Midnight Promises (16 page)

Dana Sue grinned, looking very pleased with herself. “Then my work here is done. I know it might feel like a busman’s holiday, but you could bring Elliott here for Sunday brunch on the house, if you’d like to turn it into a special occasion.”

Karen nodded slowly. “He might like that, and heaven knows, we could use a nice meal at someplace with more ambience than Wharton’s or Rosalina’s. Thank you. The kids are at sleepovers tonight. I’ll see if they can hang out till tomorrow afternoon, so we’ll have privacy for a real heart-to-heart, adult conversation.”

“I’ll reserve a table for you, then,” Dana Sue promised.

“I’d better get back and check on my jalapeño mac and cheese.” Karen grinned. “If I did it right, it ought to bump up drink sales.”

“Or send our water bill soaring,” Dana Sue teased. “I can’t wait to try it.”

As Karen left the office, she felt more hopeful than she had in weeks.

* * *

“But we always have Sunday dinner with my family,” Elliott protested when Karen told him about Dana Sue’s offer. “It’s a tradition to go there after church. You know how much my mother counts on all of us being around her table at least once a week.”

Karen had managed to avoid plenty of those occasions by claiming she had to work. Since the offer to eat free at Sullivan’s would have been such a rare treat, she’d been sure Elliott would readily forego his mother’s command performance just this once.

“It’s one time,” she pleaded. “And we need this, Elliott. You know we do.”

“I’ve been saying we need to talk all week. Why would you pick the one day of the week when it’s impossible?”

“It’s not
impossible,
” she retorted.

“Okay, maybe not. I just don’t want to disappoint my mother. And if she finds out you had time off and chose to go to the restaurant where you work for a meal rather than joining the family, she’ll take it like a slap in her face.”

Unfortunately, Karen knew that was exactly how her mother-in-law would view it. She heaved a resigned sigh. “Fine. We’ll go to your mother’s,” she said, already regretting that she’d given up the shift at work.

“We’ll go over to the lake after,” he said, clearly trying to make amends. “The kids can run off their excess energy, and we’ll be able to sit quietly there and talk.”

“On a Sunday, when every family in Serenity has the exact same idea?” she asked skeptically.

“I’m trying to compromise,” he said in frustration.

She met his gaze. “I know you are, but so am I.”

He tucked a finger under her chin until she met his gaze. “We’ll get better at it,” he promised, moving his hand to caress her cheek.

“I should have remembered how hard marriage can be,” she told him. “The funny thing is, I would have done whatever it took to figure things out and save my marriage to Ray, scumbag that he turned out to be. He bolted without giving us any chance at all to work things out.”

“Does that mean you intend to fight for our marriage even when it gets hard?” Elliott asked.

She reached up and put her hand over his where it still rested against her cheek, her eyes locked with his. “With everything in me,” she assured him.

“And I’ll do the same,
querida. Te amo.
”

“I love you, too,” she whispered, stepping into his open arms. “With all my heart.”

* * *

The one thing Elliott hadn’t considered when he’d insisted they go to his mother’s house on Sunday was that it would bring Daisy and Selena into contact for the first time since the dance. Adelia had kept Selena home that first Sunday and after school. They’d caved in to Daisy’s pleas to stay away after that. He knew the two girls had spoken on the phone, but until they saw each other, it was hard to know if the matter had truly been resolved, especially since Daisy had said nothing, at least to him, after that conversation.

As they drove over to his mother’s, he glanced into the rearview mirror. Daisy was gazing out the window, ignoring her brother’s chatter, her expression pensive.

“You okay, Daisy?” he asked.

“Uh-huh,” she murmured without looking in his direction.

Next to him, Karen frowned, obviously picking up on her daughter’s mood and guessing the reason for it.

“You’re not worried about seeing Selena, are you?” Karen asked quietly. “I thought things were better after she made that phone call the other day.”

Daisy shrugged. “I guess.”

There was no doubt in Elliott’s mind that the matter wasn’t resolved as he’d hoped. Unfortunately, despite having sisters, he only rarely understood the workings of the female mind. He cast a helpless
what-now
look toward Karen.

Karen turned in her seat. “Sweetie, tell us what’s going on. Whatever it is, we’ll help you figure it out.”

Daisy frowned at that. “Why do
I
have to figure it out? Selena’s the one who was mean. Now everybody at school is teasing me, and it’s all because of her.” Her voice rose as she spoke, and tears started to fall.

Karen turned to Elliott. “Maybe we shouldn’t do this,” she began, but he was already shaking his head.

“Postponing this will only delay the inevitable,” he told her. “They’re cousins. They have to work through the problem, and the only way to do that is face-to-face.”

