It delighted Maxine to see Charles warming up to her children. It had taken a long time, and they hadn't made it easy for him, except for Sam, who got along with everyone and felt sorry for him. He thought Daphne was being too mean, and said as much to Charles.
“You think so, eh?” Charles said, laughing. He had been in great spirits ever since they'd been on the boat. Despite his earlier trepidation, he conceded to Maxine that it was the best vacation he'd ever had, and she had never seen him look more relaxed.
Blake had called them the second day out. He just wanted to be sure the trip was going well, and told Maxine to give Charles his best. She relayed the message, but a cloud crossed Charles's eyes again.
“Why don't you relax about him?” she suggested, and Charles nodded, and said nothing. No matter what she said to reassure him, he was still fiercely jealous of Blake. She could understand it, but it seemed so unnecessary to her. She was in love with Charles, not with Blake.
They talked about their wedding, and she got emails from the caterer and the wedding planner. Everything was under control.
They swam in beautiful coves off Corsica, and lay on white sandy beaches. And then they went on to Sardinia, which was far more social, and there were other big boats there as well. Maxine and Charles had dinner ashore, and the next day they left for Capri. It was always fun for the children there. They rode in a horse-drawn carriage, and did some shopping, and Charles bought her a beautiful turquoise bracelet that she loved. And he told her again on the way back to the boat what a good time he was having on the trip. They both looked happy and relaxed. Blake had given them a great gift with the boat. And the children were finally beginning to enjoy Charles, and not complaining as much about him to Maxine, although Daphne still said he was uptight. But compared to her father, everyone was. Charles was a grown-up to the core. But he still managed to have a good time, tell some jokes, and he danced on deck with Maxine one night, to some good music the crew had put on for them.
“It doesn't bother you to be on his boat with another man?” Charles inquired.
“Not in the least,” she answered. “He's been on board with half the women on the planet. It's been over between me and Blake for a long time. I wouldn't be marrying you if that weren't the case.” Charles believed that was true, he just felt that everywhere he went, Blake was looking over his shoulder. There were photographs of him everywhere, a few of Maxine, and many of the kids. They were all in beautiful silver frames.
The weeks sped by too quickly, and suddenly it was the last night. They had anchored off St. Jean Cap Ferrat and were going in to Monte Carlo the next day, to fly home. It was a beautiful moonlit night, the children were watching a movie, and she and Charles sat on deck chairs, talking softly.
“I hate to go home,” she admitted. “Leaving the boat is always like being cast out of the Garden of Eden. Reality hits hard after this.” She laughed as she said it, and he agreed. “The next couple of weeks are going to be crazy before the wedding,” she warned him, but he didn't look worried or upset about it anymore.
“I figured they would be. I'll go hide somewhere if it gets to be too much for me.”
Maxine was planning to work for two weeks, and she had a lot to do in the office and many patients to see, before she took August off, for the wedding and the honeymoon. Thelma and her practice were covering for her again, as they always did.
When they got home, the wedding would be four weeks away. She could hardly wait. Maxine and her children were all moving to her house in Southampton on the first of August, and Charles was coming too. So were Zellie and her new baby, and Maxine hoped that would be okay. It was going to be a powerful dose of reality for Charles, but he said he was braced for it. They were both excited about the wedding, and her parents were staying with them for the wedding weekend too. It would give Charles someone to talk to, while Maxine tended to the final details. The only time Charles wouldn't be staying with them was the night before the wedding, after the rehearsal dinner. She had made him take a room at a hotel, so he wouldn't see her the morning of the wedding. She was superstitious about that, which he said was a nuisance, but he was willing to indulge her for one night.
“It might be the only decent night's sleep I get, with all the people you'll have in the house.” It was a far cry from his peaceful cabin in Vermont. Maxine never wanted to go there because they couldn't take the kids with them, unlike her rambling old house in the Hamptons, which housed them all and still left room for guests.
The captain pulled the boat into port in Monte Carlo early the next morning, and they were already moored there when everyone woke up. They had a last breakfast on board, and then the crew members were going to drive all five of them to the airport. Just before they left, Maxine stood looking up at the beautiful sailboat from the dock.
“You love her, don't you?” Charles asked as she nodded.
“Yes, I do,” Maxine said softly. “I always hate to leave.” She looked at him then. “I had a wonderful time with you, Charles.” She leaned over and kissed him, and he kissed her back.
“So did I,” he said as he slipped an arm around her waist, and together they walked away from the Sweet Dreams, and got into the car. It had been the perfect vacation after all.
Chapter 22
The next ten days in her office were crazy for Maxine. When she left in August, she would be gone for a month, but most of her patients would be too. Many of them were away for summer vacations with their parents. But she had several of the more acutely sick ones to see before she signed off to Thelma, and Maxine wanted to bring her up to date.
The two women had lunch together right after Maxine got back from the boat trip, and Thelma asked her about Charles. She had met him twice, but didn't really have a sense of him, other than that he was very reserved. She had met Blake once too and commented that the two men were as different as night and day.
