By the time Katie Sara arrived at Reiner’s, several cars already lined the drive. Familiar with the layout of his house, she walked around back to the kitchen. Crossing the patio, she stopped before the open French doors.
The scene inside was pure Norman Rockwell—except for Felicity’s purple-streaked hair and Bel’s outrageous outfit. Her purple blouse almost matched Felicity’s hair. A lemon-yellow skirt, peacock-feather necklace and clunky gold and turquoise bracelets completed Bel’s audacious look. Perfect—for her! So, okay, maybe a twenty-first century Norman Rockwell. Still, this was what she wanted to be a part of. Had always wanted to be a part of.
Rhonda’s daughter Nicole, Felicity, and Beth huddled over a magazine at the breakfast banquette, probably drooling over some young hunk...or the latest hairstyle. Although she couldn’t quite see Felicity copying anyone else’s. Nope. For better or worse, Felicity was uniquely herself.
She spied a casserole of baked beans, a bowl of macaroni salad, and a yummy-looking fruit salad. The entire area smelled heavenly. Barnie, of all people, arranged rolls in a basket beside Auntie Belham who was busy setting out iced tea and sodas.
Rhonda chopped and sliced veggies at the sink. Even three-year-old Krista had been put to work. Perched on a stool, tongue sticking between her Cupid’s bow lips, she concentrated on folding napkins.
Though Reiner leaned against the counter putting together a relish tray, his attention kept straying to a caged hamster on the floor to his left. She could have sworn he acted half-afraid of the thing. A little yappy dog, on the other hand, eyed it as a potential appetizer.
The dog sniffed too close for comfort apparently, and the hamster banged against his cage. Reiner jumped, sending olives flying. The dog, assuming a new game was in progress, skittered across the floor after them.
In the corner, Felicity laughed out loud.
“Real funny, baby doll. Next barbecue, we’ll have grilled rat on the menu.”
“Eeeow!” The other two teens screwed up their faces.
“A rat?” Krista scrambled higher on her chair, tucking her little legs beneath her. “Here?”
“No, honey. Uncle Reiner’s making a joke.” Felicity glared at him. “Right?”
“Right. Sorry.” He leaned toward the young girl and dropped a quick kiss on her flyaway strawberry-blond curls.
Unlike Katie Sara’s own kitchen, filled with color and whimsy, this one, uncluttered and oh, so male with all its white and chrome, should have been cold and sterile. But today—filled with people and laughter and life—it just might be the warmest, most welcoming place she’d ever been.
And she wanted to stay. Forever.
Now there was a dangerous thought.
One she’d best lock away. Fast.
Rocco and Mary came up behind her with their young daughter, Anna. “Katie Sara!”
The three hugged, and she caught up the little girl, kissing her chubby cheeks. Aware she’d placed the child in front of her like a shield, she stepped into the house. “Hey, look who’s here!”
Instantly, Anna, with her two-year-old’s wonder of the world, her bright eyes, dimples and giggles, took center stage, running from person to person to show them her new book. She finally plopped down on the floor beside Felicity.
“Barnie, I’m surprised to see you here.”
“Well, ah—” He glanced toward Bel. “You see, me and Bel—”
“Are friends,” Bel finished. “Very good friends.” Her lips curled in a smile, and she looked ten years younger. “Once in a while we manage to spend the day...and maybe the evening...together.” She winked.
Barnie flushed. “Been ten years since I lost Aida, and—”
“I’m happy for you. For both of you!” Katie Sara hugged them.
Then she picked up a knife, settled in beside Rhonda, and began dicing tomatoes for the salad. Reiner’s heat nearly scorched her new white capris and top when he brushed against her lightly from behind.
He handed her a glass of white wine. “Cheers.”
“Right back at you.” Fighting to steady her heartbeat, she smiled, raised her glass, and took a sip.
“What happened last night?”
Her shoulders slumped. “Boy, talk about a one-track mind.”
