“I was bloody doomed from the moment she smiled at me.”
“I was worried about her because after Serena you went … fucking Looney Tunes on me. I didn’t care if you screwed half of New York State, but I didn’t want you to hurt her.” He sighed. “What happened with Serena anyway? One day I could have sworn you were going to propose, the next you told me it was over.”
“You know how I screwed half of New York State? Well, she managed to get the other half.”
“Shit. It’s no wonder you’re so fucked up.”
“Yup.”
CHAPTER 25
A time to heal …
“We should talk about throwing you a baby shower,” Belinda said to Cherri as she, Belinda, and Ellis swayed gently on the porch swing.
“It’s too soon to think about that,” Cherri said, not really wanting to talk about it. She was a bit distracted by Colin, who was being a sulky pain in her ass. He’d barely said two words to anybody besides Mike all day. She was okay with him not speaking to her, but she felt bad for Magnus, who’d come all the way from God knows where to make amends with his son. She’d watched all day as he tried and failed miserably to make some kind of connection with his son.
“How’s business going, lad?” he would ask. “Or how’s that bloody excuse of a football team doing this year?” She knew it wasn’t what Colin needed to hear from the man. He needed to hear that Magnus was truly sorry for a lifetime of letdowns. She knew Colin had a hard time trusting him—or anybody, for that matter. And honestly she didn’t know if Magnus was really ready to stop letting his son down. But she hoped so. She hoped this baby would help heal a lot of wounds. They just needed to talk to each other, but they were dumb men. She wasn’t sure if they knew how.
“Hello, Cherri? Are you paying attention at all?” Ellis gently smacked the back of her head.
“Nope.”
“Care to enlighten us as to what you’re thinking about?”
“Colin.” She spotted him across the yard with his father and Mike, none of them saying a word, just staring at the grill as if entranced.
“Ah,” Belinda sighed. “Young love. How is everything going with you two? It looks like you’ve finally kissed and made up.”
“We have. I think I finally understand him now. He’s possessive and overprotective and chauvinistic but I love him so much I could puke.”
“Eww.” Belinda wrinkled her nose. “But it’s strangely sweet at the same time.”
“What’s going on with you, Belinda?” She turned to her friend. “What’s going on in your love life?”
“What love life?” She snorted.
“Men hit on her all the time,” Ellis stated. “She’s just too damn picky.”
“That’s not true.” She shook her head. “I fell in love when I was in San Francisco. He was all wrong for me but I want a guy to give me the same feeling I felt when I was with him. I want what you two have. I just don’t see the point of dating a bunch of losers to get that. If it happens it happens. And if it doesn’t—”
“You’ll be the spinster who lives alone with her three cats,” Ellis said, bumping Belinda with her hip and giving her a sassy grin.
“Such a bitch.” Belinda sighed. “Why don’t you get together with my mother? That way the two of you can have a real nagging party.”
“What was it about that guy that you can’t get over?” Cherri asked.
“Who said I wasn’t over him?”
“You did. You haven’t had a serious relationship since him. Maybe it’s a sign. Maybe you should look him up.”
“Maybe it’s a sign I should join a convent.”
“Food’s ready!” Magnus bellowed across the yard.
“Oh great, I’m starving,” Belinda said and walked away from them.
Ellis slanted Cherri a look. It seemed they’d hit a nerve when it came to Belinda’s love life.
* * *
“I’m starving.” Cherri came up behind Colin in the shop, resting her hand on his lower back.
He stopped sanding the ottoman he was working on and turned to his young bride, glad for the break. They had been working nonstop for the past few days. New jobs kept coming in, and instead of refusing the work he was running himself ragged. He couldn’t make it past nine o’clock most nights, staying awake only long enough to shower, eat, and make love to his very willing wife. “Do you want me to run out and get you something to eat?”
She smiled, shaking her head, and then stood on her tiptoes to kiss his lips. “I’m pregnant, not paralyzed. You don’t have to wait on me hand and foot.”
He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer. “What if I want to?” He knew she had been working hard to help out at the shop between painting her own projects and she never complained. He knew that the pregnancy was starting to catch up with her. Swelling feet, backaches. He ordered her to slow down, to rest, but she ignored him and continued to work just as hard as he did. So he didn’t mind rubbing her back, or fetching her meals. His first job was to make sure she was comfortable. “I quite like doing things for you, love.”
Her face lit up. “You’re already going to get laid tonight. You don’t have to try so hard. But the effort is truly appreciated.”
He rubbed her belly in slow circles. “I’ve got to take care of my love.”
“You are.” She leaned closer to him, her belly preventing them from getting any closer. “But I can take care of you, too, which is why I came to ask what you wanted for lunch.”
“Chunky chicken salad on that crusty bread that I like with cheese and bacon and a side of chips.”
She rested her head in the crook of his shoulder. “Does that mean you want potato chips or french fries? I always get confused about that.”
“Fries. Crisps are what we call potato chips, and after you come back I would like you to take a nice long break.”
“Okay.” For the first time she didn’t argue. “When are you going to talk to your father?”
