Like You and Daddy
Cady
Present day . . .
“UNCLE JAKE!” JANIE SCREECHED, AND then twisted on her booty in her seat at the grease-stained picnic table that was one of three we were taking up at Tinker’s burger joint.
She jumped to her feet and rushed around the table.
I watched her go, turning to look behind me to where she was heading, feeling Coert sitting beside me, do the same.
And when I saw Janie make it to a tall, black-haired, very built man who was bending to her before she arrived at him, a large smile curved into his extremely handsome face, I stilled.
I’d met Coert Yeager at age twenty-three.
And he’d ruined me for all other men in all ways.
Including the looks department.
I’d had the most handsome man I’d ever met fall in love with me.
And he’d done it the way he’d done it.
And I’d returned that completely.
You just didn’t recover from that.
So although I’d obviously seen attractive men since then (and dated a few of them), I’d never seen any that had made me go still.
Until right then.
The black-haired man grabbed Janie under her arms and lifted her, to which she let out a squeal of pure delight. He swung her out, then in, and she wrapped her legs around his flat stomach, her arms around his neck and gave him a big kiss on the mouth.
He wrapped one arm around her bottom, one around her back and kept smiling down at her.
I wasn’t sure because I wasn’t thinking clearly, but I had a feeling my mouth was hanging open.
And maybe a little drool was coming out.
Coert and I were totally having a little girl.
Totally.
Absolutely.
“Jesus, what’s in the water around here?” Shannon muttered (loudly, since I heard it and she was at another table).
“Please don’t think thoughts that will require me asking for a divorce,” Daly teased.
“Wait until you see Mick.”
This was said in my ear, and I jerked my eyes away from the man who was now walking toward us, his light-blue eyes aimed at me, and looked at Coert, who was pulling his face out of my hair.
I caught sight of a pair of familiar hazel eyes that would never fail to dazzle me.
No.
Much better.
Much.
Still.
Janie had said Uncle Jake.
Oh my God.
That was Coert’s friend Jake.
“Is Mickey better?” I asked Coert.
“I don’t know. I’m a guy. But Liz said Mickey was the only man she’d ever leave her husband for. Jake’s a boxer and he owns the local strip club. But Mick, he’s a boxer and he’s a volunteer firefighter.”
“My,” I breathed.
“I see dinner is gonna be interesting,” Coert replied.
I came out of my daze to see Coert grinning at me, not angry or even annoyed at my reaction.
I got closer to him.
“You’re the most handsome man I’ve known and slept with,” I shared in a whisper.
Coert’s shoulders started shaking and his lips also moved. “Well, glad I got that last distinction.”
A deep rumbling voice came at us. “Coert, man, good to see you.”
I tipped my head back, back, and back some more and stared into those blue eyes.
“Daddy! Look! Uncle Jake is here!” Janie cried.
“I see, cupcake,” Coert murmured, and I felt him shifting to get out of the picnic table.
“You’re Cady,” Jake told me.
At that moment, with those eyes on me, I couldn’t confirm that information.
Fortunately, Jake’s blue eyes didn’t have the same effect on Coert as they did on me.
“Yeah, bud, this is Cady,” he answered for me.
Jake shifted Janie to his hip like she was a toddler, not a five-year-old, and held a large hand out to me.
I lifted mine and put it in his, remembering my brief meeting with his wife and thinking this man was incredibly good looking.
But he was rough.
She looked like she’d walk out of the kitchen shop to fold into a limousine and might pass out at the thought of a burger from Tink’s.
He looked like he’d have not one thing to do with a woman who’d turn her nose up at the deliciousness of Tink’s (Coert had not been wrong, I wasn’t even finished with my burger and I wanted another one).
At any other time, this would give me pause about the Elijah/Verity situation.
But at that time, I had to think about it later.
“Yes, Cady. Um, I’m Cady. Sorry,” I mumbled, feeling his fingers close firm but not tight around mine before he let me go.
I scrambled out of the picnic table and Jake and Coert moved away to give me room.
When I got up, Coert’s fingers wrapped around mine.
This was the decision made at breakfast that morning. We’d been careful about how we were around Janie at Christmas. We’d talked about it Christmas Eve.
Coert didn’t want her confused later when we started to show more affection for each other but he didn’t want it in her face at first.
It was a delicate balance.
Now, he felt the time was right to give her stronger hints.
Holding hands.
Pecks of the lips.
Sitting beside each other at picnic tables.
“Cady’s giving Daddy and me a whole ’nother family!” Janie declared, and Jake’s head turned to her, my eyes shot to her and I felt Coert come alert at my side. “There’s a lot of them,” she carried on. “There’s Dexter and Corbin over there.”
She was twisted in Jake’s arm and pointing.
“They’re sitting with Bea, Aunt Shannon and Uncle Daly. And Elijah.” She looked back to Jake. “He’s new,” she declared authoritatively. She twisted to another table. “And that’s Uncle Mike and Aunt Pam and Ellie and Verity and Riley there.”