“You got it.”
She glanced around the room and saw that everyone else was engaged in their own conversations.
Voice low, she said, “After I left your house, I stopped at Rhonda’s.” She swallowed hard, remembering the talk they’d had.
Reiner didn’t miss it.
Neither did Rhonda, who came to her rescue. “Katie Sara arrived on our doorstep loaded down with all the makings for sundaes. Including whipped cream and cherries.”
“And then?” Reiner made a get-to-the-point gesture.
“And then when I got home, a wet, stuffed cat hung from a noose on my porch. I thought it was Chia at first.” She kept her head up, but it cost her dearly to hold back the tears even now.
“Why those little—” He stopped. “Together those boys don’t amount to a bucket of spit. Did you call the cops?”
She shook her head.
“Why?”
She sighed. “I don’t want to do that. This’ll blow over.”
“I’m not so sure,” Reiner argued. “That’s pretty gutsy.”
Anna, bless her, chose that opportune moment to make her dancing debut. On tippy-toes she twirled until, dizzy, she bumped into Reiner and toppled, landing on her butt.
Scooping the toddler up, he swung her high, laughing at her giggles. “You, sugar, are a real sweetheart.”
He looked at Katie Sara. “I think, though, I want a little boy I can toss a football with. One with your fantastic green eyes and my throwin’ arm. Then, maybe, a little Kewpie doll like our Anna here.”
Katie Sara felt every drop of blood drain from her head, from her body and knew she’d gone absolutely white.
Felicity let out a war whoop and started jumping up and down. Bel dropped into the chair closest to her. The knife in Rhonda’s hand clattered into the sink.
Tim cleared his throat. “Something I should know?”
“What?” Reiner asked. One look at Katie Sara and he set down the toddler.
Felicity quieted.
“You okay?” he asked Katie Sara.
“Are you two—” Auntie Bel started.
“No,” Katie Sara said gently. “It’s never even come up between us.”
Hearing Reiner’s chuckle, she closed her eyes and groaned inwardly at her word choice. Why was it that everything became sexually charged around him?
Heart thudding, she blew out a big breath, put a hand to her forehead. “My blood sugar’s probably a little low. I skipped lunch today.”
Her gaze skidded to Rhonda’s. She read the question in her eyes and looked away.
“Well, then, let’s eat,” he said. “Everything’s ready. Let me find the barbecue fork.” He crossed the room to mount a search.
“You haven’t told him yet, have you?” Rhonda hissed quietly.
“I will,” Katie Sara whispered back. “When the show’s finished. After all these years, what difference will another few days make?
Rhonda raised a brow. “Doesn’t feel good.”
“Oh, hogwash!”
“What are you two whisperin’ about?” Reiner stuck his head between them, then jumped back when they shrieked. “Don’t you both go weird on me now. Rhonda, I depend on you to keep this one centered.” He nodded toward Katie Sara.
“Hah! Good luck!” Rhonda’s voice sounded unnaturally bright.
Waving the fork he’d unearthed in one hand, gripping Katie Sara’s arm with his other, he walked her outside to the deck where he began flipping steaks from the grill onto a huge platter.
He leaned into her. “I thought maybe all that talk about babies had you rememberin’ how good it was between us in high school.”
Anger, she told herself. Grab the anger. “That in there was over and above—even for you, Reiner.”
“Well, we could have made a baby. We could still make one.”
“Don’t go there.” Her voice wavered, her chest squeezed so tight she could barely breathe.
Could she tell him here? No. Not with all these people. She owed him more. Much more. She’d been right inside with Rhonda. It had waited all these years; it could wait a bit more.
Then guilt grabbed her by the throat. How could she not? It had to be now. “Reiner, there’s something I have to tell you. You and I did—”
“I know.” He cut her off. “Past tense. We made love before you became the poster girl for abstinence. Jeez, why couldn’t you pick an easier cause for me to live with?”
She shook her head. “No, that’s not it.”
