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

by Tullis, Heather

  “A rattler, at this time of year?” Jonquil froze. “Did you block it in the room? Because it might feel threatened if it has nowhere to go.” She set one foot on the bottom stair, then hesitated as if she was worried about becoming snake bait.

  “Um, yeah, I guess, but it isn’t—” She stopped talking when the snake turned to her and started shifting in her direction. “Oh, crap. Now it’s headed for me.”

  “Back away slowly and keep an eye on it,” Jonquil directed. “Just, I don’t know, don’t let it get too close.”

  “How do you know about snakes?” Rosemary asked.

  “I rock climb. I decided knowing my predators was a good idea.”

  “Right.” She shifted back into the hall, keeping her eyes on the rattler, while listening to her daughter sob hysterically. “It’s okay, kiddo, it’s not interested in you. See?”

  “It’s going to bite you and then you’ll die, just like mom and dad,” Cleo wailed.

  “Not if I can help it.” The words were barely more than a mutter as terror gripped her. The rattler grew closer and she stumbled back into the railing that overlooked the living area.

  “How can you stop it?” Cleo asked, sobbing.

  Harrison exploded back into the house from the garage and took the stairs two at a time, a shovel in his hand. “Good thing Vince left this behind.”

  Relief trickled through Rosemary, though she didn’t know if Harrison had any idea how to use the weapon, now he had one. “He left one for Jonquil when she wanted to plant bulbs a few months ago. Never took it back with him.”

  “Lucky for us.” He paused to study the situation, then approached the snake.

  It reared back and he jabbed, hard and fast, severing the head about six inches back from the jaw.

  Cleo screamed, Rosemary shuddered, and the rattler slithered and jerked in its death throes, splashing blood everywhere.

  Harrison put the scoop of the shovel upside down over the head as it continued to twitch, then stepped through the doorway to the bed, reaching out to Cleo. “Come on, bug. It’s okay, the snake is dead now.”

  Cleo jumped into his arms, sobbing into his shoulder.

  He brought her out. “Let’s go down to the basement. I’ll clean it up while you get her calmed down.”

  Rosemary was glad he carried Cleo down because her knees felt like jelly. She was shaky and a little queasy. “Thanks.”

  “No problem. You owe me a special treat, don’t you think?” he asked, already acting as if it had been nothing, but his hand shook a little as he lifted it from the railing when they reached the dining area.

  “Anything you want. You name it; we’ll make it for you. Anytime.” Rosemary followed him down to the sitting area in the basement and sat on the sofa. He set Cleo on her lap and the little girl happily latched onto Rosemary instead.

  Jonquil knelt beside them and Delphi came out of her bedroom, sliding her earbuds out so she could hear. “What’s going on?”

  Rosemary rested her head back on the sofa, feeling about ten years older than she had fifteen minutes earlier. The whole tableau only took two or three minutes, but it seemed like so much longer. She was glad when Jonquil filled Delphi in.

  They all soothed Cleo, Rosemary grateful to have her close, to be able to calm her. She’d never been so terrified in her life.

  Footsteps came down the stairs and she looked up to thank Harrison again, but he spoke first. “Everything’s cleared away. You’ll probably need to get someone in to clean the carpet.”

  “I was so scared,” Cleo said. Her breathing had almost returned to normal, though tears still ran down her cheeks. “I thought it was going to get me. Then I thought it would get Rosemary.” Her hold tightened even more on Rosemary.

  “It’s all right, bug. Everything’s fine.” Except now that she had time to think, Rosemary couldn’t figure out how the snake had gotten into her daughter’s room. Snakes were supposed to hibernate at this time of year. They shouldn’t be around to slide into people’s locked houses and under beds... or wherever it had been hiding. The house didn’t even have mice, so how had a snake gotten in?

  Harrison knelt down beside them. “You’ll want to call Joel to have him copy the recording from the cameras so he can figure out how it got in. I checked behind and under all of the rest of the furniture up there, so we’re clear.”

