Drape Expectations (7 page)

Past history or new?

Uncle Dominic was her dad's younger brother who lived in Baltimore, about an hour and a half from Kismet. But he was the black sheep and the family never talked about him. Even Caprice knew not to bring up his name.

Twelve years ago, Uncle Dom had fallen in love and accepted the money Nana Celia had given him for his wedding. Nana had hoped for a grand celebration with her son and his new wife. But Uncle Dom's fiancée had convinced him to elope and take a honeymoon around the world instead of having a wedding. On top of that, Ronnie hadn't liked the big-family smothering feel of the De Lucas. She didn't want anyone knowing her business or barging into it, as Caprice's relatives were wont to do. With the wedding rift and Ronnie's attitude, Uncle Dom had cut himself off from the rest of the family for all these years.

Yes, her dad visited him once in a while, but he didn't talk about those visits. Caprice had gotten the feeling that Nana had never forgiven Dominic for cutting the whole De Luca family out of his life. To Nana, family
was
life.

Lady scampered to Caprice's mom and wiggled around at her feet. Fran made a big fuss over her, and Caprice recognized it for what it was, a defensive stalling maneuver, not to have to deal with the situation at hand.

Nana, however, was looking straight at Caprice. “Your uncle Dom is visiting ... for a while.” Nana's lips pursed shut in a tight line. Her hands fluttered in agitation as she picked up her napkin and folded it, as if there was something final in the gesture.

Caprice had rarely seen Nana unsettled. Nana Celia was a ballast for the family. She weighed in on every issue, but never dictated. Her advice was wise and practical. Tonight, though, she looked every one of her seventy-six years. She wore her long gray hair in a controlled bun at the nape of her neck, usually securing it with her favorite combs. The hairdo gave her a regal appearance. Yet, tonight, her shoulders seemed to slump a little in her high-collared blouse, and her smile was nowhere to be found.

Caprice made her way around the table to sit next to her mom, across from her father and Uncle Dom. She suddenly felt as if she had dropped into the middle of warring factions.

Since no one else was talking, she wanted to be clear on what her nana had said. She asked her uncle, “So you'll be staying in Kismet?”

“Yes,” her uncle answered. “Your father has generously invited me to stay here.”

Uh oh.

He studied Caprice for a moment. “You've really grown up. You were still in college the last time I saw you.”

“I was,” she agreed, feeling every bit of the awkwardness of the situation.

Her uncle was looking at Lady now. “Is she friendly?”

“She is. A little shy, though.” Lady was a good judge of character and it would be interesting to see what happened with her uncle.

Dom came around to where Fran sat and crouched in between her and Nana. He held out his hand to Lady. She sniffed it and looked up at him with her big brown eyes.

He smiled. “Can I pet you?”

Lady cocked her head as if she were inviting the action. So Uncle Dom slid his hand under one of her ears and around her neck and gave her a scratch. She sidled up to him and rolled over on her back for a belly rub.

He laughed. “She's great. I haven't been around dogs in a long time, not since your father and I were kids.”

When he rose to his feet, Lady followed him around the table. She'd made a new friend and wanted more of those belly rubs.

Soon he took his seat once more, but he lowered his hand to ruffle Lady's fur. “Your father told me how you've solved a couple of murders.”

“I seem to have a knack for it,” she said lightly.

“You helped out Bella and Joe. Your dad told me all about that.”

So her uncle was making it clear that he wasn't altogether out of the loop.

“I couldn't let members of my family be suspected of murder,” she explained.

“You like to help.”

“Don't we all?” she returned.

He shrugged. “I guess that's why I've come to your father. I might as well lay it out on the table. I've fallen on hard times.”

“I'm sorry.” That just seemed to be the right thing to say.

“I was the manager of a branch of Wood Hill Financial Services.”

Caprice recognized the name. It had been big news when the company folded.

