After Elaine
and her mother finished their private discussion, Kathy spent the next hour
playing with Amelia in the kitchen. Nick, Tony and Luna seemed greatly relieved
that mother and daughter had apparently patched things up, at least enough to
behave in a halfway civil manner, although Elaine was guarded in every
interaction with the woman.
Both the kids
seemed relaxed around Kathy, even a little too relaxed, as if some invisible
DNA link connected them together. Ryan completely accepted Kathy’s presence and
did not ask about who she was—his attitude seemed to be that anyone who freely
handed out gifts as cool as build-your-own-dinosaur kits need not be questioned
any further.
There was no
chance for Elaine to discuss anything privately with Nick, which she considered
a good thing, because she had such mixed feelings and kept flip-flopping
between them. At times she just felt like sending her mother on her way and
telling her family that she could never forgive her mother and she was not
welcome there, period. Ever.
But then that
seemed too harsh.
As it neared
dinner time, Elaine forced herself to ask Kathy if she wanted to eat with them
and spend the night. Her mother graciously accepted, as if she hadn’t expected
this.
Tony flew into
overdrive, rushing around the kitchen to whip up a feast that, in his words, was
“gonna knock-a your socks off.”
The meal took
such a long time to prepare that they didn’t actually sit down to eat until
nine o’clock. Tony outdid himself. He prepared
Nonna Betta, or Roman artichokes, which a friend had just sent him
from Rome, and
Cicio e Pepe pasta, and for dessert, tiramisu. The food
was indeed sublime, the tiramisu was so light and fluffy it almost seemed to
float on their forks.
Luna groaned
as she finished off her second glass of red wine, and motioned with the glass
to Elaine. “Fifteen kilometer run first thing tomorrow morning, baby-doll, and
no stopping to rest, either.”
“Yeah, and
that goes for you, too,” Elaine said.
“It was
absolutely heavenly, Tony,” Kathy said with unmistakable sincerity. “I’ve never
eaten such a delicious meal in my life!”
Tony looked
pleased. As he began collecting the dessert plates, all of which had been
scraped clean, Kathy sipped her wine, and she glanced around the huge kitchen,
and then looked admiringly at Elaine, her eyes seeming to say
You’ve done quite well for yourself, haven’t
you, honey?
Elaine found this distasteful.
“I don’t trust
her,” Elaine said, when she and Nick were getting ready for bed that night.
It was the
first time they’d been able to talk privately since Kathy had arrived. She had
already told Nick about Kathy’s desire to be a grandmother to the kids, and he
seemed to welcome the idea.
Now, she was
washing her face, talking to him through the open bathroom door. He was lying
on the bed, propped up on pillows, his muscular arms crossed over his bare
chest.
“I don’t see
why you’re so suspicious of her. She seems okay to me.” He shrugged casually. “She
made mistakes, people change. Nobody’s perfect.”
Elaine wiped
her face with a towel and peered out at her husband through the bathroom door. “Why
are you defending her, Nick?”
“I’m not
defending her. I just think it would be nice if the kids had at least one
grandparent. If you could stand her being around enough to play that role, that
is. But if you’re not comfortable with that, I completely understand. She’s
your mother. I’ll totally support any decision you make, honey.”
Elaine stared
at her own tired-looking face in the mirror. Having her mother show up out of
the blue had exhausted her. Could she really accept having Kathy back in her
life, after all these years?
“She is very
pleasant, and very well-mannered,” Nick went on reflectively. “And warm. Ryan
and Amelia seem comfortable enough around her, and you know how kids are—they’re
sensitive to negative vibes.”
Elaine emerged
from the bathroom, taking off her robe and hanging it on the hook on the
bathroom door. She was still wearing her bra and panties.
Nick glanced up
at her toned, slender body as she approached the bed, and he chuckled.
“It’s amazing—your
mother has a body exactly like yours. I mean, except at the top.” He was
referring to the obvious boob job. “How old would she be, forty-eight or so?”
“That’s
impressive. She’s in incredible shape, you have to admit.”
“Watch it,
Nick. This is my mother we’re talking about.”
“I didn’t mean
anything, I’m just saying she’s just very...well-preserved.”
“You mean
well-
constructed. You do realize she’s had a lot of work done, don’t
you? Or can’t you see past the fake tits and botox...”
Nick looked a
little miffed by this. “Elaine...”
“I shouldn’t
have said that,” she muttered, and she sat down on the bed with her back to
him. She could hardly believe that her
mother was actually sleeping in
the guest bedroom. It felt so strange. Luna had insisted that Kathy take that
room and was sleeping downstairs on the fold-out couch in the living room,
which had to be uncomfortable, considering Luna’s size.
