Look to the Rainbow (11 page)

     The morning papers had been quite something. John hadn’t been exactly pleased, but as Skip pointed out, no one was talking about Kel’s health today. He laughed out loud as he remembered Skip’s brief comments to the press that morning.

     “What are you laughing at?” Kimberly asked, turning around from the front seat.

     “At Skip’s comments this morning.”

     “How did that go again? Yes Senator O’Brien does know Miss McCaffrey. No, I couldn’t possibly comment on whether or not this is the first time he has ever kissed her. What I can verify at this time is that to the best of my knowledge they have not made plans to marry, have children or buy pets together.” John recited the quote word for word, but then it had been replayed a million times over if you counted YouTube hits.

     “Sometimes they ask the stupidest questions,” Skip said. “But if I were you Kel, I would tread lightly around Tara’s dad, because I get the feeling for some reason he really doesn’t like you.”

     “Thanks Skip,” Kel said as they pulled into the driveway. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

      Tara greeted them in the foyer and made a point of kissing Kel. She wasn’t all together certain her family was watching, but she wasn’t going to not kiss him if they were. She could tell that surprised him a little, but he smiled back at her and said in hushed tones, “Would you like to get a dog together?”

    She broke into laughter and said, “I thought that was the funniest thing I’ve ever heard. Skip is a media star now.” She took his arm and said, “I’m not sure everyone thought it was funny, though.”

    Looking at her father’s expression as he entered the living room he knew who she was talking about. He extended his hand to Michael. “It’s nice to see you again Mr. McCaffrey.” Michael shook his hand, but didn’t offer any pleasantries.

     Julia, on the other hand, invited them to sit and said to Kel, “You look
exactly
like your father. But then John looks so much like George too.”

     Michael did ask about George and Lily and talked with John and Kimberly, and even Skip, but didn’t make any attempt to talk with Kel. Jack and Tara tried to cover up their father’s social shortcomings and then Julia called them to the dinner table.

     The conversation seemed to go around Kel during dinner as well. Michael made it abundantly clear he was not interested in including him, which Kel wasn’t sure if he found irritating or amusing. After dessert, John made excuses for an early departure and Tara walked them to the door and stepped outside, closing it behind her.

     “I’m sorry, I don’t know what is wrong with my father this evening. Normally he isn’t that rude.”

      “He probably isn’t used to seeing his daughter on the front page of every newspaper,” Kel said. “It’s all right.”

     “Where are you going tomorrow?” She was sad to think she would be flying back to Newport and he wouldn’t.

     “Florida. We still don’t have enough delegates to be the clear candidate, so we need to hit them hard before their primary.”

     “I’ll miss you.”

      He pulled her close and kissed her. “I’ll miss you too.”

     “How long before you come home again?”

     “Two weeks. I have to take some time to talk over the wedding with Janet before she disowns me and I really need a break from being on the road.”

     “Take care of yourself.”

     He kissed her again, a long slow kiss. “I’ll call you.”

     She watched him walk away and leaned against the door. Two weeks was going to be a very long time.

Chapter Ten

     It had gotten dark while Mary Katherine anticipated Evan coming home. She knew she needed to put away the photo album before he came, but she wasn’t able to do it. In her hand, as she sat on the window seat in their bedroom, was a photo of her and Harry. The last one before he died. In the last rays of light she stared at it, overwhelmed by how much she still felt for him. There were flowers on the nightstand. You couldn’t blame Evan for trying. The flowers were always either waiting or in his hand when he got home following one of her photography trips. She heard the front door close and Evan’s footsteps on the stairs.

     “Mary Katherine?” He came in the bedroom. “Why are you sitting here in the dark?”

     “You’re late,” she managed to say.

     He sat beside her on the window seat. “I’m sorry. I got called to the ER. Did you miss me?”

     “Of course I missed you.”

       He spoke softly in her ear. “Did you miss me
a lot?
”

     She couldn’t. She had wanted to make him happy, but she just couldn’t, not today. “Evan, I know you were hoping for a romantic few moments tonight, but it just isn’t going to happen.”

     She moved her foot slightly and knocked the photo album off the window seat. Evan uttered a few choice words under his breath and stood up. “What is it? His birthday?  The anniversary of your first kiss? The thirty-fifth date?”

     She said through a sob, “It’s the day he died.”

     “He died twenty years ago Mary Katherine. Why do you keep holding on to a memory and pushing me aside? I’m here, he isn’t.”

     “Evan, I know you can’t possibly understand. I don’t expect you to. You haven’t had that kind of deep physical relationship, that kind of passion.”

