Family Matters (DiCarlo Brides book 4) (The DiCarlo Brides) (31 page)

“I don’t know if I can take this much family togetherness,” Delphi said as she dished up a bowl of Rosemary’s fragrant stew that night. “Cami’s birthday in a few nights makes three this week with everyone gathering ‘round the table. My parents weren’t really into family togetherness unless we were putting on a nice face for society. And there are way too many of us now.”

“We’re going to have to start charging admission to cover the cost of dinner so they don’t bankrupt me,” Rosemary agreed.

“Bankruptcy is so likely, considering your great number of designer clothes and shoes and your itty-bitty income,” Delphi said with a voice so devoid of sarcasm a stranger never would have realized it was implied.

“Shut it.” Most of her sisters had nagged Rosemary to buy a few new outfits—some fancy party dresses and new designer boots. But she spent most of her life in a chef’s jacket and didn’t see the point to updating her wardrobe with expensive items just for the sake of owning them—though her tennis shoes were the highest quality she could find when it came to comfort. It’s not like she ever wore a dress other than weddings anyway. Well, there was that date she had with Harrison, but that was an aberration. “My top-of-the-line cooking and baking equipment is more expensive than some of those four-inch heels you all think are necessary anyway. Footwear should be comfortable first. Fashion is a distant second.” Of course, the melding of the two was important, but her idea of fashion and theirs didn’t often coincide.

“Rosemary, we still have so much to teach you.” Cami patted her shoulder. “Don’t worry, when this mess is over, I’ll drag you to Denver for the day to show you what Nordstrom is really all about.”

“Yippee. I can’t wait.”

Cami just smiled.

“Any word from Deputy Oliver?” Rosemary asked Joel when he walked past with two large chunks of fresh bread on his plate.

“A few things. I’ll fill everyone in when we’re all sitting. Did you mention our suspicions to Cleo about the perpetrator?”

She shook her head. “I talked to her about the money issue and not to trust anyone outside this room, but that was it. She thought it was her fault that everything was happening.” Though Cleo was across the room, they were both careful not to mention Mike aloud.

His lips pressed together in a tight line. “I’ll take that into account when I give the report.”

“Thanks.”

As soon as everyone had their food and were seated in the great room, Joel started the topic that had drawn them all there. “I heard back from Detective Carlson today. He said the police department back east confirmed that there was tampering with the Markham’s car.”

“Someone wanted to hurt my parents?” Cleo’s voice quavered and she huddled closer to Rosemary.

“It looks like it. And no, that’s not your fault,” he said as her face started to crumple.

“Have any groups taken responsibility for bombing the cafe?” Rosemary asked carefully.

His face tightened. “No. Which supports your theory about the senator being a casualty. I called a buddy who works Homeland Security now and he thinks we might be right.”

That made Rosemary’s stomach twist with fear and anger. Mike had killed all of those people to get to his own brother. She nodded and a glance around the room confirmed that most of the others were aware of her suspicions. “So now what?”

“I put them onto other options. They’re going to try for a warrant for the home. We’ll see what they come up with. The sheriff’s deputies have been chasing their lead here, but the place he had been staying said he checked out yesterday and no one seems to know where he is now.”

“Do they think he went home?” Rosemary doubted it, but staying here was the height of stupidity, so it depended on how big his ego was.

“The detective thinks not. There’s no plane ticket in that name, in any case. Carlson’s spreading the search into towns a little farther away but still in driving distance of here. Hopefully they’ll get something soon.”

“In the meantime, what are you going to do about staying safe?” Lana asked.

This had been on Rosemary’s mind, even while she talked about everything and nothing with Cleo as they cooked dinner. Sending Cleo to school without protection seemed foolish at best. She didn’t want to make her stay inside while the other kids went out for recess, but she couldn’t let her be exposed—and if Mike was willing to kill a café full of people, what would stop him from hurting a classroom of kids? Sticking her in the kitchen office to work on school stuff while Rosemary cooked seemed extreme too, though. “I’ve been mulling over options, but nothing feels right.”

