Dirty Sexy Knitting (33 page)

His arms pulled her closer and he pressed his cheek to hers. “Like a garden, sweetheart,” he whispered. “Our very own spring flower.”

Her heart rolled in her chest and she had to bury her face in his shoulder to keep the tears at bay. “I’m getting as bad as Nikki,” she told Gabe, when she dared look up again. “Crying all the time.”

She didn’t let herself think it was baby hormones, not yet.

“Speaking of Nikki . . .” he murmured, nodding toward the Malibu & Ewe entry.

The reason they were at the shop swamped her again. Today she’d find out whether or not the two women she felt so close to were in fact her sisters. Taking a breath, she moved out of Gabe’s arms and turned back to the door.

“No cowards here,” she murmured, putting the key in the lock and giving it a turn.

“Not anymore,” Gabe agreed.

She threw him a smile over her shoulder. Her brave guy, willing to start again after so much pain. She’d make sure he never regretted it. Still looking at him, she pushed open the door.

The many-voiced shout had Cassandra’s head whipping around. The lights in the shop blazed on, revealing dozens and dozens of smiling people. A HAPPY BIRTHDAY! banner was strung up in the middle of the space and there were tables of food and buckets filled with ice and beverages.

Tears started in her eyes again. Blindly reaching back, she found Gabe’s hand and drew him to her. “You did this.”

He grinned. “I did this.”

“With a little help,” Nikki said, coming out of the crowd with Juliet by her side. They each grabbed one of Cassandra’s arms and drew her into the midst of the party.

“But . . . but . . .” She looked down at the envelope in her hand.

Nikki grabbed it and tossed it on the counter by the cash register. “We’ll get to that later. Now it’s party time.”

What could she do but celebrate? Most of the Chamber of Commerce was there and several from the city government. Other Malibuites she’d known all her life. The regular Tuesday Night Knitters were doing most of the hostessing work, plying people with little sandwiches and items from the fruit and vegetable trays.

Gabe appointed himself beverage patrol and he was wandering around passing out beers and topping off champagne glasses. He handed her a plastic flute full of sparkling bubbles. “A sip or two won’t hurt our flower,” he said.

Nikki and Juliet cast her identical round-eyed looks at that, but she pretended not to notice, instead turning to the ringing telephone on the counter. She snatched it up and had to put her hand over her other ear to hear the voice on the other end.

“Happy belated birthday!” It was her mother.

Cassandra smiled. “How did you know I’d be here?”

“Gabe and I have been in contact.”

She sent him a look over the heads of the crowd. He caught her eye, and gave her another one of those carefree smiles that thrilled her. “He’s thrown me a wonderful party.”

“I know. And I really tried to see if I could make it back, but there just wasn’t enough time.”

So her guy had been applying a little pressure. She shook her head. “That’s okay, Judith.”

“I’m just so glad you’re safe, Cassie.” Her voice thickened. “That young man . . . that Reed Tucker . . .”

“He’s locked up. He won’t be hurting anyone ever again.” From what they’d heard through Noah’s contacts at the D.A.’s office, Reed’s father was putting pressure on him to take a plea deal that would keep him safely away forever.

Her gaze caught on a pair of newcomers entering the shop. Gabe greeted them with noticeable affection and she narrowed her eyes as he drew them through the partyers in her direction. “I have to go now, Judith,” she said. “Let’s talk soon.”

“We will,” her mother promised. “Gabe knows how to reach me.”

And then he was standing in front of her, beside a tall, gray-haired man and a much smaller woman who seemed to be blinking away tears. That crying thing must be contagious.

“Cassandra.” Even Gabe sounded a little emotional as he gestured between her and the unknown pair. “These are my parents, Rosemary and Brock.”

Oh.
Oh.

The older man, so like Gabe, shook her hand, then held her to him for a brief, hard hug. His mom didn’t bother with the handshake. She drew Cassandra against her, clasping her in an embrace that communicated how much she’d loved and missed her son. “Thank you,” she said. “Thank you for bringing my boy back to me.”

They were both sniffing as they turned to Gabe. “You’ve been busy,” Cassandra said to him, accepting the tissue his mother pulled from her purse.

