Dad for Charlie & the Sergeant's Temptation & the Alaskan Catch & New Year's Wedding (9781488015687)

by Stewart, Anna J. ; Sasson, Sophia; Carpenter, Beth; Jensen, Muriel

  “He explained to me,” Cassie said in his defense, “that he knew he’d been wrong, but he’d loved her very much. She must have been something when she was clean.”

  Eleanor wiped at a tear. “She was.”

  She blew out a steadying breath and went on. “We’d heard he’d moved to Maine when Charlene went to jail, but we couldn’t find him. Someone in the office where he’d worked told us he’d left counseling after Cassie was sent home to him, and opened his own business, but he didn’t know where. Someone thought he might have moved to Europe.

  “That’s when Oliver cast a wider net. There was a supermodel named Chapman, and we knew that was Cassie’s last name. About the time we discovered that, I saw the news story about you. There was a close-up of your face.” She dug into her purse and produced a photo that she handed Jack. Cassie went to stand behind him and look over his shoulder. “That’s your mother at seventeen.”

  The young woman in the photo sat on the hood of a Corvette, long-legged and coltishly slender, laughingly posing like a starlet with one hand on her hip and the other at her hair. Cassie thought it could have been her if her own hair was darker and her eyes more fearless.

  “I knew I’d found you,” Eleanor went on. “Then, as I said before, it was a circuitous route to finally discover where you were.” She laughed. “Poor Oliver. I’m the one who suggested he get a photo of you. I’m making an album, and I wanted to start it from the very beginning. I had no idea you’d mistake him for paparazzi.”

  Cassie went back to sit beside poor Oliver. He looked a little like Daniel Radcliffe. She guessed he was in his midtwenties. The bruise on his face stood out on his cheekbone and, though she’d dressed the knuckles she’d stepped on accidentally, he cradled that hand in the other.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said for probably the fifth time that afternoon. “Why didn’t you just tell me the other day in front of the bakery what you were doing?”

  “Because Eleanor asked me not to make contact. To just let her know when I’d found you and she’d hop on the first plane.”

  “It’s all my fault,” Eleanor said. “I had no idea a simple camera would elicit such a reaction.”

  Jack and Corie began to laugh. Cassie was indignant for a moment then she saw the humor in it. When Eleanor and even Oliver joined the laughter, she did, too.

  “I wanted you all to know that your mother was a great person until drugs and selfish choices set her on a path to self-destruction. I’m sorry it made life so hard for all of you.” Everyone sobered. “The night her boyfriend died must have been so traumatic for you.” She put a hand to Cassie’s cheek. “And you girls were just babies, two and four.”

  Corie tucked her arm in Cassie’s and leaned her cheek against her shoulder. “We were lucky to have each other. We followed Jack when he went to see what was happening and when…when we saw… Jack shooed us back to our rooms, but we hid in the broom closet.”

  It came upon Cassie as a complete surprise—the old fragment of a memory—the darkness, the fear, the inability to escape.

  The silk against her face.

  She leaned away from Corie suddenly, impressions flickering like old movies playing too fast. The silk against her face had been Corie’s hair. She stared at her startled sister.

  Eleanor had stopped talking.

  Jack asked worriedly, “Cassie?”

  The panic began to inch up her body. Her breathing became shallow and the need to race away screaming tried to overtake her.

  “Cassie, what?” Corie asked gently, wrapping an arm around her with big-sister firmness. “Tell us. It’s all right.”

  She was unsure how to explain what she felt. How, how did what could only be suspicion seem so right on?

  “I, uh,” she said, having to clear her throat. “I have…claustrophobia.” Even she realized that was an odd response to what they must be seeing in her. She should explain that, but thoughts banged around in her mind. Was she wrong? She didn’t think so.

  “You mean you feel claustrophobic right now?” Jack asked. He had stood to come around to her but stopped.

  “No. I mean I have the condition.”

