“Well, you have a good time tonight. We’ve got some fun things planned for the younger crowd.”
The baleful glance Renee threw over her shoulder told Marla she didn’t consider herself one of the kids interested in games.
Charlene waved Marla over to the food buffet. She sighed and placed a hand on her chest. “Oh, lord. Did you see who came in with Dylan and Grace and their kids?” She pointed to the back corner of the lawn where Donovan Dempsey, sporting a Marine haircut and dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, stood talking to Renee’s father. The shirt, snug on his broad chest, emphasized his shoulders to perfection.
“Oh, I see Donovan got leave. Dylan told me he was stationed at Camp Pendleton and would try to get here tonight.” She pursed her lips and made a low whistle. “He looks like a real lady-killer, doesn’t he?”
“That’s Donovan Dempsey?” Charlene gaped. “In that case, I aim to get killed. The last time I saw him, he was skinny and zit-faced. How old is he?” She patted her chest and swooned with drama.
“Hmm, let me think. Dylan is thirty-three and Dwayne is thirty-one, so Donovan must be about twenty-nine. No question, he turned out to be the best looking one of the Dempsey boys.”
“Is he married?” Charlene tugged at the hem of her tank top, exposing more cleavage, and fluffed her hair. “He was engaged the last I heard.”
“No, Dylan said his girlfriend walked away while Donovan was on deployment.”
“She must be nuts. Stay here. I’m going re-introduce myself to him.”
Before she could protest, Charlene was halfway across the yard, hips swaying as she pranced in high wedge sandals. Marla had the urge to yell, Donovan! Incoming! Char has you in her sights!
“Marla!” Amber ran to her. “Where’s Skipper?”
“Hi there, girlfriend. Skipper stayed home tonight. There are too many people here and the gate would be opening and closing all evening. I was afraid he’d get stepped on or get out of the yard.”
Amber’s face fell, her stricken look almost comical. “I love Skippy. I wanted to see him.”
Marla leaned down and lifted her chin. “Tell you what. I’m taking him to the dog park tomorrow. Would you like to go with us?”
Eyes bright, a big smile bloomed on her face. “Can I?”
“Ask your dad. If he says it’s okay, I’ll pack a lunch and pick you up about eleven—” Before she finished the sentence, Amber streaked away across the patio searching for Dwayne.
“That’s one excited little girl.” Bradley put his hand on her shoulder. “What did you do, promise her the moon?”
“Hi, Dad. Almost as good. I invited her to come with me and Skip to the dog park tomorrow.” She leaned into him and dropped her head on his shoulder. “Happy Birthday.”
“Thank you. This is a great party. Did you happen to notice your mother when she greeted Irene and John?”
Marla snorted. “What did you drug her with?”
Brad squeezed her in a one-armed hug. “She’ll always be a mystery to me. Looks like she decided to drop the grudge. Maybe she got bored maintaining it.” He shook his head and fixed his gaze on his wife. “Look at her. She is more beautiful every year.”
“Dad, if I could find a man like you I’d get married tomorrow. You’re perfect.”
“Don’t put me on a pedestal, sweetheart. Take a look around here. There are two strapping, eligible bachelors here tonight. Looks like Charlene isn’t wasting any time. Donovan Dempsey won’t know what hit him.” He chuckled and kissed her cheek. “I’m going to circulate. Have fun tonight, that’s an order.”
Unexpectedly awash with sadness, Marla watched her dad join John, Irene, and Silvia. The men exchanged handshakes and drifted off, leaving the women chatting and laughing like best friends. Why the sadness? Her life was going great. She had a great job, her condo renovation investment promised to be profitable, and she’d have the funds to buy more Spring Grove real estate. What more could she want?
Hunger began to drive people to the buffet, and Marla smiled while handing over plates. “Eat up. Charlene and the boys ordered enough food for an invading army.”
Rick Sandoval, a Cal Tech schoolmate of Harry and Barry, played Mexican music on his classical guitar on the far corner of the patio. His rich baritone voice filled the coming darkness with romantic love songs beneath the winking lights strung under the awning.
