That Man of Mine (23 page)

“I'm totally on board, but Claire says it's cruel and unusual punishment. As long as the cat stays in her room, I'm okay with the claws, but Claire keeps closing her bedroom door and Buttercup gets trapped in there and can't get to her litter box.”

“Why not move the litter box to Claire's room?” Allie asked.

“Ha!” Mimi said, “Claire says moving the litter box to her room is cruel and unusual punishment for
her.
”

“Let me guess. You're the one who cleans it?”

“Bin-go. Which, I knew was going to happen.” Mimi shrugged. “But I really don't mind. Claire seems a lot happier with the cat around.”

“Is she still pretty bummed about not getting into FSU?” Allie asked.

“She doesn't really talk about it, but I'm sure she's disappointed.”

Allie let Toby out in the yard and Mimi went to open the door to Claire's room. The bed was unmade and there were papers strewn all over her desk. A huge pile of dirty laundry sat like a mountain in one corner of the room. “
I see
nothing
,” Mimi said, chanting the mantra of mothers of teenage daughters everywhere. “Buttercup,” she crooned, “come out baby so I know you're in here.”

Mimi heard a soft mewling sound. She tossed aside the comforter on Claire's bed, but no Buttercup. “Come out, come out, wherever you are,” Mimi called out.

This time the mewling was louder, which meant Buttercup was probably trapped somewhere. Last week, she'd been stuck in Claire's closet. Mimi opened the closet door, but no Buttercup. There was another meow, followed by a soft scratching sound. It was coming from Claire's chest of drawers. She followed the sound to the bottom one and pulled it open. Buttercup came flying out and whizzed past her and out of the room.

Good grief! How on earth had the kitten gotten stuck in a drawer?

Mimi was about to close the drawer when a neatly folded paper caught her attention. It was partially hidden beneath a sweatshirt.

She gulped. Obviously, Claire had hidden it here on purpose. But…why? It wasn't like Mimi went through her desk or anything. She picked up the folded letter and stared at it for a few seconds. She wasn't the type of mother who sneaked around her daughter's room. That was more her own mother's modus operandi.

It was probably nothing. Maybe a note from one of her friends that she'd wanted to save. Or maybe even a love letter. Of course, if it was, Mimi had no clue who'd written it. Claire hadn't mentioned a boy since Adam.

She couldn't help but stare at the letter. Call it instinct or mother's intuition, but some feeling older than time told her she needed to open this.

Put it back where you found it, Mimi
.

She swallowed the feeling back down her throat. Claire was seventeen and a senior in high school. She deserved some privacy.

Mimi went to put the letter back beneath the sweatshirt when something at the top edge of the paper caught her attention. It was a colored logo, easily seen even through the folded paper. This wasn't a personal letter, this was correspondence with an official letterhead. Mimi took a big breath and slowly opened it. The letterhead was from Florida State University and it was dated back in early February.

Dear Ms. Grant,

We are pleased to inform you of your acceptance into Florida State University. Your excellent academic record qualifies you for our very prestigious Freshman Honors Program…

M
imi hardly heard a
word Bettina or anyone else said during the meeting. For the most part, the meeting was more of a formality, really. All the hard work had already been done. The contracts were all signed—all the rental equipment, the band, the porta-potties, everything they needed for the festival was a go. The Facebook page seemed to be a huge success, and everyone, even Sherry, had nothing but praise for her. Bettina was still reserved in her compliments, but she wasn't riding Mimi's butt every two seconds with some ridiculous problem, either.

Doreen gave her a big thumbs up before getting in her car to take off, leaving Mimi alone in the parking lot.

She should be happy. Everything with the festival had worked out all right. But all she could do was stare at the car keys in her hand. She could go home and wait for the kids to get back from eating dinner with Zeke and confront Claire. Or, she could simply drive out to the fishing cabin now and join them, but she wouldn't be able to keep her mouth closed about that letter. Whatever reason Claire had for hiding it, Mimi was sure it would end in some sort of argument between them. It would ruin the night, and Zeke and the kids didn't get as much time together anymore.

Maybe she'd give Lauren a call. Or Kitty or Pilar, and they could give her some advice on what to do. She had tons of friends who would be more than happy to listen to her. But the more she thought about it, the more she came to the conclusion that the only person she wanted to talk to right now was Zeke. He might be the most maddening man on the planet, but he was her best friend, too.

*~*~*

C
laire's car came rambling
up to the driveway a little before nine p.m. Mimi waited till both her children were quietly doing homework. “I'm going out for a while,” she said, poking her head into Claire's room.

Claire looked up from her chemistry book. “Now?”