But before she could say more, Rocco’s chuckle burst from the patio’s far corner. Neither had seen him in the lounger.
Grinning, he said, “Sorry, couldn’t help overhearin’ that last remark. If you want my opinion, though, bud, if the mountain’s worth climbin’—”
“Oh, it’s worth it all right.” Reiner handed his friend a plate, slid a steak onto it.
Katie Sara wanted to die, wanted to throttle Rocco for prolonging the moment of truth. Instead, she forced a grin. “Thing is, though, you’ve got to have the right gear.”
Rocco’s hoot of laughter followed her from the patio into the house.
She stepped inside, met Rhonda’s quizzical gaze, and shook her head imperceptibly. Her shoulders sagged, and the food Reiner had loaded on her plate tasted like sawdust as she perched at the counter, bantering half-heartedly with Auntie Belham and Barnie.
Beth’s mother stopped by on her way home from an aerobics class. In skin-tight workout clothes and a barely-there cover-up, Sasha ate, flirted outrageously with Reiner, Tim, and even Barnie, then took Beth home with her.
After they’d eaten and cleaned up, Bel said, “Barnie and I are going to excuse ourselves. We have some catchin’ up to do. It’s been a while since we’ve managed an entire evening alone.” When Barnie’s cheeks blazed, Bel grinned like a Cheshire cat.
“You’re goin’ to have to set limits fast with that one,” Reiner warned him. “She’ll run you to the ground.”
“Too late.” Barnie laughed and helped Bel with her casserole dishes to the car.
When they’d gone, Felicity asked for Katie Sara’s help. “I’m having trouble with the program. I can’t figure out what order to put everybody in. You know, so the time works out and everything.”
“Don’t forget to factor in time for set changes,” Katie Sara warned.
“Oh, jeez. I don’t think I can do this.”
“Yes, you can. Let’s put all the acts on individual cards, then juggle them around.”
They sprawled on the living room floor, heads bent over a mass of note cards and papers. By the time they finished, everyone else had gone.
Putting her hands to the small of her back, Katie Sara straightened just as Reiner checked in on them.
“Thanks so much.” Felicity threw both arms around her neck. “Uncle Reiner, is it okay if I run over to Beth’s for a while?”
He leaned against the wall that led into the living room. “Sure. Don’t be late, though.”
“I won’t.” A quick kiss for him and she flew out the door.
Katie Sara and Reiner looked at each other in a suddenly quiet, empty house. She’d missed the chance to escape while the getting was good, she realized. A twinge shot up her back, and she bent sideways and stretched.
“Back hurt?”
“A little. The set work got to me. I’m not used to such big chunks of physical labor, I guess.”
“You need a good massage.”
“Yeah.” She laughed derisively. “Don’t I wish.”
“Let me give you one. I’ve got a professional table downstairs. Though what I’m gonna do with it here in Paradox—”
“Bet Sasha, your friendly next-door neighbor, would love to help you use it.”
He grinned sheepishly. “She probably would. Seriously, though. Why don’t I help you with that back?”
She felt herself redden and hated it. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Oh, for Pete’s sake, Ace. It’s part of the game. Football, I mean,” he added quickly. “Coach insisted we get them. Nothin’ personal. It’s not like I’m gonna get you naked and...and... Nothin’ like that!”
He cocked a brow. “You afraid of me?”
“No!”
“Then let’s go downstairs and do it. You’ll feel a whole lot better.”
Her heart rate accelerated as she read a double meaning into his words.
“You can leave your panties on—if you want.”
The look she sent him did all teachers proud.
“Right. Leave them on and then toss a big old towel from the closet over you. I’ll just do your back.” He leered playfully. “Unless you insist I do your front, of course.”
She scowled at him.
“Okaaaay,” he drawled. “Back only.”
“What about Felicity?”
“We’ve got a good hour, at least.” He took her hand, led her down a flight of stairs.