Nick started
massaging Elaine’s shoulders.
“Oh, that
feels wonderful,” she purred. Nick’s strong hands were magical.
“You’re just
stressed out, babe, that’s all. It has to be a shock to have her suddenly show
up like this without warning.”
Elaine thought
it over, and tried to imagine having Kathy around now and then for the sake of
the kids. “But if she gets close to Ryan and Amelia, what if she just decides
to disappear again?”
“She promised
she wouldn’t,” Nick said. “Anyway, either one of us could disappear, too, with
the kind of work we do. There are no guarantees in life, Elaine.”
She turned and glanced at his face. He had a
point—he was talking about his CIA contract extraction work, of course, and the
dangerous missions she’d been on herself. “Still, we have no idea what she’s
been doing for the last twenty years. We don’t even know where she lives for
sure, or anything about this Greek husband that she’s supposedly divorcing.”
“Boy, you are
suspicious.”
“You bet I am!”
Elaine slipped out from under her husband’s hands and turned to face him, anger
welling up inside her. “Tomorrow I’m going to ask Luna to check her out, find
out which flight she came here on, and from where. And to do a complete
criminal background check on her.”
Nick’s mouth
dropped open. “Are you kidding me?”
“You don’t
think that’s a little...”
“Extreme? Running
a criminal background check on your own mother?”
Elaine pointed
angrily at the wall. “That woman walked out of my life when I was ten years
old, Nick, and completely dropped off the radar. This is practically a stranger
we’re considering letting get close to our children.”
“Shhh, she
might hear you.”
“I don’t care
if she hears me or not!” Elaine started pacing the floor.
Nick said, “You
don’t even know her last name—if she’s married to a Greek guy, she probably
changed it, and that’s the name her passport and other documents will be issued
under. What are you going to do, sneak into her purse and...” Nick’s voice
trailed off—it seemed something had just occurred to him.
“Well, I did
happen to notice one detail when I brought in her suitcases—she’d taken the
airport luggage tags off. Very few people do that until they get home from the
airport or get ready to go on their next trip. About eight percent, to be
exact.”
Elaine started
to ask him how he knew that, but remembered it was one of the bottomless pit of
facts that Nick picked up in his CIA training. “Then you see why I’m
suspicious.”
“I don’t think
that’s anything to be so suspicious about. Maybe she’s just super neat and
organized, like you, and took the tags off at the airport. After all, you are
her daughter.”
“She was a
total slob when I was growing up, Nick, a chain smoker and a drunk.”
“Shhh,” Nick
said. “Do you have to talk so loud?”
“That’s
another thing, Nick—you didn’t know her before. She’s totally changed! Not only
in her looks, in every way. The way she speaks, the way she moves, her attitude
towards life—everything. All those fancy clothes, and her poise, her demeanor. If
I didn’t know better I would think she went to a finishing school.”
Nick shrugged.
“Maybe she did.”
“Why do you
keep defending her?”
“I’m not defending
her—Jesus, how is that defending her?”
“Didn’t you notice how she jumped when Luna
rang the front gate bell? She nearly dropped her bruschetta! It was like she
was afraid of something, maybe that someone had followed her here.”
Nick looked
surprised by this. “No, I didn’t notice that. She did seem a little jumpy in
general, but that’s understandable, considering.”
Elaine pointed
at him. “You know what I think?”
“She’s in some
kind of trouble. She came here because she knows I’m in law enforcement and
thinks I can protect her.”
“Oh come on
yourself! She already admitted that’s how she found me, seeing my name in that
tabloid article. Do you really want our kids to have a grandparent so badly
that you’ll risk having a criminal grandmother? Grandma Barker. The next
present she brings Ryan will probably be a machine gun.”
Nick laughed. “Honey,
you’re really getting carried away.”
Nick nodded. He
looked past her, shaking his head.
“What, Nick? Spit
it out.”
He sighed. “Let’s
face it, honey, you have...issues with her. Which is perfectly normal, but I do
believe it’s affecting your judgment.”
“Issues? Of
course I have issues! What do you expect?”
“What I meant was, her walking out on you and
your dad when you were just a kid is a terrible thing to have done. But it’s
not a crime. There’s no reason to assume that since then she’s gotten involved
in some kind of criminal activity. You’re jumping to conclusions.”
Elaine pointed
at Nick. “Tomorrow I’m thoroughly checking that woman out, and every damn
detail she told us today better match what I find!”
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