by Megan Bryce
“Dad, too? Right, we’re going to be here a while. We can watch The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” He opened his arms as wide as he could. “Sanctuary!”
“It’s never, not ever, going to happen. And I don’t like Hunchback.”
“Too much fiery hellfire? Too many faceless demons?”
“Yes.”
Flynn thought about the demon waiting somewhere in the office for Nicole and understood completely.
“Are you tired of The IT Crowd yet?”
She smiled up at him. “No. Not tired of the I.T. crowd at all.”
He thought about getting up and getting his laptop but, had he mentioned, there was a naked smiling woman in his arms?
He reluctantly said, “I hate to say this, I really hate to say this, but maybe we should get dressed. Someone’s going to need something from me sooner or later.”
“A tablet to turn off and on again?”
Tingle.
“Yes!” Flynn tried a bored monotone Irish accent. “Have you tried turning it off and on again?”
She laughed, using his chest to push herself up. “Does your boss know you sit in here watching shows all day?”
“She does now.”
She found her skirt and shook it out. Handed him his pants with a resigned sigh. “I should tell her you don’t have enough to do.”
“We’re working on it.”
“I do have some ideas about that.”
He looked at her eagerly, stuffing his arms in his shirt. “Oh, yeah?”
“Not right now, though. Maybe we can talk about it during lunch.”
Flynn grinned. “Does your boss know you work through lunch?”
“My boss thinks that’s what lunch is for.”
She pulled on her cardigan, and looked at his hair.
“We might need to go to my office to fix it,” she began and the closet door swung open.
Nikita looked between them briefly, then stepped inside the suddenly overcrowded room and shut the door.
“Nicole, really. If you can’t help but dally with your staff, put a boa on the doorknob.”
She untied the intricately wrapped scarf from around her hair and chin and took off her oversized sunglasses and Flynn met the demon eyes of Nikita Bissette.
“Jesus Christ,” he screamed and fell into his chair.
Nicole threw Flynn’s tie at him and said soothingly, “It’s a chemical peel.”
Flynn couldn’t look away. “It looks like hamburger.”
“It heals. And takes years off.”
Flynn didn’t doubt it since it had taken years off his life.
Not to mention he’d never be able to look at raw hamburger again.
Nikita looked him up and down slowly, her mouth pulling back into a hideous grimace by the time her eyes reached his black socks.
She said, “Well.”
Flynn opened his mouth, to say what he didn’t know, but he met Nikita’s eyes again and decided he’d just sit here quietly and finish tying his tie.
“Mother,” Nicole said, and Nikita’s head whipped toward her. “What are you doing out and about before you’re healed?”
Nikita blew out a breath. “I called my old friend James Geary this morning, and he said he’d take me to a discreet place for lunch. I was just dying to get out, so took him up on the offer. I thought you might like to join us? It’s been forever since he’s seen you as well.”
Nicole said nothing, just stared at her mother, and Nikita’s lips curled up.
“That didn’t take you long, did it?”
Flynn shivered a little at the smile but Nicole remained unmoved.
“No, it didn’t.”
“Come to lunch with us,” Nikita said, making Flynn think of hamburgers.
Nicole began crowding her mother toward the door. “No, thank you.”
Nikita raised an eyebrow. “That’s it? No, thank you?”
Nicole reached around her and turned the knob. “That’s it.”
“Don’t be rude, Nicole. He’s taken time out of his busy day to see you.”
Nicole raised her eyebrow, and Flynn thought there should be yellow subtitles underneath their eyebrows.
Nikita: I challenge you!
Nicole: To the death!
A showdown right here in his little closet.
And then he remembered that some innocent bystander was always skewered through the middle in these kinds of showdowns, and since he was the only one here. . .
He gulped and said, “We already made lunch plans. Sorry, Nikita. Maybe next time?”
Twenty
Nicole took Flynn to sushi. And picked out all her favorites for him to try.
It took too much effort to remember not to smile at him. Out here where others could see as well.
And he tried so hard to get her to break.
Making jokes and overreacting after tasting the nigiri, and finally, making her laugh silently into her napkin, her shoulders shaking and tears streaming.
She said, finally, “Damn you.”
But it was without heat, and he grinned at her, taking a too-big bite of pickled ginger.
And then his eyes were streaming as well and he was crying into his napkin.
She was still laughing when she looked up into the eyes of her father.
“Nicole.”
Resting Bitch Face snapped back into place, and she said, “Mr. Geary.”
He nodded slowly, looking away for a quick moment.
Then he met her eyes again. “I thought you knew.”
“I didn’t.”
“I can see that. Now.” He indicated the chair opposite her. “May I?”
Nicole glanced at Flynn, then nodded. “This is my. . .”
Flynn raised both eyebrows. “Lacky? Grunt?”
Nicole bit her lip to keep from smiling. “IT Specialist.”
Mr. Geary nodded absently, and when the silence stretched on and on, said, “I didn’t think this would be awkward. We know each other.”
Flynn mouthed, I’m gonna go, and Nicole shook her head at him with tiny jerky movements.
