Family Blessings (Cisco Family)

by Fern Michaels

  “Don’t you have a heater in your car?” Joel demanded.

  “Yep, I do, but you two fine, upstanding doctors are going to be sitting in the back of my pickup truck with Cleopatra.”

  “Who’s Cleopatra?” Zack said as he tried to zip up his jacket. He failed miserably.

  “My killer rottweiler. She protects me. Let’s go, boys. Tessie, lock up!” Mo shouted over his shoulder as he herded his passengers out to his Ford Ranger.

  “Okay, Mo.”

  “We’re drunk, Joel,” Zack hissed in his friend’s ear. “We’re doctors!”

  “We’re human beings, too. Plus, we’re miserable. I can’t believe we’re going to ride in this rusty tin can with a dog named Cleopatra.”

  “Okay, boys, up and at ’em,” Mo said, giving both doctors a mighty shove. They fell forward.

  “God, what is that smell?” Zack bellowed, just as the ninety-pound rottweiler jumped in the truck and started to nuzzle Zack’s cheek. “Ah, Hanny used to do that. This dog loves me. Did you see that, Joel?”

  “Shut up, Zack,” Joel said as he tried to get as far away from the offensive odor as he could.

  “It’s manure, peat moss, and stuff from my compost heap. Breathe through your mouth, boys,” Mo said.

  “Your dog loves me, Mo,” Zack said.

  “Don’t fool yourself. I told you that dog is a killer. She’s just making sure you don’t fall out of her watch. Don’t make any sudden moves, and you’ll be fine. Now, tell me where you live, and I’ll have you home in no time. Cleo isn’t fond of a lot of conversation either, so be quiet back there.”

  “It’s cold back here,” Joel said, as the truck whipped out of the parking lot, the wind buffeting them from side to side. “The smell is making me sick.”

  “Didn’t you hear Mo? This dog doesn’t like conversation, so stop whining.” As if on cue, Cleo started to sniff Joel’s leg and started to growl. Joel clamped his lips tight as Mo swung the Ranger around a curve, then blasted down the road.

  “Oh, God, this dog is eating my shirt. She’s going to go for my throat. Mo was right, she’s a killer,” Joel said as he tried to rear back away from the monster dog.

  “It’s the pizza on your shirt. Shut up. I want to get home in one piece. I’ve never been this cold in my life. Well, maybe that Christmas when we got lost in that snowstorm and the Trips found us.”

  Cleo growled again, this time with menace. Zack tried to wiggle between the bales of peat moss to get out of her way. He, too, clamped his lips shut.

  As Mo steered the truck up and down the hills and around hairpin curves, Zack and Joel rolled from side to side. Cleo became unhappy with these goings-on. Her own stance was secure in the bed of the truck. Finally, she planted her two front legs on Joel’s chest, her hind legs on Zack’s stomach. Then she growled to make her point—stay still. The doctors didn’t move a muscle.

  When the Ranger finally came to a stop in Zack’s driveway, Zack rolled over, and muttered, “I’ve been in some hair-raising situations in my time, but this was one of the worst.”

  “Shut up, Zack,” was all Joel could manage with Cleo in his face.

  The cab door opened and shut. “C’mere, baby,” Mo said to the rottweiler. Cleo hopped out of the pickup and nuzzled Mo’s leg. “You did good, little girl,” he said soothingly to the big dog. “Let’s go, boys, you’re home.” He looked around at the quiet street, the dark house, and muttered under his breath.

  “What did you say?” Zack asked, falling out of the truck on his hands and knees.

  “I just said it’s hell coming home to a dark house. I like lights. I like to open the door and know someone who cares about me is waiting for me. Running a pub isn’t easy. The hours are late, I always smell like booze and cigarette smoke, but my wife always gives me a big hug and a kiss. I have to carry a baseball bat and a gun that I have a license for so I won’t get robbed. Like I said, it’s tough. Guess your wife is sleeping, huh, Doc?”

  “Nah, she’s out of town. Doesn’t your wife complain about you working such long hours at the pub?”

