“No, silly. They met when Mike went to one of those after school places that keep kids off the streets.” Hannah scrambled over toward Tracey and Zach while she expertly surfed the net with one finger, all the while talking about Karen and Michael’s chance meeting.
Karen glanced at Michael and noted the smirk on his face. They both knew there was nothing chance about their introduction to each other. In fact, they’d both had an opportunity to look over each other’s Alliance profiles and had already agreed they were compatible, at least on paper, for a short marriage.
Through Hannah’s phone, Karen heard the familiar sound of the kids at the center chatting over each other as they were telling Karen that Michael Wolfe was asking her out. She’d seen the YouTube clip so many times and from many different angles in the weeks following. It had aired on two entertainment television slots and even showed up as a clip on the local evening news.
Michael really was gifted in his art. He’d convinced everyone in the club that day that they’d just met and he was enamored with her. She, of course, knew there wasn’t a snowball’s chance that their marriage would be anything but temporary even before they met. Gwen picked up on his sexual preference when she met him, so Karen knew he was gay from day one.
Gwen’s gaydar had been legendary since. At many Hollywood parties, Michael would hang back with Gwen to get a heads-up on the sexuality of the men in attendance.
Tracey watched the footage from the Internet with interest.
Zach glanced at the screen on the phone briefly. “I seem to remember you pulling that line on Suzie Baker in tenth grade.”
Karen shot a playful grin to Michael. “You fed me a line?” she asked with a wink.
“Me, the actor? Fed you a line? Never!”
They were laughing when the sound of a car pulling into the driveway caught Eli’s attention. “Grandpa.”
Michael sat taller, and his smile fell. She reached out and clasped his hand in hers with a squeeze.
He glanced at her. For whatever reason, Sawyer Gardner twisted Michael in knots, and she was determined to help Michael through whatever the man presented. As platonic as their relationship was, she really did love her husband.
The weight of someone’s stare had her looking around the room. More than one set of eyes landed on her. Rena appeared to be deducing something inside her head as she stared at Karen. Zach seemed to be focused on her and Michael’s clasped hands. When his eyes moved toward hers, Karen glanced back at Rena, who was now watching Zach.
Karen purposely closed her eyes and drew in a breath. When she opened them again, she forced her eyes to the front door.
Janice welcomed the patriarch of the Gardner family home, as did little Eli, who ran to his grandfather with open arms.
Both of the Gardner sons obtained their height from their father, Karen mused. Sawyer stood six two and looked as if he could hold his own with lifting heavy weights at his hardware store, or lugging two-by-fours on a construction site. His dark hair was peppered with gray but didn’t seem to be thinning, which probably lent some hope to both Michael and Zach that they would each have a full head of hair throughout their lives.
Michael stood, and pulled her to her feet to meet his father.
“Look who’s here,” Janice said to her husband.
Sawyer’s gaze took in the room and hesitated on Karen for a brief moment before landing on Michael.
What will it be, a handshake or a hug?
Michael stepped in front of her and the handshake won.
“It’s good to see you,” he told his father.
“We thought you’d forgotten about us.”
Karen cringed. How many times had she heard that in the past hour? Too many to count.
Instead of offering an apology or an excuse, Michael turned to Karen. “Dad, I want you to meet Karen.”
She offered her hand as she had Janice earlier. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Gardner. Michael has told me a lot about you.”
“Is that so?” he asked as he shook her hand briefly. “He’s told us virtually nothing about you.” Sawyer’s unnerving stare shot through her.
“Wow, Dad, way to make her uncomfortable,” Hannah said.
“Yeah, hold back, will ya?” This was from Zach.
Michael simply shook his head as if he knew his father would be an instant ass. The man obviously ruled his home and he expected a different level of respect than he actually gave.
“Sawyer!” Janice started in.
“It’s OK, Janice. Zach told us when he came to California that everyone was upset that we hadn’t come to visit. I’m sure he underemphasized all of your feelings in an effort to save mine.” She couldn’t help but glance Zach’s way, or notice the way he glared at his father. So far, Sawyer had yet to crack a smile, even with Eli at his heels and Rena attempting to pull the child back.
“As I told Mom,” Michael said, “I’ve had a breakneck schedule since Karen and I met.”
Karen placed a hand on his arm. “But I have to take some of the blame for the delay in meeting you.”
Michael glanced at her.
“Michael knows I don’t have a family of my own and he worried that I’d be intimidated by your sheer numbers.”
Janice tilted her head to the side. “No siblings?”
Karen shook her head and offered everyone her practiced lie all at once. “My parents have been gone for some time, and they only had me. My aunt is the only family in my life.”
Michael placed a hand on her back and sighed.
Not that Karen was going for the sympathy card, but her words seemed to change the mood in the room.
Hannah was the first to say anything. “Well now you have us. We’re noisy, but we’re not bad or anything.”
