Charming for Mother's Day (A Calendar Girls Novella) (12 page)

Lucinda

             
I found my mom sipping coffee in the kitchen. Alone. Had Colin decided to leave me home, despite my doctor’s okay? If he had reneged on our deal, after all I’d gone through to agree to his demands, I’d take the bus to the restaurant just so I could kill him and ride the bus home again. “Where’s Colin?”

             
“He took Ari to the store to buy a new outfit.”

             
He did what? Why? “What kind of outfit?”

             
“She needs a white blouse and black pants to work the front of the house tonight.”

             
My first reaction was, “No.” I needed to keep these two apart, but fate kept working against me. Or was Lady Luck taking payback for that one night of divine intervention?

             
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Mom retorted. “She’s in the best hands with him. Colin’s return is a real blessing. Not only for you, but for me, too. Since he’ll now be driving you home at night, I don’t have to worry about you being on that horrible bus anymore.”

             
I stared at this woman—this stranger—at the light in her eyes, the smile playing around her lips, the smooth brow. “Oh, Jeez. He won you over already?!”What happened to the Iron Lady I called “Mom?”

             
She waved me off. “Honestly, Lucie. The man is handsome, successful, and doing everything he can to get back into your good graces. Why can’t you forgive him for what he did when he was just a stupid boy?”

             
I couldn’t believe what I heard. “This advice is coming from the woman who hasn’t spoken to her only sister in twenty years?”

             
Another dismissive wave met my reminder. “That’s different. She’s always been a troublemaker, a liar, and a diva. My life is much better without Ana in it. But you. You’re not me. And Colin’s not Ana.”

             
“Maybe not, but that doesn’t mean I can trust him any more than you trust Tía Ana.”

             
“You can’t trust
him
?” Mom quirked her eyebrows in that cynical way she had. “Or you can’t trust
yourself
?”
              I didn’t reply. I didn’t know how. Every minute I spent with him developed another crack in my hard shell veneer. Too soon, those spidery lines would weaken my foundation, and I’d crumble.

             
From some deep, dark pocket in my brain, my late husband’s voice echoed.
Nobody but me will ever want you, Lucie. You’re not pretty enough or smart enough or rich enough for a guy like Colin Murriere. I told you that. You belong with me. Now and always.

             
I clamped my hands over my ears, hoping to mute that mocking voice. “No!” I hadn’t realized I’d screamed the denial until my mother pulled me into her loving embrace and ran a comforting hand down my hair.

             
“Listen to me,
mi hija
. I was not happy when I first saw that man with Sidney this morning. He knew I wasn’t happy, and he knew why. But he asked me to sit and talk with him, to hear him out. I did. Now you should.”
              “Why? What line of bull did he toss at you?”

             
Eyes glittering like agate marbles, she clucked her tongue. “Do you think I forgot all you’ve gone through? From both him and that monster you married?” She shook her head. “How would you feel if a boy told Ariana she was worthless and beneath him?” This time, she didn’t give me a window to reply.  This time, it wasn’t necessary. “A mother never forgets the hurts done to her child. But a mother can also tell when a child has grown up, regretted his decision, and truly seeks forgiveness.”

             
All my doubts must have reflected in my expression because she nodded to give her words credence. “Talk to him, Lucie.
Really
talk. And more important, listen. Listen with your ears
and
your heart.”

Ariana

             
Alone with Chef Colin in his car, I finally had the chance to ask him my questions. I wasn’t really sure how to come out and start this discussion without hurting his feelings. I mean, what was I supposed to say?
How come Mom doesn’t like you?

             
I decided to begin with simple stuff. “How did you first meet my mom?”

             
He lowered the volume on the radio with a press of a button on his steering wheel. “What’d you say?”

I repeated my question and waited, counting my breaths until he finally answered.

“We were friends a long time ago. She was working at a hotel where I applied for a job. I took one look at your mama and thought she was the prettiest girl I’d ever seen.” He stole a quick glance at me, smiled, then turned his attention back to the road. “Almost as pretty as you.”

             
“So, what happened?”

             
“We dated for the summer, that’s all.”

             
“No, that’s not all,” I told him. This was getting ridiculous. Why wouldn’t anyone tell me the truth? “Something happened. Otherwise, Mom wouldn’t be so—” I stopped before the word “mean” slipped out.

             
He sighed. “I know I upset her these days and I’m sorry if that makes things hard for you. She has every right to be upset; I want you to know that. She and I dated. That’s the truth. But in the end, I treated her badly, said some really mean things, and generally hurt her feelings.”

             
My eyes practically bugged out of my skull. I mean... Wow. I couldn’t believe it. He seemed so nice now. “What did you say to her?”

             
“I...don’t think that’s something we should discuss.” He tapped an index finger on the steering wheel. “You might want to ask your mom. I was wrong and I’m very sorry now.”

             
“Did you try telling her you’re sorry?”

             
“Once or twice. But, she’s still angry at me, and I really can’t blame her. I wasn’t a nice guy back then.”

             
I didn’t say anything more until we pulled into the parking lot behind the clothing store on Main Street. “Maybe I could help you.”

             
With the car stopped, he turned around all the way in his seat so he could look directly at me. “How?”

