Family Matters (DiCarlo Brides book 4) (The DiCarlo Brides) (8 page)

“Yeah, bug. I’ll be right there.” She just needed a minute to compose herself and finish the train of thought in hopes that it would help her put it in perspective.

She wondered if Harrison had recognized her right off, or if Sage had to remind him about who she was, but she’d recognized him the moment he showed up in Juniper Ridge. He had a stack of files under his arm as he prepared for the whirlwind interviews they were going to do for employees and his dark hair had been wind-blown.

She didn’t realize until the next day that he and Sage were half siblings, just like Sage and herself, but she knew him, felt the same longing as before. When he met her gaze, the breath backed up in her lungs and she forced all of the bravado she could manage when they were introduced. “Oh, HR director. A necessary evil, I suppose when you have this many employees.” She looked him over as if he were an insect and walked away, proud that she had lost so much weight, but somehow still feeling like that borderline-obese young adult.

It had felt good at first, getting her dig in, but later she’d been sick about it. Why had she been so nasty when they could have started over without the hard feelings between them? She’d regretted that comment every day for the past six months.

Now she wondered if his appearance on her doorstep meant they were finally past that, and why she was still fighting him when the attraction had only grown as she’d gotten to know him a little.

She shook it off as she pushed into Cleo’s room, making herself smile because there was no reason to let her little girl know how messed up she was.

It was Rosemary’s third day in DC and she stretched her back in agony. The couch was not comfortable, but she wasn’t about to take Cleo’s bed, and the only other bed in the house was Cecilia’s and Don’s and there was no way Rosemary could handle sleeping there. Not at this point anyway. There was a hotel room with her name on it at the DC resort, but she couldn’t pull Cleo away from her home any sooner than absolutely necessary.

She walked around the perimeter of the house and decided to check into the detached garage. There was a lot of stuff in there that would need to be dealt with. Later. Maybe in the spring or fall when skiing ended and summer activities hadn’t started yet. By then Cleo might be ready to handle seeing her parents’ house cleaned out. Or they might be getting ready to stay there, if Rosemary decided she could stand to live in the neighborhood after all. Or if her mom moved somewhere else.

As if conjured there by Rosemary’s thoughts, her mother’s voice called from the street. “Rosie, there you are. I heard you were in town.”

She turned toward her mother and forced a tight smile. “Hello. I intended to stop by before we head back to Juniper Ridge.” A blatant lie. “How are things with you, Mother?”

“We? So the rumors I hear about you taking in that girl are true? After you managed to get rid of her once.” Wanda Keogh sauntered up the driveway.

“I never wanted to get rid of her. I love her, and she knows it. How are you?” Rosemary was determined to keep the topic of conversation off herself.

“Fine. Not as fine as you with your big inheritance. Though now you have a brat to raise, you won’t have nearly as much time on your hands to play around. Of course, you can afford the best child care available. If you wish. Unlike me.”

“Give me a break. I know what Dad paid you every month. You could have sent me to boarding school if you liked and still lived fine. Unlike
some
people, I’m bringing my daughter home with me because I want to be part of her life.” She caught herself a little too late and bit back the rest of the things she’d love to say to her mother. Instead she changed the conversation. “How are things with Larry?”

Wanda put her hands on her hips. “We split up last month. Didn’t you hear? Oh, right. You don’t call, you don’t write. You ignore me because of all of the things you’ve got going on with hot ski instructors.”

Rosemary managed not to roll her eyes. She hadn’t been on a date since she moved to Colorado. Her job didn’t exactly leave time for relationships, and with Harrison around, no one else looked even remotely interesting. Idiot man drove her crazy. “No. I don’t call or write because we’re both happier when we’re not part of each other’s lives. Now, did you want something, or can I get back to what I was doing?”

Wanda’s eyes narrowed on her daughter. “You always had a mouth on you. Your father spoiled you, made you think you were worth his time and money, even though neither were true. But I suppose you deserve each other. He wasn’t so great, either.”

“You didn’t always think so,” Rosemary called after her mom as she walked away.

“Everyone’s entitled to their evening of stupidity. At least I cashed in because of mine.”

Rosemary clenched her teeth and told herself not to react. That’s all she had been to her mother—a paycheck. George had been very generous with his financial support, but it was never enough for Wanda. Even knowing her mother never loved her, it still hurt to hear it now.

Rosemary went into the garage, thinking that she would give herself five minutes to stew and then she would move on. Worrying about her mother only stressed Rosemary, and didn’t fix anything. The shelves were full—fuller than she remembered, but she hadn’t been in there for years. The walls were full of shelves and pegboard organizing garden tools, half-empty paint cans and camping gear.

The car was still parked there—it was a new mid-sized sedan, a Honda in midnight blue and still had the dealer-printed plate in the back window. That meant the real plate was probably in the pile of mail on the hall table. Since the car wasn’t going anywhere for a while, Rosemary opted to ignore it for now.

Don and Cecelia had taken the nearby subway tunnel into downtown DC for their lunch date, leaving the car parked—a not uncommon event considering how hard it could be to find parking downtown.

