Caitlin's Choice (21 page)

He draped his arm across her shoulder. “They know you’re here. They must have heard the car.”

She pushed an unsteady hand through her hair. “I can’t.”

“Don’t tell me that the girl who beat up all the boys in Mrs. Ketchum’s fifth-grade class is afraid to walk into her own house.”

At the sound of the familiar voice, Caitlin spun around. “Sean.” Her choked voice was barely audible.

The tall figure stepped forward, blocking the setting sun. Thick dark hair fell across his forehead. His mouth lifted in a crooked grin. “Have I changed so much?”

She shook her head.

“Lord, Caitlin, we never used to be able to shut you up,” Sean teased.

“People change,” she said sorrowfully.

Sean took another step forward and pulled her into a bear hug. “You know, they’re just as scared as you are. Maybe even more.”

“I doubt that.” She took a deep breath and pulled away.

Tyler let out a gurgle to make his presence known. She took him from Andrew. “Where are my manners? Sean, this is Andrew and our son, Tyler.”

Sean shook hands with Andrew, then stretched his arms out for the baby. “Could I?”

She nodded and handed Sean the child in a state of obvious bewilderment. Andrew knew she had expected her family to be shocked or outraged, not accepting, and he was thrilled for her. But he knew this could backfire on him. Once she made peace with her family, any threat she felt from him would be gone. If she chose to move back to her apartment or even back home with her parents, he couldn’t stop her.

The front door opened and Sissy stepped onto the porch with her hands on her hips. “Quit your lollygagging, Caitlin. It’s Friday, your night to set the table. If you think hiding outside with Sean until it’s too late is still gonna work, you’re wrong.”  

She smiled even while tears streamed down her cheeks. “I’ll pay you a quarter to do it for me. A dollar if you wash the dishes, too.”

“She doesn’t wash dishes,” Sean muttered dryly. “She might break a nail before the wedding.”

Caitlin spun back toward her brother and winked. “Is she really marrying Quinton? Daddy must be over the moon.”

Sean handed Tyler back to her and walked her toward the house. “He’s more excited about seeing you. Why don’t you go put him out of his misery? You may not believe this, but it broke his heart to do what he did to you.”  

“What’s he going to say about Tyler?” 

“He’ll probably say how beautiful the baby is. There isn’t a one of us who’s earned the right to pass judgment on you, except possibly your shadow.” 

The reference to Maggie eased her mind. Turning to Andrew, she raised a smile. “Are you coming?” 

“You go say hello first. I want to stay out here with Sean and hear how you beat up the entire fifth grade.” 

She shrugged. “Someone had to defend Sean.”  

“Well, I would have preferred it wasn’t my sister,” Sean grumbled bashfully and gave her a little push toward the door. 

“Come on, Ty. After Daddy’s house, this should be a piece of cake.” 

Tyler reached for the barrette in her hair. She shifted him to her hip and climbed the stairs. The third step still creaked. With one last look at Andrew, she walked through the door.

Four anxious faces stared up at her. Despite the years, her parents seemed to have changed little.

Maggie sent her a reassuring smile from across the room. “I don’t think introductions are necessary.”

“They might be.” Caitlin glanced at her youngest sister, who had b
een barely three when she left. “You can’t be Kelly.”

“Yes, I am.”

“I guess you don’t remember me.”

“You’re my sister Caitlin. Mama told me.”

Just a name that had to be told to her. That hurt. “Well, this is Tyler. He needs an aunt to look after him. Do you think you could do that for me?”

Kelly looked over the new arrival as Caitlin placed him in her lap. “He doesn’t look Oriental.”

A nervous laugh escaped. Apparently Maggie had said something. “He was born in Singapore, but he was made from American parts.”

She raised her head and gazed around the room. Why didn’t anyone say anything? They stared at her, motionless, as if she were an apparition. Her courage was rapidly fading. “Would somebody say something, please?” 

After an uncomfortable pause, her father stood up. She remembered him being so much bigger. Was it time or merely her memory that had changed him? “What do you say to someone you’ve done the unforgivable to? What are the right words?” William’s voice broke with emotion.

“You say hello, Daddy. If it were unforgivable, I wouldn’t be here.”

Her father pulled her into his arms. His body shook and he held her so tight she could barely breathe. “I’m so glad you came. I wasn’t sure you would.”

“I would have come anytime you called me. Why did you wait so long?”

“There are a lot of things I have to explain, but not right now. You’re mama’s been driving everyone crazy around here. If you don’t give her a hug, I think she’ll explode.”

“If you squeeze me any harder, I might explode,” she said.

“Turn her loose, Will, she’s turning blue,” Mary reprimanded her husband. But the second he let go of Caitlin, she was grabbed by her mother. By the time she had gone around the room, she felt battered and bruised . . . and strangely at peace.

While her parents fussed over Tyler and Allison, Caitlin leaned against the wall next to Maggie. She smoothed her dress over her hips and sighed. “I’m whipped.”

“I guess you’re not mad at me anymore.”

“No.” She glanced toward her laughing son. “They seem to have taken the news about Tyler well. Thanks for filling them in.”

“I didn’t ...”

Maggie’s words were cut off by Sissy’s whining voice. “Quit hogging Caitlin’s time. You see her all the time. I want to talk to her, too.”

Maggie never finished what she had started to say. Instead, she leaned in closer and whispered in Caitlin’s ear. “Who is she kidding? She wants the dress off your back and any others you might be willing to part with.”

Caitlin laughed. Nothing had changed. “Where are Andrew and Erik?”

“Outside with Sean. He’s sick to death of hearing about Quinton. But I guess we can’t get out of it.”

