Roadside Assistance

by Marie Harte

  As hard as Cyn had worked to overcome Ella’s badgering, the little girl who lived on inside her constantly wondered if maybe Ella wasn’t right. Cyn probably wasn’t smart, funny, or independent enough to live on her own. And with her chubbiness, she couldn’t hope to land a decent man, not without her mother’s help.

  Part of Ella was correct. Cyn didn’t feel fully satisfied with life, despite her successes. Even her sexual encounter with Foley had been lacking something. A closeness? A reciprocal lust? Then again, the man had not been faking that monster in his pants.

  Hell. She fanned herself, dying to know what he looked like naked. She wanted to see all those tattoos. She pushed the call button on her phone then hung up before it could ring.

  Should I? Shouldn’t I? Should I? Shouldn’t I?

  With one more week until the holidays, maybe she should wait until after Christmas for a date. He likely had plans with family. That dimension of his character further softened her. Foley loved his mother. And Sam, a man he considered a brother.

  How could she not like a guy who cared for his family? She loved hers unconditionally, despite her mother’s unintentional cruelty. Cyn knew that at heart, Ella wanted only the best for her daughter, despite how much she hurt Cyn with her criticisms.

  Love could be strange. Just because Foley loved his mother, Cyn shouldn’t make him out to be a saint.

  She dialed him anyway.

  The phone started ringing. She brought it to her ear, her nerves on high alert as she waited on the call she’d been dying to make for two days.

  “Hello?” he answered on the third ring.

  Had he been making her wait for taking so long to call? Did he normally take so long to answer?

  Could you stop being an idiot and just talk to the guy? “Hi, Foley.”

  She could almost see his lips curl as he smiled into the phone. “Well, well, Lady Gorgeous finally calls.”

  He thinks I’m pretty. She had to hold back a sigh. Oh God, get a grip, Cyn. “You told me to call,” came out much more belligerently than she’d intended.

  He chuckled. “So I did. How are you?”

  “I’m good.” Great. Now what? “Are you busy? Is this a bad time to talk?”

  “Nah.” She heard the sound of clanging in the background. “I’m trying to help Sam with his pathetic excuse for a car.” A definite “Up yours” from Sam. “So you want to get together?”

  “I think so,” she said slowly, still not sure. “I have a family get-together I can’t get out of tonight. But I was thinking—”

  “That we could get together after? Sure, I’m game.”

  Not what she’d been planning to say, but thinking about dealing with her mother, she could do with someone who thought her beautiful. “It might be late.”

  “It’s Saturday. I’ll be up. Want to meet at your place or mine?” He paused and must have muffled the phone, because she heard Sam in the background. “Make that your place. Sam’s a pain.”

  “Fuck you” came clearly through the phone, followed by Foley’s “Back at ya, jackass.”

  She grinned. Sam’s coarse language and blatant honesty made him more, not less, likable. At least, to her. “Okay. Can I text you when I’m leaving my parents’?”

  “Sure. Talk to you soon, baby.”

  She hated pet names. “My name is Cyn. Remember it.”

  He laughed. “Okay, honey.” He disconnected. The ass.

  So why was she smiling?

  * * *

  The party was in full swing when Cyn arrived. She’d meant to come fashionably late, so she wouldn’t have to spend one-on-one time with her mother. Ella would be way too busy hostessing the party to corner Cyn.

  She saw her father and brother, Nina and the boys. Several neighbors, family friends, and a few work associates of her father’s. Vincent Nichols continued to manage his growing PR firm, though he had planned to retire years ago. He said he couldn’t leave the business he loved, not yet. Personally, she thought he couldn’t face life, 24–7, with Ella.

  Biting back a grin, she greeted her family and brought the wine and flowers to her mother.

  Ella Nichols bustled in the kitchen with several of her friends, nattering in Italian while the scent of rich marinara, lasagna, and baked chicken filled the air.

  “Cynthia, there you are.” Her mother chastised by waving her finger. “You’re late. Ah, but you brought me flowers. Thank you.”

