by Cora Brent
“She’s my, um, she’s my friend’s cousin.” I almost called Derek my boyfriend but we hadn’t established labels yet. And anyway the word just would have raised more questions.
My uncle sighed. “Do you need anything from me? Money?”
I needed his understanding. I needed him to realize he was the nearest thing to a parent that I had left. I thought about Derek’s close relationships with his uncles and how different things were in the Gentry family.
“No, Uncle Ryan. I don’t need anything from you.”
“Take care, Paige.”
I reread my notes before sending the document off to Cami. She responded immediately with a promise to get the ball rolling right away. I believed her. Cami exuded competence and intelligence and I would bet that her promise was worth more than that of most people.
When my phone rang I braced myself. If Uncle Ryan had communicated my plans to his wife then nothing would stop her from inserting herself into the middle of the situation.
Thankfully, Aunt Maddie wasn’t the caller. Sam and Ric were on their way home.
“How far away are you?” I asked, my dim mood giving way to a smile.
“Hours,” Sam replied.
“I’m glad you’re coming home.”
“We’re so tired,” Sam yawned. “I’m looking forward to being in bed by eight tonight. Spring break is an exhausting experience.”
“I’ll bet.”
“You working tonight?”
“Yep. I’m on until nine.”
“Nine p.m. sounds really late all of a sudden. We want to see you though. If we stop by Esposito’s can you take a dinner break and hang out for a little while?”
My smile widened. “For sure.”
“Love you, Paigie!” Ric called in the background.
I couldn’t wait to see my friends. It seemed like an impossible series of events had happened since I last saw them. They’d always encouraged me to try and find out what happened to my mother and they’d be glad to hear I was finally making that happen. So far they hadn’t expressed much enthusiasm about Derek but that could be fixed. Once they got to know him as something other than a drunken bad boy they’d see what he was really like. He was good for me. Being with him made me happy. I liked to think that I was good for him too. When we were together I saw no hint of his extreme partier reputation. He was content to just hang out at home, watch old movies and relax. He hadn’t taken a single drink and every moment we were together he made me feel like there was no one else he’d rather be with.
I’d never fallen in love before so I didn’t have any experience to draw from.
Yet for the first time I could understand how it started to happen.
Chapter Sixteen
Derek
Kellan had slapped on enough aftershave to make the entire apartment stink like a pinewood forest.
“You going out tonight?” I asked from the couch where I was passing the time checking out classic car listings on eBay.
He screwed around with his hair and looked at his reflection in the microwave. “Yeah, it’s no big deal. Just hanging with a couple of guys, going to a house party up in Scottsdale.” The fact that he didn’t look at me when he said it made me wonder if he was afraid I’d ask to come along. Then I dismissed the idea. Kel didn’t think that way.
“Have fun,” I said, reading the details of a listing for a Plymouth Barracuda that my Uncle Conway would appreciate the hell out of.
He leaned over the couch to see what I was doing. “Why are you still here anyway? You’re not seeing Paige tonight?”
“She’s still at work. She mentioned something about a movie she wanted to see so I was thinking we’d go do that. Would it bother you if we wound up staying here tonight?”
“Of the things on earth that would bother me, the sight of Paige Morrissey is among the last.” He grinned. “Just keep the volume down. I need my beauty sleep.”
“I don’t think there are enough hours in the night for your beauty sleep.”
Kellan was about to shoot back a blinding retort but there was a knock at the door.
“Who’s that?” he asked.
“As if I’m telepathic,” I muttered.
Kellan made no move to answer the door and there was another knock. I tossed my phone aside and got up to see what was going on. I was surprised by what I found.
“Hello Derek,” they said in unison. They had the same face and I couldn’t figure out which twin seemed more displeased to see me.
“Sam and Ric,” I guessed, trying to sound as welcoming as possible because they meant the world to Paige. “I recognize you, plus Paige talks about you all the time.”
“It’s actually Samantha and Erica,” said the twin on the left. She pushed past me into the apartment. Her sister shrugged and followed. “Only our friends call us Sam and Ric. I’m Samantha.”
“And that would make me Erica,” said the other twin.
If they hadn’t been dressed differently I’d have no way to tell them apart. They were even taller than I’d realized before, only a few inches shorter than me. Samantha was dressed in denim cutoffs and a white t-shirt that knotted in the front while Erica wore a sparkly dress that would have been a club standout. Samantha pursed her lips as she conducted a quick visual inspection of my apartment while Erica’s expression was merely curious.
“Feel free to take a seat,” I offered, pointing to the couch. Erica was the first to sit primly on one side while her sister plopped down on the opposite side.
Kellan, meanwhile, seemed to have been struck temporarily mute by the sight of two shockingly gorgeous girls in our midst.
Luckily he recovered quickly. “Ladies,” he said, beaming like a fool. “Welcome to the Gentry cave. Have a seat.”
“We’re already sitting,” Samantha pointed out.
“So you are,” he marveled. “You mind if I sit too?”
“It’s your apartment, isn’t it?” Erica asked.