  Jack and Corie looked at each other, and Cassie knew.

  Jack sat near her on an ottoman. “You can’t possibly remember that night. You were only two years old.”

  Cassie’s panic began to recede. She could deal with this. She was among family. They’d been through it together. She pulled her arm out from under Corie’s steely grip and wrapped it around her shoulder, squeezing gently.

  “I don’t think it qualifies as a memory.” She had to think about breathing, drawing in air, pushing it out. “For as long as I can remember, I’ve been afraid of small spaces. Actually, it’s more than fear, it’s a recoil from something I couldn’t remember.” She smiled at her sister. “Until I just felt Corie’s hair against my face.”

  A tear slid down Corie’s cheek. “We were hiding together in the broom closet,” she said. “Mom’s boyfriend was beating her and Jack shoved us back toward our room and went to help her. I didn’t want to leave him, so I went to the closet and brought you with me.”

  “You held me so tight.”

  “You were afraid of the shouting and I didn’t want you to run out and get hurt. I watched through the louvered door.”

  “It was dark.”

  “And a very small space.”

  Cassie exhaled, understanding finally what had plagued her into her attacks all these years, though she remembered only the sensations and not the night.

  “Then Jack shot Brauer and it was over,” Corie said. “I ran out to try to defend him, sure he was in big trouble, but Mom sent us all to bed and told us to pretend to be asleep. The police would be coming and she didn’t want them to know Jack did it and that I saw it.”

  Cassie tightened her grip on Corie, feeling her pain. Jack knelt in front of them and held them both in his arms.

  After a moment Eleanor leaned into them. “Kids, I don’t know what you can do with a memory that awful but put it away. You can’t forget it, but you don’t ever have to think about it.”

  They clung together then Eleanor finally straightened and said in a hearty tone of voice, “You might find it comforting to know that you come from basically good people. My parents worked for an aircraft manufacturing company, and your grandfather and I owned a small clothing store. We sold it to an employee when it was time for Bill to retire.”

  They drew apart, fascinated by this new information. “Where do you live now?” Jack asked.

  “In the LA area.”

  “Are you happy there?”

  “I’m sure I’ll be happier now,” Eleanor said. “I have everything I need, except all the people I’ve loved who are gone.”

  “Can you stay with us for a while?” Jack asked. “My parents—my adopted parents—have a guesthouse that’s sitting empty.”

  “Why don’t you ask them to come over?” Cassie stood, too. “I can throw something together for dinner. Meanwhile, how about tea or coffee and some of Grady’s mom’s cranberry bread?”

  The assent was unanimous.

  In the kitchen, Cassie prepared a tray while Jack called the Palmers. Cassie could hear the excitement on the other end. The call was over in a minute.

  He hung up and told her, “Of course she can have the guesthouse for as long as she wants. And they’re coming right over.”

  She turned to smile into her brother’s good-looking face, feeling sympathy for the young boy who’d taken on the responsibility of his sisters, endured that horrible night, then had his family torn apart. She went to put her arms around him and hold him tightly.

  “I’m so sorry you’ve been through so much,” she said.

  They stood apart and he shook her gently by the shoulders. “Like E
leanor said, that’s over. And here we are—with a grandmother! I didn’t even know she existed.” He feigned a serious expression. “Thank you for not killing her attorney. That would have been hard to explain to her. She might have changed her mind about getting to know us.”

  “Yeah, I kind of went off on him. But I was feeling down and…you know…inadequate.”

  He arched both eyebrows. “No, I don’t know. Inadequate? Whatever for? You’re acknowledged as one of the world’s most beautiful women, and you’re smart and sweet and a good cook. Grady boasts about you all the time.”

  Now she looked surprised. “That’s hard to believe. He thinks I’m not real.”

  “Pardon me?”

