He gave Blake’s open door an impatient rap with his knuckles as he strode into the office.
Blake was on the phone, but indicated he should shut the door and have a seat in a chair. Kurt sighed and plopped into a chair. He scrubbed at his face, willing his eyes to stay open.
“So you remember the night I came over before you left?” Blake started talking as soon as he hung up the phone.
“How could I forget? I haven’t been that hung over in years.”
“Well, I found out why the moodiness.”
“Geez, Blake. You have me haul my butt over to your office ASAP because you want to talk about your marriage troubles?” Kurt drew his hands down from his face to scowl at his brother. “Couldn’t this have waited?”
Blake held up a hand. “Sorry, Dude. I know you’re still on China time. But I thought you’d like to know that you’re going to be an uncle.”
Kurt’s mouth dropped open. “Seriously?”
Blake got a silly grin on his face. “Yep, Sharon’s pregnant.”
“Well, congrats, Bro.” Kurt shot to his feet, and moved around the desk to give Blake the man hug. His brother had wanted kids for a while now. And he’d be a great dad. “You just made my day!”
“I wanted you to hear it from me, hence the note.”
“And I was being a prick about it.” Kurt felt sort of bad now.
“Yeah, you were.” Blake grinned at him. “But you’re allowed.”
“So when? Give me details.”
“She’s about two months along now. She didn’t even realize she was pregnant. Cynthia figured it out.”
At the sound of Cynthia’s name, Kurt felt himself tense up. He had not contacted her. Not once since the photo shoot. Granted, he’d gone straight from the studio to shower and jump on a plane, but still. Out loud he only said, “Cynthia?”
Blake nodded. “I guess they’d gotten together and Sharon wasn’t herself with her either. Only instead of getting upset and confused like me, she put it together because of her work at the women’s shelter. Guess she’d been around enough pregnant women to know.”
Cynthia worked at a women’s shelter too? There was so much he didn’t know about her, Kurt thought. She’d never once mentioned it. “The shelter as in the one where Mom volunteers?”
“They’ve apparently known each other for a while. I had no idea either,” Blake said, nodding. “Anyway, she goes out and gets Sharon a test. It comes back positive, but they still don’t tell me.”
“They knew already when you were over at my house, crying in your beer?”
“You were doing some crying of your own,” Blake reminded him with a smile. “I guess Sharon wanted to wait until she had it confirmed by her doctor. She knew how badly I wanted kids, so she didn’t want to disappoint me. And you know how she is about technology, she didn’t trust the stick.”
Kurt laughed. It was so like his sister-in-law. “So you found out sometime in the last couple of weeks?”
“About a day or two after you left on the trip.”
“Big news to keep to yourself all this time.”
Blake shrugged. “Not something you tell over the phone.”
“I assume Mom is beside herself?”
“Picking out baby stuff already.” Blake grinned at him.
“Good. That means I’m off the hook for a while.” Kurt sat back in his chair. His brother looked happy. So happy, he was a little envious, he had to admit to himself.
“Wouldn’t be too sure about that,” Blake said. “Might just add fuel to the fire. But you can find out for yourself. Mom’s requested a family night tomorrow. Can you make it?”
Kurt got up, gave his brother another man hug. “Wouldn’t miss it.”
Later that evening, Kurt pulled into his driveway, Lucky in the seat beside him. His house was dark, unwelcoming. Opening the door and bounding up the stairs, he reached the main living area, turned on the lights. Everything was perfectly in its place, the familiar smells of the cleaning crew in the air.
He walked over to the guest bedroom where Cynthia had stayed. It was completely empty of any personality. Almost like she’d never been there.
~ ~ ~
“I don’t want to go,” Cynthia told Sharon, shaking her head for emphasis. “It’s a family dinner. I’m not family.”
“Why are you being so stubborn about this?” Sharon peered at her closely. “You’re my family, closest thing I have to a sister. Marjorie specifically asked me to bring you. And I know she called you directly.”