Stupid, stupid, stupid. She knew better. But her back really did ache. Darn daisies!
Added to that, imbecile that she was, she wanted this hour with Reiner. God help her, she wanted to feel his hands on her. But she would not make love with him.
Nor would she tell him about their son tonight. That could wait until the talent show was under their belt. Once it was finished, there’d be no reason they had to see each other. If Reiner wanted to banish her from his life...Oh, her heart ached at the thought.
This show, though, was too important to Felicity to screw it up. When the final curtain dropped, she’d tell him. Come hell or high water.
Decision made, she relaxed. Slightly. Ever so slightly.
At the bottom of the stairs, her mouth dropped open. “You have got to be kidding me.”
“What?”
“Talk about a toy room.”
He shrugged. “I wanted a place where I could hang out, you know?”
“No, I don’t know. I can’t even begin to imagine this kind of indulgence.”
“I work for it.”
She noted the defensiveness. “Did I say you didn’t?”
He grunted.
One end of the huge room had been turned into a small movie theater. Another area held a billiard table and a bar, complete with arcade games. The exercise room, partially sectioned off, looked very no-nonsense. Very macho. In fact, the entire basement had the aura of an ultra-masculine man cave, all dark colors, tweeds, leathers, and stainless steel. Not so much as a single feminine touch shown anywhere.
Near the exercise machines stood the massage table. Katie Sara felt weak-kneed.
“There’s a bathroom to the right. I’ve got a couple things to do upstairs, then I'll be back down, okay?”
“Sure.” She detoured toward his movie collection, then did a double take. “What is this?” She laughed. “You must have every Sandra Bullock film ever made.”
“Felicity likes her.”
“Oh. Me, too.” She headed for the bath.
He watched her disappear into the sauna area, then beat a hasty retreat upstairs. What the hell had he been thinking? He couldn’t do this! And he should’ve hidden those damn DVDs. If she asked Felicity about them, he was dead meat.
He hustled to the kitchen for a glass of ice water, figuring it might cool him down. It didn’t help. Maybe he should have a beer...or two. He looked at the clock. He couldn’t put it off any longer.
Sorry as hell he’d suggested it, nothing he could do but barrel-on like a runaway car at this point. That sure described his insides.
Heading downstairs, he reached the last step and stared across the room. She lay stretched out on her stomach. Those beautiful long legs. That gorgeous hair.
“How about I dim these lights a little? It’ll be more relaxing.”
“Fine.” She turned her head, green eyes spellbinding.
“I’m gonna use a little oil.”
“Okay.”
He pulled the towel down to bare her back and rubbed oil into his hands. Then he simply stood there. All that delicious skin. The little mole on her left shoulder. She’d tied up her hair, and her long neck cried to be kissed.
For the life of him, he couldn’t figure where to put his hands, how to touch her. He’d never felt so clumsy. Not even when he was thirteen and had groped his first feel from Honor Devereaux in the balcony of the old movie house.
“Reiner?”
“Yeah?”
“Are you okay?” She grabbed the front of the towel and twisted to look at him.
“I’m fine. Lie down.”
The instant he touched her, she jumped. “You know what? This is playing with fire. Bad idea.”
“Don’t be silly.” He swiped the sweat off his forehead with his shirtsleeve. “Relax.”
She gave him an uneasy glance, then lay back down. He started on her tense shoulders, worked his way down the middle of her spine to the small of that perfect back, where another set of dimples winked at him. More sweat popped on his brow, but he kept at it. He kept his word and didn’t make a move on her even though it about killed him.
He even managed to massage her calves. Those sweet, sweet legs went on forever, but he stopped just above the knee. Man, this was supposed to be relaxing, but he couldn’t take any more. He gave her legs and back one quick, final go-over.
“There you are. Better?”
She nodded, not sure she could speak. Not sure if she was happy or disappointed—or insulted—that he’d kept it impersonal. That he’d been able to. Those hands of his were pure magic.