“You sure don't go for a type,” Thelma teased her, “and if you do, I'm not sure which one it would be.”
“Probably Charles. We're more alike. Blake was an early mistake,” Maxine said glibly, and then reconsidered. “No, that's not true, or fair. It worked when we were young. I grew up, he didn't, and it all went down the drain after that.”
“No, it didn't. You got three great kids out of it.” Thelma had two, and they were gorgeous. Her husband was Chinese, from Hong Kong, and the children had exquisite caramel-colored skin, and huge slightly Asian eyes. They were the best of both. Her daughter was a teenage model, and Thelma always said that her son broke every heart in school. As his mother had done, he was going to Harvard in the fall, and heading for medical school after that. Her husband was a physician too, a cardiologist and head of the department at NYU, and theirs was a marriage that worked. Maxine had been trying to get the four of them together for dinner for ages, but they hadn't been able to arrange it so far. They were all too busy.
“Charles seems very serious to me,” Thelma commented, and Maxine agreed.
“He is, but he has a sweet side to him too. He's very good with Sam.”
“And the others?”
“He's working on it.” Maxine smiled. “Daphne is tough.”
“God save me from teenage girls,” Thelma said, and rolled her eyes. “Jenna hates me this week. She has for two years actually. Sometimes I think she always will. I don't know what I do wrong most of the time, but as far as she's concerned, the minute I get up in the morning, I've fucked up. The only thing I do right is my shoes. She wears them all.” Maxine laughed at the description. She had the same problems with Daphne, although she was two years younger and not as angry yet. But she was getting there. It was going to be a long haul. “How's your nanny doing with her baby, by the way?”
“He's still screaming. Zellie says the pediatrician thinks he's doing well, but it's a tough adjustment. I bought Charles earplugs for when we go to Southampton. I wear them myself. It's the only thing that works. Zellie's going to have hearing loss from holdin
g him if that kid doesn't stop soon.” Maxine smiled affectionately as she said it.
“Sounds like fun,” Thelma said, and they both laughed. It was nice to take some time off and relax over lunch. Maxine didn't do it often, and she was so busy in her office she felt guilty about it, but Thelma was a good friend. She was one of the few psychiatrists Maxine trusted with her practice.
As planned, Maxine turned her practice over to her on the first of August, and they all left for Southampton in a caravan of cars. Hers, Charles's, and Zellie drove a rented station wagon. The children rode with Zellie, since Maxine's car was piled high with things for the wedding. And Charles drove alone in his impeccably detailed BMW. He didn't say it, but Maxine knew he didn't want the children in it. And they were happy riding with Zellie since the only place Jimmy slept and finally stopped crying was in the car. It was a blessed relief. And more than once when he was howling his little lungs out in the apartment, she had suggested that Zellie get the car out and drive around the block. Several times she had, and it worked. Maxine was only sorry she couldn't do that all night. He was a cute little guy with a sweet face. It was hard to bond with him because he cried so much, but it had slowly started to get better in the last week. There was hope. With any luck at all, he would be over it by the time Charles moved in after the honeymoon. He had postponed moving his clothes into the apartment until then.
Charles put his things in her bedroom as soon as they arrived at the house in Southampton. She gave him a closet, and filled her own with the things she'd brought from town. She put her wedding gown, carefully concealed and covered up in a closet in one of the guest rooms, along with Daphne's pale lavender dress, which she had yet to try on. So far she had refused, and claimed she was going to skip the wedding and stay in her room. She liked Charles better after the boat trip, but not enough to want to see them get married. She still told her mother that she was making a mistake and he was too dull and too uptight.
“He's not dull, Daffy,” Maxine said quietly. “He's responsible and solid.”
“No, he's not,” her daughter insisted. “He's boring and you know it.” But Maxine was never bored with him. He was always interested in her work, and they talked medicine most of the time. She and Thelma never did. But it was what she and Charles enjoyed most.
For the first week, Maxine had a thousand details to take care of, meetings with the caterer and the wedding planner. She talked to the florist almost every day. They were doing white flowers everywhere, and bringing in hedges and topiary trees with sprays of orchids in them. It was going to be simple and elegant, and relatively formal. And exactly what Maxine wanted. Charles wasn't interested in the wedding details and trusted Maxine with them.
At night, she and Charles went out to dinner, or they took the children to the movies. And in the daytime, the kids hung out with their friends on the beach. Everything was going fine until Blake arrived the second week that they were there. Charles turned into an iceberg the moment he did.
Blake dropped by the house to see her and the kids, and she introduced Charles to him. She had never seen Charles so stiff or so unpleasant. He bristled every time Blake spoke, although Blake was very relaxed about it, and as charming as ever. Blake invited him to a game of tennis at the club, which Charles frostily declined, much to Maxine's chagrin. Blake chatted with him good-humoredly and took no offense. Charles couldn't handle being anywhere near him, and picked a fight with Maxine for no reason that night. Blake had rented a house nearby, for the week, right on the beach, with a pool, which Charles felt was outrageous. He felt encroached on, and said so to Maxine.
