“This is a little harder than I thought,” Kevin remarked as the wrench barely moved.
“I could help do that part—” Cassie offered, starting to release her grip on the faucet.
“No! You need to hang on to the faucet, or we’ll mess it up. It’s better if it comes off slow anyway.”
And it was extremely slow. Cassie shifted, trying not to appear restless. After all, this was Kevin’s project. Since she couldn’t use the tub, anyway, if his repair didn’t work, they wouldn’t have lost anything. “Pedro said he thought it was the pipes, not just the faucet.”
“That’s ’cause he didn’t want to fix it,” Kevin replied.
Cassie digested this. He might be right, but Pedro always seemed like a hard worker. “Maybe it was a little too complicated for him.”
Kevin shrugged. “Maybe.” Slowly he turned the wrench again.
At this rate, Cassie figured, they’d have the faucet loosened by dinnertime. But sometimes it took patience with kids.
Nearly half an hour later, Cassie found herself wishing she could trade patience for a little speed. “Kevin, maybe I should help you. We could trade positions.”
He smiled. “That might be kinda hard.”
“No, it shouldn’t be...” Releasing her grip, she tried to pull her hands away and found they wouldn’t move. Struggling, she tugged harder, but her hands didn’t budge. “What in the world?”
Kevin backed away, putting the wrench in the toolbox, a smirk covering his face.
“Kevin. What did you put on this faucet?”
He picked up the toolbox. “I better put this stuff away.”
“Very funny. Now help me get unstuck.”
“I think I’ll go take a swim.”
“Kevin!”
“You said I could do what I want.”
“But that’s not—”
Kevin disappeared.
“...what I meant,” she finished in exasperation.
By her reckoning, the house would be empty for hours. The rest of the staff had finished their work earlier, while DJ. and the twins were doing homework. It was unlikely one of them would happen by the far end of this hall. Between the Scout meeting, the library and the pool, none of the kids would be looking for her. But by dinnertime, hopefully, someone would miss her. Shifting to keep the kink in her back from stiffening, she settled in for the wait.
BLAKE PUSHED OPEN the back door, then dropped his briefcase on one of the bar stools. Glancing around, he had a sense that something was wrong. The kitchen was both quiet and immaculate. And it penetrated his fatigue-clouded mind that that was what was wrong. Normally the kitchen generated an array of tantalizing smells, and Cassie’s bustle kept it from being quiet. And by now the table was normally set, and the counters were filled with intriguing dishes. Now, by contrast, it seemed sterile, neglected.
And none of the kids were around. Had something happened? Fearing the worst, he pressed the intercom. Maria answered, assuring him that no one had been in an accident, Thanking her, Blake glanced around the kitchen, still feeling uneasy.
Then he realized that Cassie must have come up with another unique dinner idea. He wondered if they were going to try picnicking again. One thing he had to say for her, she never said die.
whistling, he climbed the staircase, needing to fill the too-quiet house with sound. He headed down the hall toward his room, ready to change into something casual. But as he followed the curve of the hall, he noticed a light shining from Cassie’s bedroom. He started to ignore the light, then wondered again if everything was all right. But his knock didn’t produce the answer he expected.
“Thank God.”
Hearing Cassie’s weary, weak-sounding voice, he disregarded thoughts of privacy and rushed inside. But he didn’t see her in the bedroom or the sitting room. “Cassie?”
“In here.”
As he headed toward the bathroom, he realized why her voice had sounded so weak from the hallway. He was lucky to have heard her at all from this distance. Entering the bathroom at a near run, he saw Cassie sitting on the side of the tub, latching on to the faucet. “Cassie?”
“I wondered when the cavalry would get here.”
Blake tried to adjust gears from near panic to just plain confusion. “What are you doing?”
“Having loads of fun. You want to help me?”
Moving closer, he glanced cautiously at the tub. “Help you what?”
“Get unstuck.”
“Just let go.”
She sighed. “It’s not quite that easy.”
