Old Dog New Tricks

by Roxanne St Claire

  * * *

  “Mom! I’m in the kitchen drinking your coffee. Don’t come down naked or anything.”

  Katie chuckled at the greeting that floated up her stairs as she slid on earrings and did a last check of her outfit. Her daughter frequently popped in unannounced, using her own key to the townhouse Katie had moved into last year, but she had a feeling Cassie had an agenda this morning. She knew where Katie was headed and had come to deliver a pep talk.

  “Be right down,” she called back. “Fully dressed.”

  Normally, she loved nothing more than coffee with her daughter if it happened to be morning, or a glass of wine at the end of the workday. But they’d been avoiding each other—and the unavoidable topic—since they’d left Waterford Farm on Wednesday night.

  Cassie had claimed she understood Katie’s decision to get more time with Daniel before telling him about Nick, because the night with the Kilcannons had shown her just how much damage the news could do to the strong and healthy family. But they had different definitions of more time.

  A few minutes later, Katie stepped into the kitchen to find her daughter holding a mug, staring out at the tiny backyard patio, a million miles away.

  “I’m not changing my mind,” Katie announced, tempering the news with a hug from behind and a kiss on her daughter’s dark, sweet-smelling hair. “But I love that you won’t give up.”

  “I’m not here to tell you what to do, Mom.” She turned, a wry smile lifting her lips. “As out of character as that would be.”

  “You always were the bossiest little thing,” Katie teased.

  “Someone had to push those four beastly brothers around and show them who was in charge.” She took her coffee to the table and slipped into a chair. “By the way, John is super interested in that property in Bitter Bark that Daniel told us about at dinner the other night. The sandwich shop the owners are putting up for rent or selling? How’s that for complicating things?”

  Katie didn’t answer, rinsing out the cup she’d left in the sink earlier and trying to imagine how that could or would complicate things.

  “How do you feel about that?” Cassie pressed.

  “You three own the business,” Katie said. “If you want to open another Santorini’s in Bitter Bark, the fact that I know someone who lives there shouldn’t matter at all.”

  She snorted softly. “Know…like in the biblical sense.”

  “Cassie.” She whipped around, narrowing her eyes. “It’s not funny.”

  “If we don’t find some humor in this, I’ll go crazy.” She dropped her chin into her hands, letting her elbows clunk on the table. “I’m sorry, but it was a little weird to meet a guy you slept with before Dad.”

  “The only guy,” she clarified. “Before and after. Plus, it was only twice.”

  “But clearly he shoots loaded bullets with magic sperm.”

  Katie closed her eyes and sighed. “I told you we used a condom.”

  “And then you had sex with Dad and didn’t.”

  She dug deep for patience. Cassie was blunt, honest, and in this case, absolutely right. “I know this is hard for you to fathom, honey, but it was 1976.” She turned from the sink to face Cassie. “The whole ‘condom for disease protection’ hadn’t really become a cultural thing. We wore rubbers, and yes, that’s what we called them, to prevent pregnancy. Your father and I didn’t want to prevent pregnancy, as you know. Getting pregnant was our ticket to a marriage that neither family approved of.”

  “Grandma Diane didn’t approve of the marriage until the day she died. She’s probably dissed Dad in heaven every time she sees him.”

  If she’s there. “That wasn’t for lack of me trying to convince her I’d done the right thing. And you had Yiayia.”

  “And won’t Yiayaia be happy to find out Nick isn’t Greek?”

  “It could cause the next Trojan War,” Katie joked. “But can I just say that spending time with that little Irish grandma could make me believe in leprechauns? How cute is she?”

  “She’s adorable, but don’t change the subject.”

  “Right. Condoms. Me and…my men.”

  “Both of them.”

  “Cassie.” She stepped closer to make her point. “It’s really important that anyone who knows about this realizes that I did—Daniel and I did—do the smart thing on those two nights together. And that I went straight to your father, which is why I’ve always assumed that—”

  “Did it break? With Daniel, I mean.”

