Going Down: The Elevator Series (20 page)

Cole smiled at me. “The dream is always better than the reality.”

I reached over and grabbed the hand sitting in his lap, entwining our fingers. “Not always.”

***

Cole kept true to his word, and we pulled up at his parents’ mini mansion in well under two hours. It reminded me a lot of one of Maggie’s parents’ houses. I hoped there’d be fewer fork options at dinner. I didn’t consider myself a slack-jawed yokel, but who knew there were four forks? Mrs. Vincent’s place settings always looked like a surgical instrument tray. Their dinners were very involved, and I always left the table feeling like the most uncouth, knuckle-dragging hillbilly to ever put on a dress. I understood Maggie’s rebellion after I met them.

Cole carried our bags up to the door, struggling with the weight of mine. “Did you pack cinder blocks in here?”

I snapped my fingers. “I knew I forgot something!”

“Very funny. You won’t be laughing when I throw out my back, and you have to nurse me back to health.”

“You’re just angling for a sponge bath, whiner.”

He leaned over to kiss me. “I’ll take a sponge bath from you any day.”

“Who’s getting a sponge bath?”

I never heard the door open, but a man roughly Cole’s age stood in the doorway.

He was almost an intimidating size. “Hey, Mom! Your firstborn is trying to get a sponge bath from some chick out here on the portico!”

“Well, then close the door and let them finish, John!” The woman’s voice came from somewhere in the back of the house.

Cole seemed entirely unfazed and used his body to push past the man. “Try not to be an asshole, John.”

“I tried once and it didn’t work for me,” the man who was clearly Cole’s brother responded. “I assume you’re Cici.” He stuck out his hand that could’ve doubled as a shovel.

“I am. It’s nice to meet you. I think.” I marveled at how his hand completely swallowed mine. His build was so different from Cole’s. “Did you have some type of run-in with radioactive material as a small child?”

“No, but I get asked that a lot.” He moved out of the doorway. “Would you like to come inside, or would you rather someone bring your meals out here this weekend?”

“I’m debating,” I answered.

“I’ll get you a blanket and a pillow.”

“John!” Cole’s warning came from somewhere behind him. The man was like a walking building.

I stepped across the threshold and saw a large group of people in the room to my left. The foyer was large enough to house ten of my apartments. My childhood home could almost fit in the dining room to my right.

Cole wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me into his side. “I’ll take the bags upstairs later. Let me introduce you to everyone, unless you’re ready to run screaming.”

I smiled and kissed his cheek. “Nothing I can’t handle yet.”

The group was fixedly watching a sports thing on the television, so none bothered to look up. Something mysterious and exciting happened in the game, and the older gentleman I assumed was Cole’s father jumped up and pointed his finger in the face of a very pregnant woman on the couch. “Suck on that, Felicity! Ha ha!”

“This was a terrible mistake,” Cole mumbled.

An older woman realized we’d walked in the room. “Cole!” she yelled as she jumped up.

Cole released me to hug her. “Mom, this is Cici. Cici, this is my mom.”

I put my hand out. “It’s so nice to meet you, Mrs. Danvers.”

Ignoring my hand, she enveloped me in a hug. “Mrs. Danvers is my mother-in-law. Please call me Elizabeth. We’re so happy you’re here. We’ve been dying to meet you.”

“Cole has never brought a woman home before.” I could see the resemblance between Cole and his sister when she smiled. “Everyone has been brimming with curiosity.”

“Yeah, he usually brings guys,” John interjected.

“Don’t be crass, John,” his mother chided. “I’m sorry, Cici, this crew takes a little getting used to.”

I felt completely out of my depth when I first met Cole, so I had expected nothing less from his family. They were much more laid back than I ever would’ve guessed.

Cole pointed around the room, introducing everyone. “Cici, this is my dad, George. You’ve already met John, unfortunately. This is my sister, Felicity, who is due to give birth to my niece any minute now. Her husband, Mark, pried her out of the house for one last family gathering of adults only.”

I felt like I knew them already, and I regretted not asking Cole what they knew about me. I didn’t know what to do with my hands, so I alternated between smoothing my dress, touching my hair, and trying to keep them still.

