by Pamela Yaye
It would all have to wait, he knew, until Faro showed his colors and they could get to the bottom of what the weekend was supposed to be about. Obviously, the man was one for drawing out the suspense. That wouldn’t help much in terms of getting to what he was most interested in.
Perhaps it’d be a little helpful to give his brother a slight nudge toward revealing his hand earlier. He’d done it before, Grae recalled. Of course, it was always easiest before an audience. A smile defined the curve of his smile as an idea took hold.
* * *
“Des!” Faro greeted his aunt warmly as they both entered the dining room for breakfast that morning. He gestured for her to precede him into the lovely room. The place was utterly inviting, heated comfortably by the healthy blaze churning in the hearth.
“Thank you,” Desree said. “Wonderful location.” She hooked the strap of a lavender tote over a chair at the table she’d selected. “I can’t think of a lovelier place for an event like this.”
Faro seemed taken aback. “I thought you’d be a little ticked at me for dragging Tielle into our family drama.”
A little smile crossed her face as she prepared her coffee at the buffet. “You’ve got as much unfinished business with her as anyone, and she’s very well aware of our family drama. We should be able to depend on her for discretion at the very least.”
“That’s true,” Faro agreed, as if Desree’s reason was one he had not considered. “Well, I hope the rest of the family will follow my lead and own up to whatever issues they need to get off their chests.”
Desree tested her coffee and decided a touch more sugar was needed. “Are you so sure they will?”
Faro had approached the buffet to fill a plate with bacon and potatoes. “Nothing will ever get back to normal if they don’t.”
Des observed him. “What do you mean ‘back to normal’? What exactly constitutes normal in your mind?”
Faro added a few more spoonfuls of the breakfast potatoes to his plate and followed up with chunks of cantaloupe and grapes. “There’s a tension that’s slowly weaved its way through the family. It’s been destroying us little by little ever since.”
Desree had finished doctoring her coffee and gaped at her nephew. “What is this tension, Faro? You say you’ve been aware of it since you were a child?”
Still preparing his plate, Faro smirked. “I thought that’d get the attention of certain folks.”
“Why was that important?” Desree’s expressive brown eyes narrowed.
Faro shrugged. “It wasn’t.”
“But it was something you were aiming for?”
“Des!” Faro laughed. “Why so serious? This weekend isn’t about that, you know?”
“Is that right? Because it sounded pretty serious last night.”
“Because you all are making it that way.” Some of the lightness in Faro’s voice had dissolved.
Desree nodded, folding her arms across the front of the knit plum sweater she wore. “You’re the one who invited us all out here. Clearly there’s a reason, and evidently it’s a reason that’s been a source of tension for the family. Tell me what part of that isn’t serious, Faro?”
“Des, this time away is about confronting all the dirty little items that have managed to divide the family over the years.” Faro’s voice held a resolved tinge. “I, for one, believe that sharing those items could be the beginning of much-needed healing for the family.” He shrugged.
“No, that might not be the same mode of thought that others have.” He returned to filling his plate. “Maybe there are those of you who think there are some things best left untreated.”
“Nerves grow numb after a time, Faro.” Desree walked slowly with her coffee back to the table. “Aggravating them once that happens rarely does anything except to inflict pain. Or is that what you’re aiming for, boy?” She kept her back to him while posing the charge.
The veiled accusation removed any phony enhancements of politeness Faro had worked to keep in place. “You’re asking what I’m aiming for?” He set aside his plate, never taking his eyes from Des, whom he regarded with a mixed blend of precaution and slyness. “I’m aiming for quite a few things, Desree. Some to cause problems neither you nor I want.” He smiled. “Still not quite sure what I mean, huh? Maybe after a few more family get-togethers you’ll have a better idea, and that might make you think about how you can spare the family some of that drama.”
The room started to fill with other family members. Faro finished with his plate and called out to the others in a voice of welcome. Desree wondered if anyone noticed how insincere it sounded.
“Eat up, everybody! We got lots on tap for the day,” Faro said.
“Things gonna get weird like they did last night?” someone asked.
“Let’s hope not.” Faro eased a quick knowing look toward Desree.
* * *
“Is it me or are you hiding?” Laura asked when she entered Tielle’s office and leaned on the door.
“Why would you think that?” Tielle rolled her eyes when Laura sent a pointed look toward her platter of coffee, breakfast potatoes, bacon and fruit. She shrugged. “Thought I’d get more done in here.”
“Right.”
Tielle shook her head, smiled. “Did you hear about last night’s dinner?”
“Bits and pieces. Enough to know you were pretty pissed over it. Walked out before dessert—is that right?”
“Humph. Walked out before dinner.”
Laura whistled. “That bad, huh?”
“That bad.”
“How’d Grae take it?”
“We wound up having dinner together in the library.” Tielle broke a bacon strip in half.
Laura’s eyes widened. “What was that like?”
“We fell asleep on the sofa after dinner.”
“And?” Laura settled onto the arm of a chair. “Did it end there?” Her hope that it hadn’t was obvious.