  “He has this thing about reality. Like, if something’s too good, or too glamorous, or changes his world too much, it’s phony. You know, he wanted to be a lawyer then had to give up his plans when his dad got sick. He seems to think that dooms him to never being able to have what he wants. So now he doesn’t want things.”

  Jack seemed to understand. “You mean he doesn’t want you?”

  She blew air through puffed cheeks then took a tin of cookies out of a cupboard. “That’s astute of you, and yes. He likes me, I think, but he considers me superficial.”

  “You seem very grounded to me, even though you live in a world the rest of us can only imagine. Does he know about your claustrophobia?”

  She made a face. “There was an incident in an elevator the day we all got together for lunch. He was very kind about it. He helped me keep my secret.”

  “You don’t have to hide anything from us, you know.”

  “I know, I know. But your finding me finally makes our family complete and I didn’t want to be a disappointment.”

  He rolled his eyes. “As though you could be. Now, about Grady. I think he’s just afraid of what he doesn’t know. It sounds as though you have strong feelings even though it’s been just a short time.”

  She pulled down a plate and arranged cookies on it. “It’s been a very intense time with the three of us getting back together again. Then there was that thing in Ireland because of my claustrophobia.”

  “Yeah. Sarah told me why that happened.”

  “Anyway, I’ve been restless and yearning for something.”

  “And it turns out to be Grady?”

  She winced. “Does it show?”

  “No. You seem very cool and together. But the guy’s like a brick. If you need solid dependability, he’s your man.”

  “That’s the irony of it. That solid, dependable man wants his life to remain just that way. And I don’t fit. I mean, my life is like a miracle now—like the future is wide open. You found Corie and me, and now we have a grandmother. I finally understand myself, so I feel invincible.”

  She placed slices of the cranberry-orange bread on another plate and handed it to him, dismissing the heavy discussion with a wave of her other hand. “Doesn’t matter. You want to take those out to the coffee table and I’ll make drinks?”

  “Sure. Grady will come around, Cassie.”

  “I don’t know.”

  He kissed her forehead and started away with the plates. “Well, if he doesn’t, you can come and live with us, and when we have children and you’re not working, you can be their favorite aunt. Meanwhile, if it’s okay with you, right after this snack, we’ll take Grandma to my parents’ place to have a rest, you can have a little free time and Grady can get ready to meet us at the Bistro for the bachelor dinner. But we’ll be back after that to finish up stuff and to see the new year in.”

  “Definitely. Despite all the goings-on, we have to pay some homage to New Year’s Eve.”

  * * *

  CASSIE WATCHED JACK and Corie jealously as they left with their grandmother in Jack’s truck. They had a grandmother!

  “How’s it going?” Grady asked, finally off work and dressed in jeans and a red flannel shirt. He carried what appeared to be a very heavy grocery bag. “Where’s your grandmother?”

  She had to shift her mind to practical matters. She explained about Jack taking her with him. “So far, so good on the plans. The florist reports that everything’s ready and in her refrigerated case. Right now she’s stringing some flowers for me to add to the bunting. What’s in the bag?”

  He went past her to the kitchen. “Champagne. Didn’t want to use any of the wedding stuff and we have to toast the new year tonight.”

  She followed him. “That was thoughtful.”

  He pretended modesty. “Hey, that’s me. So, I’m adding the flowers to the bunting?”

  “Maybe we could bribe Oliver to climb the ladder. He’s coming to help in the morning.”

  “Everybody’s coming again in the morning?”

  “Just for a few last-minute details. The flowers have to go up the day of, or they’ll wilt. Some of the food’s coming tonight. Your mom and Helen are so cute. They’re working as a very efficient team.”

  “Yeah. They took your dad off with them this morning to show him around Beggar’s Bay. They promised to get him to the Bistro tonight in time for the bachelor dinner. Isn’t all this coziness bringing out your claustrophobia?”