  “No! I don’t want to sleep alone. Let me sleep with you tonight,” Cleo looked at Rosemary, her eyes pleading. “Please. I won’t be able to sleep by myself.”

  Her bed was queen-sized, so it was big enough to share. Rosemary knew some expert would probably say she was enabling or something, but she couldn’t say no. Not this time. “All right, bug. You can sleep with me tonight.”

  “I’m going to check in my bedroom too,” Delphi shivered as if her skin were crawling. “We ought to check the whole place.”

  “Seconded,” Jonquil said. “I’ll call Joel now to check the cameras and help us poke around.”

  “Good idea.” Rosemary considered. “I think we need to talk about how to keep this from happening again. How does tomorrow night sound?”

  “Sure, that’s fine. I’ll let everyone know,” Jonquil said.

  She and Delphi went upstairs, saying they were going to dig through the main rooms before hitting their own.

  Harrison moved to sit beside Rosemary. He looked at Cleo. “That must have been pretty scary, huh?”

  “Yeah, I thought I would die.” Her eyes were red and puffy and new tears were making tracks on her cheek, though her breathing had calmed.

  “Good thing you have so many people who love you to take care of you, isn’t it?” he asked.

  Cleo considered his words for a minute, then nodded. “Yeah.” This time she rested her head on Rosemary’s shoulder, but she didn’t bury her face. “Will you stay with us tonight?”

  Harrison’s face registered surprise, but Rosemary was the one to speak first. “Honey, he needs to go home. We’ll be all right here. You’re going to sleep with me.”

  “I want him to stay. He can sleep in Sage’s old room. He’s her brother, right? It’ll be okay. And then I’ll feel better.”

  Rosemary looked at him and he smiled, tapping Cleo’s nose. “I can do that. Then I can take you to school in the morning before I go to work since Rosemary has to go in really early.”

  Cleo’s body relaxed, making it impossible for Rosemary to protest.

  “Come on, let’s go upstairs,” Rosemary said.

  “Carry me,” Cleo asked.

  “I can’t, honey, you’re almost as big as I am.”

  Cleo pouted.

  Harrison stood and reached out to her. “I’ll carry you up. Come on, short stuff.”

  She went into his arms willingly and Rosemary rose to her feet, still feeling shaky. Using the wall to support her, she made it up the stairs behind them, then up the second flight to her room.

  Harrison set Cleo on the bed, and glanced around the room. “Italy.”

  “It’s the best place on the planet,” Rosemary said. She loved her room and the way it made her think of her internship in Florence.

  He looked at her. “It seems there are a few things about you I still don’t know.”

  “That’s the understatement of the year.” She managed not to snort.

  “Then maybe it’s time I did something about it. Have dinner with me next week?”

  Rosemary felt her heart catch. He was asking her out? She wanted to and she didn’t want to, all at the same time. They had just started to be friends; would dating ruin that? “Oh, I don’t know, I have Cleo—”

  “No, you have to go with him. I’ll hang out here with Jonquil,” Cleo insisted. “We’ll have fun. She can show me how to make those chocolate pinwheel things you taught her. And you never go out and do things. You should.”

  Harrison lifted a brow. “See, you have to go with me, otherwise she won’t get one-on-one time to bond with Auntie Jonquil.”

  Feeling
a little railroaded, but not particularly unhappy about it, Rosemary noddd. “Well, then. I guess that would be fine. I’ll check with Jonquil to see if she’s free.” Jonquil actually dated now and then, unlike herself and Delphi, so it was possible she had plans.

  “Good.” Harrison backed out of her room. “I’ll let you two settle in for the night.”

  Rosemary wondered if that meant he could tell how tired she was. It wasn’t worth thinking about, so she said goodnight and shut the door, then grabbed some PJs and went into the bathroom to change.

  The paperwork would wait until tomorrow.

  Rosemary got Cleo off to Hannah’s before dinnertime on Friday and was grateful she wouldn’t have to share the bed again that night. Cleo was not a calm sleeper.