Her uncle stopped petting Lady to pick up his mug and have a sip of coffee. When he set it down again, he admitted, “I couldn't find another job when Wood Hill closed. As it was, Ronnie and I were living paycheck to paycheck. So without mine coming in, we couldn't pay our bills. Because we couldn't pay our bills”—he raised his hands in an I-didn't-know-what-to-do gesture—“we had problems. We got a divorce. All my resources have run out.”

Caprice wondered if her dad had lent her uncle money and if he'd been living on that. Her mother still had not said a word.

Caprice wondered what her mom was most upset about. Her uncle Dom staying for a while? No, she loved having guests. The fact that Nana would be upset if Uncle Dom stayed? Possibly. Or, the possibility that there was no time frame for which her Uncle Dom might stay.

Caprice canvassed her dad's face and could see the affection he felt for his brother. But she could also see that her nana and her mom were disconcerted by it all. They'd been terribly hurt at being cut out of his life for so long. She felt like she was in the middle and no step in either direction would be a good one.

She rose to her feet. “I think maybe I should go.”

But her mother took her arm. “Nonsense. You're part of this family. You deserve to know what's going on . . . just as we all do.” Fran seemed to give a pointed glance to her husband.

Nana spoke now, too. “We'll make another pot of coffee. You must have a piece of pie. Nothing's going to get solved here tonight. We all just have to get used to the idea that Dominic actually wants to be part of his family again.”

Ooh, that was a barb, and so unusual for Nana, who made a point of being kind and generous and helpful. She was really upset.

Maybe it would be a good idea for Caprice to stay for a little while and let Lady work her animal magic. Maybe some of the tension would ease. Maybe the discord between her uncle and the rest of his family would diminish.

She could only hope.

 

 

The following morning, Caprice thought about the apple pie and coffee that she'd had with her parents, Nana, and Uncle Dom last night. In her own kitchen, readying her blueberry scone recipe for a meeting she was having in half an hour to discuss reunion plans with high-school classmates, she popped the tray into the oven. Sophia was sitting at her dish, licking up odds and ends of her breakfast. All exuberant energy, Lady pushed her kibble ball across the kitchen, left it in a corner, then found a pull toy, which she brought to Caprice.

“I thought I tired you out playing catch and fetch in the yard this morning.”

Lady shook her head, the pull toy flapping back and forth as she did, as if to say,
That wasn't nearly enough.

Crouching down, knowing a few minutes wouldn't make any difference in her schedule, she eyed Lady, held out her hand, and then said, “Let go.”

Lady didn't. She just shook her head more, and Caprice knew the dog wanted her to take hold of the pull toy and try to pull it from her. Instead, Caprice was trying to teach her the “let go” command.

She made eye contact with Lady, held out her hand again, and said, “Let go.” Already sitting, Lady looked confused for a moment, studied Caprice's hand, and then opened her mouth. The toy fell into Caprice's palm.

She made a great big fuss. “What a wonderful dog you are. You learn so fast. I'm so glad we're best buddies.”

Caprice placed the toy on the floor and took a step back. Lady snatched it up and shook her head with it again.

Caprice laughed and held out her hand. “Let go.”

Lady didn't hesitate this time. She let the toy drop into Caprice's fingers. Caprice again praised her from here to next year.

Sophia was done eating now and washing herself in her pristine, catlike manner.

Caprice said to Lady, “She might be ready for a chase.”

Lady heard the word “chase.” She ran over to Sophia and barked.

Knowing that signal, Sophia took off for the living room, with Lady at her back paws.

After washing her hands and drying them, Caprice chose colorful mugs from her mug tree and set them on a hydrangea-patterned tray on the table.

Thinking about last night all over again, she hoped her uncle could figure out a solution to his problems without causing more family tension. On the other hand, she hoped her mom and Nana could accept him into the fold again. Still, twelve years of separation and hurt feelings were hard to overcome.

Caprice was removing the scones from the oven when her doorbell rang. She set the cookie sheet on the counter and hurried to answer it, grinning when she saw her friend Roz and Dylan. The dog yapped at Caprice and then trotted inside.