Her hand was bobbing as she pointed from person to person. Each person she pointed to lifted a hand or a chin or sent a smile Jake’s way to indicate who she was referring to.
“And that’s Uncle Pat and Melanie.” She slapped a hand on Jake’s cheek, something that made his (very wide) chest start shaking as he pulled his full lips in to stop himself from laughing, and she got close to whisper loudly, “She’s my new best friend.” She let him go and kept on, “And Aunt Kath and you met Cady and then there’s Daddy!”
When she finished, Jake allowed himself to grin at her but the grin changed speculative when his eyes slid to Coert.
“So things are goin’ well,” he muttered.
“Yup,” Coert agreed.
Kath burst out laughing.
She did a little choking through it when Jake looked at her but recovered enough to say, “Would you like to join us?”
“Thanks but can’t. My boy’s up from college and he wants his fill of things from home without leavin’ his real home, so I’m pickin’ up some grub and takin’ it back to my family,” Jake answered.
“Too bad,” Pam murmured.
Mike shook his head, his gaze searching for sympathy coming to rest on—I could jump for joy—Coert.
“But hear I’ll see you women at dinner next Sunday?” Jake asked.
“Oh yes, definitely,” Shannon said.
“Be there with bells on,” Pam chimed in.
“Abso-freaking-lutely,” Kath declared.
“You do know it isn’t ‘what happens in Magdalene stays in Magdalene,’ don’t you?” Pat asked Kath.
Kath shrugged.
I giggled.
Jake looked to me with a grin playing at his mouth.
I stopped giggling.
Coert burst out laughing and Jake’s smile got huge again.
“What’s funny?” Janie asked.
“I’ll show you a picture of Uncle Jake as he is right now in thirty years and remind you of this moment, cupcake,” Coert replied then reached out and took his daughter, plonking her on his hip in the same manner Jake had handled her.
Oh yes.
Definitely having another little girl.
“But for now, we need to let Uncle Jake get food back to Josie, Con, Amber and Ethan,” Coert finished.
“Con’s home?” she exclaimed.
“Sure is, honey,” Jake told her. “Get your dad to bring you over before he goes back to school, yeah?”
“Yeah!” she agreed.
“Cady,” Jake dipped his chin to me then looked through the tables, “folks, good to meet you.”
There were a lot of “you too,” and “enjoy your evening,” and such, but I took a step toward him, getting his attention back.
“It’s really great to meet you. Really great to meet one of Coert’s good friends.”
And it was considering this was the first real friend of Coert’s I’d ever met.
In response he stuck his hand out again and I took it again. But this time, when his fingers closed firm around mine, he kept hold of them.
“Pleased you’re in Magdalene, Cady. High time I see a good man happy.”
His eyes held mine and I pressed my lips together and squeezed his hand hard (so he could feel it, in case he was made of steel or something) and nodded.
“See you soon,” I told him.
“You bet,” he replied.
We let go, he clapped Coert on the shoulder, tipped his chin down to the family and moved to the window where you ordered food.
“Go back to your seat, Janie,” Coert ordered gently, and I looked to them to see he was setting her on her feet.
“Okay, Daddy,” she agreed easily then skipped around the table.
Coert let me sit down and then he climbed in and we went back to our food.
“I’m feeling a shopping trip coming on,” Kath declared. “Is there a Nordstrom around here? You said this place we’re going to for dinner with the Magdalene Welcome Wagon is fancy. I’ve decided I need a new dress.”
“You. I can handle that she’s half gaga over you,” Pat said bluntly to Coert, leaning into the table to look across me to do it. “You belong to you-know-who so I can handle that because I know she’s half messing with me and the other half I can ignore. Dwayne Johnson’s better-looking partner from his last action movie . . .” he jerked his head toward Jake, “not so much.”
Coert chuckled.
I wrapped a hand around his thigh and laughed softly.
“Can I go shopping with you and Cady, Aunt Kathy?” Janie, sitting between Kath and Melanie across from us, asked.
Kath glanced at Coert but said to Janie, “I don’t know, honey. We’ll talk to your dad about it later. Okay?”
“Sure,” she replied, settled in her seat with a wiggle and went back to her burger that was at about mouth level since they didn’t have booster seats at Tinker’s.
“Can I go, Auntie Kathy?” Melanie asked.
“We’ll talk about that later too, sweetie,” Kath answered.
“Just to say, there’s no Nordstrom anywhere near here,” Coert told them.
“Dire,” Kath muttered. “Well then, time to fire up the Internet. Overnight shipping.”
“Kill me,” Pat begged.
More chuckles from Coert (and me) and everyone resumed eating but I said to Janie, “We’ll look at pretty dresses on the computer when we get back to the lighthouse. Does that sound good?”
“Can we do it in the room up top with all the windows?” she asked excitedly with her mouth full.