  “In the beginning she was a little upset. But neither one of us is college-educated, so we have to make a living however we can. Teresa works at a nursery, so that takes up her days. We talk on the phone ten or twelve times a day. Sometimes she brings me lunch, and we picnic behind the pub. It’s give-and-take. We managed to put our four boys through college with all our hard work. Oh, yeah, one other thing, you have to talk pretty to your wife. All the time. Not just once in a while. From time to time you have to surprise her. You know, some little thing that makes her eyes light up. Something that says you’re glad you married her. Anytime you boys want to talk or ask for advice, call me and set up an appointment. I’m cheaper than a shrink.”

  “What makes you think we need…”

  Mo held up his hand. “Hey, I’m a bartender. I’ve seen it all. When two young bucks like yourselves come into my place looking like the world just caved in, I put two and two together.

  “I can do that because I am as-tute!”

  “Thanks for bringing us home, Mo. We’ll pick up our cars tomorrow,” Joel said.

  “No problem. Cleo, say good night to your new friends. Bend down, gentlemen.” Joel and Zack did as ordered. Cleo rose on her hind legs and wrapped her front paws around their necks and gently licked their cheeks.

  “Loved by a dog!” Zack mumbled as he made his way up the walkway to the front door, where he fumbled in his pocket for the house key. He opened the door but didn’t go into the dark house. Instead, he watched Mo back up the Ranger and head down the street.

  The wind whipped up again. “Feels like snow.”

  “That guy has it all, Zack. He’s one happy man, and that dog probably loves him as much as his wife does. How many years did we go to school? Look at us! We’re supposed to be smart, and, guess what, we don’t have a clue about life. We have a profession. Will you turn on the damn light already. I’m freezing out here. I just want to go to bed.”

  “You sure are cranky, Joel.” Zack turned on the light, closed the door, and set the alarm. He looked around the quiet house, his shoulders slumping. Joel flung his arm around his friend’s shoulders.

  “If it’s any consolation to you, old buddy, my house is the same. Empty. Tidy and empty. Like no one lives there. That’s why I didn’t want to go home. We can talk in the morning when our heads are clear. Right now I just want to take a shower and hit the sheets. What the hell time is it anyway?”

  “Almost two o’clock. Maybe one o’clock. Does it make a difference?”

  “No. I don’t even know why I asked,” Joel said, heading for the stairs. “Guest room, right?”

  “Yeah, second door on the right. Hanny always keeps the guest room made up in case Cisco or Ezra wants to stay over. See ya in the morning.”

  “Aren’t you coming to bed?”

  “In a few minutes.”

  Zack wandered through the rooms of the house, stopping to look at something, to touch something else. Everything reminded him of Hanny.

  He’d been the typical young yuppie doctor when she came into his life and turned it upside down. He didn’t think it was possible to fall in love at first sight, but that’s exactly what had happened to him. God, how he loved her. And she loved him. He was sure of it. Yet something had gone awry, and he wasn’t sure how it had happened. Maybe it was him. Maybe he was giving off bad vibes. Who the hell was he kidding? It all started the day he got the idea to buy the boat. Whatever was going on was all his fault, and he had no clue how to make it better.

  Zack sat down at the table and looked around. Hanny had been so happy when she decorated the kitchen. When she was finished, she’d smiled at him, and said, “It looks just like my mom’s kitchen. Not that I remember it, but my dad showed me pictures of Mom baking and cooking, stuff like that.”

  The room was cozy and comfortable, and when he was home, which wasn’t often, he liked sitting at the table with Hanny, just ha
ving coffee together or talking. Watching the early-morning news and weather.

  It was all so neat and tidy, nothing out of place. Except maybe the pumpkin on the window seat because Halloween was over. Hanny liked to decorate the kitchen for every single holiday. They had shamrocks for St. Patrick’s Day, Easter bunnies for Easter, flags for the Fourth of July. Sometimes she just decorated for the fun of it. It had to be a childhood thing that her grandmother instilled in her. Joel said Sara did the same thing. He wasn’t sure about Sam, though.

  Hanny had made this old house with the big front porch a home. Maybe, in time, she’d come to view it the way she’d viewed Cisco’s house in the valley at the foot of the Allegheny Mountains.

