Mothers of the Year

by Lori Handeland

  They stared at each other. “Brittany doesn’t want a housekeeper living with us anymore. She thinks I treat her like a baby. When I insisted Jennifer come with us to the beach, she went into orbit about it. I figured she must have gone job hunting so she wouldn’t have to be home with Jennifer. Is that what she told you?”

  “Not exactly. I didn’t realize you have a housekeeper with you right now. Brittany never mentioned this Jennifer to me.” She bit her lip. “When I asked your daughter why she wanted to work, she told me about this guy at school.”

  A guy?

  “Go on,” he urged.

  After she’d finished telling him all about the senior student’s slight, he rubbed the back of his neck in frustration. “Good grief. A few potshots at me and my money did all this damage?”

  Abby eyed him with compassion. “She’s at a sensitive age, and you’ve raised a daughter with a strong social conscience. I think it’s to her credit she decided to do something positive. A less confident child would probably sit around all summer brooding over a guy with a chip on his shoulder.”

  “So you saved the day.”

  “You wish I hadn’t?”

  “I didn’t say that,” he muttered.

  “You didn’t have to,” she said soberly. “To answer the rest of your question, I gave her the job because of the way she presented herself. If I had a daughter, I’d want her to be exactly like Brittany.”

  That’s what he’d thought. In the next breath he grasped her shoulders, bringing her so close their mouths were only inches apart. “Why don’t you have a daughter or son of your own? Weren’t you able to conceive, or were you putting it off?”

  Her eyes filled with tears. “When the accident…happened, I was seven months’ pregnant. If our little boy had lived, he’d be six years old.”

  “Abby…” He crushed her against him, rocking her in his arms. Her body shook with silent sobs.

  “When they both died, I died.”

  Now he understood why the ring stayed on her finger.

  She might have responded physically to him the other night, she might even sleep with him. But that’s all it would be. Just as it had been with Rachel.

  Some men were destined to repeat their mistakes. He’d be damned if he was going to be one of them. He felt her try to ease away.

  “Sorry I’ve fallen apart on you. How embarrassing.” With a little more strength she pulled free of his arms and wiped her eyes.

  “I have to get back.” She started for the path. He followed. “I hope what I’ve told you has helped.”

  His hands formed fists. “You have no idea.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  AT FIVE AFTER FOUR on Friday, Abby breezed in the kitchen, handing each of the staff an envelope before their break. Rick watched as she approached Brittany last.

  “It’s payday.” She thrust the envelope in the teen’s hands.

  “Thank you.”

  “You don’t need to thank me. You’ve earned it. Don’t spend it all at once.”

  “You know I won’t,” his daughter confided sotto voce, but Rick heard her.

  Since no one else opened their envelopes, he noticed Brittany didn’t, either. She turned to him. “I’ll change my uniform and meet you out front.”

  He nodded.

  After she darted off, Abby lifted her eyes to him. Since the emotional scene on the beach yesterday when she’d bared her soul to him, she’d reverted to the professionalism of owner and manager.

  “Thank you for your help this week. As I said earlier, Brittany could have handled it just fine, but there’s nothing like a father to give her that added confidence…Thanks for the other night, too. It made me realize how much I miss André to handle certain situations.”

  Don’t say any more, Abby. You’re killing me.

  “Have a fun weekend sailing.”

  This was beginning to sound like a goodbye speech.

  “Oh, and tell Brittany I’ll see her a week from Monday. Any problems she might have, Sylvia will take care of them.”

  When she turned to leave, he felt as if he’d just been slammed in the gut by the jib. “I thought you weren’t flying to Switzerland until next Wednesday.”

  She looked back at him. “I decided that if I’m going for a few days, I might as well go for a whole week. Luckily I was able to get a flight leaving in the morning.”

  Nothing could be plainer than that. She wanted out of here, as far away from Rick as possible.

  “In that case, let me wish you bon voyage, Madame Chappuis.”