Cynthia shrugged. She wasn’t about to tell Sharon about her move on Kurt at the photographer’s studio. Or the fallout from that—complete radio silence from Kurt for the last three weeks now. She vaguely remembered him saying something about a business trip. But he hadn’t been close to a phone or computer to email for three weeks? She wasn’t buying that. She didn’t want to see him. It was too embarrassing. Obviously his reaction in the studio hadn’t been to her. She wondered for the hundredth time who he had been imagining she was when she kissed him.
Sharon put her hands on her hips. “You don’t have any good reason, and you know it. And this time, I’m pulling the ‘I’m pregnant and you need to do what I ask because I’m in a delicate condition’ card.”
Cynthia snorted. “You’re about as delicate as a horse. I’ve watched you shove furniture around the store when you think no one is looking.”
Sharon sighed. “Okay, fine. But you’re still going. Because I’ve already RSVP’ed for you to Marjorie.”
Cynthia set her mouth in a mulish line. “You had no right. And I could still just not go.”
“But you will,” Sharon told her with a smirk. “Because you like Marjorie and you would find it rude to back out now.”
“Remind me again why I thought you were my friend?” Cynthia threw her pencil down on the desk, sat back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest.
“Look.” Sharon sat on the desk and put a hand on Cynthia’s arm. “I don’t know what happened between you and Kurt.”
“Nothing—”
Sharon held up a hand. “You may be able to fool other people, but not me. I know something happened. And if you don’t want to tell me, that’s fine. But you and Kurt are going to have to be around each other because you’re both family to Blake and I. Now is as good a time as any to smooth things out. Everyone’s going to be focused on the baby anyway.”
“So it’s all about you, is it?” Cynthia gave Sharon a wry smile to let her know she was teasing.
“As a matter of fact.” Sharon winked at her. “So I will see you there tonight?”
Cynthia sighed, but nodded. Sharon was right. She might as well get it over with. She couldn’t avoid Kurt forever. And she had to admit to herself that she wanted to see his reaction to her appearance.
While Kurt may have decided to forego the gym workouts since the photo shoot, Cynthia had found such satisfaction in her success that she had decided to hire a personal trainer to keep her honest. If she thought the workouts with Kurt had been tough, it was nothing compared with this guy. But the results had been staggering. For the first time in years she actually was starting to have a defined waistline. And she was starting to see muscles develop in her arms and legs.
She peeked at her watch. She had a good six hours until the dinner. Time to go shopping.
Chapter 13
Kurt arrived first at his mother Marjorie’s house. He wanted to spend some time with his mother alone, because it had been a while. His mother wasn’t someone to let moss grow under her feet. You almost needed an appointment to see her, he thought with a grin. And he was glad that was the case. For a while after his father had died, she had been sort of aimless, and had worried both him and his brother. Now she didn’t seem to have enough time in the day for all her causes. But she managed it somehow.
He entered her cheery kitchen and sniffed appreciatively. They evidently were eating Italian food tonight. Oh happy day.
H
is mother had redone her kitchen a few years ago, combining what used to be their old family room with the awkward galley kitchen her 70’s ranch house had been built with. How she’d managed to feed two always hungry teenage boys all those years with the tiny space she’d had was beyond him. Now the room was one big cheerful space sporting the white tile his mother loved for its easy cleaning, a variety of work surfaces to accommodate her love of baking as well as cooking, a big island with an extra oven and dishwasher for the tons of entertaining she loved to do, and bright splashes of her favorite color of cherry red.
A massive farm table near the French doors was already set for dinner with colorful plates. Although his mother had a formal dining room, they rarely used it. Everyone preferred the casual, happy place that was the new kitchen.
His mother was singing along to the Elvis Presley tune blaring out of the built-in speakers, while she stirred something in a pot on the massive eight-burner stove. He winced a little. Perhaps she was getting a bit deaf, seemed like she had the sound up a little more each time he came by.
