Disguised Blessing

by Georgia Bockoven

  This was insane. Surely he could find something better to worry about—meteors striking the earth or oil being discovered on his land. He stopped and waved to the guard who opened the gate without leaving his air-conditioned cubicle.

  Catherine must have been watching for him, because she opened the door before he had a chance to ring the bell.

  “Hi,” she said, and smiled.

  “I’m a little early. I hope that’s okay.”

  “Of course. Come in.”

  He entered the foyer and handed her the bottle of wine he’d been saving to inaugurate his new kitchen.

  She looked at the label. “Randle’s Roost—I love their wines, especially their merlot. I’ve never met anyone else who’s ever heard of them. How did you?”

  “I was wandering around the foothills looking for the lumber to make my kitchen cabinets and they had an old barn that wasn’t going to see another winter upright. We made the deal—the lumber in exchange for some cabinets they wanted for the showroom. In the process of hauling and building we became friends. They gave me a couple of cases of wine out of their private collection and add to it every Christmas.”

  Catherine seemed flustered. “I’m afraid the wine is more special than the meal. Maybe you should save it for another time.”

  “Any homecooked meal that I didn’t have to help prepare is a special occasion. The way I figure it, if I come bearing gifts and behave myself while I’m here, you just might ask me back.” She stared at him as if he’d announced he was a visitor from another planet. “It was a joke, Catherine.”

  “I’m sorry.” She made a quick, helpless gesture with her hand. “I don’t know any way around it so I might as well just tell you straight out—Lynda isn’t here. She never had any intention of being here. This whole evening was a setup to get us together.”

  “I thought as much.”

  “You did?”

  “I could see her mind heading in that direction when I took her to see Sandra. And then when she called and told me you’d asked her to invite me to dinner, I just hoped she’d at least warned you I was coming before I showed up on your doorstep.”

  “You shouldn’t have let her get away with it.”

  Obviously she knew as well as he did that he had no business being there. She couldn’t know how he felt about her, but she was aware they had a line they shouldn’t cross. Which made it safe for them to be together, at least for that night.

  He smiled to put her at ease. “And give up a chance for a homecooked meal? Not a chance.”

  She returned his smile. “If I’d known you were so passionate about the homecooking part, I would have made meatloaf and mashed potatoes.”

  “Instead of?”

  “Marinated flank steak, green salad, Harvard beets, and baked potatoes.”

  He put his hand to his chest. “Be still my heart.”

  She laughed. “Keep that up and you’ll be invited to eat with us every night.”

  “You cook like this all the time?”

  “Well, maybe not quite this elaborate. I’ve been pushing my culinary skills since Lynda came home from the hospital. I don’t want her going back to her rabbit food until she’s well enough to get along without the calories.”

  “And it’s working?”

  She held up crossed fingers. “So far. I even made her favorite dessert—thinking she was going to be here. If I’d known it was just you and me, I would have made something different.”

  “And her favorite dessert would be?”

  “Yellow cake with chocolate frosting.” She led the way to the kitchen, where she took a double-pronged bottle opener out of a drawer to uncork the wine.

  “Sounds good to me. But just so I know what I’m missing, what would you have made?”

  She put the wine on the table to give it time to breathe before dinner and removed the bottle of burgundy she’d put there earlier. “Oh, probably something lighter, like Grand Marnier sauce over fresh raspberries.”

  “Hmmm, that’s a tough one, but I think I’d have to go with the cake.”

  “Only because you’ve never tasted my Grand Marnier sauce. I guarantee you’ll change your mind when you do.” Catherine was stunned at how easily she implied a future invitation when only hours earlier she’d insisted to Lynda that it would never happen again.

  She looked at the elegantly set table, the linen and crystal and sterling, and decided it was all wrong. Not for Rick, for her. “Would you mind if we ate on the deck?”

  “That’s fine with me.”

  “My father always said you invited friends to an elbows-on-the-table meal and saved the fancy stuff for people you wanted to impress.”

  “Wise man.”

  “More a simple man, I think. He grew up poor and never accepted or understood the rules that come with having a lot of money. He was so oblivious to the social obligations that come with running a company like his that it became a full-time job for my mother.”

  “What kind of company was it?”

  “He looked for businesses that were failing because of poor management and turned them around. Along with everything my mother did for my father, she made sure Gene and I went to the right schools, had the right friends, and were invited to the right parties. When my dad died, she dumped every club and organization she didn’t enjoy and then did the same thing with friends. She said she was through spending time with people she didn’t like when she didn’t have enough time for the people she loved.”

  Catherine looked at Rick and frowned. “I don’t know why I told you that. I hardly ever talk about my family.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s boring—like telling someone about your dreams.”

  “Not to me. I’m always on the lookout for people with crazy relatives so I’ll know I’m not alone.”

  “You have crazy relatives?”

  “On both sides: It can get kind of scary at family reunions.”

  She took two plates from the cupboard and put them on a wooden tray, then added knives, forks, and spoons, place mats and napkins. “I don’t believe you.”

  “How about a grandfather who built a house out of the hubcaps he found on the side the road?”