“Chew, baby, and swallow then talk,” Coert murmured low.
She chewed fast, swallowed too soon and her eyes got big because of it.
I ignored all that, including the off-the-scales cute factor, thankful the Wi-Fi reached the observation room, and said, “Definitely.”
“Yay,” she replied and took another bite of burger.
Coert bumped my leg with his own.
I resisted resting my head on his shoulder.
“I’m gettin’ another burger, anyone want anything?” Elijah, who’d been corralled into coming with us by the kids since he’d driven up as we were getting ready to roll out, asked.
He’d said no at first but he was too soft-hearted. So when Ellie and Melanie started begging, he’d given in but followed us there because he’d had to take a quick shower after work.
Verity had not been excited about this but she’d kept silent.
Almost totally.
Elijah’s offer prompted a cacophony of kids asking parents if they could have more food to which the parents responded and then, for some reason, Elijah looked to Verity.
“Wanna help me, Verry?” he asked softly.
“Oh my,” I whispered.
“Oh boy,” Kath whispered.
“Hmm,” Coert hummed.
“Freakin’ great,” Pat muttered dryly.
“I . . . all right,” Verity told the table then got up from that table and stood still, not moving until she realized Elijah wasn’t moving either because he wanted her to precede him.
Then she started with a jolt and stared at the floor all the way to the window.
I leaned immediately into the table and, sotto voce, asked Kath, “When did she become Verry?”
Kath leaned into the table and told me, “I’ve no idea. That’s the first I heard that.”
“Do you think he thought on this over Christmas?” I queried.
Kath’s voice was rising when she repeated, “I’ve no idea.” She quietened herself and went on, “I hope so. He’s so cute and he so, so sweet. I mean, did you see how he caved when Melanie and Ellie were begging him to come? I almost propositioned him for Verity.”
“You do know you’re talking about my daughter,” Pat declared.
Kath’s gaze cut to her husband. “I do since I was there when we made her.”
Coert chuckled again.
“What are you guys talking about?” Janie asked in a loud hushed voice.
I put a finger to my lips and took it away, whispering, “Girls’ secret. Right now, we have to keep it very, very quiet. I’ll tell you when we look at dresses on the computer later. Deal?”
Her eyes grew huge and her head nodded fast and she replied reverently, “Deal.”
“Can I hear too, Auntie Cady?” Melanie asked.
“Of course, baby,” I answered.
Melanie smiled at me.
I winked at her.
Coert’s arm came around me from behind, his hand at my opposite hip, pads of his fingers digging in briefly, then it disappeared.
I guessed that meant he was pleased at how things were going with Janie.
He wasn’t the only one.
The world revolved around those eyes.
His.
And Janie’s.
Yes, I wanted a little girl.
One that looked just like her sister.
Jake said another farewell as he walked out carrying three stuffed-full bags of food.
Verity and Elijah came back with two trays piled high with food.
She was still silent.
Elijah was shooting glances at her.
This meant I was shooting glances, or targeted with the same from Kathy.
We ate.
We went home.
And the girls (sans Verity, who headed to the studio since the boys were camped out in front of the TV or the fire on the first floor, the latter including Elijah) headed up to the observation room.
“So that’s where it’s at,” I declared.
I was sitting on the bench in the observation room with Janie tucked in my side, my laptop on her legs (precisely, on one of her thighs and on one of Melanie’s, Melanie sitting next to her).
They were clicking through Nordstrom online like only children born in the computer age could do, in other words, expertly.
I kept talking.
“And we have to be really nice to Verity because Elijah is very sweet so she’s chosen well. But he doesn’t want to hurt her and we should help him out with that. He also might like her but not think the time is right. So we just have to be super quiet about it and super supportive to them both and wait and see what happens.”
“Verity likes everyone,” Bea muttered from where she sat with Ellie on the floor at her feet, her fingers in Ellie’s hair, French braiding it.
At fourteen, Bea, too, had lived through a variety of Verity’s boyfriends.
“Bea,” Shannon said warningly.
“Well she does,” Bea replied. “I’m not being mean. I’m just saying she’s always got some crush on some boy.”
“That might be true but if you’re paying attention, Elijah’s a little different,” Shannon returned. “And anyway, no matter what a girl’s going through, her girls need to see her through it no matter how they feel about it.”
“This is very true,” Pam agreed.
“Elijah is different,” Ellie piped up. “He’s taller than all those other guys. And he’s a man and they were stupid boys. And I like his belly!”
I grinned at Shannon.
“So Elijah and Verity are like you and Daddy.”
I stopped grinning at Shannon, whose eyes I saw grow large before I gave my attention to Janie, who’d spoken.
I tried not to make it sound strangled, but it sounded mostly strangled when I asked, “Sorry, Janie?”
She was still focused on the computer. “Elijah and Verity are like you and Daddy before you started making pies and Daddy started buying presents and you and Daddy started holding hands and stuff.”
