“Who knows if he’ll be here next year?” Anna said when Martin was out of earshot later that day, shortly after the family lunch when he went upstairs to get ready to go golfing with Brandon and Jake. The rest of us were lounging in the sun room, waiting for the event-planning team we’d hired to arrive and finalize plans with us, and for Jake who skipped out lunch for a reason I knew perfectly well, to come by and pick up father and son.
“Anna!” I gasped out in horror. “Don’t think like that! Your father will probably live forever. Old wise men always do.”
“No, he won’t,” she countered in a grumpy voice even though I caught the anxious flash in her eyes. “After the scare he gave us this year, I’m not taking any chances.”
“I think that Dad is stubborn enough not to go unless he’s seen all of us settled and happy,” Brandon said as he picked up a couple of the floor plans Tessa had sketched and handed to him. The party was going to be held in this house, since the Maxfield family was one of the few to have retained their historic family home within the city central. “And since Mattie’s probably got another two decades before he gets married, Dad will be around for a good long while. Right, kiddo?”
Mattie looked up from his notebook where he was making revisions to a song he was creating for Martin and twitched his nose at his brother. “I don’t want to wait till I’m as old as you before I get married. I think I know who I want to marry and when we’re both old enough, I won’t waste time.”
Brandon choked on the tea he was just sipping and the rest of us giggled. “Holy macaroni, Matthew. You’re too young to know what you’re talking about.”
“Hey! Love knows no age or race or station in life,” Anna chided, throwing Brandon a napkin.
Brandon caught it and dabbed his chin as soon he set his cup down. “Leave you to make that pronouncement.”
Mattie grinned at his older brother. “I’m just not fickle-minded like you, Brand.”
“Oh, burn!” I burst out laughing and swooped down to haul the boy away just as Brandon lunged for him.
“You think Charlotte can save you, scamp? Think again,” Brandon said in a big, action-hero-villain voice before he leapt from his seat to tackle both me and his brother to the floor, tickling us both until we were all shrieking and gasping with laughter.
Mattie accidentally grabbed Tessa by the ankle, pulling her into the fray and before we knew it, even Anna had jumped in, hitting her older brother with a cushion as he tried to toss Mattie at her.
“Um, should I come back another time?”
We all looked up at the question and found Jason standing behind the couch, looking at us uncertainly.
“Jason!” Anna squeaked, mopping her hair off her face (even though it detracted nothing from her perfect good looks) and getting up on her feet. “What are you doing here?”
Jason studied what probably looked like a disheveled pile of Maxfields of all ages on the floor, catching my eye for a second, before shrugging and going with the straightforward answer. “I wanted to talk to you. I tried your apartment but you weren’t there. Could you spare me a small chunk of your afternoon? Maybe go for a drive?”
Anna glanced around at us, indecision clear on her face.
She’d been avoiding him as the wheels started to turn in his separation from his wife, but Jason looked a bit exhausted and desperate that I wouldn’t blame Anna if she was seriously thinking over the walls she’d put between them.
The fact that he’d shown up at her father’s house, knowing how coolly he’d be received by the rest of the Maxfield clan, spoke volumes about how determined he was to overhaul his life if it meant a chance with her.
It still bothered me that there was another person in this equation who was being betrayed and hurt, but sometimes, ripping the Band-Aid off and actually treating the wound was the only way to heal it.
“The event planners will be here any minute now,” Tessa said flatly, her disapproval still written all over her face.
“Which Tessa, Mattie and I could handle, if Anna needed to attend to something,” I added, compromising. Anna could decide what she wanted to do without us weighing our biases in because we had plenty.
Brandon got up to his feet and helped up Anna. He glanced at Jason expectantly and in a low voice reminded the man, “I trust that you’ll both take care not to start speculations.”
“I won’t be long,” Anna said, turning to grab her little white leather wristlet from the couch. “Let’s go, Jason.”
