Loretta gave Scott a small smile, half-turned her head away from the table, and said, “Ashley, hurry it up in there.”
“Coming.” Ashley turned the corner while pulling up the sleeves of her violet cashmere sweater. She hurried into the room without looking at the table before she took her place. “Sorry,” she said to her mother. “Sorry, everyone. Diarrhea hit me at the wrong moment.” Startled to have admitted that at the table, she cringed as she met the faces of those around her… until she laid eyes on Scott. Then her face turned brick red.
Her mouth dropped open. Her eyes widened. And she sucked in a long deep breath. “What?” She shook her head, appalled. She let out that gust of air and snatched up another one. “What are you doing here?”
“Your father invited me,” said Scott, enjoying the flustered look on her face. He presumed that her father had an expression matching that of her daughter, but he didn’t want to take the pressure off Ashley just yet. “Apparently, he’s been hoping I’d stop by for years. I finally took him up on the offer.”
Kelsey said, “Same goes for Ashley. Strange how you both made it on the same day.”
Ashley turned a skeptical gaze on her sister. “Yeah, real strange.”
Her mother said a short prayer before encouraging everyone to dig in. She set her eyes on Scott. “Kelsey said you’ll be performing at her restaurant on New Year’s Eve with your old band.”
He accepted a bowl of mashed potatoes and scooped some onto his plate. “Sure will. A few days ago, my brother and I found a bassist and drummer. We’ve been rehearsing and also writing material for a new album. I have dozens of songs recorded already, but this album will need to be on par with U2 to make a dent in the music industry.”
“You think you’re capable of that?” asked Glenn. “U2 is the biggest band in the world.”
Scott heard the doubt in his voice and met it with unshakeable faith in his band. “You’re right. I misspoke. I don’t think we’ll ever be as good as U2. Few bands are as great as that band.”
“How about Van Halen?” he asked. “Or Bon Jovi.”
“If you’re asking whether my band will sell as many records as they have, the answer is no.”
A smile appeared on Glenn’s face, as though he’d suspected as much.
“But if you’re asking whether my band will sell as many copies as they can in today’s market? We sure as hell can. Maybe even more.”
Glenn chortled.
Now that Scott had joked around at Glenn’s expense as well as stood up to him, he had a difficult time looking past the man’s rudeness. “We can tiptoe around this issue all afternoon, but something tells me that you’d rather be direct, so I’m going to ask it right now: have I offended you?”
Ashley’s father finished slicing up the turkey, put down the carving knife, and stared at Scott. “No.”
“Have I offended Ashley?”
“No.”
“Then I’m curious: what have I done that you can’t stand the sight of me?”
Glenn met his gaze with a scowl. And he held it. For a long time.
Scott could have shriveled under such an intense glare, but he had every right to ask that question, and he intended to find out why Glenn disapproved of him. Scott hadn’t turned into an alcoholic like his father, so why did Glenn still dislike him?
Ashley’s father used the interval of silence to inject some tension around the table to make Scott feel uncomfortable. Other men might have used that time to diffuse the awkwardness, but Scott refused to say a word. He wouldn’t give in to Glenn’s tactics to gain the upper hand, regardless of whether or not he was a guest. He’d waited too long to find out why Ashley’s father deplored him, and he decided to wait until he got an answer.
“It has nothing to do with you,” Glenn finally said.
Scott was startled by that admission. He’d expected to hear about some long forgotten mistake that made him appear stupid or selfish or immature.
“From what I can tell,” Glenn said, “you’re a respectable man. You seem to have a good head on your shoulders. And I admire your passion and confidence.”
Those comments left Scott speechless.
Glenn lowered his gaze to the place settings before him. His wife covered his left hand with her palm.
That supportive gesture, done to urge him to continue speaking, sent a shiver down Scott’s spine.
At that moment, Ashley’s father wore a grim expression perhaps because he figured he couldn’t change the subject.
Scott’s heart quickened. He realized that he’d soon learn something he’d rather not know.
Glenn couldn’t look him in the eye. “The night your father got into the accident that killed your mother…” His voice quivered with emotion, and he took his time before picking up where he left off. Glenn turned his attention to his wife. He took her hand into his own.
“As much as I hate to continue,” Glenn said, “I have to.” He held tight to his wife’s hand. “That same accident took the lives of my partner on the force and his wife. They were our closest friends.”
Scott’s shoulders crimped as though a bone-wracking chill had clamped down on him. And now he understood why Glenn didn’t want Scott to date his daughter. Thinking of Scott reminded him of the one man who had destroyed his deepest friendship. And Scott couldn’t blame him. At least now, after fifteen years of ambiguity, he finally understood a part of his life that mystified him. It allowed him to close that chapter of his life, although if anything, the gulf that prevented a relationship with Ashley seemed to grow with his newfound knowledge.
“And my partner’s wife was expecting at the time.”
Scott dropped his head in agony as this second blow shattered his morale and left him with a heart full of guilt. But as much as he wished that Glenn would stop talking, he needed to hear everything. Otherwise, he’d always wonder what he might discover later about that fateful night.
