Blame it on the Stars (The Blame Game)

by Hill, Jamie

  “Hello.” She smiled again.

  The judge said, “I second your son’s opinion. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” He shook her hand. “Shall we get started?”

  Nick handed Catlin a bouquet of flowers, and she fought back tears. He’d thought of everything.

  The judge started the ceremony, and when he got to the part about the rings, Catlin made a face at Nick. She hadn’t thought about rings since she’d given the teardrop back to Steve.

  Nick reached in his pocket. He pulled out a large round diamond ring with a thin silver wedding band attached to it.

  Catlin gasped at how huge it was. The stone was much bigger than teardrop diamond. “Oh Nick, you shouldn’t have!”

  “Shh.” He slipped it on her finger. He handed her his plain silver band, so she could place it on him.

  The judge said, “You may kiss the bride,” and Nick smiled. He reached for Catlin and drew her into a soft kiss. They both jumped when they were grabbed around their waists by Chris, who was beaming from ear to ear, hugging his parents.

  “Pictures!” Craig called out, and they posed for some shots that Craig snapped. They thanked the judge, and gathered their things. “Chris,” Craig said. “You’re coming with me, bud. Mom and Dad are going on their honeymoon.”

  Catlin looked at Nick in surprise. “What?”

  He shrugged. “Just one night at the Plaza.”

  She suddenly felt nervous.

  “Don’t worry,” he whispered, and kissed the side of her head. “No strings. Just dinner, relaxing, quiet. It’ll be fine.”

  Craig handed her keys to Nick. “Your suitcases are in the car. Have fun, and we’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Catlin hugged her son, then her brother. “Thank you,” she told Craig.

  He touched her cheek. “You deserve to be happy.”

  As she got into her car she wondered why she felt so lousy. Deep down she knew why, but she wouldn’t let herself think about Steve.

  Their hotel room was beautiful, with flowers, champagne, and sparkling grape juice for her. Catlin changed into jeans and a sweater, as did Nick. She looked at him. “I feel like a teenager again. But I just keep thinking, what now?”

  He smiled. “How about dinner? I ordered room service. It should be here at six.”

  She nodded. “I could eat.” She looked at the ring on her finger. “Holy crap, Nick. You must have spent a bundle on this ring.”

  He laughed. “Half a bundle, maybe.”

  She waved it around in front of her face. “I guess I can pawn it if I get desperate.”

  “Hey,” he scolded her. “You’re never going to be desperate again. You’re my wife now, and we have money.”

  She laughed as she sat down and kicked her feet up. “We never used to have money. We had to sneak into the movies half the time.”

  “Nah.” He waved his hand at her. “We had money. I just liked to sneak in because it was sexier. Doing it in the balcony was twice as dangerous if you didn’t even have a ticket.”

  Catlin laughed again. “Dangerous, your middle name.”

  There was a knock at their door, and the room service waiter brought in dinner. They ate steak and shrimp, two of Catlin’s favorites. She was feeling comfortable and happy when dinner was over, and Nick dimmed the lights.

  “What are you doing?” She was nervous again.

  “Just going to put on some music and relax,” he informed her.

  “Cool.” She leaned back and snuggled into the sofa.

  They sat quietly for a while, it was peaceful and relaxing.

  “I’m sorry,” she finally whispered.

  “I told you, no strings. Unfortunately, the honeymoon suite only has one bed. I can ride the sofa.”

  “Or I can. It’s pretty big.”

  He shoved her shoulder lightly. “Take the bed. I mean it.”

  “Thanks Nick. You’ve been a stand-up guy about all of this. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.”

  “I know.” He winked.

  When they arrived home the next day, Craig informed them of a change in plans. The band would be leaving that day for New York.

  “Shit, I thought we were going tomorrow!” Nick complained.

  Craig shook his head. “Sorry. They need us for pre-tour interviews and a media blitz. We’ve got to take off tonight to get it all done.”

  Nick wrapped his arms around Catlin. “I’m glad we had last night, then.”