“I think so. My name’s on the lease.” He sank down into the empty space between the twins. “I’m Kellan Gentry,” he said, turning to one and then the other with his most winning smile.
Samantha rolled her eyes. “We know.”
I didn’t want to pile onto the couch so I grabbed a stool from the breakfast bar. I had no idea what the twins wanted but I suspected I wasn’t going to like it. “You going door to door just to say hello or what?”
“We thought we should introduce ourselves,” Erica said, leaning forward and glancing across Kellan to catch her sister’s eye. “Now that we have an important friend in common.”
“And we are neighbors, after all,” Samantha said. “We live in F building.”
“Cool.” I shrugged.
Samantha scowled at me and dropped the bombshell. “Two doors down from Heidi.”
FUCK!
“We were there,” Erica said. “We were at the party where you and Heidi-“
“I was there too,” Kellan interrupted. “Did you see me?” There was a plainly hopeful note in his voice. Or maybe he was trying to do me a favor and change the subject.
“No,” Samantha and Erica said at once.
I cleared my throat. “That wasn’t my proudest moment,” I admitted.
They stared at me with identical and completely unsympathetic expressions.
“But I’ve been sober for two months now,” I said. “And I won’t-“
“You’re Derek fucking Gentry,” Samantha hissed. “Your reputation precedes you. You do whatever you want whenever you want with no regard for anyone else.”
“Sam,” Erica warned. “Did you forget we agreed to be friendly?”
“Is this like a good cop bad cop thing?” Kellan wanted to know.
The twins ignored him.
“Derek,” Erica said, trying for a more diplomatic approach. “We really don’t mean to be rude. But we love Paige. She’s our best friend and she’s been through so much in her life.”
“And you guys
feel protective of her,” I finished.
Erica nodded. Samantha stared at me.
I tried to put myself in their position. I considered what I’d think if someone I cared about – like one of my cousins – got involved with a guy like me. I doubted I’d be jumping for joy. In fact I’d probably be giving the motherfucker the stink eye and thinking about how I’d be the first volunteer to beat him over the head if he stepped out of line. So I couldn’t exactly blame the twins for their skepticism. From what Paige had told me, Samantha and Erica had been devoted to her since grade school. I’d always had my family. Paige had Samantha and Erica. And since I really wanted to have a place in Paige’s life I needed them to like me. Or at least tolerate me.
“I appreciate where you’re coming from,” I said. “And I don’t blame you for being suspicious. Believe it or not, I’m aware that I have a checkered past. But I’m trying to do better. I’m trying to stay sober and out of trouble. As for Paige, I know she’s special and I’m lucky she wants to spend time with me. I swear I would never do anything to hurt her.”
It might have been the longest speech I’d ever uttered. Erica’s face softened. Samantha’s gaze turned thoughtful.
And Kellan pretended to get emotional. “That was beautiful, man. I mean it.”
No one paid any attention to him.
Samantha and Erica exchanged another look and I got the feeling they were having some kind of silent twin conversation. Samantha finally gave a stiff nod and faced me.
“It’s Paige’s twenty first birthday next Friday,” she said.
“Right.” I nodded, trying to hide my surprise. She had never once mentioned her birthday was next week.
“We were planning on taking her out,” Erica said. Again she glanced at Samantha, who sighed.
“So I guess you should be part of that plan too,” Samantha said. She sounded slightly less hostile.
“Great.” Kel clapped his hands together. “Where should we go?”
The twins were kind enough to avoid commenting on the fact that no one had invited him.
“We’ll work it out,” Erica promised and then they rose from the couch because apparently they had said everything they came here to say.
Kellan rushed over to open the door with a flourish. “Thanks for coming by,” he gushed. “I always wanted to meet you and now that we’ve been formally introduced I’m hoping we can get to know each other better.”
Samantha threw him a look. “Who are you talking to?”
The question confused Kellan. “Uh, both of you?”
Samantha rolled her eyes.
But Erica laughed. She gave Kel a motherly pat on the head. “He’s kind of cute, Sam.”
“Like a hyperactive little puppy,” Samantha agreed with a smirk and departed with her sister.
“I’m pretty sure they like me,” Kellan said after he closed the door.
I didn’t agree. “I got a different impression.”
Kellan wasn’t bothered by the news. He chose to look on the bright side. “You handled yourself well, D. I believed every word you said.”
I shrugged. “It’s not hard to tell the truth about Paige.”
“Aw, you love her.”
I snorted. “This isn’t some chick flick, Kel. It’s a little early to be tossing that kind of language around.”
But Kellan wasn’t the type to quit jumping on your last nerve once he’d found it.
“You love her,” he insisted. “You want to impregnate her with little Gentry babies and live happily ever after in the Gingerbread House.”
“Shut up.”
“You’ll name at least one of your kids Kellan, right?”
I knew something that would piss him off. I grabbed him in a headlock and deliberately messed the fuck out of his hair.
“Asshole!” he howled.
I laughed.