“The paramedics kept Lydia alive long enough to rush her to the hospital. Within moments of delivering, she died. But the baby survived.”
Scott dispelled a drawn-out sigh, thankful that his father hadn’t also murdered a small child. “But my father never went to jail. He should have been brought up on charges of manslaughter, right?”
“Under ordinary circumstances? Yes.” Glenn now appeared grief-stricken for different reasons. He placed both elbows on the table and shielded his face with his hands.
Loretta moved her chair closer to his and placed an arm around his shoulders. Her husband’s chest and back quaked, unable to contain the mangled sorrow that hitched in his throat.
Kelsey got up from the table, rushed over to her father, and met him on his other side. With tears in her eyes, she wrapped an arm around the other side of his body, while her mother massaged his back in slow circles.
Scott had been so shocked by this story that he only now remembered that other people sat around him. Alex appeared sullen, looking helpless because he couldn’t provide some measure of comfort for his father. Marisa leaned in close and kissed his cheek and took his arm in her own. Scott finally looked at Ashley.
Like Scott, she appeared shocked by everything that she’d heard. She sat rigid with her head down, uncertain how to respond. And judging by the way she cringed, that indecisiveness pecked away at an unforeseen culpability.
Glenn released a long, exhausted sigh then sniffled. He finished the emotional scene by nodding to his wife and daughter, a gesture they both took as appreciation and an understanding that he had gotten his feelings under control. Both ladies backed off tentatively before returning to their seats.
A few moments later, Glenn cleared his throat, removed the hands from his face, revealing glistening eyes, and stared at the plate of turkey straight ahead. “That night, at the crash site, I was very upset.” He stayed quiet for a while. “No, to be honest, I lost it. Apparently, I attacked your father.” He turned his head a few inches in Scott’s direction, but he couldn’t make the co
mplete turn to look him in the eye. “I’m not proud of what I did. I’ve regretted it every day since that night. Apparently my behavior, along with some contaminated evidence, made it impossible to convict your father. He got off with only a couple traffic violations.”
Scott felt terrible that justice hadn’t been served that night. His father should have been locked up. Despite sensing that Glenn had more to say, he glanced at Ashley and found her watching him intently, looking for… an emotion he couldn’t pinpoint. But she searched his eyes with both empathy and newfound understanding.
“That night,” Glenn said, “was the worst night of my life. And yet, later on, it brought about so much unexpected happiness. Before dying in my arms, my partner asked me and Loretta to care for his child. To raise that baby as he would.” He shared an endearing glance with his wife. “We found that very confusing and incredibly difficult to put into practice: to try and raise a child in a manner not familiar to our own personalities. You see, he was a formal man. He was stern and regimented and orderly. He lived his personal life as though every moment of every day off was already planned out, and he couldn’t depart from those expectations. He didn’t show much emotion. And you had to really work to earn his approval and pride. As new parents, your mother and I didn’t have time to prepare how we would care for a child, and so…” He nodded to himself, probably recalling that conversation from thirty-plus years ago. “We decided to honor the promise I made to my partner.” Then he turned his gaze upon Ashley. “We did the best we could.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Ashley shot up from her chair and glared at her father. “What are you saying? That Scott’s father murdered my parents?” She turned her indignant gaze upon her ex. She knew he had nothing to do with his father’s mistake. But Ashley couldn’t help but place blame his way, simply because he was the closest she could get to the monster that obliterated the possibility of knowing or even meeting her parents.
Scott wore a sympathetic expression, and he pushed back his chair, half prepared to rise and… console her?
She couldn’t quite tell. He looked as stunned as she felt. Beyond that, she couldn’t figure out what he must be feeling. As much as she wanted to strangle Scott’s father, Ashley acknowledged that Scott had to grow up with that man as a role model. And for that, she empathized with the plight he’d endured.
“But you knew this,” her father said, puzzled by her response. “We told you before you left home.”
His reaction set off a flame of fury inside her. “You did not! You said you adopted me. You said that my parents died. You never told me how.”
Her mother placed her hands onto the table, rising. “We did, honey. You must remember. We were at Baker’s Square. You ran out of there immediately afterwards.”
“No,” she shouted. “You didn’t tell me. Don’t you think I would’ve remembered something like that?”
Her father shot to his feet. “Do not talk to your mother like that!”
“What’re you going to do, Dad? Are you going to punish me? The way my parents would have? And how do you know how they’d punish me? By grabbing a crystal ball? By talking to them at their gravestone in the cemetery? By asking God?”
“You’re still our daughter.”
“That’s what you keep saying. But I never felt it. You know why? Because you always treated me differently than Alex and Kelsey. Do you know how many times I sat in my room and cried because I felt like you hated me?” She turned her attention to her mother. “And do you have any idea how many times I wished you’d just love me like you did Alex and Kelsey? And you treated me differently because some guy made you promise.”
“Don’t talk about him like that. He’s still—”
“What,” she asked. “My father? But I thought you were? I bet you thought I left for LA because you lied to me all those years, right?”
Her father scowled at her. Her mother lowered her head, refusing to look at anyone out of embarrassment or shame or sadness.