  “I don’t know.” She shook her head, the memory so incredibly fuzzy. “I honestly don’t recall much about it except that there was quite a bit of floundering with the package. He sort of slipped off the bed.”

  “Smooth.”

  “It was a dorm bed, and he’s over six feet tall. They’re only ninety-eight percent effective, you know. We thought we did the right thing.”

  “You were thinking about Dad?” She sounded almost scared to hear the answer.

  “We were raging with hormones, but yes, I do remember feeling a lot of guilt because I was in love with someone else.” More guilt than satisfaction, come to think of it.

  “Then why did you sleep with him? Just because he was good-looking?”

  Katie sighed. “Do the words ‘Grandma Diane’ mean anything to you?”

  “Grandma Diane told you to have sex with boys at college?” Cassie snorted. “I find that difficult to believe.”

  “She told me to spread my wings and…and…” Katie laughed softly. “Marry well. You think I’m old-fashioned? My mother thought college had one purpose for a young woman—getting an MRS, not a BA. Preferably to a doctor. I’m not even sure she’d have been happy with a vet, but at least he wasn’t a Greek restaurant owner.”

  “God forbid,” Cassie said dryly.

  “No, but my mother did. You understand that, right? My parents insisted I break up with your father, and in those days, kids actually did what their parents told them.”

  Cassie tipped her head. “I do what you want. I didn’t make any grand announcements on Wednesday.” She sighed and closed her eyes. “Which is why I do kind of understand your decision.”

  “I’m not chickening out. I want to do it right.”

  “You have to,” Cassie agreed. “That family is rock-solid. White bready Irish, but hey, not everyone can be Greek, as Yiayia likes to say. But I’m seriously afraid this could crack them.”

  “And us,” Katie added. “Plus, I keep clinging to the hope that what if that DNA mail-in test was wrong? You know, I read that sometimes they get sent back for not being able to find enough DNA in the saliva, because the sample was too small.”

  “It’s rare. Like, one in ten thousand. Or ‘ninety-eight percent effective’ as some might say.”

  Katie ignored the comment, still clinging to hope. “Or what if they got his results mixed up with someone else? Or what if the gene dice rolled differently, and that’s why he was three percent Greek and seventy-two percent Irish. I might have Irish in me. There are other explanations, Cass.”

  Katie had had no interest in taking the test when Cassie had first persuaded her brothers to participate over Thanksgiving. But after the results came in? Katie took it the next day, hoping that might explain the inconsistencies. Nick was listed as a “possible distant cousin,” not a sibling to any of them. And since none of the Kilcannons had ever registered with the site, none had shown up. But her results wouldn’t show up for many weeks, and—

  She frowned at the distant digital melody. “Is that my phone? Hang on.”

  “Yeah, it might be your new client, Dr. Kilcannon.” Cassie followed Katie into the laundry room where she’d hung her purse. “Grandma D’d be so proud of a doctor boyfriend.”

  “Stop it.” Katie pulled out her buzzing phone to read “unidentified caller” on the screen. “Probably one of those dumb marketing calls,” she said to Cassie.

  “Oh, let me answer it.” Cassie grabbed the phone. “I love to tell these people
what’s what when they call.” She cleared her throat, then touched the screen and hit the speaker button. “This better be good, because I am a very busy woman.”

  “It’s good, Cass, and you’re not Mom.”

  “Nick!” They both shouted his name at the same time in the same high-pitched excited voices.

  “I guess I hit the mother-daughter jackpot.”

  “Are you okay?” Katie seized the phone as if that were a way she could actually touch her son. “You never call in the mornings.”

  “I’m fine. Still in CAR,” he said, referring to the country of Central African Republic, where he’d been for months. “I’ve been running the mobile clinic in Kolaga, but a little trouble broke out down in Bangui, so we’re headed there to take care of some people.”

  The names of places so foreign that Katie had a hard time finding them on a map faded away, because all she heard was a little trouble.

  She shared a worried look with Cassie, who was already gnawing at her bottom lip. It was constant war and death, and no matter how hard Nick tried, he couldn’t save everyone. But he’d never stop trying. It was who he was.