Caprice's downstairs was one big circle—living room to dining room to kitchen to utility room to bathroom to her office, around the stairway to upstairs and back to the living room. Lady now stuck her head out from the office. When she spied Dylan, she barked. Dylan yapped in return.

“Go play,” Caprice said. “That will give Sophia a break.”

As if the dogs agreed, they both ran into the office.

“Lady has toys in there she'll share,” Caprice called.

Roz had no sooner come inside, when two more cars parked at the curb and three women emerged. Fifteen minutes later, after greetings and hugs, Caprice and her friends chatted while they enjoyed coffee, tea, and Caprice's fresh-baked scones, which had been brought into the living room and arranged on the coffee table.

“I can't believe it's been fifteen years,” Alicia Donnehy said. “We can suggest everybody turn off their smartphones for the night so we can all chat and concentrate on each other.”

“That might not go over well,” Connie Miller said. “Especially if they have pix of their kids on their phones.”

“It's only a suggestion,” Tara insisted. “Hopefully, we'll all get involved in conversation and won't even listen for our phones. Speaking of phones,” Tara continued, focusing her attention on Caprice, “I have a friend who works part-time at the police station when they need clerical help. She told me she heard your name mentioned.”

Uh oh. She had to find out more about this. “Did she know why it was mentioned?”

“Something about you taking Alanna Goodwin's cat. Paperwork had to be filled out or something. Did you take her cat?”

Having Mirabelle here wasn't a secret. In fact, later today, she was going to introduce her to Sophia and Lady. It was time she had more room to roam than the spare room.

“I do have Mirabelle. She's a sweetie. She's up in the spare room. After we're finished eating, if you want to go up and meet her, we can. I'm going to let her out with Lady and Sophia later.”

“A sweetie, you say?” Alicia asked with a frown. “Very unlike her mistress.”

Hmmm. Maybe this group could talk about something more than the high-school reunion. “Did you know Alanna?” Caprice asked them all.

“Not ‘know her' know her. Whenever she came in to have her teeth cleaned, she'd act as if she owned the place.”

Alicia worked as a dental hygienist for a local dentist.

“That would be kind of hard with her mouth opened and your hand in it,” Tara said with a laugh.

Alicia laughed, too. “You're right about that. But she managed.”

Now Roz weighed in. “She was a frequent customer at All About You and very hard to please.”

“Harder than me?” Caprice joked.

Roz applauded Caprice's vintage look, but often didn't have much to suit her. Caprice had, however, found a fabulous dress there for the Valentine's Day dance, and it had wowed Grant and Seth.

“Much harder to suit than you. When something's right,
you
know it. Alanna . . .” Roz shook her head. “She had this biting sarcasm she often used. Bella wouldn't wait on her if she could help it. I tried to be patient with her—but sometimes she was so critical of everything she looked at, I really didn't care if she was a customer or not.”

“She used to come into the Blue Moon Grille, but she acted as if she was slumming,” Tara revealed.

Tara was a waitress at the Blue Moon, one of Caprice's favorite places to eat. She and Seth had dined there on the outside deck under the moonlight, and it had been so romantic.

“She was picky about her food?” Caprice guessed.

“Not only that. She'd ask if we had a really expensive wine, and you know we're kind of middle-of-the-road. Or she'd complain there were crumbs on the table that had to be wiped off before she could eat. I mean, crumbs she made. The sweet tea was too sweet. The coffee was too bitter. The cream was too thin. You get my drift.”

“But she should have tipped well,” Alicia chimed in.

“She did do that,” Tara acknowledged. “But I have a feeling that was to make an impression more than it was to show appreciation for service. I just don't know anybody who liked her.”

No one in the room contradicted that statement. Still ... Caprice considered the fact that Ace and Len had seemed to like her.

“Maybe she only made friends with men,” Caprice wondered out loud.

All the women nodded in agreement.