by Bree Cariad
Gerald stood up and accompanied him to the front door with Kathy gaping after them. As she turned to her mother, Carilyn started to giggle. “You should see your face.”
Trying to ignore that, Kathy stood up, wincing a little, and gathered the plates. “I’m sure there is something wrong with him,” she said airily. “After all… wow.”
Laughing, sounding delighted, her mother brought in the rest of the dishes. “I have to agree with you. He kind of has the whole package, doesn’t he? Good looking, lucrative business field, and a great personality.” She bumped hips with Kathy. “Oh, look. They aren’t all vermin.”
Squeaking out a laugh, Kathy started the dishes while Carilyn cleaned up.
Chapter 5
By Tuesday, Kathy’s room was a bright, vibrant peach and her bathroom a sky blue. Plus, she had something to look forward to. Camille was picking her up to go to a mall about an hour away and she hoped to pick her mind about her brother. If she could figure out a way to do it quietly. She wasn’t sure if her new friend knew her brother had been over at Kathy’s house on Sunday or if she was supposed to know.
When a shiny black Mercedes pulled into the drive, Kathy was a bit surprised. True, she hoped her parents would get her a car at some point, but a Mercedes? That seemed over the top. How rich were the Covingtons anyway?
“Hi!” Cami called as she hopped out of the driver’s seat. “I talked Xan into letting me take his car today. He’s such a good brother. Dad wanted me to take his old, rusty truck.”
“Xan?” Kathy said, sliding into the passenger seat and enjoying the feel of the leather.
“Yeah, my brother. Well, it’s short for Alexander. I’ve called him Xander for as long as I can remember and that changed to Xan over time. He’s probably more like my uncle than my brother. Comes from being a decade older than I am. Plus, he’s a lot like Dad.” Camille chatted away, filling Kathy in without her having to ask. “He didn’t want to come home last year but he did it because Dad was really sick. We thought he was gonna die at one point. They finally found a treatment that worked and as Dad got better, we’ve kind of been waiting to see when he would go back to Chicago. But now… Now we think he’s here to stay.” She appeared pleased with that thought.
“Why’s that?”
“He’s courting. Or, more to be precise, he’s made it clear to Dad that he found someone he’s interested in. If that moves onto an official courting year, he’ll probably be here for good.”
“So, tell me more about this whole courting thing works. I have to admit – I’m a bit overwhelmed.”
“Why?” Cami asked, glancing at her before turning back to the road. “Have you had your first interested guy already?” Kathy wasn’t quite sure to answer that. Another quick glance, this time Cami’s eyes were wide. “You have! Haven’t you?”
“Umm, yeah. Three of them, actually. This last weekend.”
At first there was no response from the girl next to her and then she started to laugh. “It’s not funny!”
Camille nodded. “Yes, it is. You know nothing of our customs, find out you are on your way to getting courted, and have three guys in one weekend?” Giggling, she swerved half off the road and had to swerve back. “That’s funny! Most of us start getting a visitor maybe once a month when we’re seventeen. I guess since you are already eighteen and you’re new, they’re attacking at once. Who were they?” Before Kathy could decide whether or not to tell her, she said, “Wait, don’t tell me. We’re actually not supposed to ask and definitely not supposed to tell.”
That was a nice rule. But Kathy could not resist saying, “Well, I won’t tell you who two of them were, but one of them was a Joseph Lafferty.”
“Ewww,” Cami said loudly. “He’s such a dork. I had him as a teacher for the last two years.” She shuddered. “Creepo. I heard he tried for Marjorie, but her father turned him down. Wouldn’t even let him come to dinner.”
“Is Marjorie in our year?” Kathy remembered the name being mentioned but not much more about her.
“No. She graduated this year. Has a queen bee complex. I’m sure her and James will be a nice couple.” Something in the way she said it made Kathy think there was a joke in there somewhere. “So, did you like any of the three?” she asked as she pulled off the highway.
“One was okay. The other two not so much.”