  She looked at him in surprise. “Just the opposite. All these people in my life are opening up my world. I love my work, but my friends used to be everyone in the business, and while I’ve gotten to see the world’s most beautiful places, I didn’t realize that the simplicity of small-town life is so satisfying, comforting. I love it here. Even though I don’t know a lot of people, I’ve walked around downtown enough to recognize a few faces and earn a smile and a ‘good morning.’ Often, in big cities, people are too busy for that.”

  He wrapped her in his arms and held her tightly. “Tell me about the contracts you have to go back to Paris for.”

  She looped her arms around his neck. Her eyelashes fluttered against his cheekbone as she leaned into him. His heart pulsed in the same way. “My good friend Josie Bergerac is a designer of evening clothes in Paris and I do all her shows and most of her print ads. In New York, I do TV commercials for Eterna Beauty Cosmetics.”

  “I know you have a condo in Paris, but where do you live when you’re in New York?”

  “Several friends and I keep a place there, with a view of Central Park. We come and go all the time so each of us pays the rent for a quarter of the year. Works out well. I’ll let you know when I’m going to be in New York and you can come visit me.”

  He was in love with a woman who shared digs on Park Avenue. What was happening? Right now, he didn’t care.

  “I think my mother is attracted to your father,” he said, needing to think about someone else’s unlikely romance. “She has a key to my house. Remember when we got home from Texas, she was in here, putting food in the refrigerator?”

  “That’s right. I hadn’t thought about that. So why did she keep them outside in the cold?”

  “I haven’t had a chance to ask her. But last night she stopped me from mentioning in front of him that she had a key and could have let him in.”

  “If she hasn’t dated in a while, maybe she was reluctant to be in a house alone with a strange man. That probably wasn’t done when she was a girl.”

  “I’m sure you’ve noticed this, but my mother isn’t shy.”

  “True, but when she was alone with my dad, waiting for us, she wasn’t your mother, she was a woman. Probably a lonely woman, and she was being cautious.” She widened her eyes. “How would you feel if they decided they liked each other? It’s completely premature, but how tidy for us.”

  “Tidy?”

  “My brother’s adopted brother is marrying my sister, my mother and your father might connect. It’s kind of all in the family—even screwy as it all is.”

  He nodded. Screwy didn’t begin to describe it. He noticed she�
��d carefully sidestepped their own relationship.

  She seemed to read what was in his eyes. She dropped her arms from around his neck but he continued to hold her. She rested her elbows on his arms. “You realize that you and I are looking at a long-distance relationship until I come home, and then…who knows? You might have decided it’s too much trouble or too…fussy to manage all that. You might fall in love with someone else.”

  “What about all the jocks and geniuses that populate your life in New York and Paris? Not to mention the models and movie stars. You might change your mind about me when you see them again.”

  She shook her head and gave him a look that melted every bone in his body. “Not a chance. None of them is the missing piece.”

  He kissed her again because he couldn’t help himself but had to admit he felt some worry at the worrisome responsibility. He’d been his parents’ stockade wall, Celeste’s “lover boy,” but he’d never been the person who would make someone else’s life complete. He hoped he had what she thought he had, and that her feelings for him weren’t just part of this cozy family reunion where anything seemed possible.

  * * *

  BECAUSE THEY WERE all needed to help set up tonight, there’d be no time for a serious rehearsal dinner or, for that matter, a real New Year’s Eve party. Don had offered to order pizza, so a slice and a champagne toast at midnight was going to have to serve.

  He quickly changed into brown pants and a beige sweater, and arrived back in the kitchen in time to admit the beautiful, fragrant, laughing chaos that had invaded his life big-time. He was hugged by every woman, which was nice, then fed a cookie here, an hors d’oeuvre there, and Helen stuffed a forkful of something into his mouth before he could stop her. Fortunately it was delicious food for the wedding. Eleanor was glowing as part of the group. Cassie, who’d also changed, hurried in to welcome everyone.

  “Mushroom cap stuffed with sausage,” she said. “Good?”