“Find a place to sit. We’ll have dinner as soon as Marie calls us,” Elizabeth said.

“Who is Marie?” I asked Cole as he shoved his brother down the couch to make room for us.

“She’s our cook.” Elizabeth played with her wedding ring. “Me staying out of the kitchen was one of the terms of our prenup. I can’t boil water and George likes to eat. Marie is the sole reason our marriage has survived.”

“That and hookers every other weekend,” George added.

“Dad!” Cole’s eyes were like saucers. “She doesn’t know you’re kidding.”

“Who said I was kidding? Prostitutes are an integral part of any society. Paying for illegal sex keeps us young.”

“What do you teach at Yale?” I asked.

“Ethics.”

“Dad!”

“I’m kidding.” George rolled his eyes the tiniest bit. “I teach English. And I was joking about the prostitutes, but I think you already knew that.”

Cheering erupted from the half of the room still watching TV.

“What are we watching?” I asked to no one in particular.

“Football,” John answered.

I didn’t know much at all about any type of sport, but this didn’t look like football. “I thought this was soccer?”

“It’s European football,” John answered again. “My lovely sister spent enough time abroad to be able to educate us on what uncultured swine we are in this family. She’s showing us the way of our forefathers and now her team is losing. In a nutshell, it couldn’t be a better day for me.”

Felicity whipped a pillow at his head.

“Hey, I just realized something,” John began again. “Cole and Cici. C and C. You guys are C Cubed.”

Felicity whipped another pillow at his head. “That would be C Squared, you insufferable college dropout.”

A woman whom I assumed to be Marie entered the room just then, cutting off any further banter. “Dinner is ready.”

Dinner was much more entertaining than watching European football. For starters, there was only one fork so the pressure was off me. I could focus on the three siblings lovingly hurling insults at each other. Elizabeth made weak attempts to have them act civilized, but it was clear she had thrown in the towel years ago. Mark was fairly quiet, but he did jump into the chaos from time to time. George kept me occupied with a litany of questions about myself. I tiptoed around the fact that Cole was my assistant. I wasn’t going to be the one to break that news if Cole hadn’t mentioned it yet. Plus, I didn’t think it was a smart move to self-identify as a sexual harasser when I was trying to impress my boyfriend’s parents.

Marie was an excellent cook, and I made a mental note to get my own Marie when I moved into a place where the kitchen wasn’t touching the bedroom. The party moved back into the family room after dinner. The entertainment was even livelier after everyone, except Felicity, had consumed a few glasses of wine. Hours of laughter later, the family split up to retire to their rooms.

Elizabeth kissed all of her children goodnight. It was so apparent how she enjoyed having her family all under one roof again. “Cole, you know where your room is. Cici, I’ll bring you some blankets for the couch.”

Her expression was completely unreadable. I, of course, had glossed over how we met, leaving out the part where we porked in the elevator. I assumed Cole had done the same. I had no intention of letting her know how much her eldest son put out. That was a conversation I would avoid until the end of time.

“Mom,” Cole said with a warning tone while crossing his arms.

“Cole, you never let me have any fun. I’m just teasing, Cici. Cole can show you to his room. There are condoms in the nightstand. Use them. Or don’t. I would like some more grandchildren on the way.”

“Mom!” Cole grabbed our bags at the foot of the stairs. “Cici, follow me. You can help me continue the search for my adoption papers that must be hiding somewhere in this house.”

***

I left Cole asleep in his childhood bed while I went in search of coffee not long after the crack of dawn. My body wasn’t handling the fresh air well, and I had trouble sleeping. It was too quiet. Color me surprised when I found most of the Danvers already awake and huddled around the kitchen island.

“Cici! So glad you’re up! Can I get you some coffee?” Felicity was obviously a morning person. Although, I got the impression she was an afternoon and evening person as well.

I was very much regretting my decision to come downstairs with unbrushed hair and my top hot-wearing cat pajamas. They were the only clean set of pajamas I owned, and I hadn’t had time to go shopping that week.

“Yes, I will take some coffee in the largest container you have. Please. Thank you. You’re an angel.”

After consuming an acceptable amount of caffeine, I wondered if the whole family was early birds. Most normal people weren’t awake at this hour on a Saturday.