  “We hit a spot on the road with the rare cell service, so I thought I’d call.”

  “Oh, that’s wonderful, honey.”

  “How you doing, bro?” Cassie asked, her voice soft and full of love. She adored all her brothers, but Nick was on a pedestal above the rest. He was the ultimate firstborn—a fearless leader, a protector, the best big brother to his siblings.

  “I have never been better,” he announced, making them look at each other with wide eyes of surprise.

  “That’s…great.” Katie didn’t want to say what she was thinking…that never been better was a huge improvement over the miserable man who’d been home for three days last Thanksgiving and deeply in the “angry” stage of grief over losing his father.

  “Does that mean you’re coming home?” Cassie asked.

  He laughed. “No, it means I’m in love.”

  “What?” The question came out with laughs of shock and disbelief in perfect unison again.

  “You?” Katie asked. “My confirmed bachelor?”

  Cassie’s jaw hung open. “Dude. I gave up on this hope years ago.”

  He laughed again, but Cassie’s words reflected Katie’s thoughts. At forty-two, Nick was committed to one thing: his job with the organization Médecins Sans Frontières, also known as Doctors Without Borders. In his sixth year with the organization, he lived a lifestyle that defied settling down, marrying, or having children. It defied anything “normal,” but that was exactly the way her intrepid, risk-loving, doctor son liked it.

  “Well, I’m still a bachelor,” he said. “For the moment.”

  “Wow, that’s fantastic, Nick,” Katie said.

  “Details, please,” Cassie added. “Who is she? How did you meet?”

  “She’s an MSF anesthesiologist,” he said. “And, man, does she numb my pain.”

  They laughed at that, but Katie’s smile quickly faded when she thought about how severe that pain had been. Of all her children, Nick had taken Nico’s illness and death the hardest. Not only had Nick and Nico shared a name and an extremely close bond, Nick was a man who literally lived to heal, but he’d been unable to help his own father beat cancer.

  “Tell me more,” Cassie urged. “What’s her name? Where’s she from? When will we meet her?”

  “Her name’s Lucienne Dumonier, and she’s from a little town outside of Paris.”

  “Oh, oui, oui! A French girl,” Cassie teased.

  “Woman,” he corrected. “She’s thirty-eight, but on her first tour with MSF. I met her on her first day here, right after I got back from the States, so I’m not sure if she’ll be coming home with me anytime soon. She doesn’t have much vacation accrued yet.”

  “But…you’ll come without her, right?” Katie asked. “In May? Like you said?”

  He hesitated long enough for her to feel the first pinch of disappointment. “I’ll try, but I’m not sure about the clinic, with the move and everything.”

  Katie and Cassie exchanged another glance. If he didn’t come home in May, Katie had more time to figure things out with Daniel. A little welcome relief rolled through her, mixed with some shame that she was such a coward.

  “You do sound happy, Nick, and that’s all that matters, really,” Katie said.

  “Yeah, I am. I think you’ll love her. Dad would have loved her.”

  She heard the hitch in his voice, and her eyes shuttered for a moment as guilt crawled up her chest. How could she ever break his heart again? When she sat him down to tell him that his hero, his best friend, his namesake was not his father, would he go back to square one with grief? She moaned a little at the thought.

  “It’s okay, Mom,” he said, misinterpreting the sound. “I can talk about him now. Lucienne’s helped me so much.”

  “That’s good.” Because this woman would have a lot more work to do in that regard. “Tell me about her.”

  “Well, she’s beautiful, of course. And funny. And a genius. Oh, and she wants kids.”

  “Really?” Her voice rose with hope she didn’t even try to contain as she reached to grab Cassie’s arm and give it a squeeze. “Well, that would be unexpectedly wonderful.”

  He laughed. “Listen, I’m glad I got you both, because I want to know about that DNA test thing you did at Thanksgiving, Cassie. Did you get the results yet?”

  For what felt like an eternity, neither of them moved. They just stared at each other in absolute shock and speechless silence.

  “You still there?” Nick asked.

  “Oh…yeah.” Cassie’s voice cracked as she took the phone back and waved it through the air. “I thought we lost you for a minute. Nick? Are you there?”