  Zack thought about his own childhood. He’d had a nice normal life, but his family hadn’t been all that close. At least not close the way Hanny’s was. But the closeness in the Cisco family had developed out of necessity when Hanny’s mother died. And she was one of a set of triplets. The bond among the three of them was so strong nothing could ever sever it. He hadn’t had that kind of relationship with his siblings. He didn’t even know where his brothers were living these days. Every year or so, one or the other would make an effort to say hello. Sometimes there were Christmas cards, and other times the holidays came and went without any kind of greeting. Maybe that was one of the things that drew him to Hanny and her family. A family that welcomed him with wide-open arms.

  If he were a kid, he could cry. But he wasn’t a kid. He was an adult, a surgeon. A man of responsibility. He was also a husband and a human being. How, he wondered, did a mere human separate the two?

  Zack cringed when he remembered the last fight he’d had with Hanny. Her words still rang in his ears. “Tell me, Zack, what kind of life do we have where our only quality time is in bed? When you get home after midnight or when you get up at five in the morning? I have no intention of spending my life in bed with you.”

  At first he’d laughed at the way it sounded. Hanny’s eyes had narrowed, and he quickly fell back and regrouped, but it hadn’t worked. She was right, though, because that was what hurt. Because he didn’t know what to do about it. That was when he should have ’fessed up about the boat, but he’d been a coward. Things snowballed after that, and it was all his fault.

  Damn.

  Zack took one last look around the kitchen before he turned off the light. He smiled at the yellow frog sitting on the counter, a cookie jar filled with his favorites, Fig Newtons. A matching planter, also in bright yellow, sat on the end of the window seat. A feathery green plant was draped down the side. It looked lush and healthy. Hanny was a frog fanatic. Even the yellow place mats had frogs embroidered on the corners. The hanging planters in the window were yellow with green ferns. Hanny obviously had a green thumb.

  Zack’s eyes were moist when he turned off the light and headed for the stairs to his room, where he would sleep alone. For the first time in his married life. Maybe he would sleep downstairs on the couch. Yeah, yeah, sleeping on the couch wouldn’t be such a bad thing, and he wouldn’t have to make the bed in the morning. He wouldn’t have to undress either.

  “I miss you, Hanny,” he whispered as he punched at the pillows on the couch. Before he closed his eyes, he sniffed at the pillow. It smelled like Hanny.

  The moisture in Zack’s eyes trickled to the corners of his eyes and rolled down his cheeks. He didn’t care.

  Chapter Four

  CISCO KNEW SHE WAS DREAMING BECAUSE IN THE dream she was a young girl running through the valley, being chased by a fat little brown-and-white puppy. When she was winded, she sat down on a fallen log and cradled the puppy to her cheek. He was so warm, so comforting, so full of love, and he was all hers.

  She opened one eye and stared into the soft brown eyes of Freddie, who reared up and licked at her wrinkled cheek.

  “My goodness, is it time to get up, Freddie? It feels like I just fell asleep. Good Lord, what is that noise?” Cisco swung her legs over the side of the bed, hating to leave the warmth of the down comforter.

  Ezra was already at the window. “I think you should come over here, Loretta. This is something you need to see.”

  Cisco padded over to the window. “Oh, my goodness!” was all she could manage.

  “The town turned out to rebuild your house. There must be two hundred people down there in the valley. Let’s get dressed and go down there to see what’s going on. Hurry, Loretta.”

  “I guess a shower can wait till later,” Cisco mumbled as she walked into the large dressing room off Ezra’s room to change into warm clothing. “Why are they doing my house first? What about everyone else’s house?”

  “Loretta, I never thought I’d live to see the day of an old-fashioned barn raising here in the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania. You’d think we would have had something like that in Wyoming, but we didn’t. This is an old-fashioned house raising. I don’t know for certain, but I think if the weather holds today, the shell will go up, the plumbing will be in, and so will the wiring. Tomorrow, the outside crew will start on one of the other houses, and it will be like a domino effect. Father Drupieski was telling me how it worked the other day. Get all the outside work done so that heat and water can be installed along with the Sheetrock before the weather turns bad. I’m sure they did it the democratic way by picking a name out of the hat, and yours came up first. They’re your friends, Loretta. This is what friends do. They’re trying to repay you for everything you’ve done for the town.”

