Family Matters (DiCarlo Brides book 4) (The DiCarlo Brides)

by Tullis, Heather

  “Yes, we shouldn’t have put it on such an incline, but we weren’t thinking at the time.” Etta tipped her head in acknowledgment and turned her gaze to Cleo. “You must be Cleo. Cami said you were going to be living here from now on. Hannah said she met you at school today. What do you think of your new house?”

  Cleo shrugged. “It’s nice. I wish we had a pool, but Rosemary said Sage is building one.”

  “She sure is. It probably won’t be done for a while yet, but I bet if you begged nicely, they’d let you use the one at the hotel.”

  Cleo turned to Rosemary and fluttered her eyelashes ridiculously. “Could I, Rosemary?”

  She laughed. “Yes. But not without making arrangements with us first. You can’t be in there alone. Not ever.”

  Cleo put her hands on her hips. “I’m not a baby.”

  “No, you’re not.” She squeezed her daughter’s hand. “But swim safety is important. And hotel rules say no one under fourteen without adult supervision.”

  Cleo harrumphed a little. “I bet you don’t make the Navy guy have someone babysit him when he swims.”

  Harrison set a hand on Cleo’s shoulder. “When you finish SEAL training, we’ll let you swim unsupervised too.”

  Cleo didn’t appear amused, but Rosemary had to smile.

  “Lana’s having a baby,” Cleo said, apparently deciding a change of topic was in order. “Do you think Cami will have one too? It would be cool to have cousins. My parents each had a brother, but neither of them got married. And they don’t like kids much.” Her nose wrinkled.

  “I hope she does,” Etta said, “but I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Vince has lots of nieces and nephews—and not just Hannah. She comes to my house sometimes. You should join us one afternoon.” Etta shifted her basket from one hand to another.

  “That sounds good,” Rosemary said. “Call me when you have Hannah over again and I’ll see if we can work it out.”

  Etta made excuses about needing to get home to start dinner and they waved goodbye, before continuing into the bakery area.

  “She’s nice,” Cleo said.

  “Yes, she’s very nice. I’ve met Hannah, she’s a lot of fun.” They picked out French bread and continued to the meat and cheese aisle. “So, was Sage right? Did you make a good friend today like Sage said you would?”

  “Yes. Hannah!” She giggled a little. “She’s going to have her mom ask if I can sleep over this weekend.”

  Rosemary felt her gut clench at the thought of her baby staying over at someone’s house overnight—even if it was Vince’s sister. “I guess I’ll have to talk to her mom and see what we come up with.”

  “A sleepover already?” Harrison asked as he picked up a bag of shredded mozzarella.

  Wrinkling her nose at his choice, Rosemary grabbed the bag and put it back on the shelf. “We’re not using that. Who do you think you’re shopping with, anyway?” She grabbed a package of fresh mozzarella to shred at home. “Pre-shredded mozzarella. Always dried out and subpar.” She let the sentence fall into little more than a mutter, teasing him as much as anything.

  He grinned. “My mistake.” He tugged a small package of Canadian bacon from the display. “Is this okay for your majesty?”

  “Yes. That’s fine.” Rosemary was pleased that he’d understood the tease. She considered the vegetables in the fridge at home and decided they still needed some fresh peppers and a can of olives.

  Cleo eyed Harrison. “Are you psychic like your sister?” Her tone showed curiosity mingled with disbelief.

  “Nope. Sometimes I get itchy feelings about things, but only once, no, twice, actually, I had an impression strong enough to count, and I messed it up. Sage gets impressions all the time, though.” He grabbed a bag of chips from an end cap. “Are the kids here further along in math and stuff than you, or behind you?”

  “About the same.” Cleo shrugged. “Can we get Twinkies for dessert?”

  Rosemary turned and glared at her in mock horror. “I cannot believe you are my daughter. How could you possibly eat that trash?” She laid on the drama and huffed loudly, pleased when it make Cleo giggle. “Just ask Jonquil what happened when she tried eating Ho-Hos around me. Seriously, you’re both such neophytes.”