Her heart squeezed in spite of the festive atmosphere and the happy laughter of the large crowd.
What’s wrong with me?
Dwayne watched Marla from the corner of his eye, wondering why she had such a dejected look on her face. The party couldn’t be better. All the planning she and her sister had done seemed to be going off without a hitch.
Her wild strawberry blonde hair reflected the twinkling lights on the patio, seeming to sparkle as strands drifted in the breeze. He’d agreed to let Amber go on the picnic in the dog park tomorrow. Now he wondered if that was such a good idea. He should talk to Marla about it first, and make sure it was her idea and not Amber’s.
She probably had better things to do than babysit his kid on a Sunday afternoon. Wasn’t that the day women set aside to pamper themselves with facials and manicures? Hand-wash their filmy lingerie, take long bubble baths in candlelight, and listen to romantic music?
Jeez, Dwayne, get a grip. You’re talking yourself into a sexual fantasy over the woman.
Charlene’s laughter distracted him, and he drifted toward her and Donovan. Dylan got there just ahead of him. “What are you two laughing about?”
Donovan gestured to his brothers. “Come over here. Char and I were just remembering that fiasco during the homecoming football game in your senior year.”
Dylan rolled his eyes. “Look, I threw the ball right at Dwayne. It’s not my fault he was showboating and tripped over his own big feet, and then landed right on top of Grace at the sidelines.”
“Right at me, my foot! I had to jump a yard off the ground to reach the damn thing.” He grinned and winked. “It was kind of nice to be on top of Grace in the grass for a few seconds though. Sorry I never got another chance.”
Dylan gave him a light punch on the shoulder. “No, and you never will, brother.” His head jerked back. “Oh, my god! Is that Francine?” He nodded to the side of the yard by the gate.
Dwayne’s heart nearly stopped when he spun around. Francine, the woman he never expected to see again, was making her way toward several kids playing tag. Amber was among them. Heart racing now, he fast-walked to intercept her.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he demanded.
“I came to see my kid.” Her nostrils flared with defiance as she came to a stop. “I have a right to see her. Which one is she?”
“You have no rights where she’s concerned.” He grabbed her arm and turned her in the direction of the gate, ignoring her angry struggles. When he reached the gate, he threw it open and pulled her outside. “You gave up any rights you had when you walked out on us. She was two weeks old. Just two weeks! That fact hardly earns you a mother-of-the-year-award. Get away from here.” His face inches from hers, he added, “Now!”
“You get your hands off me.” She yanked her arm from his grip and took a step back. “She’s my kid and I want to see her.”
“Over my dead body, Francine. Now get the hell away from here.”
When she glanced over his shoulder, he turned to see his brothers take up positions on either side of him.
“Well, well, well. A wall of Dempsey’s against little old me.” She glared at them. “I’ll be back Dwayne, and next time I’ll have the cops with me. She’s my kid.”
“Good luck with that,” he shouted at her retreating back.
She whipped around and sneered. “You’re not her father, asshole.”
Pain and anger ripped through him. He lunged for her. His brothers held him back.
“What the hell is she talking about?” Donovan mumbled.
“Is she nuts? Where did that
come from?” Dylan asked.
Dwayne flexed his fists, jammed his hands in his pockets, and took a couple of steps in Francine’s direction. She yanked open the passenger door of a battered blue Mustang and got in. The man in the driver’s seat pulled away from the curb and sped down the street. He’d seen that car somewhere.
Dizziness swam in Dwayne’s vision. He bent forward and braced his hands on his knees to keep from falling over.
Dylan grabbed one of his arms. “Take it easy, bro. She’s always been nothing but hot air.”
Donovan took his other arm. “Come over here,” he urged. “Sit on the garden bench. We’ll hang out here for a while and make sure she doesn’t come back.”
Head in his hands, Dwayne rocked back and forth on his butt. “Shit. What a nightmare. Why is she here now?”
“Daddy?”
