Disguised Blessing (17 page)

“How about a grandfather who built a house out of the hubcaps he found on the side the road?”

“So he’s into recycling. What’s wrong with that?” She added salt and pepper and salad dressing to the tray.

“All right, how’s this: I have an aunt who insists she’s Howard Hughes’s love child.”

“It’s possible. I hear he used to get around a lot in his younger days.”

“How about a great-uncle who wears a metal helmet to keep the Martians from stealing his secret salsa recipe?”

She thought a minute. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to give you that one.”

“Finally.
I should probably quit while I’m ahead. Although…”

“Yes?” She handed him the tray and pointed to the French doors that opened onto the deck.

“There is this second cousin on my mother’s side who lives in a cave and only comes out at night.”

“Thinks she’s a bat, I suppose.”

Rick’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “Oh—so you’ve heard of her. Funny how things like that get around.”

It was everything Catherine could do to keep from laughing. “It must be a terrible burden to be the only sane one in the family.”

“Oh, it’s not as bad as you might think. The Sawyers and McCormicks measure sanity by a different yardstick. That helps. A lot.”

She laughed. “You’re so full of—”

“Careful. I’m a sensitive kind of guy.”

“And I’m the Queen of Sheba.” She let him hold the tray while she set the table, glancing up to see the mischievous look in his eyes despite the straight face.

“I don’t think so,” he said after several seconds.

“Why not?”

“I distinctly remember Grandma telling me that my Aunt Margaret was the Queen of Sheba.”

She stopped, put her hands on her hips, and glared at him. “I’m not going to play anymore if I can’t be the queen.”

Rick stared at her, openmouthed, and then burst out laughing. “Good one.”

She gave him a prim smile. “Thank you.”

They talked as much as they ate that night, about everything from books they’d both read to movies they hadn’t had time to see. Catherine said she’d always wanted to visit the penguin colonies on Antarctica; Rick told her he thought she was nuts but admitted he could be talked into going if pressed. He told her he’d always wanted to climb Mt. McKinley; she said he was out of his mind and that she couldn’t be talked into going even if promised a month in Hawaii in exchange.

The sun disappeared behind the Coast Range, leaving the sky a palate of oranges and pinks. Rick poured the last of the wine and stole a glance at Catherine. She looked thoughtful and a little sad, as if the sun had taken her joy along with the daylight.

“Are you okay?” he asked gently.

“I was just thinking about that night on the lake.” She turned to meet his gaze. “I never know what’s going to trigger the memory. It just happens, and it always catches me off guard. Sometimes it’s a sound, or the way the air feels against my skin, or finding one of Lynda’s pressure garments in the laundry or one of the bands she used to use on her hair.”

“You need a break. Get out and do something crazy. When was the last time you went to the State Fair and got sick on the rides? Better yet, spend a day doing whatever you would have been doing now if none of this had happened.”

Catherine thought a minute and smiled wryly. “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea. People might
be a little confused to receive a wedding invitation from me and Tom when he announced his engagement to another woman last weekend.”

He couldn’t have put his foot in his mouth more effectively if he’d aimed. “Not one of my better ideas.”

“I’m long past caring what Tom does or who he does it with.” She hesitated long enough for a decidedly mischievous smile to form. “As a matter of fact, I’m so far past caring, I think I’ll offer to let him buy my membership in the club as an engagement present.”

She lost Rick with that. “By club, I assume you mean the country club?”

“Sorry—I was thinking out loud. Somehow Tom has managed to position himself as next on the list to buy a club membership. The only problem is that no one wants to sell, so he’s been forced to try to marry his way in.”

“Why would anyone go to that much trouble to belong to a country club?”

“Over half the business done in the area is done at the club, either on the golf course or in the bar. Tom feels he’s being held back by not being a member.”

“So now you’re going to give up your membership to keep him from using someone else the way he tried to use you?” He was trying hard to understand something that was as far from his world as little green men rowing the canals of Mars. “Is she a friend of yours?”

“Not even close. However, she has provided the
one bright spot in all of this. If she’s anywhere near as demanding with Tom as she was her first husband, his life is going to be a living hell.”

“Then it seems there’s only one real option for selling your membership.”

