Caitlin's Choice (10 page)

“Greenbrier County? Where’s that?” Andrew asked.

Although his question seemed innocent, Caitlin sensed more than just idle curiosity. If he was so interested in where they came from, why hadn’t he asked Maggie? “Another planet.”

“Oh, don’t listen to her, Andrew. West Virginia isn’t even the other side of the country,” Maggie supplied happily.

“What part of West Virginia?” Andrew asked.

Beneath his boyish grin, he was pumping Maggie for information. Why? Short of putting a cork in her sister’s mouth, Caitlin had no way of preventing Maggie from spilling all their wonderful childhood stories—the sort of anecdotes you share with a spouse or partner, not an adversary.

“Do you plan to turn your son into a lobster?” Caitlin asked, hoping to change the subject.

He glided Tyler across the surface of the water. The baby squealed in delight.

“You’re slipping, Caitlin. You referred to him as my son. Who knows what that might lead to? Civil conversations. Parent- teacher nights together.”

He made her sound like a vindictive, unreasonable witch and himself the poor, suffering victim. What kind of game was he playing now? “Maybe if you’re not otherwise engaged, I’ll allow you to escort me to his wedding,” she snapped back.

“Children, children, let’s not fight over the toy,” Erik chided.

Feeling put in her place, Caitlin bowed her head. “You’re right, but please don’t keep him in the sun too much longer.” She turned to her sister. “What should we do about lunch?”

“You know what I could go for?”

“Peanut butter and marshmallow,” they said in unison.

“Not you, too,” Erik groaned, horrified. “That’s all she wanted when she was pregnant”

“Me too. But it wasn’t easy to come by in Singapore.” Caitlin relaxed as she remembered her year away.

“My landlord, Kiki liked to think she spoke English, but I have my doubts. I’d ask for peanut butter and marshmallow and she’d return with an egg roll. If I wanted rocky road ice cream, she’d returned with an egg roll. Ask for an egg roll and I got raw fish. She drove me crazy. I used to accuse her of being on the Sinclair payroll.”

“So you thought about me while you were gone,” Andrew said smugly.

She crinkled her nose. “Sure I did. Every time I had morning sickness, you were the first person who came to mind.”

“They’re at it again,” Erik grumbled. “I’ll bet they couldn’t spend more than ten minutes alone without a nasty snipe.”

“Put money on it and Caitlin will,” Maggie said. “She’d rather pick the fleas off a mad dog than turn down a bet. It’s a fatal flaw in her character. She can’t refuse a dare and she hates to lose.”

“Is that true?” Erik asked.

Caitlin nodded. “Yeah, it’s true.”

“Then I’ll wager one hundred dollars that you can’t go one week without insulting him.”

“Why me? Why not him, too?” she asked, shooting a pointed glare in Andrew’s direction.

“I don’t pick fights with you,” Andrew said. “I just defend myself.”

That was true enough. He never started an argument, but he sure could finish one. “One week, one hundred dollars?” She thought over the offer. “He’ll be at work all week. How hard could it be? You’re on, Erik. And I’d like the money in crisp new one-dollar bills.”

“You haven’t won yet. And by the way, little sister- in-law, I’ve never gone a week without taking a shot at him myself, and he’s my brother.”

Caitlin lifted her chin. “Around Andrew, I will be the very model of self-control.”

She deserved the laughter of the others. If she had shown one ounce of self-control last year, she wouldn’t be in this situation. But she was a year older and infinitely wiser. She gazed at Tyler, smiling and babbling in his father’s arms. No, she would not fall for Andrew’s brand of charm again, because she had infinitely more to lose.

* * * *

The visit with Maggie and Erik had passed too quickly for Caitlin, especially since she had a long week ahead of her once Andrew returned to work. The excitement of the day had exhausted Tyler, so Caitlin put him down for the night early. She wasn’t tired, but with Joyce and Leslie home for the evening, she figured she was safer retiring as well.

The boxes that the car-rental company had returned were stacked in the corner of the nursery. She had put off unpacking, but it was time to accept reality. She was stuck here, at least for the next few months.

Once Tyler’s clothes were folded and put away, she crossed through the connecting door to her own room. She sat on the edge of the four-poster bed and pulled the tape off the one box she knew she should ignore.

Inside were mementos of another life. On the top, a green satin hair ribbon she had worn to her first dance was wrapped around a stack of handmade birthday cards from her family. The ticket stub from the theater where her father had taken her on her tenth birthday jutted out from a worn playbill. A river of emotions ran through her. She closed her eyes and exhaled slowly.

After a pause to collect herself, she continued emptying the box. The smell of flowers in springtime clung to her old softball shirt, which had a pack of potpourri in the pocket. A sad smile tugged at her lips. Every homemade gift, every faded program from school recitals had been preserved and packed with care. She leaned against the bedpost and flipped through a cloth-covered scrapbook. Her chest constricted at the sight of the newspaper clipping announcing her win at the fashion competition. Some memories were better left buried.

From the bottom of the box she pulled out a framed picture. The family photograph had been taken the night she graduated high school. She embraced the picture in a hug, and lay down on the bed. How young she had been back then. And how happy.

* * * *

Andrew stepped inside Tyler’s room and stood by the crib. He hadn’t started out as the best father in the world, but he intended to make up for his shortcomings. At least his son gave him a chance. Caitlin was another matter.

He glanced though the connecting door to the small adjoining room where Caitlin had curled up on the bed. Her delicate features were bathed in moonlight. Just the sight of her, looking as she had their first night together, caused his hormones to run wild. In sleep, she shed the cloak of wariness she wore in his presence. Would she ever feel that comfortable around him again? In the last year, he had thought about her often. Ironically, now that she was living in his house she seemed beyond his reach.