“I won't be long,” Mimi said. “Can you make sure Cameron takes Toby outside before he puts him down for the night?”

Claire's brows drew together. “Everything okay, Mom?”

How should she answer that?

“Sure, hon, everything's fine.”

Mimi had never driven out to the fishing cabin before. The side roads were dark and the cabin wasn't clearly marked. If it wasn't for Zeke's police cruiser parked outside she would have missed it entirely.

It took him a few minutes to answer the door. He was barefoot, dressed in a pair of old jeans and nothing else. His chest was damp with sweat, making the shark tattoo on his right shoulder glisten. It made him look dangerous somehow. Without saying anything, he threw back the door to let her in.

“How are you living here with no air-conditioning?” she blurted. She paced the small but tidy living area. There was a couch and a coffee table. A compact kitchen to one side and a small bedroom made up the rest of the place. Efficient, but hardly comfortable.

He shrugged. “It's not so bad. I take a shower before I go to bed at night and keep all the windows open. The river gives off a good enough breeze.” He glanced down at his sweaty chest. “I just finished a ten mile run and was about to get in the shower when you knocked.”

The way he talked about this place…it sounded so
permanent
. She'd never meant for things to go this far.

“Come home, Zeke. Right now. This instant.”

His dark eyes flared. “What's wrong?”

“Nothing—I…made a mistake. I should have never asked you to leave the house.” She flung herself into his arms.

“Hey! I'm all sweaty!”

“I don't care.”

He brought up his hand to cup her head. “Baby, tell me what's wrong.”

“I told you. I made a mistake. We have problems, yes, but we can't fix them if we're apart.”

“You're damn right about that.” His voice, so low and close to her ear, made her shiver. Another instinct, this one far from maternal, took over.

He went to kiss her. She'd come to talk to him about Claire. But that could wait. Right now she needed him in that most primal way that a woman needed her man. She shoved him toward the bedroom. “Get in the shower,” she said, already starting to pull off her clothes.

He looked surprised, then he laughed. “I'm not sure what this is about, but I'm not going to argue.”

It had been a long time since she and Zeke had had shower sex. But it was like the old bicycle adage. Once you got the hang of it (and they'd gotten the hang of it a
long
time ago) you never really forgot the basic mechanics.

The shower was a cramped stall barely big enough to hold Zeke, let alone the two of them. The water, too cool at first, then almost too warm for comfort, rained down their bodies. Zeke picked her up and positioned her so that her back was flush to the shower wall. Her skin felt hot and prickly against the fiberglass but she didn't care. Mimi wrapped her legs around his waist and kissed him. He tasted like mint toothpaste and like Zeke. Everything about him was both familiar and exciting. She wanted him now. This instant. More than she'd ever wanted him before.

It wasn't supposed to be like this after eighteen years. Was it?

Shouldn't they have settled into a comfortable routine by now?
Comfortable sex
. It sounded…horrible. Like deciding that chocolate tasted
just okay
and that you could live with or without it.

But she could never live without this. Not as long as she and Zeke were still breathing.

“Hang on,” he rasped. He repositioned her so that she could feel his erection nudging his way inside. Slowly.
Too slowly
. Her breasts rubbed against his chest. He bent and took one nipple into his mouth, nearly making her jump.

“You okay?” he murmured against her skin.

She nodded, too focused on what he was doing to speak. Her breasts were more sensitive than she could ever remember.
Everything
, in fact, seemed more sensitive. More alive. It had only been two weeks since that night by the bridge. They'd gone two weeks without sex before, but tonight, two weeks felt more like it had been two
years
. 

She squirmed against him, taking more of him inside her, but it wasn't enough. “
Now
, Zeke.”

He chuckled. “Yes, ma'am.” Right before he slammed into her.

*~*~*

H
e didn't want to
hurt her, but the shower stall was built for someone a lot smaller than him, leaving him little to no room to do much more than keep banging her against the wall. She didn't seem to mind it rough. As a matter of fact, it was like she
wanted
it that way, and Zeke was more than happy to accommodate her. At one time, making love to his wife had been on the top of his daily to-do list. This past year had been seriously messed up.

She came hard and fast, making him come hard, too. Knowing Mimi loved being with him as much as he loved being with her was the best aphrodisiac in the world.

He held onto her as the warm water sluiced down his back. After a couple of minutes, he gently disentangled her shaking legs from his waist to help her stand up again. She seemed so small right now. Thinner even than just a couple of weeks ago. She still had the right kind of curves. Long slender legs and a killer ass that always got him hard whenever he thought about them. Strangely enough, her breasts seemed fuller, but the rest of her was almost frail.