For the youngest child, Karen was surprised that she took on the role of mediator. That was usually left to the middle child, which would be Michael, and right now he was staring down his father, almost daring the man to say something.
It appeared to Karen that Sawyer wasn’t going to say anything else, and thankfully, Janice stepped between them. “I need to check on dinner in the kitchen. Karen, why don’t you come with me and let the men have a chat?”
Ready to escape, Karen glanced at Michael, lifted her eyebrows as if to say good luck, and then followed Janice.
The traditional home had a divided kitchen, giving her and Janice some privacy.
“Please try not to be offended by my husband’s demeanor,” she said as soon as they were out of hearing range of the living room.
“I understand.” Though she really didn’t. The truth was, she hadn’t been around a large family who said what they felt because they could. In Karen’s world, when you didn’t know someone you were polite until the stranger became a friend or an enemy. Of course, that could happen in a matter of hours, but it usually took more than a sentence or two to find a reason to dislike someone.
Sawyer named that tune in one sentence.
“I can see by your face you’re upset,” Janice said.
Rena walked into the kitchen at that moment. “Well of course she’s upset. Dad’s being an ass.” She stepped over to the refrigerator, opened it, and removed a bottle of wine. With a wave in the air she asked, “Would you like some, Karen?”
God yes. “Please.”
“It will take a day or two for him to warm up,” Rena explained.
“Michael said as much.” Karen slipped onto a high stool that was tucked under the kitchen island.
“We were all shocked to hear Michael had gotten married.” While Janice spoke, she wrapped an apron around her waist and opened the oven to check what cooked inside. From the rich aroma coming from the kitchen, Karen guessed it was some sort of roast. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a home-cooked roast. Aunt Edie was a pasta sort of woman, the by-product of her first husband being a full-blood Italian.
“It was a bit of a surprise to Michael and me as well,” Karen told them.
R
ena shoved a corkscrew into the bottle and began twisting the plug free. “You really only knew each other for a few weeks before you got married?” she asked.
“Yeah. When I think about it, I realize how reckless it was to get married so quickly.” All the combined lines, some holding truth and others only skimming the surface of truth, started to fall from her lips. “I think he was charmed because I didn’t give a crap about his fame. Threw him back a couple of notches.”
Rena handed her a glass of wine and poured herself one.
Because there was no way Karen would escape the kitchen without more information about her and Michael, she told as much of the truth as she could without giving away their secret. “Michael started talking marriage almost from the first date.”
Janice exchanged looks with Rena.
“And you thought that was normal?”
Karen sipped the wine, pushed past the taste, and called herself a wine snob before taking another drink. Michael would hate it. Good thing he’d be stuck drinking beer while he was in Utah. Part of the macho image he loved so much meant he only drank wine in public during Hollywood parties and fancy dinners. Karen tried to tell him that plenty of heterosexual men drank wine, but he wouldn’t. He was the ultimate closet wine snob…and it was rubbing off on her.
“I thought it was crazy. But why not? We knew there wouldn’t be a lot of time to get to really know each other before he had to run off to shoot another film.”
“So why rush it?” Janice asked.
Karen shrugged. “I can’t really explain it, Janice. And as for not visiting with everyone here, I think some of that has to do with both of us realizing, after the fact, that we rushed.” They were both staring at her now.
“You’ve been married for a year.”
Karen nodded. “And I can count on one hand the amount of months we’ve spent together in that time. Michael wasn’t lying when he said his schedule has been grueling. Your son works very hard.”
“Are you suggesting you barely know each other?”
Karen shook her head. “No. I think we know each other better than anyone else in our lives. Michael will be the first to tell you he has a lot of superficial friends. Hard to avoid in Hollywood.”
The women seemed to relax. Karen knew this was where she proved to the family that she wasn’t using Michael, but she wasn’t about to profess undying romantic love for him either, not with their divorce only months away. A little doubt would soften the blow of obtaining a daughter- and sister-in-law in the same year as saying good-bye to her. This might very well be the only time Karen spent with the Gardner family. She needed to remember that and keep her barriers up. She drank more of her wine and set the glass down. Already the liquid was going to her head. She glanced at the clock and noticed it wasn’t yet four thirty. Oh well, it’s five o’clock somewhere.
The door to the kitchen opened and Tracey walked through. “Hope you don’t mind me interrupting. I thought I’d bring the boys a beer.”
“Is it bad in there?” Karen asked.
Rena found beer in the fridge and handed them to Tracey.
Tracey offered a polite smile. “Let’s just say that I’m sending in liquid courage and then coming back in here as fast as I can.”
Rena rolled her eyes. “You should do something, Mom.”
Janice shook her head. “Your brother deserves a tongue-lashing. Even if he hadn’t married without any of us around, he hasn’t exactly been attentive since he became famous.”
