Sex and Key Lime Pie (25 page)

“What makes you think that?”

“Because you and Mom are sad with each other now. You told me before that you liked her and she was your girlfriend.”

“That’s what I wanted to talk about. Your mother.”

Sam hunched his shoulders and shook his head. “I’m not supposed to talk about her to you.”

“I don’t want you to. I want to tell you something nice about her.”

“I guess that would be all right.” Sam settled into the crook of Luc’s arm and turned his head up. “She told you a lot of good things about me.”

“Yes.”

“But she didn’t tell you something I think you’re old enough to understand now.”

“What’s that?” Sam asked.

“It’s not all her fault I didn’t know about you until this summer. She told you that so you wouldn’t be mad at me.”

“About what?”

How much was too much? Sam treated Luc with such trust and respect. How could he tell his son what a total shit he’d been? “I said something to her that was very mean, and I hurt her.”

“Why?”

“I was mad at someone else, but I took it out on her. She was afraid I might do the same to you.”

“Did you make her cry?”

“I’m sure I did. But she didn’t cry in front of me.” Luc’s stomach cramped. He expected and deserved the brunt of his son’s disappointment.

Instead Sam raised a guilty shrug. “I did that too, once.”

“Did what?”

“Said something mean to her. She wouldn’t let me go to the park with my friends because she said I was too young to go without an adult. I got really mad and I told her I didn’t love her.”

Luc didn’t feel particularly proud to have that in common with his son. “What happened?”

“She said it didn’t matter. That she loved me anyway. I felt really bad. She didn’t cry in front of me either. But you can still fix it.”

“I can?” It seemed lately, Luc only managed to make it worse. Every time he tried to tell her how he felt, he couldn’t get the right words out.

“My neighbor told me if you give girls candy and flowers they will forgive you for anything so I brought her some daisies and Hershey’s kisses and she wasn’t mad at me anymore. She even let me eat the chocolate.”

He grinned. “I wish it was that easy for adults, Sam.”

“It is. But you have to tell her you didn’t mean it and that you love her. You do love Mom, don’t you?”

The question. He’d never answered it, even to himself. “Since she was eight years old and she kicked me in the shin for teasing Isabelle.”

“Did you hit her back?”

“You never hit a girl, even if she hits you first. Do you understand?”

Sam nodded.

Luc could still picture her, dressed like a china doll; pink dress, shiny white shoes and ribbons in her silky hair. Last thing he expected from the little princess was a whack in the leg that left a black and blue mark. To get even, he’d grabbed her under the arms and spun her around in the air until she was so dizzy she couldn’t walk. He’d laughed and felt so damned cool for teaching the brat a lesson she’d never forget. When she finally gained her balance, she gazed up at him with her big blue eyes and begged him to do it again. She had grabbed his heart that day and never let go.

“I couldn’t get mad at her because she was defending my sister.”

“So, you just have to give her daisies and chocolates and she’ll love you too.”

Relationship advice from his son! He wasn’t laughing. Sam had been forgiven for his transgression. Sam was right about one thing. Luc had apologized but he’d never told her he didn’t mean it.

Chapter
Seventeen

Cheyanne’s Saturday began very early with a round trip to Boston to pick up Alicia’s birthday present. She made it back to the sports field just minutes before kick off. The soccer game was the rivalry of the township and drew more than just the feuding teams’ parents. The hot sun meant hot tempers. Although she could have squeezed herself into the bleachers with the rest of the Allesandro clan, she took up a position along the fence. Under normal circumstances, Cheyanne was an overzealous fan. With her emotions running on high octane, she might have deafened anyone in her immediate radius.

Luc had wrangled himself a position as coaching assistant on the sideline. Heck, she knew as much about the game as he did but she didn’t blame him. She would have done the same if she had the connections.

At halftime, James had joined her at the fence. Although he only sought her out to ask for a loan, Luc’s angry stares left her off-balance. Could he be jealous? Or was he just suffering from a bad case of indigestion? His strange behavior of late had left her in a constant state of confusion. She knew he’d been looking for her yesterday afternoon so she stayed home all evening, hoping he’d return. He never did. If he intended to turn her into Mystic Cove’s biggest basket case, he’d succeeded.

To make the situation more uncomfortable, Sue Ann stood on the other side of the field, shooting daggers with her own jealous glares. Cheyanne’s only satisfaction came when her son scored the winning goal. That silenced her high school rival for a while. After the game she went home with Sam to recover for the party. She was in for a long evening.

****

Luc had spent the better part of Alicia’s birthday party taking the kids tubing and water skiing on the boat. Cheyanne passed her time with the cooking and cleaning so that Isabelle could relax with her company. It made for an enjoyable atmosphere. After the shaky morning, she hadn’t been sure what to expect. But now, with most of the guests gone, the real test of their civility would begin.

Cheyanne and Isabelle sat at the dining room table savoring a delicious cup of cappuccino while Elisabeth had a glass of flat ginger ale and didn’t complain. She beamed continuously.

“What’s the matter with Sam?” Isabelle asked. “He looks like he needs the bathroom.”

Cheyanne glanced at her son and laughed. “Are you kidding? He’s about to jump out of his skin. It is killing him to keep Alicia’s present a secret. I was afraid he was going to ask the guests to leave.”

“He has been distracted.”

“Why do you think I didn’t show him until after the game today? He can’t think about anything else but giving her that darned monkey.”

Elisabeth tipped her head toward Isabelle. “Neither can her mother. She looks as bad as Sam.”

Isabelle, grinning with anticipation, glanced at the clock. “What in the world is taking the guys so long? How long does it take to pick up a roll of film?”