He walked over to the bed and eased the photograph from her clenched fingers. So Caitlin had not been completely honest when she claimed she didn’t need her family. He set the picture on the bedside table and pulled a blanket across her. Could he hope that she had been less than honest when she said she didn’t need him, either?

* * * *

Caitlin quickly learned that the best way to handle Andrew’s mother was to avoid her. In the five days she had been in the house, Joyce hadn’t looked at her grandson once or even referred to him by name. Caitlin was looking forward to returning to work tomorrow, just to escape the tension. Until then, she found solace in the many lakes and parks around the area. She and Tyler left each morning after Andrew and returned home each afternoon at six.

She had to credit Andrew with being a devoted father. After dinner, he spent all his free time with them. For Andrew, too, Tyler seemed to be a refuge from the tension. Only once did she suggest that she return to her apartment, but Andrew adamantly refused.

Caitlin gathered together a batch of fabric swatches and placed them in a briefcase to give to her boss.

“What are you doing?” Andrew asked as he joined her in the living room. He put the carrier on the coffee table and checked to see that Tyler was still asleep.

“I have to go to the city tomorrow.”

“Business?”

“Yes.” She flipped the locks on the case and then set it on the floor. “How do I get to the George Washington Bridge?”

He lowered his large frame into the plush sofa with lazy ease. “I’ll drive you.”

“How will I get back?”

“I’ll pick you up or you can meet me at my office.”

Her first thought was to decline. Why spend more time with him than she had to?  Because you enjoy his company, her conscience mocked her.

He had already won over Tyler. If she were honest with herself, which admittedly wasn’t often these days, she felt a small twinge of jealousy at the affection he showed their son. She craved intimacy for herself, as well. Her emotions had become a mass of contradictions. One minute she wanted Andrew; the next she wanted him to keep his distance.

What she really wanted was the control that seemed to be slowly slipping away.

* * * *

Andrew watched the play of emotions on her face and figured she would refuse his offer. She didn’t willingly seek out his company. He wished now that she wasn’t involved in that silly bet with his brother. He preferred her sarcasm to silence.

“All right,” she said.

“You want me to drive you?”

“I don’t much care for fighting city traffic anyway. Will you leave my name at the front desk? I don’t want another showdown with your security guard.”

“They already have orders that you can enter at any time.”

An odd surge of pleasure ran through him. She had merely consented to let him battle rush-hour traffic, yet he felt as if a major hurdle had been jumped. He hit the remote control for the television and switched on the evening news. After straightening a blanket over Tyler, Caitlin sat on the sofa near Andrew.

Inching closer, he narrowed the distance between them. He grinned and half expected her to land an elbow in his side. When she didn’t assault him, he decided to see how far he could push his luck. He stretched his arms, resting them on the back of the sofa. Every few seconds, he slipped his arm down a few centimeters.

Her emerald eyes sparked with amusement. “For goodness sake, Andrew, any teenager at the drive-in has more finesse than you.”

She grabbed his wrist and pulled his arm onto her back.  Since her arrival she hadn’t initiated intentional contact with him. On the contrary, she had gone out of her way to keep her distance. Never a man to let an opportunity pass him by, Andrew cupped his fingers over her shoulder and drew her closer. As he stroked his hand along her back and arm, she let out a soft sigh. He was reminded of another time she had sighed with pleasure.

Although her warm body rested against his, he felt the tightness in her. She closed her eyes, but she wouldn’t give up her wariness of him. He realized that their night together had been very special to Caitlin. Her anger was too strong, her pain too deep. If he had bothered to look, he would have seen the signs that night. No one, not even he, could give that much to another person and walk away unaffected.

If he could get her to acknowledge what she had felt for him, he could move forward, perhaps even rekindle some of those feelings she had buried under a mountain of distrust. Not an easy task, he knew, but the fact that she was with him now, snuggling against him by choice and not by force, meant she wasn’t as unreachable as she had led him to believe.

“What’s on your mind?” she asked.

He shook his head and focused on her face. “May I ask you something?”

She nodded.

“Why did you stay with me that night?”

Her body went rigid. “It’s a little late to start analyzing my motives.”

“I’d like an answer all the same.” He stroked her silky curtain of hair.

“Why?”  She raised her shoulders in a shrug. For a long moment, she said nothing, as if deciding whether or not to answer. When she finally spoke, her words were soft, but filled with emotion.  “Because somewhere between half a bottle of champagne and the cold stranger I woke up with was this funny, charming, sweet man who magically took away the loneliness.”

“Were you lonely, Caitlin? You didn’t seem like someone who would lack for friends.”

“Friends aren’t the same. The physical contact isn’t there. I spent nine years isolated from my family. No one to talk with, to hold me when I hurt. My calls were disconnected and my letters went unanswered. When Maggie finally contacted me, I was going to back out of the contract in Singapore. She begged me not to pass up the opportunity, since she was getting married.”

He traced a finger along the side of her face. “You were hurt the other day when she told you about your sister’s wedding, weren’t you?”

She shook her head. “No. I’m happy for Sissy.”

“I meant about your parents inviting Maggie to the wedding.”

Caitlin squeezed her eyes shut. “Yeah, it hurt. It hurt a lot. I don’t understand . . .”

“What don’t you understand?”

“Don’t ever make Tyler suffer for choosing to live his own life. If you love him, make sure it’s unconditional.” Tears were rolling down her cheeks, and she turned her head to wipe them away.

“I would never do that to Tyler.”

His words had no effect. Why should he expect them to? He had done nothing to inspire her trust.

“Tyler?” she said, as if she had suddenly heard a noise.