“I’m driving, it’s settled,” boomed through the kitchen. “We are going to the house of a former Supreme Court justice, Frank. We’ll be fine.” Cal walked toward me in a pair of khakis and a blue polo shirt, dangling keys on his finger. He looked scrumptious, especially with his hair a bit longer and falling on his forehead.
The men stared at one another; there might have been smoke coming out of Cal’s ears. After yesterday’s golf outing with Frank trekking along behind us, insisting on us riding in the SUV with a driver he arranged for, Cal was cooked over the rules. He wanted time alone with me.
“Go enjoy the city, do something,” were Cal’s parting words as he slung his arm around my shoulder and walked me toward his garage.
He didn’t wait for an answer from Frank, which I knew would come back to haunt me later.
After backing out of the garage, Cal took a pause. “You sure you’re okay with this? It’s you I want to make happy, not Frank. Do you understand that? I don’t want to put you in harm’s way, but I do want a boundary, I guess. Time for me or us.” He looked at me, his gaze never wandering, his hair ruffled, and wearing a gentle smile.
“Yes, I’m one hundred percent fine.” I breathed a sigh at the end. I’d never cared about anyone enough to take a stand with Frank over them. I’d also never been pregnant and dealt with this version of Frank. “He just worries, that’s all. And the baby doesn’t make it any better.” I felt the need to defend him.
“Ourbaby.” Of course, Cal countered with the most important detail. “It’s not his baby.”
“I know, but Frank is a big part of my life, whether you like it or not. Watching over me and now this little one…it will be his life’s mission.” The tiny hairs on the back of my neck started to tickle and niggle me. This interaction didn’t bode well for what life held in front of us.
All I got was a chin nod and we were off, driving toward my mom’s and more hassle.
I slid my dark sunglasses on and stuck a baseball hat over my sleek, straight hair, cracked my window, and admitted my true feelings. “Off we go into the next fire.”
“How bad can it be? I’m a likable guy…Ford loves me,” Cal countered.
He had no clue. Ford was the black sheep of my family. “Ford is his own island. You can’t go by what he thinks…”
“Let’s enjoy our moment,” Cal quickly added, cracking his window too and taking my hand. “It’s not often we have beautiful blue skies here,” he added with a wink. He gave me the fastest of glances and his eyes were back on the road.
When we showed up at my childhood home a half hour late, I stripped myself of the hat and kept my glasses on until we were ensconced inside the cold and austere place where I grew up. I watched Cal take it in and thought his bachelor pad was a warmer, more inviting space.
I caught Cal apologizing to my mom, saying a patient needed him.
All she did was raise an eyebrow and look at me before saying, “Oh, it’s no bother,” to him. She ignored me as she slipped her arm through his and absconded with him, likely off to introduce himto a number of people.
I took refuge in the corner with a glass of Pellegrino. We’d agreed to not hang on to one another at the party and give the media a chance to take any more photos than we’d agreed to…
“Looking ravishing as always.” Scotty appeared next to me. “Mom must be thrilled you’re here, getting ready to plaster her gorgeous and scandalously pregnant daughter with her doctor-to-the-stars boyfriend all over the media.”
This made me laugh. I was wearing a white sheath dress, loose around the middle, slightly showing off my belly. In bright blue stilettos from Sarah Jessica Parker, I was expertly styled for the Fourth. “At first he was a commoner, but you’re right. I’m sure Mom is spinning Cal into a doctor specializing in celebrity births.”
“I did just hear her telling someone he delivered Ford’s baby, and how he came highly recommended by everyone in Ford’s circles.”
I closed my eyes and breathed. “Shit,” I muttered. “I’d better go rescue him. I let Mom steal him because we agreed to not be codependent at this shindig. To be honest, one look at Mom and I needed a break from her.”
“Go get him, but make sure to see the kids, okay? They’re out back on the putting green.”
I nodded. I’d take Cal and he could hide with the kids hitting golf balls, which was the mission I was on when Mom spotted me.
“Let’s do our photo now before you get wrinkled.”
Thank God for extra practice at not rolling my eyes at Mom because that was what I wanted to do. “Mom, I’m not going to wrinkle. I do events for a living.”
“Even so, the crowd is eating your doctor up. Let’s do it.”
When Beatrice Conway wanted the world to believe something, she got her way.
Snagging Cal from a couple in their sixties chewing his ear off by the cheese table, my mom breathed, “Oh Cal, I’m so thrilled for you to join our family.”
“I’m not.” Of course Cal, honest as ever and bold, let it all hang out there.
“What do you mean?” My mom’s voice was tense. If I looked close enough, the small veins in her neck would be strained.
