by Beth Abbott
“It sounds like you were a quick learner.” Gregor took a sip of his coffee.
“We were all quick learners.” She acknowledged. “The reward was some of my mother’s home-made desserts, so it was ultimately worth the effort. We made sure we never missed out.”
Gregor watched some of the light fade from Tulli’s eyes as she mentioned her parents. Damn, he shouldn’t have let the conversation head in that direction.
“Did you sleep well last night?” He jumped in quickly. “You were up awfully early this morning. I expected you to sleep later.”
“I was awake at five o’clock, I’m afraid. I think Mischa might have made a noise and woken me, and after that I couldn’t get back to sleep. I hope I haven’t disturbed you.” Tulli went to stand up. “I can go back to my room if you’d rather be on your own.”
Gregor reached out a hand to stop her.
“Tulli, no. It’s fine.” He smiled. “Not only am I enjoying your company, but I want you to see this as your home. You and your sisters are welcome to stay as long as you like.”
Tulli’s brows drew together.
“Why?” She asked.
Not knowing which direction her thoughts were going in, Gregor couldn’t answer.
“Which why?” He asked with a smile, and enjoyed the way she blushed. “Why am I enjoying your company? Or, why are you welcome to stay?”
“Sorry, I meant why have you opened your home to us?” She shrugged. “Are you this charitable to every waif or stray you meet? Will they all be here for breakfast?”
“No, I confess, I don’t open my home to waifs and strays, not as a general rule.” Gregor admitted. “Although, I do make generous donations to various charities in Philly, and I believe that one of them is a homeless shelter.”
Tulli nodded, seeming unsurprised that he would be a patron of many charities.
“So, why us?” She repeated.
Gregor crouched down in front of her, placing his now empty coffee cup on the table as he did.
“Because, my dear, if not for a twist of fate, my daughter could have been in your position, held captive in those awful conditions.” He stared up into her beautiful eyes. “And I’d like to think if she had been in your shoes, that someone would have reached out and offered her a helping hand.”
“You could have achieved that by passing us off to the homeless shelter you sponsor.” Tulli pointed out. “You didn’t have to take us into your home.”
“True.” He conceded. “But then I’ve always been selfish. I like to see the out-turn from my investments.”
Tulli frowned at him, obviously not understanding his meaning.
“I want to see you all get well, Tulli.” He smiled. “I want to see Mischa recover so she’s well enough to live a normal life, and I want to see you and Lara start to get back to being your old selves. No more fear, no more ill-treatment. Just a bright and happy future. Normality.”
“Normality.” Tulli echoed.
“Yes, normality. I want the reward for my investment to be watching you all start to live normally again.” Gregor took her hand and held it gently. “Do you think you could work on that?”
Tulli looked down at their linked hands for a moment, and then up to stare him straight in the eye.
“I think we owe it to you, and to our parents and brother, to at least try.” She whispered.
He squeezed her hand slightly before releasing it.
“Then, what do you say we start by having a scrumptious breakfast, followed by a familiarisation tour of the property while you systematically catalogue your surroundings during the orientation process?” Gregor grinned, trying to fit in as many long words as he could think of.
Damn, it wasn’t as easy as you might think!
“Umm, I say yes? Maybe?” Tulli smiled.
“Right answer.” He stood up and led his way towards the house, just about resisting the temptation to take her hand and lead her inside.
He wasn’t sure how she’d managed to do it, but this woman, who was full of surprises, and more importantly, probably half his age, had managed to leave him enthralled, in less than forty-eight hours.
He definitely needed more caffeine!
Chapter 2 – Charlie
“Come on, Joel. Let’s go.” Charlie yelled from the front door of his mom and dad’s house.
The expected footsteps on the stairs were absent, and Charlie glanced at his watch. He had to call at the office first to speak to Tuck, and then get Joel to the hospital to visit with their dad, before taking him over to the community centre where Joel was supposed to be taking part in a drama class, already rehearsing for the play they were putting on for the folks at Thanksgiving.