As if rushing before anyone could change their mind, herself included, Anna grabbed Jason by the arm and practically dragged him out through the door.
Once they were gone, Tessa sighed out loud and started picking up the cushions strewn all over the floor.
“Who was that?” Mattie asked as he collected his notebook and pen. “Tess didn’t like him too much.”
Tessa smirked at her younger brother. “You’re way too perceptive for your age, Mattie.”
“Only ‘coz you’re so obvious,” Mattie replied with an impish grin.
“That was Jason—a friend of Anna’s,” I told the boy, hoping that the vague answer would suffice. “Come on, let’s clean up before our guests arrive and wonder if the house has been robbed or something.”
Five minutes later, once the seating area has been put back to rights, Jake strolled in, looking preppy in his white golf shirt and sleeveless bright blue vest.
He flashed us an easy-going smile although I noticed he didn’t direct a glance in Tessa’s direction at all.
“Where’s Martin?” he asked Brandon as Mattie came up to him for a high five. “Are we ready or what?”
“Go get Dad, Mattie,” Brandon told his younger brother before turning to his friend.“We were ready ages ago since after lunch. Why did you skip out on it today? You always show up for the food alone.”
Jake gave Brandon a half-scowl. “I’ve got family of my own too, you know? My parents occasionally want to have lunch with their awesome son.”
A cross between a snort and a giggle bubbled out of Tessa, of all people. “I thought they disowned you five years ago after your Mom found out you slept with her newly-divorced friend who was almost twenty years older than you were.”
I made a face. Despite knowing Jake well, I apparently didn’t know him well enough to know the more colorful facts of his past.
“If you want me to write out a list, I’ll have to cancel golf with Brandon and Martin,” Jake said quietly, finally averting his gaze to Tessa. “It’s going to take all day to go through all my past transgressions but if it lets me off the hook with each one as I write it down, I’ll do it.”
There was a slight, awkward pause and only three people in the room understood the meaning under Jake’s cryptic statement.
“Alright boys, let’s go!” Martin’s voice boomed into the room as he sauntered in with Mattie in tow. “I haven’t played in ages. Let’s go while the sun is still out and it’s warm.”
Martin’s entrance spurred us all back into action, the awkward moment quickly forgotten.
“He’s going to drive me crazy,” Tessa muttered beside me as we watched the men head out of the door. “Someday, he’ll actually manage it.”
“I think he can say the same about you,” I said meaningfully. “Makes one wonder whether you just drive each other crazy, or you’re crazy for each other.”
“Charlotte! That’s not fair!” Tessa chided, her eyes wide with indignation. “Don’t twist this into some romantic comedy that starts out wrong and works out right.”
I flashed her a cheeky smile. “I haven’t thought of it that way but you apparently have.”
Tessa cast a nervous glance at Mattie in case he was listening but the boy was bent over his notebook on the far end of the couch, scribbling intently.
“I’m familiar enough with a foolish teenage girl’s fantasies to know that this has the makings of one,” Tessa said with a small sigh, regret clear in her eyes. “Jake Hastings
isn’t some prince charming, no matter how much he looks like one. We had a couple special times and I’d like to leave it at that. I don’t want a tumultuous relationship or a nasty break up to destroy us forever because I don’t want to lose him completely like that.”
“Maybe you won’t,” I said softly, cupping her elbow in a supportive gesture.
“Oh, I will,” Tessa insisted with a brusque nod. “Because when he screws up, and I’ve known him long enough to be sure that he will, it’s going to hurt so much and I’ll hate him for it. I’ll hate him and there will be no going back from that. I’d rather we stay where we are and be friends, like we’ve always been.”
I suppressed a sigh.
How do you convince a girl who for years, watched a guy drag a string of hearts along the rough, ragged patch of casual dating until they were all beaten, broken and bloody, to entrust him the heart she had protected for so long?
Could I really blame Tessa?
No, because she’d be a fool not to be cautious.
Could I really blame Jake?
