Текст книги "Family Love"
Автор книги: Liz Crowe
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Текущая страница: 18 (всего у книги 20 страниц)
Chapter Twenty-Two
New York City
Two Years Later
“Come on, Angel, I told you what time to be here.” Aiden’s voice grated on my nerves, but I forced a smile, reminding myself that at least one of the Love family members had a right to be a diva. His fourth book had just been released, and he was in New York for a book signing.
He’d brought the whole damn family, and I’d promised them tickets to one of the big shows, thanks to my connections working in the promotions department for the theater in question.
I sighed and spun my chair, wishing I had the nerve to open my own dance studio, and recalling the conversation I had with Gayle about her planned expansion in Lexington.
“Come home, Angelique,” she’d pleaded with me. “I need your help.”
But I was not going home. I couldn’t face it and all it represented for me, especially knowing Calvin and his wife lived there.
In the two years since my divorce, I’d maintained as much distance as I could, skipping the Love family Christmas with excuses about busy seasons and whatnot involving my new, lame-ass job that at least allowed me to stay in the city. But this year, I knew I’d get roped into the melee. I had about six weeks to figure a way out, but part of me didn’t want to do that.
“All right, all right, hold your water,” I said, grabbing my purse and heading out into the cool, early November air. “I’m coming. I’m just a few blocks away.”
“Hurry, will ya?” He hung up.
Deciding that to walk there would be quicker and cheaper than hailing and paying for a cab, I started hoofing it toward the giant bookstore, where, I was told, they’d had to issue tickets for the A.L. Amatore book reading and signing.
Aiden had taken our father’s family’s old country name as his pen name. The movie based on his first book, the one chronicling our parents’ wild and crazy start as a couple, was being filmed in and around a horse farm in Virginia, since hardly any decent farms remained in Kentucky.
I’d stayed in touch with Cal after he made that trip down to Florida, catching me at my absolute worst. He and his wife, another doctor he’d met and dated in med school after I took a powder and mailed him his ring back like the loser I was, lived in Lexington now with a mortgage, a dog, probably even a white picket fence. But no kids. A fact that gave me a completely inappropriate sense of satisfaction. I tried not to resent the hell out of the woman, considering I’d never met her. I usually failed.
The whole family was descending on my city for this weekend, complete with kids, teenagers, the works. I’d dreaded it like the very plague, but now that the big day had arrived, I found myself looking forward to guiding everyone around, taking them to a show, to some great restaurants, seeing the familiar-to-me sights through their fresh, un-cynical eyes.
I noted the long line out the door of the bookstore, and experienced a thrill of pride for my youngest brother. Although I was also a little squeamish about having my parents’ early lives splashed all over the big screen. Aidan had used different names, but it was well known that he’d based it on their story.
Sometimes, especially lately, a waitress or checkout girl would do a double take at the sight of my name, then shoot me a knowing smile, or flat-out ask me if that sexy Italian stable hand was my father.
I hadn’t read the book, and I didn’t think any of my brothers had, either—even Kieran, the one among them who actually read books.
But today was all about Aiden, “Little A,” as he’d been referred to until he got old and big enough to put a stop to it.
His wife, Rosie, and their kids—Jeff, now an angst-riddled teen, and Mandy, their energetic little girl who’d apparently decided she wanted to be a horsewoman like her grandmother—had been flown in by his publisher and put up at an expensive downtown hotel. He was doing the circuit—national morning talk shows, a few late night ones, and two big signings. Today was the first.
By the time I got past the guy at the door by flashing my VIP pass and made it up to the second floor, everyone was there.
Mama and Daddy had flown in with Antony, Kieran, Margot, and Cara, along with all their kids.
Dominic and Diana drove up with Jace and LeeAnn, planning to leave their kids with various aunts and uncles and cousins while they spent a week at a bed and breakfast near Ithaca. A working vacation, Dom claimed, since he was guest brewing at a famous craft brewery up there. They’d been married for nearly six years, after a rudimentary justice of the peace blessing, but had never gone on a honeymoon. Too busy with the brewery and the expansion of the pub menu, since Diana had taken over that kitchen, they claimed. Kieran said Dom said they believed it would be a jinx to have a ceremony, which made our mama nuts, but she adored Diana so she stayed mostly quiet on the subject.
