Righteous Obsession (70 page)

“Okay.”  Colin turned back to the window and said
softly,   “I wonder if Jeff and Caitlin are here?”  Caitlin had written them
about Jeff’s intention of spending Thanksgiving with Father Michaels.  They would
be staying in New Orleans and driving to the hospital.

“I hope Jeff’s not planning to spend every holiday
with Father Michaels.  I think it would be awfully depressing for poor
Caitlin,” Alethea remarked.

“I think so too, but Jeff doesn’t give apparently
doesn’t give a rat’s ass what anybody else thinks!”

“The way I read Caitlin’s emails is that she feels
duty bound to go whatever the cost to herself.”

“Well, no matter what he’s done he still her brother
and she loves him.  Maybe, she thinks enough love and attention will bring him
out of this alternate reality or whatever.”

“I hadn’t thought about it that way,” Alethea
admitted, putting on her pumps.  “I guess it’s hard for me to imagine anybody
loving Father Michaels.”

 “You and me both!”  He helped her to her feet. 
“Ready?”

“Whenever you are.”

Louisa’s Thanksgiving dinner was a feast to behold. 
Besides Colin and Alethea, their other guests were Alethea’s grandmother and
her great-aunt, Dorothea.  Colin pushed his chair back from the table and gave a
contented sigh.  “This dinner was fabulous, Louisa!  I give it five stars
easy!”

“Thank you, Colin.  Did you have enough to eat?”

“Too much!”  He chuckled.  He felt stuffed and should
have passed on that second piece of pecan pie, but it had just been too good. 
He helped Louisa clear the table and load the dishwasher.  He watched closely
as she made some café au lait.  He wanted to surprise Alethea with it some
morning.  They returned to the living room where everybody else was sitting. 
Louisa poured the café au lait and passed the cups around followed by a plate
of homemade cookies.  At four o’clock the rest of Alethea’s family started to
arrive.  One of the first was her cousin, Nancy, and her husband, George. 
Louisa had mentioned the previous evening that they had reconciled.  From the
look of them, Colin assumed they must have had booze instead of turkey for
their Thanksgiving dinner.  They both hit the bar before the buffet Louisa had
laid out.  Nancy, cocktail in hand, looked him up and down and slurred, “Well,
if it isn’t Mr. Rock Star!  I hope you aren’t going to disgrace our family
again!”  Colin felt his temper rise so he turned and walked away without saying
a word.

“Some people are certainly rude!”  Nancy proclaimed
loudly.

“Nancy, why don’t you relax and I’ll get you a cup of
café au lait,” Louisa suggested gently.

“I don’t want any damn coffee, Aunt Lou!  I want
another whiskey sour!”  Nancy shouted, throwing Louisa’s hand off her arm. 
Louisa shot Beau a questioning look, but he shrugged and nodded resignedly.  It
was better to let her drink than have her wreck the entire party!

Colin was sitting by Alethea’s grandmother and
Dorothea covertly watching as Nancy made several trips to the liquor cabinet. 
Nancy strutted over to them and said loudly, “Have you noticed that the quality
of people coming into our family has really deteriorated lately?”

Dorothea glanced over at Nancy’s husband, drunkenly
and loudly holding forth on the chances of the New Orleans Saints making it to
the Super Bowl.  “Why yes, dear, I noticed that some time ago.”

The expression on Nancy’s face looked as if she knew
she’d been insulted, but couldn’t quite figure out how.

Colin choked back a laugh and excused himself when he
spotted Alethea going into the kitchen.  She looked up as he came into the
kitchen.  “Hi!”

“Nancy and George are getting drunker by the minute,”
Colin said.  He rubbed his head.  “They’re getting louder by the minute, too!”

“I know.  It’s so embarrassing for mom and dad, but
they feel if they try to stop them from drinking, they’ll make an even bigger
scene.”

Colin chuckled suddenly and related to Alethea what
Nancy had said to Dorothea and Dorothea’s reply.  Alethea had a good laugh over
that.  “I’ll bet Nancy about choked!”

“Well, she did look like she couldn’t quite figure out
the punch line,” Colin remarked then added, “There’s nothing worse than a drunken
snob!”

It took quite a bit of persuasion on the part of Beau
and Louisa’s to prevent Nancy and George from driving home, but they finally
agreed to go home in a cab.  By the time the last of their guests had left,
Alethea’s parents looked dead on their feet.