Kel glared at me and left to go to his party or wherever the hell he was going. I checked my watch, realizing I had some time before Paige was done at the pizzeria. My dad had called me today just as I wrapped up work at the garage. He was glad to hear that I’d gotten my stitches out on my lunch hour and that I had plans with Paige later. He asked how the job was going, whether life with Kellan was officially driving me crazy yet. I knew how much my folks worried about me so I did my best to paint as rosy a picture as possible. It actually wasn’t hard. Aside from getting recently knifed at a convenience store, life was being pretty good to me right now.
Then, because I knew how badly he needed the reassurance, I told him I had every intention of going to a meeting before seeing Paige tonight. That made him happy and he told me to come over for dinner one day next week, and to ‘invite your girlfriend’, making it obvious that my parents had already decided on Paige’s status. I wasn’t going to argue with him though. I liked thinking of Paige that way. It occurred to me that I should tell her so.
There was a meeting starting in twenty minutes at a nearby Lutheran church. I’d been there before. The meeting room was in the basement and nobody bothered the group while we occupied it. If I went I could keep a promise to my father and to myself.
Yet I hesitated.
The truth was I didn’t feel like going, didn’t feel like interrupting the evening by hanging out with a group of similarly struggling people and listening to sad stories. I wanted to go see my girl, make her laugh, bring her home, and if I was lucky, feel her mouth on my dick before we fell asleep together.
So I continued to hesitate.
I hesitated until it was too late because the meeting had already started and there I was, still sitting on the couch in my apartment.
Chapter Seventeen
Paige
Julianne had the day off from the hospital and I didn’t have to be at work for hours so we agreed to meet for lunch at a place that used to be a farmhouse in the middle of acres of citrus orchards. Now it was a remodeled restaurant in the middle of a neighborhood full of stucco homes.
She hadn’t mentioned anything about bringing Noah so I was a little surprised to see him sitting at the table and scribbling away on a paper menu. But of course it would make sense that she wouldn’t bring him to daycare when she had the day off.
“Hi there.” Julianne stood and gave me a warm hug.
Noah hadn’t noticed my arrival until his aunt prompted him to say hello. Then he paused with his crayon in the air and scrutinized me with his big blue eyes. I wasn’t sure what he was thinking. To him I might just be some lady who reminded him of a really scary night. But then he broke into a toothy grin before returning to his coloring.
Julianne reached over and smoothed her nephew’s hair. “This little guy has been a real trooper today. We’ve been apartment hunting all morning.”
“Oh, you’re moving?” I asked as a waitress brought us water glasses.
She nodded and a shadow fell across her face. “It’s kind of an unexpected hitch. Things aren’t working out with my boyfriend, Dean, and well, we just need to get a place of our own.” She was trying to sound cheerful about getting kicked out of her apartment but I remembered what she’d said about her boyfriend. As time went on he was growing less enthusiastic with Julianne’s decision to raise her sister’s child.
The waitress returned and took our order but Noah wouldn’t agree to anything on the menu.
“How about some grilled cheese, buddy?”
He kept right on coloring. “No.”
“A hamburger sounds yummy.”
His chubby little fingers grappled with a different crayon. “No.”
“Or you can have some chicken nuggets?”
The face of a smiling cat became green. “No.”
Julianne frowned at the menu as she searched for another suggestion. I’d been an extremely picky eater as a child. When my indulgent grandparents took me out to eat they’d despair over how I’d turn my nose up at whatever food appeared. It was my grandfather who got the idea that maybe if he ordered a big meal for himself and told me he
needed my help finishing it then I might be persuaded to eat.
“Hey Noah,” I said. The child paused in his coloring and looked at me.
I tapped the menu and tried to look confused. “I was going to order the chicken basket with a fruit bowl but I’m worried that’s way too much food for me to eat. Do you think you could help me out and eat some of it for me?”
He was thinking.
I took the opportunity to forge ahead. “You’d really be helping me out, buddy.”
Noah looked at his aunt, looked at me, then gave us a very serious looking nod.
“I’ll help you,” he said with supreme generosity.
“Great!” I turned to the waitress. “A full chicken basket with a fruit bowl on the side and please bring an extra plate for my friend Noah, who’s helping me out.”
The waitress smiled and gave me a wink. Noah smiled down at his green cat.
“Thank you,” Julianne said in a voice low enough so Noah didn’t catch on. “You handled that well.”
I smiled. “My pleasure.”
Julianne smiled back. “You might have heard that Chris was recovering nicely and was discharged from the hospital.”
“Yes, I called and spoke to one of the nurses. It was great news.”
She nodded. “I got to know Chris and Lisa a little. Definitely an awesome couple.”
“So have you had any luck?” I asked. “Finding an apartment I mean.”
“Not really. Noah and I don’t need much, just one bedroom in a halfway decent neighborhood but it’s proving harder to find than I thought, at least on my budget. I asked Dean to give me until the summer when a lot of the college kids clear out. He agreed, but it’s awkward and I’d rather get out of there sooner rather than later.”
“Understandable,” I said, wishing I had some wisdom to offer. Julianne had accepted a world of responsibility when she decided to raise Noah but from the way her face melted every time she looked at the child she’d long ago decided he was worth it.