  He left her standing there and strode toward the hallway. When he walked out of the restaurant, Brittany was already in front. She’d opened her envelope.

  “Look—there’s a check for you, too.” She handed it to him.

  Pay for four days’ work.

  Four days to get nearer to her.

  Her timing couldn’t have been more perfect.

  “I just love Abby,” Brittany said.

  I know.

  Halfway to the condo, she asked, “Can we drive to the bank? I want to deposit it into my account.”

  “Tell you what—let’s pack a bag and drive to Escondido for the weekend. You and Danice can take it to the bank tomorrow. Maybe get together with some friends?”

  She stopped walking, her face screwed up in confusion. “But I don’t want to go to Escondido.”

  “The problem is, I think Jennifer would. Maybe it’s time for you and me to be on our own.”

  “You mean…no more housekeeper for me?” Brittany appeared shell-shocked.

  “After seeing the exceptional way you’ve been doing your job at Chez André, you’ve convinced me you don’t need one.”

  “Oh, Dad!” She threw herself into his arms, almost knocking him over.

  “I take it that makes you happy.”

  “This is the best summer of my life!”

  Wish that I could say the same, kiddo.

  “Can we go grocery shopping this weekend? I want to make a farewell dinner for her.”

  “I’m sure that would please Jennifer.”

  “Oh…no…well, I guess I should, but I meant Abby! She’s leaving for Switzerland on Wednesday, so I want to invite her for Tuesday night. That’s her slow time at the restaurant so I know she’ll come.”

  “Honey, Abby’s plans have changed.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Here we go again. Hell.

  “She’s decided to go in the morning.”

  “What? She didn’t tell me. What happened?”

  He smothered a groan. “Something came up and she has to leave sooner.” She wants to get away from me. “She asked me to tell you that she’d see you a week from Monday.”

  They entered the apartment building and walked to the elevator. On the way up to their floor she said, “That’s ten days away…”

  The pain in her expression turned her eyes a darker shade of blue, if that was possible. “Did Liz ask you to spend the weekend with her? Is that why you brought up Escondido?”

  What was going on in her mind?

  “No,” he said emphatically. “As a matter of fact, I broke everything off with her yesterday on the phone.”

  “You did?”

  Rick took a deep breath. “To go on seeing her would be a waste of her time and mine.”

  She followed him out of the elevator to the condo. “Does Abby know that?”

  Perplexed, he said, “I’m not following you.”

  “You must be blind if you don’t know how much she likes you. That’s why Chet got so mad. Cheryl said Abby has never given him or any man the time of day until you came along. Did you and Abby have a fight?”

  “What?” he blurted, still reeling from the revelation.

  “Dad. She knows you have a girlfriend.”

  “How?”

  “You must have told her, because she mentioned it to me. Maybe she’s hurt and that’s why she decided to leave early.”

  Rick stared hard at
his daughter. Brittany’s pride had been stung by a guy. That’s why she’d been so willing to come to the beach for the summer. Anything to avoid more pain. Was Abby doing the same thing?

  He shook his head trying to figure it all out. “I’m afraid you’re jumping to conclusions without knowing the whole story, honey.”

  Brittany trailed him into the kitchen. “Like what?”

  “First off, Abby and I didn’t have a fight.” Not in the sense she meant. “Second, and most importantly, she’s still in love with her husband. When the accident took his life, it also took their unborn child’s.”

  “She was going to have a baby?” Her voice throbbed.

  “Yes. A boy.”

  “Oh, no—” Suddenly she was sobbing in his arms. “She’d make the best mother on earth.”

  Agreed.

  Finally she pulled away from him. “Dad?” She gazed up with beseeching eyes. “Is that why you never got married? Because you loved my mother too much?”

  Brittany was old enough to handle the truth. It was time to tell her. But not here.

  “Let’s drive to Escondido and take Jennifer home. Then you and I will go to our house with Buddy and have a long talk.”