Mr. Geary cleared his throat. “We’re having a family dinner tonight. I would love if you would come.”
“What about your wife?”
“She knows. She’s always known. And you can meet my son, Scott.”
Nicole blinked, remembering Scott Geary. Her brother, now.
“I have met him.”
New York might be a metropolitan but her social circles were small.
“Meet him as your brother.”
The silence stretched on and on again, and Nicole said, “It’s funny that you didn’t think this would be awkward, Mr. Geary.”
“Funny is one word for it. And you can call me James. Or Father.”
She replied dryly, “I always wondered where I got my sense of humor from.”
“Come tonight and find out what else you got from me.” He didn’t wait for the silence this time, just said, “It’s your choice. It’s always been your choice.”
She looked at him with dry humor shining from her eyes.
His lips twitched. “Giving you a choice may not have been the right thing to do when you were a child. It’s the only way we can go forward now.” He stood. “I would like to go forward. You’ll have to decide what you want.”
James Geary handed her his card. “I hope I’ll see you tonight.”
He nodded at Flynn, then turned away.
Nicole watched him walk away and, yes, she was wondering what else she’d got from him.
Her humor, maybe. Her trust fund, definitely.
Like it or not, he was her father.
And she had a brother.
Suddenly, she was intimately connected to twice as many people as before.
She looked at Flynn, who was looking at a glob of wasabi at the end of his chopstick.
She opened her mouth to warn him, and then she closed it.
And then she waited for him to chase away the last awk
ward silence.
Twenty-One
Nicole decided to go to dinner.
And then decided not to.
Yes, no, yes.
She almost asked Flynn to come with her, but at the last minute changed her mind. Not only had he not been invited, she wasn’t at all sure she wanted him to see her being introduced to her other family.
She had called Victoria for a bracing pick-me-up, alongside the news about just who her father and new brother were, but there had been no answer. Too busy getting her newest project into shipshape.
So she called Gia for a not-so-bracing pep talk.
They had been her first other family, and Nicole smiled when Gia’s grandmother was the one to answer the phone.
She’d heard enough stories of the older woman to know that Gia loved her dearly. And that the woman was cra-zy.
Nonna asked, “Are you the too-skinny one?”
“Umm. . .”
“The one who won’t smile?”
“Oh, yes. That’s me.”
“A woman is always prettier when she is smiling.”
“Yes.”
Nonna hummed in the back of her throat. “Beauty. She is a two-edged sword.”
“Yes.”
“Your other friend uses hers as a weapon.”
Nicole looked at the phone. “Have you met Victoria?”
“I hear stories. But your beauty has cut too many times and you are afraid of it.”
“. . .can I talk to Gia?”
Nonna ignored the request and said, “It’s nice and warm here.”
“Okay.”
“Gia says it was dog cold in New York when she left.”
Nicole looked at the phone again, then said, “Still is.”
“I was sad to say goodbye to New York but I do not miss the cold. Gia will like it here when she stops crying about her hair.”
Nicole thought that Nonna was probably right and said softly, “I hope she finds what she’s looking for there.”
“A man! That’s what she’s looking for. Babies! That’s what she needs.”
“Okay. Can I talk to Gia?”
Nonna hacked a laugh, then yelled right into the phone, “Gia! It’s your friend from New York!”
Nicole jerked her ear away from the phone, giving herself a crick in the neck, and she said, “Ow.”
There was a scuffle and a change of hands and Nicole heard a faint, “Nonnie, don’t answer my phone.”
“It was ringing.”
Gia sighed, and then said into the phone, “She’s trying to catch Mac.”
“Mia creatura, I’m seventy-three years old. Time is a-ticking.”
“Then probably you should focus on someone else. Not him.”
Nicole said, “Who’s Mac?”
“Someone I do not want to talk about because I spend all day shopping for him, and then I spend all evening arguing with him about what I spent all day shopping for.”
“Fashion consultant is going well then?”
“Gah! I’m ripping out my hair.”
“Just remember you can always come back and work for me.”
“I might be tempted to if I wasn’t still stinging over you calling me plus-sized.”
“What did she call you?! I curse her! Evil eye! Malocchio! I spit on her! Spit!”
“No, Nonnie! She’s my friend. She apologized already!”
“All of her hair will fall out! Tell her I’m doing evil eye at her.”
“You know evil eye only works in person, not over the phone.”
“I send a picture. Give me phone.”
“No! Mom, help!”
Click.
Nicole massaged her neck, and a minute later, Gia called back. “Can’t talk long, I’m hiding in the bathroom.”
“It was a technical term. And I am sorry.”
“I know. And I’m sorry if all your hair falls out.”
Nicole said, “I’ll let you know. Have you talked to Victoria?”
Gia laughed. “Yeah. And if you think I sound like I want to commit murder, you should hear her.”
“You two should never have left New York.”
“We deserve everything we get. What about you? Things okay?”
“Yes.”
Gia waited.
Nicole said, “Some good. Some bad.”
Gia waited.
