Love in a Nutshell

ELEVEN

Matt wasn’t wholly anti-tradition. For example, he got a real kick out of Christmas, especially now that Maura had given him twin nieces to spoil and had another baby on the way. Thanksgiving was a winner, too, since his dad and he had a turkey hunting contest each year. Spaghetti Tuesdays, however, had to die.

The rite had started in junior high, and he’d always been on the losing side. Even when he was backed up by half the football team, they were no match for his sharp-witted sisters. Over the years, Matt had developed empathy for those poor, wild Thanksgiving birds looking down the barrel of a shotgun. It had been a while since he’d attended Spaghetti Tuesday, but he had no delusions. His sisters would cut him no slack. And heaven help Kate if she wasn’t on her toes. His sisters weren’t mean, but they were mercilessly honest.

“Let me know the second you start feeling tired, and I’ll get you out of here,” he said to Kate as they approached the house.

“I appreciate the sentiment, but we’re not even inside yet.”

“The offer still stands.”

She laughed. “Come on, Matt. How bad can it be?”

“It all depends on whether you’re the diner or the main course.”

They reached the porch, and Matt held the door open for Kate. The sounds of laughter and conversation rolled from the back of the house, along with the scents of garlic and spices from his mom’s amazing spaghetti sauce.

Kate ran a hand over the oak banister that had been scratched and worn by generations of tough Culhane kids. “This house is awesome,” Kate said.

“It is.” Matt ushered her past the entry, through the living room and into the dining room, where everyone always tended to gather.

All eyes turned their way. Matt could feel Kate hesitate. He didn’t blame her. His sisters were quite the crew.

“Everyone, this is Kate. Kate, this is… everyone.”

His mother laughed and approached them. “Matthew. Have you lost all your manners?”

Matt gave his mom a hug. “I just didn’t want Kate to feel like there’s a quiz at the end of the introductions.”

Matt’s mom smelled of the rich, flowery perfume she’d worn for as long as he could remember. She looked great, too. Her silver-threaded dark hair had been twisted into a knot, and while her khakis and blue sweater were standard mom-clothes, she wore them with flair.

She held out a hand to Kate. “I’m Matt’s mother, Mary, and you’re Kate Appleton. I remember you as a youngster. You were such a cute little thing with all those blond ringlets!”

Kate shook his mom’s hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Culhane.”

“Please, call me Mary.”

“Okay.” Kate handed Matt’s mom the shiny gift bag she’d been tightly gripping. “I brought a little something. It’s not much, but my mother taught me never to arrive with empty hands.”

His mom pulled a bottle of Chianti from the bag and laughed. “This is exactly what Barb would have brought, too.”

Kate’s eyes widened. “You know my mother?”

“Of course. It’s been years since we’ve had the opportunity to spend any real time together, though. Back before we all got too busy with children and life, there was a group of us that would get together at Bagger’s now and then during the summer.” smmebus She smiled. “In fact, I recall one night when your mother and I had a contest to see who could get the most tips while dancing on tabletops.”

Kate was dumbfounded. “My mom? At Bagger’s?”

Matt’s mom nodded. “Harley’s place was very different in those days. It was the trendy spot to go, like Matt’s is today.” She gave Matt’s arm a little pat.

Matt liked that his mom was proud of him. He was proud of her, too. “Are you thirsty, Kate?” he asked.

His mom eased into hostess mode. “We have water, milk, soft drinks, coffee, tea, wine-and Patrick, my husband-he’s out back with the men-mixes a mean dirty martini.”

“Thanks for the offer, but a soft drink would be perfect.”

“I’ll be right back. Matt, introduce your sisters before the other guests arrive and it gets too confusing.” Matt’s mom gave Kate a sunny smile. “You know, I’m so happy Matt decided to bring a girl along. It’s been forever!”

He just hadn’t had the right incentive, Matt thought. For Kate, though, he’d be willing to do a year of Spaghetti Tuesdays. And that was just for starters.