“I’m dying to know who Xan wants to court,” Cami admitted with a sigh as they waited at a light. “I wanna know if I’m gonna have a sister-in-law I can adore, or one I hate.”
They arrived at the mall a few minutes later and Kathy felt that thrill that came from hitting a mall, trying on new clothes, and walking around checking everyone out. “So what are the steps in this whole courting ritual thingy?” she asked as they each got a pretzel and continued their walk.
“Well,” Cami said through a full mouth, “there’s the first dinner and then normally if a guy’s interested he will request another dinner and another until he kind of becomes a fixture at the dinner table. Then he will go before the town council and declare his intention to court said girl. I don’t know the semantics behind it all, but usually a week or two later, the official courting announcement is made. They have a party and the girl gets to show off whatever gift she received from her man. And then… things kind of change.”
“Change how?”
“Well, you can finally kiss. If the girl’s in school, she wears a slightly different uniform stating she’s taken in no uncertain terms. Kind of like wearing a huge engagement ring. And the closer and closer they get to the end of the year, if he hasn’t already procured a home, they will shop for one and start getting it ready. He has to officially get her father’s permission to propose and pop the question by the year anniversary of the courting or it’s nullified. Though I’ve never heard of one actually being reversed. All the girls are engaged by that point, a few even married.” She sighed softly, a dreamy look on her face. “I can’t wait until Damian courts me.”
“When do you turn eighteen?”
She wrinkled her nose. “Next April. You’ll be getting married just about the time my courting begins.”
Kathy opened her mouth to state that she wasn’t so sure about this whole courting thing when Cami grabbed her arm, yanking her into a store. “Look at that!” she gasped, pointing to a dress Kathy’s father would be horrified by. Strapless and made of satin, Kathy wasn’t even sure how it held up. There was material covering each breast, but the dip between said material ran all the way down to the mannequin’s navel. “Dad would whip me raw if he so much as saw me looking at it,” Cami admitted. “But wow.”
“Yeah, Dad’s the same. He’s made me return dresses that covered a lot more skin than this because he thought they were too sexy.”
Grinning, Cami nodded. “It’s annoying and safe at the same time, isn’t it? And you only have one! I have to deal with my dad and Xan. And sometimes Xan is even more stringent than Daddy is.” She paused as they reached another store. “And he really dislikes Damian.”
“Why?”
“No idea. They were good friends years ago but now Xan looks at him as if he was scum.”
Hearing a little more about Alexander brought to Kathy’s mind how intense he seemed on the night they first met. Even on Sunday there had been the same feeling of a man in control of his own life. But she really didn’t want a drill sergeant running hers.
They spent another hour at the mall before heading back, neither of them in the mood to actually buy. Cami came home with a new bracelet and Kathy had purchased a couple cookies, but that was it. On the way home they discussed classes and the teachers at Hyacinth Academy. “Most of the teachers are pretty cool,” Cami admitted. “Lafferty, Carol Struthers who teaches science, and Baron Struss who teaches band are the worst.”
“Baron?”
“Yeah,” Cami laughed. “When you see his mustache and beard you’ll get it. He looks like what a baron should look like. His name is actually Edgar. The
three of them give low grades. In Struthers class, if you get a B, you’ve made it. What classes have you got?” They had four of the same courses, though there was no way to know if they would share the same classroom. “They don’t give us our official schedules until the week before school starts. Oh, be sure to…” Her words drifted off and she grimaced. “I was going to say order your uniforms early because they do take a while, but you can’t.”
“Why not?”
“If you court, your uniform’ll be different.”
“I hate that.”
Cami giggled. “Most girls don’t. Like I said, it’s like wearing a huge diamond on your finger yelling ‘ha, ha, I’ve got my man.’”
She dropped Kathy off before heading home and Kathy walked into the house. “I’m home!” she called, walking toward the living room with her cookies in hand.
“Did you have fun?” Carilyn asked looking up as Kathy entered the room.
“Yes, we did. It was—” Kathy stopped speaking as she realized there was someone else in the room. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t realize anyone else was here.”