“Joel, buddy. We’ve got to go now.” He walked to the foot of the stairs and looked up. “Come on, pal. Dad’s been looking forward to you visiting with him. You don’t want us to be late, do you?”
Charlie listened for some acknowledgement, but there was nothing.
He sighed. Just as the morning was going so well…!
Charlie climbed the stairs, and was surprised as he passed his parent’s open bedroom door, to find Joel sitting on their bed.
“What’s up pal?” Charlie asked gently, sensing his adopted brother’s distress.
Joel looked up at him with such a sad face, Charlie almost smiled.
There were no half measures with Joel. He was either up and happy and full of life… or he was upset about something and could make you cry, just by looking at the sadness in his eyes.
Charlie wasn’t sure if it was a Down Syndrome thing, or if it was just a Joel thing.
“Dad’s in hospital.” Joel mumbled, in a very matter of fact way. “He had his chest cut open.”
“That’s right. He had a heart operation, but he’s doing great now.” Charlie nodded. “The doc said he was expecting him to make a good recovery.”
“And now mom’s in hospital too.” Joel lamented. “Are you gonna go into hospital as well, Charlie?”
“Hey, what? Joel, mom’s not ‘in hospital’ pal. She’s at the hospital, visiting with dad.” Charlie explained. “She wanted to stay until he woke up from his operation yesterday, but that was pretty late. So, she stayed at a hotel right by the hospital, so she could go in there early this morning, as soon as he woke up.”
Joel stared at Charlie.
“So, she’s not sick?” He asked his big brother.
“Nope. She’s a little tired, what with all the worry over dad.” Charlie admitted. “But otherwise she’s just fine.”
“And you’re not sick?” Joel checked.
“Do I look sick?” Charlie grinned.
Joel smiled cheekily at him.
“Well, you look a little pale.” He snorted a laugh, holding his own pale, obviously white-skinned arm next to his brother’s dark skin.
Adopted into an African American family when he was little more than a baby, it hadn’t taken Joel long to realise that he looked nothing like his mom and dad, or his much older brother.
But once his mom had explained that Joel had been picked to be part of their family because he was special, Joel had never questioned it again, and just shrugged off the questions from other kids about the colour difference as if it was old news.
One of his favourite jokes, though, was to point out how pale one of them was, whenever they claimed to be sick. For some reason, it always tickled his funny bone, and Charlie couldn’t help but grin at him.
“Are you trying to be funny, sonny?” Charlie chuckled as he stood up.
“Nah.” Joel jumped up. “You look funny enough for both of us.”
Charlie shook his head and bent down to pick up Joel’s backpack.
“Come on then, joker.” He threw the pack to Joel. “We need to get out of here if we’re going to get to the hospital on time. Lots to do today.”
Seemingly reassured, Joel shouldered his pack, and trudged down the stairs behind Charlie.
“Can we take dad some of that
chocolate he likes?” Joel asked. “Like, we’ll sneak it in, so mom doesn’t see it?”
Charlie grinned over his shoulder.
“Nah, I think the days of sneaking dad sugary treats are done, pal.” He chuckled. “Dad’s not really supposed to have that stuff anymore, and now with his operation and all, it’s really important that he eats well in future. Lots of fruit and veggies, and not so much of the bad stuff.”
Joel looked sad again.
“Well, that sucks.” He complained.
“Yeah, I know. But we want dad to stay healthy now his heart is fixed, don’t we?” Charlie pulled the door open.
“Yeah, I guess.” Joel shrugged as he stepped outside.
They climbed into Charlie’s truck and Joel strapped himself in. Charlie glanced across, wondering when the kid had grown so big.
At eighteen, Joel was an adult to all intents and purposes, but of course, in most respects, his thinking was still innocent and childlike. He was exceptionally high functioning, and had surpassed every expectation in terms of what he would achieve, but still… his parents’ commitment to taking Joel into their family had been made in the full knowledge that it would last a lifetime. Joel’s or theirs.