MATT TURNED to the family table, where a hugely pregnant woman-and Kate thought that in the very kindest of ways-sat with a woman identical to her, except for the burgeoning belly. Opposite them sat Lizzie and a twenty-something woman with wildly curly light brown hair.

“Kate, you know Lizzie,” Matt said. “Next to her is Rachel, and across from them are my sisters Anne and Maura. Maura’s the-”

“Don’t you dare say I’m fat,” Maura cut in, then winced. “Sorry, rogue hormones. I know I’m only having one this time, but I swear I feel like it could be three. Especially today. Just call me Supercrank.”

“I was going to say that you’re the oldest among us, but I’m guessing that wouldn’t have scored me any points, either,” Matt said.

Maura smiled. “Not a one.”

“Maura and Anne are twins. I was born next, Lizzie eleven months after me, and then Rachel last.”

“We surrounded him,” Anne said.

Kate had no doubt that they had… and still did to this day.

“Where are Todd and Jack?” Matt asked.

“Outside,” Lizzie said. “Hiding, I think.” She focused on Kate. “Todd and Jack are Maura and Anne’s husbands, respectively. They have coming to Spaghetti Tuesday but never really making it into the house down to an art.ȁ san MauD;

Kate sat in the open chair in front of her.

“If you want to go hang outside with the guys, that’s fine,” she said to Matt.

“No way. I don’t trust anyone at this table not to fill you with lies about my youth.”

Rachel leaned forward, smiling conspiratorily at Kate. “Lies? Why would we have to bother with that when the truth is so entertaining?”

Matt smiled. “See what I mean? I’m going to go grab a beer.” He shot Rachel a mock stern look. “Try not to do too much damage while I’m gone.”

“So,” Anne said as soon as Matt had moved off. “Word at the market is that you and Matt went away for the weekend.”

Kate wondered if she was going to have to post a notice on the market bulletin board disclosing the truth of her nonrelationship with Matt.

“We were up in Traverse City for a day, but it was just business,” she said.

“Business?” Maura asked. “What business does Matt have in Traverse City?”

Yikes! She’d screwed up already. But in her defense, she never would have thought that his family didn’t know what he was doing.

“Well, sort of business. There were a couple of brewpubs he wanted to check out… a little comparison shopping, you know? Anyway, he asked me to go along. It was just a day trip.”

“I don’t know,” Rachel said. “It sounds like a date to me.”

Kate shook her head. “Trust me, it wasn’t. I’m not dating right now, anyway.”

“Why?” Maura asked.

“Maura! It’s none of our business,” Anne said. “But don’t let that stop you if you feel like answering, Kate.”

Kate laughed. She liked these women. In just minutes, she’d grown more comfortable with them than she was with her own sister, Bunny. Of course, Kate wasn’t in the position of constantly being held up for comparison to the Culhane sisters, as she was to Bunny. And despite the goofy name her sister chose to go by in lieu of Barbara, Bunny was one fierce competitor: top of her class, rainmaker in her law firm, and very strategically married. Kate had never measured up especially well.

And Mary Culhane’s story of Kate’s periwinkle-stationery-loving mother dancing on a tabletop had been a mindblower. Her family had been all about proper manners and proper clothing and proper country clubs and schools back in Grosse Pointe. The idea of Barb Appleton table dancing was as improbable as Kate becoming an astronaut.

Right now, Kate might as well have been on Mars. No, not Mars. This place was warmer and a whole lot more hospitable, but still just as foreign.

“I got divorced about a year ago. After that, I decided until I get the rest of my life in order, dating can wait. Plus, I tend to make some pretty atrocious decisions when it comes to men. I’ve got a whole lot of stupid to figure out.”

“Matt’s not an atrocious decision,” Lizzie said.

Kate gave a little involuntary smile. Lizzie was right. “Well, anyway, my life definitely isn’t in order.”

Matt returned from the kitchen with his beer and a tall glass of cola for Kate, then rounded the table to take the open chair at its head. “That’s my motto: Matt Culhane-he’s not atrocious.”

Lizzie laughed. “So just how much of our conversation did you catch?”