  Cleo looked around them, reminding Rosemary that they’d told her it was her decision when to tell others they were related, and she’d totally forgotten. When no one was close, though, Cleo turned to Harrison and asked in a stage whisper, “What’s a neophyte?”

  “Someone who’s new to something—specifically someone who doesn’t know enough to be aware that only Rosemary is capable of making anything worth eating.”

  Rosemary elbowed him, though it was mostly for show. “There are plenty of people who can cook fine, but Hostess isn’t one of them. Don’t worry, Cleo, I’m going to teach you and then everyone will bow to your amazing powers in the kitchen.”

  Harrison sent her a commiserating look. “She uses a lot of long words considering she’s always pretending to be some tough street kid, doesn’t she?”

  “What makes you think it’s an act?” Rosemary stuck red and green peppers into a bag. She looked up to see Rulon coming toward them, a scowl on his face. She did not need a confrontation with a former employee, but she couldn’t avoid him now.

  “What do you think you’re doing here?” he asked her.

  “It’s a grocery store. I’m buying groceries.” Rosemary straightened.

  “You probably think you own the place, don’t you? You own the whole world—you’re one of the mighty DiCarlos. Guess what, most of us don’t care. And you might run that hotel, but it doesn’t make you the only game in town, you know? You think you’re all big and important, but you’re nothing. And you’re going to pay for causing me trouble.” He walked forward and pointed his finger in her face. His breath smelled of beer and he reeked of cigarette smoke.

  “You better back off, Rulon.” Harrison pushed between the two of them, and Rosemary shifted Cleo behind her.

  “Oh, you and her, huh? Is that why you let her get away with anything at the hotel? I should have known.” His face twisted with anger. “You’re both going to be sorry.”

  The grocery store manager walked over. “Is there a problem, sir?”

  “No. I’m leaving.” Rulon sneered at them and pivoted, stalking away.

  Rosemary gave Cleo’s hand a squeeze, hoping her daughter couldn’t tell she was shaking. “Thank you, Jeff. It’s always hard when you have to fire someone. He wasn’t very happy about it.”

  “No problem. We’re sorry he bothered you. Let me know if you need anything.” He nodded to them and walked away down the drink aisle.

  “That was interesting.” Harrison’s gaze held a modicum of censure. He hadn’t approved of how she’d handled Rulon, and after she had time to calm down, she wished she’d handled it better as well. It didn’t make it okay for Rulon to get in her face, though.

  “Who’s that guy?” Cleo still watched in the direction he had disappeared, biting her lip.

  “Someone who used to work for me. He doesn’t anymore. Come on, he won’t bother you again.” Rosemary hoped it was true.

  Cleo liked to watch the birds flitting through the trees. She liked to hear their song even more. It was so cold here, but birds and squirrels were everywhere outside the house, and she loved that there was a tree next to her window.

  She looked down at her homework and scowled. She hated math; why did they even have to study it? They had calculators didn’t they? A bird started to sing outside, making Cleo smile. She couldn’t hear it very well, so she walked over and opened the window just a few inches to make it easier to hear.

  A cold breeze blew into the room and she yanked the blanket from her bed to wrap up in while she finished long division.

  There was a loud noise from downstairs and Cleo jumped up, anxious for any excuse to get away from her desk. She found Delphi standing up at the top of the stairs—she’d fallen over as she came up
from the basement.

  “Are you okay?” Jonquil asked, her lips twitching like she was holding back a laugh.

  “Fine.”

  “Could you be any less coordinated and still be able to walk around?” Rosemary asked from the kitchen. “Then again.”

  “Shut it.” Delphi snagged a soda from the fridge. Glancing up, she smiled. “There you are, kiddo. How was school?”

  “It was okay.” It had snowed over the weekend, so she and Hannah had stomped out the outlines of a house in the snow during recess. They were going to play in it during the next break, but some of the younger boys messed it up when they got out for their recess period. Stupid boys.

  “Good.”

  “Is your homework done?” Rosemary asked, barely glancing up from her laptop.

  “Um, almost.” It was a stretch, there was still most of the page left, but she deserved a break, right?