She tilted her head to one side and studied him in the waning light. “And that is?”

“Wait until the day after they’re married.”

She smiled. “You’re my kind of guy, Rick Sawyer.”

What was it about her smile that made his mind turn to mush and his heart do a tap dance against his ribs? “Anytime. I’m at your service—day or night.”

L
YNDA WAVED TO
W
ENDY ONE LAST TIME AS
B
RIAN
backed out of the driveway. Her face hurt from the phony smile she’d kept in place the past two hours. But it was that or put up with a ton of questions she didn’t want to answer. It hardly took anything anymore—she only had to be quiet for five minutes or want to be by herself for a little while, and someone was asking her what was wrong.

“You want to talk about it?” Brian asked when they reached the corner.

“No.” She should have known she hadn’t fooled him.

“Want to get a mocha?”

“Where?” She didn’t want to go anywhere they would run into anyone they knew, but she wasn’t ready to go home yet, either.

“I heard about a new place in Folsom.”

A lot of her friends hung out in Folsom. “What about the Java City in Gold River?”

“All the way—” He glanced at her. “Uh, sure,
that’s fine.” Brian pulled into a driveway to turn around and head back the way they’d come.

They hadn’t gone three blocks when Lynda broke down. She didn’t just want to talk about what was bothering her, she
needed
to talk about it. “Did you see what happened?”

“You mean with Wendy at the hospital?”

“I wanted to die. God, I felt so bad. But I was afraid to say anything. I kept thinking maybe Ray didn’t see the way she looked at him and if I said something I’d be the one who made it into a big deal.” She leaned her head back and stared out the moonroof at the barely visible stars. “How could I have been so stupid? Whatever possessed me to invite Wendy to come with us tonight?”

“What made you think Ray didn’t notice?” Brian asked carefully.

Because she was willing to grab at anything that would make the sick feeling go away, even if it was a piece of straw in a windstorm. “He was so nice to her.”

He didn’t say anything for a long time. “Ray’s nice to everybody. Even the physical therapist.”

“Damn it, it’s just not fair. Ray can’t help the way he looks.” All her life she’d been able to change things she didn’t like or find a way around them or bargain them away. Until now. “He wouldn’t even be burned if he hadn’t tried to save his sister.”

“If Wendy reacted the way she did even after we told her what to expect—”

“What’s going to happen when Ray moves to Kansas where no one knows him?” she finished for him.

Brian turned right onto Madison Avenue. “Did you see his aunt when she was here last week?”

Lynda shuddered. “I didn’t like her. She reminds me of Cruella De Vil—all skinny and pinched-nosed. The whole time I was in Ray’s room all she talked about was how much time she’d had to take off from work to come there and how she couldn’t come again until the doctors were absolutely sure he was ready to leave. She acted like it was his fault the graft didn’t take.”

“What did he say?”

“Nothing. He just sat there and listened and watched her pace back and forth across the room.”

Brian stopped at a red light and turned to Lynda. “Does he have to go with her?”

“Where else would he go?”

“My place. I was just thinking—we had an exchange student living with us last year and it worked out okay. I don’t know why it would be any different with Ray.”

“Oh, Brian. You’re brilliant and fantastic and wonderful and every good thing I can think of. When can you ask your mom?”

“She won’t be back from the lake for a couple of days.” He looked at her. “We could drive up there tomorrow…”

Lynda was blindsided by a wave of panic. She opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out.

“Are you all right?” The light changed. Someone behind them honked when Brian didn’t immediately move forward. “Lynda?” he asked anxiously.

She nodded.

The horn sounded again. Brian started to raise his hand to gesture but brought it down again and simply drove through the intersection without comment. “Are you afraid to go to the lake with me?” he asked when they were back in the flow of traffic.

“It isn’t you,” she said, dumbfounded by what had happened. “It’s the lake. I don’t want to go there.” She stared at him. “I didn’t know I felt this way.” She put her hand to her throat. “When you said we could drive up there it was like I couldn’t breathe. I felt like I was choking.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Why? It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t know. I didn’t even know.”

“What are you going to do? You and your mom go up there every summer.”

Her mother loved the lake. So did her Uncle Gene and her grandmother. What if she could never go there with them again? “I don’t know. I need to think about it some more.”

