THE HEART TEACHES BEST (REAL ROMANCE COLLECTION Book 2)

by M. J. Schiller

  Aidan walked up. “What’s wrong?”

  “He’s on to us.”

  * * *

  “Is that what you’re wearing?”

  Laney looked down at her peach sundress. “You don’t like it?”

  “No, it’s pretty. It’s just…I’m wearing blue jean shorts. My brother and I will probably shoot some hoops on the driveway.” He shrugged with a smile.

  “I’m overdressed,” she said, disgusted with herself. “I’m going to change.” She turned and Cooper grabbed her hand.

  “Wait. You’re fine. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

  “No, no. I’m glad you did. I want to look right.”

  “Lane, you look right in anything you wear.”

  “It’s just…dinner with my mom is a formal occasion, and my choice of attire is always a subject she loves to upbraid me for, so I was expecting… I’ll only take a minute.”

  When she returned wearing khaki shorts and a black, sleeveless sweater, he had his arms stretched along the back of the couch, but he rose when she entered.

  “Better?”

  He captured her in a huge lip-lock. “You look fantastic.”

  She looked down at her shorts. “You’re just saying that.”

  He grabbed her chin and forced her eyes to his, kissing her again. “You look fantastic! Relax. They’re going to love you. I know. I’m one of them.”

  She laughed. “Okay. Let’s get going or we’ll be late.”

  As Cooper wound his way through several one-way streets, the neighborhood began to look familiar to Laney. When they pulled up in front of the little brick-front house his parents owned, she drummed her fingers on the Tupperware containing the appetizer she had brought. “Maybe this was a bad idea…”

  “Laney Cassandra Essex, you’re not getting out of this. So you might as well buck up and face it.” He got out of the car.

  “How did you know my middle name?” she asked, closing her car door and coming around to cross the quiet street with him.

  “Your mother used it.”

  “Figures,” she said dryly. “And you remembered?”

  “I remember everything about you, lover,” he teased, goosing her on his parents’ front door step.

  “Cooper! Stop!” She yelped as a grey-haired, barrel-chested man opened the door, towering over them.

  “Is my son misbehaving?” His voice was gruff.

  “Uh, no…well, yes, but…”

  “Well, which is it?” he scowled at her, his lined face stern, despite the twinkle in his blue eyes. He wore a navy blue t-shirt with the L.A.P.D. insignia in the upper-left corner with faded blue jeans. His huge arms were crossed, and a large, blue anchor tattoo was visible where his fingers looped over his upper arms. He was an impressive figure.

  “Pops, quit giving her a hard time,” Cooper said, brushing past his father and pulling Laney in behind him.

  The older man broke into a wide, familiar smile as she passed. She recognized it as the same one she’d seen on Cooper’s face before.

  “Hello! Hello!” a short, round, salt-and-pepper-haired lady bubbled as she scurried up to them.

  Cooper’s dad bowed slightly and extended his arm in her direction. “My wife, Liv.”

  She smiled at him, then returned her gaze to the newcomer. “Welcome to our home. Laney, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Olivia Sullivan pulled her into a hug, surprising her. “Oh, no!” the older woman laughed. “Not ma’am. You can call me Mom. All of Cooper’s friends do.”

  “I told you they’d love you,” he whispered.

  Two tall blondes came out of a swinging door, which presumably led to the kitchen. “These are Cooper’s sisters,” Mrs. Sullivan said, waving a dishtowel in their direction. “Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty,” she added, snapping the towel at them as they passed.

  They skillfully sidestepped the towel. “Oh, hi.” Laney took the offered hand. “I’m McKenzie, and this is Bree.”

  “Nice to meet you.” Her stomach dropped and her palms began to sweat. She knew it would be these two who would be her toughest critics. Moms, other than her mom, of course, were programmed to be polite and accepting. Sisters could be lethal.

  “Cooper tells me you’re a teacher,” McKenzie opened.

  “Yes. I teach English at Walter Davis—”

  She was interrupted by a couple falling, laughing, through the swinging door.

  The young woman commented, “That means you better watch your grammar, Benjamin!”

  “Huh? My grammar ain’t got no problems.”

  Cooper snatched an apple from the dining room table and chomped on it. “This here is my brother, Benny!” He captured his red-headed sibling in a headlock with his free hand.