  “Then you can almost come out of your room. Go back and finish. Let me know if you have trouble and need help.” She returned her attention to her laptop. She was always on the computer in the afternoon—her mom had spent time with her after school, not been wrapped up in a job. At least they were home instead of at the hotel—her office there was so boring. There wasn’t even a window. Of course, Harrison was at the resort and she really liked him—he was nice and treated her as if she was smart instead of like a dumb kid.

  “Do you need a snack?” Jonquil asked.

  “No,” Rosemary answered before Cleo could accept. “She already had two cookies and some carrot sticks. She can wait until dinner.”

  “You’re such a slave driver,” Delphi grabbed a cookie from the jar and flipped through some papers she’d brought up with her.

  “You betcha. It’s what you all love about me.” Rosemary didn’t even look up from her laptop.

  Cleo huffed a little, but went into her room, grabbed her blanket and wrapped in it again, before sitting at her desk. The math wasn’t that hard, it was just so boring and she hated doing it.

  She was finishing up the last row of problems when Rosemary came in.

  “How’s it going, short stuff?” She rubbed her arms. “You opened the window? Why?”

  “I wanted to hear the birds.” Cleo protested when Rosemary started to close the window.

  “It’s freezing out there. You’re going to have to save your bird loving for when you’re outside until it gets warmer out there.” She twisted the window lock.

  “You never let me have any fun,” Cleo grumbled.

  Rosemary sat on the edge of the bed. “How’s the homework?”

  “Almost done.”

  “Great. You want to make a snowman after you finish up?”

  Cleo’s head whipped around to look at Rosemary. She wasn’t sure if she believed it because it had been so long since they did anything just for fun. Rosemary used to do crazy fun things with her all the time. Before her parents died. “Really?”

  “Yeah. Really. Hurry up.”

  Cleo returned to her work with renewed determination, zipping through the problems in record time. She was going to build snowmen with her—well, sort of her mom.

  She thought about that word, mom, in relation to Rosemary. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that, now that she knew, but she would think about it. Now she would get to go out and play.

  Harrison stood in the driveway and watched Rosemary and Cleo rolling giant snowballs in the yard. They must be making a snowman. He thought about joining them, but wasn’t sure if he should intrude in their mother-daughter time. It was nice seeing them play together, Rosemary teasing and carefree.

  Jonquil came onto the front porch and looked at him. “Sage called. She said to tell you today is the day. Seize your chance at love and ask out the girl of your dreams.”

  Harrison turned to her, not believing a word of it. “Really?”

  She pursed her lips. “No, but she should. It’s good advice, so go do it.”

  He chuckled. “I didn’t bring my boots.”

  “Wimp. I’ve just lost all respect for you. You’re wearing running shoes instead of your shiny executive loafers. Weren’t you raised on an organic farm? I thought farmers were tough.”

  “Yeah, we were tough in Southern California, where it never snowed.” Still, he was tempted to insert himself in their fun.

  Her gaze bored into him. “I’m not going to invite you for family gatherings with food—which is all of them—if you can’t ask her out by the end of the week. It’s not that hard, just ask her for dinner.”

  “You think she’d go with me?” He turned his gaze back to Rosemary. The blond hair that hung down nearly to her derriere stuck out of the knitted cap and kept getting in her face. He thought it was funny that she kept brushing it out of the way instead of doing a braid like she wore at work.

  “If you asked her right. She doesn’t scowl at you nearly as much as she used to.”

  He smiled. “That’s hardly comforting. But I’ll think about it.”

  “Good. Don’t think too long.” She went back inside.

  Harrison decided a little time in the snow wouldn’t hurt anything, so he waded out in the two-foot drifts, and sucked in a breath at the flash of cold snow against his leg. “Hey, could you use another hand? It looks like you’re making a monster snowman.”

  “Snow-woman,” Cleo clarified. “But you can help.”

  When Rosemary just looked at her daughter and got an adoring look on her face, he took that for a yes and started another snowball.

  The girls finished the body for the snow-woman while he rolled a big ball for the head.

  “Let me help you with that,” Rosemary said when he carried it over.