“I was thinking about it,” Joel said. “The presidential suite is open for the next four or five days. It would be easier to control who comes and goes there, and to keep your location a secret. There are too many ways to get into this house. We could send you away, but if he thinks you’re still in town, he’s more likely to hang around and it’ll be easier to catch him.”

“You could hire a couple of the off-duty cops again to monitor the hall so they could be armed and make an arrest if he shows up, too,” Lana said.

“That’s what I was thinking,” Joel agreed. “And there aren’t many rooms down that hall. It would be easy to block them out—find an excuse to work on them so they can’t be rented. Then we won’t have any guests with a legitimate excuse to be in the area, minimizing risks and possible issues.”

“Because corporate is totally going to believe that we need to do work on them five months after the hotel opened?” Jonquil lifted her brows in punctuation.

“So she rents them all for a few days, it’s not going to break her,” Cami said.

“I say do it,” Delphi added. “Then I won’t have to listen to Rosemary snoring through the air vents.”

“I do not snore,” Rosemary protested, though she had no idea if she did or not.

“Yes you do,” Cleo said. “Not loud though. I can’t hear it from my room.”

“Great, not loud. That’s so much better.” Rosemary crossed her arms over her chest and feigned irritation.

Harrison grinned at her from across the room. She met his gaze and felt warmed by the affection in his eyes.

“So, everyone’s agreed?” Cami asked.

“Yes. And I pre-emptively blacked out the rooms to keep them empty, so you can go there tonight,” Joel said. “I also contracted for the guard—apparently Lana and I are on the same wavelength. He’ll be relieved to know he’ll be in the hotel and not doing surveillance from his car out here.”

“What about Cleo’s school?” Rosemary wondered.

“Call them and explain that you’re going to home school for a few days. I’m sure the principal or school counselor can be trusted with the truth and to smooth the way for you,” Sage suggested. “Have the teacher get the homework together. One of us can pick it up, along with her extra school books. And you can do kitchen paperwork from your room, or pop down to berate and harass your employees once or twice a day if you need to.”

“Hey,” Rosemary threw a pillow at her. “I do not berate or harass. Often.” But she felt unbelievably relieved to have the decision made. She really hoped Mike made a mistake soon so they could end this unending worry.

“I don’t get it.” Cleo threw the pencil across the room. She liked the presidential suite, but she hated not being able to go to school—and still having to do homework. What was the point of being in a hotel if she still had to do the stupid math?

“Go get your pencil.” Rosemary’s voice was perfectly even and her face didn’t look even a little annoyed, no matter how hard Cleo had tried to rile her that day.

Cleo crossed her arms over her chest and slouched in her chair. “I’d rather be at home.”

“I’d rather be in Aruba, but I’m not. Finish your math and English and we can cut out for a couple of hours to watch a movie.” Rosemary pulled a newly released DVD from the bag of goodies Jonquil had brought up earlier.

Cleo squealed and jumped up, running over to grab the DVD case.

Rosemary held it out of reach. “When your math and English are done.”

“I hate math. When am I ever going to use it?” Cleo crossed her arms over her chest.

“Every day.” Rosemary’s eyes never left her spreadsheet. “Ask any of us; we use it all of the time.”

“That’s what calculators are for.” Giving up, Cleo snatched up the pencil she had thrown.

“Sometimes I can’t find a calculator, and sometimes it’s just better to be able to figure something out for yourself.”

“Well I can’t figure this out. It doesn’t make sense. I can’t make it come out right and I don’t know why.” Cleo slumped back into her chair and started tapping the pencil eraser on the table.

Rosemary sighed and clicked a few keys, then came around to her side. “Let me see what’s going on.”