     “No, I haven’t! But not because I didn’t want that with you. Because that is what I thought we’d have when we got married. I didn’t expect twenty years of begging you for a few token favors while you throw me aside to cry over a dead boyfriend who might or might not have loved you as much as I have. ” He started toward the door.

     “Where are you going?”

     “Out.”

     “Out where?”

     “Just out, anywhere besides here with you while you walk down memory lane. I’m sorry Mary Katherine, but I just can’t hold you and comfort you while you cry about him tonight. I’m getting really sick and tired of there always being three people in our bedroom.”

     He slammed the bedroom door and slammed the front door as well.  Mary Katherine cried as she took another look at the photo in her hand and picked the album up off the floor and replaced the photo carefully in its place. She stood and lifted the seat of the window bench and put the album away. She closed the seat again and realized that she had never been able to put it away so quickly before. She went in to the bathroom and splashed cold water in her face and combed her hair and put on a little make-up. She forced herself to walk past the window seat without extracting the album again and paused as she reached the bedroom door. On the dresser nearby was a framed wedding picture. She picked it up and tears came to her eyes again as she saw the expression of complete adoration on Evan’s face as he looked down at her.

     Casey opened the door and saw Evan standing on the front porch. “Evan! I thought Mary Katherine was coming home tonight. Don’t you guys have plans?”

     Evan stepped in the door frame and as she closed the door, he took her in his arms and kissed her. Not the usual friendly kind of kiss he always gave her, but a real, grown up passionate kind of kiss, the kind she had only ever shared with him in her dreams. She closed her eyes and kissed him back until he abruptly stopped and pulled away from her and sank down on the floor and leaned against the wall. Casey sat on the floor beside him and waited for him to speak.

     He didn’t. Instead he looked down at his left hand and twisted his wedding ring around. She broke the silence. “Evan what’s going on?”

     He said, “I had a fight with Mary Katherine.”

     “About what?’ Casey had never, ever heard a cross word spoken between Evan and his wife.

     “The same thing we always fight about.” He looked at her shocked face and smiled just a little, but sadly.  “We don’t fight often and we don’t fight about petty things. I’m not sure I can tell you what it is we
do
fight about. I don’t want you to feel differently about Mary Katherine.”

     “I love you and Mary Katherine. Nothing you could tell me would change that.”

     “But you are shocked that we argued.”

     “Yes. I didn’t think you were capable of being mad at someone you love.”

      Evan said softly, “You didn’t think me capable of committing adultery, either, but I came close to doing that just a few minutes ago.”

     “Is that what you were doing?”

     “In all the years I’ve been married I have never been attracted to another woman and I certainly haven’t ever kissed anyone else like that.”

     “But you are attracted to me and you did kiss me.” It was a statement.

     “Yes.” He looked at her, sitting next to him on the floor, with her hair cascading over her shoulders, wearing a short black skirt and white silk blouse and high heels. “I need to be away from the house for a little while longer. Maybe you could change into something less distracting and we can talk?”

     She stood and went to change and he moved to one of the sofas facing each other in front of the fireplace. Casey’s townhouse reflected her personality and was filled with family photos and her own original artwork. She was working on her degree in interior design. A leather bound sketch book lay on the coffee table. He was familiar with it, he’d given it to her for Christmas five years before. Engraved on the cover was the quote by Hippocrates,
Vita Brevis, ars longa.
Life is short, art endures. He opened the book and found it filled with drawings of her family and friends, including himself and Mary Katherine. He put it back on the coffee table as Casey came back into the room in jeans and a sweater and bare feet. She sat on the sofa opposite him and tucked her feet up under her.

     “Don’t sit there. It feels awkward and makes me feel more uncomfortable than I already do.” It was true. She had always sat beside him, even when she was little. Others in the family had even been known to move so she could have her place beside Evan. She got up and went and sat next to him and rested her head on his shoulder.

     “Better?”

     “More normal, anyway.” He put an arm around her.

     “Where do you usually go when you have this fight?”

     “Sometimes I go for a run. Sometimes I drive around. Tonight I came here. I really didn’t come here with any intention of forcing myself on you.”

     “You kissed me, I kissed you back. Let’s just leave it at that and not make it anything it wasn’t.”

     He sighed deeply and they sat in silence for several minutes. Casey was one of those people that he could share silence with and not feel compelled to talk. Sometimes he felt as if she could read his thoughts .They had always been that way. He looked at his watch and said, “I’ve been gone long enough. She’ll worry if I’m not back soon.”