“Didn’t have to, but he...” Tielle studied her breakfast with sudden distaste. “He pulled back.” Taking her mug, she left the sofa. “He wants to fix things, to make it up to me for driving us to divorce.”
Laura traced one of the pleats in her brick-colored skirt. “Does he plan to keep his distance until he’s done that?”
“It’s hard to sway him once he’s made up his mind. Looks like he thinks it’s best to stay away.” Tielle stood before the beverage cart, cup in hand.
“And where do you stand in all this?”
Kicking herself into movement, Tielle sugared her coffee and laced it with a heavy dose of cream. “I stand on the side of right,” she triumphantly announced and then gave a cold laugh. “At least that’s how Grae sees it. He won’t let me take responsibility for any of it.”
“Is that a bad thing?” Laura blinked.
“When we were married, he asked me—” Tielle returned to the sofa and cluster of arm chairs designating the office living area “—asked me to stay out of trying to revamp his relationship with his brother. His asking meant I had the option of declining, which I did.
“I did everything I could to bring him and Faro closer even after he stopped asking me to stay out of it and told me to.” She slapped a hand to the side of her pencil mocha-colored skirt. “Now we’re divorced and he expects me not to take the blame for any part of that.”
“Honey, we’ve talked about this before.” Laura leaned forward. “You already know it would’ve been next to impossible for you to abide by that, no matter how he asked you to. This is who you are. It never would’ve turned out any other way than it did.”
Tielle settled into one of the chairs flanking the sofa. “Grae being here every day isn’t the only reason I can’t let it go.” She sipped from her coffee, relished the taste hitting her tongue and swallowed.
; “Faro wants the family to come clean about everything that’s driven them apart over the years. The night started passably enough, but then it swerved off course and went someplace no one seemed sure of except Faro.”
Laura exchanged her place on the arm of the chair for the seat cushion itself. “What are you saying, Ti?”
“All those years ago, I didn’t stick up for Faro because I was just a bighearted fool, or because helping’s just in my blood, or because I was trying to live up to some standard my grandparents had put in place.” She rubbed her hands against suddenly chilled arms bared by the capped sleeves of a black sweater. “I did it because he struck me as a man who’d been a horrible big brother, and he finally wanted to make it up and repair a relationship he’d destroyed.”
Laura appeared bewildered. “Are you saying you think he’s no longer interested in getting things right with him and Grae?”
“No, Laura.” Tielle’s smile was sad. “I’m saying that I don’t think he was ever interested in getting things right with Grae.”
Laura’s bewilderment cleared as she straightened on the chair. “When did this occur to you?”
“Something about him last night.” Tielle slumped back in the chair and let her hands dangle over the arms. “I never noticed it before in all the times I talked to him. Guess that’s because I never spent much time around him in a family setting—certainly none like what we’re so privileged to be part of now.”
Tielle rested her head back on the chair. “Last night I felt like I was looking at a stranger, Laura, and if I was wrong about Faro, that means I jeopardized my marriage for nothing.”
Chapter 7
Since breakfast that morning was set to be more of a drop-in affair, Tielle made no effort to...drop in. Not that she’d had any intention to do so regardless. Following her chat with Laura, she decided that to venture completely outside the house would be a better plan. She was willing to try anything that would save her from running into those members of the Clegg family who still had a cross word or an evil eye to throw her way.
Grae found his ex-wife bundled on one of the cushioned chairs outside the pool cottage. “Being around my family is so bad you’d rather brave these morning temps,” he noted.
She smiled, but kept her eyes on the screen of her tablet. “Being around your family is so bad, I’d rather brave these morning temps,” she confirmed.
“Still pissed.” He phrased the question in his usual manner of statement.
Tielle didn’t lift her head from the work she studied. “Still such a slave to your ego that you think me denying myself the full pleasure of your company means I’m pissed at you?”
“You’ve avoided me all day.”
She almost laughed. “It’s still the morning!”
“Tel...” he virtually purred while easing both hands into the front pockets of the white fleece hoody he sported. “You know how much I like to ‘get up’ early.”
“That’s right...” She ignored the suggestion in his words. “It’s still sex on your terms, your time...”
“Well, you never took the initiative.” Grae chuckled.
Tielle laughed then, as well. “There was never any need!”
He blinked, a stricken look befalling his finely crafted face. “Was that a problem for you?” he asked in a small voice.
“No, Grae, it never was.” Her expression was soft when she looked at him. “We only had one major problem.”
“True, but it was a major problem that shined a harsh light on all the rest.”
“Do you really think we can magically work out our issues, topped off by divorce and a year apart?”
“I don’t think magic is the answer.”
Tielle shut down her tablet. “What is?” she asked.
“This place.” Grae spared a moment to study the sun-kissed expanse of gardens beyond the sunken pool area. “I can’t think of a better place to find what we lost than the place it all began.”
Tielle couldn’t deny the strength of his logic, nor the chill it sent through her despite the layers of her sweatshirt, tank top, jeans and the wool blanket atop them.