Cleo pointed to the problem and held back a smile. It was nice having Rosemary here helping her. It reminded her of her mom—her real mom. She wasn’t sure what to think yet about Rosemary being her birth mom. Why had they kept it a secret? It wasn’t like she couldn’t handle it—she was almost a teenager, wasn’t she? Well, okay, she was almost ten, but that was practically a teenager.

She wondered if Hannah’s grandma was mad that she sneaked into the barn without permission—would she decide Cleo couldn’t come over anymore to play there? She missed Hannah.

“You forgot to carry the three.”

“What?” Cleo came back to reality with a mental thud. She hadn’t been paying attention to Rosemary at all.

“Here.” Rosemary tapped the spot with her fingertip. “You forgot to carry the three. That’s why it didn’t work out right.”

“This is so dumb.”

“Good thing, otherwise it might talk back to you,” Rosemary stood and returned to her side of the table. “You’ll be fine, just keep working hard and it’ll come. I promise. Math wasn’t my best subject either.”

Cleo erased the part she messed up. “What was your best subject?”

“PE. And when I got to junior high, they let us take home ec. I suck at sewing, but the kitchen arts part was pretty cool.”

“You sewed something?” Cleo found that hilarious. She could see Rosemary trying to pick out a seam she sewed wrong and swearing under her breath like she did when she worked on reports.

Rosemary picked up a Lifesaver mint from a nearby bowl and threw it at her. “Yes, and it was terrible. I ripped it into rags after it was graded. No I don’t have any pictures, get back to your math.”

“This is terrible,” Cleo said of the assignment. “Can I rip it into rags too?”

“After it’s been graded.” Rosemary clicked the mouse a couple of times and scribbled a note on the paper beside her.

Cleo leaned back to see the corner of the DVD sticking out of the bag. She really wanted to watch that, so she ought to get her homework done. She guessed. “Are you and Harrison going to get married?” The thought had been on her mind a lot lately—Rosemary and Harrison were always kissing, and didn’t people get married when they kissed a lot? She didn’t think she was ready to call anyone dad, but she liked having him around. He was really nice, and he made her feel safe.

Rosemary had been reaching for her water bottle and her head whipped over to look at Cleo. “Where did you get that idea?”

“‘Cause you kiss him all the time and I heard him say that he loves you before he left last night. You didn’t say it back. Why not?” She watched Rosemary’s jaw twitch and congratulated herself for making Rosemary act funny. Usually she was so focused she could hardly be pulled away from her paperwork. It was so boring!

“I, um. Well. Hmmmm.” Rosemary turned red and looked as if she didn’t know what to say. “We haven’t been dating that long. I think we need to date for a long, long time so we don’t make a mistake if we decide to get married.” She took another swig of her water. “I’m not thinking about marriage yet. I’m too young.”

“You’re almost thirty. That’s not too young to get married. Hannah’s mom got married when she was only nineteen. You were pregnant with me when you were only nineteen, too.”

“See how handy math came for figuring that out?” Rosemary said brightly. “I was only nineteen. But I wasn’t ready to get married that young. Some people are—apparently—like Hannah’s mom. Some of us need more time first. Like me. And I’m not almost thirty—I’m going to stay twenty-five forever. No matter how wrinkled I get.”

Cleo giggled, though she knew Rosemary was trying to avoid the questions. “Do you love Harrison?”

Rosemary stopped at the window and looked out, not saying anything for a long moment. Just when Cleo was going to nag her again, she finally spoke. “I don’t know. I feel something for him. He’s pretty great, isn’t he? But do I love him?” She turned to Cleo. “I love you. I loved your parents, but that’s really different. Loving Harrison comes with complications.” She put a hand to her heart. “It’s a little scary to think of loving Harrison like that.”

The movies never made love look scary. “Why? In the movies it’s just all kiss, kiss, I love you, let’s get married.”

That coaxed a chuckle from Rosemary. “Relationships aren’t easy. Just ask Lana and Blake. That was one big mess of not-easy almost from the start. Screwing things up
is
easy, and I don’t like to screw things up.”