  “You think I can’t handle it on my own?” he asked.

  “Well, I don’t know how many snow-women you’ve made, living in So-Cal and all. I figured a little supervision might be in order.” The edges of her lips twisted with fun.

  He lifted the ball onto the body and she grabbed it from the other side, helping to slide it into place. His fingers—totally frozen through his thin gloves—brushed hers as she shifted it slightly and he looked up at her.

  She met his gaze and he felt a zing of electricity flash between them. The moment seemed to freeze and he brushed his fingertips across her knuckles. He thought she swallowed reflexively before she pulled her hand away, turning toward her daughter.

  His heart pounded and he sucked in a deep breath of cold mountain air.

  Maybe she wouldn’t shoot him down after all.

  “Good job on the homework,” Rosemary said as she put it back in Cleo’s folder. The girl had time to work on it in Rosemary’s office—again—but hadn’t seemed to be paying too much attention to it.

  “So I can go to Hannah’s tomorrow night for the sleepover?” Cleo asked, clasping her hands and putting a pleading expression on her face.

  Rosemary rolled her eyes, though she thought it was adorable. She looked at Harrison who had stopped in with ice cream at dinnertime and begged some food off them. He grinned.

  “Sure, you can go tomorrow night,” she said. “That was the deal.” She’d already had a long chat with Hannah’s mom about which adults would be there and the other girls who were invited.

  “All right!” Cleo jumped up and danced in a circle. “We’re going to stay up all night watching movies.”

  “Terrific. That will make Saturday so much fun,” Rosemary said under her breath as she put away the pan from dinner. “It’s time for you to head to bed, bug. Come give me a kiss.” She poked out her cheek and pulled a face, making Cleo giggle. Still, her daughter gamely came over and kissed her cheek.

  “Good night, Rosemary. Good night, Harrison.”

  “Good night, bug. And don’t come down for a drink of water three times, okay?” Rosemary said.

  “Fine.” Cleo sighed heavily as if she were being asked to do a really difficult task, but she went upstairs to her room.

  Rosemary was exhausted. The day had be
en endless and she wanted nothing so much as to go to bed and sleep for ten hours, but she had paperwork to finish tonight and had to be up early tomorrow to check the food order when it was delivered. A couple of times they had sent the wrong things and she’d had to send it back—that was much easier to do if she caught it when the delivery man was still there.

  She put her hands at the small of her back and stretched. A hot soak wouldn’t go amiss, either.

  “You look all done in,” Harrison said, studying her. “Are you getting enough sleep?”

  “I’ll live.” Rosemary rubbed her eyes. “You didn’t have anything better to do than to come hang out here tonight?” She kept her voice light, not wanting him to think she minded his presence. It had been fun—a fact that still surprised her when she thought about it.

  “Some of my favorite people live here.” He shifted closer, his gaze steady on hers.

  She wasn’t sure how to take his comment. He hadn’t visited this often when Sage lived with them.

  A scream pierced the air, and Rosemary ran for the stairs on instinct, headed for the sound—Cleo. Harrison was hard on her heels. The second scream was not quite as ear-splitting, but contained a word that made Rosemary’s heart nearly stop.

  “Snake!”

  Rosemary came to a skidding halt in the doorway when she saw Cleo on the bed and the snake swirling around on the floor between her and the door. Cleo looked at Rosemary, her face white with panic.

  “Hold on, sweetie. Just stay there.” Rosemary looked at Harrison. “Do something.” She was frozen with fear and didn’t think she could make her feet move again.

  He was down the stairs in a flash, taking the last three in one leap and bounding into the garage.

  “What’s going on?” Jonquil asked from the bottom of the stairs.

  “There’s a rattle snake in Cleo’s room.” Rosemary looked at her daughter and realized her reaction was freaking Cleo out even worse. Right. Calm. She took two deep breaths and looked at the snake again. It wasn’t being threatening at the moment—if you discounted its existence in the room as a threat, which she didn’t exactly. “Okay, I’m calmer. It doesn’t look poised to strike or anything, but I can’t get to Cleo because it’s between the two of us.”