Mike had joined Mason and Willie, and they were on their second action flick when the women walked in the door, but they stopped it to help unload the trunk and then showed the proper interest in all of Dani’s presents. Mike was especially interested in Dani’s Victoria’s Secret goodies.
“That’s quite the haul,” Mason said when she’d finished.
“We have so many great friends,” Dani said happily, falling onto the couch next to Mike.
“You can say that again,” he said.
“Man, you sure get a lot of stuff when you get married,” Willie observed.
“You need a lot of stuff when you get married,” Mason informed him.
“But it’s all girl things,” Willie said.
“Oh, not all of it,” Mike said, picking up the Victoria’s Secret bag.
That made Willie, big man on campus, actually blush. He leaned over his chair, reaching down to the plate sitting on the floor, only to discover Cupcake devouring the one remaining sugar cookie on it. “Hey!” he yelled.
Cookie in mouth, Cupcake made a dash for the kitchen.
“She ate my cookie!”
“Oh, Willie, I’m sorry,” said Babette, who had squeezed in next to Mason on the other end of the couch.
“You know better than to leave food on the floor,” Mason told him.
Cass bridled. This was her house. Willie could leave food on the floor if he wanted. “He’s not used to having to worry about anything coming along and stealing his food,” she said.
Mason shrugged off her comment, much as he’d shrugged off almost everything she’d had to say when they were married. She glared at him. That, too, bounced off him.
No glaring on the night of your daughter’s bridal shower, she scolded herself. And no more of these negative feelings. At this rate she’d never get to sleep. And, unlike everyone else in the house, she had to be up before dawn.
She excused herself to go get ready for bed. Cupcake, now lurking by the stairs, yapped at her. Good night, bitch.
It was going to be a long week.
* * *
The next day wasn’t any better for Cass. Her workday was an endless stretch of baking and waiting on customers, and the customer service turned out to be a one-woman operation once Dani disappeared to run errands in the afternoon and never returned. When Cass finally called her on her cell to find out where the heck she was, she learned Dani was out with Grandma and Aunt Maddy.
“Sorry, Mom. I’ve got so much to do.”
“You’ve also got a job,” Cass said. “I need help here.”
“Okay, I’ll get there as soon as I can,” Dani promised.
Cass ended the call feeling guilty. It was unfair to expect Dani to work the week before her wedding. She’d been wrong and she’d apologize to her daughter—if she ever saw her.
In addition to realizing she was being unfair, she came to another conclusion. With her right-hand woman leaving, she was going to have to hire help.
This left her feeling a little low. Dani had been her baking sidekick, working alongside her for the past six years, first coming in after school and washing down tables and cleaning up in the kitchen, then taking on more responsibility as she got older. Cass had delighted in watching her daughter’s skills develop and her creativity bloom, and she’d come to depend on her. Their shared passion for baking had kept them close. Now Dani was leaving, making plans to go back to school and get a catering degree. She’d be setting up both a business and a new life a hundred and seventy miles away.
Not the edge of the earth, Cass reminded herself. Why was it so hard to let go of that vision of Dani and her family here in Icicle Falls, of living close to her grandchildren? Family was important. Grandkids were important.
Maybe they’d been important to Louise, too.
Oh, no! Where had that come from? No place Cass wanted to visit.
She reined her thoughts away from the past and turned them toward the future. What was she going to do with Dani gone? Maybe she could teach Amber how to work the cash register and get her to come in after school on weekdays, even convince her she could sacrifice some of her social life to work on Saturday mornings. But Amber was more into clothes than cookies. Even if Cass could persuade her to put in some hours, that wasn’t going to be enough, not with the way her business had been growing.
It was time to put an ad in the classifieds. Her daughter would be a tough act to follow, though. Maybe impossible.
That’s life, she reminded herself. Children grow up and move on. She’d been perfectly happy with the growing-up part, and the moving on. It was just this moving away thing that upset her.
The future was out of her control. All she had was the present, and here in the present she had customers to wait on.
She’d just sent Darla on her way with a gingerbread house when Willie called to report that Cupcake had eaten his shorts.
“She what?”
“She ate my shorts!”
There was a gross visual. “How on earth did she manage that?”
“I don’t know,” Willie said grumpily. “I came home and found ’em all shredded. I hate that dog.”
That made two of them. Still… “Did you leave your dirty clothes on the floor like I’m always asking you not to?”
“Yeah,” he said grudgingly.
“And I’m guessing you didn’t bother to close your bedroom door when you went to school.”
“I shouldn’t have to.”
“No, you shouldn’t. But if you don’t want the dog going after your socks next, it might be a good idea to keep the door closed.”
“Gee, thanks, Mom,” Willie grumbled, and hung up.
Life was tough all over. Dani never made it back to the bakery, leaving Cass to soldier on alone.
Her daughter was apologetic when they met with the ex-in-laws for dinner at Der Spaniard later. Cass apologized, too, for being such a slave driver, and even managed a friendly greeting for Louise, along with a compliment on her Christmas sweater.
Louise accepted the compliment with as much grace as the cactus on the reception desk, which was also decked out for the holidays with colored lights and looked a lot cuter.
