Read His-And-Hers Family Online
Authors: Bonnie K. Winn
His-And-Hers Family (5 page)
Katherine Ann shyly poked her head into the room, finally having left the sanctuary of her room.
“Just in time, Katherine Ann. I could use some help setting the table.”
“Sure, Mama.” Automatically she accepted a stack of plates.
“Did you get settled in?”
Katherine Ann clutched the plates, a dreamy expression on her face. “Did you see how beautiful the room is? I had to pinch myself so I’d know it was real.”
Since Cassie had done the same thing, she could only nod in agreement.
Katherine Ann all but twirled. “It’s just like out of the magazines. Do you suppose people get used to living like this?”
Cassie reached out to tuck a wayward strand of hair behind her daughter’s ear. “I’m not sure. But I don’t think we should.”
Katherine Ann looked both crushed and incredulous. “Why not?”
“My contract’s only for a year. I hope the job will work out, but I can’t make any promises. It would be awfully difficult to return home if we forget our roots.”
Katherine Ann studied the toe of her shoe for a moment. “I don’t think we’ll forget what you’ve taught us, Mama. The important things. But is it wrong to want nice belongings?”
Seeing the earnest, troubled expression on her child’s face, Cassie smoothed a hand down her soft cheek. “No, sweetie. As long as we don’t forget that things aren’t more important than people.”
Katherine Ann’s expression cleared. “That won’t ever happen, Mama.”
This child, so close to her heart, was at once both her most difficult child and her most perceptive one. Probably because Cassie saw too much of herself in Katherine Ann. The desire to succeed, the yearning to have more than life had allotted, the capacity to be swayed by the lure of new, distant places.
None of those ambitions had turned out the way Cassie once thought they would. Now she hoped for peace, the children’s happiness, and relief from their financial burdens. As she glanced around the magnificent room she stood in, Cassie knew that a portion of her hopes had been realized. Provided Blake Matthews liked the way she performed her job.
Cassie checked on the tea and saw that it had steeped long enough. “What are your brothers doing?”
Katherine Ann put the last plate on the table. “Jimmy Ray’s glued to that computer, and David John was bugging the twins.”
Cassie stilled her hands. “Why?”
Katherine Ann shrugged. “Why not?”
“This is going to be our home for the next year, and I want you and your brothers to get along with the Matthews.”
The thin shoulders bobbed up and down again. “I like Mr. Matthews fine. But the boys are the worst.”
Considering how tired she was, Cassie didn’t feel this was the time to launch into a lecture. Right now, she just wanted to get through this first long day. “The silverware’s in the first drawer on the left”
Katherine Ann nodded, efficiently setting the table.
Pulling the casserole from the oven, Cassie glanced up as Blake came in through the back door. His puzzled face pulled together in a question as he looked at the clutter of bowls in the sink, then at the big round table in the breakfast room, which had been set with eight places.
Cassie smiled at him as she put the casserole on a trivet. “Good, you’re just in time. Supper’s almost ready.”
“Supper?”
“Well, I suppose you call it dinner. It’s not much. I couldn’t find hardly anything in the kitchen.” She smiled, feeling ridiculously nervous, like a student trying to impress the teacher. “Could say the cupboard’s bare. I’ll have to go shopping tomorrow.”
“Sure. Household money’s in a canister on the top shelf.” His face drew together again. “I didn’t know you were going to all this trouble....”
“Why, sure. That’s why you hired me.”
Kevin and his brothers raced down the stairs, headed for the back door.
“Whoa!” Cassie held up her hand, staving off their escape. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“Out,” Kevin answered for them.
“Not now. We’re ready to eat supper.”
The boys looked at the table, and Kevin said, his voice dripping with disdain, “
Supper?
What’s
that?
”
Supper?
What’s
that?
”
Cassie leveled them with a look that never failed to make her own children straighten up. “It’s called sup—dinner. You know, when members of the household sit down at the table together, pick up forks, put food in their mouths, chew, swallow. It’s a wonderful experience. Try it. You’ll like it.”