“Charlotte,” he warned. Magnus had been there going on two weeks, and while he wasn’t disruptive to their lives he was more disruptive to Colin’s peace of mind. “Leave me and my pop be. We’re fine as we are.”
“You think so?” She raised a brow at him.
“Yes.” He playfully slapped her behind. “Now run off and get us lunch. Maybe I’ll take a break this afternoon and we can sneak off together.”
“Oye,” Magnus said, sighing, as he walked in. “I know she’s a pretty lass, son, but you don’t have to hold on to her like a stiff wind will take her away all the time.”
“He’s right. I’m far too big for any amount of wind to take me away, but you can hold on to me anytime you want.” She winked at him. “In fact I prefer it.”
Good lass.
“I’m going out to get some sandwiches. Would you like one, Magnus?”
“Call me Pop, darlin’. We’re family. And yes, if it’s not too much trouble, could you pick me up a roast beef with horseradish and some of them cheesy crisp things?”
“No problem. Could you be useful and help Colin out around the shop? He needs help but is being too much of a stubborn ass to admit it.” She pulled away from Colin before he had the chance to say anything. “Gotta go. Colin, remember what you promised for when I get back.” She kissed both men on their cheeks and left them alone.
He nodded and watched her walk away instead of telling her that under no circumstances did he need his father’s help. But he didn’t want his father to think that he cared either way. He kept quiet.
“I like your lass.” Magnus walked over to Colin’s workbench and picked up the old metal pedal car that Colin had yet to touch. “Beautiful girl. She reminds me a bit of your mum sometimes. Lovely. Soft. Dependable. You know, the type a man could really hold on to.”
“I don’t know what Mum looks like. I don’t know anything about her. You never bothered to tell me much.”
“That’s because there’s nothing to tell.” Magnus
spoke a little more firmly than Colin was used to hearing. “She left us, boy. I didn’t chase your mother away. I didn’t cheat on her. But she left me anyway. I was never good enough for her.” He shook his head as if he was trying to shake his feelings off. “Your lass is different than your mum. She’s … sweet, she’s happy, and she loves the babe she is carrying inside her. Your lass is the type of woman who is made to be a mum.”
“Mum didn’t want me?” Colin knew that. She’d walked out on him but he had always thought it was because he was difficult. It never occurred to him that she hadn’t wanted him from birth.
“I did,” Magnus said after a long moment. “I saw you and knew you were my mate for life.” He looked at Colin for a long moment before turning back to the toy car. “This can be a beauty again. Paint it baby blue with white trim, bang out those dents, shine it up till it glows. I could do it. The chrome work would take me a pretty amount of time but I could make this as lovely as your lass.”
“If you want to,” Colin said noncommittally. The truth was he could use the help, and he knew his father’s work was as good as his own. The man taught him everything he knew but he’d learned long ago not to depend on his father for anything. The wind would blow in another direction and take him to where pretty women spawned.
“I want to.” He picked up a screwdriver and as if it was second nature began to dismantle the car. “I thought you were fucking cracked when you told me you were going to be starting your own business fixing other people’s rubbish.”
“Why? We used to fix things for people in the county all the time.”
“We did, but that was side work, lad. It was never enough to support us. But you proved me wrong, boy. You’re making fistfuls of money, aren’t you? I thought because you went off to university you would get a job wearing a suit and work in a bank and walk around with a stick up your arse but you’re more like me than even I thought. Not comfortable unless your hands are rougher than a cliff’s ass and oil comes out of your armpits.”
Colin shrugged. This had always been his plan. He’d never wanted to wear a suit or work for another man. He used to watch his father come home after a long day, bitching about what his lousy bosses had forced him to do. He hated to see his father so beaten down. He would only work doing what he loved. His father should have known that, because Colin never kept his goal a secret. He should have known it by the way Colin followed him around when he was a lad, trying to take every piece of knowledge that the man had to give. But maybe Magnus had never noticed. He was too busy falling in love with some woman who would never stick around.
“Do you really think we’re alike, Pop?”
“Sometimes I think you’re me, only a bit better, but sometimes I wonder who the hell sired you. Because I never know what you’re going to do next.”
Colin shook his head, disagreeing with his father. “I’m not so unpredictable, Pop. I’ve lived in the same place for seventeen years. I’ve had this shop for almost ten.”
Magnus disagreed. “You got married, lad. Out of nowhere you got married. You’re going to be a bloody father, for fuck’s sake. Trust me, that came with no warning. I spoke to you a month before and you didn’t say a thing about Cherri. I asked you if you were with anybody and you told me no. And for fuck’s sake, Colin, she’s young. Barely older than your baby sister.” His father pinned him with his gaze. It was uncomfortable. He had never seen Magnus so serious, and for some reason the notion that he’d let his father down made his stomach clench. “A baby and you’ve gone and knocked her up.”
“You think I’ve made a mistake marrying Cherri? Because—”
“You’ll be quiet, lad and you’ll listen to me. For once in your fucking life you’ll let me be the father. I’ve been in your shoes. I know the only reason you’re married to a twenty-two-year-old girl is because you couldn’t control yourself around her.”
“Is that how we’re alike?”
