“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 push-ups 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 c
ream 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.
29
Delaney 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.”
“Fixed what?”
“The way things were. You were too independent for your own good, Delaney Lyons. But maybe you needed to be to survive your parents . . . and even this, the explosion, amnesia, your injuries. Not anymore though.” Mama Cates got out of the car to open the trunk.
Delaney was a little slower getting out of the car. “Ow. Mama C, I think those hair products seeped into my brain, because I’m having a little trouble following you.”
“Delaney, dear, grab those bags and follow me into the house. Don’t mind my rambling. It’s a result of raising five very active, one might even say wild, boys. I’m lucky I still have my sanity.” She hooked a few shopping bags on one arm and lifted her hand up on the trunk, waiting for Delaney to gather the others.
“Oh, Mama C, sanity is overrated. Sanity and I decided to part ways a long time ago. Sanity, bitch that she is, was dragging me down.” Delaney scooped up the remaining bags. There was so much stuff it took two hands. “Once sanity and I broke it off, life started spinning around like a well-oiled centrifuge. Now, life is a wild, scream-inducing ride, chaotic and colorful. No one expects me to follow the rules, and people leave me lots of space. Except your Quinn. He has no respect for personal boundaries. Was he a slow learner growing up?”
“I’m pretty sure he’s ‘your Quinn’ now, dear. Slow learner? His mind is quick as a whip, but not many people noticed since they were all busy being dazzled by his athletic skills.”
Delaney shook her head. “Mama C, you’ve got to help me talk him out of being an idiot. I’m a bad bet. I am so wrong for him. If I promise not to sleep with him again—no, don’t laugh, I’m serious here—will you help me steer him to a better woman? Zeena, Yvette—hell, even Barbara has more going for her than I do.”
“Bite your tongue. And, promise not to sleep with him again? Delaney, you’re a strong woman, but even you are no match for Quinn when he wants something.” Mama Cates spoke over her shoulder as she led Delaney up the sidewalk to the front porch. “I believe there is one publicly acknowledged round of monkey sex that proves my point.”
Argh. “Why’d you have to raise him to be so . . . so smart, and funny, and solid, and hot? Couldn’t you at least have had his dimple surgically removed to protect the innocent, unsuspecting women of the world? Or let his brothers beat him up a few times? Dropped him on his head as a baby? Or not signed him up for charm lessons? I mean, shouldn’t we women look out for each other?”
“We absolutely should. I’ll talk to him and see what I can do about the situation.”
Delaney expelled a breath and nodded. Okay, good. This was the right thing to do.
Mama Cates unlocked the front door and ushered Delaney in through the two-story foyer and into a spacious and open living space. A bright, light space that looked lived in, like a home.
“Now, let me show you where you can shower and change into some of your new clothes and then you can come find me in the kitchen.”
“Mama C, I don’t need to cha—”
Mama Cates stopped Delaney in mid-sentence with that look. That universal look mothers have cultivated through time. Growing up with her dysfunctional mother had not prepared her for the power of that look. The guilt and coercion wrapped up together with love was a diabolical weapon. “Um, sure, Mama C.” Delaney backed up a few steps. “Just point me in the right direction.”
“That’s sweet, dear. Okay, down the hall. The third door on the right is the guest bedroom. There’s a bathroom attached. Take your time. Wash up. Rest. Just follow the smell of garlic and tomato sauce when you’re done.”
The guest bedroom was a quiet haven decorated in soothing colors with sunlight softly filtering in through the lace-covered windows. Delaney threw her shopping bags onto the end of the bed, deciding a quick shower sounded good after the shopping and running. She didn’t care how many women said shopping was fun and relaxing; it was damn hard work in her book.
Upending two of the bags, Delaney grabbed the first pair of jeans and shirt she found. She dumped out a third bag to find her white cotton bras and panties. The bright-colored thong panties were static clinging to her packages of Jockeys as if they were trying to lead them astray. She pulled them off, leaving them strewn over the bed as she headed into the bathroom for a hot shower.
Of course, Mama Cates had everything a guest would need. A basket on the vanity held a variety of shampoos, pretty soaps, body wash, disposable razors, toothbrushes, and yummy-smelling lotions. Delaney tried to wash her hair and shower quickly so she would be in time to help Mama Cates cook. She looked down at her prosthesis, grimacing. Boy howdy, the docs were going to chew her out tomorrow, but it was hard to be a thorough packer when you were tipsy and being kidnapped. Her blue suitcase with her shower prosthesis was sitting in her apartment in D.C. She was going to be in big trouble tomorrow since she’d made a mess of this one between showers and running. Hopefully, Dr. Evil wouldn’t hear about it all the way up in Washington.
She dried off with a fluffy green towel and smoothed on a peach-scented lotion. After a quick blow-dry of her hair, she slipped into her plain white ribbed tank top and white boy-short panties before heading back into the bedroom to finish dressing. The jeans were dark, and while they hugged her hips and thighs, they lightly flared out at the bottom. The shirt was a simple button-up in a soft beige tone. The silky fabric made it cling to her breasts and waist. She tried to pull it away from her chest, wondering how she hadn’t noticed this in the dressing room. Oh, well, it wasn’t as if she had a set like Barbie’s on display here, but having lived in baggy sweats for the past ten months, she felt exposed.
When she made her way out to the kitchen, Greer and Quinn were already there helping with the finishing touches to a large salad and what looked and smelled like garlic knots. She totally ignored Quinn’s heated head-to-toe gaze. Well, she tried,
not that it mattered. Maybe she could blame her flushed face on the warm kitchen.
“You’re in luck.” Quinn wiggled his eyebrows at her. “Ma made spaghetti pie.”
“Can I help with anything, Mama C?” Delaney’s eyes veered quickly from Quinn. The man was trying to get her into trouble.
“We’re ready to eat. Grab a dish and we’ll head to the table.” Mama Cates handed her the basket of garlic knots. “Seamus, supper’s on. Come meet Delaney.”
“Delaney Lyons, it’s good to finally meet you.” Quinn’s father took the basket of rolls from her with one hand and engulfed her other in a hearty handshake and threw in a wink. The man was tall and muscular like a lumberjack; it was clear where his sons got their looks and charisma. “If you just ignore every male in the Cates family except me, you’ll be safe.”
“To be honest, your sons are hard to ignore,” Delaney said with elbow into Quinn’s side since he stood too close to her. Again. “Some more than others.”
Quinn groaned, and Seamus gave an approving grunt. “I like a woman who doesn’t giggle and melt at their feet. I’ve seen too much of that over the years with the five of them.”
“Me too,” Delaney said, which made Seamus laugh. “What are all the others doing? I don’t think I’ve spoken with any of Quinn’s brothers since I came back to Climax.”
Mama Cates looked up, surprised. “You should have said something, Delaney. We would have invited them all over for dinner too. Kaz and Paxton both have offices over on Main Street. Tynan runs a small construction company, mostly rehabs of older homes in the area.”
“And what about Sijan?” Delaney asked, looking at the faces around the table. “What’s he doing?”
Everyone stopped dishing food on their plates to look at her.
“Oh, um…” What had she said? Had she said something wrong? Maybe the close-knit Cates brothers had had some rift. Or worse. “Oh, shoot. If he’s in prison or—never mind. It’s none of my business anyway, right?”
“Oh, Delaney, only you.” Greer laughed, along with everyone else. “Sijan is the biggest box office draw in Hollywood. He has been for the past five years. He was up for an Oscar last year.”
Still Crushing on His Best Friend’s Older Sister: Cates Brothers # 2 Page 17