“Why not?”
“I’ve been superglued to the faucet.”
Blake wondered if she’d lost her senses. “Did you try to fix it yourself instead of calling the plumber?”
She stared at him. “Right. I thought I’d just glue the leaks shut. Back in Podunk, that’s what everybody does.”
Hearing a note of anger mixed with her weariness, he paused, suspecting he was treading on uncertain ground. “So, how’d you get yourself glued to the faucet?”
“Let’s just say it wasn’t a solo project.”
“If those twins—”
“It wasn’t the twins.”
Blake pulled his brows together. “Kevin? After what he pulled last night? Wait till he—”
“Blake? Do you think you could get me unstuck before you put Kevin in the torture chamber?”
“Sure.” He turned and headed toward the doorway. Stopping suddenly, he looked back at her. “Any idea how to do that?”
“Call around, find out who carries the antidote.”
He looked at her blankly.
“You know. The stuff that makes superglue let go.”
“Right. Will you be okay till I get back?”
Cassie sighed as she shifted position. “I’ve been fine for the last three and a half hours. I’ll probably make it through a few phone calls.”
Blake was torn between murdering his firstborn and finding the fastest way to locate the unsticking solution. After a few fruitless phone calls, inspiration struck. Blake talked to a technician at the local emergency room, then called the hardware store he suggested. Finding out he had barely half an hour before the store closed. Blake rushed upstairs, filled Cassie in, then sped away.
With the antidote in hand, he returned just as quickly.
Reentering her suite, Blake was struck by her quiet patience, the incongruity of her soft yet steely strength. Most women would be screeching endlessly, cursing him and his children. Instead, she’d seemed reluctant to name the culprit. It was the contradictions, he realized, that drew him. The steadiest woman he’d ever known, she was at the same time unpredictable.
“Got it,” he told her, stripping off his jacket as he approached the tub. A devilish glint matched his sudden grin. “Any incentives for rescuing you?”
“Sure. I don’t quit and leave the boys to glue you to the next nanny,” she retorted.
Blake moved closer. “I don’t know. I could think of worse punishments. Of course, I’m not sure the next nanny will look like you.” He angled his face closer. “Or smell like you.”
Panic struck, and it showed in the nervous clearing of her throat. “We could banter all night, but I am stuck to the faucet, remember?”
“Vividly. You can’t run away.”
Cassie remembered a time when all she could do was run. Forcing herself to ignore the appeal of his smile, she shrugged her shoulders. “You don’t have to tell me. I’ve been stuck here for hours.”
The words galvanized him. “Right. And when I get my hands on Kevin—”
“The antidote,” she reminded him gently.
Blake tried to reach between her shoulder and the tub wall, but she was positioned so that it was impossible to reach the faucet from that angle. Slipping behind her, he straddled the outside wall of the tub, spooning his chest to her back. He heard a sudden, unexpected whooshing sound of nerves before Cassie stiffened.
“What are you doing?”
/>
“Ungluing you,” he replied.
“Do you have to be so...so close?”
“Afraid so.”
She craned her head backward, meeting his eyes. The sudden heat in his gut had nothing and everything to do with the way they were sandwiched together. Seeing her eyes darken, the sudden melting of gray into pewter, he recognized that she felt the same impact. He sensed that she wanted to pull her gaze away, but, like him, was paralyzed by the intensity of the attraction.
“Cassie—”
Her voice was a mere croak. “Please...”
Please what? Continue? Stop? Erase what they both knew was pulsing between them? “Yes?”
“Use that stuff,” she answered, a desperate note coloring her tone. “And get me loose.”
For a moment, one that stretched out infinitely, he paused, wondering why she wanted to run...wondering what or who she was running from. Then, giving in to the pleading in her eyes, he quickly applied the antidote, seeing her relief when her hands slid free. Unable to resist, he reached out and touched those hands, reddened by the pressure and the glue. Still, they were soft. He wondered if there was a matching softness in her. Resisting the urge to find out, instead he pulled her up as he stood, studying her hands.