“I’m not finished!” He slammed his fist down on the workbench. “You never let me finish. You always thought you were so much better than me even as a boy. You thought you knew it all. You treated me like I was the fucking kid and you were the father. So what if I shagged a lot of women. So what if I couldn’t keep your mother around. It doesn’t mean I don’t know what’s best for my own boy. I knew you wouldn’t have gone anywhere in Cork. I knew you had to get out. I didn’t want you to end up like me and that’s the path you were heading down. Why the hell do you think I let you go ten thousand miles away from me to university?”
“You slept with my girlfriend and that’s why I left.”
Magnus pinned him with a hard stare. “I’m glad that we’re finally getting down to it. Because this is what all this shit is about. I slept with your girlfriend. I didn’t do it because I wanted her. I did it because I didn’t want you taking that carpenter job and getting stuck there.”
“What? You’re cracked. I was only going to do that till I got enough money to make a go of it with my shop.”
“You would have never had enough money, son. I tried to explain it to you. I tried to tell you that it wasn’t your path, but you never wanted to listen to me. I had to show you. I had to make you mad enough to take notice.”
“So you slept with my girl?”
“She was five years older than you. You fancied yourself in love with her. I knew she was only toying with you. She was going to drag you down. You were meant for more than the life you had. I knew what I did would take you away from me for a time but I never thought I’d not get you back.”
“I don’t believe this. You spent half the time not giving a shit what I did and now you’re acting like father of the century. I’m not buying it.”
“Well, don’t. But I’m not going anywhere just because you’re too much of a wanker to admit that my not showing up to your wedding was not entirely my fault. How the hell did I know you were going to do something as crazy as that? Married? That’s the last thing I expected from you.”
“It’s not about the wedding, Pop. Don’t you get it? I kept calling you because I needed you and you never bothered to pick up.”
“You needed me, eh?” Magnus raised a single brow at him. “Well, that’s a first. You never needed me for nothing your whole life. You never wanted my help. Your whole damn life I felt more like a bothersome roommate than your father. I know I made my mistakes with you, lad, but you never gave me any slack. I was twenty years old raising a baby by myself. Half the time I didn’t know my ass from my elbow but I did my best by you.” He shook his head, weariness creeping into his features. “I’m tired of fighting with you, boy. Just make sure you keep your young wife happy. I know what it’s like to have your love walk out on you. Me and you are more alike than you think.”
Magnus picked up the pedal car and walked over to the sandblaster, turning it on and drowning out the possibility of any more conversation. Colin wanted to smash something. He looked at his father, whose face was set in grim determination as he worked. It couldn’t be true. None of it could be true. He had slept with Arabella because he didn’t care about Colin’s feelings. Not to help him. It just wasn’t something Magnus would do.
Thinking had become too much for him. Cherri was gone for the moment. He couldn’t seek her out to make him forget his troubles and he wouldn’t give his father the satisfaction of seeing him walk out in a huff. So he did the only thing he could do. He went back to work.
* * *
Cherri sat up in bed waiting for her husband, arms folded beneath her breasts. She glanced at the clock. Twenty minutes had gone by and not a single trace of Colin. Granted it was only nine thirty and a little early for bed, but she had asked him to come up early. She wanted to spend a little time taking care of him. He wasn’t himself. She tried to chalk it up to his huge workload or the fact that Magnus was still here, causing him to be cranky. But she knew there was more to it than that.
Magnus hadn’t been his usual jovial self, either, the past two days, causing thei
r house to be one big cave of brooding males. They must have had an argument the other day while she was at the store, but neither man had bothered to confide in her and she hadn’t bothered to ask. Dumb men. They were too much alike for their own good, neither one of them willing to bend first. Neither one of them saying a word that wasn’t absolutely necessary. Cherri was tired of trying to push them together. To make them a family. They were going to have to fix it themselves.
At least they were working well together. Magnus took as much time and care with each project as Colin did. Stone Barley Restorations was producing more quality work than ever before. That alone gave Cherri hope. Colin hadn’t asked his father to leave, and Magnus hadn’t taken off. They loved each other and Cherri loved Colin. It was past time she told him. Nobody should live without knowing he was loved.
She got out of bed, pulled her bathrobe on, and padded down the stairs to find him in the kitchen bent at the waist, his head stuck in the refrigerator.
“There you are.” She walked up behind him and gave his behind a playful pinch.
“Oye!” He stood. She wrapped his arms around his back and pressed her lips into the firm surface.
“I’ve been waiting for you to come upstairs.”
“Oh?”
“Did you forget?” She squeezed him tightly, noting that his body felt slightly softer than before. “You’ve been working too hard, dear husband, if you can’t remember that I made an appointment to show you how much I love you.”
“Well, that’s nice, lass.” The man she thought was Colin turned in her arms. “But I’m afraid that you didn’t make that appointment with me.”
“Magnus!” Her face was on fire. “I thought you were Colin. I’m so sorry.”
“Aww, lass.” He wrapped his big arms around her and gave her a fatherly hug. “Don’t be sorry. Sometimes I wish I were Colin. He did everything I wanted to do only the bugger did it the right way. I’m guessing I should thank you. You’ve made my boy happy.”
Thrown for a Curve Page 27
