by K. A. Linde
She pulled the phone out of her purse and saw her dad’s number. What the fuck?
“Hello?”
“Sweetheart! I’m glad I could reach you. I don’t know what time it is in Spain.”
How does he even know I’m here? I hadn’t told him before fleeing the country. Maybe Pace.
“Hi, Daddy,” she said uncertainly. “It’s midnight.”
“Honey, Celia went into labor. I really need you to come home.”
“What?” she asked. “You want me to fly back from Barcelona for the baby?”
“Bryna,” he said, surprisingly sweet, “I know you don’t approve of this. I know you don’t approve of Celia or Pace or what happened with your mother. But I don’t want you to blame the new baby for those things. She’s going to be your half-sister. Your baby sister.”
Her heart constricted at that word.
“She’s completely innocent in this, and I want her to grow up knowing her sister. I need our family together even though we haven’t been much of a family lately.”
“Lately,” she mumbled.
“Since your mother left.”
“Yeah…left.”
“We’re not perfect. No family is. But without you, we’re not even complete. I’m not going to command you to come back. You’re almost nineteen-years-old, and you can make your own decisions, but I want you here. Celia wants you here. We love you. What do you say?”
Hugh’s face appeared at the door, and he still looked pissed. Great.
She took a deep breath. “I’ll have to think about it and get back to you.”
“Thank you for at least considering it. We hope you come back. Your birthday is next week, and I know we’d all like to celebrate together.”
She was stunned as she hung up the phone with her father. The new baby, her father acting like…a father, him wanting to celebrate her birthday—she didn’t know what to make of any of it.
“Well?” Hugh said. He crossed his arms and looked at her.
She could see all the love and devotion underneath the tension in his shoulders.
Bryna sighed. “I don’t think I can say anything to make this better. I didn’t want to hurt you. I thought we were on the same page. I thought this was what I wanted, but I guess it’s not.” She hated the look of pain that crossed his face. “My stepmother just went into labor in Los Angeles…”
“Then, maybe you should go to L.A. to be with her.”
She swallowed, hearing the dismissal in his voice. “Yeah, I guess I should.”
Hugh closed his eyes and released a deep breath. “Here.” He held out the box with the necklace. “Keep this.”
She stared at it, slightly horrified. “I can’t take this.”
“I’m not going to return it or give it to someone else.” Their eyes met across the distance between them. “And I’d say you’ve earned it.”
Bryna flinched at his harsh words as he placed the necklace in her hands. “I wish it hadn’t turned out this way,” she told him truthfully.
“Yeah, well, I was the idiot who fell for it.”
“Hugh,” she whispered.
He shook his head. “I really don’t want to hear it. Take your spoils and go.”
She pushed the box back into his hands. “No. I don’t want it. You shouldn’t give it to me. I don’t deserve it.”
“Fine.” Hugh flung the box over the balcony.
Bryna’s mouth dropped open. She looked over the side and listened to the crunch as it hit the ground four stories below them. “I can’t believe you just did that.”
“It was worthless.” He turned his back on her and looked out at the city. “Just go.”
She tilted her head, refusing to acknowledge the wobble in her chin at his words. She deserved his anger. But it was for the better that it was ending. She couldn’t keep living this life, and she didn’t want to hurt him. He was a good guy. He needed to find someone who could love him back just as fiercely.
As she staggered out of the ballroom to pack for her journey back to Los Angeles, she wished that she could have been that person for him. But once again, she found it was all one big lie.
AFTER SIXTEEN HOURS IN FLIGHT and three layovers, Bryna finally landed at LAX. She was exhausted and probably needed to sleep for a week straight, but she was home. The crisp Los Angeles air hit her full-on, and she soaked in the warm early morning sunshine.
Home.
A cab drove her through the insufferable traffic that she definitely hadn’t missed and straight to the hospital. She had no idea what she looked like. She was carting around her carry-on, and she felt totally run-down. The only good thing about all of this was that she had mailed the rest of her luggage to her parent’s house, so she wouldn’t have to deal with it.
