Blame it on the Stars (The Blame Game)

by Hill, Jamie

  He got into the spirit of her teasing. “That adoption route worked pretty well for you.”

  “Oh, sure, that worked out super great. Craig, I’m keeping the baby. If I have nothing else, I’ll have my children.”

  “Oh, you have us too, sweetie. Come home, where we love you.”

  That was the invitation she’d been fishing for. “I’m packing now. I’ll be there in a few hours.”

  “Drive carefully. Remember, you’re driving for two now.”

  “Ha ha. See you later.” She hung up and proceeded to pack her things.

  She went to the closet and sorted out Christmas presents. Except for Chris’s, most of them were for Steve, Dana and David. She left those in the closet. She pulled out her son’s presents and packed them. She found the gifts for Jetta and Jim that she and Steve had picked out together. The simple memory brought a new round of tears. Catlin stuck their packages in the front seat, and decided to drop them off before she left town.

  When she was loaded and had taken one last look around, Catlin left and drove to Jetta’s house.

  “Hey.” Jetta answered the door. “Come in.”

  Catlin went in with the two presents in hand. “I’m leaving for Kansas City. I wanted to drop these off before I left.”

  “Thanks!” Jetta took them and set them under her tree. “Did you talk to Steve?”

  Catlin waved her empty left hand in the air. “Boy did I.” She told Jetta about their encounter and added “Oh, and guess who was with him? The former, current and future Mrs. Naughton.”

  “No way!” Jetta exclaimed.

  “Way.” Catlin nodded. “They’re off to the company Christmas party, and,” she raised her voice to a nasally whine, “Steve’s taking us skiing in Vail the week after Christmas.”

  “Well I’ll be damned!” Jetta paced around. “That’s what he was acting so funny about. She didn’t waste much time moving back in, did she?”

  “He’s a pantywaist.” Catlin shook her head. “Like I told him, first sign of trouble, he’s running back to mommy.”

  Jetta chuckled. “Gee, I can’t imagine why you argued.”

  “Yeah.” Catlin shrugged. “It was right after that when he called me a—never mind. I’m off to spend Christmas with my son, and bring him back here. I can’t wait for you to meet him!”

  “Wow, quick change of mood. I would have expected more tears.”

  “Been there, done that. Now it’s time to look ahead. I have my children to look forward to, and I can’t sit around crying all the time.”

  Jetta smiled. “Please tell me Chris isn’t a twin.”

  “What?”

  “You said ‘children’ plural. You have your ‘children’.”

  “Oh!” Catlin back pedaled. “I guess I’m going to have to get used to just the one. I’ve been thinking of Dana for a while now.”

  Jetta laughed. “But not David?”

  Catlin made a face “That little bastard. Him, I can live without.”

  Jetta laughed louder. “Oh no you can’t. You’ll have him in English second semester.”

  “Crap!” Catlin remembered, and wondered for a second how that might work out. Then she shrugged. “No more thoughts of school for two weeks. I’m off to my son!”

  Jetta hugged Catlin. “Thanks for the gifts. We, uh, got you something...but it was for the two of you. Perhaps I can rethink and come up with something more appropriate by the time you get back.”

  Catlin hugged her back. “No need. Your friendship is the greatest gift I could ever ask for. I love you, honey.”

  “You too, kid. God bless.”

  “Thanks. See you in two weeks!”

  She got in her Jaguar and headed out to the highway. She felt better than she had in ages. At least she knew what was making her sick. And it made her very happy. A corner of her heart was aching, but she blocked it out. Christmas was almost here!

  When Catlin pulled up to the house, Chris flew out the door and into her arms. “Mom!” He grinned from ear to ear.

  She hugged him to her tightly and finally pulled away. Her heart ached seeing him. She didn’t want to do this, but she had to, and she wanted to get it out of the way. “We need to talk.”

  He gazed at her, confused.

  “Help me get my stuff inside, will you please?”

  He helped her carry her bags into the house, where Craig was on the phone.

  He waved to Catlin, and continued his conversation.