  She smiled. Was his comment for Craig’s benefit, to make it sound like they’d had a romantic evening? She wasn’t sure, but knew things would be easier once they were gone. She sucked in a breath and tried to be affectionate. “Yeah. Last night was great.” She still felt a little nauseous, and wasn’t sure it was because of the baby.

  They spent the day packing Nick and Craig for the tour, and Chris to go to Marshall. They closed down the house, and by nightfall everyone was ready to go. A taxi picked up Nick and Craig to go to the airport. Nick hugged Chris, and then Catlin. “I’ll call you when I can. Take care of each other.”

  “Bye,” she told him “Have a great trip.”

  She hugged Craig, and they took off. Catlin looked at her son. “Let’s go home.”

  He hugged her, and they squeezed into the Jaguar, loaded down with Christmas presents and Chris’s stuff.

  He fell asleep once they hit the highway. Catlin turned the radio on low, and glanced over at her son. Thoughts flooded her mind. She was glad Nick was gone for now. It’d give her a chance to get over Steve and get acquainted with Chris.

  Nick will be gone for three months. She’d be pretty big when he got back. What kind of a relationship would they have? She needed to get used to the idea of this new life.

  She left Chris sleeping in the car when she got home, and unloaded just what they’d need that night. The first thing she noticed when she walked in were two keys lying on her kitchen table. She looked around, and saw lots of her things. She realized they were the things she had left at Steve’s. She looked to see if there was a note, but there was nothing.

  She would have to take him his things. She would write a note.

  But when she started looking around, she realized Steve had taken his things. She ran to her closet and threw the door open. His clothes were gone, but for the one sweater. It was there, by itself, in the middle of the partially empty closet. She touched it, smelled it, and moved it to the back. Far enough back that she didn’t have to see it every day, but she would always know it was there.

  Catlin turned down the bed sheets on the twin bed she had squeezed into the front room. It wasn’t ideal, but it would work until she found a bigger place. She went out to her car, and woke Chris. “We’re home, honey. Come inside.”

  The sleepy boy let her lead him in to his bed, and he fell into it. She pulled off his shoes, and covered him up. It was late, that would have to do for tonight. She shut the lights off and went to bed.

  Tired as she was, she couldn’t sleep.

  She made breakfast for Chris the next morning, and told him they were going to church. He didn’t argue, just asked what he should wear. Catlin helped him pick out some clothes, and went to get dressed herself. Once again, she found herself dressing for Steve instead of the Lord. She picked out the sexiest dress she could get away with in church, and put it on. She laughed to herself all the way there.

  Catlin saw his BMW parked on the street. She parked a few cars away. “Come on, son. Looks like we’re late.”

  She led Chris into the back of the church, where mass was just beginning. Catlin peered through the crying children windows to see if she could spot Steve. He and his whole family were sitting in their usual section. Catlin looked around some more and spotted Jim and Jetta a few rows in front of Steve. There were empty seats next to them. Perfect!

  She removed her coat and carried it over her arm. Pulling Chris with the other hand, she whispered, “Come on, honey.” They headed down the aisle. Catlin put a little extra swing in her hip
s. They got to the Craft’s row and stopped.

  “Hey!” Jetta smiled up at her friend, and nudged Jim to scoot down.

  Catlin moved in next to them. She kept her arm around Chris, sitting on the end.

  “What are you dressed for, the Oscars?” Jetta whispered to Catlin.

  “The Naughtons,” Catlin answered, and Jetta looked at her.

  Jim leaned over to them. “Shh!” He caught a glimpse of the ring Catlin was wearing, and lifted her hand. “What in the world?”

  Jetta’s eyes popped out.

  Catlin shook her head. “I’ll tell you later.”

  The mass went on, and when it was time to shake hands with the people around them, Catlin found herself looking back at Steve. He looked tired and grouchy. That made Catlin happy.

  After mass, she sent Jim to find out what had happened to the Naughton’s ski trip.

  Jim said, “I’ll go, but first I want an explanation about that ring. We need details, woman.”

