Worth the Drive (22 page)

The house was a large, older Victorian on the east side of the small town, in an older neighborhood that rose above the man-made canal and the lift bridge that connected Houghton and Hancock. Large as the house was,
Darío
couldn’t imagine growing up with four brothers, as large and active as Katie’s brothers seemed to be, in one house.

The living room was full of reminders of the Maki children. The bookshelves held more art class projects than books. A ceramic animal that
Darío
guessed was supposed to be a duck was prominently on display on the coffee table.
Darío
picked it up, feeling its weight. As he put it back, he noticed the name Chris M. etched on the bottom. He looked over at Katie’s eldest
brother, Chris, who at the moment was chastising his thirteen-year-old son, Jordan.

Katie tried to head off the barrage of questions with a story that sounded rehearsed to
Darío
. It was technically true, but left out a great many details.

She told them they’d met in Texas when she’d gone with Lizzie to meet a prospective client.

True.

She told them they’d hit it off right away.

He
remembered Katie’s comment about his forearms, then
how she passed
out on him in the elevator the night they met. Memories of the next night, of looking down at Katie as he
thrust
deep inside of her flashed through his mind. Of her
reaching
her peak.

True. They’d hit if off right away.

She told them that she and
Darío
had kept in touch after Texas.

He thought about seeing her in the gallery at Memphis, the flood of gratitude he’d felt at getting another chance to see her, be with her. Then he thought of the rage he’d felt the next day at her hotel when she’d assumed he’d want no part of his child. He’d left swearing his lawyer would be contacting her.

So, true, they had kept in touch.

She told them that
Darío
had shown up out of the blue two days ago and after a very long discussion they’d de
cided they wanted to see where –
“this thing” is what she called it – could lead, and the only way to do that would be for Katie to travel with
Darío
. She’d made arrangements with her boss at the paper to do some work from the road, and she was having Alison look in on her house and collect her mail.

Other than having his child
vaguely referred to as
“this thing”,
Darío
figured that was all true.

What she didn’t mention was the baby. No word of pregnancy at all.
Darío
waited, watched. Katie shot him a look that showed him she’d changed her mind. He followed  her lead.

Katie dragged him into the kitchen with all the women to make pasties. She used the excuse that
Darío
had never even heard of pasties before, let alone seen them made.

A pasty,
Darío
found out, was a meat pie of sorts. He watched as Katie’s mom and sisters-in-law rolled out the dough of the crusts, filled each with a meat, carrot, onion and rutabaga mixture, then sealed it up into a crescent moon shape.
Darío
had
tried cuisines the world over. T
he closest thing he’d seen to a pasty was an Italian calzone, but with a much different filling.

“It’s Cornish originally. Cornish men came over to work the
c
opper mines here, and their wives would make these for them to take down in the mines with them. They’re hearty, but because of the crust, easy to carry and eat in such cramped quarters. The miners would heat them up on their shovels, by holding them over the candles on their helmets,” Mrs. Maki – Ellen, she’d told
Darío
to call her – explained.

Darío
only nodded and watched the women work. They’d obviously been doing this together for many years, each woman knew exactly her part, or ingredient as the case may be, to play.

Katie was the last person on the make-shift assembly line that’d been set u
p at the Maki’s long, well-used
pine kitchen table. He watched her elegant fingers seal the pasty, two fingers pressing down the opening, creating a wave effect of the crust. Her hands were lightly tanned, her nails trimmed and unpolished. He looked down at his own hands, roughened by years of handling clubs, his left hand much lighter than his
right
from years of wearing a golf glove.

As he watched the women work, biting their tongues,
Darío
saw the genius of Katie’s plan. By having
Darío
in here with her, her mother and sisters-in-law couldn’t ask her questions about him. And, maybe more importantly, he wasn’t left alone in a living room full of Maki men just waiting to ask him his intentions toward their daughter and sister.

As if sensing his thoughts, Katie looked up from her work, and blew some hair out of her face as she caught
Darío
’s eyes. She gave him a small smile, and mouthed the words “You okay?” to him. He returned her s
mile, nodded and mouthed “You?”
She shrugged her shoulders, smiled again and returned to her chore.

Darío
never did get the final tally on the number of nieces and nephews Katie had. He knew she had four brothers, all married, all with children. But amid the chaos, he lost track of what child b
elonged to what brother and which
children couldn’t be there because of swimming lessons or babysitting or something called T-ball. They seemed to range
in age
from three or four to around
fourteen or
fifteen
. And someone had mentioned that one of the nephews had his mother’s car to take some of the others to swimming lessons. So there was at least one old enough to drive.

Katie had not
exaggerated
when she told
Darío
in Memphis that their child would be surrounded by a large, loving family with lots of male influences. Her family seemed great. But her father, brothers and nephews were not the
primary
male influence that he wanted for his child.

He would be his child’s male role model. Even if he had to move to this small town to do it.

