by L. B. Dunbar
God, I like her.
“Charity,” I say as I open the door. “Sorry about that. I didn’t realize I had locked it.” She attempts to peer around me as I hold my hand on the door. I only open it as wide as I can without releasing it, which prevents a view of the bathroom.
“I just wanted to let you know I was leaving for the night.”
“That’s fine,” I say, my voice tight and a little too high. Her eyes search around me, her head tilting. “Is Ms. Cruz still here?”
As if on cue, the bathroom door opens, and Janessa walks out looking as if nothing happened. Her hair is up when it wasn’t when she first walked in, but I don’t think Charity will notice.
“Ms. Bernard,” Janessa states, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear.
Charity’s brow lifts. She totally notices the change. “Ms. Cruz,” she replies, her voice curt and sharp.
“Mr. Harrington,” Janessa addresses me, walking up to me and then brushing between me and the door to exit.
“Janessa,” I whisper as she walks into the outer office, and I follow the sway of her ass in that damn red skirt and ignore the glare of my assistant drilling into the side of my head.
7
Mothers and Daughters…and Sons
[Janessa]
I cannot believe I slept with him again. And even though I’m giggling at first with what we just did, the tears follow as I sit in my father’s truck on the street outside the office. My hands shake as I start the ignition and then pull into traffic. Blue Ridge isn’t a busy town, but for a small community, there seems to be an awful lot of vehicles on the road. It’s a reminder that one part of my job is to learn about the tourism industry here and market to it.
However, I can’t think of anything other than Charlie’s commanding voice, his tender touch, and then his thickness filling me like I’ve never been filled before. He’s everything I’ve never had and should not desire. Smooth on the outside, he’s domineering on the inside, and it’s a turn-on when it should be a warning.
Richard was like that. He was full of charm and promises.
We’ll look so good together, he told me. We’re a team.
Only that team included other players—other women, specifically—and I’d been a damn fool to stay with him.
He promised he’d change.
He’d give them all up.
Well, mostly.
There was always a catch, a clause, an exception, and Richard worked every angle.
When we divorced, it was my fault. I wanted it, not him. However, he hadn’t wanted our marriage either—the sacred vows of love, honor, and faithfulness.
I will not be a fool again, I tell myself as I turn onto Mountain Spring Lane—the Lane, as it is nicknamed by the locals—and park in the coach house driveway. The coach house is nothing to snuff at, but it isn’t large enough for a family of four. My parents generously allow Vega and me to sleep in the second of two bedrooms on the upper level, but the quarters are tight all around. Sleeping in matching twin beds like teenagers, I feel sorry for my daughter more than myself. I love being close to her but as a ten-year-old, the last thing she wants is to share a room with me.
“We don’t have any space here,” she mutters as I enter the room. Our belongings are still primarily in suitcases and boxes. I didn’t allow her to bring all her stuffed animals and toys. Not that she had many toys at ten, but the animals had been in abundance. Pity purchases. Richard buying the affection of our daughter when he missed yet another school activity or an important day in her life.
“Now that I have a job, we can unpack a little better,” I assure her as I step to the small closet and realize we don’t have much more room in there. I only brought necessities with me. I didn’t want most of what Richard had purchased over the years. When the divorce was final, I hadn’t gotten much. I only wanted Vega.
And a nondisclosure agreement that I would not specify I had sole custody.
This could ruin your reputation, his lawyer told him as if his adultering ways hadn’t already damaged him. The press had caught him a few times with someone not his wife. The notion that he’d give up his child was damning, according to his publicist. Richard disagreed.
Giving up Vega was the only decent act Richard did.
Still, I didn’t trust him.
You’ll never belong to someone else, he warned me the night before we left. We’d been living in the same house despite the pending divorce. Richard didn’t spend much time there anyway, but that night, he’d returned.
“Are we staying in Blue Ridge?” Vega asks me, her question full of hesitation.
“Don’t you like it here?”
She shrugs as she looks out the window, which has a partial view of the tennis courts.
“Abuela and Abuelo are so happy we are here.” As someone who grew up with my grandmother, I’ve often thought Vega was missing out on an experience as my parents lived states away and never visited.
“Mami and Papi,” she corrects, referring to my parents with the same terms I use. I haven’t kept up with her Spanish education. She can understand me when I speak my native language, especially if I scold her in the tongue, but she has not picked it up enough to be comfortable speaking it. “And I like getting to know them, but it’s still not home.”
Home. Houston. The lush mountains are a far cry from the bustling city in Texas. Strangely, I like the quiet and the slower pace here. It reminds me of Mexico with my own abuela.
“Baby, we can’t go back,” I tell her just as I tried to tell her when we left. It’s going to be better this way.
Vega nods but lowers her head for the pillow in her lap.
“How was art camp?” I ask, hoping to change the subject as I examine the size of the closet and make a mental note of how it might work for us.
“We’re learning folded paper art.”
“Like origami?” I ask.
“Sort of, but it’s more three dimensional. I can bring my project home in a few weeks.” Her voice remains sullen especially on the word home. I step over my suitcase and around the bed to squat before her.
