Family Secrets Read online

  Cari finally got to her feet and completed the accounting before she could turn out the lights and leave. She walked the five blocks home, needing the time to think. Cari dragged her feet during the walk. She couldn't make any sense out of her mother’s words. She had started to suspect her mother was spending way too much on the wedding, but now the extravagances were taking on a completely new meaning.

  As she walked, her thoughts kept turning back to Jake. Nothing he had said or done indicated any interest on his part beyond the book. Was this an attraction to him or just a screwed up reaction following her day of emotional turmoil? More importantly, why was still even thinking about him!

  As she neared her home, Cari saw her uncle’s car parked in front of her parents' small house. She walked up the slightly crumbling stone steps and through the front door. She was very quiet as she walked from the living room towards the kitchen. After the long and disturbing day, Cari didn’t feel at all hungry. Poised at the foot of the stairs, Cari heard her mother’s raised voice in the kitchen. It was odd to hear her mother yelling. Cari was used to the house always being quiet. Even as a teen, she had never played her music loud. Even more surprisingly, she realized that her mother was yelling at her uncle.

  “I won’t have it, Sal! His behavior dishonors you, me and Carissa.”

  Cari walked quietly back towards the kitchen, surprised because she had never heard a cross word exchanged between the two of them before tonight. She stopped a few feet from the brightly lit kitchen, listening and ignoring the little voice in her head telling her that eavesdropping never benefited anyone.

  "Calm down, Marina," she heard Sal tell her mother. "I'll speak to Anthony tomorrow. He will understand his duty, and he will toe the line from now on."

  "I won’t just calm down, Sal. I can't believe that Anthony has let himself be seen with that tramp all over town. People will start talking…"

  Cari leaned forward, just enough to see that her mother looked upset. Her stomach knotted and nausea roiled up into her throat as Cari watched Sal pull Marina into his arms. He held her tightly, lightly caressing her back while he kissed her cheek.

  "Tony is 28 years old and feeling his oats, my love. He is fully aware that if he wants to advance in my business, and eventually have control, he will have to behave circumspectly after the wedding. I think he is just having a little fun before the gate closes behind him."

  Cari slumped against the wall. She couldn't believe what she had just heard and seen. Lost in the mish-mash of thoughts and emotions that seemed to be bombarding her today, Cari straightened slowly, unsure of whether she should continue listening or not. A second later, one foot came down heavily on the only board in the floor that creaked. Turning quickly, Cari ran up the stairs and shut the door to her room. She turned the lock on the door and threw herself dramatically across her bed. It wasn’t likely, but she hoped no one had heard her outside the kitchen.

  “Damn!” Cari rolled from her stomach to her back. “What the hell else can happen today? Has the world gone crazy?”

  Downstairs, Marina pulled out of her lover's arms. "Did you hear anything, Sal? I thought I heard footsteps."

  Sal shook his head. "I didn't hear anything. What time is Carissa due home?"

  Marina glanced at the wall clock. "Any time now, so you should probably be going. This is Edward's book discussion night, so he won’t be home until late tonight."

  Sal nodded, walking with Marina towards the front door. "Why don't you leave Carissa a note and join me for dinner? You have been running yourself ragged trying to put the wedding together. It would do you good to get out and forget everything for a while. I can have you back here before Edward gets home."

  Marina paused, thinking. She wanted to be with her lover of 24 years, but she also knew that they couldn't afford any scandal. If she and Sal were not Catholic, she would have left her husband long ago. But they were…

  "Let me go and see if she is home yet, and I'll make some excuse to run out. Then we can go." She kissed Sal quickly and ran up the stairs. She knocked on her daughter's door. "Carissa darling, are you in there?"

  "Yes, Mama, I’m here, but I still feel a little sick. I won't be down for dinner."

  Marina tried the door, but it was locked. “All right, darling. I’m going out then, since you aren’t feeling well. Your Aunt Charlotte invited me over to play cards. I’ll have my cell phone, so call me if you need me.”