She wanted them on her body forever. Everywhere. Wanted him to carry her off to his bed.
Every inch of her body cried out for him.
Instead, she said, “Thanks, Reiner. I’d better get dressed before Felicity shows up. That could be sticky.”
Reiner didn’t think he’d ever get to sleep. After Katie Sara left, he’d watched some old game film. Felicity had come home on time, called downstairs to let him know she was tired and gone to bed.
He’d had another beer, then stared at the TV a while longer before moving to his room to toss and turn. Last time he’d checked, it had been almost one o’clock.
“Uncle Reiner?”
“Hmmm?”
“Uncle Reiner, wake up.”
“What?”
“I need you to wake up. Please!”
“Felicity?” Reiner blinked and rose on one elbow. Moonlight filtered through his open blinds, silhouetting her at the side of his bed. “Are you okay?”
“No.” She started to cry.
“What the—” He threw back the covers, realized he wasn’t wearing anything but his boxers and pulled his leg back under the sheet. “Felicity...my robe...”
She grabbed it from the chair and handed it to him. He tossed it on and ran a hand through his hair.
“What’s wrong, baby doll?”
“You’ll kill me when I tell you.” She sniffled and wiped her nose with the back of her hand.
Awake now, he narrowed his eyes. “I doubt that but let me keep the option open. What have you done?”
Another sob escaped her. “Beth—” She blew her nose. “Beth and I...we...” She swiped at a tear.
“Now you’ve got me scared.”
He reached for the lamp, but she grabbed his arm. “Wait.”
“Oh, boy.” He put his elbow on his knee, rested his head in his hand. “Felicity, you do know your name means joy, don’t you? That’s not what I’m feelin’ right now.”
“I know,” she moaned. “It’s not really that bad. I mean, well, Beth and I, we decided to pierce our lips, and we did mine first.” She whimpered. “We didn’t do hers. It hurts.”
She sniffled again. “Something’s wrong.”
“You did what?” He snapped on the bedside lamp and recoiled. “Oh, for— I thought that belly button ring was bad. This thing’s still oozin’ blood. No way am I goin’ to touch it.”
He shook his finger in her face. “You have got to stop punchin’ holes in yourself, you hear me? No more! You’re goin’ to look like a piece of Swiss cheese.”
Her tears started in earnest.
“Ah, jeez. Don’t cry, pumpkin. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell. Come on, now. It’s just that— You don’t need all this stuff stickin’ out of you.”
He put his thumb under her chin, grimaced at the sight of the stud in her lip. He met her gaze. “You’re beautiful.”
She threw her arms around his neck, careful not to bump her lip. “I miss them, Reiner. I miss my mom and dad. What if something happens to one of them? Or to both of them? I want Mom and Dad to come home!”
He held her while she cried her heart out. His smart-mouthed, crazily dressed niece was still a child who needed and missed her parents. And he was a damn poor substitute.
He didn’t have a clue what to do about it. His more immediate problem, though, was the huge hole in her lip and the silver stud sticking through it.
When Felicity finally stopped crying, he kissed her forehead and sent her into the bathroom to wash her face. Then he dialed Katie Sara, praying she’d pick up.
When she answered on the third ring, he asked, “Dru’s not there, is he? I wouldn’t want to interrupt anything.”
She hung up.
Smooth move, Broderick.
He called again. She picked up and hung up without answering. He dialed again and again.
Finally she said, “This is harassment.”
“Felicity needs you.”
“You are so low.”
“No. Really.”
“A snake couldn’t get any lower than you.”
“I’m not kiddin’.” He rushed on. “She pierced her lip. That was rotten of me to mention Dru. I’m...I’m sorry. We already had that talk. I’m a terrible, horrible person.”
Silence.
“Katie Sara, are you there?”
“Yes.”
“Aren’t you goin’ to stop me?”
“I hadn’t planned on it.”
He chuckled. “Can you come over?”