He realized with that thought that although a time would come when proof would be needed, he was going to operate for the next few months under the conviction that the child Katie carried was indeed his. T
he decision gave him a lightness, a freedom, and he chose not to
question
the
feeling
.

Some of the children went out to play on the lawn after dinner while the adults cleaned up and then had coffee and some kind of Finnish cake in the living room. The two smallest children went instead to their aunt Katie, who seemed to know what was coming as she had set herself up in the largest chair in the room. The two kids, one was Molly,
Darío
thought he remembered, and the other Kyle, climbed up on Katie’s lap, snuggled in on each side of her and demanded, “Tell us a story, Auntie Katie.”

Darío
watched, mesmerized, from across the room as Auntie Katie told her niece and nephew a story complete with ogres and dragons and  -
Darío
figured an apt twist for today’s times – a prince in distress and a maiden who saved him.

“She’s something, isn’t she?” Katie’s brother Chris whispered.
Darío
only nodded, still trying to hear Katie’s sweet, lyrical voice, even though it had grown softer as the adults started their own conversations and Molly and Kyle’s eyes grew heavier.

“You know, normally we’d all be ganging up on you, giving you shit about taking care of our sister, but I got to tell you, this is the best I’ve seen Katie looking since that piece of shit Ron ran out on her.”

Darío
didn’t let Chris know that the reason Katie glowed was from an entirely different reason than her going away with
Darío
.

“I mean, he really did a number on her. I wasn’t even sure the old Katie was still in there. But hey, if shacking up with you for a few months can bring her out of it, then you’ve got my blessing.” He held out his hand for
Darío
to shake, which
Darío
did, thinking how odd to be getting this brother’s blessing to take his sister away for what they thought would be a three
month fling.

Darío
wondered if he’d be getting the same treatment if they knew that he’d gotten their beloved baby sister pregnant? Perhaps he would.

He kept his eye on Katie. She made a lovely picture, golden and shimmering with two bundles of lightness on her knees. One of the children
– Molly he thought –
sneezed and Katie took a tissue from her shorts pocket, held it to
her
, waited
for her
to blow
and then
put the tissue back in her pocket, all without breaking her telling of the story. The woman, though looking like an untouchable goddess, was a born mother.

The purity of the moment made
Darío
’s throat catch. It was a beautiful picture, Katie with children on her lap. Could he be a part of that picture? Did he want to be? He knew the answer before he’d even finished the thought.

An image of Katie sitting, cradling his child, while
Darío
handed her a tissue after the child sneezed flashed through
Darío
’s mind.

Yes. He wanted to be in the picture.

Chapter
Thirteen

I played as much golf as I could in North Dakota, but summer up there is pretty short.

It usually falls on a Tuesday.

-Mike Morley, pro golfer from North Dakota

Katie picked
Darío
up bright and early Saturday morning to get breakfast before heading to the golf course for the Annie Aid golf outing. When he opened the door to her,
Darío
looked frazzled, something that Katie had not seen on
Darío
before.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, stepping into the room as he held the door for her.

“It seems I have to check out this morning. All their rooms are completely booked for tonight because of the fundraiser.”

“Oh. Of course, every hotel in town is booked solid. Not only do we have all the athletes coming in, but people come from all over the U.P. and Wisconsin to golf in this thing and then go to the dinner dance.”

“It would seem so.”
Darío
indicated the phone and phonebook on the bed. The phonebook was thin and the yellow pages section only about 20 pages. It was flipped open to the motel section.

“They should have told you that when you checked in,” Katie said.

Darío
looked sheepish. “They did, actually. But I honestly did not know when I checked in if I would still be here on Saturday. They also told me there were no places in town that had an opening for Saturday night, so I took my chances here.”

Of course she knew the solution. It was silly, really, that he’d even stayed in the hotel this long after they’d decided Wednesday night that she’d go on Tour with him. She just hadn’t liked the idea of
Darío
staying in the house that she’d shared with Ron.

Time to grow up, Katie
. She was going to be traveling with this man. Staying in the same hotel
rooms with him. The whole idea was
t
o get know him better. Starting now
. “Well, you’ll simply stay with me tonight and tomorrow before we leave on Monday,” Katie said.

He watched her, Katie could feel the depth of his stare. She lifted her chin, daring him to argue with her, but he seemed resigned to the idea. “
Sí
, that is probably the only solution. I have been trying to see if there were any cancellations anywhere, but no luck.”

“Of course not. It’s Annie Aid. Lizzie wouldn’t stand for any cancellations.”
Darío
laughed at her joke
. H
e must have noticed Lizzie’s propensity for making a plan and sticking to it. “Let’s throw your luggage in your trunk, and your golf bag in my car. We can leave your rental here and pick it up after the golf outing.”

He nodded his head and stuck out his hand. “Your keys?”

“It’s unlocked. The keys are in the ignition.”
Darío
only chuckled at this and made for his golf bag. Katie went for the suitcase.

“What do you think you’re doing?”
Darío
nearly screamed. “That’s very heavy, you can’t carry that.” He rushed toward her, which was difficult in the small room.