The Weekday Brides 04 - Single by Saturday (10 page)

“Wow, Dad, way to make her uncomfortable,” Hannah said.

“Yeah, hold back, will ya?” This was from Zach.

Michael simply shook his head as if he knew his father would be an instant ass. The man obviously ruled his home and he expected a different level of respect than he actually gave.

“Sawyer!” Janice started in.

“It’s OK, Janice. Zach told us when he came to California that everyone was upset that we hadn’t come to visit. I’m sure he underemphasized all of your feelings in an effort to save mine.” She couldn’t help but glance Zach’s way, or notice the way he glared at his father. So far, Sawyer had yet to crack a smile, even with Eli at his heels and Rena attempting to pull the child back.

“As I told Mom,” Michael said, “I’ve had a breakneck schedule since Karen and I met.”

Karen placed a hand on his arm. “But I have to take some of the blame for the delay in meeting you.”

Michael glanced at her.

“Michael knows I don’t have a family of my own and he worried that I’d be intimidated by your sheer numbers.”

Janice tilted her head to the side. “No siblings?”

Karen shook her head and offered everyone her practiced lie all at once. “My parents have been gone for some time, and they only had me. My aunt is the only family in my life.”

Michael placed a hand on her back and sighed.

Not that Karen was going for the sympathy card, but her words seemed to change the mood in the room.

Hannah was the first to say anything. “Well now you have us. We’re noisy, but we’re not bad or anything.”

For the youngest child, Karen was surprised that she took on the role of mediator. That was usually left to the middle child, which would be Michael, and right now he was staring down his father, almost daring the man to say something.

It appeared to Karen that Sawyer wasn’t going to say anything else, and thankfully, Janice stepped between them. “I need to check on dinner in the kitchen. Karen, why don’t you come with me and let the men have a chat?”

Ready to escape, Karen glanced at Michael, lifted her eyebrows as if to say
good luck
, and then followed Janice.

The traditional home had a divided kitchen, giving her and Janice some privacy.

“Please try not to be offended by my husband’s demeanor,” she said as soon as they were out of hearing range of the living room.

“I understand.” Though she really didn’t. The truth was, she hadn’t been around a large family who said what they felt because they could. In Karen’s world, when you didn’t know someone you were polite until the stranger became a friend or an enemy. Of course, that could happen in a matter of hours, but it usually took more than a sentence or two to find a reason to dislike someone.

Sawyer named that tune in one sentence.

“I can see by your face you’re upset,” Janice said.

Rena walked into the kitchen at that moment. “Well of course she’s upset. Dad’s being an ass.” She stepped over to the refrigerator, opened it, and removed a bottle of wine. With a wave in the air she asked, “Would you like some, Karen?”

God yes.
“Please.”

“It will take a day or two for him to warm up,” Rena explained.

“Michael said as much.” Karen slipped onto a high stool that was tucked under the kitchen island.

“We were all shocked to hear Michael had gotten married.” While Janice spoke, she wrapped an apron around her waist and opened the oven to check what cooked inside. From the rich aroma coming from the kitchen, Karen guessed it was some sort of roast. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a home-cooked roast. Aunt Edie was a pasta sort of woman, the by-product of her first husband being a full-blood Italian.

“It was a bit of a surprise to Michael and me as well,” Karen told them.

Rena shoved a corkscrew into the bottle and began twisting the plug free. “You really only knew each other for a few weeks before you got married?” she asked.

“Yeah. When I think about it, I realize how reckless it was to get married so quickly.” All the combined lines, some holding truth and others only skimming the surface of truth, started to fall from her lips. “I think he was charmed because I didn’t give a crap about his fame. Threw him back a couple of notches.”

Rena handed her a glass of wine and poured herself one.

Because there was no way Karen would escape the kitchen without more information about her and Michael, she told as much of the truth as she could without giving away their secret. “Michael started talking marriage almost from the first date.”

Janice exchanged looks with Rena.

“And you thought that was normal?”

Karen sipped the wine, pushed past the taste, and called herself a
wine snob
before taking another drink. Michael would hate it. Good thing he’d be stuck drinking beer while he was in Utah. Part of the macho image he loved so much meant he only drank wine in public during Hollywood parties and fancy dinners. Karen tried to tell him that plenty of heterosexual men drank wine, but he wouldn’t. He was the ultimate closet wine snob…and it was rubbing off on her.

“I thought it was crazy. But why not? We knew there wouldn’t be a lot of time to get to really know each other before he had to run off to shoot another film.”

“So why rush it?” Janice asked.

Karen shrugged. “I can’t really explain it, Janice. And as for not visiting with everyone here, I think some of that has to do with both of us realizing, after the fact, that we rushed.” They were both staring at her now.

“You’ve been married for a year.”

Karen nodded. “And I can count on one hand the amount of months we’ve spent together in that time. Michael wasn’t lying when he said his schedule has been grueling. Your son works very hard.”

“Are you suggesting you barely know each other?”

Karen shook her head. “No. I think we know each other better than anyone else in our lives. Michael will be the first to tell you he has a lot of superficial friends. Hard to avoid in Hollywood.”

The women seemed to relax. Karen knew this was where she proved to the family that she wasn’t using Michael, but she wasn’t about to profess undying romantic love for him either, not with their divorce only months away. A little doubt would soften the blow of obtaining a daughter- and sister-in-law in the same year as saying good-bye to her. This might very well be the only time Karen spent with the Gardner family. She needed to remember that and keep her barriers up. She drank more of her wine and set the glass
down. Already the liquid was going to her head. She glanced at the clock and noticed it wasn’t yet four thirty.
Oh well,
it’s five o’clock somewhere.

The door to the kitchen opened and Tracey walked through. “Hope you don’t mind me interrupting. I thought I’d bring the boys a beer.”