  “All right, Mother.”

  Inside her bedroom, Cari heard her mother’s footsteps running back down the stairs. Moving off the bed, she walked to the window that overlooked the street in front of the house. Carefully, Cari concealed her body behind the half-drawn curtains. She watched as Sal helped her mother into his large, luxurious car and then drove away.

  Slowly the rear lights faded into the night, yet Cari couldn’t turn away until they were no longer visible. Too many thoughts were jumbled into her brain and all were demanding immediate attention! Walking back to her bed, she sat on the edge. In the mirror across the room, her reflection was still dimly visible. Nothing made sense, but she knew turning on the lights wouldn’t help her see things more clearly.

  Her mother and uncle had been hugging intimately in her father’s house. She had heard him call her mother “my love” a few minutes earlier. Uncle Sal was paying for her wedding. Her fiancé was seeing some woman behind her back. And to top it all off, she wasn’t beautiful or radiant as most brides were in their gowns. No, Cari just looked “nice” in her wedding gown!

  Granted her appearance seemed to be the least of her concerns, but the other problems were just too overwhelming right now to deal with. After all, how many betrayals could a person face on the same day? Turning onto her side, Cari pulled her knees up. Lying alone in the dark, Cari tried to focus on just taking deep breaths and relaxing. It took quite some time before she relaxed enough to fall asleep.

  Chapter 2

  Cari slept fitfully all night. When her father knocked on her bedroom door the next morning, she told him she was too sick to go in to work. Listening carefully to the sounds of the house, Cari waited until she was sure she heard her parents leave. Jumping out of bed with determination, Cari dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. At the front door she paused for a minute, and then tossed her father’s coat over her shoulders.

  She walked to the bank where her maid of honor, Lauren, was working. Cari watched as Lauren just stared at her for a moment before she recognized her. There was no resisting Lauren’s grip as she dragged Cari behind the bank counter and into the break room.

  "What’s wrong? You look awful!"

  Cari watched her friend’s face closely. Lauren looked nervous, and she was swallowing quickly. Cari knew this was her friend’s usual behavior when caught telling a lie. “I’m okay, Lauren. I just wanted to know if you knew about Tony fooling around on me.”

  Lauren shrugged. “I’m more concerned about you Cari. Look at those dark circles under your eyes! Aren’t you sleeping?”

  Cari shrugged indifferently, knowing she looked bad after her restless night. "I need to borrow your car."

  Lauren frowned at Cari. "Why? Is yours not working?"

  Cari shook her head. All of her friends knew that she had received a car for her college graduation from her parents. It was a lovely new car, and Cari’s mother had told her she’d saved for years, and thanks to Uncle Sal, they had gotten a special discount price on this dealer model. The car was loaded with all the niceties, and her friends told her they were envious.

  "I can't use mine because he would recognize it."

  Lauren frowned, her frustration obvious to Cari. "Who would recognize it?"

  "Tony. I think he has been cheating on me, and I want to follow him and find out," Cari ended smugly.

  Lauren shook her head slowly, while her eyes filled with tears. "Sweetie, you don't have to follow him. He has been seeing someone else."

  Cari pulled back in her chair. “What do you mean? Did you know
about this? How long have you known?”

  Lauren shrugged, her reluctance to hurt Cari written on her face. "Carl told me that he had seen Tony out with this one woman…"

  Cari looked at her friend of so many years. "Just the one time?"

  Lauren met her gaze and then turned away. "No, Cari. When Carl asked him about it, he said there was no reason to stop playing the field until he signed on the dotted line." Lauren paused, taking a deep breath. "And when Carl asked about…well, you know…Tony told him that you wouldn't sleep with him and a man does have needs…"

  Cari choked on a sob at the cutting words. "It was his idea to wait until we were married…" Cari's voice trailed away, her brain unable to take in and absorb all these truths at one time.

  Lauren reached out and touched her friend's hand. "What are you going to do now, Cari? Are you going to call off the wedding? Whatever you decide, I'll stand by you."