At the sound of Amber’s voice, Dwayne’s head flew up. She trotted in his direction. His dad, John, tried to catch up with her. “Come back here, honey. Your dad’s okay.”
“Daddy, who was that lady?”
Dwayne extended his arm and drew her into a hug. “Nobody you need to be concerned about. Everything is fine. Go back to the party with Grampa. I’ll be there in a minute.” He patted her head and urged her into his dad’s arms.
John lifted her. “Time to get dinner. Grampa Brad has a nice picnic table all set up for you kids. Did you see that big birthday cake? No? Well, let’s go have a look at it, sugar.” They disappeared behind the gate. It clanged shut.
Dylan sat beside Dwayne. Donovan paced back and forth in front of them, eyes on the street.
“What did Francine mean when she said, ‘you’re not her father’?” Dylan asked.
“God, I don’t know. She was raving.”
Donovan stopped in front of him. “She was screwing around the whole time you were in Iraq, then when you were in Bethesda. Everybody knew that.”
“Yeah, and it was nice of ‘everybody’ to let me know,” Dwayne sneered. “My thanks to all of you.”
Dylan grabbed his shoulder. “Knock it off. You know why we kept our mouths shut about it. For one thing, it wasn’t our business and for another, you had enough to deal with without that thrown into the mix.”
“You’d have been a lot better off if you’d never got mixed up with that witch,” Donovan added.
Dwayne sat straight as fury burned in his chest. It wasn’t their fault. He knew that. It was his choice to go after Francine and rush into marriage before he deployed. It was no secret that she’d been around the block a few times before she married him.
“That’s one way to look at it, but if I hadn’t married her I wouldn’t have Amber. She’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”
That shut them up for the moment.
Donovan paced. Dylan joined him. After a moment he walked away from them to the street.
“Where are you going, Dyl?” Dwayne called.
“I’m going to drive around and see if she’s still in the neighborhood.”
Dwayne stood. “Wait, I’ll go with you.” He had no idea what he’d do if they spotted her. What could they do?
“No, you stay here and look after your daughter. I won’t be long.”
“Come on. Let’s go back before everybody comes out here to investigate.” Donovan nudged Dwayne.
“Yeah. Okay.” He stood and they re-entered the Danaher’s back yard. “I can’t think. I don’t know what to do.”
“We’ll figure something out.”
Chapter Nine
Marla detected the flurry of anxiety whiffing through the party crowd when the strange woman came through the back gate, and more so when Dwayne quickly escorted her out.
She left the buffet table and joined Charlene. “Who was that?”
Char took her arm and moved away from the children. Alarm still registered on several of the Dempsey adult faces, but most of the kids remained oblivious to the incident. “Dwayne’s ex-wife,” she whispered. “She just showed up out of nowhere. His brothers followed them, probably to help get rid of her.”
“Why in the name of green grass would she come here looking for him? And how could she have known he’d be here? Our parents never had anything to do with her that I know of. She and Dwayne met and married in Wyoming, didn’t they?”
“Lordy, how would I know? I’ve never seen the woman before. The Dempseys seem pretty upset about it though.” Charlene’s eyes scanned the crowd. “It looks as though most of the other guests didn’t take notice.”
“Oh, look. There’s John. He’s got Amber, but the brothers are still out there.”
Marla and Charlene jumped when they heard their mother’s voice behind them. “Come, girls. Let’s gather the children to their table and feed them. It’ll be a good distraction. I don’t want anything to spoil Brad’s party.”
“Mom, that was Dwayne’s wife, right?”
“Ex-wife. I can’t imagine why she turned up here. Johnny said nobody had heard so much as a whisper since she disappeared. That was years before Dwayne moved back to Spring Grove to take over John’s business.” She led them to the buffet. “You girls make up some plates. I’ll get the children seated.”
Marla checked her watch. Several minutes passed before Dwayne and his two brothers returned to the party. They went about checking on the kids, then made their way to the buffet table and loaded up on food as if nothing had happened.