A nurse directed her to the hallway where Celia’s room was. Bryna’s father was standing in the waiting room. The twins, Lacey and Kacey, were sprawled out on sofas. One was reading on a Kindle while the other played video games. Both were completely checked out.
“Hey, sweetheart,” her father said.
She fell into his arms, and he hugged her tightly against him. For a split second, she felt like a kid again. Her daddy could fix anything. He could make the hurt go away. She had always been a daddy’s girl.
He kissed the top of her head. “It’s good to have you home.”
“It’s good to be home,” she said.
Her dad stepped back and smiled down at her. “Celia’s excited for you to meet your sister.”
Bryna’s hands were sweating. Through all of this, she had tried not to think about what exactly she was coming home to. She knew nothing about babies. Growing up, she hadn’t had a younger sibling. She didn’t know anyone who had been pregnant where she would have to be around a baby. The whole thing made her anxious.
“Don’t worry. You’ll be fine,” he said, as if reading her mind. “There were some complications at first, but everything is okay now. Go on in and see them while they’re both still awake.”
“All right,” Bryna said.
She was resolved to do this. She took a deep breath and then entered the hospital room. Celia was lying in bed. She looked exhausted, but she was holding on to a small bundle in her arms and didn’t even seem to notice her own fatigue.
“Bryna.” Celia looked up at her with a wide smile. “I’m so glad you came.”
Bryna shrugged uncomfortably. “Dad said there were problems?”
“I’m almost forty. It was expected. What’s important is you meeting your new sister.”
Celia offered Bryna the baby. She noticed how nervous Bryna was and showed her how to cradle the baby in her arms. Bryna was still shaking and freaked out, but she wasn’t going to drop her. The baby was so little. That would do some serious damage.
“What’s her name?” Bryna asked.
“Zoe Ava.”
“Hi, Zoe,” Bryna cooed.
Shit. She did not just fucking coo at a baby. Who the hell is this person inhabiting my body?
“You’re such a little thing,” she said to Zoe.
Celia laughed. “She’s actually perfectly healthy. Seven pounds and three ounces. Simply beautiful.”
“Fatty,” Bryna joked.
Zoe stared intently back up at her.
Celia shook her head. “She likes you.”
“She’d better,” Bryna said, not taking her eyes off of the baby. “I’m awesome.”
Celia laughed again. “You’re good with her. I knew you would be.”
“I don’t like babies,” Bryna said to Zoe. “But you’re family now. I guess I can’t let you turn out like the rest of them.” Bryna frowned at her own joke. She had wanted it to be funny, but all things considered, it wasn’t even true. “On second thought, we should get you a nanny who speaks a couple of languages. Then, you can talk circles around your mom and dad and turn out better than all of us.”
Celia’s eyebrows drew together. “Are you okay?”
“I don’t kno
w,” she admitted.
“I know we haven’t gotten along in the past, and I pushed you too hard to try to be a family. But I truly only wanted the best for you. It might not seem like much, but I want to be family for you, and that doesn’t mean anything more than this right here, if you don’t want anything more. Know you are always free to talk to me…maybe just as a friend, if that’s easier.”
Bryna didn’t take her eyes off of Zoe. She couldn’t look up at Celia with all of her sincerity. This was the woman who had ruined her life and wrecked her parents’ marriage. Bryna was here for the baby. Yet Celia had sounded so heartfelt.
Zoe fussed, and Celia held her hands out to take her from Bryna. Once she was cuddled back against her mom, Bryna took a deep breath and sat down on the chair next to the bed.
“Tell me what happened with my dad. I only know the aftermath. Divorce, and boom, new mommy.”
“Oh, Bryna,” Celia said with so much sympathy in her eyes that Bryna had to look away.
“I need to know the truth.”
