Sweet Temptations Collection

by Brant, Marilyn

  To the flurry of questions, her mom squinted, appearing surprised. “It’s a lovely evening, isn’t it? A bit chilly, but I think Hank will remember to bring my thicker cardigan when he comes. We like to meet back here before the bingo game, you know. I wanted to show him these pretty pink roses.” She pointed to a tangled mass of baby roses in a colorful vase, brought by someone paying tribute to a loved one long departed.

  Cait’s heart jumped to her throat. Daddy. Didn’t Mom remember he was gone? And buried at St. Luke’s, not here… Four years and Cait still missed him. Would Dad have been disappointed in her? In the choices she made in his absence? In the things she did and failed to do?

  “Did you see him?” her mother asked, feverishly bright. “He didn’t go into the church already, did he, darling?”

  “Oh, Mom.” It came out like a sob. “Garrett?”

  “Yes,” he answered.

  “Please…get Seth on the cell phone. Now.”

  ***

  Cait, Seth and Dianne spent the next week taking turns with Mom, staying with her, arranging days off from work and beginning to pack up her most necessary belongings from the house.

  Though Cait knew they’d never know the whole story of what happened the evening of the Harvest Hoopla, an extensive medical exam proved there’d been no physical harm done, and her mother had remembered enough to assure them she’d enjoyed her walk to church. She even remembered conversing with Doug Chippenak. “Oh, yes, the nice man with the gray sideburns, just like Hank’s,” she’d said when questioned. And Cait couldn’t deny that, though she would hardly call Doug “nice,” he did have graying hair that looked similar to her father’s. Which was what Mom would notice.

  Still, she and Seth weren’t about to take any more chances. Their mother may have been unfazed by the whole experience, but Cait had been shaken to the core.

  She stared out her mother’s kitchen window, floundering in silence. The shrill ring of the phone broke the deadened air.

  “Hiya, Cait. How’s she doing?” Seth said.

  “Okay. I made tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch and got her to go up for a nap about ten minutes ago. Some moments she seems totally lucid, others are like a return to life in the early nineties. I’m reliving my childhood, not just in packing up the boxes, but in the way she treats me. It’s like I’m six again.”

  “Just hang tight, okay? The movers will be there this weekend, and we’ve nearly got her room here ready. The most important thing is to keep an eye on her. We’ll deal with all the other garbage later. We can talk about selling the house and all that after she’s safely transitioned in here.” He sighed.

  “What else, Seth?”

  “Ah, I’m bummed, too. I thought, you know, it’d take longer before we reached this stage. I guess we were in denial about her symptoms for a while.” There was a long pause. She sensed her brother was struggling with his own emotional juggernaut.

  “Dianne’s gonna sort through Mom’s clothes tomorrow, to keep out the winter stuff and label everything she won’t be able to wear ‘til spring,” he said. “So, you won’t need to bother with the closet or dresser today.”

  “All right. I’ll stick to all the knickknacks, photo albums and things in the living room. Most of it can probably be boxed.”

  “Sounds good. Any chance Garrett might be able to swing by to help us out on Saturday? There are a few things, like that glass breakfront and the inlaid mahogany coffee table, I’d rather not trust to the movers, even if those pieces are only going to be stored in our basement.”

  A cold hand gripped her heart, squeezing it tight for a second. Garrett. She’d barely spoken to him since the weekend, though it wasn’t for lack of effort on his part. Throughout the ordeal of her mom’s search, he’d pulled her aside repeatedly and whispered how everything would be okay. He’d called eight times at least in the past three days. And he’d stopped by her classroom for as long as she’d let him stay yesterday as she muddled through school, praised the kids on their work at the festival and tried to keep from having a nervous breakdown.

  To call him would only remind her of her own irresponsibility toward her mother. To not call him would mean to hurt the man she’d fallen in love with. Even if his feelings were in no way similar to her own.

  Bolstering her courage, she said, “I’ll ask him,” knowing, since she’d promised Seth, she’d have to do it.