“I don't know what you're so upset about,” Maxine commented. “He was perfectly nice to you.” She thought Charles was being unreasonable. After all, he was the winner, and the groom.
“You act like you're still married to him,” he complained.
“I do not.” She looked shocked at what he had said. “That's a ridiculous thing to say.”
“You were draped around his neck and hugging him. And he can't keep his hands off you.” Charles was furious, and so was she. His accusations just weren't fair. She and Blake were affectionate with each other, but there was nothing more to it than that, and hadn't been in years.
“That's a disgusting thing to say.” She was incensed. “He treats me like a sister. And he made a huge effort to talk to you, and you hardly said two words to him. He's giving us the rehearsal dinner, you could at least be polite to him, and make an effort. Shit, we just spent two weeks on his boat.”
“That wasn't my idea!” Charles stormed at her. “You forced me to. And you know how I feel about the rehearsal dinner. I never wanted that either.”
“You had a great time on the boat,” she reminded him.
“Yes, I did,” he conceded, “but I wonder if it occurs to you what it's like to make love to your fiancée in the bed she used to sleep in with her husband. Your life is a little racy for me, Maxine.”
“Oh for chrissake, don't be so uptight. It's just a bed. He's not sleeping in it with us.”
“He might as well!” Charles said, and stormed out of the room. He packed that night, and in the morning he left for Vermont. He said he'd be back in time for the wedding. It was a great start. He didn't even answer his cell phone for two days, which hurt Maxine's feelings, and he never apologized to her for storming off, when they finally talked. He sounded stiff and cold. Maxine hadn't liked his accusations, and Charles didn't like having Blake around, dropping in and out of the house. Charles said Blake acted like it was still his, and she was angry about that too and said it wasn't true.
“So where's the groom?” Blake asked, looking around when he dropped by the next day.
“He went to Vermont,” she said through clenched teeth.
“Uh-oh. Do I smell pre-wedding jitters?” he teased her, and she growled.
“No, what you smell is me pissed off at him for acting like a jerk.” She never pulled any punches with Blake. She could be honest with him, even if she had to put a good face on it for the children. She had told them that Charles needed a little peace and quiet before the wedding, and Daphne had rolled her eyes. She was delighted he had left.
“What are you so pissed off about, Max? He seems like a nice guy.”
“I don't know how you can say that. He hardly said two words to you yesterday. I thought he was very rude, and I told him that in fact. The least he could do is speak to you. And he snapped at you when you invited him to play tennis.”
“It probably makes him uncomfortable to have your ex-husband around. Not everybody is as cool as we are,” he said, laughing, “or as crazy.”
“That's what he says.” She smiled at Blake. “He thinks we're all nuts. And Zellie's baby gets on his nerves.” She wanted to say “and so do our kids,” but she hesitated to tell him that. She didn't want Blake to worry about him. And she was still convinced that he and the children would get used to each other, and even like each other in time.
“I have to admit, Zellie's baby is a little loud.” He grinned at her. “Do you suppose she'll ever find the volume button on that kid? His mother must have taken a hell of a lot of crack.”
“Don't let her hear you say that. And he's getting better. It takes time.”
“I can't really blame Charles for that,” Blake said fairly. “What about you? Are you getting cold feet yet?” He was teasing her, and she shoved him, like two kids in the sandbox.
“Oh, shut up. I'm just pissed off. I don't have cold feet.”
“You should!” Daphne threw over her shoulder as she walked by.
“You stop that!” Maxine called after her, and then shook her head. “Bratty kid. Have you told them about your plans for the orphanage yet?” she asked Blake.
“I was planning to tonight. I hope they think it's cool and they don't get upset. They seem to have a lot of their own opinions these days. Jack just told me that my pants are too short, my hair is too long, and I'm out of shape. He could be right, but it's
a little tough to hear.” He was smiling as Sam wandered in and looked him over.
“You look good to me, Dad,” he said with approval.
“Thanks, Sam.” Blake hugged him, and Sam beamed.
“Do you want to come out for pizza with us tonight?” he asked Maxine.
“Sure. I'd love it.” She had nothing else to do. She loved the way everyone came and went in the Southampton house and wandered around, and she liked Blake hanging out too. It was a shame that Charles couldn't relax and enjoy it. But he had said when he left that it was too much confusion for him. He called it the three-ring circus, and it didn't sound like a compliment when he did. There were times when she wanted to strangle him, like now, before the wedding. All the pre-wedding excitement and details were bringing out the worst in both of them. She wasn't as patient as usual, and she thought he was being a poor sport, stomping off to Vermont in a huff the moment Blake appeared. And Blake had been nothing but nice to him. It was obvious to Maxine that Charles had an inferiority complex about him. She hoped he'd get over it soon.
Blake picked her and the kids up for dinner that night, and as he had planned, he told them about his Moroccan orphanage as they ate. They looked a little stunned for a minute, and then realized what a wonderful thing he was organizing. They all told him how proud they were of him. And Maxine was proud of them for appreciating what their father was doing.
“Can we go to visit, Dad?” Sam asked with interest.
Rogue Page 25
