Chapter 14. Cait #2
Luke noticed Cait looking his way and gave her a casual wave. You asshole . She gestured to the hallway, hoping to talk to him privately, but his expression turned serious, and he pointed toward something at her feet.
“Mummy!”
Cait felt a pull on her skirt. Like a silent movie, she looked down and watched Augustus’s mouth open and close until finally, as though someone had turned on the sound, she could hear the panicked “ Mummy, Mummy, Mummy, Mummy. ”
“Darling,” she said, grateful for the distraction and a moment to reorient herself. “What’s wrong?” She was keenly aware that Luke was still watching her as Augustus explained that Poppy was upset because Papa said he would kill the raccoon.
“He’s just teasing,” Cait assured him, but Augustus grabbed her hand and walked her to where Poppy sat at the bottom of the stairs.
Cait scooted next to Poppy and wrapped her arms around her shoulders, pulling her in close. Sure, she was performing a bit for Luke, but who wasn’t putting on a show in this room?
“Papa’s not going to hurt the raccoon,” she swore to Poppy, and made a note to pass along that promise to her father.
Poppy stopped chewing on the end of her braid and jumped to her feet. “He said he’ll shoot her because she’s rapid!”
“ Rabid ,” Cait corrected.
“Who’s going to shoot who?”
Cait looked up at Luke, standing before them and smiling that stupid, exquisite smile.
The nearness of his body, the crinkles in the corners of his squinting blue eyes, hair full and thick but also silvered—oh, it all enraged her.
She turned toward the fireplace and Father Kelly, who was talking to the brunette—why was she so familiar? —then back to Luke.
She tried to wipe away the cookie crumbs she now saw Augustus had gotten all over her skirt as she introduced Luke to the twins. Augustus shook Luke’s hand and Poppy huffed, then slumped onto the bottom step, spread eagle.
“She’s sad because my dad’s trying to get rid of a raccoon,” Cait explained. Sweat prickled along her forehead and upper lip. She wished she could pinch Poppy to let her know she should behave, but that would only make things worse.
Luke kneeled next to Poppy. “A raccoon, huh? They’re pretty tough to be friends with, you know? They’re mean.”
“No, they’re not!” Poppy said. “They’re lovely!”
Thanks, Luke.
Cait steeled herself—rattled by Luke’s date and humiliated by her inability to calm her own child. Poppy was headed toward one of her full-on tantrums, which she somehow always seemed to time perfectly to humiliate Cait.
Luke apologized to Poppy and stood.
Cait followed. She straightened her skirt and kissed him quickly on the cheek. “When did you get here?” she asked.
Luke went to answer, but Poppy grabbed hold of Cait’s leg.
Cait’s cheeks flared as she looked down at Poppy. “Mommy’s trying to have a conversation,” she said. She turned back and indicated for Luke to continue, but Poppy shrilled.
“Do you need to, uh—” Luke said.
When Cait looked down again, Poppy’s face was red, and tears poured from her eyes. Cait reached for her hand to pull her up, but she resisted.
“You’re hurting me!” Poppy yelled, and then Augustus joined.
“I’m going to bring her upstairs for a nap,” Cait said to Luke, who looked on with a mixture of concern and—Cait could feel it!—judgment.
“I’m not taking a nap!” Poppy sobbed. “I’m not tired!”
Alice appeared from around the corner. “Is everything all right?” she asked.
“She just gets this way when she’s tired,” Cait said through gritted teeth.
Cait dragged Poppy up the stairs. Inside the bedroom, she did her best to contain her anger and embarrassment, because if she let loose on Poppy, she would never get back downstairs.
She brushed Poppy’s hair, matted to her sweaty forehead, to the side, and said, “Come on, darling, let’s lie down together on the bed.
” When Poppy protested, Cait could no longer contain herself, and she scooped her up and brought her to the bed.
She held on as Poppy thrashed and yelled about how she wasn’t tired and raccoons were lovely and she wanted to play with her cousins and she missed Juju and didn’t like her Furby because it made scary noises.
Then Cait remembered something.
In the bathroom, she dug out the Children’s Benadryl from the twins’ toiletry case.
She read the instructions, skimming the part about not using the medicine to make your child sleepy.