Once everyone was seated and the orders had been placed, talk turned to the happy couple’s upcoming move.
“Spokane has some great wineries,” Babette said. “We’ll have to come check them out. After the baby’s born,” she added, and put a hand on her tummy.
Cass kept smiling.
By the end of the evening, the smile was wearing thin and she was glad to leave the restaurant. Mason picked up the tab. Mr. Generous.
Let him, she decided. She was tired of competing with him, tired of keeping score.
To prove it she offered to make coffee for everyone and serve up the cream puff swans she’d brought home from the bakery. Louise declined the invitation, claiming exhaustion. Yes, shopping all day could be wearing. Maddy said she’d come, though, promising to be there as soon as she’d dropped off Louise.
Won’t that be fun? More smiling all the way home. Mouth muscles aching, Cass opened the front door and led everyone into the house.
And got an early Christmas present. Lovely. This was the icing on the cake.
19
It wasn’t hard to figure out what she’d stepped in. Soft, squishy, stinky—a welcome-home present from Cupcake. With a growl, Cass lifted her foot to remove her shoe, while behind her Amber said, “Eew, gross.”
“What?” asked Willie, lumbering in behind her.
“Watch where you step,” Cass cautioned. “Amber, get some paper towels.”
“What’s wrong?” Babette asked. She halted just inside the door. “Oh.”
“Yes, oh,” Cass agreed. “That dog,” she said through gritted teeth.
Now Mason was inside. “What’s this?”
“If you can’t guess, I’ll be happy to let you take a sniff of my shoe,” Cass snapped.
Her son, probably fearing that he’d get
drafted to help with cleanup, made himself scarce, leaving the three adults to deal with the smelly problem.
“I knew we should’ve taken her for a walk before we left,” Babette lamented.
“And lost her,” Cass muttered.
“Cute, Cass,” Mason said in disgust.
Amber returned with the paper towels, and Mason snatched them and got to work. Amber beat a hasty retreat, but Babette bent to help, all the while saying how sorry she was.
Cass ignored her. “Cute?” she retorted. “Kind of like you bringing that animal here without even asking if it would be okay?”
“Mason said it was all right,” Babette protested. “I had no idea.”
Cass glared at him. “Seriously?”
“I’d forgotten how uncooperative you could be.”
“Oh, that’s rich coming from you of all people,” Cass snarled as she wiped off the bottom of her shoe.
“I’m so sorry,” Babette said again.
Now the verbal battle began in earnest. “You don’t need to be sorry,” Cass told her. “It’s the inconsiderate jerk you’re married to who should be sorry.”
“Hey, you’re the one who invited us to stay,” Mason said, his voice rising.
“Because I was suffering from temporary insanity.”
“Temporary?”
“Oh, that is funny.”
The door opened to reveal Dani and Mike.
For a moment all was silent as Dani stood gaping at her squabbling parents. Then she burst into tears. “Why do you guys have to do this?” she wailed. “Are you going to fight on my wedding day, too?”
Without waiting for an answer, she turned and fled, Mike following her.
“Now look what you’ve done!” Cass snapped at Mason.
“Me?”
Babette was crying, too. And here came Cupcake, trotting out to see what all the fuss was about. “You bad dog,” Babette scolded.
Bad? How about demon-possessed? Cass tossed her smelly shoe out on the front porch and then stomped off to the kitchen.
“Don’t make coffee,” Mason yelled at her. “We’re going out.”
“Fine,” she shouted. Go out and don’t come back.
She didn’t bother with the coffee but she did help herself to two cream puff swans. No sense letting them go to waste. Then she set the rest out on a plate. Willie and Amber would finish them off.
And now, after eating too much and saying too much, it was time for bed.
A knock on the front door reminded her that not everyone had gotten the message that the party was off. She opened it and there stood Maddy.
“Mason’s car is gone,” she told Cass.
“Sorry. I should’ve called you. We had a change of plans.”
“A change of plans.” Maddy repeated the words as if she were learning a foreign language.
“Yes, a change of plans,” Cass said, trying to hold on to her patience.
Maddy pointed a finger at her. “You and Mason had a fight, didn’t you?”
“Good night, Maddy,” Cass said, and shut the door. Not in Maddy’s face, not really. All right, she’d shut it in Maddy’s face. Guilt prompted her to open the door again. Maddy was already marching down the porch steps. “We’ll do it another time,” Cass promised.
Maddy graciously accepted the offer with a one-fingered salute and kept walking.
Cass shut the door again and started upstairs. She met Amber coming down, holding the cause of all the commotion. Cupcake growled at Cass and let out an ear-piercing bark. Bad Mom.
“Are you and Daddy still fighting?” Amber asked in a small voice.
Nothing like a final dose of guilt to help a woman sleep well. Cass sighed. “We do that sometimes.”
“Sometimes?”
“Okay, we do that a lot. But everything will be fine.” She gave her daughter a pat on the arm. “There are cream puffs in the kitchen just dying to be eaten.”
Amber nodded and continued on down to the empty living room, while Cass went upstairs and shut herself in her bedroom. What a lovely evening this had been.