  She returned to the kitchen at home and finished putting the enchiladas together, then slid them into the oven. Delphi was on call at the resort that evening, so she wouldn’t be there to discuss the snake, but the rest of them would arrive with healthy appetites. Rosemary wished she could have gotten out of making this a dinner meeting. It was always harder to eat light when the whole group was together. She pushed the thought away, not wanting to think about what the meal would do to the scales the next day.

  Soon everyone started to trickle in.

  They all talked and laughed, the married couples cuddled, and Harrison showing up with a cake he’d bought at a local bakery. It was a little disconcerting having him there, part of the group all of the time when she was trying to figure out how she felt about him. The thought of going out with him on a date was exciting and unnerving. What if they fought the whole time? They didn’t exactly have a great track record for having calm and rational conversations. She reconsidered, realizing that had changed, mostly, in the past few weeks.

  When everyone arrived, Rosemary called them to get some dinner and they all scattered across the great room, their plates overflowing.

  She picked at her food, eating a bite now and then, not intending to eat half of it, but trying to fit in. She waited for most of the food to be gone before she turned to Joel. “So did you see anything interesting on the tapes?”

  “Yeah.” His face looked grim. “Someone was here yesterday. He sneaked in and placed the snake in Cleo’s room.”

  Rosemary felt her stomach clench. “Why? Why would someone do that? She’s just a little kid.”

  “I couldn’t get a shot of his face. He covered it with a ski mask, and I think there may have been padding under his clothes as well. I don’t know. But he went into several rooms first, so he was looking for hers.”

  Rosemary thought she was going to be sick. She set her plate aside. “Someone wants to hurt my baby? Or at least to scare us?”

  “I can’t believe they got past the alarm codes. Did someone forget to lock up?” Jonquil asked.

  Rosemary thought back, then swore under her breath. “I don’t think I set it. I ran out to pick up a couple of things at the store. Now that everything has been calming down, I didn’t think I needed to worry about it for quick trips. Obviously I’m an idiot.”

  “But that doesn’t answer why,” Harrison said. “Was it just a scare tactic for one of you?” He looked at Rosemary, “Especially you, considering she’s yours.”

  “No one knows that except you guys,” she protested. “And I don’t know why they would want to get at me, either.”

  “Maybe someone you fired?” he asked.

  “Like Rulon, you mean?” When had she known it would come back to being her fault?

  He shrugged. “Or one of the other half-dozen people you’ve fired since September.”

  She hated when he got after her for being too picky with employees. He had no idea what incompetence she had to deal with sometimes. “I didn’t fire them all.”

  “No, some of them you chased off with your sweet personality,” he said.

  She glared at him. “I didn’t chase off anyone who was pulling their weight. I can tolerate an awful lot of bad behavior, but that doesn’t mean I’ll put up with everything.”

  “Right, because you’re so tolerant and understanding,” Joel said, but he was grinning. It was amazing how much more often he smiled since he and Sage got together.

  They were ganging up on her, though it never bothered her as bad when Joel teased her as when Harrison did it. “Bagging on my temper isn’t getting us anywhere and I’m not that bad anyway. Often. We need to figure out why someone tried to hurt my little girl. She’s way more important than your entertainment.”

  They started compiling a list of anyone who might want to get back at her, or the other sisters still living in the house.

  “You need to eat more,” Harrison said when the others started clearing away their plates.

  “I’m not hungry anymore. The discussion stole my appetite.” It wasn’t entirely untrue.

  “Harrison’s right,” Jonquil said. “You work too hard to eat so little, and chasing Cleo around is more exhausting than you expected. I know it is.”

  “And you’ve lost too much weight since you moved here,” Cami added. “You were pretty thin before, but now you’re like a wraith.”

  “I am not. It’s only a few pounds, and I don’t have much appetite,” Rosemary protested. What was this, bag on Rosemary day? Did they want her to get fat again?

  “Eat some more, then. Make me feel better,” Cami said, staring at her.

  Rosemary scowled, but finished up the veggies and a couple bites of the enchiladas. “Happy now?”

  “I will be after a few more bites.”

  “Leave off. I’ll pay closer attention to what I eat, okay?”

