Family Matters (DiCarlo Brides book 4) (The DiCarlo Brides)

by Tullis, Heather

  “Then it’s good she has all of us. Because one of us is going to be there for her, even if the rest of us are clueless,” Sage said with a firm nod.

  Yeah, that worked for now, but if Rosemary took Cleo back to DC at the end of her contract, who would be there for her then?

  “I wonder,” Cami said tentatively. “Do you think maybe you shouldn’t announce to the world that she’s your daughter?”

  Rosemary glared at her. “Right, because I want her to think I’m ashamed of her? Not a chance.”

  “I don’t mean that,” Cami said.

  “No, but you don’t know what you’re saying,” Delphi said. “You’ve never felt like a second-class citizen because Dad wouldn’t acknowledge you in public. You never had to be his dirty little secret, and have visits with him, but not be allowed to go places with him where someone might know you, because then someone might find out and ruin his life.”

  “You weren’t...” Cami seemed to reconsider what she was saying. “You felt like that?” She looked at the four half-sisters. As one of George DiCarlo’s legitimate offspring, she hadn’t dealt with the same issues as the rest of the girls.

  “Not often,” Sage said, “but sometimes.”

  “A lot.” Rosemary nodded.

  “All the time,” Delphi said.

  “I knew he loved me, but yeah, I felt it. I couldn’t tell anyone, couldn’t tell my friends about my fun trips with him and had to make excuses when he came to town for why I couldn’t do stuff with them. Everyone else just said they were hanging with their dads for the weekend,” Jonquil said. “If I’d said that, people would have wanted to meet him, so... lie, lie, lie.”

  Cami and Lana looked at each other in dismay. Apparently this hadn’t occurred to them at all. They hadn’t known any of the others existed until the reading of George’s will and definitely hadn’t experienced any of it themselves.

  “Wow, now I feel like an obtuse idiot,” Lana muttered.

  “Serve me up some of that.” Cami leaned back in Vince’s arm. “And then he announced it to the world after he was dead so he wouldn’t have to face the questions.”

  “Yeah.” Rosemary shifted in her seat. It had been a weak and selfish thing to do, but as much as Rosemary resented that fact, she still loved him.

  “That said, Cami’s not entirely wrong, either,” Delphi said.

  Rosemary glared at her. “What do you mean?”

  “Cleo just lost her parents—the only ones she’s known. She’s always known you, but it’s not like she’s had time to adjust to the fact that you’re her birth mom, and you moved her halfway—more than halfway—across the country to start a new school. Maybe she doesn’t want to tell anyone yet. You should let her decide whether or not to spread the word.”

  Rosemary couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “But I’ve spent the past nine years having to keep this secret and I don’t want her to feel like I don’t care, like I don’t want her.” How could Delphi say that?

  “This isn’t about you. This is about her.” Delphi’s gaze was direct, her voice low. “Let her decide. Tell her you want to be open about your relationship, but that she gets to control who knows and when. You’ve had choices in this, Rosemary. They may have been really awful options, and the situation was crap, but you were an adult and you had options when you gave her up. Dad would have helped you out if you decided to keep her, we both know he would have. She needs options now so she can feel in control of something.”

  Rosemary felt her jaw twitch as she held her tongue, trying not to spew her anger. Trying to take a moment to consider what Delphi was saying. She thought of how devastated Cleo was, and how she would feel if it were her—could she even guess how Cleo would feel? Finally she nodded. “Okay. I’ll make it her choice.”

  It grated on her to agree with Delphi about anything, but Cleo did need some control, and this one wouldn’t kill Rosemary—she’d still get to have her daughter living in the house with her full time. That’s what mattered, right?

  Cleo listened from the balcony that overlooked the open kitchen, dining and great rooms. She’d thought from the way they joked earlier that they were all good friends; she didn’t realize they had arguments and fights too. And they were fighting about her. She was relieved that Rosemary would let her tell people when she was ready, but was afraid they would get sick of her and send her away. Her Uncle Mike said she was a pain—would Rosemary think so too? She got rid of her once before, even if she said she didn’t want to. What if Cleo never wanted people to know and Rosemary got sick of keeping the secret?