“Did she really pierce her lip?”
“Yes. It’s bleedin’ and hurtin’ her something fierce.” He lowered his voice. “And she’s really feeling low. She’s missing her parents.”
He sighed. “I think that’s what this is all about. She had a good cry tonight. I don’t know what to do.”
“Who are you talking to?” Felicity stood in the hallway.
“Ms. McMichaels. She’s goin’ to come over and take a look at your lip. Make sure everything’s okay.”
“Oh, that was low, Broderick,” Katie Sara murmured.
“Whatever it takes, sweet cheeks. Ten minutes?”
“About.”
When she got there, Felicity was in her room, an ice pack on her lip.
“Hey, nice room.” Chartreuse walls, white twin four-posters, and bright yellow dressers and nightstands danced with hot-pink striped coverlets, blue-plaid dust ruffles and yellow and chartreuse pillows. Somehow, all very Felicity, it worked.
“You think?” the girl asked.
Katie Sara nodded.
“I can’t understand why she doesn’t have nightmares in here,” Reiner said, “but I turned her loose with the decorator. I made the mistake of telling the woman to do whatever this little darlin’ wanted, and this is what they came up with.”
He eyed the stud in her lip, shivered, and moved across the room to sit at a neon yellow desk. Uneasy, he’d barely landed when he jumped up again, prowling the room’s perimeter.
“Color’s good for the soul,” Katie Sara insisted.
“That’s the kind of thing adults say when they want kids to like them...or forget their lip hurts,” Felicity lisped around her now-swollen lip.
When Katie Sara opened her mouth to protest, Felicity said, “Answer just one question, then I’ll rest my case.”
Reiner, who’d been pacing restlessly, leaned against the doorjamb now, arms folded, obviously interested in how this would play out.
Katie Sara narrowed her eyes, figuring the angles. “Okay. One question.”
“You have to answer truthfully.”
“Of course, I will.” She squirmed inwardly, unwilling to look at Reiner.
“What color’s your sofa?”
“My sofa?” That was the last question she’d expected.
“Yeah.” Felicity crossed her arms, mimicking Reiner. A smug smile flitted across her face to be replaced by a grimace as the tug hurt her lip.
A cocky grin lit Katie Sara’s own. “Red leather.”
“No way!” Her head swiveled to her uncle, then back to Katie Sara. "No way!”
“Way!” Katie Sara insisted.
“Red leather?”
“Bright red leather. Now, let’s remove that stud and clean the wound. There should be just about enough time for that hole to heal before your parents get back, young lady.”
From the corner of her eye, she saw Reiner slink out of the room. Gently, she removed the stud and dropped it into Felicity’s hand. “Don’t put it back in.”
“I won’t.”
While Katie Sara disinfected the wound and dabbed antiseptic cream on it, they talked about Felicity’s parents. Reiner was right. She missed them. Katie Sara shared a few of her own stories about Felicity’s dad, and the memories seemed to help draw him closer to the girl.
When the doctoring was done, Felicity crawled into bed. Katie Sara tucked her in and kissed her forehead.
“See you tomorrow, Ms. McMichaels.” She yawned.
“Yes. And I think, Felicity, when we’re not at school, it’s okay for you to call me Katie Sara.”
“Really?”
“Really. Good night.” She flipped off the light and closed the door behind her.
Sprawled on the living room sofa channel surfing, Reiner flicked off the TV when she entered the room.
“Our little Goth princess is okay?”
“Yes. She’ll be fine. My guess is she’s already asleep.”
“Leaving two very wide-awake adults alone in the dead of night. I can think of a thing or two we could do to pass the time, Ace.”
“I need to go home. I have to get up early for work.”
“You used to be fun.”
“Yes, and I used to be seventeen and a virgin, too. I’m neither of those, now, am I?”
He winced.
“Katie Sara—”
“Good night, Reiner.”
The door clicked shut behind her.
“Good night, my ass. It’s a nightmare!”