“You’ll still have everything you had before. School. Art classes. Friends.”
Vega nods, but it’s not the same. She left her friends behind. “You like Lucy, right?”
“I do. It’s just she has everything I used to have, and it’s hard not to mention the things I left behind.”
Ah, my girl is wise beyond her years. “You can tell her whatever you’d like minus Daddy.” Vega isn’t allowed to mention who her father is, which is a hard compromise for a child. His denial of her hasn’t quite sunk in.
“He hasn’t called me.”
My lips roll inward as my brows pinch, and I squeeze her hands. He won’t be calling. “I know, baby. He’s working, remember?”
While she isn’t allowed to talk about him, I’ve also kept it from her that he isn’t allowed to talk to her. Due to the circumstances in which Vega last saw her father, his signing over full custody included no visitation or communication. I’ll only have until the end of the season before my excuses run out for his lack of contact.
She nods as if she understands he’s busy. He’s been too busy for her in the past, but it still stings, I imagine, especially when all that Lucy has includes one doting father. On the other hand, Lucy’s missing a mother.
“Do you know where Lucy’s mother is?” I pry when I shouldn’t be asking a child.
“She says her mother lives in Pennsylvania. She wants to run for president someday.”
Oh my God, that’s huge. “In the next election?” I question. It’s an election year, and I can’t recall all the candidates.
“Lucy doesn’t really talk about her much. I don’t know.”
I stare at my child, taking in her bright eyes, which match mine, and her hair, which is also the same midnight color. What a powerful woman Charlie’s ex-wife must be, which causes me to feel even more powerless. I’m not hiding, I remind myself. I jus
t wanted a fresh start, but the reality sinks in as I squat between two twin beds in the room I’m sharing with my ten-year-old in my parents’ borrowed home.
I’m definitely hiding.
+ + +
Elaina Harrington corners me one afternoon.
“Jan, you must come to dinner, and you can bring your daughter.”
“Excuse me?” I’m completely thrown off by the invitation, especially as I know for a fact my parents have never been invited to dinner at the Harringtons. The other Harringtons. The ones who own Giant Brewing Company and employ a good portion of this town in their company.
I still where I stand. I’m on the edge of the property, near the fence surrounding the pool as I told Vega she needed to be home for dinner. She’d been spending a lot of time at the younger Harrington home, enjoying the pool and the comforts of a more spacious house, but I didn’t want her getting any ideas. Their house is not ours. My mother works for Charlie as does my father.
“I’m having a little party for my son, George. Giant is what we call him, and I’d like you to attend. His girlfriend recently moved to town, and we’d like to give her a little welcome to the family party.”
“That sounds very nice, but I’m not family,” I remind her with a teasing but forced smile. My parents are the help, I grit against my back teeth.
“Oh, I know, but I’m also inviting a few other people, hoping to introduce Letty to women who might be future friends.” Elaina smiles at me. “As you’re also new in town, I thought you might be able to commiserate with her.” She chuckles at her choice of words.
“Lucy will be there, and she’s so bored when it’s only adults. Charlie surrounds her with them. Bring your daughter with you so Lucy has someone to commiserate with her.”
I haven’t seen Charlie since our romp in his office. I’ve tried to avoid him since then because I knew without him telling me that we should not—would not—be doing what we’d done again. As a full-time employee under him as the mayor, I refuse to think of myself under him as a man. Or driving into me like I’ve never had before. His desk. My fingers twitch at my side, fighting the urge to fan my own face with the memory.
“I’ll need to think about it,” I say.
“Well, think quick. The party is tomorrow evening. Say six at our home. We’re the next one over.” She points in the general direction of her house as if I don’t know she lives there. Perhaps, she doesn’t know I live on Charlie’s property in the servants’ quarters.
8
Dates with Blinders On
[Charlie]
“You did what?” I bark, and my mother looks up at me from where she’s double-checking her hors d’oeuvres platters.
“I invited Alyce Wright to the party.”
I know exactly what this means. My mother is trying to set me up. For years, after Angela, after the scandal, she let it go that I didn’t want a woman in my life. The only girl for me was Lucy, but since she failed at linking Alyce to my eldest brother, Giant, she’s moved on to me. Alyce is my younger sister Mati’s assistant volleyball coach (she’s now the head coach) and an English teacher at the high school. She’s fun, sweet, and pretty, but she’s not my type. I honestly don’t think she wants to be linked to any of us Harringtons, but she hasn’t found a way to say no to our mother.
“What happened to Billy?” I chuckle, knowing the brother closest in age to me was skipped in the make-Alyce-a-Harrington plan.
“He has Roxanne,” my mother says, a smile in her voice at my brother’s live-in girlfriend. They had a bumpy start to their relationship, but all is right with their world now.
“Before Roxanne,” I grumble. Mother never tried to set Billy up, and even Giant dodged these awkward situations. Tonight, we celebrate his new girl who is here to stay.
“William was at no loss for women,” Mother states, exhaling under her breath at the rumors of my brother’s wayward history.
