Doorstep daddy (32 page)

_{"You didn't have to be so...harsh to Gerri."}

_{"Harsh? Callie, she shredded you like a cabbage for coleslaw. Stop making excuses for her."}

_{"I'm not making excuses. Yes, what she said was stupid, but you should have let me handle it in my way. I better go after her."}

_{Callie started toward the door. Richard put his hand on her arm, stopping her.}

_{"And what way is your way?" he asked, growing nearly as angry with her as he was with her sister. "Running after her like you're her mommy to sooth her hurts? Someone starts minding my business, and she's going to be told to knock it off, especially when she's attacking someone I love. I don't care who she's related to. That was all nonsense, anyway. No one in this neighborhood gives a hoot about me or my family. Or you. Not even Gerri."}

_{"Clearly Gerri believes they do. I know she's self-centered, but she means well."}

_{"She means well? Your sister means well like a cobra about to strike means well. She's selfish and nasty. I'm sorry, but she is. This tirade of hers was all about hurting you, not what people are saying. I can't believe you're still making excuses for her."}

_{"I'm not, Richard."}

_{"Sounds like it to me. No wonder you're the way you are. Your family's got you wrapped around their finger.}

_{They insult you, and you're ready to forgive and forget."}

_{"It's not that...."}

_{"Then what is it? Because it sure sounds that way to
j
me. I love you, but I'm not fighting with your family for you. Not when you're letting them walk all over}
¹
_you."

_{"I'm not letting Gerri walk all over me."}

_{"Right." Richard let her arm go. "Go on. Get the mother hen out of your system."}

_{Callie's eyes shimmered with unshed tears. "Please}
¹
_{understand, Richard."}

_{He thrust out his jaw, refusing to speak because he understood all too well. She was choosing family over him. He had lost a brother and a beloved sister-in-law, leaving him to know better than most how important
I
family was. But Gerri's behavior was inexcusable, and Callie shouldn't be talking like this. Not after he had been defending
her
to the woman. The notion infuriated him.}

_{Callie headed into his office. She came out with her coat. Richard's heart sank, but he refused to allow it to show.}

_{"Don't be mad at me, Richard," she said. "I
have
to talk to Gerri."}

_{"I'm not mad," he replied. "I'm disappointed."}

_{Callie shook her head. She opened the door, closing it behind her as she left. The house felt as if all its vibrancy had left with her.}

_{"Uncle Richard." Amanda's voice sounded small and faraway.}

_{Richard sighed and faced his niece, who stood in the doorway to the kitchen. Mark and Jason stood next to her, both wide-eyed.}

_{"It's okay, kids," he said. "Don't worry about it." They didn't need to. He would.}

_{L
ate
T
hanksgiving
afternoon, Callie parked her car in front of her sister's house and sat there, completely exhausted. And completely miserable.}

_{She hadn't slept well since her fight with Richard. Soothing Gerri after leaving Richard to talk to her had been far more difficult than she'd imagined. It seemed she'd made every excuse in the book to herself for Gerri, and even wound up making a spoken apology, which Gerri ungraciously accepted. Richard's behavior had been proper, while Gerri's hadn't. The whole thing had left ashes in Callie's mouth ever since.}

_{Worse, Gerri's contriteness vanished immediately afterward, replaced by a slightly righteous attitude. Callie let it go in the interest of peace. In the further interest of peace, she had called Richard and told him she thought she ought to go to her family's dinner as a goodwill gesture. He had been curt and cold.}

_{That had hurt more than she ever thought anything would, because she felt as if she'd let him down. Mostly she felt wrong. Just plain old done Richard wrong. Every fiber of her being yearned to drive farther down the street to his house, park in his driveway and prostrate herself before him to ask for forgiveness.}

_{Yet she dragged herself from the car, feeling as though she had to get one problem solved before she dealt with the next. She opened her trunk and cursed heartily when she saw the turkey juice that had dripped onto the once-immaculate rug covering. She'd wrapped the pan containing the now fully-cooked stuffed turkey in about ten layers of foil. But somehow the juice had
found a weak spot and leaked out, probably when she'd made that hard stop at a light.}

_{Her contribution to Thanksgiving was another exhaustion factor. She'd been up since dawn stuffing and cooking the turkey.}

_{"Contribution, my fanny," she grumbled. She remembered Gerri's words when she said she was coming to dinner, after all.
I'm not as adept as you are, Callie, at making a turkey. Besides, you always make it. I just love the smell of it when you come in the door.}

_{Yeah, she thought, wrestling the still-hot twenty-pound pan out of the trunk with clumsy hot pads. She always made and then smelled like the bird, and this year clearly wasn't going to be different. She always bought the turkey and stuffing materials, too, and that wasn't different this year, either, despite her being out of work. Technically out of work, that is; she wasn't sure where she stood with her old job right now, or with Richard and his import business. The family always insisted on a fresh, not frozen turkey. She'd driven over half of Jersey last night, trying to get one from a local poultry farmer. Didn't anyone know what went into making a turkey like this? Didn't anyone care?}

_{No one came out to help her, although her brother Tommy opened the door and waved. "Thank God you're here, Callie. It's a mess."}

_{Callie struggled with the heavy pan. "Here, you idiot. Take this before I drop it."}

_{"Oh." Tommy leaped to help her at last. He took hold of the turkey pan, then snatched his hand back. "Ooowww! It's hot."}