Memory took her back to a day eight years prior when Clegg Marketing, then led by Kenneth Clegg, had its first executive staff retreat. They selected Turner Estates and Gardens for the venue.
Tielle had arrived in time for a late supper with her grandmothers and was introduced to Ken’s son, Grae. Tina and Danielle had already taken an extreme liking to the young man, whom they invited to stay and enjoy supper with them and their granddaughter.
Grae knew he would’ve accepted the offer regardless. Tina and Danielle had an aura about them that would have appealed to any man. When Tielle arrived halfway through the first course, Grae had no desire to dine elsewhere for the duration of the retreat or until Tielle left the estate. He had been utterly fascinated by the curvy, dark beauty, and they’d spent the next three weekends together. By then, he had tumbled headfirst into love with her. Two years later they were married, four years after that they were divorced.
Grae shook his head on the memory, grateful for the interruption of Tielle’s ringing phone. He listened in as she greeted and chatted with Laura Cooper. Laura’s contribution to the discussion must not have been good, for Tielle rolled her eyes a few moments into the conversation.
“We’ve been summoned,” she announced to Grae once the call ended. “Back for the therapy session.” She pushed off the lounge she’d occupied, collected her things, then headed toward the pool house to return the blanket she’d found there.
“Therapy session.” Grae shuddered as he followed her. “Why’s that necessary?”
“Hey, you’re the one who wanted me to agree to this thing.”
“Punch me the next time I come to you with such a great idea.”
She laughed and threw Grae a wink over her shoulder. “Do I get to choose where?”
“Depends.”
“On?”
“On whether you’ll make it feel better once you bruise it.”
“Why’d I ask...?”
* * *
Grae watched as she put away the blanket, smiling as she stepped onto one of the blackwood ladder-back chairs. Then she was able to reach the cabinet space in the back of the small sitting room area of the cottage.
Thoroughly, he surveyed the area. The stirring bronzed pools of his eyes narrowed.
Tielle was closing the cabinet when she noticed the direction he was heading. Having avoided spending much time in the house in an effort to quell the reminders it evoked, Tielle decided to leave Grae to enjoy his tour alone. She got no farther than the chair she’d used to reach the cabinet when he hooked an arm about her waist.
“New bed?” he asked.
“It is.” She masked a feeling of sudden displacement by clearing her throat. “The old one was on its last legs—literally.”
“It’s nice,” Grae said against her temple.
“My guests think so.” Tielle took steadying breaths—ones she hoped might settle the rampant beat of her heart. “The summer folks usually like a nap after a swim in the pool or the lake.”
“And what about the winter guests?” Grae asked while gently nudging Tielle into the cozy room.
“They love it. Grae, we really should get going to that therapy session.”
“What’s the rush?” His deep voice was a soothing wave. “It’ll take everybody thirty minutes to get there and another thirty to get settled.”
“Grae...” His name was little more than a breathy whisper. She attempted to turn in his loose hold at her waist, yet the move wasn’t an easy one considering the close quarters and who she was sharing them with.
What remained of her protest segued into a moan when she managed to turn and her tongue became otherwise engage
d. Entangled, a ragged, wet kiss commenced between them. Grae quickly tired of aligning his imposing frame to accommodate her slight one. Rising to his full height, he took Tielle with him, keeping her body flush against the chiseled perfection of his.
She launched into resistance mode when her phone buzzed again. “Grae, we don’t have time for this.”
“We got plenty of time,” he argued upon taking a momentary break from stroking his tongue across the roof of her mouth. “My entire family is elsewhere.”
“And we should be there, too,” Tielle almost purred when he cradled her bottom in his palms while his mouth took a slow glide down her neck and collarbone.
She felt the new bed beneath her back moments later, and Grae settled against her soon after. Eyes closing as though she were delightfully drowsy, Tielle gave in to what she needed from him. Giving in to the pleasure of him there. Tielle worked herself against the erection she’d missed.
Grae set his face next to her clavicle and inhaled. The tender act was fleeting. He needed to see her—really see her. Deftly, he pulled her out of her clothes, his lips skimming every silken patch of skin he bared. He lingered near parts of her that he’d missed most dearly, grinning arrogantly when she squirmed against him.
“Grae, we should...go...mmm...you—you told me to tell you to stop...”
He tended to one perky nipple, sheltering the pebble inside skillful lips and bathing it with his tongue. His thumb and forefinger tended to the other. She smiled when she arched more of herself into his mouth.
“Honey, you’re not being very convincing,” he murmured.
Tielle bit down on her lip to silence a moan. “Listen to my words and not my body.” But her words were slurred.
“Are you serious?” He chuckled and continued his erotic journey downward.
* * *
Leo blew out a sigh through his end of the phone line. “You let that boy get inside your head, Des. You always do.”
“I see. And why, exactly, did you call me today?”
“What Grae said does make me wonder. I’ll admit that. The fact that Faro was so hell-bent on having that retreat in that particular venue... Did he say anything else when you saw him this morning?”