Bringing Delaney Home (Cates Brothers #1) (21 page)

“No, ma’am. It is a crazy choice. I still can’t believe I made the commitment,” Delaney said with a shake of her head. “But I did. When I looked into his eyes, I just couldn’t say no.”

Mama Cates’s head turned sharply to catch Delaney’s eyes. “You
can
say no, Delaney.”

“Well, I don’t know. There’s lots of evidence to the contrary. I said no to thong underwear, yet there’s a bag in the trunk with neon-pink and tangerine thongs. I meant to say no to Quinn, yet, no offense, Mama C, monkey sex was had. Is it feeling hot in here to you?”

“It’s the stress, dear.” Mama Cates shot Delaney a worried look and lowered the front windows a few inches to let fresh air in. “Take a deep breath. Maybe you shouldn’t go meet bachelor number two?”

Delaney let out a big breath and glanced at her watch. “No, I made a commitment. I can’t let him down.”

Mama Cates gripped the steering wheel until her knuckles turned white again. “Then I’d like to meet this guy and see what you’re getting yourself into. So, let’s go. Where are we going? The motel over on Sixth Street or the Holiday Inn?”

Delaney looked sideways at Mama Cates in consternation. “Nooooo. The high school.”

“The high school? Climax High School?”

“Yes, ma’am. Do you need directions?”

“All five of my boys went there. I know how to get there.” She started the car and pulled out of the parking space and headed in the direction of the school.

After twenty minutes of uncomfortable silence, Delaney said, “It’s not what you think.”

“I think your life is stressful enough.” Mama Cates sent her a pointed look. “Juggling two men will only add to the stress. And I don’t want to see either you or Quinn hurt.”

“I’m totally responsible for my own actions,” Delaney admitted. “But, in my defense, your son doesn’t give up. He’s stubborn. And he’s so darn patient, he can outwait you. He’s tricky about getting his way. Then there’s that dimple that peeks out when he does that bad-boy grin he does. When he looks at me with those light blue eyes, it’s like . . . nothing else I’ve ever felt.”

“Oh, dear, you’re in big trouble.” She cast a sidelong look at Delaney. “Unless he’s actually serious about you.”

“He can’t be! Did you see Zeena today? I mean really see how beautiful she is? That’s who he should be with. Someone who is perfect and graceful. Or nice like Yvette or sexy like the twofer blondes in the diner today. Why is he being such an idiot about this?”

“You can be sure as a mother I tried to teach him what to look for in a woman,” she said. “We’re here.”

“Mama C, if it makes you feel any better, Quinn and I had a one-day truce. It was a onetime deal.”

Mama C stopped the car and turned a raised eyebrow on Delaney. “So you’re saying you and Quinn had a one-night stand? Oh, yes, as a mother that makes me feel
much
better.”

“Maybe not. You can pull around the side of the school and park next to the track.” Delaney’s spirits lightened as the track came into view. She could barely run, yet out on the track she knew she’d be able to escape, even if for only a few minutes.

“Please do not tell me bachelor number two is Ben Wraithe. I heard he was hired as the new track coach, but he and Quinn are good friends.” Mama Cates parked the car and turned her worried face to Delaney. “This will not end well.”

“Probably not, but I don’t know Ben Wraithe, so we’re safe on that front.” Delaney got out of the car and waited for Mama Cates on the sidewalk to the track. “This should take about an hour and you have to promise not to tell anyone.”

“I can’t make that promise. Not yet.”

“Okay. Fair enough. There’s my guy there.” Delaney smiled as they headed toward the bleachers hugging the track. “I wasn’t sure he would show up. Good for him.”

Mama Cates raised an eyebrow. “This isn’t what I thought it was at all, is it?” Delaney heard the nervous edge in Mama Cates’s voice as they watched the large, imposing teenager swagger toward them in his baggy sweatpants and hooded sweatshirt. He looked like a defensive lineman who enjoyed the training table. He pulled the hood off his head as they approached, revealing his angry frown. “He looks kind of tough. And big.”

“You’re late, crazy lady.” Marcus stopped walking and folded his arms across his chest. “I thought—aw, it don’t matter.”

“Did this child threaten you in any way?” Mama Cates gripped her cell phone in her hands as if ready to use it.

“No. He’s just mad because he thought I stood him up.” Delaney kept walking forward until she stood two feet away, looking up into Marcus’s angry face. “I’m sorry I’m late. Things happened today—”

“Oh, I heard. Some kids go off campus for lunch, but you can announce it again if you want. You live an exciting life, crazy lady.”