_{' T hope your patients get that right-on-the-money diagnosis." She helped him make a better transfer with
the hot pads, then noticed a dark shadow on her best .blazer. "Oh, no! The juice got on my clothes."}

_{"That's nothing," Tommy said. "All hell's broken loose in here."}

_{"What do you mean, this is nothing?" she demanded, swiping fruitlessly at the greasy stain. "It's my best .jacket."}

_{Tommy nudged her with his elbow and called out, "Callie's here!" "Callie!"}

_{She practically backed outside again when Gerri hurried toward her with a face blotchy from crying. Gerri threw her arms around Callie and burst into an explosion of weeping. "Get in! Get in before anyone sees me! I can't face them. Oh, it's horrible. We're bankrupt! And Joe's left me, just gone."}

_{Callie's heart thumped, half from her sister's news and half from the slew of little nieces and nephews racing toward her for hugs. And candy. Calhe immediately dug in her pocket for lollipops, although Gerri clung like an octopus. The kids disappeared as soon as they got their treat. Calhe felt as though she'd just handed out bribes for love. Probably the kids didn't want to miss their treats, but didn't want to come too near their aunt Gerri, with her bewildering behavior. At least Calhe hoped so, but it gave her a bad feeling, especially after -having Mark's hugs for nothing.}

_{Her parents sat at the kitchen table, hangdog looks on their faces. Her sister Helena frowned at her husband, Andy, while her brother Steve sat on the other side of the room from his wife, Bobbi. Her youngest brother, Jamie, a first-year student at Penn State, sat on a stool at the counter flipping cashews in the air and catching them with his mouth.}

_{Young Joey huddled in the back of the kitchen, his expression stone-faced. Callie's heart went out to him. She disentangled herself from Gerri and gave him a hug. "It'll be okay."}

_{Joey just nodded and put his arm around her Callie sensed that he needed reassurance. Poor guy. His sister Kristen, one of the horde of kids now watching a movie in the den, had obviously taken her father's disappearance better than Joey had. But then, despite her young age, Kristen had always been independent and self-possessed.}

_{"Gerri's such a wreck she hasn't even started dinner," Helena said. "I'll do some, but I'm not doing it all. You'll have to do more, Callie."}

_{Gerri gasped. "I have a right to be upset!"}

_{"I'm upset, too, but you don't see me acting like a screaming meamie." Helena sniffed a few tears of her own. "Andy's company restructured and he's had to take a pay cut. I'll have to go back to work. Callie, I'm going to need your help with some baby-sitting."}

_{Callie gaped at Helena, who seemed oblivious to what she'd asked of her oldest sister.}

_{"She can't," Gerri said. "I need her help here. Everything's gone, don't you understand? Joe said
spent every penny we have! This morning I got up and he was gone, just walked out on me. What am I supposed to do? We've got no money in the bank. Nothing. How am I going to pay the bills? Poor Joey and Kristen will have to go to public school this semester."span>}

_{Joey's head came up. He grinned. "I gotta call Amanda."}

_{Calhe smiled as her nephew sped out of the room. Someone was happy at least. She couldn't find a whole lot of sympathy for her sister. Gerri had needed to curb
her spending for years. But although she understood her brother-in-law's disgust, it wasn't fair of Joe to skip out on his family like that. She knew now why Gerri had been acting the way she had. She'd been under enormous stress, and so anything that seemed untoward made her frantic to control, including Callie's relationship with Richard.}

_{Tommy broke into Gerri's tears. "Get a grip. You'll just have to live like the rest of us - on Poor Street. It won't kill you. What's Callie supposed to do for you, anyway?"}

_{Callie smiled at her brother coming to her defense. She hadn't been overjoyed to hear her sisters blithely demand her services. Usually Helena was more sensible, but Callie realized she'd set both sisters up to expect her to bail them out because she always had before.}

_{"Besides, I've got a wallpaper project I want Callie's help with," Tommy added. "If she's helping you, she can't help me."}

_{Calhe glared at him while her sisters protested strongly. And here she thought he was on her side.}

_{"Knock it off," her middle brother, Steve, said. "You aren't the only ones with problems. I might as well tell them, Rose." He glanced at his wife. "Rose and I are getting a divorce after Christmas. If anyone needs Calhe's baby-sitting services, it's me."}

_{The squabbling rose higher and higher, yet Callie didn't care. It felt as if she were looking at herself from the outside, a stranger in this household of people making demands of her. She realized they expected her just to drop everything and make their life better. But what about her own needs? Never was it clearer to her that she was the family drudge. Yet she felt less like a family member than ever.}

_{Suddenly she knew that her family, the family she needed, lived down the street. The man she loved was only a few hundred feet away, and she'd nearly walked out on him. On them all.}

_{"What an idiot I am," she said out loud.}

_{Everyone stopped bickering and stared at her. She looked at each one, then said to her mother and father, "Why don't you two say something? Tell them what they should do. It's not my job."}

_{"You always thought it was," her mother said. "You were such a good little mother that even if I tried to do it, you just took it out of my hands. I guess we all got used to it."}

_{"Well, I don't want it anymore. Everyone," she announced, "I'm sorry for all your troubles, but it's time you take responsibility for your lives. I have my own life to live, so Gerri, Helena, Steve, Tommy, Jamie., .good luck and God bless. I hope you get your lives back together, but I can't help you any longer. Go see Mom and Dad."}