“Enough.” He took a swallow of his beer. “And to save Kate further embarrassment-and you guys a whole lot of extra snooping around-I do have a few business things going on in Traverse City. Remember that Tropicana Motor Inn that Mom and Dad would take us to?”

“Yes,” all the sisters chimed.

“I just wrapped up a purchase and renovation deal on it.”

Anne raised her eyebrows in amazement. “You bought the motel with the hokey flamingos painted on it? Now, that is an atrocious decision.”

Maura scowled. “I like those flamingos!”

“So do I,” Matt said. “The place was sitting vacant, so I picked it up. And I’m just sharing this with you so you’ll get off Kate’s case about the two of us dating. And no more commentary about my flamingos or my dating choices, or I’ll start dredging up your old dates.”

Everyone was silent. No one wanted to discuss their dating history. It was Lizzie who changed the subject.

“Hey, isn’t that annual beer festival thing in Royal Oak coming up in a couple of weeks? You should take Kate along.”

Kate’s somewhat homesick heart jumped. “Royal Oak? Really? I used to live there.”

Matt nodded. “I remember you mentioning that.”

He turned to Lizzie. “I’m going, but I have my usual road crew coming along.”

“The groupies?” Lizzie asked.

“They’re not groupies,” Matt said, then gazed at his beer’s label. Kate supposed he was just admiring his dog’s smiling likeness.

“They follow you from event to event on their own money for the privilege of pouring your beer and hanging your banner. If that doesn’t make them groupies, I don’t know what does.”

“There is the sexual connotation,” Rachel said. “I don’t think that applies.” She paused, then added, “My university is teaching a class on the Grateful Dead as part of its cultural anthropology curriculum. Groupies would be an interesting topic, too.”

“Rachel is working on her master’s degree,” Anne said to Kate.

Matt looked just a little annoyed. “All the same, they’re not groupies. The thought of Harley and Junior as groupies could mess up a perfectly normal guy for life.”

“I could pour your beer and hang your banner,” Kate said.

“Actually, you can’t pour his beer off-site since you work for him,” Lizzie said before Matt could speak. “It’s against state law for microbrewers.”

Rachel pointed her finger at Lizzie. “Exactly. Which is why Matt has the groupies. Or sometimes one of us goes along, but with Maura due any second now, we’re not up for a road trip.”

“Other than Harley and Junior, who are your roadies, if I’m not allowed to call them groupies?” Lizzie asked.

“Mayor Mortensen and a couple of others have mentioned they’ll be there, though they plan to catch a Pistons game, too, so I’m not sure how much actual pouring help they’ll be.”

“I could at least hang your banner,” Kate said.

Anne smiled. “That definitely sounded suggestive.”

“Okay, here’s another thought,” Kate said. “I could sell Depot Brewing merchandise.”

“I don’t bring merchandise,” Matt said.

“You should,” Kate told him. “If you sold hats and tees downstate, you could really get your name out there.”

He nodded. “I’m betting you’re right.”

“Where in Royal Oak is the event?” she asked.

“In the Farmers’ Market building, downtown.”

“I used to work a few blocks east of there, on Washington Avenue.”

“One street away from most of the restaurants and bars, right?” Matt asked.

“Exactly.”

“They’ve mixed it up some this year with a private charity party thrown in on Friday night. Great for them, but I lose my whole day on Friday now, since I have to be set up earlier.”

“So an extra set of hands would be good. I could help.”

Kate wanted this so much, and not just to see Royal Oak, either. Kate wanted to be wi sntet of hanth Matt.

“I’d like that,” Matt said, and their eyes held for a long moment.

“But really, guys. They’re not dating. Not even a little bit,” Lizzie said in a deadpan voice. “Can’t you tell?”

Maura made an odd sound. “Okay, and I’m about to be not pregnant. Not even a little bit.”

“What do you mean?” Lizzie asked.

Maura settled a hand on her belly. “I’ve been trying to be cool about it, but all of a sudden my contractions are getting pretty aggressive.”

Matt stood up. “Contractions, as in labor?”