“Making up for lost time.” He put an arm around each parent. “They’re going to spend a few days with us here in Malibu.”

She sniffed again. “I know what you’re doing.”

“You always have.”

He was giving her family. In every way that he could.

“And guess what?” he said. “Dad’s a vegetarian now.”

“No!”

Brock Kincaid nodded. “Yep. For my heart. The old ticker has to be able to keep up with the grandkids.”

She shot a look at Gabe. He shrugged, an “I didn’t tell them” in his eyes.

Gabe’s mom intercepted their unspoken communication.

“We always have to have hope,” Rosemary said.

Cassandra wasn’t sure that’s what she was feeling as the party wound down and the shop emptied. Gabe took his parents to his house to get them situated and promised to be back for her shortly. Jay and Noah, bless their hearts, took it upon themselves to be the cleanup crew, and One of the Most Famous Actresses in America was helping them, along with the drummer from the heavy metal rock band Mercy. Carver grumbled something about being conscripted into service or else Gabe was going to drag him to a local parlor to make some painful changes to his favorite tat.

Cassandra had yet to figure out what that was all about. But she let it go as she and her sisters settled in the chairs on the shop’s balcony. The tide was in, and they were suspended over the Pacific as the warm sun sank lower. They each held an envelope in their lap.

Cassandra’s two sisters exchanged glances. Her stomach fluttered with more nerves. “Well?” she asked, when they didn’t speak up. “It’s obvious you have something to say.”

“We went to see Dr. Frank Tucker,” Juliet said quietly.

“Oh.”

“I didn’t like him much,” Nikki added.

“You don’t like anybody much,” Cassandra pointed out. “At least not at the beginning.”

The younger woman made a face. “Okay, true, but I’m starting to get tired of being the mean one.”

“Let’s leave that to Marlys,” Juliet suggested. “Gabe invited her and Dean today, you know. But they were off to Las Vegas.”

“Sealing the deal?” Nikki asked.

“Sealing the deal.” Juliet nodded.

Cassandra fingered the envelope in her lap. “Speaking of seals—”

“We asked him why he decided to make contact with his donor offspring,” Nikki interrupted. “With us.”

Cassandra shifted in her chair. They were back to Dr. Tucker, not exactly her favorite subject. “And?”

Juliet looked down. “He said it was because his two sons didn’t look anything like him. His wife couldn’t have children, so they adopted, but he really wanted kids who resembled him.”

“Oh.” Cassandra didn’t know what to say to that.

“I think it’s the plastic surgery angle,” Nikki said. “He’s all about the surface stuff.”

They went quiet. All about the surface stuff, Cassandra thought. Her hand crept over her belly. If she and Gabe had their spring flower, she couldn’t imagine it would matter who he or she resembled. And if they found out she couldn’t get pregnant, she was certain that she and Gabe would consider adoption.

Her hand tightened on the envelope in her lap. “Let’s not open them,” she blurted out.

Nikki and Juliet turned to her. “What?” they said together.

“I don’t need to know what the results are. Do you?”

Nikki blinked. “This was all your idea, Froot Loop. Juliet and I never wanted to waste our time with this. We never doubted you’re our sister.”

“Then let’s not look at them.” Cassandra gripped the envelope. “Let’s just . . . just . . . rip them into pieces and throw them out to sea.”

Smiling, Juliet stood up. “Sounds good to me.”

“Me, too.” Nikki jumped to her feet.

Cassandra joined them at the rail of the balcony. “I love you guys.” The threat of tears was at the back of her throat and in the corners of her eyes again. “You know, we did it. We knit together a family.”

Nikki groaned. “Corny.”

Juliet made the first tear in her envelope. “It’s her birthday party so she can be as corny as she wants.”

“Yeah, but—” Nikki started.

Juliet shot her a look. “I thought you didn’t want to be the mean one anymore. Get ripping.”

And so they did, all three of them tearing their envelopes into little pieces that they tossed over the railing where they caught the breeze like confetti. Another celebration.

When the paper had blown away on the ocean breeze, they sat down on the chairs again, Juliet, then Cassandra, then Nikki.

“Wow,” Cassandra said. “I can’t believe how free I feel.”

They listened to the waves wash in and out against the bluff below them. Then Nikki spoke up in a small voice. “I have a confession to make.”

