With Strings Attached (20 page)

“I’ve been taking on more responsibility,” she said. “Even though I’m only part-time. They might even make it a full-time job if things go well.”

“That’s so good.” Corey sipped her own iced tea and relaxed a little. It was always something of a relief when her mom was doing okay. “So, were you okay, Mom, when Dad showed up like that?” She studied her mom.

Mom made a face. “Well, I was surprised as hell, that’s for sure.”

Corey smiled. “I guess so. What on earth prompted that?”

Mom looked down. “I asked him that. He said…” She paused. “He said he’s gotten to the point in his life where he should be happy with everything he has. Apparently he started some computer business and has done really well. He says he’s financially comfortable. He’s married again, to a woman he loves.” She said that without any emotion. Corey wasn’t sure if that still hurt her mom, or maybe not after all these years. “He has two stepdaughters. One is married and he has a grandson.” She smiled. “The other daughter is in college. He says he has everything that’s important in life—health and family and financial stability—but he’s always had this feeling something was missing.” She met Corey’s eyes. “He thinks that’s you, Corey.”

Corey’s stomach clenched and her fingers tightened on her glass of tea. “Well, it took him long enough.”

One corner of Mom’s mouth lifted. “Yes. I told him that too. I think he really feels badly about that, honey.”

“Oh, please!” The words burst out of her. “It is way too late for that!”

“He had no idea, Corey. No idea what I was going through. He was just a kid himself. When I told him some of what happened to us, he…he…started crying.” Mom’s own voice thickened and she paused. “I’ve harbored some bad feelings toward him, all these years, but seeing him like that…made me almost feel…sorry for him.”

“Why would you feel sorry for him? He just told you, he has everything he ever wanted. A nice stable family. Probably a beautiful home with a triple car garage and cars for both his stepdaughters. Apparently he could have easily sent money to us.” She closed her eyes, remembering being alone, living on the street, the helpless fear, the cold loneliness.

Mom gave her a funny look but nodded. “I know. He feels a lot of guilt about that.”

“What did he want from me?”

“I don’t know.” She lifted a shoulder. “Maybe just to meet you. But it’s your choice. That’s why I said I’d call and ask.”

“Yeah. Thanks.” Corey shook her head. “I don’t want anything to do with him. Where does he live now?”

Mom almost smiled. “In Los Angeles.”

“Huh.” Corey narrowed her eyes at her mom. “You aren’t going to see him again, are you?”

“No. Of course not. There’s nothing between us any more and he’s apparently happily married. That’s long gone. Actually, honey, I’ve kind of met someone…at work.”

Corey’s eyes widened and she leaned forward. “No way! Who is it?”

“One of the production managers.” She smiled. “He’s divorced. We’ve gone out a few times. He’s very nice.”

“Whoa!” Corey gave her head a little shake. “I did not expect to hear that. But it’s good, Mom. As long as he’s a nice guy.”

“I think he is. So, it wasn’t that hard to forgive your father.”

“Not for you,” Corey muttered.

Mom studied her for a moment. “It’s something you’ll have to decide for yourself. He did leave his address with me, if you change your mind, he said. Ever. Any time. That’s what he said. If you ever need anything, he wants you to know he’d do whatever he could to help.”

Corey snorted. “Well. How nice. But I don’t need anything, and especially not from him.”

“I know.” Mom’s mouth went crooked. “But there you go. You know, sometimes people like to help people they care about. It makes them feel good.”

Corey frowned faintly. “I know that. I like to help people.”

“Yeah, you do. And does that make them weak?”

“No. Of course not.” Corey let that thought turn around in her head for a moment.

“And it makes you feel good, right?”

“Right.”

“So maybe sometimes letting someone help is actually doing something for them.”

Corey frowned.

“How’s your business going?”

