.” She pushed back her chair from the table as her mother sat down. By the time she had made a cup of espresso and served the tiramisu, her mother had finished eating her meal. “Do you want a piece, Mom?”
“No thanks, honey. But a cup of that espresso looks divine. I need to get a contract scanned and emailed off. Do you mind cleaning up? Just put everything in the sink to soak. I’ll finish it later.” She kissed Sophie on the top of the head and reached for Alex’s hand which he offered readily. “It is so wonderful to have the two of you here.”
Sophie went to make her mother a cup of coffee while Barbara settled in at the computer desk she had set up in the kitchen. Apparently she was so busy, she needed two computer desks, Sophie thought. Or maybe it was simply for the sake of time. This one was more immediate than the one in her home office on the other side of the house. She could eat and work at the same time, and since she didn’t allow food or drinks anywhere but in the kitchen and dining room, it made sense.
“Sorry,” she whispered to Alex as she cleared his dessert plate.
“It’s fine, Sophie. I understand. I need to check my email anyway. I want to be sure that deposition came through.”
While Sophie cleaned up the kitchen and put away the left-over food, Alex set up his laptop on the kitchen counter. Her mother and Alex were both still occupied after she’d finished so she picked up a homes magazine from the coffee table and curled up on the living room couch.
She had not wanted to ruin their trip by stopping at her mother’s for the night, but it was en route and she figured it was only right to tell her in person that she was engaged. But she was not about to let this one-night visit taint their trip to Canden Valley in any way.
It was fine, Sophie decided. It was just how her mother was and she should not take it personally. She looked across the room at her mother and her husband-to-be. So what if they were pre-occupied. It was the nature of their work. And it gave her time to relax. She’d been so busy with the end of the school year, that stretching out on the couch with a magazine instead of school papers was a luxury.
She finished thumbing through the designer magazine in under five minutes. Not her taste. Her mother loved elegant. She loved country. She went over to the bookshelf and searched for some light reading. “Any fiction?” she asked her mother.
“What? Oh, I’m sure there’s something. I’ll look for you. Just let me finish making this call.”
By the time her mother hung up, Sophie had found the family photo album and was settled back on the couch. “Come look at this,” she told Alex, when she found a photograph she was especially proud of. She was six years old, dressed as a swan, dancing around with a dozen other little girls. But she was front and center, easy to spot with her proud grin which exposed two missing teeth.
“What is it, honey?”
“Pictures. Of me.”
“I’ll be right there.”
“Embarrassing ones,” she said, attempting to lure him.
He laughed and closed his computer, coming to look over her shoulder. “Definitely embarrassing.”
“But cute.”
He kissed the top of her head. “Definitely cute.”
She showed him a few others, including the one where she was dressed up for the prom. She’d just had her braces removed and again, was smiling with pride.
Alex’s cell phone rang and he pulled it from his pocket.
“Who is it?”
“Angela. I don’t have to take it.”
“It’s okay. She wouldn’t call if she didn’t need your help with something. Especially in the evening.”
“It will only take a minute.” He edged his way back towards the kitchen and his laptop.
Sophie turned a couple more pages of the album before closing it. As much as she loved taking a trip through her childhood, it always left her feeling sad and empty. She closed her eyes and her mind flashed to a different photograph album, the one she had discovered on Alex’s bookshelf the first time he had invited her to his condo. While he was preparing a home-cooked pasta dinner, she was browsing.
Fun, laughter, celebration, joy. Family. Always thinking like a teacher, she could see the words cut out in big letters at the top of one of her second grade classroom bulletin board displays. She would have had her second grade students draw pictures to go with the words or bring in photographs from home. Maybe come fall, she would do exactly that.
Most of the pictures were taken on the ranch where Alex had grown up. His parents sitting in the front porch swing; Alex with his brother and sisters slurping down giant bites of watermelon; two young boys, arms resting on each other’s shoulders, standing in front of a tent; a giant picnic with family and friends; fourteen children—she had counted—ranging from toddlers to teens, bundled up tightly as they sat on hay bales in the back of a giant pickup truck decorated with Christmas lights; a group of seven boys splashing around in a pond; a family posing in front of a Christmas tree; four children tearing open presents on Christmas morning; his mom holding him in front of her on the back of a horse; fishing side by side with his dad; his dad holding him up to put the star on the top of the Christmas tree; a group of thirty plus people seated around a table feasting on turkey.
His family spilled off the pages, filling her heart with joy. How incredible it must have been, growing up surrounded by brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents . and especially with two parents.
* * *
The following morning, they left behind her mother’s home. Anxious to get on the road, Sophie had served Alex an early breakfast in bed. Today she would meet his family. She would stay focused on that.
“Are you okay, honey?” Alex accelerated the silver Jaguar Coupe and merged onto the freeway.
“Of course. Why?”
“You haven’t spoken a word since we left your mother’s. And, that deep sigh.”
She hadn’t even heard it. “I guess I was just wishing I had a father to walk me down the aisle.”
“Don’t worry about that. I’m sure one of my many relatives will be happy to oblige. My dad, grandfather, an uncle.”
He was missing the point. She could ask George Bradford, her best friend’s fath
er, the only father she’d grown up with. But it wouldn’t be the same. She wanted her father, the father she’d never known. “Thanks,” she mumbled, reaching over to turn down the air conditioner. “Alex, why don’t you visit your family more often?”
“Don’t you start in on me too.”
She smiled. She must be sounding like his mother. “What are they like?”
“Who?”
“Your family. I want you to tell me all about them so by the time we get there, I’ll feel as if I already know them.” She didn’t mention that she had studied their faces so many times that she knew them by heart. She hadn’t matched names with faces, but that shouldn’t take her long. “Tell me everything!”
“You don’t know what you’re asking.” Alex glanced in his rear view mirror as he moved into the fast lane.
“Why?”
“There are a lot of them.”
“How many kids?”
“A lot. Fourteen plus.”
“Fourteen?”
“Three are my siblings. The rest are cousins.”
“You said fourteen plus? You’ve lost track?”
“Those are the McCullough cousins. Keep in mind that we all have a second set of grandparents, miscellaneous aunts and uncles on the other side, which leads to—”
“Even more cousins.” She was already falling in love with this family. “Okay, well at least tell me the names of the cousins on the McCullough side.”
He glanced over at her and laughed. “Okay, but I think you’d better sit down.”
“I am sitting! We’re in the car, silly.”
“Sit anyway.”
She punched him gently in the arm, her laugh brightening the day. It was a relief to hear it. He had been right to ask her what was wrong. Although he had dreaded hearing the answer, he had sensed that the sooner he dealt with it, the better. Thanks to his large family, Sophie had happily moved on.
Alex hated going to her mother’s. No matter how well it went, Sophie always came away upset. Of course, she never let on, but he could see it as her grayish-blue eyes became grayer with every passing minute. It wasn’t that Barbara Weldon wasn’t a good person. It was just her nature to be all business at all times, even with a daughter who only wanted affection.
Summer Day Dreams Page 2