I was holding my breath so it was Pam that came to the rescue, asking carefully, “What do you mean by that, Janie?”
Janie gave a little girl shrug and clicked on a sparkly dress that was way too fancy for The Eaves, and I’d never been to The Eaves, I just knew it was because it might be way too fancy for the Oscars.
“Back at the ice cream shop, Cady saw Daddy and she got all funny and ran away. And Daddy got all funny when she got all funny, like if he didn’t have me he’da run after her. But after he took me to the station, he did, to make sure Cady was okay. Like what Elijah did when he asked Verity to help him get burgers. He likes her and knows she likes him and the time isn’t right but he wants to make sure she’s okay. But he just likes her because the whole time we were eating burgers, he kept looking at her and you don’t look at someone all the time if you just want to be sure they’re okay. You look at them all the time if you like them. Like Daddy looks at Cady all the time. Except now they both know they like each other.”
My gaze drifted to Kath who immediately mouthed, “Holy crap.”
No one, Coert, Janie or I, had brought up the ice cream parlor incident.
Coert had advised me on Christmas Eve we would handle it should she bring it up but let it lie if she didn’t, because that would indicate she forgot about it or felt he’d dealt with it at the time in a way she had moved beyond.
Apparently, it was Janie who had dealt with it but in her own way.
It was just that her way was extraordinary.
I heard clicking on the laptop and Janie spoke again so I dropped my eyes back to her.
“I’m glad the time is right. Daddy should hold hands with somebody. My friend at school, Ilaria, her mommy and daddy aren’t together and her daddy got a new lady, and when he comes to get Ilaria at school he smiles a lot and makes Ilaria giggle. He was like that sometimes before, but he’s like that, like, all the time now. And anyway, Ilaria and her daddy’s lady play dress up and they have girlie movie nights. She says her mommy isn’t very happy about this new lady but her daddy is, so I have it better because my daddy is super happy and my mommy’s happy too because she likes Cady’s butterly pie, and she told me Cady had to be super sweet and want me to like her to make sure Santa brought me presents at her house.”
Janie tipped her head back and gave me those incredible eyes.
“Can we play dress up?” she asked.
Outside of having Coert, I’d never wanted anything more in the world.
“Yes,” I whispered.
“Can we have girlie movie nights?” she pushed.
“Absolutely,” I told her.
She gave me a beaming smile. “I’m gonna dress up as a mermaid. What are you gonna dress up as?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. Maybe a fairy godmother?”
She nodded once. “We have to find you a dress up fairy godmother outfit. Do you think they have those at Nodmans?”
“Nordstrom, sweetie,” I corrected her gently. “And no. But that just means we’ll have to find somewhere else to get a fairy godmother outfit.”
“Yay,” she replied, grinning.
She then went back to scrolling and clicking.
I stared at her dark head and then I bent in and kissed it.
I did this in an effort not to burst out crying or, perhaps, get up and dance a jig of joy.
It was the right choice. Janie tipped that head back and gave me another beaming smile.
“Do you know how smart you are?” I asked.
She nodded gravely. “My teacher says I’m sharp as a tack. And Daddy says I’m quick as a whip.”
“Well, they’re right,” I told her. “But do you know how lovely you are?”
She looked confused. “Do you mean pretty?”
“Yes, but in a way where I can see it.” I lifted a hand and touched a finger to her heart. “And I can feel it because you’re pretty inside too.”
She seemed to marvel at that. “No one ever told me I was pretty inside.”
“Well, you are and don’t ever stop being that way because it really doesn’t matter what you look like on the outside. It only matters how you are on the inside.”
Another grave nod that made me need to kiss her again so I did, dropping to give her a touch of my lips on her forehead.
When I pulled away she looked like she’d come to a conclusion and she didn’t make me wonder at it.
“Now I think I understand why you’re prettier when you look at Daddy. Because what’s inside is coming out.”
All right.
That was it.
I’d completely fallen in love with Coert’s daughter.
Not her eyes.
Not her off-the-scales cute factor.
Not the fact that Coert helped make her.
Because she was Janie.
“Your father is very right, Janie,” I said softly. “You’re quick as a whip.”
She gave me a big grin.
Kath cleared her throat and declared, “I think it’s time for pie.”
I looked to her.
She shot big eyes at me and then aimed them at the stairs.
Janie gave my laptop to Melanie and shouted, “I’ll help!”
“Oh no.” Kath got up from her seat in one of the wicker chairs. “I need you to help me find a dress for dinner. That’s priority one. Cady’ll get some of the boys to help.”
Janie was okay with that but turned to me. “What kind of pie did you make us this time, Cady?”
“Pecan,” I told her.
Another blinding smile. “I love pecan pie!”
I smiled back. “Do you like it with ice cream or whipped cream?”
“Both!” she cried.
Of course.
I’d think “girl after my own heart” but she’d already accomplished earning that.