They talked for a while about that. Corey downplayed her financial struggles and how tired she was and tried to sound optimistic about her plans to open a store so her mom wouldn’t worry about her, instead focusing on the joy she got from creating her confections and doing something she loved. She knew her mom felt guilty, too, about how she hadn’t been there for her when she’d needed a mother, and even now wished she could do more, but she was barely making it financially herself and was in no position to do much that way. But seeing her mom healthy and happy was enough, and relief and a warm soft happiness flowed through her as they talked.

Corey glanced at her watch. “I should call Matt. He drove me down here.”

“Where is he? Why didn’t he come in?”

“He went for coffee. To give us time alone. I didn’t know if you’d want a stranger here while we talked about Dad.”

“Oh. I suppose. He’s not exactly a stranger. He’s a friend of yours.” Mom eyed her quizzically. “You two are still just friends?”

Corey bit the inside of her lip. She hadn’t exactly told her mother that she and Matt slept together. “Yep.” She sent him a quick text message that he could come pick her up, and she told her mom about Dylan and his injury, mostly to make conversation since her mom didn’t know Dylan at all.

Matt buzzed at the front door a short time later, then knocked at the apartment door. “Hey,” he said, walking in, and Corey was momentarily struck by his presence in the small apartment, how big and solid and reassuring he was, how she felt so secure and cared for that he was there to drive her home. He greeted her mom with a warm flash of white teeth and those sexy dimples. “Nice to see you again, Ms. Fenwick.”

“You too, Matt,” she said. “We’ve had a nice visit.”

“Great.”

They made a little polite chitchat and then Corey hugged her mom, feeling unexpectedly emotional. “I’m so glad you’re doing well,” she whispered. “And I want to meet this man.”

Mom nodded, her eyes a little damp. “You will. Soon, I hope. You’re so busy, though.”

“I’ll make time. I will.” She nodded and held her mother’s gaze. “Call me.”

She and Matt headed back to his vehicle.

“Looked like she’s doing okay,” he commented once inside as they buckled their seat belts.

“She is,” Corey said, smiling at him. Her mood had lightened considerably since the drive down, now she’d seen her mom, knew she was okay, knew her dad hadn’t done something to set her back in any way. Even though she still had a car with a flat tire sitting beside the freeway. And didn’t want to spend money on new tires. And had had to swallow her stubborn pride and let Matt come get her so she could actually make it to visit her mom.

She related their conversation to Matt. She had nothing to hide from him, nothing about her father, her mother, her painful past that few people knew about. He was such a good listener.

“I’ll put your spare on when we get back to your car,” he said a while later. “And I’ll follow you to the garage so you can buy new ones.”

She took in the firm set of his jaw. “Okay,” she agreed with a sigh. Dammit. When she was done with the swimming lessons, she was going to take a course on auto repair.

Chapter Thirteen

Matt took off the flat tire and put on her spare. “Take it to Mario’s Auto,” he said. “I know Mario and he’ll give you a good deal.”

“Why?”

He grinned at her. “Because he likes me. Come on, I’ll come with you.” So he followed her to the tire store, where he helped her when she got all baffled and flustered trying to choose tires. She didn’t even know what size she needed, for Chrissakes. He negotiated good-naturedly with Mario, and they left her car there to get them installed and balanced, ready the next day.

“Let’s go for pizza,” he said. “Wait in the Jeep, I’ll be right there.” When she was gone, he handed Mario his credit card and quickly paid the bill for the tires. She’d be pissed, but too damn bad.

“What’s Dylan doing?” she asked when he returned. “We should go get him. I’m still kind of worried about him.”

Guilt nudged him that he hadn’t even thought of Dylan. “Yeah. Sure. Give him a call.”

They picked up Dylan at Matt’s place and went to Slice of Heaven Pizza on Shore Drive. When they passed by the little shop that Corey was interested in, she pointed it out and stared out the window wistfully at it. Something squeezed inside him and a desperate desire to get that for her, somehow, rose up inside him. He wanted her to be happy. He wanted her life to be easier.