  “Cooper! Don’t talk with your mouth full!” Mrs. Sullivan looked at her apologetically. “You try to teach them manners, but, I swear—” She raised her voice. “—the minute they walk in here they all revert to the fools they were in high school.”

  The brunette who walked out with Ben skirted the two wrestling brothers and introduced herself. “Hi, I’m Veronica. Fool # 1 belongs to…me,” she said, as Ben grabbed the back of Cooper’s shorts and tried to give him a wedgie. “I’m so proud,” she added.

  “Stop it! Stop it, you two knuckleheads!” Cooper’s mother began beating the pair with her towel. “You’re going to break something, and Laney’s going to get a bad first impression.”

  “No. No. Not at all.” Laney laughed, despite herself. It was hard not to get caught up in the warm camaraderie and she found she was becoming relaxed. How strange to feel at home in someone else’s family, especially since she’d only just arrived. But somehow she sensed she was with kindred spirits. Sure, their backgrounds were vastly different, but there was something here she understood, even though she had never had it herself, loving acceptance.

  Cooper bent and gave his mother a peck on the cheek. “Sorry, Momma. I’ll behave.” Behind her back, he thwacked Ben’s head. Ben stepped out of her eye shot and raised his fists at Cooper and danced around threateningly, until his mom turned in his direction and he had to act like he was pushing down some stray hairs and smile at her, the picture of innocence.

  “Oh, you two idiots! Go outside and play basketball with your nephews.”

  “But Mom, I wanted to stay with Laney.”

  “She’ll be fine with us,” Bree said as she and McKenzie looped their arms through the newcomer’s. “We’re going to show her pictures of you.”

  “You wouldn’t dare.” He took a step forward, but his mom’s hand came out to block his path. “Outside!” she demanded with a furious stare.

  Ben was already pulling him back through the swinging door where it seemed like a half-dozen, while in fact it was only three, boys started shrieking, “Uncle Cooper! Uncle Cooper!”

  “Hey, munchkins!” he said, and she saw him bend down to hoist one up on his hip with a bright smile before the door swung back, blocking her view.

  “We’ve got some great stuff on Cooper,” McKenzie said conspiratorially. “Before he learned how to use styling products.” She and Bree laughed.

  “Come on into the kitchen,” Mrs. Sullivan called over her shoulder. “Everybody ends up there anyway.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Cooper’s sisters dragged Laney through the door, which seemed to be some sort of magical porthole to the home’s heart. The kitchen was unusual, long and skinny with a lengthy, oval-shaped island, which was only wide enough to hold a plate. The walls were covered with glass-fronted cabinets on one side, and a couple of windows and a door on the other, which Cooper was stepping through as she entered, being careful to duck low so the nephew riding on his shoulders wouldn’t get knocked off. He glanced up at her with an apologetic grin, and was gone. McKenzie pulled out three thick photo albums from a recessed alcove in the island and slammed them on top as she boosted herself up onto one of the red barstools surrounding the counter.

  “This i
s an interesting kitchen,” Laney commented. “You cooked for your whole crew in here?”

  “Yes,” Olivia Sullivan responded warily, and Laney realized her statement might have sounded pretentious.

  “I love all the counter space on this long island, and the cabinetry is beautiful! Lots of space. Who did it for you?”

  Cooper’s mom’s face seemed to relax. “My Thaddy did!” She gave her husband a proud hug.

  “I have a lot of time on my hands now that I’m off the job,” he commented with a rueful smile as his wife patted his spare tire. “I’m putting on weight, too,” he said, frowning at her.

  She smiled up at him. “Oh, you’re perfect just the way you are, you old coot.”

  McKenzie burst out in raucous laughter. “Ha! Look at this one!”

  Bree peered over her sister’s shoulder. She hooted, along with McKenzie. “Oh, my gosh! Is that all hair? It can’t be!”

  Laney’s hand went to her mouth to conceal her smile. “Is that Cooper?”

  “Uh huh.” McKenzie watched her reaction.

  “Let me see!” Laney cried out, pulling it closer. “He was so skinny!”

  “We all were back then,” McKenzie said mournfully.

  “How old was he here?”

  “I don’t know. Mom, how old would Cooper have been when we went to Colorado?”

  “Hmm…let me see…” She laid a finger against her chin. “Seventh or eighth grade. Seventh, I think.’

  “Oh, my gosh! He’s so adorable!”