He snuck behind her, reached around to envelope her in a bear hug, planting a noisy kiss on her cheek while he did.
“Oh my gosh, Kurt.” Her hand fluttered up to her throat. “You shouldn’t creep up on me like that. Some day I’m likely to have a heart attack.”
“Maybe if you played the music a little softer, you could actually hear someone banging around in the house,” Kurt chided her gently. “I wasn’t exactly quiet coming in.”
It was a little creepy, he had to admit to himself that she had never failed to identify him when he did sneak up on her like that. And as he’d seen Blake do the same thing, it wasn’t as if that’s how she knew. Mothers. They seemed to always have a six sense about everything.
Marjorie set the spoon aside, dialed down the music, and turned around to give him a quick hug.
Even though she was a good foot shorter than him now, her hugs always made him feel like he was a young boy again. The familiar warmth, the quick grasp accompanied with a few back pats.
He felt a rush of affection for her. “I love you, Mom. We were and are the luckiest kids in the world to have had you and Dad as parents.”
Marjorie looked up in surprise, making him realize he hadn’t voiced the words often enough. Had he ever said how much he appreciated her?
She patted him on the cheek. “And I love you, Sweetie Pie. And I love you.” She bustled over to the refrigerator and retrieved a couple of beers. “You’re early, and I’m about done in here. Let’s go out to the deck and enjoy the outside for a bit.”
Kurt accepted the beers she handed him, twisted off both tops and carried them out to the large glass-topped table on the deck overlooking the pool. His mother had removed the diving board he, Blake and their friends used to do cannonballs off of when she’d had the decking redone and the pool resurfaced, but otherwise, it was the same kidney-shaped pool he’d spent hours in as a kid.
He glanced over the huge expanse of backyard. His parents had bought the property back when San Diego had been a sleepy military town. Now the land was worth a fortune, because they had bought into an area, Rancho Sante Fe, which had become known for it’s moneyed estates. Many of the ranch homes of his boyhood friends had been razed, with massive mansions taking their place.
Even when his father’s financial successes would have allowed them to do the same thing, his parents had kept the low-slung ranch house relatively unchanged. It was only in recent years that his mother had done some redecorating and updating. While he knew she had used top quality materials, the house retained the easy familiarity and comfort of his youth. There was nothing ostentatious here. And he loved it.
Marjorie set a bowl of warmed tortilla chips on the table, along with a bowl of her famous barn-burner salsa. She sat down with a sigh and took a long drink of her beer, straight from the bottle. He grinned. His mother was one of a kind. She cooked in a sweater set and pearls, with a large old-fashioned apron covering her ‘good’ clothes, but didn’t see the need to ‘fuss’ with a glass.
He dug a chip into the salsa, eating with gusto. The photo shoot was over. Plus, he’d lost even more weight on his trip to Asia, and almost looked gaunt now. He was probably ten pounds underweight now—plenty of reason to enjoy his mother’s fine cooking.
“So I understand you’re a pinup now.” Marjorie glanced over at him, gave him a wink.
Kurt groaned. “Don’t remind me. And you can blame Blake. He roped me into it.”
Marjorie laughed. “Oh he told me all about it. Got red when he did too.”
Kurt smiled at that. His brother’s tendency to blush when he got embarrassed was legendary. “Good. I hope you made him squirm.”
Although he knew his mother loved both of her sons equally, Blake had always taken more after his quiet father, while he had his mother’s sense of fun and outgoing personality. It made for a unique relationship.
“Oh, he picked his timing well.” Marjorie brushed her windblown hair out of her eyes. “He waited until he came here with Sharon and after they had told me about her pregnancy to let me know you were going to be a big part of the foundation fundraiser.”
“Clever.”
Marjorie nodded. “It was only after they left that I remembered about the beefcake calendar.”
“Beefcake calendar! Geez, Mom.” Kurt looked away, squirming a bit in his chair. He and his mom had a good relationship, but this was a little awkward.
“I saw the pictures, by the way.”