  Cisco wiped at the tears at the corners of her eyes. “It’s…it’s so wonderful. And, it’s so cold. We should make coffee for the workers,” she said as she made her way carefully down the hill, the dogs at her side to make sure she didn’t slip or fall.

  “Look over there under the sycamore, Loretta. The ladies of the town have set up a kitchen with propane stoves. Everything is taken care of. It’s nice to have such warm, caring friends. It was never like this when I lived out West. I’m just glad to be a part of this little town, your friends, and your life.”

  Cisco squeezed his arm.

  The women welcomed Cisco with hugs and gay chatter. A cup of strong, black coffee was thrust into her hands. Ezra moved off to where the men were working to offer his help.

  “I don’t know what to say,” Cisco said tearfully.

  One of Cisco’s neighbors, a woman older than Cisco herself, smiled and patted her shoulder. “This is what we do here in the valley for our neighbors, you should know that better than anyone. Your role is to have a housewarming when you move into the house. Now, we could use some help with these egg sandwiches.” Cisco laughed when her neighbor slipped Freddie and Hugo strips of crisp bacon.

  Another neighbor said, “According to our schedule, all the houses will be up and habitable by Thanksgiving. We’ll worry about shingles and paint in the spring. Our goal is to have everyone in their new house by Thanksgiving. Just pray the weather holds. With the money you’ve given Father Drupieski and the checks from the various insurance companies, all things are possible. We all voted to pool the insurance money since some of the homeowners received more than others.”

  Cisco nodded as she thought about all the funerals she’d attended in the past several days. “We are all so blessed. Thank you seems inadequate.” Tears puddled in her eyes again. Someone wiped them away with the hem of an apron. My friends.

  “It’ll do,” the women chorused. “I think we need more coffeepots.”

  “I think Ezra has several. One rather large one that makes about twenty-five cups. I’ll go get them if someone will loan me her car keys.”

  While Cisco was concerning herself with coffeepots and home building, Zack Kelly roused himself from the living-room sofa and made his way to the kitchen, where his friend was busy making coffee. A box of Cheerios and a bottle of milk sat in the middle of the table.

  “What happened to bacon and eggs or pancakes?” Zack grumbled.

  “Yeah, what about them? I do Cheerios. Take it or leave it,
buddy.” Joel looked like a wild man, with his hair standing on end, his clothes wrinkled and messy.

  “I’ll take it as soon as I brush my teeth. I think we have orange juice. At least we always used to have orange juice. Maybe that was before Hannah went on strike.”

  “Go brush your teeth, Zack, then we need to talk. Really talk.”

  Zack was back in less than ten minutes. “Look, it’s all under control. I’m going to tell Hannah the first moment it feels right. I don’t think it’s going to be as bad as we’ve been anticipating. The girls are wonderful. We’ll have all our boating certificates to prove we know what we’re doing. The condos I rented in Miami will be ready for us to move into on January 1. Look, Joel, we did it, and we can’t back out now. I’m more than willing to get down on my knees and do whatever I have to do to get Hannah to forgive my…my…whatever we want to call our lack of trust.”

  Zack stared at his friend. There couldn’t be a better friend in the whole world than Joel Wineberg. Joel had taught him how to make his first slingshot. Not that either of them had ever hit anything. It was enough just to own one to show around to their buddies. He’d taught Joel how to shinny up trees. Falling out of trees was one of Joel’s specialties. Over the years, two broken arms and a busted kneecap amply demonstrated that Joel needed to find a different sport.

  They’d been inseparable during their school years, as well as college. Medical school had been a challenge for both of them. Somehow, they’d never had a fight, but one would readily fight anyone else if necessary to secure the well-being of the other. They had a mutual respect that had never been called into question until now. He felt a tad guilty that he had convinced Joel to go in on the boat deal. Not that he’d had to do much convincing. Still, he felt guilty.

  “I was all set to tell Hannah this weekend. Man, you don’t know what I had to do to get the time off, and, what happens, my wife blows me off for a shopping trip to New York.”

  Joel fiddled with his Cheerios, filling up the spoon, then dumping them back in the milk.