“It won’t hurt if I wait a couple of days until my mom and dad come home to talk to them about Ray.”

“What if his aunt comes back before then? Don’t you think we should get going on this as fast as possible? If we wait until she’s made more plans she could turn stubborn just for spite.”

Brian turned onto Sunrise. As usual, the traffic made the posted speed limit a joke on a weekend. It took two stops to get through every light. “You know, it was just an idea,” he warned. “I don’t want
you to be disappointed if my folks don’t go for it.”

“Your parents are super. And smart.” She grinned impishly. “After all, they think I’m wonderful. I bet they say yes once they understand how hard it would be for Ray to move away from here. Ray doesn’t know anyone in Kansas. No one there cares about him. Here, at least he has us.”

“All right, all right. You convinced me. I’ll go see them tomorrow.” He gave Lynda a serious look. “I promise I’ll do everything I can, but I don’t want you to fall apart on me if it doesn’t work out.” He stopped for another red light. “I probably shouldn’t have said anything until I talked to them first.”

Lynda unbuckled her seat belt and leaned over to kiss him. “You’re the best thing that ever happened to me.”

He kissed her back. “No fair—that’s what I was going to say to you.”

She saw the light turn and scrambled to get her seatbelt back on. Ten minutes later they were at the coffee shop. When she started to open the door, Brian put his hand on her arm to stop her. She turned to look at him and he took the bill of her cap and gently pulled her forward for another kiss. He opened his mouth and touched his tongue to hers, and in seconds what had started as tender affection became breath-stealing excitement.

“Wow,” she murmured as heat spread through her body, a tingling sensation curling her toes. “What brought that on?”

He put his cheek to hers and whispered, “I’m sorry.”

Lynda sat very still, her heart in her throat, her mind examining his words as if they were glowing rocks from another planet.

Brian leaned back and looked into her eyes. “I’ve been meaning to tell you that for a long time, but I didn’t expect it would be here and now. It just came out.”

“Why are you sorry? What did you do?”

He swallowed and blinked sudden moisture from his eyes. “I didn’t run fast enough. I should have gotten to you sooner.”

His pain lay between them like an offering. She cupped his cheek with her hand. “It isn’t that you didn’t run fast enough—it’s that I ran too fast. I’m so lucky that you were there to save me. What if you’d been in the house? Or out on the boat? No one, not one single person, made a move to come after me, Brian. Only you.” Slowly, deliberately, she kissed him again. “You’re my hero.”

Catherine left the book she’d been reading on the sofa and got up to answer the telephone. Her greeting was answered with, “You know that old saying, a friend in need is a friend indeed?”

“Karol?”

“I’m amazed you recognized my voice. It’s been ages since we last talked.”

“You must have forgotten all the messages you left on the machine when Lynda was in the hospital. By the way, a very belated thank-you is in order. Knowing we were in your thoughts meant a lot.” She and Karol had been close friends for years and
then drifted apart when Karol gave birth to triplets and Catherine started her job. They’d made and broken luncheon dates for a year before they finally gave up trying to get together. Hearing from her now brought a wave of good memories.

“I wish I could have done something to help but every time I asked, Tom insisted you wanted to handle everything by yourself.”

“He never told me he’d talked to you.”

“I kind of figured as much when I found out you weren’t together anymore and I never heard from you.”

“I’m so glad you called. It’s so good to hear from you.” Better than she could have imagined. “Now what’s this friend-in-need business?”

“Oh that—I foolishly let myself be talked into cochairing the Brand Name Rummage Sale this year.”

“And?” Catherine asked, already guessing the answer.

“I started thinking about all the fun we used to have all those years ago when we did the sale together and wondered if Lynda had reached a point in her recovery that she didn’t need you quite as much as she had and you were ready for a distraction and I might be able to talk you into cochairing with me.” She laughed. “Whew. Can you tell I’m a little nervous about dumping this on you?”

The proposal was so unexpected Catherine didn’t have an immediate answer. The years she and Karol had been in charge of the sale they’d taken it from a small charity function that benefited two local ani
mal welfare groups to a half-million-dollar event that boasted contributions of items from the governor and half the legislators. Their stated goal was a completely no-kill county patterned after the animal shelter in San Francisco.

