What's Life Without the Sprinkles? (13 page)

May came breezing in with a smile on her perpetually happy face. Why couldn’t Claudia have that?

“So what are the plans for the addition to Decadence like, Claude?” May asked, opening the freezer to fill up the ice bucket again.

“Oh, I, um, didn’t understand them.”

Turning around, May pierced her with a look. “Nate didn’t explain them to you?”

“Well, he didn’t stay around long enough for us to get into that.” That was an understatement.

“What did he stay around long enough to get into?” May’s chuckle was knowing, but it made a hard ball of regret sink into Claudia’s stomach.

“Nothing.”

The smile turned down a bit as May stared at her. “Emergency girl meeting?”

“Nah, it’ll be fine.” As soon as she got over feeling like a complete nitwit, at least.

“And you’re being cryptic.”

She was, but she did not want to broach this subject when Peter could walk in at any moment. That would be beyond awkward. She changed the subject. “How is it, having Peter back home?”

“It’s nice, I guess.” May wouldn’t look Claudia in the eyes. “He hasn’t been back here in over ten years, and it’s nice to see him in the house again. I feel so divided over everything, though.” Her gaze flicked up to Claudia, then back down quickly to the ice bucket in her hands. “He
is
my brother, and we hung out for years before we even met you and Zoe. I don’t know.” She went at the stubborn ice cubes from the bucket with a little too much force, in Claudia’s opinion. “He’s out right now picking up some last-minute things for me. He should be here any moment, actually.” She turned to get more ice. When she turned back, her expression was no longer dreamy, but sad. “I just wish he’d had more to do with Justin all these years, so this didn’t have to be so awkward for everyone.”

“More to do with him?” Claudia tried hard to keep the sarcasm out of her voice. “Don’t you mean anything?”

May stiffened. “This is a subject we’re not going to be able to agree on, so let’s drop it. I’m angry with him, too, but he’s still my family.”

Claudia felt like a heel. “No, you’re right. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything. I’m just on edge. I don’t want to fight with you.”

May moved in for a hug. “I don’t want to fight, either. I don’t want to be on the outs with you.”

Claudia let herself be held and then stepped back. “We’ll get through this fine. I’ve done well for myself over the years, and I’m not pining after him, so I bet it won’t even be a problem. Plus, it has been over ten years, like you said. I doubt we’ll even really come in contact with each other while he’s here for the week.”

“Yeah. How is Zoe doing with everything? Do you think she’ll be on her best behavior?” May picked up a tray of relish and set it back down. She put the paper towels in the refrigerator and the butter in the sink.

“Zoe promised to be good. I guess we’ll have to take her at her word. But I might not be here very long. I’m going to do my best, though, to hang tough.” Claudia watched May for another few moments while she moved the salt and pepper shakers to the window sill. “Something wrong?”

“Ah, no. Why?”

Claudia pulled the paper towels out of the refrigerator, put the salt and pepper on the table, and placed the butter back on the counter. “You seem distracted all of a sudden. Are you sure nothing’s wrong?”

May shook her head and laughed. “I’m positive. I’m just a little out of sorts.” She dusted her hands off on a kitchen towel, then grabbed the tray of relish again. “Let’s get everything out on the table. I’m sure the guys are hungry.”

“Don’t we want to wait for everyone else to get here? I haven’t seen Mom and Dad yet, and they’re bringing Justin.” Which would be a set of fireworks all on its own. “They’ll be here soon. I’m sure Brad’s fine with entertaining Zoe for a bit. No one else needs anything.”

“Zoe doesn’t need entertaining,” Zoe said, appearing in the kitchen doorway to the living room. “She does, however, want to finally corner Claudia to talk about what happened with Nate yesterday afternoon. Since you’ve avoided me for the last twenty-four hours, I thought I’d wrangle May into helping me get you to spill what happened.”

Claudia opened her mouth to respond and nothing came out but a squeak. “I don’t know what happened.” Claudia felt her cheeks grow bright red and knew she was doomed. Here came the interrogation. With Peter most likely on his way here, she did not want to have this conversation right here and right now.