  “So he’s into recycling. What’s wrong with that?” She added salt and pepper and salad dressing to the tray.

  “All right, how’s this: I have an aunt who insists she’s Howard Hughes’s love child.”

  “It’s possible. I hear he used to get around a lot in his younger days.”

  “How about a great-uncle who wears a metal helmet to keep the Martians from stealing his secret salsa recipe?”

  She thought a minute. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to give you that one.”

  “Finally. I should probably quit while I’m ahead. Although…”

  “Yes?” She handed him the tray and pointed to the French doors that opened onto the deck.

  “There is this second cousin on my mother’s side who lives in a cave and only comes out at night.”

  “Thinks she’s a bat, I suppose.”

  Rick’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “Oh—so you’ve heard of her. Funny how things like that get around.”

  It was everything Catherine could do to keep from laughing. “It must be a terrible burden to be the only sane one in the family.”

  “Oh, it’s not as bad as you might think. The Sawyers and McCormicks measure sanity by a different yardstick. That helps. A lot.”

  She laughed. “You’re so full of—”

  “Careful. I’m a sensitive kind of guy.”

  “And I’m the Queen of Sheba.” She let him hold the tray while she set the table, glancing up to see the mischievous look in his eyes despite the straight face.

  “I don’t think so,” he said after several seconds.

  “Why not?”

  “I distinctly remember Grandma telling me that my Aunt Margaret was the Queen of Sheba.”

  She stopped, put her hands on her hips, and glared at him. “I’m
not going to play anymore if I can’t be the queen.”

  Rick stared at her, openmouthed, and then burst out laughing. “Good one.”

  She gave him a prim smile. “Thank you.”

  They talked as much as they ate that night, about everything from books they’d both read to movies they hadn’t had time to see. Catherine said she’d always wanted to visit the penguin colonies on Antarctica; Rick told her he thought she was nuts but admitted he could be talked into going if pressed. He told her he’d always wanted to climb Mt. McKinley; she said he was out of his mind and that she couldn’t be talked into going even if promised a month in Hawaii in exchange.

  The sun disappeared behind the Coast Range, leaving the sky a palate of oranges and pinks. Rick poured the last of the wine and stole a glance at Catherine. She looked thoughtful and a little sad, as if the sun had taken her joy along with the daylight.

  “Are you okay?” he asked gently.

  “I was just thinking about that night on the lake.” She turned to meet his gaze. “I never know what’s going to trigger the memory. It just happens, and it always catches me off guard. Sometimes it’s a sound, or the way the air feels against my skin, or finding one of Lynda’s pressure garments in the laundry or one of the bands she used to use on her hair.”

  “You need a break. Get out and do something crazy. When was the last time you went to the State Fair and got sick on the rides? Better yet, spend a day doing whatever you would have been doing now if none of this had happened.”

  Catherine thought a minute and smiled wryly. “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea. People might be a little confused to receive a wedding invitation from me and Tom when he announced his engagement to another woman last weekend.”

  He couldn’t have put his foot in his mouth more effectively if he’d aimed. “Not one of my better ideas.”

  “I’m long past caring what Tom does or who he does it with.” She hesitated long enough for a decidedly mischievous smile to form. “As a matter of fact, I’m so far past caring, I think I’ll offer to let him buy my membership in the club as an engagement present.”

  She lost Rick with that. “By club, I assume you mean the country club?”

  “Sorry—I was thinking out loud. Somehow Tom has managed to position himself as next on the list to buy a club membership. The only problem is that no one wants to sell, so he’s been forced to try to marry his way in.”

  “Why would anyone go to that much trouble to belong to a country club?”

  “Over half the business done in the area is done at the club, either on the golf course or in the bar. Tom feels he’s being held back by not being a member.”

  “So now you’re going to give up your membership to keep him from using someone else the way he tried to use you?” He was trying hard to understand something that was as far from his world as little green men rowing the canals of Mars. “Is she a friend of yours?”

  “Not even close. However, she has provided the one bright spot in all of this. If she’s anywhere near as demanding with Tom as she was her first husband, his life is going to be a living hell.”

  “Then it seems there’s only one real option for selling your membership.”

  She tilted her head to one side and studied him in the waning light. “And that is?”

  “Wait until the day after they’re married.”

  She smiled. “You’re my kind of guy, Rick Sawyer.”

  What was it about her smile that made his mind turn to mush and his heart do a tap dance against his ribs? “Anytime. I’m at your service—day or night.”

  22

  LYNDA WAVED TO WENDY ONE LAST TIME AS BRIAN backed out of the driveway. Her face hurt from the phony smile she’d kept in place the past two hours. But it was that or put up with a ton of questions she didn’t want to answer. It hardly took anything anymore—she only had to be quiet for five minutes or want to be by herself for a little while, and someone was asking her what was wrong.

  “You want to talk about it?” Brian asked when they reached the corner.

  “No.” She should have known she hadn’t fooled him.

  “Want to get a mocha?”

  “Where?” She didn’t want to go anywhere they would run into anyone they knew, but she wasn’t ready to go home yet, either.