“We need to get these checked out.”
“Checked out?” she echoed.
“At the hospital.”
“But there’s no need. I’m fine now. No sense wasting money to have them tell me the same thing.”
“The technician told me to take you in so they can make sure there isn’t any serious injury from the contact, since it covered quite a bit of skin.” His expression tightened as the anger at what Kevin had pulled resurfaced. “And since my darling son was responsible...” Her mouth opened again, and he laid a gentle finger across her lips, effectively silencing her. “Humor me. Pretend I’m in charge around here.”
Either his words or his touch did the trick, because she gave up the argument, remaining uncharacteristically quiet as they drove to the hospital. The examination didn’t take long. Luckily she hadn’t suffered anything more serious than a mild skin irritation and a few kinks in her back. As they left the emergency room, Blake issued a muffled curse as he thought of the mean trick Kevin had played on her. And he’d been sure the boy was remorseful, that he’d made a connection with his son. Instead, it was clear that they were even more out of touch than he’d imagined.
“I hope you don’t plan to heap that on Kevin’s head,” Cassie commented as she reclined back against the seat, looking exhausted.
“I’d have thought you would want to be part of the lynching party.”
“Surely you can see that he’s doing these things to push the boundaries? You know I don’t believe in letting kids get away with murder, that I think they need as much discipline as love, but this is different. Trust me, I’m no saint, and I wasn’t crazy about being glued to a faucet for hours, but these are just symptoms.”
Frustrated, Blake tapped the steering wheel, a fraction too hard. “Of what, I hate to ask?”
“Kevin wants to make sure he has your attention. And that the main focus of the family hasn’t changed since the kids and I came here. Before we moved in, you used to put him in charge pretty often—when housekeepers wouldn’t stay with the twins and baby-sitters didn’t show up. But now, that’s all been taken away from him. And he wants to make sure you’re not taking away your love, as well.”
Blake couldn’t resist an impatient snort. “He knows I love him.”
“Deep down. But he needs a reminder. He needs to know he’s an important part of your family and that that won’t ever change.”
“And I’m just supposed to let him off the hook for nearly drowning you with a fire extinguisher, then gluing you to a faucet?”
“No. He needs to know that you care enough to discipline him, too. But that will have to come from you. I don’t mind taking the heat for punishing him, but he has to know that you are always aware of him, and that he matters enough for you to notice what he’s done.”
Blake glanced over at her. For a moment, he was floored by the realization that without her guidance he might have sent a destructive message to his son. “Any suggestions on the punishment?”
“It can’t be just a slap on the wrist, or too severe: It’s important for him to see his friends, so if you take away that privilege, it’ll have impact. I’d ground him for two weeks, but I’d give him the option of working for free time. Tell him that if he’s willing to do chores, he can accumulate time off his grounding. And it would be a pretty good idea if you could be home a lot during that time. Let Kevin know that if he’s got to be housebound, you don’t mind being there with him.”
“How’d you get so wise, Cassie?”
She stared into the darkness for a moment. “Experience. I’ve been at this single-parent thing longer than you have. You only lost your wife three years ago. I’m been on my own since David John was a baby. And I’ve been able to spend more of that time with my kids.”
Realizing a fraction of her loneliness, he kept his voice gentle. “I don’t know that being alone longer makes it easier. In fact, I think it would just get harder with time.”
AS THEY BRACED THEMSELVES and entered the kitchen, Blake and Cassie were greeted by the aroma of roasting chicken.
Katherine Ann turned from the stove, her face flushed with effort, a voluminous apron enveloping her body. “Hi! Maria said you guys had to go on an errand, so I figured I’d better make some dinner. I let DJ. and the twins eat already—they were starving. Jim’s still on his computer, and Kevin said he wasn’t hungry.”