“Mom, Dad, you look exhausted!”  Alethea said.  “Why
don’t you go to bed and we’ll clear up this mess.”

Louisa hesitated.  “I hate to leave you with all this
work, darling.”

“We insist, Louisa,” Colin said firmly.

“Come along, Louisa,” Beau said, putting his arm
around her.  “Let’s not look a gift horse in the mouth!”

It was nearly eleven o’clock by the time Colin and
Alethea got everything done.  Alethea made them some more café au alit.  They
sat in the kitchen and relaxed.  Colin looked at Alethea with a longing
expression and muttered, “I wish that damn bed didn’t squeak so much!”

She giggled and suggested, “We could put the comforter
on the floor.”

“We’d still have to be quiet and that’s no fun!”  He
grumbled.

“Why don’t we go for a drive?  I know this nice little
park.”

He raised his eyebrows and grinned.  “Sounds
interesting, but won’t Beau and Louisa wonder?”

“We’ll tell them the truth – we went for a drive
because we weren’t sleepy!”

Caitlin took a bite of her Thanksgiving supper, chewed
it slowly and then swallowed it.  It felt like a huge lump in her stomach.  It
wasn’t that the restaurant’s food was bad; it was very good, but it just wasn’t
the Thanksgiving she’d been counting on.  She glanced around her.  The
restaurant was certainly full and there were people waiting in the lobby for a
table.  Her mind turned back to their visit to Dave earlier.  Although she’d
known his emotional condition was very bad and despite her father’s advance
warning, nothing could muffle the shock of what she’d found.  Dave hadn’t been
aware of their presence.  He had glazed eyes and he rocked back and forth,
muttering what sounded like bits of Latin over and over.  Even though she’d
felt like crying, she hugged him and told him she loved him, but it failed to
draw any response from him.  The one positive aspect of their visit was that
she could assure herself that they were taking good care of Dave.  Her father’s
voice broke into her thoughts.

“Cait?”

She looked at him.  “Yes, Daddy?”

“Why aren’t you eating?  Don’t you feel good?”

“I’m fine.”  Caitlin pushed her plate away and slumped
back into her chair.  “I’m just not hungry.”

Jeff laid his fork down and folded his hands.  “I know
it’s a terrible shock seeing Dave like that.  It certainly was for me the first
time I saw him.”

“It was,” Caitlin agreed.  “I don’t think he knew we
were even there.”

“I believe there’s still a part of him that knows us
and will eventually come back to us.”

Caitlin thought her father was being overly
optimistic.  He seemed to have forgotten if Dave did come out of it, his next
stop was going to be a jail cell, but she didn’t voice these thoughts aloud. 
“Does love and support mean we just forget what Dave did?”

Jeff’s expression sank into sadness.  “None of it was
Dave’s fault, Cait.  My searching for Colin is what caused this.”

“Come on, Daddy!  Dave didn’t suddenly become mentally
ill when he found your file on Colin!”

“Maybe, he wouldn’t have been driven to do what he did
if he hadn’t found that file.”

“Why are you so mad at Colin then if you’re blaming
yourself for this?”

“Colin’s actions since Dave’s arrest have been nothing
short of mean-spirited.  He didn’t need to see Dave and he certainly didn’t
need to write that letter! Dave would be recovering faster if he was in an
institution at home where we could visit him regularly.”

Caitlin was getting nowhere so she changed the
subject.  “Colin and Alethea are spending Thanksgiving with her parents here.”

Jeff looked up at her sharply and demanded, “Has Colin
been in contact with you?”

“No, Daddy.  Grandma wrote that in her last letter,
but I suppose you just skipped over that part.”

Jeff sighed.  “I know mom and dad don’t approve of me
cutting Colin off, but I need time to think and I can’t do it with everybody
pulling me in a dozen different directions!”

“Daddy, they’re hurt because you’re bent on excluding
Colin from our family.”

“I’m sorry, but I feel that trying to bring him into
our family caused this terrible tragedy.”

Caitlin gave a frustrated sigh.  “Daddy, we don’t have
that much family and we can’t afford to slam the door on anybody!”

Jeff sighed and his shoulders slumped.  “Cait, I’ve
thought this through.  I’ve turned it over and over in my mind, but I keep
coming to the same conclusion – it’s better for Colin and better for us if we
keep our distance.”