  Katie scowled at her.

  “What else can I do, Mom?” she mouthed. “We can’t tell him like this.” No sound came from her lips, but Katie read every word. And with each passing second, her head felt lighter.

  “Am I losing you guys?”

  “We’re here,” Katie said, her own voice sounding thick in her pulse-pounding ears.

  “Well, did you get the results?”

  “Not yet, no.” Cassie stepped closer to the phone, cringing like she had as a child when she’d told a fib. “They said it could take many weeks, maybe months. I’ve read about people not getting results for six months or more.” She said the last sentence quickly and closed her eyes as if the lie hurt to say.

  “Oh, really?” He sounded genuinely disappointed.

  “Is it that big a deal?” Cassie asked. “As I recall, you couldn’t scoff enough at the idea.”

  “I know, but Lucienne is really interested in seeing if I have any French in me. She says that kind of thing is important to her family.” He gave a dry laugh, but Katie reached for the coat hook on the wall to steady herself. “I knew you’d understand that, Mom, since Yiayia put you through the wringer for not being Greek.”

  She blew out a breath, not sure what to say.

  “So, yeah,” Nick said into the awkward silence. “I guess you can deduce that since we’re talking about families, it’s pretty serious.”

  “How serious?” Cassie asked.

  He was quiet for a moment. “She’s the one,” he finally said. “We have to figure out life, but…oh damn, I gotta go. They want me back on that bus ASAP. Listen, tell John and Alex I said hey. Is Theo okay?”

  “Yes,” Katie said. “Still in San Diego.”

  “Of course he is.” Nick laughed. “World’s luckiest guy. Hey, listen, don’t worry about the DNA thing, Cass. I’ll do my own if it becomes a deal breaker with Luci’s family. I think once they meet me, they won’t care that I’m a Greek god.” He gave a dry laugh that was so much like Daniel’s, Katie had to grab the wall again. “Love you guys.”

  “We love you, too,” Cassie said.

  “Be careful, Nicky,” Katie added.

  The line went dead, leaving the
m to stare at each other in silence.

  “I’ll tell him today,” Katie finally whispered.

  Cassie shook her head.

  “No? I have to, Cassie. You heard—”

  “I lied to him,” she said, her voice cracking. “I hate myself for that. Now I’m complicit in this thing. I’ve deceived my own brother.”

  “Oh, honey.” She reached for her and wrapped her arms around Cassie’s slender body, holding her close. “You are doing nothing but trying to protect the ones you love. The only person complicit is me.” She inched back. “I give you my word, I’m telling Daniel today. I’ll ask him to take the same test and see if Nick shows up as a possible relative.”

  “But what if Nick does his first and finds this out?”

  That would be…the worst possible scenario. “Even if he can get the internet access needed, it could take a long time. But not forever. I won’t wait. I can’t wait, now. Daniel has to take the test, so I’ll tell him today. We were supposed to go over sofa fabrics and paint ideas, then have a nice long lunch. I’ll tell him then.”

  Cassie nodded and added a hug. “You can do it.”

  “I know. In some weird way, I’m glad Nick forced my hand. I’m not sleeping well knowing I’m being deceptive. Daniel has a right to know. They both do.”

  Cassie gave her one more squeeze. “Mom, you’re the strongest woman I know. You’ve been through way worse. You’re doing the right thing.”

  She leaned back and smiled at her. “I knew you came over here to give me a pep talk.”

  “Of course I did.” She hugged harder. “I love you.”

  She clung to the words and the dear daughter who delivered them. They would be her strength during what was going to be one of the worst conversations of her life.

  But now she had to protect Nick from finding out first. When her children’s happiness was at stake, her own fears didn’t matter.

  Chapter Eight

  Daniel leaned across the table, watching Katie pick at Ricardo’s tiramisu as if the dessert he’d suggested for her tasted like mud instead of the heaven he knew it was. For the twentieth time since they’d started lunch a little over an hour ago, she let out a noisy sigh, looked out the window, then at Daniel, then back at the window, then her food.