“Interesting. Very interesting,” Zoe said. “What’s the blush for?”

“Nothing.” Claudia washed her hands at the sink, then turned around to ask May what else there was to do, completely ignoring Zoe’s question.

“It’s all finished,” May said with a smug smile. “But you’re not doing anything but explaining that flush to your face.” May threw a dish towel over her shoulder, then leaned back against the counter.

“Nothing’s going on.” Claudia washed her hands again and kept her back to them.

May’s hand landed on Claudia’s left shoulder just as Zoe’s landed on her right.

“You can’t hide from us.” And Zoe wasn’t going to let her.

May must have had the same idea. “We’re not leaving this kitchen until you tell us what’s happening.”

This ought to be interesting and could definitely be tough. Claudia had spent a lot of time building up walls, and sometimes she could outlast the most avid askers. That didn’t always hold true when dealing with her two best girl friends, though.

“I was just talking to Nate to see how his day was going.” That was certainly true to some extent.

“And that made you blush—why? You’ve talked to Nate about the very same thing every day for years.” May seemed to be enjoying herself way too much with this. Claudia wracked her brain to come up with a way to get them onto a different topic, but nothing was coming to her.

“But maybe she finally screwed up her courage to do more than bat her eyelashes at him.” Zoe squinted at Claudia, then laughed. “Oh, yeah, looks like I may have hit the nail on the head.”

“What is this? Where was I?” May looked back and forth between Claudia and Zoe.

“It was nothing,” Claudia said.

“Nothing?” Zoe said loudly enough for Claudia to hush her. “That’s not what you said after Nate left without going over the plans with you.” She turned to May. “You should have seen her face and the way her lips were all rosy when Justin and I came back from picking up some hoagies. She said she’d explain to me what happened but then magically was not available after that. She even took an hour-long shower last night to avoid me.”

“I was not exactly avoiding you.”

“Oh, yes, you were! And you’re trying to get out of talking about it now.”

Claudia blew out an exasperated sigh. Apparently, they would be doing this here and now instead of waiting. If Peter walked in, she’d just do what damage control she could. Or she would just not care, since he had nothing to do with her anymore. That was the better option.

Zoe shuffled around the kitchen, rearranging all the other things May had put into the wrong places, while Claudia explained the kiss in the kitchen and May squealed.

“Well, the only problem is that he’s acting like nothing happened. I’m confused, but I’m still going for it. He’s not going to ignore me this time.” Her resolve was firm, just as long as his wasn’t as firmly set to keep his distance from her.

“Absolutely! So are you going to take him out on a date?” Zoe asked. “I can stay home and hang out with Justin.”

The kitchen door swung open and all conversation stopped when Peter walked onto May’s red-and-white-checked linoleum. He stared at the three of them, and they stared back. Claudia held her breath. Zoe had a tendency to blurt the first thing that came to mind. While it would probably serve him right, it would be terribly unflattering and would probably upset May more than she already was. Not worth it, especially since it would not be conducive to getting through this with her dignity intact.

Claudia wanted to see if Zoe was fuming but found herself locked in a stare-down with Peter, a faint smile on her face. Should she be plotting revenge, or reliving old memories? Taking comfort in what could be with Nate, or wondering what could have been with Peter?

Even that thought was cut off when Justin, followed by her parents, stepped through the door right behind Peter.

****

Peter Drake heard the commotion behind him but couldn’t take his eyes off Claudia Bradley. She was stunning in a soft-looking, short-sleeved black dress that stopped mid thigh and flirted with her enhanced curves. He stood transfixed, seeing the girl he’d fumbled around with in the back seat of his Mustang had morphed into this exquisite woman. She still had the clearest gray eyes he’d ever seen.

Time seemed to stop, and the very air grew still in his sister’s kitchen. So many images skittered across his mind. Laughing with Claudia, tugging on her long braid to tip her head back so he could kiss her, the way the backs of her hands were always so soft when she’d brush them against his cheek.

But then a childish voice said, “Excuse me, sir,” walking past him.