“Are you guys always up this early on the weekends? And are you always so chipper?”

“God, no,” Felicity said. “But we’ve got a lot planned today. Have to get a head start.”

Cole hadn’t mentioned any plans. I hoped I packed for whatever was in store.

George placed his arm around my shoulder. “This is New England, Cici, and we’re morally obligated to play a game of flag football when the entire family gets together.”

“Lame,” John groaned under his breath.

“
However
,” his father continued loudly before he moved over to punch his youngest son on the shoulder. “Since John doesn’t seem to understand the concept of
no tackling
in flag football, Felicity has to sit out the game this year. That means we’re down a player.”

It took probably a full sixty seconds of the family staring at me and me staring back at them to realize they wanted me to even up the teams.

“Oh, no, that’s a terrible idea. I don’t know anything about football. Isn’t there a neighbor or a mildly coordinated dog you can recruit instead?”

John rounded the island and put his arm around my shoulder, mirroring his father earlier. “C’mon, it’ll be so much fun.”

“What will be fun?” Cole walked into the kitchen in shorts and a shirt, his hair looking mouth-wateringly rumpled. My libido had the cartoon heart eyes pulsing out of her face.

“Football,” John replied.

Cole pointed his finger at him on the way to the coffee maker. “No tackling this year! My shoulder still clicks in the winter.”

“Wuss,” John grumbled as he yawned and walked across the kitchen.

Cole took a sip from his full mug and cozied to my side. He planted a coffee kiss on my lips. “Morning. I thought you’d made a break for it when I woke up and you weren’t there.”

“Never. Plus, I couldn’t get your window open.”

“I like this one.” John pointed at me while tearing apart a muffin he’d found in the pantry. “You need a smart ass to keep you in line.”

“Ok, gang,” George announced. “Marie left us some pastries for breakfast. Everyone eat up and meet in the yard at 0800 hours. The teams will be as follows: Me, Mark, and John. Cole, you’re on the losing team with your mother and Cici. Felicity is the referee this year.”

“Hey!” Cole argued. “That’s hardly fair. Mom should be on your team.”

“Cole, your mother and I can’t play on the same team unless you want to come from a broken home. Now stop whining, and I’ll see you in the yard for the flag ceremony.”

The flag ceremony was basically just George handing each of us our flags. The game went as expected and John’s team slaughtered us. We did score a few points by default as John was called for so many tackling penalties that Cole was able to make a couple of touchdowns without much effort. The rules seemed to be made up as we went along, and no one seemed to be bothered by this. I got the feeling this was an ever-changing game for them.

The evening consisted of a rousing game of Monopoly, where the rules bore no resemblance to the instruction manual. Growing up in Nebraska, I was accustomed to spending a lot of time with my family. I didn’t realize how much I missed that since moving to New York. Other than Maggie, I hardly saw anyone in person anymore. There never seemed to be enough time for that. Phone calls and texts were the preferred methods of communication. This was nice and… comfortable.

Everyone headed for bed when John owned all of the railroads and utilities. He somehow also owned the jail, and I was still unclear on how that happened.

Cole nuzzled my neck as he wrapped around me in his bed. His hand drifted up to massage my breast, which I steadfastly ignored.

“I really like your family. I thought this would be awkward, but they’re so welcoming.” I shoved both my hands under the pillow so they wouldn’t be tempted to paw Cole’s body. They had a mind of their own and were big fans of Cole’s body. Big fans.

“They like you, too. More than they like me, I think. You never had a reason to worry.”

I felt his hand drifting south. I pushed both of mine farther under the pillow. “You are out of your mind if you think I’m going to do you with your entire family down the hall.”

He pressed his erection into my backside. “Please, Cici. We can be quiet.”

“I think we both know by now that neither of us is quiet. We’re leaving tomorrow. I’ll make it up to you then.”

He muttered something about blue balls as I drifted off to sleep.

I found myself sad to head home after lunch on Sunday. His family was not at all what I expected, but that made them even more lovable. I made plans with Felicity to see the baby after she was born. Maggie and Felicity would get along so great. I wished there was a way to introduce them, but that was just one more thing on the growing pile of complications right now. I had no solutions for anything, so I just shoved each issue aside and focused on the positives.