“I met Lawrence on set. I was working for a production company at the time. It was a coincidence that we ran into each other. Everyone was afraid of him so I ended up bringing a lot of stuff to him. I was doing errands that were a bit beneath me actually,” she said, remembering the incident with a smile. “I was there the day Olivia served him divorce papers. He made everyone else go home, but I didn’t know until it was too late. I’d been there myself, and I couldn’t leave him. So, I offered to take him to lunch. In a million years, I never thought it would lead to this,” she told Bryna.
“So…you didn’t even date until after Mom divorced him?” Bryna asked in surprise.
“Of course not! Well, I didn’t even really know him. Then, I got to know him, and we fell in love. Neither of us expected it. We both had kids who were nearly adults. We were both divorced. We never thought it would work. But then, one day, we decided that the past was the past. What was important to us was our kids and being happy. We knew everything else would work itself out.” Celia smiled down at little baby Zoe. “And it has.”
“So…you love him?”
“Love him?” she asked with a giggle. “We have a baby together! Of course I love him. I’ve never loved anyone more.”
“But how did you know?” Bryna asked.
“That I loved him?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh, wow. No one has ever asked me that before.” She looked up thoughtfully contemplating the question. “I don’t know really. I can’t place it exactly, as if there were a moment when I didn’t love him, and then suddenly, I did. I couldn’t go a day without thinking about him. I always smiled at the thought. I stopped being able to imagine a life without him in it, and I was okay with that. I just knew. There was no going back.”
Bryna looked at Celia with uncertainty. How could it have been that easy? Nothing is that easy. She had put so much effort into all of her relationships, and they hadn’t panned out at all. If love is effortless, then how am I supposed to find it?
“Okay…”
“You know you don’t have to find love at eighteen.”
“Almost nineteen,” she reminded Celia.
“Yes…almost nineteen either. Look at me. I didn’t find it until I was almost forty!”
“Hmm…that’s true. Thanks.”
“Anytime, Bryna.”
Bryna stood and reached down to lightly pinch baby Zoe’s cheeks. She had a lot to think about. “You’re cute, little missy. You must have gotten that from me.”
Celia laughed. “Probably. She’s lucky to have a big sister like you.”
“Maybe I’ll come see Zoe again.”
“I’m sure she’d love that.”
Bryna and Celia shared a smile.
On her way out, Bryna shook her head in confusion. She’d had a completely civil conversation with her stepmother, and it hadn’t been terrible. Actually, it had been perfectly normal. She had no idea what had just happened.
“How was my little girl?” her dad asked once she was outside the room again.
“Good. I think she probably wants to see her dad though.”
He smiled brightly and then rushed back into the room. It was as if he were twenty years old again. Zoe had reenergized him just like Celia had when they got married. Why didn’t I see it before?
“So, you like the baby.”
Bryna turned around in a rush and saw Pace walking toward her.
“I’m surprised,” he continued, “that you came back from your vacation for this. After you were so adamantly against it, I didn’t think you’d show.”
“Yeah,” she said. She didn’t have it in her to argue with him right now.
“Aren’t you going to gloat?”
“About what?” she asked.
“Barcelona? This strange life you’re leading?”
Bryna arched an eyebrow. “No. There’s nothing to gloat about. I’m glad summer is almost over. How is Stacia?”
“You’re asking about Stacia?”
“Yes. I miss her,” she said plainly.
Pace softened at the mention of Stacia. A rare genuine smile touched his lips, replacing his typical sneer. “She’s good. She misses you, too.”
“So, you’re still together then.” She had suspected as much since she hadn’t heard from Stacia at all. She had only heard about Stacia through Trihn.
“We’ve been together all summer. She lives here in the city, you know.”
“Right. Her dad is the USC coach.”
“Her dad is…something,” he said uncertainly. “A bit controlling.”
“I’m not surprised. Has to be hard to try to control all that wild child in her.”
“Yeah. She’s fun that way.” He smirked.
There’s that asshole again.
“Ew. I can’t. Gross.”