  “Where’s your dad?” she asked Chris.

  He shook his head. “He said he’d be back soon.”

  “Okay.” She nodded, and they put her stuff in her room.

  Craig ended his phone call, and gave his sister a hug. “How ya doing?”

  “Pretty good.” She nodded. “Psyched for Christmas with my family.”

  “Great. Nick and I have been making plans all day.”

  “Such as?”

  He shook his head. “Nope. Have to wait for Nick. He’ll be home soon. We’ll talk tonight.”

  “Okay. But Chris and I are going to talk now. He lied to Steve on the phone and it created a huge problem.”

  “He what?” Craig stared at her.

  She on the edge of a chair and held her son’s hands as he stood in front of her. “Chris, why did you lie to Steve when he called here last weekend?”

  “I didn’t,” the boy said without much conviction.

  Craig spoke up. “What did you say?”

  “Nothing! I didn’t!”

  Catlin squeezed his hands gently. “Steve said you did. You told him that your dad and I were in bed together. It caused a big problem, Chris. Steve was so angry when I got home, he wouldn’t speak to me. When we did talk, he said some horrible things. It upset me very much.”

  “No!” Chris jerked away from her and ran to Craig, burying his face in her brother’s chest.

  Craig hugged him for a moment, then peeled him off. “Why did you do that, buddy? We’ve never approved of lying around here, especially about important stuff. Seems to me you lost your Wii for a couple weeks the last time something like this happened.”

  Chris shook his head, but didn’t reply.

  Catlin felt lousy. She hated to put him through this, but hated worse what he’d done. She rose, deciding she needed to leave the room before she really got angry. “Lost your video game for two weeks, huh? Well I lost my fiancé for good. Not quite the same, is it?” She headed toward the hallway. “I’m going to go unpack. I can’t talk about this anymore right now.”

  “Catlin,” Craig called, but she kept walking.

  She closed the door to her room and leaned against it. Tears fell fast and furious, she finally had to find some tissues to squelch the flood. She sat on the edge of her bed, trying to decide what to do.

  Chris is coming to live with me. She wanted him very much. Somehow, she had to get past the anger that seeing him brought out in her.

  I can’t undo what’s been done. Even if Chris admitted the lie to Steve, it was too late. Barbara was back, and they were preparing to celebrate Christmas as a family.

  She sobbed into her pillow for a few more minutes, until she heard a light rap at her door. She sat up and dried her eyes. “Come in.”

  Christian opened the door, a terrified expression on his face. Craig stood behind him. “He’s got something to say to you,” her brother offered.

  She looked at Chris.

  “I’m sorry,” he finally said. “I just wanted you and Dad to be together.”

  “I know you did.” She sniffled into a tissue. “I understand this whole thing has been hard on you, too. Not seeing me, then suddenly spending time together. We’re not a normal family, that’s for sure. But Chris, lying to get what you want is never the right thing to do. Your actions hurt a lot of people. Steve, and his kids—”

  “I don’t care about them! I just care about you, and Dad!” He flew into her arms.

  Catlin held him stiffly for a moment, then drew him close. S
he pulled him onto her lap and whispered to him as she rocked him back and forth. “Your dad and I are always going to be here for you. We both love you very much. But this behavior, you have to understand, it’s not the way to get what you want. Do you see that?”

  He nodded.

  She rocked him again and looked over his head at Craig as she spoke. “There’s nothing we can do about this now, we just have to move on. With the understanding that lying is not going to be tolerated in the future, in either household. And it won’t be something like losing your Wii for two weeks. I’ll take that sucker and smash it to smithereens with a ball bat! You got that?” She looked at her son.

  He grinned at her through his tears, nodding.

  Catlin and Chris got caught up on each other’s lives while Craig grilled hamburgers for dinner. Catlin was teasing him about grilling in December, but he insisted, “It’s never too cold to grill out!”

  She froze as she recalled Steve telling Jim the exact same thing. She shook her head, realizing there were going to be a lot of things that reminded her of Steve. She was going to have to put him out of her mind.