  “I heard about a new place in Folsom.”

  A lot of her friends hung out in Folsom. “What about the Java City in Gold River?”

  “All the way—” He glanced at her. “Uh, sure, that’s fine.” Brian pulled into a driveway to turn around and head back the way they’d come.

  They hadn’t gone three blocks when Lynda broke down. She didn’t just want to talk about what was bothering her, she needed to talk about it. “Did you see what happened?”

  “You mean with Wendy at the hospital?”

  “I wanted to die. God, I felt so bad. But I was afraid to say anything. I kept thinking maybe Ray didn’t see the way she looked at him and if I said something I’d be the one who made it into a big deal.” She leaned her head back and stared out the moonroof at the barely visible stars. “How could I have been so stupid? Whatever possessed me to invite Wendy to come with us tonight?”

  “What made you think Ray didn’t notice?” Brian asked carefully.

  Because she was willing to grab at anything that would make the sick feeling go away, even if it was a piece of straw in a windstorm. “He was so nice to her.”

  He didn’t say anything for a long time. “Ray’s nice to everybody. Even the physical therapist.”

  “Damn it, it’s just not fair. Ray can’t help the way he looks.” All her life she’d been able to change things she didn’t like or find a way around them or bargain them away. Until now. “He wouldn’t even be burned if he hadn’t tried to save his sister.”

  “If Wendy reacted the way she did even after we told her what to expect—”

  “What’s going to happen when Ray moves to Kansas where no one knows him?” she finished for him.

  Brian turned right onto Madison Avenue. “Did you see his aunt when she was here last week?”

  Lynda shuddered. “I didn’t like her. She reminds me of Cruella De Vil—all skinny and pinched-nosed. The whole time I was in Ray’s room all she talked about was how much time she’d had to take off from work to come there and how she couldn’t come again until the doctors were absolutely sure he was ready to leave. She acted like it was his fault the graft didn’t take.”

  “What did he say?”

  “Nothing. He just sat there and listened and watched her pace back and forth across the room.”

  Brian stopped at a red light and turned to Lynda. “Does he have to go with her?”

  “Where else would he go?”

  “My place. I was just thinking—we had an exchange student living with us last year and it worked out okay. I don’t know why it would be any different with Ray.”

  “Oh, Brian. You’re brilliant and fantastic and wonderful and every good thing I can think of. When can you ask your mom?”

  “She won’t be back from the lake for a couple of days.” He looked at her. “We could drive up there tomorrow…”

  Lynda was blindsided by a wave of panic. She opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out.

  “Are you all right?” The light changed. Someone behind them honked when Brian didn’t immediately move forward. “Lynda?” he asked anxiously.

  She nodded.

  The horn sounded again. Brian started to raise his hand to gesture but brought it down again and simply drove through the intersection without comment. “Are you afraid to go to the lake with me?” he asked when they were back in the flow of traffic.

  “It isn’t you,” she said, dumbfounded by what had happened. “It’s the lake. I don’t want to go there.” She stared at him. “I didn’t know I felt this way.” She put her hand to her throat. “When you said we could drive up there it was like I couldn’t breathe. I felt like I was choking.”


  “I’m sorry.”

  “Why? It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t know. I didn’t even know.”

  “What are you going to do? You and your mom go up there every summer.”

  Her mother loved the lake. So did her Uncle Gene and her grandmother. What if she could never go there with them again? “I don’t know. I need to think about it some more.”

  “It won’t hurt if I wait a couple of days until my mom and dad come home to talk to them about Ray.”

  “What if his aunt comes back before then? Don’t you think we should get going on this as fast as possible? If we wait until she’s made more plans she could turn stubborn just for spite.”

  Brian turned onto Sunrise. As usual, the traffic made the posted speed limit a joke on a weekend. It took two stops to get through every light. “You know, it was just an idea,” he warned. “I don’t want you to be disappointed if my folks don’t go for it.”

  “Your parents are super. And smart.” She grinned impishly. “After all, they think I’m wonderful. I bet they say yes once they understand how hard it would be for Ray to move away from here. Ray doesn’t know anyone in Kansas. No one there cares about him. Here, at least he has us.”

  “All right, all right. You convinced me. I’ll go see them tomorrow.” He gave Lynda a serious look. “I promise I’ll do everything I can, but I don’t want you to fall apart on me if it doesn’t work out.” He stopped for another red light. “I probably shouldn’t have said anything until I talked to them first.”

  Lynda unbuckled her seat belt and leaned over to kiss him. “You’re the best thing that ever happened to me.”

  He kissed her back. “No fair—that’s what I was going to say to you.”

  She saw the light turn and scrambled to get her seatbelt back on. Ten minutes later they were at the coffee shop. When she started to open the door, Brian put his hand on her arm to stop her. She turned to look at him and he took the bill of her cap and gently pulled her forward for another kiss. He opened his mouth and touched his tongue to hers, and in seconds what had started as tender affection became breath-stealing excitement.

  “Wow,” she murmured as heat spread through her body, a tingling sensation curling her toes. “What brought that on?”