“You may call me Delaney or I’ll leave your fat ass right now.” Delaney stepped forward until she was in his face, or at least as “in his face” as she could be when he had six inches on her. She poked him once in his overweight belly. “You got that?”

“Delaney!” The mother in Mama Cates stepped in and nudged Delaney in polite warning. “Be nice to the young man. He might be sensitive about his weight.”

“Oh, yeah, sure. Sorry if I hurt your feelings, Marcus.” Delaney crossed her eyes up at Marcus since Mama Cates was still looking at him and couldn’t see her. Delaney grumbled, “I told you I wasn’t nice, Mama Cates.”

Marcus laughed and patted the top of Delaney’s head. “I like you, Delaney.”

“Remember that in an hour. Mama C, I’d like you to meet Marcus, my running buddy. Marcus, this is Mrs. Cates.”

“Running buddy? But you’re . . .”

“Missing a foot.” Delaney said what Mama Cates couldn’t.

“And you’re . . .”

“Fat.” Marcus laid out his own truth.

“I wouldn’t say that,” Mama Cates said quickly, her face lightly flushed in embarrassment. “You’re just—”

“Chillax, Mrs. Cates. We’re cool. Delaney already broke the news to me.”

“You are full of sh—”

“Delaney,” Mama Cates hissed. “He’s young and impressionable. Use nice words.”

“Yeah, I’m young and impressionable.” Marcus managed to look like an innocent altar boy.

Delaney stepped around Mama Cates and elbowed the innocent look off his face. Mama Cates was about to chastise Delaney again, when Marcus’s happy grin stopped her.

“Mama C, are you sure you want to wait while we work out? You don’t have to stay, you know. I can have Greer come get me.”

“Oh, don’t mind me. I’ll watch. Enjoy the sun. Make some phone calls,” she assured them as she made herself comfortable on the bottom row of the bleachers. “I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”

“Okay. Let’s get to work, Marcus.” Delaney pushed him toward the track. “We’ll stretch. Try a few sit-ups, squats, and pushups. Then the part we’ve both been waiting for . . . we run.”

“You know I died last time. They held the funeral without you. It was very moving. I cried.”

“Like a baby, apparently.” Delaney led Marcus through some basic stretches. “Do not wuss out on me. What happened to the Luke Skywalker talk?”

“I woke up feeling more like C-3PO after he was taken apart in Cloud City.”

“No one promised you easy. Hell—” Delaney heard Mama Cates clear her throat. Loudly. “I mean, heck, do you think my leg isn’t feeling like someone gnawed it off? Fine. Last time you were my garbage chute. Until your soreness eases, I’ll be Chewie carrying you on my back. But we keep moving forward. Deal? Push-ups next.”

Marcus groaned as he got into position. He grunted out eight pushups before collapsing onto his stomach. “How long do you think I’ll be sore?”

“A millennium. Minus the leap years.” Delaney wrapped up her push-ups when her bad leg gave out. She got up and offered a hand down to Marcus to help him up. He looked grim. “Hey, I’m only kidding about being sore that long. Honest, the human body has an amazing capacity to recover. I mean, look at me, right?”

Marcus glanced at Delaney’s bad leg, then back up at her face. He nodded his head once, reached out for Delaney’s helping hand, and climbed back up on his feet. “Word. If you can keep going, then so can I. I might bitch and moan along the way though.”

“Absolutely. That’s the technique I use. Okay, now for the fun part. Today we do a mile.” She glanced at Marcus when he laughed. “Uh, no joke. Four times around.”

“Delaney, I barely made it around once,” he complained.

“Hey, we agreed to bitching and moaning. Not whining. You think you’re the only one this is going to hurt? We can do this. You can run for thirty seconds, right?”

“Maybe.”

“Run or do not run.... There is no maybe.”

He grinned at her Yoda impression. “Okay. I’m in. No more whining. Let’s get this over with.”

“Cool beans. We run for thirty seconds then walk for a minute. Rinse and repeat until we’ve been four times around the track. Trust me. We’ll both be bitching and moaning long before we finish. But we’ll finish.”

And that’s what they did as Mama Cates watched and called encouragements from the bleachers. There was bitching. There was moaning. And insults, jokes, some singing, and maybe even a little crying. But they finished. And then they collapsed. They lay side by side on the track, struggling to move air in and out of their lungs while they looked up at the sky.

“We need to stretch,” she said without moving.

“I would, but I can’t move.”

