Rainey's Christmas Miracle (2 page)

She pushed her fears into the appropriate box in her mind and said, “They’re probably hungry. They heard something about turkey and ham and candied yams.”

The mention of food spurred Katie out the door. “Oh my God, I’m starving.”

Rainey laughed and armed the alarm, closing the door behind her. “Should I stop for a snack or can you make it to Durham?”

The glare returned to Katie’s eyes as she wheeled on Rainey. “One more reference to how much I eat and you will be deprived a whole lot longer.”

Rainey opened Katie’s car door and stood aside. They were driving Katie’s Lexus, because Rainey’s new Dodge Charger, a gift from Katie after Rainey’s car was destroyed last spring, was still being equipped with armor plating and bullet-resistant glass. Katie worked her way down in the seat with a bit of difficulty and basically fell the last few inches with a “humpf.”

Rainey shut the door and went around the front of the car, entering the driver’s side. Before she cranked the car, she faced Katie. “I think you’re the most beautiful woman in the world. Being pregnant only made you more gorgeous.”

Katie brightened and kissed Rainey, sweetly brushing her lips. “You’re really hoping to get lucky, aren’t you?”

Rainey cranked the car, saying, “Always.”

#

The Meyers sisters were five years apart respectively. Katie was the youngest at thirty-seven. Helena, the middle sister, was a taller, more statuesque version of Katie. She was the wild child of the family and Rainey liked her, even if she did think Helena was just a little too Hollywood, where the aspiring actress currently resided. She made her living as a model and sometimes landed a bit part. Helena had been supportive of Katie and Rainey’s relationship from the beginning. For that, Rainey was thankful, but it didn’t make up for the oldest sister’s disposition.

Maria was a piece of work. Rainey couldn’t figure out how she turned out so differently from the other two. Maria was the only conservative Republican in the family, which was bad enough, but she spouted her Fox News informed politics at every opportunity. The fact that her baby sister was now living with a woman, and about to have a family with her, completely blew her mind. Rainey tended to stay out of the way when Maria was around, choosing to sit with the men in the den and drink, while the other women hung out in the kitchen. Invariably, Maria would find her and ask Rainey some offensive question about her relationship with Katie. Her latest intrusion had come at Thanksgiving.

Maria found Rainey in the den watching football alone, the others having migrated to the kitchen to refill drinks and grab some leftovers from dinner. Rainey wished she had gone with them when she saw Maria approaching.

“Rainey, I want to ask you something,” Maria began, slurring just a bit, an almost empty glass of wine in her hand.

Wine made Maria less inhibited and nosey as hell. Rainey braced for another of Maria’s ignorant inquiries, like when she asked which one of them, Katie or Rainey, was the boy in their relationship.

Maria stood in front of Rainey, who was seated on the couch. She crossed her arms, assuming her holier than thou persona, and continued, “I’m just curious. What will you do with these babies if something happens to Katie? I mean, who will you give them to if, God forbid, something goes wrong during the pregnancy and birth?”

Rainey had been too stunned to answer for a second. The thought of something going wrong with Katie’s delivery had crossed her mind, but she never let it dwell long. It was unthinkable. Maria speaking as if it were a real possibility infuriated Rainey. She stood quickly, trying to control her anger.

“Nothing is going to happen to Katie!”

Maria was undeterred. “You can’t know that. Things happen to people all the time. You, I would think, should understand that. I just want to know where these innocent babies are going to end up in the event Katie can’t take care of them.”

Rainey’s anger was growing in leaps and bounds. She spat back at Maria, “I will take care of my children.”

“They are hardly
your
children,” Maria countered. “You had absolutely nothing to do with them being conceived, unnaturally as it were. They have none of your genetics and would belong more to me as biological family than to you.”

Rainey came unglued at that point and raised her voice loud enough to draw Katie out of the kitchen, when she said, “It will be a cold day in hell when my children belong to you. You tight assed, right winged, bit — ”

“Rainey!” Katie shouted. “What the hell is going on in here?”

“Your sister seems to think she’ll be taking the kids if something happens to you,” Rainey explained, her chest still heaving with anger.