  When the subject changed to something about the hotel, Cleo returned to her bed, sliding in soundlessly. She liked it here—not as much as home, but it was better than living with one of her uncles. These people seemed nice, mostly. She decided to be extra good so they would let her stay.

  Cleo looked nervous as they sat at the island the next morning eating muffins and orange juice. Well, Cleo was eating muffins and orange juice, Rosemary was having a cup of coffee, black, and half a wheat English muffin. She hated them, but it was fewer calories and she had to stick to her diet.

  Sage came breezing in the door to the garage, her dark curls springing out all over her head. “Hello, I hoped I’d catch you before you left for school.” She helped herself to one of the muffins and poured hot water for tea.

  “No food at your place?” Rosemary asked, amused. This was why Harrison thought he could still just drop into the house randomly, even though his sister hadn’t lived here in over two months. They did tend to have an open-door policy for family and friends.

  Had he been right? Were they some sort of friends? After their dinners together in DC, she thought they might be and wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

  “No, actually, I came to give Cleo a bit of good news.” She filled the tea ball full of her favorite tea mix—which she blended herself—making them wait while she fiddled with everything.

  “Yes,” Rosemary said to Cleo’s questioning look. “She’s always like this. You get used to it. Give her a minute to finish playing with her drink and then maybe she’ll have enough attention left over to share with us.”

  “Oh, yes, sorry.” Sage set the cup of tea beside her plate and looked at Cleo. “I have the strongest feeling that today is a day of change for you, but that good things are coming your way. I know you’re going to make a super friend today.” She beamed at them both as if that said it all, then took a bite of muffin.

  “Well, then, you’re bound to have a great start at your school, just like I was saying,” Rosemary said to Cleo.

  Cleo wore a look of total disbelief. Not surprising seeing as how she’d never been exposed to Sage’s astrology readings—which weren’t actually astrological, but some other thing she attributed to the stars. “What about Rosemary? What’s her day going to be like?”

  “Oh, I don’t know about her. Sometimes things come to me, and I know stuff, but not for her, not today. You’re the one the stars have aligned for.” Sage took a sip of her tea, then checked her watch. “Shouldn’t you be heading out by now?”

  “Yes. You’re right.” Rosemary downed the end of her coffee and wished the English muffin had been a little bit bigger. “Grab your backpack and off we go.”

  Cleo dragged herself from the island after finishing her juice. She slid into her coat, grabbed her bag and snatched the end of her muffin to finish in the car. When they were on the road, she turned to Rosemary. “Sage’s what you were talking about when you said everyone is insane, right? Who really believes in the stars?”

  “Almost everyone, when Sage tells us things. I have no idea where she gets it all from, but she’s right a lot, like a real-life fortune teller.” Sage used to hide her predictions by mixing them into horoscope readings from the newspaper, but she’d given up on that before Christmas.

  “How much is a lot?”

  “Always. She is so accurate it’s spooky. I don’t mean like once in a while she’s r
ight, or most of the time you can twist it to be right, I mean every single time she says something like that, she’s right on target. The day of the bombing, she came to the kitchen to tell me that there was going to be a tragedy, but that it would bring amazing opportunities too. And here you are.”

  Cleo looked uncertain at best. “You think I’m an amazing opportunity?”

  “Yeah, I do. I’m not saying that being in charge of you doesn’t scare the beejeebees out of me, because it does, but even though I would way rather have your parents alive,” Rosemary fought to keep her voice level, but heard it crack, “I’m really glad that you were able to live with me, since you had to live with someone.”

  “I’m a problem to you,” Cleo said solemnly. “Someone to worry about getting from one thing to the next. I heard you talking about it with the others this morning, trying to figure out who would pick me up and where I would go after school today.”