I got orders from the others then got up, avoiding Midnight who was curled at the base of the bench in front of me (or more likely, Janie, and this was proved true when she just lifted her head to give me a look as I got up, but she didn’t otherwise move). Kath took my place with Janie, Melanie and my laptop. And after getting meaningful but happy looks from Pam and Shannon, I headed downstairs.
The younger boys were all rammed together on my sectional watching some movie on TV and I got their orders for pie with or without whipped cream or ice cream (or both).
Making it to the bottom, I noted that Elijah was no longer with the older men downstairs. Daly and Pat were on the couch. Mike was in front of the fire lounged on some huge pillows on the floor that I’d bought for that exact purpose prior to their arrival.
Coert was with the men, sitting in my armchair by the fire, legs stretched out in front of him crossed at the ankles, fingers wrapped around a glass of whiskey, eyes on me before I’d made it to the bottom.
Seeing him like that in my house, I thought it was really unfortunate we’d have to wait years to move back to the lighthouse.
But then again, I probably wouldn’t care where he was kicking back, enjoying a whiskey.
As long as it was close to me.
“Where’s Elijah?” I queried.
Mike looked to Pat then to me before he advised, “Don’t ask.”
“Oh,” I mumbled.
Elijah had not retired to his apartment.
He’d gone to Verity.
An interesting development.
I spoke up when I announced, “It’s pie time. I need orders. And Coert, honey, will you help me?”
He was studying me, but when I made my request, he didn’t answer verbally.
He got up and walked to the kitchen, meeting me there.
I’d made two pies that afternoon and they were right there on the counter.
I didn’t go to them nor did I go to the fridge to get the whipped cream and ice cream.
I went to Coert, grabbed his hand and pulled him to the sink.
His content, he-has-his-woman, he-has-his-daughter, he’s-at-a-fabulous-lighthouse-chatting-with-good-men-holding-a-whiskey-in-his-hand expression changed as he grew concerned while he continued to study me.
He set his whiskey on the counter by the sink and asked, “Everything okay?”
“Well . . .”
Quickly, I ran down what happened with Janie in the observation room.
As I spoke, his gaze drifted to the stairs.
When I started to wind down, it came back to me.
I finished with, “I think this confirms a variety of things. One, you were kind of right. But she doesn’t absorb everything, as such. She observes everything. And for a five-year-old, she processes it as it fits in her world with amazing perception. It’s uncanny but also fantastic and I don’t know, but it might be indicative that she has an exceptional IQ.”
When I said that, Coert’s lips quirked.
I liked the quirk but I wasn’t done talking.
“And two, because of this, what’s happening between you and me and even Kim is not lost on her in the slightest. She’s right there with us. She gets it completely.” I leaned into him and tried not to let my smile break my face. “And she’s happy with it.”
“I’d say it confirms all that,” he murmured, no longer looking concerned, no longer quirking his lips, a smile was in his eyes too.
“And last, Coert, Kim is being really amazing with all this, and I don’t know, but I think with the way she’s handling this, we might actually be able to build something for Janie that’s extraordinary. Most exes don’t get along and there’s usually not a nice division of Dad and Mom that the kids have to negotiate. But if there isn’t that for Janie . . . I mean, wouldn’t that be great?”
He slid an arm around my waist, pulling me closer, before he informed me, “Part of that might still be guilt, Cady. She knows I love Janie. She knows I can’t imagine my life without my daughter. But that doesn’t erase what she did or how I spent five years making her pay for that. She could still be making amends.”
I was confused. “Is that bad?”
“I’m just saying, Kim’s acted rashly before when she panicked or didn’t get her way. And that rash was using me to get her pregnant without my consent in order to force me in one way or another to stay in her life, and then using our daughter to try to get me to fall in line when she thought I wasn’t by threatening to take Janie away from me. So I’m grateful she’s being so cool about this and she’s demonstrating she’s on board to help us settle Janie into her new reality. But I think it’s going to take more than a couple of months of Kim being cool in response to me being cool now that you’re involved in all that before I’m going to relax.”
“What were you not doing to fall in line?”
“She wanted us to get back together.”
I felt my lips part as I stared up at him.
“Yeah,” he said. “She knew I was not anywhere near there and she said that didn’t matter. Janie needed a mom and dad together. She told me we’d had something before. If we worked at it, we could get it back and she was ticked I refused to work at it. For me, I was ticked she’d think for a second I could get past what she did. So we can just say it was an ugly situation that was already that before it got uglier by dragging a judge into it.”
His other hand came up to cup my jaw and he bent his neck so his face was close to mine.
“She made some nasty plays,” he shared, and he could say that again. “But I spent as much time with her as I did because she’s sweet and she’s funny and she’s a lot of other things. I think you and I both have learned anyone is capable of doing really stupid shit when they feel lost or jammed up. I honestly think she’s grown up and she’s a great mom and it’s been a very long time since she’s pulled anything. I don’t want you to go in thinking the worst of her. Just knowing the story. But I want us both to go cautious. Does that make sense?”