  Cari looked up at Lauren, trying to smile. "I don't know what to do. I need to think…I just need to get away…"

  "You want to go away for a few days? I could get a few days off here, and we could—"

  Cari stood, shaking her head. "No. If I go away, it will have to be alone. I need to think things out…" Cari hugged Lauren as she stood to walk out with her. "I'll let you know what I decide to do though."

  * * * * *

  Cari went through the next few days in a fog. She went back to the same dress shop and chose her wedding gown as well as a pretty traveling outfit. She went shopping with her bridesmaids, choosing their dresses as well. She gave way to her mother on nearly all the decisions, not arguing or expressing her opinion on anything. It was easier to just give in.

  She saw Tony in passing a few times, accepting his peck on her cheek without comment. However, she couldn't help but notice little things that previously she had thought were inconsequential. She noticed how Tony rarely met her eyes directly. And when they were alone, he never initiated physical contact with her. He never made phone calls to her in the middle of the day, and when she called him, he always had an excuse not to talk to her for more than a minute.

  Between her confusion over what she had heard about her fiancé, and what she had witnessed between her mother and the man she had regarded as a family friend, Cari was beginning to feel more stressed each day. Doubting that she would be able to handle much more new disclosures of family secrets, she worked constantly to conceal her growing uneasiness from her parents. As the days passed, Cari decided she must have been a good actress for neither one ever asked her if anything was wrong.

  About two weeks after she had overheard her mother in the kitchen with Uncle Sal, her father stopped her while they were both working.

  “Cari?

  Cari looked up from the new books she was stocking onto the shelves. Smiling, she looked up at her father. “What’s up, Dad?”

  “I have my book club meeting tonight, and the book Hall has been waiting for just came in.”

  Cari shifted her position on the floor. “I didn’t realize he had even ordered another book.” Looking back down quickly, Cari could feel her cheeks flushing. Every day, she wondered if he would come back in. And each time she found her thoughts straying in his direction, her heart would begin racing and she’d wonder if the feelings that night had only been a result of the stress she had felt that day, or if it was something more.

  “He called the order in, Cari. Um…I think it was just a few days after he stopped in for the last book.”

  Cari nodded. She started to reply, but had to swallow before she could speak. “You want me to stay late again tonight? Hall is going to stop by this evening?”

  “I was hoping you wouldn’t mind taking the book to his house, Cari. I’m going to close early, and I didn’t want to worry about leaving the book here overnight. I’d run it out myself, but we’re having dinner before the book club tonight…”

  “Its okay, Dad. I’d be happy to run the book out to his place. I’ve been by there, so I shouldn’t have any trouble finding it.”

  As Cari rushed through shelving the rest of books, she acknowledged to herself that she had deliberately not told her father that the only reason she had been by Jake Hall’s mansion was because she’d looked his address up and driven there earlier that week.

  Trying not to misfile books as she hurried to finish, Cari shivered and smiled at the thought of seeing Jake again.

  * * * * *

  Jake was sitting at his desk in his library, feeling incredibly bored, when he heard the knock at the front door. As he neared the entrance, he shouted back towards the kitchen. “I’ve got it, John. You go ahead and take off as planned.”

  At the front door, Jake paused to take a peak through the peephole he’d had installed for the protection of his housekeeper, Mary. Instantly, he recognized the woman who stood at his door. He had hoped that by ordering the book a week ago, it would arrive on Edward’s club night. Knowing he was lying to a friend, he had still told Edward that he wouldn’t be able to come in and pick the book up right away. Watching Cari turn her head away, he enjoyed her profile. He’d been anticipating Edward would send her with the book, but he had not wanted to get his hopes up.

  Opening the door, Jake nodded, slowly smiling. “Hello, Evans.”

  Cari smiled in return. “Hi! Um, my father was busy tonight, but he really wanted to get this book to you.”

  The way she was dancing from one foot to the other, Jake anticipated that she was probably going to bolt the second he took the book. Instead of accepting it, he reached out and curved his hand around her elbow. Without giving Cari time to consider other options, he led her into his library.