  “All right. Try not to get too stressed.” He gave a light, forced laugh. “And I’ll try to follow my own advice.”

  ***

  Garrett had a mental list of all the things that were pissing him off at work, and it was growing:

  1) For the first time since he met Sonja weeks ago, her on-top-of-things manner got on his nerves instead of impressed him.

  2) Despite everyone’s optimism that Doug would be immediately apprehended, the guy was still at large. He’d left a voicemail claiming to be visiting his sister in Memphis. But one call to Doug’s uncle confirmed that Doug’s only sister had moved to Aspen three years ago. Lying, stealing bastard.

  3) If Ronald handed him one more school improvement folder, his fury might make it spontaneously combust.

  4) Mike Firenzi left him three messages—and Shelley had come in personally—to offer him a place on the new “Fit-4-Ever” committee. As if he didn’t have enough responsibilities.

  5) The superintendent wanted to get together at lunch tomorrow to discuss the Chippenak scandal, so he needed to rearrange his schedule for that.

  6) His mother called at noon with her same story, followed by another one of Marianne’s Friends and Family lectures. Jacob, not to be outdone, was still harping about Halloween in Connecticut.

  7) And then there was Cait, of course.

  Cripes! Colleagues. Family. Women. All of them. They were so damned self-centered. They wanted this, they wanted that, they wanted him to do whatever they wanted…whenever they wanted it…and to hell with what he might’ve wanted.

  He tried to help. Tried to be a good guy. No matter what, there were complications. With Cait, when he was standing next to her, he was too close. When he gave her space, he was ignoring her. Women were demanding and crazy-making and illogical and—

  He heard a knock at the door.

  “Hi, Garrett. Am I disturbing you?”

  Cait’s eyes were red-rimmed from lack of sleep. While she looked presentable enough, the tension radiated from her skin’s surface like a low-voltage bulb. Another woman wouldn’t be able to pull it off. But, even with all the worry churning around inside her, Cait managed to glow. Man, if Jacob could read his thoughts, he’d say his kid brother was out of his freakin’ mind.

  “No,” he said, setting down a folder with one hand and clenching his other fist under the desk, out of her sight. “What’s up, Cait?”

  “I-I’m sorry for not being in touch with you much this week.”

  Not much? Not at all. But he said, “Yeah, okay.”

  Every physical overture rejected. Every phone call scaled down to one-syllable responses. Every visit shrugged off with a chill that’d freeze fire. Why was she stepping in now? What’d she want? “Is there something you need?” he said.

  “Um, well, Seth asked me if you might be willing to help us move our mom into his place on Saturday. Of course, I know you must be very busy with everything here, especially after last weekend… I know you spent a lot of time with all of us then, so maybe you’ve got other plans and other things you need to take care of. I’d understand if you didn’t want to commit to—”

  “That’s fine. I’ll be there. What time?”

  “Are—are you sure? I mean, you don’t have to—”

  “Didn’t I just say I’d be there, Cait?” He was mad. He knew he looked mad. He saw her take a few steps backward, her forehead creased in concern or anxiety, but he was tired of pussyfooting around each and every emotion.

  She shook her head a little, those gorgeous golden strands swinging around her petite fa
ce. He remembered running his fingers through them when they’d made love. He remembered holding her, being above her, next to her, inside her. He remembered how their passion spiraled together, bonding them. But it must not have been strong enough to hold them for longer than a moment. It shouldn’t hurt. Easy come, easy go. But it did.

  She took a labored breath. “Seth said nine or ten would be good. The movers are planning to show up around noon, and Seth hoped we could get a head start with the more delicate items.”

  “No problem.” He clenched his fist again.

  “Thanks, Garrett. Look, I’m really sorry about everything. It just hasn’t been the best time and—”

  “Yeah, whatever. I’ll see you Saturday morning, but I should probably finish this stuff now.” He pointed to a pile of papers on his desk that contained work he’d already completed, but she didn’t know that, and he needed her the hell out of his office.