“Bingo. I thought it was just Braxton Hicks lead-up stuff, or we would have stayed home. After all, who wants to disrupt a perfectly good Spaghetti Tuesday?” She closed her eyes for a moment and blew out a slow breath. “Guess I was wrong. If this is anything like last time, it’s going to be fast. Lizzie, could you go outside and round up Todd?”

“Sure,” Lizzie replied, then headed out through the kitchen doorway.

“You can still take the girls for the night as we’d planned, right, Anne? They’re upstairs playing in my old room.”

Anne pushed back in her chair. “No problem. Let me get Jack and we’ll go take care of things at your house.”

Lizzie reappeared with a tall, dark, and semi-worried-looking guy Kate knew had to be Maura’s husband.

He rounded the table and took Maura by the hand. “I told you those contractions were the real deal, babe. Your suitcase is in the trunk, right?”

“Todd, this is Kate. Kate, this is Todd,” Maura said.

Kate had to give Maura major props for having good manners during childbirth. She doubted she’d be able to show the same grace.

“Nice to meet you,” Todd said to Kate, but his eyes never left his wife.

Kate gazed at the empty doorway after Todd and Maura left the room, smiling at each other, holding hands, and Kate realized she’d wanted that love and connection when she’d fallen for her ex. She might not have gotten it quite right back then, but she recognized a solid relationship when she saw one.

When she glanced away, she caught Matt watching her, and the warmth in his eyes had her heart skipping beats.

Matt’s mom leaned her head out of the kitchen, ending the moment before Kate was quite ready to have it over. “Matt, could you and Kate take care of putting away dinner before you come over to the hospital?”

And then, suddenly the house was empty of Culhanes, except for Matt.

Th s=”jed witey moved into the kitchen, and Matt began putting plates away. “This is a new twist on Spaghetti Tuesday.”

Kate helped him with the plates. There was something intimate about the two of them being alone in the house, she thought. A little exciting, too.

“Silverware goes in the drawer second down from the end,” Matt said.

They worked in silence for a minute or so, then he asked, “So you’ve seen my crew. What’s yours like?”

“Smaller. Different.”

“Any sisters?” Matt asked while digging through the contents of a lower cupboard.

“One sister and one brother. Bunny and Chip.”

“Seriously, those are their names?”

“Well, actually Barb and Larry, just like my mom and dad. Everyone calls them Bunny and Chip to save confusion.” She pointed to a harvest gold-colored plastic bowl filled with salad greens. “Do you know where the top to this is?”

He rummaged through the bottom drawer, then paused to look up at her. “So among you summer people, when do adults become too old for names like that?”

“Never. The same holds true in the townie set. Witness Junior Greinwold.”

Matt laughed. “Point taken.”

He handed her the bowl’s lid. “So how’d you luck out and end up without a nickname?”

Kate returned the salad to the fridge. “It was a near miss. Since mom and dad had already used up their own names, they could have moved on to the family parakeet’s.”

“Which was?”

“Spike.”

Matt smiled. “I kind of like it. I think there might be some Spike in you. Remember, I saw you take down the fire chief,” Matt said. “That was definitely a Spike moment.”

Kate squelched a groan. “What should I do with the garlic bread?”

He handed her a box of aluminum foil. “How about if we take the bread and spaghetti to the hospital crew? I know Maura thinks this is going be fast, but I remember what it was like in that waiting room last time.” He smiled. “All the same, it’s totally worth the wait.”

Kate hesitated in her wrapping.

“What?” he asked. “Maybe just the spaghetti should go?”

“No, definitely the garlic bread. But how about if I just help you get things packaged up? I’d feel a little intrusive being there. I mean, Maura and I just met.”

Kate loved what she had seen of the Culhanes, but whatever she and Matt had going on between them didn’t make her family.

“Huh. I guess I wasn’t looking at it that way,” Matt said. “I was thinking more about how I’d like you to be there.”

“You would?”

He came closer and tipped up her chin so that their eyes met. “I like being with you. I like having you next to me. Haven’t you figured that out yet?” Matt lowered his mouth to hers and brushed a light kiss across her lips.