I nodded.
He nodded back then said, “Now, as awesome as this is, knowing where Janie’s at is a lot further than where we thought she was, we gotta get to the pie because Janie needs to be home and in bed soon, and she shouldn’t eat real close to going to sleep. So we should get on that.”
I nodded again.
He gave me a touch of the lips and when he moved away, he murmured, “It’s still awesome.”
I smiled at him.
He gave me another touch of the lips.
The door to the walkway to the garage flew open.
Coert kept his arm around me but twisted that way and I leaned to the side to see Verity storm in, close the door, spy us in the kitchen—or Coert in the kitchen—and come our way.
“Coert, do you have a guest room?” she asked.
Oh no.
“No, honey, I—” Coert started, going careful, and I knew he’d read the look on her face.
She interrupted him. “Do you have a couch?”
“What’s going on?” Pat asked.
Verity turned to her father. “I can’t stay here.”
“Why not?” Pat asked.
“I just can’t. All right?”
Mike and Daly were up (as was Pat) and they looked at the door Verity had come through.
Pat kept his attention on his daughter.
“Do you need your mother?” he asked gently.
“I need to stay with Coert,” Verity answered and turned back to Coert. “I know it’s rude to invite myself over. And I’m sorry. I won’t be any trouble. I promise. But it’s either stay with you or catch a plane back to New Haven.”
“What the hell happened in the studio?” Pat asked.
“I’ll find out,” Coert rumbled, letting me go and beginning to move to the door.
“I’ll go with you,” Mike stated.
Oh no!
“No!” Verity and I shouted.
But only I continued.
“I’ll go.” I pointed at Coert. “You dish out pie.” I pointed at Mike. “You help.” I pointed at Daly. “You go up and get the orders again.” I pointed at Pat. “You go get Kath. I’m going to Elijah.”
“Verity, pack your things. After pie, Janie and I gotta go. You’re going with us,” Coert ordered.
I didn’t know whether to kiss him or yell at him for getting involved in something none us knew what was going on.
“Thank you,” Verity breathed.
The heartfelt words made me want to kiss him.
I didn’t kiss him.
I headed to the hooks by the front door, grabbed my jacket, then moved across the room to the other door to find Elijah.
I didn’t go to the studio.
I went to the garage where my Jag was parked, Elijah’s beat-up truck was parked, and I walked through it to the door at the back that led to the stairs up to the apartment.
I hammered on the door.
“Elijah!” I shouted. “It’s Cady!”
I heard footfalls. They didn’t come fast, but they weren’t taking their time.
The door opened and I took the hit of staring into Elijah’s ravaged face.
My God.
What had happened in the studio?
They’d known each other barely a week!
“Honey,” I whispered.
“No good for her.”
Oh my God.
“Elijah—”
“She’s so pretty and she’s so sweet and she loves you so much, Cady. I don’t think even you know how much she loves you. But I know the way she loves you, the way she talks about you, the way she talks about her family, she’s got a big heart. She’s got a big future. And because of that, I’m no good for her.”
“How can you know that?” I asked.
He threw out an arm and I didn’t know what he was indicating. Himself. His apartment over a garage. His truck. His life. Or all of that.
“You haven’t even tried,” I stated.
“What’s the point?” he asked. “She’s got the whole world laid out in front of her. What kinda guy would I be, she’s twenty, and I narrow that down to nothing in nowhere in Maine?”
“That’s taking it pretty far, honey. You’ve only known her a few days.”
“A guy knows.”
“He knows what?”
“He knows it when he meets the one.”
I felt my middle shift back with the soft beauty of that blow.
“She’s my one but I can’t be hers,” he declared.
“Why can’t you be her one?” I pushed.
He threw his arm out again.
I still really didn’t know what he was referring to but that didn’t stop me from stating, “Elijah, I’ll hear none of that and Verity won’t either.”
“Yeah, I know. She pretty much shouted the same thing with a lot more words in the studio.”
Oh my God.
Elijah was Verity’s one too.
I moved closer to him. “Elijah—”
“Cady, you’re the shit, pardon my language, but you just are. What you aren’t is a guy. And if a guy is any kind of good guy, he does right by the people he cares about. I’m doin’ right and if Verity can’t change my mind about that, you sure can’t.”
“Do you know Jake?” I asked abruptly.
“Say what?” he asked back.
“Jake . . . um, the boxer who owns the strip club. The one we saw at Tinker’s tonight.”
“The Truck?”
His words confused me. “Sorry?”
“Jake Spear. That guy tonight. He’s known as The Truck.”
“I . . . yes,” I said but it was more of a guess.
I mean, he was big. But The Truck?
“Everyone knows him,” Elijah told me.
“Do you know his wife?”
He gave a short shake of his head. “No.”