Karen had so many words on her lips but kept them inside her mouth. Janice Gardner may have been a calming effect on her husband, but she wasn’t happy with her son’s lack of contact. Karen just hoped that Sawyer didn’t push Michael away before they unpacked.
Tracey ducked back in the room and returned just as quickly.
“Judy pulled Hannah outside with Eli.”
“Oh, good. I just hope they don’t start shouting and wake the baby.”
“Janice, can I ask you something?” Karen asked.
“Of course, dear.” Her temporary mother-in-law pulled a bag of potatoes from a bin and piled them into the sink before turning on the water.
“How many hours a week does your husband work?”
Janice glanced at the ceiling as if it held the answer to Karen’s question.
“Well, he works plenty of twelve-hour days.”
“And weekends?”
“The store is closed on Sundays.”
“Everything is closed on Sundays,” Rena said with a laugh.
Karen tapped her fingers on the counter. “So he works twelve hours a day, six days a week?” That sounded grueling even to her.
“Not all the time,” Janice defended.
Karen swirled the wine in her glass before taking another drink. “When was the last time you took a vacation?”
As if catching on to Karen’s line of questions, Janice slowed down her answers. “We went to Michael’s first premiere.”
Which meant at least eight years. “Anything since?”
“We go up to the cabin every summer. Take a couple of day trips.”
“One or two days at a time?” Karen asked.
“The store doesn’t run itself.”
Rena poured more wine in Karen’s glass. “You sound like Dad,” Rena told her mother. “The truth is, Karen, my dad doesn’t leave town very often, and he has always worked more hours than anyone I’ve ever known.”
Karen offered a smile, picked up her glass, and stood to leave the room. “That’s what I thought.”
Armed with knowledge, she entered the Gardner battlefield ready to fight.
Chapter Eight
Zach had a strong desire to be drinking whiskey instead of beer. The tension in the room was growing by the second. Joe had taken a spot by the window and made a point of looking outside as if searching for a reason to run away.
“It can take three days to shoot five minutes of film, Dad.” Mike was trying to explain to their father the work schedule he’d been under, but Sawyer wasn’t listening. Not that Zach thought he would. Their father only saw what he wanted to.
“I don’t care if it takes a month. You should have come home before now.”
“I didn’t get where I am by slacking,” Mike told him.
Sawyer’s retort was on his lips when the door from the kitchen opened again.
Zach finished his beer in hopes more was on the way.
Their father glanced beyond them and closed his mouth.
“Don’t stop on my account.” Karen’s voice slid over Zach’s skin. She calmly moved to the edge of the sofa, across the room from Mike and their father. She offered a smile to Joe, who shifted his eyes away.
“I was just explaining to my son how disappointed we are that he hasn’t made time for his family.” Sawyer made no apologies to anyone.
Karen stiffened her spine and crossed her legs before leaning back on the sofa.
“I would think you, of all people, Mr. Gardner, would understand.”
Zach blinked, looked at his father.
“What do you mean?”
“You work hard.”
His eyes narrowed. “I see my family daily.”
“Convenient, seeing as how they all live in the same town.”
“Living a couple of states away isn’t an excuse.”
Mike lifted a hand in the air. “Let it go, Karen. He’ll never understand.”
Karen casually sipped her wine. The only sign of any nerves was in the tapping of her foot against the air. Zach felt himself starting to relax.
“Oh, I don’t know, Michael. I think I might have just realized where you get your drive.”
“What?”
“Your drive? Mr. Gardner, you’ve owned your own business for how long?”
“Over thirty years.”
“You must have sacrificed a lot in those years.” Karen’s eyes never left Sawyer’s.
Zach glanced at Joe, who was sitting closer to Karen than any of the
m, as admiration filled Joe’s face.
“Anything worth having is worth small sacrifices.”
“Things like long hours, missing weekends, vacations?”
Sawyer caught on and narrowed his eyes.
“Michael works his butt off and he does most of it out of a trailer on a set far away from his own bed. When he does finally come home, he usually drops. Sound familiar?”
Sawyer glanced at Mike.
“Michael is just like you. He works hard every day, pushes himself to his limits, and sometimes forgets about his family. But we’re here now. And my guess is you haven’t arranged any time off to spend with us.”
Zach knew for a fact Sawyer was planning to open the store in the morning. Saturdays were busy.
“I own the store. I can take off anytime I want.”
Mike laughed and said, “When was the last time you did that?”
“Don’t question me.”
The smile on Mike’s face stayed. “That intimidating tone worked when I was seventeen, Dad. But you’re right. I don’t have to question. I already know the answer.”
“Michael cleared his schedule for the next week and a half to spend time with everyone here. He promised me he’d avoid calls from his agent and manager to make sure that time is quality time. How much of it will he see you?” Karen laid out her challenge and sat back.
Every eye in the room swung back to Sawyer.
Zach noticed his father’s fist on the arm of his chair. “I don’t know if I like you.”
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