“Can you give me a couple of days to think about it?”

“I can give you a whole week if you need it.”

“I won’t. I just want to make sure I can work it out before I commit.”

“Please try. I’d really love to work with you again. We used to have such a good time and I miss seeing you.”

“I miss seeing you, too,” Catherine said.

“Even if you can’t be cochair, let’s get together. As soon as possible.”

“I’d like that.”

Catherine hung up and went back to her book, excited about the prospect of doing something she knew she was good at again.

Minutes later, the headlights from Brian’s car reflected through the glass front door, alerting her that Lynda was home. She put aside the book again, and waited, anxious to hear how Lynda’s evening had gone.

“I’m home,” Lynda called from the front door.

“In here,” Catherine called back from the family room.

For a second, as Brian’s headlights again swept through the room, Lynda’s body was backlit and almost seemed to glow. As she had since she was an
infant, Catherine wondered at her daughter’s remarkable features and how they had combined to form such innocent beauty. There was nothing calculated or aloof about the way Lynda looked. When her eyes sparkled, they were filled with invitation to join in her happiness; when her full lips formed a smile, they invariably enticed a return smile; when she looked sad or forlorn, she broke the hearts of those around her.

“So, how did your date with Rick go?” Lynda asked, breaking the spell.

Catherine let out a long-suffering sigh. “It was not a date.”

“Okay, how did your non-date with Rick go?”

“It was all right.”

“Nothing with Rick is just
all right.
Come on, Mom. I want details.”

“He brought a bottle of wine. We ate on the deck. He helped with the dishes and he went home.”

Lynda groaned melodramatically as she plopped down on the opposite end of the sofa. “You made him do dishes?”

“No—I didn’t make him. He insisted.”

“What did you talk about?”

“Crazy relatives.”

Lynda let out another groan. “You didn’t tell him about Uncle John, did you? Please say you didn’t.”

Damn, she’d forgotten all about her mother’s brother and his spitting camel. She’d have won their crazy relative contest hands down with Uncle John. “You’re safe.”

Lynda looked at the ceiling. “Thank you, God.”

“How did it go at the hospital?”

The smile in Lynda’s eyes disappeared. She kicked off her shoes and put her feet on the coffee table. “Not good.”

All it took was a lost smile to remind Catherine that the ground she walked on with Lynda these past few months was filled with unexpected peaks and valleys and she never knew when she might stumble on one of them. “What happened?”

“Wendy freaked out when she saw Ray.”

“I was afraid that might happen.” She should have followed her, instincts and tried to talk Lynda out of taking Wendy to the hospital. Brian and Lynda had become blind to Ray’s appearance, seeing the person trapped inside the terribly burned body and forgetting how they, too, had reacted in the beginning. “Did he notice?”

“He didn’t say anything, but I don’t know how he could have missed it. He was looking right at us when we came in.” She drew her legs up, tucking them underneath her. “I felt so awful, Mom. I know it hurt him and I don’t know what to do to make it better.”

“Sometimes life just stinks.” Catherine said, putting her book aside. “And there’s not a damn thing we can do about it. As sad as it is, as unfair as it is, Ray is going to have to find a way to deal with all the good-intentioned people who are going to break his heart.”

“You mean me?”

“No, I mean people like Wendy.” Automatically
accepting blame was something new with Lynda and it always caught Catherine by surprise. “She would never hurt anyone on purpose. And I’m sure if she visited Ray on a regular basis, the way you and Brian do, she would stop seeing what the fire did to him and start seeing the wonderful young man he is inside.”

“She doesn’t want to go back,” Lynda said, a catch in her voice. “Not ever. She won’t even give him a chance.”

Catherine only had Band-Aid words for her daughter, and it would be an insult to use them on a wound this deep.

Lynda reached for a tissue. She blew her nose and looked at her mother with a corner of her mouth lifted in a sad, ironic smile. “Well, at least there’s one good thing that came out of all this. At least, I think it’s good.”

“And that is?”

“It’s pretty hard for me to feel sorry for myself when I’m around Ray.” She pulled off her Roseville Fire Department cap and ran her hand over the downy stubble that covered her scalp.