The connection between him and Claudia broke. He looked down to see the child and stared into his own brown eyes. His first urge was to ruffle the dark hair a couple shades lighter than his own. He noticed the missing eyetooth and felt his own adult eyetooth with his tongue.

The sound of someone clearing her throat jerked his gaze up to the woman standing to the boy’s right. Claudia’s mother shook her head and let a small frown take over her face.

He got her message, though it had been a long time since she’d looked at him. Since she’d done any kind of communication with him, silent or otherwise. He’d always been her favorite, and he was surprised she’d even look at him at this point.

“Mona,” he said, trying to still the quiver in his voice. He’d never allowed himself to even look at the pictures May sent him or the ones she carried in her wallet and tried to shove in his face. It wasn’t in his nature to look back once he’d made a decision. He’d stuck with that all these years, but now he feared he might not be able to walk away unscathed or unaffected by this afternoon. Damn May and his father for making this unavoidable.

“It’s a surprise to see you here...Sparky.” Mona placed a protective arm around the boy’s shoulders and pulled him into her side.

Somehow she made his old nickname sound like “jackass,” but he probably deserved no less. And he was very aware she hadn’t called him by name. Now wasn’t the time to introduce himself to his son, not in the middle of the kitchen, with his hands full of grocery bags.

“It’s a surprise to be here, Mrs. Bradley. I...um...should hand these things to...” He couldn’t think of his sister’s name. Ah-ha! “May. I should give these things to May.” With jerky movements, he handed the bags to May and was careful to avoid Claudia’s eyes. There was so much tension in the tiny kitchen it felt like it was going to explode. Should he excuse himself? Did the boy know who he was? Care who he was? He would keep things vague. He didn’t know what the boy had been told, but he didn’t want to make waves. This was the first time he was face to face with him, but he didn’t want to make any promises he couldn’t keep.

And since he’d given away his rights all those years ago, he didn’t want to anger Claudia now by trying to slip in under her radar. In fact, he doubted Mrs. Bradley would let him.

What exactly had he given up all those years ago? And would he ever be able to get the boy’s face out of his head? Did he want to? Did he deserve to? The child looked healthy. Peter continued to stare at the miniature version of himself, so similar to how he’d looked almost twenty years ago.

When he first pulled into the driveway at his sister’s house, he’d remained in the car for a moment and rested his head on the steering wheel. He didn’t want to go in and face Claudia, much less the boy. He couldn’t even bring himself to call the boy his son. Because he wasn’t.

Peter may have donated the sperm, but he’d never been a father. How could he face the woman he’d professed to love and then left?

He’d grabbed the bags in the back seat and exited the car. He would face her the same way he’d faced business associates through the years. He wasn’t a coward. At least he wasn’t anymore.

And if she wouldn’t even look at him, he’d deal with it. He’d bluff his way through. But now that he was faced with both Claudia and the boy, he didn’t think bluffing was going to do him any good.

“You can put the stuff away.” May gave him back the bags.

Everyone else left the room en masse, no one speaking except for the boy’s chattering. He had never felt more alone in a crowd.

“Make sure you stash the cheese and whatever else you got into the refrigerator. Oh, and thanks for picking everything up,” May said as he continued to stand there, the bags dangling from his hands. “I have this one last tray to set out, and then we’re ready to eat.”

“Okay.”

Something about his one-word response must have hit her wrong, because she put the tray down and really looked at him. She grabbed his chin and turned his head from side to side. “I know that was hard, and I wish there had been more preparation. Are you going to be all right? Did anything happen while you were out?”

“I simply went to the grocery store, May. I’ll be fine.” He ducked behind the refrigerator door, not wanting her to be able to see his face. He’d stay in here forever if he could, to avoid looking her in the eyes right now. He’d been in front of a woman and baby in the grocery store line earlier. He’d made it through the line with his purchases and paid from his wallet, where there weren’t any pictures of the child he’d helped create. The woman behind him was gushing about her newborn and had nearly an accordion file of those plastic inserts to hold wallet-sized photos, all of them filled.

“Isn’t he the cutest thing?” she’d said. “I mean, the birth was hard and all, but to hold him in my arms, to snuggle him—it’s the best feeling in the whole wide world.”