  “Of course,” she said, backing out of the room, looking all hurt. Looking like he felt. “I won’t keep you.”

  No. And that was the problem, wasn’t it? She wouldn’t keep him.

  ***

  There were so many holidays on the fall calendar. On Saturday at her mother’s house, Cait couldn’t believe it was already Columbus Day weekend, although it wouldn’t be officially observed until Monday when they’d get the day off. Suddenly, days off seemed very important to her.

  She idly flipped though one of her mother’s photo albums, not really looking at the images, just needing to do something with her hands. She’d spend the week dreaming up exercises to keep her fingers busy. Yesterday, she and her class made cute Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria sailing-boat replicas to commemorate the holiday.

  Still, she’d felt a traitorous sense of relief when the final Friday bell rang, releasing her students into the charge of their parents…and letting her concentrate on her own family matters.

  It had never been like this before. Though she’d always appreciated the little holidays sprinkled throughout the school year, she’d never counted on them to sustain her until now.

  She glanced out the window. Maybe she wasn’t as dedicated a teacher as she’d thought. Maybe she shouldn’t be around impressionable children at all. Or people of any age. She was clearly more irresponsible than a grown woman should be.

  Last weekend had proven that.

  Maybe living in an underground cavern, somewhere unpopulated, wouldn’t be a bad idea. No one would have to know how miserable she felt. And she wouldn’t have to pretend not to feel miserable. Because love was kind of torturous. Being in love turned her into a passion-crazed, irresponsible person that she hardly recognized.

  Something in the basement shattered.

  “Dammit!” Seth bellowed.

  “Need some help?” Cait called down to him.

  “No!” There was another crash. “God—”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes! Hey, where the hell is your boyfriend? It’s ten minutes after nine.”

  She inhaled sharply. Her boyfriend? Was he really? Or was he just someone she’d had secret sex with in various places? With occasional toppings? Did it indicate any real commitment to—

  “Well?”

  “Look, Seth, I don’t know.” She peered out the window for the three-hundredth time that morning. “When are Mom and Dianne returning?”

  “I told Dianne to keep Mom out of our hair until after two. Brunch, shopping, some stylist appointment crap, I think. Mia’s staying with Dianne’s sister for the day.”

  A flash of red caught her eye as Garrett pulled into the driveway. She set down the photo album near a packing box and raced into the foyer. She swung open the front door. His finger was poised to ring the bell.

  “That was fast,” he said. The words were light, but his expression wasn’t remotely amused.

  “I—um, hi, Garrett. Good morning.”

  “Morning.” He strode into the living room and glanced around. “Where’s Seth?”

  Before she could answer, she heard a clank. Then a bang.

  “Christ almighty!” shouted a voice from the basement.

  The corners of Garrett’s lips lifted slightly. “Need some help?” he called to her brother.

  “Hell, yes. How’re you doing, buddy?”

  Garrett let out a warm laugh. “Okay, I guess,” he said. “I’m coming down.”

  He walked passed her to the stairs, granting only the briefest nod in her direction and taking his warmth with him. It wasn’t for her anyway. It was for Seth. The envy she felt in that instant stunned her.

  She heard the deep timbre of their laughter, so male, as they carted up her mother’s wedding china—minus a piece or two that didn’t survive Seth’s butterfingers. She felt superfluous.

  And it only got worse.

  Every twenty minutes another man arrived. A neighbor friend showed up. His son came a little later. Three of Seth’s colleagues. All this help and the movers hadn’t even gotten there yet. It was like being the only girl in the guy’s locker room.

  Shortly after the moving van pulled up, Cait fixed sloppy joes for lunch, setting out chips, salad, sodas and thick chocolate chip cookies on the kitchen counter for the men to help themselves. She melted into the other room, accustomed by this time to being ignored.

  One of Seth’s closest work buddies, Todd Brayden, sought her out, his easy manner a welcome change from Garrett’s coldness.

  “Hey there, Cait, thanks for the lunch,” he said, using a potato chip to scoop up some of the hot barbeque on his plate that had managed to escape the bun. He slipped it into his mouth and grinned. “I love this stuff.”