  Nick arrived before dinner with a dozen red roses. “Hello there.” He kissed the side of her head. “These are for you.”

  She inhaled the fragrant aroma as she took the flowers. “You’ve never brought me flowers in my life. Craig must have spilled the beans.”

  Nick shrugged. “How are you?”

  “Pretty good.”

  “Great.” He rubbed her shoulders, and sniffed. “I smell charcoal!”

  “Uncle Craig’s cooking hamburgers!” Chris told him.

  “Yes!” Nick made a fist and pulled it in to his waist. “This truly is a great day.”

  They ate and Catlin played games with Chris until his bedtime. She tucked him in, and pulled his door closed as she left his room.

  Craig and Nick were waiting for her in the front room. “Have a seat,” Nick said. “I want to talk to you.”

  “Yes?” She sat on the sofa. She looked at Craig as he lit up a cigarette. “Don’t smoke around me, please.” She smiled sweetly.

  “It’s colder than shit outside. One smoke isn’t going to hurt you.”

  She made a face at him, and deciding not to press the issue, turned to Nick.

  He said, “How are you, really?”

  She sighed and leaned back into the chair. “Really, I’m traumatized by this whole past week. I’m mortified by the idea that Chris spoke with Steve on the phone and made up some wild sex story that he says happened between you and me.”

  “No way!” Nick seemed surprised.

  She looked at him dully.

  He shook his head, barely suppressing a chuckle. “Why didn’t you say something when you got here? We should have confronted him about this.”

  “We took care of it.” Craig puffed on his smoke. “Chris was trying to get his parents back together. Catlin handled it.”

  “Okay.” Nick nodded. “Good. So where does this leave Steve?”

  She sighed again. “Steve gave up on me rather easily. I’m afraid he’s not the person I thought he was. He welcomed his wife back into his home, and they are getting ready for a lovely Christmas.”

  “That sucks.”

  “Yeah,” she agreed. “It really does.”

  “So,” Nick said, “What are you going to do now that you’ve got a kid on the way and no husband in sight?”

  She coughed and choked on that one. “Gee, that was subtle. Well, I guess I’ll stay home and live on welfare and child support. I certainly won’t have a job when I start to show.”

  He grinned. “So is that what you want, welfare and child support?”

  “Have you got any other suggestions? I’m open to hearing them.”

  “As a matter of fact, I do. Why don’t you marry me?”

  She laughed out loud. “Yeah, sure. Let’s do the Time Warp again,” she sang.

  His expression remained stoic. “I’m not joking. It might be a marriage of convenience, but it certainly would solve your problem.”

  She stared at him. “You’re serious?”

  Nick nodded.

  She looked at Craig.

  Craig nodded.

  Catlin laughed. “Why would you want to marry me? Wouldn’t that cut down on your action, so to speak?”

  Nick grinned. “Not necessarily. I mean, I’ll give you some creative control over the situation. If you’re interested, we could have a real relationship. If it’s too soon or you just don’t want to go down that path again, we could have what they call an ‘open’ marriage.”

  Catlin tried to wrap her mind around what Nick told her. “Again, I have to ask, why? Why would you consider such a thing?”

  “Well, for Chris, of course. He could finally have the family he’s always wanted. Plus, it solves your little problem. We get married, you announce you’re pregnant in a month or so, what can they say?”

  “If they do they math, they can say plenty. The doctor says I’m due in June. That means I was pregnant before we got married.”

  “So.” Nick shrugged. “You fib on the date a little. Tell them you’re due in September. You finish out the school year. The baby is early. By that time, who cares? You take the next year or so off with the kid....”

  Craig spoke up. “Sounds plausible to me.”

  She nodded thoughtfully, her mind spinning. “I guess it would solve my problem. But I don’t know.” She’d never let herself think about her wedding to Steve, but in the back of her mind she envisioned herself in a beautiful, sexy dress with lots of flowers and her friends around her. This seemed so...not what she had hoped for.