No, because he probably had no idea that his past actions—ones that had seemed fun and harmless—were going to cost him something so precious.
So who was really to blame?
No one. Both.
If Tessa didn’t risk it, her heart might remain intact but it’ll really be the only the thing she’ll be holding dear.
Because Jake took so many risks, he’ll have fun memories of his heydays but they’ll be the only thing keeping him company in the lonely years to come.
Everyone who’d watched a movie or read a book at some point in their existence knew that love was complicated.
We want so much that very thing we’re afraid of.
I didn’t say anything after that. I’d told Tessa and Jake more than I really should’ve said to them about this. At the end of the day, no matter how much I wanted to see two people I cared about find happiness with each other, I wasn’t going to box them into a corner and force the issue. While that worked for Martin when he put me and Brandon together, that might have been a sheer streak of luck. Besides, I wanted people to be able to make their own choices without the fear of disappointing others. There was already enough of that kind of pressure in our world.
Ten minutes later, the two ladies from the same event-planning team that magically whipped up mine and Brandon’s wedding, arrived with loads of final decisions to be made and we got down to work.
We were doing a dry run in the large room that was going to serve as the central party location in the mansion when the butler, Norman, approached me discreetly to say that Bessy came in looking for Anna and was waiting for her.
My nose scrunched up at that.
While Bessy had always been a close friend of Anna’s, the two hadn’t really been spending a lot of time together lately.
I excused myself from the group, leaving Tessa and Mattie with the rest of the event-planners to go and see our new arrival.
“Bessy?” I asked, frowning when I came into the sitting room and found not the girl I was expecting.
She was Bessy, alright, but gone was her cool, confident, and often catty exterior. She was wearing a hole in the carpet with her nervous pacing. She had no make-up on and instead of one of her usual sultry outfits, she was in jeans, a loose hoodie and ballet flats. Her hair was wrapped in a messy bun on the top of her head, starkly highlighting her pale complexion and the dark half-moons under her eyes. She looked like she hadn’t slept or eaten since I last saw her.
She came to an abrupt stop when she saw me. “I was looking for Anna.”
I was even more confused by her mellow attitude. “I know. She went out with a friend.”
“Yeah, I know. I’ll wait for her,” Bessy insisted with a firm shake of her head, resuming her pacing. “She won’t be long, right? I tried her apartment and her cell but she’s not picking up. I kinda figured she was either out or over here.”
I crossed my arms over my chest, still studying Bessy and trying to figure out why seeing her the way she was right now threw me for a loop.
Something’s wrong.
“She may not be back for a while,” I told her calmly. I usually only got very mouthy with her when she was provoking me but there was none of that today. Bessy’s claws were fully sheathed and she had the fragility of a frightened or injured predator.
She paused and looked at me again, her blue eyes anxious and flickering with something deeper, sharper. “She’s with Jason, isn’t she? Damn. Okay. Well, I’ll come back then. Or I’ll call her.”
She grabbed her purse from the seat and slung it over her shoulder. She paused again and glanced at me, swallowing slowly. “Could you, uh, tell her to call me? Or answer my messages? She’s been kind of avoiding me and I really need to talk to her.”
I had a pretty strong suspicion that I was partly a reason why Anna had been blowing off Bessy. She knew the two of us didn’t get along. For some reason, Anna seemed to have taken my side, despite her long-standing history with the other girl. I knew we were technically ‘family’ now but I would’ve never asked it of her.
And now I feel terribly guilty because Bessy looks like she could use a friend. Imagine that. Me, feeling guilty about Bessy, and Bessy looking like she could use a good, crying shoulder, even if it’s mine.
“You can wait for her if you’d like,” I said gently, trying to get used to the fact that we weren’t having our usual conversation full of lively insults. “She said she was coming right back. Come on, I’ll walk you to the sun room. It’s much nicer there. I’ll have the housekeeper bring you something to nibble on while you wait.”