‘Read My Lips’, Unforgiven’s new CD, had taken off at
warp speed and blasted its way to the top of Billboard’s chart the first week
in December. Colin was curious to know how fast it was selling, but there
wasn’t any way he could do it himself without attracting a lot of attention. 
He asked Debbie and Cody to do the research for him and the information they
reported back confirmed his suspicions – their new CD was virtually flying out
of the stores!  ‘Too Strong for Fantasy’, was now topping the five million mark
and their first two CD’s, ‘A Snowball’s Chance in Hell’ and ‘Why Be Normal?’
were now galloping towards double platinum.  It was being downloaded so many
times on iTunes and Amazon both sites practically crashed.

Unforgiven was not the only one getting rave reviews
either.  Alethea’s article, in the January issue of Rock Hard on the current
music scene in San Francisco was generating a lot of attention. MTV News
recently named her one of the year’s top ten rock journalists.

“It’s about time you got some credit for your
journalism,” Colin declared.  “Of course, you’ve always been on my top of my
list!”  A few days before Christmas he stopped in to see his mom at her
office.  He had one present left to buy for Alethea, but he was fresh out of
ideas and was hoping she had mentioned something to his mom.

“Alethea didn’t mention anything specific, but I might
have an idea,” Amanda said after Colin explained his predicament.  She left a
message with the receptionist that she’d be unavailable for about a half-hour
and then she and Colin walked the short distance to the Embarcadero Center and
went into Victoria’s Secret
®. 
Amanda immediately headed for a
particular rack of nightgowns and pulled one out to look at it.  It was a long
gown of pale blue with lace bodice.  “The last time Alethea and I were here I
couldn’t help noticing how much time she spent looking at this nightgown.”

“I wonder why she didn’t buy it.”

His mother smiled.  “Well, Colin, it’s always more
romantic to receive something like this from someone you love.”

“You’re probably right,” he acknowledged.  He looked
at the price tag and whistled.  “I guess I never realized women paid so much
for their lingerie.”

“We don’t, but that’s silk, Colin, and the bodice is
handmade lace,” Amanda pointed out to him.  “I think Alethea really wanted it
and I know she’d be thrilled to find it under the Christmas tree.”

“She’d look beautiful in it, too, so it’s well worth
the price tag,” he conceded.  He looked up to see his mother was looking
through another rack of nightgowns.  She pulled one out, stood in front of a
mirror and held it in front of her.  It was long and silky with a thigh-high
slit up one side.  It was invitingly plain with spaghetti straps in a tempting
shade of rose.  It would look gorgeous on her – exactly the reason his dad had
already bought it for her for Christmas.

“Mom?”  Colin called, attempting to distract her from
it.

“Yes?”  She turned to him, putting the gown back on
the rack.

 “Do you think I should buy the robe, too?”

“Well, I always like to have a matched set myself.”

“Good enough,” Colin said, taking them up to the cash
register.  He paid for them and waited while they were gift-wrapped.  They walked
back to Amanda’s office.

Debbie poked her head out of the file room as they
passed and called, “Hi, Mom!  Hi, Colin!”

“Hello, Deb,” Amanda gave her a big hug.  “How was
school?”

“Hi, Deb!  How’s it going?”  Colin asked.

“Good!  I had a pop quiz in German, but I think I did
pretty well since I’ve been spending every free moment in the language lab!”

“I’m sure you did fine, Deb,” Amanda assured her.  She
and Colin went into her office and she motioned for him to sit.  “Can you stay
a while?”

“I’d love to, Mom, but I’ve got to get home and hide
this before Alethea sees it.  What time do you want us over on Christmas Eve?”

“I told everybody five o’clock.”  She tapped an empty
space on the shelves behind her desk and said, “You know, I should find
something to put there.”

Colin chuckled as he gave her a hug and then teased,
“Well, maybe, if you’re real good, Santa Claus will bring you something to fill
it!”  Before he left, he peeked into the file room where Debbie was working to
say goodbye to her.  When he got home and pulled into the garage he saw
Alethea’s Corvette was already there.  He quickly scurried up to the loft above
the garage and stashed the gift with the rest of Alethea’s presents.  When he
came out it had started to rain hard and he sprinted across the front yard to
the porch.  He unlocked the door; pleased to see Alethea had set the alarm. 
“Alethea?”  He called as he came into the foyer.  She didn’t respond, but he figured
she was in the pool house since she’d been swimming at least twice a day since
its completion.  He went through the dining room, containing the antique dining
set they’d purchased a few months ago.  He slid open the French doors leading
to the pool house and went inside, closing the doors behind him.