  He could tell how torn she was. Rick knew his daughter. She wanted to see Abby before she left, but it was better this way.

  “Okay.” She wiped her eyes. “Maybe we could take Jennifer to dinner somewhere on the way while you tell her the news. Let’s buy her a pretty plant or something for a goodbye gift. I’ll pay for it.”

  His daughter was growing up before his very eyes. “You know what, kiddo? I love you.”

  “Ditto.”

  Four hours later, his daughter found him in the study. She’d been on the phone with her friends making plans. Buddy was right behind her. “Can we talk now?”

  He turned off the computer and moved over to the couch. “To answer your earlier question, I loved your mother very much, otherwise we wouldn’t have had you.

  “When I realized I was in love with her and asked her to marry me, she turned me down.”

  Brittany jumped off the couch. “She didn’t want to marry you?”

  “Let me finish. We met in college. Rachel had some liberal attitudes that developed as a result of her parents’ strict rules. But it was a revelation to me she didn’t want to get married. I thought I could change her mind, but it didn’t happen.”

  “My mother didn’t want to marry you?” She sounded incredulous and hurt. How he loved this daughter of his.

  “You don’t understand. She loved me, but I was too traditional for her. We just weren’t compatible, honey. I didn’t see her again until she told me she was pregnant. That changed everything for me. I wanted you and told her I’d do whatever it took to help raise you.”

  Brittany threw her arms around him and hugged him for a long time.

  “When you were born,” he finally said, “it was love at first sight for both of us. We worked out visitation so I could be with you as often as possible…Then your mom…got cancer.”

  She eased herself out of his arms. “That’s so awful.”

  “Yes, it was…I promised her—and myself—I’d be the best father I could.”

  “You are!” She hugged him again. “I love you. I’m not like my mother. I’m going to get married like Abby did, and have babies.”

  Abby. Always Abby.

  His eyes smarted. “I want that for you, too, but not for a long time.”

  She laughed before straightening up again. “Dad? Do you mind if I sleep over at Danice’s tonight? She begged me.”

  Under the circumstances Rick thought it was an excellent idea, never mind that he would be alone in the house, prey to the yawning emptiness he couldn’t do anything about.

  “It’s fine. I’ll drive you.”

  ABBY PULLED OUT the last small load of clothes from the dryer, then folded them into the suitcase on the chair in her bedroom. Her heart was a heavy stone in her chest.

  After the way she’d fallen into Rick’s arms, how could she have behaved like the bereaved widow the next morning? During those passion-filled moments she’d been an equal participant, giving him kiss for kiss, never wanting to stop. She hadn’t been able to get enough.

  He had to be laughing now. She needed to talk to him and explain herself. But her hope that Rick would have come by last night or this evening to finish their conversation had never materialized. He hadn’t attempted to delay her in the kitchen earlier today. No phone call tonight.

  He was a man who enjoyed the woman of the moment. He hadn’t married Brittany’s mother. He’d been seeing a woman when he’d moved to Oceanside. When he left to go to back to Escondido at the end of the summer, it would be out of sight, out of mind. On to the next romantic interlude.

  Not so for Abby. What a convoluted irony that, after years of mourning André, she was leaving for Switzerland to try to forget Rick Jakeman—a man Brittany had brought into Abby’s life, changing it dramatically.

  Much as she wanted to call him, she couldn’t find the courage. She had no doubt women had been chasing him for years. Abby didn’t intend to be one of them.

  With nothing more to do until morning, she went into the bathroom and brushed her teeth. As she came back into the bedroom, she heard the end of a message being left on her answering machine. Maybe it was Sylvia with a few last-minute questions.

  Abby rewound the tape and listened. Her heart leaped when she heard Brittany’s voice. “I just wanted to say goodbye. I’m going to miss you.”

  Hearing those words brought a lump to Abby’s throat.

  “If you have time, please call me back. Here’s my cell phone number.”

  Without hesitation Abby reached for her phone and pushed the digits.

