by Sara Daniel
* * * *
“You missed an interesting supper.” Caleb shifted Liam in his arms and approached Penelope’s work table.
“Uh.” With her nose pressed to a glass jar and her eyes closed, he doubted she had any idea he was talking to her. She finished sniffing, but instead of shifting her attention to him, she picked up her pen and filled an entire page of a notebook. He tried another opening. “Your ritual is intriguing. Do you have time to explain it to me?”
She jerked and blinked at him. “Jacob, hi. I was evaluating a combination of scents. This one needs fine tuning.”
He gave up attempting to correct his name. “Can you explain while you do it? Liam and I would love to understand the process.”
The baby gurgled and tried to stuff his fist in his mouth, as oblivious to her as she was to him. Somehow Caleb needed to feign enough enthusiasm for all three of them.
“I can’t give the scents the attention they deserve while I’m explaining. And they do deserve it. One spray of my perfume will stay potent for eighteen hours. Plus, it’s impervious to sweat.”
Caleb spread a blanket in the corner of the floor and laid Liam on it, so he could focus on Penelope. When the baby became fussy, she’d hopefully take the opportunity to calm him and bond with him.
“I take quality ingredients, mix them with others in different consistencies, and use my finely tuned olfactory nerves to detect differences. I also assess which scent best projects the personality and image the wearer is trying to achieve.”
After curling Liam’s fingers around a rattle, he returned to the lab table. “What makes you different from someone trying on samples at the perfume counter?”
“My nose and my years of studying which scents are associated with certain characteristics.” She gestured behind her where a rickety bookshelf overflowed with textbooks. “Not only are my olfactory nerves so well-tuned, I have the ability to block out everything and concentrate on my creations.”
“We have an amazing amount in common—our dedication to our work and the simplistic way people view our professions.” He could build a friendship on those principles.
The rattle slipped from Liam’s hand and fell to the blanket. He whimpered as Penelope pulled out jars of oils. She consulted a notebook, while the baby worked himself up into a full-fledged tantrum.
“Aren’t you going to do something about him?” she asked.
Caleb wanted to. Ignoring Liam’s cries was killing him. But he couldn’t consider a relationship with anyone without that person interacting and having a relationship with his son. “I could use a break. Would you mind seeing if he’ll calm down for you?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Are you one of those chauvinistic guys who won’t touch a baby if a woman is within a three-mile radius?”
“Of course not. I want to take care of him, and I have no intention of foisting him off on anyone.” So much for the plan to push her and Liam to bond. He scooped the baby off the blanket and offered him the rattle.
As he trudged to the lab table, Liam sobbed inconsolably against his shoulder. “Why don’t we take a break upstairs?” Caleb suggested. “I promise not to make you change any dirty diapers.”
Penelope glanced at the red-faced, howling child. “I need to finalize the combination of ingredients for an order. Maybe some other time.”
“I’ll look forward to it.” He tried to offer a friendly smile, but her rejection combined with Liam’s unhappiness decimated the attempt. He headed up the stairs, Liam escalating into a full-blown kicking, flailing tantrum.
At the top step, the door opened before he reached for the knob. Olivia stood on the other side, a bottle in her hand. “Why don’t you visit with your brother for a bit, and I’ll feed Liam for you.” She reached for the baby, taking him in her arms.
“Thanks.” He scrubbed his fingers through his hair.
“My pleasure. And consider yourself warned: the house is going to be invaded tomorrow afternoon by Austin’s kindergarten class for his birthday party. You’re welcome to join us, but if you want to make yourself scarce, I understand.”
“I’ll keep Liam in my room with me during the party,” he said.
“That’s probably the safest choice, but the invitation is open if you change your mind.”
He nodded, flooded with memories of his own sixth birthday as he’d cried against the closed toilet seat while his mother explained she’d cancelled his party to go on a date because a new daddy was the best present she could give him.