Frowning, Cassandra looked over. “Another one? What is it?”

“I peeked.” She said it quickly. “I looked at the results before I brought them here.”

“Me, too,” Juliet said.

Cassandra straightened her spine and whipped her head in her older sister’s direction. “But . . . but you’re Goody Two-shoes.”

She shrugged. “Not always.”

After a moment, Cassandra flopped back in her chair. “I looked, too.”

No she hadn’t. But it didn’t matter, did it? They’d decided to be sisters. They’d decided to be family.

Her sisters were smiling at her. Maybe they guessed she was lying. Maybe their smiles meant they were pleased they were biological sisters or maybe their smiles meant they were pleased that even though they weren’t, Cassandra was happy.

“Froot Loop?”

She turned to see Gabe in the doorway. Now she smiled, her heart swelling. She held out her hand to him, his touch the anchor her life needed.

She was no longer rootless or alone. With friendship and love in her life, there wasn’t any room for loneliness, only possibilities.

A baby is God’s opinion that life should go on.

—CARL SANDBURG

 

 

 

 

Playing in the Malibu sand under the hot summer sun, seven-year-old Riley Rosemary Kincaid decided this was the best day of her life. “I’m never going to forget it,” she said, looking over at her mommy, who was lying under the shade of an umbrella.

“That’s nice, baby,” her mother murmured, her eyes closed.

Riley scratched her skin where the tag of her bikini bottoms—
Hand Knit By Mommy
—rubbed. The swimsuit was the best, too. Her mother had finished it last night. It was as yellow as her older cousin Annabelle’s long blond hair, and the ties of the top had little crocheted pink flowers attached to the ends. When her other girl cousin, Aunt Nikki and Uncle Jay’s daughter, Serena, had seen it, she’d begged her mom to make her one just like it.

Never going to happen. Aunt Nikki was stuck forever at the knitting scarves stage.

Riley glanced around for Serena now but didn’t see her. She looked toward the steps leading into Serena’s house and figured the other girl was inside, pestering her mother about recipes as she prepared lunch. Serena was nine years old and already working on her second cookbook.

A trickle of sweat ran down Riley’s temple and she stared at the cool ocean just a short distance away. Glancing over at her dozing mother, she rose slowly to her feet.

“Don’t even think about it,” her mom warned, her lashes still resting on her cheeks. “You don’t go into the water without Daddy.”

Riley frowned. How did she
do
that? With a flounce, she plopped back to the sand and turned her gaze on ten-year-old Annabelle, the daughter of Aunt Juliet and Uncle Noah. The oldest girl cousin, she sat like a princess on one corner of the blanket and drew a comb through her length of beautiful hair. Riley frowned deeper and tugged on the ends of the stuff she’d chopped off herself last week. Her father had choked the first time he’d seen what she’d done, but her mother had only sighed and reminded him that artists found canvases everywhere.

He’d made her promise never to get a tattoo or pierce anything but her earlobes, and then he’d taken her to the store and bought her new paints and brushes. He was so easy.

“Hey, shrimp,” a boy’s voice called out. “Think quick.” A Nerf football bounced off the top of Riley’s head.

She glared up at her brother Simon. He was just a few months older than Annabelle and the exact same age, of course, as his twin, Scott. A whole group of boys surrounded her: Simon and Scott; her other brother, eight-year-old Kyle; Annabelle’s younger brother Adam; and Serena’s brother Mitch. With a grin, Mitch tossed the volleyball he carried at her, and she barely batted it away before it hit her nose. What a dummy.

“Are you okay?” Someone else kneeled down beside her. His black eyebrows came together over his dark brown eyes. Luis Santos. He was also ten, and much nicer than her brothers or her cousins. Annabelle thought so, too, Riley could tell, because she sat up a little straighter and tucked her comb under her hip. Luis didn’t notice the other girl though; he was still looking at Riley.

She smiled at him. “I’m fine, Luis.” He lived just one house away from Serena and Mitch in a little cottage that was painted a pale turquoise. Garlands of shells and starfish were hung like curtains over the windows. Riley loved it there, because it was so colorful and smelled of the sweet blossoms from the plumeria plants that Luis’s dad had everywhere.