And whose fault was that?
She tried to ignore the sobering thought as she got ready for bed, but it refused to be ignored. It followed her into the shower. Then it followed her to bed, where it camped on her pillow and nagged her for hours. She lay there, trying to not face it, as muted voices drifted up from downstairs. Dani was probably back, talking with Mason about her terrible mother. Eventually she heard footsteps on the stairs, and then in the hallway as, one by one, everyone made their way to bed. Had Willie done his homework? Amber had asked for help with her math earlier. Cass had completely forgotten. Great. Mother of the year.
Now the nasty thought was bouncing up and down on the bed. Whose fault? Whose fault?
She rolled over on her side and squeezed her eyes shut, told both the thought and herself to go to sleep.
It didn’t. Neither did she.
At 1:00 a.m. she decided to see if warm milk really did help a person sleep and padded downstairs to the kitchen. To her surprise, she found Mason already there, seated at the kitchen table with a mug of cocoa and a book. He looked up at her entrance and frowned.
“I couldn’t sleep,” she said. “Hard to do when you’ve got a guilty conscience.”
He grunted. Then he raised his mug. “Want some?”
“I’ll have some hot milk,” she said, and sat down at the table.
“That’s for sissies.”
“Sissies who have to be up early in the morning. The chocolate will keep me awake.” Just like that nasty thought. Okay, it was now or never. She took a deep breath. “Mason, I’m sorry. I’ve been a rotten host.”
He shrugged and put a mug of milk in the microwave.
“My attitude stinks,” she admitted.
He turned and faced her. “I hate to say it, Cass, but it’s stunk for a long time.”
Her first instinct was to fire back an angry retort, but she didn’t. Instead, she did something she hadn’t done in years. She stopped and considered what he’d said.
The microwave dinged and he removed her cup and brought it to the table. Then he sat down and looked at her. “You know what I like about Babette?”
“The fact that she’s young and gorgeous?”
He shook his head. “The fact that she’s there for me.”
Okay, now she was done holding back. “What, and I wasn’t?”
“Not really.” He took a sip of his cocoa and regarded her over the rim of his mug. “Come on, Cass, let’s be honest.”
“Okay,” she agreed. “Let’s. If you want honesty, try this on for size. I hate it that you’ve been Mr. Absent Father for years and now all of a sudden you come waltzing in like you’re Super Dad. You write a few checks, throw around a few bribes and everyone loves you. It makes me feel like everything I’ve done for the kids all these years doesn’t matter.”
He set down his mug with a heavy sigh. “I’m sorry you feel threatened, Cass. You’ve been a great mom. Nobody would say any different, certainly not me. I’m just trying to be a better dad. I’m tired of feeling left out. And if you want to know the truth, I always felt left out.”
“Left out?” What was he talking about?
“It was always you and the kids, with me on the outside looking in, trying to figure out how I fit into the family. Sometimes all I felt like was a paycheck.”
“That’s all you were,” Cass said bluntly. “You were so busy becoming important you didn’t have time for us.”
“I did it all for you,” he protested.
“So you always said. But what good did that do when we never saw you?”
His jaw was set, which meant he was dealing with strong emotions. “I didn’t want to be a loser like my dad. I wanted to be successful. And I wanted you there for me, Cass. You never were. Everything I ever did you resented.”
“That was because it took you away.” How often had she told him that? Had he never listened? Well, duh. Of course
he hadn’t. That had been part of the problem.
“Well, you got your revenge. You moved far enough out of reach that you made it damned hard for me to be anything but away. If I hadn’t finally gotten a job in Seattle we’d still have been squabbling about when I could see the kids.”
“I didn’t want revenge. I only wanted a new start.”
“Are you sure that’s all you wanted?” he pressed.
She sat back against her seat. That was all she’d wanted, wasn’t it? She’d been so angry, so bitter.
So out to get him? “I don’t know now,” she said. “I honestly don’t know.”
He shrugged. “It’s all water under the bridge.”
Troubled water.
“We probably didn’t belong together in the first place.”
He was right, but the statement stung, anyway.
“Still, you were so damned hot I couldn’t resist you,” he added with a hint of a smile.
She took the hint and managed to give him one in return. Then sighed. “If I hadn’t gotten pregnant…”
“I’d have married you, anyway. You have to know that.”
She nodded, accepting the truth of his statement. They’d been hot for each other, sure that what they had would last forever.
“But the instant-family thing had me panicked. I had to do something to provide for you.”
Hence rushing into the navy. And that hadn’t pleased her. Neither had anything else he’d done to try and better himself. “I’m sorry I wasn’t more understanding,” she said, and meant it.
“Past history.” He shoved away his mug. “But it feels good to hear you say it. And I’m sorry I let you down.”
“Well,” she said thoughtfully, “you didn’t let me down completely.”
“Yeah?”
“You gave me three great kids.”
“We gave each other three great kids,” he corrected.
“I guess they were the one thing we did right.” What she and Mason once had together was definitely past history, but their children were the present and the future. And that was worth keeping in mind.
Merry Ex-Mas Page 20