Kurt groaned. “Okay, this is getting a little weird.”
“Oh relax,” Marjorie said, her eyes twinkling. “I spent most of the time looking at all the other months. Some nice looking young men in there. Got me a little hot and bothered, until I realized I was probably just having a hot flash.”
Kurt covered his ears, muttering, “I don’t want to hear this.”
Marjorie let out a chuckle. She reached over to pull his hands from his head. “I’ll just say one thing. Whoever it was you were looking at, or thinking about? I want to meet her. I think she’s going to be my next daughter-in-law. I’ve never seen you look like that at anyone.”
Kurt turned to look at his mother, speechless.
She got up, leaned down, took his face in her hands and planted a kiss on his cheek. She looked at him for a long moment, then patted his face. “A mother knows these things.”
Kurt watched her walk back into the kitchen to check on the food, his thoughts whirling. His mother was eerily prescient at times. Always had been. But marriage? And to Cynthia? He leaned back in the deck chair, stared up at the clouds moving slowly overhead.
He hadn’t been able to get that kiss out of his mind, no matter how he tried. And he had to admit to himself, he just plain missed her. Their time together after her breakdown in his house and before the studio shoot had been easy, fun. Yet he still wasn’t certain how she felt about him, and the kiss had just confused him more.
He suddenly realized the anger he had been feeling stemmed from fear. For the first time, someone had gotten under his skin. And wasn’t it ironic that the one time that happened, it wasn’t someone who was obviously willing to be in a relationship with him? Must be karma, he had to laugh at himself. Well, Dad always did say you got to take risks to get rewards, he reminded himself. It was time to take matters into his own hands.
~ ~ ~
Cynthia rang the doorbell with some trepidation. It was going to be hard to hide her feelings when all of the people present now knew her pretty well. But she would get through this, for Sharon’s sake if nothing else.
She smoothed her new jean skirt over her hips, and adjusted the belt cinching the waist of her teal cotton peasant blouse. She was wearing a belt! Who would have imagined that, just a couple of months ago? At her height, she would never be thin, but she knew she had never looked better.
The door swung open to reveal Kurt—a rather surprised-looking Kurt. So he hadn’t been told she was going t
o be there. Great.
“You going to let me in?” Cynthia asked, when Kurt didn’t move or say a word.
“I uh…of course, I’m sorry,” Kurt finally answered, swinging the door open wider. “I wasn’t expecting you.”
“I can see that.” Cynthia walked over the threshold, waiting while Kurt shut the door behind her. “And I wouldn’t have come to your family affair, seeing as I’m not family, but Sharon insisted.”
Kurt came closer, took the flowers she held in her hands to lighten her load, and bent over to kiss her cheek. “I’m glad. And you look amazing.”
Cynthia put her hand to her cheek where he’d kissed it for a second before she realized what she was doing and quickly brought it down. “Uh, yes, well, thank you.” Geez, why could the guy scramble her brain circuits so fast?
He had a slight smile on his face, and a gleam in his eye that she didn’t fully understand. So when he put a hand on the small of her back to nudge her in the direction of where the others already were seated, she just meekly moved in that direction.
She tried to get a hold of her thoughts. Kurt seemed happy to see her. But he hadn’t talked to her in three weeks. What the heck was going on?
Marjorie bustled over the minute she saw Cynthia, giving her a warm hug. “Cynthia, I’m so happy you’ve come, dear. And aren’t those flowers lovely? Thank you!” She managed to take the flowers from Kurt, wrap her arm around Cynthia’s shoulders and propel her along toward the kitchen table.
What was it with these Rentons? Cynthia had to laugh to herself. Didn’t they think she could get where she needed to be on her own? She had to admit, Marjorie Renton made her feel very welcome, but at the same time, she was essentially herding her along to the kitchen as if she was a sheep. It was almost as if they expected her to change her mind and leave. Not that the thought hadn’t crossed her mind. She wasn’t that transparent, was she?
Loving Mr. July Page 9