Katie stepped in front of Rainey and faced Maria, her eyes glowing with contempt. “I thought you might pull something like this, so for your information, I have filed legal papers giving Rainey full custody, should it be necessary. As Rainey said, it will be a cold day in hell when I allow my children to be raised by a closed minded bigot like you.”

Still seething, Rainey said, “That’s not the B-word I was going to use.”

Maria was everything Rainey had come to despise after beginning a relationship with Katie. She had known discrimination, working in a male dominated field, but Rainey never experienced the disgust her relationship brought out in some people. It was hard for her to wrap her mind around that kind of thinking. Her relationship with Katie had come about so naturally. They were drawn together like magnets, unable to resist the pull. Rainey couldn’t fathom a God that had not blessed this union. It was simply meant to be.

Maria gave no ground. “That’s all well and good on paper, but what court would uphold that and leave them with a non-family member who, let’s face it, has a good chance of being shot dead tomorrow?”

Dammit! Maria was voicing Katie’s greatest fear, a subject from which Rainey went to great lengths to shield her. Over the course of the pregnancy, Rainey had stayed out of harm’s way, leaving the more sketchy bond recoveries to the young agents she and Mackie hired in the fall. The business had doubled in size since moving to the new offices in Chapel Hill. Rainey acquired her Private Investigator’s license and began working more cases as an expert witness, investigating quite a bit for Molly Kincaid, a defense attorney in Durham. This eased Katie’s fears, but it always loomed in their lives that Rainey’s next time out the door could be her last.

Neither Rainey nor Katie had time to respond before a deep voice boomed through the room. “Maria! That is entirely enough!”

Rainey turned to see Katie’s father, Timothy Meyers, coming toward them.

“Apologize to your sister and Rainey immediately,” he demanded.

Timothy Meyers rarely got involved in his daughters’ spats. From what Rainey had observed, he chose to ignore all the women in his house out of self-defense. Four high-strung blondes in one house were enough to drive anyone crazy. Timothy chose to remain as sane as possible by leaving the bickering women at home and seeking solace on the golf course. Rainey was thinking about digging out her old clubs and joining him, only appearing on holidays for dinner, and staying far away from home when all of the girls were in the house.

It surprised Rainey to hear Katie’s father speak to one of his daughters in that tone. She looked back at Maria and realized this was the voice their father used when he had finally reached his limit. Maria recognized it immediately and was now staring sheepishly at the tops of her shoes. Out of the corner of her eye, Rainey saw Helena with Katie’s mother, Melanie, entering the room.

“What’s going on in here?” Melanie asked, wiping her hands on a dishtowel.

“Let me guess,” Helena said. “Maria is channeling Michele Bachmann again.”

The tension in the room evaporated instantly, as the occupants burst into peals of laughter, all except Maria, who turned scarlet-red before storming from the room. Rainey was remembering the confrontation as she pulled the car into the Meyers family driveway. Katie sensed Rainey’s apprehension and reached out, touching Rainey’s hand.

“Don’t let her get to you,” Katie said.

Rainey smiled bravely, even though she was dreading this gathering. “It’ll be fine. Enjoy your day with your family.”

“They are your family now too, Rainey, warts and all.”

Rainey grinned. “Well, if your mom has any wart remover, I may bathe Maria in it.”

Katie laughed. “Don’t waste your time. I tried it years ago.”

#

Rainey escaped to the den as soon as possible. Once the hugs were exchanged — Rainey managed to make it through a brief embrace with Maria without giving in to the urge to strangle her — she joined Timothy and Maria’s poor, punch-drunk husband Kenneth. Rainey wondered how Kenneth had survived all these years with the raging blonde and his two out of control daughters. Rainey was beginning to speculate if she too would wind up in the den with glazed over eyes, staring at the TV screen, hoping the wife and kids would just leave her out of it, whatever it was.

“Rainey, welcome to the sanctuary,” Timothy said, standing. “What can I get you to drink?”

Rainey grinned. “I suppose you are assuming I need one.”

“I went through three pregnancies with Melanie. I
know
you need a drink and I have just the thing. Ken here brought me a bottle of Makers Mark. How’s that sound?”

“That sounds wonderful, but I better stick with water. Katie can’t fit behind the steering wheel anymore,” Rainey replied. She turned to the other man. “How’s it going Kenneth?”