I hugged everyone, exclaimed over kids, including AliceLynn’s new baby. I’d been the maid of honor at her wedding right after my divorce. That had been, in a word, humiliating.
“You’re late,” Mama said, and rubbed something off my cheek with her finger.
“Don’t spit shine me.” I ducked out of her reach.
She frowned and sighed, shouldering her purse and glaring at the growing crowd. “I hate these things,” she said. Daddy put an arm around her and kissed her forehead. “How’s the job?”
“Fine,” I said, unwilling to explain how much I hated it.
The doors had finally opened, and the long line was moving forward, headed to the escalators. Rosie gave Aiden one more kiss, then herded her kids over to us. Mandy latched on to her grandma.
“Let’s go find a horse book,” she insisted. Mama smiled and smoothed her curly brown hair.
I glanced over my shoulder and spotted Antony with his son, Josh, Mandy’s counterpoint cousin, born within hours of each other. The boy had his mother Margot’s looks, coolly blond with ice blue eyes, but the Love family jaw line and chin dimple. Since he was growing into his father’s attitude, I knew they were in for a seriously wild ride once he discovered how his stark, aloof good looks would be catnip to girls.
Kieran had Sean, his youngest, on his shoulders. Cara stood next to Frankie, their oldest. Margot was fussing over AliceLynn’s baby nearby.
My breath caught in my throat at the sight of them all. Desire for stability, a good man, and a family had been consuming me lately. I figured it was my biological clock, tick-tocking away within my apparently barren body. Explicit and constant dreams about Calvin Morrison woke me nearly every night, leaving me pissed off, feeling sorry for myself, and insomniac.
A sharp smack on my butt made me shriek. Dom stood behind me, shit-eating grin on his face. Diana walked over to hug my parents. Jace had her little girl LeeAnn by the hand. The child was the spitting image of her father, Lee, the vet. I wondered how Dominic could stand it. But we all knew LeeAnn had him so tightly wrapped around her tiny finger, he was a total goner. Which, the entire Love family executive board agreed, was about damn time.
We all turned to look at our youngest brother Aiden, who was sitting, sipping water, and looking sheepish at the sight of the masses of people who’d come to hear him read and have him autograph their book.
“Fuckin’ bookworm,” Dom said, his grin getting wider. “I always knew he had ‘famous’ written all over him.”
My sense of peace in the presence of my entire family ought to have been a warning. Nothing was ever this calm or perfect or wonderful for the Love family.
I saw her first.
I don’t know why I picked her out of the crowd. I’d been talking to Cara and Kieran while their little boys raced around the room, ostensibly being watched by the older cousins.
“Got a promotion,” Kieran was saying.
“Oh?” I’d said, preoccupied for some reason with a woman in the line waiting with the latest A.L. Amatore novel tucked under one arm. I frowned, wondering why she was bugging me. “Oh, wait, you’re gonna be principal? Of our old high school? Wow. Weird.”
“Yeah,” he said, grinning. “And there’s more.” He waggled his eyebrows at me. Cara elbowed him. “Ooof, hey, what’s that for?”
“We weren’t going to say yet, Francis.” She used the short form of his middle name in a way that made me smile. “This is Aiden’s weekend, remember? Besides, it’s a total accident,” she said to me. “I’m too damn old. Sean’s almost nine already. My doctor is pissed off at me. That’s such a weird thing, making your doctor mad.”
“Everything’s a competition with these knuckleheads,” I reminded her.
She touched her stomach in a way that told me her news without words. I hugged her tight. “I think it’s great, Cara. I know you wanted another one, and you’re not too old, I’m sure.”
She pulled away, looking at me funny. Embarrassed to be caught being emotional when I knew damn well I was flat-out jealous of all this flipping wonderfulness. Where was mine? I wondered. I didn’t want to think that way, but I did anyway.
You have what you want, Angelique, remember? You live in New York City. You don’t have to deal with your mother every day. Hell, you barely deal with her twice a year anymore. Shut up and quit moping.
I looked for her just then. I’m not sure why. Maybe to reassure myself that keeping my distance was the best way, justifying my self-inflicted isolation by catching her bossing somebody around or doing her passive-aggressive nosy thing with one of my brothers or their wives or kids. When I finally caught sight of her, she was standing behind Aiden, her hands on the back of his chair. Daddy was next to her. They were staring at that girl I’d been fixated on earlier, the one with the book under her arm, now standing at the front of the line.