To assuage her guilt, she only gave Poppy half the recommended dosage—after bribing her with one of Nora’s licorice allsorts—and finally got her to lie back down in the bed by letting her cuddle with an old, discolored teddy bear that had sat on the armchair by the window since Cait was a kid.
She rubbed Poppy’s back and answered her endless questions about the teddy bear—What’s his name?
Where’d you get him? Can he be mine?—until she dozed off.
Cait climbed off the bed cautiously, fixed her hair, and refreshed her lipstick.
She kissed Poppy on her sweaty forehead, assuring herself Poppy would not slip into a coma, then headed back downstairs to find out what the hell was going on with Luke.
But Luke was nowhere to be found. Cait spotted his friend—date?
—at the raw bar talking to Mukesh and Kyle.
A server approached and offered Cait a cranberry brie bite, but she said no and walked to the group, straightening her back and holding in her stomach.
She wrapped her arms around Mukesh’s and Kyle’s shoulders.
The brunette was asking how exactly one eats an oyster.
“With your mouth mostly,” Cait said. She reached for a half shell and inspected its pearly meat. “Swallow it whole,” she said, “or, if you’re a barbarian, you can chew it a little.” She placed the shell to her mouth and did just that before introducing herself.
The woman giggled—she was pretty enough, Cait could now see, but mousy and skittish, and this realization emboldened Cait—and said, “I know who you are!” She held her hand to her chest. “Nicole. We ran track together at Saint Mary’s.”
Nicole Shirley. Of course. She was younger by two or three years—maybe Alice’s grade? Cait remembered Nicole used to cry when she lost a meet, which, Cait thought as they shook hands, happened frequently enough that it didn’t seem to warrant tears.
“Ah,” Cait said, flipping her hair back. “The good ol’ Flying Hawks.” She prepared another oyster. “Let me help you. For your first one, try it like this—” She topped the oyster with a few drops of vodka and lemon and handed it to Nicole.
Nicole held up her hands as though Cait was offering her poison. “I’m good,” she cackled.
Cait winked at her, then shot the oyster down herself. She scanned the room for Luke, but instead Alice approached, as stressed as ever.
“Can you—” Alice began.
“No,” Cait interrupted her, excusing herself from the circle and heading toward the bar. There was no more ginger beer for the Moscow mules, so she ordered a Hendrick’s and tonic instead. As she squeezed in an extra lime, Alice appeared at her side.
“You need to step it up,” she whispered into Cait’s ear.
Cait pulled back. “Excuse me?”
“Do you know how much I do around here to help our parents?” Alice spat. “All the cleaning and grocery shopping? Guess how many doctor appointments I took them to last week.”
“They can drive.”
“Mom’s finally driving again now that her knee’s slightly better, but have you driven with Dad lately? He’s turning eighty in—”
“Thanks, I know our father’s birthday.”
“You return home and make your grand entrance, acting like everything’s perfect, all Don’t mind me for dropping by every five years , and the one time I need your help—”
“Did I not arrange for this entire day to be catered?” Cait said. She was so tired of Alice making her feel inadequate when it came to taking care of their parents, like nothing was ever enough.
“You footed the bill,” Alice said. “And it’s absurd, by the way.”
“I was trying to help!”
“This?” Alice shot back. “You think this is what they need help with? Or first-class tickets to visit you in the Cotswolds? They can’t afford long-term care insurance.
Have you seen the roof? It’s rotting! And don’t even get me started on the taxes for this place.
I actually don’t know how much longer they’ll be able to stay here, but you want congratulations for—”
“Wait, slow down.”
Alice narrowed her eyes at Cait. “All of that is not even the point,” she said. “What I’m trying to say is that having Luke here is hell for Mom. She’d been looking forward to spending time with you and the twins and you’ve turned this day into something else entirely.”
Cait stiffened. “I don’t even know where he is—”
“On the back porch with Finn and Kyle setting up some game with a tree trunk and a weird hammer.”
“Hammerschlagen.”
“Ha,” Alice said. “As if his family hasn’t done enough to nail us.”
“Okay,” Cait said. “You need a drink.” She turned to the bartender. “Can you make her a—”
“I don’t need a drink,” Alice said. “I need you to help me.”
Cait studied her sister. “Are you—” But before she could finish, Alice grabbed her arm and looked over her shoulder. “What’s wrong with Maggie?”