  “You can think about it,” Nick was saying to her. “But there is one other thing. You’ll never have to be on welfare. I’ll make sure you’re taken care of, whether you marry me or not.”

  She smiled gratefully.

  Craig said, “That jackass in Marshall has more than enough money to take care of you, too. You’ll want to hit him up for major child support.”

  Catlin shook her head. “No. Steve can’t know about the baby. I don’t need that in my life, for damn sure.”

  Craig chuckled as he puffed his smoke. “Didn’t you say you teach his kids? I think they might realize you’re getting fat.”

  She shot him a look. “Didn’t you say one smoke? That’s about three, I think.”

  Craig waggled his brows.

  Catlin looked at Nick. “So, if I marry you, do we have to take him on our honeymoon?” She pointed her thumb at her brother.

  Nick smiled. “Will there be a honeymoon? That sounds too delicious to be true.”

  Catlin laughed. “We’ll see about the honeymoon. But I guess I accept. It sure would make my life easier.”

  “Yeah!” Nick jumped up and high-fived Craig, and then dropped down on to the sofa next to Catlin. “You’ve made me very happy. And I’m going to make you very happy.” He put his head on her shoulder and looked so much like a little boy, she had to laugh.

  She said, “So, how shall we do this? When shall we do this?”

  Craig spoke up, “Monday, you two go get your marriage license. There’s a three-day waiting period before you can get married. Tuesday night’s Christmas Eve, we’ll celebrate Christmas. Thursday you can get yourself ready, and Friday you tie the knot. Chris and I can stand up for you.”

  Catlin looked at him. “Too bad you haven’t given this any thought,” she said sarcastically.

  He nodded. “It’s going to be perfect.”

  Catlin wrung her hands nervously. “What about your parents, Nick? Don’t they want to see you and Chris for Christmas?”

  “We had an early Christmas with them. I didn’t think you’d want to spend a lot of time with Ramona.”

  She laughed. “Or maybe she didn’t want to spend time with me?”

  Nick waved his hands in the air and shrugged.

  Craig puffed away.

  Their first Christmas together was as wonderful as Catlin
could have imagined. Chris was thrilled with all his gifts, and having his parents together. It was only in the evenings, when Catlin was alone in her room, that she let herself think about Steve. She cried herself to sleep every night.

  The day after Christmas, Craig announced, “I’m taking you shopping. We’ll get you something beautiful to wear for the ceremony.”

  Catlin shook her head. “It’s a Justice of the Peace. I don’t have to wear anything fancy.”

  Nick touched her chin. “Yes, you do. I am, anyway. So you might want to keep up.”

  She grinned. “What are you wearing?”

  “I’m not telling. Just let Craig buy you something special.”

  Catlin agreed, and she and Craig found a long pink strapless dress with layers of ruffles that fell from the waist to the floor. It had a sheer, long sleeved jacket that made it just perfect for the cooler weather.

  “This is it.” Craig nodded. “You look amazing in ruffles.”

  They found a pink headband that matched, and they made her an appointment the next day to have her hair styled and a manicure. She changed into her pink dress, and the girls in the shop helped her primp.

  She was feeling very pampered and beautiful when Craig picked her up.

  “Look at you!” She smiled at Craig in a tux. “You look fantastic!” He had his hair pulled back slickly into a ponytail. “Where are your curls?” she teased.

  “I didn’t want to look too much like you today.” He grinned. He drove her to the courthouse, where she expected to be married in some dingy little office. But right next to the courthouse there was a small park, and Catlin was surprised to see Nick, Chris and the judge there.

  Her heart melted seeing Nick and Chris in tuxes matching Craig’s. She had to wipe at her eyes to keep the tears in. It was cold, but the sun was shining so it didn’t feel too bad. Catlin and Craig joined the others, and Nick smiled at her.

  “You look beautiful.”

  “So do you.” She hugged Chris. “So do you, my handsome guy!”

  Chris beamed. “You’re the best looking mom I’ve ever seen.”

  “Thank you.”

  Nick introduced her. “Catlin, this is Judge Green.”