The lady in question smiled. She had long red hair and deep green eyes and Kathy immediately knew who she was. “Are you Cami’s mom?”
“Yes, I am. I thought I would come over and get acquainted with your family. Camille has spoken of you as if she’s known you forever and Alexander is rather taken with you as well. I figured it was time to come meet you and your mother. My name is Charlotte Covington.” Charlotte had a soft accent, reminding Kathy of movies she had seen from the south.
Usually Kathy could talk to someone her parents’ age without a problem, but something about her being Xan and Cami’s mother made Kathy’s brain shut off. “Cookie?” she said, holding out the bag.
Laughing softly, Charlotte shook her head. “Thank you, dear, no. And I should get going. My two Alexanders will be expecting dinner in a couple of hours. I had best go help Camille fix it.” Standing up, she shook Carilyn’s hand before turning and taking Kathy’s between both of her own. She stared so intently that Kathy wanted to look at the floor but was afraid it would appear rude. Reaching up, Charlotte tapped her cheek lightly. “I agree with my son.” Without another word, she turned and walked from the room.
After her mother let Charlotte out and came back, Kathy raised an eyebrow. “What does she agree with her son about?”
“No idea. But it sounds like he’s quite taken with you, so it must be good.”
“If you say so,” Kathy said, holding out a cookie.
“Oh, I say so. He’s coming to dinner again on Friday,” Carilyn called over her shoulder as she walked into the kitchen.
That took five seconds to get past all the thoughts converging in her head. “What?” Kathy called, trotting after mother.
For the next two days, Kathy poured over her mother’s cookbooks, trying to find something really tempting for the man coming to dinner. “I don’t know what he likes,” she harrumphed to her mother on Friday after her father had left for work. “How am I supposed to win him through his stomach if I don’t know what his stomach likes?”
“I don’t think it’s his stomach that has made him interested,” she answered, amused.
“Then what?”
“You’re a beautiful girl who tends to speak her mind. I think he likes that.”
“I thought guys hated that.”
“Boys your age do, but Alexander’s a man. He’s dated enough to know what he likes and what he doesn’t like. And obviously he likes you. So just be yourself, Kathy. After all, a courting is a pretty serious thing. You want to go into it with both of you knowing what you’re getting.”
“But I don’t know him at all.”
“So ask. In fact, ask your father if he can stay after dinner. The four of us can take dessert in the living room and you can ask him anything you want.”
And that was the problem. When he wasn’t around, she had all sorts of questions, but if he was in the room, Kathy’s brain short-circuited. Maybe she should write out a cheat sheet and hide it in the sofa.
After fixing a lasagna, a salad, and some chocolate cake for dessert, Kathy did just that. She went upstairs and wrote out a list of things she wanted to know on a piece of paper and went downstairs, stuffing it between the cushion she had sat on last Sunday and the side of the sofa. Afterward, she sprinted upstairs to shower, put on a little make-up, and choose an outfit. Her father hadn’t specifically said a dress and her mother told her to be herself. Taking a deep breath and hoping she wasn’t inviting another spanking, she pulled on a pair of new black jeans and a thigh-length deep green sweater. After pulling on her boots, she went downstairs to check on the lasagna. It smelled wonderful.
“You look nice,” Carilyn called as she walked by the living room.
Her father came home a few minutes later just as Kathy set the table. Smiling as he walked in, he inhaled. “Lasagna? You must like Alexander.” Blushing slightly, she nodded. “Hello, beauty two. Where’s my loving wife?”
“Here,” Carilyn said, walking into the kitchen.
Before he could respond, Kathy tugged lightly on his jacket sleeve and he turned his attention to her. “Can Alexander stay after dinner?” she asked in a whisper, unable to say the words louder. “I want to get to know him.”
Reaching up, he squeezed her hand. “I’ll ask him.”
When the doorbell rang, Gerald went to get it as Carilyn removed the lasagna from the oven and Kathy finished setting the table. Once everything was set, the two men walked into the dining room. Whereas last Sunday Alexander had been in a suit, tonight he wore slacks and a light blue button-down shirt that was almost the color of his eyes. He smiled warmly at her setting off butterflies in her stomach.