The boys turned to Blake. “Dad, we don’t have to stay, do we? We were going to grab some burgers, then hit the arcade.”
“Mrs. Hawkins went to a lot of trouble. Wash your hands and sit down.”
Three rebellious faces glared at Cassie. Dragging their feet, the boys crowded into the bathroom beneath the back stairs. Hearing the amount of splashing, Cassie suspected they were covering the room in water.
As the boys returned to the kitchen, Kevin sniffed the air. “Smells like something died in here. Or maybe that’s...
supper,”
he said, drawing out the word, mocking her drawl. “Come on,
y’all.
Let’s pull up to the chuck wagon.”
supper,”
he said, drawing out the word, mocking her drawl. “Come on,
y’all.
Let’s pull up to the chuck wagon.”
Cassie held on to her temper. She didn’t want a scene on her first day. Blake returned, his jacket and tie gone. Her own children were on his heels, and she breathed a sigh of relief. Allies in the enemy camp.
Once everyone was seated, Cassie glanced around the table. Blake looked resigned, his children rebellious, and hers uncomfortable. Oh, this was going well. Her gaze went back to Blake as she folded her hands and looked at him expectantly. His eyes fell on her hands, and he nodded to her.
She uttered a brief blessing and then raised her face, meeting three disbelieving pairs of eyes. A little disconcerted, she smoothed her napkin before offering the plate of biscuits to Katherine Ann. Then she picked up a serving spoon. “Kevin, if you’ll pass your plate, I’ll serve. The casserole dish is pretty hot.”
He sent a sulky look in his father’s direction, then thumped the plate into her hands with more force than necessary. Cassie spooned a portion onto his plate and handed it back.
“What
is
this?” Kevin asked, staring at the casserole as though she’d served him cow patties.
is
this?” Kevin asked, staring at the casserole as though she’d served him cow patties.
“Tuna casserole,” she replied, filling the twins’ plates.
“Yuck,” Mark responded.
“I hate tuna,” Todd chimed in.
“The pantry was full of tuna. I thought it must be one of your favorites,” Cassie replied, automatically accepting Blake’s plate as she looked at the rebellious trio of faces.
“That would be Mrs. Thompson,” Blake replied. “The former housekeeper. The boys and I either eat out, have dinner delivered, or put something in the microwave.”
Which explained the contents of the freezer.
Cassie hid the uncertainty trembling inside her. She had two choices. Cave in to their routine, making it easy on the Matthews men. Or do the job she’d been hired for.
“Luckily you won’t have to do that anymore. Tomorrow I’ll go shopping.” She glanced at Blake’s sons. “After I find out what you like to eat. Then we can make sure that su—dinner is a family affair. If you don’t like tuna, I could scramble some eggs.”
Mark looked briefly interested, but Kevin elbowed him, and he set his face in a mutinous line, as well.
“I
want
a burger,” Kevin retorted.
want
a burger,” Kevin retorted.
“I’m afraid we don’t have any hamburger,” she replied, precariously hanging on to her temper. It had been a long, trying day, and her patience was wearing thin.
Blake glanced between his sons and Cassie. “Try the tuna. If you still don’t like it, I’ll call for some burgers. You’ll learn that Mrs. Hawkins is a wonderful cook. Her fried chicken’s the best I ever had.”
“I like chicken,” Todd offered.
“From the Colonel,” Kevin added.
“Mama’s is better,” David John said defensively.
Kevin rolled his eyes. “Then why doesn’t she own the franchise?”
“That’ll be enough,” Blake inserted. “Just try the casserole.”
Kevin made one half-hearted stab at the tuna, before announcing he didn’t like it. Mark and Todd followed his lead.
Cassie met Blake’s eyes and read defeat there. Resigned, she didn’t say anything as he ordered the burgers. She and her children resolutely ate the casserole, even though Blake offered them burgers, as well.