Alethea had the whirlpool turned up high and was
swimming vigorously.  She saw Colin, smiled and swam over to the edge.  He
knelt and gave her a kiss.  “Hi!”

“Hi!  What have you been doing?”

“I did some last-minute Christmas shopping.”

“What did you buy?”  She asked teasingly.

“Just some of those last-minute stocking stuffers.”

She swam away from him.  “Want to come in?  The water
temperature’s just right.”

“If I do, we might not get out for quite a while,” he
warned.

“Suits me just fine!”

Colin got up, walked to the window at the far end of
the pool and drew the blinds completely closed.  He then walked back, stopping
to check the door that opened on the deck, making sure it was locked.  Alethea
watched him, feeling slightly irritated, but said nothing.  He still seemed too
concerned about her safety.

Alethea swam around the pool slowly, flaunting her
well-defined curves at every opportunity.  “Are you sure you don’t want to come
in?”

Colin started stripping off his clothes.  “You’ve
convinced me!  It’s so chilly outside the water should feel good.”  He chuckled
throatily.  “Like I really need an excuse to go skinny-dipping with my wife!”

Christmas Eve dawned rainy and chilly.  Colin and
Alethea wrestled the six-and-a-half foot tree from the deck into the living
room and placed it by the fireplace after breakfast.  They had bought it from a
tree farm a couple of days earlier because Alethea wanted to replant it after
it had done its tour of duty as a Christmas tree.  The tree, its roots encased
in a dirt-filled burlap bundle, sat in a large tub.

Alethea carted several bags, containing Christmas
decorations out from the closet underneath the staircase.  It took them a
couple of hours to finish decorating the tree.  It looked beautiful when they
finished.  As a final touch, Alethea wrapped a secondhand patchwork quilt
around the tub to hide it.  She stepped back.  “What do you think?”

“I think it looks exactly like the Christmas trees in
that Victorian house magazine you subscribe to.  I think it looks great!” 
Colin sat down on the couch.  “I wonder if Caitlin got our card.”  With the
card they’d enclosed a check for two hundred dollars.  “I hope she’s uses that
money for herself, but I have a feeling she won’t.”

Alethea sat down beside him and sighed.  “It must be
terrible to be so alone at this time of the year.”

“I know.  I have half a mind to call her and tell her
she can spend Christmas with us and to hell with Jeff!”

“They’ve probably already left for New Orleans.”

“I know.  I was just venting.”  After lunch, Colin
went out to the loft and got Alethea’s presents.  He was arranging them under
the tree when she appeared with his presents.  He smiled and joked, “I guess
great minds think alike.”  By the time they were ready to leave for
Hillsborough, it was dark enough to put the tree lights on.  Colin drew all the
blinds except on the front window by the tree.

“Is it safe to leave it on while we’re gone?”

“Perfectly.  I had this place rewired after I bought
it.”  As they were backing out of the driveway, Alethea said, “I hope your
grandparents like what we got them.”

“I’m sure they will, but you know what Grandma Eileen
would really like, don’t you?”

Alethea sighed.  “Yes, for me to announce I’m
pregnant.”

“You got it.”  They were the first ones to arrive. 
The rest of the relatives arrived shortly afterwards and the party got into
full swing: eating, drinking eggnog, singing and decorating the tree.  The
evening included with everyone exchanging gifts and opening one gift.

“This was certainly nice,” Alethea remarked.  “Have
you always done it like this?”

“As far back as I can remember,” Colin replied.  “How
does your family do it?”

“We open all our presents on Christmas Eve, but I like
this way better.”  They arrived home and as they walked across the lawn, Colin
touched Alethea’s arm and pointed to the front window.  “It’s so pretty!”  She
gasped.

“It sure is.”  Colin unlocked the front door and
turned off the alarm.  They unloaded the presents they got and placed them
under the tree.  Colin locked the door and reset the alarm.

“Would you like some hot chocolate?”

