Chapter 17. Cait
CAIT
Cait watched as Luke, with an easy flick of his wrist, slammed the nail half an inch deeper into the tree log using the thin wedge of a strangely shaped hammer.
“That was sick,” Finn said.
Luke gave Finn a fist bump like they were best buds. If Luke hadn’t brought a date, Cait might have appreciated how at ease he was at the house and with her family. Now he just seemed arrogant and clueless.
“Let me try again,” Finn said.
Luke handed him the hammer.
The goal of Hammerschlagen—to level your nail first—didn’t seem all that difficult, but Luke was the only one who’d even managed to make contact with his nail so far, so Cait supposed she must be missing something. Luke claimed to have learned the game while rock climbing in Joshua Tree.
Cait didn’t really care. She was tired of waiting for him to offer her more than a breezy “Hey,” as though she wasn’t the person he’d come here to see.
She stood on her toes and leaned into his ear as inconspicuously as she could manage.
The smell of his skin, an almost woodsy aftershave, sent a thrill through her body. “Can we go somewhere to talk?”
“Of course,” Luke said, but his eyes were on Finn.
Finn pounded his nail’s head, but the shank bent sharply to the right, and the whole group laughed.
“It’s all good,” Luke said, clapping him on the back.
As Luke showed Finn how to align his nail, Kyle sidled up to Cait. “Have you talked to Mukesh yet?” he asked her.
“You just introduced us. Remember?”
“I meant, he’s moving to London. Maybe you can help him settle in. Introduce him to people. He’s a lawyer, too. Or is it a solicitor?”
“Please don’t.”
“Barrister?”
Cait rolled her eyes but smiled.
“Sorry.” Kyle laughed. “Anyway, he’s a great guy—”
Cait pivoted to Kyle and said this loud enough for Luke to hear. “Are you trying to set us up?”
“Not necessarily, but—”
“Okay, everyone,” Luke said. He held on to Finn’s shoulders, infuriatingly oblivious to Kyle and Cait’s conversation. “It’s my boy’s turn. Pay attention.”
Finn raised the hammer and slammed it on the tree stump a good three inches away from the nail.
“Aw!” Luke handed the hammer to Kyle. “It’s all right. Next time.”
Cait grabbed the hammer from Kyle’s hand. “My turn,” she said. “What is this thing anyway?”
“A blacksmith’s hammer,” Luke said.
“How do you play?”
“You use the wedge side to whack the nail,” Luke said. “No lining it up. Just hold it in the air like this. Girls can use two hands, so—”
“I’ll bypass the sexist rules, thanks.” She raised the hammer and smacked it dead-on the head of her nail, lowering it a good half an inch into the wood. It was complete beginner’s luck, but she handed the hammer back to Kyle as though she knew exactly what she was doing.
Luke whistled in admiration.
“How’d you do that?” Finn asked, almost affronted.
Cait gestured as though she was polishing her fingernails on her lapel. Through the window, Nicole walked toward the bar, probably trying to find Luke. Cait leaned into Luke’s ear again. “Now,” she said, somewhere between a question and a demand. Kyle eyed them, but she didn’t care.
Instead of responding to Cait directly, Luke pointed at Finn with his beer glass. “Take my turn, buddy. I’ll be right back.”
Once alone, they stepped into the house, and Luke wrapped his arm around Cait’s waist and pulled her closer.
She thought he would kiss her, and looked forward to rebuffing him, but then he walked down the hallway.
At the far end, he stopped at a collection of her mother’s paintings.
They were primarily landscapes from her garden, with a few she’d painted of Ireland.
Taking up the other side of the wall was a framed pencil sketch of the original plans for the Folly from 1912.
“I can’t believe your family held on to these,” Luke said.
Cait had never noticed the handwritten note in the corner, which read, Crafted for the Ryan family . She hoped Alice’s warning about their parents having to leave the house was just her sister being overly dramatic. Could things be that bad and she didn’t know?
Luke looked at her. “It’s really nice being back here,” he said. “Just like old times.”
The comment didn’t sit well with Cait. How could it possibly feel like old times? Despite Alice’s accusations, Cait understood the significance of inviting him to the house, and she didn’t like how nonchalant he was being about everything.
“Like old times when?” she asked. Luke let out a laugh. He didn’t get it, which annoyed her even more, and she heard herself say, “Like when our brothers were alive?”
Now he did get it. He tightened his jaw and stuffed his hand in his pocket. “That’s where you want to go?”
That was not where Cait wanted to go. But she’d said it after all, and her mind returned to the day after Daniel died when she and Topher met Luke on the seawall outside the Folly, and Luke told them his mom didn’t want anyone from the Ryan family attending the wake.
Cait could still remember the shame she felt for hoping that she and Luke might carry on with their romance despite all evidence that would never happen. And yet, here they were.
Instead of responding to Luke’s question, she pulled him through the door and closed it behind them.
Luke looked around at the wood-paneled walls. “What is this?”
“My mom’s painting studio.”
“I’ve never been in here.” He studied a miniature painting of geese on the dresser. “I remember seeing her paintings in high school and thinking it was cool that your mom was an artist.”
He stepped closer, and Cait took a step back. “What’s with you bringing a date?” she asked.
Luke shook his head. “We work together. I told you yesterday I had plans with a friend, and you said to bring her.” He held Cait lightly by the elbows. “I’m here to see you. Nothing’s going on with Nicole. I actually thought it might make things easier having her here.”
“Easier? For whom?”
Luke put his hands on his hips. “Look, it’s no secret what your parents think about me—”
“It was never about you .”
“Fine. What they feel—or felt?—about my parents. I didn’t want them thinking I was coming back into your life to, I don’t know, disrupt things.”
“Oh, come on.”
You are disrupting things! You’re disrupting everything!
“Besides, you’re the one who said we should keep things quiet,” Luke said. “Until we know what’s even going on here.”
There was a knock, and before they could answer, the groan of the door opening.
“We need more nails,” Finn announced behind Cait’s back. “James wants to play.”
“He can use my nail,” Luke said.
“But then he’ll be winning before he even starts—”
“Finn,” Cait said. “Please?”
When Finn left, she turned back to Luke. “What is even going on here?” she said.
Luke seemed unnerved by the question. “I don’t know,” he said. “I thought we were trying to figure that out, but you’re making things complicated by—”
“Me?” she said, taken aback. “How am I the one making things complicated?”
Luke reached for her again, but now the door was open, and from the other room, Nora was announcing that dinner was served and where was everyone.