I grabbed Kieran’s arm and jerked my chin in the direction of the tableau at the book-signing table. Aiden’s agent stood slowly, then glanced over where the rest of the Loves were milling around, being the semi-celebs we were, thanks to my brother’s first book.
Mama’s expression made me worry the girl had a gun or something.
“Ow,” Kieran said calmly, peeling my fingers off his biceps. “What’s going on?”
The agent lady turned to face us and made a “come over here” motion. I glanced around. Antony was talking to Dom and holding his grandbaby. Kieran sidled over to them and said something I couldn’t hear. Antony tried to hand the baby to me, but Cara stepped in and took her.
The room was getting louder by the second. Confused, with a strange buzzing sound filling my head, I looked at the autograph seekers. They were restive, craning their necks and talking to one another. Aiden’s agent walked around the table and started down the line. They seemed somewhat placated by whatever she was telling them.
I stood, bracketed by my brothers. Aiden rose to his feet, pointed at the girl, then turned to glare at our mother. He was obviously furious. I’d never seen such an expression on his face before. It sent a bolt of panic straight through me.
“Let’s go,” Antony said, striding toward the table. Kieran and Dom followed him. I stood, frozen, unable to imagine what could have made Aiden so mad. Someone gave me a little shove from behind.
“Go on, Angel,” Diana whispered. “Looks like a family thing. And whether you want to admit it or not, you’re part of the family.”
I frowned at her. She’d not exactly avoided me since the whole Cal debacle, but since I hadn’t really made myself available to the family for so many years, she didn’t have to. Her face was grim, her jaw set. “Please. Go on over, and then come and report to the women, at least?” Her expression softened into pleading.
I nodded, and then headed toward the family crowd now blocking Aiden from my view. About halfway there I heard raised voices. One of them was Aiden’s agent. “Listen, folks, we really need to get this line moving again. People have come a long way to meet Aiden. We can have this discussion after.” Her New York accent grated on my ears. But Aiden didn’t move. He still had his arm up. His finger was still pointed at the girl—woman, I amended—now that I was closer. I did a double take when I got a better look at her.
“Excuse me,” I said, shoving Antony aside so I could stand in front of everyone, behind the table, facing the line of increasingly pissed off readers and fans and one woman who, if my eyes did not deceive me, could be my youngest brother’s female twin. She had his odd, hazel-shaded eyes, plus his nose and lips, his somewhat heart-shaped face. Tears were pouring down her cheeks at that moment. “I’m sorry,” she said, glancing behind Aiden to my parents, who were still frozen in place.
Mama’s eyes were so wide I thought they might pop right out of her head. Daddy had his arms crossed and looked … not angry, but grim.
Rosie and Mandy appeared on Aiden’s other side. Mandy slipped her hand into her father’s. He glanced down, seeming surprised to see her.
“What’s wrong, Daddy?” she said. “Are you okay?” Rosie looked at me. I shook my head and shrugged, still utterly confused by this whole scene.
“Who’s that?” Mandy pointed to the crying lady. I sucked in a breath, noting that little Amanda Lindsay Love was a miniature version of the woman. Aiden dropped the arm he’d had raised and put it around his daughter’s shoulders.
“Apparently …” he said, his voice loud enough to make the five or ten people behind the woman stop talking. He cleared his throat and closed his eyes a split second.
Mama grabbed his arm but he shook her off, hard, shocking me. Dom ducked around to catch her, since Daddy did not seem too inclined to assist her when she stumbled.
“Je-sus,” I heard Kieran. “What fresh hell is this?”
“Apparently, this is my sister. Or my half-sister,” Aiden said, speaking to Mandy, but keeping his eyes on the woman in front of him. “It would appear that my father—” his voice broke.
Antony moved quickly to Aiden’s side of the table, but Aiden shook him off, too, reaching for his wife instead. “My father has just died and left a little revelatory note in his will for his children. About me.” He whirled fast. Mandy frowned. Rosie had her hand over her mouth, staring at the Aiden-twin woman who’d stopped crying and was standing there, looking resolute.