“I ate a lot of candy and then vomited in front of Flynn.”
“I hope that was the bad.”
Nicole said, “Yes. I-met-my-father-and-I-kissed-Flynn.”
Gia didn’t even have to take a minute to translate.
“Want to talk about the bad first or the good?”
“I don’t want to talk about the bad. Yet.”
“Okay, then yes! Tell me the kiss was good.”
Nicole closed her eyes, remembering, then finally said, “He might have kissed me. I can’t remember which. But, yes, it is good. I slept with him.”
“Should have led with that!”
“It would have sounded slutty to say I slept with him first. I kissed him, and then I slept with him. In that order.”
Gia laughed. “Okay. Glad we’re clear on that.”
“He was flippant with Nikita.”
Gia sighed. “Oh. . .man. . . I had high hopes for Flynn. When’s his funeral?”
“I think she must be taking Valium, Xanax, something. He’s still standing.”
“I have very high hopes for Flynn.”
Nicole smiled, refusing to think about her hopes for Flynn. She was just having a little bit, a lotta bit, of fun with him. And fun was a new and. . .fun. . .experience for her.
So she just said, “Yeah.”
“You ready to talk about the bad yet?”
“No. I just wanted to talk to someone who loves me.”
“I love you and I will always have your back.”
Nicole swallowed the lump in her throat. “I know. I love you and I will always have your back, too, even if it’s in Florida.”
It might not have meant the same to Gia. She had dozens, multiple dozens, of family who loved her and always had her back. But one more surely couldn’t hurt.
Gia must have known that Nicole had got what she needed because she said, “Okay then. Good talk. Want to hear about this testa di cazzo I’m working for?”
Nicole smiled and leaned back in her chair. “I really, really do.”
Twenty-Two
James Geary was pleased to see her when she was shown in to dinner.
He stood, gripping her shoulders and smiling, and Nicole thought for a moment that he was going to hug her. But at the last minute he simply kissed her cheek and then turned to introduce her to people she already knew.
“You know my wife, of course. Cornelia Geary.”
They nodded at each other, Nicole looking for signs of. . .hate? Welcome?
What does a woman feel when her husband’s long lost child finally shows up?
Because Nicole remembered her mother saying, Some women are too much of a bitch to ever divorce.
Though, perhaps the other woman wasn’t the best judge of a man’s wife.
And Nicole remembered James saying, My wife knows. She’s always known.
But Cornelia only stood to kiss her cheek and murmur, “It happened a long time ago.”
“Yes.”
“Time, perhaps, for this secret to see the light of day.”
Nicole’s stomach turned. Scandal and secrets.
Well, this time, she wouldn’t look at the comments.
Cornelia said, “We should have a consistent story, at least.”
James pulled out a chair for Nicole. “Yes, but not now. Later. There’ll be lots of time for that, later.”
“Of course, dear.”
The women had nothing more to say to each other, then, and Nicole turned to the other man in the room.
Her brother.
Scott had stood at her entrance, and he held out his hand to her in greeting before they all sat down fo
r their first family dinner.
And she could see in his eyes exactly what she felt. The trying to switch from acquaintance to family.
He said to her, “Imagine if we’d dated.”
“Nightmare.”
He grinned. “I won’t take that comment personally. Drink?”
Dear God, yes, but she merely said, “Wine would be nice.”
James frowned as Scott poured her a glass. “I would have made sure you two wouldn’t have accidentally dated.”
Scott grunted. “Sure. Because you’ve known about all the women I’ve dated.” He pointed at Nicole. “I was damn near engaged to her best friend and you never said a word.”
“You were dating her best friend, not her,” James said and Nicole agreed.
“It did ensure we would never accidentally date.”
Scott took a long drink. “I wonder how that break-up would have gone if we’d known about this.”
Nicole said loyally, “She’s my best friend.”
“And I’m your brother.” Scott opened his eyes maniacally wide. “Who you going to choose, sis?”
They grinned at each other, one tiny knot in her stomach loosening a smidgen, and she said, “I’ve known her longer.”
“And she’s scarier.”
Nicole said, “It will probably be better if you don’t date any more of my friends.”
“Oh, I’m not dating anyone, ever again. I’m just waiting for more sisters to come out of the woodwork,” Scott said, and then they both paused.
They turned to look at James at the same time.
He closed his eyes and blew out his lips. “None that I know of.”
Scott said dryly, “Comforting.”
Nicole couldn’t help it. She sniggered.
Scott took another long sip. “Perhaps you should give up dating as well, Nicole. Sisters. Brothers. There may very well be legions of them.”
Nicole glanced at James. Her until now unknown father.
He said, “There isn’t.”
Nicole looked down at her still empty plate. She looked up at her brother, his one eyebrow cocked in disbelief.
And she thought, for the first time, that this was her second chance. For a family. To be someone else and not just the daughter of.
Not just the daughter of her famous mother. Not just the daughter of James Geary.
But to be Nicole Bissette, whoever that turned out to be.
So she opened her mouth and said, “Well, I’m reassured.”