She was working too hard, damn it. Between her duties as mayor and all the work she put in with the festival committee, not to mention everything she did for the kids, it was a miracle she hadn't collapsed from exhaustion.

“Have you been sick?” he asked quietly.

She shuddered, her head buried against his chest. “Allie asked me that today, too. Do I look that bad?”

“You're beautiful,” he said. “I just think between the festival and the wedding and everything else, you've taken too much on. Do you even have time to eat?” Before she could answer he grabbed a towel from a nearby rack and wrapped her up, sliding his hands up and down her arms to keep her warm. They stepped out of the shower stall. He dried himself off and found a pair of shorts to slide on.

They ended up back in the living room, sitting on the couch, with Mimi on his lap. He was thrilled that she'd shown up here tonight, but she hadn't come by to get in him in the sack. The look on her face when he'd answered the door told him something big was on her mind.

“What's going on?” he asked. “And remember, I know you better than anyone, so no BS. Got it?”

She nodded, then let out a deep sigh. “First off, and don't have a donkey, but the wedding guest list has shot up some.”

He rubbed his hand against her back, encouraging her to keep talking.

“Instead of seventy-five guests, we're now up to three hundred and sixty-two. And I have a sneaking feeling it might even creep up to more than that before we're done.”

“So much for Allie keeping it simple. And that's it?”

“What do you mean, that's it? Zeke! It's practically half the town.”

“It's not half the town,” he said. “That's what you're upset about? All the extra guests?”

“Not… No. Allie said she and Tom want to pay for all the extra we didn't count on. And they've already arranged to move the reception from The Harbor House to the church hall.”

“Okay. Sounds good to me.”

Her head shot off his chest. “Who are you? Because that seemed too easy.”

“It's their wedding. If they want to have a circus, then let ‘em. We'll talk about the money later.”

She playfully slapped him on the shoulder. “It won't be a circus. It will be lovely and exactly what Allie wants.”

He tightened his grip around her waist. He knew his wife well enough to know Allie's wedding wasn't what brought her out here tonight. “What's going on, baby? Tell me fast because I'm starting to get worried.”

She let out a deep breath. “I found a letter from FSU in Claire's dresser drawer today. It was hidden beneath some sweatshirts. It was an
acceptance
letter, Zeke. She got in, just like I knew she would. Why did she lie to us and tell us she hadn't?”

He hesitated. Just long enough for her pull away so she could look him the eye. “She didn't tell you because she's still dating that kid from last year.”

“
Adam
?”

“Yep.”

“But I saw him at The Harbor House just a few weeks ago and… You're
kidding
. She doesn't want to go away to school because of a
boyfriend
? How do you know all this?” Her face, which previously had been too pale, was now flushed pink.

“I don't know for a fact that it's her reason for not wanting to go away, but I do know she's still dating him.”

“Why didn't she tell us? And how do you know and not me?”

“You're not going to like this.”

“Zeke, what have you done?” She got off his lap and began picking her clothes up off the floor.

“Rusty caught them a few months ago parked over by the bridge. You know the spot I'm talking about.”

“Me and everyone else in Whispering Bay, apparently.” She finished getting dressed, then sat down next to him.

“So I went and had a little talk with the kid.” At the look on Mimi's face he said, “Don't worry, I didn't castrate him. Although the idea did occur to me.”

“Are they having…sex?” she asked like she could barely get the word out.

Zeke knew exactly how she felt. Claire might be seventeen, but in his eyes she would always be that five-year-old girl who begged him for piggyback rides that he tucked into bed at night.

“You'll be happy to know I restrained myself from asking that particular question. I just told the kid that if he hurt my daughter, I'd hunt him down and kill him. He took it pretty well, considering I got a little graphic on the details.”

“I don't understand why she's keeping him a secret.”

“Probably for the same reason she lied about not getting into FSU.”

“Which is?”

“Because she's seventeen and she wants to do what
she
wants to do. With no pressure from us or anyone else.”

“Well, she's your daughter, all right.”

“What's that supposed to mean?”

She shook her head. “Nothing…except, have you thought about telling Allie the truth about Sam?”

Shit
. And things had been so pleasant there for a while. Might as well get this over with.

“I have. And I'm not telling her,” he said.

“Why not?”

He got up from the couch and went to the kitchen to pour himself a glass of whiskey. Rusty's cousin had left a bottle of Jim Beam in the cabinet and Rusty had told Zeke to help himself. Zeke wasn't a whiskey man, but the conversation they were about to have seemed to call for it. He offered her a sip from his glass, but Mimi refused.