He fought back the weird feelings as they sat and ate pizza and drank beer, joking around. He watched Corey and Dylan, looking for signs of…what? Signs that maybe they had in fact slept together at her place. Dylan was watching Corey too, looking at her kind of hungry and kind of…frustrated. And she almost looked embarrassed, at least at first, but as they talked, she relaxed and her smile grew easy again, even for Dylan. She told Dylan how Matt had rescued her and Dylan shot him an amused glance.

“I thought you had work to do today, buddy,” he said.

“I did,” Matt replied with a shrug, holding Dylan’s gaze. “Had to help out a friend, though.”

“You’re a regular white knight, aren’t you?” Dylan’s usual grin took the edge off the words that might have been a dig.

Matt laughed. “Yeah, right.”

Corey divided a look between them as she picked up a slice of pizza. “Well, thank you again,” she said. “I really wanted to see my mom. I was kind of worried about her after my dad showed up like that.”

Matt smiled at her. “Any time, candy girl. You know it.”

She looked down and gave a tiny nod.

“I can take you back to the shop to pick up your car tomorrow,” Dylan spoke up. “Matt probably has to work and I’ve got nothing going on, other than another therapy appointment at three.”

Matt’s jaw tightened, but he smiled and nodded. “Great.” Good thing he’d already paid the bill.

Dylan then entertained them with a story about a girl at the gym who’d been running on the treadmill, dropped her iPod and bent to pick it up and ended up being thrown off the treadmill and landing in a heap on the floor.

Matt laughed, too, but watched Corey and Dylan interact, an easy familiarity between them that made his nerves twitch. He shifted closer to Corey on the bench. “Have you got lots of orders to make?” he asked her.

“Actually, I’m not doing too badly. I worked hard so I could take the time off today to visit my mom. I wasn’t sure how long I’d stay.”

“Good. Come on back to my place for a while then.”

“I guess I could. Hey, did I tell you about the guy who called and ordered like ten boxes of chocolates out of the blue?”

She filled them in on that, all happy about the big order as they paid the bill and walked out to his Jeep. The night air was cool and damp, a little fog starting to roll in off the ocean.

“That’s cool,” he said, reaching out to move a strand of hair the wind had blown across her face. “See? Word is getting out.”

“I know it is.” She smiled with a determined set to her lips. “And it’s good.”

At Matt’s place he opened bottles of beer for them to try.

“Hey, I like this,” Corey said, lifting the bottle to examine the label. “Porpoise Pilsner.”

“Yeah.” He grinned.

“You gotta be kidding me,” Dylan said. “Seriously?”

Matt laughed. “You bet, buddy. Whaddya think?”

Dylan tasted it and made a face. “It’s pretty good.”

“Asshole. It’s fantastic.” Matt kept his good humor firmly in place. “It won a silver medal at the Great American Beer Festival last year. It’s made with a Czech lager yeast. The judges described it as having a ‘soft palate billowing with luscious malt and hop flavors’.”

“That’s right.” Corey held up her bottle. “It did win an award! It really is great, Matt.”

“Luscious,” Dylan said. “Huh. You and Corey with your palates and savoring and flavors. Beer and chocolate.”

Corey laughed. “We could get Jaclyn from the wine store in here to talk about wine tasting. And I bet Neve could give us a good lecture on coffee cupping.”

Matt frowned. “Coffee what? Neve?”

“Er…” Corey blinked. “You know. Coffee tasting.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Coffee tasting?”

“Never mind. You know, if I had a store, I would totally do chocolate tasting lessons.”

Matt let her words sink into his head, forgetting about Neve for the moment. “Hey, yeah.”

“Chocolate tasting lessons?” Dylan asked.

“Sure,” Corey said, enthusiasm lighting up her face. “I could show people how I make chocolate—that’s what got me hooked years ago. Teach them about the beans and how they’re grown and how they’re processed and make them appreciate everything that goes into really good chocolate.”

“Beer and chocolate,” Matt said slowly, his mind turning. “You said beer and chocolate.”