  Rosemary hadn’t realized Cleo had been able to hear. “You’re not a problem. Circumstances could be easier, but you’re never a problem. It’ll be all good, and Jonquil will pick you up from school this afternoon.” She wanted to shift the focus of the subject. “So, Sage has blessed your day with smiles and new friends. All will be well.”

  “Right.” Cleo still looked doubtful.

  Harrison glanced out in the parking lot at the end of the workday and noticed Rosemary’s car was still parked out there. He was surprised, considering this was Cleo’s first day of school. Why wasn’t Rosemary home with her daughter?

  He walked to the kitchen and stuck his head into the office where Rosemary was bent over her desk, her blond hair braided down her back and a cup of coffee sitting beside her. He wondered if she had totally forgotten that it was there and if it was cold. When she reached out absent-mindedly and picked it up, sipped, then pulled a face and put it down again, he knew his guess was correct.

  A shuffling noise to his right had him peeking around the door to see Cleo huddled over a book at a make-shift desk, an annoyed expression on her face.

  “Hey, kiddo.”

  Rosemary didn’t react at all to his voice, as if she’d known he was there, but Cleo smiled in greeting. “Harrison, what are you doing here?” She glared at Rosemary. “She keeps saying we’re going home soon. But she never leaves the computer. She keeps flipping through papers and swearing, then typing like crazy.” A dimple appeared in one cheek and her lips quirked when she lifted her voice. “When we got here, she said everyone was insane. Was she talking about herself, too?”

  Rosemary whipped around and glared at Cleo, but it was only half serious.

  Harrison nodded. “Yeah, she’s as crazy as the rest of them. I’m sorry you have to live there, but it’ll never be boring.”

  “Well this is boring. I finished my homework a long time ago, and the book I got at school is for babies. I read it in second grade.”

  “I’m almost done. I promise. I just have to catch up on paperwork after being gone all week,” Rosemary said. She looked at Harrison with impatience. “What are you doing here? Did I forget some paperwork?”

  “No. I just popped in to see what was going on. How about if I take Cleo around the hotel and show her the cool stuff while you finish that up? Then you can take her home.” He tried to keep the censure out of his voice, but her scowl said she’d caught it.

  “Please?” Cleo stood quickly, sticking a bookmark between the pages of her chapter book.

  “That’s fine. I’m sorry, bug. I didn’t mean to be here so long.” Rosemary sighed, then explained to Harrison. “Jonquil was supposed to take her home, but this afternoon they rented the presidential suite for tonight, so she’s been doing all new flower arrangements for it.” She shifted her attention back to Cleo. “I promise, when Harrison brings you back, no matter what I’m in the middle of, we’ll go, okay?”

  “Okay.” Cleo tucked the book in her backpack, then looked at Harrison. “I’m ready. Where’re we going?”

  Seeing the hotel through the eyes of a nine-year-old who had never been anywhere this fancy was a revelation. Harrison vaguely remembered his own first encounter with one of George DiCarlo’s luxury resorts, but he had been quite young at the time—several years younger than Cleo—and it hadn’t meant as much to him.

  Cleo was bright and full of questions, asking about how they cleaned the pool, and why there were trees inside the solarium, and who took care of them, and if she could study there some time. She was eager to try the cup of cocoa the girl working at the café offered her, and was disappointed when Harrison told her it was too close to dinner for a cinnamon roll or cupcake.

  “We never have anything good, except when other people are around. Rosemary hardly eats anything and it’s always healthy—which must mean yucky because English muffins are gross.”

  Harrison had noticed Rosemary’s eating habits as well, and had hoped that she ate more at other times, since their dinner schedules didn’t mesh often. But from the fact that she looked as emaciated as a model for Cosmo, he doubted she indulged much. He was sure she hadn’t been that thin when they met again that summer. “Maybe she’ll do better now that you’re here, and she’s home again. Being away from home can be hard for some people.” But he knew he was just placating her.