  “Oooh!” The sisters voiced their disgust at the same time.

  “Look, Bree. Your senior picture.”

  “Ugh! I hated that sweater. Mom made me wear it.”

  “No, I did not.”

  “Yes, you did. You said it brought out my eye color.”

  Mrs. Sullivan came around the counter, still holding a spatula. She took a quick look at the picture. “I was right.”

  “So, you admit it.”

  “Ohhh!” She laughed dismissively.

  “Talk about hair!”

  “We all wore it like that,” Laney commented. “In fact, my senior picture is almost identical, down to the sweater.”

  “Where did you go to school?”

  “Our Lady of Lourdes.” Laney named the prestigious private school casually. All three Sullivan women exchanged a glance. She pretended not to notice, looking down again at the photo album. “I’m well aware people call it ‘Our Lady of Whores.’ And, to be truthful, there were several loose cannons when I went there. But, I’m happy to say, I wasn’t one of them. I was one of the good girls,” she said with exaggerated primness. She looked up and winked at McKenzie.

  She put her arm around Laney. “I think you’re going to fit in here just fine.”

  Cooper and his rowdy crew burst in the door as she said it. “Where are the spoils for the winner? I’m starving.” He pulled the lid off of Laney’s Tupperware and brought out some sort of chicken dish on toast.

  His mom slapped his hands. “Your hands are dirty!”

  Cooper gave her a sheepish grin and Laney laughed.

  “I’d hardly call P-I-G a fair game. I only missed three shots after all!” Ben said, stuffing one of the appetizers in his mouth.

  “Spoken by the Pig, himself.”

  “Mmmm…this is good! She’s pretty and she can cook.” Ben winked at Laney. “Why’d you hook up with this loser?”

  Laney shrugged. “Error in judgment?” she said sweetly.

  “Oooh!” the siblings all chorused. Cooper strutted toward her and Bree stepped in front of her new friend to defend her. But when he came astride his older sister, he turned back toward Ben. “On second thought, I think I’ve found my spoils…HERE!” He dodged Bree and put his hands around Laney’s waist, pulling her off the stool. McKenzie reached out to keep the stool from toppling over as he yanked her up and wrestled her over his shoulder.

  “Cooper!” She laughed helplessly. “This is very undignified.” She beat on his back. “Put me down, you jackass!” she said just loud enough for his sisters to hear. They roared with laughter, McKenzie almost falling off her stool.

  “PUT HER DOWN!” his father bellowed, his voice reverberating off the cabinetry.

  He swung her down, and she straightened her clothes. “Thank you!” she said to Mr. Sullivan, giving Cooper the eye. She glanced around as everything had become eerily quiet, all of the faces looking on as if expecting something. “What?” she asked, nervous.

  “If you’re going to pick up a woman, son, you do it like this.” Before she knew what was happening, the big arms of Thaddeus Sullivan had swung her up off the floor, cradling her as she instinctively threw her arms around his stout neck. “That’s how you do it.”

  Everyone broke out into hysterical laughter, except for Mrs. Sullivan, who threw up her hands. “I give up! Dinner time!” The ex-police officer moved to set Laney down on her feet. “The least you can do is carry our guest into dinner, Thad.”

  “All right,” he responded, his voice booming, and he swept her off her feet again like she was a play toy.

  “Me next, Grandpa!” one of the nephews begged, tugging at his sleeve.

  “Okay, you next, Nathan,” the great bear of a man said amicably.

  Ben snagged four more pieces of toast from Laney’s tray and stuffed a couple more in his mouth. Bree grabbed one from him, ignoring his mumbled complaint, coming, as it was, from a mouth full of food, as they all headed toward the door. “Don’t hog them all!” she hissed.

  When they were all seated, Cooper squeezed Laney’s hand under the table and she grinned at him. The sisters didn’t fail to catch the exchange and nudged each other and giggled.

  “So,” Thad addressed his guest. “Laney is an unusual name. Is it a family name?”

  She nodded. “My mom’s sister was named Laney.”

  “I thought your mom said your dad named you?” Cooper interrupted.

  “He did. My mom and my Aunt Laney never got along. They were twins, actually, and my grandma said they even fought in the womb. My name was kind of a lifelong jab my father took at my mother.” She took a bite, and then added, “She wanted to name me Fi-Fi.”

  Kenzie laughed. “Fi-Fi?”