“Yeah, that sounds good.  While you’re doing that I’ll
make a fire.”  By the time she came back, Colin had a brisk fire going in the
fireplace.  She handed Colin his mug then sat down next to him with her legs
curled underneath her.  “Amanda sure certainly thrilled to get our present.” 
They had given his parents each a framed wedding picture.

“She was hinting just the other day for something to
fill an empty spot on the shelf behind her desk,” Colin laughed.

“Well, it’s always nice to get something you really
want.”

He frowned suddenly as he recalled something.  “Did
you notice anything different about mom?”

“Different how?”

“She just seemed quieter than usual – like she had
something on her mind, maybe.”

“No, I didn’t, but you’re closer to her too.”

He shrugged.  “It’s probably just my imagination.”  He
put down his mug.  “Do you want to open one of your gifts?”

“Okay.”  She looked over her pile of gifts then
pointed to one.  “I’ll open that one.”

Colin retrieved it from under the tree, secretly
pleased it was the gift he’d bought her from Victoria’s Secret
.

“Now, you choose one.”

He chose a slim package and gave it a shake.  “I have
absolutely no idea what’s in here.”

“You’ll find out,” she teased as she undid the ribbons
and wrapping paper on her package.  She gasped as she saw the box then gave a
cry of delight as she discovered its contents.  “Oh, Colin!”  Alethea
exclaimed.  She lifted it out of the box.  “It’s so beautiful, but how did you
know I wanted it?”

“A little bird told me.”

“A little bird named Amanda, I’ll bet.”

Colin tore the ribbons and paper off his gift,
carefully pulled off the tape and folded back the flaps.  He found a framed
picture of Alethea posed under the rose-covered trellis in her bridal gown. It
was one he had expressed a particular fondness for when they were choosing
their wedding pictures.  “It’s beautiful!  Thank you.”

“It’s to take on tour with you.”

“It’ll be the showcase of my collection,” Colin
assured her.

Alethea rose.  “I’m going upstairs and try on my new
nightgown.  Coming?”

“In a minute.”  He unplugged the tree and made sure to
properly bank the fire.  He went upstairs after turning off the remaining
lights.  Alethea looked stunning in her new nightgown for the few moments she
had it on.

Colin got up, early Christmas morning and fixed a tray
with a pot of café au lait, croissants, butter and jam then took it upstairs. 
“Merry Christmas, Alethea,” He said, waking her with a kiss.

She rolled over and smiled up at him.  “Merry
Christmas,” She replied, sitting up.  “You’re up early.”  She rubbed her eyes,
yawned and glanced at the window.  “It not even light yet.  You couldn’t have
gotten much sleep.”

“I didn’t need much.”  Colin fluffed her pillows then
set the tray in front of her.  “I decided to serve you breakfast in bed.”

“How nice!  I feel just like a princess,” Alethea
declared.

“That’s the whole idea.”  After eating breakfast, they
went downstairs and opened the rest of their gifts and went for a long swim. 
They called Beau and Louisa after lunch to wish them a Merry Christmas and
thank them for their gifts. All in all it was a wonderful first Christmas for
them.

Caitlin lay curled on the bed in her hotel room,
crying.  Her dress, a gift from her father to wear when visiting Dave and for
their Christmas dinner lay crumpled at the foot of the bed.  When her father
had knocked on her door a half-hour ago she’d told him she didn’t feel well and
to go to supper without her.  She knew she must look terrible – eyes red and
swollen and her face tear-streaked.  This was the most horrible Christmas she’d
ever spent!  Dave’s doctor had assured them there’d been no change in his
condition, but his expression had seemed more vacant to her than when she’d
seen him last.  On their way out of the hospital, they’d run into her mother. 
Her parents had gotten into a bitter fight that ended with her mother,
threatening them with legal repercussions if they didn’t stay away from Dave. 
Her father had then spent the entire drive back to New Orleans, blaming himself
for Dave’s condition, for her mother’s attitude towards her, and for breaking
up his family by his obsessive search for Colin.  When they’d finally gotten
back to the hotel she had run into her room, burst into tears and had continued
to cry since.  She’d never felt so alone!  She sat up, wiped her eyes and
grabbed the phone.  “Operator, I’d like to make a collect call to either Mr. or
Mrs. Luke Michaels.”