Dominic had his arm around our mother. She looked horrified, glancing from Aiden to the woman and back to Aiden. My heart raced. Kieran was making noises behind me, but I no longer heard him.
“Mama,” Aiden said. “I’m guessing there is something you’ve neglected to tell me? Perhaps you should do it now.”
The agent lady stepped between them, steering Aiden around the table and whispering in his ear. My brother’s face was so red I feared for his life. He glared at the woman, then dropped into his seat and put his head in his hands. I shoved my way past Kieran, Daddy, Dom, and Mama, and crouched down beside him.
“Aiden, honey,” I said, smoothing his hair. He was shaking and muttering under his breath. “Listen, let’s keep this show going. People paid good money to meet you, and the natives are getting restless. We’ll work this out later. Okay? Pull it together.”
He glanced at me. His non-Love hazel-colored eyes were bright with unshed tears. I put my hand to his cheek. “Chill out, brother,” I said. “Seriously.” He nodded, swiping at his eyes.
Rosie put her hands on his shoulders. I stood up and gestured for the woman to move away from the front of the table. Looking into her eyes freaked me out. I won’t lie. She was such a perfect female version of my brother it made my chest ache. “Let’s move this into a more private place, okay?”
She nodded.
Behind me, I heard Mama’s voice. “I never meant … I didn’t …”
“Not here,” Daddy said. “Let Aiden finish. We’ll finish this up at the hotel later.” He took a deep breath. “Bring your mother, boys. I need some air.”
He met my gaze for a split second. His dark eyes were sad, but he didn’t look furious or even mildly irritated. Just sort of resigned. Then he turned and walked away from us, heading for the elevator. Mama broke away from Dominic and ran after him. “Anton, wait!”
But he got into the elevator, turned, and held up his hand. “Not now, Lindsay,” he said. She stopped and we all watched the doors close on him in silence.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“You know, I never thought anyone could top my crazy-ass shit,” Dominic said, passing me the bourbon bottle. “Dang,” he said, staring out into the cold New York midnight sky. We sat in the rooftop bar of Aiden’s hotel, empty but for my three brothers and me. “Especially not my own mother.”
“Yeah,” I said, taking a hit from it and passing it to Antony. He waved it away, so I gave it to Kieran, who took a long pull.
“Who would’ve guessed? Mama …” I let my voice trail off.
“They are only human,” Kieran said. “They were young, and Daddy’s about as stubborn as they come. I finally read Aiden’s book. It’s pretty, um, revealing about a lot of things. I didn’t realize Mama had told him so much about, you know, early marriage days. Money troubles, Daddy refusing to allow Mama to use her Halloran inheritance money, fights, stuff like that.” He shrugged.
“For fuck’s sake,” Antony growled, getting up to pace the empty bar.
“You were the reason they got married you know,” Kieran said.
“You think I don’t know that, Francis?”
“What a mess,” I said, leaning into Dom. He draped an arm across my shoulders and we drank and reflected on the appalling scene in my parents’ hotel room earlier.
“I tried to convince Aiden that, since Daddy had known or figured it out pretty quick and had not booted Mama out of the house over it, he ought to just get over it. He is a Love brother. We all know it. Right?”
“Yeah,” Dom said. “But no, at the same time. I mean, it’s weird. It would freak me out, for sure. I don’t know.” He sighed. I sighed. We watched our drunken oldest brother pace the floor.
I rubbed the bridge of my nose. Our father had done his own revealing as well, and the idea that my parents had each had affairs did a number on me. On the one hand, I understood it. But the little girl part of me refused to accept less than perfection—from my father, at least.
“When you’ve been married as long as they have, and gone through what they’ve gone through …” Kieran shrugged again.
“Stop fucking making excuses for them,” Antony said, halting his tenth circumnavigation of the empty bar. “God damn it.” He stood there, quivering with rage, as if he’d been the wronged husband who’d—as Aiden had put it—had some other man’s son passed off as his for almost forty years. “Give me that,” he said, lurching at me to grab the near-empty bottle.
“Nope,” Dom said, snagging it and finishing it off. “Chill the fuck out, Antony. This is not your fight.”
The two of them glared at each other. The sound of Aiden’s voice made us all jump. “Hey,” he said. He stood with his hands jammed down into his trouser pockets.
