Collision (17 page)

“No.”

“Where are you going?”

“To the kitchen to make a snack.”

“A snack? I’ll be gutted if you mess up the kitchen right before they get here.”

“Kei!” I turned and latched on to her shoulders. “Settle the frick down. It’s my mother. She’s nice. My sisters are nice too.”

She sighed.

“What are you worried about?”

“Well, I’m not certain if you’ve noticed this or not, but I’m what some might call odd.”

“I’m coming to that realization.”

“Yes. And, well, it’s not very often that I meet my pals’ parents. And other than Mariah and Millie, I’m not around American women very often. At least not in America when they’re acting all American.”

“What does that even mean?”

“Usually, the American women I meet come to my world. I’m comfortable there. They buy clothes to dress how we dress, and they behave themselves how they think we behave. Here, it will be different. I won’t fit in.”

“You’ll fit in just fine. You and I get along great.”

“We’ve only got each other. What choice do we have?” she asked.

“True.”

“See?”

“I’m kidding. It’s going to be fine. And not that they won’t like you—because they will, of course—but why are you so worried about what my mother and sisters will think of you?”

“I have no idea. That’s my honest answer. I have no idea why I care, but I do, an immense amount.”

The doorbell rang, and I watched the blood drain from her face. “You said twenty minutes. It’s been less than five.”

“Did you know you say
been
like
bean
. ‘It’s
bean
five minutes.’”

“You aren’t helping.”

I slid one hand down her arm and clasped it in hers. Our fingers entwined. “Let’s do this thing.”

“Uh…”

Before she could put together a sentence of protest, I picked her up and was carrying her down the stairs and toward the front door. I put her back down as I reached for the door handle.

“What a gorgeous property! My word, Cabot. This area is stunning.”

“Hey, Mom.” I left Kei inside, walked onto the patio, and gave my mom a hug.

“You look wonderful,” she said with pride. “Your clothes even match. It’s a miracle.”

“Thanks.”

“Help your sisters carry the bags in.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

I barely even got a greeting from my sisters. They blew right past me.

“Forget the house. So where is she?” Chloe asked.

“Yes,” Cassidy said, giggling. “We’ve got to meet this girl you’ve talked so much about.”

“She’s in there somewhere,” I muttered as I pulled the bags out of the trunk. “You’ve probably already scared her away.”

“There she is,” Chloe squealed. I suddenly felt very sorry for Kei.

“Alas,” Kei squealed back. “Here I am. The girl.”

“Isn’t she adorable,” Cassidy stated as I walked through the front door. Kei was standing against the wall in a look of complete panic.

“You must be Kei.” My mother moved past my sisters, and she approached Kei, hand held out in front for a shake.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“I’m Catharine.”

Kei shook her hand weakly and somehow managed a smile.

Still holding Kei’s hand but changing her grip from a shake to a clasp, Mom turned and held out her open hand to my sisters. “These are my daughters, Chloe and Cassidy.”

“Hello,” Kei whispered.

“I’m Chloe,” she said as she walked up and gave Kei a hug. “Thank you for keeping my brother company over the last few months. I think you’ve helped him regain some sanity.”

“As if I’d lost any,” I muttered.

“Oh, you’d lost it,” Cassidy said as she walked toward Kei. “Hadn’t he, Kei?”

“All of your names start with the
C
sound,” was all she managed to say.

“Can we move out of the entryway please?” I mumbled.

“Grouchy,” Chloe snapped. “You’d think you were the one who’d just spent hours on an airplane.”

“Maybe not, but I’m suddenly drowning in estrogen. I can hardly breathe.”

“Get over it,” she snapped again. “It’s your fate and shouldn’t be anything new. You’ll be miserably drowning in estrogen for the rest of your godforsaken life.”

“Take it back,” I ordered.

“No.”

“Mom, make her take it back.”

“Chloe, take it back.”

“Fine. I take it back.”

“I feel as if I were listening to two six-year-olds in P-1 class back home,” Kei observed.

“You practically are,” Mom answered.

“She really is adorable, Cabot,” Cassidy tried to whisper but failed. “I can totally see why you—”

“Okay, well,” I interrupted, “Kei, why don’t we get them to their rooms.”

“Right,” she said, finally escaping the corner. “Your rooms are this way.”

She started hopping toward the back stairs but didn’t make it very far before I swooped her up in my arms again. Me carrying her was much more efficient than her hobbling around everywhere. And I sort of liked it

They followed us down the hallway and up the small staircase that sat on the east end of the house. The girls’ rooms were at the end of the hallway, on opposite sides of the hallway across from each other.

“Chloe and Cassidy, these are your rooms, and Mrs. Stone, your room is right here.”

“Oh, please call me Catharine. Mrs. Stone makes me sound old.”

“You are old,” all three of us said in unison.

“Take it back,” she requested.

“We take it back,” Cassidy shouted.

“They’re so disrespectful,” Mom muttered. “Are children more respectful in Africa, Kei?”

“I believe so.”

“Then maybe I should move there,” she said. “I could use a little respect and rest.”

“Maybe you should,” I said as I set Kei on the ground. “But from what Kei says, women in Africa don’t get much rest. They do the majority of the work.”

“I can’t wait to hear all about it, Kei. It just sounds so fascinating,” Mom cooed. “What an amazing life you’ve lived, and to be so young.”

All the women entered their rooms, leaving me and Kei standing in the hallway alone.

“I’m so sorry,” I said. “They’re going to annoy you to death with all the questions.”