“I don’t think it’s that simple,” Karen argued. “Not if the other kids are using the incident to say more hurtful things to Daisy. Maybe we should speak to the principal.”

“No!” Daisy protested, looking alarmed. “It’s bad enough now. I don’t want to be a big old tattletale. I just don’t want to have to spend time with Selena at Grandma Cruz’s house, too. Everyone there will just take her side, the same way they do at school.”

“You know better than that,” Elliott said, trying to reassure her. “I’ve been on your side from the beginning, haven’t I? And Adelia punished Selena.”

“What about Ernesto?” she complained. “He didn’t say anything, and he was right there when it happened.”

Elliott wasn’t sure quite how to answer that. He wondered if Ernesto would even be there today. He doubted it. From what he’d seen and heard recently, Ernesto had been making himself scarce ever since he’d brushed past Elliott and left home a couple of Saturdays ago. Though Elliott had wanted to talk to Adelia about it, his sisters had advised him to stay out of it. They were convinced the couple would eventually work things out, because that’s what people in their family did.

He wondered, though, if his mother was aware of the strain in that marriage. He knew Adelia would do everything in her power to keep it from her. Would that extend to somehow convincing Ernesto to show up today to keep up appearances?

“Don’t worry about Ernesto,” he advised Daisy eventually as they pulled into a parking spot up the street from his mother’s house. “There will be plenty of other people around today. If anyone upsets you, you can stick close to me. I’ll protect you.”

Daisy grinned. “You used to tell me that when you’d read me scary stories before bed, back when I was little.”

“I meant it then, and I mean it now. You can always count on me,” Elliott assured her.

Daisy might not be his biological daughter, but she was the daughter of his heart, and no one would ever harm her on his watch again, especially not a member of his own family, not even inadvertently.

* * *

As soon as they walked into the chaos that was the Cruz family home on a Sunday, Karen noticed that Adelia was not in her usual spot in the kitchen helping her mother with the meal. Karen lingered in the kitchen only long enough to offer a greeting and her willingness to help, which was automatically rejected. She might be a cook in the region’s finest restaurant, but she didn’t measure up to Cruz standards.

As soon as she’d been dismissed, she went in search of the one sister-in-law with whom she’d developed at least a tentative bond recently. She found Adelia sitting on the patio in back, watching the husbands toss around a football. She noticed that Ernesto was not among them.

Karen gestured toward a chair beside her. “Is it okay if I join you?”

Adelia shrugged. “I’m lousy company,” she warned.

Karen grinned. “Is that why you were banished from your usual spot in the kitchen?”

To her surprise, Adelia actually chuckled. “To be honest, I’m avoiding Mama.”

“Because Ernesto isn’t here and she’s going to want to know why?” Karen guessed.

“Got it on the first try,” Adelia said, lifting a glass of wine in a toast. It didn’t seem to be her first.

“Want to talk about it with an unbiased third party?”

The last trace of Adelia’s smile faded. “Nothing to talk about.”

Karen merely nodded and fell silent. She understood more than most the need for privacy in a crisis, especially among family members like these, who shared every little detail of each other’s lives. While emotional support was a given, the hovering and judgments could be more than a little overwhelming.

“You’re not pushing for information,” Adelia said eventually.

“It’s your business,” Karen said simply. “If you decide you want to talk, I’m here. If not, it’s okay.” She held Adelia’s gaze. “You do know that I’ve been where you are. I’m the only one in the family who has been.”

Adelia shook her head. “From what I know about your marriage, as awful as it was, it doesn’t come close to the travesty that is mine,” she said bitterly, a tear leaking from her eyes to spill down her cheek. She brushed at it impatiently, then stood up. “I can’t do this. I need to get out of here.”

Before Karen could think of what to say, Adelia was gone. A moment later, a car started out front.

“Did Adelia just take off?” Elliott asked, suddenly appearing in front of her, his expression filled with concern.

Karen nodded.

“What did you say to her?”

“It wasn’t anything I said,” Karen said, instantly on the defensive. “She’s very unhappy right now.”

“I’d better go after her,” he said, tossing the football to one of his brothers-in-law.

Karen reached for his hand. “Don’t. I think she needs to figure this out for herself.”

“She needs to know we’re here for her.”

Karen smiled at that. “I think that’s part of the problem. She’s not ready for the family call-to-arms.”

Elliott sighed and sat down in the chair Adelia had vacated. “You’re probably right. Seeing her so miserable, though, makes me want to hunt down Ernesto and punch his lights out.”

“I have a hunch Adelia might appreciate that,” Karen said, “but it’s probably not a good idea. When people take sides, if there’s a reconciliation down the road, sometimes it’s hard to forget all the angry words that were spoken or the punches that were thrown.”