“Same here. We need to stretch anyway,” she said. “Am I moving yet?”

Marcus rolled his head to the side to look. “Nope. I’m pretty sure you were bitching more than me on that last lap.”

“Guilty. This prosthesis wasn’t made to run on. It hurt like a moth—I heard that, Mama Cates! Uh, a monster.”

Marcus glanced down at Delaney’s sweatsuit-covered legs. “Why don’t you get one of those models made to run on?”

“I honestly never thought I’d run again. Ever.” She kept staring up at the puffy clouds overhead as she thought it over. It was a big commitment. Up until now, she’d been in survival mode, waiting for Greer to give up on her since she’d already given up on herself. This would be her first positive step toward accepting her new reality since the explosion. Was she ready to live again? She sat up and leaned forward to stretch her hamstrings.

Sitting up, Marcus copied Delaney’s stretching motions, still waiting for her answer. “Well?”

“I’m thinking.” She changed position, stretching out her hip flexors and then her back muscles. She had a lot to lose. But so did Marcus. “I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow. I’ll talk it over with them.”

“That’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout! High five!” Marcus held his large hand up for Delaney’s. “Hey, don’t leave me hangin’ now.”

“Not so fast.” She stood up and brushed off the seat of her sweats. “I just agreed to take a big chance. What are you going to do?”

“I’m trying to watch what I eat.” His gaze slid away. “It’s hard, man.”

“By yourself it is. It was recently pointed out to me that trying to go it alone is pretty impossible and totally unnecessary.” Delaney watched as Marcus took his turn to consider his commitment level. “If you want to succeed, you probably need to ask your parents if they’re willing to do this with you.”

He maneuvered up onto one knee and then, with a hand from Delaney, eased up onto his feet. He shuffled over to his bag to grab his water bottle and guzzle some down.

“What’s it going to be? Are you all in or not?”

Marcus let out a heavy sigh and looked at Delaney. “I ain’t gonna fold. I’m in too. I’ll talk to my parents tonight.”

“Woo hoo! High five!” Mama Cates cheered, holding her hand in the air.

Both Marcus and Delaney looked at her. No. Just no. They looked into each other’s eyes. This no longer felt like a “high five” moment. They nodded at each other and shared a subdued fist bump.

“Take some ibuprofen and stretch tonight. Good luck with your parents.”

“Good luck with your doctor. And your boy toy.”

Delaney narrowed her eyes up at him. “You have a mean streak in you, you know that? You’re lucky I don’t, or I’d tell you all about the three-scoop ice cream sundae with chocolate and caramel sauces I plan to have tonight. With whipped cream.”

Marcus groaned.

“Oh, that’s right. I do have a mean streak. My bad.”

“Delaney,” Mama Cates hissed at her as they started toward the parking lot. “Be nice to that sweet boy.”

“Mama C, I’m not a nice person.”

“Sure you’re not,” Mama Cates said. “You’re a big, mean marshmallow, that’s what you are, Delaney Lyons.”

“Tomorrow, Marcus!” Delaney called over her shoulder as she limped along the sidewalk to the car. “All right, Mama C. Now that you’ve met bachelor number two, would you mind keeping it a secret? It’s just that this is the one place I can come to get away from everything. Marcus sure as heck doesn’t need to share my fish bowl with me.”

“My lips are sealed.” Mama Cates wrapped her arm around Delaney’s shoulders and gave her a gentle hug.

Chapter Twenty-one

D
elaney sat in the car with the weight of her life resettling on her shoulders. The farther they drove from the track, the more she tensed up. Deep down inside, she was nervous about the doctor’s appointments tomorrow. Fear sat on her chest like a fifty-pound sandbag, making it hard to breathe. Fear of failing. Fear of discovering what horrible thing her mind was blocking out. Fear of getting to the root of her guilt. She wanted to slam the door on it all, slide home the triple locks, and shove a heavy dresser against it too.

“I hope you don’t mind, I thought it would be lovely to have a home-cooked family supper.” Mama C put the car in park and turned off the engine. “And Seamus wants to meet you. Greer and Quinn should be along in a bit.”

Delaney glanced out the window at the Cateses’ graceful Colonial house. Her lips tilted up automatically, looking at it. “I used to pass by your house on my way to the library. There was always the sound of laughter or screaming boys coming from it.”

“I forget that even though this was practically Greer’s second home, you’ve never been here.” Mama Cates looked at Delaney with serious eyes. “I wish—ach, no point in that, is there? We’ve fixed it now, so no time for regrets.”