“What makes you think I’m missing out on women?” Instantly, Janessa comes to mind. I have been missing out. It’s been a week since I’ve seen her. She’s avoiding me, and with my schedule, that isn’t hard to do. Her office is upstairs in my building, but still, we have not crossed paths.
“Do you have a woman?” My mother’s brows lift as she glances up at me.
“No,” I state emphatically just in time to see the woman I’d been thinking of seconds before walk into the kitchen.
“Janessa?” Her name is a breathless woosh of air from my lungs.
“Mrs. Harrington. Mayor.” Her eyes drift from my mother to me and back to Mother. She’s wearing a wrap dress that hugs every curve and curl of her body, and my fingers fist. I want to outline her form, trace every dip, and slip inside her again.
“Thank you again for the dinner invitation. Is there anything I can help you with?” Janessa’s green eyes shift to the platters, but Mother shakes her head.
“We have servers for tonight,” she says, rounding the counter and walking up to the beautiful woman who won’t look at me.
“Sounds like more than just dinner,” Janessa states, confusion on her face.
“It’s a party,” my mother responds excitedly. She is excited. My eldest brother has fallen in love again after a decade of mourning his deceased wife. “Come, let me introduce you to a few of the girls,” Mother says, wrapping an arm around Janessa. Turning her toward the back hall, Mother leads her out to the patio where the party is set up.
I hang my head once they leave, feeling like someone punched me in the gut.
What is she doing here? And what is Mother up to?
“You look like you could use a beer.” Billy’s voice startles me as I didn’t hear him come into the kitchen.
“I could,” I say. And keep them coming. My brother Billy owns Blue Ridge Microbrewery & Pub, a local favorite and a nice tourist attraction. It’s located on the corner of Main and Third, right in the center of downtown, and draws quite a crowd. It also sells the family heritage, Giant Beer, which is a bonus. I’m the one who broke tradition. Well, sort of the only one. My thoughts leap to James, the black sheep and missing member of the Harrington brothers, but I only think of him for a second. My history includes going to law school, moving to Philadelphia for a bit, and then returning to run this town, not the brewery and not an establishment supporting it. My parents are proud of me despite diverging from the family business.
In the long run, you running this town will benefit us, George Harrington Jr., my father, stated when I told him I planned to run for mayor. At first, the town didn’t openly support me. They wanted someone older, old-school, and who had been a consistent member of the community. I won that first election by the skin of my teeth and the promise of a pending family. Angela was pregnant. But when I ran a second time, I almost lost the town’s trust because of a few things I don’t want to think about. No thanks to Angela. Charity Bernard’s father was a huge help in that matter. I owed Ford Bernard, which is how the congressman business started.
I see bigger things for you, son. You’ve done great things, but you could do even greater things for our community by stepping up a notch, Ford told me in the beginning of the year. I’ve been blowing off decision-making. It’s already June, and with elections in November, I’m taking a pass on it this year but haven’t told anyone of my conviction.
Angela was the one interested in high-stakes politics. My ex-wife is up for re-election as a senator in Pennsylvania. Her campaign is not doing well. This reminds me I owe her a phone call about Lucy’s hesitation for a summer visit. I sigh when I think of Angela.
“Here,” Billy interjects, handing me a beer as I’ve been lost in my thoughts. “Did you see that hottie Mama’s escorting all over the place?”
My eyes narrow at my brother. “Yeah, I’ve seen her.”
“She has your name written all over her.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” I say as I lower the bottle I just drank from.
“Curves for miles and a Jennifer Lop
ez vibe.” Billy winks at me.
“Just because you had a poster of her as a teen on our wall does not mean I have an obsession with her,” I clarify, reminding my brother of the room we shared.
“You sure enjoyed her, though.” Billy holds a fist near his zipper and yanks forward a few times.
“William, don’t show your brother how you play with yourself.” Ah, saved by Roxanne. Thank God.
“Hello, Roxanne,” I say as Billy’s girlfriend walks up behind him and wraps an arm around his waist. He slips his around her shoulders and brings her head to his for a temple kiss.
“I’d never show my little brother what you do to me,” he teases, switching up what she said.
“You’re incorrigible,” she states, rolling her eyes at him.
“Incredible, you mean, and that’s why you love me.” He gives her another quick kiss, and it’s all too much for me.
“Get a room,” I mutter.
“Got one upstairs.” Billy turns back to me. “With a poster for whenever you’re ready to loosen up that tight ass of yours.” Billy chuckles, and I shake my head. He’s always been the crude one in the family. As for the tight ass comment, I’m used to that, and I hate it.
My ass is not tight, I think, which reminds me of Janessa’s hands on it, squeezing and teasing, and holding me to her. I swipe a hand down my face.
Fuck, maybe I do need that poster for some relief after all.
+ + +
Eventually, we’re called to an elaborate spread at my parents’ elongated outdoor dining table with twenty plus people. It’s a mix of my nieces and nephews, plus my siblings, their significant others, and my parents. Then there’s Alyce, Janessa, and Vega, clearly outsiders to this gathering, and to my surprise, Ford Bernard, his wife Rebecca, and Charity. The Bernards are one of our oldest family friends, Ford being Dad’s best friend.