  “Well,” Catlin inhaled “Chris’s father and I got married after Christmas.”

  Jetta’s mouth dropped open, and she sat back down in her seat.

  “Oh, Jetta, Jimmy, this is my son Chris. Chris, these are my best friends Jetta and Jim Craft.”

  “Hi, kiddo.” Jetta smiled at him.

  “Hi,” Chris said shyly.

  “Well, hello.” Jim shook hands with Chris. “How are you?”

  Chris nodded. “Fine.”

  “That’s some haircut you got there.” Jim ran a hand over the spiked top.

  Catlin realized how long it had gotten in back, while she hadn’t been paying attention.

  “It’s just like my dad’s,” Chris replied with a touch of defensiveness.

  Catlin said, “I was thinking a trim might be in order. Boys in Marshall don’t usually wear their hair that long.”

  Chris looked at her. “I’ll think about it.”

  She hugged him sideways. “You do that. She looked at Jim. “Ski trip?”

  He rolled his eyes. “Be right back.” He exited, and Catlin slipped on her coat. “Man, its cold in here.”

  Jetta started to comment about Catlin’s dress, when Jim returned.

  He grinned. “This is so seventh grade. Steve says that dress is not appropriate for church. And they’re leaving today for the ski trip. They’ll be back Saturday. If you want to know anything else, he’s sitting out front in his car.”

  “Hmpff.” Catlin rolled her eyes.

  Jim smiled at Jetta. “See, this is all going to work out. They just need a little more time.”

  “And two divorces,” she reminded him.

  He scratched his head. “Oh, yeah.”

  About an hour after they got home from church, Catlin received a phone call.

  “Hey, honey, it’s Jimmy.”

  “Hi!” she answered “What’s up?”

  “I think I made a mistake. I just wanted to let you know.”

  “What, Jimmy?”

  “Well, Steve called. He was pumping me for information about you, the same way you were.”

  “Really?” Catlin was surprised.

  “I told him, I’m all for getting you two back together, but if you’re both going to be married to other people, I don’t see much chance of that happening.”

  “Oh shit. You told him that?”

  “Yeah,” Jim admitted. “Sorry.”

  “What did he say?”

  “He wanted to know what I meant, so I told him you got married to Chris’s father. Our conversation ended shortly after that. He sounded pissed.”

  Catlin swallowed. “Oh well. He was going to find out when school starts anyway. I’m using my married name now.”

  “Oh, you are? Well, what the hell is it?”

  “Prescott. Catlin Prescott.” She smiled at her son.

  “Okay, I’ll pass that along to interested parties.”

  “You’re the best, you know?”

  “Yeah, I know. See you.”

  “Bye.” She hung up, and faced her son. “Well, shall we see if we can fill up this dresser I got for you? Try to empty a few of these suitcases?”

  “I think we should hook up the Nintendo.” Chris smiled hopefully.

  She laughed. “Ah, now I’ve got a bribe going for me. After we get everything else unpacked, then we’ll hook up the Nintendo.”

  “Ohh!” Chris moaned, but the unpacking went really fast.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Catlin and Chris had a full week together before school started up again. They rang in the New Year with pizza and videos. She convinced him to cut his hair, it still reached his shoulders in back, but she thought it looked better with layers. They talked with Nick and Craig a couple times on the phone; the band was in New York, getting ready to head to London for their first stop.

  The Monday that school started up again, Catlin walked Chris to the fourth grade room in the elementary school at St. Joseph’s. It was across the street from her school, and Chris would walk to her classroom when he was dismissed. He was happy and didn’t seem nervous, which made Catlin glad, because she was very nervous, for him, and herself.

  Her first stop in her building was to speak with Frank.

  “Miss McCall. How are you? How were your holidays?” Frank motioned her into his office.

  “Fine. How about yourself?”

  “Very good. Kids got spoiled rotten by Santa and all that jazz. You know how it is.”

  She sat down. “Actually, this year I do, Frank. Have you got just a moment? I need to tell you something.”