Liam would never experience that kind of heartbreak. With a Forever marriage in place, he would give his son the perfect childhood he’d never had.
* * * *
“Ethan, would you mind going downstairs to get Penelope? She promised to watch Austin blow out the candles.”
“No problem.” Leaving the hyperactive munchkins behind, he followed the directions to the basement. After knocking with no response, he proceeded down the stairs, immediately pummeled by a noxious smell. His eyes watered so profusely he could barely see through the haze.
Not just haze. Smoke! Orange and yellow flames shot into the air by the far wall.
Racing down the remaining stairs, he grabbed the fire extinguisher at the bottom and dashed toward the flames shooting from a toaster. He yanked the plug from the outlet, then squeezed the handle on the extinguisher.
In the cloud of white foam, the fire dissipated and sputtered out. He blinked hard, trying to check for any recurrence of flames, but his stinging eyes blurred his vision. Setting down the extinguisher, he took a deep breath. The foul air choked him.
Blotting the corners of his eyes with his sweater sleeve, he turned in search of the arsonist. Olivia had bragged about her sister’s talents, but obviously she was blinded by sisterly devotion. He saw only a glorified high school chemistry lab where the student’s experiment had gone terribly wrong.
A movement at a table caught his attention. With her back to him, a woman took a jar from the row of them lining the long, black surface. A cloud of smoke hovered over her head. Apparently, the sorceress gene ran in the family.
He didn’t wait for her to cast a spell. She’d nearly burned down the house and put the lives of fifteen children and their parents in jeopardy. He marched across the room and grabbed her shoulder, whipping her around to face him. A spiral notebook fell to the floor.
She screeched and jumped. A test tube flew from her hand and shattered at their feet, splashing God-knew-what on his Italian loafers. “You idiot, you wrecked my experiment. What do you think you’re doing?”
“Saving your life, for starters.” He’d come downstairs as a favor to her sweet, harried sister, not to play action hero for an ungrateful twerp.
“That tube held three hours of work. The combination of scents was nearly perfect, and it’s ruined.”
“Scent? Smell the air, sweetheart. It’s charred electrical wiring. No one’s going to pay you a penny to bottle it.” But he’d pay a mint for a solution to stop his eyes from burning.
Instead of turning toward the toaster, she crouched on the floor. “My notebook.”
The test tube disaster had smeared the ink into a blue puddle. She lifted the paper with great care and then shook it violently. “I worked so hard on this, and now I can’t salvage any of it. Are you trying to destroy me?”
He swiped a drop of residue off his cheek. “Who cares about your stupid experiment? Fifteen innocent children almost became as charred as the toast you tried to flame the building with.”
She blinked behind her thick lab goggles. “It’s a toaster pastry. Blueberry. My lunch. What’d you do to it?”
He dug his fingers into her shoulders, restraining himself from shaking her until she dropped the clueless, innocent act. “Don’t you get it? You almost got fried. Flames were shooting out of your toaster. From now on, you should stick to eating Olivia’s scones.”
Her eyes narrowed. Were they blue too? With the smoke and her goggles and his damn blurry visi
on, he wasn’t sure. Whatever. It didn’t matter one bit. “Who are you?”
“Ethan Paden.” Under normal circumstances, he would have offered a handshake or melted her with a kiss pressed to her knuckles, but social niceties escaped him. “Your nephew wants your presence for the ‘Happy Birthday’ song. Is your test tube more important than him?”
“Olivia could have called me and saved you the trip.”
“As if you’d notice a phone ringing when you didn’t notice a fire in the room.”
“I had my nose in the test tube,” she said, as if that explained everything. Turning away, she picked up several jars from the table and carried them to the refrigerator against the wall.
“Speaking of noticing, how come the smoke detector wasn’t going off?”
She pulled a broom and dustpan from a cabinet. “I took the batteries out a while ago. The blaring noise distracts me while I work.”
The newly awakened fireman in him shuddered. “It’s supposed to distract you to save your life.”