             
I shrugged. “She’s my mom. I know what she likes and what she doesn’t like.”

             
He shook his head. “I appreciate that, princess, but I think I have to do this on my own.” Then he turned off the engine and stepped out of the car.

             
I unbuckled my seatbelt and climbed out to stand beside him. Darn. He was going to screw this up. I just knew it.

             
I was going to have to get sneaky.

Lucinda

             
I had to admit, having Ari to help me out had taken a lot of pressure off me. Even so, at the end of the night, I had no idea who was more exhausted. At midnight, I’d banished her to her cot in Sidney’s—
Colin’s
—office. Two hours later, after the rest of the staff had gone home for the night, I peeked in on her and found her out cold. Lucky girl. I wished I could climb into the cot beside her. Every pore in the flesh of my left side sizzled, a painful reminder of last night’s misadventure. I needed another dose of ibuprofen to get me through the rest of my work. Leaving my little girl tucked in dreamland, I headed for the bar outside for a bottled water, followed by the locked area of my station for my purse. I dropped two pills into my palm, tossed them into my mouth, then swallowed with a huge gulp of water.

             
“All set out here?”

             
Surprise reversed the water’s direction, and I sputtered, the pills leaving a burning trail down my esophagus. Even through the tears that sprang to my eyes, I caught Colin’s amused grin. “Dammit,” I rasped, “stop sneaking up on me.”

             
“Maybe we should crush the pills inside a spoonful of jelly for you. That’s what my mom used to do for me.”

             
I swigged more water until my throat felt normal again.

             
“How’s our girl doing?”

             
The question irked. “If you’re referring to
my
daughter,” I replied, “she’s sleeping. I figured I’d leave her be until the absolute last minute.”

             
“Actually…” He crept closer to me then reached a hand to skim the slope between my right cheek and chin. “…I was talking about you.”

             
I rebounded against the wall, out of reach. “Stop it! I’m not your girl!”

             
“Relax, sweetheart.”

             
Fisting my hands, I straightened to face him dead-on. “I’m not your sweetheart, either. I knew I shouldn’t let you drive me to work or take me to the doctor. Now you think I’m under some bizarre obligation.”

             
“Easy, Lucie.” He held out a hand, palm up. “Calm down. No one said anything about obligation. Take it easy, okay?”

             
He spoke to me the way he would a lunatic—which was only fair because I was acting like one. I inhaled and exhaled several times, giving my heart and my head a chance to return to normal.

             
“I’m sorry,” I murmured as I turned toward the door to hide my embarrassment. “It’s been a miserable day.”

             
“There’s more than that going on with you,” he said.

             
Frustration forced me to face him. “What do you want from me, Colin?”

             
“Forgiveness, for starters.” He pulled a bistro chair from a nearby table and slid it toward me, but didn’t say any more.

             
“For what?”

             
“For ten years ago.”              

I sank onto the
offered seat, my legs trembling. “You really hurt my feelings that night,” I confessed. “But the rest is all my fault. Nobody made me go running to Rob. Nobody forced me to marry him. That was all my insecurity, not yours.”
              Kneeling beside me, he shook his head before taking my hand. His clasp was warm, secure,
safe
. “We both made mistakes. Dumping you was the biggest mistake of my life. I knew it when I left, and over the years, I missed you more instead of less. I was everything you said I was back then: arrogant, conceited, snobby... But I was also a coward. I didn’t have the courage to stand up to my father. He was paying all my bills, my tuition, my car, my living expenses. I was his puppet, expected to perform the way he wanted, when he wanted. He was buying my entire future. And he had it all planned out for me: a stint at Stanford, then working under the old man’s thumb. Eventually a wife—and
not
someone named Lucinda Rosado—my wife would be some socialite named Jacqueline or Emily. Lucinda Rosado was the fling, the woman I kept in a love nest somewhere for a couple of months before I moved on to another woman, another nest.”

             
Pride and anger warred inside me, and I wanted to zing something scathing back at him, but he didn’t give me the chance.

             
He leaned forward to kiss my cheek—gentle, sweet, and lovely. “But you were
never
love nest material. You were an all or nothing kind of girl. I knew that from our first date. And God, how that bothered me! All that summer, I’d look at you and see someone who had nothing.
Nothing
. Except big dreams. You were working days as a maid at the Seabreeze Hotel, waiting tables in that greasy fast food place at night, and earning scholarships to go to some local yokel community college. But you never complained. You never thought you couldn’t do it. You just tried harder. And I resented you for that attitude.”

             
In retrospect, I could see that about him. How my ambition was stronger than his, even though my goals were a lot more improbable than his. It didn’t excuse his behavior, but it definitely explained his animosity toward me those last days. “So what’s changed now?”

             
“Me. When I went away to school, I had every intention of forgetting all about you and majoring in business to follow my father. I was going to be somebody special.” His fingers brushed gentle circles across my hand, slow and comforting. “I failed on all fronts.”

             
With a derisive snort, I pulled away from him. Yeah, right. The winner of “All Star Chef” was a real failure. “Now you’re making fun of me.” Because I still hadn’t achieved my goal, I still lived with my mother, still had no career, still existed paycheck to paycheck.