  Ella Nichols, the ideal maternal figure. Loving, accepting, gracious. Until she got Cyn in private and lamented her daughter’s myriad disappointments. To combat her mother’s tactics, Cyn had learned to be with her mother only while in the presence of others.

  “Sorry. Had to finish up some paperwork.” Cyn lived by her spreadsheets.

  “Yes, you’re so successful now.” Isa Noroni smiled. “Your mother’s been telling us all about you.”

  “And still so pretty.” Anna and her husband, Tom, had been friends with Cyn’s parents forever. “Sweetie, it’s been too long.”

  “Good to see you, Anna. Isa.” To Anna, she said, “Is Tom here?”

  “Probably eating something sweet he’s not supposed to,” Anna said drily. Tom, a well-known diabetic, had a propensity for sneaking cupcakes when no one was watching.

  “I made a low-sugar carrot cake for him,” Mary, another of Ella’s friends, said. “Hi, sweetie. Good to see you.”

  “You too, Mary.” Cyn smiled. She’d always enjoyed her mother’s friends, Ella’s bimonthly bridge group that continued to play together, even after fifteen years.

  “You get more striking each time I see you. Why aren’t you a model yet?” Mary asked.

  Ella rolled her eyes. “Mary, really. My Cyn is no model.”

  Ah yes. The double-edged sword. Too thick to be a model and too…her mother would come up with something.

  “She’s too smart to spend her time on pictures and clothes.”

  Because all models were dim?

  “Nothing wrong with fancy clothes and being pretty. How else do you find a man?” Isa added. “Not by looking like a cavewoman.”

  Behind her, Anna shook her head. “Men. Blah. Let’s talk about something fun. Like this Nichols coffee shop that’s getting so popular.” Anna winked. “I love it, keeping it in the family. Matt told me he’s already opening up two more. One in Green Lake and another in Tacoma. How exciting!”

  Cyn needed to talk to her brother about that, because they hadn’t exactly agreed on the Tacoma location. But she made small talk before escaping to find her father.

  She encountered him talking to a tall, handsome guy around her age—one not wearing a wedding ring, damn it. With any luck, he hadn’t been invited to become her plus one. Her parents might have neighbors or business acquaintances who happened to be young single men. Unfortunately, history had proved that the only unattached males who frequented Ella’s parties were invited with a specific purpose.

  “Cyn, honey, there you are.” Her father pulled her into a hug. “Your mother monopolizes you too much.” Over his shoulder, she spied Nina laughing at her and glancing at the man next to her father. Nina wiggled her brows.

  Shoot. Definitely sensing a matchup.

  Before she could flee, her father latched onto her arm.

  “Et tu, Brute?” she said under her breath.

  “Your mother worries,” he answered in a whisper. In a louder voice, he said, “Cyn, I’d like you to meet Cristo’s son, Tony. You know Cristo, one of my business colleagues. Tony, this is my daughter, Cynthia.”

  She did her daughterly duty and shook his hand. “Call me Cyn.”

  Tony seemed nice. He hadn’t ogled her breasts yet, though she’d taken care to dress conservatively in a knee-length skirt and button-down green shirt, draping a Christmas scarf around her neck. For added internal strength, she’d
worn her favorite kick-ass leather boots, scored on a lucrative shopping trip in Venice, Italy.

  “Pleasure to meet you.” He wasn’t as tall as Foley or as dangerous-looking, but his short brown hair framed an intelligent, attractive face. He wore glasses, which shielded his blue eyes and made him seem even more harmless.

  He held her hand a second longer than he should have before letting go. She immediately went on alert.

  “So how’s your dad doing?” she asked, having met Cristo once, a year ago. Her father had also talked about him. A pleasant man devoted to his family, that she recalled.

  Tony smiled, and it was a nice smile. Just not as nice as Foley’s.

  Right then and there, she ordered herself to stop thinking about Foley so much. She’d meet him later this evening. No sense in getting in over her head. It would be a long time before she put her absolute faith in a man not family.