“Maybe you should meet her. Because she lives in Magdalene and she gives me the impression that she doesn’t think Magdalene is nothing in nowhere in Maine.”
“What are you talking about?” he asked impatiently.
“I only met her once but she’s beyond Verity and Jake’s beyond you, and they’re still together and from what I’ve heard, they’re very happy with their together.”
“Yeah, but The Truck is a boxer who had pay-per-view fights on TV and makes a boatload at that club and I’m just . . .” He let that lie but threw out his arm again.
“Elijah—”
He shook his head. “No.”
“Elijah,” I said urgently because he was closing the door.
He looked into my eyes. “One day, you and her, she will too . . . one day you both’ll thank me.”
At that, he closed the door.
“Elijah!” I cried, slapping a hand on it.
I heard footfalls ascending the stairs.
“Gah!” I shouted, turned and stomped back to the lighthouse.
I opened the door and stormed in.
Riley and Corbin were climbing the stairs, plates of pie in their hands.
Coert and Mike were at the counter with Dexter waiting to be loaded with plates, dishing out. Pat and Daly were doing whipped cream and ice cream duty, respectively.
All eyes came to me.
“Where’s Verity?” I demanded to know.
“Your room with Kath. Packing up her stuff,” Pat answered.
The kids were sleeping pretty much anywhere they felt like crashing between lighthouse, studio and RV.
But every night after Coert and I got back together, except the first one and when I was with Coert, Verity had slept with me.
I tossed the jacket I’d shrugged off onto the back of the couch and announced, “He thinks she’s too good for him.”
Coert’s face turned knowing.
Mike, Daly and Pat looked to the door I’d just entered.
Dexter looked confused. “What are you talking about?”
He got three, “Nothings” from Mike, Daly and Pat.
Pat went on and he did it quietly, “Do I need to talk to him?”
“Not now,” I told him and moved to stand by Dexter outside the island.
“Is there some way to suspend Ellie and Melanie at this age forever?” Mike muttered.
“My thoughts exactly,” Coert muttered in return.
I’d find them funny if I wasn’t so mad in order not to be so upset about my conversation with Elijah.
“Coert, can I talk to you?” I asked.
He handed a plate to Daly and then nodded to me.
He had pecan pie all over his fingers so he rinsed them before he joined me by the fire.
I situated us so his back was to the room, hiding me, and he got close, but I got closer.
“He says she’s the one,” I proclaimed.
“Oh shit,” he murmured.
Apparently, a guy did know when he found the one.
I shouldn’t have been surprised. Coert certainly knew.
And girls could know as well, because I knew too.
“Uh . . . yeah,” I snapped. “You need to do something about that.”
He did a blink that went very slow.
“Um . . . say that again,” he ordered.
“You said you were going to have a beer with him. You need to have a beer with him and set him straight.”
“Baby, I don’t know him. I also don’t know Verity very well. I’m not the person to wade into this.”
“That’s precisely why you should wade into this. You’re an objective observer.”
“An objective observer who kinda agrees with Elijah.”
I snapped my mouth shut and felt my eyes bug out.
He got even closer and put both hands to my jaw.
“Cady, honey, they’re both too young and if this got this intense between them without them even sharing a kiss, they both need to back off and let time guide them to each other or not, as the case may be.”
“They have kissed,” I informed him. “Verity made a pass at him. Elijah just deflected it.”
He looked to the fire and mumbled, “Jesus.”
“And I was twenty-three when I kissed you once and knew you were the one.”
His attention returned to me.
“I think I kissed you,” he corrected.
“Whatever,” I snapped. “I still knew you were the one.”
“And tell me, those three years you got on your niece were really like ten, weren’t they?” He asked the question but he didn’t want an answer because he continued, “And don’t deny it because you know it. You were still growing up but you were paying rent and feeding yourself. She’s two years out of high school. How old is Elijah?”
“Twenty-six.”
He nodded. “And he’s paying rent and feeding himself and getting his ass out of bed to go to work every day and finding ways to sort his life when it throws him a curveball. Pat was teasing Verity about paying her credit card bill after Christmas dinner. There’s a gulf here, Cady, that he might be able to swim, but it’s the man he is, and I’m saying it’s a good one, he’s not going to allow her to make that effort and maybe get drowned on the way. And don’t,” he said quickly, taking one hand from my jaw to put a finger to my lips, “get up in my shit about how I laid that out. It isn’t a man thing like that. It’s a good man thing looking out for a woman he feels something for, and you have to let him have that. She has to let him have that.”
I opened my mouth to say something regardless of Coert’s finger still on my lips but he kept talking before I could.
“If she doesn’t, this plays out in one of two scenarios. She pushes, and right now it’s heartbreak, but if he digs in, that could turn a lot uglier and be a hard lesson she never wants to learn. Or she pushes and he cows and wonders for the rest of his life with what he can give her if she could have done better even if that idea never enters her mind, it’ll torture him and may turn things bad.”