  “I’m glad,” she said. She slid over on the sofa to make room for him. He plopped down next to her, stretching out his long legs in front of him and balancing his plate on his lap. Cait couldn’t help but feel her spirits lighten. Ever since she first met Todd at one of Seth’s company picnics a few years back, he’d treated her like Seth did. Like she was his “favorite and only” kid sister, too.

  His deep blue eyes darted around the living room. “You’ve done a lot of work here already, haven’t you? With it packed up, it doesn’t look like the same room we played Scrabble in this spring.”

  She shook her head, remembering those nights fondly. “Not only that, I feel as though I have to let go of so many childhood memories. I lived most of my life here. Now the things that made this room—this house—our home will be stashed in Seth’s basement.” She shrugged. “But the worst part is knowing that even if the room remained the same, Mom isn’t the same anymore.”

  “Letting go is hard.” Todd put a brotherly arm around her shoulders and squeezed. “It sucks, I know. But you’ll be okay, kid.” With the light streaming into the room, his blond hair took on a sun-god kind of glow, his handsome face compassionate.

  Garrett entered the room just then…and froze.

  “Thanks for lunch, Cait,” the financial director—heck, the man she’d fallen in love with—said stiffly. His eyes turned to coal as he gazed at the union of Todd’s arm and her shoulder.

  “You’re welcome,” she said automatically. The muscles in her back and neck tightened, and she expected some further comment from the glowering man blocking the doorway.

  Nothing came.

  Garrett remained rooted to his spot, his half-empty plate nearly levitating on his fingertips in front of him. Todd glanced between the two of them and, a few seconds later, removed his arm without a word.

  Todd cleared his throat and a goofy smile graced his lips. “So, what do you think, Garrett? Can the Pack take it all the way this year or are you hoping the Patriots’ll come from behind and surprise us all?”

  A strange expression crossed Garrett’s face as he eyed the guy sitting next to her. “New England might not have gotten off to a great start, but they’ve got determination. Green Bay, well—” He twisted his lips into something that couldn’t quite be called a smile. “They’re often a lot of show, not a lot of subst
ance.”

  Todd’s laugh sounded forced. “Now, I’m guessing that’s not a belief you share too often around these parts.”

  “No,” Garrett said coolly, narrowing his eyes at Todd. “But that doesn’t make it any less true.”

  “Huh. But the New England defense…not real sharp this year.” Todd popped another chip into his mouth and stretched out his legs even further, taking up as much territory as his six-foot-one, twenty-eight-year-old body could manage.

  “But the Packer offense…inexperienced,” Garrett countered. He stepped forward three paces and struck an imposing stance.

  Cait, not sure the conversation was at all about football any longer, stood up. “Well, guys, as stimulating as your sports talk has been, I’ll have to leave you to it.” She smiled at them as graciously as she could fake. “I’ve got some things to finish up. Glad you both liked the sandwiches.”

  She walked toward the kitchen, feeling two sets of eyes boring into her spine. Todd looked at her with concern, but Garrett’s gaze was like a switchblade. She glanced back at him and his expression changed from cold fury to shuttered indifference in an instant.

  Well, he could be that way if he wanted, but it was unjustified. Unlike Shelley McAllister’s overtly flirtatious manner toward Garrett, Todd treated Cait like a sibling, which Garrett should be able to see if he paid any real attention. It hadn’t occurred to her that he might be upset by her friendship with Todd, but if he could get jealous that quickly, maybe he wasn’t as unaffected as he’d been trying to appear. Maybe, she had to admit to herself, she and Garrett both just had a tendency to overreact and feel threatened too easily. And, maybe, that meant there might be hope for them yet…if they could just get over that knee-jerk defensiveness.

  She was about to leave the room to think about this further when Seth walked in and blocked her path.

  “Uh, guys,” he said to them, holding up his cell phone. “It’s Dianne. She says she and Mom just spotted Doug Chippenak.”