  “Dad is good. He would have come tonight but he had some business to finish up.”

  “On a Saturday night?”

  “He’s in Italy right now. He and Mom booked a business vacation. Plus, they’re visiting family.”

  Her father excused himself to talk with more guests.

  Cyn had always wanted to visit her relatives. “Where in Italy?”

  “Catanzaro. The City Between Two Seas.”

  “I think Mom and Dad went there once.”

  “Have you ever been to Italy?”

  “Rome and Florence twice, and I worked in a stopover at Venice.” She held out a leg. “I bought my favorite boots there.”

  “Nice. I’m partial to Sicily, myself. But don’t tell your father. Sicilians and Italians don’t mix.”

  “He won’t mind. He’s a weird blend of Sicilian and Scot, though I think my mom ignores the Sicilian part.”

  It turned out she and Tony knew a lot of the same people through their parents, and she enjoyed talking to him. But not once did she view him in any kind of romantic way. From the way he acted toward her, she thought he felt the same. Relief and enthusiasm for the night replaced the building dread inside her.

  Twenty minutes later she left him to search out Nina. She found the troublemaker lip-locked with her brother in the hallway. She loved seeing her brother and sister-in-law still so enamored with each other. Theirs had been a true love match. How nice to know there were a few of them left in the world.

  “Mat-tie,” she sang, drawing out his name. “Just what are you up to in this dark hallway, away from the festivities, hmm?”

  She heard him groan and mutter something uncomplimentary under his breath.

  “That is no way to talk to your younger sister.” Then she dropped the hammer. “So what’s this nonsense about announcing our Tacoma expansion?”

  Nina glanced from her to Mattie and moved away. “I think I’ll go check on the boys.”

  “Afraid?”

  “Very.” Nina left.

  Matt stared after his wife, then sighed and turned back to Cyn. “Where’d you hear that? Don’t tell me. Mom.”

  “Mom’s friends.”

  “Hell. She was supposed to keep quiet about that. I told her we’re thinking about it. Thinking. Not doing.”

  “Not yet.” Not until their numbers panned out.

  Matt yanked her into his arms for a hug. “So how are you, Cyn?”

  She moved back so she could breathe again. “Jeez. Are your arms bigger than they were a week ago?”

  “Hey, I can either lift weights to stem my aggression or use my boys as dumbbells. And I hear Social Services frowns on knocking around kids.” Matt sighed. “Vinnie is driving me nuts. He knows everything about everything lately, and he’s getting a smart mouth. Then add in Alex, and I’m surprised I’m not bald from ripping my hair out.”

  “Wonder where they get that from. I mean, with you and Nina, it could go either way.”

  His eyes narrowed. “You know, it’s winter break next week, and I’m thinking the boys need some quality aunt time.”

  “No. Uh-uh. The last time I invited them to sleep over, Alex conned me out of twenty bucks, and Vinnie somehow changed my ringtone to ‘Baby Got Back.’ Not amusing.”

  Matt laughed. “He’s just having some fun with you. All his friends want to know when his pretty aunt is going to pick him up from school again. He was the most popular kid in sixth grade when you chaperoned their Halloween trip.”

  She shuddered. Pubescent nearly teenage boys. “Never again.”

  “At least you’re the cool aunt he likes. He’s going through an anti-mom-and-dad phase that’s been tough on Nina. Me, I know he’ll ride it out. But she dotes on those kids.”

  “A little too much, maybe. She’s too much good cop. I keep telling her to be a little more bad cop.”

  “Like you, you mean?”

  “Well, yeah.”

  “Good point. So tell me about you and Foley Sanders.”

  He slipped that in so subtly she nearly spilled the beans about her date later on. “Wh-what?” Nina, that traitor. I’m gonna go bad cop all over her ass.

  “Well now.” Matt rubbed his hands together. “I hear the giant has a crush on my baby sister. Want me to talk to him for you?”

  “Shut up.” Crap on a cracker, her cheeks felt hot.

  “Blushing! Ha.” Matt laughed.