“It smells wonderful, Katherine Ann,” Cassie answered. “And I’m glad you let the younger guys eat. Otherwise they’d have filled up on junk food by now.”
“Sure.” She glanced from her mother to Blake. “Everything okay?”
“It’s fine,” Blake replied. “What smells so wonderful?”
“Rosemary chicken. I hope I did it like Mama’s. The boys said it was good, but—”
Cassie gently broke the flow of words. “I’m sure they’re right, and we’re starving. Why don’t you run upstairs and tell Jim to get washed up?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
As Katherine left, Cassie turned to Blake, quirking her mouth.
“Do you want to talk to Kevin before dinner, or—”
“Definitely before. I don’t want to be the only one choking on the rosemary chicken.”
Katherine Ann skipped down the last few stairs. “Jim said he’d be down in a few minutes—he has something processing that’ll be finished then. That’ll give us time to toss the salad and make some fresh tea.” She paused, glancing at Blake’s sternly set face. “That is, if you’re really hungry.”
Blake forced his thoughts away from the looming talk with Kevin. “Famished. And I want to try your cooking, Katherine Ann. I’ll be ready to eat in a few minutes. And I’ll let Kevin know that dinner’s ready.”
“Thanks, Mr. Matthews.”
“Blake,” he corrected in an absentminded tone, already heading out of the kitchen.
“Mama, is something wrong?”
Cassie smiled at her daughter. “I think Blake’s taking a crash course in parenting. But they’ll both survive it—probably.”
Katherine Ann gave her one of those tolerant teenage looks that implied that Cassie had gone into one of her alien-world-parent dialogues.
“Don’t worry, Katherine Ann. When you’re a little older, I won’t seem so strange. Or if I still do, you’ll understand why.”
“Mama? Can I talk to you about something? I mean, if it’s not a good time, I can wait.”
Cassie withheld her sigh. “I suppose you want me to start calling you Kathy?”
“No. There are a ton of Kathys. It’s kind of cool to have a name no one else does.”
Different children, different perspectives. “So, what is it?”
“Well, back in Twin Corners I wouldn’t ha
ve even asked...and I probably shouldn’t now...”
Cassie prayed her most adventurous child wasn’t about to request something she would not only deny but wish Katherine Ann hadn’t asked about. Visions of boys and birth control danced menacingly in her thoughts.
Katherine Ann took a deep breath. “It’s just that the Russian Club is going to take a trip...and I wondered if maybe I could go.”
Field trip. What a relief. “If the time and hours are reasonable, I think it sounds all right.”
“But, Mama, it’s so expensive! I’d work—baby-sitting, anything I can to earn extra money, but...”
“Katherine Ann, how much can a field trip cost?”
Her daughter blinked. “Mama. They’re going to St. Petersburg.” She paused. “Russia.”
Cassie gulped. “What?”
“That’s why it’s so expensive. I knew I shouldn’t have asked. I just thought maybe now that things are better... and if I earned and saved a lot... I’ve got all the allowance you started giving me, except seven dollars, and I spent that on a book... and some nail polish.”
Cassie had just begun giving her children an allowance since they moved to the city. “Katherine Ann, I’ll have to think about all this. I know it sounds like a wonderful opportunity. Why don’t you bring home the brochure, and we’ll look through it?”
Katherine Ann dug into the deep apron pocket. “They gave them to us last week. I didn’t think I ought to ask, but then... It’s okay, Mama. Guess I was just dreaming again.”
Cassie’s throat thickened suddenly, as she remembered her own junior year, and the trip to California the band and drill team had taken. They’d washed cars until they were waterlogged, sold candy and magazines until the residents of Twin Corners were ready to flee at the sight of another determined teenager. But that had been before... before her life changed. And she hadn’t been able to take the trip. It was something she’d never forgotten, something she’d always regretted. Gently she reached out and took the brochure from Katherine Ann. “I’ll look at this. I’m not making any promises, because I don’t want to disappoint you.”
His-And-Hers Family Page 14