“The lever on the toaster doesn’t always pop up and things get a little brown around the edges. No reason to drop everything and panic.”
Frustration bubbled inside him. “You need to drop everything when you have flames shooting out of your kitchen appliances. You’re not stepping foot in this lab again until you have new batteries in your detectors and a lunch you can eat straight from the box without cooking it.”
“You don’t have the right to decide that for me.”
Seriously? She should be weeping and sputtering grateful apologies. “The hell I don’t. I care about the lives of the people upstairs. They deserve a safer environment than one inhabited by an eccentric, pyromaniac scientist.”
Chapter 8
The day had been a success, although not the business and public relations coup Caleb still held out hope for. No, he’d achieved a personal victory by spending four straight hours with Liam, most of them with the baby awake and the majority of those locked away in his room. Not once had Olivia stopped by to drop off a bottle or change a diaper or simply calm the child’s fussiness. Nope, Caleb had managed on his own.
He eased the sleeping baby into the port-a-crib, unwinding a tiny fist from the lapel of his suit coat. Then he tucked the blankets around him, switched on the monitor, and savored the innocence and peacefulness of the baby’s sleep.
Eventually, he pulled himself away and wandered down the hall. In the sitting room, Ethan and Olivia sat on the couch while Austin played with an array of toys scattered across the floor. If he hadn’t known better, he might have pegged the two adults for a Forever couple. Not only were they at ease with each other, they appeared to be good friends without any sexual innuendos, and Ethan had immersed himself in her world.
Olivia glanced over and met his gaze. “Caleb, would you like some birthday cake?”
A flawless application of the Forever steps should have filled him with triumph and satisfaction, rather than making him sick to his stomach, especially when she offered an alternative to scones. He stepped further into the room. “Sure. How did the party go?”
“Ask the big six year old yourself.” She winked at her son and then sauntered from the room.
His strides with Liam giving him confidence he could win over Olivia’s son too, he called out to Austin.
Absorbed in his Legos, the boy didn’t look up. To compete with the toys, Caleb tapped into the same persistence and patience that garnered him results as a therapist. When Austin finally lifted his head, Caleb asked, “How was your party?”
“Fun. I’m glad you missed it.” He concentrated on his Legos again.
Oo-kay, well, he didn’t need to bond with the kid. He just needed to help Austin achieve the peace and stability of a happy childhood. Caleb crouched in front of him, zeroing in on the crux of the issue. “Don’t blame yourself because your dad didn’t come.”
Austin glared at him. “He called this morning to wish me happy birthday. He was the first person to say it to me. And he’s going to take me skiing next weekend.”
“That’s great,” Caleb said weakly. Damn Olivia. How dare she allow her kid to believe promises no one intended to fulfill.
Austin jumped to his feet and spun toward Ethan. “Maybe you could take care of my mom when I’m gone.”
Caleb had endured the same burden at Austin’s age. Assuming the responsibility of caring for his mother, he’d lived with the devastation of his failure every time their lives had fallen apart. Eventually, his sense of obligation had festered into resentment, shaping his adult life.
“You want to ask someone you really trust for a big job like that,” Ethan said.
“You’d have to look after Aunt Penelope, too,” Austin added.
“She definitely needs a keeper.”
“What are you guys planning?” Reentering the room, Olivia passed Caleb a tray with a large piece of cake and a glass of milk. Her fingers brushed his wrist, sending his pulse pounding and bolts of electricity up his arm and down his spine.
Friendship above physical encounters. Unfortunately, the mantra didn’t restore his equilibrium because he had no interest in being friends with her.
“How about a sledding outing,” Austin suggested. “You and me and him.” He nodded toward Ethan.
“It’s nearly dinnertime now, but we can plan for one tomorrow afternoon,” Olivia said.
“Mr. Paden too?” Austin asked.
Ethan shrugged. “Why not? As long as I don’t have anything better to do.”