  “I don’t think paying attention is the problem,” Delphi said under her breath.

  Rosemary didn’t dignify the comment with a response, feeling defensive. “I cooked; you all get to clean up. I expect the kitchen to sparkle when I get up in the morning.” She stormed up the stairs feeling like that teenage girl again who couldn’t do anything right.

  Rosemary rubbed her sweaty hands on her dress pants and checked her watch again. The caseworker from Child Protection Services had said she’d be here ten minutes ago. She crossed from the great room into the kitchen area. Cleo was eating her after-school granola bar, kicking the legs of the bar stool where she sat.

  “So what’s going to happen when the lady gets here?” Cleo asked.

  Rosemary wasn’t entirely sure, and hoped the woman had been honest when she said it wasn’t a big deal. “She’ll take a look around the house to make sure it’s safe for you, ask about our routine, and talk to you for a little bit. It’s not a big deal.” But it felt like a very big deal.

  “Then why are you so nervous? You keep checking your watch. And you keep walking between here and the living room.”

  “Right. Well, maybe I’m a little nervous. Everyone says it’s not a big deal though.” She made herself stop pacing.

  The doorbell rang and Rosemary hurried over to it.

  A middle-aged woman with a very good dye job and penciled brows stood on the other side. “Hello, I’m Lena Carpenter. I’m with CPS.”

  “Of course, I’m Rosemary. Please come in.”

  Lena looked around the open spaces as she entered. “Nice house. I remember when it was being built.”

  “Yes, we’re lucky my father was so forward thinking.” If he hadn’t been, they would surely have killed each other before now. “We have an exercise room and a sitting room downstairs along with a couple more bedrooms. Each of the bedrooms has a private bath.”

  Lena’s gaze caught in a corner of the room. “You have cameras?”

  “Yes, it’s part of the security system. They cover the yard as well. My sister Sage’s husband installed them when we moved into the house as extra security. You can never be too careful.” She really hoped Lena didn’t ask why they needed the extra security—talking about Sage’s stalker, or any of the other things that had happened since their arrival—wouldn’t impress Lena. Though every time they’d called
the sheriff’s office was on record somewhere, so she supposed it wouldn’t be hard to find out.

  “No, careful is good.”

  Rosemary showed her the garage and other public spaces and Cleo took Lena into her room and showed her the private bathroom. They stayed in her room and talked for a while. Rosemary stayed in the kitchen as directed and pulled out vegetables for dinner that night, cutting them nervously, wishing she knew what they were discussing. What if the caseworker didn’t like her, didn’t think she was a fit parent? She couldn’t stand to lose Cleo again—especially not to one of the uncles. She told herself she was being ridiculous, of course they would let her keep Cleo, but it was hard to believe sometimes.

  They came back down the stairs, Cleo talking about how much fun she had with Jonquil.

  “Sounds like you have a helpful family,” Lena said. “I’ll need you and your sisters—the ones who live here—to come in for fingerprinting for background checks. If everything clears, I don’t anticipate there being any problem with you getting permanent custody. You might want to consider officially adopting Cleo, though.”

  Cleo’s face scrunched up. “But I told you, she’s my birth mom. Why would she need to adopt me?”

  Lena turned to her. “Because when your adoptive parents signed the paperwork, that made them your legal parents, and Rosemary didn’t have any more rights to you. If you want to make it all official again, then she should adopt you so the courts see her as your mom, all nice and legal.”

  Cleo looked worried about this. “I don’t know if I want to be adopted again. Would I have to change my name?”

  Rosemary’s throat grew tight. “That’s okay, bug. We can talk about it later, if you decide you want to. Until then, we’ll just worry about permanent guardianship so you can stay with me.”

  Cleo nodded, but she looked troubled.

  “Where do we get the fingerprinting done?” Rosemary asked.

  “The sheriff’s office can handle it. Let me leave these forms for you. You and your sisters will have to have them notarized and there are directions for getting me the fingerprints. Since you’re from out of state, the reports can take a few months to come back, but the initial background checks look good for now.”