  “There is nothing going on.”

  “So you have no problem with me telling Mom—”

  “Okay, fine. What will it take for you not to blab?” How was it her older brother could still push all her buttons so easily?

  “We talk about the Tacoma plans this week.”

  “But the numbers—”

  “Are there, you’re just being supercautious. I like that about you, but no risk, no gain.”

  She sighed. “Fine.”

  “And you take the boys for one day next week. Just one is all I’m asking.”

  “You mean blackmailing.”

  “Foley Sanders,” he said in a louder voice. “Does Mom know about him?”

  She clapped a hand over his mouth and glanced around, relieved to see only her father nearby talking to friends in the living room. “I will so get you back.”

  He wriggled free. “Right.”

  “Besides, Mom’s doing her best to set me up with Cristo’s son. But luckily for me, he’s not interested.”

  “You mean Tony? The guy staring at your ass right now?”

  She closed her eyes and groaned.

  “Or would that be his business partner, Al? Dad made sure to invite them both, doubling his odds of marrying you off. I’m sorry to say, but the guys are in on it, because I overheard Dad auctioning you off earlier. Something about four camels to the man who can take you off his hands.”

  “You’re not funny, Matt. This is so embarrassing.” She had no doubt her father had been following Ella’s orders.

  “Gee, Al seems to find your skirt as fascinating as Tony does.”

  “I think I hate you.” She opened her eyes, wanting to slap the smirk off her brother’s face.

  “Well, you start telling everyone you’re going to be the neighborhood cat lady, and we get concerned.”

  “I was joking,” she snapped. Well, kind of.

  “Next time make sure you’re not joking when Mom can overhear you.” Matt shook his head and propelled her out of the hallway to greet her would-be admirers. “I’ll leave you with Tony, he of the many camels. Need to find my wife and tell her the good news about our sitter for next week.”

  “Jerk.” She watched him go, then turned to see Tony and Al looking amused.

  “Camels?” Tony asked.

  “Long story.” She cleared her throat, wishing the floor would swallow her whole. “Ah, how to say this… I’m not sure if my father bamboozled you into attending or not, but I’m actually really ha
ppy with my life right now.” At their continued silence, she blurted, “Not looking for a boyfriend at the moment.”

  “I volunteered to come, if it makes you feel any better.” Tony held a hand over his heart. “Honest. It was either this party or going out with my sister and her on-again, off-again boyfriend.”

  She knew all about problematic family. “Then I’m happy to have saved you.”

  “I saw your picture and begged to come,” Al, a cute blond with dimples, who stood even with her own height, confessed. He had no problem staring directly at her chest before making eye contact again. “So what are you doing after the party?”

  Tony frowned. “Now hold on. I wanted to come to avoid my sister, but I’d be more than happy to take in a club. Get a few drinks out in town. You up for it, Cyn?”

  “Um, well…”

  “Why not have both of us take her out?” Al asked. “She could pick.” He paused, and the odd look he and Tony shared disturbed her. “Or not.”

  “So what’ll it take to get you to prefer men to cats?” Tony asked.

  The guys snickered, and Cyn did her best to remember that fratricide was frowned upon in the state of Washington.

  Chapter 6

  Before she left the party, Cyn made her rounds. Tony and Al had some weird kind of double entendre thing going on that left her feeling as if she missed out on many of their jokes. Their closeness was nice but a little…off. She had the distinct feeling both men wanted to take her out after the party, then take her to bed. Together.

  She admitted to having a few fantasies about herself in a sexy guy sandwich, but she left them at the fantasy level. She’d had enough trouble dealing with one man. Two would probably lobotomize her.

  After a subtle escape from the pair, she’d mingled, eaten her share of lasagna—her favorite—and had some decadent chocolate cake. Nina and Matt made her laugh. Vinnie and Alex had been overjoyed to hear they would be spending some time with their “cool aunt,” which meant she’d need to pony up some money to show them a good time. Then the schemers had slunk away to a back bedroom to play more video games.