Sissy pulled Caitlin down on the couch next to her. “You’re not upset that I’m marrying Quinton, are you?”

“No,” Caitlin assured her while trying to keep a straight face. “How did the dress fit?”

“Perfect. Daddy nearly blew a gasket when he found out you made it, but I told him you didn’t care.

”You’re wrong, Sissy. It’s precisely because I care that I made the dress. I wish you had asked me yourself.” She hadn’t intended to carp, but she needed answers for her own satisfaction.

“We made mistakes,” her mother said softly. “We can’t change that.”

Caitlin’s eyes spilled over with tears. She brushed them away with a shaky hand. For ten years, she had kept a tight rein on her emotions, but today she was losing the battle with herself.

“I know you can’t change it, Mama, but why didn’t you believe in me? Every birthday, every Christmas, I made myself sick with sorrow, and I want to know why.”

“Caitlin,” her father called through the screen door. “I think it’s time we had a talk.

Of course, she thought. Everything in the house was done on her father’s orders. He had decided that she must never return and his word had ended that banishment. Now she would finally know why so she could get on with the rest of her life.

FIFTEEN

The sky was aflame in deep reds and oranges as the sun dipped below the mountain. Caitlin and William walked in silence. He seemed to have a thousand things to say, but not a single word came out of his mouth.

Suddenly, he stopped. He leaned against a tree and cleared his throat “I always knew you were innocent. I couldn’t tell you that because I knew you’d come back if I did.”

“Wasn’t that the idea, Daddy?”

He slumped his shoulders and stared at the ground as he spoke. “When Simon Reed left here, those people wanted blood. They didn’t care whose. If you had set foot in Weldon, your life wouldn’t have been worth anything. I couldn’t do that to you. I’d rather have you hate me and be alive.”

“You only made it worse by disowning me. They became more convinced of my guilt.” That had hurt more than anything. She had been so close to her father. 

“I had four other children. Since I didn’t have the money or the ability to fight what was being said, I did the only thing I could to protect you all.”

His voice cracked and he turned away. The tower of strength she always remembered was crumbling. The choice must have been a torment for him.

“Why didn’t you tell me this before?”

“You’re too damned stubborn for your own good. You would have come back to visit. It was safer to let you think you weren’t welcome.”

On that count, her father was probably right. She still had a lot of unanswered questions. “Why is it safe now?”

“Simon Reed was caught and sent to prison.”

“When?”

“Two years ago.”

“Two years?” she cried out. “Why didn’t you tell me then?”

Lines of sorrow etched his weathered features. “They only just got the money back. A lot of people were taking him to court. Until the money was returned, you weren’t fully cleared.”

“And when was that?”

William paused nervously. He ran a hand along his square jaw. “Two weeks ago the money was transferred to the bank in town. People started coming around here and telling me how they knew you weren’t involved all along. Damned hypocrites, all of them.”

A decade of her life lost because of money. Money that people were too greedy to hold on to. How pathetic when people could put a dollar amount on a human life. At thirty thousand dollars, she wasn’t cheap. 

“You have no idea how much it hurt to do that to you. I’m more sorry than I can tell you, Caitlin, but if I had to do it all over again, I’d do the same thing. And before you judge me, ask yourself, what would you do to protect your child?”

“Whatever it took,” she whispered in agreement. She wiped a hand across her tear-stained cheeks. “Maybe I understand more than I used to.”

“But can you forgive me?”

She smiled. “There was never any question of that.”

William hugged his daughter. “Should we go back to the house before they send a search party?”

“Oh, Daddy, we could never get lost in these mountains.”

“I don’t think your city man knows that.”

She hooked her arm through her father’s. “Don’t let the clothes fool you. Underneath . . 

“Now don’t go telling your dad that you’ve seen what’s underneath that man’s clothes. I’d be forced to take out my shotgun to defend your honor.”

For the first time since her return, she genuinely laughed. How did her father imagine Tyler was conceived? But it was an amusing thought. She could just imagine Andrew’s face if he were offered a shotgun wedding. He’d most likely opt for quick death.

When she returned to the house, she found the object of her affections making himself quite at home in the living room, with her mother and Sissy fawning over him. He did know how to get the ladies to worship at his feet. While she had feared that Andrew might feel uncomfortable in the modest surroundings, he seemed more content than she had seen him in a long time. It must be the mountain air, she decided.

Sean sat in the dining room amusing Tyler.

“Do you want me to take over?” Caitlin asked.

“Nah. I got him,” Sean said. He put a finger under Ty’s chin. “This baby is the spitting image of his daddy, but he sure doesn’t look like you. Are you sure you’re the mother?” 

Caitlin gazed toward Andrew. “Yeah, the poor kid is destined to go through life looking like his daddy. What a hardship! He’ll probably grow up to be every bit as arrogant, too.” 

“Shame on you, Caitlin,” Sissy admonished.

Andrew chuckled. “Don’t listen to her. I don’t.” 

The second Sissy’s attention was diverted, Caitlin stuck the tip of her tongue out and ran it seductively across her lips. Andrew’s body temperature rose twenty degrees. He fanned a hand in front of his face to let her know the message had been received.

Caitlin had relaxed visibly in the last half-hour, Andrew noted with a smug sense of satisfaction. With the issues of her past finally resolved, he might be able to discuss their future.

“What time is dinner, Mom?”

“About six, when Quinton gets here. You go have a seat next to Andrew while I get some coffee,” Mary said. The older woman gestured Sissy out of the room. She had even conveniently sent the others out of the house.

Caitlin smiled at her mother’s blatant matchmaking efforts. “My mother must really like you,” she said, as she fell into the seat beside him. “I’ve never known her to call any man by his given name the first day she meets him.”