As young as he’d been at the time, just a teenager, it hadn’t taken Charlie long to realise that the commitment had been made for him as well.
If anything happened to his mom or dad, there was no way Charlie wouldn’t step in and take care of his brother. His love for Joel couldn’t be any greater had they been biological brothers. In fact, that had probably been the main reason why Charlie had avoided any long-term relationships.
It wasn’t exactly easy to explain to a girl on your first date, that if she wanted a relationship with you, she’d have to be prepared for the day that your kid brother would move in with you.
“Are we going to see Sara today?” Joel piped up after they’d been driving about twenty minutes.
Charlie smiled, knowing full well that Joel had a soft spot for Sara, especially since she’d been checking on their dad a lot, because of his heart condition.
When she’d let Joel have a listen of her unborn baby’s heartbeat a couple of weeks ago, he’d been astonished to hear the steady ‘thump, thump, thump’.
“Yeah, she’ll probably be at the office when we stop by. Why’s that?” He smiled at Joel.
Joel shrugged casually.
“No reason.” He murmured, pretending to look out of the window, but even at this angle, Charlie could see he was smiling. “She said she was going with Marcus to get the baby’s picture taken in the scanning machine. She promised me she’d show it to me, next time I stopped by.”
“Well, unless she has appointments first thing, you should be able to see her. I know she’s going to visit with one of our clients this morning, but hopefully not until a little bit later.”
Charlie wove through the traffic until the office finally came into sight.
He was just pulling into the parking lot when his phone rang.
He pressed the button on the dash to connect the call.
“Hello, is that Mr Lamar?” Charlie recognised the voice as the liaison from the community centre.
“Hello Ms Kristen.” Charlie smiled. “You’re on speaker and I have Joel with me. What can we do for you.”
“Oh, hey Joel. It’s good that I’ve got the both of you together. Mr Harris has been involved in an auto accident on the way to the community centre this morning. It’s not serious, thank goodness, but it does mean that rehearsal will be cancelled today. I’m so sorry to spring this on you.”
Charlie just managed to avoid swearing under his breath. He had a lot to do today.
“I see.” He murmured, trying to figure out what he was going to do with Joel today. No way could he leave him at the hospital with their parents. Dad was still way too sick to cope with Joel if he got bored.
“Thanks for letting us know, Ms Kristen. I hope Mr Harris will make a swift recovery. Will you let me know if Thursday’s rehearsal is still on?”
“I sure will.” The liaison assured him. “We’ll hopefully see you on Thursday, Joel.”
Charlie ended the call, trying to figure out what he was going to do with Joel for the day.
Under normal circumstances, his mom would have a dozen activities she could do with Joel, but today wasn’t normal, and he didn’t want to have to pull his mom away from the hospital, not when she was so worried about his dad.
‘Joel, I’m going to take you into the office with me, and see if I can clear it with Tuck to take a few hours personal time.” He explained. “I might have a few things to do before we can head out, so we’ll have to rearrange our schedule, and maybe go and see mom and dad a little later this morning, once I’ve got some free time. Is that Ok with you?”
“Sure.” Joel shrugged. “I can visit with Candy and Sacha while you do your things. They like me.”
Joel’s idea of what went on in an office was anybody’s guess, but Charlie didn’t question whether or not Sacha or Candy would mind Joel visiting with them, and taking up their valuable time. Everyone at Stalwart adored Joel, and Tuck never minded when Charlie took his brother with him for the occasional visit, as he was like a ray of sunshine wherever he went.
He pulled into his space and set the parking brake.
“Come on then, pal.” Charlie unfastened his belt, opened his door, and swung his long legs out. “No being too rowdy, Ok? Don’t forget that lots of people will be trying to work. They need it nice and quiet to do that.”
Joel grabbed his backpack and climbed out of the vehicle, slamming the door shut behind him.