“Marla, I need to talk to you,” Dwayne said quietly when his plate was full. “Would you sit with me for a minute?” His serious gaze lingered on hers for a beat.
“Uh, sure. I’ll get my dinner and be right there.”
“Thanks.” He nodded and carried his plate away.
Char’s eyes swam with curiosity, and she wasted no time stepping close to Marla. “What did he want? Did he tell you anything? About his wife? Where did she come from?”
“For heaven’s sake, Charlene. He said he needed to talk to me. That’s all. Now, move over and hand me a plate. I’ll tell you later.”
“You’d better. Word for word.” She fluffed her hair. “I’ll go sit with Donovan. Maybe he’ll tell me something.” She tottered across the lawn and sat on the grass next to the good-looking Marine. Marla suspected she was angling for more than information.
Although she was as curious as her sister, maybe more, Dwayne’s expression had alarmed her. She’d spent enough time in his company to know when he was deeply upset. The strange woman had him in a tailspin.
She joined him at a small wire bistro table with two chairs under a large eucalyptus. “What’s going on, Dempsey?”
He took a long swallow of soda before answering. “It’s complicated.”
“I got that much on my own.” She hated beating around the bush. “Was she your wife?”
“Ex-wife.”
“What did she want? Why was she here? Did somebody in your family invite her?” As bizarre as it sounded, the thought had entered her mind.
“Not unless they had an early death wish.” He set the bottle down and leaned back. “I got a phone message last Monday. All it said was, ‘I want to see the kid.’” He sighed and shook his head. “Then nothing until she showed up here out of the blue.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Jeez, Red, I hate getting you involved in this.”
“Hey, you work for me, so I’m already involved. I’m crazy about Amber, about all your family with the exception of you.” She grinned when he flashed a glare.
“You are a piece of work, Danaher.” A hint of smile tipped the corner of his lips.
“I’m kidding. What are your plans? What do you want me to do?”
“I need some time off. School’s out for the summer on Wednesday. I’m going to take Amber to stay with my mom at her ranch in Wyoming.”
“You’re going to be gone all summer? But what about—?”
Her stomach lurched at the thought of him abandoning her project. At the same time, she cursed herself for t
hinking of her interests when Dwayne had a family emergency to deal with.
“No.” He waved his hands. “I’ll take a few days to get her settled then come back. I want to leave her there until I find out what Francine is up to.”
He stopped talking when one of her twin brothers approached them with a large bowl of tortilla chips.
“Uh, thanks, uh…” Dwayne took a handful of chips and put them on his plate.
Marla smiled, knowing he had no idea whether it was Harry or Barry.
“Name’s Barry.” He glanced at her. “Want some, BS? Going fast.”
“No thanks, sweetie. We’re good.”
Barry strolled away, offering chips as he went from table to table.
“How the heck can you tell them apart?” He stared at Barry’s back, then over to Harry who still manned the bar while eating between pouring drinks. “Why did he call you BS?”
Marla smiled. “Stands for Big Sister. The boys like to ration words. As for telling them apart, even our parents have a hard time with it.” She smiled while thinking how mean she was not to tell Mom and Dad her secret way to identify them. A tiny fleck in Barry’s iris. She noticed it the day they came home from the hospital and had kept it to herself for twenty years.
“Let’s get back on the subject, Dempsey. When are you leaving, and who will take over while you’re gone?”
“Not you? I thought you’d jump at the chance to run the whole operation.”
“Jerk.”
“Yeah, I am, especially today.”
“Every day.” Which made it difficult for her to understand why she was increasingly attracted to him. Maybe because he wouldn’t jump to her tune.
“Cluny will take over. He’s a subcontractor, but I’ll have him sign a waiver if that’ll make you feel more comfortable. He’ll have to leave now and then to attend to his own business.”
“A waiver’s not necessary. But aren’t you about to tackle the finishing work inside? That’s going to make it difficult to work around Miss Emmaline.” Grateful for not having to relocate, the old woman had not uttered a single complaint about living in the middle of a construction zone.
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