“Much like you did and still do?”

“Yeah. Lucky you, you get to retell it all,” I teased.

“I don’t mind.”

“We’ve heard a lot of it from Cabot already,” Chloe announced from her room. “He’s talked nonstop about you every time I talk to him.”

“That’s not true at all. They’re just trying to embarrass me,” I whispered.

“Unfortunately for him, there isn’t much going on around here. What else is there to talk about?” Kei asked. “If I talked to my parents, he’d probably be all I talked about as well, and I don’t necessarily fancy him in any way.”

“Was that necessary?” I asked.

“What?” she asked with a shrug.

Chloe’s head popped out her door. “Did you just say ‘fancy him’? That’s the cutest stinkin’ thing I’ve ever heard.”

Embarrassed by my sister’s behavior, I shook my head and walked into Mom’s room. As I did, I heard Kei hop down the stairs. I’m sure she was trying to escape the craziness of my family.

C H A P T E R

13

“Another amazing meal, Cabot. Thank you,” Mom said.

“You’re welcome.”

“
Another
amazing meal,” Chloe choked. “Are you telling me he’s actually been cooking?”

“Every night,” Kei said. “He’s very good at it. Quite the foodie, if you ask me. Maybe he’s missed his calling.”

“He takes after his dad,” Mom added. “And I think he would have been a chef if he hadn’t been helping in the kitchen on that fateful day.”

“Fateful day?” Kei asked.

“The day he was noticed,” Cassidy answered.

“Noticed?”

“Discovered,” I said. “One day—”

Chloe talked right over me. “While he was helping out my dad at the director’s house, his wife told him that he needed to put Cabot in a movie.”

“How old were you?” Kei asked.

“Seventeen,” Mom said.

“So you’ve already been doing this for five years?” Kei asked.

“Mostly small parts. Hardly any speaking roles,” Chloe said. “All he did was either smile a lot or smile a lot and take off his shirt. I don’t think anybody cared if he could act or not.”

“That’s it? That’s all it took, someone noticing you whilst you stood cooking in a kitchen?”

“That, and evidently the director’s wife was attracted to him,” Chloe said before giving me a wink. “It was the wife again who got him his first big role. She’d read a book, loved it, and thought it would make a good movie. Bada bing. Next thing you know, it’s going to be a movie and she tells her hubby that she thinks Cabot should play the male lead.”

“Did you and the wife have something going on the side?” Kei asked.

I started to speak, but one of my sisters interrupted again.

“No way,” she said. “He’s not like that.”

“She said it had something to do with his bone structure,” Mom added.

Kei looked over at me and gave me the once-over but gave no indication of what she thought. My mother was still talking. “I got this phone call from him, and he told me that he was about to go in and audition for this part. He knew nothing about it and didn’t think he’d get it, but he didn’t want to be rude, so he went. Next thing you know, he’s being shipped off to Italy to start shooting.”

“Italy,” Kei muttered, “for your first movie?”

“I know. Sorry,” I muttered back with an embarrassed shrug. “If I would have known you then, I would have taken you with me.”

“Sure you would have.”

“Yep,” Cassidy said. “It’s one crazy business, and Cab is the it kid right now.”

“Enough about me, please,” I begged.

“I agree. What about you?” Chloe asked, looking at Kei.

“What about me?”

“Tell us more about yourself. What are your plans for the future?”

She shrugged. “I suppose I’ll follow in my parents’ footsteps. I don’t really have the education I would need to go to university. No matter how many tutors I had, I couldn’t ever manage the fancy mathematics. And by the time I started being taught, I was too far behind. I only know the basics and whatever knowledge I received from the books I read.”

“I can’t do the fancy math either,” I admitted. “I just hope to God I have an honest accountant.”

“What do you want to be, Kei?” Chloe asked.

All eyes were now on the carrot top.

“If you could do anything, what would it be?” Cassidy asked.

“Cabot says you’re a great photographer and you have amazing photographs of children. You could put those skills to work somehow,” Chloe said.

Kei threw me a nervous glance, so I reciprocated with an encouraging smile and nod.

“I have a lot of video too,” she finally said, looking back at Chloe. “I thought maybe it could be used for a documentary or something. I don’t know. I love what my parents do, and I’d still like to do that in some way or another. But I’d also like to incorporate some newer things. But we’ll see.”

My phone rang.

“You busy?” James asked as soon as I answered.

“Sort of. My mom and the girls are here. We’re in the middle of dinner.”

“Great. Listen, I got a call from…” My involvement in the conversation and inquisition of Kei ended.

“It’s James. I’ve got to take this,” I said over my shoulder as I got up and walked away from the table.

I walked over and leaned against the refrigerator but kept an eye on Kei. She tried to escape from the table, but Cassidy got a hold of her before she could scamper off.

“Come with us, Kei. We’ll keep you entertained.”

“Splendid.”

They left the kitchen, and I slowly followed them through the house and up the stairs while James rambled in my ear.

“Cab? You listening?” James asked.

“Uh… yeah.” I watched the girls disappear into Chloe’s bedroom and silently prayed they didn’t say something to completely embarrass me.

Once my conversation with James ended, I listened in on the girls’ conversation.

“Since it’s been so long since the last Cab sighting and everyone thinks he’s in rehab, it’ll be a complete frenzy when he does finally appear,” Chloe was saying.

“Rehab?” Kei asked.

“Alcohol treatment.”

“Oh.”

I burst into the room. “Okay, I think Kei’s had about enough of you guys. Let’s give the poor girl a break.”