“I’m not the rowdy one.” Joel glanced up at him, a look of innocence on his face. “It’s Marcus who’s the rowdy one. He always messes with me and makes me laugh.”
Charlie had to concede Joel had a point. The last visit to the office had seen Joel over Marcus’s shoulder in a fireman’s lift, as Marcus galloped around the hallway in an attempt to demonstrate to Sara that he wasn’t as old as she was making him out to be.
Of course, Joel laughed all the way, causing people to step out of their offices to find out what the hell was going on.
It also left Marcus virtually collapsed on the floor after the first circuit, when he realised that Joel wasn’t a little kid any more. Carrying him around was almost as tiring as carrying an almost full-grown adult on his shoulders.
“Yeah, well, I don’t know whether Marcus or many of the guys are going to be in the office today.” Charlie opened the door and stepped aside to let Joel pass him. “They were on a big job these last few days, and they have to go down town and give statements to the authorities about what they saw.”
Charlie followed Joel into the building, and headed to the bank of elevators.
“That’s Ok.” Joel smiled. “I’m more of a ladies’ man, anyway.”
Charlie just managed to stop himself from laughing, when he glanced at his brother and realised Joel was being serious.
He guessed Joel had heard the expression somewhere before, and had just figured it meant exactly what it sounded like. And besides, who could argue with him? The Stalwart ladies definitely loved Joel!
As the doors opened and they stepped out, a general office meeting seemed to be going on in the reception area.
Tuck, Sara, Sacha, Marcus, Zach, and Candy were all standing in a circle.
“I don’t understand why Sara has to give a statement today.” Marcus stood with his hands on his hips, staring at Tuck. “She’s been through enough the last couple of days. She needs a rest.”
Tuck was smiling at Marcus, like a patient father talking to a petulant child.
“Marcus, Sara tended to all of the injured at the airfield, if only briefly. She has already documented the injuries and trauma they suffered.” He explained. “Cole Arthurs has to take all the statements up to DC tomorrow morning, where the big brass will be having a meeting with some diplomats from the Colombian Embassy. They’re gett
ing great co-operation from them at the moment, and there’s a planned joint taskforce working towards taking out some major players. All of your statements will add to the evidence they’ve got already.”
“I get that.” Marcus nodded. “But why can’t she just stay at home, and they go to her, instead? Look at her ankles! She can barely walk this morning!”
Charlie glanced around to see that Marcus wasn’t the only one with his hands on his hips now.
“Honey, I get that you’re trying to look out for my wellbeing.” Sara smiled up at her husband. “But I wouldn’t be at home with my feet up, even if the FBI sent someone to the house. I’m heading out to Gregor’s place in a little while. I need to check on the Mazur sisters.”
Marcus swung around and glared at his wife.
“You are not driving over to Gregor’s like that!” He pointed down, and Charlie wasn’t exactly certain whether Marcus was pointing at Sara’s ever-expanding baby-bump, or her ankles, which, even to Charlie’s untrained eye, did look a little bit swollen.
“I absolutely forbid it!” Marcus insisted, looking every inch the arrogant asshole he sounded.
Charlie watched the smile appear on Sara’s face, even as her cheeks turned red with annoyance.
“YOU don’t get to forbid me to do anything, buster!” She hissed at her husband. “Or else, I might start throwing around the f-word as well, and we’ll start by forbidding…’ she glanced at Joel before continuing… “S…E…X, shall we?”
Joel leaned his head towards Charlie.
“Does Sara think I can’t spell ‘sex’?” He whispered loudly.
Charlie grinned, just as Sara turned and smiled at Joel.
“Hey, sweetheart. How’re you doing?” She asked, her fury at her husband of a few seconds before completely forgotten.
“I’m great thanks.” Joel smiled. “But why are you and Marcus fighting?”
“We’re not fighting, Joel.” Marcus reassured him. “We’re just having an open exchange of ideas and opinions.”
“Really?” Joel smiled up at his friend. “Because it sure sounded to me like you were about to get yourself kicked into the spare bedroom!”