“It’s nice to see you again, Miss Bretherton.”
Realizing he always called her that, she said, “Please call me Kathy.”
“And you may call me Xander if you wish.” Looking over her shoulder, he smiled. “It’s nice to see you again, Mrs. Bretherton. I hope you enjoy a good merlot.” He lifted up a bottle shaped bag and handed it over. “A vintage from one of my favorite wineries, Bingham Cellars.”
“Thank you, I’m sure we’ll enjoy it.” Carilyn took the bottle from him and took it into the kitchen.
“I wasn’t sure what else you might like,” Xander said directly to Kathy with a small twinkle in his eye, “but I happened to overhear Cami talking to Mom about your mall trip. She said you were drawn to teddy bears?” Out of the front pocket of his shirt, he pulled out the tiniest teddy bear she had ever seen.
“Oh,” Kathy said, taking him delicately between her hands. “He’s so cute.” Instantly she knew he would sit on her nightstand. “Thanks,” she said, smiling up at him. Standing so close, she realized Xander was about a foot taller than she was. And that she liked it. It strangely made her feel safe.
Dinner flew by. Just like before, Xander was a good conversationalist and drew each of them out with questions he seemed genuinely interested in. When the meal was finished, he turned to her. “Am I to assume you made that delicious lasagna?”
“Yes,” Kathy admitted, grinning.
“It was wonderful. You have honed great cooking skills. Of course,” he added with a twinkle in his eye, “I’ll have to wait for dessert to really know.”
“Dessert?” she countered with a straight face. “I didn’t make any dessert tonight.”
“Kathy,” her father said in a slightly scolding tone as Xander startled for a moment.
And then the man at the foot of the table burst out laughing. “I’ll have to remember to keep my wits about me on our next meeting, Kathy.” His voice caressed her name sending shivers down her back.
“Why don’t we have our dessert in the living room?” Carilyn asked. “Kathy?” She stood up and Kathy scrambled to her feet to help clear the table.
“Is Dad gonna spank me?” Kathy whispered even as she was still riding a high from what just happened.
“No idea. Let’s cut the cake and get out there.”
As they walked into the living room, each of them with two plates, it was to find Xander sitting alone on one sofa and Gerald noticeably absent. “He had to take a call,” her suitor explained when the two of them looked around for their missing family member. As Kathy handed him his piece of cake, she realized he was sitting in the spot she had planned to occupy. Which meant the piece of paper was right next to him. Looked like she was on her own for asking questions. Drat.
Sitting next to him, she took a bite of cake, trying to think of something to say.
“This is the best non-dessert I’ve ever had,” he said after taking a bite.
Snorting a laugh, she looked into his twinkling eyes. “Maybe next time I can make a great non-meal.”
Grinning, he added under his breath. “I look forward to the time I can take you out to eat.”
Biting her lip to try and stop the grin that crossed her face, Kathy shoved a large piece of cake into her mouth.
Meanwhile, her mother was obvious about trying not to listen. When her father returned, he spoke with Xander a bit about what kind of law he practiced and once dessert was complete, the man next to her stood, turned just enough so that her parents couldn’t see and winked at her before taking his leave.
After cleaning up the kitchen, Kathy remembered the note and so that nobody else would find the list with the words THINGS TO ASK ALEXANDER written at the top, she went to the sofa and pulled the cushion aside. There was no note. Figuring it had made its way underneath, she lifted the cushion up. Still no note.
“Is everything all right?” Carilyn asked, walking up beside her and looking into the space below the cushion.
“Did you find a piece of paper earlier?” Kathy asked as she plopped the cushion down and dropped to her knees, peeking under the furniture to see if somehow the paper had slid down a hole underneath it.
“No. What are you missing?”
“Uh, nothing.” Kathy said, sitting up straight. “I must have put it somewhere else.” Except she hadn’t. Now she had to wonder. What happened to that little piece of paper?