“Is it bad in there?” Karen asked.

Rena found beer in the fridge and handed them to Tracey.

Tracey offered a polite smile. “Let’s just say that I’m sending in liquid courage and then coming back in here as fast as I can.”

Rena rolled her eyes. “You should do something, Mom.”

Janice shook her head. “Your brother deserves a tongue-lashing. Even if he hadn’t married without any of us around, he hasn’t exactly been attentive since he became famous.”

Karen had so many words on her lips but kept them inside her mouth. Janice Gardner may have been a calming effect on her husband, but she wasn’t happy with her son’s lack of contact. Karen just hoped that Sawyer didn’t push Michael away before they unpacked.

Tracey ducked back in the room and returned just as quickly.

“Judy pulled Hannah outside with Eli.”

“Oh, good. I just hope they don’t start shouting and wake the baby.”

“Janice, can I ask you something?” Karen asked.

“Of course, dear.” Her temporary mother-in-law pulled a bag of potatoes from a bin and piled them into the sink before turning on the water.

“How many hours a week does your husband work?”

Janice glanced at the ceiling as if it held the answer to Karen’s question.

“Well, he works plenty of twelve-hour days.”

“And weekends?”

“The store is closed on Sundays.”

“Everything is closed on Sundays,” Rena said with a laugh.

Karen tapped her fingers on the counter. “So he works twelve hours a day, six days a week?” That sounded grueling even to her.

“Not all the time,” Janice defended.

Karen swirled the wine in her glass before taking another drink. “When was the last time you took a vacation?”

As if catching on to Karen’s line of questions, Janice slowed down her answers. “We went to Michael’s first premiere.”

Which meant at least eight years. “Anything since?”

“We go up to the cabin every summer. Take a couple of day trips.”

“One or two days at a time?” Karen asked.

“The store doesn’t run itself.”

Rena poured more wine in Karen’s glass. “You sound like Dad,” Rena told her mother. “The truth is, Karen, my dad doesn’t leave town very often, and he has always worked more hours than anyone I’ve ever known.”

Karen offered a smile, picked up her glass, and stood to leave the room. “That’s what I thought.”

Armed with knowledge, she entered the Gardner battlefield ready to fight.

Chapter Eight

Zach had a strong desire to be drinking whiskey instead of beer. The tension in the room was growing by the second. Joe had taken a spot by the window and made a point of looking outside as if searching for a reason to run away.

“It can take three days to shoot five minutes of film, Dad.” Mike was trying to explain to their father the work schedule he’d been under, but Sawyer wasn’t listening. Not that Zach thought he would. Their father only saw what he wanted to.

“I don’t care if it takes a month. You should have come home before now.”

“I didn’t get where I am by slacking,” Mike told him.

Sawyer’s retort was on his lips when the door from the kitchen opened again.

Zach finished his beer in hopes more was on the way.

Their father glanced beyond them and closed his mouth.

“Don’t stop on my account.” Karen’s voice slid over Zach’s skin. She calmly moved to the edge of the sofa, across the room from Mike and their father. She offered a smile to Joe, who shifted his eyes away.

“I was just explaining to my son how disappointed we are that he hasn’t made time for his family.” Sawyer made no apologies to anyone.

Karen stiffened her spine and crossed her legs before leaning back on the sofa.

“I would think you, of all people, Mr. Gardner, would understand.”

Zach blinked, looked at his father.

“What do you mean?”

“You work hard.”

His eyes narrowed. “I see my family daily.”

“Convenient, seeing as how they all live in the same town.”

“Living a couple of states away isn’t an excuse.”

Mike lifted a hand in the air. “Let it go, Karen. He’ll never understand.”

Karen casually sipped her wine. The only sign of any nerves was in the tapping of her foot against the air. Zach felt himself starting to relax.

“Oh, I don’t know, Michael. I think I might have just realized where you get your drive.”

“What?”

“Your drive? Mr. Gardner, you’ve owned your own business for how long?”

“Over thirty years.”

“You must have sacrificed a lot in those years.” Karen’s eyes never left Sawyer’s.

Zach glanced at Joe, who was sitting closer to Karen than any of them, as admiration filled Joe’s face.

“Anything worth having is worth small sacrifices.”

“Things like long hours, missing weekends, vacations?”

Sawyer caught on and narrowed his eyes.

“Michael works his butt off and he does most of it out of a trailer on a set far away from his own bed. When he does finally come home, he usually drops. Sound familiar?”

Sawyer glanced at Mike.

“Michael is just like you. He works hard every day, pushes himself to his limits, and sometimes forgets about his family. But we’re here now. And my guess is you haven’t arranged any time off to spend with us.”

Zach knew for a fact Sawyer was planning to open the store in the morning. Saturdays were busy.

“I own the store. I can take off anytime I want.”

Mike laughed and said, “When was the last time you did that?”

“Don’t question me.”

The smile on Mike’s face stayed. “That intimidating tone worked when I was seventeen, Dad. But you’re right. I don’t have to question. I already know the answer.”

“Michael cleared his schedule for the next week and a half to spend time with everyone here. He promised me he’d avoid calls from his agent and manager to make sure that time is quality time. How much of it will he see you?” Karen laid out her challenge and sat back.

Every eye in the room swung back to Sawyer.

Zach noticed his father’s fist on the arm of his chair. “I don’t know if I like you.”

“Dad!” Mike yelled.

“I don’t know if I like you either, Mr. Gardner.” Karen bored holes in Sawyer’s head with her stare.

“Maybe we should just go.” Mike set his beer down and stood.

“Oh, screw that!” Zach jumped up. “Dad, you’re out of line. You know Karen has a point or you wouldn’t be so pissed.” He placed a hand on Mike’s arm. “If you wanna stay with me, you can.”