He took his finger from my lips and moved that hand back to my jaw when I returned, “And the other scenario is that they’re both young but they’re both smart and sensitive and aware of the emotions they’re feeling, the draw they have to each other, and even if they’re young, they could be happy.”
“Maybe but she’s on holiday from freaking Yale and he came home covered with drywall dust and had to take a shower before he could go out to dinner and they’ve known each other days.”
“Jake and Josie.”
“Sorry?”
“I’ve met Jake and I’ve met Josie, but I met Josie first. My vision of Jake would not have been the man I met tonight after I met Josie. But she didn’t only marry him, she adopted his son so I don’t know her at all but my take from that is her commitment to her husband and his family is pretty flipping strong. Are you seeing the correlation here?”
“Jake and Josie are in their forties. They understand their hearts and what they want out of life a whole lot better than Verity Moreland does, Cady. She’s a great kid and I would say with Elijah she has great taste. She may be becoming a woman, but she’s still a kid.”
He had me there.
He also knew it so he gave my jaw a squeeze and said, “Now I need pie and I gotta make sure my daughter doesn’t get pecan goo and cream all over herself, and then I got two girls to take care of tonight so I need to get that show on the road.”
“All right,” I mumbled.
“And you need to resolve to be Switzerland.”
My brows drew together. “What?”
“He needs you and she needs you so you need to be Switzerland. Neutral. A safe place for them both. So you said whatever you said to him out there. And you had your chat with her. Now, retreat to that safe place for them and let them play it out.”
He was right again.
I just didn’t like how he was right.
I frowned.
Coert grinned.
Then he used my jaw to pull me up to him, gave me a kiss then said, “Need pie.”
I nodded.
He let me go to slide an arm around my shoulders and guide me back to the island.
He took his pie up to the observation deck.
I gobbled mine down glaring at the door that led to the walkway to the garage.
Mike had already gobbled his down so he came to me when I was halfway through and wrapped an arm around my waist.
I turned my glare up to him.
His lips twitched.
“I like him,” he stated.
I stopped glaring.
“Fits right in,” he carried on. “He’s got a nutty woman on his hands, meets her at the fire, talks soft, touches softer, gives her a kiss and brings her to heel. Totally fits right in.”
I swallowed a bite of pie and asked, “Would you like a punch in the gut?”
“No,” he said, now fully smiling.
“Coert talked sense,” I explained.
“I’m sure he did. That happens when the talker has a penis.”
He was totally teasing. That was Mike (and sometimes Daly). The two younger brothers, they were always pushing buttons to get a rise.
Then he became the part that mostly made up Mike.
He yanked me to him, kissed the side of my head and said softly into my hair. “She’s gonna be okay. Elijah’s gonna be okay. It’ll all be okay and end up the way it’s supposed to be.” He pulled away and looked into my eyes. “Your job is not to worry yourself sick about it along the way.”
I nodded.
“Am I talking sense?” he teased.
I started glaring again.
He burst out laughing.
Verity walked down the steps with a suitcase.
She scanned the space. “Where’s Coert?”
“He’s upstairs finishing his pie with Janie. Come here,” I called. “Let me get you some pie.”
She dropped her suitcase at the foot of the stairs and started toward me, but did it saying, “I can’t eat any pie right now, Aunt Cady.”
I set my plate aside and held out an arm. “Then just come here.”
She came there and I folded her in my arm, and since Mike still had me in his, he shifted so he folded her in his arm too.
“You’ll be all right, kid,” Mike murmured, now talking against the side of Verity’s hair.
“Yeah,” she replied, not giving a lot of effort to sound like she wasn’t lying.
Coert came down, and Janie came with him as well as a variety of other people.
But it was only Janie who was excited. “We’re having a kind of slumber party!”
Verity went with that flow.
They prepared to leave and Coert commandeered Verity’s suitcase.
Verity and I commandeered Janie.
We got her bound up in her winter gear and we both held a hand as we walked her out to Coert’s truck.
It was me who helped strap her into the seat in the back and gave her a kiss before I said, “See you later, sweetie.”
“Can’t wait, Cady!” she cried.
I smiled at her, closed her in, gave Verity a hug and she climbed into the front.
I rounded the hood and gave Coert a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
He kissed me on mine and whispered in my ear, “I’ll call after I got them settled.”
“Thanks,” I whispered back. “Love you. Drive safe.”
“Will do.”
He climbed in.
He started up his truck.
He pulled out and it wasn’t only me this time that waved them away.
But it was only me who turned and looked up at the windows over the garage just in time to see a curtain fall back into place.
“Switzerland,” I muttered.
“What?” Shannon, standing beside me, asked.
I looked to her. “Nothing. I need wine.”
“No truer words have been spoken,” Kath decreed, not quite hiding the worry on her face as she watched Coert’s truck drive through the gate.
Mike raised a remote pointed at the gate and it started closing.
I went inside, straight to the wine.