  “Please, Cari, sit down. I was just about to enjoy a glass of sherry. I hope you’ll join me?”

  Jake watched the indecision on the woman’s face. He smiled when she nodded slightly, turning away to pour them each a drink. Coming back to the sofa, he handed Cari her glass. Taking the book from her lap, he tossed it onto his desk. Starting back to the sofa, he saw that Cari was perched on the edge, as if her flight was imminent.

  Jake came back and sat beside her on the sofa. Smiling gently, he started asking Cari questions about herself, college, and her work at the store. Slowly, Jake noticed Cari relaxing and opening up more with each question he asked. Eventually, he reached the topic that most people would assume was uppermost in her mind. “How are the plans for the wedding progressing?”

  The sudden change in questions obviously startled her. Cari jerked her hand, spilling her drink down her dress. “Oh, damn!” Cari exclaimed.

  Jake ignored the embarrassed flush staining her cheeks, removing the empty glass from her hand. “Hey, don’t worry about it. I bet if we act quickly enough, we can catch the stain before it sets in.”

  Before she really knew what was happening, Cari found herself seated on a tall stool in Jake's kitchen, wearing a burgundy silk robe, belted at her waist. Her dress and underwear were in his washer. Ignoring the voice that told her she didn’t really need to take the underwear off, Cari had added them defiantly to the stack. The dark burgundy silk felt cool and soft against her naked skin as it enveloped her completely. Cari shifted on the stool, crossing her legs as she watched Jake begin cooking dinner.

  Cari was surprised when her stomach growled and she realized that for the first time in two weeks she was hungry. "Do you cook a lot?"

  Jake turned from the stove where he was heating the oil for stir-fry. "Not as much as I'd like. My housekeeper is rather possessive of 'her' kitchen. When she takes time off, I usually jump at the chance to mess around in here. I use the pretense of expanding my cooking skills."

  Cari felt heat rush through her body at his words. She was sure he had not been intending any hidden message. It was just her own starved libido that was making her respond to this attractive and attentive man. But when Jake talked about messing around in the kitchen, her mind had taken a totally different turn. A wild, quite erotic thought filled her mind…Jake was li
fting her onto the counter and then moving between her eagerly parting thighs…

  “What about you, Cari? Do you cook much?”

  Cari jumped as she was startled from her erotic imaginings. Taking a deep breath, she tried to steady her nerves. "I don't like to cook. My mother doesn't like to either. That’s probably why she never lets me into the kitchen."

  Cari stopped talking abruptly as Jake smiled at her. She realized that she was babbling like a nervous schoolgirl. But as Jake continued to smile at her, she relaxed and smiled back. His smile made her feel warm inside, cared for and interesting, which was something she'd never felt before with a man. Or at least a man that she wasn’t related to or had known all her life. "Sorry for just rattling on," she told him a moment later.

  Jake shrugged. "You weren't. Cooking is something that can be like a fine art—practiced carefully and with skill, it can please one or many. Or you can just slop things together." His eyes met and held hers as he went on. “Like many things that require a skilled hand, it just takes knowledge and practice.”

  Cari laughed quickly, suddenly feeling hot, incredibly aroused and very nervous. "I'm afraid the ‘slop together’ describes me,” she told him nervously. “For the times when I'm alone, I’ve perfected the lazy woman's egg salad sandwich."

  Jake turned from the stove and leaned on the counter, facing Cari. A grin curled his lips as he asked, "The lazy woman's egg salad sandwich? Now you have me intrigued.” Jake paused and refilled her glass with more of the heady red wine. “Exactly what is that?"

  Cari flushed under his intense gaze, but went on. "It's quite easy. One peeled hard-boiled egg. The tricky part is preparing ahead. You lay your bread out, spreading mayo on one piece and mustard on the other. If you like a little zest, you add a little pickle relish on the mustard side. Now, this next part can be dangerous, so for the klutzy, like myself, I recommend using a dull knife."