Bryna walked away from him. She’d thought they were working toward a civil conversation, too, and then he had brought that shit up.
“Hey,” he called, following her. “Do you think you could talk to her?”
Bryna narrowed her eyes, wondering what the catch was. “Why?”
“She’s still upset that you’re mad at her. I don’t like to see her like this,” he admitted.
“I’m not going to talk to her because I care about what you say. Let’s make that clear.”
He nodded.
“I’ll do it because I care about Stacia. You just happen to be associated with her at the moment.”
“Fine.”
“Fine!”
Bryna left the hospital lobby and took a cab back to her father’s house in the Hills. She dropped her luggage in her old room and stared around with a small smile on her face. It felt surreal to be back home. She hadn’t been back since Thanksgiving, and she hadn’t even realized she had missed it.
She had been missing a lot these days. Like the truth behind her parents’ divorce and how Celia and her father had gotten together. She had blamed it all on Celia. It was the easiest thing to do. But after what Celia had said at the hospital, Bryna wasn’t sure what to think. Maybe she had just been taking out all her anger on her stepmother. Either way, she had lost her mother, but that didn’t necessarily make it Celia’s fault. That revelation softened Bryna’s resolve for a minute.
She shook her head. She couldn’t deal with all of that today. Maybe her family was a little less fucked up now. It was an improvement. Something to think on later.
Right now, she needed to talk to Stacia.
Here goes nothing.
“Bryna!” Stacia yelled into the phone. “Oh my God! You’re calling me! From Barcelona!”
“Actually, I’m in L.A.”
“What? I didn’t know you were back.”
“Yeah. I actually got back into town this morning,” she said. “Do you think we could meet up? I want to talk.”
“Oh. Oh, yeah. Sure. Um…I’m at the beach in Santa Monica actually with some friends from high school. You’re welcom
e to join us if you want. Of course, if you’d rather me leave and come to you, I would totally understand that.”
“No, Santa Monica is fine. I haven’t driven in a couple of months, and I’m dying to use a stick shift again.”
Stacia laughed. “I would say I get that, but stick shifts and I do not get along.”
“You’re missing all the best cars then.” Just the thought of taking one of her dad’s cars out on the road made her skin tingle with excitement.
“I’ll let someone else drive me around in them.”
Bryna shook her head. “Typical. Anyway, I’ll be there soon.”
Even though she hadn’t spoken to Stacia in months, it had been so easy to fall back into their normal banter. Bryna wasn’t entirely sure what she was going to say to Stacia about Pace, but she couldn’t keep putting it off. She wanted her friend back, and they needed to work out their differences. They couldn’t do that through a wall of silence.
She threw on a bathing suit and then walked out to her dad’s garage. Her hands skimmed over the row of beautiful cars, yet her eyes were drawn to the cherry-red Porsche 911 GT3 convertible. It handled like a dream and her father would kill her if he knew how fast she took it out of the house. But it wasn’t supposed to be locked up. It needed to be set free.
The drive to Santa Monica wasn’t long enough for her taste. She might need to drive up and down the Pacific Coast Highway to release some more of her pent-up energy.
The valets were salivating at the chance to drive the thing. She tossed the keys to the guy who would have the pleasure.
“Don’t hurt my baby,” she said.
He nodded, awestruck, and she walked out to the beach. Finding Stacia took a bit of time, but eventually, she located her friend’s enormous hot-pink umbrella that gave Stacia’s position away on the beach.
Bryna stripped out of her tank top and stuffed it into her oversized Dolce bag. One of the guys sitting next to Stacia nudged his buddy next to him when he saw Bryna. They were both ogling every inch of her Spanish sun–kissed skin.
Stacia didn’t seem to notice as she sprang to her feet and rushed toward Bryna. “You’re here!” She pulled Bryna into a big hug. Stacia dusted sand off of her and motioned for them to walk down the beach. “I’ll be right back,” she called to her friends.