  “Of course.”

  “Well,” she started “I got married over the holidays.”

  “No fooling? That’s wonderful! I knew you two were a match, I could just tell—”

  “Frank,” she interrupted him. “I married an old boyfriend from home, Nick Prescott.”

  “Oh.” Frank’s face fell. He tried to recover, and smiled quickly. “That’s nice. I’m sorry Catlin, I just thought you and Steve—well, you know.”

  “I know. But Steve’s wife is back. Apparently they are together again.”

  “No!” Frank face registered true surprise.

  “Yes. And there’s one more thing I need to tell you. My husband and I have a son. Nick’s been raising him, but he’s living with me now. I enrolled him across the street. I thought you should know.”

  The surprised expression lingered. “All right. Thank you for telling me. My, you did have a busy holiday, didn’t you?”

  She laughed, and shook his hand. “Yes I did. It’ll be good to come back to school and get some rest.”

  In her classroom, Catlin wrote in big letters on the board, “Mrs. Prescott.” When the yearbook staff reported for first hour, she noticed Dana was absent. She made some holiday small talk, then told the students, “I guess I should tell you, I got married over vacation. My name is now Mrs. Prescott.”

  Clint fell back, like an arrow had been shot through his heart.

  She smiled at him. “You’re young, you’ll recover.”

  He frowned. “You’ll always be the ‘Divine Miss M’ to me.” He looked around to make sure no one else was listening. “I sort of figured the new last name would be Naughton. This is a surprise.”

  “To lots of people,” Catlin replied flippantly. “Apparently Mrs. Naughton wasn’t through with her husband. Dana’s mother is back in the picture. Didn’t she tell you?”

  “No.” Clint shook his head. “I mean, we were finally starting to be friends again, when right before Christmas she became surly as hell. I figured she was going through something at home, so I’ve given her some space.”

  Catlin nodded. “We all were.” She looked around the room “Any idea where she is?”

  Clint shook his head.

  “Oh well. Better get cracking. There are new winter dance pictures back there to work with.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” He nodded and got busy.

  Catlin made her name change speech for each of her cl
asses. She now had David Naughton in her American Literature class third hour, and she hoped he wouldn’t cause any problems.

  She was passing out novels to the class, when she heard David mutter to several boys around him. “She thinks she’s so frickin’ hot.”

  One of the other boys said, “Have you seen her car? Now that is hot.”

  David snorted. “It’s no big deal. She better be careful, though. Bad things can happen to cars in the school parking lot.”

  Catlin slapped David’s copy of the novel down on his desk in front of him. Her eyes met his. “Nothing bad has happened to it yet. I guess if something does, Mrs. Craft’s husband and the rest of the police department will know where to start asking questions.”

  David gazed at her innocently and shrugged.

  She walked back up to the front of the room, hating the angry feeling he gave her. For just a moment, she wondered how they would make it through the semester.

  Dana was in her English class, but she wouldn’t look at Catlin. She talked out loud to her friends when Catlin turned away, and was generally obnoxious. Catlin’s head started to pound.

  The bright spot of her day was when Chris walked through her door at three-fifteen.

  “Hey!” She smiled at him. “So, how was it?”

  “It was great!” He sat down to tell her about his classes and a couple new friends he made.

  Relief washed over her as he bubbled on an on. Oh, to be nine years old again. When life was good—or at least, a lot less complicated.

  After they talked and Catlin finished a lesson plan, they gathered their things and walked to the parking lot.

  “What sounds good for dinner?” she asked as she unlocked the car doors.

  “Pizza!” Chris grinned.

  “We can’t eat pizza every night.” She drove home.

  “Maybe just this once, to celebrate the first day of school?”

  She relented. “Pizza it is. Remember where the coupons are?”

  He nodded, and when they got home, he ran for them.

  Catlin looked around the crowded living room and sighed. “I’m sorry this place is so small, honey. I wish you had a real room.”

  Chris shrugged. “I like it. I can play Nintendo from my bed. And you can’t send me to my room!”