“I think there’s a joke about that,” Elisabeth said. “How many men does it take to buy film? Three. One to pay and two to remember what they went out for when they leave the bar.”

Alicia sat in the chair next to Sam. He leaned toward her as if he was about to whisper something then caught his mother’s warning wave of the finger. His pained expression remained until the men returned from the hunt.

Luc stormed toward Cheyanne looking like a man on a mission. What had she done this time? He cupped his hand around her elbow. “I need you for a few minutes.”

“Right now?”

“Well, I would have caught you earlier, but you were busy with James.”

So Luc was upset. Why? He couldn’t believe she found James remotely attractive. “I spoke to him for ten minutes.”

“Never mind about him. I waited until the party ended. I need to talk to you now.”

“No,” she said, as she pulled free. “We said we would do this tomorrow.”

“It’s not about Sam.”

“Then it’s not important. Alicia’s about to get her present.”

He tapped his foot impatiently. “Five minutes.”

“Ask your son if he’s willing to wait five minutes.” She wouldn’t allow him to ruin the rest of the otherwise wonderful day. If they finished without a disagreement then maybe they could share Sam and share the family like two adults.

Isabelle and Elisabeth double-teamed Luc and led him by the arms to the adjoining living room, where they deposited him on the sofa.

“Sit there and be quiet or I will hose you down in the back yard,” Isabelle warned. “It is not about you today.”

Cheyanne smiled in spite of herself. He wore the same expression Sam adopted when he didn’t get his way. And Luc looked as agitated as his son at that particular moment. What could he possibly want to discuss that had him so wound up?

“Can we do it now, Aunt Isabelle?” Sam begged. “Please?”

“Yes.” She had barely spoken the word when Sam sprinted down the hall and into the guest room where the monkey had been hidden in the shiny new cage.

“All right,” he called out, the excitement barely contained in his voice. “Give her the card.”

Alicia, sitting in a club chair, rolled her eyes. “What’s going on?” As she tried to go to her cousin, her mother held her in the seat.

“It’s your present. Open it and read it out loud,” Sam told her.

She slipped the handmade card from the envelope. “It’s a picture of me and Pele and it says Alicia with Sam’s pet.”

“I made it myself,” he announced proudly. “Read the inside.”

“It’s a picture of you and a baby monkey and it says, Sam with Alicia’s....” Her sentence ended with a shriek.

He walked into the room with the young Colobus clutching his arm for dear life. “Okay, monkey girl. You gotta stop that. You’re scaring her.”

The expression on the young girl’s face was worth a thousand words. After waiting for the roll of film, no one snapped the picture. “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh. She’s so little.” In one giant leap, Alicia vaulted from the chair and stood in front of her cousin. “Can I have her?”

“She’s yours.” Despite his words, being a typical kid, Sam didn’t seem to want to let go, but he eventually did.

The pet clung to her arm. A tiny black and white face with huge dark eyes peeked out from behind Alicia’s cotton shirtsleeve for a few seconds before it began grooming the child’s hair. “Mom, Dad. She’s looking for bugs. She likes me already. I’m going to call her Mia after the greatest girl soccer player.” She brought the animal over to her parents and climbed onto the loveseat between them. Tears filled her eyes. “Thank you. This is the very best birthday in the whole world.”

Sam threw his hands up in the air. “Why is she crying?”

Cheyanne grinned. Just like his dad, he didn’t deal well with weepy girls. “She’s happy.”

He spun melodramatically and dropped into his father’s lap. “Girls! They cry when they’re happy. They cry when they’re sad. How do you know the difference?”

“If you’re giving them something, they’re happy. Any other time, you can figure you’re in the dog house.” Luc’s macho pearl of wisdom won him a good laugh. “Just watch out for the one who won’t cry in front of you. Then you don’t know where you stand.”

“Like Mom?” Sam asked.

“Yeah, like your mom. She keeps a lot of things to herself.”

She lowered her head. So much for a nice, relaxing family day. She had deluded herself into thinking that given enough time and patience, he might actually get over the past. “I thought we weren’t going to do this anymore, Luc.”

“Hey, I wasn’t starting anything. I just wanted to talk to you about Luz Brilhante. I believe you know a lot about the company but you are keeping it all to yourself.”

A shot of adrenalin caused her pulse to race. Damn! What had her mother told him? “Sam, I think you and Alicia should take Mia and show her the other presents in the bedroom.”

Sam’s face clouded over with worry. “Are you and Dad gonna fight again?”

“No. We promised you we weren’t going to do that anymore.” She smiled, although her words were meant as a reminder to Luc.

Sam shuffled over to her and whispered, “Just in case you forgot Portuguese, luz brilhante is bright light. That’s what Dad’s name means.”

“I remember.” She waited until the children cleared the hall before turning back.

Luc arched his thick eyebrow. “That was very clever how you chose the name of your company. If I’d caught the irony I might have figured it out sooner.”

Four stunned, and obviously uncomfortable faces fixed on Luc and her. Just great! She should have gone with him when he asked. Too late now. The one secret she never wanted anyone to discover was out. Miguel, Elisabeth, Tony and Isabelle all knew what Luz Brilhante meant, what it was. Once again, Luc had delivered on his talent for poor timing.

“Sam doesn’t know, and I want to keep it that way.”

“He doesn’t know we borrowed five million dollars from you?”

She shook her head. “Wrong! You and Miguel took a loan from a corporation and you paid it back.”

“A corporation of which Sam is the only stockholder and you have the controlling vote.”

She chewed her bottom lip. “A minor technicality if you’re going to look at it that way.”

“How do you look at it?”

“I look at it as handling my financial responsibilities. I made a great investment on behalf of the stockholder that Harlan had been too stupid to consider due to a genetic defect.”

“What genetic defect?”