  “Abby?” the teen answered in a hushed tone.

  “Brittany—what’s wrong? I can hardly hear you.”

  “I’m in Danice’s bathroom and don’t want her to hear me.”

  She frowned. “You’re in Escondido?”

  “Dad said I didn’t need a housekeeper anymore so we drove Jennifer back home.”

  Incredible.

  “We’re going to stay here until Sunday night. It’s going to be the two of us from now on.”

  Why was she telling Abby this?

  “I found out he broke up with Liz, so I was going to have you over for a farewell dinner on Tuesday night, but Dad said you’re leaving earlier.”

  Her hand tightened on the phone. “That’s right.”

  “He’s really upset—like Chet.”

  Abby’s mouth went dry. “What do you mean?”

  “I heard about your baby. Because you lost everything, Dad said you’ll never love anyone else but your husband. The thing is, I found out tonight that my mother didn’t marry my dad, because she didn’t believe in marriage. He said she killed his love. She wasn’t anything like you, Abby.”

  A sob rose in Abby’s throat.

  “You like Dad, don’t you?”

  “O-of course.”

  “I mean, you really like him. I’ve seen the way you look at him. It’s the same way he looks at you.” There was a pause. “Why do you have to go to Switzerland right now? I think Dad thinks you don’t like him. I think that’s why he decided to drive us—Uh-oh…Danice is calling me. I’ve got to go. Have a good time, Abby. Please come home safe. Please.”

  She hung up before Abby could say goodbye. Maybe it was better. She wouldn’t have been able to get a word out.

  Lying awake most of the night gave her time to think. Her mind replayed every look and conversation with Rick. With the new knowledge his daughter had imparted over the phone, Abby began to understand the mixed messages she and Rick had been giving off.

  Throughout their relationship, nothing had been exactly as it had seemed. Except for the way she’d felt when his mouth was on hers.

  The chemistry between them—the love she had for Brittany—that was real. That was truth. There was no mistaking it for
anything else. You only got a few chances in this life, but it had taken Brittany to open Abby’s eyes before it was too late. It was time he knew she’d fallen in love with him. She wouldn’t wait any longer to tell him.

  With pounding heart, she got up to shower and dressed. She picked out her cream suit with café-au-lait piping—her favorite. She pulled her hair back into a tortoiseshell clip, leaving a few ends to curl around her jaw. She wanted—no, needed—to look perfect. After fastening her pearl earrings, she applied mascara and lipstick. With her heightened excitement, she didn’t need blush.

  At six, she went to her office to check something in one of the files, then she left through the service entrance with her suitcase. She’d gassed up her car the day before and was ready to go.

  When she reached the Coast highway, she followed the signs to the interstate. Instead of turning north to L.A., though, she headed south to the junction for Highway 78. The traffic was hideous.

  It was close to eight before she ate breakfast in San Marcos. Around nine, she reached Escondido’s city limits. At a convenience mart she asked for directions to Cherry Cove Drive, then drove on, riding a fresh surge of adrenaline.

  CHAPTER TEN

  “BUDDY’S DYING?”

  “I’m afraid so, honey. The vet said to bring him in. I knew you’d want to go with me.”

  After a sleepless night, Rick had driven over to Danice’s house to get Brittany. He’d wrapped Buddy in a blanket and laid him on the backseat of the car.

  His daughter got in next to the dog. “Buddy…Buddy…” She sobbed.

  “We knew it was going to happen one of these days.”

  “Maybe he just wanted to come home to die.”

  Out of the mouths of babes.

  “You could be right. A few minutes ago, I found him in his favorite place in the dining room where the sun shines in from the terrace.”

  “We shouldn’t have moved to Oceanside. He would have lived longer and—” She didn’t finish what she was about to say, but she didn’t need to. Rick could finish it for her.

  And we would never have met Abby who was off-limits for us.

  Suddenly Buddy let out an eerie moan.