Seeing the fatigue on her children’s faces, Cassie ended the meal quickly. When the burgers came, Blake’s sons disappeared with the food, not bothering to even attempt an appearance in the breakfast room.
Cassie started to clear the table just as Maria entered the kitchen.
“You should have told me you were cooking,” Maria gently scolded her. “The clean-up is my job.”
“But—”
Maria shooed her away. “Go, you’re tired.”
Cassie couldn’t argue with her logic. “Thanks. I’d like to check on my kids.”
It didn’t take long to see that they were settled. Exhaustion and excitement had taken their toll. And tomorrow they had to enroll in new schools. Suddenly, the whole process seemed overwhelming. How in the world was she going to find their schools, even the grocery store, in this unfamiliar city? All of Twin Corners would fit in just this neighborhood.
Distraught, but too restless to sleep, Cassie wandered back downstairs, seeking out the patio near the pool that she’d seen from her terrace. She needed the comfort of the outdoors, the pretense that she was in her own swing on her own porch.
What had possessed her to move across the country, leaving everything familiar behind? She no more belonged here than her old-fashioned notions did. She wasn’t any more suited to the big city than the Matthews boys were to tuna casserole.
Kicking off her shoes, Cassie rolled up the legs of her jeans, dropping to the side of the pool to dangle her feet in the water. The dramatic patio lighting reflected on the pool, making it look like a dark, rippling diamond. A jewel that nearly matched the starlit sky.
Sighing as she gazed upward, Cassie remembered a time when her every fantasy had centered around traveling to new, exciting places. But somehow those fantasies had never contained tuna casserole or resentful children.
A sudden splash of water startled her, dragging her attention back to the pool just as Blake surfaced directly in front of her. She gasped at the seeming intimacy of his face positioned between her knees. Jerking her foot backward, she was startled when Blake grabbed that same foot.
“Oh, no, you don’t. I thought sure I’d captured a mermaid.”
Despite the sudden thumping of her heart, Cassie managed a laugh. “You think my legs look like a fish tail?”
“You have a way of twisting words, Cassie....” He levered himself up a bit on the side of the pool, a sheet of water pouring from his chest.
Cassie’s throat tightened. She hadn’t been wrong about those muscles. She’d simply underestimated them. Deliberately, she lifted her eyes away.
He yanked gently on her foot. “You’re about a million miles away. Something on your mind?”
She shook her head, then let her gaze drift back toward him. “It’s just been a long day.”
Blake studied her face for a moment, then pulled himself up and out of the pool. Cassie stared at the ripple of muscles, the deeply tanned skin, then the intriguing vee of dark hair that led to his brief trunks. She’d only seen men in swimwear like that in the movies or in magazines. And those men hadn’t been beaded with water, as Blake was, making his every move beneath the moonlight that much more sensual. Cassie averted her gaze, drawing on her inner strength to recover her equilibrium.
Blake reached up to slick back his hair, then looked again at Cassie, his eyes darkening in the diminished light. She wished there was something other than the pool to disappear into. She didn’t especially want to drown, rather than face him.
“Probably feeling a bit overwhelmed,” he guessed accurately. “And wondering why you ever agreed to come here.”
Cassie managed to look at him. “How did you know?”
“It’s not so difficult. I plucked you out of one world and dropped you into another. I’m guessing you feel like you’ve landed on another planet and there’s no shuttle to take you back home.”
Cassie smiled reluctantly. “Pretty much. Things are different here. And it’s only our first day. I’m kind of dreading tomorrow.”
“L.A.’s no town for beginners. Albert will drive you.”
“But—”
“You have two schools to find, along with the shopping center. I can drive myself, and I’ll tell Albert to show you the basics of the city. You won’t learn all of L.A. in one day, but you’ll know enough to get where you have to go. The rest will come later.”
Relieved, she dared a glance at him, trying to ignore the wealth of bare skin. “Los Angeles is bigger than Twin Corners, I’ll admit that. I wasn’t looking forward to getting lost.”
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