 Rosemary ran her hand over the glossy paint and remembered the faded Geo Metro they’d been driving since before Cleo was born. They had taken her to the hospital in that car, had brought her and Cleo home again a couple of days later. She had remembered sitting behind Cecelia and looking over at her baby’s face, the sweet way she puckered her lips in sleep, the few bare inches of skin they allowed to show between her soft pink sleepers and the blankets.

Rosemary had reached over and brushed her knuckle down Cleo’s cheek, knowing she wouldn’t have too many more chances. She’d made arrangements to miss a few weeks of classes, but she needed to go back the following Monday if she didn’t want to be hopelessly behind everyone else. The last thing she wanted to do was face everyone’s questions about the baby, what she’d done with it, the speculation and whispers. But for that few minutes as the car returned to the warm house filled with love and laughter, Rosemary was able to just stare at her child and know Cleo’s life would be good because she would have a mother who wouldn’t treat her like she was a burden and a father who was closer than a phone call away.

Rosemary blinked away the memory and the tears that welled in her eyes. It had been almost a decade, but the memory of that day was so strong, she could feel the pain still clawing inside her. Only now it was joined by the pain of losing the best parents she or Cleo could ever have.

She sighed, then turned back toward the exit, brushed the handle of something with her leg and heard a creaking sound. She looked up in time to see the shelf of camping equipment wobble, then break, dumping the contents, which poured down on her. She stopped the camp stove before it knocked her against the car, but it slid down and bruised her leg. The tent tumbled after it, beaning her on the shoulder as the Dutch ovens clattered to the ground and the big blue-enameled coffee pot hit her in the face. Several other items banged against her on their way to the cement floor and she thought for a second that the whole wall might collapse on her.

The crashes continued for a moment and then settled as almost everything along that wall ended up piled on the ground around her. When it all came to rest except for the clanging sound of a can rolling across the cement, she realized that she’d been holding her breath. Her heart raced and her hands shook. Her cheekbone hurt, and she would probably have bruises on her arms and legs.

She wondered why Don had piled everything up like that—he had a little girl, why hadn’t he made sure it was secure? The thought of Cleo getting caught in the fallout sickened her—she might have been killed. Rosemary looked at the gear filling the floor on either side of her and rested her head back on the top of the car. This wasn’t going to be fun to wade through, but she had to get out of this mess. She’d have to come back and sort through all of it later.

Maybe in June.

After stepping on, over and between equipment, she finally made it out. She checked her watch again and saw that it was after lunch and she ought to go start the process of checking Cleo out of school. It broke her heart to have to tear the little girl away from her friends, but it couldn’t be helped.

Rosemary grabbed her court documents, granting temporary guardianship, her ID and information for the school where Cleo would be attending, and headed for her rental car.

Rosemary checked Cleo out of school and they ran some of the dozens of errands that had to be handled before they left for Colorado. Her phone rang as she walked through the door, exhausted and achy from the earlier accident. She recognized the number on the caller ID as belonging to Juniper Ridge, but in her muddled state, wasn’t sure to whom it belonged. She answered it, thinking that if it was one of her staff and it wasn’t a true emergency, heads were going to roll. “This is Rosemary.”

“Hey, are you at home?” The voice was Harrison’s.

“Yes. Are you still in town? I thought you’d be gone by now.” She wasn’t sure if she wanted him to be gone, or if she just didn’t care.

“I leave in the morning, but for tonight I thought I could take you two out for dinner, maybe we could catch a show. I’m sure you could both use a change of scene.”

“Harrison, that’s sweet of you, really. But we don’t want to go out tonight.” She didn’t want to see anyone today—especially him. Though she’d used cover-up on her cheek, it was swollen and turning purple. And she really needed to veg for a while

“Yes we do!” Cleo said, scrambling over to her. “We want to go out tonight. Really. I want a shake.”

The doorbell rang and Rosemary touched her forehead, wondering if her headache was going to get better or worse.

Cleo whooped, running to the door. She stopped and asked who it was, but opened the door almost immediately, revealing Harrison on the other side, still holding his phone to his ear.

Rosemary slumped a little—now he was here, Cleo wouldn’t back off and let her stay home for a quiet evening. She ended the call and stuck her phone back in her pocket. “Really, Harrison, tonight is not the night to go out.”

His brow furrowed as he drew closer. He hunched down so their faces were on the same level. “What happened? You have a bruise.” His fingers ghosted just above it, tickling the fine hairs on her skin.

“I have several bruises,” she said, not wanting to explain. “There was a little accident in the garage today. Nothing serious.” She was not going to mention how very serious it
could
have been, not now. Not in front of Cleo. Besides, if she said anything about that to Harrison, he’d tell Sage, who would tell the others, and then she’d be smothered with concern.

“And that would be why you don’t want to go do something tonight. I was really thinking maybe we could head out to Chuck E Cheese.” He turned to Cleo, who jumped up and down.

“I want to go there, Rosemary! Please say we can go. Please?” She clasped her hands together and fluttered her big eyes and hopeful grin.

Rosemary sighed. There was no way she could turn Cleo down when she looked like that—not without a good reason. “I have the funniest feeling I’m going to lose, even if I argue.”

“Yay!” Cleo wrapped her arms around Rosemary’s neck, yanking her to the side and making her head pound a little more.

“I need some pain medication first. Give me a minute.” Rosemary moved to stand, and Harrison held out a hand to help her up.