The cake stuck in Caleb’s throat. Ethan would soon move on to the next woman, and Olivia would replace him with another man. Caleb didn’t have to wonder about the revolving door’s effect on Austin. He’d lived it. He knew.
He had the power to stop it from happening to Liam, though. He only needed to embark on a Forever marriage.
* * * *
“I have the descriptions ‘unpredictable’ and ‘chaotic’ for your mother.” Penelope stood behind her lab table with her pen poised over the hideous questionnaire. “Anything you want to add?”
“No, that covers everything.” Caleb had signed on to make a scented liquid, not become a therapy patient. His eyes stung with the hint of smoke in the air, as if something in the basement had recently been charred.
“Would she prefer something sexy, or will she wear this perfume in an office setting?”
Memories of his sixth birthday as she’d drenched herself in perfume before going out to meet Ralph flooded him. “Sexy,” he said. “She’ll probably wear it for a fling.”
“She’s still having flings?” Penelope stared at him. “I thought people settled down after a certain age.”
“Some do.” Unfortunately, he doubted his mother frequented their ranks.
“But not everyone. Makes sense. Bryce will probably still be a cheating prick at ninety-seven.”
For a moment the name meant nothing. Then it rocked his world. “Olivia’s ex?”
“A different snow bunny every night,” she confirmed. After scanning the questionnaire again, she crossed the room to a cabinet full of jars. “Studies have associated different scents with certain behavioral characteristics. We’ll match our perfume ingredients with your mother’s qualities.”
She carried the jars one at a time to the table, explaining the traits of each one, but he couldn’t concentrate on anything but her revelation about Olivia’s ex.
A minute later, Olivia herself trotted down the stairs, holding Liam in her arms. “This little sweetheart had a few tears of loneliness and was wide awake in his crib. He might be hungry, but I didn’t want to feed him right away in case you have him on a specific schedule.”
Caleb stretched out his arms. Liam whimpered and buried his face in her shirt. Then he kicked his sturdy legs and grinned, lunging for Caleb.
“Did you burn a toaster pastry again, Penelope?” Olivia asked. “Something smells awful down here.”
Her cheeks flushed. “It’s nothing. I’ll
turn on a fan to get rid of the stench.”
Cuddling his boy, Caleb should have been totally focused on the fact that his baby had willing chosen his company. But he couldn’t move beyond the information that Olivia’s husband had cheated on her. She hadn’t told him, not when she mocked his friends-versus-sex theory, not when she’d explained what went wrong with her marriage. The incident strengthened her arguments. Yet, she’d omitted it.
Before he could uncover why, he needed to finish up his loose ends with Penelope. He’d spent time in her world. Now he needed her to step into his. “Penelope, can you watch Liam while I fix his bottle?”
Eyes wide, she clasped her hands behind her back. “God, no. I don’t know anything about kids. I might drop him and break him or something awful.”
“You won’t. You must have held your nephew at some point. He survived. I’ll come right back.”
“I need to clean the lab table. Olivia’s good with kids. She can take care of him.”
“The excuses you two come up with.” Olivia snatched Liam from Caleb’s arms. “Come on, sweetie. You can watch Austin play with his new birthday toys while I put dinner on the table.”
The two of them disappeared up the stairs, Liam happily swaddled in her arms. Despite her obligations, Olivia never treated his son like an inconvenience. But with Caleb’s raging hormonal urges in her presence and her hatred of his theories, they could never establish the Forever relationship his son needed for a happy, stable home.
* * * *
For a blissful moment, Olivia enjoyed a dinner surrounded by her family, a man she’d felt an instant affinity with, and...Caleb.
“I’m setting up a press conference for the middle of next week for Caleb to introduce the world to his son and put an end to the rumors that have been swirling since The Brighid Show last week,” Ethan said.
The connection she’d thought she’d shared with Ethan disintegrated. She didn’t want any reminders that she couldn’t keep Liam with her indefinitely.