Rainey used his formal name, because Maria flew into a fit if anyone called him Ken. She noticed that Timothy used the shortened nickname, which made her think Maria had already started something. Ken looked up, the glaze leaving his eyes like a lizard’s false lids blinking open. It was hard to imagine that he was a software millionaire. Maria most definitely took the fight out of this man years ago. He smiled at Rainey and she saw the man he used to be come to the front. He had been still as a possum, feigning death, but sprang into animated excitement when he spoke.

“Hey, Rainey. How’s Katie doing? She should be having the babies any time now, right?”

“I think the doctor is going to do the C-section next week. We have an appointment Tuesday,” Rainey answered. Taking the glass Timothy extended to her, she sat down on the end of the couch.

Timothy returned to his recliner. “Well, enjoy your last few nights of sleep. You won’t have another good night’s rest for eighteen years.”

Ken spoke up, sounding defeated. “That’s if you can get them to leave and not come back.”

“It’s a good thing you’re getting it all done at once. When you space them out, it takes a lot longer to return to a peaceful existence,” Timothy said.

Ken sat up on the edge of his armchair. “I can’t imagine having three at the same time, talk about exhausting, but Tim’s right, at least you won’t have to go through the same stages repeatedly.”

Timothy must have seen what Rainey was feeling, because he said, “Children are a blessing, don’t let us scare you. They will drive you to distraction, it’s true, but the joy they bring is worth the ride. I wouldn’t change a thing.”

“I would,” Ken mumbled under his breath.

As if on cue, Kenneth’s youngest daughter, Clarissa, sauntered into the room. When Rainey saw her last Christmas, she had black hair, black clothes, tattoos, and piercings everywhere. This year, Clarissa was into Steampunk. Her hair was no longer jet black, but still darker than her natural blond. She wore a black Victorian high-necked blouse, a brown leather vest, and a gun belt with fake shotgun shells slung across her shoulder. The black thigh high boots she wore had so many gadgets, Rainey could have stared at them for an hour and not seen all the intricate details. One boot looked mechanized, with silver and bronze sprockets and gears running up Clarissa’s leg and disappearing under her short red leather skirt. Rainey was sure the nineteen-year-old was not dressed that way coming through airport security last night.

“Dad, Mom wants you to go to the store,” Clarissa said, smacking her gum.

“Nothing’s open. It’s Christmas Day,” Ken protested.

Rainey leapt at the chance to leave the house for a few minutes. She asked, “What do they need? We passed a little store that was open, coming here.”

“Katie needs some more whipping cream for the pies,” Clarissa answered, and quickly added, “I’ll come with you.”

Rainey could tell by the look in the young woman’s eyes that Clarissa wanted out of there as badly as she did. “Okay, come on then.”

#

Once the acquisitions list had been obtained from the quartet of blondes in the kitchen, Clarissa and Rainey set out to find an open store. Rainey hoped she could remember where she saw it. Katie’s running monologue during the drive down distracted her. Katie expounded on the virtues of breast-feeding and how she wasn’t sure she’d be able to feed three babies. Rainey was sure Katie could feed a platoon of babies considering how large her breasts had grown.

Clarissa started talking immediately when the doors closed on the car.

“So, Rainey, you’re a behavioral analyst?”

Rainey backed out of the driveway and headed the car toward US highway 15/501, back toward Chapel Hill. She answered, “I used to be.”

“But you still know how to do it, right?”

Rainey chuckled. “Yeah, I think I can still remember.”

“What about me? What do you see?” Clarissa asked.

“It’s not exactly like you see on TV, Clarissa. I would need to know a lot about you to make those kinds of observations.”

Clarissa turned in the seat to face Rainey. “What do you need to know, other than my mother is a total control freak and my father is emasculated by her? I am a graphic design major at Cal-Poly. I have a four point GPA. My boyfriend is a lit major. I don’t do drugs and I rarely drink. Is that enough?”

“You appear to be a very well adjusted young woman.”

“That sounds like a politically correct answer, Rainey. Seriously, what do you see when you look at me?”

Rainey glanced over at the young girl. She suspected Clarissa was beautiful under all the make-up and false persona. Clarissa wanted what all young people wanted, validation that they were moving on the right path. Rainey saw a bit of sorrow in Clarissa’s eyes, something plagued her and Rainey recognized it immediately.