“I left because you made me feel like I never belonged in this family. If you adopted me, and if I was supposedly so important to you, why couldn’t you just say ‘to hell with that promise’ and care for me the same way you ended up caring for them?”
Her father opened his mouth to speak.
“But I didn’t place all the blame on you,” she said, cutting him off. She swung her rage toward Scott. “The day I graduated, the day I was supposed to be excited about my future, I caught you kissing another girl. Oh, you said it didn’t happen that way, but now I’m starting to think otherwise.”
He just stared at her and didn’t even try to refute her. How pathetic! How had he managed to fool her for so long? To make her believe in his love? But then, she couldn’t blame him. She’d been foolish enough to fall for his duplicity. Having spent so much time in Hollywood, she should have spotted his lies moments after he opened his mouth.
Next, she turned her attention to Alex and Kelsey. “I don’t blame either of you for anything. As far as I’m concerned, you’re the only two people who’ve been honest with me. Who treated me like a part of the family I guess I was never really a part of. I appreciate that and I won’t forget it.” She whirled back to her parents. “It seems I was right to leave here when I did. If I’d stayed, I would have just been sticking around for more lies.”
She turned around to leave. But when a chair pushed back, she expected to hear her father’s voice condemning her rash behavior.
“Running away again, Ashley?”
She hadn’t expected Scott to say a word. After all, he’d been a guest. Or had he? She had no idea how he ended up at the family dinner table. Regardless, she looked forward to hearing whatever argument he might offer. She turned toward him, a smile playing on her lips.
“You know,” Scott said, “for all your strength and fortitude, I pity you.”
She didn’t expect him to compliment her at the same time as he insulted her. The tactic intrigued her, enough to remain quiet while he finished what he needed to say.
“It must be so easy to take for granted what you’ve always had. I look around the table, and you know what I see? A family of people who love each other. And you’re too damn stubborn to realize that you’re a part of them. And me? I’m just some guy who your sister invited. Because I care about you. Always have.” He motioned to everyone at the table. “And so does every person here. Whether you want to believe it or not, they care.”
She opened her mouth to dismiss that notion.
“No, you had your chance. Now, it’s my turn.” He pointed to Glenn. “That man can’t stand the sight of me. And I’ve done nothing to deserve that. But you know what? I understand it. And as much as I don’t like it, I’ll accept it. Because I respect him. I may not like your father, but he’s a good man.” Next, he motioned to her mother. “Do you know that your mom welcomed me into her home with no judgment?”
He took in a deep breath, trying to maintain his composure. “She accepted me.” Scott shook off his emotions. “No other woman has treated me that way since… I met a girl fifteen years ago. And I was lucky enough to have her love. How do I know that? Because, as much as she’ll say otherwise, her parents showed her what it meant to love someone and return that love.
“I know what it feels like to be alone. I know what it feels like to have no one. Because other than my brother, that’s the way my life has gone. But you? You have parents. People who’ve loved you since the second you were born. Toss in a brother and sister and you’ve got what most people want: a normal, stable family. And so what if your parents treated you a little different?” A bitter laugh erupted from his mouth. “Hell, I’d be happy if my dad had gone a day without kicking me in the head. But you? You’re whining that they don’t treat you the same as Alex and Kelsey?”
His eyes blazed as he stared at her, disgusted. “I thought you were different. I thought we were the same: outsiders who wanted the same things but couldn’t find them. But now,
after meeting your parents, I realize we’re not the same. We’ll never be the same. Here’s the difference: you lost parents before you even knew them. But I wasn’t so lucky. I had parents who once loved me. And now, I have a dead mother. And an alcoholic father who looks at me and sees the wife he killed. Whereas you have parents who still love you...and always will. So I don’t feel sorry for you, Ashley.” He shook his head again. “I pity you.”
Scott turned his attention to her mother. “Thank you for inviting me into your home. But it’s best that I leave.” He scanned the shocked faces at the table. “I’m sorry I ruined your Christmas.” He glanced at her father. “Sir,” he said and gave a slight nod before walking away from the table, making his way across the dining room in strong, purposeful strides, until he reached the door and stepped out of the house.
Ashley was so angry about Scott pitying her that she couldn’t place everything he said in proper perspective. But she got the gist of it: she had circumvented every loving gesture her family had endowed upon her. That knowledge, and the shame that accompanied it, cut through her anger and made it impossible for Ashley to look away from her plate of food. She stood in place, unwilling to move because she didn’t want the attention that everyone now paid her. She waited, preparing for questions and comments from around the table.
“That man’s a keeper,” her mother said.
The comment broke Ashley’s resolute posture enough to meet her eyes.
A gentle smile hovered on her mom’s lips. She looked to her husband, who grudgingly nodded in agreement but remained quiet. Then both of them turned their attention to Ashley, making it clear they would not say one word until she broke the silence.
Moving her eyes but keeping her head stationary, Ashley glanced around the table and, sure enough, everyone stared at her, waiting to see how she would respond. Finally, she took in a breath, let it out evenly, and prepared herself to talk.
One More Chance (A Bedford Falls Novel Book 3) Page 24