I got up and hugged him. He held onto me, and then took a deep breath. “So, um, Lindsay and Anton are gonna leave a few days early. No big surprise, I guess, huh?”
Antony stomped over to him. Aiden held up a hand. “No, this is my issue. I don’t need your righteous indignation on my behalf.” He looked up at the ceiling, then down at us. “I’m sorry, y’all. It’s, um, not exactly how I wanted this weekend to go.”
I put my arm around his waist. But he was stiff, practically quivering with a combination of emotions I didn’t want to pretend to understand.
“It’s done, Aiden,” Kieran said in his teacherly voice. “It happened a long time ago, and, well, Daddy knew, and he didn’t do anything about it. You know he loves Mama. They love each other. I think you—”
Aiden shook his head. “Let me fill you in on my perspective. I just found out that I am not a blood member of this family. I’m not a Love. I’m a Patterson, whatever that means. This man, my real father, died. He was a rich SOB and now I’ve got some serious dough coming my way.
“So I’m gonna take it, and we’re moving. Rosie’s turned down too many promotions at the bank in the name of keeping the Love family together. Now it’s obvious we should have been thinking about our own family.” He shrugged.
“That is bullshit,” Antony growled, dropping into a chair. “Oh, fuck me, I’m drunk.” He leveled his dark glare at our youngest brother. “Stop acting like a teenager with a bug up his ass over nothing, Aiden. You are a member of this family. You’re a Love brother. You always will be. Take the money and … I don’t know, buy a bigger house or something.” He leaned forward, elbows on the empty table. “Don’t leave. That’ll kill her,” he finished with a low voice.
“Yeah,” Aiden said, his voice flat and emotionless. “I died a little myself today, Antony. Thanks. This is our decision, mine and Rosalee’s. I can’t stand to look at Mama right now, or Daddy, for that matter.” He turned away from us.
“But, what about …” I began. He faced us again. In spite of my own wild-ass life choices, I’d never felt so desperate. The crazy that represented my family’s life was about to drift apart. “Aiden, don’t.”
He frowned at me. “Fine talk coming from the girl who’s done nothing but leave the family behind her entire life. Maybe it’s my turn now. Maybe I need space again from all this fucked-up, stupid drama.”
“Fair,” Dom said, getting up and stretching. “I’m gonna hopefully find my room now.”
Aiden glared at him, then got into the elevator and let the doors close behind him without turning to look at us again.
I bit my lip and glanced at my remaining siblings. Antony was sprawled in a chair; overwhelming it with his bulk, hand over his eyes. Kieran still sat on the barstool where we’d been gathered earlier, leaning on one elbow, looking contemplative.
Dom stood, looking at me, his dark eyes unreadable. “He’ll never do it,” he said. “He’ll never leave.”
A week after Christmas, a For Sale sign appeared in the yard at Rosie and Aiden’s modest little bungalow a few blocks from downtown; and they were, indeed, gone. There had been no final blowup or fight. They simply faded, leaving behind my parents who, according to Kieran, were starting to resemble polite but not-quite-friendly roommates.
Aiden called me a few times, asking about schools and whatnot in the city. I tried to get him the information he wanted, praying they would move close to me. But in the end they chose the West Coast, as if saying, “this is as far as I can get from you and still be in the contiguous United States.”
“Why not move to Hawaii?” I asked, aggravated with him and his dogged determination to excise himself from the family.
“It was on the table,” he said. “But San Francisco won the coin toss.”
“Expensive as shit there,” I said, staring at the freezing cold February night outside my windows.
“I can afford it, never fear. Oh, hey, did you hear about Cal?”
I closed my eyes. “No, I didn’t, but I have a feeling I’m about to.”
“He and his wife split up. Dom said Diana said it was amicable enough.”
“Oh,” I said, sliding down the wall of my tiny kitchen.
“You should call him, Angel.”
“Don’t you start giving me advice, mister.”
“Fair enough. Wallow in your spinsterhood.”
“Nobody uses that word anymore. I’m a carefree single woman in New York. I love my life.”
“Right,” he said, without his characteristic chuckle.
“Go fuck yourself, Leonardo,” I said. “I’m hanging up now.”
I sat on the floor for an hour, staring at Calvin’s name on my phone screen, waiting to get past my own nervousness so I could call him, then deleting it instead.