  She made a non-committal noise in response.

  “How was school today?” he asked eventually.

  “Fine. Your sister—Sage is your sister, right?” When he nodded, she continued, “She came by this morning to tell me that I was going to have a good day and make a friend.” Her face was bright with excitement.

  He smiled. “Yeah? I bet you did too, because she’s amazing like that.”

  “Yeah, Hannah is so cool and we’re going to get together and hang out. Is Sage always right? Rosemary says she is but my mom said psychics are like magicians and none of it’s real.”

  “Most of the time I think you’re right, but if Sage says the stars have a message for you, she’s not making it up.” He leaned in and lowered his voice conspiratorially. “I don’t think she really gets it from the stars. She’s just got a gift for knowing things, and I’ve never known her to be wrong.”

  Cleo’s eyes were bright with curiosity. “Weird.”

  “Yup.”

  “So if I asked her if I was going to pass my test in school...”

  He laughed. “It doesn’t work that way, kiddo. Sorry. She can’t control what information she gets. You’ll just have to take it as she gives it to you and be happy about it. And study for your tests so Rosemary doesn’t have to go all bossypants on you.”

  They walked along in silence for a while longer on their way back to the kitchen when Cleo spoke. “Do you think Rosemary is sorry my parents made her take me now?”

  He looked at her in surprise. “What? No. Why would you think that?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know, it’s just that she seems really stressed out all the time, and it’s only been a week. And, well, she gave me up for adoption, so she must not have wanted me.” She bit her lip and looked at him from the corner of her eye, like she was afraid to look at him straight on.

  His heart went out to her—to both of them. It was a rough situation. He stopped in the middle of the hall and crouched down, so he faced her nose-to-nose, then lowered his voice again. “You know what she told me when she found out she was going to get to bring you home?”

  “What?”

  “That you deserved someone better to raise you than her. She’s worried. She wants to be a great mom, but she doesn’t feel like she’ll do a good job.”

  Cleo’s hand slid into his, giving it a squeeze. “That’s silly. How could she be a bad mom?”

  He smiled and straightened. “I don’t know, especially with someone like you helping her out.”

  Cleo smiled as they entered the kitchen a few seconds later. She headed straight for the office. “You said we could go now.”

  Rosemary looked at her computer a little wistfully, as if she didn�
��t want to leave it yet, but nodded. She saved her file and shut down the computer. “The rest can wait. What do you want for dinner tonight?”

  “Pizza!”

  Rosemary reached out and pressed the hair back from Cleo’s face. “You always say that.”

  “I always want it.”

  “All right, I’ll make French bread pizzas tonight. We’ll stop by the store and get some bread.”

  “Sounds good. You don’t think you’ll have extra, do you?” Harrison asked. He could always go for dinner if Rosemary was cooking, and he wanted to talk to her about what Cleo had said.

  Rosemary eyed him. “I suppose, if you promise to behave.”

  He felt a tug of attraction at her smile, as he always did. “I can try.”

  “Close enough.” She grabbed her coat and purse and they headed for the door.

  He decided to consider that a good sign.

  There was only one regular grocery store in Juniper Ridge and the organic store closed early, so Rosemary wasn’t surprised to see the place packed. The clientele ran from harried housewives to glamorous spa visitors and snow bunnies to families with young children. She smiled as they moved through the crowds, Cleo’s hand in hers. She was here with her daughter for the first time. This wouldn’t be the last, either. As they made their way to the bakery, she waved to several people she had met in the past six months. If she’d been thinking ahead, she would have mixed up some dough that morning so she could bake it when she arrived home. She would have to start thinking about regular meals now her daughter was around.

  “Rosemary, how nice to see you. You too, Harrison.” Etta eyed them speculatively, but if she was making two plus two equal five, she didn’t say so.

  Rosemary looked up into the friendly blue eyes of Vince’s mother. “Hello. How is the winter treating you? Vince said the ice has been a hassle for you to get in and out of your driveway.”