She hesitated. “I don’t really want to impose. Norman told me you’re in the middle of planning Martin’s party.”
“Well, the event planners are planning it,” I said, smiling a little. “We’re just nodding along, really.”
She fidgeted with the strap of her bag, her eyes huge on her gaunt face as she studied me.
“You don’t have to pretend to be nice to me, you know?” she said quietly.
My brows shot up in surprise. “I would’ve been nice to you if you’d been nice to me all this time. If you’re not coming at me with claws, I won’t either.”
“So even if you get a chance to say ‘I told you so’, you won’t take it?” she scoffed bitterly. “Because I’m sure you’d love to gloat.”
I grimaced slightly. “I’d take if it I actually cared to gloat. The thing is, I don’t.”
Bessy’s expression remained suspicious.
“But now that you’ve mentioned it, tell me,” I hastened to add before she bolted out of there. She was jumpy and she was going to scamper out the door if I gave her more time to hesitate. “What was I right about this time?”
“As if you’ve ever been right before,” she grumbled, dropping her bag back to the seat.
I smiled and sat down on an armchair next to her. “I have been but let’s not split hairs. What was I right about, Bess?”
She averted her gaze for a moment, her teeth worrying her lower lip.
“A couple days ago, I told Don that I...” her voice trailed off and for a second I thought she wasn’t going to make another sound.
She mutely stared into space as if somehow the rest of the words she was still yet to say were floating in the cosmos.
“Bess?” I prompted softly.
She blinked and drew her attention back to me, her eyes clearing as if she finally remembered I was there with her.
“I told Don that we were going to have a baby,” she blurted out.
“You’re what?” My voice had come out squeaky and my question was a little less delicate than it should’ve been considering Bessy’s demeanor but I couldn’t help it.
“I’m almost three months pregnant,” Bessy continued, her voice flat. “My doctor confirmed it over a week ago. Don and I are going to have a baby.”
I was almost afraid to ask.
Blissfully eager mot
hers-to-be didn’t look as ashen and defeated as Bessy did right now.
“And how did Don receive that news?”
“I had every expectation that he’d be thrilled,” Bessy answered, her chin trembling just a little. “He’s been forever complaining about Layla and the fact that they still don’t have children. I thought he’d be excited about being a father. And that maybe... maybe he’ll marry me. We could actually be a family, especially since he’d told me that Layla had left.”
I slowly rubbed my temple with shaky fingers, knowing the answer before Bessy could even vocalize it.
“What happened, Bess?”
“He called me a stupid, careless idiot and told me to arrange for an abortion as soon as possible.”
I fought the impulse to let out a string of nasty names I wanted to call Don.
Sure, I was appalled by Don’s cruel edict but I wasn’t the knocked-up girl being forced to get rid of her baby. This wasn’t about my outrage. This was about Bessy and her unborn child and the corner she’d been backed into.
“He doesn’t want to give Layla more leverage when she files for divorce,” Bessy rattled off. “He doesn’t want to give her lawyers any more advantage when they try to cut him out of this marriage without most of their money. If they can prove her allegations of infidelity and abuse, they can make his life hell, especially if her father gets involved. Layla brought most of the money into their marriage, her father entrusting her company shares to Don to look after. Even without a prenup, he stands to lose a lot if Layla takes this to the courts.”
“And your baby is going to make things more difficult for him,” I ground out. “So he wants you to dispose of it before it becomes an inconvenience and a liability.”
Bessy’s eyes watered for the first time in all the years we’d known each other. “I’m not sure I can give it up, Char. Whether he’s happy about it or not, this is a child we’re talking about here.”
“Then keep it,” I told her. “It’s your baby, regardless of the sperm donor.”
“But Don will kill me if I don’t do as he says,” she sobbed out, finally breaking down. “I’ll lose him and... I just c-can’t... I... I don’t know. I don’t know what to do.”
The Mischievous Mrs. Maxfield Page 84