  At the same time Cooper said, “Fi-Fi” with a corny French accent. He chuckled like a dirty old man and started kissing Laney on the neck.

  “Cooper!” she admonished, laughing, but pushing him away.

  McKenzie and Bree exchanged glances again.

  Toward the end of the meal, Laney disappeared into the kitchen and when Olivia and Bree entered later, she had already made a pretty good dent in the pots and pans.

  “Oh, no!” Cooper’s mom fussed. “You get away from there.”

  “Oh, no, please,” Laney protested. “It’s the least I can do. It’s been such a nice evening.”

  “She does seem to be in a groove, Mom.”

  “All right,” Olivia consented. “I’ll dry. Bree, you go and get some more dishes.”

  Bree backed out of the kitchen but mouthed, “Good luck,” to Laney.

  Before she had much of an opportunity to make heads or tails of that, Cooper’s mom asked her, “So, you’re a teacher. Did your mom teach, too?”

  Laney laughed. “I’m sorry. It’s just, the thought of my mom teaching is so funny! She…doesn’t do well with children.” Even her own! “My mom grew up in the South in a family where the women didn’t work, they married well.” She continued conversationally as she rinsed off a platter. “My mother met my father at a cotillion. He was starting his business then, and didn’t really have a dime to his name. She wouldn’t give him the time of day, at first, as the story goes. But he was handsome, and persistent, and after a bit she married him, against her family’s wishes. Lucky for her—” Laney drained the dirty dish water. “—my dad was very good at what he did. And before long, he had a successful business.”

  Olivia Sullivan listened politely, but her face was tense. Her hands stop
ped drying the platter she held as she asked, “My son seems to be quite smitten with you—”

  She wasn’t sure how to respond to the obvious probing which was under way, but she was saved from having to respond by Bree sticking her head into the room. “Dad wants both of you,” she announced.

  Laney set down her dish towel. She smiled at Olivia, but as she walked out of the kitchen past Bree, she gave Cooper’s sister a grateful look.

  Thaddeus Sullivan sat on a piano bench in front of a mini, upright piano. The other family members were gathered in a semicircle behind him. Cooper waved her over, placing his hands on her shoulders. He bent to whisper in her ear. “Did I tell you about the Sullivan family sing-alongs?”

  “No, you most certainly didn’t,” she whispered back, panicked.

  “You are never, ever to speak of this in front of anyone from the job. And most especially, never, ever in Aidan’s presence. Capisce?”

  She nodded but was distracted by the question Cooper’s father threw at her. “Do you play, Laney?”

  “Oh…only classical.”

  “Well, I’m pretty certain the notes are the same. Sit down.” He patted the bench next to him, and since he hadn’t made it seem optional, she sat beside him. He opened a well-worn song book, so worn, in fact, a page fell to the floor. She bent to retrieve it and placed it on the music stand on the piano. Thaddeus had opened the book to a Beatles song. “Do you know this one?”

  “Well, yes, I’ve heard it before, but—”

  “Good. Then jump in wherever you want. Do you want a belt first?” The big man indicated a bottle of Jameson’s on top of the piano and three used shot glasses.

  “Well, I could probably use one, but, no thank you. I don’t do whiskey.”

  “How about Irish cream?”

  Laney turned her head to see McKenzie, Veronica, and Bree holding up shot-glasses as if to toast her while Olivia was pouring a fourth. “Sure, why not? Sounds good.”

  “Here,” Olivia handed her one. “I’ll get myself another glass. Go ahead and start without me.”

  Thad began to plunk the keys and soon everyone was belting out lyrics, loud and surprisingly well. Laney played hesitantly at first, but soon it was as if she and Cooper’s dad had been playing together all their lives. Ben and Cooper sang “When I’m Sixty-Four” together, as must have been a tradition as no one tried to cut into the rollicking duet. Several shots later, the Beatles song book was put away and an Irish folk tunes book was brought out. The Sullivans were all very impressed with Laney’s knowledge of Irish music, as she knew most of the tunes they played. She explained that her grandmother on her father’s side had been from Skibbereen. At the end, Thad began playing a lively version of “Goodbye Mick and Goodbye Pat”. With each verse, he became faster until he and Laney’s fingers were flying over the keys; she kept up until the end when everyone was laughing and howling and slapping her on the back, which seemed to surprise and impress her playing partner.